Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 311

Weapon-Devouring Young Master – Episode 311

The moment I absorbed Michael’s story, or rather, the Old Monster’s story,

I felt the dull ache in my head intensify.

Woooong!

Black energy surged from within my body.

I didn’t even have time to control it.

Immediately, countless fragmented images flashed through my mind, disappearing as quickly as they appeared.

‘What in the world is going on…’

Throb!

With a sharp pain, the images coalesced, and a memory played out.

Scattered magical light, objects that seemed to be tools for spells and curses, geometric shapes.

Over them flashed researchers in bizarre attire, figures wearing masks who seemed to be part of Behemoth [a shadowy organization], individuals who appeared to be from the Soong Moo Yi family lineage, and… an old man resembling a withered tree with white eyes devoid of pupils.

Why was this happening?

From that scene, which I had never encountered in my life, I felt an intense sense of déjà vu.

Throb!

Another headache struck, and new memories surfaced.

This time, I was making eye contact with several people.

I was submerged in emerald-colored water.

As if in amniotic fluid, I could breathe and open my eyes.

That entire environment… felt familiar.

Beyond the shimmering vision of being underwater, I could see many things.

The place I was in was on a wide stone slab.

No, it wasn’t just an ordinary stone slab; it looked like some kind of altar.

Throb!

The dull headache delivered yet another new memory.

I was in someone’s arms.

A familiar face. It was Head Butler Choi.

And when I turned my head, I saw my father’s face.

This was a memory I knew.

The scene I saw immediately after regressing [reverting to an earlier state or form].

Me lying in a cradle, and my father and Head Butler Choi looking down at me.

But it was slightly different from the memory I knew.

‘Could it be…’

Only then did I realize whose memories these visions were.

They were mine.

Memories that had been forgotten in my own mind, not someone else’s.

It felt familiar.

Years ago, when I went on a mission to Sector B-1, those research labs.

I had encountered this familiarity and déjà vu there.

It was then.

-The one who returned from death.

The dwarf’s voice dragged me back to reality.

* * *

Like the curtain of a theater being raised, I broke free from the confusing memories and faced reality.

In front of me was the Old Monster with a dubious expression.

Beside him were seven dwarves.

‘What’s going on…’

I felt a moment of confusion.

What was that just now?

Was it my memory?

Why am I here?

‘I was, clearly, finishing the sixth trial…’

Amidst the confusion, I quickly regained my composure.

‘Right, I was facing the Cabal’s Overlord, who had donned Michael’s guise, before the seventh trial.’

I snapped my head up and came to my senses.

Throb!

The headache still lingered. And unfamiliar memories continued to surface in my mind.

I’ll forget about it for now.

I’ll have to find out the source of these memories someday, but now was not the time.

-Are you alright, the one who returned from death?

“I’m fine. I just felt a little tired.”

I nodded at the dwarf’s question.

“Hehe, tired! You shouldn’t be, child. You must take care of your body. Isn’t the body the real treasure?”

The Old Monster’s playful voice echoed.

And the dwarf began to speak again.

-The one who returned from death.

-The one whom death avoids.

-Focus.

-Now that both are present, the time for the final trial has come.

The final trial.

At those words, I turned my gaze to the dwarves.

-This place is not within the records.

-This place where you stand is the world of reality.

I looked around once more.

A space filled with dark gray bricks.

The air was not unfamiliar, and the magical energy in the atmosphere was familiar as well.

The dwarves were right.

This was the modern space that I knew well.

‘Could it be inside the Aerial Fortress?’

-Singularities who have survived to the end.

-All the remaining singularities could not withstand the trials and went outside.

-Now, only the final trial remains before you.

-Only one singularity can bear the era.

-The division of causality will hasten destruction.

-Everything will be passed on to one singularity.

That only the Old Monster and I remained.

That meant everyone who had climbed the castle had failed to overcome the fifth and sixth trials and had been eliminated.

-Prove yourself against your opponent.

-As the mandate of heaven leads.

-As fate leads.

-The records of this castle will be directed to the sole remaining victor.

-The one who returned from death.

-The one whom death avoids.

-It is time for the final decision.

-Will you take the final seventh trial?

The pain that had been ringing in my head had disappeared.

I answered without hesitation.

“Of course, I will take the trial.”

“I will do so as well. Scribes of the world. Hehehe!”

Immediately after I answered, the Old Monster also smiled and said.

I glared at him.

“…You have a story to tell me. Cabal’s Old Monster.”

“Of course. Of course, I do, child. You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment. Ask me anything. I am ready to answer.”

The dwarves looked back and forth between us.

Their voices overlapped, and at the same time, seven streams of telepathy surged in.

-Then fight, and win.

-Prove to the world that your fate is stronger.

-Everything in this castle will be given to the victor.

And so.

The final trial of the Aerial Fortress began.

* * *

The dwarves watched the two singularities.

What a twist of fate this was.

After circling around and settling their respective grudges, these two faced each other like this.

Causality is so inevitable.

Because this exists, that exists.

Because this happened, that happened.

Because there is a process, there is a result.

‘The one who returned from death, Yi Cheol.’

‘The one whom death avoids, the Cabal’s Great Master.’

‘A complex causality is intertwined with those two.’

The dwarves looked at the two and shared their thoughts.

That Michael had faced death midway, so the Old Monster had to come in person.

That what was intertwined in the process was Yi Cheol of all people.

And that after passing all the trials, these two were the only ones left….

No, it wasn’t just in the Aerial Fortress.

The old man dreaming of transcendence.

And the young man who does not know his origins, Yi Cheol.

Their causality had already been intricately intertwined even before that.

‘It seems like a collection of numerous coincidences, but…’

‘In the end, the fact that those two met was determined a long time ago.’

It’s not about talking about outdated fatalism [the belief that all events are predetermined and inevitable].

The numerous processes intertwined with them have become entangled and have finally reached this moment.

That was no longer a coincidence, but an inevitability that could not have been otherwise.

‘The one who returned from death.’

The dwarves looked at Yi Cheol.

Yi Cheol will now face the truth.

The secret intertwined in his birth.

And within it, the blind master’s great malice and desire.

What kind of result will come out?

What those two faced may be a predictable harmony of causality, but the dwarves could not predict the outcome of all this.

Carrying so much causality and fate to this place, those two had already become beings more difficult to predict than anyone else in this world.

And.

Kwaaaang!

Yi Cheol and the Cabal’s Great Master began to clash.

* * *

Fight, win.

A simple and clear condition.

For me, who has lived carrying the name of the Soong Moo Yi family until now, there is no more certain trial than this.

“Child, you may not remember, but our reunion took a very long time. Why don’t we have a little chat for a while?”

The Old Monster spoke gently and leisurely, as if he were a kind grandfather.

“What kind of story would come out of that wicked tongue?”

I scoffed and immediately kicked off the ground.

Teoeeong!

The Heavenly Net [a protective barrier] unfolded, surrounding me.

“I’ll listen to the story after I beat you down first.”

In this fight, I don’t have to worry about the aftermath.

There is only one enemy, and there are no targets to protect or drag along, nor are there complicated victory conditions.

Therefore, I poured out all my power from the start.

Swaaaaaaek!

To the right, I threw several weapons that combined the abilities of three Celestial-grade, two Relic-grade, and several Masterpiece-grade equipment.

Each and every one of those shots possessed the power to devastate a small town.

‘First, I’ll find out what you can do.’

The opponent is the Sixth Night’s First Angle, the head of the Unorthodox Demonic Path [a villainous group].

The puppeteer, the nameless warrior, Head Butler Choi, Valerie, and Michael.

The enemy was powerful and would surely have cunning tricks.

The countless weapons floating in the air drew lines of aura and plunged down on the Old Monster.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

The aftermath of the weapons colliding caused the entire wall to collapse.

The inner wall collapsed, and the air and debris inside rushed out due to the pressure difference.

I stared at the scene of the explosion, widening my eyes.

“You’re in a hurry. I’m so affectionate, but you refuse even that short conversation?”

The Old Monster was not even scratched.

Not a single strand of hair or piece of clothing was disturbed by the shockwave of the explosion.

He simply smiled leisurely.

‘How?’

He didn’t do anything.

There was no sign of magical energy being used, no premonition of spells or curses, not even the power related to the Primordial Beast.

He was just standing there.

But my attack was blocked.

Tak, tak!

The Old Monster tapped the ground with his staff.

At that moment, as if time were turning back, the broken wall was restored to its original state.

Even in that process… no magical energy was used.

‘An illusion? A mental attack?’

No. I was using the Magic Eye.

But there was no change in the scene reflected in my Magic Eye.

He was really doing all this without using magical energy.

“Aren’t you curious about your origins? Aren’t you curious about the hidden history in your birth? You want to know the truth your father hid from you, don’t you?”

Ttokgak!

The Old Monster spread the hand holding the staff wide to the side, shining his white eyes without pupils.

“I have that truth. Child, aren’t you curious? The desire to know what you don’t know is the essence of humanity.”

The Old Monster had the answer.

“I already told you.”

Pajijijik!

I created a spear.

Kyungcheon [a divine weapon].

The Divine Spear that drives away all wickedness and evil energy was in my hand.

“I’ll listen to the story after I beat you down.”

“Hehe, you like to fight, just like your father. Okay, I’ll fight if you want. But…”

Tuwhak!

I immediately threw Kyungcheon.

The aura streaks like lightning that stretched out filled my vision.

Facing that energy, the Old Monster smiled again.

“…I have no intention of fighting you ‘like this.’ Because your body must not be scratched.”

Kwaaaaaaaa!

The nonsense coming from the Old Monster’s mouth was soon obscured by the power of Kyungcheon, which tore through the air and flew away.

The Old Monster did not avoid it.

The moment Kyungcheon collided with the Old Monster.

Peoooeeong!

Kyungcheon, which had collided with the Old Monster, burst like a balloon and scattered in all directions.

‘What?’

Something was wrong.

No matter how long that Old Monster had lived, Kyungcheon couldn’t have done that.

In the first place, I didn’t even feel the black energy that made up Kyungcheon disappear.

‘I have no choice.’

I snatched a floating sword and focused my mind.

The air surrounding the sword began to distort.

Simgeom, Muyeong [a powerful sword technique].

I immediately kicked off the ground.

If there was some means of blocking ranged attacks, I thought I would deal with it with Simgeom, which was more than a close-range attack.

But.

“So much time has passed, and we have finally met with difficulty. This place wouldn’t suit this occasion, would it?”

The Old Monster’s staff was slightly raised.

And the moment that staff struck the ground.

───Tuwoong!

The ground distorted.

The sky, the walls, and the reality that was visible in front of me all began to distort.

“I’ll create a place that is more suitable for our fight.”

Gravity was reversed, and before I knew it, my body soared into the sky.

No. My body, which I thought had soared into the sky, was attached to the wall before I knew it, and then touched the floor again.

Not only that.

The bricks that made up the wall stretched out like taffy and began to bend in all directions, and the small dust on the floor suddenly grew as big as a house, then shrank again.

‘What is this!’

Everything I saw in front of me was distorted.

The bricks danced around like living creatures, and the sky seen beyond the collapsed wall repeated attaching and detaching like a kaleidoscope with several layers of broken glass.

The scenery, the sounds, and all the senses I felt were so different from what I had known.

“You’re too confused. It needs to be a little cleaner.”

The Old Monster waved his hand.

He seemed to be enjoying Yi Cheol’s confused expression.

And with his gesture, the world that had been confusingly distorted was instantly bleached white.

I widened my eyes slightly.

The space looked like the space created by the dwarves, but something was a little different.

The world was white to the end of the horizon.

In the center of it, the Old Monster was slowly walking, flashing those ominous eyes.

“Now, let’s talk.”

The Cabal’s apostle, the sage called the Great Master, stared straight at Yi Cheol.

“About your secrets. About the potential you hold in your body. And… about my wish that will be achieved because of you.”