The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 322

Fate (1)

The Temple of Fate was riddled with internal barriers, making its structure impossible to discern.

However, these barriers weren’t as robust as the external defenses, failing to halt the divine power of the invading Meteor Shower.

The interior of the Temple of Fate resembled an ant colony, a labyrinthine network of tunnels.

The countless chambers prepared in the temple’s basement only deepened the suspicion that the Moirai [the Fates in Greek mythology] were plotting something sinister.

Normally, a temple wouldn’t require so many basements.

Yoosungwoo headed toward the entrance to the underground levels.

“You shall not pass!”

Deities loyal to the Moirai blocked Yoosungwoo’s path, but they couldn’t withstand a single blow.

With Life Sentence in hand, Yoosungwoo relentlessly slaughtered the deities.

The divine power he absorbed from them was negligible, but it helped gradually replenish his reserves.

“Thanks for packing me a lunch, I guess.”

Having massacred dozens of deities in an instant, he stopped and tapped the floor with his foot.

A section of the floor sounded noticeably thinner than the rest.

‘I can break through this much.’

He infused divine power into Life Sentence and swung it at the floor, cutting out a square and creating a large hole.

All that could be seen inside was pitch-black darkness. Without hesitation, Yoosungwoo threw himself into the abyss.

Descending underground, Yoosungwoo spread his senses wide and began to run.

He couldn’t pinpoint Jeremiah’s exact location, but he sensed her presence in the deepest part of the underground.

A place saturated with the Moirai’s divine power, undetectable by normal divine sense.

It was highly probable that the three Moirai sisters and Jeremiah were there.

“Come to think of it, I don’t even know which of the three sisters that old woman is.”

So far, only one old woman had revealed herself.

The Moirai were originally a trinity of goddesses, meaning there were at least two more.

“No, maybe…”

It could be just one, acting through different guises.

Yoosungwoo ran through the underground, passing countless rooms.

Each room emanated an ominous aura, but his priority was Jeremiah.

He didn’t know what the Moirai might do to her while he was busy fighting Hercules.

Reaching the lowest floor in an instant, Yoosungwoo stopped before a sturdy door. The massive iron door, reinforced with the Moirai’s divine power, seemed impenetrable.

But Yoosungwoo was a specialist in opening such doors.

How many tightly sealed doors had he forced open so far?

Sometimes he kicked them down, sometimes he threatened the keyholder, and sometimes he simply cut the lock with his sword.

As long as he could open them somehow, he considered himself an expert.

‘There are no visible locks on the outside, and it’s tightly sealed. I have no choice but to cut through the door itself.’

Drawing on his extensive experience, he quickly assessed the door’s structure and the best way to breach it. He raised Life Sentence.

“Hoo.”

He took a short, focused breath and channeled his divine power.

As the blade of Life Sentence was coated with thick blood-red energy, its edge gleamed with terrifying sharpness.

Yoosungwoo pulled the sword back, gritted his teeth, and unleashed it in one swift motion.

Yoosungwoo Style Swordsmanship

Forced Opening: Door

Krrrrrr—

The sword swung by Yoosungwoo sliced through the door, which had been fortified by the Moirai’s divine power, like a knife through tofu.

He couldn’t break through it from a distance, but by directly colliding with the divine power, he could cleave through it.

Yoosungwoo stepped over the debris and entered.

He found himself in a wide chamber, seemingly a dead end.

Inside the high-ceilinged chamber stood a massive altar.

On top of the altar lay a fainted Jeremiah, and in front of her stood the old woman.

Yoosungwoo looked at the old woman and said.

“Accept the result. Moirai. For someone who’s lived so long, aren’t you being rather pathetic?”

If she was a god, she should accept defeat gracefully, not resort to such disgraceful tactics.

But Yoosungwoo secretly hoped she wouldn’t accept defeat, that she would run away so he could cut her down himself.

Yoosungwoo lightly swung his sword a few times and continued.

“Well, if you don’t accept it, that’s fine too.”

The old woman, who had been focused on Jeremiah, turned and stared at Yoosungwoo.

The eyes hidden within the wrinkles on her face scrutinized him.

The old woman stared at Yoosungwoo for a moment, then opened her mouth.

“Why are you interfering?”

“If you had just handed Jeremiah over, I wouldn’t have had to come this far. Don’t you know you started this?”

It was a ploy to buy time.

Simultaneously with his answer, Yoosungwoo leaped forward and swung his sword at the old woman.

The old woman couldn’t react and was beheaded instantly.

The old woman’s head spun in the air before falling into Yoosungwoo’s hand.

‘Too easy.’

Even if the Moirai weren’t specialized in combat, this was far too simple.

At the same moment he sensed something was amiss, the old woman’s head and body turned to ashes and scattered, only to reappear some distance away.

Then, she chuckled and said.

“If I had a little more time, it would have been perfect, but it can’t be helped…”

“Hmm.”

Yoosungwoo kicked off the ground again and severed the old woman’s neck.

As before, the old woman’s head spun in the air before falling to the ground.

Yoosungwoo narrowed his eyes as he watched the old woman’s figure turn to ashes and scatter. This time, the old woman didn’t reappear; only the lingering divine power remained, filled with an unpleasant sensation.

He turned and headed toward Jeremiah. Lying on the altar, she was as still as death.

Confirming that her heart was beating, he checked Jeremiah’s condition with his divine power and noticed something strange.

“…In the end, the contract was breached.”

After all that boasting.

That damn devil.

But it wasn’t completely breached. He could still sense divine power emanating from Jeremiah, though it wasn’t fully consumed.

‘To purge these foreign divine powers, I have no choice but to take her back to the Sword Realm for now.’

Concluding that, Yoosungwoo was about to pick up Jeremiah when he noticed the dagger protruding from his chest and exclaimed.

“…What is this?”

Jeremiah pulled the dagger from his chest and stepped down from the altar.

Yoosungwoo cauterized the wound in his chest with aura to stop the bleeding and stared at Jeremiah.

It was Jeremiah, but it wasn’t Jeremiah. The look in her eyes was reminiscent of the old woman he had just fought.

Moreover, the divine power flowing from her was unmistakably the Moirai’s.

“…I see.”

Yoosungwoo finally understood the Moirai’s true objective.

They weren’t trying to use Jeremiah as a sacrifice; they wanted Jeremiah herself.

“Old woman, you’ve taken over Jeremiah’s body. Were you after Jeremiah’s abilities? You have terrible taste.”

Yoosungwoo took a long breath and stared intently at Jeremiah, trying to assess her condition.

The divine power flowing from Jeremiah was clearly the Moirai’s, indicating that Jeremiah’s essence was now the Moirai inhabiting her body.

“…So, this is what it feels like to gain a new body.”

The Moirai muttered.

As if the soul inside had been completely replaced, she moved her body around, trying to acclimate to her new vessel.

Yoosungwoo looked at the Moirai and said.

“The soul hasn’t completely settled yet. An incomplete soul transfer. Am I guessing correctly?”

The reason why only one old woman had been seen so far.

The obsession with Jeremiah, the desire to inhabit her body…

The urgency in taking Jeremiah away, even sacrificing a precious thread of fate – it all made sense now.

“Mythology has faded. Don’t you think?”

The fading of mythology.

That was the greatest fear of the gods.

Their stories no longer being told by humans, gradually losing their divine power and form.

Gods reigned over humans, but their existence depended on human faith and the mythology they created.

If mythology was no longer spoken and faith dwindled, they would gradually lose power.

The three Moirai sisters appeared in Greek mythology, but their significance was relatively minor, and their individual names weren’t widely known.

In the past, they were goddesses of fate who judged the past, present, and future, but even with the resurgence of the age of mythology, they were steadily losing their power.

Moreover, the Norse mythology goddesses with similar characteristics to the three goddesses of fate must have further diminished their influence.

“Did you lose in a popularity contest and end up like this? To the point where you can’t even survive without borrowing a human body?”

At Yoosungwoo’s mockery, the Moirai looked at him with cold eyes and opened her mouth.

“That’s right. We have lived for too long. The Great Night [Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night] bore our three sisters, and we have judged fate…”

As the Moirai spread her hands, ‘night’ descended upon the entire chamber.

The universe, filled with brilliant stars, surrounded them, dominating the space.

“Now we can’t even do that anymore. The word ‘fate’ is no longer relevant.”

People in the past lived lives dictated by ‘fate’.

To them, prophecies, especially in Greek mythology, were unavoidable, and ‘fate’ was inevitably fulfilled.

However, in modern times, the number of people who disbelieved in fate increased, and the Moirai grew weaker.

They had been replenishing their divine power with the threads of fate they had been judging since the past, but even that was dwindling.

“My two sisters, the past and the future, Clotho and Atropos, have entrusted everything to me, the present, and have fallen asleep. This child’s body was a suitable vessel to contain all three of us.”

“So, you were the ones who kidnapped the Prophecy Clan all along.”

“Ah, those humans? Humans with the power of prophecy… They did possess the power of prophecy, but their bodies were too weak to be used as vessels. All we could do was extract the power of prophecy and discard them.”

“Extract and discard.”

As expected, humans were merely fuel for the gods.

There might be gods who cared for humans, but the one before him certainly didn’t.

“Humans should naturally worship gods, so it is a happy thing that their bodies were used for the recovery of the gods.”

“You’re out of your mind.”

Yoosungwoo tightened his grip on Life Sentence. As his aura shifted, the Moirai, or rather, ‘the present’ Lachesis, continued.

“I will kill you as you are and descend to the human realm. Human bodies are not bound by restrictions, so it won’t be difficult to accumulate new divine power.”

“You’re saying interesting things. Do you think I’ll let you?”

“Try to stop me if you can. The past, present, and future have become one…”

Lachesis raised both hands.

Then, a high-dimensional magic circle floated above her head before shattering and disappearing.

At the same moment, an intense energy was released. It was the moment when Jeremiah’s innate power, which the Prophecy Clan had sealed, was unleashed.

Lachesis absorbed that power and made it her own.

Lachesis, who slowly floated into the air, shone her eyes and said.

“Call me Fate.”