Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 313

KWA-BOOM!

My weapon and the Old Monster’s attack collided.

The black weapons floating in the sky shattered like glass.

The same went for the Old Monster’s attack.

All sorts of ridiculous natural phenomena were torn to shreds by my weapons and scattered in all directions.

I let out a deep breath.

I had experienced goblin wrestling [a mental exercise or game] countless times.

But the situation was different now than it was then.

Goblins had a pure and innocent mindset, but the Old Monster had a mindset riddled with hundreds of years of obsession and desire.

‘But… even so, it’s so white.’

I looked at the world where the Old Monster was standing, feeling a sense of repulsion for some reason.

Spotless, pure white.

For someone who thinks he’s wise but is actually insane, his mental world was impeccably white.

That’s why it’s even more disgusting.

It means that from the depths of his soul, he thinks he is so pure.

But everyone knows.

That the devil always comes wearing an angel’s mask.

Beneath that pure white, riddled with madness, lies an obsession darker than anything else.

‘Then I’ll strip away that color.’

I focused my mind.

The sensation of using magic had to be abandoned.

This place was a world where intention becomes reality, and mental power becomes strength.

“You react really quickly. Then what will you do about this?”

The Old Monster exclaimed, slamming his foot on the ground.

It was instantaneous.

I felt my body slowly floating into the sky as black and white energies intertwined chaotically.

Gravity was being mixed up.

The Old Monster and I ‘fell’ into the sky, stepped on the walls, and had to ‘fly up’ towards the ground.

But I wasn’t flustered.

I had already experienced this much in goblin wrestling.

Thud!

I didn’t care about the twisting gravity and flew straight towards the Old Monster.

Before I knew it, a sword was in my hand, and I arrived right in front of the Old Monster’s nose.

The Old Monster’s eyes turned towards me.

At that moment, the white world in front of me distorted, and suddenly countless stones blocked my path.

I didn’t slow down and manifested my will.

‘Break!’

With that thought, the obstacles blocking my path shattered and scattered.

Sword energy piercing through the debris.

“Hmph!”

The Old Monster’s eyes widened at the chilling energy.

Chains like iron chains rose from the floor and wrapped around Lee Cheol’s entire body.

Woo-oong!

Lee Cheol’s sword tip was being held just an inch away.

The Old Monster exclaimed in admiration.

“That was close. Truly, how can you do this?”

But then, the Old Monster realized that something was strange about Lee Cheol’s appearance.

Swish…….

Wasn’t Lee Cheol’s figure, bound by chains, dissipating like a mirage into dust?

And those sparkling dust particles rose into the sky, then gathered above the Old Monster’s head and took shape again.

That form was none other than Lee Cheol.

The Old Monster couldn’t help but be amazed.

‘To be able to manipulate even one’s own mental body so freely!’

Even in this place where the impossible becomes reality, one shouldn’t rashly transform one’s own body.

Because that meant manipulating one’s own ego with one’s own will.

Even if one could do it, problems could arise after doing it.

‘I see. The state of self-forgetfulness. He wasn’t just stepping into it, but was this skilled at it?’

Those who have reached the state of self-forgetfulness, forgetting themselves and finding true freedom, can do things like this.

Even so.

To nonchalantly do something like carving up one’s own brain and then putting it back together!

“Truly, satisfying!”

Lee Cheol’s resoluteness further stimulated the Old Monster’s joy.

The Old Monster waved his hand.

Woo-oong!

In the middle between the Old Monster and Lee Cheol.

Complex cracks appeared in the empty space.

Like several layers of mirrors overlapping, the cracks distorted the images of the surrounding spaces.

I swung my sword towards the Old Monster beyond that phenomenon.

Squish!

But my sword didn’t reach the Old Monster.

‘The blade is bending.’

My blade, which had penetrated the space, was bending like taffy.

The weapons fired along with my charge also twisted like snail shells the moment they collided with that space, striking the ground instead of where the Old Monster was standing.

Woo-woo-oong!

The distorted air was riding over the blade that had been pushed in.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue and had no choice but to kick back and create distance.

“Were you surprised? I was the one who was surprised. No one has ever done anything like you have.”

The Old Monster nodded, looking at his cut front lapel and the traces of destruction filling the surrounding space.

“Your spirit, unbound by anything, is truly free and diverse. Child, you and I may have some similarities at first glance.”

“Bullshit. Don’t lump me in with the likes of you.”

“Do you really think so?”

The Old Monster smiled and walked sideways.

No, it wasn’t him who walked out.

Another Old Monster walked out from behind him.

Following him, another one, and another one….

“Just as you can freely manipulate your own form, so can I.”

Dozens of figures in the shape of the Old Monster filled the space.

I felt that each and every one of them had a presence that was not significantly less than that of the Old Monster when he was a complete being.

“Because I am not bound by spirit or flesh, I can carve up my soul like this. All of these are me, and at the same time, they are each individual. And….”

The dozens of Old Monsters pointed to the sky.

Something happened at the fingertips that pointed to the sky, as if Buddha were forming a mudra [a symbolic hand gesture].

“I can do things like this too.”

The Old Monster saw the expression on Lee Cheol’s face, looking up at the sky, filled with astonishment.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

Who wouldn’t be calm when a meteorite that should be in space suddenly appeared right in front of them?

“Fall.”

The Old Monster muttered, reaching out his hand.

And cracks were drawn on the huge meteorite as if an egg were breaking.

“……!”

Kwaaaaaaa─────!

And the meteorite began to fall.

The falling meteorite emitted tremendous heat and shattered into pieces.

Each piece was about the size of a small mountain.

The tremendous heat from the frictional heat of the fall heated the surrounding air, and black ash followed behind it like a pillar as it fell.

‘Is he planning to die together!’

The power contained in the falling meteorite was not the kind that could be controlled.

The indiscriminate rain of meteorites was pouring down not only on me but also on the divided Old Monster.

The Old Monster was just smiling at me.

‘Damn it.’

I stopped aiming for the Old Monster and squeezed my mental power.

Bang! Kwa-ga-ga-gang! Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gang!

If there was a moment when humanity would perish, wouldn’t it be a scene like this?

The black and white ground collapsed like tofu pieces and spread into the air, and flames and meteorite fragments plunged into the ground, creating a roar.

Ka-ga-ga-gak!

I realized that I couldn’t avoid the storm of meteorites that was rushing in.

It was an attack created with such powerful mental power.

So I had to stop it.

One step forward.

At the same time as stepping forward, I raised my sword.

Mind Sword, Formless.

Destruction Form.

Mind Sword is a technique to draw one’s own mental image in the world.

Then it is possible here too.

No, it will be even stronger.

Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!

I faced the rain of meteorites rushing in and swung my sword down.

* * *

Shuaaaaaaa…… Thud!

The place where the meteorite fell.

I caught my breath and came to my senses.

The debris of the meteorites that had poured down indiscriminately was everywhere.

The reason why there were no craters or fires was probably because this place was not a world where physical laws apply, but a world where mental power dominates.

‘But I cut it down.’

Throb!

I felt a headache piercing my temples.

I had succeeded in releasing the Mind Sword and cutting down the meteorite.

I got up from my seat and looked around.

I saw unfamiliar things lying between the fragments of the meteorite that were broken and scattered.

Koo-goong!

Revealing the debris, I looked down.

The Old Monster was lying there.

As I expected, the Old Monster used that technique without even caring about his own life.

But this was not the Old Monster’s main body.

“……I see. After all, the souls can just be absorbed again. So it doesn’t matter if the body is divided, huh?”

“Hehe, did you notice that already?”

Sssst!

Beyond the debris of the meteorite that had begun to seep into the space like melting ice, I found the Old Monster standing without a single scratch.

“It was me who caught the Puppeteer [likely a reference to a specific technique or entity].”

“I see… then I can understand. That technique was also taught by me.”

If even one of the divided bodies survives, the Old Monster can push the remaining souls into that body and revive again.

And the fragmented souls are given a ‘processed’ mind through suggestion, providing the Old Monster with a level of power that can unleash attacks like the one just now.

This was something that even Lee Cheol could not do.

It was a skill that only he, the great master of Kabbalah [an esoteric Jewish mysticism] who had realized the soul, the body, and all knowledge, could do.

“How do you feel? Child, I want to hear your feelings.”

“I thought that your Kabbalah people were crazy bastards after all.”

At my sneer, the Old Monster smiled contentedly like an adult watching a child’s antics.

“I don’t know why you’re so edgy.”

The Old Monster slowly began to approach me again.

“If you say that, shouldn’t you also take your own life?”

“Are you trying to play with your glib tongue again?”

Take your own life.

What on earth does that mean?

‘So, you’re worrying about it.’

The Old Monster looked at Lee Cheol.

Looking at him, the Old Monster finally realized that the time had come.

“Child, I understand your ignorance. That treacherous Lee Tae-shin erased the truth embedded in you and placed a prohibition on it, so there’s no way you could know.”

I was about to continue the battle again, but I stopped.

It was a story with content that could not be ignored.

“Weren’t you curious?”

The Old Monster asked again, with a smile on his lips.

“The reason why Lee Tae-shin of all people created a son like you.”

Content that everyone is curious about.

Content that I also had questions about.

Why did Lee Tae-shin of Soongmoo [likely a clan or martial arts school] make a child outside?

“And why did he make a bastard, but not take care of him so much? Why didn’t he pay attention to him?”

“……What are you trying to say.”

“I’m going to tell you about your mother and your birth.”

“Bullshit.”