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Chapter 353:
“…What do you mean by that?”
“Huh?”
“Kang Hye-rim, you mean… who is the Thunder Lord?”
“She is the Demon Sky Empress Kang Hye-rim.”
“Kang Hye-rim? The one I know… but Demon Sky Empress? Not Sword Empress, but Demon Sky Empress? And Lord…”
Yu-hyun felt his head spinning. He needed more explanation.
He didn’t think that the Thunder Lord was someone with the same name as Kang Hye-rim he knew. The Kang Hye-rim that Jimmy mentioned was definitely the same one that Yu-hyun knew. Five years had passed, so he understood that her title might have changed.
But, Demon Sky Empress and Thunder Lord didn’t suit her at all.
Wasn’t she the one who used the clear and beautiful lightning that was as cold as the autumn sky? Heavenly Thunder Sword was a noble martial art, not something that would have black or demon attached to it.
“Tell me more if you know anything.”
“W-well, that is…”
Jimmy couldn’t continue his words. It wasn’t because he was afraid of the Thunder Lord, but because he didn’t know anything else about her.
To begin with, a 10-year-old kid from a village in the outskirts of the mixed world wouldn’t know much about the Thunder Lord.
Jimmy was worried that he might lose his chance to repay Yu-hyun, who was his savior, and shouted desperately.
“M-maybe my sister knows!”
“Your sister?”
“Y-yes, yes. My sister is very smart. She knows everything because she has a good head. She might know something about the Thunder Lord too.”
“Where is your sister then?”
“She was in the village, but the legion’s soldiers came in and tried to capture everyone.”
“Then we have to save her.”
Jimmy nodded his head with a bright face at Yu-hyun’s words. The Yu-hyun he saw was a really strong person. He didn’t know if he was human or not, but he easily knocked down three soldiers in a short time that didn’t even take a second. He trusted him.
“Which way is the village?”
“T-that way.”
Jimmy raised his hand and pointed to where the village was. Yu-hyun nodded lightly and picked up Jimmy with one arm.
“Huh?”
“Hold on tight.”
As soon as he said that, a black aura rose around Yu-hyun’s body. It was the same darkness that he saw when he knocked down the three pursuers.
Yu-hyun’s body, wrapped in the powerful energy of Seven Devil Sky Divine Art, soared up to the sky vertically.
From high above, Yu-hyun saw a light in the direction that Jimmy pointed. He could tell from afar that it was a village on fire.
Yu-hyun stopped in mid-air. His figure, which defied gravity’s will, stayed still for a moment and then fell down like an arrow towards the village. Jimmy clenched Yu-hyun’s clothes tightly in the wind pressure that made it hard to open his eyes.
It took more than 30 minutes to get from the village to the mine, but it took only 10 seconds to go back.
***
“They are traitors who sided with the rebels! Kill some of them as an example if they resist!”
“You worms! Move faster if you don’t want to die!”
The legion’s soldiers dragged the captured villagers to one place.
The villagers couldn’t resist. In an era where law had disappeared and power ruled, the legion’s soldiers who were much stronger than them were much more frightening than the distant Thunder Lord.
More than anything, they lost their will to resist when they saw some people being executed as an example.
“Are they all here?”
“Yes. Except for a few who ran away, we have almost all of them.”
“There are some who ran away?”
The captain frowned and the lieutenant quickly explained.
“Oh, don’t worry. They are just kids anyway. The pursuers went after them. They will catch them soon.”
“Don’t let them go even if they are kids. Now that we heard that there are rebels hiding here, kids and elders are all subjects of interrogation.”
“I understand.”
The captain approached the prisoners who were cornered in the village. The giant man in armor approached with fire behind him, which was a tremendous pressure for the prisoners.
“I heard that there are rebels in this village.”
“…”
“Maybe they are not rebels, but just tails who joined them. Or maybe they were just unlucky and got caught up in a false rumor.” fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
The oldest resident of the village stepped forward and spoke in a cautious voice.
“We don’t know anything about the rebels.”
“We’re just people who live from day to day. How could we defy the Lord, the loser of this region?”
“So you’re saying there are no rebels here?”
“Anyone you ask will tell you the same. We’re completely clueless.”
The captain glared at the others, who nodded hastily in agreement.
“It’s true! We don’t know anything!”
“Rebels? That’s nonsense!”
“Please spare us!”
“Hmph.”
The captain stroked his chin as if he was annoyed.
“You seem to be really innocent. Well, it’s ridiculous to think that there are rebels in this remote village.”
“Then, will you let us go?”
“Of course not.”
The captain sneered at their hopeful expressions. His eyes burned with a fire hotter than the flames that engulfed the village.
“Do you think we came here for fun? Wrong information? No rebels? No, that’s not important. What’s really important is that such a rumor came from this remote village.”
“What do you mean…”
“As soon as the rumor of rebels spread, this place became their hideout. Children and elders are no exception. It doesn’t matter if you’re really innocent. If we say you’re rebels, then you’re rebels.”
The villagers turned pale at his absurd logic.
“That’s unfair!”
Someone among them stood up and shouted like a scream.
The captain looked at the defiant one with sunken eyes and snapped his fingers.
Slash!
The head of the man who had risen in protest fell to the ground and rolled on the floor. People nearby who were splashed with blood screamed.
“Unfair? You can only say that if you have power. Are you still living in the past? The law and order collapsed long ago, how long will you cling to that outdated mindset?”
The world had changed after the explosion.
Now it was a world where those with power ruled everything.
The morality and ethics of the 21st century had lost their strength. If you wanted to say such words and get applause, you had to have enough skills.
“If you’re weak, you’ll be conquered and dominated. The moment you bowed your head to the strong, you were as good as dead. Do you feel wronged? Then you should have become stronger. If you thought living in this backwater licking your wounds with other losers would do anything, you were delusional.”
The captain spoke with a voice full of contempt as he saw the people who couldn’t refute his words.
“If you feel wronged, blame your own weakness.”
“Good words.”
“What?”
Who dared to interrupt him without fear?
The captain realized that the voice came from behind him, not from the villagers, and turned his head quickly.
“Who are you?”
What he saw was a man in a black suit with a strange mask on his face.
The mask looked like a devil. It had horns on its head and sharp teeth.
What caught his eye more than anything was the four eyes engraved on the mask.
The red glow of the devil’s eyes swept over his body, and the captain felt a vision of death passing by him.
“Jimmy!”
“Noo-na!”
Jimmy, who had been in Yu-hyun’s arms, got down and ran to his sister. The captain couldn’t move as the 10-year-old kid passed by him. His body was frozen.
“Who are you?”
“You were telling a very interesting story earlier.”
Yu-hyun didn’t answer the captain’s question. He didn’t feel like explaining who he was.
His eyes stayed on the burning village. He saw some corpses that had been sprayed with blood.
Their souls were burning with the village without being able to rest in peace.
Indiscriminate slaughter.
The world had changed so much while he was away for five years.
“Yeah. The one with power is justice.”
He wanted to stop the world where people died for no reason. He wished that the dignity of life would not be violated and the weight of life would not be taken lightly.
He thought that the worst situation was the end of the world. Because there, people died in countless numbers.
But he wondered if the current reality was better than the end of the world.
He had not been awake for long, but Yu-hyun could clearly feel how the world had changed.
If the end of the world was a chaotic era with order, then now was an orderly era with chaos.
“So you guys have to stay still no matter what I do, got it?”
“U-Us, if you touch us…!”
The captain shouted desperately, feeling the threat of his life.
“The lord will not stay still!”
“Lord? The Thunder Lord?”
“Yes!”
The captain’s anger boiled up at Yu-hyun’s attitude of calling the lord in such a demeaning way, but he suppressed his rage as he remembered who held his lifeline in this place.
“I don’t know who you are, but if it has nothing to do with you, just pass by! We only have business with the people of this village!”
“Why do you think it has nothing to do with me?”
“Because there is no way that someone as strong as you would be in a village like this!”
To the captain’s eyes, Yu-hyun looked like a transcendent at least, no matter how low he estimated him. He had seen a transcendent-level powerhouse in a faraway place before, and his aura was exactly similar to Yu-hyun’s now.
He would die if he attacked. So he thought he would scare him away by using the name of the Thunder Lord as much as possible.
“Well, as you said, I’m not a person of this village, and I’m actually a foreigner.”
“Then…!”
“But now, it has something to do with me.”
The eyes of the mask curved like crescents.
Yu-hyun raised his hand and pointed at Jimmy and his sister.
“I have something to do with that kid and his sister.”
“T-Then just let these two go and…”
“And everyone behind them.”
“What…”
“It has something to do with me. As of now.”
He wanted to argue that it was a ridiculous nonsense, but the captain bit his lips and said nothing.
The opponent was strong. So he had to avoid a clash at all costs. If he was that strong, he wouldn’t be unaware of the infamy of the Thunder Lord in this area, so he thought he could get away with just selling his name.
But he didn’t. The captain hesitated. Should he let go of all the villagers like this?
‘No. I can’t.’
He had received an order. To weed out and kill all the rebels. The moment he received that order, he had to do it even if there were no rebels.
If he couldn’t do that, he would die. It would be him. Failure to obey orders, disrespecting superiors, incompetence. There were plenty of reasons to put on his tombstone.
‘I have to… fight.’
The captain gave a wink to his subordinates. The subordinates who had followed his orders well until now knew what the captain was trying to do.
They all raised their Divine Spirits and drew their weapons. Yu-hyun laughed out loud at their sight.
“You’re going to attack me?”
“…”
“Well, fine. Actually, I didn’t tell you, but even if you let go of all the villagers and apologize and go back, I wouldn’t leave you alone.”
“…Why?”
“Because I’m stronger than you.”
Yu-hyun swung his right hand lightly. The wind swept through and tore apart the huge fire that engulfed the village. The flames around him went out in an instant and the darkness of night fell.
In the darkness, four eyes floated in midair.
“So you have no complaints?”
Blame your weakened skills.
The captain clenched his teeth and raised his blood pressure and shouted.
“Attack!”
The soldiers of the legion bit their teeth and ran towards Yu-hyun.
“Come on.”
The demon of Ahoria spread his arms and welcomed the moths.
***
“Cough! Cough!”
The villagers all held their breaths and looked at the scene in front of them with disbelief.
A mountain of corpses. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
The corpses of the legion soldiers who invaded their village and burned it with fire and killed people while laughing were piled up like a mountain.
At the top of it, a demon with four eyes stood holding the neck of the soldiers’ captain.
“S-Spare me…”
Snap!
Yu-hyun broke the captain’s neck as if he had no more value to listen to.
The sound of his neck breaking echoed eerily in the silent air.
The people looked up at Yu-hyun with anxious eyes. He was surely the benefactor who saved their village, but his ferocious appearance made them think of nothing but a demon.
“Now, then…”
The demon looked this way.
A red afterglow flowed from his eyes and remained in the darkness.
“Let’s talk. What exactly happened in the last five years?”