"Huk!"
I thought I was dead. No—I had definitely died once.
Before the regression. That cold sensation I'd felt in my final moment had coiled around my entire body, and my reason, after fading to a blur, had scattered completely.
But at some point, I came to my senses again and opened my eyes.
"What in the world…?"
I traced through my memories. Surely, it had been a sound decision for all of us to join forces and concentrate every attack on a single point.
In fact, I had even felt something pierce through the Heavenly Demon's Heavenly Demon Splits the Heavens, the tip of my sword striking something.
But a thrust is, literally, a strike upon a single point. In contrast, the Heavenly Demon's fist strike was an attack that tore apart not just a surface… no, space itself.
I was flung back, unable to withstand the power unleashed by the erupting Demonic Qi, and in that defenseless state, the Heavenly Demon's brutishly twisted Aura slammed into my chest.
And that was the end.
The Aura, formed of pure Demonic Qi, shattered my flesh and bones, and crushed my heart to pulp.
I might have survived for a moment… but even I would eventually meet death without a heart.
That was why I told Tang So-wol to run before I lost consciousness. But.
Thump. Thump.
For some reason, the flesh of my pierced chest had filled back in, and my heart, which had stopped, was beating once more.
And the strange sense of dissonance I felt.
If my heart, which should have been shattered, had been reborn, it would be stranger not to feel a sense of dissonance… but the dissonance I felt was not of that kind.
"Ah."
Because I had reached the Harmony Realm and united my Essence, Qi, and Spirit, I could consciously manipulate my own inner landscape and the Intent that composed it, so I could distinguish it with certainty.
What formed my heart was not flesh and blood. It was a knot of Intent born from someone's earnest longing.
And that someone was…
"Tang So-wol?"
It was Tang So-wol. To be precise, I should say Tang So-wols.
Not only before the regression, but across the countless previous cycles I could not remember—Tang So-wol had always left a fragment of her Intent with me at the final moment.
What even I had forgotten, the current Tang So-wol had awakened and woven into one.
Each came from a slightly different person, yet all the same person, and their purpose was identical—that was why it was possible.
Thump.
With every heartbeat, thick poison energy and the voices left by the Tang So-wols tickled my ears.
I want to be together. In truth, I don't want to hand you over to anyone. I want to be the one who makes you happiest, and the one who makes you most miserable.
A sticky emotion that could be seen as affection, or perhaps obsession. …A true confession left in the face of death.
Yes. This heart is the poison and curse Tang So-wol left behind. But thanks to it, I was able to come back to life like this.
If it hadn't been that Tang So-wol's Intent had accumulated within me without my knowing, through countless repetitions of regression.
If it hadn't been that I, half-dead, had achieved Immunity to All Poisons by undergoing Bone-Exchange Rebirth centered on Tang So-wol's poison.
…And if Tang So-wol hadn't noticed, through my memories, what her previous iterations had left behind.
Or even if she had noticed, if it had been impossible for her to intervene.
If so, I would have met my death, and in the end, the Heavenly Demon would have completed Defying Heaven.
But I am alive like this, and the fight is not yet over.
Tang So-wol, staggering and collapsing from overexertion. I swiftly caught her and laid her down gently.
"Are you alright?"
"Isn't that something I should be saying…?"
Tang So-wol, her face pale. She carefully reached out and gently touched my face.
"You're…alive."
"Yeah. Someone kept nagging me not to die and to stay right by her side."
"Hehe. Whoever that person is, they must be quite greedy."
"You said it."
I shrugged, and we both let out a small laugh at the same time. After laughing for a while, I rose to my feet.
"Wait a moment. I'll go finish this off."
"Can you win?"
"Hard to say. The Heavenly Demon is even more of a monster than I expected. Still, there's a chance. I took more damage, but I did land a cut on him."
"That's reassuring. Then I'll stay here and watch over young hero Cheon."
With those words, Tang So-wol closed her eyes as if collapsing. But it was clear she hadn't truly lost consciousness.
Kwaaaah—!
Tang So-wol drew in the surrounding energy with a fierce Aura. She was probably concentrating to control the sudden surge of power.
I was a little worried when she absorbed even the Demonic Qi the Heavenly Demon had released…
But when I saw the Demonic Qi melt into a handful of poison creatures the moment it touched Tang So-wol's Intent, which was steeped in someone's lingering resentment, I set my worries aside.
"Bone-Exchange Rebirth."
Well, of course. No matter how one put it—that it was another version of herself—she had moved that much Intent, so a rise in her realm was only natural.
I watched the color return to Tang So-wol's pale face, her skin, covered in minor wounds, peeling away like a shell as new flesh grew beneath it, before I spoke.
"Father-in-law. I'm sorry, but I'll need you to hold your position a little longer."
"…You foolish son-in-law. Watching over So-wol since the day she was born has been exactly what I've done all along. Soon enough, you'll take my place, but at least today, that's not the case. Adding another sijin or so now won't change anything."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, you brat. From what I can see, the others aren't in perfect shape either, but their lives are still properly attached. …So don't worry and go finish what you need to do."
"Yes. I suppose I should."
I nodded and picked up the sword lying on the ground.
It was a sword made of solid black iron, one I had thought could be pushed aside by my Aura but could never be broken.
But now it was snapped in half from the middle.
"You've worked hard too."
I lightly ran my hand along the ink-colored blade and poured my internal energy into it.
Whirr—
The Black Iron sword let out a powerful, yet somehow unstable, Geommyeong.
Perhaps it could no longer endure even a little more internal energy. Before long, even the remaining half of the blade crumbled and scattered in the wind.
But already, every aspect of the Black Iron sword was committed to my hand's memory.
Weight, length, hardness, flexibility, elasticity. Reciting all of this, I raised my Intent.
A white sword rose from the hilt, where nothing else remained.
"Hm?"
The blade was formed purely of Aura and formless sword energy, yet every sensation felt at my fingertips was identical to the Black Iron sword.
But what surprised me was something else. The unnaturally smooth command of my Intent. My battle with the Heavenly Demon had been brief, but I had poured out everything, so I should have had little energy to spare.
Yet the moment I made up my mind, my internal energy and Intent flowed out so naturally, taking shape.
At this level, there was no shortcoming compared to when my body was in peak condition. No, in some ways, one could even say it was better.
The reason was easy to notice.
My heart. The heart forged from the Intent of the Tang So-wols spewed out poison blood brimming with energy, and the Intent contained within it naturally blended with my existing internal energy, becoming my own.
What the countless Tang So-wols had wished for was only to live alongside me in the closest place possible.
They were lending me the strength I lacked to make that happen.
If I died to the Heavenly Demon now, not only would this life end, but the Intent of the Tang So-wols, accumulated without my knowledge, would scatter into nothingness.
"Right. Let's go together."
I nodded and looked up at the sky. There, the Heavenly Demon, having shrunk to a size slightly larger than a person but still maintaining its Protective Qi in the form of a demonic fiend, was slowly descending.
The Heavenly Demon, whose nape still bore the sword wound I had left and the traces of internal energy used to seal it, twitched its eyebrows.
"You're alive? How?"
"Fortunately, it seems my heart wasn't mine alone."
I sneered and aimed my sword at him, but the Heavenly Demon, still frowning, stared at me… more precisely, at my chest.
"…Indeed. Even I did not foresee this."
"You mean the fact that your regression wasn't yours alone?"
"No, what I don't understand is that the heavens allowed a situation like this."
The Heavenly Demon quietly looked up at the sky. But soon, as if realizing something, his eyes widened, and a faint smile crossed his face.
"So that's it! I thought the day I would touch the heavens was still far off, but it seems it was truly right before my eyes all along!"
"Huh?"
"Haha! Your very existence, Sword Demon, is proof that my Great Undertaking is on the verge of bearing fruit!"
For the first time, the Heavenly Demon burst into laughter. As he laughed uproariously at the sky, he raised his fist and took a martial stance.
This, too, was a first. Until now, the Heavenly Demon had relied on his overflowing internal energy to unleash the Force Qi Skill, rarely moving his body to fight directly.
Because he was forced into a decisive battle earlier than expected, his internal energy reserves were far lower than before his regression.
On top of that, he had expended most of his internal energy by unleashing the incomplete technique, Heavenly Demon Heaven-Splitting Strike, twice.
In other words, the current Heavenly Demon was the weakest version of him that I knew.
Of course, that didn't mean I could rashly claim victory.
Most of those who had climbed the Heavenly Demon Altar with me had either lost consciousness or suffered serious injuries and were being helped away by others.
Those who were still in decent shape were fighting below, too busy dealing with the crazed Demonic Cultists rampaging even at this very moment.
…But that was enough. Thanks to that, I could face the Heavenly Demon without any interference.
"Hoo."
I steadied my mind and sharpened my will.
They said the Heavenly Demon's Protective Qi had weakened considerably, but it was still as thick as a decent pillar.
To cut through it, I would need that much sharpness.
The mind that had been briefly thrown into confusion settled into calm. What surfaced on the transparent, mirror-like surface was a single image. A sword.
Everything in this world is divided into what can be cut and what cannot.
The Heavenly Demon was clearly something that could not be cut, yet that changed nothing about the fact that it had to be cut.
I deliberately ignored the limits set by my head and experience.
Did I not already know this?
That what cuts something is not the sword, but the will to cut.
The moment my will stirred, my body moved. A lightly swung sword. But following my Intent, the blade carried a strangely heavy weight as it traced a half-circle and flew toward the Heavenly Demon's neck.
"As I always think—Sword Demon, every time you reach a new level, you create a new martial art. Truly admirable. Most of them I can see through at a glance, though."
The Heavenly Demon's fist rose. The Demonic Qi shaped like a demonic beast, thickly covering his forearm, blocked the strike.
Thunk!
The sensation of sinking deep. But it was slightly lacking. My sword pierced through the Heavenly Demon's Aura and sliced his collar, yet it failed to reach his skin.
But it didn't matter. If once wasn't enough, then twice. If twice wasn't enough, then three times. And if it still wasn't enough, I'd just keep swinging until it worked.
The sword I pulled from the Heavenly Demon's forearm accelerated once more.
I hadn't stepped to concentrate my force, nor had I swung my waist and arms in a grand sequence—yet the speed and Power were no different from before.
That was only natural. Because I had infused my Intent of speed and weight into the blade.
A new martial art that had never been shown before, since the Heavenly Demon had only been using the Force Qi Skill rather than moving his body directly.
This nameless martial art held no Mystery at all.
Only a clear Intent and the basic sword paths needed to wield it at the right place and time.
But this was precisely the way I could fully unleash all the martial arts I had built up over the years.
Swoosh!
The sword swung again, aiming at the same spot. In response, the Heavenly Demon stretched out his hand—not blocking with his forearm, but catching the blade with the back of his hand, tracing a soft curve to deflect it away.
It was the Mystery of Flow, containing the principles of Taiji that the Wudang sect favored. However, that alone was not enough to completely deflect the strike.
Squelch.
My sword split the air, but in return, it tore away a handful of the Heavenly Demon's Aura.
At the sight of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art being shaved away—slightly, but undeniably—the Heavenly Demon let out a hollow laugh.
"But this martial art is something even I cannot fathom. What kind of sword is this?"
"Naturally."
A technique that captures Mystery is a first-rate martial art. One that captures life is an advanced martial art. And so, a martial art that transcends all of this to depict an ideal is called a divine art.
The ideal I envision is, ultimately, a sword swung as the heart pleases. And—
"Heavenly Demon, you yourself have gnawed away at your own heart."
It is only natural that one whose heart has been worn down cannot comprehend a sword swung from the heart.