So it was still there. Within me. (4)
Storm clouds, no… Clouds much thicker and blacker than that ominously filled the land as they surged in.
Such sight stirred something primal within the human heart. Though it was difficult to explain rationally why it was so frightening, it was equally difficult to escape the fear it inspired.
But the fear they felt was soon overlaid by a somewhat different emotion.
“…Is that all?”
A voice like a groan escaped the Commander’s lips.
As the dense clouds of demonic energy thinned, the force revealed within numbered only a few hundred at most. Even including those slowly joining them from the rear, they would barely exceed a thousand.
A thousand. Yes, a mere thousand men. With only that insignificant speck of a force, they were advancing towards the Imperial Capital.
“Commander!”
“Mm..”
At the flustered voices of his adjutants, the Commander let out a faint groan.
‘They say every last one of those cultists is insane.’
He thought he now understood what that meant.
How else, unless they were out of their minds, could they bring themselves to stand with so few men before the tens of thousands defending this place?
“What do you think?”
“That cannot possibly be the entirety of the enemy’s forces. They will likely establish a position nearby and wait for their main force.”
“Hmm.”
“We must choose whether to remain here and confront them, buying time until their main force arrives, or open the gates and go out to destroy this smaller force first, Commander.”
Like the Commander himself, his subordinates were concise and wasted no words. At this moment, however, he found that trait less than welcome.
“Mm.”
The Commander’s gaze darkened. Perhaps, as his subordinate had said, it was a simple matter.
But when he considered what lay behind him, even that simple matter could only become the most difficult problem under heaven.
“For now…”
But there was no need to deliberate. The enemy had never given them a choice in the first place.
“Th-They’re still advancing. They aren’t stopping!”
“…What?”
The Commander’s eyes widened as he turned his gaze sharply to the front. The black mass, several hundred strong, was continuing its advance. Straight towards the northern wall of the Imperial Capital.
“Those lunatics…”
The muttered groan that escaped one of the adjutants perfectly echoed the Commander’s own thoughts.
‘They intend to attack the Imperial Capital with barely a thousand men?’
Could anyone in their right mind possibly make such a decision?
No, of course not. Expecting common sense from them was the height of stupidity. Were they not called the Demonic Cult precisely because they defied all common sense?
There was no longer any reason to hesitate.
“Prepare the Grand General Cannons!”
“C-Commander?”
“Their intentions are irrelevant. The moment they enter firing range, open fire without hesitation.”
“Yes, Sir!”
The adjutants obeyed without another word. Gunpowder was packed into the Grand General Cannons, and enormous iron balls rolled into the barrels with a harsh grinding rumble.
It did not matter whether they were men who had gone completely insane or monsters capable of leaping across a river in a single bound. Cannons were impartial to all. Ordinary commoners, hardened soldiers, mighty warhorses, even ravenous tigers – firearms reduced them all to mingled flesh with a single strike.
“We are ready, Commander!”
“Divide them into four batteries. Fire in sequence – First Battery, Second Battery, then Third Battery. Don’t concentrate your fire in one place. Keep up a continuous barrage so they never dare reach the walls.”
“What of the Fourth Battery?”
“The Fourth Battery will prepare for any attempt to circle around us. Should they divert towards the western or southern walls, assess the situation, pursue them, and deploy the forces accordingly. Do not leave a single opening anywhere!”
“Yes, Sir!”
Clenching his fists, the Commander watched the demonic cultists draw closer with every passing moment.
‘I don’t know how little they think of us, but they will accomplish nothing with such paltry numbers.’
And at last, the demonic cultists stepped within range of the Grand General Cannons.
“Commander!”
“Fire!”
Booooooooom!
The cannons belched fire the instant the Commander’s order rang out, perhaps almost simultaneously.
Booooooom!
The cannons mounted atop the walls fired in unison. Pitch-black iron cannonballs shot forth at terrifying speed, raining down upon the demonic cultists.
Boom!
Booooooom!
Every time an iron cannonballs slammed into the ground, a dense cloud of dust billowed upward.
For an instant, the entire field of vision was swallowed by white and black smoke. Even the Commander, who had operated cannons countless times, had all but never witnessed a simultaneous barrage of this magnitude firsthand. Its power was, quite literally, enough to shake heaven and earth.
Yet for that very reason, the Commander had no choice but to immediately understand what was happening before his eyes.
‘The enemies are…… too few.’
Had a great army surged into this vast open space? These cannons would have literally torn the enemy to pieces.
But most of the land before them was nothing more than empty space. A mere few hundred men could not fill even one-thousandth of this vast expanse.
The Commander had no choice but to somewhat adjust his previous orders.
“Take aim and concentrate your fire! Concentrate it!”
Booooooom!
A cultist struck by an incoming cannonball was hurled away as a mangled mass of blood and flesh before he could even scream. Even considering the unnatural regenerative power characteristic of demonic arts, it would be difficult to say whether he could survive.
But that was all.
Dealing with the hundreds of Demonic Cultists scattered across the vast expanse, cannons could not provide an effective answer.
Booooooom!
Once again, a cannon belched fire. An iron cannonball hurtled fiercely towards the center of the enemy’s force. One of the figures in black standing directly in its path reached out a hand towards the incoming projectile.
Claaaaaaaang!
With an unbelievably bizarre explosion, the incoming projectile was caught right in his bare hand.
“…”
Struck speechless, the Commander even forgot to breathe. The sheer absurdity of the sight had seared itself into his eyes with terrifying clarity.
A man made of flesh and bone had seized a flying cannonball with his bare hand. The monstrous figure even stared down at the cannonball in his grasp before raising his eyes towards the top of the wall.
At that moment, the Commander distinctly felt that their gazes had met.
“Pathetic……”
The man in black robes, Heavenly Executioner, muttered. Then, his expressionless gaze swept across the city wall and the imperial troops lining its battlements.
The Demonic Cult bitterly regretted its failure in the past. In their foolishness, they had lost what they should never have lost, and as the price, they had been cast into hell for a hundred years.
But it seemed those people had learned nothing from the past.
Even after suffering a devastating defeat a hundred years ago, the way they confronted the Cult’s followers had not changed in the slightest. The pathetic sight of them stupidly occupying the top of the wall proved that fact.
Crrrunch.
Heavenly Executioner’s fingers dug into the cannonball in his grasp. The cannonball, forged from solid iron, crumpled as though it were nothing more than tofu, until a hole was punched straight through it.
Wooooooong.
At the same time, the cannonball began to tremble violently. Unable to withstand the tremendous internal energy being poured into it, it shuddered as though it might burst free at any moment, but Heavenly Executioner continued to hold it tightly, refusing to let it escape so easily.
He then lightly bent back his wrist and looked towards the wall. No, more precisely, beneath it. His gaze locked onto the colossal city gate.
“Those wretched fools who do not even know what they should fear.”
Heavenly Executioner thrust his hand forward. The cannonball he had been holding shot towards the city gate with a thunderous roar that sounded as though it had come from the depths of hell.
Woooooooooong!
The cannonball did not merely cleave through the air but pierced straight through it, churning up the earth in its wake and transforming into a colossal ocher vortex. Like an enormous yellow spear, it hurtled towards the gate without allowing even the slightest opportunity to counter it.
“Th-That….!”
The Commander’s eyes bulged in shock at the sight. Staring with bloodshot eyes at the enormous vortex bearing down upon the gate, he involuntarily screamed.
“GET DOOOOWWWN!”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
If the sky were to collapse, this was the sound it would make. If the earth were to overturn, this was the impact that would engulf the world.
The immense wall shook violently as though struck by an earthquake. Soldiers who had failed to lower themselves in time screamed as they plummeted from the wall, and even those who had flattened themselves to the ground with every ounce of strength they had were tossed up by the floor as though it were toying with them, crashing back down and coughing up mouthfuls of blood.
“C-Commander!”
The instant the world finally regained its stillness, the terrified voice of an adjutant burrowed into his ears. Clutching his reeling head, the Commander forced himself upright, only to stagger as though he had been struck by lightning.
“It….”
It had collapsed. No, perhaps it would be more fitting to say it had been ‘torn apart.’ Through the hideously ruptured wall, he could see that the city gates had been completely blasted open. Not even debris remained of the magnificent doors that had once sealed it shut.
“Ah… Ah, ah…”
His struggle to rise proved futile. The strength drained from the Commander’s legs, and he collapsed back onto the spot.
The gate had been destroyed in a single blow. In just one blow.
Then what meaning could this wall possibly have?
This wall, erected at the cost of countless commoners being killed and maimed, had always been accompanied by an unshakable faith. The gate existed to keep the enemy out, and the wall existed to protect that gate.
The belief that, so long as this wall stood, they would be safe.
That devil’s single strike had, together with the gate, utterly shattered that faith.
“A human… How can a human……”
Only then did the Commander remember. No – only then did he finally understand.
That the reason they were called Demons [마(魔)] was not merely because they were difficult to understand, or because they were vicious.
They were, quite literally, devils [마귀]. A devil is a being that does without hesitation what no human being can do.
“There’s no reason we can’t trample a place we’ve already trampled once before.”
With indifferent gaze, Heavenly Executioner looked at the walls collapsing in places and, at the center, the gate blown wide open like a giant cavern. Then he gave a brief order.
“Erase everything beyond that. Do not leave behind even the slightest trace of that filthy city, born from the arrogance of the unbelievers. That place shall hold meaning only through its absence [부재(不在) – through it ‘not being there’].”
As if they had been waiting for those very words, a bloody light burst from the eyes of the demonic cultists.
Their staggering steps gradually quickened. While the artillerymen, shaken by the violently trembling wall, had yet to recover their senses, the vanguard of the demonic cultists surged through the shattered city gate.
“N-No! Stop them! Stop theeeeem!”
Before the defenders had even recovered from the shock of the city gate’s destruction, the demonic cultists descended upon them.
Slashhhhh!
Black claws formed of demonic energy tore apart more than a dozen bodies in an instant. Chunks of flesh and blood burst and scattered in every direction. The inner wall of the gate, not yet fully collapsed, was stained dark crimson.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Exploding with horrifying killing intent, the demonic cultists looked around wildly. Soon, the city bathed in the glow of sunset entered their sight. Though no one commanded them, they ignored the imperial troops atop the wall and began charging into the city like beasts.
No one had believed that the imperial troops of the capital would be able to stop the Demonic Cult’s advance.
But at the same time, no one had expected that they would fail to halt the Demonic Cult’s advance for even a single moment.
Trampling the predictions of the wise [지자(智者)] who claimed to understand the world beneath their mud-caked feet, the demonic cultists entered Beijing. The blood-red sunset spreading across the western sky seemed to foretell the fate awaiting this city.
________
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