“I’m the one who should be asking.”

Seolhwa fixed her gaze on the Blood-Slaughter Demon.

Lord of the Flesh Curtain, a Blood Cult Blood Lord, and one of the Ten Great Masters of the Central Plains—the Blood-Slaughter Demon.

“Are you abandoning your own men?”

Back in Shanxi, he had discarded the subordinates he’d sent to seize Seop Mugwang and Chor Yeon without the slightest hesitation.

He’d even said to kill them so they wouldn’t carry grudges and become a nuisance.

What, exactly, does he think his subordinates are?

“Is this the Flesh Curtain’s way?”

Even assassins have a sense of comradeship.

No—precisely because they live with death at their side, perhaps it’s deeper.

They tell each other not to give their hearts to someone who might die tomorrow, and yet they still hope the other won’t die. That is what assassins are.

But what about the Blood-Slaughter Demon?

“The Flesh Curtain’s way, is it.”

A thin smile crossed the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s lips.

He truly looked indifferent to the safety of his men.

“Do you know what I regret most in my life?”

“...”

“Becoming the master of the Flesh Curtain.”

Seolhwa knit her brows.

He regrets becoming the master of the Flesh Curtain?

The man who, by that power, holds a Blood Lord’s seat in the Blood Cult?

“I wanted to be a martial man. My one and only goal was simply to become strong.”

To go out into the rivers and lakes and make a name with one’s martial skill.

To stand openly at the summit, recognized by all martial men.

“I wanted to stand in the light, not remain beneath the darkness.”

“...Then why did you become an assassin?”

“Would you believe me if I said it wasn’t my will?”

“...”

“It sounds deranged, but it’s the truth.”

He let out a small, wry laugh. Seolhwa found this side of the Blood-Slaughter Demon unfamiliar—she had never, in her previous life, spoken much with the Blood Lords.

“I wanted epithets like Dragon, Emperor, Exalted—anything but Ghost.”

A being who exists, yet whose existence is not acknowledged: a ghost.

It was the sobriquet given to the king of assassins who made his name under the darkness.

He was called a ghost and rose to the ranks of the Ten Great Masters, yet at the same time it was a shackle that would never let him step into the light.

“So this is my way. I intend to meet you sword to sword, fair and square.”

Ssssss—

Once more, a dark-crimson aura rose from the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s blades.

As before, he was suppressing Blood Qi—this was his pure inner power.

Seolhwa raised her sword as well.

Black-hued energy flowed along her blade.

For a moment the two locked eyes.

Tak— Whoosh—!

They shot toward each other at the same time.

A vast gorge under a blazing sun.

At the very center of that gorge, the two auras collided.

Boom—!

Birds in the forest beyond the cliffs ringed around the gorge exploded into flight, startled by the tremendous shock.

K-BOOM! Boom!

The thunder shook the ground. Along the cliff edge, rocks cracked and tumbled down, clattering.

Huff—!

Arms spread wide, the Blood-Slaughter Demon turned in a great circle.

Tak—!

Seolhwa stamped off the ground, sprang up, and slipped past his blade.

Skrrrkkk—!

Force Aura leaking from the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s sword raked the gorge wall.

On the rock face, a sword mark was carved as if a giant dragon had clawed it.

Boom—! Clack! Kakakakang—!

Their auras tangled.

Black and dark-crimson streamed, indistinguishable as to whose was whose.

Each time their blades struck, silver sparks spat, and their footwork scribbled a dizzying web across the stone floor.

The master of the Flesh Curtain who had not wanted to become the master of the Flesh Curtain.

The most outstanding assassin.

The dark king who had risen to the ranks of the Ten Great Masters.

The one who had made him so was, likely—

The Blood Demon... of course.

The Blood Demon must have tempted him with honeyed words and extended a hand.

He must have whispered that with the power he gave, the Blood-Slaughter Demon could achieve whatever he wished.

When he grasped the Blood Demon’s hand, the Blood-Slaughter Demon would not have known.

That hand was dragging him into the mire.

That his life was being shoved wholesale into darkness.

I... was the same.

Seolhwa’s grip tightened on her sword.

Behind the mask, her eyes watched the Blood-Slaughter Demon meet the fight in earnest.

Before she returned to life, the Blood Lords had worn masks to hide their identities.

But identity wasn’t the only thing they hid.

Their true faces.

Their thoughts.

Their goals.

Their very selves.

They dealt with one another not as people, but as Blood Lords, showing only the face of a Blood Lord.

So it could not be known—

Who the ‘person’ behind the mask was.

Why they had become Blood Lords, what they stood there for, what thoughts they lived by.

Skrrrk— K-BOOM! Boom!

Steel clashed, and clashed again, and the fight gradually came into clear relief.

“Kh...!”

Bit by bit, the Blood-Slaughter Demon was being pushed back by Seolhwa’s strength.

His dark-crimson energy was being devoured by the darkness.

It was the natural outcome.

Without using the Blood Arts, the Blood-Slaughter Demon remained a master of the Flowering Realm, while the Imoogi’s power—unbound by Seolhwa’s flesh—was strength beyond the Flowering Realm.

Though it misaligned at times for lack of direct communion, in terms of level of power it already surpassed the former Shadowless Demon God.

KRAK-KWOOM—!

“Ghh—!”

Unable to withstand Seolhwa’s force, the Blood-Slaughter Demon skidded back.

He hacked out a cough; a dark-crimson clot spattered from his lips.

Catching his breath, he wiped his mouth.

Despite the internal injury, he showed no sign of fatigue.

“Come under the Sado Union. Surrender now, and I’ll accept you.”

The Blood-Slaughter Demon let out a short laugh.

“Did I not say? The two of us will not both leave this gorge alive.”

“The one who won’t walk out is you. Even so, you choose death?”

“I’m quite delighted at the moment. That’s enough.”

“...”

Seolhwa’s eyes narrowed.

“In that case—die.”

Tak—

“!”

In a blink, Seolhwa drove in at the Blood-Slaughter Demon.

He had just settled his stance, catching his breath; he hastily raised his blades to catch hers.

K-BOOM—!

But with his posture not yet set, he collapsed at once under an unexpectedly powerful blow.

I’ll die.

His center wavered; his stance broke.

The Shadowless Demon God’s sword did not miss that fleeting opening.

Fwoosh—

Wreathed in Force Aura, her blade streaked for the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s flank.

Damn...!

To the last, he moved to bat that sword aside.

He barely caught his center and twisted his body.

Even if it was all useless, he did not stop moving.

At that moment—

Halt—

“...!”

Just before she could cut his flank, the Shadowless Demon God’s blade stopped.

To see what would come next, the Blood-Slaughter Demon snapped his eyes to her.

But—

“...”

There was no next move.

He lowered his sword and straightened his posture.

“...?”

Perplexity flickered across the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s face.

“...What are you doing? Why don’t you cut me?” 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

“I’m curious about something.”

“What...?”

Curious—so even with an enemy’s life in reach, she didn’t take it?

“Are you sane...?”

“To my eyes, you’re the one who isn’t.”

“...?”

“You almost died just now.”

“Then answer me! Why—!”

“Why aren’t you using the Blood Arts?”

“!”

At her question, the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s eyes flew wide.

K-BOOM—!

He swung his swords down, smashing the ground.

A pale cloud of dust billowed up; in that gap, Seolhwa felt him pulling away to open distance.

As the dust slowly settled, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) shock colored the Blood-Slaughter Demon’s features.

His reaction was genuine surprise.

“...How... did you know...? There are barely a handful who even know the words ‘Blood Arts’...!”

It was natural to be shocked.

The term Blood Arts was used only by the Blood Demon, the Lord of the Moon Medallion, and the Blood Lords.

“You—surely not...!”

To say the Blood Lords wear masks when dealing with each other is to say they do not know who the other is.

“Did the Blood Demon order you to kill me...?”

He seemed to think Seolhwa was one of the Blood Lords.

“I am not a Blood Lord.”

“!”

“Nor am I the Lord of the Moon Medallion.”

Until recently, none of these words could be spoken aloud because of the Interdiction.

With the Blood Cult’s rampage the Interdiction had lifted and the terms could be used, but words known only to the Blood Cult’s leadership would not so easily have spread.

“Who... are you?”

“The Shadowless Demon God. Master of the Sado Union.”

The Blood-Slaughter Demon’s gaze wavered.

Flustered at first, he let out a weary sigh.

“So this is why the Blood Demon wants your head...!”

“Do you think the Blood Demon knows everything?”

“That one is a monster! No—nigh a god!”

A god of death who cannot be defied.

A vast god of calamity who craves blood and feeds on death.

“You tell me to come under the Sado Union—do you think that one would simply let me go? Unless I take your head, he will surely take mine!”

The Blood Demon and the Blood Lords are bound by blood, and that bond cannot be severed by any means.

The Blood Demon cannot kill a Blood Lord with his own hand, but the Blood Demon has countless swords.

If a Blood Lord tries to betray the Blood Demon, the Blood Demon will surely see him dead.

“This fight is a life-and-death duel.”

A battle that will not end unless one person dies.

If he does not take the Shadowless Demon God’s head, his death is already decided.

Only then did Seolhwa understand why the Blood-Slaughter Demon refused to use the Blood Arts to the very end.

Because he himself knew that this was the last battle a man who had lived as a ghost under the darkness would ever fight beneath the sun.