Urban Vagabond: Reload

The instant Sunwoo Jeha felt the Great Anomaly’s energy, she drew the saber and sword from her back.

SHIIING.

Veins bulged on the backs of the hands gripping the saber and sword, one in each hand, and a ferocious energy flowed from her eyes as she glared beyond the door.

“......Sect leader?”

“Why all of a sudden.......”

“D-Did something happen?”

Bu Yeonha, Shin Kangheon, and Kang Hyuntae seemed unable to feel that energy yet, and asked with baffled expressions.

Only Kim Muhyuk had quietly set his hand on his sword hilt. He glared at the door and asked Phantom Dream in his heart.

That’s an anomaly, isn’t it?

Phantom Dream pressed close to Kim Muhyuk’s cheek with a tense face and nodded.

There’s a pretty scary thing in there.......

A presence strong enough to make Phantom Dream, classified as a disaster-grade sacred weapon, tense up.

It was sealed firmly inside the door, so its energy was faint, but Kim Muhyuk, who was sensitive to anomalies, had felt the fine hairs on his body standing on end from a moment ago.

“......Go back.”

Then Sunwoo Jeha turned only her head slightly and looked at the young rising stars. Her voice was faster and firmer than usual.

“Retrace the path you came in on. Don’t touch anything and get out of the forbidden ground. Tell the martial artist at the main gate.”

Sunwoo Jeha briefly steadied her breathing, then took one step toward the sealed door and said,

“......Tell them the Giant Tree Ghost has awakened.”

But when the young rising stars did not move hastily and only looked at one another, Sunwoo Jeha filled her voice with internal energy and unleashed a roar.

“Now!”

The young rising stars snapped back to themselves, backed away, then turned and left the underground space.

After watching them for a moment, Sunwoo Jeha approached the sealed door again.

Thick custom-made locks, chains, and other locking mechanisms had been installed there to block any possible intruder.

Because of that, unlocking them properly would have taken several hours.

CLAAANG!

But the current Sunwoo Jeha did not have that much patience.

She severed every chain and lock in a single stroke, then pushed the door open and went inside.

Creeeak.......

The door opened with an ominous sound, revealing a passage that led even deeper underground.

Layer upon layer of spells and talismans spread out around her, scattering faint light like fireflies. Sunwoo Jeha followed the light and descended underground alone.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The closer she drew to her destination, the louder the pulsing sound of the Great Anomaly’s heart became. At the same time, the stench of rotting wood rose around her.

—Jeha. You damned disciple! When exactly are you going to start listening to your master?

—Learning only one thing is boring. I came to the Transcendent Extremity Gate because I wanted to learn everything.

—Martial arts are so profound that even focusing on one weapon for a lifetime does not guarantee enlightenment into the ultimate mysteries. I told you that, yet why do you keep poking at this and that!

—Tch. If I was going to learn only one thing, I would’ve taken King of Fists as my master.......

—I can hear you, you brat! Ugh. Fine. Then how about choosing just two or three from among these?

The voice of her dead master began to sound like an auditory hallucination.

It was the Great Anomaly’s shitty method—touching only the weakest places in a person’s memories to make the mind frail.

“......Bullshit.”

Sunwoo Jeha bit her lip hard and swallowed the blood that came out.

She calmed a little, but once the memories of her master began, they did not stop.

—......Jeha.

Right before he threw himself into the Great Anomaly’s body with a mutual-destruction method.

—Don’t even dream of revenge. Don’t hold memorial rites either. Live as if I was never there from the beginning, and forget me.

The final words of the blood-soaked old man, who had looked back at her and smiled faintly.

—Don’t live however you want just because there’s no nagging master around. Get along with the people around you...... and live well.

Her master, who had looked at her with worried eyes until the very end.

Sunwoo Jeha’s eyes were bloodshot before she knew it. She wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand and muttered,

“I won’t forget. I’ll take revenge, and I’ll hold your memorial rites. I’m the disciple who doesn’t listen to her master.”

Because of the Great Anomaly’s energy and the energy from all the spells, the deeper she went underground, the duller her sense for energy became, and distortions appeared in her vision.

Even so, Sunwoo Jeha silently pressed on.

A moment later, the stairs ended, and a space appeared.

“The Giant Tree Ghost.......”

Atop an altar built underground.

The sealed Great Anomaly heart fragment was pulsing while pierced by an iron stake.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Its shape looked like a mass of tangled tree roots, and it was about the size of a person’s torso.

It was quite large to be called a fragment, but to Sunwoo Jeha, who remembered the Great Anomaly’s enormous form, it looked like a piece no bigger than a fingernail.

A piece of the Great Anomaly that the previous Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader had torn out with his own hand and thrown outside just before the spell barrier closed.

At the center of the heart fragment, the red letters “Giant Tree Ghost” were written on the deeply embedded iron stake, moving up and down with each pulse.

“It already recovered? This is faster than expected.......”

Sunwoo Jeha let the saber and sword hang at her sides and walked toward the altar.

Great Anomalies were grouped together under one title, but like humans, each individual had wildly different tendencies and strength.

Some existed while avoiding humans and living in the deep sea or remote wilderness, while others hid their identities and lived among humans. Those kinds sometimes bestowed miraculous opportunities upon humans.

On the other hand, there were also kinds that dragged dreadful calamities with them or did nothing but destroy out of malice toward the world.

The Giant Tree Ghost that the Transcendent Extremity Gate had barely sealed ten-odd years ago was exactly that kind of monster.......

“So it was a fragment, not the main body. But even so, that much energy.......”

At the voice from behind her, Sunwoo Jeha whirled around like lightning.

Her sword reached the other person’s neck in an instant.

“You......!”

“I apologize for following you in secret.”

After confirming that the other person was Kim Muhyuk, Sunwoo Jeha’s eyes widened.

Because the presence of the Great Anomaly and the energy of the layered spells and talismans were all tangled together, she had missed Kim Muhyuk’s presence.

Sunwoo Jeha snapped angrily,

“I told you to go back!”

No matter how outstanding a young rising star Kim Muhyuk was, there was no way he could endure the energy of a Great Anomaly.

It would be fortunate if he had not gone mad on the way down here......

At that moment, Sunwoo Jeha realized something was strange and stared into Kim Muhyuk’s eyes as she asked,

“Why are you fine?”

“I had a similar experience once before. This much is bearable.”

Kim Muhyuk answered while tapping Phantom Dream’s hilt.

Then he glanced at his own neck, where a bead of blood had formed, and said,

“......I’ll apologize, so could you put the sword away? My neck is bleeding.”

Sunwoo Jeha glared sharply at him, then lowered her sword, and only then did Kim Muhyuk let out a sigh of relief.

Sunwoo Jeha furrowed her brow as if she could not understand.

“You really are fine. If your mind was gone, I was going to quietly kill you to silence the witness.”

“When you say things like that, sect leader, it doesn’t sound like a joke.”

“It isn’t.”

“.......”

“Anyway, why did you follow me?”

Instead of answering right away, Kim Muhyuk took one step forward.

Grrrrk......!

The writhing Great Anomaly heart fragment.

From the mass that looked like tangled tree roots, several strands of branches loosened and stretched toward Kim Muhyuk.

As he watched that sight, Kim Muhyuk spoke in a serious voice.

“I thought this might have happened because of me.”

“......Why?”

“It’s just a feeling.”

It sounded irresponsible, but Sunwoo Jeha, who knew how important instinct was to a martial artist, could not ignore those words.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thumpthumpthump—!

On top of that, after Kim Muhyuk arrived, the heart fragment’s pulsing grew even faster.

It was moving violently enough to push the iron stake embedded in its center upward little by little.

“......Stand back.”

After making Kim Muhyuk withdraw, Sunwoo Jeha strode toward the stake and continued speaking.

“It isn’t because of you. The seal weakened after more than ten years. Eventually...... this was going to happen someday. So.”

Even if Kim Muhyuk’s special nature could have been the trigger, that did not make it Kim Muhyuk’s responsibility.

The Giant Tree Ghost’s main body was trapped somewhere inside a spell barrier together with the corpse of the previous Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader.

“Go back. This is the Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader’s responsibility.”

The heart fragment on the altar was an object for confirming that seal. It was also a medium for strengthening the seal.

Sssssss—.

When she grabbed the iron stake with both hands, her palms blackened along with a foul odor. Sunwoo Jeha raised her internal energy to protect her hands, then pushed the stake back in with all her strength.

“Haaah......!”

But the heart fragment resisted fiercely. The roots grew even harder and pushed the stake back out, and the more it did, the stronger the stench of rotting wood became.

It was a sign that the Giant Tree Ghost’s main body had already recovered a considerable amount of its strength. If it pushed the stake out completely, the seal would weaken even more.

Ruuuumble......!

The entire forbidden ground began to shake. The Giant Tree Ghost’s energy had stimulated the anomalies sealed inside the forbidden ground.

I have to stop it somehow. Even if I have to accept internal injuries.......

A fierce energy began to flow from Sunwoo Jeha’s entire body, and the warning numbers marked inside the Black Restraint Bands began to rise rapidly.

That was when it happened.

“Even so, wouldn’t it be better to do it together?”

Kim Muhyuk, who she thought had withdrawn, approached and wrapped his hands around the stake together with her.

“......You really don’t listen worth a damn.”

Sunwoo Jeha grumbled, but did not refuse his help. She could clearly feel the burden ease.

One, two, three!

After exchanging a signal with their eyes, the two of them gripped the stake at the same time and pushed it into the heart fragment.

CRRRRUNCH......!

The Great Anomaly heart fragment writhed as if screaming.

The altar shook from its resistance, and dust poured down from the ceiling.

But the two of them did not let go of the stake. They pushed it in, little by little, until it went all the way down.

*****

Ruuuumble......!

The entire forbidden ground of the Transcendent Extremity Gate was trembling.

The crocks buried in the ground shook, and the sacred ropes loosened little by little. The talismans flapped wildly as if they were about to tear free.

Kyahahahahaha!

Grrrrrrrr.......

Kyaaaaaaak!

The anomalies’ energy grew stronger, and they ran wild.

With cries coming from every direction, the young rising stars could hardly keep their heads clear.

“The Giant Tree Ghost has awakened?”

“Contact the elders immediately!”

“You all wait here!”

Only after they escaped the forbidden ground and relayed the situation to the martial artists of the Transcendent Extremity Gate did they realize one person was missing.

“Where’s Kim Muhyuk?”

At Bu Yeonha’s question, Shin Kangheon looked at the forbidden ground they had just left and said,

“Looks like he went off to do something crazy again.......”

He had noticed midway through that Kim Muhyuk had disappeared, but he did not look especially worried.

“There won’t be much of a problem. That bastard would eat an anomaly before he ever got done in by one.”

“Even so...... this was serious enough to alarm the Transcendent Extremity Gate’s sect leader like that.”

While the two of them worried about Kim Muhyuk and Sunwoo Jeha, Kang Hyuntae kept his mouth shut.

“.......”

He was one of the top young rising stars of the Great Saber Gate.

In front of his juniors, he acted like an easygoing fool, but that was a kind of leisure he could afford because he had confidence.

But after entering the forbidden ground, Kang Hyuntae’s self-esteem had hit rock bottom.

“......What am I even doing here?”

He quietly muttered to himself.

When his juniors sensed anomalies, he had sensed nothing.

He had even been told by the Strongest in Korea that he had no talent.

Despite being the oldest among the four, strictly speaking, his skill was the lowest.

Was my entire life nothing but a waste of time?

Kang Hyuntae was sinking into depression from the helplessness and shame that had slowly crept over him, just as he had fled the forbidden ground in a panic.

Do you want to become strong? Shall I fill in the talent you lack?

One of the crocks cracked, and the anomaly that secretly slipped out from within whispered into Kang Hyuntae’s ear.