Chapter 63: The Great War of Good and Evil (2)

The Chemist was pale and shivering.

“

Ah—

”

“

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

!”

The Chemist’s scream was drowned out by a much louder one. The scream came from a man who was old enough to be the Sword Star’s friend, but that had energy that would put most young people to shame.

The Medicine King floundered. “Run! Run away! I’ve never seen such beings in Silicon Valley!

Arghhhh!

The world is doomed! The end is nigh!”

“This world already ended!” I quickly drew my holy sword and cut down the closest zombie.

Unlike

murim

novels, I had a fair number of zombie movies and dramas. In fact, I had fought them myself on the thirteenth floor. Thanks to my experience, I instinctively cut off the zombie’s head.

The zombie continued to growl even as its head spun through the air. Its headless corpse, though, continued to flail its limbs. Damn. It looked like they were the type that stopped functioning only after their brains were destroyed. The worst type.

“Let’s get out of here!” I shouted.

The old man from the Righteous Faction and the woman of the Heavenly Demon Cult finally realized we were there. Just like the zombies had shocked us, our presence made their jaws drop.

“W-who are you!?” the old man stammered.

“...Old man, it looks like my eyes have finally gone rotten. I see not just one but four humans who are alive and moving. Perhaps Yama is calling for me.”

“I-I see them too. All your mockery must have messed up my head.”

I threw the Chemist over my shoulder. “You two should run away too! Even better, tell us where we should run!”

The martial artists looked at each other.

“Oh my goodness. I think they are real, old man,” the woman breathed.

“Are we already dead? Is this what the underworld looks like...?”

“Then there are only two possibilities: we are either in hell or paradise together.”

“As the leader of the Murim Alliance, I’ve dedicated myself to upholding honor, so I don’t think I would go to hell when I die. I believe this is paradise, but there are no peach trees or fairies. It’s full of

jiangshi

[1]. Above all, you’re here. It’s too strange to be paradise.”

“Then it must be real, not a dream.”

“And they’re real people?”

“They’re warm. I don’t think they’re

jiangshi

.”

It might’ve been obvious already from how relaxed they sounded, but the Viper had the man of the Righteous Faction in his arms, and the Heavenly Demon Cult woman was in mine. We were running away from the zombie horde.

“Where are you all from?” The woman looked up at me with interest. “Your foot art is quite interesting. Are you from outer

murim

? Did those barbarians survive?”

“We’re...” I trailed off, my mind working at full speed. I didn’t exactly understand what outer

murim

was supposed to be, but I assumed that it meant the world outside

murim

. Fortunately for me a sound coming from behind us spared me the need to answer.

The zombies seemed to have finished warming up and were now running after us. No, running didn’t seem like the right word to describe what was going on—those zombies were so energetic that they crossed ten meters with every step. Hundreds of zombies flew over the snow like a pack of seagulls, to our shock and terror.

“W-what?” The Viper’s mouth was agape. “Why the hell are zombies flying?!”

“They’re using the lightness art I created. I borrowed it from those Kunlun bums and refined it,” the woman boasted. “Look at them. They passed the level of Traceless Snow and reached Free Sky! They’re my students and the elites of my cult. They haven’t forgotten their martial arts even in death. How commendable.”

“H-hold on,” I said. Although I only vaguely understood those names, there was one thing I really had to figure out. “They don’t forget what they learned even though they’re dead?”

“Huh? You’re behind on the news. Is everyone from outer

murim

like this?” The woman tilted her head. “Those from

murim

use their martial arts after becoming

jiangshi

. Isn’t that common knowledge?”

“I really don’t think it is!”

Oh my god. We were dealing with zombies that used martial arts! If this apocalyptic book was a comedy, I would have laughed it off, but it was an authentic murim, not a joke!

“The ones at the front are my students and elites of the cult. My students react to bloodlust even in their sleep.” The women nodded. “Haha. It’s amazing that they’re still using the lightness art after becoming

jiangshi

.”

“Ahhhhhhh! They’re catching up! They’re catching up!” the Medicine King yelled as he bounced along on the Viper’s back. The

jiangshi

swooped out of the air like ferocious hawks, almost tearing off the Medicine King’s hair. “Run quicker! Quicker! If they bite me and I become a zombie, I’ll bite you first, Sect Master!”

“Fuck. Who the fuck recruited him for this expedition!” the Viper squawked. “And why do I have to cart two men around while you’re carrying two women!”

“We’re about to be killed by freaking martial artist zombies! Does that really matter?!”

“We’re about to die, so what else matters!” the Viper snapped back.

—Zombie! Zombies!

The Guardian shouted, faithfully working as my eyes in the back of my head.

Ah, fuck.

“Weakness!” I shouted at the woman. “Do those

jiangshi

have any weaknesses?”

“They stop moving when I crush their heads.”

“Give me an easier way!”

By this point, I had embraced my death. Normal zombies would have been a different story, but this was a world full of flying zombies who were also martial artists. I would need the Sword Star, the Black Witch,

and

the Inquisitor to even have a chance of clearing this stage.

The woman nodded and pointed over my shoulder. “They don’t move when the sun is out.”

The answer had been right there the whole time if I’d thought about it. The zombies coming to life in front of me and then flying using the lightness art was so shocking that the answer never crossed my head.

“Ma’am! And Miss Chemist!” I shouted.

“Yeah.”

“Y-yes?”

While the woman from the Heavenly Demon Cult answered casually, the Chemist’s voice was quivering.

I focused my aura into my arms. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to throw you! Please be careful when you land!”

“Alright.”

“...What?”

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

And then I hurled the woman as far as possible, immediately followed by the Chemist, like a javelin thrower in the Olympics. The woman landed headfirst in the snow without a sound, but the Chemist screamed her lungs out until she smacked into the snow spread-eagle.

“I’m sorry!” I apologized again before I stopped. I turned back to the hundreds of zombies coming at me.

I was covered in goosebumps. Even though I had fought zombies on the thirteenth floor, they were completely different from the martial artist zombies skipping over the snowfield like a swarm of mosquitoes.

Honestly, it was terrifying.

For some reason, the Guardian was over the moon.

—You’re gonna die! I’m going to see Zombie actually getting killed by zombies! This is awesome! That’s one item I can cross off of my bucket list!

Did he still have a bucket list even though he was already dead?

“I am! Not going to die yet!” I faced the zombie pack in the middle of the snowfield and drew the holy protector sword. The zombie right in front of me bared its gore-stained teeth.

Shiny!

[Shiny answers your call.]

Idol, a piece of a Constellation and the first of the five sister swords, released her light. The snowfield shone brightly with the sword’s light.

And I realized that I had a gift for naming—Shiny was the perfect name for the sword.

When the holy sword’s light touched them, the zombies instantly stopped moving and dropped to the ground like mosquitoes that got a face full of bug spray. They didn’t break their fall at all, so the snowfield ended up honeycombed with holes.

One of the zombies froze with a lock of the Medicine King’s hair in its hand.

The Medicine King groaned. “A-am I alive? Did I survive again? For god’s sake. I would‘ve never come to the Tower if that wasn’t for Marcus. What’s wrong with my life...?”

“Is everyone okay?” I looked around.

I hadn’t let my guard down yet. The sky was still cloudy, so the ground was still dark. The holy protector sword was the only source of light; if it went off just for a moment, those terrifying

jiangshi

would become active again.

“Urgh... My face hurts a little, but I’m fine... Thank you for saving us, Mr. Death King...”

“Fuck! The Sword Star, that guy... I want a life where I don’t have to deal with old men!”

The Chemist and Viper let me know their safety in their own ways. I nodded.

“Sect Master, please protect the others.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take care of those zombies while they aren’t moving.” I pointed the holy sword at the zombies. “I have to smash their brains one by one, so it’ll take time, but it won’t be too difficult...”

“Hold on, child from outer

murim

.” The woman stood up from the snowfield, slowly wiping the snow off of her clothes. “First, I would like to express my gratitude for saving me even though we’ve never met before. However, I have to stop you if you’re going to eliminate these

jiangshi

.”

“...Why is that?” I asked. All kinds of thoughts swirled inside my head. Were zombies under a special curse, and did those who killed them get infected? Actually, not many monsters were portrayed in as many different ways as zombies were. Depending on the settings, they could be trivial monsters or an absolute disaster.

“All of them are elites of my cult.”

“What?” I asked, caught totally off guard.

“They’re my students and subordinates,” the woman solemnly replied. “The great war to root out those of the Righteous Path is imminent. I’m in need of every one of them I can get. I’m already outnumbered, so I can’t lose a single one of them.”

What the heck was she saying? None of us could understand. What great war was she talking about? The world of

Heavenly Demon Chronicle

was on the brink of destruction. There was no way this world still had factions or enough humans to have a war.

“Once you open your eyes, you’ll find yourselves in the world ten days before the serialization of the

Heavenly Demon Chronicle

unfortunately discontinues,” was what the Indoor Librarian had said. Only ten days were left before the complete extinction of mankind here. I didn’t know how many survivors were left in this world...but they were all going to die in ten days. The woman from the Heavenly Demon Cult and the man from the Righteous Faction weren’t exempted from this fate. While it wasn’t clear if they were aware of that, the two martial artists were nonchalant.

“Me and the old—”

“I’m Buwolseon, the leader of the Murim Alliance,” the man interrupted.

“...The old man and I have been continuing this great war for three years now. It’s actually been nine hundred eighty nine days since the Great War of Right and Evil was declared. We swore on our names that no one would leave until one of us acknowledges their defeat,” the woman intoned. “They may have become

jiangshi

, but they’re my people as long as they use the martial arts of my cult. Don’t kill them. If you want to kill the

jiangshi

, kill the ones wearing monk—”

“Nonsense! I sweated blood to gather those prodigies from the Prestigious Clans!” The old man jumped up and down. “You made a promise, you Heavenly Demon wench! We aren’t going to hurt the

jiangshi

, and you and I are going to see the end of the Great War of Good and Evil on our own!”

“Promises are meant to be broken.”

“You evil wretch, then I’ll crush those demonic

jiangshi

one by one!”

“You call yourself the leader of the Righteous Faction and yet you’re going to go back on your word? You’re revealing your true color, you hypocrite!”

The man and woman looked like they were about to fight until one of them died, just like they were doing before the zombies started moving.

I was dumbfounded.

“...The world is doomed, but you two insist on continuing this great war of whatever?”

“You’ve got it the wrong way around.” The woman called the Heavenly Demon shook her head. “The world already met its end during our great war.”

To sum it up, the old man was the leader of the Righteous Faction and the Murim Alliance[2], and the woman was the Heavenly Demon. They had been fighting each other for the future of this world. It had all been fine until a plague had suddenly broken out, turning all of their people into zombies.

Ordinary people would have stopped the war and gone into hiding...but the people of

murim

were anything but ordinary.

“That doesn’t mean we can postpone the war we’ve already begun!” the Heavenly Demon declared.

The Murim Alliance’s leader and the Heavenly Demon... didn’t end the war even though all of their people were now zombies. In fact, they still treated the

jiangshi

like loyal soldiers. That was how they had been continuing the Great War of Right and Evil for three years as the world was consumed by a zombie apocalypse.

“I’ll never stop until I claim victory from that old man. As I still have my five hundred

jiangshi

soldiers, I’m going to lead them and crush those bastards from the Righteous Path.”

“Right back at you, demon! The greatest prodigies of

murim

are with me and they’ll still fight against you, wench, even after becoming vengeful spirits! 989 days is enough. It’s time to end this war!”

Yes, my expedition team wasn’t the only one without hope. The same was true for this world.

1. Eastern vampire/zombies. ☜

2. The difference is that while all the righteous sects can be considered to be part of the Righteous Faction, only the selected righteous sects can join the Murim Alliance. ☜