SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 116

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 116: The Black Wedding (2)
4
Shadows fell across Sky Ground.
Each figure swept a black robe behind them as they moved. Even facing the specter Gunan, who stood at a distance, they showed no surprise. They had lived in a world where the plague of corpses had swept through the land.
They had died in that world.
Ghosts could not frighten them.
“You’re looking particularly radiant today, Sect Leader.”
Gwi Hon Yeom Ma spoke in an unhurried tone. The first among the Four Demon Kings of the Demonic Sect. An adherent who had faced the Abbot of Shaolin in the last Great Orthodoxy War.
“With makeup on your face and all—it’s as if you’re going to be married.”
I nodded.
“I am getting married.”
“…Pardon?”
A thousand adherents turned their heads in unison. They were martial experts who had regained their strength in their prime. They’d all sharpened their hearing with Inner Power to catch my words.
I let them hear it clearly.
“I’m getting married today.”
Silence descended.
The adherents exchanged glances. Then they looked back at me, probing to see if I was sincere or joking. I simply nodded once to answer their unspoken question.
“The, the Sect Leader….”
Gwi Hon Yeom Ma’s mouth fell open.
“The Sect Leader is getting married—!”
The adherents erupted.
“Our Sect Leader is getting married!”
“The supreme lord of the Demonic Sect is taking a wife!”
“It’s not just an engagement! It’s a real marriage!”
Forgetting even the ghost army before their eyes, the adherents descended into chaos. They wailed and cried out again. The mere fact that I was marrying seemed to them a matter of such urgent importance that it had to be announced to the world at once.
“Who is the bride?!”
“Over there.”
I gestured respectfully with both hands.
“The one with silver hair—she is to be my wife.”
Raphael was there, soothing the bewildered people of the Empire.
Her sharp profile, always composed and stately.
Following my gesture, the adherents who turned their heads suddenly gaped.
“Beautiful….”
“Yes, yes, quite lovely.”
“Our Sect Leader has good taste.”
“Sect Leader! How many years of cultivation does the Lady possess!”
True to form for martial experts, they asked about her martial prowess first.
“Well. My wife doesn’t practice martial arts.”
The adherents’ eyes widened. Soon, murmurs of discontent rippled through the crowd. I could see resistance flickering in their eyes at this marriage.
“But surely, as a partner to the lord of the Demonic Way….”
“Not knowing martial arts at all seems rather improper.”
“Indeed, authority flows from power….”
“The Hyeolgwi-dae cannot recognize this marriage!”
I added a remark.
“I forgot to mention—my bride is a prince, second only to the Emperor in this realm.”
Then the adherents began to murmur among themselves.
“Well, that changes things….”
“A person doesn’t necessarily have to learn martial arts just because they’re born. Right?”
“Right, authority comes from power….”
“Congratulations on your marriage, Sect Leader!”
Truly simple-hearted people.
But among them was one who was not an adherent. Agui. Once called the Demon King of autumn rain and feared by the world, the girl had been gaping like a fish since hearing that I was getting married.
“My… my lord is getting married?”
“Yes. That’s how it is.”
“Impossible. A lunatic of the highest order like my lord… ah, forgive me. Is there truly someone in this world willing to marry someone as uniquely eccentric as you, my lord?”
You, Agui….
Following me dutifully on the surface, but thinking me mad all along….
Adding another wound to my heart, I sighed.
“There is indeed. We’ll go into details at the reception. For now, focus on the battle.”
“Ah. Yes. Of course, my lord. What enemy do we face…?”
“Apostles from the Otherworld who invaded to conquer this world.”
And I spoke.
“They’re the ones trying to ruin my wedding, too.”
The moment the words left my mouth, the atmosphere among the faithful shifted.
“Oho.”
Hyeol Ma, the leader of the Hyeolgwi-dae, touched his sword hilt.
“Hmm…….”
Gwi Hon Yeom Ma, the leader of the Wiyeong-dae, lifted the corner of his mouth.
“The junior patriarch of the Demonic Sect takes his betrothal vows, and these fools interfere.”
Wol Yeong Ma Gun, the leader of the Siyeong-dae, swept back his hair.
“Ha. Lunatics, every one.”
Geom Ma, the leader of the Cheoksal-dae, twisted his neck in all four directions with deliberate slowness.
“…….”
Finally, Agui drew her sword without a word. The very same blade that had forced countless deaths upon me. A Demon Sword that exhaled a blood-red radiance.
“Indeed. I understand, my lord. We suspected that you had achieved another awakening and thus recovered our former strength—but it appears that is not the case. Rather, it is the protection of a Constellation. Those would be the Constellation’s servants.”
“Correct.”
“If I may inquire, which Constellation have these wretches attached themselves to?”
“Mahos. The Eternal Plain’s War Horses, as far as I know.”
Agui’s mouth twisted into a sneer.
“Mindless brutes who understand nothing but combat.”
Beneath that contempt lay the arrogance of days long past—before I had brought about their Fall from Heaven.
The enemy numbered ten thousand. We were merely a thousand. Yet the faithful chatted among themselves as they gripped their blades, and Agui slowly raised her sword to the light. We had the advantage. No one among us saw ourselves as anything but superior.
Not one of us.
“My lord, speak your command. What would you have me do?”
I gave the order.
“Sweep them away.”
Agui raised her Demon Sword high above her head.
“Your will shall be done.”
Single Flash.
A line of crimson radiance—redder than blood itself—carved through the sunset sky like blood.
—Goooooh!
It was a red beam of light. Agui’s stroke carried a power and majesty that admitted no other description. The phantoms caught in that crimson radiance shrieked as they dissolved.
Even the general leading the phantom legion nearly fell to the blow.
—What… what is this? No, it can’t be. A Constellation…? Using a Constellation as a subordinate without being one yourself…….
The general stared at me, his voice trembling with horror.
“Tear them apart!”
The faithful roared with savage fury.
“They’re nothing but rabble! We need not even chant doctrine!”
“Who the hell dares interfere with the betrothal of the Demonic Way’s master?!”
“Every head we take today is a wedding gift to our junior patriarch! Do you understand?! Any wretch who brings back fewer than five heads dies by my hand!”
“Kahahaha! Members of the Cheoksal-dae—bring back ten heads or more!”
“This is what happens when they lack training…….”
Some surged forward in rage, some with savage roars, others shaking their heads in disdain. Though the phantom legion still hung at a distance, space had become meaningless. Nearly a thousand shadows deployed their Qinggong in unison.
—Ugh?! Hold the line!
The general shouted in alarm.
The phantom legion was made up of elite soldiers too. They raised their shields without gaps, holding formation tight. Spears bristled thickly, forming a porcupine of bristling points.
But.
“How dull.”
Agui, the phantom of autumn rain, laughed with contempt.
“The livestock marks themselves as targets without prompting.”
The red radiance tore through the sky again. Kwaaaaaang! The phantom legion in tight formation was swept away effortlessly. Great gaps opened in their ranks, suddenly vacant and gaping. Ghost soldiers scrambled desperately to fill the void.
“Kahaha!”
But the faithful, seasoned in countless battles, never let an opening slip by.
“Tear them to pieces!”
The believers surged forward like beasts. Shadow-legion and phantom-army collided. Crack! Craaaaaack! The faithful scattered their Inner Power as they butchered the ghosts.
Unlike the Great Orthodoxy War, the faithful did not chant the Baraya invocation. No one spoke of the reason, but I could guess. This was not a duel. It was not a grand clash.
Simple slaughter.
The faithful treated the phantom legion as mere beasts and cut them down without mercy.
—Kiiiieeeek!
The phantom legion lacked the strength to overcome that arrogance. The faithful’s blades tore the formation apart. Shields shattered and spears snapped. Through the breaches in their defenses, the faithful thrust their blades, and reversed the broken spear shafts to drive them down like hammers.
It was a massacre.
—Regroup by unit!
The General raised his banner and shouted urgently.
—Don’t panic, soldiers! There’s no need to rush! Follow your decurions and…….
“Hey there.”
Tap.
Someone lightly leaped atop the banner pole the General held.
“Greetings to you.”
Geom Ma. First among the Four Demon Kings, and the most sharp-tongued of them all. Silhouetted against the setting sun, Geom Ma’s face was veiled in shadow.
“So you’re the one interfering with our Young Sect Master’s wedding?”
—This bastard.
“Damn brat. Just die already.”
His blade flashed. First strike. Second strike. Third strike. Three rivers of sword light wove together like a spider’s web. The first severed the General’s right arm, the second tore across his chest, and the third shredded the banner.
—Gasp, cough…….
The War God’s apostle vomited blood. But only for a moment. Toward that very throat, Geom Ma unleashed his final strike. The scream was cut short, and the head flew skyward.
“Ah. Well done.”
Geom Ma kicked off from the banner pole and leaped into the air. He caught the General’s head as it soared.
“Well, well, can’t let such a prize slip away. Ha. See that, you brats! I’m Geom Ma, Lord of the Cheoksal-dae! Our Cheoksal-dae brings the finest wedding gift to the Young Sect Master!”
“Damn it.”
“Of all people, to that blockhead…….”
Curses drifted softly from here and there. Even among the Four Demon Kings, there seemed to be an odd rivalry; the other cultists grimaced, lamenting that Geom Ma had stolen the glory.
[‘The apostle of Eternal Plain’s War Horses vanishes.’]
Fade——
The General’s head that Geom Ma caught turned to light and disappeared. But that wasn’t all. The headless corpse of the General, and the spectral servants who had followed him, all crumbled to dust in an instant. The legion was annihilated.
“Huh? What?”
Geom Ma was flustered. He looked down at his right hand, suddenly empty. A moment later, he turned toward me with a blank stare.
“Um… uh… is a gift from the heart also acceptable, Young Sect Master?”
I laughed quietly.
“That’s fine. I’ll make an exception for you.”
That was when it happened.
—Lu. Ra.
The remaining Immortal Happiness Evangelist began to sing. Lu. Ra. Small children, hand in hand, traced a circle in the air. With each step they planted upon the sunset, another note ascended to the sky.
“Hmm.”
“Ugh.”
The cultists frowned. Some of them hurried to draw upon their Inner Power to resist the song, but it was futile. The wide-area effect had ended when the apostle of Eternal Plain’s War Horses fell.
“Ah…….”
Agui released a hollow groan. The black filth that had covered her entire body drained away rapidly. She clicked her tongue at Geom Ma with annoyance.
“That fool… he’s on our side but useless. My apologies, my lord. If I were at my prime, such a psychic attack wouldn’t… I’m not… strong enough… fighting… is…….”
Agui’s voice grew slower with each word because sleep was claiming her. Her body swayed unsteadily.
Agui wasn’t alone. The cultists who had been rampaging across the battlefield moments before fell one by one with soft thuds. The guests under Raphael’s command suffered the same fate. Against the Lullaby sung by the apostle of dreams, humans were utterly defenseless.
“Wait, Four Kings.”
The Heresy Inquisitor began to weave a seal.
“I will generate an Immunity Barrier at once!”
“No.”
I grasped the Heresy Inquisitor’s hand and stopped her. The Heresy Inquisitor tilted her head quizzically.
“Four Kings? If we let this continue, even we will fall to the apostle’s song.”
“That may be true. But if my reasoning is correct, others aside, Raphael, myself, and you should be fine.”
“Hmm.”
The Heresy Inquisitor smiled thinly and released her seal.
“Understood. There must certainly be a reason for the Four Kings to speak thus.”
By now, the sunset had reached its height.
—Lu. Ra, ra.
—Ra, lu lu. Lu.
The crimson sunset blazed upon the children. Their shadows stretched long across the horizon. The silhouettes cast upon the ground receded and approached in turn, shrank and grew again.
『This is a form of psychic attack.』
『Exposure to that song compels one to become submerged in one’s happiest memory.』
The Wedding Venue fell silent.
The cultists sat slumped on the ground, leaning against each other’s shoulders in sleep. Some guests had collapsed entirely, sprawled face-down. All of them were lost in their own happiness.
“Hmph.”
Yet three voices still remained.
“Really, now?”
The Heresy Inquisitor stroked his chin with evident interest, his gaze flicking between me and Raphael.
“According to the Four Kings, all three of us are in perfect condition. I feel a touch of drowsiness, perhaps, but my body maintains normal vitality. Ah-ha. What manner of magic have you worked this time, Four Kings?”
The Heresy Inquisitor wasn’t alone in his curiosity about the situation. The Apostles of Dreams had gradually ceased their circling dance. The childlike beings tilted their heads, staring down at me in confusion.
-This human is strange.
-He doesn’t sleep. Doesn’t dream?
-Has he no happy memories?
I shook my head.
“No.”
I turned slowly to survey the Wedding Venue.
“That’s not it.”
There was Agui, sleeping with soft, shallow breaths. There were the faithful, slumped against each other’s shoulders in drowsy surrender. There were the lives I had gathered, and there were lives that bore witness to my master.
I had countless reasons to be miserable.
Countless.
I burned to death in flames, and took my own life thousands of times over. I watched my comrades fall prey to suspicion and paranoia, tearing each other apart. There were moments when I had to cast away my life dozens of times just to take a single step forward. My throat was torn out by the already-dead, and I had to bid farewell to someone who once told me I was beautiful.
Even if I called my own life miserable, none would blame me.
“I am happiest right now.”
But the people I love are here.
A single reason for happiness mattered more to me than a hundred reasons to despair.
“Whether you know it or not, today is my wedding day. I can’t speak for other days, but I doubt you’ll find anyone happier than me today. You, on the other hand—you’ve chosen terribly, catastrophically badly for your invasion of this world.”
I shrugged.
“As for the Heresy Inquisitor, you probably aren’t happy at all, or perhaps every single day is happiness itself.”
“Ah! Indeed! Quite right! I am always, eternally happy! Your discernment is truly beyond compare, Four Kings.”
He laughed—aha-ha—and whispered.
“Holy Magic Formula. Transposition.”
In the next instant, we were transmuted to the Apostle’s rear.
Unlike the other Apostles, the Immortal Happiness Evangelist possessed no combat strength. The childlike Apostle did not resist as we appeared, only gazing up at my face with wide, unblinking eyes.
-This human is strange.
I steadied myself and swung my blade.
[The Apostle of the Immortal Happiness Evangelist vanishes.]
And we returned to the ground via Holy Magic Formula.
We had subjugated all the Otherworldly beings that had invaded this realm.
……
Or had we not yet subjugated them all?
I adjusted my grip on the Holy Sword and turned. A distant figure stood holding an enormous hammer—an Apostle. When our eyes met, the being flinched back violently.
-H-hic, ugh… ah…….
I opened my mouth slowly.
“This is your last chance to fight me. Your final opportunity to resist, to oppose me. I will kill you and gather you unto myself.”
-G-gather… me…?
“You need not understand now. You will, in time.”
I pointed my blade at the hammer-wielding Apostle.
And spoke her true name.
“Come, Silvia Ebanaile.”
Geumsamae trembled.
S-rank Hunter: Must Die to Live (Serial Publication)
Author │ Shin No-ah
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J-Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelung Post Tower 1st)
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
©Shin No-ah 2019
※This work is published by J-Plus Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder and may not be used in any form or by any means without the permission of the company and author.
Violation of this will result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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