Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 251 : Emergence (5)

Emergence (5)

One sheet, then another.

White papers appearing in midair started to stack up neatly.

'I have to complete it quickly.'

This was the second time Shin Ah-yeon had used this in actual combat.

She reconstituted Estella's Authority into her own Conceptualization Technique.

Once, she carved the wishes of countless people into it.

And this time, she inscribed a single person's wish onto the paper.

'What was the foundation of the miracles that Estella handled?'

She always wondered.

The power of the Saintess follows the values of each era.

The power of Alencia is 'electricity'.

And Estella's power is 'Wishes'.

'The reason Alencia's power is based on electricity is because humanity of this era possesses the potential to advance through electricity.'

Park Jung-woo had said so.

He said that while Alencia's power dealt with electricity, it was not simply electricity.

Come to think of it, there were many strange things about Alencia's abilities if they were merely 'electricity'.

What can be done with electricity.

That's how he explained it, but there was also a magical aspect that couldn't be explained merely that way.

'In other words, it's like this.'

Shin Ah-yeon grabbed one of the pure white sheets fluttering around her.

'Alencia's Authority is about the possibilities of everything humanity desires that can be achieved through electricity.'

Not just 'electricity', but all the futures and countless paths that could arise from it.

It's the manipulation of that possibility.

In a way, it was the same as Estella's ability.

And, what is the power of Alencia's mother, Sarah Walker?

'Wisdom.'

Delivering the wisdom to recreate a ruined world anew.

In other words, to present the possibilities for humanity's path forward through wisdom.

'This, too, resonates with Estella's origin.'

She was called the most powerful saint, the one closest to omnipotence.

Ultimately, that was because the foundation of Estella's power best fit with 'possibility'.

'Not origin, but salvation.'

What humanity—living under the subjugation of demons—longed for was not a new origin, but salvation, a yearning for a new era.

The forms salvation could take were countless, and their value and forms were innumerable.

Because she could plant the seeds of possibility in all such wishes, Estella was the most omnipotent of all.

'Therefore, the more earnest a human wish, the more powerful the effect.'

Shin Ah-yeon looked at Baek Hojun.

He possessed a more distinct wish than anyone else here.

He wasn't complicated; he was a person who desired just one thing.

He simply wished to reach the highest realm.

He was a man who boldly took steps toward a world he could never reach with ordinary talent.

Perhaps that possibility was infinitesimally close to zero.

It could have been called impossible.

"If that is what you desire—"

The paper in her hand burned with golden light and touched Hojun's back.

Just as it had with Jung-woo, a golden thread connected, and she felt his desire tangible in her hands.

Turning the impossible into possible.

She moved the probability that was nearly zero.

That was all there was to it.

The reason Jung-woo overcame death was because his intense desire was able to grasp that possibility.

So, surely Hojun too, would be able to seize that possibility.

Thousand Sword.

If he was the man called by the foolish-sounding title that his master gave him.

***

A massive presence was felt from above.

The great flow of someone's wish was spreading throughout the entire demonic zone.

'Shin Ah-yeon.'

Now, in that power, I—Park Jung-woo—felt not Estella, but Ah-yeon.

The old me had hoped that Ah-yeon would not remember Estella.

Estella, as a Saintess, hated herself and tried to end everything by dying.

I worried that, if Ah-yeon recovered her memories, she would think similarly.

"It seems things are quite noisy up above."

Damian, too, seemed to sense it, his eyes turning as if to see something far away.

"Sorry to say this, but you made a mistake."

With a gentle smile and a sigh, he approached me.

"It might have been different if you were up there. But is there really anyone up there who can stop Cade?"

Now I understood why Cade had so willingly sent me down here.

I could also understand why Damian could speak so relaxedly.

They must have thought I wouldn't be able to do anything here anyway.

Damian could not be killed.

Even destroying his heart could be prevented.

So, all I could do was watch as this castle rose, and returning would be the only answer.

"I hope everyone's safe until you return."

Anyone could tell those were empty words.

The power I sensed from Cade right now was, if anything, closer to that of a Demon King than to my own.

The greatest swordsman of the Demon Realm, once called the Blade of Evil, gained great power by burning up everything he had.

A Cade like that—even for me—would require my full strength to face him.

"Is that all?"

"...?"

"Is that all you have to say?"

I exhaled and unclenched my fist.

The demonic energy extending from my heart spread through my body, and with my activated vision, I could see his heart plainly.

"Do you think I'm bluffing?"

"Of course not."

It seemed Damian thought I was trying to kill him.

Or perhaps he thought I didn't believe in Cade's strength.

"The ones above should resolve things among themselves."

I only had to do my job.

To defeat the demon before my eyes—Damian.

That was what I had to do.

"... How ridiculous, Park Jung-woo. What do you think you can do in this situation?"

Damian said.

"Sure, you are strong. But all you can do is wield overwhelming violence derived from your vast strength. It's only useful in situations where brute force applies."

That alone was not enough to overcome this situation.

That was what he was saying.

"Violence, huh... You're not wrong."

Damian frowned, perhaps perplexed that I remained calm and unchanged in attitude.

"The point is, I just have to avoid killing you, right?"

I took one step, then another, closing the distance between us.

"If I kill you, a catastrophe will occur. The same goes for destroying that heart."

I couldn't kill him.

But, that was the same for him.

"Then I just have to avoid killing you, right?"

He intended to resurrect the demon realm and create an environment for demons to live in this world.

In short, Damian wasn't planning on destroying this world either.

For someone as noble as the son of a king, dying on a whim wasn't an option.

"...!"

It was only then that he seemed to understand the meaning behind my words.

"Park Jung-woo!!"

He tried to move away in haste, but my action was faster.

A fist, dyed black, slammed into Damian's abdomen.

"Keugh!!"

For an ordinary demon, this blow would have blown their torso away.

But he was the son of the Demon King.

This wouldn't cause him fatal damage.

"I expected you to behave more rationally."

"And if I acted rationally, what would I be able to do?"

As Damian said, all I could have done was retreat quietly.

But I didn't want to do that.

"Are you confident you can subdue me without killing me?"

"No."

Damian was strong.

His strength was at least equal to Cade's.

But, 'right now', he should be slightly weaker than Cade.

"Instead, I am confident I can beat you to the brink—without killing you."

At my words, Damian's face twisted for the first time.

Having no choice was the same for him as well.

***

Cade had witnessed many versions of Estella's Authority up to now.

But he had never seen a case like this.

"It's my first time seeing a human who can look only forward."

If a person knows their own limitations, in the end, they cannot help but stop.

Even if they say they can do it, they can't help but feel some vague anxiety.

Clang-clang-clang-clang!!

With each blink, dozens of sword strikes were exchanged.

The power, speed, even skill contained within—Cade overwhelmingly outclassed his opponent in every aspect.

'Another step closer.'

Originally, Baek Hojun was a completed swordsman.

As a human, he must have already reached his limits.

Beyond that realm was, perhaps, a place not allowed to humans.

A limit fundamentally unattainable by nature.

Humans inevitably faced the physical and lifespan limits of their species.

In all respects, demons were superior to humans.

Physically and in longevity, demons were overwhelmingly better, and their talents in martial arts or magic were often vastly superior.

This was why they thought of humans as an inferior race.

Even among demons, Cade was born with especially superior physique and talent.

For hundreds of years, no swordsman greater than Cade had emerged.

"... This is why miracles are distasteful."

And Baek Hojun was not even a genius.

Even if given a chance to overcome human limitations, he did not have the talent to seize it.

Unless he were a prodigy.

If granted talent by the heavens, perhaps shattering the shackles of humanity would be allowed.

But this man was not such a person.

Desperately blocking Cade's attacks, all he could do was endure—the sort of human who could never attain that realm.

That impossibility was now becoming possible.

Baek Hojun's origin had touched possibility through Estella... no, through Shin Ah-yeon's power.

'My breathing...'

It was getting hard to breathe.

At some point, Baek Hojun could see nothing at all.

He simply pressed forward blindly against the sword swinging before him.

If not for the sword Jung-woo had given him, he would already have lost.

His own Thousand Sword had been broken and shattered countless times.

'A human who looks only ahead.'

He vaguely remembered Cade saying something like that.

'Could that really be so?'

Baek Hojun, too, had once stopped moving forward.

There had been a period when he ridiculed himself, thinking he had reached his limits.

It was Park Jung-woo who showed him that they could be broken through.

And, probably, Lee Soo-ah, who was surely watching over him now, had guided him to the path.

The path a genius walks—which an ordinary man cannot see.

Chasing after it, Hojun had succeeded in smashing the wall that blocked him.

'Just as an ordinary man cannot understand a genius, a genius cannot comprehend an ordinary man.'

It was his master, who chided him for being dull and gave him the title Thousand Sword, who had said this.

It wasn't a wrong statement.

Geniuses cannot understand the struggles of ordinary men.

The realm they can reach in a single bound—ordinary men must cultivate all their lives to reach.

What meaning could there be in that?

They would just think it was inefficient.

That's why there are things they can't know.

Because of their talent, there are things they cannot see.

'This is...'

Cade gradually became aware of the change taking place in Baek Hojun.

No, perhaps 'change' was the wrong word.

At this moment, Baek Hojun was not seeing anything of the past.

He was only looking at his own path.

Facing Cade's sword, he had set foot in a higher realm.

"Haaa."

Grasping victory may, in a sense, be simple.

If he ignored Baek Hojun before him and targeted Shin Ah-yeon, the possibility Hojun had grasped would surely scatter.

But, for some reason, he did not want to do so.

"It's been a long time since I've met a true swordsman..."

If given a second chance, perhaps he would have gone after Shin Ah-yeon.

But at this final moment, he desired otherwise.

The possibility of martial prowess that Baek Hojun held in his hands.

The miraculous blade shown by the Authority of Wishes.

A brief deadlock arose as their swords clashed again and again.

Baek Hojun's body retreated a step; his sword slowly began to move.

At the same time, Cade kicked off the ground, launching himself forward.

Upon the sword's tip, black energy gathered, darker than ever before.

'My speed is faster.'

Behind Cade, a black halo formed, its circular ring slicing through the earth in every direction.

Whirling in a spiral around him, he started to generate countless rotating blades.

To block the spinning blades was impossible, and dodging was, too, for the ring-like sword auras covered all sides.

And against the calamitous sword aura, what Hojun did was intensely simple.

He raised the horizontally held sword vertically.

That alone.

But Cade sensed it.

Even amid the tempest of sword aura, a silence had emerged.

And he saw—

Countless swords stacked atop a single blade.

The swords stacked and stacked—until they reached the sky.

'That is...'

There was one more who saw this.

Lee Soo-ah, who had been watching this battle without missing a single moment—forgetting even to blink.

Seeing the sword that reached the sky, Soo-ah recalled an old fight.

The sword she had once hoped for when she first fought Baek Hojun.

'Heavenly Sword (天劍).'

Not Thousand Swords (千劍), but Heavenly Sword(天劍).

It was a goal Soo-ah herself had once strived to reach.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Damn, Baek Hojun is him!

Also, where's Alencia, Eugene, and Yeon-ji?

They're getting carried hard.

Cheon Keom(천검) can either be Thousand Swords or Heavenly Sword depending on the Hanja.

31 chapters left.

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