Chapter 166: God is Great (3)

'Ah, Allah?'

Thanks to the enemies' shouts, Il-mok realized what religion these guys believed in and wore a weird expression.

In that moment, flames came flying at them from all four directions.

"Haaah!"

Black Tiger Corps Leader Ouyang Hyeok roared as he swung his swift blade through the air in rapid succession.

Following the path of his blade, a blade wind imbued with demonic energy flew to meet the flames of Allah.

Led by Ouyang Hyeok's blade winds, the Vice Leader, several members, as well as Chu Il-hwan and the other instructors of the Hall of the Demonic Way, brandished their own weapons.

In the end, the flames of Allah were ultimately blocked by the gale they created, but the problem was that this place was a mountain.

The flames began spreading to the surrounding vegetation around the river.

"Allahu Akbar!!"

Once again, the fanatics let out that familiar battle cry that Il-mok knew all too well as they charged straight at them.

Il-mok felt like everything was going dark before his eyes.

He had lived his life cursing the followers of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult as fanatics, but he had never imagined he would come face-to-face with real fanatics, the kind he'd only seen on the news back in the modern world.

Just then, the Black Tiger Corps Leader's shout snapped Il-mok back to reality.

"Followers of the great Heavenly Demon Divine Cult never abandon their comrades! Hold out until those poisoned wake up!"

The reason they'd been waiting around while Allah's sorcerers conjured up flames was simple, those who'd been poisoned hadn't finished purging the toxins yet.

Whether it was thanks to Ouyang Hyeok's rallying cry, or just because they were crazy bastards who loved fighting to begin with...

"Come on then!"

"We'll send you straight to King Yama!!"

The demonic cult members maintained their formation while roaring with high morale.

In the center, those who'd drunk the river water and gotten poisoned were using their internal energy to expel the toxins, while the unaffected ones formed a protective circle around them to block the enemies.

Since Il-mok hadn't been poisoned, he had no choice but to face the enemies on the front lines.

The enemies charged at them, each wielding weapons while spouting some incomprehensible language he'd never heard before.

But their eyes were familiar.

Il-mok had seen those same eyes countless times in those who blindly believed in something.

"Fuck this shit."

Il-mok spat out a curse as he drew his sword.

The number of enemies was far too great.

This was not a situation where he could leisurely face them with fist or grappling techniques as he had with the demonic bandits.

Schlick!

Unpleasant severing sound echoed across the battlefield.

Black Tiger Corps Leader Ouyang Hyeok swung his blade at lightning speed, and the Saber Qi that burst from his weapon cut through space, flying forward to sever the neck of a fanatic charging at the front.

Thud.

Whether because it hadn’t registered its own death or due to inertia, the corpse ran a few more steps forward before collapsing with a wet thump.

The blood flowing from that severed neck began soaking the ground as if foreshadowing the events that were to unfold.

Crunch.

And that same corpse, the one that had died leading the charge, was trampled and crushed under its comrades’ feet.

"As Allah wills (حسب مشيئة الله).”

"Death to the enemy (الموت للعدو)!”

The fanatics paid no heed to their comrade’s death; no, their eyes burned even brighter as they charged forward.

But they'd picked the wrong enemies.

"The Heavenly Demon Descends!!"

"Ten Thousand Demons Obey!!!"

Even faced with the fanatics' intimidating presence, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warriors didn't back down.

The fanatics charging from all directions finally clashed with the cult members who'd formed their battle formation.

Schlick!!

Clang!!

The sounds of metal clashing and slicing rang out from everywhere.

"Allahu Akbar!!"

"Heavenly Demon! Grant me strength!!"

Cries calling upon their gods.

"Aaaahhh!!"

"Die!!"

Screams and furious shouts mixed together.

It was a bizarre spectacle.

Everyone there was calling upon their god, yet instead of being holy, the scene was filled with nothing but malice and killing intent.

And Il-mok, standing right in the middle of that contradictory place, couldn't escape from that malice either.

"Death (موت)!”

A middle-aged man with bloodshot eyes roared incomprehensibly as he swung a curved blade at him. On top of that, another man beside him was thrusting a spear to cover any gaps.

Faced with that blatant and cloying killing intent, Il-mok gritted his teeth.

—Kill!

—Human flesh and bone as the canvas, and blood as the ink!

—Draw the most beautiful sword path!!

The side effects screamed in his head. He wanted to ignore those voices, but Il-mok wasn't stupid.

Standing there like an idiot would get him killed.

"Shut the hell up, you perverted bastard!!"

Cursing at the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword's ego, Il-mok swung his sword.

His sword moved gracefully, deflecting the curved blade.

Clang!

Clang!!

The curved blade, struck by his sword imbued with internal energy, was pushed back and collided with the spear wielded by another fanatic.

As the two weapons collided and both fanatics hesitated for a moment—

Swish!

A beautiful silver trajectory traced the optimal path through the air.

Two headless corpses collapsed to the ground.

In that space full of contradictions, Il-mok also gave in to contradiction.

He cursed the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword's ego while having no choice but to act exactly as it wanted.

His first kill.

But whether it was because of the Demonic Art's influence or the urgent situation, he didn't feel overwhelming guilt like he'd become some kind of monster.

Just an inexplicable uneasiness that soured his mood.

Maybe it was because he'd seen both corpses' faces the moment he cut their necks.

The faces of those two headless bodies weren't angry or sad.

They were smiling.

Maybe that smile was the reason he didn't feel guilt, and why that inexplicable uneasiness crawled up his spine like bugs.

"Fuck."

While spitting out curses to shake off the unpleasant feeling, another enemy charged at Il-mok.

Crunch!

He trampled over the body of the comrade whose head Il-mok had just severed.

"Crazy bastards."

After Il-mok muttered the curse and deflected that curved blade, he realized too late that he'd been wrong.

Just trampling comrades' corpses wasn't nearly enough to call them crazy; their madness was far more vicious than that.

Swoosh!!

From the enemy’s rear, arrows and nets flew through the air—

Right into the middle of the battlefield where enemies and allies were mixed up in chaotic combat.

Thunk!

"Cough..."

Most of them didn't hit the cult members, but the backs of their own allies.

But some flew over their comrades to target the cult members.

Screams and groans erupted everywhere as people got hit by arrows.

"Damn it!"

Someone else got caught in a net and thrashed around, spitting curses.

"Allahu Akbar!!"

With that battle cry that now made him want to curse just from hearing it, the sorcerers fire again.

Right into that battlefield where allies and enemies were all mixed together.

"......"

Now he was so speechless he couldn't even curse.

Il-mok stared with a stunned expression at the enemies burning to death.

Not because of their attitude of not giving a damn about their comrades' deaths.

It’s because the smiles plastered on their face even as they became human pincushions for their own allies' arrows and burned alive.

It hadn't even been a quarter of an hour since the battle started, but Il-mok already felt like he was going to be sick.

Il-mok had misunderstood them.

They weren't indifferent to death. Rather, they celebrated their comrades' deaths and eagerly wished for their own.

They'd already heard the explanation from Mukhtar Khan.

This battle was a Holy War.

Their sacred scriptures stated, ‘O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them see that you are stern. Know that Allah is with the righteous.'

Thus, when they engaged in a holy war against the infidels, God was always with them.

If they died in Holy War alongside their God and for their God's sake, wouldn't they be granted paradise afterward?

Also, according to their scripture, that paradise had all kinds of trees and fruits, special wine, and most importantly—they could have seventy-two virgins as wives.

Death in Holy War wasn't something to fear.

Rather, it was the fastest shortcut to paradise.

"Allahu Akbar!!"

The result of fanatics who wanted to hurry off to paradise mixing with fanatics who believed their dead comrades would go to paradise was devastating.

Mangled corpses were scattered everywhere, and the blood they'd created stained the vegetation red.

The flames created by the sorcerers burned the mountain, while the signal flares lit by the Black Tiger Corps Leader added green smoke to the mix.

But the fanatics' coordinated assault didn't end with just sending allies to paradise.

"Goddamn it!!"

The insane wave attacks that didn't distinguish between friend and foe caused casualties among the cult members too.

Most of them were Black Tiger Corps members.

But it wasn't because they were incompetent.

The majority were injured while trying to protect the Hall of the Demonic Way disciples, who were unaccustomed not just to chaotic melees but to real combat itself, and were losing their minds in the face of the fanatics’ crazed assault.

"S-sorry, senior..."

"Save the apologies and swing your sword more!!"

While the Black Tiger Corps members and instructors were bickering—

"Death (موت)!”

The fanatics started going even wilder, delighted that the enemies had casualties.

But the cult members didn't just collapse.

"Sorry we're late!!"

“The injured, fall back!!”

Those who'd purged all the poison with their internal energy got up one by one and joined the battle.

Ouyang Hyeok's eyes blazed as he coolly assessed the battlefield amidst the chaos.

"Haaah!"

When Ouyang Hyeok unleashed the lethal technique he'd been saving with a battle cry, dark trajectories were embroidered across the air in succession.

Schlick!

Schlick!

A path made of human flesh, muscle, bone, and blood opened up.

"Hall of the Demonic Way instructors, lead the students and get out of here. Now!!"

Ouyang Hyeok, who'd expended his internal energy to clear the path, held his ground alone to prevent the fanatics from closing that path again while giving orders.

As soon as his order fell, the instructors and teaching assistants helped him widen the path, and Chu Il-hwan shouted additional instructions.

"Disciples, follow us!!"

In the midst of all that, one student let out an insane shout.

"Fleeing is unworthy of a Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warrior!!"

It was Dokgo Pae.

While everyone else was too busy fighting enemies to pay attention, Il-mok screamed furiously on their behalf.

"The seniors can't fight properly because of us, you stupid bastard!!!"

"!!!"

The idea that he was being a hindrance rather than helpful, as the eldest son of the Dokgo family, was so unimaginable that Dokgo Pae's face went pale from shock.

But Il-mok didn't have time to care about Dokgo Pae's feelings.

Clang!

After blocking a charging fanatic's spear, Il-mok used the recoil to deploy his lightness skill and approach Dokgo Pae.

Then he grabbed Dokgo Pae by the scruff of his neck and launched himself forward.

"If running away now feels humiliating, then go back alive and build up your skills! Right now, surviving comes first!"

Shouting that, Il-mok ran toward the path of life that Ouyang Hyeok and the instructors had created.

"Damn it..."

Finally coming to his senses, Dokgo Pae knocked away Il-mok's hand that had been gripping his neck and deployed his lightness skill with gritted teeth.

Right after those two were the last students to escape through the path of life, Ouyang Hyeok sent a telepathic message to the Vice Leader.

—Take the injured members and get out of here. We'll buy a little more time before following.

—Understood.

The Vice Leader followed Ouyang Hyeok's orders without the slightest question.

It was too risky to send only the disciples, instructors, and teaching assistants from the Hall of the Demonic Way. They didn't know the geography of the Tianshan Mountain Range accurately.

The Vice Leader and injured members needed to act as guides to lead them to safety.

Also—

'Once the disciples and the injured escape, Corps Leader won't have any other burden.'

The Vice Leader trusted in Ouyang Hyeok and the Black Tiger Corps members' skills.

" As Allah wills (حسب مشيئة الله).”

"Death to the enemy (الموت للعدو)!”

While Ouyang Hyeok and the Black Tiger Corps members broke through and bought time, the Vice Leader and the injured members also escaped through the path of life and joined up with the Hall of the Demonic Way people.

"Allahu Akbar!!"

"Die!!"

Ignoring the fanatics' shouts and Black Tiger Corps members' battle cries from behind, they ran at full speed with their lightness skills.

How long had they been fleeing?

When the shouts, the sounds of slicing, and the clang of metal could no longer be heard…

"Son of a bitch..."

"Tch."

The Black Tiger Corps Vice Leader quietly spat a curse, and Head Instructor Chu Il-hwan clicked his tongue with an expression full of irritation.

And Il-mok would soon understand why they'd reacted that way.

From beyond the bushes, more fanatics were approaching from all directions.