Sisters (1)

“Huu…”

Moon Ha-yeon sighed.
She ran her right hand over her forehead and looked around with a slightly tired face.

Dozens upon dozens of corpses were strewn around.
They were all hunters who had fought desperately to stop Moon Ha-yeon and Kim Min-su’s advance.

“Kuh, kuhuk!! Such, such filthy crimes…”

Shuk-!

“Miss Moon Ha-yeon, I took care of the last one.”
“Good, you did well.”

Moon Ha-yeon brushed off the blood.
She dashed out quickly with Kim Min-su.
The central section of the <Gonis Hunter Academy>, their target, came into view.

And just below it, the <Demon King’s Temple>.
That place was truly the final objective of this whole grand plan.

Moon Ha-yeon nodded.
As she expected, the level of the hunters guarding this place was pathetic compared to the start.

It couldn’t be helped.
Director Yu Neung-hae.
A figure so capable that even Yu Seha acknowledged her.

But no matter how capable she was, she couldn’t muster enough forces to fill the entire Academy.
She had gathered this many people precisely because she had done her best.

So she focused on the locations and points where villains and demons were summoned.
There she deployed numerous A-rank strong hunters like Na Tun-tun and Neung Ha-ack.

It was certainly effective.
Thanks to that, they reduced a great deal of loss of life,
and were able to seize the initiative.
If only the Sword Ghost hadn’t shown up.

In any case, it was clear she hadn’t been wrong.
And Director Yu Neung-hae had one more ace she trusted.

Pazik, pajijik-!

It was the dozens of barriers standing between Moon Ha-yeon and her goal.

“…”

Moon Ha-yeon stared at the barriers without a word.
Blue barriers glowed as if to forbid anyone from touching them.

How high and intricate they were,
even Moon Ha-yeon, at the pinnacle of magic, could not fully decipher them.

That was to be expected.
Hundreds of years ago, the unparalleled genius who originally designed and secured the <Gonis Hunter Academy>.

<Archmage> Amelia.
The ritual was based on no one else but her unique power.
No matter who Moon Ha-yeon was, she couldn’t casually break it.

But Moon Ha-yeon shrugged as if it were no big deal.
She even snickered scornfully.

“Min-su.”
“Yes, Miss Moon Ha-yeon.”

Moon Ha-yeon looked at Kim Min-su.
The boy, smeared with others’ blood here and there, bowed his head.

“I’ll be back.”
“May fortune be with you.”

Moon Ha-yeon waved to Kim Min-su, who knelt in farewell, and walked forward.
Then she plunged into the Archmage’s barrier.

A definite act of suicide.
This supreme barrier, now at its peak, would surely burn her body to nothing.

At that moment,
A stream of blood flowed from Moon Ha-yeon’s body.
The blood trickled along the barrier, foaming as it began to corrode it.

Director Yu Neung-hae.
Even under constrained circumstances, she prepared an almost perfect countermeasure with the help of someone who knew the future, Yoo Se-ha.
But there were three facts she had failed to anticipate.

The first was the strength of the Sword Ghost, So Hang-woo.
The Sword Ghost’s publicly known power was A-rank.
But Yu Seha — and the recent counsel from the Plum Sword Empress — revealed him to be S-rank.

They had placed the strongest hunters and dozens of traps expecting his arrival, but…
Even those measures were casually surpassed; the Sword Ghost was overwhelmingly powerful.
It was by his absurd strength that Moon Ha-yeon was able to reach this place.

The second was the potential of Moon Ha-yeon’s innate ability and her mastery of dark arts.
She was the eldest daughter of the <Moon clan>, which for centuries had forcibly drawn in talents and engaged in filthy carnal rites,
and maintained the lineage of a sorcerous family through human experiments.

The near-infinite potential of the ‘filthy blood’ she possessed.
It could absorb any bloodline, adapt, and give birth to a new being.

Understanding this clearly, Moon Ha-yeon refined herself through countless trials and errors.
She was, literally, a more beautiful flower of evil born from the filthy heap that was the <Moon clan>.

This naturally included the power of <Archmage> Amelia.
When she saw new possibilities in the separated demon body during the Jingdaram raid, she absorbed it into her own body and increased her comprehension.

Bubble bubble-!

Thanks to that, the barrier was being gradually undone.

Even so, the Archmage was an unprecedented genius and great sorcerer whom no one in history could match in magic.

Naturally, Moon Ha-yeon, barely in her late twenties, couldn’t grasp everything at once.

Thus, a third issue, which would otherwise have been meaningless here, emerged.
It was the true nature of the family founded by <Archmage> Amelia.
It turned out to be the <Moon clan>.

Of course, Amelia herself would never have endorsed filthy breeding or human experimentation,
but her descendants regretfully inherited none of her genius.
The human experiments once conducted bit by bit to raise the clan’s status had, by Moon Ha-yeon’s time, degenerated into near-madness.

Here was Amelia’s personal mistake.
Archmage Amelia loved her husband and children dearly.
So she weakened the barrier’s power for her descendants.

From the Archmage’s perspective, she expected someone to perceive the weakened barrier and for a descendant to surpass her.
She hoped that descendant would, based on that power, protect the <Gonis Hunter Academy>.
She could never have dreamed that the being who bloomed that genius and potential would be a villain.

Pakang-!

In the end, the barrier that had guarded the <Gonis Hunter Academy> for centuries completely collapsed.
Moon Ha-yeon walked out amid the scattered, crumbling fragments.

Each step inward caused the surrounding scenery to begin changing.
The flow of the barrier moved her to the place she desired.
It guided her to a temple so cold and pale it was almost piercing.

Moon Ha-yeon felt her heart pounding.
A smile of exultation curled at her lips.

“Finally, finally!!!”

She took out the soul stone from her bosom.
It linked naturally with the temple, and a mighty magical energy began to flow.

The temple trembled.
One of the 72 Demon Kings, sealed long ago by dragon power, began to answer the call.

Moon Ha-yeon stood at the very center of the temple.
She slit her finger with a ritual dagger and poured the flowing blood onto the soul stone.

Finally, she embedded the soul stone into the center of her own chest.
The ‘filthy blood’ fused with the soul stone and began to function like an organ.

At the same time, she whispered something into the soul stone.
It was unmistakably the content of a ‘contract.’

This act was clearly a betrayal of Clan Master Tang Seoran.

But Moon Ha-yeon didn’t care.

She had, in fact, been under Tang Seoran all this time for this very purpose.

And finally, the time had come.

Thump, thump-!

The soul stone pulsed in Moon Ha-yeon’s chest.
Soon, in the empty center of the temple,
a heart made of magical energy began to form.

Demonic energy accumulated little by little.
It multiplied, creating blood vessels and organs like a living creature.

The shape of evil became increasingly distinct.
It was undoubtedly the incarnation of a Demon King.

Moon Ha-yeon clenched her fist.

At last…

“I!!!”

The moment to realize the dream she’d longed for had arrived!

It was then.
A corner of the temple that should have been empty.

A small light flashed,
and a sharp ice spear shot toward Moon Ha-yeon.

Startled, Moon Ha-yeon flinched.
She hastily spread her hands.

Pakang-!

The moment she blocked it, she sensed something amiss.
Whoever it was, they were certainly an ice mage of at least equal rank to her.

The opponent hadn’t prepared just a single ice spear.
As soon as she defended, a huge ice fist tore through the darkness as if waiting.

Pak-!

“Gehk!”

Moon Ha-yeon was blasted backward by a direct hit from the fist of a Hero-grade [Big Snowman].

With the mage’s supply cut off, the Demon King’s heart was left in an unstable state.

Moon Ha-yeon grimaced in pain and lifted her head.

She let out a hollow laugh at the opponent who appeared.

“…”

The one who walked forward was,
a beauty in white martial robes, bearing a resemblance to Moon Ha-yeon.

Moon Bora.
The second daughter of the <Moon clan> and Moon Ha-yeon’s biological younger sister.

As mentioned earlier,
Archmage Amelia was lenient toward her descendants.
She was lenient toward those who shared her bloodline.

And Moon Ha-yeon was one of her descendants.
Which meant…

So our Seha doesn’t know whose blood runs in <Snow Ice>’s body?

The hint Director Yu Neung-hae had subtly given.
That’s right.
Likewise, as a descendant of the <Archmage>,
This meant Moon Bora was also eligible.

“…Long time no see? Little sister.”
“…Yes, it’s been a while, unnie.”

The two who had survived the Moon clan’s tragedy and annihilation.

From the burning mansion,
the two blood-bound sisters who parted from each other.

Their story, which had been halted for over fifteen years, began to flow again.