Chapter 39 — Asura (3)

People scanned the floor with blazing eyes.

However, no matter how good their eyes were, it wasn’t easy for them to get used to the brightness and darkness when it changed every 3 seconds.

Even if they were able to adapt, it wasn’t possible for them to catch all the moving shadows.

“Eaaah!!”

“Two shadows! What, what am I suppose to do? Kill it?”

Chaos erupted.

It was their first time they were facing a trial like this.

This was not a normal monster attack, a person next to someone could be possessed by a shadow and attack them.

The only way to know if a person was possessed or not was by checking if the person had one or two shadows.

However, no one fully understood how they were supposed to suppress them.

‘We got a hard trial.’

It was very rare for people to get a trial with spirits where it was hard to do anything.

They had to solve the trial by continuously using their wits and agility since physical attacks didn’t work.

Scrunch!

Suzy grabbed Muyoung’s clothes.

She seemed scared of the spirits of the dead as her body was slightly shaking.

She was used to monsters and people dying but the spirits were on a slightly different level than them.

As Muyoung’s gaze reached Suzy, she straightened her back.

“I’m not scared. But can I just stay like this for a moment?”

“Use your Sword of Dawn.”

“R, right now?”

Muyoung nodded.

Suzy used her other hand to summon the Sword of Dawn.

The Sword of Dawn was created using magical power as its foundation.

The light properties of the Valkyrie of Dawn contrasted with the dark properties of the spirits.

There was a chance that it would work.

“A shadow is approaching. When I signal you, slice him.”

“Yes, I understand.”

A shadow was recklessly storming towards them.

Muyoung’s eyes were able to penetrate into the deep darkness clearer than anyone else.

“Now.”

“Ha…!”

Slash!

The Sword of Dawn split straight into the shadow’s head.

However, the shadow only staggered for a moment, it didn’t stop approaching them.

Muyoung grabbed the back of Suzy’s neck and lifted her up.

Like a cat that moved a kitten by biting the nape of its neck, Muyoung quickly moved away from the area the shadows were located before letting Suzy go.

‘It worked but her abilities weren’t enough to slice it.’

It was Muyoung’s tentative decision.

It was difficult to stop the spirits with Suzy’s power.

That meant he needed to find another plan.

Since the method of completing spirit trials was always different, it was wise to think of all the possibilities while moving.

“They, they must really be ghosts. My attacks don’t work.”

Suzy’s whole body shivered.

Her actions were like that of a small squirrel.

At that moment, the boy wearing the Sun Helmet shouted amidst the chaos.

“Light! There has got to be a device to turns on the library lights! Find it!”

It was ironic but pack animals would always follow the strongest.

No matter how many times the Sun guild acted viciously, currently they could only rely on the boy with the Sun helmet.

“What are you saying? Are you saying that there is a light switch?!”

“Quickly, quickly!”

Following the boy’s shout, people moved their legs.

Muyoung quietly clicked his tongue as he looked at the scene.

‘The worst case scenario.’

There was a way for no one to die and escape from this place if they had objectively analyzed the situation.

If the 300 people stuck together and tied up the 12 who were possessed and left them alone, it could have been solved.

However, already one was possessed and the situation was in chaos.

He couldn’t guarantee that everyone who had different goals would stick together and now since someone had died already, it would be difficult to get people to stick together.

Despite everything, he had hopes on the boy who had the trust of the people but out of all the choices, he chose the worst case scenario.

If they could quickly find the device that could light up the darkness, it would be fortunate but…

To do something like this, the library was too big.

‘The more we scatter, the more people will die.’

People had already started to spread like a malignant tumor.

In an instant, the crowd divided and the chaoticness of the situation had increased.

“Which side do you want to join?”

“I, I don’t want to go anywhere.”

When Muyoung asked, Suzy answered right away.

She tightly held onto Muyoung’s clothes.

Suzy had a sense of survival that was greater than anyone else.

In other words, it meant that wherever she went, it would be the same result.

‘If that’s the case…’

If he could, he wanted to go the next room by himself but due to the characteristics of the Sky Library, he needed to complete the first trial to move on to the next.

When they complete the trial, the next decision was completely their own to make.

To move on to the next trial or to stop there and wait for the door to open in 3 days.

Muyoung looked at the boy wearing the Sun helmet.

A rising star sent by the Sun guild.

He probably didn’t enter here to obtain a mediocre skill.

However, his inexperience showed.

He seemed to have the unique pride only the members of a big guild had.

‘It seems better to just move alone.’

Muyoung shrugged his shoulders.

It was a pointless worry.

It was like it was already decided beforehand.

He quietly walked ahead.

Sticking together was the easiest way but since everything was disoriented from the start, it seemed wiser for him to look around than to just stand there.

Horus, the boy wearing the Sun helmet, ground his teeth.

He was a famous talent who was even named after the Egyptian Sun God.

From the list of candidates for the next guild master, he was definitely one of the few who stood out and had a strong military force.

Even Horus himself was confident that he wouldn’t lose to anyone in the same age group as him.

However, Horus wasn’t the first in line to be the next guild master.

He was always considered to be second in line and he didn’t understand why.

Why was it a guy weaker than him?

There was a large gap between the two, if they fought, he would win 99 times out of a 100.

However, the weak guy was considered to be the first in line to be the next guild master.

He couldn’t accept it.

Alexandro Quintart had once said something to Horus who was like this.

Alexandro said, ‘You cannot have the qualifications be a sovereign just because you are strong’.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

Don’t be ridiculous.

Strength was power.

The authority to have everything was only for the strong.

However, Alexandro Quintart was a first generation.

He was someone who arrived in the Underworld by passing through a gate.

On the other hand, Horus was a second generation who was born in the Underworld.

He led out his first cry in this barren land where the weak and the poor couldn’t survive.

He believed their values could only be different.

Therefore, he had volunteered to enter the Sky Library to prove to Alexandro that his belief was true, that ‘strength’ was everything.

‘I will surely earn the Lineage of Light skill.’

Of course, he had volunteered for another purpose besides this.

When he coincidentally entered a room filled with top secrets of the Sun guild, he found out that there was a skill called ‘Lineage of Light’ that existed somewhere in the Sky Library.

It stated that they only knew of its existence and didn’t know the specific location. But the surprising part was that the Lineage of Light was one of the ways to obtain the ‘Throne of the Sun’.

The Throne of the Sun.

The ultimate pinnacle the Sun guild was striving for.

Their goal was to become a Helios who would drive a Sun’s carriage.

If he could just reach the ultimate pinnacle, there would be no one who would hold Horus in disregard.

Even Alexandro would quietly give him the position of the next guild master.

However… in reality, he was at a loss from the beginning.

‘I never thought it would be a spirit that could evolve.’

The possessed spirits started to slowly gain a consciousness.

They approached in a friendly manner and stabbed their backs.

It was a talent that ordinary spirits were not capable of.

After possessing someone, they would absorb their victim’s knowledge and behave like that person.

To make matters worse, the time it stayed dark increased.

The only way they were able to tell who was possessed was by looking at the number of shadows the person had but they couldn’t even do that properly.

“Be careful of the people who approach you. We need to move together.”

About 50 people gathered around Horus.

If he could, he wanted to kill everyone and just move on his own but this wasn’t the only trial.

He needed to gather as many people he could to move forward.

“Sheet, how many people have died already…”

“30 people I think?”

It was easy to see corpses were spread all around them.

However, it was too difficult to differentiate who was possessed and who wasn’t.

Eventually, it became a situation where it was hard to tell how many spirits were remaining.

“There are a sheet ton of books.”

“I just wish I could leave by choosing a random skill.”

While moving between the corpses, people looked through the bookshelves.

Each book was a skill and it looked like there were thousands of books currently arranged.

While they were looking, with a thump, someone accidentally touched a corpse lying on the floor with their foot. At that moment, the corpse suddenly opened its eyes and grabbed the man’s ankle.

“Eaahhh! What, what is… Gahhh!”

The corpse he passed by, whom he thought was dead, chewed off his ankle. It then stood up, picked up a sword and slashed the man’s body diagonally.

Swoosh!

Horus raised his sword and stormed in.

In an instant, he reduced the distance between the spirit and himself and sliced off the possessed person’s neck.

However, without any time to be relieved, the man right beside him attacked.

Was it two?

No, it wasn’t.

‘From acting dead to moving between bodies.’

Right before he died, the shadow separated himself and moved to the person beside it.

It happened in an instant.

Blaze!

However, blazing wings appeared out of Horus’s back and burned the man.

A smoky smell spread everywhere and the blazing wings hid their existence as if they didn’t exist from the start.

‘Sheet.’

Horus cursed in his heart.

He heard stories about spirit trials but the one that he needed to complete seemed to be the worst one among them.

He needed to quickly turn the lights on.

There had to be a device somewhere to light up the place for a trial like this.

Tick-

It was at that moment.

As if they were being turned on, the lights around them flickered as they became brighter.

Horus frowned deeply.

‘Just who?’

He was planning to start searching for it but it seemed like someone had already found the switch.

It was faster than he thought.

It wasn’t a bad thing but for some reason, he felt uneasy about it.

Creeack-!

Thummp! Thummp!

He could hear doors opening from here and there.

However, Horus’s expression didn’t relax.

*

Muyoung moved according to the direction the spirits moved in.

The spirits were spread sparsely apart and it looked like they were connected in a single path.

Not even the spirits could catch Muyoung when he moved in the dark.

Muyoung was able to arrive at a location by following a simple rule.

‘It’s hidden in an easier spot than I thought.’

One bookshelf.

Unlike the other bookshelves, the books on this bookshelf were disarranged.

As he arranged the books on that bookshelf, the light came on in the Sky Library.

“Wow, it got brighter.”

Satisfied, Muyoung moved on.

Suzy hurriedly followed him.

Muyoung stopped for a moment and spoke.

“Are you planning on entering the next room?”

“Can’t I follow you?”

“If you’re going to pick a skill, you can stay here.”

“Umm, that is… I don’t want to be here alone.”

Suzy was the type that easily felt lonely.

It was most likely because she was young but she wasn’t a bother in this current situation.

Besides, Suzy’s ‘sense’ was quite useful.

Finding this bookshelf was partly due to Suzy.

Also, Muyoung thought that if Suzy could obtain a good skill, it could help Taehwan to establish himself as a sovereign.

Was it because he killed numerous heroes in the past?

Muyoung wanted to see even a glimpse of a person who could be considered as a true hero work his way up from the bottom.

Even if their paths were different from the path Muyoung tread.

“Don’t bother me and just follow.”

“I accept your orders.”

Suzy foolishly laughed and continued.

“In the past, my dad use to always say this to my mom.”

“Don’t speak useless words.”

“Yes…”

Suzy weakly pouted her lips and Muyoung cold-heartedly turned his body.

It was unfortunate but Muyoung was an opponent who couldn’t take jokes.