Chapter 60
“Horus-nim! Ah, Horus-niim!!”
Igor cried out in a fit.
Despair was carved deep into his eyes as he screamed at Horus’s already-vanished corpse.
His gaze turned to me.
“Do you know what you’ve done?! The god—! You’ve killed the sun god who should rule the heavens and be worshiped! You blasphemous bastard!”
Igor and I met eyes.
His looked at me twisted with despair and, at the same time, anger.
Ruth was the one who had granted Igor the revenge he wanted for his family.
No wonder he was so furious.
I remembered how brutally this man had dealt with the Nightbringer’s worshippers.
—Killing more blasphemers is the way to repay His grace.
He had used every spell he knew to kill and torture blasphemers.
Even ordinary people weren’t spared if there was the slightest suspicion—he would kill them without mercy.
He was madness driven by vengeance.
That was the single word that described Igor.
Blasphemers feared this Russian, and even the other gods in human history had found him troublesome.
No one wanted to join such a madman.
“You, you—”
Igor’s face, as he met my eyes, darkened to the color of soil.
“How dare you do something to Horus’s eyes!”
“I took his power from Horus in a just way,” I said.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You! You—!!!”
Even while restrained and kneeling weakly with his arms bound by Jormungandr, he shouted in a frenzy.
His neck veins bulged; his face flushed red with obvious hostility.
‘If this keeps up, there’s no way.’
There was no doubt about Igor’s power.
If I could bring him to my side, he would be someone I’d like to have with me.
But I had no reason to trust someone who wanted to kill me.
Even without using the Food of Truth, I could feel his hostility plainly.
“Come under my command. Only one thing changes: the superior you serve won’t be a god anymore—it’ll be me.”
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. Once I regain my strength, you—”
Igor’s rage choked his words.
He glared at me with bloodshot eyes and ground his teeth.
Crack!
The rope binding Igor couldn’t hold and tore.
That strength was unbelievable.
Igor broke free from his bonds and lunged at me.
His single purpose in his eyes was to kill me.
But had he lost his reason?
Other than the single determination to kill me, there was no sign that he cared to protect his own body.
‘What a waste.’
A madman who couldn’t control his madness was useless.
I raised my sword and cut Igor’s throat.
Everything happened in an instant.
“Kerk—”
Even as his breath left him, the Russian’s anger at me did not fade—he was just as I remembered him from my past life.
“Jormungandr, what about the other two?” I asked, wiping the blood from my blade.
The First Apostle Radames and the Third Apostle Kim Young-a were nowhere to be seen.
—They ran away. If they made up their minds to flee, they were hard to catch. I only managed to get one, Jormungandr said with a lolling tongue, sounding displeased.
He was unhappy because he’d missed capturing Horus’s apostles. Given his size, his power was limited. If he’d increased his size, he’d have liked to say he’d caught them.
“I see. We can’t do anything about the ones we missed. The important target was Horus anyway.”
—You’re not going after them?
“Yes.”
It was regrettable to have missed them, but I wasn’t going to blame anyone.
I’d prepared for the possibility of apostles escaping.
I already had a plan for if they spread word about me to the gods.
‘If the apostles I missed spread stories about me to the gods, I’ll use that to secure my position.’
There were gods who coveted a human strong enough to kill a god.
I could use such a god as a stepping stone.
All the gods I’d seen so far had their own desires.
Like Horus, who wanted the prestige of a sun god.
The gods who’d descended into this world were no longer perfectly divine.
They were only slightly stronger than humans; at their core they were not different from humans.
A hunter who destroyed Azur and sealed many abysses.
A human who annihilated Hephaestus and his cult leader, and who commanded Jormungandr as a familiar.
Such a being would be feared—but they would also have bargaining power with the gods.
If I could secure a god trustworthy enough to vouch for me—
There was exactly one candidate.
A god who would guarantee me.
The trickster god of Norse myth, Loki.
He was someone I’d rather avoid meeting, but—
‘I’ll use anything if I decide to use it.’
The immediate problem of Horus was solved.
Now what remained were the Nightbringer’s cultists who were scheming in the shadows and preparing for the Great Descent.
I thought of the worshippers who had summoned the Nightbringer.
Those who used Horus to bring the Nightbringer into the world.
They had become Korea’s disaster, fought the gods for a long time, and reduced many cities to ruins.
Although Horus had been killed, I kept thinking about the Third Apostle Kim Young-a, who was presumed to have been sacrificed along with him.
‘Why was Kim Young-a offered as a sacrifice with Horus?’
Could it be that Kim Young-a possessed more than just the talent of a multi-attribute mage?
‘Too many variables.’
So I would take care of the Nightbringer.
Before Horus’s apostles could come at me in vengeance.
“Suyeon,” I said, looking up at the sky.
“You may come out now.”
At that moment, I felt the presence of Lee Suyeon, who had been perched in the trees watching everything unfold, return from the space of records to the original world.
“Is it over?”
“Yes, it’s over. Jormungandr, please.”
—You really use things shrewdly, he said.
“Familiars should be like that.”
Jormungandr steadied himself and helped Lee Suyeon, who’d been hanging in a tree, down.
“Did you record everything?”
“Yes! It was such an incredible sight! To see a human slay a god… To see an arrogant god and his apostles all defeated right before my eyes! I recorded it vividly! I’ve documented everything well!”
She was already holding a heavy stack of paper.
“But it was really reckless. You nearly melted first, you know.”
“I told you beforehand. I was prepared.”
“……”
“From now on, you’ll keep seeing things like this. Following me to record stories means that. Are you okay with that?”
Lee Suyeon nodded.
“…I’m prepared. I was just a little surprised; I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’ll record everything. Won’t the records I write be of use to Mr. Dojin?”
“Probably.”
“All right. I’ll keep recording. Next is the Nightbringer, right?”
At that moment a new window appeared before my eyes.
[The Witness of Myth has completed the record.]
[God-Slayer, Kim Dojin’s Record — Horus Hunt.]
[Story Rank — Mythic]
[A new achievement has been added to your great story.]
[Your story has been recorded. 2/10]
[1. God-slayer Kim Dojin — The Man who Toppled a Mountain]
[2. God-slayer Kim Dojin — The Hunter who Hunted the Sky]
[Success Reward: ??? You are not eligible to view.]
[Recorder: Witness of Myth, Lee Suyeon]
“Hah, hah.”
Radames and Kim Young-a were pushing through the forest trail, running for their lives.
“Ho, Horus-nim being felled by a mere human….”
It was unbelievable.
He was supposed to be a god.
An absolute ruler who governed all people, a true pharaoh symbolizing the sun, a being far superior to humans.
To Radames, who believed himself a rightful descendant of the pharaohs, Horus was someone who could never be defied; he had to be flawless.
Yet Horus had been slain.
By a human whose name he’d never heard.
‘An irregular like Lee-hyun.’
Radames, who’d served Horus for a long time, knew of the existence of Lee-hyun operating in Korea.
He’d heard of a madman so strong he could rival gods, who soloed dungeons.
And there were not just one but two of such madmen? One of them had even killed a god?
“If the one who killed Horus also made Hephaestus like that—”
If the man who killed Horus had also killed Hephaestus, then neither Kim Young-a nor Radames alone could handle him.
“Radames-nim, what should we do now?” Kim Young-a asked.
Radames looked at Kim Young-a, the third apostle whom their god had newly received in this distant land.
“We’ll take revenge on them. By any means….”
“Do you really think that person killed Hephaestus too?”
“Probably. If he’s truly the man who killed gods, that would explain how confident he was before Horus.”
“I see….”
“There’s nothing certain, but we have enough reason to report to the gods in Seoul and request support. We should investigate how that man marks blasphemers and how he uses demonic power, and his relationship with the blasphemers. We have a lot to do.”
Kim Young-a nodded her head.
She seemed deeply shaken.
She was a girl who was too timid even to strike a single person properly.
Horus was dead, and the man who’d captured and taken Igor was now dead too.
Now, Kim Young-a only had one person she could trust.
They would have to combine their strengths to avenge Horus.
“So let’s return to Seoul quickly,” Radames said, patting Kim Young-a’s shoulder as if to comfort someone on the verge of tears.
“Thank goodness there’s someone to take Horus’s place.”
“A replacement? You mean me? I’m afraid I’m only human…”
“No. Not you.”
Kim Young-a’s atmosphere changed.
There was a chill in her voice.
Radames felt a prickling down his spine.
His hair stood on end.
At the same time—
Puhk!
“Kerk!”
A dagger pierced his back and emerged.
A strike that punctured his heart cleanly.
An instant, unwavering blow.
“Yeong, ah…? What are you doing….”
“Hah. I snuck in hoping for some small gain, but there’s nothing to show for it.”
Blood gushed from his chest as she pulled the dagger free, spurting like water from a pump.
Radames clutched his wound and looked up at Kim Young-a with cold eyes.
“You, you….”
“Hah. I thought maybe I could use your power tied to the sun god somehow, but you couldn’t even beat a human and ended up dead. Now you’re useless, so you have to die.”
His legs gave out, and Radames fell to his knees before Kim Young-a.
“You shouldn’t tell the gods in Seoul already. If they all come, our grand plan will be ruined.”
“What are you—”
Radames didn’t hear the rest of the explanation.
He breathed his last, having bled too much.
“A human who killed a god… Is it that one who killed Azur and the leader of Azur’s cult?”
She wiped the blood from her hands and walked into the depths of the forest.
It was time to return home after a long time.
She went to where she belonged.
