When the Black Moon Rises - Chapter 196
Chapter 196
Kaboom! Bang!
Just as she spoke, the earth shook violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
Light seeped through the cracks in the darkness, and then, the dark fog and crimson flames surrounding Sehwa exploded outwards.
Like the remnants of night fleeing before the dawn, a red glow filled the space where the shadows had been.
“......”
Sehwa stared at the sunset, the sky ablaze with color.
The illusion had felt long, but little time had passed in reality.
The warriors who had been setting up camp lay collapsed on the ground below.
It seemed the darkness had pulled them into a nightmare as well. But if everyone had collapsed, had he also been dragged into the darkness?
‘Where is he?’
She looked around anxiously and saw Baek Giha lying on the dry, cracked earth.
Her face paled at the sight of his pale, lifeless face. ‘No!’
She rushed down the hill and knelt beside him, her hands shaking as she placed them on his shoulders, her spiritual power flaring as she enveloped him in a five-colored barrier. “Baek Giha! Are you alright?! Wake up!”
“Cough! Cough!”
His eyes fluttered open, but his gaze was still unfocused, clouded.
He was trembling, his face pale, as if he had been left out in the snow.
It was unlike him, him who was always so strong, always in control.
“…Protect… her… only that…” he murmured, his voice hoarse and weak.
He seemed to have escaped the darkness, but was he still dreaming?
Sehwa, holding his arm, was about to channel her spiritual power to heal him, when…
Baek Giha, his lips bleeding, bit down hard. “I should have… protected her…!”
Boom! Bang!
A wave of powerful spiritual energy, filled with rage, erupted from him.
Frost spread across the dry earth around them.
She felt his anger, his pain, and, swallowing her own emotions, she hugged him tightly.
“Baek Giha…”
“Baek Giha…”
She repeated his name, over and over.
His struggles gradually subsided.
“Baek Giha.”
He blinked, his eyes finally focusing as he recognized her. “…Sehwa?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Is it really you?”
“Yes.”
She answered his repeated questions patiently, meeting his gaze.
His hand tightened around her arm, and he pulled her into a desperate embrace.
“I couldn't save you…”
“It’s alright. It was just a dream, a nightmare.”
“…Yes, a nightmare. It can’t be real.”
“It’s not. You saved me,”
she said, smiling gently.
He looked at her, his hand reaching out to caress her cheek. “You’re… really alive…?”
“Come on, this isn’t the time for this. I provoked the Corrupt Dragon, and the warriors are all unconscious.” She gestured towards the collapsed figures below.
Baek Giha’s expression turned grim as he looked down at the warriors.
“We have to wake them up, or their minds might collapse.”
“I’ll take care of it. You don’t have to,” he said, grabbing her hand as she tried to stand. His gaze, as he looked down at the warriors, was cold and sharp. “So, all that I endured was just a nightmare… then I’ll have to vent my frustration on something else.”
A wave of white spiritual power, like a snowstorm, erupted from his body.
His eyes, now a bright blue, narrowed into vertical slits as he transformed into a giant white tiger.
He roared, and countless ice shards, swirling in the air, formed intricate patterns around him.
“—!”
The shards, like a sudden hailstorm, rained down on the unconscious warriors.
Without harming them, the ice shattered the dark shadows that had been clinging to them, dispelling the nightmare.
A wall of white ice rose around the warriors’ camp, encasing them in a protective barrier.
The remaining shadows flickered and dissipated like mist.
Thump.
The dry plains were now covered in a layer of white snow.
Standing amidst the snow, Baek Giha, his eyes blazing, glared at the barrier.
Just then…
The barrier surrounding the Ju Clan territory shuddered violently, as if screaming, and then, an earsplitting roar erupted from within.
Unlike the warriors protected by the ice barrier, Sehwa, who was still on the hill, felt the full force of the shockwave, her skin tingling, goosebumps rising on her arms.
“It seems something’s not going his way. Now’s our chance,” she said.
The giant white tiger roared in agreement, its gaze fixed on the barrier, then both their eyes shifted, looking in opposite directions.
Baek Giha, in his White Tiger form, turned towards the First Consort, who was trapped inside the ice barrier, within another barrier he had created.
Sehwa, bathed in the red glow of the sunset, started walking towards the barrier covering the Central River.
She picked up a long branch, shaping it roughly with her hand as she walked.
“Are you really going to keep stalling? That’s disappointing.”
A fiery spiritual power, brighter than the sunset, surged around the slender branch.
“Then I have no choice. I’ll drag you out myself.”
She swung her arm, her movement deceptively simple, yet the result was anything but.
A wave of spiritual power, like a whip, shot out from the branch and struck the black barrier.
Kaboom!!!
A deafening explosion ripped through the air.
Sehwa, standing amidst the dust and smoke, unmoved, swung the branch again, this time with even greater force.
Kaboom!!!
Rumble! Crash!
The remaining buildings of the Ju Clan residence, which had survived the previous attacks, crumbled and collapsed.
And amidst the ruins, something long and dark writhed in agony.
—…!!
A dark red liquid, like blood, dripped from the Corrupt Dragon’s mouth.
An unbearable pain wracked his body.
The stench of decay filled the air, and a black, viscous substance oozed from between his scales.
He was struggling to maintain his form, but his condition was rapidly deteriorating.
With the Fifth Consort’s death and the First Consort's disappearance, the curse that they should have been enduring was now affecting his body as well.
He had felt a surge of strength earlier, when the First Consort had been nearby, but…
‘That Baek Clan bastard…!’
…Baek Giha had reinforced his barrier, severing the connection between him and the First Consort once more.
He had already lost the Fifth Consort.
And now, with the Seventh Consort’s soul also gone, the pain was far more intense than before.
‘So even an anchor can die…’
It was an unexpected setback.
He was only able to endure the pain because of the life force he was absorbing with the barrier, but…
‘If this continues, I might actually die…’
Someone had already defied the rules he thought were unbreakable.
If the First Consort, his main anchor, died…
‘That can’t happen. I have to bring her back! I have to keep her locked up in darkness, so she can absorb all this pain for eternity!’
Nightmares were his specialty.
He controlled his subordinates through fear, forcing them to relive their worst memories over and over.
And the First Consort had been his favorite victim.
‘I should have broken her mind completely, so she wouldn't even think of defying me…’
Thump!
The barrier vibrated.
Thump!
Again.
Someone was attacking his barrier.
‘That impudent bitch…!’
The Corrupt Dragon’s eyes blazed with fury.
A dark, sinister aura, emanating from his body, filled the air.
‘You think you’re so great because you broke free from one little nightmare?’
He had never felt such rage before.
He wouldn't rest until he had torn her loved ones to shreds, until there was nothing left of them.
‘It would be quite entertaining to see her face when I devour that Baek Clan half-breed right before her eyes…’
He had done everything, sacrificed everything, to become a Divine Beast.
He was so close, just a few more years.
‘And you think you can stop me now?’
No way. No one could stop him!
His body, reeking of decay, rose into the air.
The black dragon, its sharp teeth bared, soared through the gray sky.
Towards his enemies.
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