Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 194: And The World Went Black

Chapter 194: And The World Went Black

The black bar at the corner of her vision emptied itself and the once mended portion of her katana faded away. Her attack had landed. Flesh had split apart.

[ Warning! Powerful surge of magic! ]

But it failed to reach Jack’s heart.

In a burst of darkness, she stumbled back and cold, black energy embraced Sun-young. Her knees dropped to the ground, almost snapping in two. She coughed and wheezed, her lungs hurting. Her vision was beginning to fade and her ears numbed.

"Mastered Flow of Mana. I didn’t think I would have to use it. This body doesn’t have the mana necessary to facilitate long-term usage of it." His voice. Jack’s voice was a bleak reminder that she still existed. That she was alive. "But it is enough to destroy a phoenix, an army, and most certainly anti-magic."

An invisible weight pressed down her shoulders. She understood well enough what this was. This was the full, unbridled power of Jack the Ripper. This was the grim reaper that had been looming behind her.

The world around her blurred, accompanied by the smell of spring.

"Look, it’s raining. The gods must be weeping." While staring down at her, Jack casually threw a slash in a different direction. Sun-young was able to raise her head and see the bird that had been healing Marta dissipate.

"No!" Jules was alone with the half-conscious Marta. She grit her teeth, standing defiantly yet trembling and panting.

Jack walked. He lifted his rapier and electrocuted Jules with the black lightning created by his rapier. The shock jolted her body and for a brief moment her skeleton seared through.

Jules fell.

The scent of burning ozone mingled with the petrichor of rain, black lightning trailing from her body.

There was a battle cry. Jack disappeared into the ground and reappeared to back-hand Matty into Jules. With his one-arm, Matty got up and wiped the blood from his mouth.

Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.

A beat passed as rain fell and Matty looked down at Jules.

"You can’t die," Matty muttered, caressing her cheek. "Please..."

He refused to live in a world where she wasn’t there. He refused to live while she wasn’t.

A sword touched his throat. "You will live. Jules does not understand her importance in the world, Matty, but you do."

Matty didn’t speak and glared up at Jack.

"I must thank her—no, everyone, for opening my eyes to a greater truth. I believed that power came from those that were simply worthy. However, perhaps that is not the case. Perhaps conviction is what makes one worthy. I have a lot to think about when I go home."

Matty exhaled, his voice suppressing all the hatred in him. "Why? Why the hell do you care if someone is worthy or not?"

’Why can’t you leave us alone?’ Sun-young asked, slumping over, her muscles and bones failing her.

"I seek that which lies beyond the Heavenly Tower," Jack said. "You will understand someday, my friend."

Puddles were made from the rain. Jack walked past Matty and Jules, then went up to Marta. She was still on her knees, keeping herself upright through sheer force of will.

"But you...you will not." Jack circled in front of her and lifted her head up by the chin with the end of his blade. "You are not worthy, Marta. Do you hear me? Your conviction means nothing. You’re like a cockroach pretending to be great. You...you are a selfish, dirty woman."

Marta didn’t respond. In some ways, the bird’s healing had been super effective. In others, like with her lodged off arm, nothing but blood dripped out. A catastrophic failure. The edge of his rapier went up her neck, to her chin, across her face, then ended up on her other shoulder. Her remaining arm.

Jack pressed the blade inside. "Speak up. I know you’re in there."

He went deeper, deeper, deeper, till the blade stuck out of her shoulder. If Marta was in pain, she didn’t show it. Annoyed, Jack slammed his boot in her face and onto the ground.

This time, she reacted. "Nghhh..."

"There it is. I thought your tenacity had suddenly gone away." He grinded his boot into her cheek, laughing. "But oh man! You really thought you were doing something, huh? Honestly, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have recovered enough mana to use Mastered Flow of Mana. Do you get it? If it wasn’t for you, I might actually be dead."

Marta lay on the ground and took the abuse, with everyone else on the battlefield unable to move. Sun-young, Matty, and Jules, all immobile and helpless as Jack mocked her.

"Are you crying? Seriously?"

Sun-young’s heart dropped and she moved her head by a degree. She wanted to move. She wanted to fight. But her body wasn’t allowing it. Her body was a sack of useless bones.

"I’ll give you something to cry about, woman."

He stabbed his rapier into her arm again, causing Marta to cry out in pain. The cruel laughter echoed across the rain-soaked battlefield as Jack, consumed by sadistic pleasure, slowly began to tear at her arm.

"P-please! Wait, wait—!"

A hollow cry rang through Dublin City, Marta’s other arm split from her body. Sun-young heard sniffles, tears, and whimpers.

"What, you’ll do anything? Do you know how many of you have said that to me?"

Marta didn’t respond, snivelling and sobbing. Sun-young looked away as he brought his rapier to her throat again.

"I’m going to have my fun with you. I’m going to slit your throat juuust light enough so that the blood spills and you start choking. Then I’m going to open your stomach. Oooh, Jack is going to have fun with that. I’ll take the heart, of course. A wizard’s heart fetches a high price on the black market."

Blood splattered and a scream gargled from her mouth, the blade deep in her leg. Slowly, painstakingly, the blade moved and ripped through her flesh, going from the left leg all the way to the right leg. An amputation slicing through flesh and bone like paper.

"Now, crawl, tenacious one," Jack said, "like a worm."

Limbless. Weak. Teary. Marta Kowalski’s existence turned into an agonizing one.

The sniffles began to die down as the rain became heavier and heavier. Sun-young wasn’t sure when but the searing pain of her injuries was gone. Even still, she couldn’t move, the sudden crash in adrenaline seeping fear and blood into her bones. Her vision grew redder and redder until all she could do was listen and look at Jack.

"What?" The excitement in Jack’s voice died down. "What’s with that smile?"

Then there was Jack. Jack, who was torturing Marta, was suddenly confused. The man with all the darkness in the world didn’t comprehend the look on her Marta—and neither did Sun-young.

"Ha. You think you can be tenacious to the bitter end? Let us see about that."

Marta...Marta was looking at something. But what? Past Jack’s shoulders...something in the sky? Sun-young craned her head up, blood dripping, and saw it.

Sun-young almost smiled.

Kazi Hossain was back, black stains running down his cheeks like a sorrowful god ready for judgment. He lingered amongst the clouds and then shot down towards them like a starry comet.

His sword slammed into Jack’s mask and launched him into the city walls. The sound of his body crashing was overturned in the next second by the gentleness in Kazi’s voice.

"You’re going to be okay," Sun-young heard him say to Marta. "I’m here now."

Humanity’s gift had ascended to the heavens yet chose to return to face the grim reaper regardless.

Kazi was kneeling down, a hand outstretched, mending her pain. A vague blue brightened and seized the nauseating river of blood. The tears that Marta had been holding back burst out. "You’re finally here..."

"I am." Kazi grinned. "You think I’d leave my favourite student alone?"

In the distance, Jack struggled to rise. The aura of invincibility he once exuded wavered in the face of Kazi. The smell of spring overpowered the stench of death. The pain in Sun-young’s muscles lessened and lessened.

His gaze met Sun-young’s, hazel and blue, and a silent understanding passed between them. "Left side," Sun-young mouthed.

Kazi sent her a thumbs-up and as soon as he did a sense of relief surged through her.

’Ah,’ Sun-young thought, her eyelids closing. ’Everything is going to be alright. Kazi is here.’

The world went black for Yoon Sun-young.