Requiem of Subdued Souls

“Who told you to kick him?”

The man wearing the skull mask asked.

There were quite a few ghosts in this wide space, but not a single one of them even made a sound of breathing.

Seol Young got up, and his face was stiff and he glared at the opponent.

At that moment, the man stretched out his hand again.

Wheik!

Something flew his way with the sound of the wind being cut. It was a chain with shackles.

Seol Young quickly turned away to avoid it, and at the same time, he got out of the grasp they had in the blink of an eye using the skills he had learned from the grave ghosts.

“Catch!”

The hall was a mess again.

Seol Young realized just then that he had entered the mouth of the tiger, and thinking and acting at the same time was too much.

“Hundred Ghosts Perishing Talisman.”

A huge, bloody aura formed in the air. And it took the form of a talisman and exploded, making the entire place shake.

“Euk!”

All the low-level ghosts screamed and disappeared on the spot. The rest of the ghosts were also hit, both big and small.

However, the one with a skull mask didn’t even frown.

“As I heard.”

The demonic beings came running and surrounded him. Seol Young was caught again and forced to kneel down.

The skull mask pointed to the snake mark on the ceiling.

“Have you ever seen that? You killed one of my elders, so you deserve to die.”

“Then kill me.”

Seol Young bit his teeth and grunted.

Even in death, he would avenge himself. He would kill them a hundred times more brutally than they would.

It was that kind of look. The other party laughed, like this was fun.

“Killing would be an easy thing, but to find someone like this is not easy at all.”

And then it said,

“Come under me. I will give you the position of an elder.”

In fact, Seol Young didn’t even know what the elder position was.

“No.”

He flat-out cut it off.

At that moment, something flew again, and he thought he would die this time, but his palms were stinging, and a red light flashed.

Everyone bowed their heads, and someone told Seol Young,

“Can’t you just thank him? He just gave you the Red Bone Disease.”

“Red Bone Disease?”

There was a red dot on the inside of his palm, and it looked bright. Then, in an instant, it moved to a different part of his body and hid.

The man wearing the skull mask said,

“The Red Bone Disease is a mysterious and powerful weapon. Use it in case of an emergency. Feeling its power will change your mind.”

“Sure.”

Seol Young replied calmly.

At that moment, another strange scent emanated. He tried not to breathe it, but it was too late, and he lost consciousness again.

When his consciousness returned, he was back in the house of the Third Grandpa whom he had visited earlier.

All the foxes who had been just fine were now dead. There was no sign of being stabbed with a weapon on their bodies, only wounds. 𝒃𝙚𝒅𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒆𝒍．𝙘𝒐𝙢

The eyes of the corpses stared at him.

Seol Young was scared for the first time.

He rushed out there and ran to the grave.

“… Lady Mo!”

He went in screaming, but no one was there. He went to the tombs, but they were all empty. His heart went cold.

-Now we need to leave.

Her words went through his mind.

‘They left.’

Seol Young slumped down.

If someone leaves you, you become abandoned and thrown away like you never even existed.

He always knew that, but the past years had been too long.

From a young age, he ran around the tombs and talked with them, studied with them until late at night, learned tricks and spells, went hunting for the first time…

All those memories came to his mind.

Tears flowed without a sound and without ending.

Seol Young didn’t leave the tomb for days and days. He just sat there like a kid who had lost his mind.

Like his mind didn’t exist…

“Ghost Demon King! We have trouble!”

The demonic beings came running, and Seol Young managed to regain his composure.

He asked them,

“What is it?”

“Gusuri, Ttedeogwi, Mulsari, Dalgaebi, and Suyuri are all dead!”

“What?”

They were the mountain goblins who would come out to help him, and they even helped in the three-headed fox’s hunt. They were fine until then….

“Is it him? The one with a skull mask?”

“No! The Hwarangs! Those Blue Dragon Hwarangs and their trainees mistook them for the ghosts they were chasing and…”

“What?”

Seol Young was dumbfounded.

He ran to see the corpses. It was only when he saw them that he realized that he had gotten attached to them.

Even the mountain goblins who followed him so loyally. Seeing them with dead eyes and covered with blood everywhere….

‘Why did they have to die like this?’

He couldn’t understand it.

In the meantime, the Blue Dragon Troops were the Hwarangs located on the same mountain that the goblins or any ghosts were trying to avoid meeting. And the Hwarangs were known for not harming the life of anything carelessly.

And yet this happened.

Seol Young was furious.

The Blue Dragon Troops acknowledged their mistake and apologized. However, Seol Young didn’t accept it. In the end, his emotions got the best of him, and the damage to both sides increased, making the library of the Blue Dragon Troops burn and get destroyed.

He didn’t regret it.

But the real problem was after that.

“Stop!”

He released too many demonic beings and ghosts under him to fight and couldn’t control them. The strong ones began to kill the weak, which made Seol Young shocked.

“Stop!”

At that moment, he thought of the Red Bone Disease. The supposedly powerful weapon.

“Come out!”

Red aura shone from somewhere in his body.

In the mayhem, a figure made of bright red skulls appeared. And it had a huge spear in its hand.

Thud.

When that thing took a step, the entire mountain range shook.

The next moment, the Red Bone Disease jumped between places, and anywhere the spear touched had a thick red mist. The guy didn’t cut the opponents. No matter what he did, everything turned into a handful of red blood.

It only took a moment to clean up the mess that Seol Young couldn’t control.

‘This…’

Seol Young’s heart skipped a beat. The Red Bone Disease was unusually strong. It was a being against the law of nature.

If something like that was used, there should be a huge price to pay.

“…”

The Red Bone Disease stood quietly after the slaughter, and when Seol Young stretched out his hand, it turned into a red mist and began to get sucked into his body. At that moment, red blood poured out of his mouth.

‘I shouldn’t have used it.’

Seol Young regretted it.

But it was too late now. After summoning the Red Bone Disease, the watchers followed. No matter where or what he was doing, they silently watched him.

‘I need to get rid of it quickly. Until then, I will not use it again.’

Seol Young knew what he had to do.

But things didn’t go how he wanted them to.

After the riot at the library, the enraged Euljae decided to catch Seol Young. And sneakily, he hid from them…

“Ghost Demon King.”

The cold voice from the shadows of three people blocked the path, and Seol Young was surprised to see them.

They were Baek Eon, Song Ok, and Hyo Wol.

“How did you end up becoming such a madman? At that time, even though the eldest spoke to you so kindly, you couldn’t understand a thing, and you decided to do this?”

Song Ok tried to grab Seol Young by the collar right away.

“There must have been a reason. But you really live like there is no tomorrow. That is why you cannot live up to your name.”

Hyo Wol also stopped smiling and looked worried.

Meanwhile…

“Actually, I was going to leave it up to you, but you’ve lost your judgment. I will take you by any means today.”

A cool breeze passed over Baek Eon’s face.

He drew his sword before Seol Young could even answer, and it moved with a blue flame.

“Do not interfere!”

Seol Young raised wind and lightning and summoned ghosts to confront them.

However, those three boys were prepared.

“It would be better if you just obeyed my words.”

Baek Eon’s sharp sword almost stabbed Seol Young several times. He was determined to stab Seol Young if needed.

And the moment Seol Young stumbled while avoiding the attack, Song Ok kicked Seol Young in the leg. As he fell to the ground, Hyo Wol covered him and pressed him down.

“I got him!”

Seol Young’s eyes darkened. He couldn’t help it.

‘The Red Bone Disease….’

A red aura rose from his body.

The next moment.

A blood-red skeleton soldier landed behind Baek-Song-Wol with a thump, making them surprised as they had never seen a demon like that before.

A bright red fog rose from their feet, and at that moment, they realized that their opponent was strong.

Baek Eon called the others,

“Everyone, gather here!”

“Yes!”

At that time, the skeleton vanished, and the next moment, a bright red shadow fell over the three boys.

“Guys!”

“Yes!”

They immediately launched a pincer attack. Early on, they came up with a sword technique together as they thought about how to attack. The technique was for all of them to attack at the same time.

Hyo Wol named it the Tiger Hiding in a Bush, as it was exactly like that—they would wait for the right moment to pounce.

And the three acted like they had one body, and at times, two would attack, then one, and then all three of them separately. They were in perfect harmony, and they could finish the enemy.

Seol Young had already used a bundle of his talismans at the fight near the swamp, and the Red Bone Disease was done.

But…

Their strong attack didn’t work against the enemy.

The dark blue aura of the three surrounded the enemy without any gaps, but it didn’t seem to be affected by anything. No matter how precise their attack was, the enemy bone soldier swung its spear and pierced them all at once.

In the meantime, its foot landed on Song Ok’s chest, making him fly back as if he were paper and hit a tree.

Bang!

And the tree broke.

Seol Young was shocked.

‘I didn’t mean for this to happen…’

But he couldn’t control that thing.

“Song Ok!”

“Hyung!”

Baek Eon and Hyo Wol rushed to help him.

“This is not something we can handle.”

They threw one last look at Seol Young before leaving there. It was a shocked look. And it also had sadness and disappointment.

Until now, no one looked at Seol Young like that.

“…”

As they left, Seol Young slumped to his knees, and blood poured out of his mouth. The moment he collapsed to his side out of dizziness, he coughed up more blood.

‘I didn’t mean for this to happen.’

Seol Young hated them.

But their eyes, when they looked at him, looked disappointed.

He wanted them to turn back and see him coughing up blood.

Then, tears ran down his cheeks.

“Don’t cry, and get up.”

Someone said.

“You need to continue. We have something to find.”

It was strange because no one was there.

“It is amazing that you came this far. But we still have further to go.”

Right.

He didn’t know who it was.

But he was right.

Seol Young got up.

‘I have to continue. I need to find out what it really is.’