* * *
Sooryun held her lute and looked at Belial. “I will beat you this time for Sungjin’s victory and to give true rest to my people.”
“Your Lute of Heaven can’t compete with my Violin from Hell. I’m sure you know that by now.”
Satan was so much stronger than Sooryun.
“But I still have another song I can play for you.”
“Really? Go for it.”
Sooryun’s fingers started to play the lute. Her music held meaning, and that meaning started to produce phenomenon.
“Shooting Meteor.”
Powerful sound came from Sooryun’s lute, and the sound started to shoot meteors around to break the ground and create craters.
But Belial took his time playing his violin. When he started to play it, screams from hell came from it and covered him up and spread around him. When the shooting meteor reached around him, it became powerless and disappeared.
It was a fight of sound.
“Shadow of Moon.” Sooryun put her beautiful nature into her music.
“Hell’s Scream.” While Belial played grotesque screaming from hell.
Two sounds collided and pushed each other to take over more space, and the space vibrated with shockwaves where the two sounds met, making a cloud around the space.
“A Hundred Blooming Flowers.”
“Cursed Whale.”
Finally, it started to rain. Their fight was fierce and intense. They both used their skill to its maximum, and the collisions of sounds became more and more intense.
Then, Belial started to play his ultimate destructive sound. “Infernal Symphony!”
When the symphony from hell started to play, the sky tore open and rain thundered. The ground exploded, and fire came out from the crack. The smell of sulfur was everywhere, and corrosive fog filled the whole place.
And to fight against him, Sooryun started to play her last song “the Eight sounds of Heaven.” “The Peace of the World.”
It was quiet and peaceful music, but Sooryun’s music contained the rule of mother nature and the harmony of heaven. It started to restore everything to peace, fighting against the sound of hell that was creating chaos and destruction.
The sky cleared up, and the ground calmed down. The fog started to disappear. The space around Sooryun was beautiful and calm, while the space around Belial was destructive and grotesque.
It was hard to tell which music was stronger, but then…
Tic.
A string on Belial’s violin snapped.
The two sounds had appeared equally strong for a while, but Sooryun’s music was creating harmony to become stronger in time, while Belial’s music was destructive and would destroy itself if it couldn’t destroy its opponent…
The crazy power from hell started to come back to his violin…
Tic.
Tic.
There was no string left to play on Belial’s violin, and Sooryun showed a happy smile for her victory.
I won.
She had destroyed Belial’s violin. She had been able to play music to soothe the suffering souls in order to neutralize the curse of hell, thanks to Sungjin’s teaching.
Sooryun won against Belial in the battle of music, but then… Belial started to run toward Sooryun with his broken violin.
“What?” Sooryun quickly played another note. “Heavenly Wall.”
Her note created shockwaves to push Belial away, but Belial was faster. Belial reached his hand in the middle of his broken violin and pulled out a rapier. Belial had been hiding this weapon in his violin from the start, and he stabbed Sooryun with it.
“Ahh. Sooryun tried to stop it with her lute, but the lute was completely destroyed, and the rapier pierced Sooryun’s heart. “Cough.”
“You defeated the Wailing of Hell. Humans can do much more than I expected.”
“Ah…”
“But music isn’t the only thing I can use. That’s why you lost.”
Belial pulled out his rapier. Blood came out from Sooryun’s body like a fountain, and Sooryun fell down on the ground.
“If I were still the head of Heaven’s Chorus, I’m sure I wouldn’t have stood a chance, but this is me now. Now, be gone!”
Belial beheaded Sooryun to reduce her pain.
It was clear that Sooryun was the winner in the fight with music, but that wasn’t all Belial had. She had been naive enough to believe she simply had to win the fight with music.
“Now I should go back to report to my Master.” But Belial stopped.
I can still hear the sound. How?
Belial checked Sooryun’s dead body one more time. He checked to make sure Sooryun’s lute was still in pieces and that she was dead, but he could still hear the sound of Sooryun’s lute.
Where is it coming from?
The sound of Sooryun’s lute started to become louder. The sound that made the world peaceful started to chain him in its harmony and light.
“Ugh, How dare you.” Belial swing his rapier around.
But the sound became more and more perfect to create a closed space to lock him down.
If you have an instrument in your heart, you can still play it without your hands. Sooryun’s thought echoed in the space.
“Is your soul playing the music?”
If a spirit can make music, that music can move the heavens. Now I get the last part of “the Eight sounds of Heaven.”
Sooryun had always thought that the final sound of “the Eight sounds of Heaven” would be the eighth sound called “Reaching Heaven’s will.” Understanding that it simply meant the attitude on how to play music—that was the real sound behind “the Eight sounds of Heaven.”
In the moment she fell down to the ground, she was reminded of the comment that Sungjin had made: If you really put your heart into your music, even spirits can hear you.
Now I understand what you wanted to teach me that day.
Sooryun started to play the last song against Belial. It was an immortal music that was above and beyond life or death.
And what Sooryun put into the music was…
Love. Love for human beings, the world, and her lover.
‘Respect the god and love human beings.’
Sooryun’s music made a perfect harmony to purify the creature of hell in peace.
When the music started to erase his existence, Belial started to remember a few things. The perfectly pure music notes were in his memory.
This is… what I used to…
They were the notes he used to sing when he was the head of the chore in Heaven. He thought he had cursed it and thrown it away, but the music was still in his memory.
And he was losing this fight because of music he used to sing in Heaven. It was ironic for Belial. But Belial started to scatter and disappear.
Sungjin, I wish you luck for the rest of your fight.
Sooryun’s soul finished its best and final performance.
* * *
Pandora observed the fight’s final verdict.
The team members of light and servants of darkness were destroyed together.
The darkness that was waiting for them was strong. But the light was strong enough to fight against the darkness during two pre-fights.
At least half of Sungin’s words had come true.
The break time was to bring out their own ultimate skills fully.
Sungjin’s break time was to bring out his power as an awakened hero.
He is a great man, grandfather.
Sungjin just made the impossible fight a tie.
But there was still the biggest difference left, which was the most difficult part of the fight: the difference between Sungjin and the Sungjin of darkness. The one who refused Lucifer and the one who accepted the power of Lucifer.
Would it be possible for Sungjin to overcome the difference in power? My conclusion is that it would be impossible.
But would it really be an impossible fight? Pandora hadn’t been able to predict that Sungjin would make it this far when he had lost his first two fights. Maybe Sungjin could make the impossible happen. It wouldn’t be his first time. But how?
Sungjin’s girls had the second awakening period, which had helped them a lot. Then what about Sungin?
I want to see Sungjin upset my analysis and win.
Chapter 11
Sungjin faced the Sungjin of darkness.
“So you evolved your team to become nemeses to my servants? That’s not too bad. I like what you did.” The Sungjin of darkness laughed as if the result satisfied him. “Good. We should finalized this battle between us. We don’t need any little creatures to cut in and make this fight messy.”
Behind Sungjin of darkness, twelve wings started to spread: six wings of light and six wings of darkness. Two different powers of extreme ends placed in him. His hands held Holy Sword of Dawn and Magic Sword of Dusk to show his power controlling both.
“So what is the answer that you found? Show me.”
“I will show you. Succession of the Spirit!”
Sungjin raised his Holy Sword of Dawn to gather six lights Sungjin’s team members left for him with trust. Six pure white wings came out from his back. The shiny pure white wings were beautiful, but they look weaker compared to the twelve wings on his enemy.
“Well, I was waiting for you, but are you still giving me the same answer? So your obsession with hypocrisy is the only thing you have?”
“Pff. Do you want me to admit the darkness inside of me?”
“Yeah, that is your real wish and your real desire. That’s who ‘I’ am.”
“Yeah, I admit it. That’s who I am, too.” Sungjin nodded.
What he said to dark Sungjin was true. He had darkness inside him. That was something he couldn’t deny.
Sungjin analyzed what choice would make him stronger, and his conclusion was that it would be better for him to have more power than his teammates…
Sungjin’s brain came up with a cold yet clear conclusion.
“I know I have darkness inside me, but I also have something that I want to protect by stopping myself.”
“That’s why you are weak, like now?”
“Don’t be disappointed. You clearly choose the dark side and conquered the light to have everything you want. But I got my own things through my own path that’s different than yours.”
Sungin’s Holy Magical Sword started to spread darkness around it.
“I will take all the responsibilities that I’ve got with my darkness!”
All the vindictive spirits inside the sword started to awaken. All the spirits that had been caged inside the world that the Kaiser of White Silver had created started to awaken.
“I’m also a human being who wants to win. I have my own desires that aren’t always right.”
Sungjin wanted to fight and win.
When Sungjin risked his life in a fight, he wasn’t nervous but excited. He knew that his decision would put everyone in danger, but he still wanted to go further… That was the darkness inside Sungjin.
Sungjin embraced the darkness that wanted to absorb the light with the people who were chained by darkness.
If his enemy was trying to conquer the light with darkness, Sungjin was protecting the light by embracing his darkness.
Sungjin knew what kind of power he was missing, but he had no regrets, because he had his people that he was able to protect.
“So I will embrace them all to go forward. Be awakened, Dusk Bringer.”