Hexagram.
The organization's genesis began with a single man.
The power wielded by an Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins was boundless.
But the man coolly assessed the current of the times.
He knew that with his power alone, he could never achieve his ambitions for this world.
Companions.
Or rather, he needed his limbs.
Heralds who would deeply resonate with his will and spread it far and wide.
Jincheon, the Apostle of Envy, was one of them.
One of the five heralds the man had sought out while wandering the world for a long time.
One of the six points that formed the hexagram, which served as the motif for the organization's name.
Bound by jealousy and hatred towards humanity, he was one of the organization's main forces, having somehow led every operation he undertook to success.
And now, his fist was finally aimed at Kim Dojin.
“First, let's just take a light measure of him.”
With a light step, Jincheon vanished from Kim Dojin's sight.
He reappeared behind Kim Dojin.
A palm strike, heavily imbued with mana, shot towards the center of his back.
Whoosh!
Thud!
A sword suddenly shot out, clashing with the palm, letting out a dull thud and trembling violently.
“Oh?”
Jincheon marveled at the sword that had emerged from Kim Dojin's subtly extended hand.
‘Both are excellent.’
A magic swordsman, was it?
Kim Dojin seemed qualitatively different from the half-baked ones he had seen until now.
Sword and magic.
For he seemed to possess both arts, each formidable enough to master on its own, without any deficiency.
“Interesting.”
Drawing a deep smile, he thrust his fist forward again.
Kim Dojin turned, bringing his sword down against the fist flying towards his solar plexus.
The clash of sword and fist.
Logically, the fist should have retreated.
But he did not retreat.
For he had not neglected his training enough to fear a mere sword.
Clang!
With a deafening clang that was hard to believe came from a fist striking a sword, both men took a step back.
Jincheon advanced again.
‘I wonder.’
Just how far he can keep up.
To find out, he closed the distance with even greater speed and thrust his fist forward.
A single, utterly straightforward punch, devoid of any variation.
An overbearing aura, as if it would destroy everything in its path, enveloped Kim Dojin.
However, what the fist struck this time was again the sword, not Kim Dojin's body.
Clang...!
This time, the sound wasn't as loud.
Feeling the unrestrained momentum in the fist, Kim Dojin didn't meet it head-on; instead, the moment they clashed, he twisted his sword to deflect the force.
Jincheon retracted his fist, which had only grazed a faint sensation.
‘This much is easy, is that it?’
To deflect an opponent's attack so perfectly meant that his own attacks were familiar to the opponent, and that the opponent was well-trained enough to keep up.
‘I can afford to pick up the pace a bit more.’
A thrilling sensation ran down his spine.
Just how long could Kim Dojin endure?
When would that confident face finally twist in despair?
It was one of his depraved pleasures.
To slowly chip away at a formidable opponent's morale, then watch them die in agony.
For him, the screams of a talented human excited him as much as the passionate embrace shared by a man and a woman.
‘Then, a little faster...’
Just as he was about to take a step with even greater speed.
Kim Dojin, who had not once made the first move, vanished from his sight.
“...!”
Jincheon's eyes snapped open.
In his focused vision, a blurry trace of Kim Dojin's rapid movement was visible.
‘Right!’
He raised his clenched arm, blocking a long, thrusting sword strike coming from the right.
Clang!
Pshk!
With a sound like metal striking metal, the sharp tip of the sword lightly dug into his upper arm.
Jincheon was surprised by this.
The wound wasn't deep.
Only a little blood had been drawn, not enough to impede combat in any way.
What truly surprised him was Kim Dojin's speed just now.
‘...Fast.’
The opponent's movements were faster than he had anticipated.
Fast enough to rival the maximum speed he himself could achieve.
Only then did he realize.
‘He can rival me with martial arts alone...!’
The fact that his pure martial arts, excluding magic, were so profound that they could rival his own.
“Huh...”
It was a situation hard to believe.
A magic swordsman, who had spent only half the time on the sword compared to others due to also learning magic, possessed martial arts skills that could rival a martial artist who had dedicated their life solely to martial arts to reach this level?
Considering the age difference between them, it was even more impossible.
There was only one way to render such a gap in time meaningless.
‘A genius.’
A calamity, beyond the level of mere heaven-sent talent.
Sword and magic.
An incomprehensible being capable of simultaneously mastering those unfathomably deep arts.
“...”
His fist clenched involuntarily.
For that man's appearance was precisely the ideal image Jincheon had once yearned for.
That's why he grew even angrier.
Towards an ideal he could never reach.
Towards himself, born with talent that was not overwhelming.
Base jealousy and envy coiled around his entire body.
The only way to resolve these emotions was to eliminate their source.
‘I will definitely kill him.’
Not just for the organization, but for himself as well.
He unleashed the martial arts he had honed his entire life.
“Four Divine Beasts Martial Arts (åç¥æ¦).”
Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise.
A martial art imbued with the power of the four divine beasts that guard the four cardinal directions.
“Azure Dragon Stance (éé¾æ å¢).”
Among them, a form modeled after the agile posture of the Azure Dragon soaring into the sky.
“Dragon Claw Heart Rend (é¾çªå¿æ).”
Fingers, reminiscent of sharp claws, tore through the air, aiming for Kim Dojin's chest.
Specifically, his heart.
Jincheon's speed increased dramatically as he switched his attack style to claw techniques.
To the point where even Kim Dojin, whose dynamic vision had reached its peak, had to strain to follow the blurry form.
He was momentarily flustered by the sudden change in speed, but that was all.
‘It's not invisible.’
Though astonishingly fast, it wasn't so fast that he couldn't react.
As Kim Dojin, having predicted the exact trajectory, raised his sword midway, the claw technique changed.
“Hup!”
Swish-swish-swish!
A single, wide swing of his arm created dozens of afterimages.
There wasn't enough time to discern which was real.
‘Then, I have no choice but to block them all.’
Just as Jincheon had done, Kim Dojin lightly flicked the wrist of his sword-wielding arm.
In response, sword phantoms sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain.
The blurry sword tips clashed with the afterimages of sharp claws, canceling each other out.
Soon, only the real one remained.
Claaang!
The sharp clang of metal and claws assaulted both men's ears.
The expressions on the faces of the two men, confronting each other at close range, were starkly different.
One was utterly calm, while the other was filled with an unprecedented hatred.
Amidst the fierce power struggle between sword and claws.
“Cha-at!”
With a fierce shout, Jincheon's right foot lashed out like a whip, aiming for Kim Dojin's flank.
“Tch.”
Kim Dojin avoided it, breaking off the power struggle and retreating.
As the distance widened, Jincheon immediately unleashed his next move.
“Four Divine Beasts Martial Arts, Azure Dragon Stance, Secret Art.”
Jincheon lowered his stance.
Sensing an unusual aura from him, Kim Dojin, not to be outdone, prepared a move of his own.
“Revolving Dragon Ascends to Heaven Strike (å»»é¾æ天æ)!”
Jincheon, leaping forward with sharp claws leading, rotated his entire body, charging at Kim Dojin like a small, sharp, horizontal whirlwind.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The sound of air being violently torn apart.
Each blade-like edge created by the rotation was imbued with Sword Aura, an art pushed to its extreme.
Kim Dojin's clothes and hair fluttered in the wind Jincheon generated.
It felt as if he were facing a small typhoon head-on.
To counter this, Kim Dojin also unveiled a prepared move.
The immense mana flowing through his body.
The most efficient way to utilize it was not swordsmanship, but magic.
A sudden thought occurred to him.
Martial arts modeled after the form of the Azure Dragon, and magic that conjured the Azure Dragon itself.
If these two were to clash, who would truly win?
A childlike smile played on his lips.
‘The picture is drawn.’
He converted the vast amount of mana flowing through his body into lightning attribute.
And then, he shaped it.
Piercing eyes, a flaring nose, long whiskers fluttering in the wind, a mouth bristling with sharp teeth, and a blue Yeouiju [magic pearl] held within.
A long, elegant body that rippled ceaselessly, covered in hard, pointed scales.
And even a magnificent mane.
He manifested it, drawing upon all the creativity and imagination he could muster.
The divine beast that existed only in imagination, the Azure Dragon (éé¾), guardian of the East among the four cardinal directions.
「Azure Dragon Emerges (éé¾åºé )」
A creature forged from mere magic roared.
KROOOOAAAR-!
More real than reality itself.
Then, a holographic window appeared before his eyes.
[The soul of the Azure Dragon, sealed deep within the world, is temporarily released.]
The Azure Dragon conjured by Kim Dojin became even deeper blue.
Its eyes, nose, mouth, whiskers, and Yeouiju.
Its long body, scales, and even its mane.
Shading was added to its mana-formed body, making it even more distinct and vivid.
The blue pupils set in its piercing eyes rotated, scattering immense pressure.
『Grrr..., was it you who summoned me here?』
“Uh-oh.”
It seems this damn magic has caused trouble again.