1 We Die Young

-This is must be hell- was the one thought running through his head

Gyun coughed as he tossed the dead bodies off of him, he climbed to the top of the pile of dead bodies, sticking his sword into the abdomen of a man who was still wheezing with life. He leaned heavily on the hilt of his sword as he panted harshly, using his sleeve to wipe the blood out of his eyes.

His clothes were shredded, and he was bleeding profusely from dozens of shallow cuts all over his body, his eyes were bloodshot from exertion.

With his other hand, he crouched down, reaching under a dead body, he pulled something out of the abdomen of another dead man beneath him.

Holding it up to his face, it was a silver mask coated in blood with beautiful engravings decorated to look like a demon.

Pressing it to his face, he held it in place by circulating the qi at a certain frequency to keep the mask attached to his face.

Gyuns vision was blurring; he spit out blood onto the pile of bodies, as he held his head with his ears ringing, he gasped for breath as he felt his side. His hands grasped the hilt of a dagger embedded in his side.

-Should I pull it out? No, it's already the end for me it won't change anything, I'd just bleed out faster.-

He glanced up at the men and women across from him, Gyun coughed up some blood onto the dirt as he stumbled forward, one of the bodies gave out and triggered an avalanche.

Gyun who was weak from blood loss, lost his footing and rolled to the bottom of the pile, he lay still for a moment looking up at the clear and sunny sky.

"Fuck, it hurts everywhere" he murmured to the sky,

He turned to the side, and he saw the image of a young and beautiful woman it was his love Minhee, she was covered in blood, her left entire arm was missing and her stomach was a bloody pulp with a hole through the center.

Her beautiful gaze, was filled with sadness with tears rolling down her beautiful face. but she didn't say anything and only stared at him. Her beautiful black hair didn't move despite the strong wind, and her hazel eyes drew Gyun's gaze, as he lay on the ground.

"You get it don't you?" Gyun said his eyes tinged with tears, she didn't answer and only tilted her head.

He sat up groaning as he did, his entire body was littered with dozens of cuts, the only thing keeping him alive and able to move was the qi he was circulating throughout his body controlling his severed muscles, he was essentially puppeteering his own body now, incapable of moving himself.

"I'll be there soon, but it's going to be just a bit longer"

Before leaning on his sword. All around him was carnage, bodies grotesquely destroyed and mangled from all the high-level martial arts fighting. The surrounding area was littered with thousands of bodies, Gyun had killed all the low-level martial artists in the first few moves. But a few dozen experts managed to engage him and briefly overwhelm him.

They were all members of the Liberation Coalition, a group of so called, patriots, who all served under the 'Heaven's Equals'. They were all just power hungry soldiers formed from the remnants of the Canto Empire's once great military and the serving great Murim factions.

"Now all that's left is YOU!" Gyun shouted standing up and leaning on his sword, the surviving enemies stood at the peak of their respective factions.

The Orthodox's Murim alliance leader, the Mount Hua sect Patriarch, and sword saint. The demonic faction's Heavenly Demon and his brother the Greater Demon.

The unorthodox's Fist Tyrant and Spear Empress were the only survivors of the 6,000-man coalition that banded together to kill Gyun spearheaded by the 7 Supremes who were the greatest martial artists of Murim who'd survived the inter-continental war.

The others were in much better condition than the exhausted Gyun, who was littered with cuts and wounds and bleeding profusely, even having been blinded in one eye from a mist poison.

But they weren't in perfect condition either, just prior Gyun had unleashed his strongest area technique. Which was an area domination art that multiplied the gravity of an area, though it was heavily draining. Though they were damaged Gyun was now nearly entirely out of Qi, and energy, and the coalition realized this too.

The bearded man in white robes stained with blood and dirt from the battlefield, laughed as he leaned on his sword for support, he was the orthodox Murim alliance leader.

"It looks like we made the right choice to let you tire yourself out to this extent against bottomfeeders, though to think you'd be able to stand after all that. But this is the end for you Martial God! You bottomed out long ago! Theirs no escaping, WE WILL KILL YOU HERE TODAY!"

-Ha, you knew they'd all die but you sent them to their deaths still with a smile on your face- Gyun's lip curled in disgust, as he spit out some blood that had welled up in his mouth.

Looking at the other figures behind the man struggling to stay upright and maintain his consciousness. Spoke, but his voice was so faint that if he were speaking to anybody but the strongest warriors in the entire murim continent, they wouldn't be able to hear him.

"D...Does h-he speak for....all of y-you" Gyun struggled to get the words out as one of his lungs had been punctured and collapsed filling with blood making it near impossible to breathe.

The long black-haired man with a pale face looked at Gyun with disgust, "You should just die with dignity, why are you so desperately fighting something inevitable."

Gyun tried to chuckle, but it came out as a raspy wheezing breath, and he nearly ended up choking on his own blood.

-There it is, that fucking disgusting pride you bigshots all have. It's revolting to think that there would be a day when the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance leader could stand next to each other so smugly.-

The group reorganized themselves, it seemed the time for talking was over.

'This is what it's come down to huh? I guess there's no escaping so there's no point in trying to survive anymore.'

Gyun drew out his last trump card, he focused heavily closing his eyes.

"Stop Hi-!"

He opened his eyes as his aura exploded with power, startling the coalition.

"Y-You really did it! You abandoned the hope of surviving and are using your life force as a substitute for Qi!"

"HAHA! To think you'd get this desperate!"

Gyun slid his sword back into its sheath as he lowered himself, drawing back in the rampant life force energy.

The others realized what was happening, Gyun lowered his stance, preparing his perfected sword to draw.

"Get h-!"

The voice of the Spear Empresses voice was cut off as her head disappeared from her neck. The air froze but Gyun didn't, the raw explosion of power he'd gotten from his life force was intoxicating he would have smiled if he could.

-Annoying bitch, I've wanted to do that for a long time-

He had a look of pure delight in his eyes however as he flew forward, slamming down with viciousness onto the sword of the Heavenly Demon.

Who's face contorted in fear, Gyun jumped back dodging an attack from the Murim alliance leader. Gyun grabbed the man by his beard slamming him into the ground and breaking his neck on the impact. He stomped on his head crushing the senile old man's skull for good measure. Grabbing his sword from his limp hands, before turning just in time to slip a qi-loaded punch from the fist tyrant impaling him with the Murim alliance leader's sword through the chest and kicking him out of the way.

Gyun went on the defensive as the rest of the remaining 4 coalition members counterattacked forcing him on the defensive, blocking lethal shots and taking non-lethal shots as he was forced continuously backwards.

While hating the Heaven's Equal's he was forced to acknowledge their skill, they were working together smoothly and chaining their attacks together, despite using various weapons and martial arts that fundamentally opposed each other.

-But it's not flawless and these guys are too rigid, they're playing it too safe with movements like those, and they have almost no awareness for defending their legs as they're circling me. But I don't have much time-

Gyun could feel the toll from him extracting life force despite it being less than a minute, he was already faltering, bleeding from his eyes.

Trying to yell but it came out like a croak, Gyun could no longer even breath as his other lung also collapsed, biting down on his lip so hard it bled to keep him from losing consciousness.

Gyun kicked the leg of the nearest attacker who happened to be the Mount Hua Patriarch, who was knocked off balance. Gyun released a wave of energy knocking the others back as he grabbed the Mount Hua Patriarch by his collar as he slamming his forehead into the man's nose.

The old man let loose a stream of curses, as he abandoned his prideful way of fighting.

'Isn't it funny you orthodox bastards fight and act so refined but you're just as dirty and dishonorable as the rest' he thought as he tossed the screaming man as he gouged one of his eyes with his thumb, getting up, and charged in a fit of rage Gyun kicked the charging Mount Hua patriarch.

The Mount Hua patriarch was sent reeling cradling his nose.

"Do you have no pride as a martial artist!"

Gyun retreated back away creating some distance, as the others quickly recovered and closed the distance.

-Pride? Fuck it, I'm dead either way-

Gyun spit some blood out, -I'm running on fumes now-

Unable to breath as his lungs were filled with blood, instead a wet wheeze escaped out of Gyun's mouth in a desperate attempt for air. His oxygen-deprived brain maintained his instincts, however.

Gyun launched a last-ditch series of attacks, slicing through the sword saint. And receiving a fatal stab to the stomach, and a cut-off arm.

Gyun put all the remaining qi into his legs and fists as he pushed off the ground tackling the Heavenly Demon sending the pair flying through and skipping off the ground. But Gyun refused to let go, when they finally landed Gyun gave the Heavenly Demon no time to recover.

He let out a guttural scream not of savagery or anger or pain but of desperation as he ruthlessly rained down strikes on the Heavenly Demon with his remaining arm, keeping the demon pinned down with his legs. The Heavenly Demon was flustered and desperately trying to defend himself throwing his own attacks with desperation from the ground. But Gyun had already committed to killing him, ignoring the man's pitiful attacks, and the pain he received.

The pain from the backlash of using his life force as a substitute was so excruciating that the Demon's punches which were lethal to most martial artists could not compare. Gyun could barely lift his arms from pain and exhaustion but he brutally continued pummeling the man crushing his skull with repeated punches, Gyun had lost feeling in his hand which was now a bloody pulp.

The remaining 2 coalition members launched themselves at Gyun's back trying to finish him off trying to catch him from behind.

'Damn is this how it ends?' Gyun closed his eyes he'd decided there would be no going back and was fully committed to dying.

'Be seeing you soon Minhee'

On his knees over the Heavenly Demon's corpse, he raised a hand at the sun he squinted as he looked at the sun, the bright light burned his eyes but he didn't look away.

It was such a beautiful light, he thought as he reached for the sun. But found he couldn't his arm fell limp as he fell forward unable to move anymore his face buried in another man's pool of blood.

He drew in the fading life force power from the Heavenly Demon channeling it through his body and using his last-ditch effort he caused the strands of his and the Heavenly Demon's life force to collide setting off a mile-wide explosion killing everyone in the vicinity.

Later martial artists orthodox, demonic, and unorthodox alike would call it the fall of the Martial God. It became a neutral site where martial artists could meet regardless of affiliation and a small but prosperous city was established there.

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Gyun's eyes opened immediately after he set off the explosion, he jolted up. He didn't know what he expected to see after dying, but he certainly wasn't expecting to see something that seemed familiar.

More than that when he closed his eyes he briefly felt death, the cold feeling and numbness left a vivid imprint on his mind, and he could still feel it.

"W-Where am I?"

Gyun looked around, he was in a bed in a hospital gown in a white room with machines and wires attached to him. He heard sounds he hadn't heard for a decade, cars and honking, tears welled up in his eyes.

"....Minhee?"