Chapter 76 — The Black Armor's Salute
1. The Sleeping Fortress
Where i-Minerva had poured out every last reserve of her power and gone dormant, only the red emergency lights remained — blinking slowly, like a pulse.
The air had cooled to a cutting edge, and the cold metallic smell pricking at the nose pressed down on the chest.
Mujin sat on the edge of the pod, but he did not speak.
His gaze drifted without direction through the empty air, then came to rest on Seol — head buried in his lap.
Memory had shattered and scattered. His sense of self lay submerged in fog. But the warmth of Seol against his palm was vivid and real. Seol's purring vibration traveled up through Mujin's thin arm and reached the deep centers of his mind.
[Cognitive circuit recovery rate: 30.1%……] [Vital signs: stable. Memory data — lost sectors not recoverable.] [Warning: Administrator's cognitive capacity has declined. Physical limitations on combat function will occur.]
Guide Minerva's system windows drifted faintly across Mujin's retinas. He read the words but could not fully absorb their meaning. Only the sensation that the semi-transparent lights floating before him were familiar was enough to keep him tethered.
Soha could not even draw a full breath as she stared at Mujin's profile. She had been weeping until a moment ago, but now even the tears seemed frozen.
Her brother's eyes, stripped of memory, were cold and utterly unfamiliar — and yet, strangely, they carried the particular stillness he had always possessed.
Ah, too, kept her place beside him without a word, watching Mujin's condition. His energy was far sharper and more unstable than usual — like a sword that had lost its master, venting its sword energy without direction.
Simply enduring the weight of this cold silence made time stretch out like an eternity.
At the entrance to the Medical Bay, where the dark had pooled deepest, the Heavenly Demon stood. He had drawn back one pace from behind Soha and Ah, watching the scene inside in quiet. Even without moving, the space he occupied sank heavy and cold — like the edge of a cliff. Not a word was spoken, and yet his gaze alone commanded the entire room. Soha's shoulders trembled under the overwhelming pressure at her back, but she did not step aside — as though planting herself as a barrier before Mujin.
Ah had already sensed why the Heavenly Demon was keeping his distance in silence.
He was not going to approach. Instead of confirming things for himself by closing the distance, he was waiting — watching in stillness to see how instinct would wake inside that empty shell, and what response Mujin's soul would return.
"……Not yet."
The Heavenly Demon's low murmur settled into the air. It was addressed to no one — and yet his voice wound through the room like the calm before a storm.
His gaze was fixed, unwavering, on the tips of Mujin's fingers — barely responding to Seol's warmth.
2. The March of Iron Feet
What shattered the silence was a strange vibration from somewhere distant.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Not the footsteps of one or two people. Dozens of heavy, measured beats — perfectly aligned, as though struck by a single instrument. From the passage leading toward the Training Hall, the sharp friction of iron plate and the deep, hoof-like vibration transmitted themselves through the floor of the Medical Bay.
Soha's head turned on reflex. Ah's gaze, too, moved sharply toward the passage.
The stronger the vibration through the floor grew, the tighter the air inside the Medical Bay was drawn.
Only the Heavenly Demon stood without moving, waiting for the owners of that sound. It was the sound of an army advancing — and at the same time, the footsteps of starved beasts finally finding their way back to their master.
The red emergency lights flickered in time with the vibration.
Through the thick darkness at the end of the passage, black shadows poured out.
Dozens of the Demonic Heavenly Guard — clad head to toe in black armor. With every step they took, the cold floor of the Eclipse resonated and rang. Through the visors of helms that covered their faces completely, only a cold and refined killing intent seeped out.
They reached the entrance to the Medical Bay and stopped all at once. Dozens halting simultaneously — and from it, only one heavy, unified crack of sound. No voices, not even the sound of rough breathing. The sheer presence of them, simply standing there, transformed the air of the Medical Bay into that of a battlefield in an instant.
The black armor's eyes did not turn to the Heavenly Demon standing before them. As though by prior arrangement, every head fixed on the same point — Mujin, sitting on the pod behind him.
The eyes behind those visors trembled, faintly. The red emergency light ran down over the black plate. The energy of dozens of black-armored warriors converged and encircled Mujin.
They were making a silent declaration. The silence deepened — but the pressure within it pressed down on every shoulder in the room with a different weight entirely.
3. My Lord
There was no command from the Heavenly Demon. Only Mujin's unfamiliar gaze drifting through the empty air — pausing on them for a brief moment.
But that instant of contact carried more weight than any storm of orders could have.
The dozens of black-armored warriors moved as one — a single step forward, in unison.
The imposing sound of iron driving into the floor filled the corridor.
And then, simultaneously —
Boom—!
Dozens of right knees struck the ground at once. The dull, massive shockwave made the Eclipse's floor cry out, and the emergency lights hanging from the ceiling swayed violently. The sharp friction of interlocking black plate tore through the silence.
Then, low and suppressed voices merged into a single wave and broke outward like a tide.
"My Lord!"
No one called the first note. No officer gave the signal. It was the simultaneous, instinctive judgment of dozens of warriors — the manifestation of a loyalty imprinted upon their souls.
One of the black-armored men loosened the sword at his hip and set it quietly on the floor before Mujin.
The others lowered their scabbards slightly, in kind.
They bowed their heads toward the ground.
4. Different Eyes
Soha drew a sharp breath and stepped back.
The scene before her was unreal. The brother she had known — covered in blood, the one whose blade had once turned on her — this was not that man.
Her feet retreated without her deciding to move.
Dozens of black-armored warriors had bent their knees before one person.
Her brother was at the center of it.
"The Demon God……"
Fear flickered through Ah's eyes.
Mujin raised his head and looked at them. Their faces were hidden behind their helms — but the energy of dozens of gazes pressing against his skin was sharp enough to sting.
His mind did not remember them.
But his heart settled — strangely, inexplicably calm.
Unfamiliar, and yet not entirely unfamiliar.
The word My Lord touched something somewhere in his body. The red emergency light reflected off the black armor and gathered in Mujin's pupils.
On Mujin's lap, Seol let out a low purr. Not wariness — the sound a divine beast makes when recognizing familiar energies and confirming that all is well.
Mujin's hand, which had been stroking Seol's head, went still.
His fingertips convulsed, barely.
The body was responding before memory could.
It was as though his senses had recognized it first — that those black-armored warriors had been his sword and his shield, and that he had been their only anchor.
Mujin's gaze lingered not on the black-armored men themselves, but on the heavy energy they carried.
His lips moved, just slightly, but in the end no words came. And yet in that single instant of eye contact, an invisible thread of energy between Mujin and the black armor drew taut once more — rejoined, and alive.
5. To the Training Hall
Only then did the Heavenly Demon step forward, crossing through the black-armored ranks. With each step he took, the heavy weight of presence that had covered the floor parted like a wave.
He looked down over the kneeling warriors and spoke — low, but with a clarity that rang through the entire fortress.
"Rise."
With a precise metallic sound — click — dozens of black-armored forms rose in unison. Rather than approaching Mujin directly, the Heavenly Demon fixed his gaze at a distance — maintaining the space between himself and the pod.
"Our Lord's body is not yet whole."
The words drove into the chests of the black-armored warriors like a blade. He was not reprimanding them. He was simply reading Mujin's condition with cold clarity.
"The road to the Northern Sea will be harsh. This one will confirm our Lord's state directly."
The Heavenly Demon's gaze met Mujin's blank eyes.
It was a declaration — that he would confirm through a sparring match, himself, whether the Lord who had lost his memory still carried a warrior's instinct.
"I will be waiting in the Training Hall. My Lord — show me what your body remembers."
The Heavenly Demon spoke the brief words and turned away.
The black-armored ranks parted silently to either side, opening a path. Between the black walls they formed, the long dark passage leading to the Training Hall revealed itself. At its far end, the silver-white afterglow that i-Minerva had left burning before her dormancy shimmered and swayed.
Soha reached for Mujin's sleeve — and stopped her hand.
Because Mujin's gaze was already fixed on the passage ahead, as though some part of him already knew where he needed to go. His mind was empty. But his heart had already begun to beat in response to the sparring match ahead.
The Heavenly Demon spoke once more — low and certain, but more respectful than he had ever been.
"Bear with it a moment longer, my Lord."
Mujin rose.
Seol followed at his heel.
The door to the Training Hall opened, slowly.
The black armor didn't wait to be told. They just went to their knees.
I find that interesting — the difference between loyalty that requires instruction and loyalty that's already decided. The Demonic Heavenly Guard have spent their whole lives as weapons. They know exactly what they are and what they're for. Mujin's eyes didn't even recognize them. It didn't matter.
The body remembers things the mind forgets. That's what this arc is built on — and the black armor felt it before Mujin did.
The Training Hall is next. See you then.
