Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: The Being Within
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“Rachel…”
Rachel had fallen asleep exhausted in the room assigned to her and Go Yunsu.
Well, it had been a storm of a time for her, after all.
“I need to see Rachel for a bit.”
Go Yohan spoke, and Go Yunsu nodded as he began walking alongside him.
“But, hyung. You’re planning to marry Rachel, right?”
Go Yohan, who had been saying the situation wasn’t great, asked Go Yunsu in a calmer tone than expected.
“That’s… the plan.”
“Hmm, really?”
“Why do you ask?”
Go Yunsu’s fingertips were trembling.
The ominous feeling was multiplying fiercely.
“So I can figure out how to treat her.”
“……”
“What if Rachel isn’t the person you thought she was?”
Go Yohan asked again as they walked.
“What are you talking about?”
“You fell in love with Rachel, the ordinary guild member of Black Rose, right?”
Love.
“But what if she’s no longer the Rachel you thought she was? Or what if she’s been hiding it from you from the start?”
At Go Yohan’s question, Go Yunsu finally stopped in his tracks.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m just asking. That’s all.”
“Then I’ll tell you.”
Go Yunsu and Go Yohan’s eyes met.
“…There’s no way Rachel’s been hiding something from me.”
“You sure about that?”
“Yeah.”
Go Yunsu was firm.
“I trust you more than myself.”
“……?”
“If Rachel was suspicious, you wouldn’t have just stood by. You’d have intervened somehow or told me.”
Slowly, a smile spread across Go Yohan’s lips.
“And if Rachel ‘changed’ for some reason.”
Go Yunsu said.
“Then that’s unavoidable. But what I can do is clear. I’ll do everything to bring her back, and if that doesn’t work…”
Go Yunsu started walking again first.
“I’ll ask you for help.”
Go Yunsu walked ahead.
“You can call me shameless, hyung. But…”
Go Yunsu, back when he was in England, was perhaps the one among the Holy Blood who knew Go Yohan best.
Go Yohan’s position in South Korea was incredibly dual-natured.
But from abroad, Go Yohan was.
‘An unstoppable monster.’
His evaluations, deeply rooted in the world economy, player society, politics—shaping global security with his personal power—were secretive but loftier abroad.
Even Royal, which scouted talent from foreign famous guilds for alliances, never kept them longer than a year.
But Go Yunsu had never been urged to leave Royal for years; instead, he received offers as if they wanted to hold onto him.
‘Is it because of the Holy One?’
Because he was South Korea’s number one?
Or because of Go Minji becoming a top US ranker?
Because South Korea’s status had risen?
None of that.
“Go Yohan.”
He had realized it at some point—it was all because of his younger brother Go Yohan—and said it.
“If I’m in the way, get rid of me anytime. Just… do your best.”
A slight tremor lingered in Go Yunsu’s voice.
“Rachel… she’s like a goddess to me.”
In his wandering days, the harsh life abroad, the countless mental struggles as a player.
‘Inferiority and burden toward family.’
Rachel had filled and embraced those pathetic sides of him.
That’s why she was a goddess to him.
“…Goddess.”
Go Yohan said, standing in front of the door.
“Hyung, do you even know what that means?”
“…No.”
“Fine, got it. Don’t come into the room. If you want me to do something.”
Creak.
With that, the door to the room where Rachel slept opened.
*
*
*
Rustle, rustle.
Rachel was having a nightmare.
-You have been chosen.
Voices echoing loudly in her head.
-You…
And memories.
Go Yunsu, whom she had nurtured feelings for long ago; she had come to Korea following him to decide their future, only to face what she had to endure.
Fwoosh!
And then these beings, black terror itself.
“Huhk!”
Rachel jolted awake from the nightmare, gasping for breath.
“Have you awakened?”
The voice that came then.
“Yunsu…?”
Rachel said it with senses not yet returned.
“……”
She soon realized.
In the place where Go Yunsu should have been with her.
Ruuuumble!
Was an overwhelmingly massive black terror.
She had seen it from the first encounter, but could never show it.
If she realized the truth, and the other realized she knew.
Gulp.
An instinct that she absolutely wouldn’t survive against this opponent.
The news about him was unbelievable, and even the top executives of Black Rose, whom she belonged to, mentioned him cautiously.
One of Royal’s executives, deeply connected to Black Rose, had called him this.
“…Dark Knight…”
The Black Knight.
Swoosh.
Go Yohan rose toward such a Rachel.
“Nine Black Gates have opened.”
Flinch.
“One of them is undergoing demonization, hardly even qualifying as a Black Gate.”
His sky-blue eyes rippled as if dyed black.
Rachel wanted to scream right then, but no voice came out.
“The Demon King…”
Go Yohan said.
“The Demon King seems to be descending.”
Demon God Balrok.
Before that guy existed, there were four beings who ruled the demon world.
The continentals of Travania called those legendary figures from tales the Demon Kings.
Demon God Balrok was the first to be called the Demon Emperor, having brought those four Demon Kings to their knees.
“In North Korea.”
Flinch.
“I think the plane disappearing in North Korea too.”
Before she knew it, Go Yohan was right in front of Rachel’s nose.
Swoosh.
A hand reaching out.
No place to dodge, no way to dodge.
“The Iron Lion Knights appearing, the Demon King descending in that place where you thought there was time.”
Grip.
On her suddenly seized neck, irresistible pressure was felt.
“I believe it’s all connected to you.”
Just a little, a tiny bit more force, and her neck would snap.
And then she’d die, sucked into that deep darkness.
-Come heeeere!
-Join us! -Aaaah!
-Save meee!
Screams seeming to come from Go Yohan’s eyes.
That was when.
Thud.
Go Yohan released Rachel’s neck.
“Do you know anything?”
Polite, but Rachel couldn’t feel reassured by it.
“Ah…, n-nothing…, nothing at all…”
Rachel spoke the truth without hiding.
“I thought as much.”
Go Yohan nodded too.
Was it over?
“Hold on, it’ll sting a bit.”
“……?”
“Don’t hold back. Just…”
Stab!
Something piercing through skin.
“Die comfortably.”
A gentle-sounding voice, something like piercing the heart.
Rachel dropped her head blankly, as if possessed by a ghost.
There.
“……!”
She saw the blade that had pierced through her chest.
“Wha…?”
Fading consciousness.
That was when.
Ruuuumble—!
Bright radiance began bursting from Rachel’s entire body.
“I’ll ask the thing dwelling inside you.”
Go Yohan’s voice came faintly like a dream.
*
*
*
Boom!
Go Yohan was flung back, crashing into the wall before regaining balance.
Thanks to the temple’s power, the room was completely isolated, like another dimension.
Ruuuumble!
If it hadn’t been isolated, the apostles—not to mention many others—would have been in chaos over the phenomenon before his eyes.
Rachel Ashford.
Go Yunsu’s fiancée, whom he had brought.
“……”
Swept in white, she embodied something transcending humanity.
Death.
At the moment her human life ended, the thing inside her revealed itself to protect its host.
Grip.
Go Yohan assumed his stance again.
“This is a bit surprising?”
It was sincere.
The power now emanating from Rachel surpassed the seven circles, beyond even an archdemon.
“What the…”
At the same time, Go Yohan lowered his gaze and said.
“What are you?”
It wasn’t the first time he’d seen this phenomenon in Rachel.
The S-rank Gate connected when activating the warp gate.
At its end, Go Yohan had seen.
‘Pantheon.’
The vaguely felt power inside it was similar to this.
-Michael.
Go Yohan’s eyes widened at the name from Rachel’s mouth.
“…God….”
His heart felt like it would stop.
“Goddess…?”
No one on Earth called Michael by name.
At this moment, Go Yohan was more shocked than ever in his past or present lives.
“No… way…”
Go Yohan muttered like a child.
-Michael.
Was it really the goddess?
The one he so desperately wanted to see, to hear from…
-This child had to stay there to block the Demon King’s descent.
Her voice came.
-Because you saved this child, a massive rift occurred, creating an opening for the Demon King to escape.
“Really…, really…, are you the goddess?”
Go Yohan asked.
-This rift is now impossible to close; they will invade even faster because of it.
That was the moment.
Ripple.
Go Yohan’s sky-blue eyes were dyed in indescribable light.
Ruuuumble!
In Go Yohan’s soaring hand, a part of space was seized and torn.
Boom!
But what should have torn remained perfectly intact, gazing at Go Yohan.
“…Not the goddess, then.”
Go Yohan’s rage was palpable.
“How dare you impersonate a goddess before me!”
-Michael.
“Shut up!”
-Remember, no one has the right to blame you.
Flinch.
-The door you opened. Because of your existence…
Fwoooosh!
Even more intense light pushed Go Yohan back.
Crack.
He squeezed out strength to resist, but it wasn’t enough.
-The grace and blessing upon you is twisted because of your very existence.
Fwoooooosh!
The light swallowed everything.
-We…
A scattering world.
-Are not your enemies.