Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: The Archdemon Awakens
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“In the end, it has come to this.”
The voice came from behind Kim Se-hyun.
And in the next instant.
Kukukung!
A shock ripped through the entire space, as if it had been torn apart.
Yun Seung-ah’s magic had perfectly isolated Kim Tae-hwan’s penthouse.
But that wasn’t enough.
Kuung!
The penthouse warped and distorted, expanding the space even further.
“Go… Yohan?”
Kim Se-hyun, her face blank, tilted her head as she spoke.
She couldn’t be in her right mind.
Inside her, the demon’s will and her own were clashing fiercely.
He had been watching and following her closely ever since school.
No matter what, he couldn’t leave Kim Se-hyun, possessed by an archdemon, solely to Yun Seung-ah.
“How did you…?”
Go Yohan fell silent as he stood facing her words.
“In the end.”
Instead, he repeated his earlier words.
“It has come to this.”
At Kim Se-hyun’s feet lay Kim Tae-hwan, collapsed unconscious from his fatal wound.
As he had said.
“You’re still holding on, aren’t you.”
It was a fatal injury.
Go Yohan could not intervene in the archdemon’s trial to corrupt Kim Se-hyun.
If neither will gained dominance, his atonement would become meaningless.
Worse, her mind could split in two, making the situation even more dire.
And now.
“You did well.”
Kim Se-hyun had won.
Kwaak!
Go Yohan grabbed her head and spoke.
“You really did well.”
She hadn’t killed Kim Tae-hwan. That was her will.
No matter how despicable the man was, she had resisted the demon’s temptation and endured.
-Uwaaaah! You damned bitch!
From the head he held came a voice that seemed to belong to the archdemon.
-Stupid! You stupid bitch!
It was screaming.
From its perspective, defeat at the hands of a mere human was no different from utter failure.
-Was that so hard? You could have had everything! You had boundless rage slumbering within you!
And then.
“Keep whining.”
Kwajik!
No trace remained on Kim Se-hyun’s skull.
He struck only.
-Kuwaaaah!
The essence of the archdemon inside.
Something only Go Yohan, not Michael, could do.
[Black Knight job privilege: Piercer of the Abyss activates.]
[Direct strikes against the opponent’s darkness are possible.]
It was truly a grace from the goddess.
Drdrdrdr!
Kim Se-hyun’s body trembled violently.
“Do you think the vessel you covet is that fragile?”
Go Yohan—or rather, Michael.
The great holy knight and the knight stained in darkness to hunt demons spoke.
“Begone.”
Kwaang!
An explosion echoed from within Kim Se-hyun’s body.
Thud.
Her eyes rolled back as if she had lost consciousness, and she began to collapse. Go Yohan caught her.
Ripple.
Yun Seung-ah appeared and took Kim Se-hyun into her arms.
“Yun Seung-ah, step back.”
Go Yohan told her to withdraw.
Wriggle.
It wasn’t over yet.
Kim Tae-hwan’s body, which had collapsed, writhed and began to rise.
Kwaaaaa!
The surging energy instantly enveloped the space.
Kwaang!
It was even trying to shatter Yun Seung-ah’s magic.
If Go Yohan hadn’t reached out to block it, her magic surely would have broken.
“Focus everything on maintaining the spell.”
“…Understood, Captain.”
Yun Seung-ah’s form rippled and vanished again.
*
*
*
Yun Seung-ah had said.
She investigated Gong Cheolwoo of Teraco, and the result was that the seed’s origin was elsewhere.
Gong Cheolwoo thought he had obtained it by chance in the gate, but in reality.
‘They say Taehan provided the information.’
That information had come from Taehan.
Kkuduk, kkuduk.
Kim Tae-hwan, whose stomach had clearly been pierced, now stood before Go Yohan, looking perfectly fine.
The corner of his mouth.
Hee-jik.
Curved into a long grin.
“It’s a shame, but…”
As Kim Tae-hwan’s mouth opened and a voice emerged.
Kwak!
Go Yohan had already seized the empty air.
Kwaduduk!
He tore at it as if ripping it apart.
To others, it might look like a foolish act, but in Go Yohan’s sky-blue eyes.
The world seen through divine sight was different.
Taang!
He was tearing the thread connecting Kim Tae-hwan—no, the archdemon possessing that body.
With that alone.
Kwaduduk!
Kim Tae-hwan’s arm was ripped off.
“This is too much.”
Kim Tae-hwan said.
“At least listen to…”
But Kim Tae-hwan couldn’t continue.
Go Yohan had already closed in, palm extended above Kim Tae-hwan’s head.
Kwaang!
He seized the head and slammed it into the floor.
Kwakwakwang!
The floor shattered in an instant, breaking through multiple layers.
Yet the place where they stood, regaining their senses, was the original spot: Kim Tae-hwan’s penthouse.
-I’ll go all out.
It was thanks to Yun Seung-ah’s magic.
“Too much?”
Kwaduk!
Kim Tae-hwan’s skull seemed to cave in.
Yet he casually let out a voice as if unbothered.
This.
“On a first meeting.”
This was a demon.
Tenacious regeneration, vitality that wouldn’t die easily.
Any other demon would have been torn apart by Go Yohan immediately despite that.
“Different from what I expected.”
Kwaang!
Go Yohan and Kim Tae-hwan’s hands clashed.
“Is that guy I knew really you?”
With palms pressed together, Go Yohan and Kim Tae-hwan stared at each other.
“We’re strangers.”
Go Yohan said.
“Finally responding.”
Satisfied, a smile spread across Kim Tae-hwan’s lips in that moment.
Puhwaak!
Another arm sprouted from Kim Tae-hwan’s chest, striking Go Yohan’s solar plexus hard.
Kwaang!
With the explosion, Go Yohan was pushed back sliding.
“In Travania, I couldn’t be born because you eliminated my vessel candidate.”
The vessel of wrath.
“Kartul.”
The orc great chieftain who rose with ten million orcs—Kartul was fated to be its vessel.
“How long it’s been since I tasted freedom.”
The space seemed to twist again.
And between it.
Kwakwakwakwa!
Dozens of Kim Tae-hwan’s arms lunged at Go Yohan.
Kwaduduk!
He seized and tore the air, ripping apart most of the arms.
Kwaaaa!
But in that gap, the regenerated arms turned into snake heads, trying to devour Go Yohan.
Kwaang!
Struck again, Go Yohan retreated.
“You’ve weakened.”
Kim Tae-hwan—no, the archdemon Wrath possessing that body—said.
“Where is that form that made us all tremble in fear?”
Disappointed, Wrath spoke.
Even as it did.
Ulgrak, bulgrak.
Its body swelled and receded repeatedly, changing form.
“Is it because of the curses and sins?”
Wrath laughed as it spoke.
Archdemons were demons that existed even before the Demon King, different from them.
The sins and curses they had accumulated—Go Yohan had shouldered them all alone, save for two.
Even the Demon God couldn’t achieve that.
“Truly arrogant. Arrogant.”
Arrogance beyond even imagination.
“Can’t even wield your sword?”
“Damn, you talk too much.”
Go Yohan straightened and cracked his neck.
*
*
*
“Weakened?”
Go Yohan huffed out a breath and spoke.
“Weakened.”
It was the truth.
Even now, he was using all his strength to suppress the curses and sins trying to lift their heads.
And precisely because of that.
“Impressive.”
Even Wrath was impressed.
It meant he still had enough leeway to face it amid all that.
“True, I can’t wield the sword.”
Go Yohan—no, Michael’s sword was nothing short of apocalyptic.
One strike tore the wings from a rampaging Dragon Lord, splitting the sea visible behind it.
Such a sword would destroy even the user’s flesh.
With so much power spent suppressing curses and sins, wielding it recklessly would unleash something uncontrollable.
“So?”
Go Yohan said.
In the past, he wouldn’t have exchanged words with such vermin.
“So what?”
The surging emotions were changing Go Yohan.
This, too, was the curse’s influence.
Kwaaang!
Kim Tae-hwan’s leg exploded.
“I’m not the only one weakened.”
The corner of Go Yohan’s mouth twitched up.
“You’re the same, aren’t you?”
Kwakwakwang!
Kim Tae-hwan’s reddening flesh kept bursting apart.
Earlier, when Wrath possessed Kim Tae-hwan’s body, the goddess had spoken.
[An incomplete archdemon possesses.]
It couldn’t dwell in Kim Se-hyun, its intended vessel.
Instead, it settled for what it saw as a mere puppet: Kim Tae-hwan.
[The Demon of the Square, incomplete Wrath manifests.]
Such a being was merely at the square level.
Of course, among the demons Go Yohan had faced in his body, it was the strongest—and by player standards.
‘Around level 600.’
A monster beyond words, but it didn’t matter.
Peueong!
The moment Kim Tae-hwan’s body fully burst apart.
Drop.
As if time had stopped, the blood droplets that had erupted from Kim Tae-hwan hung motionless in the air.
-Yes, let’s do this.
The voice boomed, shaking the space.
Puhwaaaak!
Each blood droplet turned into a red blade and poured down.
Kakakakakang!
He deflected and shattered them, but there were too many.
Pushed back again and again, when Go Yohan finally regained his footing.
Ttuk, ttuk.
Dozens of holes pierced his body.
Through them.
Step.
Kim Tae-hwan, clad in red armor, approached.
Horns protruded from both temples and shoulders.
At last, it had fully revealed itself.
-Knight of illusion.
One of its arms turned blade-like and swung at Go Yohan.
Kaaaang!
It clashed with Go Yohan’s gesture, ringing with metallic clamor.
‘In the end, must I do that?’
Go Yohan’s face darkened as he assumed a stance.
His body, weakened as the creature said.
[Due to Zealot title, Faith stat converts to Strength, Agility… stats.]
His Faith stat now exceeded 2000, but most was used to suppress sins and curses.
However.
-Captain!
If he loosened those shackles just a little, he could draw out some of his past power.