Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: The Wraith of Purity
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Thud! Thud! Thud!
Go Yohan's heart was pounding.
If asked whether it was because of Kartul, one could say the influence wasn't entirely absent.
Thud! Thud!
But this heartbeat had started all over again from the moment the Black Gate reopened.
From the time he had cut down the orcs, knowing Kartul would appear.
Heh.
This heart pounded like a madman with twin hammers.
And each time it did.
Rustle.
It felt like something that had been constricting him was vanishing.
"Yes, now you finally look like the you I knew."
Kartul's voice.
A question arose.
"Have I changed?"
He knew he had changed.
His encounter with Kartul was back when Michael had proclaimed himself the Goddess's Knight.
Since then, he had gone through many trials, overcome ordeals, and waged war against demons.
And then, another twenty years after being reborn as Go Yohan.
"More than you know."
Kartul declared firmly.
"You."
Heh.
The grinning bastard swung his twin greatswords.
"Were more orc-like than any human."
Boom!
Go Yohan's arms blocked the twin greatswords.
And then.
Swoosh!
Kartul's face darted in between them, his mad eyes flickering.
"Free! Fierce! And more than anyone!"
Grind!
"Mad!"
Boom!
"There must have been many things after that too."
Kartul closed in on the repelled Go Yohan, accelerating.
That mad orc great chieftain wasn't just overwhelmingly powerful in his strikes—his speed was incomparable too.
"The demons called you the slayer of their war god and summoned you!"
Boom!
The power in each blow grew fiercer, but Go Yohan didn't retreat much either.
[The Zealot activates.]
[Faith stat is converted to Strength, Agility...]
He could divide sins and curses to use faith in the Goddess.
Even if he could no longer call himself her knight...
"Have you abandoned your god? Your beliefs? Your pride?"
Flicker!
"Your..."
Boom!
Nothing else was visible around them.
It was as if only Kartul and Go Yohan stood on the battlefield.
"Have you abandoned your madness?"
At that moment.
Thud!
His heart resounded again.
"What made you afraid? What changed you? What? What?"
Boom!
"What!"
In that instant of memory, Go Yohan felt himself being sucked into illusions of the past.
Back when he had faced Kartul on the land called the Black Earth.
"Can't even hold a sword anymore?"
He had declared himself a monk master, convinced he now met the basic qualifications of a holy knight.
So he picked up the sword, and swung it.
The myriad orcs.
"To you, our kin were nothing but scarecrows to hone your swordsmanship!"
To Go Yohan, they were mere test subjects for learning how to wield a blade.
-Demon spawn!
He slashed, slashed, slashed, and slashed again.
"Don't disappoint me, knight of illusions. I returned as that one's servant solely to clash once more with you, my worthy rival."
Crunch!
Go Yohan's shoulder tore open.
Even that arm dangled as if it might rip off at any moment.
If Go Yohan had grown stronger through the power of faith, so had Kartul.
[The Incarnation of Ograk reveals its true form.]
An existence infused with the power of a being called an evil god.
"You've grown so weak."
Kartul's voice.
Crack!
It felt like the iron chains in his chest finally snapped.
"Yes, that's right."
Heh.
Amid pain that felt like it would drive him insane, Go Yohan smiled.
Twitch.
His muscles knit back together of their own will, flesh regrowing.
It happened in an instant.
"Yes, that's it! You were more orc-like than anyone."
Only then did Kartul seem satisfied as he reset his stance.
"And more demon-like than anyone."
Sunken eyes.
Boom!
Kartul's aura exploded outright.
*
*
*
'Goddess.'
When had it started?
When he stopped praying.
'Goddess.'
Declaring himself a demon, a villain, he had pushed everything away.
The first thing he pushed away was the 'Goddess,' who had been his everything.
He thought it wrong to invoke her name on the path he had to walk.
He thought the path he had to walk was one the Goddess did not desire.
"Goddess..."
No.
"Goddess."
Go Yohan said with a smile.
Why had he thought that?
"I am the Goddess's Knight."
"Yes, you are that knight of illusions."
"I am..."
He had thought wrong.
[Faith stat greatly increases.]
[Zealot effect greatly increases.]
"The Goddess's Knight."
"Yes! You alone chased that mad illusion!"
Only him.
"In Trbania, you were the only one chasing that mad illusion!"
Then...
"The Goddess supports all my choices."
The voice called the system voice, the Goddess's voice, was proof.
"The path I walk is the one the Goddess desires."
Boom!
It was different from before.
Kartul's greatsword bounced off Go Yohan's gesture.
And then.
[Occupation: Black Knight changes.]
[Occupation...]
That past self of his, the innocence he had lost—it filled him with unbearable jealousy in this moment.
[Changes to Knight of Jealousy.]
Fearless, raising his sword to cut down orcs.
Proudly and confidently shouting the Goddess's name.
"Ah, Goddess."
Go Yohan placed his hand on the Mark of Sin.
Click.
The collar snapped, and the Mark of Sin came into his grasp.
Go Yohan's appearance began to change too.
[Authority, Wraith activates.]
In the lives of Go Yohan and Michael combined, there was nothing he had ever envied.
He had looked down even on the kings of nations, and the emperors of empires held no appeal.
Nothing at all.
But in this moment, for the first time, something to envy was born.
Twitch.
It was the wraith.
The purity of his past self who had fought Kartul.
[Wraith of Purity]
Silver-white hair, sky-blue eyes—nothing had changed.
But those eyes brimmed with confidence and faith, a smile flashing at the corners of his mouth.
The armor was the mithril plate offered by some knight, and in his hand.
"Damned creation of evil."
He held a cross-shaped dagger.
That alone was different from the past.
A dagger made of light, its form indistinct—a laughable thing against that massive greatsword.
Jingle!
Kartul felt chills erupting all over his body.
Held in the grasp of the evil god, his soul pawned, reborn as a demon.
He had never clashed with anything since, but from the power surging through his body, he was certain.
'I am strong.'
Kartul knew he had become an overwhelmingly more powerful being than before.
With merely six horns, but honed further, he might even contend with the evil god Ograk of eight horns.
And now.
"...You're insane."
The chills from the past returned.
The same thought then, and now.
"I'll crush that filthy pig face of yours."
That was a monster in the truest sense.
*
*
*
His entire body felt light.
The joyful mood wouldn't fade.
"Hahat."
Laughter burst out.
It was a battlefield strewn with corpses, filled with slaughter, yet the Michael of that time laughed within it.
"What, forgotten already?"
And then.
Swish.
He lightly swung the cross dagger gripped in his hand.
In that instant.
Shrieeek!
A sword beam of light whipped toward Kartul.
Kartul, who hastily crossed his twin greatswords to defend.
Boom!
Was blasted back with an explosion.
"Impossible mana...!"
As Kartul bellowed and tried to regain his stance.
"It's not mana!"
Go Yohan appeared above him and shouted.
"It's divinity!"
It was just a small dagger.
Like a child's toy, but.
Boom!
As it thrust in, Kartul felt pressure like his whole body was being crushed.
"Don't compare the Goddess's greatness to that pathetic thing."
"Ma...dman."
"What does a filthy creation of evil have to say?"
Slash.
With a light swing, one of Kartul's arms was severed.
"......"
Disappointment flashed across Go Yohan's face.
"Even without the Goddess's touch, you're truly worthless."
The twin greatswords surged up.
Go Yohan.
Step.
Stood atop them.
"Hmm."
Memories began overlaying onto that Go Yohan.
If only it had ended at the moment he met Kartul.
"What are you?"
The current Go Yohan was a bit more reverent, heavier.
The dagger had grown slightly.
"You're clearly..."
And then.
Crunch!
The dagger carved a massive wound into Kartul's chest.
More reverent, heavier, and crueler.
"Kartul?"
"Have you gone mad?"
"......"
"Now I can clearly see the power you wield!"
Boom!
Kartul poured out all his power and rose.
"You! You!"
The power pouring from Go Yohan now, projecting his past and summoning it—the source wasn't the divinity Go Yohan spoke of.
From earlier, his god, Ograk, had been groaning in agony.
"You-!"
Go Yohan tilted his head, as if unable to comprehend the situation.
Seeing that, Ograk screamed.
[???, Demon Michael manifests.]
That was when.
The dagger, now truly deserving to be called one, moved.
"......?"
That was as far as Kartul's memory went.
Light.
And annihilation.
Kartul, and all the orcs behind him, turned to ash and scattered in an instant.
That was when Go Yohan heard the Goddess's voice.
[Wraith of Regret]
Standing there was a mass of foreboding without even a discernible form.
A mass that dyed the world in darkness, threatening to engulf the dimension in dread.
Go Yohan at the time he felled the demon god Balrok.
No, Michael.
That was when.
Splatter!
With a geyser of light, the mass split open, revealing its innards.
"You'd forgotten it all."
Go Yohan.
The moment he returned to his original form and placed the Mark of Sin back around his neck.
[The Black Earth is destroyed.]
[Massive Karma Points acquired.]
[Knight of Jealousy, Authority Wraith unlocked.]
[Mark of Sin unlocks Great Sin form.]
His heart pounded, but his mind was calmer than ever.
Atop that land torn asunder.
"Captain!"
The Apostles appeared.