Chapter 8
Chapter 8
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Demon God Slayer
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Regeneration and recovery were authorities not granted to most players.
A rare ability permitted to only a very select few.
Crunch!
But it was different for demons.
For them, regeneration and recovery were the most natural abilities.
The wing twisted by Go Yohan swiftly regained its original shape.
“You! It’s you again!”
Drows shouted.
Boom!
Another wing whipped at Go Yohan’s body.
At a speed too fast to react, Go Yohan’s body was sent flying.
“……!”
Only then did Lee Jae-kyung snap out of it and charge forward, swinging his sword, but it was useless.
[Your skill has been sealed.]
A skill that wouldn’t activate against a demon.
Lee Jae-kyung swung a sword strike as pathetic as if his arm had been severed.
Rumble!
Meanwhile, Drows’s wing was plummeting down to tear Lee Jae-kyung apart.
It was a monster.
With his experience conquering countless gates, Lee Jae-kyung could roughly estimate Drows’s level.
Level 200, the benchmark for top rankers.
But that monster was.
‘Estimated level 300.’
At this point in time, no player he could bring would stand a chance—a true monster in every sense.
The falling wing, his lowered stats, and sealed skills wouldn’t even be able to block it.
But as Lee Jae-kyung had said.
“Run away!”
He intended to become Go Yohan’s meat shield and sacrifice himself.
As Drows’s wing, faster than the sluggishly swung sword, came down toward Lee Jae-kyung’s head.
Grip.
A small hand, like a child’s, had seized that wing.
“……!”
It was Go Yohan.
“…So it’s still not enough.”
Go Yohan pushed the wing away and muttered self-mockingly.
Since the day he was born, he had never once neglected his training.
Every moment, every second, he had squeezed himself to reclaim his past power.
It was a time of suffering incomparable to Lee Jae-kyung’s talk of training until he nearly died.
Because Go Yohan’s training meant forcibly tearing his body apart at the cellular level and regenerating it.
“You bastard…! How are you…!”
In the meantime, Drows cried out.
“Demon God Slayer—!”
Demon God Slayer.
That seemed to be what Go Yohan was called among the demons.
He could feel Drows’s fear toward him from the gripped wing.
But at the same time.
“……?”
The fear was turning into bewilderment.
Demon God Slayer, a being no different from terror incarnate to demons.
“Phantom Knight….”
Phantom Knight.
However.
Sreeeak!
Drows’s mouth split into a long grin, drool dripping between its grotesque teeth.
“You’ve weakened! You’ve gotten weak!”
It cackled like a crow that could speak human words.
“You’ve weakened!”
It wasn’t unreasonable for Drows to think that.
No matter how fearsome a one-horned demon was, to Go Yohan—or rather, Michael—they were no different from hellhounds.
But the thought that such a phantom knight, the Demon God Slayer, couldn’t handle a mere one-horned demon like itself.
“Keeheehehehe!”
Drows burst into mad laughter.
Drows was right.
The body of an eight-year-old boy couldn’t compare to his body at its peak.
But that was purely a matter of the flesh.
What hadn’t changed then or now was one thing.
[The Zealot title activates.]
Faith in the Goddess.
Crun crunch!
[A portion of your Faith stat is converted to Strength stat.]
Drows’s wing was crumpling.
[A portion of your Faith stat is converted to Magic stat.]
[…….]
Rip!
Drows’s wing was torn off.
[Current Faith stat….]
His body was merely that of an eight-year-old child.
No different from his peers—skinny, even.
But what it contained.
[1012]
Was something a mere one-horned demon couldn’t withstand.
“Go back and relay this.”
Go Yohan, now in front of Drows’s nose, extended his hand.
A massive tangle of black threads appeared before its eyes.
Things that his small hand could never sever.
“The Goddess’s Knight has returned to tear you all apart.”
Boom!
In an instant, everything about Drows began to explode.
*
*
*
“Guhk, guhuk…. How…! How…!”
Drows, most of its body burst open, crawled on the ground and wailed.
“How are you here… guhk!”
And behind such a Drows stood Go Yohan.
Crunch.
A small foot stomped down on what was little more than rags.
“There is no place for you to run.”
“Keeeek!”
Immortality didn’t mean freedom from pain.
“Go back, revive, and relay this.”
For undying beings, the emotion of fear was unfamiliar.
That was why Go Yohan—Michael—had researched and researched ways to instill fear in them.
Boom!
“The Goddess’s Knight is here.”
The rippling energy made Go Yohan appear as an unstoppable knight.
“This time, I will tear you all to death.”
Crunch!
“S-spare….”
Boom!
Now even the remaining fragments of Drows burst apart.
Regrettably, Drows hadn’t truly vanished.
It would revive somewhere in the demon realm and one day spread its wings again….
[The hierarchy of sin activates.]
At that moment, the Goddess’s voice rang out.
[You have slain the one-horned demon, Drows.]
The Goddess had clearly stated.
[You have succeeded in your first demon hunt.]
[You have acquired the Unique Achievement, Adversary of the Apocalypse.]
[Your stats slightly increase against all demons.]
[You have acquired a large amount of Karma Points.]
That the demon had been slain.
“……?”
Go Yohan stared at Drows’s corpse with a dumbfounded expression.
He felt the black threads composing it unravel and flow toward him.
“G-Goddess?”
Even without her voice, he could tell.
[You have acquired the Legend-grade item, Drows’s Staff.]
That the demon had truly been annihilated.
“I… I wasn’t wrong.”
The vow he made when he threw himself at the gates of the demon realm.
That if he could hunt demons, he would become one himself.
“The Goddess wasn’t wrong…!”
It was the moment his vow bore fruit.
Thud.
Lee Jae-kyung finally relaxed and collapsed on the spot.
As a player, he knew the situation had ended.
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has…]
The endless level-up messages and rewards were proof enough.
“When we get back… you really have to tell me.”
Now it was fine to plant the flag.
*
*
*
As with all gates, the black gate was no different.
After defeating the boss, you had to destroy the spatial core slumbering behind it.
Players called it the reward room because that was where you obtained numerous items along with gate destruction rewards.
But.
“…….”
“…….”
What existed there was not glittering treasures or items.
Of course, Go Yohan had no interest in such things anyway, but what occupied the space was utterly unexpected.
“Kie…. Kie….”
It whimpered like a beast.
Drows’s wing feathers were embedded all over its body, and a small horn was budding on its head.
But he could say for certain.
“That thing… isn’t human… is it?”
Human.
Amid the black wing feathers, the revealed clothing looked like a middle school uniform.
No, precisely, it was a girl.
A girl who seemed to have just entered middle school, a bit older than Go Yohan.
Step.
Go Yohan approached the girl.
“Kie…. Kie…!”
Terrified of Go Yohan or something, the girl only made incomprehensible whimpering sounds.
The boy who approached thus grabbed the girl.
“Kieee!”
She cried out as if trying to flee, but with her feeble strength, escaping the boy’s grip was impossible.
“…….”
Go Yohan’s eyes darkened.
‘I thought I was the one who opened the Door of the Apocalypse.’
No.
Demons had already extended their claws to Earth, somehow.
“……Vessel.”
And just as in Travania, they were clearly spreading tumors to erode the planet.
The girl was a vessel.
“Vessel?”
“A possessed body.”
A container for demons to roam Earth freely, and eventually manifest their true forms.
‘Demonization is already progressing.’
In the past, Go Yohan had encountered such vessels many times.
And each time, there was only one thing he could do.
Grip.
Grant peace and rest so she wouldn’t fall further.
“Kieee! Kie!”
He was about to make the same choice now.
“Wait…!”
Even without Lee Jae-kyung’s remonstration, Go Yohan released the girl’s hand.
“…It’s not your sin.”
The girl was merely a victim.
Still bound to the demon realm, she hadn’t harmed anyone.
Demons—beings impossible to coexist with.
“…I.”
Hadn’t he vowed the same?
To hunt demons, he would become one.
“I will bear your sin.”
“…Kie?”
Go Yohan extended his hand.
The trembling girl, gripped by fear, looked at Go Yohan.
“Kie!”
She reached out her hand, which was turning into a wing, and clasped his.
“Kie! Kie!”
[You possess sufficient Karma Points.]
[You possess sufficient Faith stat.]
[You possess the Black Knight class.]
[You possess the Zealot title.]
And the Goddess spoke.
[Atonement of sin is possible.]
Lee Jae-kyung couldn’t even stop him.
Because he didn’t know what Go Yohan was doing.
“So be it, Goddess.”
Flash.
Bright light poured from the girl’s body.
Her body, transforming through corruption, reverted to human form.
But the small horn mark on her temple couldn’t be helped.
[Atonement completed.]
[You have acquired a large amount of Karma Points.]
[Status ailment, Curse of Sloth activates.]