Chapter 156
Chapter 156
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 156
Chapter Title: The Third Night (7)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
As the Flower of Life began to absorb death,
Gula trembled as if sobbing, becoming aware.
-'Death'! You cannot defeat the light!
-Follow Lord Gula!
-We have the Guardian of Light with us!
It was a memory.
The figure of Gula from his living days, thoroughly sealed away and forgotten.
But it was strange.
If he was a guardian and holy knight who served the Light God Ahe, why had he submitted to 'death'—his natural predator?
Rather than turning to dust and vanishing, he never would have joined the 'Legion of Death'.
'It's fake.'
He desperately denied it.
This had to be an illusion conjured by that small, pathetic Anubis cub.
It made no sense for that radiant holy knight to become a Death Knight.
'It has to be... fake.'
...However.
Gula gazed at the human.
The one cloaked in honor blazing like golden flames.
In eons of existence, he had witnessed countless souls, but never one bearing such honor.
It far surpassed the limits of what a single human could possess.
Unless he had shouldered the legacies of innumerable glorious beings all at once.
Otherwise...
If that was honor forged by him alone...
'What resolve drives you to live in this world?'
It would be unyielding.
The kind who never surrendered, forging his own path no matter the cost.
One who rose after countless falls, challenging walls too high to scale.
After all, karma—true honor—bloomed from unbreakable conviction.
Then how exalted was that human's conviction?
'What do you strive to conquer without ever breaking?'
The foe that human challenged was no mere death.
Something far grander, more inscrutable.
Only by harboring the will to triumph over the utterly insurmountable could one radiate honor so brilliant.
Yet Gula, the guardian and holy knight, had not.
He fell and could not rise.
He surrendered.
Submitted.
To death.
......Ah.
'I...'
The faint memory sharpened into clarity.
No matter how he denied it, he had no choice but to accept.
Anyone else might have refuted endlessly, but one with such honor would never speak falsehoods.
He realized it only after clashing swords with him.
That ferocious, unrelenting blade was the pinnacle of 'Pure Swordsmanship'.
He had encountered someone like this before.
A man whose blade defied the term 'swordsmanship'.
One who revered only his own martial prowess.
An ascetic named 'Arhat'.
They met just once, but he rejected the Legion of Death and crumbled to dust.
-Death is supreme? What nonsense.
-Death is stagnation. Cessation.
-Legion of Death! Mere playthings of demons.
-Life is supreme.
With those final words, he perished.
Gula had severed his head himself.
After endless persuasion and pleas to join the legion, he refused to the end.
That Arhat's honor was truly sublime.
And not only that.
The memory still turned his stomach even now.
To claim one Arhat, over ten Death Knights were annihilated.
More than a hundred commanders and a thousand soldiers expended.
This human's swordsmanship bore an uncanny resemblance to that Arhat's.
'I...'
Thus, he could not deny it.
These memories.
...Were all true.
'I am Gula, Guardian of the Light.'
Crack!
Something shattered within Gula.
It was the seal of death, locked away impenetrably.
Soon, another memory rose before him.
-You cannot surpass me.
-Accept it.
-Then at least those you cherish will survive.
-Transcend through death.
-Death Knight Gula.
-Awaken.
Anubis.
Gatekeeper of the temple. Supreme commander of the legion.
In their final clash, Gula despaired.
He felt his own powerlessness to his core.
Deeming victory impossible, he accepted Anubis's bargain.
However.
......Anubis broke his promise.
His notion of 'survival' meant conscription into the Legion of Death.
As ruler of death, Anubis's very existence was death incarnate.
'I should never have accepted.'
Even if it meant death.
Even crumbling to dust, he should never have bargained with Anubis.
Had he fought relentlessly without yielding, he might have died without regrets.
Avoided the nightmare of everyone joining 'death'.
Crack!
......The seal shattered.
Whoosh!
The Flower of Life broke Gula's seal, restoring his radiance.
Though true life eluded him.
His armor, black as darkness, bleached to purest white.
The blade that once wielded death reclaimed its light.
Sacred power.
Holy power.
Tremble!
Gula shuddered, overcome with ecstasy.
He could not contain the surging emotions.
Because.
"Ahe!"
...This holy power proved the Light God Ahe had not forsaken him.
The god had watched over Gula still.
Hoping this lone ember would spark his change.
And now it blazed.
Freeing him utterly from the creator 'Moon Lord Aheta's' yoke.
His duty as night in this domain of night vanished too.
A moment of awakening.
Savoring the rapture, Gula slowly turned.
"...Thank you."
Park Chan-woo smirked.
"You clung to that ember of hope. Don't thank me."
Had Gula lost all hope and refused to acknowledge, he never would have evolved into an Arc Knight.
He overcame the wall through self-acceptance—how could that be credited solely to another?
Still, it was wondrous.
'A Death Knight wielding holy power. A rarity.'
A paradoxical being, mastering opposing forces.
First he'd seen.
Embracing death should extinguish divine grace.
It revealed Gula's devotion to the god in life.
Come to think of it, most high commanders in the 'Temple of Death' had been 'holy ones' in their mortal days, like him.
Gula asked,
"You. Your name?"
"Park Chan-woo."
"Park Chan-woo. I'll aid you. In slaying 'Anubis'. Alone, it's impossible."
"You'll face him yourself?"
"Yes. But with just us, it's daunting. Fortunately, this is the domain of 'night'. Aheta strained to force balance. We exploit that."
"A plan?"
"Proceed to the next trial first."
"And you?"
"I'll sabotage the 'second trial' here."
Gula eyed the desert.
Only then did Park Chan-woo grasp his intent.
'Direct intervention to mass-produce passers.'
Indeed.
If Gula cleared the desert traps and guided participants safely, many would pass.
A outcome utterly defying Aheta's design.
He chuckled inwardly.
Aheta never dreamed the trial's overseer would undermine him.
Visions of Aheta's warehouse collapsing filled his mind.
'Play it right, and we bankrupt him for good.'
An unforeseen variable.
Something creators like Aheta never conceived.
Leverage Gula to spawn hordes of passers, arming countless against 'death'.
He'd grow stronger too.
Victory over Anubis would make Aheta howl.
Park Chan-woo nodded.
"I trust you."
"...Meet at the trial's end. I'll lead the others."
"Do it."
He turned toward the next trial without hesitation.
Watching him go, Gula mused,
'...You just might defeat that ruthless Anubis.'
Anubis, supreme commander of the legion.
His death was gruesome.
Dragging countless into despairing demise.
Innumerable challengers battered the temple gates, yet none crossed the threshold past Anubis.
Yet Park Chan-woo... seemed capable.
One with such honor, who tamed a 'Radiant Anubis'.
Gula looked skyward.
The eyes of night ignored this place.
Piercing other camps instead.
'Aheta's distracted. Our chance.'
Before the Moon Lord noticed.
Before Anubis sensed the anomaly.
Gula moved swiftly.
Clearing every trap in the desert.
"Huff! Huff!"
"Th-the typhoon's too fierce!"
"Damn it, how are we crossing 500km through this sandstorm...!"
Those following Lee Hyuk-soo vented their frustration.
Six hours in, they'd barely covered 50km.
Of course, 50km in six hours was impressive.
But they were Awakeners.
High-caliber ones at that.
With their stamina, they could manage it in under two hours unhindered.
'Too many traps.'
Lee Hyuk-soo ground his teeth.
The traps plagued him more than the typhoon.
Leading a group made it harder still.
Charging ahead, tanking every trap bare-handed to guide them—his fatigue dwarfed theirs tenfold.
Yet he couldn't falter.
He'd started this.
Quit now, and none would rush the desert.
'450km left.'
He clenched his fist tight.
Squeezed out step after grueling step.
Desperate to quit, but he endured.
How much farther did they press?
Whoooosh!
The raging typhoons.
Stopped!
Vanished in an instant.
"Typhoon stopped?"
"No, all gone!"
"Clear zone from here?"
Hope lit their voices.
But unlikely.
'All traps destroyed.'
Someone had deliberately cleared them.
Soon, a figure approached from afar.
Lee Hyuk-soo gripped his sword, tense.
'What mana is that? No... holy power.'
A being of terrifying holy power drew near.
Confirming it, his strength ebbed away.
A knight of bone.
'...Death Knight Gula?'
If Gula, he could slaughter them all.
"I am Arc Knight Gula."
Yet Gula claimed Arc Knight, not Death Knight.
The shock didn't end there.
"I'll aid your completion. Then teach you my sword. Follow well."