The Most Brilliant Radiance

And so, if anything, that only made it more doable.

"······?"

Watching what I was doing, Demon Pamel tilted his head.

And for good reason.

Gwaaaash—!

······I had lifted the Holy Grail and was drenching myself from head to toe in holy water.

KWA-ROONG!

KWA-RRRRROONG!

KUUAAAAAAAANG!

Lightning crashed without pause. A violent typhoon swallowed everything in its path, and tidal waves surged in to drown the world around them.

Every major network was running emergency coverage of the same story. And yet everyone felt it in their bones — this was no ordinary weather event.

The red warp was expanding in real time. It had already swollen to the size of a ten-story building, and there was no longer any way to hide it.

"······What on earth is trying to come out of that thing?"

"The end! This is the end! The apocalypse is finally upon us!"

"Hallelujah!"

It wasn't just the major networks. Every terrestrial station and countless other outlets had joined the frenzy. Even compared to the warps appearing across the globe, this one was overwhelming in scale — and it was still expanding.

As public curiosity about what lay inside reached a fever pitch, the mounting pressure finally forced Alliance Leader Park Taewoo to step forward and announce just how grave the situation truly was.

"At this moment, an entity known in the Otherworld as 'Baal' is invading. The warp that has formed in Seogwipo on Jeju Island is believed to be the gate through which Baal itself intends to emerge······."

"Mr. Park Taewoo! What exactly is Baal?"

"Are you talking about Baal, the ancient Syrian sun god?"

"One of Solomon's seventy-two demons?"

"Is this the Baal from the game?"

The press room erupted. The reporters' barrage of questions began before Park Taewoo had even finished speaking.

Damn it. He swallowed a sigh. He couldn't decide whether to explain it as it was or to soften the truth.

"······Baal is one of the Four Calamities — the four most dreadful monsters that existed in the ancient Otherworld. Countless Dimension Warriors attempted to halt Baal's invasion. They failed."

In the end, Alliance Leader Park Taewoo chose to tell them the unvarnished truth.

The fall of Cartel meant Baal was coming. If there was any hope of reducing the loss of life, the only option was to speak plainly and awaken a sense of urgency.

"Is Gracia among those who failed?"

"······Most likely, yes."

"G-Gracia is dead?"

"······That is what we believe."

The city had fallen and sunk into the Abyss. Surviving that would take a miracle. Betting on a probability that hovered near zero was pure foolishness.

The reporters reeled at the news.

Gracia — dead!

He had been a hero of global renown, a man who could unleash hundreds of swords and slaughter monsters kilometers away.

—If even Gracia died, just how strong is Baal?

No one could even begin to grasp it. The people of Earth had never faced a monster of this caliber.

So Park Taewoo added more.

"It wasn't only Gracia. Tens of thousands of warriors sacrificed themselves trying to stop Baal. Among them were many powerful Dimension Warriors."

"······!"

"Alliance Leader! Then is there no countermeasure?"

A countermeasure.

······A countermeasure.

As if such a thing existed.

The players gathered from Korea's narrow scrap of land numbered fewer than a thousand. There was no chance they could succeed where tens of thousands of warriors had failed. They lacked both the raw power and the Golden Rule fragments for it.

The only remaining solution, if it could be called that—

"·········We must abandon Jeju Island."

They had to let it go. Cut it away cleanly before the rot spread. Otherwise the damage would only grow worse.

"Jeju Island······?"

"Abandon it?"

The reporters murmured among themselves. The statement was so radical that silence was impossible.

Park Taewoo drew a deep breath and delivered the reality of it.

"Exactly what I said — abandon it. Baal is a being that vanishes once it has consumed enough space. If it consumes Jeju Island, it will disappear from sight."

······Of course, he wasn't one hundred percent certain. But the possibility was real enough.

After sinking Jeju into the Abyss, Baal might simply move on to another warp connected to the island.

The problem was that this was Earth, not Pangenia. In Pangenia, spaces weren't linked to one another, so warps were the only means of travel. On Earth, every space was connected — by sea, by land.

Still, looking at the warps appearing all over the world, the possibility is there.

It was wishful thinking, honestly. A desperate hope. Because Baal was a disaster of that magnitude.

"What about the residents who haven't evacuated yet?"

"The storms are too fierce to launch aircraft!"

"The same goes for ships!"

The problem was the people still left behind — those who had made Jeju their home. Were they supposed to abandon every last one of them?

"······."

Park Taewoo couldn't open his mouth. Even with ten mouths, he would have had nothing to say. He simply couldn't bring himself to declare that they all had to be written off.

Jeju's population was six hundred and eighty thousand. Only a fraction had escaped. Hundreds of thousands would die at minimum. Ordinary Earthlings who weren't Players would evaporate ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in an instant, without even a chance to resist.

"What about Master? Master is still alive, isn't he?"

"We already requested his aid······and were refused."

Refused flat out. He had clearly decided Jeju was beyond saving.

"Time is running out. The government must make a swift decision······."

"Is that the Alliance's official position? That we abandon Jeju Island?"

"······."

"Then the Alliance has no intention of intervening in this matter?"

"That is······."

He was right. The reporter had it exactly.

Abandon Jeju, then study Baal and fight it later. That was the conclusion the Alliance had reached. Reaching it hadn't been easy. But even if they were cursed and pointed at, there was no other choice. If they were wiped out on Jeju, there would truly be no future left.

But time was far shorter than anyone had anticipated.

"Ahh······."

Forgetting he was still in the middle of a press conference, Park Taewoo dragged a hand down his face and let out a deep, hollow sigh.

A blurred field of vision. Flowing blood veiled his eyes. Through the red haze, letters flickered into view.

"Hah— hahh······."

My entire body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton. My ragged breathing showed no sign of settling.

Guardian Knight Pamel. A Level 13 monster had been no easy opponent. Without the correction from the holy water and the effect of Penetration, the one lying dead right now would have been me, not him. Winning with even that much help already felt like a miracle.

If I hadn't first killed Lord Darkan and worn myself down fighting the other knights······it would have been impossible either way. Whether that counted as good luck, I couldn't say.

I took too long.

I bit down on my lip. Facing Pamel had dragged on longer than expected. In that time, Baal had finished evolving.

Because the number of survivors had dropped? No — more likely, Lord Darkan had simply fed it far too much.

Every soldier Darkan brought with him became nourishment for Baal.

It was enough to make me want to scream. Of course, he must have been that confident. From what I'd heard, a force of that size should have had a real chance of winning. But Lord Darkan had overlooked Guardian Knight Pamel's true nature — or never known it at all.

······If he'd known, he never would have come along.

Unless he was genuinely an idiot, no one who knew Pamel was a Demon would have walked into a curse-soaked cocoon with him. The lord most likely never realized what Pamel was. And so they never even managed a proper fight against Baal before falling apart.

It will invade Earth any moment now.

There was no time. Just as I forced my exhausted body to move, my eyes fell on the place where Pamel had died.

The butchered Demon had turned to dust the instant it died — leaving behind only a Demon Heart.

······A contract through a Demon Heart. And this one was on an entirely different level from the heart Maxim had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠carried. Simply forming the contract would grant abilities that skipped several levels at once. With full recovery thrown in, I might even be able to handle Baal more easily.

The Demon Heart — the devil engraved upon that organ — reached out a hand to me.

It was pure evil — evil that existed solely to test human greed.

Facing Baal in my current condition would be foolish. I had meant not to look at it at all, but my gaze was drawn to it almost by instinct.

The devil's whisper. It seemed to read my mind. No — it wasn't reading my mind. That was my own thoughts, given voice.

The power that came with a contract. The authority of a Demon! Use that power — power beyond Pamel's — and kill Baal. If it was impossible otherwise, then make it possible by any means necessary.

The evil was pressing on my sense of responsibility — insisting that none of this would have happened without me. That if Pangenia and Earth fell, the blame would be mine alone.

—Contract······.

CRUNCH!

I lifted my foot, stomped down, and crushed it.

"Shut up."

It really was too loud. Everything it said was something I already knew full well. Besides, for me — the successor ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the Knight King — to accept a heretical power that rejected the Goddess was absurd on its face. That would be trading the future for power in the present.

And then—

In the end, every Constellation had begun to watch me. The Demon's temptation. Even they had been unable to contain their curiosity about which choice I would make. The far greater gains in Honor and Contribution compared to killing Pamel seemed to stem from ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the same reason.

That Demon Heart itself had been the true body.

More than anything—

I can't face Baal as I am now?

The words it had whispered to me. Half right, half wrong. In this body, as I stood now, of course I couldn't face Baal. But there was something I had never used — not even against Pamel, not to the very end.

Ziiiiiiiiiiiiing—!

A warp thrashed and seethed. Advancing through the Abyss, I saw Baal there — He Who Is the Abyss Itself, trying to cross through the warp.

You are not getting through.

I would not allow it. The thing I had saved and saved for this one creature alone. The time had come to use it. The time to pour everything I had into it.

Ziiiiiiiiiiiiing—!

After Baal became He Who Is the Abyss Itself, the situation on Jeju Island changed in an instant.

"Th-that is······."

"What in the world is happening right now?"

The reporters were thrown into panic. Not only the reporters — everyone watching that scene was thrown into panic.

The warp had spread in every direction, wrapping the entirety of Jeju Island like a wall. And then the place where Jeju had been transformed into something like a void of pure darkness.

"Jeju Island······."

"I-it's gone!"

The entire space had been swallowed by darkness. It truly looked as though it had vanished. Had the whole island already been consumed? Baal hadn't even emerged yet.

"A-Alliance Leader!"

"Mr. Park Taewoo!"

"Say something!"

Naturally, chaos erupted. Everyone demanded an explanation, staring at Park Taewoo.

"······."

But he could say nothing at all. There was nothing he could say. He genuinely had no idea what was happening. He didn't know what was unfolding inside that darkness, or whether the people within were dead or alive······.

He knew absolutely nothing.

There was only one thing he could be certain of.