Wilhelm's Memories

What is Sword Gang?

In the game, Sword Gang was something like a skill — one you could obtain by reaching Sword Mastery Lv. 30. Everyone knew of it, yet almost no one could ever acquire it: a legendary skill in every sense. Naturally, its effects were outrageous. Damage amplified by fifty percent! And with those dazzling visual effects lending it an overwhelming presence, Wilhelm swinging Sword Gang was inevitably the object of every player's envy.

But even Wilhelm's Sword Gang had been somewhat removed from true purity.

Wilhelm never purely hit Sword Mastery Level 30 either.

In the first place, no class could push mastery to Level 30 — none except the class I currently held: Supreme Sword Saint. Wilhelm, too, had only expanded his level cap by borrowing the power of stars, equipment, and various tools.

What Knight Commander Raiga means by pure Sword Gang… is the state of reaching that realm through class alone, without any expanded level cap.

Which meant that Raiga himself possessed a class comparable to Supreme Sword Saint. Only… he was under the mistaken impression that I had fully controlled Baal and broken past my level limit. He believed that if my class were Baal itself, the mastery ceiling could easily exceed Level 30.

What class does he even have?

I was curious. Desperately, maddeningly curious. To think another class existed that could expand the mastery level cap all the way to 30, besides Supreme Sword Saint. And the fact that he had manifested Sword Gang was proof he had raised his mastery to Level 30 — without external aid, through pure training alone. I couldn't even begin to imagine how many swords Raiga had faced and swung.

This isn't just a skill.

That made it all the more fascinating. I had never truly contemplated Sword Gang in depth. Until now, it had been nothing more and nothing less than a useful skill that boosted my damage.

CLANG—!

Gang met Gang. No technique, no finesse — just raw, brutal impact. The sound was dull and heavy, like a baseball bat connecting with something solid.

KRAAAANG!

I swung again, and this time an explosive roar shook the world itself. The force behind each blow was the same — so where was this difference coming from?

Because the balance is different.

The balance of mana forming the Sword Gang was uneven. If the mana at every point were uniform, striking anywhere should produce the same sound. Sword Gang was, ultimately, a technique that concentrated mana to the extreme in order to raise destructive power. Pouring in that much mana made maintaining balance correspondingly difficult.

But—

…Only my balance is subtly off.

With every clash, only my Sword Gang trembled precariously. Compared to Raiga's, the mana in mine had not achieved uniform equilibrium. Of course it hadn't. Until now, I had only ever poured Sword Gang out — treating it with the same casual sense as activating any other skill. To Raiga, however, Sword Gang was the fruit of training. Proof that he had reached the ultimate realm, a form that testified to his very rank!

I've been far too complacent.

Ah. Once again, I was reminded: this is not a game. Everything has meaning. You have to know how to invest meaning into things. But I had never given meaning to Sword Gang. I had never poured that much effort or care into it. From the start, I had regarded it as just another ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠category of skill.

The reason I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could handle Sword Qi and Sword Gang with so little effort was not simply because I had hit certain mastery levels.

Wilhelm.

It was only because I had played Wilhelm and inherited his memories that I could walk the path he had forged so easily. To me it had been a game — but to Wilhelm, it never would have been.

When you first gripped a sword, what did you feel?

…I had never thought about it. Never even tried to know. Wilhelm's feelings. The effort he poured into carving out that path. Those were not things you could accomplish with a few mouse clicks.

What was it like the first time you manifested Sword Gang?

I tried to remember. Wanting to examine the beginning and the end once more, I walked Wilhelm's path in reverse.

And then I saw him.

Wilhelm.

—At last······!

Finally, I saw him.

—You bastard of a god! I'll burn every world you ever made!

The real Wilhelm.

…A voice like scraping metal. Having reached that realm through agonizing effort, Wilhelm was screaming in raw, desperate anguish. It was a fragment of the scene I had once dismissed as a mere intro — right before I became a player. A flashback I had seen immediately after Wilhelm suffered a game over at the Demon King's hands.

There are countless gods in this world. The Goddess of Earth, Rhea, and the Goddess of Sky, Fina, are the most well-known, but beyond them, deities possessing true divinity number far more than one could count on two hands.

But to Wilhelm, none of them were real gods.

A god is an omnipotent being against whom one cannot dare to resist.

That was how Wilhelm defined a god. So the "gods" people spoke of fell far short of a true god by his standards.

The one who moves me as he pleases. That one must be the real god.

By the time he first became self-aware, he was already holding a sword. As he cut down everything he recognized as an enemy, people elevated him as the Knight King. A destiny with purpose forced upon him, a mission thrust into his arms — all of it originated from the god who moved him.

Whenever Wilhelm intermittently regained awareness, he could not help but ask the question.

Who am I?

He grew stronger by the day. With every rise in the level of his martial power, his sense of self grew more intense. And yet his body remained suppressed. The god would not grant him freedom.

If I complete the mission, will I gain my freedom?

The mission: kill the Demon King and restore peace to the continent. Once his usefulness was spent, would the god release him? If he could only reclaim his freedom, he would be able to know and do everything.

Then I will grow stronger.

Wilhelm's intensified self hungered for greater power. He memorized every minute movement of his muscles, replaying them endlessly in imaginary training. He gained countless insights, shattered wall after wall, and made ever-faster growth possible. On the rare occasions when the god's surveillance slipped and he could move his body freely, he performed the role of a more perfect "Knight King" still, nurturing a dream — a dream of roaming the world as he pleased.

"At last······!"

And so, when he completed Sword Gang — surpassing Sword Qi — Wilhelm was overcome.

This was on a different plane from every insight he had gained before. Understanding Sword Gang not only made his sense of self stronger still, it brought him into contact with the source of mana and with truth itself.

Awakening.

For the first time, Wilhelm felt that he was alive. And with that, the very way he saw the world changed.

I pour myself into the sword. I become a god.

Yes. This cycle and this balance were the first step toward truly becoming complete as a god. A form of Gang that was utterly perfect could only be called a work of the divine. And the one who had created it — in some sense, could he not be called a god himself?

I can do it. I can reach it.

Now it truly felt as though he could fulfill the mission. Even if his opponent were the Demon King — even if it were a god — he felt he could win.

At the same time, Wilhelm looked up at the sky.

How about it, you damn god? To complete the mission you forced on me, I am striving like this. I keep performing, and I keep achieving. So answer me.

…Please.

Just answer me. Tell me the path I'm walking is right. Tell me that at the end of this road, I will obtain what I desire!

And if you still choose silence to the very end—

—then I just might burn the world you created for real.

Wilhelm's memory. The recollection of the moment he first manifested Sword Gang.

For an instant, it felt as though I myself had become Wilhelm.

So he hated me.

It was the same as with the other characters. Just like Isabella and Isaac, he harbored a fundamental resentment toward me for controlling him as I pleased. No — perhaps even more than they did.

Wilhelm was fully aware.

Isabella and Isaac had said they barely remembered anything from the times they were controlled — not until long after contracting Divine Illness, probably not until I abandoned them. Wilhelm was different. He had been conscious. Conscious of his body moving against his will.

Wilhelm's strength was never my effort alone.

Without Wilhelm's own will, he never would have stood before the Demon King. The effort he achieved was something no ordinary person could even begin to imitate. Having lost everything, he focused solely on growing stronger. That is not something just anyone can do.

The insight into Sword Gang······ the first step toward becoming complete as a god.

Now I understood. I thought I finally understood. The meaning of Sword Gang. The true will Wilhelm had invested in it. The moment he first felt that he was alive was the very moment he manifested Sword Gang. The joy of that instant, its meaning — nothing in the world could replace it.

…At the same time, my mastery level rose.

The expansion of the maximum mastery level through Winter — Ultimate Twilight. Because of it, I could raise Sword Mastery as high as Level 35. But I had no idea what kind of changes came after Level 30. Even with the expanded cap, stacking mastery past Level 30 had been nearly impossible. Reaching Level 31 itself was close to a miracle.

Unique-grade Apocalypse, huh.

The Hidden Quest I had received upon climbing the Mountain of the Cultivator. Once my mastery growth rate exceeded four hundred percent, the mountain's master had set the condition. Of course, the original condition had been "Reach Mastery Level 25," and each time I refused the reward as the level climbed, the quest's scale had grown larger and larger.

And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so, the seventh. I had earned the chance to acquire Apocalypse — a name that meant a great calamity.

A name I've never seen before.

Moreover, it was unfamiliar even to me. I was certain I had seen the names of most Unique-grade equipment existing on the continent before, and that name had not been among them. If it was neither equipment nor a Mystery, then what exactly was it?

Same structure as when I obtained Mysteries. The more you raise the achievement conditions, the better ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the reward.

What was certain was that the reward's grade kept climbing. But I had never once reached Mastery Level 32. Stopping here was the right call. If I challenged it recklessly and failed to achieve it, even this Apocalypse would vanish. This was an entirely different situation from when I had kept challenging the Tower of Mysteries. I couldn't pull the same tricks I had back then.

But—

I refuse.

I intended to keep challenging. An opportunity like this would never come again. Anyone watching would have pointed fingers and called me reckless, asked why I was being so stubborn. But that was fine.

This challenge was my first act of pioneering — and—

······I was your god, wasn't I.

As Wilhelm's god, it was only right that I do this!