The Challenge of the Radiant Knights
Basara.
There was no precedent for her answering anyone else's summons. But this time, she had no choice. The moment she heard that name, she had to move.
This man…
Park Hyunmyung.
…Because he was standing right in front of her.
So you're the real Park Hyunmyung?
The moment the papal election concluded, the Goddess Festival began without delay.
The Goddess Festival was a grand celebration held over two days in the Holy City of Adrium. The first day honored the Goddess Rhea; the second, the Goddess Fina. The entire city surrendered itself to revelry. It was the one and only commemorative occasion when the Goddess Sect opened its gates completely.
"What sort of man is Pope Aron?"
"He is Cardinal Johansen's foremost son. He has long been renowned for his piety and sense of justice."
"There were rumors he was a wastrel…"
"Hah! Mind what you say! Even if such rumors exist, they are nothing more than the youthful indiscretions everyone experiences, blown wildly out of proportion."
"I-is that so?"
The great figures of countless nations gathered, mingled, and traded questions about the newly elected pope. All of them harbored doubts about this young man who had appeared so suddenly.
Besides, the rumors surrounding Aron had never been favorable. He had been a wastrel through and through — not merely a wastrel, but a complete and utter scoundrel. The stories had spread so far they even reached the Empire. Arrogant beyond measure, a womanizer who treated people like objects.
And that man was now pope?
"…I heard the Knights of the Round Table intervened in this papal election."
"They must have installed a puppet. After all, they conquered the Tower of Ruin themselves."
"He does look easy enough to handle."
Naturally, some revealed their more sinister intentions. But most people regarded Pope Aron as nothing more than a Round Table puppet. Otherwise, such an unprecedented rise to power would have been impossible. Had they not ignored and skipped nearly every procedure required to become pope?
It wasn't as if their suspicions lacked supporting evidence.
Where is the Master of the Round Table…?
They had heard it clearly — that dependent tone, that manner of speaking. Like a duckling searching for its mother.
Yet on a day of such importance, the Master of the Round Table was nowhere to be found. He didn't show himself at all, as if the entire affair were beneath his notice. No matter how long they waited.
"By the way, who exactly is this new Master of the Round Table?"
"He hasn't shown his face even once."
"And was the Round Table ever that impressive a group to begin with?"
Perhaps for that reason, discontent began to mount among the crowd.
From the start, the Knights of the Round Table had been a force that perished alongside the Great Expedition. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and knights had been committed, and the campaign had failed. Yet now they had suddenly returned and conquered the Tower of Ruin? It was something no one could believe — or even begin to understand.
"Perhaps the Tower of Ruin itself wasn't much of anything…"
"And this so-called new master is probably just some ordinary fellow."
"The Goddess Sect's authority has been in free fall for a long time now."
"This isn't the Goddess Sect of old."
"We came for nothing."
"Pack up. We're leaving."
Quite a few people jumped to their own conclusions, dismissing both the newly elected pope and the knights of the Round Table alike as they prepared to depart. They had traveled great distances from the beginning for one purpose: to see the Master of the Round Table. When he failed to show so much as a glimpse of his face, their disappointment was profound.
That was when it happened.
ZAAAAAAAH—!
An ear-splitting roar — and then:
KUUUUUNG!
A colossal pillar of light erupted over Adrium. Every gaze in the city snapped toward it. And from the heart of that pillar, a man emerged.
"I am Kasim of the Radiant Knights. Knights of the Round Table — I deny you."
Kasim, the Radiant Transcendent!
Having reclaimed all of his equipment, he stood complete at last, wreathed in brilliant radiance. And he was not alone. More knights stepped through the pillar of light behind him.
Twelve Holy Knights!
At the sight of them, several among the crowd trembled.
"Kasim… did he say Kasim?"
"Don't tell me — the Radiant Transcendent who vanished three hundred years ago?"
"There's no way he's still alive!"
"B-but those Holy Knights… there's no mistaking it. They're the Radiant Knights!"
Kasim was a figure who appeared only in history books. Alongside his twelve Holy Knights, he had brought every heretical cult that rejected the Goddess Sect to its knees. He had completed twelve impossible labors, defeated the evil god summoned to the continent three hundred years ago, and then vanished without a trace — a mythic figure. Without him, the entire continent would have been consumed by that evil god. He was the decisive force that had allowed the Goddess Sect to spread across the continent as the foremost faith.
If this man truly was Kasim, even the pope could not treat him lightly.
The problem was why he had appeared now.
On the Goddess Festival — the most blessed and celebratory day of all — why had he suddenly arrived to deny the Round Table?
"I challenge you to a duel. To determine who is more worthy of being called the Goddess's Knights. The time: tomorrow at noon. The place: here. Should you refuse, I will take it as a coward's surrender."
With that unilateral declaration, he stepped back into the pillar of light. The pillar vanished, and Kasim and his Holy Knights disappeared without a trace.
"…"
"…"
The people were thrown into confusion, one and all. But the essence of the matter was simple enough: a contest to decide which order was more fitting to serve as the Goddess's knights.
"The Radiant Knights versus the Knights of the Round Table…"
"Good thing we came."
"Unpack at once! Immediately!"
Those who had been preparing to leave unpacked their belongings once more. Kings of countless kingdoms, masters of great merchant houses and cities — all of them turned expectant eyes upon the knights of the Round Table. The Knights of the Round Table, about whom only rumors had swirled. At last, it seemed, they would grasp the truth of them.
"…Things are getting interesting."
King Friedrich of the Iron Kingdom — the Demon of Pride — smiled to himself. He had slipped into Adrium through a gap where the Goddess's barrier had weakened.
So he was still alive.
But… this was unexpected. Who would have thought Kasim still lived?
Three hundred years ago, it was the Demon of Pride himself who had orchestrated the summoning of the evil god to the continent. Or more precisely, the demons as a whole. But Kasim, knight of the Goddess, had appeared and foiled them. Afterward, the demons had scattered, each pursuing their own path.
Even back then, Kasim had been a monster.
That monstrous bastard. He's gotten stronger.
Had he spent three hundred years in seclusion, swinging nothing but a sword? Judging by the scale of that light, he seemed far more powerful than he had been then. With all his old armaments reclaimed, his strength would easily surpass even his prime. The Holy Knights who had followed him through the completion of his labors remained intact as well.
And the Knights of the Round Table?
Ruin has appeared. This is a golden opportunity returned to us once more.
In the distant past, when Ruin first emerged, the demons had surpassed every god. They had no longer hesitated to look up at the heavens. If Ruin had truly appeared again, it would be a festival without equal for demonkind.
But the Round Table had conquered the Tower of Ruin — and Ruin itself was nowhere to be seen. How could that be? Had this new Master of the Round Table somehow extinguished Ruin?
No one can defeat Ruin.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. No one could defeat Ruin. Even if Greed reappeared, the result would be the same. And had not even the goddesses who once aided Greed already fulfilled their destinies?
…In any case.
If the Master of the Round Table does not show himself, they cannot hope to defeat Kasim.
Things were unfolding in a most entertaining fashion. Whether the Round Table could stand against that monster Kasim — who had grown stronger still over three hundred years — remained to be seen. King Friedrich judged that without their master, the Round Table would struggle.
So then…
Show yourself now, Master of the Round Table.
The personnel to be dispatched for the Black Dome expedition had all been decided.
The party assembled by Deputy Association Leader Lee Arin totaled ten members. Most were powerhouses representing Korea, and among them were 2nd Generation Awakened whose names had been rising at a steep climb.
But there was one person — just one — whom no one had expected to join them.
"That man…"
"Is he really Park Hyunmyung?"
The expedition team murmured among themselves as they stared at him. The man who had brazenly walked into the Alliance and introduced himself as Park Hyunmyung. The Alliance had been thrown into chaos at once — because the man rewriting history in the Hall of Fame was Park Hyunmyung.
Everyone had wondered who he was. The man who had completed the tutorial on God's Island and then vanished. They had searched for him tirelessly, yet he had evaporated without a trace. And now, of his own accord, he had appeared before the Alliance.
He's more…
Ordinary-looking than I expected.
Doesn't look all that strong…
Those were their honest first impressions of Park Hyunmyung. He had a solid, muscular build — but that was all. Nothing about him suggested the existence who had recently cleared Main Quest 6 with an absurd score. His results on the previous Main Quests had been just as outrageous.
Park Hyunmyung — the rising powerhouse who had appeared after Wilhelm and Randolph. Could he be a fake? People claiming to be Park Hyunmyung were everywhere. Not a single one of them had been real.
"You…"
In that moment, a man swaggered toward him with an insolent air.
Choi Kangnam.
Currently the hottest 2nd Generation Awakened in Korea — a treasure even called "Korea's Future Asset." And yet he had suffered consecutive defeats at Park Hyunmyung's hands, crushed by score gaps in the Hall of Fame that he simply could not close. He had refused to accept reality, screaming until he collapsed in a faint.
So the moment he heard that Park Hyunmyung had appeared, he had come running.
"So it really was you. That monster bastard I saw on God's Island!"
Choi Kangnam ground his teeth. The worst-case scenario had become fact.
On God's Island, during the final trial, Park Hyunmyung had single-handedly toppled every powerhouse ranked from second to ninth in a matter of seconds. Choi Kangnam had been among them. But he had never been able to accept that the man he saw then was Park Hyunmyung.
And the man standing before him now was unmistakably that same man from God's Island.
Which meant…
…That monstrous bastard had been the real Park Hyunmyung all along.
"You… I've been dying to see you again. Let's fight. Let's settle once and for all who the best in Korea really is!"
Choi Kangnam openly provoked Park Hyunmyung.
I'm not the same as I was back then.
He had grown incomparably stronger since entering God's Island. No matter how thoroughly he had been outranked in the Hall of Fame, that was no absolute measure of strength. If they fought again, he was confident he would not fall as emptily as he had on God's Island. No — he didn't even think he would lose.
He was the one who had received every benefit the nation and the Alliance could offer, cultivated with concentrated investment. Among the 2nd Generation Awakened, he had no true rival. Even turning his gaze to the 1st Generation, he was confident that given enough time, he could break into the top hundred in short order.
I am the talent who will become the first Korean listed among the Top Ten.
No Korean had officially entered the Top Ten. But he was certain that in the near future, he would be the one to claim that place.
"I don't know what cheap tricks you've been using until now, but they won't work on me. I need to check for myself whether you're even fit to join this expedition with the rest of us."
This, then, was his chance to avenge every humiliation at once. The perfect opportunity to show the world he was the greatest 2nd Generation Awakened — and set everything right.
Choi Kangnam had no intention of letting it slip away. One corner of his mouth curled upward.
"What? Scared? Well, I had you figured out from the moment I saw you on God's Island. 'Bug user' Park Hyunmyung."
Lee Arin.
Choi Kangnam was certain Park Hyunmyung was a bug user. God's Island, where the tutorial had begun — only the Unawakened could enter that place. An unawakened human, no matter how strong, could never break free of the mold. Even someone who had trained in martial arts for decades had limits.
But the Park Hyunmyung he had faced in the final trial of God's Island had already shattered every notion of common sense and concept.