Trash Belongs in the Trash Can
There was no other way such a blow could have been possible.
"Fugitive Maxim. You die here."
That was when it happened.
The man pulled something from his coat.
A golden object shaped like a chalice.
The moment he pressed its mouth to the floor—
Gush, gush, gush!
Streams of water poured out without end, soaking the ground.
The flowing water soon sealed every exit.
And still it kept coming, endless.
When Maxim realized what the water from the golden chalice truly was, he went pale with shock.
"A Holy Grail…?"
…A Holy Grail.
And one that produced holy water of this quality, in this volume!
What was a Holy Grail?
It was a chalice imbued with the sacred power of the god the Church served.
A true holy relic of the divine.
Naturally, only a pope could even touch one.
And as far as Maxim knew, no Holy Grail that generated infinite holy water had ever existed.
The holy water that poured forth began to cage the surroundings like a barrier.
Gush, gush, gush!
As if that were not enough, the man dumped holy water over his own head.
There was no other word for it—he was insane.
Maxim had never seen anyone use holy water like that.
Even the highest-ranking holy knights of the Church would never waste it so freely.
Right after, that madman smiled.
"Well then. Care to try scurrying away like a bug one more time?"
Looking at that smile, Maxim could not help but feel rattled.
………………What the hell was this guy?
Trash Belongs in the Trash Can
Lv.10.5
Not even 10—10.5.
That was Maxim’s level.
Had he transcended properly, it would have displayed as a ★, but because the way Maxim had raised his level was anything but normal, the notation was different.
Demon Worshiper.
The thick stench rolling off him.
He had clearly obtained a Demon Heart through demon worship and grown strong on it.
In this world, “evil” was not singular.
Demons, demonkin, death gods, the Abyss… each lived with its own role and domain.
Among them, demons were the ones who issued the rarest quests tied to “evil deeds.”
No wonder Priest Andrew had recoiled and asked whether he was truly a hero.
I can’t win this the normal way.
The gap in levels. The gap in stats.
But I didn’t care.
All I had to do was seal the power of that Demon Heart with holy water.
With every escape route already cut off, a life-or-death duel began right here.
"Pathetic. No matter how you thrash about, you can’t close a level gap."
Yet Maxim had his own reason for not running.
Even if he couldn’t use the mana of the Demon Heart, his opponent’s level was a mere 6.
A few tricks might let the man hold out for a moment, but the outcome would not change.
Maxim settled into his stance.
I settled into mine as well.
Two Extreme Iron Swords.
The strongest blades that raised sword mastery high enough to glimpse the Extreme!
Sword Mastery corrected to Lv. 7.
Sword Mastery corrected to Lv. 8.
Due to the effect of Extreme, Sword Mastery corrected to Lv. 10.
Those two blades raised my mastery by four levels. The moment it hit 10—
Reproducing the Heaven of Knight King Wilhelm’s sword style, Creation of Heaven and Earth.
I could recreate Wilhelm’s swordsmanship.
In Randolph’s body, carrying Wilhelm’s memories.
But that was fine. The Knight King’s memories and experience had already been fully obtained through the Star.
"Ngh…?!"
In that instant Maxim recoiled in horror.
The atmosphere had changed.
The domain had been seized.
The slowly approaching sword somehow felt impossible to meet.
Swaak!
From high to low.
An ordinary swing.
Clang!
He hooked it with a dagger and blocked.
But the blade coming for his side felt impossible to stop as well.
Instinctively he twisted his body aside and took one step back.
Then another step back.
It was strange. Even though he should have been able to block, the feeling that he could not kept rising.
The presence…!
Because his opponent’s presence had changed.
Because he had been swallowed by that presence.
It was the aura only a thoroughly seasoned swordsman could radiate—someone who had lived his entire life with a blade in hand.
But the man was a Player, wasn’t he?
How can a Player give off the presence of such a polished swordsman…!
Sizzle!
His back burned.
The path sealed by holy water.
The power of the holy water stood like a wall, cutting off Maxim’s retreat.
He needed to crush the man, yet he could not crush him.
Instead, he was the one being crushed.
Maxim bit his lip.
Don’t be afraid. He’s only level 6.
Right. There was no need to be scared from the start.
No need to be swallowed by the opponent’s presence.
If the great Maxim flinched against a mere level 6, he would no longer be Maxim.
He gripped his dagger properly.
Blade met blade.
The iron sword flew toward him, slow enough to track with the eye.
There was no reason he should fail to block it—yet he could not block it.
The moment he stopped one, the other vanished from his mind.
A blind spot?
This isn’t even a strike aimed at a blind spot.
There were sword styles that targeted blind spots from time to time.
But this opponent was coming in openly.
He held twin swords, yet each felt as heavy as if he were wielding greatswords in both hands.
With pure presence he was erasing one of the blades from existence.
What kind of swordsmanship is this?
A style he had never seen, never experienced.
But it made no sense.
How could a four-level gap be overturned?
No matter how refined the technique, low stats rendered it useless. Overwhelm with raw speed and power and it was over.
"Is that all?"
The man spoke.
As if disappointed.
"With only this much, you spoke of salvation?"
…Damn it.
Maxim regretted it.
He should have run long ago.
Regret flooded him, but it was already too late.
Those eyes.
Just meeting that gaze as deep as an abyss had turned his mind blank white.
"With only this much."
Clang!
Maxim flung his dagger.
He had to run.
They had only exchanged ten exchanges—or perhaps more, it no longer mattered.
He knew now.
The difference in skill.
The fact that he could not win.
The truth that level was not everything!
Sizzle!
"Gaaaaah!"
But he could not cross it.
The wall of holy water.
His whole body felt as if it would burn away, yet this was a dead end.
Maxim spun around.
Damn it. Damn it. Damn it!!
He wanted to live.
He wanted to live.
He wanted to live so badly it drove him mad.
That lunatic drenched in holy water.
He was no mere successor.
Maxim had been ignorant of the man’s true martial might, but now he understood.
The one who had settled everything alone.
The one called the God of Combat,
the one whose name alone made even the rulers of the Abyss seize up,
the natural enemy of a myriad demons.
…Knight King Wilhelm.
That not a single rumor about him had been exaggerated.
That everyone who assumed his skill had rusted after becoming a Player had been wrong.
That the man standing before him right now was Knight King Wilhelm himself—Maxim finally knew.
Regret was overwhelming, but it was already too late.
"With only this much, you dared call yourself a hero?"
"Ph-Phantom, s-spare—"
Shlick!
That was Maxim’s final death cry.
It was disappointing.
Truly.
To discuss the Eight Heroes—heroes who stood shoulder to shoulder with me—at only this level of skill.
A man with neither honor nor ability had simply grown greedy.
High level, worthless skill.
The moment our blades crossed, I knew.
He’s only ever fought those weaker than himself.
The weak. People he could beat without any real technique.
He had fought them and won.
Conversely, whenever victory looked uncertain, he had fled without looking back.
So he had only the level, nothing inside. High stats, yet no idea how to use them properly.
Normally it would be impossible to reach level 10 by fighting only weaker foes.
Demon Worshiper. He leveled through demon quests.
Hudson was better.
Even in the worst situations, Hudson had never borrowed a demon’s hand.
And one new piece of knowledge had been added.
Gamers cannot become Demon Worshipers, but Players can…
Demon Worshipers.
They were traitors who had betrayed the Goddess.
They existed to obstruct the Goddess and sink the continent into the Abyss.
That was why the game had occasionally issued quests to hunt such Demon Worshipers.
But when playing the game normally, becoming a Demon Worshiper yourself had been impossible.
Now that I was a Player, even that was possible.
People I thought were Named NPCs turned out to be human, and people I thought were human turned out to be Demon Worshipers.
Becoming a Demon Worshiper was synonymous with abandoning one’s humanity.
The power they granted was never free.
So the ones who interfered with me were Demon Worshipers?
There had been those who viciously obstructed my play.
At the time I couldn’t understand it.
What kind of game NPCs betrayed you this relentlessly?
Backstab after backstab after backstab had been everyday life.
Looking back, of course Demon Worshipers would interfere with the one called the Goddess’s Knight.
Slash!
I split Maxim’s belly open.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
A black heart still beating wildly.
I poured holy water over it.
—Kyaaaaaaaaah!
With a scream, the heart shriveled and revealed its true form.
It was the shape of a tiny demon.
But under the holy water it thrashed, then hardened like stone and died.
You have slain Player Maxim.
◈ Seized from Player Maxim
Killing Maxim let me plunder the Broken Fragment of the Golden Rule he had been carrying.
But this was only the beginning.
The Curse of Coordinates engraved upon Maxim’s heart has been extinguished.
The reason I had poured holy water to kill the demon.
Because upon Maxim’s death the coordinates would have been transmitted automatically.
But the holy water had washed every curse clean.
It stopped right after, so the coordinates were never delivered.
A laugh slipped out on its own.
They placed a curse so that if Maxim died, the coordinates would be sent to someone. Almost certainly one of the Eight Heroes.
No matter how I thought about it, only the Eight Heroes would have put a Curse of Coordinates on Maxim.
One of them had set the curse so that the moment Maxim died, they could rush over at once.
Maxim was bait.
Was this also aimed at me?
Thinking I would target the weakest of them first?
What was certain was that someone had handed Maxim a Demon Heart and turned him into a fake “Eight Hero.”
Someone meticulous enough to even embed a curse inside the Demon Heart.
The curse had been erased by the holy water, of course.
Interesting.
They weren’t complete idiots after all.
Whoever it was, the situation was getting entertaining.
What was certain was that I would no longer go easy on them.
They were not NPCs, and this place was no longer a game.
They would soon learn that Maxim was dead as well.
The Hall of Fame or the Golden Rule Shop would be more than enough to confirm it.
In that case, there was still only one thing for me to do.
Become overwhelmingly strong.
Strong enough that they wouldn’t even dare try tricks like this.
And then crush them completely.
That was when it happened.
Through the skill King of the Dead, you have successfully dominated the Dead Maxim.
Maxim is a Raid Boss (Lv. 10) Dead.
By dominating Maxim, Agility permanently increases by 1.
King of the Dead activated and began dominating Maxim.