Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: The Hellhound and the Tribunal
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It was a movement like another exquisite trick, entirely different from when he dismantled the empire's trap.
The amount of mana Sein could use was limited.
“Kuheeeeng!”
That was why it had to be the movement of someone who maximized efficiency with minimal motion.
The hellhound charged in rapidly.
Sein dodged it like a bullfighter.
Puk!
He thrust his sword into the beast's massive body.
“Feels like the old armor I used to wear. Right?”
With seven daggers embedded in it, the hellhound looked like it was clad in armor studded with spikes.
“Kraaaaa!”
Of course, the hellhound bellowed in pain and rage.
“I didn’t expect it to be this weak.”
For demon realm beings, demonic energy was akin to life itself.
A beast that had feasted on demonic energy while serving him would be in its twenties and full of vigor, but one starved of it for so long...
“Aaron the old man could move better than you.”
It was like an old man nearly a hundred years old teetering on the brink of life and death.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t a threat, though.
Pashit!
Another wound appeared on Sein’s body.
The armor meticulously crafted in Aaron’s smithy was already in tatters.
A hellhound’s claws couldn’t be withstood by anything less than pure mithril.
Moreover.
“Playing around, huh?”
The hellhound’s attacks were coated with something far more potent than the poison from the empire’s trap.
The qualification proving it was a demon realm being.
‘Demonic energy.’
The wounds on Sein’s flesh were turning black and spreading.
Demonic energy was similar to the death energy wielded by necromancers—it denied existence itself and devoured it.
Even a dying hellhound like this could cause hundreds or thousands of casualties if unleashed outside. That was precisely why.
“Krrr...”
Of course, that was someone else’s problem.
Saaa.
The demonic energy corroding Sein’s body was rewinding, vanishing as if pulled back.
The first time, he couldn’t help it, but now was different.
“If it’s mine to give, getting done in by it makes you an idiot.”
The demonic energy composing the hellhound was his own.
Though its life form had changed and its body lost the qualification, power like demonic energy remembered the soul.
‘The Sanctuary settings were like that too.’
Demonic energy he could use by inheriting past-life privileges.
Normally, it had to be obtained through the life-flashing-before-your-eyes sequence.
“Thanks for the gift, Jade Doggy.”
But it could be acquired this way too.
This was a method that existed in the past Sanctuary as well.
A kind of awakening event where specific stimuli and quests unlocked past-life abilities without the life-flashing sequence.
Arin had...
“Guess I should say thanks.”
...essentially prepared such an awakening event for him.
Fwoosh!
The hellhound’s body began to ignite.
An attack he knew well.
A sure-kill move that burned all demonic energy and life force right before death.
Yet tension was absent from Sein’s face.
“Nice seeing you after so long.”
“Kuuheeeeng-!”
The charging hellhound.
Sein lowered his stance, assuming position.
A pattern he’d seen hundreds, thousands of times.
“See you again.”
If you knew the precise timing and weak point, there was no way you couldn’t handle it.
Pang-!
The hellhound brushed past Sein’s twisting body, scattering demonic energy.
Drenched in demonic energy, Sein promptly absorbed the invading power and channeled it into his sword.
Crack!
The mithril, called pure steel, began to crack under the vicious demonic energy.
But it wouldn’t shatter yet.
The seven daggers he’d embedded beforehand.
They were part of the summoning circle to send the hellhound back.
The final piece.
“Jade Doggy.”
The little star on its head.
Puuuk!
Sein’s longsword twisted and buried into the hellhound’s skull.
Thud!
The hellhound collapsed.
In its final moment, its eyes seemed to say:
“Yeah. I know you’re glad to see me too.”
Welcoming its master’s return.
*
*
*
After finishing the battle with the hellhound, unlike when he breached the empire’s trap, Sein needed a long rest.
He had more wounds than expected.
Wounds from demonic energy were hard to heal even with special potions, and leaving them would allow the energy to erode his entire body, leading to demonization.
That was why.
‘It was called the shittiest life.’
The final demon life.
Sanctuary contained hundreds, thousands of lives, and the final demon was one of the special ones.
Players assigned their own grades to such Sanctuary lives.
-1 to 10 grades.
Lower numbers meant more impressive, superior lives.
The empire’s crown prince.
The final demon.
All of them.
-Grade 2.
Lives experienced only by those with the greatest luck among Sanctuary’s hundreds of millions of players.
Fewer than a hundred people across billions of players could claim a grade 2 life.
The cheat version Sein obtained led him to choose these grade 2 lives: the empire’s crown prince and the final demon.
“Jeez...”
Sein, having somewhat tamed the demonic energy, opened his eyes and muttered.
Experiencing it firsthand, he understood even better.
How tricky and extraordinary the demon life was.
“What the hell is grade 1?”
Even with the cheat version, he couldn’t choose grade 1.
The reason such a grade existed, unseen by any player even once, was simple.
-There are lives you players haven’t experienced yet.
The developers’ declaration.
“Well, I don’t really believe it.”
Sein didn’t buy it.
After all, even in the cheat version, he couldn’t select it.
Swish.
Sein rose to his feet.
The changes from absorbing the hellhound’s demonic energy were immediate.
Thump...
His still heart.
Thump...
It began to beat, albeit very slowly.
Thus, without undergoing the life-flashing sequence, Sein gained the privilege to unlock the final demon perk: the demon heart.
“The problem is it’s gotten even more urgent.”
A beating heart wasn’t good news.
Zing.
As it started beating, faint pain began to register bit by bit.
Over time, the pain would intensify, forcing him to relive that past agony.
Further on, it would lead to death.
“And the potions are all gone.”
The ones he’d prepared were depleted.
Borfeo’s materials and time had their limits.
“The gear’s a total mess too.”
The armor was rags, and all the daggers were used up.
Only the mithril longsword remained, but it wouldn’t hold much longer.
No matter.
Step.
Sein walked forward.
“Arin. If this is what you prepared.”
He could guess what awaited at the end.
The three lives the Destroyer had lived.
The first one among them.
He’d have to prove he possessed that other grade 2 life of his.
*
*
*
Sein’s guess was correct.
The final destination wasn’t an imperial ruin or a demon realm space.
Fwaaah!
A place where brilliant light descended.
The warmth felt the moment he stepped down made the demonic energy in his heart surge.
“Ha.”
Sein couldn’t help but be genuinely impressed.
“Arin Segmore.”
The culprit who tossed him here.
“You really are something.”
Research on the Destroyer.
Preparations to prove it.
Easier said than done—it wouldn’t be simple.
But that was precisely what impressed him.
“The Tribunal of the Ark of Er.”
The current world: the fallen empire and crumbling Sanctuary.
There was one more thing that had perished.
-The Temples.
The temples and followers serving the one true god Anhel.
They too had collapsed with the empire’s fall.
Faith was nowhere to be found in Chichiron’s back alleys.
Everyone believed what they wanted.
Occasionally, some cried out Anhel’s name.
-Bad luck anywhere.
People treated Anhel like an evil god and trampled the faithful.
It was inevitable.
-The one who destroyed the empire was Anhel himself!
The Destroyer and Anhel.
Anhel’s chosen apostle was the Destroyer, after all.
“Even ruined, hauling in the Tribunal of the Ark of Er, revered as a holy relic.”
The tribunal.
Nothing could pass beside it.
To go further, one had to cross it.
And Sein knew the Tribunal of the Ark of Er better than anyone.
‘The Final Judgment.’
The final gateway to become pope or Anhel’s apostle.
A platform that washed away all sins from the body and judged one’s qualification to be Anhel’s apostle.
And if one received the tribunal’s approval...
“You get the mark of divine power and the stigmata.”
The temples were destroyed, but remnants remained, he’d heard.
No idea where they’d gotten the Tribunal of the Ark of Er from.
Step.
Sein stepped forward.
“It’s a bit twisted.”
His build crafted to clear Sanctuary.
Since the fourth life hadn’t originally existed, there were some hitches.
“Well, doesn’t matter.”
But Sein fearlessly ascended the tribunal.
Wooong-!
The moment his foot touched it, the tribunal resonated, emitting light.
As befitting a holy relic, it radiated immense light and unleashed intense divine power.
“This is the vibe, huh.”
In the game, he’d just thought it warm.
Like sunlight through the window on a weekend after a tiring week.
But now, in reality, the divine power’s sensation went beyond mere warmth.
“No wonder the zealots went mad.”
A fullness filling his entire body.
Someone had said it once.
No human creation could match this pleasure.
Clack.
Sein quietly knelt on one knee.
He then stood his longsword upright on the floor and closed his eyes.
“Great and almighty Anhel.”
The condition to activate the tribunal was met.
Kwaaaa-!
Fierce light erupted from the tribunal.
“Please judge me.”
His prayer carried a reverence that belied all his prior demeanor.
However.
Sneer.
Sein curled his lips into a smile.
He’d already opened his eyes.
“Choose me as saint once more, Anhel.”
For that had been Sein’s first life.