Chapter 225
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 225
Chapter Title: The Secret of the Royal Class Armaments
All Royal Classes are completed through a contract with that guy.
The Demon King.
And as proof of their contract, every Royal Class receives a divine armament.
These armaments possess power in their own right and are utterly indestructible.
They grant immense strength and absolute durability.
But fittingly, each divine armament comes with a single constraint.
No one but the contracted wielder can use it.
That was why the Mercenary King, flustered by the appearance of Sergio's divine armament, soon let out a scoffing laugh.
"So this is your ace in the hole? Even if you have Sergio's divine armament, you can't use it..."
"You all still don't know a thing. Sergio is the god of this world."
A truth known to every Royal Class.
The unbreakable rule: no one but the wielder can use their divine armament.
Snap!
That was the moment it shattered right before the Mercenary King's eyes.
Odin, who had bitten down on Sergio's divine armament with his teeth, suddenly absorbed the light pouring from it with his entire body.
And then, he began unleashing the very superhuman strength of the Mercenary King that no one could overcome no matter what they tried.
"Sergio's divine armament..."
"Odin's using it?"
It felt like every law they knew was crumbling.
The gate, which had been steadily shrinking before the stunned Ignito and Spello, suddenly began expanding in size.
Boom!!
And soon enough, Odin shoved the Mercenary King back before blasting him away with demonic energy.
The Mercenary King flew backward and crashed into the wall.
Odin, who had reverted to using his sword like a staff as before, rose to his feet with a smile.
"Now I get why they told us not to use it. You could get addicted to this power and slaughter everyone!"
Odin wiped the blood from his mouth.
He locked eyes with each of the bewildered Royal Classes one by one before darting toward the Mercenary King embedded in the wall at blinding speed, plunging Sergio's sword into his shoulder.
Stab!
The divine armaments of Royal Classes cannot be used by anyone other than their contractors. That's the rule.
Who set it? No one knows.
But everyone knows the fate of those who covet another's armament.
Stab.
The Mercenary King, with Sergio's sword impaled in him, suddenly grabbed Odin's head and yanked it toward his chest.
Unable to resist the erupting yellow haze of the Mercenary King's aura, Odin released the sword and placed both hands on his chest.
And then.
Whoosh.
A golden light burst from the Mercenary King's stabbed body, incinerating his clothes and revealing its true form.
It was the Mercenary King's own divine armament.
A suit of golden armor.
Thud!
The moment Odin touched the golden armor with both hands, he recoiled in shock and swiftly kicked the Mercenary King in the stomach.
Whoosh!
Using the Mercenary King as a springboard, Odin leaped back, putting distance between them in an instant.
But.
Fwoosh.
Black flames had already erupted from both of Odin's hands.
Your divine armament cannot be used by anyone else.
But the moment someone covets yours...
Their fate is sealed.
"Gaaah! Graaaahhh!!"
That was why he had been shocked to see Odin wielding Sergio's divine armament.
Anyone who uses another's divine armament is inevitably engulfed by black flames and reduced to ashes.
"Gaaah! Graaaahhh!!!"
No matter how desperately Odin tried to shake off the black flames before their eyes, they consumed him from the fingertips onward, turning him to cinders.
To confirm this upon seeing Odin wield Sergio's armament, the Mercenary King had devised this very plan.
But if Odin died, they wouldn't learn why the Royal Classes had come.
Frowning, the Mercenary King seized Odin's throat.
"Guh! Guh... grrr."
Odin's form was steadily vanishing.
The Mercenary King glared at him with a grim expression.
"Where's Sergio?"
"Guh... grrr... I don't... know..."
He had seen Odin's reaction the first time he touched the Mercenary King's divine armament.
This guy knew exactly what happens when you touch someone else's—and its inevitable end.
No matter what he did now, death awaited him anyway.
The Mercenary King scowled again and punched Odin in the face.
Crack!
"Urk!"
"Tell me his location!!"
The black flames governing his disintegration had already consumed his arms entirely.
Less than a minute remained.
At that moment, Ignito shouted to the Mercenary King.
"Mercenary King! Look at Sergio's divine armament!"
The Mercenary King's gaze dropped downward.
And he was shocked once more.
It was clearly Odin who was disintegrating, not Sergio.
"Then why..."
Was Sergio's divine armament disintegrating too?
Heh.
Had he grown accustomed to the pain?
Or was he serene in the face of his predetermined death?
Odin, who had been screaming in agony, suddenly smiled.
"You won't gain a thing from this. And a god of vengeance will come for you all."
The disintegration accelerated; now black flames blazed across both his legs, arms, and torso.
Should they just let it go?
If not Odin, then where would they find Sergio's minions?
His mind growing ever more tangled, the Mercenary King grimaced fiercely and released Odin's throat.
Fwoosh.
With only his head and chest left, Odin plummeted to the floor.
And beside him lay Sergio's divine armament, reduced to just the hilt.
The sole lead they thought would reveal Sergio's location—the Royal Classes' one chance—was fading away.
"If only Dream Light had been here..."
They could only lament the bitter regret of watching their opportunity vanish.
With Dream Light intact and present, there would have been no need for all this hassle.
They could have simply entered Odin's mind and extracted the memories.
"Even Yong-un alone could have made it possible."
Spello clicked his tongue.
"Was it a mistake to go it alone instead of asking for help?"
The Mercenary King was dejected.
"Was it... greed after all?"
Ignito approached the Mercenary King and patted his shoulder.
"Who could've predicted Odin would pull something like this? We just planned to beat him down and pull the info out."
"Still, with results like this, regrets are inevitable."
Shaking his head as if blaming himself to the end, the Mercenary King looked at Odin, now just a face.
Even in dissolution, Odin wore the smile of a victor.
Fury rising, the Mercenary King raised his foot high to stomp Odin's head.
At that moment, someone appeared to block the Mercenary King's foot.
And another placed a hand on Odin's vanishing forehead.
"Who..."
The Royal Classes looked down at the mysterious woman behaving so strangely.
With that enigmatic woman's touch as his finale, Odin fully disintegrated.
The head of the GHO, the World Hunter Organization—and the world's official number one power.
Those were his last words.
Guild Master’s Office, GHO U.S. Headquarters.
Upon arriving, Yong-un met the waiting Royal Classes and Vice Guild Master Charlie.
And the very first thing he saw was the nameplate.
[Director Charlie Kidman]
"What happened?"
He couldn't help but ask.
He had never once seen the Director.
But he knew the man's power was immense.
Yet in just a few days, Charlie—the former Vice Director—had become Director. It struck Yong-un as odd.
It wasn't suspicion, though.
Their expressions were far too joyful for that.
"Looks like some good news."
Charlie smiled at Yong-un's words.
"Good news indeed. We've reclaimed GHO's position."
"You're talking like the Director was the one corrupting GHO."
"That's the truth. It was thanks to your overwhelming strength that these folks found their courage."
He scanned the Royal Classes.
Spello spoke up, looking at Yong-un.
"The Director was one of Sergio's minions."
An unexpected answer, but Yong-un nodded lightly.
"Surprising."
A titan who had long manipulated the world.
To have the GHO Director—the so-called world's top power—as a minion.
His assessment of Sergio changed.
Not just brute strength, but a guy who knew how to seize the world and keep it under his heel.
"But who's that woman?"
Mid-thought, an unfamiliar face stood out among the Royal Classes.
The woman at the center of the talk rose gracefully from her seat with a smile.
She approached Yong-un and extended her hand.
"Nice to meet you. I've heard so much. I'm Sophia, the Second Royal Class, Dream Light."
Yong-un's expression hardened.
"Dream Light...?"
"No surprise there. Even our alliance comrades didn't expect someone from a place they can never return from to come back like this."
Despite Sophia's confident words, Yong-un's face remained stern.
It was Sheiks who had imprisoned Sophia in the Time of Memories.
And Sheiks's memories were fully intact in Yong-un's mind.
Of course, Sheiks had used the Shadow Clan's innate ability to trap Sophia who had entered his time within it.
That much was true.
But there was a reason suspicion lingered.
Only Sheiks himself could open that sealed time completely.
In other words, it meant the dead Sheiks had somehow revived and fully unlocked the Time of Memories.
Utter nonsense.
"You still look skeptical."
"Yes, honestly, I can't believe it."
"They said you accomplished what I couldn't... You really are different."
Unfazed by Yong-un's distrust, Sophia shrugged and returned to her seat.
With a bold expression, she asked,
"What would it take to convince you?"
"How did you get out of there?"
"Ah~"
Pfft!
Sophia smiled as if annoyed.
Ignito burst into laughter he had been holding back.
"Sorry. But just know this is the third time I've had to explain."
And so, Sophia recounted her tale, regaining everyone's trust once more.
To sum up her story:
She had entered the memories of the rune-knowing demon to uncover everything about the contracts.
Along the way, she felt an inexplicable sensation, and the moment she did, she was trapped in that frozen time, unable to escape.
'Sheiks's doing.'
A signature Shadow Clan skill.
Normally, no Shadow Clan member could pull it off to that degree.
But Sheiks, amplified by demon blood, could.
If Sheiks were still alive and maxed out his power, Yong-un's battle with him might have ended in utter defeat.
Regrettable as it was, it was fortunate Sheiks had been obsessed with runes.
"What I'm curious about is how you got out."
But the crucial issue remained unresolved.
As Yong-un glared at Sophia, she smiled and replied,
"Hard to believe, but it was thanks to Sergio."
Sergio?
Dream Light Sophia was Sergio's greatest enemy.
Yet that enemy had freed her.
'Impossible from the start.'
Sheiks's memories were fully with Yong-un.
"Still doubtful, huh? I get it—even I can hardly believe it. But what if... the memories I rode were in Sergio's divine armament? And because that armament disintegrated, the frozen Time of Memories thawed, bringing me back? Would you believe then?"
Sergio's divine armament disintegrated?
Yong-un glanced at the Royal Classes.
His eyes fixed on the most trustworthy among the grim-faced group: Spello.
Nod.
Spello nodded, and the Mercenary King explained.
"It's true. Not that we caught Sergio exactly. The Director was using his divine armament, and when the Director disintegrated, so did Sergio's armament."
"I came to clear my head, but it's only getting more complicated."
Yong-un shook his head.
Why was Sergio's armament with the Director? And an uncontracted Director's death causing a contracted armament to vanish?
Though much had grown convoluted, Yong-un found the unchanging truth amid the tangled memories.
'Sergio. Catch that guy, and everything resolves.'
Freely altering contracts.
Knowing what happens if you use Demon King runes.
Maybe even the voice occasionally whispering in Yong-un's mind could be uncovered by catching Sergio.
"Believe me now?"
"Yes, but not you exactly—I'm trusting the people here."
Yong-un nodded, pointing to the other Royal Classes.
Sophia stood with the same smile.
"Then, before the Director died, we found a way to meet Sergio. Here's his location."
"Ah, hold on."
Sophia tried to hand over a paper with the method.
Yong-un raised a hand to stop her and asked,
"Just one question. If you read the memories in Sergio's divine armament, did you learn where it came from?"
"Yes, I did."
"Where?"
"Not exactly sure, but it wasn't this world. Looked like some kind of castle..."
The Demon King's castle?
"Thanks for the answer."
Yong-un smiled at that.
The armament from the Demon King's castle...
And with that, he snatched the address from Sophia's hand and strode out.
"The Demon King's castle... Heh."