Chapter 42
Park Siwoo couldn’t close his mouth at the sight before him.
In a pure white space as blank as paper, jet-black ink scattered like splattered darkness.
Each time the sword and spear clashed, something unknown began to take shape upon that white canvas.
It was so breathtakingly beautiful that Siwoo stared blankly, as if bewitched by the scene.
Within that beautiful yet fierce battle, there was no place for him.
All he could do was watch and etch the fight of the strong into his eyes.
‘Damn it.’
Siwoo clenched his teeth so hard they nearly shattered, overwhelmed by a sudden wave of helplessness.
Even with the enemy who had killed his senior right before him, he couldn’t do a thing.
Had the statue not moved—
He would have already met his death long ago.
‘I’m too weak.’
His mind was weak, and that was why he hadn’t been able to take part in the mission.
His strength was lacking, and that was why, even with his enemy before him, he nearly lost his life instead.
He had to become stronger.
Strong enough not to bow before the enemy in front of him.
Strong enough to thrust his spear through the neck of his foe.
Strong enough to protect the people precious to him.
Siwoo did not take his eyes off the two as they fought.
Even though he was the enemy—
The Devil Knight’s swordsmanship was exceptional.
It wasn’t just his swordsmanship.
He had tainted the area with the power of darkness, summoning countless weapons from the ground and using them according to the situation.
Swords, spears, shields, battle axes, war hammers, whips, and more—
His mastery over each weapon, used precisely when needed, lacked nothing.
But greater still was the statue of the Hero Baek Hyun-joong.
The statue, armed with only a single spear, drove the Devil Knight into a corner.
With each thrust, the Devil Knight’s weapons were shattered to pieces.
The spear techniques of Hero Baek Hyun-joong’s statue were nothing short of art.
Each time his spear swept through the air,
the black that had stained the white space—darkness that had seemed impossible to erase—was washed away.
Before his radiance, the Devil Knight’s demonic energy couldn’t even move.
The battle that had started evenly began to tilt more and more to one side.
Seongwoo, the Devil Knight himself, cursed inwardly.
‘Damn this matchup.’
The light emanating from the Guardian was poison to demonic energy.
At first, it hadn’t been this disadvantageous.
When he had first manifested this space, it was only as if he’d been weighed down by a few sandbags.
But as time passed, the space absorbed more and more of his demonic energy and grew stronger.
‘A scaling debuff? Seriously? What kind of broken balance is this?’
As his demonic energy drained, his mana consumption spiked, while the pure white space strengthened its debuff effect.
At this point, it felt like fighting with massive boulders chained to all four limbs.
The Guardian’s power was the perfect counter to a Demon.
What was astonishing was that this was merely a thought-form imbued with a fraction of Baek Hyun-joong’s power.
‘If the thought-form is this strong, how powerful was the real one?’
A prolonged fight would only lead to certain defeat.
Now was the time to throw everything in without hesitation.
Thick demonic energy surged around Seongwoo’s body.
【Mighty Strength】, 【Dark Relic】.
Activating every power he could use, Seongwoo unleashed his full might.
His mana melted away like wet cotton candy, but a sense of omnipotence flooded his entire body.
With just a single step, Yoo Seongwoo unleashed a violent gust of wind.
This space was isolated by the barrier deployed by the statue.
Yoo Seongwoo no longer cared about holding back—he raised his power to the limit.
From the body of the Devil Knight, holding a sword forged from the 【Dark Relic】, flames of hell erupted.
A streak of black light elongated, reaching the Guardian in an instant.
A trail of flames remained along the path he charged.
Puuuk—
Seongwoo’s sword pierced straight through the Guardian’s chest.
It had all happened in mere seconds.
The Guardian looked quietly down at the sword embedded in its chest and murmured softly.
[To think so many demonic powers dwell within a single human body… You must be the one from the prophecy…]
At the sudden words, the Devil Knight’s sword faltered before delivering the final blow.
“Prophecy? What are you talking about?”
[I finally understand the reason for my existence here… My mission is to erase you—the one who will bring ruin to this world.]
“I said, what prophecy?!”
Prophecy.
It was something Yoo Seongwoo had never once heard of in the game.
But instinctively, he could tell.
He needed to know about that prophecy.
Only then could he clear the game.
However, the Guardian never uttered another word.
“If you won’t talk, then fine. I’ll find out myself.”
With those words, Seongwoo poured his power once again into his sword.
KWA-AAAAAH!
The demonic energy bursting from his blade devoured the Guardian.
Watching the scene from start to finish, Siwoo’s face was etched with despair.
Flung aside by the shockwave of the battle, he had crashed into a corner of the white space and witnessed everything.
A single thought escaped Siwoo’s lips.
“How can that possibly be an A-rank Villain…”
The heroic statue, his last hope, was finally consumed by the pillar of fire and vanished.
Everything known about the Devil Knight up until now had been wrong.
From his own judgment, the Devil Knight was at least S-rank—power equivalent to that of a top-class Hero.
The being before his eyes appeared overwhelmingly immense.
At that moment, the target he had to surpass was carved deep into his mind.
Then, the vast aura emanating from Seongwoo flickered out like a candle’s flame.
As though he had exhausted every last bit of strength in that fight,
he staggered, barely managing to stand.
A faint hope bloomed in Siwoo’s heart at the sight.
‘Maybe now… I can take him on?’
From what he could see, the Devil Knight’s stamina had already reached its limit.
Blood leaked from the cracks in his armor, and he gasped for breath as if he might collapse at any moment.
With both his stamina and mana at their limits, perhaps Siwoo might stand a chance.
But then, a single sentence from the Devil Knight froze Siwoo in place.
“It’d be best if you don’t try anything foolish. Even in this exhausted state, I can still flatten a brat like you.”
It was an absurd bluff, yet Siwoo felt his body go cold and stiff.
But he did not yield to fear.
Instead, he forced his head to cool and began analyzing the battlefield around him.
From his brief clash with the Devil Knight, he had learned one thing — always assess the situation with a calm mind.
Then, his eyes caught sight of a sword impaled in the ground.
It was the sword the statue had driven into the earth to trap the Devil Knight here at the start.
He only knew the basics of swordsmanship, but—
If he launched a surprise attack, perhaps he’d have a chance.
The Devil Knight’s condition looked that bad.
Timing his move, Siwoo lunged toward the sword embedded in the ground.
The Devil Knight seemed to realize it too late—but Siwoo was faster.
Watching that, Seongwoo let out a deep sigh inwardly.
‘God, not now… I can barely stand, and this kid decides to awaken?’
In truth, what he’d said to Siwoo earlier was pure bluff.
His condition was far worse than it looked.
His mana was completely drained, and his stamina wasn’t any better.
Even the wounds he’d sustained from that thing refused to heal, no matter how much he tried to use the Power of Restoration.
If Park Siwoo came at him recklessly with his life on the line, it could truly become dangerous.
Thinking he needed to end this as quickly as possible, Seongwoo forced his battered body to move.
The Devil Knight lifted his black sword again, channeling the power of 【Mighty Strength】 to strike down the charging Siwoo—
Or he would have, had a spear not come flying from somewhere and pierced through his chest.
Puuuk!
A cold, wet sound rang out as blood gushed from Seongwoo’s mouth.
“Damn it…”
When he turned, he saw the Guardian emerging through the flames—half-melted, yet still standing.
An indescribable radiance burst forth from the Guardian.
On his back, a new, ornate structure of gold had formed—like an exquisite decoration.
“Damn… a second phase…”
[With my very existence, I have summoned the Halo. Now, the prophecy shall never come to pass.]
Seongwoo’s body convulsed as searing pain ignited within him.
Even he, who was used to pain, couldn’t suppress the scream that tore from his throat.
“Grrraaaaaaaah!”
It was as if countless ants made of molten lava were gnawing at his insides.
The Guardian extended his hand, and the spear, glowing with light, returned to its master.
With the radiant halo upon his back, he now exuded a presence of an entirely different dimension.
Before Seongwoo realized it, the Guardian stood right in front of him—
ready to deliver the final strike.
When he raised his spear, countless lances of light appeared in the air above.
There were seven in total.
Each one aimed precisely at Seongwoo’s throat.
As the Guardian slammed his spear into the ground with a heavy thud—
the seven spears of light rained down toward Seongwoo.
In that instant, time slowed for him.
Everything in the world stopped—every motion, every breath, crawled to a near halt.
Faced with death, his thoughts accelerated to their utmost limit.
Memories from before his possession flashed across his mind like a film reel.
What people called the “life flashing before your eyes.”
Being bullied as a child for being a parentless orphan.
The first day he started his part-time job, when a drunk customer hurled a bottle at him and cut his hand.
That night, crying silently in a cramped gosiwon room, smoking the cheapest cigarette he could buy from the convenience store.
Working nonstop to save money, only to be told he had terminal lung cancer—with six months left to live.
And the day he first played Become a Hero.
Looking back, he had lived with sheer tenacity.
Before the possession—and even after.
Through every moment of his life, he had never once given up.
And now, even here—he would not give up.
Seongwoo lifted his gaze to the descending spears and drew upon all the power he had left.
He pulled mana linked to the Homunculus Core within him.
The distant Homunculus Core responded to his call, and omnipotent power once again flooded his body.
Of course, he wasn’t anywhere near full strength.
Blood trickled from his mouth as he clenched his teeth.
One strike.
He had to end it in a single strike.
Immense energy swirled around him as he pushed every usable power to its limit.
He saw the Guardian clearly—
haloed in gold light, like a messenger of a god.
And instinctively, he knew.
‘That same attack from before… won’t work now.’
Their matchup was already the worst possible combination.
Now, having reached his second phase, the Guardian was far stronger.
While he himself was little more than a flickering flame, barely holding on.
He needed more power.
Yet such power did not exist within him.
At that moment, as complete despair clouded Seongwoo’s heart—
the endless darkness inside him slithered greedily, flicking its tongue.
【Skill 【Lamb】 activates.】
Sssrrrk—
A faint sound, like a serpent flicking its tongue, echoed in his ears.
【Do you desire power? Power to crush the foe before your eyes?】
A demon always appears when a human is at their weakest.