Chapter 117 :

‘I’m not going to die like this.’

After having his youth stolen by the reaper, Gracia was aging rapidly.

That was why he came here.

To avoid dying.

He had to kill the Fourth Evil Baal, because only then could he survive.

‘The Fourth Evil Baal is a being akin to the very source of life. If I kill him, I can reclaim my youth.’

Of course, the Four Evils were powerful.

Powerful enough to make four cities fall in less than a single day.

However, Gracia had a reason to feel confident.

‘I didn’t want to use this, but I have no choice.’

Gracia pulled a “bottle” from his bosom, removed the cork, and poured it into the blue radiance.

Immediately, the blue radiance began to turn green.

‘A poison that kills all living beings instantly. Even if he is one of the Four Evils, he cannot escape the influence of this poison.’

This poison was something Gracia had obtained only by sheer coincidence, and with great difficulty.

A poison that, if it touched any living thing, would kill it unconditionally.

It was the strongest poison in the world.

《The blue radiance has completely absorbed the Poison of Ouroboros.》

***

The Reaper’s Banquet.

A place where all Orthodoxes gathered for the feast.

And among the Orthodoxes, the reason the “first banquet” was important was something else entirely.

‘A reaper without reaper power cannot properly “eat”.’

The reason they believed the twelfth Orthodox had never eaten until now was simple.

An Orthodox without reaper power could not summon a reaper, and without summoning a reaper, they could not properly “eat”.

Only the “flame” of a sinner captured by a reaper could become a true meal for an Orthodox.

Thus, during their first banquet, all Orthodoxes challenged full consumption, gaining reaper power afterward.

That was the rule, the tradition.

But no Orthodox had ever achieved full consumption in their first banquet.

All eleven before.

‘Besides, the flame of this captured sinner is twice as large as usual.’

Based on the rank of the sinner captured, the flame would grow in size.

An average flame was as large as an adult male.

But this time, it was twice that.

Gracia’s stolen youth, and the numerous high-rankers he had hunted, greatly contributed to the flame’s size.

‘On average, an Orthodox’s first meal is around 40%.’

A long-starved Orthodox devoured a considerable amount of flame during their first banquet.

Around 40% on average.

An Orthodox who absorbed that much at once would gain additional wings, acquire reaper power, and be able to summon a reaper.

There had never been an exception.

Only curiosity remained.

‘The twelfth Orthodox, who had not existed for a long time. And white wings.’

All Orthodoxes belonged to the reaper church from the moment they were eggs.

Only those with the proper qualifications could break the “egg,” becoming a chosen successor.

However, there had never been a case of an Orthodox or an Orthodox’s egg being found outside the church.

Those white wings were also unusual.

At first, they assumed it was a “hybrid.”

Still, an Orthodox was an Orthodox.

Rather than rejecting it, they needed to verify.

To see how different that Orthodox was from the rest.

-Kya-kya-kya!

Before long, the Orthodox of the Black Goat reacted to the sinner’s flame.

Instinctively recognizing “food.”

It was only natural that long-suppressed hunger could not be held back.

Regardless of the guardian’s will.

If one sees it and reacts, eating it is only natural.

‘At best it’ll eat about 10%, I suppose.’

Naturally, no one expected much.

Half-white hybrid.

The way other Orthodoxes strangely followed it was also…

In the end, it was merely a spectacle.

The others humored it only because it was “interesting.”

Like watching a beast trapped in a pen.

These thoughts belonged not only to the Golden Mask.

‘Since it’s half-and-half, maybe 5%?’

‘White is a color easily contaminated. A poison to an Orthodox.’

‘How dare a hybrid like that.’

‘Interesting, but that’s all.’

The other guardians thought the same.

A mixed breed, a hybrid.

If something was mixed within, it was not a pureblood.

A being that wasn’t even a pureblood Orthodox was attempting full consumption.

Naturally, it was laughable.

Soon, the twelfth Orthodox opened its mouth.

“······!!!”

“······ What?!”

Those who had snorted in mockery vanished instantly.

Because the result that followed was pure shock.

The massive sinner’s flame trembled,

······ and disappeared in an instant.

“No way.”

“It ate… all of it?”

“Full consumption······!”

A sinner’s flame could not evaporate.

If it vanished suddenly, it meant it had been eaten.

A full consumption that had never happened before!

Devouring all the food prepared for the banquet. A feast they thought impossible.

How could they not be shocked?

“So it wasn’t just a simple hybrid?”

“Does this mean it surpasses our Orthodoxes?”

“The Black Goat… so there was a reason for that confidence.”

“And if it ate that much, it’ll undergo ‘rapid growth’.”

“If it achieved full consumption on its first meal, it may summon an incredible reaper.”

But they didn’t deny what happened before their eyes.

Instead, they wondered just how much it would grow.

The flame it devoured was twice as big as usual. No one could guess how powerful the reaper power would be.

Each Orthodox’s summoned reaper was different in nature.

All eyes focused on Hel.

-Kya… kya?

Tilt.

Hel shook its head.

Perhaps it wasn’t used to the growth from its first meal?

Then, Hel’s laughing sound stopped, and it opened its mouth wide again.

And—

-Kaak, ptoo!

······ It spat it out.

Seeing this, the guardians burst into laughter.

“It must’ve been greedy.”

“Puhaha! Should’ve eaten moderately!”

Of course.

Full consumption? Impossible.

It must have eaten too much, gotten greedy, and thrown it up.

-Ptoo, ptoo, ptoo, ptoo!

But that wasn’t the reason.

Hel continued retching, forcibly spitting out even the remaining residue.

There was only one reason for such a reaction.

······ The taste was horrible.

This was the kind of reaction seen only when eating something utterly disgusting.

A moment of silence.

Then the Golden Mask spoke.

“Mm. Rules are rules. Since the first meal failed, let us move on to the next.”

He had thought it succeeded in full consumption, but it was a failure.

Since it threw up what it ate, there was no second chance.

The Black Goat would have to find its own meal from now on.

“For all that trouble, and it couldn’t even eat properly. Tsk-tsk.”

The Golden Lion stepped forward.

-Kukuku!

The reaper who stole Gracia’s youth, a horned, massive-bodied reaper.

It approached the thrown-up sinner’s flame.

“Eat it. This time, achieve full consumption and become a stronger Orthodox!”

At his command, the horned Orthodox hesitated, then shook its head.

-Kukuk!

“What are you doing? I told you to eat it!”

-Kukuk!

A clear refusal.

And the same applied to the other Orthodoxes.

One even waved its sickle like a hand to refuse, turning its head away.

As if saying—

“······ Because it’s disgusting since he ate it and spat it out?”

“You’ve got to be kidding…”

An unprecedented situation unfolded.

With the feast right before them, all Orthodoxes refused to eat.

As if food once eaten and spat out held no value.

“········· This is a first.”

The Golden Mask muttered, dumbfounded.

Not once in banquet history had there been a collective refusal to eat.

All because of the Black Goat’s Orthodox.

‘To eat and spit it out like that…’

If it couldn’t eat, it shouldn’t have eaten in the first place. What kind of creature behaved like that?

***

The “eat and spit” controversy went on for a while, with no solution.

If they said it was too disgusting to eat, there was nothing they could do.

They couldn’t force-feed them.

“······ This ‘sinner’s flame’ will be your responsibility, Black Goat.”

Eventually, the Golden Mask handed the troublesome flame to me.

Other guardians silently approved.

There was no point in keeping something they couldn’t feed their Orthodoxes with.

Then the Golden Mask’s sharp gaze turned to me.

“But if you fail to prepare a proper ‘banquet’ before the next gathering, your position as a guardian will be revoked. Guiding an Orthodox in the correct direction is the guardian’s duty.”

Revoked.

Meaning I would not be allowed to remain within the reaper church.

Eat the flame, help Hel grow, then hunt by myself and return—that was his command.

I shrugged, and the Golden Mask looked away.

“This has become ridiculous, so we will postpone the banquet. Let us proceed to vote on the next city to ‘sterilize’.”

Clap!

The Golden Mask clapped once.

The ceiling opened, and a sphere descended.

‘A Wish Orb? It looks similar, but much bigger.’

It resembled the Wish Orb an Imoogi held in its mouth before becoming a dragon.

But this one was a hundred times larger.

“Reveal.”

At that moment—

Numbers and text floated above the yellow sphere.

「Concurrent Players: 220,779」

…What?

Concurrent players?

Did this mean the number of currently connected players?

Did the reaper church know the exact number of players?

“Two hundred twenty thousand! Even now, the number of sinners we must judge remains this large. Until the number becomes zero, our ‘sterilization’ must not stop.”

The others nodded.

“No matter how much we reduce it, it never goes down.”

“Disgusting pests…”

Pure hatred.

Why did the Empire and the reaper church hate players so deeply?

“Which city shall we choose? Black Goat, let us hear your opinion first.”

The Golden Mask grinned.

His crazed eyes gleamed.

He was asking me—

Where are the players gathered? Which city should we destroy?

‘They’ve all gone mad.’

Everyone here except me.

Then—

“Well? As a guardian of an Orthodox, you must have suffered the ‘divine illness’ once. You must have seen it when you transcended—the sinners mocking you, mocking our world!”

***

After the commotion ended—

The reaper’s banquet concluded, and the Golden Mask upheld his promise.

He handed me the “three treasures” I had chosen, without suspicion.

Each one was extraordinary, and among them—

‘The Baal Armor!’

I clenched my fist.

I felt like shouting in joy.

The only missing piece of the Baal set, the “Baal Armor,” at last!

Finally in my hands.

‘I will never turn back again.’

It had been a long road.

From the trainee’s mountain where I obtained the Sword Immortal Diary, to the Empire, to the reaper church, and finally arriving here.

Now that the Baal set was complete, there was no turning back.

Only forward.

I quickly extended my hand toward the ominous Baal Armor.

The moment I equipped it—

《The ‘Baal Set’ is complete!》

《The final chapter of the ‘Sword Immortal Diary’ has been generated.》

《By the hidden piece, the final chapter of the Sword Immortal Diary, the Baal Set’s status increases.》

《The ‘Ominous Baal’ form evolves into the ‘Golden Baal Statue.’》

《All Baal equipment rises from ‘ultimate mythic-grade’ to ‘transcendent mythic-grade.’》

《Hidden option ‘Transcended Baal’ has emerged!》

Crack.

“Uh, is it really okay for us to stay here?”

Valte.

The man who had been practically kidnapped from the trainee’s mountain, asked nervously.

Right after the auction ended, Randolph suddenly vanished with the Golden Mask.

And until Randolph returned, the two of them were to remain in Darkan Territory.

“Have confidence. Is there any reason we shouldn’t be here?”

Hudson, drinking tea with refined elegance, replied.

He carried the dignity of an imperial noble.

“Even if you say that…”

Valte sighed.

The problem was Hudson’s body, face, even gender were now different.

The sturdy Hudson was gone, and in his place sat a slender woman behaving as if she were Hudson.

“A-aren’t we going to get ambushed out of nowhere at this rate?”

Valte was still terrified.

Even after Randolph had gifted him the Berserker Set.

He never removed it even while sleeping, always tense.

‘I’ll never be like Randolph or Hudson.’

Valte’s lips dried.

The overwhelming presence they showed in the Empire… even a man would fall for it.

Especially Randolph’s majesty—it was hard to believe even after witnessing with his own eyes.

A man he wanted to become, yet could never become.

That was Randolph.

“Tsk.”

Hudson clicked her tongue and looked out the window.

“Hurry, hurry up! Move!”

“Whoa! Whoa!”

This was the lord’s castle.

Outside, countless knights and soldiers were busily moving something.

An enormous amount of something.

“They’re moving supplies today.”

“Yes. It looks like they’re preparing for war.”

“War…”

Right after the reaper church’s sterilization ended, the Lord of Darkan began gathering supplies as if he had been waiting.

Was he truly preparing for war?

‘It looks like he’s desperately trying to show loyalty.’

With sterilization conducted in his city, the fire was now at his feet.