KWAAAAAAAAAA!!
From the altar, a black waterfall erupted forth.
The cascading torrent flowed upward toward the sky, and the black liquid spilled across the heavens, spreading wider and wider as though it intended to become the night sky itself.
Like ink poured into clear water.
Sachsen spoke.
“Does your desire for revenge still remain?”
“I have never forgotten it even once.”
“Then prove it. That is the very first thing you must prove to me.”
The instant Sachsen finished speaking—
Something glowed yellow within the ascending waterfall.
There were two points of light.
Eyes.
The owner of those eyes gradually took shape.
It stood over two meters tall, its entire body burning in blackish-gray flames.
[ The Knight of Resentment has appeared. ]
Though no armor was visible at all, the creature emerged with heavy clanking sounds.
Clank— Clank—
It parted the rising waterfall like a curtain and stepped through.
Its name was the Knight of Resentment.
Sachsen spoke.
“The flames of resentment never go out. But if you ask whether such emotions are inherently impure or evil, that isn’t true either. Resentment, rage, hatred—every living being is capable of harboring them. That is why they are immortal, immense, and hotter than anything else. Is yours the same?”
At the same moment as his explanation, the Knight of Resentment extended its hand.
And in that hand appeared a sword just as enormous as the one Sachsen wielded.
Su-ho also summoned the Blood Sword into his grip.
“Yes. My resentment too is immortal, immense, and hotter than anything else.”
“Excellent! Then prove it! Prove that your resentment is far greater and deeper than the existence standing before you! If you can do that, then you will truly be able to cut down the Knight of Resentment!”
At that moment, taking Sachsen’s shout as its signal, the Knight of Resentment swung its massive sword toward Su-ho with terrifying speed.
KWAAAAANG!!
The movement had looked slow.
But the instantaneous speed behind it was monstrous.
And the destructive force?
Though the Knight’s blade failed to strike Su-ho directly, the ground where the sword exploded apart split into seven massive fractures, caved deeply inward, and blackish-gray flames surged from within the shattered earth.
At the same time, Sachsen disappeared.
Yet his voice still remained.
It echoed through the empty air.
“No items or skills work against the Knight of Resentment. The only thing that matters is your desire for revenge! That alone is enough!”
In other words, don’t rely on tricks with skills or items.
Having grasped the core of the trial, Su-ho truly did not use a single skill.
The only thing in his hands was the Blood Sword.
And the blazing flames of revenge burning inside his heart!
KWAAANG!!
The Knight of Resentment took a huge leap forward before charging.
In an instant, it closed the distance and swung its sword.
KAAAAAAAAANG!!
An impossible sound erupted from the collision of the two blades.
But the moment the swords clashed, blackish-gray smoke burst out from the point of impact and swallowed Su-ho whole.
Reflexively, Su-ho twisted his body, trying to evade it, but the smoke exploded outward like a shockwave the instant the blades collided.
There was no avoiding it.
And after the blackish-gray smoke swept over him—
“......!”
Veins bulged violently across Su-ho’s forehead.
Cold sweat poured down him.
His grip trembled uncontrollably.
It had not been a physical attack.
The true nature of the blackish-gray smoke was memory.
Like a life flashing before one’s eyes, the smoke did not strike Su-ho’s body.
It struck his heart.
More precisely, each wisp of smoke contained the story of profound resentment.
Their blood-soaked histories.
Their tear-drenched memories.
And it was not merely one or two.
If the smoke attacking Su-ho could be called a single mass, then that mass was made from countless handfuls of smoke gathered together.
And not just one such mass—
Several of them crashed into him simultaneously.
Like an unavoidable tidal wave, they flooded into him and violently tore through his mind.
Every single one was intense.
Yet there were simply too many.
They poured into him like a flickering montage, but among them, the most agonizing moments flashed brightly like photographs beneath a camera’s flash.
An overwhelming torrent of information poured into him in an instant.
Enough to completely shake Su-ho’s mind apart.
His veins stood out violently.
Tears streamed from his eyes.
Without realizing it, he bit through his own lips until blood flowed.
“Gghhhhhh!!”
It hurt.
The Knight of Resentment was not just one person.
How many people’s hatred had been fused together to create it?
At minimum dozens—
No, hundreds of people’s blood and tears combined into a single mass of rage and hatred.
Forged into the form called the Knight of Resentment.
Created to test the torch burning deep within Su-ho’s heart.
It felt as though he would drop his sword at any second.
His hands trembled violently.
And yet—
Su-ho tightened his grip even harder.
Fwoooooosh!
Before him, the Knight of Resentment raised its sword once more.
Damn it.
He needed to dodge.
He absolutely had to dodge.
If he dodged, he would not have to endure that cursed experience again.
It hurt.
This hurt too much.
But he knew.
Su-ho understood.
This was something he must not avoid.
He had to face it head-on.
Accept it with both hands, with his entire body, with his own mind.
This was a mountain that could only be overcome by enduring it directly.
And so Su-ho did not move.
Like the anchor of a ship fixed firmly in place, he planted both feet into the ground.
“Fuck...!”
A curse escaped him—a rarity for Su-ho.
Proof of how unbearable this was.
That had only been a single clash.
Yet it had already become this painful.
Suddenly, he remembered the distant past.
Long ago, even while leveling up, he had thought he should never neglect physical training, so he had combined his leveling with weight training.
And every time, he tore his muscles apart beneath extreme weights.
Whenever he did, every curse imaginable spilled from his mouth.
Because it hurt too much.
This was exactly the same.
FWOOOOOOOOOSH!
The Knight of Resentment swung its sword.
The second strike.
It was coming.
That giant blade—
At this moment, it felt less like a sword and more like a catastrophic tidal wave.
But Su-ho did not dodge.
Forcing his unwilling body to move as though hypnotizing it into action, he swung his own sword as well.
When the mind is fully focused, nothing is impossible!
And once again, the two swords collided.
KWAAAAAAAAANG!!
An even greater explosion erupted between the blades than before.
The violent shock traveled through Su-ho’s palms gripping the hilt.
Yet something far more terrifying followed.
FWAAAAAAASH!!
The blackish-gray smoke returned.
The memories of miserable dead souls who died without ever achieving revenge.
Histories filled with blood and tearful wails.
“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!”
Veins bulged across his entire body as though ready to burst.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
The pain was so intense that something between a scream and a battle cry erupted from his mouth like vomit.
He nearly dropped his sword.
Countless memories flooded into his head.
It was unbearable.
He did not want to see anymore.
And yet he forced his eyes open wide, locking gazes with the Knight burning in blackish-gray °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° flames, its yellow eyes blazing before him.
He would not avoid it.
He did not want to avoid it.
He would prove it.
My resentment is just as tragic, just as deep, just as dark as the wailing histories you carry.
Why?
Because one’s own wounds always hurt the most!
“GRAAAAAAHHH!!”
KAAAAAAAAANG!!
With a scream-like roar, Su-ho swung his sword and knocked the Knight of Resentment’s blade away.
He did not use skills.
This was sheer will.
Pure willpower.
He pushed with all his strength.
With every ounce of rage inside him.
At that moment—
“Ohh!”
Watching from afar, Sachsen’s eyes widened.
At the same time, the corners of his lips rose sharply.
And admiration filled him.
Hah! You crazy bastard!
Yes!
If you inherited the title Black Pope—a title even I could never obtain—and walked the same path as me, and if your desire for revenge truly runs deeper than mine, then endure it!
Endure it again and again until you prove it!
I have no use for the weak.
Even if someone walks the same path as me and gazes toward the same destination, if they are weaker than me, then they are nothing.
Expectation swelled within him.
Like wine trapped against the surface tension of a filled glass, Sachsen silently rooted for Su-ho.
Swing it!
Swing your sword!
It’s incredible enough that you’ve already endured two attacks from the Knight of Resentment, but I didn’t wait all this time merely to watch you survive!
Swing it!
Swing your sword and prove your hatred!
Because that is the essence of this trial!
At that very moment, as though answering the shout in Sachsen’s heart, Su-ho swung first.
“Yes! Go!!”
Sachsen roared.
Then—
FWIIIIIIIIIIII!!
A strange sound echoed out.
Something bizarre was happening.
Su-ho had not used a skill.
And yet, the sword he swung—
The sound of it cutting through the air—
Resembled the sound of a gigantic titan swinging an enormous blade through the heavens.
The sound itself seemed slow.
But Su-ho’s sword moved at its normal speed.
Yet strangely, the blade looked impossibly huge, impossibly heavy, as though a giant were wielding it in slow motion.
The same was true for the Knight of Resentment.
Facing the incoming strike, the Knight swung its own blade in defense.
And then, just before the two swords collided—
Something astonishing occurred.
Dark crimson aura burst from Su-ho’s body, and like the Knight of Resentment, his entire body began burning.
At the same time, veins swelled across his body as though ready to explode, and something that might have been blood or tears streamed from his eyes.
Then the instant the two swords collided—
An even more unbelievable phenomenon unfolded.
Or rather—
It was recreated.
Just as the Knight’s waves of resentment had swallowed Su-ho earlier, this time Su-ho’s dark crimson aura engulfed the Knight of Resentment instead.
FWAAAAAAASH!!
Like light exploding outward, the moment the dark crimson aura consumed the Knight, the creature saw it.
A blazing white flash rising into the sky—
The kind visible only after a nuclear explosion detonates.
Divinity?
Radiance?
No.
What followed afterward was scorching, suffocating memory.
Pain.
Story.
History.
Everything soaked with Su-ho’s resentment and fury!
FWA FWA FWA FWA FWA FWA!!
Like the final leaf before a typhoon, the burning Knight’s body flapped violently as it was driven backward.
This time, the Knight’s agonizing history did not swallow Su-ho.
Su-ho, having attacked first, held complete dominance.
“It’s not over yet!”
Su-ho raised his sword once more.
And swung it again.
KWAAAAAAAAANG!!
Radiance crashed over the Knight of Resentment once more.
The Knight’s form vanished within the engulfing wave of brilliance.
No—
The entire space itself became filled with pure white radiance.
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