Chapter 167

Ultimately, the Holy King confessed the whole truth.

The items in question were scrolls named ‘Stigmata of the Apostle,’ and it turned out there were ten of them in total.

“Sigh, no matter how much I ponder this… you are undeniably a ordeal sent to me by the heavens.”

“My, what a distressing thing to say, Your Holiness.”

“I am BEGGING you, drop that ‘Your Holiness’ mockery!”

The Holy King seethed with rage.

This rogue forces him to take a sacred oath before the heavens just so he can plunder holy treasures, and yet he still possesses the audacity to call him ‘Your Holiness’?!

The assessments made by his subordinates were entirely accurate.

The man standing before him was a demon.

A demon whose sole purpose was hunting other demons.

“Listen here, regarding the Soulguard Stones—there truly were only two available. Aside from those, I honestly possess nothing further. Fine, fine! I will swear it before the heavens. Are you finally content?”

“I understand.”

Baek Jinwoo gave a nod of agreement.

If the Holy King himself was prepared to offer an oath to the divine, then he had no choice but to believe the man’s words.

“Be that as it may.”

The Holy King’s tone turned resolute.

“I can only provide you with two of them at this moment. A single one for yourself, and another for the lady standing in your shadow.”

“Excuse me?”

What exactly was the meaning behind those words?

“We still have the campaigns to reclaim Lunestia and Arseon ahead of us, do we not? If I surrender every single one right now, what rewards will I have left to offer you when those battles arrive?”

“Hmm.”

This cunning old man.

He didn’t give off the impression of a mastermind, but he was actually playing his cards rather cleverly.

He was rationing them out in small quantities to ensure Jinwoo wouldn’t cause a scene demanding additional prizes further down the line.

“In that case, two for this victory, two for the next, and two for the last makes six. What do you intend to do with the remaining four?”

“You shameless thief of a—!”

That absolute menace of a man!

To any outside observer, it would look as though Jinwoo had merely deposited those invaluable treasures into his keeping for safekeeping!

“Your Holiness?”

“AARGH! Stop, stop, STOP with the ‘Your Holiness’!”

As the Holy King practically began foaming at the mouth from sheer frustration, the Champion took a step forward to intervene.

“Your Holiness… I implore you to preserve your royal composure.”

The sight of the rotund ruler squealing in such a manner truly made him resemble a swine, which was what she truly desired to voice, but she naturally suppressed the urge.

Though they were secured inside the tent, the soldiers stationed just outside could easily overhear everything.

She stepped closer to calm down the wildly gesturing Holy King.

“Regarding those final four—ABSOLUTELY! NEVER! I refuse to part with them. Consenting to surrender six was already a monumental compromise on my part!”

“…Very well, I concede.”

It didn’t matter either way.

He had only been probing to see how far the man could be pushed. Securing anything of value at this stage was already a major triumph.

Baek Jinwoo accepted the scrolls, a radiant grin spreading across his face.

He pocketed two of them and passed the remaining one over to Rachel.

“In that case.”

Flashing a sly grin, Jinwoo offered a courteous bow of his head.

“Please do not hesitate to summon me again. I shall see you when we march to reclaim Lunestia.”

On this occasion, he deliberately omitted the title ‘Your Holiness.’

Observing the ruler’s pale complexion, it seemed as though the man might literally lose consciousness right then and there.

“My goodness, you truly are something else.”

Fantastic!

Rachel gave him a highly enthusiastic thumbs-up.

“Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. I find myself respecting you in so many bizarre ways. How do you manage to wring things out of people like that? The Holy King looked as if he was on the verge of tears—I genuinely started to feel a bit bad for him, you know?”

“Let’s just examine the properties of the scrolls.”

Stepping away from the command tent, the duo began inspecting the items they had just acquired.

[True Stigmata of the Apostle]

[Classification: A-rank]

[When applied to a summoned entity, boosts extra offensive capabilities against dark-aligned summons and demonic adversaries by 20%.]

“Oh.”

This was highly impressive.

Particularly given the current climate within the Tower of Trials, an item of this nature would demonstrate incredible utility.

“Though this is categorized as a stigmata, meaning it’s not a consumable item you absorb?”

“Allow me to test its effects first.”

Without a shred of reluctance, Baek Jinwoo unrolled the scroll.

Allowing items of this caliber to sit idly in inventory only causes them to lose their value.

When there is an opportunity to amplify your offensive output by a full 20% this very instant, what reason is there to delay?

“Drill Sarge.”

• You summoned me, Master?

“Yes, this piece belongs to you. And before you say anything, no, you aren’t allowed to turn it down.”

While he had Aso, Rolly, Stormy, and numerous other powerful offensive units at his disposal.

The one who consistently maintained absolute command over all of them was Drill Sarge.

Furthermore, his individual combat capability had not been lagging behind the others whatsoever in recent encounters.

He had been provisioned with an abundance of top-tier resources, after all.

“Moving forward, the absolute prime treasures will always be allocated to you before anyone else.”

• I am deeply grateful.

Rip!

The moment Jinwoo ripped the parchment open without a second thought, a dazzling explosion of pristine white radiance manifested.

The glowing blue geometric design etched upon the paper flared with intense brilliance, and then……

Sshhh.

The pattern transferred and engraved itself permanently onto the back of Drill Sarge’s hand.

With this, Drill Sarge’s strikes against demonic entities would land with significantly greater ferocity.

Meanwhile, Rachel applied her respective scroll to her golden dragon.

The grand total they were designated to obtain throughout these campaigns was six.

However?

He fully intended to claim the remaining four scrolls as well.

There were a multitude of strategies to employ. He could volunteer specialized enhancements, argue that such power was mandatory for survival once they breached the demonic territory to confront Asmodeus, and use similar reasoning.

All that was required was to cleverly manipulate the Holy King, and the ruler would eventually surrender them.

Because at his core, the man was an easy target.

Four days down the line.

“Lunestia has fallen to our forces!”

The Holy Kingdom recorded yet another magnificent triumph.

During this particular engagement, Baek Jinwoo and Rachel operated visibly at the absolute vanguard of the army.

Stormy, in particular, had been amplifying her power at an incredibly rapid pace……

And the crucible of open warfare only served to accelerate that progression.

She obliterated the ranks of lesser fiends utilizing her apocalyptic flames, gathering passive stacks unceasingly as she advanced.

Jinwoo found himself wishing for another ten conflicts of this magnitude to break out.

It provided the flawless setting for accumulating power!

Truthfully speaking, Stormy required no conventional training regimen.

Simply deploying her into high-density labyrinths on a daily basis to farm stacks was more than sufficient!

That served as her training.

Once the dust settled from the conflict, the Holy King arrived sprinting toward them, completely out of breath but wearing a triumphant smile.

“An exceptional display of martial prowess. As per our agreement, here are the two scrolls. Reclaiming Arseon should pose no grand challenge either, correct? Hahaha!”

Once more, they claimed the glory of the military campaign and took possession of two additional Stigmata of the Apostle.

The precise instant the items changed hands.

Baek Jinwoo applied his newly acquired mark to Stormy. Rachel bestowed hers upon Baekho.

Three days following that event.

“Arseon has been successfully liberated! Every critical fortification has been consolidated under our control.”

“The intervention of the heavenly messengers proved absolutely pivotal to the success of this endeavor once again!”

“They are genuinely miraculous beings. That crimson beast manifesting to breathe absolute incineration upon the demon horde… that was a grand spectacle the likes of which we may never behold again in our lifetimes!”

By this point in time, the holy knights openly regarded Baek Jinwoo and Rachel as genuine divine emissaries, offering their praises with profound veneration.

Their sense of reverence ran so deep that they would lose the ability to speak whenever the pair walked past, choosing instead to simply lower their heads in deep respect.

They were the pitiless executioners of demons.

Whenever that specific unit pushed forward, the fiends were cleaved apart or reduced to cinders before they could even utter a final agonizing shriek.

Naturally, the Holy King was absolutely ecstatic.

“Wahaha! Magnificent! Truly magnificent!”

With a trio of major cities successfully reclaimed, the Holy Kingdom could finally expand its operations past its restricted boundaries.

How suffocating existence had been during the preceding period.

The sheer volume of incoming refugees had forced the vast majority of the populace to seek shelter in narrow pathways or livestock enclosures.

As for those who were unable to secure even those meager accommodations?

A number of them had resorted to excavating temporary dwellings into the rocky cliffsides just to find a place to rest.

Furthermore.

Three of Asmodeus’s most devoted captains had been permanently eliminated.

Consequently, the overall level of demonic taint plaguing the landmass had plummeted, and the dense, suffocating fog that had blanketed the terrain was starting to break apart.

This development meant that foul entities could no longer comfortably sustain their existence upon the surface of the continent.

“Take these! I shall grant you another pair.”

The Stigmata of the Apostle.

On this turn, Baek Jinwoo placed one onto Aso, while Rachel utilized her scroll on the Great Wizard.

At this stage, the Holy Kingdom retained a final balance of four scrolls.

Baek Jinwoo possessed a flawless plan to acquire them.

Now.

The optimal moment had arrived.

The exact instant they prepared to breach the perimeter of the demon realm!

He would be able to voice his terms completely organically during that transition.

A preference for tranquility over the chaos of slaughter was a fundamental instinct shared by all sentient entities.

Simply because remaining alive was far easier to accomplish under peaceful conditions.

And herein lay the ironic reality.

The leadership of the Holy Kingdom had grown entirely complacent with their newfound stability.

By all logical metrics, they should currently be triggering the portal leading to the demon realm and launching a pre-emptive strike, yet……

“Heh heh, what absurdities are you uttering? The heavens have not delivered a fresh prophetic mandate as of yet.”

“Afford us some breathing room! Our displaced citizens have not even managed to resettle their proper households yet!”

Every single time Jinwoo paid a visit to the court, he was met with the identical relaxed rationalizations.

Rachel expressed her irritation openly.

“Ugh, what an absolute poltroon.”

It was blatant to any casual observer.

The Holy King was paralyzed with sheer dread.

Tranquility had manifested without requiring further bloodshed—did they truly possess a mandate to tear out the ultimate source of malevolence? That was undoubtedly the philosophy he was harboring.

Because if they initiated open warfare once more, he would be legally obligated to march alongside the vanguard in person.

“Ha.”

Baek Jinwoo let out a slow sigh while shaking his head.

During the events of the Battle of Summoners, their progression had bypassed directly to Floor 58, meaning none of these logistical hurdles had presented themselves……

Ah well.

In order to expedite the entire process, it appeared he would need to provide the local populace with a minor behavioral catalyst.

Deep beneath the central district of the Holy Kingdom. Down in the subterranean vaults.

Clang!

Baek Jinwoo successfully deciphered the hidden mechanical conundrum of the vault and yanked the iron lever downward.

Immediately following that action.

RUUUUMBLE!

A profound, metallic grinding noise echoed through the chamber as the solid ground began to vibrate violently.

Deep within the confines of a hidden alcove, a chalice overflowing with concentrated divine essence slowly manifested into view.

“Wow.”

Rachel, observing the sequence from a position directly adjacent to him, let out an appreciative breath.

“You actually retained the memory of this entire layout?”

“I’ve completed this sequence a sufficient number of times.”

The mechanical riddle itself possessed a formidable tier of difficulty, but for an individual who had successfully bypassed it in a previous iteration, it was child’s play.

“Contained within this vessel.”

Baek Jinwoo extended his arm forward and hoisted the chalice into the air.

“Lies a celestial benediction of radiance that even the reigning Holy King remains completely oblivious to.”

Flashing a knowing smirk, he completely relaxed his fingers.

Slide.

The sacred chalice slipped effortlessly from his grasp and plummeted directly toward the stone flooring.

SHATTER!

The vessel broke into a countless number of fragments.

In that exact breath of time.

An incandescent radiance completely flooded the entire subterranean chamber, and from that central point, a massive wave of pure light erupted vertically toward the heavens, radiating outward across the entirety of the realm.

SHAAAAAA!

A torrential downpour composed entirely of pure light.

“Ah.”

“Ahhh.”

Every citizen in the streets extended their hands to intercept the falling droplets.

Their deep-seated anxieties instantly evaporated, replaced by an overwhelming surge of valor that swelled within their chests.

Sentries walking their beats, conscripts engaged in mid-day training maneuvers.

Holy paladins, members of the elite Royal Guardians……

Even the supreme Commander and the Champion herself.

“We are obligated to execute them.”

Directly beneath that newfound valor, a dark undercurrent of pure fury began to manifest.

The absolute monsters who had dared to cross the threshold into their ancestral lands.

The horrific fiends who had ripped apart their kinship and pulverized their sanctuaries.

“EXECUTE THEM ALL!”

“WE MARCH TO ASSAULT THE DEMON REALM IMMEDIATELY!”

Clang!

One after another.

The gathered warriors unsheathed their blades and pointed them directly toward the heavens.

A distinct tint of fanaticism began to creep into their gazes.

The desperate yearning to safeguard their current state of tranquility?

Evaporated. Entirely.

Descending into the abyss this very instant to butcher the fiends—that was the definitive decree of the heavens, and it had become their singular desire.

“OUR ADVERSARY IS THE ULTIMATE EVIL!”

“WE MUST RAZE THE DEMON REALM WITHOUT A MOMENT’S DELAY!”

“ANNIHILATE ASMODEUS!”

The entire order of Paladins stood up in unison, while the elite Royal Guardians cast themselves face-down upon the floor before the throne of the Holy King.

“O Sovereign Ruler! Issue the mobilization order!”

“The gateway breaching the demon realm must be unsealed this instant!”

“…WHAT IS THE ABSOLUTE MEANING OF THIS MADNESS?!”

As was entirely foreseeable.

Having been shielded from the direct contact of the celestial rainfall, the Holy King was left in a state of utter stupefaction.

WHIP!

However, even the Champion, Eila Lunares, executed a powerful rotation of her long spear and lunged forward to demand an immediate resolution from him.

“Your Holiness, I can tolerate this stagnation no further. We possess an obligation to strike down wickedness THIS VERY INSTANT!”

And standing directly in front of the completely bewildered Holy King.

“A pleasant day to you, Your Holiness.”

A pair of additional figures materialized within the throne room.

Baek Jinwoo and Rachel stood there, both of them sporting highly secretive, knowing smiles.

At that exact identical juncture in time.

The nation of South Korea was absolutely boiling over with immense anticipation.

An entire calendar month had officially elapsed since the commencement of the prestigious SKY entrance evaluation.

The sole element remaining to be unveiled was the definitive list of successful candidates.

The general populace already possessed a reasonably accurate prediction regarding the final line-up.

The preceding stage, which comprised the specialized Control Test.

The participants who had faced disqualification during that specific phase had subsequently leaked the identity of the final pool of competitors.

Who would ultimately secure a position?

According to rumors, roughly ten individuals remained in contention, and if an additional evaluation phase was scheduled to take place……

Did that imply the institution intended to enroll an even more exclusive number of candidates?

Just as the public spheres were drowning in intense debates and theories.

Rather than the distribution of an official press statement, a specific individual’s personal stream suddenly flickered into active status.

It belonged to none other than BJ Luna.

└ Whoa!

└ Luna has initialized her stream!

└ Everyone assemble in this chat immediately!

With the definitive outcomes still shrouded in mystery and an active final-round competitor suddenly transitioning to a live broadcast, what additional motivation did anyone require?

Even international viewers who possessed zero personal stakes in the SKY institution created fresh platform profiles for the sole purpose of spectating the event.

└ What was the outcome?

└ Did Han Yuna fail to make the cut?

└ Who managed to pass?

└ There is no logical way all ten candidates secured a spot, right?

An avalanche of intense curiosity immediately overwhelmed the streaming chat.

Then.

Bzzt!

A single crackle of static manifested, and Han Yuna’s facial features dominated the entire display layout in an incredibly close-up camera angle.

“Greetings to everyone~”

She appeared to be residing in a state of absolute euphoria.

└ Oh hell yes!

└ Look at that expression—she absolutely secured her admission.

└ Is this reality?

└ A content creator managed to gain entry into the planet’s premier organization on her initial attempt?

└ AARGH, the tension is genuinely destroying me! Just reveal the results already ㅜㅜㅜㅜ

└ What was the core purpose of starting this stream? A breakdown of a rejection? Or a declaration of acceptance?

“Please exercise a moment of patience, everyone.”

Han Yuna manipulated her personal mobile device for a brief moment, and the streaming title instantly shifted its wording.

[(Live) BJ Luna — Formal Announcement of the Second-Generation Guild Assembly for SKY!]

Han Yuna had emerged as a definitive selectee of the second-generation cohort.

She had ultimately secured the explicit authorization from Yu Jia to manage the broadcast of the official SKY media presentation.

The dual passions that ruled her life.

Operating as a streamer. Existing as an active player.

She had successfully captured both objectives simultaneously.