Chapter 120

Chapter 120
## Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: The Most Radiant Luminescence

Thus, because of the difficulty, it was a task even more deserving of the effort.

“······?”

The Fiend Pamela cocked his head, watching my behavior with confusion.

His bewilderment was justified.

Splash splash splash splash!

······ I had hoisted the sacred chalice aloft, soaking my entire body from head to crown in the consecrated waters.

Boom!

Rumble rumble!

Kuaaaaaang!

The heavens unleashed bolts of lightning without a moment’s peace.

A violent gale consumed the landscape, and massive swells of water began to drown the surrounding terrain.

“The ‘Red Warp’ has materialized on Jeju Island, and the unnatural occurrences show no sign of stopping!”

“The rift is expanding! The ‘Hero Union’ has yet to issue a definitive statement regarding this catastrophe.”

“The administration has elevated the ‘Central Disaster Safety Countermeasures Headquarters’ from Level 1 to Level 3 status.”

“Every citizen of Seogwipo City has been moved to safety······.”

Every major broadcast station was providing frantic, non-stop coverage of the event.

However, a collective intuition told the public that this was far beyond a mere meteorological disturbance.

The scarlet rift was bloating in real time.

It had reached the height of a ten-story skyscraper, making any attempt at concealment impossible.

“··· What in the world is trying to crawl out of that thing?”

“It’s the apocalypse! The day of judgment! The end has finally arrived!”

“Hallelujah!”

The coverage wasn’t limited to main networks.

Cable stations and countless digital platforms joined the media frenzy.

The scale of this rift was incomparable to any previous warps recorded across the globe.

And it continued to swell.

While the world speculated on the horror lurking within, Union Leader Park Tae-woo was pressured into the spotlight to disclose the grim reality.

“An entity known as ‘Baal’ from the ‘Otherworld’ is launching an incursion. The rift formed in Seogwipo City, Jeju Island, is believed to be the gateway from which Baal itself will manifest······.”

“Mr. Park Tae-woo! What exactly is Baal?”

“Are you talking about the ancient deity of the sun from Syria?”

“Is it the same Baal listed as one of the 72 spirits of Solomon?”

“Or perhaps the character from the video game?”

Inside the media briefing room.

A barrage of inquiries erupted before Park Tae-woo could even finish his sentence.

Damn it. Park Tae-woo let out an internal groan.

He was torn between explaining the terrifying truth or trying to soften the blow.

“··· Baal is one of the ‘Four Evils,’ the most savage entities from the primordial eras of the Otherworld. Countless ‘Dimension Warriors’ gave their lives attempting to halt Baal’s advance, but they were defeated.”

Ultimately, Union Leader Park Tae-woo decided on total transparency.

The destruction of Cartel signaled that Baal’s arrival was imminent.

To save as many lives as possible, he had to be blunt and force the public to realize the danger.

“Does that include Gracia?”

“··· It most likely does, yes.”

“G-Gracia has fallen?”

“······ That is our current assessment.”

The metropolis had been demolished and dragged into the dark void.

To think anyone survived would be a fantasy.

It was pointless to hold onto hope against such impossible odds.

The journalists were paralyzed by the revelation.

Gracia was gone!

The champion who was revered globally, the one who could summon hundreds of blades to decimate foes from miles away.

-If even Gracia was defeated, what kind of power does Baal possess?

It was beyond comprehension.

The inhabitants of Earth had never encountered a threat of this magnitude.

Therefore, Park Tae-woo continued,

“Gracia was not the only one. Tens of thousands of combatants threw themselves away to hold back Baal. Many renowned ‘Dimension Warriors’ were among those losses.”

“······!”

“Union Leader! Is there truly no plan to stop this?”

A plan.

······ Countermeasures.

As if such things could exist.

The total number of active players in all of Korea was less than a thousand.

They couldn’t hope to succeed where an army of tens of thousands had perished.

They were missing both the necessary strength and the strategic tools.

The sole remaining option was, at best,

“········· We have to give up on Jeju Island.”

Abandon it.

Sever the limb before the infection spreads.

If not, the scale of the catastrophe would only expand.

“Jeju Island······?”

“You mean abandon it?”

A wave of shocked murmurs swept through the room.

The declaration was too staggering for anyone to remain quiet.

Park Tae-woo inhaled deeply and laid out the cold truth.

“Precisely—we must leave it behind. ‘Baal’ is a creature that dissipates after it has consumed a specific space. Once it has devoured Jeju Island, it should vanish.”

······ It wasn’t a total guarantee, of course.

But the ‘likelihood’ was high.

The probability that it would sink Jeju into the void and then return to its own dimension through the connected rift.

The complication was that, unlike Pangeniar, this happened to be Earth.

In Pangeniar, fragmented spaces meant rifts were the only way to travel, but Earth’s geography was entirely interconnected.

Through the oceans and the continents.

‘However, with rifts appearing all over the globe, it might still work.’

It was a desperate, hopeful thought.

He prayed it was the case.

Baal was that level of ‘disaster.’

“What about the civilians who couldn’t get out in time?”

“The weather is too violent to send in planes!”

“The sea is just as dangerous for ships.”

The problem remained the trapped residents.

The people whose entire lives were on Jeju.

Were they to be left to their fate?

“······.”

Park Tae-woo remained silent.

He had no words to offer, no matter how he tried to frame it.

He couldn’t bring himself to explicitly say they were being discarded.

Jeju had a population of 680,000.

Only a small fraction had escaped.

Hundreds of thousands were facing certain death.

Normal people—non-players—would be obliterated without any way to fight back.

“What about the Master? Isn’t the Master still out there?”

“We reached out for assistance······ but we were turned away.”

A flat refusal.

They were certain that Jeju was a lost cause.

“We are out of time. The government must make a rapid choice······.”

“Is this the official position of the Union? To sacrifice Jeju?”

“······.”

“Does this mean the Union will not step in?”

“That is······.”

Correct.

It was exactly as the journalist stated.

Give up Jeju, then regroup to deal with Baal later.

That was the conclusion the Union had reached.

Of course, coming to that decision wasn’t easy.

But they had to accept the hatred and the blame.

To be wiped out on Jeju would mean the end of everything.

Yet, the timeline was moving even faster than they feared.

《‘Calamity God Baal’ has finished its metamorphosis.》

《‘Calamity God Baal’ has ascended to ‘The One Who Is the Abyss Itself.’》

“Ah······.”

Park Tae-woo, losing track of the press conference, buried his face in his hands and sighed heavily.

The most brilliant radiance.

My sight was swimming.

The warmth of blood clouded my vision.

Through the red haze, the ‘messages’ began to surface.

《You have defeated ‘Fiend Pamela.’》

《An incredible feat! You have surpassed the ‘Force Majeure’ disparity!》

《You have earned the title ‘Victor in an Unwinnable Battle.’》

《You have earned the title ‘Fiend Slayer.’》

《Honor has increased by 300.》

《You have received 1,500 Contribution Points.》

《A ‘Fiend Heart’ has been dropped.》

《51 constellations of the Citizen War are now observing you.》

“Hoo, huuuk······.”

My limbs felt as heavy as lead-soaked sponges. My ragged, gasping breath showed no signs of calming down.

Guardian Knight Pamela.

A level 13 entity was an terrifying opponent.

If not for the enhancements and the piercing traits granted by the holy water, I would be the one dead on the ground.

Pulling off a victory like this was nothing short of a miracle.

If I hadn’t managed to weaken the surrounding knights after taking down Lord Darkan······ it wouldn’t have been possible.

Was this just luck?

‘Did I spend too much time?’

I bit down on my lip.

The struggle against Pamela had lasted far longer than I intended.

In that window, Baal had completed its evolution.

Was it because there were fewer people left to save?

No, it was likely because Lord Darkan had provided it with too much fodder.

‘All those troops Lord Darkan brought along were essentially turned into fuel for Baal.’

Absolute madness.

Naturally, he must have felt certain of his success.

He believed his strength was enough to win.

But Lord Darkan had failed to realize the true identity of Guardian Knight Pamela.

Or perhaps he was completely in the dark.

‘······ He never would have shown up if he’d known.’

Unless he was a total idiot, he wouldn’t have stepped into this cursed place knowing what Pamela actually was.

It’s probable that even the lord didn’t realize he was dealing with a fiend.

Because of that, they were destroyed before they could even properly engage Baal.

‘It will be crossing over to Earth soon.’

There is no time left.

Forcing my exhausted body to move, I looked over at the spot where Pamela had fallen.

The slaughtered fiend had crumbled into ash upon its demise.

All that remained was the ‘Fiend Heart.’

【Fiend Heart(???)】

-A Fiend Heart of the supreme grade.

-Capable of boosting a user up to level 13.

-Allows for a pact with a fiend to obtain overwhelming strength.

-Upon making the pact, the body is fully healed and reconstructed; the user’s race changes to ‘Fiend.’

-‘Fiends’ grow more powerful in proportion to their ‘Followers.’

-‘Transcendence’ through the ‘Stars’ becomes impossible.

······ A contract through the Fiend Heart.

This was on an entirely different level than Maxim’s.

Just signing the pact would allow me to leapfrog several levels at once.

With my body restored, handling Baal might actually be feasible.

The demonic essence within the heart reached out to my mind.

-Will you enter the pact?

It was pure ‘depravity.’

Evil testing the limits of human desire.

To go against Baal in my current state was madness.

I tried to look away, but my eyes were drawn to it instinctively.

-Is it not your wish to slay Baal? Can you, who barely survived Pamela, hope to face the evolved Baal? Remember, even Pamela was not at his peak.

The demonic whisper.

It felt like it was reading my innermost fears.

No, it was simply echoing my own logic.

-Take my offer. Seize the power. I will grant you the dominion required to strike down Baal. You could reach heights even Pamela never dreamed of.

The strength from the pact.

The authority of a Fiend!

With power that eclipsed Pamela’s, I could kill Baal.

If it was impossible now, I could make it possible through this.

-You are a shameless creature. Is this not your fault? If you hadn’t triggered Baal’s awakening, none of this ‘tragedy’ would be happening. Pangeniar, Earth—they are both on the brink of destruction because of your actions.

The ‘Evil’ was highlighting my burden of guilt.

If I hadn’t interfered, this catastrophe wouldn’t have unfolded.

The fall of two worlds was on my head.

-Enter the pact······.

Crunch!

I brought my heel down on it, crushing it into shards.

“Be quiet.”

It was incredibly grating.

Everything it said was something I had already processed.

Furthermore, as the heir to the Knight King, why would I ever accept the blasphemous power that the goddess herself had cast aside? It was ridiculous.

That would be trading away the entire future for a moment of strength.

In that instant.

《You have decimated the Fiend Heart.》

《You have earned the achievement ‘One Who Overcame the Fiend’s Temptation.’》

《Honor has increased by 1,000.》

《You have received 10,000 Contribution Points.》

《Honorable one! All constellations of the Citizen War are applauding your resolve and have focused their gaze on you.》

In the end, every single constellation was watching.

The temptation of the fiend.

They were apparently curious to see which path I would walk.

The gains in Honor and Contribution far outweighed those from killing Pamela—it was the same logic.

The heart itself was the ultimate test.

Furthermore.

‘I can’t face Baal like this?’

That whisper.

It was half-truth, half-lie.

With this broken body, obviously I couldn’t.

But even against Pamela, I hadn’t exhausted my entire arsenal.

Ziiiiiiiiing-!

The vortex was churning.

Moving through the pitch-black void, there was Baal.

Baal, having become The One Who Is the Abyss Itself, was attempting to bridge the gap through the rift.

‘I will never let you set foot on the other side.’

I couldn’t permit it.

I had held back this one thing for this exact moment.

It was time to activate it.

Time to commit everything I had left.

《‘Throne of the Most Radiant Light’ begins to manifest.》

《You have triggered the prefix skill ‘The Most Radiant Luminescence’ etched upon the ‘Throne of the Most Radiant Light.’》

《The prefix is consumed; in 60 seconds, the base duration of ‘Throne of the Most Radiant Light’ will expire.》

《Sacrificing ‘Intact Golden Rule.’》

Ziiiiiiiiing-!

Once Baal achieved its form as ‘The One Who Is the Abyss Itself,’ the situation on Jeju took a terrifying turn.

“Th-that······.”

“What is going on over there?”

The media personnel were in a panic.

It wasn’t just them—every viewer was gripped by terror.

The rift stretched out in every direction, wrapping around Jeju like a colossal barrier.

Then, the space where Jeju once sat was transformed into a ‘void.’

“Jeju······.”

“It’s gone!”

The entire region had been consumed by the darkness.

It appeared to have vanished entirely.

Had Jeju been eaten already? Even before Baal had fully emerged?

“U-Union Leader!”

“Mr. Park Tae-woo!”

“Tell us what this means!”

Total mayhem broke out, as expected.

Everyone screamed for an explanation, their eyes fixed on Park Tae-woo.

“······.”

But he remained speechless.

It was impossible to respond.

He truly had no idea what was happening within that void.

Whether the people inside were alive or dead······.

He knew nothing.

Except for one grim certainty.