Chapter 149

Chapter 149
## Chapter 149: The Covenant of the Spirit

“Is it true? Will you actually let me live if I cooperate?”

“Certainly.”

“Even after I’ve exposed my private stats to you…?”

His gaze was thick with skepticism. He had clearly resigned himself to a death sentence the moment his status window was laid bare. He was reaping exactly what he had sown.

I let out a low, mocking laugh.

“Executing a non-entity like you provides me with zero gain.”

“It isn’t just the stats. You’ve seen my face as well…”

“Are you certain of that? Do you truly believe this is my original form?”

“…”

The Master fell silent, his jaw tightening. Having witnessed my ability to shift shapes once already, he was now doubting if the face before him was any more authentic than the last. Besides, my persona back in the Empire had been poles apart from this.

‘I played the part of a mindless savage there.’

I had roamed half-naked, bellowing like a primitive beast. It was only natural for him to assume I possessed a thousand different masks. More importantly:

“Even if you attempted to expose what you’ve seen, who would lend you an ear?”

“That is…”

He faltered. It was a logical dead end. Even from my perspective, the story sounded absurd. Who would believe that a mere level 8 character existed with stats bordering on 3 stars and fifteen hidden attributes? Anyone claiming such a thing would be laughed out of the room for spinning fairytales.

‘Phantom. A player, yet not a player.’

That was the mystery bothering me. Someone was masquerading as Phantom—a participant who didn’t fit the mold of a standard player. A shadow operative pulling the strings, using the Master and his cohort of “heroes” as disposable puppets for a grander design. Someone with the reach to feed intel to the Demon King and derail the Great Expedition.

‘An individual capable of communicating with the Demon King.’

The monarch of demons had been perfectly briefed on the Great Expedition. He had mobilized half of his realm’s strength specifically to ensnare me. If Serengeti hadn’t utilized her Star Authority to switch places and martyred herself, I wouldn’t have survived long enough to even face him. Yet, there had been no sign of a middleman. Was there truly a person capable of reaching the Demon King in his isolated domain?

‘It’s an impossibility unless they are numbered among the Lords of the Eight Hells.’

The Demon King only granted an audience to those eight specific rulers. No other entity could even cross his threshold. But those lords weren’t players, nor would they have a reason to mimic Phantom, so it had to be an interloper.

‘Unless they hold some kind of administrative privilege.’

Securing a meeting with the Demon King on that level was a monumental task. One would either have to subjugate the demon realm as I did, or… perhaps the Emperor of the Empire might command such an audience. At the very least, you’d need the stature of the White King or the Black King. And the Master evidently knew the identity of this shadow.

“If my word isn’t enough, let’s formalize it. I’ll place a seal on you so you cannot speak of me. That should give me enough peace of mind to let you walk.”

“…Are you being serious?”

“Completely. I pledge it upon the prestige of the Knight King, Wilhelm.”

“Wilhelm… the Sovereign of Conviction.”

“Indeed. Wilhelm was defined by his steadfastness and fealty. I hold myself to that same standard.”

The Master’s pupils flickered with intense agitation. If he was familiar with the legend of Wilhelm, the temptation was irresistible. He was just as lost in the world of Pangeniar as Hudson was, viewing his avatar here as his ultimate reality. Calling Wilhelm the ‘Sovereign of Conviction’ was proof of how deep his immersion went.

I gave a casual shrug.

“Or we can settle this via any contract of your choosing. If you have a preferred method, name it.”

“…We will perform the ‘Soul Oath.’ Only then will I trust your word.”

The Soul Oath? I had intended to utilize ‘Winter,’ but he was suggesting this instead. It was his signature move for keeping his high-level subordinates in check—leveraging the ‘Soul Ring’ on his finger to enforce a spiritual mandate. It was an exchange of equivalent value where both parties set terms that became cosmically unbreakable.

“I accept.”

I gave a sharp nod. Seeing my lack of hesitation, the tension in the Master’s face eased slightly. He wiped a smear of blood from his split lip and let it fall onto the Soul Ring.

“Place a drop of your own blood upon this band. We will each declare one mandate and then seal it with a handshake.”

I didn’t blink as I pricked my thumb and let a crimson bead fall onto the jewelry. The ring immediately began to pulse with a sinister red glow.

“You shall not inflict any harm upon me, in any capacity. That is my requirement.”

The Master spoke first, his desperation for survival bleeding through. He was being thorough; if he had only forbidden me from killing him, I could have left him a broken shell through torture. He had played his hand well.

I spoke my own term.

“You are to remain absolutely silent regarding my existence.”

*Voom!*

The radiance from the ring intensified. The Master reached out his hand, and I took it firmly.

In that heartbeat:

《The ‘Soul Oath’ has been ratified.》

The crimson energy surged from the ring and flooded into my chest, locking the agreement into my very essence. It was done. I had met every one of his demands. Now, it was time for him to deliver. Secure in the knowledge of his safety, would he hold up his end?

“…It happened one day. A figure approached me, identifying himself as ‘Phantom.’”

The Master began to speak, his voice wavering. My apparent sincerity and willingness to bind myself seemed to have finally cracked his shell. I focused on every word.

“He claimed he would be the one to guide the Great Expedition in the days to come. He spoke of future tragedies with the certainty of a prophet… and every single thing he foretold came to pass.”

As I suspected. That was the foundation of the Master’s loyalty to this ghost. A seer of the future… the White King was the first candidate that surfaced in my mind. But even the White King’s foresight was limited to vague, intuitive warnings of personal peril. He couldn’t chart specific timelines.

“Because of his guidance, I rose to power in the fallen city of Lundel. I reaped countless rewards.”

“So his involvement goes back further than I estimated.”

“Roughly eighteen months ago. He tracked me down shortly after I arrived as a player. Regardless…”

He took a hard, dry swallow before continuing.

“He was obsessed with the Great Expedition. He warned me that I must never take part. He claimed that ‘the halted sequence’ would only resume once Wilhelm was dead…”

“The halted sequence?”

I felt a slight pinch between my brows. The mastermind wanted Wilhelm out of the picture. But the idea that something would only “begin” upon Wilhelm’s demise—what was the logic there? It was a riddle I couldn’t solve.

“I am just as clueless as you. But… he referred to it as ‘the genesis of all things.’ He visited me periodically after that, always appearing in different guises.”

“Changing his appearance?”

The Master shook his head.

“It wasn’t just a disguise. He became entirely different entities to pass on his instructions. Once he was a player, another time a native of Pangeniar, and once even a creature of the wild…”

“He inhabited different lifeforms? Not just a simple illusion?”

“Yes. The status analysis only works on players. He was undeniably a player during our first encounter, but never again after that.”

“Could it not have been a group of different people?”

“No, it was the same presence. No one else in this world carries that specific aura.”

The Master was unwavering in his conviction. So, I pressed him on the crucial detail.

“If you confirmed his status as a player during that first meeting, you must have seen his registered name?”

A status check would reveal the handle, just as he had identified me as Randolph. The Master nodded.

“I saw it. At that time… the name displayed in the window was…”

He paused, a flicker of hesitation crossing his face. Then, as if casting off a final weight, he spoke.

“It was unmistakably ‘MintChocoDelicious.’”

“…? MintChoco?”

I paused, tilting my head in confusion. The name was familiar. ‘MintChocoDelicious’ was a notorious recluse, much like Phantom, known for guarding their privacy. But hadn’t that individual challenged Riley in the ‘Abyssal Labyrinth’ before retreating? A known spirit medium and a master of jiangshi. Perhaps they had communicated with the Master by inhabiting a corpse.

‘But the Master isn’t so incompetent that he can’t distinguish a reanimated corpse from a living person.’

He wasn’t that dull. So, was ‘MintChocoDelicious’ capable of occupying various forms? But if they weren’t always a player…

“My theory… is that he has the ability to possess multiple characters. I don’t understand how he manages it when he isn’t in a player body. Perhaps my perception was simply too low to see through the trick.”

The Master let out a weary sigh. Standard players inhabit their strongest character upon death, restarting from level 1. By the rules, they could only occupy the last character they had active. But this person could leap between many. If that were the case, he was exponentially more dangerous than I had dreamed. He might even be exempt from the penalty of permanent death if his “real” body wasn’t tied to the characters.

“Furthermore, he spoke of this ‘structure.’”

“The Rift Tower?”

“He never gave it a formal name, but it fits. He claimed that following Wilhelm’s death, the ‘tower’ would manifest. And at its peak lies the ‘Heavenly Realm.’”

The Heavenly Realm. Was he referring to the abode of the celestials? This was a development I hadn’t anticipated.

“A place that serves as the polar opposite of the Abyss,” the Master continued. “He said reaching the heavens would grant a power beyond measure…”

“Which is why you joined forces with the Black King to ascend.”

“Yes. That is the sum of my knowledge. True Phantom.”

I offered a slow nod. The Master had maintained his dignity, after a fashion. Secured by the supernatural oath, he was utterly certain I was powerless to kill him.

“I will also keep your secrets. Our paths part here.”

“Our separate ways. Yes. Indeed.”

I concurred. Our trajectories had drifted far apart. I slowly unsheathed ‘Winter.’ Then, I swung the blade, severing the ‘crimson threads’ that were tightening around my heart.

In that instant:

《‘Winter of the Vanquished’ has terminated the subordinate agreement.》

《The ‘Soul Oath’ has been dismantled.》

The Master’s eyes bugged out, wide with sheer disbelief.

“W-What… what have you just done?!”

The true essence of ‘Winter of the Vanquished’—Raktusha. It held absolute dominion over ‘covenants.’ Its power was fundamentally broken; it could cleave through high-level spiritual contracts and render them void at the user’s whim.

“H-How is it possible to break a Soul Oath?!”

The Soul Oath was no exception to the blade’s rule. As long as it fell under the category of a ‘contract,’ it could be cut. The Master’s face twisted in agony, his eyes darting frantically. His entire frame began to shake with a violent tremor—the look of a zealot watching his god crumble. He looked like a cornered animal consumed by terror.

…I truly regretted letting him escape my grasp back in the Empire.

“P-Phantom! No, Wilhelm!”

“I am not playing the part of Wilhelm today.”

I offered a cold smirk. Wilhelm was a paragon of chivalry and honor because that was the specific role-play I had designed for him. If I were actually a slave to such noble ideals, I never would have breathed life into a character like ‘Isaac.’ I had perpetrated countless atrocities just to see if the game’s moderators would intervene.

By contrast, the Master had been swallowed by his own persona. Hudson at least knew where the game ended and reality began, but the Master had lost himself entirely.

“You… you have no honor…?”

“I wouldn’t recognize honor if it hit me.”

Utter bewilderment washed over him. I had merely mimicked the behavior he expected, feigning a sense of duty. He had fallen for it completely, especially after the oath was sworn. Besides, the terms we had agreed upon were trivial.

‘Had I forced him to divulge everything about the shadow operative as a condition, that might have been the limit.’

But I had only asked for silence regarding my identity. Even with such a light burden, he had crumbled, spilling secrets I hadn’t even requested. I never had any intention of following through on our deal.

“Y-You swore to spare me! I gave you everything! I beg of you, show mercy…!”

“You stepped over the line.”

Regardless of who was pulling his strings, the Master’s own choices had been unforgivable. He had sabotaged the Great Expedition and acted as a mouthpiece for a distorted reality. He had stolen Wilhelm’s legacy to parade himself as a savior. I was well aware he had been hunting me.

And there was more. He had counseled the abandonment of Jeju Island solely to bolster his own reputation, all while avoiding the actual battle against Baal. But the peak of his depravity was the endless string of ‘human trials’ he had overseen.

‘Hudson brought the truth to light.’

Hudson had meticulously gathered dirt on everyone associated with the Great Expedition, specifically targeting the so-called Eight Heroes. The Master’s record was stomach-turning. He had fed hundreds of lives into his experiments, specifically hunting for ‘hidden traits.’ Even this tower ascent was another example; he had manipulated a multitude into climbing a deathtrap they weren’t equipped for, leading them straight to their graves.

“An oath! Let’s forge a new one! I’ll accept any terms. I’ll be your servant, your lapdog—anything! Just…!”

The Master collapsed to his knees, his spirit shattered.