Chapter 171

Chapter 171
## Chapter 171: The Champion Emerges

*Whoosh!*

*Clang!*

With a fluid motion, she parried the incoming blade.

*Screeech!*

The violent rattling traveling up her forearm was something she had already stopped noticing.

“W-What is happening?”

“The rabbit girl is taking on the Emperor Penguin with her eyelids shut!”

“Is she really that arrogant, thinking she can win without sight?”

Their voices didn’t reach her.

In the theater of her mind, there was nothing but the blade.

“How interesting.”

She remained deaf even to Randolph’s voice, which carried a hint of respect.

She persisted in her rhythm of deflection and forward momentum.

This encounter was a different beast entirely.

It bore no resemblance to the one-sided humiliation she had suffered previously.

Back then, she had been blind to the truth.

She had been swallowed by his overwhelming intent and a style of combat she couldn’t begin to decipher.

Now, however, the veil had lifted from Randolph’s technique.

And with understanding came the possibility of triumph.

“…Truly remarkable.”

The compliment was genuine and unforced.

‘No one has managed to read this since my journey as a player began.’

He was, quite literally, stunned.

Wilhelm’s legacy of the blade.

Heaven and Earth Overturned—specifically, the ‘Heaven’ aspect.

Auril was the inaugural warrior to pierce through to its core since he had stepped into the role of Randolph.

‘Heaven’ was not merely a method of controlling the physical environment.

It was a profound discipline that allowed one to perceive the very thoughts of every soul within that domain.

Auril had identified that essence after a single exchange.

‘A natural.’

In the artistry of the sword, Auril was a prodigy.

He had once viewed her volatile temperament as a fatal flaw, but her present composure proved she had mastered herself.

Solid. Unwavering.

She had shut out the universe, condensing her entire existence into a lone edge.

‘Yet, she hasn’t reached the heights of Valte.’

In the territory of the subconscious, Valte was peerless.

Valte, the master of the spear.

A frantic warrior whose strength multiplied exponentially when he surrendered his mind to the depths of the unconscious.

Valte was perhaps the perfect negation of his own style.

‘……She is still evolving.’

The depths of Auril’s focus were expanding.

With every strike they traded, she grew more formidable.

It was a frightening pace of development.

He had never encountered a talent of this magnitude.

Save for one singular memory.

‘The kin of Ysera. Basara, the Seventh Lord of Hell.’

Of all the demonic entities he had battled in his life as Wilhelm, she was the most harrowing and relentless.

A freak of nature he hoped to never cross paths with again.

‘Basara was a greater threat than the Demon King himself.’

That was his honest conclusion.

The Demon King was dangerous because of his deceitful maneuvers, but Basara was a force of “absolute, raw power.”

She possessed a terrifying ability to grow mid-battle, shattering her own limits and mimicking his moves with disturbing ease.

Had that conflict lasted a moment longer, Wilhelm would have fallen.

And in this moment, Auril was the shadow of Basara.

‘……A spark that could potentially outshine Wilhelm.’

If that were true, then Auril held the potential to exceed the legend of Wilhelm.

Of course, potential and realization were two different things.

However……

**KABOOM!**

I slammed my heel into the dirt.

The ground fractured instantly, sending out a violent tremor and a concussive wave.

“Ah……?!”

Auril’s focused state splintered, if only for a second.

She had not yet attained a state of perfect, unbreakable unconsciousness.

Auril bit her lip in frustration.

She had likely never dreamed her flow could be disrupted so crudely.

She hadn’t accounted for such unrefined, practical interference.

Having spent her life training within the Primordial Forest, she was still too tethered to traditional logic.

“Did you honestly think this was strictly a duel of blades?”

There were a million ways to snap someone out of a trance.

Unless one reached the tier of Valte, a trance was always vulnerable to a sudden shock.

Especially for someone like Auril, who was just beginning to walk that path.

Still, it seemed a waste to cut the experience short.

‘Show me more.’

I resolved to push Auril to her absolute breaking point.

—

The Champion’s gaze wavered with intensity.

He watched the relentless clash of metal.

He wasn’t imagining it.

‘Heaven and Earth Overturned…… That is the style of Wilhelm!’

The memories etched into Wilhelm’s star confirmed it.

The stranger’s cadence and form were hauntingly familiar.

‘Ah.’

A practitioner of the forgotten art.

The Knight King he had sought for the duration of a year.

Wilhelm!

The technique was unmistakable.

Yet, this man was not Wilhelm himself.

Was he a student of the legend?

Or perhaps another individual who, like him, had inherited Wilhelm’s past through a star?

‘Flawless.’

But it was too precise to be a mere copy of memories.

The trajectory of the blade, the footing, even that specific air of nonchalance.

Everything aligned with his internal records—it was as if Wilhelm had crawled out of history.

In that instant of awe, the Champion suddenly grew alert.

‘The shadows of Sahnsha!’

In the dark corners.

In the spaces between sight, Sahnsha’s shadows were monitoring the Emperor Penguin.

The Champion understood the gravity of that surveillance.

‘They are hunting for a crack in his armor.’

This was Sahnsha’s most dreaded power.

Using her status as a tower administrator to direct shadows and strip away an opponent’s secrets—that was her way.

Even the powerful Karas had been dismantled by that absolute authority.

If Sahnsha hadn’t discarded Karas, the current Champion would never have held the title.

Indeed……

His rise to the position of Champion was orchestrated by Sahnsha.

Everything that allowed a commoner like him to be hailed as the God of War was her doing.

And that very foundation was his greatest vulnerability.

Now, Sahnsha was turning her predatory focus toward the Emperor Penguin.

She clearly intended to transform him into another one of her puppets, just as she had done to him and Karas.

‘I must intervene.’

A man who might be the heir to Wilhelm’s spirit.

The figure he had yearned for over a year had finally surfaced, as if summoned by his desire.

If he allowed Sahnsha’s machinations to go unchallenged……

Everything that man represented would be compromised.

To be watched and deconstructed meant becoming a slave to one’s own weaknesses.

‘This is the hand of destiny.’

Holding Wilhelm’s star while Wilhelm’s successor stood before him.

It could be nothing else.

As long as he remained here, the tower’s conclusion was inevitable anyway.

When that end arrived, Sahnsha’s ambitions would turn to ash.

And so, the Champion began his move.

He would permit Sahnsha no further control.

—

‘Astounding.’

Sahnsha watched the fight, a soft hum of praise escaping her lips.

It wasn’t the combat that enthralled her, but the sheer wealth of data her shadows were harvesting.

‘Even with my level of access, there is so much unknown information here.’

Her shadows were comprehensive.

They dissected origins based on kinetic patterns and ran complex simulations.

They even possessed the right to scan the lingering energy of the warps the Emperor Penguin had used to reconstruct his history.

And yet, this Emperor Penguin was a void of information.

‘The warp signatures have been completely scrubbed. It’s like the Elevens of the Death God Church.’

No path back to his origin could be traced.

It mirrored the elite units of the Empire’s Death God Church.

But this was cleaner. Entirely silent.

That wasn’t the only hurdle.

His profile and stats were obscured.

Was it a high-level skill or an artifact masking his presence?

It would have to be a Unique-grade item at the very least.

‘He possesses relevant hidden traits. Traits designed to repel my authority. But that is merely a temporary setback.’

If not items, then only hidden truths could obstruct her view.

Only those fundamental truths could override the functions of a tower administrator.

But a wall was simply something to be breached.

He wouldn’t even detect her intrusion.

Given enough time, she would strip away every layer.

Specifically, the breakdown of his combat style was nearly finished.

She could deduce his identity piece by piece from his specific habits and movements.

Suddenly, Sahnsha’s brow furrowed in irritation.

‘My shadows are being extinguished.’

……Someone was methodically hunting them down.

When she realized the culprit, her face twisted into something truly sinister.

‘The Champion. You?’

The Champion was sitting in the stands.

Yet he was actively purging her surveillance.

As one blessed by the tower itself, the Champion could perceive the administrator’s shadows.

Why this sudden act of rebellion?

The pet she had cultivated was suddenly baring its teeth.

After emerging for the first time in a year, was this his form of defiance?

‘……Have you found something that interests you?’

It was preposterous.

Had he actually taken a liking to the Emperor Penguin?

If so, perhaps the way Karas had surrendered was the spark.

It suggested he was finally prepared to take the stage.

After twelve months of silence.

Sahnsha fell into deep thought, her expression tense.

She couldn’t quite grasp why a man ready to fight would sabotage her gathering of intel.

‘Do you wish for a duel without an audience?’

Ah.

The Champion was communicating with her through his actions.

He wanted a clean fight against the Emperor Penguin, free from her meddling.

A silent demand for a pure confrontation, unlike the mess with Karas.

Sahnsha rubbed her chin.

She considered the outcome of a clash between the Emperor Penguin and the Champion—who would be the victor?

‘……Very well. For this instance, I will let you have your way.’

—

The 20th floor.

Having surpassed Auril and the guardian of the 19th floor, I finally stepped onto the 20th level.

The territory of the Champion.

“The Champion has granted the challenge!”

“A full year has passed, hasn’t it?”

“Incredible…… The hermit King finally steps into the light!”

The commentators were in a state of shock.

The Champion, who had turned away every suitor for his title, had accepted the Emperor Penguin’s request after a year of isolation.

An unprecedented shift had occurred.

The pieces had clicked into place following the duel with Auril.

I had secured Sahnsha’s begrudging consent and the Champion’s curiosity.

And so, I stood across from the Champion, a man I had never met until now.

“……”

Silence reigned.

We did nothing but observe one another.

The reigning Champion.

His unkempt hair fell over his features, masking his face. His eyes remained hidden in shadow.

But.

*Thump! Thump!*

The second I laid eyes on him, my heart began to race.

The reason became clear instantly.

**《You have located the Named ‘Star of the Sun.’》**

……One of the legendary stars of Wilhelm, the ‘Star of the Sun,’ was right in front of me.

The Star of the Sun was a Named star of an entirely different caliber than the three currently in my possession.

Yet, that wasn’t the only thing causing my pulse to skyrocket.

*Whooooosh.*

His aura, manifesting with the weight of an azure dragon, felt hauntingly familiar.

‘It can’t be……?’

How am I supposed to overcome that?

Auril watched the arena in silence.

In her mind, she was still dissecting every moment of her previous bout.

‘I gave it everything I had.’

Even in loss, there was no bitterness.

In truth, she felt she had been tutored.

Randolph had intentionally endured her strikes until the very end.

Yet, Auril felt she hadn’t quite reached the core of Randolph’s true power.

‘……There is an ocean of knowledge to gain from Sir Randolph.’

She found it difficult to swallow her pride, but she had to admit the truth.

The way of the sword she had mastered in the Primordial Forest was too linear.

Randolph, conversely, was like the wind.

Every time they clashed, she felt her own prowess being forged anew.

Like a mentor guiding a pupil, Randolph was handing her keys to enlightenment.

‘Sir Randolph is no mere mortal.’

Initially, she was certain he was human.

But Randolph was also a High Druid.

Likely a spirit dwelling within a human shell, possessing the rights of a High Druid.

The leader Aruwen had hinted at this, so it had to be reality.

The proof was evident—laurel leaves sprouted and thrived just by being in his presence.