Chapter 174

Chapter 174
## Chapter: 174
Chapter Title: Seven Great Sins

I stifled a cry of pure triumph.

I felt like bursting into a dance of joy.

If the identity of the Emperor Penguin was truly Wilhelm, then every piece of the puzzle finally fell into place.

Only a man of his caliber could have forced me into such a desperate corner.

Yet, a question lingered: how had he returned from the grave after his demise?

Moreover, he had manifested in a completely different physical form.

‘A Sinner. A Player.’

That was the sole logical explanation I could conjure.

Within the vast sea of experiences ingrained in my very soul, there were several fragments of knowledge that pointed toward that truth.

However.

‘What does that change?’

I gave my head a firm shake.

Precisely. It changed nothing at all.

The mere reality that my adversary was Wilhelm was sufficient.

That fact alone was plenty.

‘…I am going to unveil everything to you.’

I still held my final, most devastating maneuvers in reserve.

The sheer thrill of encountering him once more washed over me.

The world itself took on a radiant hue now that the moment to release my full power had arrived.

‘A full year has passed since our paths last crossed. It would be a tragedy to let it end so abruptly, wouldn’t it?’

We would collide with every ounce of strength we possessed.

Even if the cost of this exchange was my very life, I would accept it gladly.

Come. Let the dance begin.

The “true” struggle was only just beginning.

The moment I bellowed Wilhelm’s name aloud.

His aura underwent a profound shift.

‘His spirit is becoming much harder to decipher.’

The Champion was undeniably a powerhouse.

Even so, his killing intent and his physical trajectory had been relatively simple to forecast until now.

His presence was just too expansive and domineering to hide.

Any ordinary warrior would have been paralyzed by the sheer weight of his pressure, but for me, that blatant transparency made him a manageable target.

It was the reason I could systematically dismantle a hundred diverse abilities using nothing but the Heaven and Earth Transformation.

And yet.

‘His fragmented focus is knitting itself together. It is unifying under the identity of Wilhelm.’

A singular, iron-clad resolve.

A burning, monomaniacal fixated on seeing this duel to its ultimate conclusion.

When the conscious mind and the primal instincts merge into one colossal, focused intent, reading an opponent becomes an exercise in futility.

‘……He is absolutely certain that I am Wilhelm.’

A sudden shiver traced the line of my spine.

How on earth had he pierced my disguise?

The Heaven and Earth Transformation was a foundational theory, not a rigid style.

It was a form of blade-work that lacked any set patterns or recognizable stances.

It should have been impossible to identify me just by analyzing the arc of my blade.

I had meticulously hidden behind a mask and altered my very gait and posture with surgical precision.

I was convinced there was no trail for him to follow.

How could he possibly know I was Wilhelm?

‘Was he always this intense?’

He was vibrating with fervor.

His spirit was reacting with a violent, explosive energy.

Ever since the realization of my identity took hold of him.

An icy dread prickled across my skin.

In all my time crossing blades, this was a sensation I had never encountered.

I had never met anyone who directed such a terrifying level of obsession toward the name Wilhelm.

‘……I need to conclude this immediately.’

An uneasy feeling was taking root within me.

Allowing this confrontation to reach its natural end with him no longer felt like a calculated risk—it felt like a mistake.

‘Ah!’

Pure rapture.

With every vibration of our meeting steel, a deeper sense of bliss surged through my chest.

Simultaneously, I felt the urge to claw out my own eyes.

These useless, defective eyes that had failed to recognize him until this very moment.

The staggering idiocy of not seeing the man standing directly before me—it was enough to make my stomach turn.

Ah, Wilhelm.

The Great Knight King Wilhelm!

For an entire year, you were the only thing I awaited, without pause.

Not a single day went by without you occupying my thoughts; not even a fleeting second.

In the realm of sleep, I endlessly mimicked your style, your cadence, every nuance of your being.

I endured countless nights of insomnia, tortured by the shame of never having tested myself against you.

I was certain that only you possessed the power to satisfy my eternal craving.

‘Accept all of it!’

I unleashed every bit of my essence.

And yet, it felt as though nothing I did was truly reaching Wilhelm.

I refused to let it conclude in such a lackluster fashion.

-Consume! Devour everything he is!

A thunderous roar erupted within my skull, and the Champion instinctively grabbed his temples.

“Urk……!”

It felt as though his cranium was being cleaved in two.

He was being subjected to an agony that surpassed any pain he had ever known.

-That man’s entire existence! Leave nothing behind! Finally, within the vessel of Wilhelm, my comrade—perfection will be achieved!

What are you rambling about, you wretched shadow?

I was simply filled with joy.

Ecstatic to finally face a powerful rival who could grant me a worthy end.

Elated to finally cross paths with this noble, honorable warrior!

It was pure, unadulterated happiness, and nothing more.

Do not taint my simple joy, you foul spirit.

-Is that truly all? You claim to have waited for a mere duel? Stop your lying. You desired him as well, didn’t you? You lusted for an even more potent physical form!

The throbbing in his head grew unbearable.

The demonic voice became a deafening scream.

“Why… what is happening to him?”

“He just collapsed out of nowhere!”

“Is the Champion finally reaching the end of his rope?”

“Good grief. Just how powerful is this Emperor Penguin?”

The arena seating fell into utter disarray.

In the middle of their high-stakes duel, the Champion had suddenly clutched his head and crumpled to the tiles.

His defenses were so completely shattered that a single casual swing could have taken his head.

It was the very first sign of weakness shown by the man who had held the title of Champion with an iron grip for so long.

-You only wanted to feast. To take it for yourself. That flawless, finished physique! To walk in the light and honor once again! Yes, your true wish was to become the Knight King Wilhelm yourself!

‘Silence!’

-You are a miserable, thick-headed simpleton. Three millennia have passed, and you haven’t moved an inch. You cursed hypocrite.

‘I said silence……!’

-Step aside. If you lack the will, I will take control. Just as I always have!

Ah.

My skull is splitting apart.

I just want to surrender to the void.

The Champion clamped his eyes shut.

In that fleeting second.

He transformed into a demon of the primordial era.

“W-What is this……?”

Auril found herself retreating instinctively.

A stomach-turning stench assaulted her senses.

The smell of ancient, stagnant decay began to radiate from the Champion.

That… that thing was not human.

Nothing that produced such an odor could possibly be a mortal being.

‘A cultist of the demons?’

The atmosphere was thick with a foul reek.

The darkness of this world was not a monolith.

Demons, monstrosities, reapers, the void…… they all existed within their own specific niches and realms.

Among those entities, demons were inextricably linked to the concept of ‘evil karma.’

While rare, true demons did exist in this world, along with those ‘demon worshipers’ who served them.

Was the Champion merely a follower of such a power?

‘No. That is a demon in its own right!’

Auril shook her head in realization.

Typically, demons provided massive power to their servants in exchange for their humanity.

Consider the Demonheart, for example.

Mortals who accepted it moved beyond human constraints but sacrificed the chance for a stellar awakening.

But the entity standing before her was nothing like those servants empowered by a Demonheart.

He radiated a far more potent stench and a much heavier weight of karma.

He was the manifestation of pure, unadulterated ‘evil.’

‘The Queen once mentioned that from the very beginning of time, seven demons have tormented this realm.’

They were known as the Seven Great Sin Demons.

Only those seven were considered true demons.

Three were known to walk the world today; the location of the others remained a mystery.

But if all seven were to manifest at once, it was said that a new ‘apocalypse’ would be triggered…… a warning echoed by both the World Tree and the Queen.

Was the creature before her connected to those ancient sins?

A primeval demon that had long since faded from history.

“W-What is that thing?”

“Look at his body, it’s expanding!”

“Is he planning to detonate himself or something?”

As the Champion’s frame began to distort and swell, the spectators cried out in terror.

His skin and muscle inflated as though he were being pumped full of air.

“Ah……”

Auril stood frozen.

That was a massive, concentrated ball of ‘wickedness.’

Alongside the putrid smell, a mountainous level of dark desire was coalescing.

It felt like the weight of hundreds, thousands…… even tens of thousands of corrupted souls.

It was nothing like the desire that had once radiated from Randolph.

Randolph’s energy had been about absolute, sweeping control.

This was something different—a thick, viscous, and suffocating obsession.

Suddenly, the voice of Karas rang out clearly in the minds of everyone present.

“Run, all of you. It is arriving.”

It?

What exactly?

Karas’s tone carried a slight, unmistakable tremor.

As if he were facing a nightmare he had encountered once before.

Karas spoke again.

“The true ‘Sansha’…… is making its entrance.”

The earth groaned.

The very foundation of the tower trembled.

Reacting to the Champion’s grotesque evolution.

Reacting to the manifestation of the true ‘Sansha.’

Upon hearing Karas’s words, the truth finally dawned on me.

‘So that is the reason why Sansha’s existence remained a secret.’

It was a name I had stumbled upon by pure accident.

Karas had mentioned it to me during my time climbing the ranks as Wilhelm.

He had told me to stay vigilant against Sansha.

The warning was identical this time around.

Karas had cautioned me regarding Sansha.

Yet, I had never truly grasped what ‘Sansha’ represented.

I didn’t know its location, or if it was lurking among the crowd.

I didn’t even know its nature.

‘So, that is Sansha.’

Once the arena had been cleared of spectators.

The bloated, massive shape ceased to resemble anything human and became ‘something else’ entirely.

A demon resembling a centipede, sprouting a terrifying number of arms and legs.

Those appendages clearly belonged to other ‘humans’ it had absorbed.

Its main body was a carpet of blinking eyes, and the only remaining trace of its former self was the Champion’s face, perched at the very top of its head.

‘……Repulsive.’

It was sickeningly, hauntingly foul.

The imagery was far too graphic for any standard game rating to ever show on a screen.

【Lv. ???】

No numerical level was visible.

But one thing was certain: a direct, head-on confrontation with that horror was a death sentence.

“Escape, final scion of the Omen.”

Karas suddenly materialized in front of me.

However, Karas was clearly diminished.

In his role as the master of the tower, he had already succumbed to the influence of ‘Sansha.’

Gross centipede-like limbs were bursting through Karas’s wings.

It appeared he had sacrificed his flight and a significant portion of his divine strength.

“I am deeply indebted to the Omen lineage. They were the guardians who oversaw the management of the countless towers.”

The Omen clan.

A group of formidable crows serving as the administrators of the various towers?

That was news to me.

It was another piece of buried history that hadn’t been part of the primary world lore.

The origin of the towers and the family sworn to manage them.

Karas continued his explanation.

“Even though ‘Sansha’ has consumed a portion of my physical being, this tower still answers to me. I have agonized over this, but I have no choice but to entomb it here along with the tower itself. Before it manages to break free. I cannot allow it to consume the last survivor of the Omen line as well.”

His voice was heavy with a sense of mourning, as if he regretted not taking this path much earlier.

Karas then fixed his gaze on me.

“But I find myself wondering. You belong to the Omen clan, and yet…… you remind me so much of ‘him’ from a year ago.”

Much like the Champion, Karas had seen through my mask.

I gave him a slow nod.

“That is correct. I am Wilhelm.”

I spoke with the sincerity the moment deserved.

He was prepared to lose everything to ensure my safety.

Karas dipped his head, as though my confirmation was expected.

“Just as I suspected…… That must be the reason ‘Sansha’ is so desperate to have you. Knight King. No, that is not all. You are the bearer of sacred lineage…… ‘Imperial Blood.’”

“……Imperial Blood?”

“Ah. Your roots are tied to the celestial realms. I am forbidden from revealing more, but the legacy of ‘Omen’ will see you through.”

“Hmm, I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood the situation.”

“……?”

Did he honestly believe I would simply turn tail and run away?

I gave a casual shrug and addressed him.

“I am Wilhelm. I have never once turned my back on a foe to flee.”

I claimed the name of Wilhelm as my own.

It was a solemn oath to stand my ground.

No, it was more than that.

It was a formal promise to execute that demon where it stood.

‘Sword of Defeat.’

I lunged my blade into the empty air before me.

Craaaaaack!

A massive, reality-warping domain tore open in the sky above.

It bore a resemblance to Sword Saint Gracia’s ‘Heavenly Sword Realm,’ but it was vastly more expansive.

The secret technique of the ‘Sword Saint of Defeat,’ a move far too dangerous to employ until this very moment.

It finally began to manifest.