Chapter 231

Chapter 231
## Chapter 231: Starlight, Eternal Randolph

“Arrogant brat…”

The Heavenly Demon.

The supreme martial artist who had been cast into the Prison of Stars was finally free.

Standing once more upon the ‘Isle of Gods,’ he let a suffocating wave of murderous intent roll off his body.

“You actually dared to plunder my Heavenly Demon Blade…!”

It was a relic beyond value.

The sacred tool that served as the very symbol of the Lord of the Heavenly Mountain—the Heavenly Demon Blade.

And some nameless interloper he had never encountered before had snatched it away.

It was an indignity he would never overlook.

Rumble! Rumble rumble!

The sheer pressure of his malice was enough to physically warp the ground beneath his feet.

‘But it doesn’t matter. By this point, he is surely a corpse or a lunatic.’

The Heavenly Demon manually reined in his bloodlust.

He could not risk being dragged back into the ‘Prison of Stars’ before he had achieved a single goal.

If that idiot had truly taken the Heavenly Demon Blade, his fate was already sealed.

The malevolent deity residing within that blade was not a force to be trifled with.

Anyone who lacked mastery over the Heavenly Demon Divine Art would find their physical form bloating and detonating simply by making contact with it.

Alternatively, they would be hollowed out into a mindless slaughterer, a star of calamity reducing the world to ash.

Even if they had somehow studied the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, the price of wielding the blade was the total abandonment of their human soul.

Regardless of the specifics, the thief who touched the Heavenly Demon Blade could not possibly remain intact.

There was no scenario where he gained power from it.

‘God-skinned mongrel… I cannot guess your true motive for orchestrating this ceremony.’

A specific rite was unfolding across this island.

To a casual observer, it might look like a twisted game, but it was a massive ritual saturated with hidden intent.

He hadn’t personally gathered any ‘starlight’ yet, but having felt its essence, he now grasped the underlying logic.

‘Very well. If you require a champion, I shall be the one who stands at the end.’

The rule was simple: only the lone survivor would inherit everything.

To reach that peak, one had to accumulate ‘starlight.’

While trapped in the Prison of Stars, the Heavenly Demon had deciphered the mechanics of this world to a degree.

He even possessed the identity of the wretch who had made off with his blade.

‘I will strip you of every scrap of power you hold, you wretched omen.’

A mere harbinger of doom.

He had no idea why that cursed lineage, long thought to be erased from existence, had been vomited back up from the void.

But one truth remained: the thief could never survive the influence of the Heavenly Demon Blade and the corruption of his own inner demon.

Never.

—

The malevolent god was at a total loss.

He was the ultimate darkness—the blackness that consumes and overwrites every other hue.

And yet, this mortal man stood before him, completely unblemished and unstained.

There was only a single logical explanation for such a phenomenon.

Only a shade of black even more profound than his own could resist being absorbed.

—I am the manifestation of pure evil!

But was such a thing even feasible?

Could this human truly be more wicked than him?

More depraved than a being who had existed as the personification of evil since the dawn of time?

He had sat upon the throne of all ‘evils’ from his first breath to his last.

Exactly how many horrific sins had this human committed to harbor a darkness that eclipsed his own?!

—What… exactly are you?

For a fleeting second, he wondered if he was staring at another ‘evil god’ in disguise, but he quickly dismissed the thought.

This creature was not a god.

Yet, he held within him the deepest void in the universe.

Like the singularities of infinite gravity that occasionally tore through the cosmos.

A realm of absolute nullity that devoured all that came near.

—I refuse to accept this. That your malice outweighs mine!

The pinnacle of pure evil.

That title belonged to him, and him alone.

His sacred territory, a throne meant only for the evil god, had been trespassed upon.

There was only one way to settle this insult.

—I have reconsidered. You will die.

He would slaughter the man and claim his essence.

This was his realm, after all.

A place where every object and every concept was within his reach.

In this space, the fool had no hope of victory.

A single command backed by his divine will would be enough to end it.

Pop!

A moment later, the man’s spirit flickered and dimmed.

It wouldn’t be long before the body’s life force followed suit.

The penalty for invading his sanctuary was nothing less than total annihilation.

—Tsk. He should have simply surrendered to the inevitable.

Still, a small part of him felt a twinge of regret.

The quality of this human’s vessel was truly staggering.

He couldn’t bring himself to admit the human was more evil, but the raw potential was undeniable.

The evil god stepped out from the shifting shadows.

As he began to meticulously inspect Randolph’s physical form, he found himself in awe.

—He makes the Heavenly Demons of the past, those so-called Millennial Invincibles, look like children.

The countless millions of devotees on the Heavenly Mountain had spent lifetimes trying to inherit the evil god’s wisdom.

Only the most elite, hand-picked prodigies were ever permitted to test themselves against the Heavenly Demon Blade.

Over the millennia, there had certainly been many world-shaking talents.

But they were nothing compared to this.

Even those considered the geniuses of their eras were like tiny puddles compared to the vast ocean of this man’s body.

A ten-thousand-year invincible.

No, perhaps his potential stretched even beyond such labels?

—The core is human. To reach this height without discarding his humanity…

The evil god saw through Randolph’s masks instantly.

The man had draped himself in various false natures, but his foundation remained human.

He had not yet thrown away his soul.

Given his natural aptitude, he clearly hadn’t felt the need to.

The evil god shuddered to think how powerful he would become if he finally let go of his human side. It was beyond comprehension.

—Had he abandoned his humanity, he could have achieved the ultimate mastery of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art…

No Heavenly Demon in history had reached the true pinnacle of that art except for the evil god himself.

The current Heavenly Demon was the closest contender, but he was still leagues away.

Yet, looking at this man’s talent, it seemed like a trivial task.

If he could just transfer this level of aptitude to the current Heavenly Demon…

The seals binding him would be shattered.

He could finally walk free from the Heavenly Demon Blade that served as his cage!

—I must initiate the Great Law.

He would harvest the aptitude and transplant it.

He couldn’t migrate the full 100%, but even a portion would be enough to change everything.

The Great Law of Soul Devouring.

The evil god extended his hand toward Randolph’s chest.

But the very instant his fingers brushed against the skin over the heart.

“…Finally, we have contact.”

The human’s eyelids snapped open.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The heart that had been silent began to hammer with violent intensity.

The evil god’s features twisted into a scowl.

—You should be deceased…?

The pulse had stopped.

The spirit had withered.

Had it all been a performance?

Even if it was a ruse, for what purpose?

Why would anyone gamble their existence just to play dead?

The answer dawned on the evil god with terrifying clarity.

—You… you are… what is this…?!

He had been fundamentally mistaken from the start.

The layers of different natures shrouding the man.

He had assumed they were meant to hide a human core, but he was wrong.

Even that assumption was a trap.

By touching the heart, the evil god finally perceived the human’s true identity in its entirety.

Thousands upon thousands of eyes, etched into the very fabric of the heart, were staring back at him.

It started with the dreadful omen.

Then came the one who birthed the dark, and even Baal of the four omens manifested.

—For a solitary human, this is too much. It is excessive. What… what are you?

And the parade of horrors did not stop there.

Shards of apocalypse and spirits of pure agony poured out!

They emerged in an endless stream.

Twitching like independent organisms, every single one focused its gaze on the evil god.

Each entity represented an absolute extreme of malice.

Furthermore, they were fused together like a single living body—singular yet plural.

When combined, they synthesized into a ‘transcendent pure evil’ that made his own divinity look pale.

A simple human had stitched these horrors together?

It was impossible.

It couldn’t be happening.

“Why do you find it so hard to believe?”

The human’s eyes locked onto his.

The evil god recoiled in instinctive fear.

Something was being reflected in the human.

It wasn’t Randolph.

Beyond the man’s surface, another consciousness was pulling the strings of this body.

—‘An entity that is mathematically impossible’…

A being that should never have been allowed to exist.

In that moment, the evil god finally saw the truth.

This was an existence that defied the laws of reality.

A thing that was never meant to draw breath in this world!

—The demon of greed…!

—

【You have chosen ‘Dreadful Omen.’】

【The ‘Starlight’ held by the ‘Dreadful Omen’ has been established.】

【During the morning phase, Attack Power 76 and Health 70 will be in effect.】

【‘Dreadful Omen’s’ combat record stands at 2 wins, 0 losses, and 0 draws.】

The ‘Night Evil Spirit’ was required to impersonate a fellow contestant during the daylight hours.

Because of this, Isabella naturally chose to mimic the dreadful omen, Randolph.

She was certain Randolph was currently tearing his way through the competition.

‘While the sun is high, I need to lock away as many rivals as I can within the Prison of Stars.’

However, she had to ensure she never actually crossed paths with the real Randolph.

The second they met, her facade would crumble, and Isabella would be deleted from existence.

Caution was her only priority.

She had to calculate Randolph’s likely position and actions, then navigate the island accordingly.

‘…Already 2 victories. I expected nothing less from Lord Randolph.’

Her mimicry didn’t just grant her his face; it gave her access to these tactical stats.

Isabella allowed a soft, gentle smile to grace her lips.

Just as she thought, Randolph had mastered the underlying logic of this game.

Two wins in a single day without a solitary mark against him.

And he hadn’t sacrificed anything of value to get them.

Furthermore, the data available to the ‘Night Evil Spirit’ was surprisingly deep.

‘The ultimate starlight that can only be harvested under the cover of night. The fact that he holds the Unique Emperor’s starlight proves he was hunting tirelessly while the world slept.’

Having secured two duel victories, Randolph had navigated the dangers of the night and even seized the Unique Emperor’s prize.

Consequently, now that it was morning, he was likely hunkered down somewhere, processing his rewards.

Isabella understood Randolph’s patterns.

Since he had already locked in his general starlight and won his duels, he wasn’t being hunted by spirits, meaning he had no reason to wander during the day.

He would likely wait, gather more high-tier starlight with surgical precision, and then launch a final, decisive campaign.

Tomorrow, when she took on the form of the ‘Dreadful Omen’ again, his progress would be even more evident.

Isabella’s objective was clear.

‘The entity that should never have been born. I must wipe him out.’

……She had to eradicate that terrifying freak.

She could feel it in her bones.

That monster lived for nothing but conquest and momentum.

It was a creature of pure hunger, thrashing about only to swallow everything in its path so it could truly manifest.

At the same time.

‘I need to locate Lord Randolph’s starlight.’

The map was etched with the positions of the stars.

Points of light flickering in the distance.

Naturally, as a Night Evil Spirit, she couldn’t actually claim starlight for herself.

She could only mirror the light assigned to the person she was impersonating.

However, she could lead the true owner of that light toward it.

‘The rules said I would vanish if my cover was blown, but they never said I couldn’t leave a message.’

She could leave a signature or a symbol that only Randolph would understand.

And she could guard that location from other looters until the sun went down.

That was how she would support him.

With her mind made up, Isabella scrutinized the map and began her trek toward Randolph’s starlight.

“Ah…!”

There, in the dead center of the island, she spotted a single, brilliant star.

【‘Eternal Randolph’ ★★★★★】

【‘Night Evil Spirit’ is prohibited from claiming new starlight.】

She had found it.

Isabella’s breath hitched.

The most powerful starlight of all, the one that defined Randolph’s very being!

But finding it was only the first step.

She had to shield it from the swarm of challengers until nightfall.

No other player could be allowed to see the name of this star.

And she had to ensure Randolph himself could find his way here.

She didn’t know his current coordinates, but if he got anywhere near, he would recognize his own essence immediately.

As Isabella walked toward the starlight, trying to think of the best way to mark the spot.

【Accessing the memory contained within the ‘Eternal Randolph’ starlight.】

Suddenly, the history stored inside the light began to bleed out.

The images materialized in her mind, playing out with terrifying vividness before her eyes.

As the memory continued to loop, Isabella’s face grew darker and more strained.

Finally, once she had witnessed every second of the history held within that starlight.

“……No.”

Isabella’s legs gave out, and she stumbled.

Her eyes were wide and trembling, her pupils blown wide with shock.

The color drained from her skin until she was as pale as a ghost.

……It was the look of someone who had just looked upon a horror that was never meant for mortal eyes.