Chapter 26

Chapter 26
## Chapter 26: The Beast Tide

Extinguishing the Demon King.

Then, plunging the “Path of Light” into the heart of the abyss—only to witness his own life flicker out in the aftermath.

Serengeti struggled to dismiss the claim.

Yet, she found it equally impossible to embrace as truth.

“… Recall the parting words you gave me before the Star.”

Serengeti moved with extreme care.

Her gaze was heavier and more focused than it had been when I first mentioned my demise.

My simple declaration hadn’t been enough to bridge the gap of her skepticism.

‘There’s a missing piece here.’

I understood Serengeti. My knowledge went deeper than mere familiarity with a game character. Since encountering her as a living player, I’d felt an inexplicable bond and a sense of shared history.

I could see it in her eyes.

There was a hidden motive behind her questioning—some specific detail about my passing that she was holding back.

She required one final, undeniable proof to be certain I was indeed the Knight King.

‘…… What exactly did I tell her?’

The memory was a blank.

It made sense, in a way.

I remembered the act of “encouraging” her when I secured the Star for her back then. The issue was that I had no conceptual understanding of what that “encouragement” looked like in a physical world.

In the game, it was a mechanical input.

Holding the modifier and tapping T on the board triggered one of 26 different animations.

The “encourage” action involved a brief mumble and a friendly pat on the shoulder—but the actual dialogue was never printed on the screen.

“…… You were paralyzed by the fear that absorbing the Star and ascending would erase the woman known as ‘Serengeti.’”

The words flowed from my mouth without conscious thought.

It was a script I had never read, yet I knew it by heart.

“At that moment, I couldn’t truly grasp the terror you felt. Looking back, I realize I simply hoped your devotion to Hudson would remain untouched by your new power.”

“…… That’s right.”

“Standing before the Star, I gave you my encouragement. I told you: ‘Shut up.’”

“Ah……”

A violent tremor shook Serengeti’s frame.

She shuddered as the memory took hold.

It was a secret shared only between her and the Knight King.

I was just as taken aback as she was.

In a flash, the past flickered through my mind like a moving tapestry.

—They claim everyone who touches the Star loses themselves. I’m terrified I’ll change.

—Shut up.

… From the look of the vision, I hadn’t so much encouraged her as I had practically kicked her toward her destiny.

Was that supposed to be inspirational?

And was “shut up” really a phrase worth crying over?

…… She actually was weeping.

‘She must be tapping into the Star’s residual memories.’

It was a latent trait of the Star Successor path.

Every profession had its hidden perks, and mine allowed me to peer into the experiences of the Star’s previous bearer.

That had to be what triggered this.

“Are you truly Wilhelm, the Knight King?”

“I am.”

“But… that physical form…”

“A lot has happened since then.”

“So, you have returned as a ‘sinner’?”

“A sinner?”

To most, a sinner was just a common criminal.

A term for those behind iron bars.

But the way Serengeti spat the word made it sound like something far more specific and dangerous.

I tilted my head in confusion. She brushed the moisture from her cheeks before continuing.

“There is a faction that hunts those who retain their past memories and ‘inhabit’ a new vessel, branding them as sinners. These pursuers call themselves hunters… or reapers…”

“This is news to me.”

Reaper. It sounded like a specialized player hunter.

I remembered the term vaguely from the lore of Hudson’s life.

But the specifics were a mystery to me.

Serengeti gave a small shake of her head.

“My knowledge is limited as well. Only… you must stay vigilant. Their dedication to tracking ‘sinners’ is said to be borderline fanatical. They say they carry a ‘black bell’—a bell that never makes a sound.”

“I’ll be on the lookout.”

“And… about your final moments as Knight King Wilhelm. There is information you need. I still find it hard to credit what I saw, but if those visions were accurate…”

Serengeti bit down on her lip.

Her eyes flickered with a mix of denial and trauma as she began to recount the events.

—

On that fateful day.

The Knight King tore a rift into the Demon Realm, leading a massive host of two hundred thousand warriors.

The pushback from the abyss was brutal. Mere seconds in that realm cost the lives of thousands.

The clergy prayed until their voices broke, but the sheer weight of the Demon Realm’s gloom was suffocating.

“Something is wrong. It’s as if the Demon King’s legions anticipated our every move.”

The breach into the Demon Realm was a secret.

Only a handful of elites knew the timing.

Yet the enemy moved with suspicious foresight.

However, even their perfect strategy was shattered by a single person.

**Kwaaaaaaang!**

The Knight King swung a massive blade forged of pure radiance, deleting thousands of foes in a heartbeat.

The ground itself buckled; every ambush was neutralized.

He was a God of War. A deity walking among mortals.

The demons facing him were almost pitiful in the face of such overwhelming majesty.

“The Knight King is invincible! Forward, everyone!”

“Execute the monsters! Purge the shadows!”

“Victory is ours by the grace of the goddess!”

With the Knight King at the front, success felt inevitable.

But the corruption of the Demon Realm was deeper than any of them realized.

‘Where has everyone gone?’

…… As the battle raged, the ranks were thinning.

A massive distance had grown between the elite vanguard and the main body of the army.

Initially, it looked like the common soldiers were just struggling to keep pace. But it was worse.

Serengeti felt the chill of realization.

They hadn’t charged in blindly.

They had planned for every possible variable before opening the gate.

Even the demonic atmosphere had been calculated. They had brought enough “Dawn Torches” to ensure no one would wander off in the dark.

‘This is intentional. A conspiracy.’

The army was being bled dry.

Quietly. Systematically.

And it wasn’t the demons doing it—it was the humans.

By the time the truth dawned on her, the damage was done.

‘Who sold us out?’

To dismantle an army of that scale required high-level traitors.

It wasn’t a one-man job; it had to be a coordinated effort.

“Aaack!”

“Saintess Se-ah!”

The holy woman at her side collapsed in agony.

She had been chanting non-stop, offering her own spirit as a shield for the knights against the rot of the realm.

Foul, leaking sores erupted across her beautiful features. Her eyes began to cloud with shadow, the whites turning a muddy black.

Saintess Se-ah. Even as her body began to fail, she screamed for them to continue.

“Move! Do not stop! I will give my life to bless your path!”

“But Saintess!”

“We cannot halt! Whatever you do, do not look back! We are in ‘Fly Hell’! The corruption is absolute here! Anyone who turns their head will rot instantly!”

Se-ah was using her physical form as a living sacrifice to keep the prayer active.

It meant that even the elite knights had started to waver, glancing back in fear.

It was a nightmare where turning around was a death sentence.

Once they entered that zone, tracking the rear guard became impossible—which was why the disappearance of the soldiers had gone unnoticed.

‘Then… someone knew about this specific hell beforehand?’

Humans hadn’t explored this deep.

To have known about Fly Hell meant a pact had been made with the Demon Realm.

Serengeti looked toward the Knight King, who was still carving a path at the front.

He never faltered, eyes fixed firmly on the goal.

This Fly Hell was a more grueling gauntlet than the seven that preceded it.

…… When they finally pierced through the eighth circle, fewer than thirty knights remained.

‘Where… where did the rest go?’

Serengeti’s breath came in ragged gasps.

She looked down and realized her legs were simply gone.

“…… You stubborn girl.”

The Knight King looked down at her.

The moment they exited Fly Hell, they had walked into a trap.

A runic seal placed by the Demon King himself.

It had sacrificed half the Demon Realm’s landscape to activate—a trap specifically designed to kill Knight King Wilhelm.

In that split second, Serengeti had used her transcendent power to switch places with him.

Transcendent logic overrode all other laws.

She had survived by a miracle, though her lower half had been vaporized.

“Cough!”

Blood sprayed from her lips.

She was at death’s door. There was no recovery from this.

With her fading strength, she reached for Wilhelm.

“Wilhelm. Unbeaten, glorious King. If you win this… please… watch over Hudson. Give him this… and tell him… I’m sorry for leaving. I loved him… with everything I had.”

She tried to press her necklace into his hand.

But Wilhelm wouldn’t take it.

“Tell him that sentimental garbage yourself.”

He immediately emptied a bottle of the rarest elixir onto her wounds.

Then, he slapped a seal onto her chest.

She stared at him in shock.

“Why would you use something so precious on me…!”

“It won’t do me any good where I’m going.”

The Talisman of the Ultimate Annihilation Guardian Array.

It created a pocket of space that monsters couldn’t perceive.

It was usually useless against high-level, transcendent entities.

However, even those beings couldn’t break into the sanctuary of a talisman that had been reinforced and ascended to this degree.

But for Wilhelm, it had lost its purpose.

Because.

“Stay here and watch. I’m going to end that monster.”

…… The Demon King was standing right in front of them.

**Grooooo!**

The Demon King’s essence fractured. The “Path of Light” tore through the center of his power, shredding the dark energy.

It was over. Success!

The long, bloody crusade into the Demon Realm had reached its end.

But the relief was fleeting.

‘What is……?’

Serengeti couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

As the core broke and the Demon King’s life ended.

**Tzzzzzzzz!**

The core exploded in a backlash of world-ending miasma, ensnaring Wilhelm.

And then.

“You absolute freak. To drive me to this point without even the backing of a goddess’s ‘prerogative’…”

…… The Demon King’s own shadow began to move independently.

Time slowed to a crawl.

The world seemed to freeze mid-motion.

The shadow looked over its tattered form and let out a soft click of its tongue.

It was a ruin. With the core gone, it couldn’t rebuild this body.

“But that is where you failed.”

The meat was dead, but the spirit remained.

Only the direct intervention of a goddess could truly wipe it out.

The man who had destroyed the body was a peerless warrior, but his sword lacked the divine authority to finish the job.

That was the catalyst for the change.

**Shhhhhh!**

The shadow began to flow into Wilhelm.

Once it had completely bound and integrated with him, it would be reborn.

This was the Demon King’s final trump card.

‘Incredible. Just as I thought.’

A vessel that had consumed five Stars and ascended—it was better than anything the demon could have imagined.

It was no longer human. It was a demigod, forged far beyond mortal capacity.

“…… Hm?”

**Shwaaaaa!**

Suddenly, a brilliant light erupted from the Knight King’s chest.

The shimmering image of the goddess appeared over him.

“Leah……!”

The shadow recoiled in shock.

It purged the goddess’s light instantly, but the cost was high.

“You would murder a knight who bled for you just to reclaim your ‘Star’? And you call yourself a divine being!”

The goddess had taken Wilhelm’s life to forcibly pull the Star back to her.

Her greed had inadvertently stopped the Demon King from taking over his body.

When the brilliance faded, Wilhelm was a corpse, his face pale and lifeless.

—

“…… Everything after that is a blank.”

“……”

“But…… the thing that came out of that light… it was pure, unadulterated malice……”

**Boom!**

**Kwaaaang!**

Suddenly, the world shook.

A massive blast echoed through the air.

Moments later, Hudson’s voice roared from the other side of the entrance.

“A BEAST TIDE! The city is being overrun!”