◈ Chapter 552. Karma (3)
A sacred relic. ‘If it’s something like that, I can understand.’ I recalled the shadow god’s words.
—“The gods would use karma to awaken and wield the sacred relics sleeping in the Pantheon’s treasury. For an omnipotent power resides within sacred relics, one that cannot even be approached with half-baked karma.”
No wonder I thought the effect was excessively unfair.
So it wasn’t an item that could be handled easily even in the divine realm.
At the same time, I began to get a sense of the Pantheon’s situation. ‘The Pantheon hasn’t completely collapsed.’ If they were in such danger that they couldn’t even convey their voices, they wouldn’t have had the leisure to pay attention to reality. At the very least, it meant they had enough leeway to deliver a “sacred relic” to Gaiber. ‘If not that.’ Then perhaps the god of war whom Gaiber serves. There was also the possibility that only the god of war had avoided the crisis and was exerting influence. Of course, I didn’t know the detailed circumstances. ‘To find out properly.’ Rescue the saintess, Freyja.
Then, through her, observe the Pantheon’s movements.[Heavenly Demon Sovereign Step]
Activate it, and confirm it with my own two eyes. That would be best.
In that sense, for now, I should be grateful.[Karma: 4,781]
Karma was rising in real time. Even higher than when I’d bickered with Prototype in the Shadow Corridor. At this point, I could really say it for certain. ‘This thing is practically a bugged item at this level, Granfel?’ Are you sure it’s really okay to use it……!
If I followed my heart, I would immediately unequip the Hexagram Brooch.
Then shove it into some corner of my inventory.
But as I said. ‘……
Damn it.’
I had declared that I would bear my own weight.
If so, I had no choice but to endure.
Karma, exactly as the word meant.
I had to face the karma that was writhing like a dragon inside the Hexagram Brooch. ‘Seriously.’ And more than anything. ‘If I don’t trust you, who can I trust?’ Because you said it was all right, Granfel.
Though it wouldn’t show on this iron mask anyway.
Let’s bury my absurd inner thoughts in my heart for now.
This was a battlefield.
What mattered above all else was morale.
At this moment, as always, I had to be shameless.
Clop.
The Pantheon’s forces had stopped in place.
Everyone was staring blankly at the sight.
In such a situation, I parted my lips with my usual confidence.
“So you finally recognize it.”……
I’d made up my mind with a certain solemnity.
Yet you always exceed my imagination.
Yes, this too was Granfel-style speech.
“Not the illusion called the myriad gods, but your true master.”*
It was over.
“……
Hahaha.”
Park Minjae let out a hollow laugh.
At this rate, hadn’t he ended up running around barefoot for nothing, driven by needless worry?
“Truly…….”
The Pantheon and the Goddess Church.
On top of that, the player alliance led by Bohemian, who could compensate for their weaknesses. He had judged them to be an unprecedented mighty enemy, one incomparable even to Unification of the World.
So he had literally put on a raw show.
In front of reporters, in front of cameras.
Meaning he had poured out an impassioned speech to weaken their forces.
Enough that he himself had thought he’d accomplished something.
But.
“Was it all a misunderstanding?”
It was a gap that rendered those efforts meaningless.
Rather than feeling happy that the General Manager had won…….
For some reason, there was a bitter taste in his mouth.
Park Minjae traced back the source of that subtle emotion.
“You are now somewhere so high we can no longer reach you.”
Since when had he known?
A truly sudden reversal.
AAU had fallen into confusion as well.
No.
“Did he already know that the voices of the gods had been cut off?”
“Isn’t it the other way around? What if the reason the gods’ voices were cut off was because of the General Manager……? In the first place, what else could make the General Manager leave his seat!”
“Th-Then those soldiers turning around was all part of the plan……?”
Perhaps it went beyond confusion to the point where chills would not subside.
Even so, Park Minjae did not forget his main duty.
He spoke toward the control room.
“Even if it looks like everything is over, it isn’t over yet.”
“Yes?”
“Come on, Branch Manager. Even so, the last variable, the Pantheon’s army, has turned around too, hasn’t it? Muon has been neutralized, the player alliance on that side ran away long ago, and the only force left is…….”
Putting aside Hoyeol, who was maintaining his upright posture.
The only one moving alone on the battlefield where everyone had stopped.
Was the chosen holy knight, Gaiber.
“No matter how you look at it, even if he’s in the middle of a holy knight class quest, what can Gaiber do alone? To put it bluntly, if the General Manager so much as flicks a finger, he’ll be crushed under a boulder just like that…….”
It wasn’t wrong.
A branch manager, no less.
More than anyone else present.
Park Minjae was familiar with the system of the Arcana Continent Biography.
Objectively comparing the combat power of player against player?
That was not difficult for Park Minjae.
“Those opinions are correct. But the ones more familiar with the Arcana Continent Biography system than us proud folks are the players, and among them, the rankers.”
“……!”
Those who had been puffing themselves up for a moment fell silent.
“Do you remember Gaiber’s ranking? Gaiber was a specialist of the Arcana Continent Biography who, while raising the holy knight class, which in some ways is nothing but troublesome, had never once fallen into a three-digit ranking.”
In other words.
“Do you think Gaiber, who should know the Arcana Continent Biography system better than anyone, would stake his life on a fight that looks obvious to anyone? No matter what abnormal status he’s under, status abnormalities powerful enough to force someone to risk their life are rare. There’s definitely something.”
Park Minjae’s prediction soon came true.
“……
B-Branch Manager? That sword……?”*
An information window he had never seen before in his life.[Sacred Relic: Heavenly Sword (天劍) Excalibur][Grade: Mythic][Restriction: ???][Effect: Dominates all arms of enemy and ally.][Description: A sacred relic that had been stored in the Pantheon’s treasury.]
It was an item of the Mythic grade, no less.
Yet Gaiber’s gaze was fixed on only one thing.
On the infinitely deep darkness.
An unprecedented aura enveloped Gaiber’s body.
Bewilderment appeared in the eyes of those in the Holy War Alliance who had awakened sword energy.
Nam Taemin opened his mouth.
“That isn’t sword energy, but…….”
“It possesses pressure beyond sword energy.”
Hisagi supported Nam Taemin’s words.
What those words meant was simple.
Now, when everyone thought it was over.
Might perhaps be the true turning point of the match.
Whoooosh.
The form of the horse carrying Gaiber began to change little by little. As though an illusion spell had been overlaid on it, it became the shape of a greatsword and rushed toward the Commander-in-Chief.
“……!”
At that moment, Leoni’s vision flickered.[The aura of death is felt.]
Even in the midst of battle, dozens, hundreds of times.
She crossed the line between life and death.[Berserker]
A berserker who had entered the realm of the bizarre could smell the scent of death.……
Flinch.
And for some reason, that scent was coming from Hoyeol.
That human……?
Unable to believe it, she concentrated her senses at the tip of her nose.
But it was a scent she could not mistake even if she tried.
Even the system, which did not lie, was declaring it.[An unfathomably immense aura of death is felt.]
In that instant, a question rose in her mind.
An unfathomably immense death?
Was it because that human was great?
Or did it have a “different meaning”?
If I were a little more skilled at handling the realm of the bizarre…….
If I had only taken that step a little earlier…….
Could I have understood its meaning a little more accurately?……
Clench.
Stray thoughts came to mind, but she forced them away.
She scolded herself.
Don’t think, move, Leoni.
Because worrying doesn’t suit a berserker.
Leoni muttered.
“I’m going.”
“Going? Where all of a sudden?”
“To save him.”
“What……?”
Just as Nam Taemin and Hisagi looked at her with puzzled expressions.
There was a footstep moving after Leoni.
The archmage, Jesse Heinness. It was her.
“Let’s go together, Miss Leoni!”
Their gazes met.
Nod.
No further conversation was needed.
Clang.
Leoni raised her twin swords.
Jesse, her staff.
Nam Taemin and Hisagi lifted their greatsword and spear half a beat late.
“……
What the hell is this?”
Halt.
No matter how much strength they put into their grips, they would not move.
It wasn’t that their bodies wouldn’t listen.
Their weapons weren’t listening.
As though they were alive.
The weapons were refusing to move.
“Hey, Hisagi. Is something like this an abnormal status too?”
“It seems that way.”
“It’s the same for you?”
“……
Yes. My staff is as heavy as a dumbbell.”
They realized the importance of experience.
Only after experiencing it did the reason begin to show itself.
They could not know the reason, but the Pantheon’s soldiers, who had changed their minds and turned toward Hoyeol, were unable to do anything and were merely looking at Gaiber. This was why.
Even amid all that, Gaiber was rushing forward.
Hisagi desperately recalled the knowledge of a player. ‘An abnormal status like this can’t be induced over such a wide range.’ Even if it wasn’t us.
Someone had to soften Gaiber’s attack.
The Commander-in-Chief must not be struck by an abnormal status of unknown identity.
Just as Hisagi was about to open his mouth.
“All troops, advance!”
The king of Yusra, who had read the strangeness of the battlefield and made his own judgment.
Hakuna shouted.
A judgment unbelievable from one who had been far removed from battle both in the past and present. But what was astonishing was not only Hakuna’s dazzling growth.
“Your Majesty……!!”
“Our swords, bows, weapons won’t move!”
“……!!!”
At that cry, the players who had been watching also reached for their equipment.
But no one could use their weapons.
Marcelo checked the decisive magic tool inside his inner pocket.
As expected, it did not move in the slightest inside his pocket.
That was right.
Every weapon existing on this battlefield.
Was prostrating itself flat.
Gaiber’s vision flickered.[Thousand Swords (千劍) Excalibur absorbs the power of arms.]
Before the king of weapons of myth.
What that meant was simple.
Leoni’s focus wavered.
Even if it was Hoyeol, he might not be able to respond to an abnormal status that dominated the battlefield. The message floating before her eyes, the scent lingering at the tip of her nose, might not be a mistake.[An unfathomably immense aura of death is felt.]
“Fucking shit……!”
.
It was probably thanks to karma.
I was immediately able to grasp that this absurd abnormal status dominating the battlefield was the power of a sacred relic. And that Gaiber held such a sacred relic in his hand. ‘It’s seriously on a completely different level from someone, isn’t it?’ So this was a holy knight class quest.
To give a ridiculous item like a sacred relic as a reward.
This was making me resent the Akshan seniors for no reason.
But even if it’s a sacred relic, it should have limits, shouldn’t it?
Can it really dominate every weapon?
What do you think, Gwicheol?
I reached for my waist.
Then Gwicheol’s heartbeat was conveyed to me.
An ego sword.
A living sword.
Gwicheol thought for itself.
To escape Excalibur’s domination, it changed form.
I slowly lifted Gwicheol.
Shing.
There was nothing hindering the process. That was……. This was a kind of trick, after all. In other words, every time I raised the sword by one centimeter, Gwicheol was reborn into a new form.[Sword That Cuts Illusions: Illusion Breaker][Sword That Swallows Shadows: Shadow Slayer][Sword of Destruction: Destruction Sword]…….
Gwicheol’s appearance changed from moment to moment, like an illusion.
As for how that sight appeared to others.
There was no need for me to trouble myself over it.
Because the system message, more objective than anyone, was telling me.[The legend, “Heavenly Sword vs. Demonic Sword,” resounds.]……
Demonic sword, my ass, seriously!!