Step.
His silver-white hair, like eternal snow, was stained with blood and flesh.
Step.
His sky-blue eyes, once shining beautifully, now stared blankly.
Step.
The knight in shattered, crumpled armor kept walking forward.
"...."
Ocean of Corpses and Blood.
Behind him, mountains of demon corpses numbered over tens of thousands.
"Goddess...."
The knight muttered, swinging his sword.
It was shattered to the hilt, nothing more.
Shing!
The sword slash that unfolded split space and time, slicing through all the hidden demons.
"Ah…! My Goddess."
The knight's name was Michael.
The day his only brother he could rely on was sold to a count's family, he dreamed of the Goddess.
The next day, his abusive parents were found as corpses.
The boy took it as a revelation and set off to become a holy knight.
A fateful choice.
"Ah…! My Goddess."
When he single-handedly eradicated the bandits of the Trion Mountains with his bare hands, he called himself a holy knight.
When he subdued the corrupted Spirit King who had set the Ailen Forest ablaze.
When he accomplished feats no one else could.
-Great.
People called him great.
The great holy knight, Michael.
A rampaging Dragon Lord had sunk the Eastern Continent.
-You who call yourself a holy knight, do you truly believe a goddess exists?
Michael tore apart the mouth that mocked the Goddess without hesitation.
Just when peace seemed to return to the continent, another trial struck.
With a pitch-black gate, they appeared—demons.
Fwoosh.
Everything burned.
Nobles who should have protected the commoners fled for their lives, and the abandoned people hanged themselves in fear of the approaching demons.
Kingdoms crumbled, empires burned.
But amid the flight, one who raised his sword to fight was.
"Ah, my Goddess."
Michael.
He alone stood against the demons with his sword and finally slew even the Demon God Balor.
-Noble.
All called him the noble paladin.
The new empire, Steel Travania.
Ironically, the emperor was Gabriel, Michael's younger brother sold to the count's family in his childhood.
"Why impose such a trial upon me?"
And now, it all burned.
The demons he thought he had slain completely.
Swoosh.
Michael stopped and looked ahead.
In the endless abyss, a figure standing in the void smiled at him.
"Brother, have you finally come?"
His last remaining blood kin, the sole light besides the Goddess.
"Gabriel...."
No.
"Balor—!"
The Demon God Balor, possessing Gabriel's body, tore his mouth wide and spoke.
"Great holy knight, noble paladin, champion of the Goddess...."
Michael swung his sword.
Shing!
Space and time split again, and a burst of light cleaved Balor's body in two.
The moment he felled all the demons invading the continent once more.
"Do you truly believe such a goddess exists?"
Balor, disintegrating, said.
"There is no goddess. Our existence is proof."
"Shut your mouth...."
"No goddess exists, and demons are eternal."
"Shut it!"
Shing!
Another sword slash tore Balor's flesh to shreds.
-Holy knight who has lost everything, you are defeated.
Balor's voice echoed through the void like a curse.
Michael stood before the abyss, the gate to the demon realm.
Balor was right.
The continent was annihilated, everything burned.
Yet something remained.
Fwoosh.
Flames ignited in Michael's empty sky-blue eyes.
"Not yet, not yet."
The war with the demons was not over.
"Goddess, do not forgive me."
But Balor was right.
Demons were eternal and immortal, reviving no matter how many times slain.
The continent fell because he hadn't known that.
The only ones who could kill demons were.
"Only...."
Demons themselves.
Skreeee!
Michael hurled his body at its limit into the closing gate to the demon realm.
"For the Goddess."
That day, Travania was annihilated, the demon gate vanished.
And Michael, champion of the Goddess, ascended.
*
*
*
Michael's consciousness slowly returned.
'I....'
Vaguely, the final moment flashed in his mind.
'Have I committed an unforgivable sin?'
Rage against the demons had consumed him, driving him to throw himself into hell.
But there was no regret.
'All for the Goddess.'
Balor was right.
Demons themselves were a blasphemy and denial of the Goddess.
Exterminating such demons.
'That is the trial and purpose given to me.'
He had realized the purpose he had sought so long as a holy knight.
He would do anything for it.
That was the path for Michael, the Goddess's sole champion.
Then.
[....]
A murmuring voice echoed in his head.
'Ah…. Ah!'
Michael jolted as if struck by lightning.
[Soul confirmed.]
The day he vowed to become a holy knight, the day of revelation.
[Descent commencing.]
It was the voice of the Goddess he heard that day.
[Soul rank is exceptional.]
[No vessel matches the soul rank.]
[Reconstructing vessel.]
How long he had awaited this moment.
After the day of revelation, Michael had never heard the Goddess's voice again.
[Reconstruction will take time.]
But the voice of the Goddess now.
'I was not wrong.'
It proved his will to exterminate the demons was correct.
Michael's consciousness began to fade.
'Goddess.'
No more fear or regret.
'All for you.'
When such a Michael opened his eyes again.
"Wahhh! Wahhh!"
Michael cried out loudly.
"Congratulations. It's a prince."
An unfamiliar language he had never heard.
[You have awakened as a Player.]
[Acquired class: Black Knight.]
[Acquired title: Zealot.]
[Acquired stat: Faith.]
[Karma Points imprinted on the soul confirmed.]
He couldn't easily grasp the situation.
But at the voice of the Goddess he heard after so long.
"Would you like to hold him?"
In the indescribably warm embrace.
[Karma Points 141,292 inherited.]
"Wahhh!"
Michael burst into tears unwittingly.
"Yohan, my baby...."
*
*
*
Six years had already passed.
At first, being a newborn infant when he had been nearly forty was simply bewildering.
"Goddess."
But he soon accepted it.
Even if there were thousands, tens of thousands of inexplicable things.
They were all the Goddess's will and trials.
'Go Yohan.'
That was Michael's new name.
This world was different from the Travania he once knew.
'Earth, Republic of Korea.'
A planet called Earth, a small country called the Republic of Korea.
"Yohan, time to eat."
And the beautiful woman entering through the door was his new mother.
"Yes, Mother."
Michael—no, Go Yohan—rose and replied.
"...."
Go Yohan's mother, Shin Sookyung, looked perplexed.
"Y-Yes...."
Go Yohan was a child beyond words like "special."
It started from birth.
He was clearly the child of Shin Sookyung and Go Jaehan.
-Albinism.
His silver-white hair and sky-blue eyes proved it.
Because of that, many people misunderstood needlessly.
"Yohan, my son."
Shin Sookyung scooped up Yohan effortlessly.
Yohan felt uncomfortable but did not pull away.
After all, she was the mother who endured pain to give birth to him.
"Thank you, Mother."
"...How is he so mature."
As she spoke, Shin Sookyung glanced sideways.
"He's not reading those weird books anymore, is he?"
"The madam said not to give them, so I've only provided picture books."
"...Good."
Held in Shin Sookyung's arms, Go Yohan passed through the hallway.
"The mansion's elegance grows day by day, Mother."
His new home was incomparably grand compared to the past.
Over six years of observation, they were like Travania's nobles.
-New Star Group.
Once called a chaebol.
-New Star Guild.
But now, more fittingly called a warlord.
One of Korea's top ten guilds, the New Star family.
"Our Yohan has such refined taste despite his age? Wonder who he takes after."
"I believe it's from Mother."
"R-Really?"
His unique speech and maturity were beyond description.
"Oh, our cute Yohan."
But in the end, he was Shin Sookyung's child.
The dining table they soon reached was vast enough for over twenty people.
At the head sat the family pillar, the guild master of New Star.
"You're late."
One of the first-generation Players, the legendary Go Jaehan.
"My apologies, Father."
Go Yohan slid down from Shin Sookyung's arms and took his seat, speaking.
"Apol… what? What does that mean?"
Beside Go Yohan sat his sister Go Minji, five years older.
"Yohan, you're amazing. You even know words like 'apologies' already."
Across from them was his eldest brother Go Woojin, twelve years older.
"...Should we test him?"
Next to Go Woojin sat Go Yunsu, seven years older.
Though six years had passed, this seat still felt uncomfortable to Go Yohan.
'Gabriel.'
It reminded him of the brother who couldn't stay till the end.
"We've told you to be quiet at the table."
"Yes."
"My apologies."
As Shin Sookyung took her final seat, the prepared dishes began arriving one by one.
Many misunderstood the name New Star.
Thinking it held religious meaning.
But the New Star family, led by Go Jaehan, were all non-religious.
New (新), Star (星).
The youngest's name was given by Shin Sookyung, Go Jaehan, and a close Player friend.
As the food arrived, Go Yohan naturally clasped his hands and murmured.
"Goddess."
The New Star family watched him.
"...Maybe naming him Yohan was a mistake?"
Shin Sookyung whispered quietly to Go Jaehan.