A boy who possessed nothing was able to save the continent.
No matter how far back you searched through the continent's history, you couldn't find any precedent for it, and even in fairy tales, you could call it a lie.
But Michael, the great holy knight and noble paladin, the champion of the goddess—he had made the impossible possible.
It was a miracle in the truest sense of the word.
—The grace of the goddess.
The day the revelation had come down.
Swoosh.
The Michael of the past had become able to see the world that Go Yohan was now witnessing.
That sight was close to the truth that countless sages sought.
Everything was flowing like threads, weaving together like warp and weft to form all things.
Ting.
When Go Yohan touched one of the black threads he hadn't seen before.
"Urk!"
Lee Jae-kyung's eyes bulged wide as he let out a stifled groan.
Tremble.
Lee Jae-kyung's entire body was shaking.
He had to devote every nerve just to keep his buckling legs from giving out.
[Will you consume Karma Points to activate the Black Gate?]
The goddess asked.
But he had no intention of doing anything right here and now.
'Too many eyes watching.'
And there was something to mull over as well.
So Go Yohan seized one of the threads and connected it to himself.
Rumble!
A massive vibration shook the world that only Go Yohan could see.
Screeech!
The weather had been clearer than ever before, yet a storm raged over the calm East Sea.
Splash!
Gigantic waves began to surge.
That was when Lee Jae-kyung finally regained his balance.
"Wh-what... did you just do?"
He still couldn't fully shake off the shock.
The first thing he'd felt when Go Yohan flicked his hand in the air was the peculiar energy that erupted when a gate opened.
But the sensation from the next flick.
'What the hell was that?'
Even for Lee Jae-kyung, with all his vast experience, it was a terror and helplessness beyond words.
His emotions boiled over, his instincts screaming that he had to flee right now, and an impulse rising that he had to cut down anything blocking his path.
"We're done here."
But Go Yohan spoke with utter nonchalance.
"The weather's turned nasty. Shall we get moving?"
"..."
In the end, Lee Jae-kyung had to move without getting an answer.
What followed was an ordinary trip, as if the earlier incident had been a lie.
They just strolled and had a meal.
Even the holy faction's guards, who had been on high alert due to the sudden weather shift, now seemed relieved, keeping their distance as they watched.
"Let's head back."
Go Yohan, still just a child, asked to return to the lodging as if he were tired.
It was, of course, the moment Lee Jae-kyung had hoped for.
A lodging on a hill overlooking the East Sea, with open surroundings.
"Tell me now."
Lee Jae-kyung pressed Go Yohan.
"What's going on right now?"
"It's nothing much."
The goddess had merely shown him a signpost.
The choice of whether to follow that path or not was up to him, her knight.
Lee Jae-kyung stared at Go Yohan with a hardened expression.
At this very moment.
"Don't brush it off like that."
Lee Jae-kyung had to ask the question he'd been holding back.
"You..."
Go Yohan.
"What are you, exactly?"
His true nature.
*
*
*
Go Yohan healing the injured Shin Su-kyung could be explained away.
'A player.'
They were granted various classes and skills upon awakening, and if that boy had unbelievably good luck piercing through the worst odds, he might have awakened early and gained healing abilities.
'But.'
It was hard to believe the truth that a six-year-old boy had wiped out Rite's assassins.
It shook the very foundation of what players were.
He was six years old.
Lee Jae-kyung hadn't witnessed his birth, but he remembered the moment Go Yohan had entered the estate as the youngest of the holy family.
He'd visited the estate often to watch over his growth and had already known he was special.
However, a player's strength ultimately came from levels.
'Levels only rise through hunting or the occasional quest.'
Rite's assassins at the time were elite killers, confirmed to be in the mid-100s level range.
It was simply illogical for Go Yohan, who had never even entered a gate once, to have taken them down.
There had been an element of atonement too.
But he'd taken on Go Yohan's protection in the hope that the truth might come out someday.
"Tell me."
And today, he'd seen something he shouldn't have.
A sight as unbelievable as a six-year-old boy slaying Rite's assassins.
"That was definitely a gate reaction."
A gate.
"...Don't tell me you can open gates?"
If that was true.
"Tell me."
Then this boy was no mere oddity, genius, or worldly anomaly—he was something utterly inexplicable.
Truly.
"What the hell are you?"
He could be a calamity.
Clench.
As he did so, Lee Jae-kyung unconsciously tightened his fist.
"Not right now."
In that moment, Go Yohan's tone seemed to revert to how it had been just before.
Not the act he'd put on to reassure Shin Su-kyung, but his true self.
"But you'll know soon enough."
At that instant.
Fwoosh—!
An aura poured from Go Yohan, enveloping the lodging.
It was a near-perfect barrier, utterly unlike the one casually spread in his room.
That was it.
Fwoosh, fwoooosh... splash.
Layer upon layer stacked up, turning the lodging into an impregnable fortress.
Having experienced it before, Lee Jae-kyung was certain—even if the holy faction's forces stormed in, they wouldn't break it easily.
No, they wouldn't even notice the anomaly beforehand.
Go Yohan extended his hand.
Ting.
He plucked the black thread that stretched from the East Sea coast.
The long thread had long since become his own and been drawn all the way here.
In that moment.
"...!"
Lee Jae-kyung couldn't help but feel that familiar terror again.
No.
"Guhk!"
It was worse this time.
Unable to hold back, Lee Jae-kyung dropped to one knee and retched.
Tears welled up, blurring his vision with something he shouldn't see.
Ripple.
In the center of the lodging's living room, a black fissure just beginning to open.
"I'm thinking it over."
Go Yohan said.
"Which path is the one the goddess laid out for me."
[Will you consume Karma Points to activate the Black Gate?]
This was.
"What choice I should make."
A door to the demon realm that must never open.
*
*
*
The demon realm invasion in Travania had been meticulously prepared over a vast span of time.
No one knew exactly when it began.
—Do you not hear the voices of the beast gods?
He had first seen it when facing Kartool, the great chieftain of the orcs.
—Knight of the human god, this is the power of true gods.
The great chieftain had rallied ten million orcs to summon false idol gods, burning several kingdoms and trying to open the door with that human as sacrifice.
But his ambition had been thwarted by Go Yohan, by Michael.
From that day, it began to appear.
'What is this?'
The black threads.
Next came the corrupted spirit king.
He saw it when the fire spirit king Ignia fell to corruption and burned the elves' forest.
The black threads binding the spirit king.
And it continued after that...
Finally, it began.
—Demon realm invasion.
Scattered demon realm gates opened, black threads blanketing the continent.
All those threads converged at the origin where he'd felled the demon god, Valrok.
"..."
And now, Go Yohan was looking at those black threads.
He knew better than anyone what would happen the moment he touched and moved them.
'The door to the demon realm opens.'
And the invasion would accelerate.
Those hateful demons would start appearing on this land, turning it into another Travania.
If he didn't open it.
'Even so, what must open will open someday.'
The key factor was timing.
And who opened this door.
So it was simple.
"Goddess."
Perhaps right now, Go Yohan was about to open the door to apocalypse on this Earth.
And he made his decision.
'The moment I threw myself into the demon realm's door, I vowed.'
To exterminate all those demons whose very existence denied the goddess.
And if the only way to do that was.
'To become a demon myself.'
Just as the goddess had bestowed her grace again, proving his choice wasn't wrong, and led him to this place.
So his deliberation was brief.
"I won't just wait any longer."
Ting.
As he plucked the thread, the fissure began to tear open.
"Not this time."
Go Yohan manipulated the threads, gathering them as he spoke.
"I will shatter your world."
Even if it meant becoming the demon who brought apocalypse to this world.
He had clearly seen the result of merely waiting in fear of staining his hands.
Rumble!
Finally, the door that must never open appeared in a lodging by the East Sea.
The aura spilling from it spread, weighing down the entire lodging.
"Urghhh!"
Lee Jae-kyung's body swelled as if it might burst.
He couldn't withstand the impure energy pouring from the demon realm door, causing his mana to rampage.
Tap.
The moment Go Yohan's hand touched Lee Jae-kyung's body.
"Hahk, hahk... hahk..."
Lee Jae-kyung barely regained his breath.
"It won't take long."
Go Yohan said.
"Are you... going in?"
Lee Jae-kyung asked.
Press.
Gripping his trembling knees with both hands, Lee Jae-kyung stood.
"I'll come too."
No matter what Go Yohan was, what secrets he held.
Lee Jae-kyung had resolved himself that day.
That he would protect him, no matter the cost.
"You don't even know what that place is."
No matter the end.
"Even if it's hell, I'll follow."
In the past, Go Yohan had been alone.
Only he could represent the goddess and carry out her will.
But he had failed.
And in doing so, hastened the end.
"...It is hell."
"Then that's perfect."
Having declared he would become a demon, it was time to act accordingly.
"Let's go together."
[You have consumed Karma Points to activate the Black Gate.]
[You are the first to activate the Black Gate.]
[You have achieved the unique feat, 'Opening the Door to the Demon Realm.']
[No Karma Points will be consumed when activating Black Gates.]
[You have acquired a large amount of Karma Points.]
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