I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-175

Ch-175. **The Most Fearsome Demon**

—

Karas recalled the past.

Five years ago.

The appearance of the Champion, who had come to the Tower while hiding ‘Sansha’s’ consciousness.

At first, Karas paid him little attention.

He had climbed the Tower quickly, yes—but such strong individuals were not unprecedented.

Even when he finally reached the 20th Floor and issued a challenge, Karas felt no particular concern.

*‘A mistake.’*

He should have killed him then.

But Karas was the master of the Tower, the one called the God of War.

Although he won their first match, he granted mercy and spared him.

That was the mistake.

After that, the Champion continued to challenge him.

Karas called him “a persistent brat” and let him be—and that was the root of all trouble.

*‘Sansha observed everything about me.’*

He learned every last detail about Karas and the Tower.

Sansha—the ancient demon whose obsession defied imagination—penetrated even the kind of information that should have been impossible for anyone to uncover.

*The Demon of Obsession.*

He was not misnamed.

And with that maniacal obsession, Sansha eventually consumed Karas’s wings, forcibly seized the position of Tower Administrator, and even claimed the Champion’s throne.

For the next four years, Sansha never showed herself.

But one year ago, faced with Wilhelm, that Demon of Obsession changed her attitude.

*‘Sansha desired the entirety of Wilhelm’s body.’*

Even more obsessively than when she took Karas’s wings.

Without missing a single day, not even a single moment, Sansha observed Wilhelm relentlessly.

To the extent that one might think she wanted to become Wilhelm herself.

Thus, a year ago—

During Wilhelm’s battle, Karas had given him a warning.

*—Be careful of Sansha.*

…Yet somehow, the battle between Wilhelm and the Champion never happened.

Why? Why had Sansha, who had been so consumed with obsession, suddenly changed her mind?

She had longed desperately for that battle.

But when Wilhelm issued the challenge, Sansha refused to accept it.

*‘At that time, she must not have finished analyzing him.’*

Looking back, it was likely that Sansha had not yet found a weakness in Wilhelm.

Karas, having fought Wilhelm himself, understood.

His strength.

Wilhelm was a being who seemed the very embodiment of perfect, sacred martial power.

There was not even a hair’s breadth of opening or error in his disciplined movements.

The strike of his sword felt as though it bent space and time itself—an experience Karas had never had before.

He doubted he could have won even if he had been in perfect condition.

*‘Sansha expected Wilhelm to challenge again.’*

But Wilhelm never returned.

The moment the challenge was rejected, he simply left the Tower of the God of Combat.

*‘He left to prepare for the Grand Expedition.’*

A campaign to subjugate the Demon Realm.

But in the end, Wilhelm died.

And when he died—when his stars scattered—Karas felt that subtle *wave of upheaval* that emanated through the world.

The foreboding tremor that heralded things once stagnant beginning to move, and those who had been hiding beginning to emerge.

And in that span, Sansha moved quietly.

…Until that transcendent obsession toward Wilhelm led him to find the scattered stars of Wilhelm’s soul.

*‘The Emperor Penguin. If that truly is Wilhelm…’*

Then Sansha would already have grasped everything.

For the past year, she had dissected Wilhelm without rest.

Thus, Karas could not allow the two to fight.

Even if he had to abandon the Tower—bury Sansha within it—he had to end this madness of obsession.

If Sansha were to obtain Wilhelm’s body…

*‘Sansha would become a Great Archdemon—complete.’*

She would become the one who leads all demons, perhaps becoming a new calamity.

She, who had destroyed countless worlds, who shattered Towers and threw all balance into chaos.

That destructive monster could not be allowed to return.

“…That sword…”

──SCRAAAAPE!

A colossal darkness tore open space itself.

And from within that void, a single sword emerged.

But that ‘sword’ was not Wilhelm’s.

It was called the *Supreme Sword*—a weapon only those who stood at the absolute summit of all Sword Saints could wield.

In short, it was one of the *Primordial Swords*.

But how…?

“The Supreme Sword Saint…!”

Ah.

So he had ascended.

To the most complete form of Sword Saint.

But even so, wielding that sword was no simple matter.

Even a Supreme Sword Saint should not be able to swing it—not that sword once wielded by a *divine being*.

Even Wilhelm in his prime might not have been able to wield it.

The very being that had once swung it no longer existed.

*‘It should be impossible to wield it.’*

Therefore, it was a sword that could not be swung.

And yet—

*‘Wait. He swung it?’*

A single gesture.

In that instant, the Supreme Sword burst forth, slicing through space.

──KWAAAAAAANG!!!

*

*

 

*‘What… what is that…?’*

Right after the Champion transformed—

Auril felt as though she might faint from the overwhelming desire and foul stench radiating from him.

That ancient demon was a being that robbed everything.

If she simply stood still, she too would be stripped of everything that made her exist.

But she could not flee.

*‘Sir Randolph.’*

Randolph was here.

She could not possibly run away and leave him behind.

Was it because of their contract?

No. That was not the only reason.

*‘The Mother Tree…’*

High Elves grow alongside a *Mother Tree*.

Born from the roots of the World Tree, a Mother Tree is the very proof of a High Elf.

But Auril was not a High Elf.

Naturally, she had no Mother Tree.

And yet… whenever she looked at Randolph, who nurtured her laurel leaves, she felt reminded of the Mother Tree.

The Mother Tree spared nothing, offering everything so that a High Elf could grow rapidly.

Bound by a contract though they were, Auril had grown at an extraordinary pace thanks to Randolph.

If this was not a Mother Tree, then what was?

“Run!”

She could not allow Randolph to be devoured by that demon.

Auril understood instinctively.

Randolph could not fight this demon.

He must not fight him.

…The moment she thought that—

──SCRAAAPE!!

A massive sword emerged, splitting space apart.

Everything seemed to freeze.

Even the demon simply stared at the sword.

And then—breaking through that rift—a *giant hand* swung the Supreme Sword.

──KWAAAAAAANG!!!

The demon and the Tower were severed.

The centipede-like body split in half as the demon screamed.

“Wh-what, how—how are you wielding the ‘Hand of God’…?!”

What stood opposite the demon—

The one thing all demons feared was the beings known as *gods*.

But with the world’s downfall, almost all gods had long vanished.

Only faint remnants survived, barely lingering.

And that was why demons had run rampant in the world—those who once terrified them no longer existed.

Or so it should have been.

Yet now—

From beyond that rift, the ‘Hand of God’ had surely swung.

“No. You’re… you are not a god!”

The Demon of Obsession saw through even what lay beyond space.

That hand looked like a god’s, but it was not.

It was something wearing the guise of a god.

Something that swung the sword in place of gods who no longer existed.

The demon trembled.

Not from fear of death, but because that *something* terrified him infinitely more.

It was entirely different from a god.

And that *something*, visible only to the demon, from beyond that place—

“He—you are… anni—…!”

Grinned.

*

*

《You have swung the “Supreme Sword.”》

《Reuse is impossible.》

《To swing the “Supreme Sword” again, you will need materials of “Transcendent Unique Grade” or higher.》

The demon was sliced away along with the Tower.

Beyond the severed Tower lay a deeper abyss.

“…This is absurd.”

At the center of it all, Karas spoke.

Because it was absurd.

The demon’s true body was annihilated in an instant.

Karas had thought the only answer was to bury him with the Tower.

But instead, his expectations were mocked as everything was resolved without even the smallest pause.

*‘He is even less fathomable than Wilhelm a year ago.’*

Karas had been judging based on the Wilhelm he had fought a year ago.

But the man before him now—though similar to Wilhelm—was growing in an entirely different way.

In terms of sheer potential… he was far more frightening.

Karas’s eyes could not measure him at all.

*‘…He summoned a non-existent divine being.’*

Even having seen it, he still could not believe it.

Only divine beings could wield that sword.

Not even a demi-god like Karas could dream of swinging it.

And yet, this man summoned a divine being that no longer existed.

*‘The Omen King once did the same.’*

The Clan of Omen were those who had once governed countless Towers.

The king of that clan had been capable of containing twelve divine aspects within his own body.

Of course, the Omen King himself eventually perished along with those divine aspects.

“…My wings…”

At last, Karas stared at the black wings rising once more from his back, as if he could hardly believe it.

What Sansha had stolen from him had returned.

He had regained his power and reclaimed his rightful position as the Tower’s true master.

But that was not all.

“That essence…!”

The moment he saw what was spilling out from the demon’s shattered body, Karas’s brow tightened.

The essence of an ancient demon.

Thump! Thump!

The instant he laid eyes on it, his heart began pounding wildly.

Ssshh—

Even saliva gathered in his mouth.

His head filled with only one thought: he *must* claim it.

“Mmm…”

Even in his fully restored state, desire surged uncontrollably through him.

That thing was dangerous.

An overwhelmingly dangerous power.

The moment he consumed it, just like the Champion, his body would be taken over by the demon.

Because the demon itself *was* that essence.

“…Clan of Ferocity.”

But the man—Wilhelm—did not stop.

Approaching the essence without hesitation, he reached for it and seized it.

Gulp!

He tossed it into his mouth.

And then—

Fwooooooosh!!

Black flames erupted across his entire body.

…The fire of a true demon.

Could it be that Sansha had taken control?

*‘That fire… is not Sansha’s.’*

But Karas shook his head.

No.

Those demonic flames had not come from Sansha.

They belonged to another demon—one incomparably darker than Sansha.

A being darker than Sansha himself.

A devourer of all that exists in the world!

“…Ah.”

Realizing the identity of the flames, Karas trembled.

Yet he could not understand.

How could a demon that had vanished in the distant past appear again in this world?

Among the seven demons that existed in ancient times, the one deemed the most terrifying…

The one even all other demons loathed, avoided, and stepped back from—

These were unquestionably that demon’s flames.

*‘How—how has that demon returned to this world…?!’*

*

*

《You have retrieved the Named ‘Star of the Sun.’》

《Wilhelm’s memories are further reinforced.》

《Due to the effect of ‘Star Successor’ all stats increase by 5.》

《The ‘Star of the Sun’ summons an ‘Echo of the Past.’》

《You may now use the unique skills of ‘Thousand-Dragon Legend’ and ‘Pollock-Conan.’》

《‘Echo of the Past’ activates when you retrieve the corpse of a ‘character you have played’ or when you turn them into a corpse.》

《The demon of Obsession, Sansha’s essence, is devoured by ‘Glutton.’》

《The hidden trait ‘Glutton’ evolves into ‘Greed.’》

 

 

 

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