Ch-26 **Monster Wave**
—
The claim that I killed the Demon King.
That I pierced the core with the “Path of Light,” only to die in the process.
Serengeti couldn’t help but believe it.
Yet, she couldn’t fully accept it.
“…Recall what you told me before facing the star.”
Serengeti was cautious.
More cautious than when I spoke of my own death. Her expression was intensely serious.
It meant she didn’t fully trust me.
*There’s more to this.*
I knew Serengeti better than ever—better than when I first encountered her in the game. The strange sense of familiarity and nostalgia I felt when meeting her as a player was undeniable.
That’s why I understood.
There’s another reason tied to my death that she couldn’t speak of.
And that I needed another reason to prove I was the Knight King.
*…What did I say back then?*
But I couldn’t remember.
Of course, it was only natural that I didn’t.
Back when I saved Serengeti from the star, I had “encouraged” her. I distinctly remembered encouraging her. The problem was, I didn’t know the content of that encouragement.
It was just a character command.
By pressing Control and T on the keyboard, I could select one of 26 expressions. The “encourage” command involved murmuring something while patting her on the back. Naturally, I had no way of knowing the details.
“…You were always worried that consuming the star and transcending would make you stop being ‘Serengeti.’”
The words escaped my lips effortlessly.
Words I couldn’t possibly have known at the time.
“You feared losing the feelings for Hudson that had defined you. That they might fade.”
“…That’s true.”
“I encouraged you before the star. Told you to shut up.”
“A-ah…”
**Brrr!**
Serengeti trembled violently.
It was a memory only Serengeti and the Knight King could know.
I was just as shocked.
The memory of that moment flashed vividly before my eyes.
*”Those who take the star have all changed. I fear I will too.”*
*”Shut up.”*
…It seemed less like encouragement and more like a shove toward the star.
Was this truly encouragement?
And is it normal to be so moved by being told to shut up?
…Is she crying?
*‘It must be due to reading the star’s memory.’*
The hidden effect of the *Star’s Successor* class.
Just as every class had its own unique hidden trait, mine allowed me to read the memories of the star’s previous owner.
That was probably why.
“Are you truly Wilhelm?”
“I am.”
“But… this appearance of yours…”
“There’s a reason.”
“You’ve become a ‘Sinner,’ haven’t you?”
“Sinner?”
Sinners were criminals. Humans who had committed crimes, often locked away in prison.
But the term Serengeti used seemed to carry a different connotation.
As I tilted my head in confusion, Serengeti wiped her tears and explained.
“People with memories of their past lives who possess others are hunted as Sinners. Those hunters call themselves Reapers.”
“Never heard of them.”
Reapers. Player hunters, no doubt.
The term rang a faint bell from hearing Hudson’s life story, though I didn’t know the details.
Serengeti shook her head.
“I don’t know much either. Just… be careful. Their obsession and persistence in hunting Sinners are said to defy imagination. Rumor has it they carry a silent ‘Black Bell’ in their possession.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“And… about your final moments, Wilhelm. I need to tell you something. Even now, I struggle to believe what I saw. But if it’s true…”
Serengeti bit her lip, her gaze trembling with disbelief, and began her story.
—
—
—
# The Day of Reckoning
The Knight King forced open a warp to the Demon Realm with 200,000 soldiers.
The resistance was fierce. Setting foot in the Demon Realm alone claimed the lives of thousands.
The priests recited prayers tirelessly, but the darkness of the Demon Realm was overwhelming.
“This doesn’t feel right. It’s as if the Demon King’s forces anticipated our attack.”
The warp to the Demon Realm—its precise date and time—was known only to a select few.
Yet, the demons moved as though they had been forewarned and prepared.
Even so, their meticulous defenses were shattered in an instant.
**BOOOOM!**
The Knight King swung his colossal blade of light, annihilating thousands of demons in the blink of an eye.
The terrain shifted, and all traps became futile.
He was the Martial God. The Knight King was a living deity.
His overwhelming presence made the demons before him appear pitiful.
“The Knight King shall not fall. Charge forward!”
“Kill the demons! Sweep away the darkness!”
“The Goddess of Victory smiles upon us!”
As long as the Knight King stood, victory was assured.
Yet, the darkness of the Demon Realm ran deeper than imagined.
“Where did everyone go?”
… As time passed, the soldiers were disappearing.
The distance between the knights charging ahead at the front lines and the soldiers following behind had grown wider.
Initially, Serengeti thought it was simply due to the soldiers’ slower pace. But it wasn’t.
Serengeti felt something was wrong.
This was the Demon Realm, after all, but they had not entered unprepared. Every scenario had been calculated before opening the warp.
Naturally, the darkness of the Demon Realm had been included in their preparations. They had even brought an abundance of *Torches of Dawn* to ensure they wouldn’t lose their way.
“This is deliberate. Artificial.”
The soldiers were being scattered.
Little by little, subtly enough to avoid notice.
Not by demonic interference, but by humans.
By the time Serengeti realized, it was too late.
“Who betrayed us?”
Someone with enough standing to disrupt an army of this size had betrayed them.
And it wasn’t just one person. It had to be multiple individuals.
Such an organized concealment couldn’t be the work of just one person.
“Aaaah!”
“Saintess Seia!”
The saintess, who had been walking alongside them, stumbled.
She had been continuously reciting sacred hymns to protect the knights from the effects of demonic energy.
Her once pure and beautiful face and body were now covered in festering boils, corrupted by demonic energy. Her eyes had turned into dark orbs, resembling those of a demon.
Saintess Seia, even as her body decayed, continued to chant, undeterred.
“Go… please continue forward. I will offer my life to bless you!”
“But!”
“You must not stop! Never look back! This area is the *Hell of Flies*! The demonic energy here is at its strongest! Anyone who turns back will rot away!”
Through her sacrificial prayer, Saintess Seia was making her own body rot to protect the others.
This also meant that some of the knights ahead had succumbed to the temptations of demonic energy and kept looking back.
A true hell, where one could neither turn back nor rescue the fallen.
Once they entered this hell, it was impossible to check on those following behind. That was why they hadn’t noticed the soldiers being scattered.
“Then… someone knew about this hell beforehand?”
This place was the first of its kind that humanity had reached.
If someone had known about it, it meant they were in league with the Demon Realm.
Serengeti looked toward the Knight King, Wilhelm, who was still leading at the front.
He moved forward without hesitation.
More dreadful than the seven hells they had passed was this *Hell of Flies*.
… By the time they emerged from the eighth hell, fewer than 30 knights remained.
“Where… did everyone go?”
Serengeti panted heavily.
Looking down, she realized her legs were gone.
“… Fool.”
The Knight King, Wilhelm, looked down at Serengeti and spoke.
As they were escaping the Hell of Flies, a trap awaited them.
It was a magic circle personally inscribed by the Demon King.
The circle activated after sinking half the Demon Realm, and it was meant to take Wilhelm’s life.
In that moment, Serengeti used her transcendent power to swap their positions.
The ability she had gained through transcendence took precedence over all else.
Although she survived by sheer luck, her lower body was gone.
“Cough!”
Serengeti spat blood.
She was going to die.
With her last strength, she reached out and touched Wilhelm.
“Wilhelm, the most honorable Knight King… If this expedition succeeds, please protect Hudson. And give him this message and this necklace… Tell him I’m sorry… and that I truly loved him.”
She handed over a necklace.
But Wilhelm shook his head.
“Say such sentimental nonsense to him yourself.”
Wilhelm poured a high-grade elixir onto Serengeti’s wounds.
Then, he took out a talisman and placed it on Serengeti’s chest.
Serengeti looked at him with disbelief.
“Why… why waste this on someone like me?”
“It’s useless now, anyway.”
The *Supreme Protection Talisman*.
This talisman created a safe zone where the wearer wouldn’t be detected by monsters.
But it was ineffective against transcendent creatures above level 10.
However, even those transcendent creatures couldn’t harm the wearer inside this particular talisman.
It had been enhanced countless times and was of unparalleled quality.
But now, it was no longer needed.
Because…
“Stay here and watch. Watch as I slay him.”
… Before them stood the Demon King.
—
—
—
The Demon King’s core shattered as the *Path of Light* ripped through his demonic energy.
Victory.
The long expedition in the Demon Realm was finally over.
But just as they began to celebrate
—
“What…?”
Serengeti doubted her eyes.
As the core shattered and the Demon King died—
Szzzzzh!
The explosion of the core unleashed demonic energy that engulfed Wilhelm.
And then,
“Such a monstrous opponent… I didn’t expect you to push me this far without the *grace of the Goddess*.”
… The Demon King’s shadow began to move on its own.
Time seemed to slow as if everything had stopped.
The shadow clicked its tongue as it examined its ruined form.
His body was in tatters. Without the core, resurrection was impossible.
“But that will be your downfall.”
His body may have perished, but his essence remained intact.
Only the full grace of the Goddess could completely annihilate him.
The human who had dismembered his body was indeed a legendary hero, but the divine authority and blessings of the Goddess were incomplete.
And that was why this was happening.
*Swishhhh!*
The shadow began seeping into Wilhelm.
If it fully consumed and restrained Wilhelm’s body, the Demon King would be reborn with a new physical form.
This was the Demon King’s ultimate power.
**”Truly… remarkable.”**
The body Wilhelm had forged, transcending the consumption of five stars, was beyond imagination.
Not only had his physique surpassed the limits of humanity, but it was also of such extraordinary quality that it bordered on divinity—a state achieved through unfathomable refinement.
“…Hm?”
*Fwoooosh!*
Suddenly, a brilliant light erupted from Wilhelm’s body.
Above his head, the image of the Goddess appeared.
“Leah…”
The shadow fiercely recoiled.
Though it quickly dispelled the light of the Goddess, it had already lost something crucial.
“You took the life of the knight who followed you just to reclaim the ‘star’? And yet, you still dare to call yourself a goddess?”
The Goddess had forcibly taken Wilhelm’s life to retrieve the star.
Because of this, the Demon King’s plan to completely dominate Wilhelm’s body had failed.
As the light faded, Wilhelm’s body lay pale and lifeless.
—
—
—
“I… I have no memories of what happened after that.”
“…”
“Only that… what emerged was something akin to pure evil…”
*Boom!*
*Crash!*
At that moment, the ground shook violently, and the sound of explosions filled the air.
From outside, Hudson’s panicked voice rang out.
“A monster wave! The city is under attack!”
