Ch-292. **Who Is the Strongest**
—
It wasn’t visible.
It couldn’t even be sensed.
No one knew when Sansha’s head had been severed.
What was certain was that someone of Sansha’s caliber could not even draw that Knight King’s attention.
But who was Sansha?
“The former champion was…”
“That monster took them down in a single slash…!”
Anyone who had faced Sansha before could not help but be shocked.
His movements and techniques were all near perfection.
Even those who had devoured stars and transcended struggled to follow Sansha’s motions.
Yet that very Sansha—who had stood as an insurmountable wall to everyone—now lay rolling on the ground, his head cleanly cut off, almost pathetically so.
*Close to perfect, but not complete.*
Raiga judged Sansha succinctly.
Sansha, who had ruled the Tower of the War God for so long.
Raiga had heard countless rumors about him—
that he could reproduce innumerable techniques nearly identically to their originals.
Sansha was undoubtedly strong, but in the end, he was a frog in a well.
No matter how much one proclaims oneself the strongest while bound to the Tower of the War God, there is a limit.
And seeing him now, it was clear Sansha was not accustomed to fighting someone stronger than himself.
Then what about Raiga?
What if it had been Raiga instead of Sansha?
*When the sword was swung, the space itself was seized.*
Time within a certain area slowed.
Wilhelm’s swordsmanship naturally dominated space itself.
And that wasn’t all.
*He reflected Sansha’s power.*
The golden dragon Sansha had created—
its destructive force was formidable.
It held enough power to easily obliterate an average fortress.
Yet Wilhelm gently wrapped around that force, repelled it, and sent it back as a counterattack.
Like creating massive ripples on a lakeside with a single finger.
Raiga instantly recognized it as a supreme martial art boasting maximal efficiency and explosive escalation.
*…So the Knight King’s reputation wasn’t exaggerated after all.*
Two Knight Kings existed in Pangaenia.
Wilhelm—and Raiga.
Yet the two had never met.
Occasionally, people compared their strength, but a true comparison was impossible.
How could one definitively compare the living and the dead?
They had never crossed swords, never even met—judging their superiority through mere conjecture had its limits.
And yet—
*The dead has returned alive.*
The man everyone was certain had died.
Even his relics were already circulating throughout the world.
The Empire itself possessed two of Wilhelm’s relics—
the “Path of Light” and the “Path of Sacred,” which had been put up as prizes for this very tournament.
Something utterly beyond common sense.
But seeing Sansha beheaded so effortlessly, there was no doubt—
that man truly was Knight King Wilhelm.
*Hoo…*
Raiga’s breathing quickened, sweat naturally forming in his grip.
He wanted to cross blades with him immediately.
He wanted to test swords!
“Will you… accept my blade?”
However, the one who stepped forward was someone else.
…The Pure White Knight, Serengeti.
With eyes filled with fierce emotion, she leveled her sword at the Knight King she had once followed.
Wilhelm spoke to her with an attitude completely different from how he had treated Sansha.
“If it is your sword, then anytime.”
Serengeti’s eyes wavered even more violently.
Kind.
Just like back then.
It felt as though she was seeing the Wilhelm of old—the man who had always accepted her blade.
Though countless questions and doubts swirled within her, she did not voice them.
A knight speaks through their sword.
“…Then, I’m coming.”
The moment her words ended—
*Fshiiik!*
Serengeti bent her body like a drawn bow, then launched herself forward in an instant, using its recoil.
*Clang!*
Sword met sword.
At point-blank range, Serengeti swung her blade with all her strength.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
For a long while—
She kept swinging, and swinging, and swinging again.
“Hah! Hah! Hah!”
Serengeti gasped for breath.
It wouldn’t reach.
Of course it wouldn’t.
“I told you again and again not to put emotion into your sword, didn’t I?”
“……”
“You’re still a troublemaker, you know.”
“……”
Ah—
Serengeti desperately held back the tears threatening to spill.
Now that she had crossed blades with him, she knew for certain.
This man—this person—
Was the towering tree that had always supported them, sheltering them in its shade.
He was unmistakably Knight King Wilhelm, to whom she had sworn unwavering loyalty.
Moreover, there was no one else who called Serengeti a “troublemaker.”
And she realized one more thing.
“That body is…”
She had wondered if it might be the body seized by the Demon King—but it wasn’t.
This body was not Wilhelm’s.
It bore Wilhelm’s rank and appearance, yet there was a subtle difference.
As if he were borrowing someone else’s body.
A difference only Serengeti—who had watched him countless times and sparred with him endlessly—could perceive.
“I made a wager with a god.”
…A wager with a god?
Wilhelm hated gods.
Though revered as the Goddess’s Knight, Wilhelm was a thorough unbeliever.
That, too, was something only his closest knights knew.
So Serengeti could not help but ask.
“What kind of wager…?”
“Whether or not I can conquer this tower within ten hours.”
“…!”
“And this is the body of one who was once *my god*.”
“…Pardon…?”
She still couldn’t understand.
A wager with a god, and the body of his former god—
Did that mean he had been summoned temporarily, borrowing a god’s flesh?
She wanted to ask more.
There was so much she wanted to say.
But—
“Get some rest. You look very tired.”
*Tap.*
Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Serengeti’s body collapsed limply to the ground.
“N-no…!”
She hurriedly looked up at Wilhelm, but her consciousness was already fading.
Wilhelm gazed at Serengeti, formed a faint, almost imperceptible smile, then—
as if nothing had happened—hardened his expression and shifted his gaze.
“…I’ve wanted to cross blades with you for a long time.”
At the end of his gaze stood Raiga.
The Empire’s First Sword.
The monster who had overwhelmed everyone on the 25th floor.
The pinnacle of humanity, the being known as the strongest in Pangaenia.
He raised his sword and pointed it at Wilhelm.
*
*
*She’s grown stronger. Still straight and true.*
Wilhelm recalled the brief exchange of swords with Serengeti and smiled inwardly.
Serengeti.
That troublemaker had survived and was still carrying on his will.
Back when they were together in the knight order, she caused nothing but trouble.
As the sole woman and the youngest, she was especially talkative around him, giving him headaches more than once.
Especially when it came to swords—she could talk all day and still not be done.
He wanted to indulge her a bit longer, but there was no time.
Wilhelm looked down at his body.
—Damn you, cursed god! I’ll burn every world you’ve created!
That cursed god—
The wretched god who had freely occupied and moved his body!
That god’s flesh was now the body Wilhelm inhabited.
Thanks to the Throne of the Sun God and an immense amount of Golden Scale , Wilhelm’s soul had temporarily settled into this body.
*Pina… you were cradling my soul.*
The twin goddesses, Leah and Pina.
Leah had been defeated in the battle against Destruction(Ruin) and split into thirty-two stars.
And Pina had thrown herself in front of the Demon King to protect Wilhelm’s soul.
Because of that, Wilhelm’s soul could remain within Pina’s will.
Thus, he was able to descend—if only briefly—but he hadn’t wanted to.
Why should he take the Demon King’s trials in place of some cursed god?
—You cannot defeat Randolph. He is the one I poured my greatest effort into raising.
…If not for that blatantly obvious provocation, he would never have accepted.
Park Hyun-myung.
The god who once moved his body.
For some reason, hearing that Randolph—not himself—was the one into whom that god had invested the most effort stirred irritation within him.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
Park Hyun-myung’s body was incomplete—far from suitable for Wilhelm to use.
Even reinforced with Golden Scale, it was the same.
—If it’s you… I can entrust everything to you. Please help us, Wilhelm.
Karas.
That foolish crow had laid everything he possessed at Wilhelm’s feet—
without Wilhelm ever asking.
Entrusting things unilaterally. Expecting unilaterally.
—You bastards, kraaak!
—Goddesses… you interfere again, kraaak!
The God of Omen and the God of Ash.
The two crow gods did not welcome Wilhelm’s appearance.
And Wilhelm himself did not find the situation particularly pleasant either.
Yet he accepted the wager regardless.
Ten hours of full freedom of movement.
He would clear the tower within that time.
That was how Wilhelm used the goddesses’ will to escape the *Gap* and arrive here.
*It’s not as bad as I thought.*
Thanks to this, he was able to reunite with the troublemaker.
And Hudson—the man Serengeti had longed for so dearly—was here as well.
*Is that the man you chose, Serengeti?*
Honestly, he didn’t look very reliable.
A man should be strong, yet Hudson looked exceedingly frail.
Still, he was the man Serengeti had chosen.
Perhaps he was strong in other ways.
*…Seia. Still beautiful.*
Saintess Seia was unchanged.
Still dazzlingly beautiful.
A woman whose inner beauty surpassed even her outward appearance.
Much had changed.
Yet some things remained unchanged.
The values Wilhelm had protected—and wished to protect.
*…Cursed god.*
Was this what you wanted to show me?
Were you trying to reconcile?
Don’t make me laugh.
Wilhelm merely wanted that cursed god to experience the same thing.
To know what it felt like to have one’s own body moved at another’s whim—
an experience no one would welcome.
*Watch. Just watch.*
*Watch how your body is used, and how your will is ground into dust.*
It would be a truly dreadful experience.
And I will show you—
Wilhelm.
Himself.
*
*
Raiga closed his eyes.
Countless images swept through his mind.
Amid the innumerable visions, he grasped a single sword that existed in the realm of the unconscious.
That was the realm of the Mind Sword he had recently realized.
Soon, his mental image dominated everything around him.
*Claaang!*
But it was blocked.
Wilhelm deflected the Mind Sword—something that should have been invisible and unfelt.
Still, it was as Raiga had expected.
With pure intent to kill, he expanded the Mind Sword further.
The will to kill itself became a blade, slicing toward the heart.
*Shrrrrrk!*
…Yet it was repelled.
No—rather than being repelled, the Mind Sword melted away and vanished naturally, like flowing water.
Before it could even reach the heart.
*Circulation…*
Circulation was nature itself.
Wilhelm possessed the power to exclude everything unnatural.
Even a Mind Sword.
Unless one struck him directly, breaking through that circulating barrier was impossible.
If such a newly realized mental image had worked, it would have been disappointing instead.
*First Gate.*
Raiga resolved to unleash his full power.
Using the Fang’s secret arts against a human was a long-standing taboo.
He hadn’t even used them when facing the Golden Goat of the Empire.
But Wilhelm—already a dead man—was an exception.
*Fwoooosh!*
Raiga’s entire body was dyed crimson as the first sealed gate opened.
*Boom!*
When he stepped forward, the ground caved in.
Then, like lightning, Raiga’s sword shot out and slashed Wilhelm’s shoulder.
*Slash!*
Yet what was severed was Raiga’s own right arm.
Even though he had prepared for it, he was counterattacked.
Wilhelm hadn’t blocked and countered—
he had absorbed the slash, circulated it smoothly, and returned it as an attack.
“…Hah.”
It was absurd.
He had never seen such a gentle sword.
With the First Gate open, Raiga’s power was overwhelming—enough to fell even giants.
That immense, solid force had been subdued by softness.
But thanks to that, one thing became certain.
A smile spread across Raiga’s lips.
*I’ve won.*
…This fight—
There was no way he could lose it.
