Chapter 156
As the Flower of Life began to absorb death,
Gula trembled as if in grief and realized it.
-‘O Death! You shall never overcome the Light!’
-‘Follow Lord Gula!’
-‘The Guardian of Light is with us!’
They were memories.
Memories of Gula from when he was alive—thoroughly sealed and long forgotten.
Yet something felt off.
If he had been a guardian and holy knight who served Ahhe, the God of Light, then why had he submitted to his natural enemy, ‘death’?
Even if he were to turn to dust and disappear, he would never have joined the ‘Legion of Death’.
‘It’s false.’
He forced himself to deny it.
This must be an illusion shown by that petty little Anubis.
It was absurd to believe that such a radiant holy knight could have become a death knight.
‘It has to be false…’
…However.
Gula looked at the human.
A man cloaked in a blazing golden aura of honor.
He had lived through eons and seen countless beings, but never one who carried such honor.
That man had far surpassed the limits of what a human could possess.
Unless he had inherited the achievements of numerous resplendent beings all at once—
If that wasn’t the case…
If it was truly honor that he had earned alone—
‘With what resolve are you living in this world?’
That would be true indomitability.
Someone who never gives up no matter what, walking their own path.
Someone who rises every time they fall, who challenges walls that cannot be scaled.
For karma—true honor—blooms from unyielding conviction.
If so, just how lofty must this man’s conviction be?
‘What is it you refuse to yield to, in pursuit of victory?’
Surely, this man’s enemy was not something as simple as death.
It had to be something more delusional, more incomprehensible.
Because he possessed an unyielding will to overcome something utterly impossible, he radiated such dazzling honor.
But Gula, who had once been a guardian and holy knight, was not the same.
He had fallen and could not rise again.
He had given up.
He had surrendered.
To death.
……Ah.
‘I…’
The faint memories gradually grew clearer.
Even though he tried to deny them, he could not help but accept them in the end.
Others might have endlessly rejected and argued against it, but someone who possessed such honor could not possibly speak lies.
He had come to that realization while crossing blades with him.
That wildly unpredictable sword was the culmination of ‘pure swordsmanship’.
He had seen someone like that before.
A man whose sword was so crude it could hardly be called swordsmanship.
A man who revered only his own martial path.
That man had been a practitioner named ‘Arahan’.
They had met only once, but Arahan had refused to join the Legion of Death and chose to turn to dust instead.
-‘Death is supreme? What a joke.’
-‘Death is stagnation. It is stillness.’
-‘Legion of Death, you are but toys of the devils.’
-‘Life is the only supreme.’
Those were his last words before he died.
Gula had personally beheaded him.
No matter how many times they tried to persuade him or tempt him into joining the Legion of Death, he had refused to the end.
Arahan’s honor had been truly immense.
That wasn’t all.
The memory from back then still filled him with revulsion.
Over ten death knights were annihilated just to take down that one Arahan.
More than a hundred commanders and over a thousand troops were expended.
And this human’s swordsmanship was strikingly similar to that Arahan’s.
‘I…’
Thus, he had no choice but to accept it.
That these memories—
…were all true.
‘I am Gula, Guardian of Light.’
Crack!
Something inside Gula shattered.
It was the seal of death, locked away deep within him.
And then another memory surfaced before him.
-‘You shall never surpass me.’
-‘Accept it.’
-‘Then the ones you cherish shall live.’
-‘Transcend through death.’
-‘Death Knight Gula.’
-‘Awaken.’
Anubis.
Gatekeeper of the temple, supreme commander of the legion.
In his final battle with Anubis, Gula had despaired.
He had painfully realized his own powerlessness.
Judging that victory was impossible, he had accepted Anubis’s offer.
But—
……Anubis did not keep his promise.
What he meant by ‘survival’ was joining the Legion of Death.
Since Anubis ruled over death, his version of life was death itself.
‘I should never have accepted it.’
Even if it meant death.
Even if it meant turning to dust and vanishing, he should never have made a deal with Anubis.
If only he hadn’t given up and fought to the end, he would have had no regrets.
He could have prevented the worst possible outcome—where everyone joined ‘death’.
Craaaaack!
……The seal was broken.
Fwoooosh!
The Flower of Life shattered Gula’s seal and made him radiant once more.
Though he could not regain his life—
《Death Knight Gula breaks free from the ‘Seal of Death’.》
《He recognizes himself and surpasses the wall.》
《The holy power of Ahhe, God of Light, ignites!》
《He begins to evolve into an ‘Arch Knight’.》
The armor that had once been pitch-black like darkness turned pure white.
The sword that had wielded death regained its light.
A sacred power.
It was [holy power].
Brrrrrr!
Gula trembled with emotion.
He couldn’t control the overwhelming surge of feeling.
Because—
“O Ahhe!”
…this holy power was proof that the God of Light, Ahhe, had not forsaken him.
The god had been watching over Gula all along.
He had left a single ember behind, praying that Gula might change.
That ember had finally blossomed.
And with that, Gula was able to break free from the yoke of the Creator ‘Master of the Moon, Ahheta’.
Here, in the realm of night, the night’s mission he had to carry out also vanished.
In a fleeting moment of awakening,
Gula, reveling in the emotion, slowly turned his head.
“…Thank you.”
Park Chan-woo answered with a faint smile.
“You’re the one who never let go of the spark of hope. I’m not the one you should be thanking.”
Had Gula completely lost his hope and refused to acknowledge it, he never would’ve evolved into an Arknight.
He had crossed the wall by accepting it himself—how could that be thanks to someone else?
He simply found it fascinating.
‘A death knight who wields holy power. How rare.’
A paradoxical being who wielded opposing forces.
It was his first time seeing one.
Normally, once one accepted death, the influence of a god would vanish entirely.
It was a testament to how devout Gula had been in life.
Come to think of it, most of the high-ranking commanders of the ‘Temple of Death’ had once been ‘holy beings’ like Gula.
Gula asked,
“What is your name?”
“Park Chan-woo.”
“Park Chan-woo. I shall help you. To kill ‘Anubis’. You cannot do it alone.”
“You mean to face him directly?”
“Yes. But for now, the two of us alone won’t be enough. However, thankfully, this is the ‘night’ realm. Ahheta has overextended himself to forcibly maintain balance. We must exploit that.”
“You have a plan?”
“You should proceed to the next trial.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll stay here and interfere with the ‘second trial’.”
Gula looked out across the desert.
Only then did Park Chan-woo understand his intent.
‘He plans to directly intervene and ensure a large number of participants pass.’
Indeed.
If Gula removed the traps in the desert and helped the participants arrive safely, many would pass.
It would completely subvert Ahheta’s intentions.
A smile crept to his lips.
Surely, Ahheta never imagined that the one overseeing the trial would sabotage it himself.
He could already picture Ahheta’s storehouse being plundered.
‘If things go well, I might really bankrupt him this time.’
An unexpected variable.
Something not even Ahheta, nor any of the other Creators, would have anticipated.
By using Gula to produce a flood of passing participants, many would gain the strength to oppose ‘death’.
And he himself would grow stronger in the process.
If he could defeat Anubis, Ahheta would surely scream.
Park Chan-woo nodded.
“I’ll trust you.”
“…See you at the end of the trial. I’ll lead the others there.”
“Sure.”
Without hesitation, he turned his back and moved toward the next trial.
Watching him go, Gula thought to himself.
‘…If it’s you, you just might defeat that monstrous Anubis.’
Anubis, commander of the legion.
The death Anubis wielded was terrifying.
He led countless beings to death and plunged them into despair.
Numerous challengers had knocked on the temple’s doors, but none could even cross the threshold because of Anubis.
Yet, Park Chan-woo might be able to do it.
For he had the same honor, and had once tamed another ‘Radiant Anubis’.
Gula looked up at the sky.
The Eye of Night, for some reason, wasn’t watching this place.
It was fixated on another sector.
‘Ahheta’s attention is elsewhere. This is the chance.’
Before the Master of the Moon caught on.
Before Anubis noticed the change.
Gula began to move swiftly.
He dismantled every trap in the desert.
—
“Huff! Huff!”
“Th-The typhoon’s too strong!”
“Damn it, how the hell are we supposed to travel 500 kilometers in this sandstorm…?!”
Those who followed Lee Hyuk-soo let out their complaints.
Six hours had already passed, and they hadn’t even covered 50 kilometers.
Of course, 50 kilometers in six hours was an incredible feat.
But they were Awakened.
And not just any Awakened—fairly high-level ones.
Their stamina far surpassed that of normal people. If running without obstacles, they could’ve made it in under two hours.
‘Too many traps.’
Lee Hyuk-soo gritted his teeth.
The traps were a greater problem than the typhoons.
Leading people to the end under these conditions wasn’t easy.
He was enduring all the traps at the front and guiding everyone, so his exhaustion was ten times worse than theirs.
But he couldn’t let it show.
After all, he was the one who started all this.
If he gave up, no one else would try to cross the desert quickly.
‘Still 450 kilometers left.’
He clenched his fists tightly.
Step by step, he forced himself to move forward.
He desperately wanted to give up, but he held on.
How much farther had they gone?
Whooosh!
The fierce typhoons—
Stopped!
All of a sudden, they disappeared.
“The typhoon stopped?”
“No, it’s all gone!”
“Does that mean this area’s clear?”
People raised their voices with hope.
But that couldn’t be the case.
‘All the traps are broken.’
Someone had removed them manually.
And then, from beyond the horizon, something approached.
Lee Hyuk-soo tensed and gripped his sword.
‘What is this power? No… it’s not mana. It’s holy power.’
A being possessing overwhelming [holy power] was approaching.
When he finally saw the figure, Lee Hyuk-soo felt the strength drain from him.
A knight made of bones.
‘…No way. Death Knight Gula?’
If that was truly Death Knight Gula, he could easily slaughter everyone gathered here.
“I am Arch Knight Gula.”
But Gula spoke the name Arch Knight instead of Death Knight.
And that wasn’t the only surprising thing.
“I will help you reach the end. In return, I shall teach you my sword. Follow me properly.”