Chapter 90
Gatekeeper Ajos.
One of Valhalla’s greatest warriors was now standing tensely before the being in front of him.
A massive, hulking figure.
His bare upper body was packed with rock-solid muscle.
A warrior wearing a golden helmet stood awaiting the challengers.
“Ajos. It’s been a while.”
The warrior in the golden helmet spoke with a deep, weighty voice.
“…You’re not the one in charge of this trial. Why are you here?”
Ajos swallowed hard.
A chill ran down his spine.
The warrior before him wasn’t the one responsible for the eighth trial.
No—more accurately, he wasn’t a test administrator but something far above: an overseer of all trials.
Like the gatekeeper of the palace, a warrior with a special position.
A position attainable only by those among Valhalla’s warriors who were not only powerful but uniquely gifted.
Ajos continued.
“…Guardian of Khan.”
He was one of the Twelve Guardian Warriors.
The elite protectors of the Great Khan.
Naturally, his rank was above that of the palace gatekeeper.
Thunk!
The guardian drove a massive greatsword—nearly the size of his body—into the ground.
“I’m the one in charge of the Eighth Trial, Ajos.”
“Do you even know what the trial entails?”
“Duel of Life and Death. You and I fight until one of us dies.”
It was natural that the trials would become more difficult the closer they got to Khan.
But this was far more brutal than the previous ones.
A battle to the death.
Kill or be killed.
As the guardian boldly declared this, Ajos opened his mouth, clearly uneasy.
“What’s your reason for suddenly changing the trial’s content?”
“It’s the path to the Great Khan. It shouldn’t be too easy.”
“Guardian. On the battlefield, irregularities are inevitable. Accepting them with flexibility is what leads to victory.”
“Words of the Khan himself.”
The guardian nodded.
There was no way he would be unaware of the Great Khan’s teachings.
Valhalla’s warriors were often called battle-hardened fools, and the Khan had always warned them to embrace irregularity.
“This challenger merely found a new answer. There’s no need to twist things to stop him.”
“A new answer? Are you saying that’s you?”
The guardian asked, and Ajos didn’t respond.
A silent affirmation.
He had lost the wager and submitted—nothing more.
For a moment, the guardian turned his gaze.
He looked at the challenger behind Ajos—Park Chan-woo.
“Ajos. Did you lose to that challenger on purpose?”
“…Do you think I’d do something like that?”
Ajos retorted, his expression stern.
It was a matter of pride and honor.
He hadn’t lost on purpose—the opponent had simply been overwhelming.
“Doesn’t it sound absurd? A Warrior of Valhalla becoming a slave over a wager.”
As one of the overseers of all trials, the guardian had been observing since the moment the challenger entered Khan’s Palace.
Naturally, he couldn’t comprehend Ajos’s defeat.
He assumed it was intentional, and so he intervened directly.
“…Watch your words. I’m no slave.”
But the accusation was too much, and Ajos’s face twisted in anger.
His pride as a warrior had been wounded.
Even if the speaker was a Guardian Warrior, he couldn’t let that slide.
As killing intent rose, the guardian smiled.
“Well, we’ll see if he’s worthy of making a Warrior of Valhalla his servant—once we fight.”
As if to say Ajos alone was no match for him—
Fwoosh—
The guardian tossed his massive sword into the air and caught it mid-spin.
[‘Eighth Trial’ begins.]
[Defeat the ‘Guardian Warrior (Lv. 109)’]
A 10-level difference.
This was a monster at the threshold of the Eleventh Realm.
From this level onward, even a single level’s difference became extreme.
‘You’d need five Ajos just to match him.’
Park Chan-woo clenched his fist.
At lower levels, experience and skill could make up for gaps.
But at levels like 99 and 109, those had long since peaked.
They no longer mattered.
Surpassing level 100 meant stepping into an entirely different realm.
Five Ajos might barely be able to compete with one Guardian Warrior.
If the guardian was close to transcending, even that wouldn’t be enough.
“If you’re afraid, you can run. Slave.”
The guardian mocked him.
But the power gap truly was that large.
The Eighth Trial was a deathmatch.
Running was a viable strategy.
Surrender was an option.
Even just reaching this point had earned Park Chan-woo 140 million contribution points.
He’d already dealt a massive blow to Ahheta.
Park Chan-woo’s mind raced.
‘The guardian came to cancel Ajos’s oath.’
The real reason for the guardian’s appearance.
Was it because the trials were too easy?
Nonsense.
Just a pretext.
What he truly wanted—
Was to sever Ajos’s oath.
By killing the one bound to the oath.
‘He’s after me.’
If combat broke out, he would be the first target.
A monster at level 109 would tear him apart like paper.
He couldn’t block it. Couldn’t win.
If the oath was broken afterward, Ajos would simply return to his original post.
No doubt about it.
He was provoking Ajos as a smokescreen.
That guardian had no intention of killing Ajos.
He only wanted to kill the challenger—Park Chan-woo.
What to do?
If he accepted the fight, he’d die.
Then—
“Ajos. Stab yourself with your spear.”
“…!!!”
Thud!
Ajos’s eyes widened, but in his state of absolute obedience, he couldn’t refuse.
The moment Park Chan-woo gave the order, Ajos moved his spear and stabbed himself.
“Ghk!”
With a short groan, blood spurted out.
The guardian frowned as he watched.
“…Human. What trick are you playing now?”
“If you approach me, the next target is the heart.”
“What?”
“I’ll have him stab his heart next. Die by his own hand.”
“Hah…”
The guardian laughed bitterly.
Park Chan-woo’s move had nothing to do with a deathmatch.
Ordering a man to kill himself—wasn’t that admitting defeat?
Still, the guardian didn’t move.
‘He figured it out.’
That human had realized what this battle was really about.
That the guardian was trying to provoke Ajos into a fight—just to kill the challenger.
Clever. Smarter than expected.
But still—
Not quite enough.
“Human. No matter how binding an oath formed by the Reaper of the Oath is, it doesn’t extend to commands to die.”
He was right.
The oath made before the Reaper of the Oath only applied within Khan’s Palace—and only to “fighting with a reduced level.”
The promise was simply to follow the victor within the palace.
There was no clause about obeying extreme commands.
He would obey.
He would follow orders.
But only within reason.
Only commands he could reasonably carry out.
Asking him to kill himself was nonsense.
Something he clearly could not do.
‘He must’ve seen the entire oath process.’
The guardian had clearly been watching from the start.
But—
He only knew half the truth.
“Ajos. Do you feel the same?”
“…I will die.”
Ajos answered with a gloomy face.
Even after being called a slave—a word that trampled his pride as a warrior—
He would obey the irrational command to die without a fight.
But Ajos’s soul had been pledged.
To the extent that a title was formed—he was in absolute obedience.
Within this palace, Park Chan-woo’s word was law to him.
‘First, buy time. Then extinguish his fighting spirit.’
Park Chan-woo’s strategy was simple.
When he first faced Ajos at the entrance, the trial was “Fight and win.”
He had won that fight with words—and Ajos let him pass.
This time was no different.
“Defeat the Guardian Warrior.”
Killing his will to fight could count.
Maybe it was semantics. Maybe not.
But it was worth trying.
Eventually, the guardian showed a look of disappointment.
“…Ajos. You’re no warrior. To be bound by an oath and obey a human’s order to die?”
“He is no ordinary human. Guardian Warrior.”
“Not ordinary?”
He seemed very ordinary.
No—below ordinary.
A frail body. Thin, shallow mana.
The challenger’s level was laughable.
Not even worthy of meeting the Great Khan’s gaze.
And yet—not ordinary?
“He is…”
Ajos hesitated.
Even he didn’t know Park Chan-woo’s true identity.
But one thing was certain.
He came from a depth deeper than the abyss.
From beyond the Realm of Zero.
Everything Ajos had seen there was abnormal.
Gods—or godlike beings.
Those from before the Abyss.
Or born with it.
Sealed away—monstrous, grotesque entities.
If he were to define this challenger in a single word—
“Sealed Demon God…”
Fsssssshh—
At that moment—
The air around them turned icy cold.
“…!”
Sensing something, the guardian leapt back.
At the same time—
FWOOOSH!
A black hand burst from Ajos’s chest.
Thump. Thump.
The black hand gripped Ajos’s heart.
POP!
It crushed it.
Fragments of heart and blood surged from the wound.
Soon, Ajos’s eyes filled with black currents, and his entire body turned pitch black.
“…What is that?”
The guardian’s voice turned grim.
He was tense now.
At this sudden turn of events.
And the transformation Ajos had undergone.
It wasn’t just his appearance.
The mana radiating from him—the pressure—was that of something entirely different.
Rrrggh. Rrrggghhhh!
Ajos growled like a beast.
“You… Ajos…!”
How could anyone still call that a Warrior of Valhalla?
He was a monster.
One that even a Guardian Warrior had to take seriously.
KRAAAAAAH!
Ajos let out a savage roar.
Then—
Crack—
CRACK! CRACKK!
Suddenly, red fissures spread across Ajos’s body.
They spread rapidly.
CRUNCH! CRACKLE!
“…?!”
His body shattered into powder.
Then the shocking scene followed.
Black and red powder swirled toward Park Chan-woo.
The dust clung to his skin, writhing and merging with him.
“…What the hell did you do, human?”
The guardian’s voice was filled with bloodlust.
It looked as though Park Chan-woo had absorbed Ajos.
A hair-trigger standoff.
Park Chan-woo scowled subtly.
But his gaze was not on the guardian—or Lee Hyuk-soo.
He didn’t even seem to care about them.
He was staring silently into the air beside them.
Where a message floated:
[You have offered ‘Ajos’ as a sacrifice to the ‘God of Offerings.’]
[More offerings are required to fully resurrect the ‘God of Offerings.’]
[For 30 minutes, Park Chan-woo will equip and synchronize with ‘Rampaging Ajos (Lv. 110).’]
[After 30 minutes, ‘Rampaging Ajos (Lv. 110)’ will vanish as a sacrifice.]
…A strange message.
But Park Chan-woo hadn’t offered Ajos.
He couldn’t have.
The oath only bound Ajos to obey within Khan’s Palace.
He wasn’t truly “his.”
If he had the [Holy Grail of the Sealed Demon God] like when he offered up the Dragon God Sephiro, that might be different—but he didn’t.
So how could a warrior like Ajos be “equipped” and “synchronized”?
He had offered countless sacrifices to the God of Offerings—but never anything like this.
What shocked him even more—
‘God of Offerings… don’t tell me it’s regained consciousness?’
…the God of Offerings had offered Ajos of its own accord.