It was a rather unremarkable ambush.
Around that time, there were no unusual attacks.
After all, it was war.
But this time, the location wasn’t favorable. Also, the Guildmaster had been taken hostage.
In many ways, the situation was far from ideal.
That alone was bad enough, but all of these conditions drove Jung Hae-in to the battlefield.
Cheon Yeoul asked him.
“Will you go yourself?”
“I have to.”
He had always been like that.
“Said he must go.” Humanity was struggling with a shortage of manpower.
Now, every renowned hero was needed.
And amidst this urgency, his presence was indispensable.
But for the same reason, the Demons knew him well and were trying to lure him out to eliminate him.
Kang Ah-rin lowered her hand under the table.
She was gripping so tightly her nails were digging into her skin.
By then, they had all become weapons for vanquishing the demons (Ma).
Each one, painstakingly crafted by Jung Hae-in over years, was his masterpiece, his creation, his possession.
‘Not enough.’
Therefore, as long as they existed, absorbing splinters of power, Jung Hae-in didn’t need to be at the forefront.
That’s how it should have been.
But one gap had appeared.
The man Jung Hae-in had nurtured the most.
Seong Si-woo.
He disappeared.
One day, suddenly, without warning or reason.
Jung Hae-in was saddened, though he didn’t show it too openly.
But they knew.
In the study at dawn.
In the darkened space, the only light was the small desk lamp.
Under that light, Jung Hae-in sat with his head bowed.
His usually straight and strong back was unusually slouched under an unseen weight.
He painstakingly flipped through the pages of documents in front of him, lingering on each page for far too long. He pressed his fingertips to his brow, lost in deep thought.
They had seen it.
They had seen his faltering form.
Cheon Yeoul watched him through the crack in the door and silently wept.
Yoo Hana approached the study but turned away without a word.
Kang Ah-rin wordlessly made her way to the training ground.
Hashi-on gritted her teeth and ran off with her bow in hand.
In the end, to fill the void left by Seong Si-woo, Jung Hae-in pushed himself even harder.
‘Soon, he’ll come back.’
Jung Hae-in believed that Seong Si-woo would return, but…
No matter how much time passed, he didn’t come back.
His seat remained empty.
But, fortunately, the ambush was more smoothly resolved than expected.
The demons were eliminated at various locations, and the Guildmaster’s safety was secured.
The tense atmosphere gradually relaxed.
At that moment.
– Thud.
A crude sound.
And the object rolling on the floor.
A ghostly pale face, vacant eyes.
The Guildmaster’s head.
Suddenly, all sounds ceased. No one screamed.
There wasn’t even time to digest the shock before the next thing hit.
– Kwa-kwa-kwaang!
Something flew toward Jung Hae-in.
An attack filled with overwhelming power.
He immediately shifted and assumed a defensive stance. A fierce shockwave surged through the shattered window.
The spot where he stood was obliterated.
Thick cracks spread as the ground caved in.
And everyone turned their heads in the direction the attack had come from.
A silhouette cloaked in black energy.
Crimson eyes. The boiling demonic aura emanating from his body could be felt.
“… Seong Si-woo.”
He hadn’t run away out of fear. And he hadn’t returned either.
His body, dyed in a violet hue, almost unrecognizable as human, radiated an overwhelming demonic aura.
He…
Had defected.
But the first thing they did was to look at Jung Hae-in.
Seong Si-woo? Not their concern.
They were worried he might be hurt. That he might be suffering.
Their feelings came second to his.
But there, he said nothing.
He merely dusted himself off, slowly got up, and calmly looked at Seong Si-woo.
What he was thinking.
What emotion he harbored.
No one knew.
*
On his first day of the martial arts training class, Seong Si-woo tasted an indelible humiliation for the first time.
He was furious.
It was easy to feel anger.
But he wasn’t the kind of person to merely get mad.
He knew how to refine and channel that anger.
To beat Jung Hae-in. That was the only goal.
In a way different from his intentions, Jung Hae-in’s plan to provoke him had, roughly speaking, succeeded.
“Seong Si-woo…”
“Shut up.”
“Alright, then.”
Seong Si-woo refused to even look at him.
He treated him as though he wasn’t even worth answering.
Then, one day,
He got to witness Jung Hae-in’s simulated dungeon exercise in person.
For a moment, his mind went completely blank.
Jung Hae-in had overwhelmingly defeated two students ranked higher than himself.
Fury boiled within him.
‘I need to surpass him.’
He decided. His training was sufficient.
So during the midterm exam, he aimed to beat him.
To prove himself superior on this platform.
He called Jung Hae-in out as his opponent.
But he was refused.
“What the…!”
But the next moment, he gagged when he saw his opponent on the field.
“Johan…?”
Jung Hae-in’s opponent wasn’t him but Johan, the second-ranked student.
Seong Si-woo clenched his fists and watched the match.
Jung Hae-in easily subdued Johan.
At that moment, the Crusader, his eyes filled with madness, charged at Jung Hae-in.
Seong Si-woo instinctively tightened his fists.
But someone blocked his path.
“Why…?”
Seong Si-woo’s gaze wavered. Park Kwang-cheol stood in his way.
After a brief exchange of words, he casually patted Jung Hae-in’s shoulder, in a seemingly friendly gesture.
A place he firmly believed he deserved.
The strongest group in the world, Vanguisher.
Seong Si-woo had always yearned to join Vanguisher.
But even that belonged to Jung Hae-in.
At that moment, a great sense of emptiness overwhelmed him.
That night,
Sleep eluded Seong Si-woo. Jung Hae-in’s figure lingered in his mind.
Even the next day, he wandered aimlessly.
He didn’t know where to go.
He just kept walking and walking.
Avoiding meeting anyone, he ventured deeper into the forest.
There, he encountered the presence that awaited him.
The masked figure introduced himself as Moras.
“Are you lost?”
He whispered to Seong Si-woo.
“I will grant you. Power.”
In that instant,
His chest stirred with excitement.
Joy surged. Finally, the opportunity had come.
A black hand extended behind Moras.
And he was about to reach out to take it when…
– Shuuk!
“Hey, you idiot!!”
That voice rang out.
The most unwelcome sound he could hear.
In an instant.
If he had taken just one more step, he could’ve seized the power.
But his head throbbed painfully.
‘There you are again.’
Once more, you’ve stolen my power.
You’ve stolen my chance.
His vision distorted.
Above him, a sacred light appeared.
The system intervened.
[Detected crisis. Protecting the user.]
Sacred energy enveloped Seong Si-woo.
His body convulsed and writhed in pain.
“sh*t…!”
His gaze wavered.
Pain surged through him.
“Are you alright?”
The figure rushed to him and checked on his condition. Soon, he let out a sigh of relief.
-Still alright…
-System intervention was successful…
His voice seemed to fade into the distance.
And from far away, the side where the hand had emerged, a whisper reached him.
– Accept it.
‘Accept it? What?’
– My child, accept this power.
At that moment, his mind began to feel serene.
So simple.
All he had to do was accept.
[Warning. Abnormal mana detected.]
[Danger. System failure detected.]
[Forced purification…]
[…Failed.]
The light…
Shattered.
Jung Hae-in’s eyes widened.
Chaos erupted in his mind.
The system.
It had shattered.
His expression darkened with despair.
“…”
Jung Hae-in silently stared at him.
Seong Si-woo smiled. Slowly, very slowly.
From his body emanated a sticky and dark energy.
He stretched out his hand.
–
He grabbed Jung Hae-in’s neck.
“!”
Taken aback by the sudden attack, Jung Hae-in’s body trembled momentarily.
Seong Si-woo’s arm gradually turned a violet hue, signifying the invasion of demonic power.
Seong Si-woo’s grip tightened.
Breathing was becoming difficult for Jung Hae-in.
Still, he looked right at Seong Si-woo.
“Snap out of it… Idiot…”
He already knew what the collapse of the system truly meant.
But it couldn’t be.
Because the protagonist of this world’s story couldn’t end this way.
He was defying the norm.
“Krk.”
Seong Si-woo sneered. His crimson eyes glimmered with malevolence.
“Just d*e.”
The stranglehold grew stronger. Jung Hae-in’s hands clenched too.
Then.
– Kwa-kwaang!!!
– Clink!
Light cascaded from the sky. An intense pressure weighed down on the battlefield.
A massive, holy hammer, and a black spear both descended from the heavens.
– Ugeck!
One of Seong Si-woo’s arms got torn off.
“Aaargh… AAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
He screamed in excruciating pain.
Crimson bl**d dripped to the ground.
Then a voice slashed through the air.
“It’s infiltration.”
The voice was calm.
She was the Paladin who had met Jung Hae-in before.
Behind her, other Paladins, led by Cheon Yeoul, appeared.
“… That was close.”
On the opposite side, the Guildmaster Kang Yoon-hyuk had his arm extended. By his side stood Kang Ah-rin, who coldly looked down on Seong Si-woo.
Disdain was evident in her gaze.
Seong Si-woo writhed in pain from the torn arm.
At the Paladin’s gesture,
White shackles began binding his body.
Kang Yoon-hyuk asked,
“How should we proceed?”
The treatment of demons, or those brainwashed or infiltrated by demons, primarily followed the church’s guidelines.
While easily killing them was an option, the residual demonic traces could cause further problems.
The Paladin contemplated.
If it were an early stage of infiltration, recovery might be possible.
But judging by his violet-stained arm, his demonization had progressed too quickly.
In cases like this, either execution or imprisonment each had their advantages and disadvantages.
She eventually spoke.
“It seems imprisonment is…”
– Kwa-jik!
But she didn’t finish her sentence.
Jung Hae-in’s spear pierced through Seong Si-woo’s heart.
“He’s a Demon.”
With those short words, he muttered.
Then collapsed.
Jung Hae-in finally accepted reality.
“There’s no going back.”
If the system was broken, then that was the end.
The church’s advice, irrelevant.
Because Jung Hae-in knew better than anyone else the nature of infiltration.
Everyone fell silent.
But,
In that space, only two.
Cheon Yeoul and Kang Ah-rin—their expressions twisted.
Their expressions were
Drenched in quiet elation.
