Chapter 827

For a moment, it was as if the world had stopped.

I stared blankly at the Doppelganger’s silent smile. In my frozen mind, the voice I’d heard moments ago played over and over.

Do you really think so?

I couldn’t breathe.

I already understood what that question meant. But a deep, instinctive refusal surged up from my chest, and before I knew it, I was speaking.

“Don’t spout that bullshit.”

There was no way.

I knew it. Everyone in the world knew it.

The Demon King—Asmodeus—was already dead.

Near the end of the Great Cataclysm, on what would later be called Victory Day, humanity’s hero fought the Demon King and finally brought down the calamity that had turned the whole world into a blazing inferno.

And a few hours later, a small life was born in a country on a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides.

That life stood here now.

“The Demon King died the day I was born. On Victory Day.”

The hoarse voice escaping my lips sounded like someone else’s. I pressed on, putting force into the words as if making a vow to myself.

“He was erased, and we won. That’s all there is to it. That’s the truth.”

I was only standing there. Only moving my lips to speak. Yet I was short of breath, and every breath I let out tasted bitter, as if it carried poison.

Like the voice now burrowing into my ears.

“Yes. That, too, is true, Jin Taekyung. Chosen One.”

The abyss-like Doppelganger looked at me and curled its lips. On the Grand Mage’s stolen face, the smile was as sly and wicked as a serpent’s.

“That is all you know. And to you, it is the truth.”

Step.

It took a slow step toward me. Its footfall echoed through the vast, grotesque temple, mingling with its voice.

“But look at me.”

Its eyes, dark and deep, swirled like the abyss as they fixed on me.

“Look at me, who merely watched while countless humans died, and while you wept for joy at your victory. I was there among you, carrying out the Great King’s command.”

“……!”

“Do you still not understand? My existence is proof. Proof that the truth you believe is a lie, and that another truth exists beyond your knowledge.”

My vision blurred in an instant.

The massive pillars supporting the temple vanished from sight, along with the grotesque statues and the Skeleton King, whose lips were moving as if he were trying to say something.

There was only one presence.

The Doppelganger filled my vision, its image etched sharply into my eyes.

The Great Battle of Paris.

My mind reeled. Small puzzle pieces surfaced one by one, filling the empty spaces.

Long before the Demon King Asmodeus fell, the Doppelganger had already infiltrated this world.

Michael Silbert hadn’t chosen the Doppelganger from the start.

The Doppelganger had chosen him.

The monster from another world had recognized a monster in this one. It had read the immense ambition curled up inside a human body of flesh and bone.

Why had the Doppelganger chosen Michael Silbert, of all people?

I already knew the answer.

Because merely existing in this world wasn’t all it wanted.

The Doppelganger possessed a gift unlike any other. It could absorb not only a person’s appearance and abilities, but even their memories, making them its own. Living out its life as a single human would have been easy.

But now I understood. Its infiltration of humanity hadn’t been an act of betrayal or defection.

It had received an order.

An order from the master it served with its life: the Demon King Asmodeus.

What happened after that must have been just as I knew it.

The Doppelganger put Michael Silbert forward and used him to move the world.

The puppet that had made a name for itself at the Great Battle of Paris quietly grew in the shadow of Cheon Taemin, the sky above it. And the shadow controlling the puppet fed on someone’s soul, out of sight.

For more than thirty years, the Doppelganger climbed the stairs, keeping the order it had received in mind.

Until the endless staircase came to an end.

Until the moment it had waited for arrived, and a tightly shut door appeared.

“Judging by your face, you’re finally starting to understand.”

The Doppelganger laughed and raised a hand.

Whoosh.

A lone sphere of light drifted through the sunless darkness and stopped at the far end of the vast temple.

Its hazy glow lit the enormous space—and the single throne beneath it.

That’s…

The moment I saw the empty throne, I knew instinctively who this temple and that seat had been built for.

And what the seventy-two bizarre, hideous stone statues represented.

“The seventy-two commanders of the Demon Realm…”

The Skeleton King’s words came out like a groan. The Doppelganger spread both arms toward the throne, its face alight with rapture.

“The Great King will surely return. Before long, He will come with the countless armies that follow Him.”

“……!”

Every hair on my body stood on end. A chill crawled up my spine like a snake.

I didn’t believe the Doppelganger. It was made of lies, through and through. For now, I couldn’t be sure whether what it had told me was true or just another lie meant to shake me.

But…

If every word it said was true.

Then I already knew what I had to do.

Dynamite with a severed fuse won’t explode. A locked door won’t open without a key.

And in that sense, the Doppelganger was both the fuse and the key: the signal for a vast calamity about to unfold.

This was the only chance to stop the return of a being who would be a nightmare for humanity.

I’ll kill it.

The clouds in my mind cleared. With that single thought, as inescapable as a duty, qi surged through my body.

Fwoooosh.

My vision went hazy. My body, still bearing the full strain of the reckless Teleport spell, cried out in pain.

But I didn’t hesitate. I drew Scorching Yang Qi from my Lower Dantian and sent it flooding through my limbs and acupoints, dulling the pain, forcing life back into my torn muscles—

Then I unleashed it.

BOOM!

Flamefire Path.

Blue-white flames burst from my toes and devoured the darkness.

In an instant split into ever smaller pieces, I erased the space between us and thrust my spear. It was a motion I’d repeated thousands, tens of thousands of times.

Toward a single being.

SHWAAA!

True to its name, White Flame cut through the darkness, its spearhead dazzling as a white flame.

As if nothing could stop it.

As if it would turn everything to ash.

At least, that was how it looked until the Doppelganger gestured and something invisible barred its path.

BOOM!

A deafening impact left my ears ringing. The force of the collision drove back against me.

Hngh.

I tightened my grip on the vibrating spear shaft.

Only ten paces away, the Doppelganger’s smiling face wavered behind a transparent barrier.

“Do you understand now why I came all the way here?”

Shield magic?

No. This wasn’t ordinary Shield magic.

Even as a Grand Mage, the Doppelganger could hardly have conjured a shield strong enough to stop my strike so easily in an instant.

Unless—

A Magic Formation.

Siegfried Bassmann.

One of only three Grand Mages in the world, and considered the finest master of Magic Formations among them.

The Doppelganger had absorbed his soul. And it had been given three years.

“You son of a…”

“You humans take out insurance. Think of this as something similar.”

Confidence showed in its curled lips. It hadn’t smiled like that while fleeing from me, dying again and again.

“Don’t waste your effort. I’m the master here.”

Vwoom.

An unprecedented force resonated from every direction.

Magic Formations blazed into view all around us, and the enormous statues depicting the seventy-two commanders of the Demon Realm began to tremble.

“As the Great King’s representative, I command you: awaken from your slumber.”

Crackle.

Stone fragments fell on every side as the Doppelganger’s command rang out.

The statues, which had seemed destined to stand motionless forever, began to move.

No—they opened their eyes.

Flash.

Monsters, ranging from a few meters to dozens of meters¹ tall, gazed down at the distant ground with glowing red eyes.

The Skeleton King, whose earlier attack had been stopped by a translucent barrier just like mine, stared at them.

Then he shouted like a bolt of lightning.

“Dodge!”

At that moment—

WHOOOOM!

Arms, legs, and claws of stone filled my vision as they came crashing down.

The world slowed, and my breath stretched out.

No. I can’t dodge.

Not because the statues’ attacks were too powerful or too fast.

Because every step I took away from them would take me farther from the Doppelganger.

Now’s the time to go.

The statues under its control were powerful. But it had copied only the forms of the Demon Realm’s seventy-two commanders. Not one of them had the strength of an S-rank monster.

In that case—

I’ll cut them down.

My body moved with the thought.

No. My body wasn’t the only thing that moved.

Vwoooooom.

With a powerful hum, my closed Middle Dantian opened.

A space pitifully small beside the vast temple—but large enough for what I needed—fell under my control.

Hngh.

A headache so sharp it nearly blacked out my vision.

I endured it. I had to.

I clenched my teeth until my lips were ragged, then let go of White Flame’s shaft.

Fwoosh.

Hot. Blinding.

The spear blazed blue-white with Scorching Yang Qi drawn from my Lower Dantian. The will of my Middle Dantian moved it.

No—it sent it whirling.

SHWAAAA!

I heard no roar. In a world filled only with the sound of air being torn apart, a streak of light-flames cut through everything around it.

SHWAK!

Through space.

SHHK!

Through the soulless Golems, as if it had only grazed them.

Again and again. Perhaps dozens of times.

At last, after tearing through everything on every side, the spear returned to its master. I caught it.

KWA-AAAA!

Everything came crashing down.

All seventy-two colossal statues. The pillars as thick as the World Tree.

And the countless Magic Formations that had filled every corner of the temple.

KWA-CRASH!

Maybe my body had been pushed past its limit.

My vision turned white. I couldn’t see a thing.

But I could hear. I could feel.

The mana and magical power breaking apart. And beyond them, one presence struck with shock.

“Say that again.”

The words came out in a voice that sounded ready to give out. I drew on the last of my strength and stepped forward.

Step.

“Who exactly is the master here?”

At that moment, instead of an answer, a dazzling radiance filled the temple.