How A Mythical Holy Knight Lives As A Villain (Novel) - Chapter 154
Chapter 154
Thump.
Min Jun-hyuk felt as if his heart had stopped for a moment.
“W-What did you just say….”
“We have confirmed the death of Guild Master Kim Yoo-jung, who was in charge of Yu Baek’s side. Furthermore, this power is undoubtedly Go Johan’s.”
Thump.
His heart sank once again.
“B-But.”
Didn’t they say Go Johan must be dead.
No, why did he, who hadn’t shown himself until now, suddenly appear at this point.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
Min Jun-hyuk couldn’t stop trembling.
The apostles who had visited him.
And the destruction of North Korea.
“T-Then….”
If Go Johan had returned, doesn’t that mean this coup d’état will end in failure?
Thud.
Eventually, as if his legs lost their strength, Min Jun-hyuk slumped down.
“Ah, aaah….”
Then he covered his face with both hands.
Go Johan, just those three syllables. It felt as if the world was collapsing.
Those who had been endlessly reliable felt like a handful of sand.
Flinch.
At the thought that Go Johan might appear from behind him at any moment, Min Jun-hyuk’s body swayed.
“Go Johan….”
Just three syllables.
Of course, that name couldn’t be explained solely by fear.
In reality, thanks to Go Johan’s existence, South Korea tasted an indescribable rise in national prestige.
South Korea couldn’t be called a weak player nation, but it couldn’t be called a strong nation either.
With its narrow land and small gate resources, South Korea’s future had only felt dark.
“…Aaah.”
However, from a certain day, things started changing one by one, and when the name Go Johan surfaced.
“Go Johan….”
South Korea instantly felt like it had become the center of the world.
The whole economy grew explosively, and powerful nations reached out with pleading hands.
Was that all.
‘North Korea.’
The land of North Korea had practically been evaporated, but they were even receiving evaluations that they had succeeded in unification in a sense, with the long-time enemy nation instantly falling.
Even so.
“President. Please calm down.”
At the sound of the voice, Min Jun-hyuk raised his face.
“Since we even took this far into consideration.”
“I-Is that really….”
“Activate the barrier.”
At that moment.
Paaaah!
A change occurred that even Min Jun-hyuk, a mere civilian, could feel.
All across South Korea, pillars shot up—not the ominous black ones from before, but white pillars.
“…Just what is this now?”
“The barrier has been activated. Go Johan’s forces that were cornered have been isolated at this moment.”
“……!”
“And simultaneously.”
Smirk.
It was a smile.
“Go Johan has also been isolated along with them.”
“I-Is that really true?”
He couldn’t believe it.
“If it’s Go Johan! If it’s those monsters, they’ll shatter even the barrier!”
“Perhaps.”
The woman in the bodyguard uniform spoke as if it was nothing.
“But that’s only Go Johan. There’s no way the others would be capable, is there?”
“……!”
“Now that the barrier has been activated, as time passes, the world inside the barrier will fall into our grasp.”
“Time?”
“The one who will buy that time is also prepared.”
Huff, huff.
Min Jun-hyuk looked at the woman while breathing heavily.
“Shin Min-gyu.”
“……!”
To think that name would come up.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Min Jun-hyuk’s chest started beating intensely.
But the heart beating right now held a different meaning from the anxiety of earlier.
“You mean Shin Min-gyu? That person…!”
It had been a long time since players appeared, and there were three players in South Korea called legends.
Iron Duke, Gu Seong-hoon.
The King, Go Jae-han.
And the last.
“Sword King Shin Min-gyu?”
A figure who had received the title of King even before Go Jae-han.
A one-man guild, a one-man legion, a one-man nation—the player who was described as such was Shin Min-gyu.
A figure who even elicited evaluations that without him, current South Korea might have regressed to right after independence, yet he had vanished without a trace at some point.
‘South Korea’s greatest player.’
Because that was Shin Min-gyu.
“Could you guys… be….”
Those who called themselves angels and appeared to help him.
He felt like he vaguely knew their identities.
“Was it the World Association?”
Even at Min Jun-hyuk’s words, no answer could be heard.
*
*
*
“Hup!”
Along with the pillars of light suddenly spewing forth, it felt like a white day had arrived in the middle of the pitch-black night.
Players like Yu Baek and Kim Cheon-seok fiercely resisted the light covering their bodies, but it was already too late.
Whoosh!
Because that light swallowed everything in the area.
“H-Here is…!”
Yu Baek and the others, who soon came to their senses, could feel it.
“A gate!”
That this was inside a gate, which they had raided countless times before.
“What, nonsense….”
“Brother! Are you okay!”
Kim Cheon-seok also quickly ran over and shouted at Yu Baek.
“I-I’m fine. But the Captain….”
And he checked on Go Johan who was standing with them, but Go Johan was just staring somewhere with a sunken gaze.
“Just what in the world is this….”
“To think it’s a gate.”
The roads, mountain paths, the wreckage of broken cars—the scenery hadn’t changed significantly.
But the pitch-black night instantly became day, and simultaneously.
“…That is.”
Far away, as if abruptly cut off, the space was severed.
It was their first time experiencing this, but there was a reason they were certain it was a gate.
Rumble.
A chilling sensation that seemed to pierce their whole bodies; it was a mana reaction they could only feel when entering a high-rank gate.
That wasn’t the only evidence.
Bzzzt, bzzzzzt.
Noise echoing in their heads.
Woong.
The shattered blue window that appeared in front of their eyes.
All of these were changes they only felt upon entering a gate.
“I-I can’t believe it.”
Yu Baek muttered in panic.
“There hasn’t been… a time I entered a gate in this manner.”
There had been rare cases of getting forcibly dragged into a gate assimilating with reality.
For instance, like when Goh Min-ji was swept into a Black Gate.
But under no circumstances had there ever been a case where they were swept into a gate with the world abruptly cut off like this.
Nor had they simultaneously been trapped in such a limited space.
“Ugh!”
Nor the pressure of the gate gradually increasing.
It was literally true.
‘The pressure of the gate is getting stronger?’
Their bodies were getting heavier and their vision was blurring.
As if a giant force was trying to crush them to death.
If the status window had been intact.
‘Debuff!’
They even had the thought that maybe at this moment, a notification stating a debuff is being applied would have appeared.
It was then.
Whoooooosh.
Along with a blowing wind, the pressure constricting Kim Cheon-seok, Yu Baek, and the others vanished cleanly.
“Captain.”
It was Go Johan.
“It might be better if you step back.”
At Go Johan’s words, Yu Baek and Kim Cheon-seok retreated without hesitation.
They had dedicated everything for Go Johan.
“Understood.”
They were the ones who knew better than anyone that they couldn’t protect Go Johan.
“…….”
While stepping back, Yu Baek could see Go Johan’s face.
A face sunken without emotion.
However, in one corner of it.
‘Just what.’
He saw that an indescribable displeasure, anger, and such were revealed on Go Johan’s face.
Thud.
The space started vibrating.
*
*
*
The place they were standing right now was definitely a gate.
‘Created artificially, yet not artificial by any means.’
That kind of gate.
Thud.
The gate was ringing.
And.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!
The gate’s pressure was gradually getting stronger, and Go Johan was receiving it all by himself.
If he hadn’t, if it had been someone other than Yu Baek’s level.
Baaang!
It was a situation where they might have exploded like those vehicles that broke down unable to endure it.
“Finally.”
Go Johan voiced out.
“Have they finally started moving.”
He woke up and grasped the situation.
In just the three weeks he was absent, and in the short time the apostles halted their activities, he caught the movements starting to dig into all the things the church had built.
Rumble.
And only then.
“……!”
They started moving.
Far away, a shadow walking out from within the white light.
Recognizing it, Yu Baek and Kim Cheon-seok spoke as if screaming.
“L-Ludicrous….”
“Why….?”
The slowly approaching shadow was gradually taking shape.
“How…!”
It was a person.
He looked to be in his late twenties?
Sharp eyes, a sturdy muscular build.
A man whose fierce pupils amidst casually grown black hair were impressive.
“Captain!”
A face that a South Korean player couldn’t not know—no, even a civilian couldn’t not know.
Kwooooaaaah!
“Shin Min-gyu!”
The player called a legend appeared here for the first time in a long while since he vanished.
“Gu Seong-hoon.”
His voice echoed like thunder.
“I heard you killed that failure?”
“……!”
“Though he was a bug who couldn’t even bloom his grace, I heard he couldn’t even properly withstand a single strike.”
He still looked like a dot, but the shimmering energy around him.
‘Giant.’
Was making him look like a giant.
Kwooooaaaah!
Now the pressure of the gate was pouring down like a waterfall, suppressing Go Johan.
“So you’re the bastard Go Johan.”
Swish.
That thing he thought was a dot had already approached much closer than he thought.
“Go Jae-han’s son.”
It was then.
Cruuunch!
A noise of something being ripped off.
Cruuunccch!
And everything in front of Go Johan’s eyes was torn apart in an instant.
What Yu Baek and Kim Cheon-seok could see was certainly that Go Johan’s one hand, which had been hanging down, was now clawing at the empty air.
Cruuunccch!
But as if that wasn’t enough, it was the moment a part of the world was chopped off again.
“As expected.”
It was a voice.
“It’s an ability that can’t even be described as monstrous.”
Behind his back, when Kim Cheon-seok and Yu Baek felt it, it was already too late.
Swaaaaak!
That too was a sword strike that felt as if it split the world.
Targeting Go Johan’s back, by the time they noticed the sword strike intending to tear him apart, it seemed it had already been swung several, no, dozens of times.
Kwaaaaaaaaah!
It was after it had torn and destroyed everything before their eyes.
Paaaa.
Pouring smoke filled their entire vision, but Kim Cheon-seok and Yu Baek couldn’t even move, as if nailed in place.
In this absolute domain, the only ones permitted to move were.
“Go Johan, I have come to deliver the words of the Gods.”
Shin Min-gyu.
Grab.
And none other than Go Johan.
In the scene revealed as the smoke cleared, Go Johan was standing there gripping the blade of Shin Min-gyu’s sword with one hand.