[All evil is annihilated!]

The Blood King panicked.

A greatsword with Sain Sword that Annihilates Evil branded onto it in Hanja.

Even though it hadn’t touched him, the instant it was swung, the illusion struck—like his body had been split in half.

It was an alien pain he had never felt before.

It was cut so cleanly and perfectly that before he could even register pain, he fell into a hallucination of his body tearing apart.

[80% of HP is deleted.]

A grievous wound in a single blow.

Now he understood why Hyunsoo could charge him.

As he advanced past the gate, he had been saving this.

The means that could kill demon Gremory.

But the Blood King sneered.

“Kuhahah!”

This was Hyunsoo’s sure-kill move.

Because he believed in this—and only this—he could be so arrogant.

He thought he had the makings of a king, but he was a greenhorn who didn’t know the variables.

Writhe, writhe—

[As long as there is blood, the Blood King will not die.]

Blood flowed around them like a river.

With this blood, the Blood King could restore his HP to 100%.

And—

[HP drops below 24%.]

Hyunsoo was exhausted from coming this far, and from fighting the knights.

His potion was also on cooldown.

Watching the blood coming to him, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the Blood King intended to regenerate immediately—and grant Hyunsoo despair.

“Behold, this is my...!”

The Blood King couldn’t finish.

“Your what?”

As long as there is blood, the Blood King will not die.

That—had been broken.

Annihilating Evil deleting 80% of HP was true.

But for someone who controlled blood like the Blood King, things could change.

So Hyunsoo had a thought.

If the Sain Sword and Babylon were combined, there had to be an advantage in the combination.

Can it shave off 100% HP?

That would destroy balance.

Then does it shave off 10% more HP?

It could.

But Hyunsoo’s understanding of artifact effects had grown astronomically, so he predicted it.

Maybe...

[Evil that suffers Annihilating Evil cannot regenerate or use potions for 20 seconds!]

He might not be able to regenerate.

The Blood King’s face crumpled.

A man who turned the Blood King’s advantage into his weakness.

Wrapped in a brown coat, holding a thin-bladed greatsword—he looked like he was about to rip the Blood King’s breath away.

“Flame.”

FWOOSH—!

A small ignition blankets him and burns hot.

[The Blood King’s HP drops below 20%.]

[HP drops below 24%.]

Now the two of them were on similar footing.

Hyunsoo reminds himself once again.

[As long as there is blood, the Blood King will not die.]

The twenty seconds he’d been given.

DASH—!

He kicks off the ground and surges forward.

Around the stunned Blood King, hundreds of blood spikes stab in.

PAAANG—!

Telekinesis detonates at the same time.

Hyunsoo raises his left hand and sends every crimson spike up into the sky.

KWAHHHHHHHANG—!

In that instant, a massive blood orb slams in and explodes.

“Got...!”

Hyunsoo ignores him, accelerates with blood splashed over him.

PUH-WHAAAK—!

[17 seconds remaining.]

[16 seconds remaining.]

He trades blows with the panicking Blood King.

Every time he takes a direct hit, blood explosions erupt, and Hyunsoo’s HP drops faster.

But—like what he learned from the Sword Duke.

Based on watching people like Luxiu, Bahala, and Kabel.

He worked to make those things his own.

So, like Kabel, he moves in an instant and cuts like a ghost.

SHRRK, THWUMP—!

[12 seconds remaining.]

“The Blood King’s sky.”

PUUUUUNG—!

The counterattack hits, launching Hyunsoo up into the air.

But Annihilating Evil’s vast energy was already gathered on Hyunsoo’s blade.

“Sword Frenzy.”

KUKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWANG—!

It pours down like it will cut anything.

[The Blood King’s shield]

RRRIIIP—!

A shield formed from gathered blood—740% defense, something that could even block attacks that ignore defenses—protects him from around sixty blades.

KRRRIIINGK-KRRRIIINGK-KRRRIIINGK—!

[9 seconds.]

“Kuh!”

Cut by a few, the Blood King staggers.

In that moment, the Blood King realizes.

Most of the power he could bring out was on cooldown.

He believes he has won—and exults.

THWUMP—!

A sword the Blood King summoned pierces Hyunsoo from behind.

“Kkh!”

[7 seconds.]

But Hyunsoo grits his teeth.

In his plunging HP, he sees his own blood running down his brown coat.

[HP drops below 10%...]

[You possess Asnium.]

He won’t lose.

He won’t hand Luxiu over again, and he will use the Blood King as a steppingstone.

Atlas is dangerous.

To protect Atlas—and to make it an Independent Nation.

His brown coat, turning red.

FLAP—!

When he swings wide, droplets of blood splash onto the Blood King’s face.

PUH-WHAAAK—!

“...Kuh—dirty!”

[2 seconds.]

[The Blood King’s HP drops below 4%.]

With his vision obscured, the Blood King panics.

But in two seconds, he’ll be able to fully regenerate.

Already, above his head, a blood orb the size of a soccer ball has condensed—enough to restore him.

There will be no twist.

In the end, it’s my victory.

Certain of it, he wipes the blood from around his eyes—

GRIP—!

—and meets Hyunsoo’s face, grotesque with fury.

“.......”

Hyunsoo is gripping the sword with both hands, his expression truly enraged.

Hyunsoo knows this is a game.

But this is a man who swallowed tens of millions of people who trusted him—and became a strong king.

A man who tried to become even stronger by swallowing the knight who lived to protect him.

A bastard who, instead of repenting, said that after killing Hyunsoo, he’d go back and grab Luxiu by the hair again.

[Master Blacksmith’s Pride]

A situation where he should lose.

A pride that refuses to give up freezes the Blood King—if only for a moment.

[0 seconds.]

He has reached the time when he can regenerate.

But Master Blacksmith’s Pride—and the power called Overwhelm—don’t let even a fingertip move.

All I have to do is let one drop of blood fall...

But he can’t move.

Master Blacksmith’s Pride.

Overwhelm.

And—

[Even if it breaks]

With teeth clenched, Hyunsoo’s sword accelerates.

KUKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWANG—!

[-1 seconds.]

The Blood King cannot buy time to absorb blood under the massive shock—

[-2 seconds.]

Cut down indiscriminately, he clenches his teeth, trying to absorb blood in the final instant.

But before that—

SKAAASH—!

Hyunsoo’s blade cuts him diagonally.

The Blood King’s mind goes distant as he speaks.

“...What did I do wrong?”

At the moment of death, he asks.

A frank confession that tries to continue.

“Born weak, wanting power—why was that wro—”

KWAJAAASH!

“.......”

Hyunsoo doesn’t allow even the last word.

“A bastard that’s no different from a demon—like you—still wants to talk.”

A sinner who doesn’t even deserve the chance to repent.

Hyunsoo feels adrenaline boil.

That adrenaline erupts as he fights the Blood King, making his heart pound.

And it makes him anticipate one more thing.

The Blood King was a king.

One of the kings who led this era.

Of course, he was nothing more than the most worthless king among the five thrones.

No—if you called him the same kind of king as the ones who sat on those thrones, they might even be offended.

[The first king falls.]

And today, what Hyunsoo expected was different from usual.

Normally, it would have been—

How much will I level up?

What loot will I get?

But he found himself anticipating something else.

[Linked Quest: Blood King completed]

Where the Blood King collapsed—

a massive light begins to burst out.

That light starts to reach across the entire Kingdom of Enya.

[Purification begins.]

Hyunsoo, anticipating a new reward, walked toward somewhere.

*****

Sword Duke Lysen and Prak, the Heir of Blue Sky, remembered Hyunsoo’s words.

Don’t enter the kingdom. If the two hundred thousand troops and the Kingdom of Enya’s army start truly colliding, you might be wiped out.

Lysen and Prak gave orders to pour in only arrows and magic.

But the situation changed fast.

[Command of the Blood King]

The Kingdom of Enya’s army—believed to be a one million-strong army—could not come out of the castle and attack them.

But by the Blood King’s power, the entire army was turned into demonkin and fell upon the two hundred thousand troops—and among them were ordinary civilians.

“How...?!”

Lysen was stunned as he watched civilians—who didn’t even know how to fight—throw themselves in, trying only to bite.

Lysen was a man with strong convictions.

Even in wartime, he doesn’t cut down civilians.

The problem was the real troops mixed among the civilians.

Even those troops, having lost all reason, swung their weapons indiscriminately, without fear.

“KHUAAAAGH!”

“KHUUUUP!”

“Sword Duke!”

“The enemy’s momentum is vicious!”

Thousands on their side died in an instant.

The reinforcements sent by the Kingdom of Praham were no different.

The Kingdom of Enya’s army, which had been unable to charge because fear, terror, and pressure had held them back, turned into demonkin and began indiscriminate attacks.

“Kkh!”

A crisis for the two hundred thousand.

From the start, the Kingdom of Enya’s army had been vastly stronger than two hundred thousand troops.

And after shoving a civilian away yet again, Lysen was about to shout that they should kill civilians too—when he lost his words.

“.......”

Because tears of blood were running from the civilians’ eyes.

“KHUAAAAAAAGH!”

Facing people who had lost their minds and attacked even though they didn’t want to, Lysen made a hollow expression.

Meanwhile—

Luxiu, cutting down everyone as he moved toward the outside of the castle, realizes.

I can’t purify them.

There are too many.

No matter how much the Kingdom of Enya had fallen, it was close to a million.

It was impossible for two hundred thousand troops—and himself—to cut through all that.

Especially because cutting down familiar faces was heavy and painful.

Is there nothing I can do...?

Then—

PAAANG—!

Light surged from where the Blood King had been.

Spread across the sky, it was a light so beautiful and magnificent that even Saint Aria couldn’t help but stare.

That enormous light—

PUUUUUNG—!

—boomed and exploded up in the heavens.

And with it, across the entire Kingdom of Enya, crystalline fragments like snow—crystals of light—began to fall.

The moment those crystals of light touched them—

[Purification begins.]

Those who became demonkin against their will.

Those who, under the Blood King, rejected being human and lived a half-immortal life.

Civilians who had charged to bite soldiers.

Knights who had swung their swords with shrieks to cut down troops.

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

Everyone stopped.

It was instant. The clashing of weapons ceased, and a brief silence echoed.

[You can meet rest.]

Because human life is finite, there are things that are beautiful because they are short.

It pierces their chests—those who learned how painful infinite time can be.

And—

[You can live.]

If they fear dying, it tells them they can still live out what remains.

They can’t bring themselves to speak any words.

They apologize to those they had been attacking.

And then—

Step. Step—

Footsteps approach them as they wrestle between rest and living.

Luxiu, who had somehow descended beneath the wall, saw it.

A man in a brown coat soaked in blood—limping on one leg, his left arm clutched in his right hand—walking toward the wall.

One million people of the Kingdom of Enya fix their eyes on him alone.

Step. Step—

Barely in his early twenties.

A young, boyish man stands atop the wall and looks over them.

Luxiu saw it.

“.......”

Gratitude, respect, and cheers gathering in the eyes of a million people looking at him.

And the one million people of the Kingdom of Enya knew.

The king was dead.

And so, they knew what choices had opened to them.

“Some of you—sleep in peace.”

Children who couldn’t hide their joy at the rest he offered without holding them back let out a “Waaah,” voices rising.

“And some of you—live a new life.”

Those who chose life over death couldn’t help but look at him with a different gaze.

They had no king now, and they needed a new place to live.

If they lived, they would go with him.

The man on the wall speaks.

“But if you live, then live with everything you have.”

The words send a tremor through them.

In the brief silence that follows—

WOOOAAAAAA—!

A roar goes up—announcing the beginning of the great territory Atlas.

Those who will enter rest, and those who will live—at least in this moment, they cheer for him alone.

A vibration spreads through Hyunsoo’s chest as he looks over them.

[Those who will live will serve you.]

A new era was opening.