Chapter 718 – At the Crossroads (2)
Lox, the Wandering Knight.
“Plenty of time on my hands.”
Lox never officially joined the Holy War Alliance.
If someone were to ask whether that felt disappointing, he’d simply answer that it couldn’t be helped.
“If anything, I’m the one who declined.”
He turned his head, glancing at the base of his wings.
Nothing but a glimpse of shoulder should have been visible—but traces of demonic wings still remained on Lox.
‘Isn’t it a perfectly fitting class name?’
Neither human nor demon.
Unable to belong anywhere.
A [Wandering Knight].
That was precisely what Lox was now.
And there was no reason to feel disheartened. No—if anything, it felt good. At this moment, Lox was experiencing a sense of freedom he had never felt before.
“Maybe you were right, Camilla.”
They had known each other even before Shining was formed. Camilla used to say it from time to time:
Is there really a need to keep acting while wearing clothes that don’t fit?
“Honestly, even the name bothered me.”
Shining—how cringeworthy.
In that sense, nothing had really changed. Even when he belonged to Shining, he had merely been an actor wearing ill-fitting clothes and a mask.
He hadn’t belonged anywhere then, and he didn’t belong anywhere now.
…Or had something changed, at least a little?
‘You know my true nature.’
Lee Hoyeol.
—“You may return whenever you wish.”
Those words had come with the guarantee of the Supreme Commander of the Holy War Alliance.
“But after saying that, you disappeared. Who would take me in now?”
Lox muttered jokingly.
By the time Hoyeol stepped down as Supreme Commander, the promise had already become vague. Perhaps that was why Lox’s gaze had turned toward the “Great Sages” roaming the Arcana Continent.
“!”
Because he belonged nowhere—
The wandering knight wandered across Arcana.
Though he couldn’t be certain due to the system now displaying broken messages, Lox could feel it with his body.
His current level was 740.
“This cave feels… off.”
Not joining the Holy War Alliance had slowed his growth slightly, but he was still easily among the top ten players in raw strength.
And now, after having fallen into corruption demonhood and reclassed into the hidden class [Wandering Knight], Lox had stepped into the domain of [『Anomaly』].
Which meant—
“Let’s check it out.”
With the threats of the Ten Thrones and demons greatly diminished, there shouldn’t have been any monsters or dungeons capable of threatening Lox.
And yet—
Flap, flap.
The moment he stepped into the cave, something rushed toward him.
At first, he thought it was bats.
But it wasn’t.
“…Pigeons?”
A flock of white pigeons bursting out of a cave.
Lox began assembling the clues in his mind, starting with the worst possible scenario.
‘Could this be one of the Ten Thrones?’
Lox didn’t know Bael’s whereabouts, but he did know one thing: the stronger a demon was, the harder it was for them to reveal their true body. If Bael had appeared on the Arcana Continent, there would have been unmistakable signs.
Which left only one possibility.
Vassago.
But—
“This doesn’t make sense.”
Vassago’s location had already been pinpointed to the Demon King’s Castle in Chengdu, China. As the former master of Shining, the world’s strongest guild, Lox knew better than anyone how vital a lord’s presence was during a siege.
Step.
As he ventured deeper, the surroundings shifted.
It was far too peaceful to be a demon’s hideout.
‘It’s not like I’m under a status effect…’
The pigeons alone had already felt unnatural, but as the scenery unfolded further, Lox couldn’t help muttering—
“…Did I stumble onto some kind of hidden piece?”
Deer. Rabbits. Pigeons.
Gentle animals gathered together in groups. They should have fled the moment they sensed his presence, yet they stubbornly remained, as if desperately protecting something.
“I might’ve thought it was something incredible.”
Lox had entered this world back when Arcana was nothing more than a game, but even to him, this sight was unfamiliar. Perhaps he was excited at the thought of encountering a quest unlike anything before.
Yes—if only it weren’t for this unsettling feeling.
“Excuse me.”
Lox asked the herbivores for pardon and pushed through them. No matter how much they tried to block him, they were no heavier than feathers to him.
Thanks to that, he found it quickly.
“…?”
A corpse of an elderly woman lying on the ground.
Lox hurried over and checked her pulse. Cold. Judging by her condition, she had been dead for several days.
“…This is strange.”
Was the situation strange?
No—the situation itself was plausible. Lox had witnessed far more contrived scenarios countless times on the Arcana Continent.
What felt strange was his own reaction.
“Why is it…”
Why was he sensing the presence of a demon from the corpse?
He knew this from observing through him: demons could not hide their true nature, especially after death.
‘Demons fall to hell—or are reborn.’
They couldn’t remain behind as corpses.
And animals would never gather around a demon’s corpse—nor protect it.
It didn’t add up.
“Excuse me.”
That was why Lox reached for the bag the old woman seemed to have dropped. There might be a clue inside.
His pupils trembled.
‘A book? No—a handwritten journal?’
Before checking its contents—
Rustle.
He identified the source of the irritating sound.
This is…
He reached in deeper and touched something dry.
A straw doll.
Because Lox possessed both human and demonic traits, he recognized it instinctively.
“…That’s one hell of a joke.”
The incarnation of Vassago—
its excessive danger.
*
*
Incarnation.
Simply put, you could call it a must-have item for the Ten Thrones.
‘I had a rough idea from Paimon.’
To manifest their true bodies, the Ten Thrones required sacrifices.
Enormous sacrifices—which was why direct incarnations were exceedingly rare. Instead, they used incarnations to influence other worlds beyond the Demon Realm.
‘Basically… an alt character.’
An independent sub-character.
‘One that could even be granted their authority.’
Vassago’s alt characters—the Great Sage. Or rather, the Great Sages. Their ability to speak of the past and future was entirely thanks to Vassago’s authority.
‘He was always the one left at the end.’
Excluding Bael, the one who knew the most about me—Lee Hoyeol—was Vassago.
Even if he didn’t know that I had reversed time using reversal magic, he knew I would lead the world to destruction.
‘The prophet appearing on Today Arcana is proof.’
Need I say more? That prophet was also one of Vassago’s incarnations.
He caused me plenty of trouble in the previous run.
‘I didn’t care—because it wasn’t wrong.’
But my parents and sisters were deeply shaken back then.
Which meant—
There’s no guarantee they won’t be shaken again.
They still don’t know anything.
But I wasn’t worried.
No—if anything, I welcomed it.
A change in how people looked at me meant—
‘Some of the misunderstandings about you would finally be cleared.’
Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.
‘You’re making a big mistake.’
Did I really look like someone who would quietly watch you shoulder all the sins and fall into hell?
I’ve said it again and again.
‘It’s not my pride, and it’s not your pride.’
It’s our pride.
Which means bearing responsibility must also be ours.
So in this moment, what I had to do was already decided.
I wasn’t just going to visit the Today Arcana production team.
Standing in front of the mirror in my studio apartment, I straightened my clothes.
“The Great Sage—no, every prophecy that exists.”
Let’s see. This should be presentable enough.
“It’s time to make them come true.”
* pindangscans.com
*
Demon King’s Castle. Everything was going smoothly.
“Forgive me, kings. And you, foolish Bael.”
That I—the frail one—had survived until the end.
Authority: 【Father of Incarnations】
Vassago’s relationship with his incarnations was like that of a parent and child.
Born early among the Ten Thrones, Vassago had long since lost interest in unfamiliar worlds.
“At first, it was nothing more than a game.”
My only concern was my children.
“But now, shouldn’t a father protect them?”
More precisely, he needed to watch over the actions of his children—the incarnations.
The dispersal of authority?
It didn’t matter.
At this moment, seated on the throne of the Demon King’s Castle, Vassago was incomplete—no, weaker than even a lesser Demon King.
He had inherited most of his authority to his incarnations.
And yet, what was the result?
Had he remained confined within the vision of the Ten Thrones, he would never have learned the truth of the world.
Of course.
“That’s because I raised you freely.”
By treating his incarnations not as parts of himself, but as independent beings, Vassago made it possible.
Inheriting the infinite authority of the Ten Thrones, exploring worlds without being consumed by malice—
His children reached a cruel truth.
“The cruelty of a repeating world.”
And even the fact that the true source of all evil was not Grandfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo—
But Lee Hoyeol.
Even now, Vassago found it hard to believe.
Lee Hoyeol.
How could such a frail human commit such an unforgivable sin?
To reach the truth, he needed his authority again.
“I wish to reunite with you as soon as possible.”
Thus, Vassago began recalling his incarnations.
Just as the Demon Realm had consumed countless worlds and produced innumerable incarnations, he couldn’t retrieve them all—but that was fine.
“You must have felt your father’s call.”
The incarnations in the Arcana Continent and the Adventurer World? He could take those freely. They were only a small fraction.
The real ones were the incarnations in the worlds the Demon Realm had devoured.
Now that the collapse of the Demon Realm had shattered the world’s barriers, and reversal had opened Behemoth’s maw—
“Come back to your father, my children.”
There were no obstacles.
And even if there were, they were insignificant.
The worlds devoured by the Demon Realm were infinite.
…
.
.
[Breaking News: Lee Hoyeol spotted near Behemoth’s maw!]
[Breaking News: Lee Hoyeol spotted at the Demon Realm’s base!]
[Breaking News: Lee Hoyeol spotted at the Demon King’s Castle!] …
“This can’t be right…”
Was it fake?
If so—what was fake?
Nam Taemin looked back and forth between the knight on the screen and Hoyeol standing before him.
He asked cautiously—
“H-Hoyeol-ssi… it is you, right?”
The answer didn’t help.
“Now is not a good time.”
…
.
.
“…Why?”
Vassago’s feeble body staggered.
“Why won’t you answer me, my children?”
Vassago fell into confusion, grieving as if he had truly lost his children—
Until he came face-to-face with Hoyeol’s incarnations.
“What… what have you done?!”