Chapter 98

Chapter 98
## Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: The Four Evils’ Control Method

“Did you catch that alert that just flashed?”

“The Four Evils Baal? What is going on… Why would one of the Four Evils show up out of nowhere?”

The player chat rooms erupted into absolute madness following the unexpected system broadcast.

“Who the hell managed to wake up Four Evils Baal?”

“Wait, what exactly is a ‘Four Evils’?”

“It’s a name that constantly pops up if you bother with the ancient lore quests. They refer to the four original primordial monsters from the dawn of time as the Four Evils.”

“That thing literally decimated half of the powerful Old Empire.”

“Was the Old Empire actually stronger than the Current Empire?”

“It’s not even a contest, obviously. That was back when the entire continent was still whole; now, more than fifty percent of it has been swallowed by the abyss. How can you even compare the two eras?”

“So, where did the revival happen?”

“No clue.”

“It’s Ascetic’s Mountain. Every city with a connection there is panicking.”

“Why on earth would Baal manifest at Ascetic’s Mountain?”

“Who knows… but if the alert mentioned surrounding cities being in danger, does that refer to the ones linked by warp gates?”

There were five specific cities tied to Ascetic’s Mountain.

Including the lawless mercenary hub of Cartel, all of them were independent, neutral territories.

The report of Four Evils Baal’s return meant that every neutral settlement connected to the mountain was now operating under a state of emergency.

“So it’s a good distance away from the player-controlled cities, right?”

“Well, that’s a small mercy for the time being.”

“Mercy? Don’t be an idiot. You think a Four Evils is some minor mob? Unless the Empire’s legions or the Goddess Church take the lead, there’s zero chance of bringing it down.”

“Wait, isn’t Phantom currently at Ascetic’s Mountain? If I recall, he headed there for Main Quest 7.”

“Nah, no way.”

“He likely finished the objective and left ages ago.”

“Exactly. It’s just a proficiency-based dungeon anyway, so he probably hit his 150k mark and took off.”

“Man, some people are even joking that Phantom is the one who triggered Four Evils Baal’s awakening lololol.”

“As crazy as Phantom’s exploits are, he wouldn’t intentionally unleash a Four Evils.”

“The guy earned the title of Knight King for a reason. He wouldn’t pull a stunt that reckless.”

“Our Phantom God is a man of integrity!”

“In Phantom God we trust!”

“Phantom God!”

“Phantom God!!!!”

THOOM!

Ractusha, having been slammed violently into the earth, struggled to force his frame upright.

“Cough!”

A spray of blood escaped his lips as he exhaled.

It was blood stained a deep, corrupted black.

“……Fascinating.”

Ractusha pulled back his lips to reveal a predatory smirk.

It certainly lived up to the reputation of the Four Evils.

The whispers claiming this beast was far more formidable than even the White King or the Black King were clearly based on terrifying reality.

‘It is undeniably powerful, that’s for certain.’

The creature had brushed aside his sword aura and hammered a lingering curse deep into his chest.

His vision blurred momentarily.

If he hadn’t utilized the momentum of the impact to roll away in that fraction of a second, he would have been executed on the spot.

‘A simple animal cannot possibly be mightier than the Black King.’

Waves of obsidian sword aura began to radiate from Ractusha’s entire form.

In the end, the beast had failed to finish him. Therefore, the Four Evils would be the one to perish by his blade.

Ractusha focused his internal energy to an even higher intensity.

Snap!

Grind!

His muscle fibers expanded until they looked ready to burst, his entire physical stature increasing.

Craaaack!

Through the dark grace of the Black King’s blessing, Ractusha had moved beyond the biological constraints of an orc.

Standing now with the colossal proportions of a giant, Ractusha slowly flexed his limbs to adjust.

‘Just as I thought. This divine favor is truly remarkable.’

Possessing the body of a giant and bolstered magic immunity, he no longer felt the sting of the Four Evils’ curse.

The hexes of a mere predator could not leave a mark on him now.

It was all made possible by the Black King’s blessing, which provided the strength to exceed one’s own race during times of great upheaval.

ROOOOOAAAAR—

At that moment, the monstrous Four Evils Baal shifted its malevolent gaze toward Ractusha.

“……”

Stepping out from the sanctuary, I found myself back at the summit of Ascetic’s Mountain.

I scanned the horizon and was momentarily struck dumb by the sight.

It was a scene of absolute devastation, unlike anything I’d seen.

Dead or dying practitioners were scattered across the terrain, and the mountain itself looked like it was being ground into dust.

In the distance, what appeared to be Four Evils Baal—a gargantuan horror—was locked in a struggle with some sort of giant.

“A giant?”

Hold on. Why is there a giant in this place?

Actually, I’m not even sure if ‘struggle’ is the right word for what I’m seeing.

“……It’s basically a punching bag.”

A remarkably durable punching bag seemed like a better description.

Perhaps because it offered such a massive target, it was being absolutely hammered by the Four Evils.

My head throbbed for a moment, and I pressed my fingers to my forehead.

【Lv. 13】

The giant was an incredible level 13.

That was a level that nothing else on this entire mountain could even hope to damage.

It was only taking a beating because of the scale of the opponent, but in terms of pure sturdiness, it was a genuine freak of nature, only slightly less resilient than Cramdel’s.

And yet, even that titan was being treated like a toy by the Four Evils.

【???】

The level of the Four Evils remained a mystery.

Indeterminable.

However.

‘Is that version of it revived incompletely?’

……The realization that this was an imperfectly resurrected Four Evils made a cold shiver run down my spine.

If this was the weakened version, how terrifying would a fully restored one be?

I dismissed the thought with a shake of my head.

‘That is way outside my current pay grade.’

I don’t have a solution for this right now.

First…… I need to exit.

As I began to move, I soon spotted a familiar figure in the wreckage.

It was a beastkin with a pelt that looked exactly like the White King’s.

‘Is that the White King’s cub?’

That was my first assumption.

No other beastkin possessed such flawless white tiger fur aside from the White King himself.

Furthermore, the corpses of practitioners who had clearly died trying to defend it were strewn all around the area.

This was definitely an individual of high status.

I carefully picked the creature up.

“A Foundation Stone?”

My attention was then drawn to a stone pillar standing nearby.

It was undeniably crafted from the same substance as the one inside the shrine.

Though it looked a bit different—rougher and scarred by various blade marks—it was worth investigating.

I slowly unsheathed my blade and delivered a single strike.

Then.

Thrum!

The object I assumed to be a Foundation Stone was sliced through perfectly and crumbled into fragments.

“Hmm. I guess I was wrong.”

It seemed it wasn’t the same grade as the stone in the shrine.

I let out a small click of my tongue and continued on, soon coming across a man lying face down with a spear nearby.

‘This must be the spearman.’

I recognized him instantly.

The contours of the spear were identical to the silhouette I had fought in the pitch blackness.

After picking up the spearman as well, I started my trek down the mountainside.

“Gah!”

Ractusha coughed up another glob of dark, tainted blood.

“Curse it all.”

It appeared that taking down the Four Evils by himself was a physical impossibility.

Even after using the blessing to evolve his race, the foe was still one of the Four Evils.

‘I can’t win this alone.’

He was certain of it now.

To slaughter that monstrosity, he would need at least two others who possessed a level of power equal to his own.

He would make his report to the Black King first, and then they would strategize on how to isolate and eliminate the Four Evils later.

‘I must withdraw for now.’

Ractusha looked back toward the highest point of the mountain.

He couldn’t afford to retreat without some kind of prize.

At the very least, he needed to capture the White King’s daughter to maintain his reputation.

Ractusha scrambled back up the mountain at high speed, but his expression quickly turned to a scowl.

“……Where did she go?”

Aria had vanished.

And the spear user was gone as well.

Had they regained consciousness and slipped away in the chaos?

But his own soldiers were still guarding the perimeter at the base.

Sneaking past them shouldn’t have been that simple.

“……What is that?”

Then, his gaze landed on a ruined stone monument.

Had it been a common boulder, he would have walked right past it.

But that specific monument—he had personally carved his ‘sword mark’ into its surface earlier.

Why was it now split down the center and broken?

‘Did the Four Evils crush it?’

He immediately dismissed the idea.

If the Four Evils had been responsible, the break would have been jagged and messy, not a clean line.

Upon inspecting the severed surface of the stone, Ractusha’s face went pale.

“……A single blow. From a blade. Cut straight through.”

This was unmistakably the mark of a sword.

Done in one motion.

He himself had only been capable of etching a surface mark into that stone, yet someone else had cleaved the entire mass in a single strike.

Who could it be?

Someone who eclipsed his own prowess? Someone who had surpassed the Sword Sage?

“That’s impossible……!”

It couldn’t be real.

Ractusha’s pupils dilated with shock.

He felt far more unsettled now than he had while fighting the Four Evils.

The supreme warrior of the orcs, the one titled Swordmaster: Ractusha.

Even as a youth, his renown as the future Orc Lord had echoed across the lands.

As far as he knew, no one who held a ‘sword’ had ever bested him.

A once-in-a-generation genius?

He was far beyond that.

He was an anomaly, an unparalleled force.

The greatest swordsman to ever live, past, present, or future.

Anyone who had ever seen Ractusha’s blade work spoke of it with reverence.

Ractusha himself lived with the conviction that if the world were to name a ‘greatest swordsman,’ no one but him could hold the title.

‘A Sword God……’

……Or so he had believed until this moment.

Yet the sword mark that had split the monument burned into his mind.

Sword God.

If such a being existed, they would surely be the deity of all blades.

But for such a person to appear on Ascetic’s Mountain, cleave the stone, and disappear? It made no sense.

Perhaps it was a secret agent sent by the White King?

‘None of the White King’s followers have any real depth to their swordsmanship.’

The same went for the other powerhouses.

The Grand Earth Dragon, the Four Kings, the Palace Ghost, Medusa—none of them even used weapons.

Then who?

If they weren’t sent by the White King.

Who was it that rescued the White King’s daughter and cut through the stone in a single hit?

‘The White King’s daughter, Aria, would have the answer.’

He had to solve this riddle.

Ractusha’s sense of self-worth had been decimated.

The pride of a master who had spent his entire life perfecting his art was in tatters.

He had to track down the identity of this Sword God to mend his broken spirit.

ROOOOOAAAAR!

A tail dripping with corruption suddenly lashed out and coiled around Ractusha.

It was as if the beast refused to let its prey escape.

The lethal curse emanating from the three tails began to eat through the giant’s inherent magic resistance.

Crunch!

“……You miserable wretch!”

Ractusha pushed the Black King’s blessing to its absolute limit.

Aria felt as though she were trapped in a fever dream.

After being beaten by Ractusha, the Four Evils Baal had suddenly manifested, saturating her very being with its toxic energy.

A Four Evils, of all things.

She couldn’t fathom why one of the four ancient, world-ending beasts had chosen to appear on Ascetic’s Mountain.

But she was powerless.

That curse was a force that drained the life out of everything it touched.

For someone like Aria, who was still just a student of the practitioner’s path, it was a malice far too great to endure.

‘I was supposed to be a genius……’

But what really shattered her spirit was Ractusha.

The Swordmaster Ractusha had toyed with her as if she were a toddler.

It wasn’t just the humiliation of being outclassed in raw strength.

Ractusha had purposefully suppressed his own power to match her level, engaging her with nothing but raw technical skill.

And he had left scars on the mountain deeper than those of the Sword Sage, proving the massive gulf in their abilities.

He was a sky above the sky she knew.

Perhaps Ractusha was the one who was truly gifted.

‘But…… the stone was cut……’

And yet, she had caught a glimpse of a Sword God who stood even higher than him.

The practitioner’s stone, which only gave a reaction based on one’s sword proficiency.

That very stone had been sliced into two perfect halves with a single swing.

‘The human I spotted back in the Chaos Practitioner territory.’

The one who had defeated the spearman and released that magnificent sword aura.

She had tried to give chase, but he had disappeared over a precipice where she couldn’t follow.

That same human had suddenly materialized, saved her life, and cleaved the stone.

Cutting that stone meant he had reached a state far beyond the Sword Sage or Ractusha.

-‘The one who splits the “Practitioner’s Stone” is the “Master of the Sword.”‘

It was an old myth told on Ascetic’s Mountain.

It came from the records of the Sword Sage.

As someone who had once ruled over the practitioners of Ascetic’s Mountain, Aria had been allowed to read the secret texts of the Sword Sage.

Among those writings was the prophecy of the ‘stone-cleaver.’

-‘The most powerful “sword” is hidden within this peak, and only the “stone-cleaver” is fit to command that “vicious sword.”‘

She hadn’t understood it at first.

She wondered if there was some legendary blade entombed somewhere on the mountain.

But the Sword Sage had known the truth, hadn’t he?

The most powerful and vicious sword.

Wasn’t that monster, Four Evils Baal, the sword itself?

The Sword Sage had written that only the one capable of splitting the practitioner’s stone could ever hope to command Four Evils Baal.

Naturally, just cutting the stone wouldn’t be enough to gain control.

-‘Equipped with the armor and helm to withstand the “sword,” and with the core in their grasp, one can truly claim the title “Master of the Sword.”‘

The Master of the Sword was undoubtedly the man who was currently carrying her.

On the brink of losing consciousness once more, Aria reached into her clothing, pulled out a tome left behind by the Sword Sage, and pressed it into the man’s hands.