The game difficulty
is insane.
When starting a war, you must first cleanly resolve as many internal problems as possible. Only then can you reduce the chances of defeat caused by unexpected variables.
Even without major variables, power struggles and political maneuvering between the great lords often lead to stalemates. If the Black Cult gets involved on top of that, from a player’s perspective, it’s enough to make your head explode.
If left alone, the Black Cult interferes in ways so bizarre and unpredictable that you’d never even imagine them.
That’s why, when actually playing the original game, players on the human faction treated eliminating the Black Cult before dealing with the demon race as a textbook strategy.
‘And I also made a promise to Mirmias.’
Mirmias, the god of crystals and mirrors.
In exchange for killing Kalungod, the Black Cult’s chief god, with a human body, Glen borrowed the myth-grade artifact, the Mirror of Origin.
‘The deadline is pretty generous, but there’s no downside to taking care of it early.’
For these various reasons, Glen set the annihilation of the Black Cult as the core of his next plan.
‘Looks like I’ve gathered most of the ingredients.’
Having reached a realm exceeding 8 stars himself, Glen was unlikely to lose most fights unless it involved the Black Cult’s leader or summoned demons.
On top of that, after this incident, he had earned Luceria’s trust, meaning he could use her authority to mobilize large-scale forces.
In less than five days since arriving in Istirenne, Glen had gathered most of what he needed to wipe out the Black Cult.
Of course, that didn’t mean the knight orders would raid Black Cult parishes across the Papal State starting tomorrow morning.
Because for Luceria, who held a position of apparent neutrality, moving troops required complicated procedures.
And those procedures required the approval of Archbishop Bastian and the cardinals who supported him—people who were deeply tied to the Black Cult.
“And we don’t even know how the Black Cult will move after this incident.”
Now that Luceria’s downfall had been prevented,
even Seongyohwan, who knew the original story inside and out, couldn’t easily predict what would happen next in the Papal State.
“Of course, that’s all factored into why I said two weeks.”
Even accounting for all those situations, the Black Cult wouldn’t be able to avoid collapse.
As long as the variables didn’t go far beyond predictions, he could deal with them.
“So basically, you’ve got all the ingredients, but no kitchen to cook them in?”
Romina summarized Glen’s explanation with her own metaphor, twirling her hair around her finger.
“Well… you’re not wrong.”
Hearing that from his exclusive maid—who didn’t know the first thing about cooking—felt oddly amusing.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
“Hmmm… anyway, two weeks? So if we wait about ten more days, we won’t have to see those filthy bugs anymore, right?”
“That’s right. There’ll be remnants, but they’ll never be a major threat.”
Once the cult leader Forbinus and the cult headquarters were destroyed, Glen would finally sever his long, unpleasant connection with the Black Cult.
Romina left the mansion to inform the Saintess that Glen had awakened.
If Luceria was anything like the one Glen knew, she’d drop everything and rush over the moment she heard he was awake.
‘I’ll talk about the Black Cult then.’
Left alone in the private room, Glen got out of bed and stretched wide.
“Ugh… damn it…”
After pushing himself so hard, his whole body felt stiff and sore.
He felt worse than when he had used Tyrant’s Wrath back when he was only at the 2-star level.
Was this backlash from consciously using Holy-Demonic Power?
‘Waking up after two days is already lucky.’
Glen looked toward his chest.
The membrane that had once divided his heart into two spaces was torn and tattered.
Because of that, the holy power and demonic power, having lost their boundary, drifted around like oil and water.
“Heh…”
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Of course, separating the two forces again wouldn’t be particularly difficult.
‘But before that.’
Glen quietly closed his eyes and tried to move both holy power and demonic power at the same time.
Wooooong—
The two opposing forces stirred and began to move within his heart.
With that movement, pain similar to what he had felt back then came rushing in.
“Ah! Shit!”
Startled by a sensation like the moment right before a leg cramp, Glen immediately stopped both powers.
If he stubbornly pushed through here, they would’ve clashed again until one side was extinguished, just like last time.
‘So it still doesn’t work.’
Glen fell into thought.
So far, he had awakened and used Holy-Demonic Power only twice.
‘Once was at the mansion.’
While fighting the 7-star magic swordsman Muta, Triss had offered herself as a sacrifice.
At the time, all of Glen’s rings were deactivated due to the penalty of the Gray Ring.
Back then, he had forcibly driven his deactivated holy and demonic powers, eventually reaching Holy-Demonic Power.
‘And this time, the situation and process were similar.’
Even though he had prepared for possible variables, the system had thrown something beyond that at him, creating a dilemma.
Faced with that situation, Glen confronted the trial with a mindset close to sheer stubbornness.
And in the end, he used Holy-Demonic Power.
“……”
Different, yet similar situations.
Soon, Glen organized several hypotheses about Holy-Demonic Power on paper.
『First.』
『Holy-Demonic Power raises the user’s rank by one to two levels.』
When he defeated Muta, Glen’s true strength was a fully stabilized 6-star level.
At that time, after drinking Penelope’s Berserker’s Blood potion, Muta had reached a realm close to 8 stars, yet Glen overwhelmed him.
This time, even though the demon Rachero was also at 8 stars and injured, he was close to 9 stars—and Glen cut him down instantly.
Holy-Demonic Power seemed to enhance the user’s body, just like other powers.
‘But the level of enhancement is on a completely different scale from holy power or demonic power.’
Among countless forces—rune mana, spiritual power, elemental power—holy power and demonic power were considered top-tier.
Holy-Demonic Power, being the fusion of those two, was on an entirely different level.
‘If I can properly control it, I could do what Mors did in the original story.’
Mors, the god of harmony and fusion.
The final boss of Gray Eden, and the only character in the original story to awaken Holy-Demonic Power.
The Holy-Demonic Power he displayed was nothing short of absolute.
That overwhelming power, which easily crushed even the strongest player-formed party, represented enormous potential for Glen.
‘Of course, figuring out how comes first.’
Still, thanks to this incident, Glen could roughly predict a pattern.
『Second.』
『Holy-Demonic Power is heavily influenced by the user’s will or emotions.』
The common point between the two situations was that Glen’s mind had been pushed to the extreme.
And at that extreme moment, when he steeled his resolve, he awakened Holy-Demonic Power, even if only briefly.
‘That’s probably why it doesn’t work normally.’
After first using Holy-Demonic Power, Glen had tried various experiments.
Like just now—using holy and demonic power simultaneously after the dividing membrane was torn.
But in the end, those attempts failed because he lacked the same level of resolve.
“Hmmm…”
It was complicated.
He could roughly guess the mechanism, but that didn’t mean it would always work. He couldn’t just tear the membrane every time he fought.
In the end, Glen shelved his thoughts on Holy-Demonic Power, concluding that while he had received help, it still wasn’t truly his yet.
“When the time comes, I’ll probably use it again. Or whatever…”
It felt bitter.
To shake off that bitterness, Glen checked the system messages.
