Chaos, it is a disorder.
Light and darkness are attributes closest to order.
Thus, chaos is fundamentally opposed to them.
That’s why the invincible Divine Shield could be pierced.
Only Illeon, the Sword of Chaos that holds pure disorder, could do such a thing.
The Hero, cut deep across the waist by the sword of chaos, staggers backward.
Thanks to the Goddess’s blessing, most wounds should be able to heal themselves.
“Isn’t it hard to endure?”
But a wound inflicted by disorder is different.
“Sst, sstsst!”
Like paint slowly spreading through water, the wound festered and widened.
As a Hero protected by the power of order, he was being eroded even faster by the energy of disorder.
“Aaaaargh—”
In the end, he could not hold back and screamed.
It was a cry of pain so intense it seemed to come from hell itself, entirely unbefitting of a Hero’s dignity.
And then, “Thud.”
He dropped to his knees.
No, as if welcoming a supreme being, he collapsed flat against the floor.
“Please, please spare my life.”
A single strike.
It was nothing more than a single blow, but he realized.
That his opponent was a being he could not possibly contend with.
That chaos was a power he, who followed the light, could never face and that the only way to escape was surrender.
“Hah—”
Watching this scene, Manuvia let out a sigh.
“A Hero, begging for his life…….”
No doubt, he had grasped something of the masked Hero’s true nature but he surely hadn’t expected it to be so vile.
It was only natural.
Just moments ago, the Hero had, albeit temporarily, become a being who could wield transcendental power.
Though that power came at the cost of his comrades’ sacrifice, it was indeed worthy of being called the Hero, the Agent of Light.
But now, after a single blow, he realized defeat and was begging for his life.
To Manuvia, who had always served the Hero, it must have been quite a shock.
“Did you not know? This is the Hero’s true nature. Weak and despicable—a clown born for the stage, nothing more.”
What are the requirements for being chosen as a Hero?
Some say—
Justice.
Love.
Courage.
Compassion.
To someone like me who knows the truth, it’s laughable.
They are born actors.
Actors rigorously trained by the Goddess of Light to play out dramatic scenes that make others serve them.
But that act can’t last without the protection of the gods.
Without guaranteed safety, it’s no place for an actor to perform with all their might.
“Please, please spare me. I only acted as the Goddess told me to.” With tears and snot streaming down his face, he clings to my trousers.
The contrast is so stark, it’s hard to believe this is the same Hero from moments before.
A thoroughly trained actor, indeed.
“Do you want to live?” My voice drips with the subtle temptation of a devil.
“Yes, yes!”
He is desperate.
Even now when Chaos is devouring him.
What was just a cut before is now spreading, threatening to swallow him whole.
The light that had always protected him could no longer shield him.
“It’s simple. Disorder devours order. And what surrounds you is the closest thing to order—light. All you have to do is abandon that light.”
The chaos within me is incomplete.
It should be the primordial beast that devours everything, but in its current, incomplete state, it reacts violently to order.
Therefore, if he abandons the energy of light, he could escape the chaos now threatening to devour him.
“Th-that….”
He is flustered.
Naturally, he is the one chosen by the Goddess of Light.
If he abandons the light, who knows what kind of retribution awaits him later?
“The choice is yours. I only showed you the way to survive.”
A brief silence.
And I gaze indifferently at his reaction.
Truthfully, I could have killed him right now but I didn’t.
I drove him to the edge, into a corner, and observed his response.
Not because I enjoy others’ suffering, but—
In the past, I killed the Hero and it didn’t take long for me to realize what a grave mistake that was.
‘I didn’t know the surest way to annihilate divinity.’
A god’s rank and power are drawn from the faith and belief of their creations.
So what about the opposite?
It’s obvious—the fewer the believers, the weaker the god becomes.
After killing the Hero on the Gritia Continent, the first thing I did was erase the gods of light and darkness.
To do that, I wiped out their believers, apostles, and even erased their histories.
It took hundreds of years to remove them from the continent’s history.
At last, the era of the gods ended, and the continent became entirely ruled by humans.
But I realized something belatedly.
There was a far easier, deadlier way to annihilate divinity.
But by then, the opportunity had already passed.
That method was—
‘The Hero. Using the one who is the closest agent of the Goddess of Light.’
I, and the people of the Republic of Korea, denied the Goddess of Light.
That sent a fairly powerful negative energy, but all it did was slightly reduce her strength and influence.
Even millions of people only made a small difference but the apostasy of the Hero is different.
If the loyal agent of light were to deny the light, the impact would be far greater than the negative energy of hundreds, no, millions of creations.
That’s why I endured this tedious process and kept him alive.
For the aftermath caused by the Hero personally chosen by the Goddess turning against her but it isn’t an easy choice for him.
As the Agent of Light, he knows all too well the pettiness of the Goddess.
Knowing the disaster his betrayal would bring, he has no choice but to hesitate.
To help him make his decision—
“…The light will soon disappear.” I added.
“That’s absurd!”
Does he still refuse to believe it, even now?
He recoils in horror, denying the truth.
“As the Agent of Light, you should know. There was a time in the past when the light vanished.”
He must know that my existence has been erased from history.
But he cannot erase the history itself, the fact that the light once vanished.
“How do you know that…?!”
The history of the disappearance of light and darkness.
It must be a secret history even the agents don’t know well.
“Of course I do. Because I’m the one who made light, darkness—no, divinity—disappear.”
In that instant.
“Wh-what?!”
“Hup!”
Cries of shock burst out at the same time.
Not just the Hero, but even Manuvia, who had been listening intently, was unable to hide his astonishment.
It seemed both of them knew about the era when light and darkness vanished.
“You mean you were the one who triggered the chaos and Twilight of the Gods?”
Twilight of the Gods.
Originally, it referred to the era when the gods, once mighty on the continent, faded away.
No one knew the truth behind it.
But over long years and history, that truth was finally revealed.
“It’ll be the same this time. History repeats itself, and the gods who are trying to extend their influence to Earth—those arrogant and lofty ones—will once again walk the road to ruin.”
They sought to revive the endless cycle of light and darkness, using Heroes and Demon Kings, humans and demons as their pawns.
But it will not happen.
If they interfere, a tragedy like the one on the Gritia Continent will repeat.
I have no intention of letting Earth become their playground and I will keep carrying out the most effective way to stop them.
It begins with the apostasy of the Hero, one of the Agents of Light.
“I’ve already spent enough time. Make your choice now. Will you die, or will you betray the light that chose you and choose life?”
His role was important, so I gave him enough time.
But no more.
No matter how crucial it was to deal a blow to the Goddess of Light, I could invest no more time.
His value to me was only worth a few minutes.
“That’s….”
But he still hesitates.
So—
“Shhhk”
I raise Illeon once more.
“Sstsstsst!”
The gray aura menacingly scorches the surroundings.
As the Hero trembles, staring at the terrifying aura that devours order—
“I… I am no longer the Hero.” At last, he utters the answer I want.
At that moment.
“Krrrrumble.”
It was a cloudless, clear day.
Yet, lightning crashed from a dry sky.
A god’s emotion sometimes brings disaster.
This was clearly the wrath of the Goddess.
“I renounce being the Hero!”
Despite the warning, the Hero decides to give up his title—as the Agent of Light but it doesn’t end there.
“And….”
He falters.
“Krrrumboom!”
The Goddess’s fury continues to rumble overhead.
It may sound like thunder to me, but to the Hero, her agent, it must be something else.
Warning.
Rage.
Curse.
The thunder was laced with the will of the Goddess.
The Hero was reading it.
A god’s words are stronger than any command or will.
Unable to bear the weight of her words, he trembled.
If it were not an extraordinary circumstance, he would never have betrayed or denied the Goddess.
But he is nothing but a clown.
He was not, as people believed, a symbol of courage, justice, or love.
“….I deny the light!”
At last, the words spill from his lips.
He denies the light.
No matter how much of a performance it may seem, for the Agent of Light, the leader of countless followers of the Goddess, to deny the light himself—
And at that moment.
– Flash!
The warning thunder became a bolt of lightning.
“Hwaaaaaa—”
A blinding radiance, like a flashbang exploding, filled the entire arena—no, for a moment, the entire Earth.
‘This…?’
I didn’t even expect this change.
No wonder.
Gods cannot recklessly intervene in the human world.
On the Gritia Continent, where their influence was strong and divinity swelled, perhaps—but Earth does not fall within that realm.
To interfere with causality here, even a god must pay a heavy price.
For instance, sacrificing all the divinity they have painstakingly accumulated.
But the God of Light began to interfere as soon as the Hero turned traitor.
Not just a minor miracle or supernatural feat, but a light that affected everyone on the planet.
But it only lasted for a very brief moment.
I opened my eyes and saw it.
“…They must be quite desperate.”
A quiet murmur.
It was because I saw the being in front of me.
Where the Hero Velator—the fledgling Hero who should have led this generation—ought to have stood, there was now an entirely different being.
No, the shell was still Velator from just before.
But inside—
– Flash!
Golden eyes burning like the sun, a radiant crown blazing with light.
“Flutter!”
Wings of light unfurled—it was no longer Velator, the Hero of this generation.
“In the name of the Light, I shall judge you.”
I don’t know which generation’s Hero this is.
But under the Goddess of Light’s direct interference, a former Hero—one who once slew the Demon King—has descended upon this world, possessing Velator’s body.