Trait Hoarder – Chapter 278

Realized Prophecy – Part 3

The Holy Knight—Thousand-Faced Demon—of course, played dumb.

“What are you talking about?”

Unwavering eyes.

Only confusion reflected in his gaze.

Not even a twitch in his expression.

Even the Grand Archbishop looked at me like I might be mistaken.

But involuntary reactions were something he couldn’t control.

With the Eye of God, I had seen it—his heartbeat had surged once.

He must’ve suppressed it with inner force, since it quickly returned to normal.

Paaat!

I activated the trait without hesitation.

[Purification]

Once wasn’t enough. Then twice.

Still not enough—so I evolved it.

[ [Reset] ]

A wave of pure light washed over the knight.

Reset, evolved to erase not just debuffs but also buffs.

His handsome face twitched grotesquely.

Like a monster sculpted from crushed clay, his frame began to twist and collapse.

“H-He’s…!”

“What the hell is that!”

“A doppelgänger! Is it a doppelgänger?!”

The other knights backed away en masse.

“Ghh…”

Thousand-Faced Demon clawed at his face, but it was already too late.

If I were just another Level 7, maybe he could’ve held it.

But I’m Level 8.

Our mana capacity is worlds apart. And I’d used external mana to fuel the Reset.

There was no stopping the reversion.

The handsome young Latin knight was gone.

In his place stood a sinister-looking middle-aged East Asian man.

“Wangppadan!”

He tried to flee in a flash.

His body slithered like a ghost.

Phasing through the bars like they were nothing.

Like hell you are.

Even if he tried to use Ghost Step to distract the eye—it was pointless.

I’d already learned it all in the Heavenly Demon Cult.

Ghost Step. Ghost Palm. Every technique.

Puff!

I swung hard into the empty space.

A crack like a drum exploded, followed by a scream.

“Gaaahhh!”

The shadow vanished.

In its place, Thousand-Faced Demon appeared, clutching his gut and rolling on the ground.

This wasn’t a minor hit.

With close-combat enhancements, plus mana infusion—his organs would’ve exploded.

In martial arts terms, this was a combination of Internal Destruction and Penetrating Force.

And with Subjugation layered on top as part of my Combat trait, even a hardcore demon cultist like him couldn’t help but writhe.

Thud.

I stomped on his chest.

“Ghuuk! Kahhak!”

Thousand-Faced Demon coughed up blood.

Oh? Swallowed poison already?

He had a magic poison capsule hidden in his molar.

But I wasn’t going to let him die in front of me.

“Don’t die.”

I meant it.

I switched to a Sacred Knight loadout.

[Healing Hands] activated through my foot, and instead of the mana-hungry Reset, I cast [Purification] twice in a row.

Thousand-Faced Demon’s condition rapidly improved.

Ruptured organs restored. Poison neutralized. All other injuries healed cleanly.

“K-Kill me.”

He growled through clenched teeth.

Are you insane?

I’m not letting you die here.

I’ll kill you later—after I find out where Mahu is.

I gave a subtle signal, and the Holy Knights rushed in.

“You filthy assassin!”

“Unbeliever! May you burn in eternal hellfire!”

“How dare you defile Lord Poca’s sacred body!”

Their faces twisted with hatred, like they wanted to rip him apart right now.

Thousand-Faced Demon had divine nails driven into his dantian, and mana-sealing restraints clamped on his wrists, ankles, neck, waist, and head.

Yet he looked completely unbothered.

Even while being forced to kneel before me and the Grand Archbishop, he laughed loudly.

“Fools! It’s already too late! Your precious god-child is poisoned by the Abyss! A poison that can kill gods, demons, outer gods—any divine being! The funeral bells will toll soon! Once your god dies, your divine power goes with it! Let’s see what happens then! The Heavenly Demon will return and slaughter every last one of you!”

“That bastard!”

Crack!

“Grand Archbishop, please! Let me have him! I’ll peel him alive from head to toe and find out what wicked purpose led to this vile act!”

The Holy Knights roared in fury.

They looked ready to tear him limb from limb.

But Thousand-Faced Demon only mocked them more.

Even as one knight shattered his kneecap with a kick, he didn’t stop.

“Ha! That’s it? Is that all the great Poca’s Holy Knights can do? Bah! Even the brats in our cult laugh through worse than this! You understand me, punks?!”

“Lord Sword Star…”

The Grand Archbishop turned to me, looking troubled.

In truth, Poca Cult could break Thousand-Faced Demon.

Torture resistance training? Brutal conditioning that made hell look like a holiday?

Even that crumbles before magical, drug-fueled brainwashing.

The problem was time and resources.

And Poca couldn’t afford to wait that long.

I squatted in front of Thousand-Faced Demon.

“Khak, ptuh!”

He spat phlegm at me.

I deflected it easily with a mana barrier.

Wham!

I threw a light punch, caving in his jaw and cheekbone.

Covered in blood, Thousand-Faced Demon still smiled.

“Heh… your punch has some sting. Where’d you learn Ghost Step and Ghost Palm?”

“In the Heavenly Demon Cult.”

“What kinda bullshit is that?”

“It’s true. I visited the Heavenly Demon Cult right before coming here. Haven’t heard?”

“You think just because you dropped by, the whole world has to know?”

“At the very least, Cult members should. The Grand Assembly was convened.”

“Pfft. I know that much. So what—”

“Then you must know the agenda of the Assembly too.”

“The agenda?”

“That’s right.”

I stared at him intently.

Just what kind of scum are you?

One of those who personally swore loyalty to Mahu?

Or was he just a typical cultist who worshipped the Heavenly Demon, and thus gave absolute obedience to Mahu as the Demon’s disciple?

In Thousand-Faced Demon’s eyes, reflected my own gaze—

Shining with a dangerous glint.

He quickly turned his head away.

Must’ve thought I was using some kind of black art or Mystic Eye.

“I don’t know. Why should I?”

“Of course you should. The agenda of this Assembly is the purge of traitors.”

“Traitor purge? What bastard would dare betray the True Cult!”

Thousand-Faced Demon exploded with rage, despite being the traitor himself.

Maybe this would go more smoothly than expected.

I raised a finger and pointed at him, holding on to a sliver of hope.

He looked at me, puzzled.

“What do you mean?”

“You.”

“What about me?”

“You’re the traitor. Thousand-Faced Demon.”

“What kind of nonsense is this!”

Seeing is believing.

I activated the Dragon Sovereign’s Crown.

The internal device flickered, then projected a hologram.

Footage of my visit to the Heavenly Demon Cult.

Specifically, the scene of me entering the Heavenly Demon’s Cave and confirming the corpse.

‘It’s classified, but…’

The truth will come out soon enough.

If I request cooperation from the Grand Archbishop, he’ll stay quiet for a while.

“T-This is—!”

Thousand-Faced Demon’s eyes flew wide open.

His bloodshot gaze locked onto the image of the Heavenly Demon’s corpse in the hologram.

“No. No! This is a lie! A lie, you bastard! You think you can fool me with this low-quality, garbage-level forgery?! You think I, of all people, would fall for such crap?!”

I kept my eyes on him.

Which part of this was real?

Had Thousand-Faced Demon just been used by Mahu?

Or…

Was he an active collaborator himself?

And then I saw it—

His mana circuit surged violently.

Especially the [Smoke] trait, shimmering slick and greasy like oil.

A horrifying truth was shedding its disguise and revealing its true form.

I growled like a beast and barked at him.

“You were in on it. You filthy traitor.”

“I wasn’t!”

“You sure weren’t. You betrayed the Heavenly Demon and sided with the Old Father? Why? So you could rub your butt in the Divine Nation after you die?”

“Bullshit! It was to bring about a new world! How could a sparrow understand the will of the great roc?! To survive the coming apocalypse, the True Cult needed Lady Heavenly Demon to carry on its legacy! That poser Divine Army General could never do it!”

Lady Heavenly Demon?

Not just Mahu—but Lady Heavenly Demon?

People are petty about names in general, but the Demon Cult is obsessed.

The title “Heavenly Demon” is reserved solely for the inheritor of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

Even the Divine Army General, out of humility, never called himself “Heavenly Demon General”—just “Divine Army General.”

I scoffed and played dumb.

“Lady Heavenly Demon, huh? The Heavenly Demon sure had a good eye. In the end, he only passed the Divine Art to the Divine Army General. Mahu was just a spare—and now you’re trying to promote her like some overhyped idol. What a joke. Mahu’s nothing but a pompous wannabe, calling herself Lady Heavenly Demon.”

“What did you say?!”

No one gets more pissed off than someone whose idol is insulted.

Thousand-Faced Demon exploded.

“How dare scum like you insult Lady Heavenly Demon!”

“What, I can’t badmouth the woman who yanked out her own master’s heart?”

“You little shit! I’ll kill you!”

And what exactly are you going to do?

I almost said it—

But then stopped myself.

Thousand-Faced Demon’s mana should’ve been completely sealed.

And yet… something strange was rising from his spinal cord.

Click. Clack.

The mana restraints popped open on their own.

The divine nail in his dantian pushed itself out.

The Holy Knights barely had time to react—he moved faster.

He sprang to his feet, screaming:

“Die!”

With it came a dark glow.

I’d seen it many times before.

In Gwangju. In the Heavenly Demon Cult. When fighting the Divine Army General.

‘What’s next, the Archangel of the Old Father using the Divine Art? The Demon Duke too?’

This is getting ridiculous.

Still, complaints can wait. Time to handle what’s in front of me.

I used a World Trait to replicate the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

As black light crackled in both my hands, Thousand-Faced Demon’s eyes shook.

“H-How—?!”

“I told you. I stopped by the Heavenly Demon Cult.”

Kwaaang!

No need for further talk.

A direct, clean punch shattered Thousand-Faced Demon’s Ghost Palm Technique.

I forced him to his knees again and inspected him closely.

Especially his spine, where the Divine Art had emerged.

I let out a sigh.

“Hah… unbelievable.”

Thousand-Faced Demon wasn’t just an assassin.

He was a container for the Heavenly Demon Divine Art itself.

He had hidden the poison and curse of the Divine Art within his own body—and used it on Poca.

No wonder it wasn’t detected until now.

The synergy between his transformation trait set and the Divine Art had masked everything.

“Hah… is this the poison that afflicted Lord Poca?”

“Yes. Looks like he was hiding it in his spinal cord.”

“No wonder…”

“Ghuuk… khak…”

Maybe because I pulled all of the Divine Art out of him.

Thousand-Faced Demon was rapidly deteriorating.

Delayed aging kicked in, and his organs began to fail all at once.

The Grand Archbishop tried healing him directly—but it was useless.

Choking on phlegm, Thousand-Faced Demon shouted:

“Heavenly Demon’s Rule… All Demons Submit…!”

With those final words, his head slumped.

I narrowed my eyes, staring down at his lifeless form.

If he was like this, then it’s certain—Mahu must’ve inherited the Heavenly Demon Divine Art as well.

How?

By offering the Heavenly Demon’s heart and its remnants to the Old Father—and receiving a portion in return.

“Tch.”

What’s with the whole ‘Heavenly Demon’s Rule’ nonsense after betraying your master?

As I watched his heart stop, I claimed a trait.

[Smoke]

I’ll need it to completely heal Poca.

No matter how many cursecasters I kill, [Heaven Defiance] alone isn’t enough.

I needed one more trait.

The one that required [Smoke] as a material.

“Is it over?”

“No. The real caster’s still out there.”

Thousand-Faced Demon was merely a vessel—a bottle of poison, a carrier of the curse.

In the end, I have to kill Mahu.

Which means I have to find her.

But how?

[Sixth Sense] == [[Hyper Sensory Perception]] == [Sixth Sense]

I equipped the evolved trait.

Closed my eyes and entered meditation.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art still lingered in my hands.

I projected all of my concentration.

My transcendent mental power, fitting for an 8th-level being.

The world sank into monochrome.

A hazy black-and-white vision opened before me.

Time and space twisted, and through the distortion, a faint presence emerged.

I erased them one by one.

Presence like dots on a foggy map.

Even the Grand Archbishop blazing beside me like a volcano, the lava-hued Poca flickering with instability, the anxious priests and Holy Knights—they all vanished from my mind.

Only one thing remained.

A black star, gleaming slick and dark in my hands.

And then—I saw it.

A similar frequency.

Like a twin, yet stronger. Deeper. Denser.

A star shining with regal radiance, like a throne descending from the heavens.

It wasn’t far.

“There you are!”

I bolted.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art scattered, and [Hyper Sensory Perception] deactivated—but I still had the Eye of God and Sixth Sense.

I pierced through the vast palace-like Temple Palace in real time.

No—through it would be more accurate.

[Lightning Step] == [[Lightning Flash]] == [Lightning Step]

You could call it a lightning sprint.

I stacked it twice, evolved it, and reached a speed on a whole different level.

It ignored all physical obstacles and leapt across space itself.

And it was instant—like a blink of light.

The distance covered wasn’t small either.

Almost a full kilometer, crossed in one bound.

“Lord Sword Star! Where are you going?!”

“Lord Sword Star!”

“Lord Sword Hea—!”

Their shouts echoed behind me, reaching my ears a moment too late.

I calmly looked around.

I had punched through walls, floors, and ceilings—and arrived in the Temple Palace’s medical annex.

Patients in beds and doctors mid-rounds stared at me in stunned silence.

“Quem é você?”

The lead doctor asked, looking confused.

Portuguese. I couldn’t understand.

I ignored the doctors and fixed my eyes on a nurse standing in the back.

A male nurse over 190 centimeters tall.

Broad shoulders but a slim, graceful build—perfect model proportions.

“Let’s move somewhere else.”

I said in English, staring straight at him.

“No need to get all the patients killed, right?”

The male nurse slowly raised his head.

A typical Latin face.

But his eyes were different.

They gleamed with a blade-like sharpness.

“How’d you know?”

Husky—but unmistakably a woman’s voice.

And then, the mana flared.

A cloud of power rose.

Saturated with the distinct scent of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

I placed my hand on the Black Tiger Sword.

“There are ways.”

I spoke as I looked at the woman hidden beneath that meticulously engineered magical mask.

“Mahu.”

–TL Notes–
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