The Key

Yet, instead of returning home to be gently embraced by Jinah and then berated by Jinwoo, I'm welcomed to an empty house. Looking into my Soldiers of Light which hung over Jinwoo and Jinah, I found them inside a hospital.

Rushing off, I'm welcomed by the front desk as they show me to Jinwoo. Supposedly, he had gone on a dungeon raid which contained a double dungeon, one very much like the one that we both experienced when we 'died'.

Members of the Hunters Guild had gone to help him clear the double dungeon, but they instead only seemed to get in the way, proven by the deaths of multiple Guild members. And once Jinwoo had cleared the dungeon, he had fallen over, entering a comatose state from over exhaustion. He was set to wake tomorrow or the day after, but unfortunately for him, I would be fighting my own dungeon.

As I hovered over the sleeping Jinwoo, I could feel a foreign power had entered his body, positioning itself directly opposite of where his heart sat. The power didn't necessarily feel menacing, but instead felt like an addition to Jinwoo's growing powers, a major update perse. And unluckily for me, since Jinah and her mother would be staying by Jinwoo's side, meaning they were unable to see me off when I head to where the 'Key' was trying to take me.

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⸢Time Remaining: 0 Days 0 Hours 0 Minutes 7 Seconds

The location where you can utilize the key is disclosed⸥

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Almost like my head was hit with a sledgehammer, a location popped inside of my head. Not wasting a single moment, I dash off into the direction where it felt like I was being guided.

Arriving at said location, I find myself amid a horde of people, completely ignoring the Gate, which stood atop an apartment complex, shimmering with a pale gold and white light, radiating an immense power far greater than the one I felt standing in front of the S-Rank Gate. Though, this gate was by no means hidden, and could be clearly seen, clearly felt, but the people on the ground didn't even spare a single glance.

Leaping to the top of the building, a notification popped up in front of the gate.

⸢The Gate is currently locked and hidden. Please use the Key. ⸥

Inserting the key and turning, a force wrapped itself around me and pulled me inside. Passing through the Gate, I want to stumble forward on whatever ground welcomes me, but I instead find myself falling forward in an endless rotation.

Finally managing to stabilize myself, I find my surroundings strikingly like something I've felt before.

"Welcome." Suddenly, GOD stood in front of me, clearly having not been there before. "It's so nice to see you again."

Creating a table and chair, GOD sat down and begin to sip on tea.

"Please… sit down."

Creating another chair with a flick of his hand, I start to try and swim forward, having no idea how to move inside this void.

Seeing my struggle, GOD flicks his hand again, causing the entire scenery to change.

"I suppose you're not yet competent enough," I fall to the ground and groan, "Though it was funny to watch you swim in the air."

Standing up, I sit myself at GOD's table.

"So, may I ask why I'm here?"

Taking a long sip of his infinite tea, GOD gave me a blank look. "To take your final trial… What other reason would I have to summon you?"

"Well… I can understand that." I fidget, "I just want to know why I'm seeing you."

Holding his teacup frozen in place as he lifted it to his chin, he answers, "The Architect wasn't the one to give you this system… I was… So, why wouldn't I be the one to test you."

Instantly my body froze in fear. This was a being of unimaginable strength that could create and morph anything around him. If I were to face him, I would undoubtedly die.

"Oh, don't worry about that…" GOD waves his hand, "You'll be fighting a weaker copy of myself that's just a little bit above you in power."

Snapping his fingers, an exact replica of GOD appears beside him, and I could physically feel that he was a dwarf compared to his creator.

"For your final trial, to get bonus rewards alongside getting your wives back… you must beat my clone."

While he said this, he had created a plate of steak and potatoes, a napkin already tucked into his collar. Cutting open his steak, GOD stopped his movements and stared at me.

"You are a rather interesting to watch, I must say. If I had to rate you, you'd be a 3/5… average. Though, then again, you are better than some of the sh*t that I watch." GOD points at me with his knife, "So, how about for this trial, we add a few extra stakes... if you catch my drift."

I gulp nervously, knowing whatever he said I would not like to hear.

"I obviously can't kill you off since you are my form of enjoyment. To raise the stakes, if you lose your battle against my clone by having your head cut off, I'll both rob you of your potential powers and your wives."

My blood freezes.

"A-And what do you mean by that…" I stutter.

"Despair does many things to a man. And I want to see what it does to you." He sips a glass of wine, "As I just said, if you lose… I'll kill your wives who've been stuck in this void."

Planting my hands on my thighs to stop them from shaking, my fingers dig into my flesh, though I don't even feel it from the anger. Staring murderously at GOD for using my wives as nothing more than chips to add onto his entertainment, he lets out a sinical chuckle.

"This is what I want to see!" He slams his hands on the table, causing the world around us to shatter.

His smile continued to widen.

"Anger! The most basic of human emotions! Yet the absolute most fun one to watch! Slaughter my clone! Rip him limb from limb! Show me something I want to see!"

Distancing himself from me in an instant, a coliseum forms around me, creating a VIP room where our one and only spectator sat.

"Win and things get just a little bit better for you… Lose, and you lose it all." He shouted, bursting out in maniacal laughs.

Turning my vision of red towards my opponent, the emotionless clone of GOD stood there like a puppet without strings. Like he'd felt my gaze though, the clone turned animated, a sword being materialized out of thin air. Swiping my leg across the now sand ground, I plant my hand by my side and do the same.

Knowing this enemy was of far greater threat than Muzan had ever been, I activate my Demon Slayer Mark, Transparent World, and change myself to become a Demon. Using my blood demon art, the muscles in my body strain to be set free.

"Start."

Dashing forward at a speed fast that blasted away any sand within six feet of me, I use 'Ice Breathing First Form: Frost Fang'.

Swiping my blade up towards the neck of the GOD clone, it inches ever closer before being suddenly blocked by a shield that extended upwards from the clone's free arm.

As the sword grated across the shield, the force of the blow blew behind the clone, leaving a firm indent in the wall directly below where GOD sat.

Pushing away my katana my arm askew, the clone lightly stabbed forward, hundreds of small knives extending off the tip to puncture me. Whipping around my body in tune with my sword, I use 'Blizzard' shattering the knives my blades touched and knocking his sword towards him.

Cancelling the technique on the first rotation, I stab my blade forward, using 'Piasuaisu'.

Yet the point of my katana was met with the flat of a Greatsword, which didn't break after being wrapped around by ice. Shoving my sword upwards, the clone frees his other and grips the Greatsword like it's meant to be held.

Bringing his sword down, the irreplicable feeling of death loomed over me.

Using 'Thunderclap and Flash' as nothing more than a means to dash away from the fall of the clone's sword, the moment the blade of the Greatsword meets with the ground, the arena is seemingly cut in two, the clones' legs standing atop the two sides which led to the chasm.

Stamping his foot into the ground, the clone leaped into the air, falling in an arc towards where I stood when I'd run away. Having changed his weapon to a scythe, the clone rapidly spun as he grew closer, creating a seemingly endless number of slashes that I could find no way through.

Feeling my breathing sputter as I change breathing arts, the clones blade finds its way through my neck. But I quickly fade away, having used 'Fake Rainbow'. Racing to the other side of the arena, I change my race into an Ice Elf, summoning my endless armada of Ice Weapons.

Letting them rain down onto the clone, I strain my attention towards growing a special attack. On the other hand, the clone, which was marching through the storm, made me increasingly worried as he begun to pick up his pace the more time he spent inside.

Feeling as if I had dumped enough resources into the weapon, I change myself once more back into a Demon and engage the clone once more. Jumping up and behind the clone who was still defending against the last ice I had sent out, I use 'Sun Breathing Thirteenth Form'.

Blocking my spin with a staff, the clone then drops his hand to the ground and swipes up, a simple broadsword now being held in his hand. Once again disappearing in my own afterimage, the clone creates a shield once more to defend against my strike, but the attack suddenly weaves around his impenetrable defense and creates a gash in his skin in which the clone starts to bleed profusely.

Morphing his weapon into a San Setsu Kon (three-piece nunchakus) the clone begins to wail on me with it. Blocking each of his strikes with a flaming sun dragon, I once again able to land a hit on the clone and then backflip instantly as an array of swords suddenly shoot out from his abdomen.

Being blocked off against by two Giant shields, I try and break through, but it was almost like striking a wall with a stick, having little to no effect. Having finished my technique, the clone went to go charge forward with his shields, but by then, the ice I'd prepared finally came into view.

Like a meteor, a giant clod of ice falls from the sky at an unprecedently quick rate.

Raising both shields up to the sky, I dash towards the clone. Yet, before I can decide on which technique to use, shield sprout out from all around its body. Seeing that he trapped himself, a light smile marks my face as I use 'Frozen Tomb'.

Jumping from his array of shields as the ice pillars shot from the ground, I dive from beneath the clone, my ice meteor coming from above. Slicing in a crescent moon manner, the clone pushes himself higher outside the range of my katana somehow.

Having used 'Frostbite' though, the extended tip of my blade cuts through both his legs. And just in time, the ice meteor slams against his shield. Now, I land on the ground after using 'Frostbite', I'm given less than a moment to use 'God Speed' to sprint to the edges of the ring where the meteor wouldn't hit.

Sending up the entire arena in smoke, cracks shoot up the walls and everything shakes violently.

Transforming myself back into an Ice Elf, I manipulate the ice of the meteor and transform it into a drill. Spinning it around, I send it straight back to the spot where I believed the clone sat, hoping that it'd kill him. Still, even after drilling for a few seconds, no words of the match being completed exited from the mouth of GOD.

Wondering where the clone had disappeared to, my answer came when a hand burst from the ground and pulled me down. Hurriedly transforming myself into a Demon, the clone pulls himself upwards until he's towering over me.

Taking his free hand, the clone quickly grips my neck and opens his mouth, which had been clamped shut the entire match. From in the depth of his mouth, the feeling of extreme heat and a red liquid started to emerge.

Still having my arms free, I start to punch relentlessly at both his head and wounds, yet much like in my experience with Muzan, the clone didn't flinch and even seemed to grow pleased at my struggle. But unlike before, I didn't have someone to save me from this fate. It was all up to me.

As the faces of my wives rush through my head and the red liquid in the clone's throat came ever closer to being released, it suddenly struck me.

Changing my race once more, I felt as my hair lengthened, my skin turn more durable, and an armor of silver, black, and light blue start to coat my body. Now instead of trying to escape, I put my hands inside the clones smoldering mouth.

Gripping the top and bottom of his jaw, I try and pull them apart. The sounds of cracking and gagging greeted my ears, but the clone had yet to give up on trying to melt me.

Having had enough of it, I feel myself start to grow, the grip of the clone becoming insignificant. It was a bizarre, radical feeling as the armor which donned me seemed to stretch out and become absorbed in my skin. My hair becoming horns on my head, my teeth sharpening, and my face broadening.

There's one thing I though when it all ended, 'I did not like that.'

Looking down at the clone, it looked like an ant, nothing but a miserable insect. Feeling as something akin to bile built up in my throat, I breath out onto the clone, breathing a fountain of icy wind down onto the clone.

The clone, who was an instant away from burning my flesh, now found that the liquid inside of his throat had cooled and prevented him from breathing.Turning my hulking body around abruptly, I slam my tail into the clone and quickly revert into my humanoid form, not wanting to stay as something like that.

Throwing my katana back into inventory, I swap it out for my axe and flail and use 'Gaia's Glacier'.

The clone, whom was still planted in the wall, couldn't even properly hold the weapon that he summoned, and the flail bypassed his weapon and planted itself directly in its chest. Gripping the flail with both its hands, the clone tried restlessly to remove it, but his movements slowed until his hands drooped down by his sides. And so there he lay with his head laying lifelessly against his chest, posted up against the wall.

A flurry of clapping welcomed the rather silent stage and I stare up at GOD.

"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Congratulations of beating GOD!" He continues to clap with the force of a thousand people, "The ending was rather good. Especially with the preplanning and everything."

GOD then once again made the entire world I stood on disappear, replacing it with the quaint tea place.

"Fighting for something or someone you love truly does make you more powerful." He sips his tea, "And, as per our deal, I shall both give you a boon and your wives. A fine trade off if I do say so myself."

Still finding myself irritated with GOD, he flicks his hand.

"Well, here you go."

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⸢ [Skill: Light's Binding has upgraded to its final form, Heavenly Binding]

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[Title: Holy Hunter]

The Conditions have been met.

You have been acknowledged by GOD once more and shall receive one more of his blessings.

Effect:

- "White Heart": Mana +100,000⸥

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"Your wives will be arriving shortly after you arrive back in the world of 'Solo Leveling' and they'll come from an A-Rank Gate…" GOD leans back in his chair, "Also, for future reference, try not to get a world that uses a system… they're a pain to create and they're boring as hell."

"But I don't have control over the worlds that are picked." I whine.

Completely ignoring my words, a white and gold gate then opens beside him.

"Go my child," He presents the Gate.

Feeling the pressure of GOD start to increase the longer I stay inside this realm, I scurry over to the Gate.

Just before I pass through, I hear, "Expect a gift right alongside the Shadow Monarch's Soldiers."

Wondering what he meant, I plop out of the Gate and find the night sky to embrace me. As well as tons of police light and Hunters who had gathered around the base of the building I was standing on. Casting my gaze over the wide-eyed spectators who'd seen me emerged, I'm surprised to find Hae-In among them. Though, I do notice a bandage around her arm.

Wanting to go ask her about it, I'm halted when a sudden wave of drowsiness hits me and my whole world turns black.