Former Warrior Turns Into A Million-Dollar Actor [EN]: Chapter 185

Unveiling Secrets (3)

* * *

Where did the Great Demon come from?

Some say it’s a fragment of evil from a foreign power that fell upon the continent, while others claim it’s a corrupted hero transformed.

The current hero of the Iron Kingdom, who has slain the Great Demon hundreds of times, found the latter more plausible.

‘The latter seems more likely. No one knows where the previous heroes went.’

Whoosh, KWA-BOOM!

Berial’s spear of magic collided with the Holy Sword, causing a massive explosion.

As he flew backward, a warm force supported his back, dispersing the intruding magic. It was the Holy Maiden’s divine power, with whom he had coordinated countless times—no, tens of thousands of times. Gode regained his posture and landed, inhaling deeply.

—Fwoosh!

This time, a sonic boom erupted from beneath the hero’s feet. A human who has honed their Hapkido [a Korean martial art emphasizing joint locks and throws] to the extreme is no different from a jet flying at supersonic speed.

The sonic boom tore through the air, and the Holy Sword, once meant to cleave an archangel, was deflected by Berial’s magic sword.

Clang, clash, BANG!

A close-quarters battle ensued relentlessly. Berial effortlessly blocked Gode’s sword strikes, enhanced with Hapkido, divine power, and various blessings.

“······.”

Unleashing a flurry of attacks, Gode narrowed his eyes.

Unlike the Great Demons, who were colossal forms of darkness, Berial of Sin appeared before them as a humanoid clad in armor.

Jet-black armor and a dark blue magic sword. If not for the swirling darkness, he would have been mistaken for a hero.

‘Who are you?’

Could he really be another hero?

In the Skyway, Asruel had said that they created the Great Demons.

It was hard not to believe, but he couldn’t believe everything either. What if, by any chance, they were turning obsolete heroes into Great Demons for their use….

‘The Great Demon of Wrath. The inscription in Balmon’s stone chamber was in the Imperial language.’

Doubt took root, and confusion clouded his vision.

In a moment of faltering, a whirlwind of magic subtly flew past and grazed his left arm.

“Hero!”

Before he knew it, his arm from below the elbow to his fingertips turned to dust.

The Holy Maiden hastily poured divine power, but as the Great Demon’s level rose, even the regenerative-like wound recovery ability became futile.

‘I’ve died thousands of times, what’s an arm?’

To someone who has experienced death, physical pain is meaningless. Entrusting his arm to the approaching Holy Maiden, Gode infused his voice with Hapkido.

“Great Demon Berial, Lord of Sin.”

The heavily armored Great Demon, deflecting the magic sword, remained silent. Gode continued, unfazed.

“I am Park Gun, a hero from another world beyond dimensions.”

“…Hero?”

Unlike the other Great Demons, the fourth Great Demon, Berial of Sin, was incommunicative.

Under the Holy Maiden’s questioning gaze, he mustered his remaining strength.

If his conjecture was correct… he would surely get a response from him.

“I don’t know what constraints you’re under. But I want to uncover the secrets of the high heavens and return to the world I lived in. So I can escape this endless regression.”

Berial still didn’t answer, but the attacks pouring from him ceased.

“Berial of Sin. If you were a hero… or something similar, I beg you. Help me.”

A moment of silence passed. The Holy Maiden, biting her lip, and the Great Demon, bowing his head, said nothing.

The next moment, Berial’s figure blurred and appeared before him.

KWA-BOOM!

Was he wrong after all? Narrowing his brows as he blocked the magic sword, Gode soon realized something.

‘This is…’

The pattern was different from before. In this iteration, including the 42nd, even until the battle right before, he had never charged so recklessly.

Clash, clang! The terrifying magic was still there, but the momentum of the attacks had dulled considerably. He mustered all his strength and shouted to the Holy Maiden.

“Aria!”

The longtime comrade understood what he wanted with just a voice. All of the Holy Maiden’s divine power poured in like a flood, and for a moment, his body transcended its ‘level.’

Enough to strike the neck of that Great Demon, who was charging without regard for his own safety.

Tsukakakang!

As if being sawed off by a chainsaw, crimson sparks flew as the helmet and armor separated.

Berial’s body, having lost its head, took a few more steps before collapsing.

And when the writhing darkness dissipated, only an old skeleton remained in its place.

“…What is…”

It was the moment the Holy Maiden’s eyes widened.

The dark barrier above their heads opened, and brilliant light poured down.

-Hero, you have done well indeed.

A thunderous reverberation filled the surroundings. The light clusters approaching from the heavens were three in number.

Mattekael… Prauriel… and Asruel.

The archangels, adorned with green, blue, and red light like emblems, descended and stopped before them.

The Holy Maiden, her mouth agape, murmured blankly.

“The three of you, how are you here… ?”

The devout follower received no answer. Only Asruel, the archangel of red light who had once fought them, emitted a wave.

-You have finally slain Berial. We offer our respects for your achievement.

“I don’t need the praise. More than that, it looks like you have something to explain over there.”

Asruel’s face, hidden within the hood, turned slightly towards where the Holy Sword was pointing.

Next to Berial, now a skeleton. The magic sword, which had been emitting an ominous purple light, had transformed into a familiar shape.

Soon, the hero’s voice broke the silence.

“Why does the Great Demon have the Holy Sword?”

A moment of silence passed. Mattekael of green light, who was fluttering his wings in the back, emitted a wave.

-That is not important. The point is that you have defeated the fourth Great Demon, and you have been granted the qualification to challenge Asmeraus.

-Mattekael is right. Even at this moment, the rifts in the world are widening.

Asruel stepped forward again.

-Hero Gode. You will ascend to the high heavens with us. The fifth Great Demon, Asmeraus of the Void….”

“No, I have no intention of going.”

-What?

“Before he died, Gorzon of Arrogance asked which number he was. Modeum of Discord left a will to beware of the light as he vanished.”

The archangels looked down at him without a word. Gode calmly continued.

“Balmon of Wrath, the third Great Demon’s stone chamber had a common language that the Holy Maiden knew written on it. And just now… as Berial disappeared, he conveyed his last words to me.”

-The Great Demon’s scheme….

“There are not five.”

Asruel’s wave stopped. Enveloping his entire body with the Hapkido he had mustered, Gode asked again.

“Tell me the truth. What happened to the heroes of the previous eras? Is the fifth Great Demon, Asmeraus, a real enemy?”

During the suffocating silence, Prauriel, who had been silent until now, said as if to herself.

-This hero is a failure.

At that moment, shackles of light flew and bound Gode’s hands and feet.

“Hero… Ah!”

As he hung in the air, a whip of light struck the Holy Maiden who was running towards him.

Mattekael emitted a stern wave.

-Aria Riverot, your disposition is next. Wait patiently for your turn.”

Flames sparked in the Holy Maiden’s eyes as she wiped her mouth. She staggered but stood up again and shouted.

“Mattekael, we have committed no sin!”

-No, you rejected the decree of the heavens and distanced yourself from the light on the hero’s side. It was conduct unbecoming of a devout cleric.

“Isn’t the high heaven on the hero’s side?”

-No.

It was Asruel who spoke this time. The archangel floated leisurely towards him, bound in the air.

-From the moment you crossed dimensions and set foot on this land, the hero is an impurity in the world. Since you were summoned at a great cost, you should fulfill your mission. But this hero dared to doubt and oppose the heavens. He even harmed angels with the power to destroy evil.

Like vines, the shackles of light clung to his body, starting from his hands and feet.

Gode struggled to break free and shouted.

“You are lying from beginning to end….”

-Is that wrong?

“Asruel!”

-Holy Maiden, you summoned him, so you should know better than anyone. What are the conditions for summoning a hero?

Suddenly, the arrow turned towards the Holy Maiden. Aria moved her bleeding lips.

“Someone upright, righteous, and willing to sacrifice themselves for others….”

-Do you understand now, hero? If he were not such a person, he would not have been able to cross that dimensional rift.

“That’s a stretch, Asruel!”

The Holy Maiden finally raised her voice, but the archangels didn’t even care.

As Asruel raised a hand, their bodies began to rise.

-You may resent us for not keeping our promise. But hero, even those deaths you experienced are only fleeting moments in the time of the great beings.

-So be grateful.

-That as a mere mortal, you can cross dimensions and become nourishment for another world.

As the waves of the three archangels mixed and swirled, Gode looked down.

And… he met the Holy Maiden’s eyes.

‘······?’

The situation had already reached its worst.

As he had bitterly felt last time, even if the opponent was only Asruel alone, his chances of winning were low.

With the rest of the archangels here, even escape was impossible.

But down there, the Holy Maiden’s expression, with her fists clenched tightly, was resolute as if she had made a decision.

Blink, blink, blink.

A wink, blinking the left eyelid three times. The signal they had established from the moment of their first transfer, sharing life and death together.

‘One wink per second, so this time…’

The hero mustered his last strength.

A few seconds later, the light clusters that had enveloped them shattered all at once.

The filming crew staff member, Joe Aleudio, blinked his eyes five times and scratched the back of his left hand with his right hand.

Then he finally whispered to his colleague next to him.

“Annie, what’s going on?”

“······Shh!”

Annie put her finger to her lips as if to tell him to be quiet, but whispers were already starting to come from here and there.

“What is it, is it ad-lib [improvisation]?”

“Has the script changed… why is he standing still?”

“The director isn’t saying anything either? Are we still going?”

More than ten seconds had passed since Park Gun had stopped.

The final battle, the sword fight with the Emperor, was already over, and McClane was kneeling.

In the scene where it would end if he struck down with his sword, he suddenly froze with one arm raised.

‘Is he getting greedy, since it’s the last filming?’

Director Peter Shawn thought.

Park Gun’s acting always exceeded expectations, but only within the given script.

There was no way a monster who remembered the extras’ movements, actions, and even the order in which they died would have forgotten the next instruction.

So it was an ad-lib….

‘It’s a bit out of the blue. Not like him.’

As the director was contemplating whether to call cut, McClane in front of Park Gun came to a different conclusion.

‘It’s not an ad-lib. I’m sure of it.’

An actor who acts together… and because they had been working together, he could tell.

That’s not an ad-lib. He didn’t know what he suddenly thought of, but the flow of acting had already been broken.

What was in front of him was not Ido from ‘The Book of the Divine,’ but Park Gun… or someone else.

‘…Someone else?’

Why did he think that? Even as McClane was wondering, Park Gun didn’t move at all.

Eventually, one of the cinematographers took the lens away from his eyes, and Peter Shawn brought the megaphone to his mouth.

At this rate, a cut would be called. McClane, who was waiting for the signal, suddenly got up.

“Wait, right now….”