Chapter 422

Hao was able to guess what had happened when the scoreboards of Korea and Russia, who were first and second, stopped at almost the same time. Korea and Russia were confronting each other. Then after a while, Russia’s score would move again while Korea’s score would stop forever.

Hao believed it.

The result was the exact opposite.

‘It can’t be... Don’t tell me Grid defeated Kraugel?’

Hao was confused. The words that Lauel spoke during the Reidan invasion rang in his ears.

“Watch Grid’s path. You will soon know that he is the only sky.”

It was an obvious lie, so Hao just snorted. But.

‘What is this?’

Stagger.

Hao's body lost its balance. He leaned back against a tree and could barely stand because of dizziness. Hao had received a huge mental shock.

‘Kraugel.’

The only one who brought frustration to Hao, who had believed he was the most gifted person in the world. No matter how Hao tried, he could never reach that sky. That high sky was being collapsed by another person, not him? He was bested by Grid?

“I have to confirm it... I must see it with my own eyes.”

Until then, he couldn’t understand. Like a man possessed by a ghost, Hao tried to escape the battlefield. Damian blocked his way.

“I can’t let you go. If I let you go, I will be misunderstood by people again. This time, I might be called Chinese.”

"You aren’t qualified to decide if I go or not.”

Hao didn’t understand what Damian was talking about, but he opened his true power.

Kwaang!

There was an intense wave of energy.

Jjejeok! Jjejejeok!

Hao’s muscles rapidly swelled, while the skin of his chest, back, shoulders, abdomen, thighs and other parts of the body cracked. What appeared in the cracks of the skin? It wasn’t flesh, muscles, or blood vessels. It was red scales.

Flap.

A pair of wings emerged from Hao’s back and spread wide. They resembled the wings of a dragon.

Kudu! Kududuk!

10 black fingernails protruded like blades, while the white pupils tinged with gold froze the heart of anyone who looked in them.

Kururung!

Hot breath emerged like flames. The facial features were close to that of a human, but Hao also had partial features that were similar to a dragon. Currently, Hao’s half-draconian form was level 2.

It increased his strength, agility, health, and resistance by 15%. He also got an incomplete flying ability, fire ability, and stamina regeneration ability. The disadvantage was that he couldn’t use most of the skills available to humans, but the draconian Hao was less likely to rely on skills.

He had the ultimate physical form, so he relied on this and secondary weapons to win. The transformation into a draconian maximized his combat power.

“Get lost!”

Kuwaaaang!

A breath spewed out. His feelings about Kraugel were close to pure longing. One day, in the process of gazing at Kraugel with a desire to overcome him, he became a passionate follower of Kraugel.

Kraugel didn’t know Hao, but Hao’s route in life was closely related to Kraugel. The reason why he participated in this National Competition was because he heard Kraugel was participating.

Peeng!

Damian used a shield to block the fired breath and Hao approached Damian. Then he wielded his sharp claws. It was once against defended by Damian’s shield.

Hwaruruk!

However, he was burned by the influence of the flames around Hao’s body. Damian didn’t feel great pain. He was the first paladin of the Rebecca Church, obtained the the first unique class Goddess' Agent and was now the pope.

His swordsmanship was taught by Piaro and was comparable to Grid’s level. He boasted an overwhelming defense and endured Hao’s flames.

Sakak-!

He couldn’t dream of being a great swordsman, but he fought Hao with skills that could match a great swordsman.

Hao shook.

‘He’s even good with the sword?’

Hao knew that the pope was the ultimate priest. He was far different from the paladins that used swords and blunt weapons. But Damian had the various buff skills, healing skills and wide area attack skills of a pope, as well as the swordsmanship of a paladin.

That’s right. Damian was a fraudulent character with the potential to become the greatest pope ever. He was really top class.

Chaaeng!

The moment Damian tried to slash at him, Hao spun to minimize damage and counterattack by kicking at Damian. Using the rebound, he opened the distance and used chains to restrain Damian’s wrists.

Kkirik! Kik.

Damian’s wrists were bound and he couldn’t use a sword or shield. Hao looked at his confused expression and spread open his wings as widely as possible. Then he flapped once.

Peeng!

Hao’s body accelerated and he shot towards Damian like a lightning bolt. It would be hard for Damian to cope. The wrists restrained by chains were pulled to the left and right, and he was forced to stand with his arms wide open like a crucified Damian. The moment Hao was about to stab his claws into Damian’s chest.

“Goddess’ Wrath.”

In the end, Damian showed off the power of the pope.

Chiiiiiing!

Two huge magic circles, around 3m in diameter, were quickly created behind Damian’s back.

Peeeeeong!

Two huge pillars of light, which erased everything in a straight line, emerged from the circles and penetrated Hao’s body. The momentum was so enormous that it caused an upheaval in the earth. Thanks to this, Hao flew far away and the chains binding Damian were loosened.

After releasing the chains, Damian wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"If this was before I became the pope, I wouldn’t have been able to deal with you.”

Hao angrily replied to Damian.

“It’s the same now that you’re the pope. I admit that you’re strong, but you can’t beat me.”

Wide area magic had limits. In addition, the current state of the battle was the National Competition, where PvP damage was only at 50%. Hao wasn’t affected by Goddess’ Wrath. He was just knocked back.

Hao regained his posture and rushed to Damian again. He freely took advantage of the momentary acceleration caused by flapping his wings, showing off dazzling movements. Damian’s defenses were exquisitely shredded and his counterattacks avoided.

As the battle progressed, Damian suffered one-sided damage.

“You’re really strong.”

Damian spoke honestly. Damian had lost one-third of his health, while Hao’s health had recovered. Hao was really strong. It was difficult to hit him because his movements were so great.

“I’m going to show this skill to someone other than Grid.”

Damian sighed.

He used the ultimate skill of the Goddess' Agent, Light's Blessing. It was the manifestation of the highest buff skill that was comparable to the pope’s Goddess’ Blessing.

[Light’s Blessing will increase the defense attack power and accuracy of you and your party members by 80% for 3 minutes.]

It was ridiculous. The downside of this skill was the somewhat long cooldown time and high mana cost. In the case of the Goddess' Agent, the maximum mana wasn’t high. Therefore, if a slight mistake was made with controlling mana, the skill couldn’t be used at all.

But now Damian was the pope. His mana was at least 10 times higher than it was before, so he was able to use this buff skill without any burden.

Seokeok!

“Kuk...!”

The hit rate of Damian’s sword suddenly increased. He read the orbit and moved like his body was a magnet. Hao was upset.

‘A buff that dramatically increases hit rate...!’

High accuracy was the ‘system’ that disrupted control based evasion. It was the reason why rankers valued accuracy highly. However, items or skills that increased accuracy were rare. Therefore, it was hard to find a ranker with a level of accuracy that would make Hao’s control skills ineffective.

That person showed himself now.

Damian. Thanks to the buff, even his damage and defense greatly increased.

Chaaeng! Chaeng!

The flow started to reverse. Hao went on the defensive. More importantly, the Japanese representatives started to overwhelm the Chinese side. After a while, Hao, the only survivor of China, was isolated.

This sight shocked Asia.

『 C-China...! Asia’s strongest country has been defeated by Japan! 』

『 Damian’s abilities are far too great. He’s fighting one-on-one with Hao and isn’t pushed back at all. He also multiplied his party’s abilities several times with buffs... 』

『 Maybe Japan will cause the biggest upset of the tournament? 』

『 It wouldn’t be strange if Japan became the champion this year. 』

The stir created by Damian was even greater than that caused by Grid. On the other hand, Hao asked a final question before he was logged out.

"Despite having this much power, why do you value Grid so much?”

Damian replied.

"The one who made me who I am now is Grid.”

The defeat of the fallen pope Drevigo, the conversion to Goddess’ Agent, and the defeat of pope candidate Pascal was all thanks to Grid.

With Damian’s abilities alone, he would’ve been limited to just being the Rebecca Church’s first paladin. It was only thanks to Grid that Damian could grow and save Rebecca’s Daughters.

“Grid is my god. It’s natural that he’s much greater than me."

"...”

Currently, Damien had the attention of the world. Hundreds of cameras were filming Damian and transmitting it to every country in real time. Whether they understood or not. Thanks to Damian deifying Grid, the world was turned upside down.

The world’s curiosity and enthusiasm for Grid deepened further.