"Roar!"
The Demonic Dragon's colossal body completely eclipsed the white sun and the endless sky. Its terrifying maw yawned wide, revealing rows of serrated fangs that gleamed like obsidian blades. A wave of primal terror rolled outward.
Mino's face turned deathly pale. She instinctively shrank back.
"I'm just a weak, pitiful level-100 mage! Barely a mouthful for you! Eat the guy behind me instead!"
Whoosh!
A violent gale blasted past, whipping her high ponytail and sending her punk vest flapping wildly. Mino squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable.
When nothing happened, she cautiously cracked one eye open.
The monstrous dragon was gone.
In its place stood a three-meter-tall humanoid figure covered head to toe in gleaming obsidian scales, crimson eyes glowing softly.
"Father, I'm here."
Father…?
Mino studied the newcomer carefully. Though the thick scales obscured much of his face, she could still make out those once-heroic, familiar features.
"You're Herox? How did you end up like this?!"
"Oh, it's you, Mino." Herox grinned, revealing sharp fangs. "Father changed my race to True Demonic Dragon through 'Hack King'."
He stepped respectfully to Lord Helant's side, towering yet deferential.
Mino wriggled free of Helant's hand, puffed out her cheeks until they looked like steamed buns, and jabbed a pale finger hard into Helant's waist.
"Why didn't you tweak my body type too?! You know big breasts are my favorite!"
She loved Albedo's figure—it was literally written into her settings, a deliberate contrast to her own petite frame.
Watching the little loli's puffed-up, indignant cheeks, Helant simply smiled and said nothing.
"Petite is cute too. No need to change."
"Trash-tier Supreme Being!"
Furious, Mino swung her tiny fists in a blur of afterimages, pummeling Helant's stomach with all the force a level-100 could muster—which, to him, felt like gentle taps from a kitten.
When she finally ran out of steam and stood there panting, Helant spoke calmly.
"Go to the Faith Pool."
The so-called Faith Pool was a world-class item Helant had created by exploiting one of YGGDRASIL's most infamous bugs—the only man-made World-Class Item ever successfully forged by a player.
In YGGDRASIL, the Faith branch of magic was a unique system with deep lore: mortals worshipped gods, generating Faith Power that the deity could draw upon to grant blessings and strength in return.
Then came the patch that introduced the bug.
If a player attacked alchemical base materials with certain Faith spells, the effect would automatically enchant the material with affixes normally exclusive to crafted items.
Normally, items with existing affixes could not be re-enchanted—you had to destroy and remake them from scratch.
But these bugged Faith enchantments could be perfectly inherited through crafting, allowing absurdly overpowered gear, potions, and consumables to flood the market for a brief, chaotic window.
When the bug was discovered, the entire game went mad.
Helant, already possessing the ultra-rare World Alchemist class and capable of reliably crafting the highest-tier non-World-Class items, saw an opportunity no one else dared pursue.
He quietly bought up massive quantities of Faith-enchanted materials, then used those bearing the rare "Faith Convergence" affix as the core component to forge a single, impossible item:
A sphere capable of gathering and storing Faith Power itself—bearing the legendary "World Shelter" affix.
Helant gazed at the gold-and-silver orb floating before him now, memories surfacing.
"Back then I didn't think much of it," he murmured. "Yet it shaped who I am now."
With a single thought, the accumulated Faith Power condensed into a radiant sphere of golden-silver light and drifted into his palm.
In the game, Faith Power had been flavor text at best.
Here, in this new world, it was real—a tangible, living force.
[Faith Devourer]
A terrifying, insatiable hunger erupted within Helant.
The sphere in his hand vanished like dust caught in a hurricane—completely, ruthlessly devoured.
Boom!
The instant the power entered him, Helant's aura exploded.
Crushing pressure swept outward in a violent shockwave.
The sea of clouds was torn apart.
The white sun itself seemed to dim.
A hundred thousand Sanctuary Demons froze mid-motion, blood turning to ice in their veins, minds blanking under the weight of divine wrath.
Mino, tears springing to her eyes, darted behind Herox, face white as paper.
Herox dropped heavily to one knee, scales rattling as he fought the instinctive terror shaking his soul.
"So strong…"
He had already begun adjusting to the raw stats of a World Boss-tier Demonic Dragon. Gearless, he could still crush four or five top-tier players on paper.
Yet before this aura, he felt like a leaf in a typhoon—utterly helpless.
After what felt like an eternity, the terrifying pressure finally began to recede.
Mino, eyes glistening, ventured timidly, "Lord Helant…?"
Helant looked down at her pitiful expression and chuckled.
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I-I thought you were angry…" Her voice was tiny.
In her settings she was a bratty troublemaker who flirted with danger for fun, but deep down she was fiercely loyal. Unlike Herox—an NPC personally hand-crafted by a Supreme Being—she had been randomly spawned by a World-Class Item, more like a stray child Helant had taken in along the way.
That made her far more sensitive to his mood.
"It's fine," Helant said gently, patting her head. "I just lost control for a moment."
He opened his status window.
Helant
[LV: 100 (Progress: 0.1%)]
In lore, Faith Power was the mysterious force that strengthened gods.
Faith Devourer countered the entire Faith branch perfectly—and carried one seemingly useless line:
"By absorbing Faith Power, one may break through existing limits."
The Faith Power he had just consumed had accumulated in the pool during the old days, drawn from the friendships and bonds he had forged with guildmates and allies.
Now, Helant watched countless nearly invisible golden threads slowly trickling into the Faith Pool from the world beyond, and a slow smile spread across his face.
As expected. Build trust, earn adoration and worship… and Faith Power flows without end.
"Father," Herox asked hesitantly, still kneeling, "just now I sensed traces of Lord Takimi's and Lord Ulbert's power on you…"
Helant chuckled and allowed a hint of his aura to leak out deliberately.
Woosh!
Spatial distortion, apocalyptic calamity, eternal life sustenance, sanctuary dominion, and raw faith-devouring hunger—all shimmered around him in a breathtaking display.
World Champion.
World Calamity.
Eternal Life Sustenance.
Sanctuary Demon God.
Faith Devourer.
Every unique race and class laid bare.
"I tweaked my own classes and races as well," Helant said mildly.
"Praise be upon you," Herox whispered, heart surging with awe.
This was his creator—an awesome being of truly boundless might.
Helant continued in a calm voice, "Herox, do you know why I changed you into a Demonic Dragon?"
Herox blinked. "To become stronger?"
"What's the Demonic Dragon's signature trait?"
"Dragon Soul Devour," Herox answered instantly. "Devour dragons to gain permanent power."
Realization dawned in his crimson eyes. "Father… is there a dragon-type enemy on the horizon?"