The Player that Can’t Level Up

The wings on Hamiel’s back were no longer bony, black, and grotesque—they were now pure white and angelic. In a sentence, they were the wings of an angel.

“Are those angelic wings?!” Gi-Gyu said in shock. He hadn’t been told about this change, so he studied Hamiel carefully.

“You’re still Diablo, so how…?” Gi-Gyu wondered. How could Diablo, a fallen angel’s final form, have a set of wings so pure? Gi-Gyu looked back and forth between Hamiel and Michael with confusion and interest.

Michael replied, “This is Hamiel’s power.”

“I was testing my abilities when I learned about this one, Grandmaster,” Hamiel explained shyly. Suddenly, Hamiel's white feathers fell, and his wings began changing shape. His hands and feet started changing shape too.

“...!” Gi-Gyu stared in awe, realizing Hamiel was returning to the form he had shown inside the Colosseum. This was the powerful Diablo Gi-Gyu remembered.

“See?! Isn’t it amazing?” Michael bragged as if this was his power.

“Wow!” Gi-Gyu exclaimed. Soon, Hamiel’s bones began cracking to reform; before long, he had reverted to his angel form, looking like the perfect angel with his pure wings.

Hamiel continued, “I didn’t know much about Diablo, so I was experimenting with my new abilities. After a while, I realized the true nature of Diablo.”

Hamiel raised his hand to create an orb of divine energy. When he motioned with his eyes, the orb’s color changed. Seconds later, it was cycling between sorcerous energy and divine energy.

“It’s nothing major, but I can also handle a bit of Death,” The orb in Hamiel’s hand shrunk, going from fist size to marble size, and Gi-Gyu could now feel Death from it.

With Lou’s help, it wasn’t a huge surprise that Hamiel could use a bit of Death now that he had evolved.

“I don’t know why or how, but…” Hamiel added, “I can now use all types of magic. And I can change form willfully, which can help fool my enemies.”

Gi-Gyu didn’t have to follow the same rules as Hamiel. While the limitations of Hamiel’s power were clear, Gi-Gyu could use any amount of any energy. Moreover, Hamiel’s skill could actually harm him depending on the type of energy used.

Hamiel asked Gi-Gyu hesitantly, “Do you, by chance, know anything about this?”

Gi-Gyu remained quiet, deep in thought. He had felt something odd every time Hamiel had switched between energies. He was familiar with the power Hamiel had used to switch between different forms.

“It’s faint, but it’s Chaos,” Gi-Gyu whispered.

***

‘Does Chaos have the ability to transform into different energies?’ Gi-Gyu wondered.

Chaos could embrace the properties of different energies and blend them; he had known about it. However, he had no idea a bit of Chaos could flip the essential nature of an energy on its head.

Gi-Gyu had initially thought of Chaos as something similar to a shell, but now, he was beginning to think that he was wrong. Then, he remembered the First Potion: A mixture of sorcerous energy and Chaos that transformed humans into monsters. It gave its users an intolerable and overwhelming burst of energy. Was Hamiel doing something similar?

‘I’ll have to talk to Paimon about this,’ Gi-Gyu decided, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on this topic.

“Master,” El called out to Gi-Gyu.

“Huh?” Gi-Gyu jolted, wondering if El had found out that he was distracted.

El smiled and replied, “I just wanted to thank you.”

The smile on her face disappeared, replaced by genuine appreciation.

‘This is…!’ Gi-Gyu felt confused when he felt an unusual emotion from El.

Sadly, the emotions disappeared quickly, and she continued, “I will continue to serve you with dedication and everything I have, Master.”

“I appreciate that.” Gi-Gyu smiled.

“Ahem…” Just then, someone from behind coughed awkwardly. “I don’t mean to interrupt you, but shouldn’t we begin the ritual now?”

“Oh, sorry.” Gi-Gyu apologized to Michael but also simultaneously glared at him.

“...?” Michael looked at Gi-Gyu in confusion.

But Gi-Gyu quickly looked around and changed the subject, “Everyone is here, right?”

Currently, they were inside the biggest sky island Old Man Hwang had created, surrounded by an abundance of divine energy. They all stood at the highest point of a castle, indicating that they could see the entirety of Eden. Beside Gi-Gyu, Michael, El, and Hamiel stood and nodded.

“All right, I’ll get started,” Gi-Gyu looked out at the cloudless sky of Eden. When he placed a hand on his chest, strange sounds rang from it.

Whir… Whirrr…

Shockingly, something large that looked like a cup exited his chest.

Michael thought in awe, ‘It’s the complete Holy Grail.”

In the past, Michael only had half of the Holy Grail. He had to part with a piece of this half to heal Gi-Gyu. All the various pieces of the grail, including the other half Raphael had, were gathered here. At this very moment, El’s holy artifact, the Holy Grail, rested in Gi-Gyu’s hands in its glory.

Everyone could feel the grail vibrating. Was it excited because the space around it was filled with divine energy?

‘Or is it the countless souls of the angels held inside?’ Gi-Gyu wondered. The power inside the Holy Grail was incredible. It was the kind of power anyone would covet.

The kind of power that could change the entire world.

‘Whoever gets this power would end up being God-like.’ Gi-Gyu thought while watching the cup. And that was precisely what Gabriel had tried to do.

“Hoo…” Gi-Gyu could hear Michael and Hamiel’s nervous sighs. But he wasn’t paying much attention to them because he was concentrating on El, who had heard the entire truth from Gabriel.

El had created all the angels and had forced them to serve a fake. The guilt of it had tormented her terribly for very long.

‘I think she has the answer now, but…’ Gi-Gyu knew El was still confused.

‘El,’ Gi-Gyu called out to her. ‘I hope this will at least bring you some comfort.’

Gi-Gyu let go of the Holy Grail, which defied all laws of gravity by staying afloat in the air.

‘I hope this will make a good gift for you,’ Gi-Gyu wished. Instead of saying the word out loud, Gi-Gyu silently synced with the grail. He had already partially synced with the grail; now, the connection was complete. Gi-Gyu felt abundant divine energy coursing through his body, the same kind Gabriel had before his death.

“Uwahh…” Michael exclaimed as the grail began shaking even harder and transforming slowly.

Suddenly, a small white feather escaped from the grail and danced in the air. The power inside this tiny feather was shocking.

“Does that feather hold all the power of the Holy Grail?” Hamiel mumbled in shock. That single feather was seemingly holding all that the grail had to offer.

“It’s starting now,” Gi-Gyu announced. The feather split into dozens, hundreds, thousands, and then tens of thousands of different feathers. Soon, the sky of the sky island castle was covered with countless white feathers. The wind so high up in the sky was strong, yet the feathers moved gently.

Flutter!

One of the feathers suddenly transformed into a white dove. Then, the other feathers followed suit, transforming into doves and flying around the sky island castle.

“Uwahhh…” Both Michael and Hamiel exclaimed at the beautiful scenery. The numerous white doves made it seem like they were surrounded by brilliance. Strangely, the doves just silently flew around without crying out once.

El, who had been quiet until now, whispered to Gi-Gyu, “Thank you.”

Fwoosh!

Suddenly, there was a flash of bright light on the sky castle. Everyone covered their eyes, and when the light disappeared and they could see again, they saw tens of thousands of angels bowing to Gi-Gyu. They greeted him in unison, “Father…”

***

Considering how vast Eden was, the actual population inside was comparably meager.

“But now, it doesn’t feel empty at all,” Gi-Gyu announced with a proud smile.

“Whatever,” Lou, who was playing a game and sitting beside Gi-Gyu, muttered.

El was also sitting nearby, smiling quietly. The revival of the angel race was a complete success. Gi-Gyu knew this would make El happy, but the gift was intended for Hamiel.

“Thank you… Thank you,” Hamiel cried as tears rolled down his eyes. When he saw the two angels who had died recently, he yelled, “Anael! Kamael!”

Castro had seemingly erased the existence of these two angels. However, Gi-Gyu had ultimately succeeded in bringing them back, largely thanks to the changes in Eden and Gi-Gyu's competence in utilizing those changes.

‘I’m so relieved that Hamiel is happy.’ Gi-Gyu was glad of the outcome. Of course, what puzzled him wasn’t the fact that these two dead angels had come back. Although they looked the same as before and retained their memories, they differed greatly.

‘They still have divine energy, but they aren’t exactly angels… I can’t quite tell what they are at this point.’

He had used the grail’s remaining power to create their physical bodies. Then, Gi-Gyu had injected their memories from Hamiel and the memories he had stored in himself through the sync. The two angels were resurrected perfectly, but they weren’t exactly the same as before.

Perhaps he could bring them back perfectly someday. He could make that a reality when he had enough power to do everything he wanted. Gi-Gyu hoped so.

Just then, Gi-Gyu became tense.

“What’s wrong?” Lou asked.

“Master?” El looked surprised.

“...” Gi-Gyu didn’t reply. It looked like he was communicating with someone in his head. After some time, Gi-Gyu explained, “I got a message from Soo-Jung.”

Because Gi-Gyu looked upset, Lou and El remained quiet.

Finally, Gi-Gyu announced, “We have a problem.”