The Knight King Who Returned with God-Chapter 6 Divinity (2)

"Hello, it's been a while since I last streamed. This is Park, the farmer from Jeolla Province."

Yo, what brings you on at this hour?

When are you uploading the traditional liquor content?

Farmer Park was a farmer who also worked as a YouTuber on the side.

He uploaded content about farming, frog mukbangs, wild boar hunting—showing off rural life as a typical countryside YouTuber balancing both farming and online content.

Recently, he had come to check out the fields of Mr. Kim from the neighboring village, who said his work had been halted due to the sudden appearance of a gate.

"I mentioned it on the community tab once, right? A gate popped up in Mr. Kim's fields next door."

Yeah, I remember that.

Didn't the Phoenix Guild win the bid for that one?

That's why Mr. Kim treated the Phoenix Guild hunters to a big meal and drinks, hoping they'd take care of it properly.

"But then the dungeon break happened, would you believe that?"

Come on, Park, don't make stuff up.

You're telling me the Phoenix Guild, with Lee Yong-wan, an S-rank, and over forty A-ranks, couldn't clear a crimson gate?

Nonsense. Even without Lee Yong-wan himself, they should've been able to clear it just fine.

Park felt wronged by the viewers' skepticism. He had seen with his own eyes Mr. Kim sobbing over his field, now contaminated with mana.

Though he didn't know the specifics about hunters, he knew the Phoenix Guild was one of the top ten guilds, known for their exceptional power.

And yet, the dungeon break had occurred, and Kim's field was still being polluted by mana. It was the kind of disaster that farmers had feared most since the Great Cataclysm 30 years ago.

"I'm telling you, it's real. Even people from the Association came—it's a mess. The rice plants all rotted from the mana contamination."

Park zoomed in with his camera, showing the polluted land and the Association officials clashing with members of the Phoenix Guild.

It wasn't just the rotting crops—scattered bones around the area hinted at the remnants of skeleton monsters.

...Wait, seriously? If mana's spreading in Honam, this year's crops are doomed. Why isn't this on the news?

We're screwed. Our food self-sufficiency rate is already dropping—weren't they increasing farming subsidies because of that?

What good are subsidies if there's no land left to farm?

Smart farming is the answer. We should be investing in Doojeong Future Foods right now.

Get outta here with your stock talk!

Park kept filming the area around the gate.

Though there was a restricted perimeter set up, Park snuck between the crops and, fortunately, wasn't discovered. The viewers' reactions grew more serious.

"Oh... there's a foreigner."

At that moment, a blond man appeared on his camera. The viewers began speculating.

Who's that foreign guy? Someone from the Phoenix Guild?

Doesn't look like it. His gear is too shabby—he's not even suited up.

Maybe he's with the Association?

There aren't any Europeans in the Association. But wow, he's good-looking.

What's with all those ladies there? They're each carrying something. Park, zoom in for us.

Park zoomed in on what Leon had constructed—an altar and straw dolls. Though it was early morning and not very clear, it resembled some kind of ceremonial setup.

'A shamanic ritual?'

Rituals to cleanse mana-contaminated land were a common sight in the countryside.

Even though people did them hoping to purify the land, the only effective solution was to inject tower-made purification reagents in time.

Could that blond man be a mage dispatched from the Magic Tower? No matter how he looked, Park couldn't picture him as a mage.

Still, something about that man tugged at him.

And it wasn't just his looks.

Even from a distance, through the camera lens, the living saint Leon radiated a quiet aura of nobility and dignity.

It was an instinctive recognition of something real—something you couldn't feel from celebrities or elites you see on TV or the internet.

Today's aristocrats might be high-rank Awakened and business tycoons, but their elegance and pedigree could never mimic the real thing.

And then, in the next moment—

Farmer Park would witness the event that would change his life forever.

Leon is the first knight of Ariana, the Goddess of Light and Justice.

The Lionheart Kingdom, ruled by generations of Lion Kings, held Leon as Ariana's first and foremost champion.

However, in the Kingdom of Lionheart—where harmony and devotion to the gods are regarded as virtues—certain deities were essential to the people's faith. As a result, the Lion Kings naturally served as champions of multiple gods.

"Lionheart, my child."

"I offer my respects to the Earth Mother, the sacred deity of life and abundance—Demera."

Leon knelt on one knee, showing reverence and awe to the straw doll before him.

Even among the myriad gods, Demera's stature was immense. She embraced all life and governed over abundance.

While others could not comprehend the voice emanating from the straw doll, the divine spirit of Demera spoke clearly.

"This new land, too, is under attack by evil. The land has been tainted."

"Yes, abominations have set foot on this soil. I fear that without divinity, vulgar and base swine will profane the Goddess's gaze."

Leon's first feeling upon returning to Earth was disappointment.

Things like "Awakened ones" and "Survivors" were trivial. His hazy memories of twenty years on Earth were little more than vague nostalgia.

Yet the first thing he saw upon returning was the tyranny of the top guilds and the incompetence of the government. It was both pathetic and disheartening.

"Ignorance and greed cannot be condemned outright. Such is the way of mortals. What do you intend to do?"

"I may not approve of it, but I cannot overthrow a lawfully established rule. Even if this land elects its leaders through the pitiful process of voting, that too is its legitimacy and law."

That was the only reason he acknowledged the authority of the president.

Their failure to control even a few sword-wielders was laughable, but the right to rule was sacred—and Leon intended to follow due process.

"I will establish a balance of rights and duties upon this land. I shall teach the ignorant and lead them onto the righteous path."

Earth.

His homeland—where power and money had become justice.

And, more than anything else, a land without divinity.

Leon intended to raise a new Pantheon upon this land.

He would restore the fallen gods of the ancient pantheon and revive the Order of the Holy Grail Knights.

To do so, he needed faith. Devout believers, priests, and worshipers who would bow before the gods of the Pantheon.

"Child, have you something to ask of this mother?"

Demera smiled, having read Leon's intent. Ariana's first knight—Leon was no longer merely the champion of light and justice.

When the gods of the Pantheon chose Leon as the vessel for their divinities and resolved to dwell within the inner sanctum of his heart—

They placed everything on him.

They believed he would purge the forces of evil and survive to the end.

He had succeeded brilliantly over the past 200 years and now found a new opportunity on a new land.

Thus—

The divine spirits of the Pantheon would grant him whatever he desired.

They would trust the greatest knight in history—who had upheld both honor and divinity—to the very end.

"Yes, Demera. The free people of this land are suffering from the wicked energy called mana. Though it may be difficult, please—heal and purify this land."

The straw doll infused with Demera's essence glowed at her fingertips. The blessing was faint—nowhere near the power she once commanded when upheld by multitudes of faithful followers.

But on this land bereft of faith, it would be seen as nothing short of a miracle.

"You are my high priest. Our champion. This world's soil is not my flesh. Spread my divinity and replace this withered earth with my own body. Then all things that walk upon this land shall become your allies."

Divinity permeated the earth.

Upon the soil stood the Living Saint, a demigod, the Lion King—and now, the High Priest of Life and Abundance.

The Mother of Life had blessed this place.

And the earth is life itself.

The origin of all things, the beginning of a fertile world.

As divine power descended upon the ground brimming with latent energy, a breathtaking transformation unfolded.

The mana-tainted soil, the decaying rice stalks—vanished.

The sacred energy that would not tolerate corruption sprouted new life.

At the same time—

All living things rooted in the soil responded to the sacred touch. Even the poisoned earth and rotting crops could not resist their duty to grow.

Leon spoke to all those watching from afar.

"Behold and understand! You who are ignorant and unlearned! This is the world that exists alongside divinity!"

Golden stalks of rice soared into the sky. Witnessing the miracle of life restoring the corrupted land, everyone could only clutch at their trembling mouths and hands.

"Be fruitful and multiply. This is the sacred duty of all living beings. This fertile land shall stand as proof of that covenant—forevermore."

Han Hari, Manager Kim Jinsoo, and the other members of the Hunter Association stood speechless in the face of the miracle unfolding before them.

How could mana pollution corrupt the land?

Why can't life grow on contaminated soil?

All their questions led to one simple conclusion:

A malevolent force, beyond human understanding or technology, was actively working to devastate the world.

Crops cannot grow in polluted soil. Purification is possible, but it requires a massive expenditure of a Hunter's mana—essentially a tradeoff, not a true cleansing.

It's considered common knowledge in modern society: nothing can grow on mana-polluted land.

That's why humanity clings so desperately to lab-printed foods and vertical farm crops.

Because as dungeons continue to break and more land becomes tainted, the world's food self-sufficiency will plummet to crisis levels.

"W-What is this...?"

Hari and Jinsoo could hardly believe their eyes.

Golden crops filled the earth, swaying gently in the breeze.

The once-tainted soil now gleamed as if it had never been corrupted—a radiant field of abundance, like something out of legend.

"Sir... T-This is real rice."

"I-I see it too."

The rice had grown in an instant. And it wasn't just the Hunter Association that was stunned.

Lee Yongwan, guildmaster of the Phoenix Guild, who had planned to pressure the Association by polluting this land, was equally shocked.

"Ha! They must not know that magically accelerated crops are poisonous!"

Yongwan wasn't wrong—technically.

Since the Cataclysm, humanity had experimented with growing crops using magic.

But those crops, infused with mana, proved toxic to normal humans.

"How ignorant. These crops have been blessed directly by the divine. How could you call them poison?"

"That pathetic straw doll—"

"You'll only be forgiven for ignorance once. Do not sully the Goddess's name with your loose tongue."

There was a weight to Leon's voice—something commanding, something that demanded submission. More than that, an unspoken wariness of "returnees" like him kept others from acting rashly.

'Damn it, this wasn't supposed to happen.'

The Honam Plain was meant to be a hostage. Just as the Association suspected, the Phoenix Guild had deliberately triggered a dungeon break.

The top 10 guilds in Korea were already receiving massive benefits. But they wanted more—especially exemption privileges for dungeon byproducts.

This year, they aimed for tax exemptions worth 1 trillion won, but that number would only grow. Eventually, they would demand full immunity.

And with dungeon breaks threatening national territory and citizens, the government would have no choice but to concede.

But now everything had been derailed—by one survivor.

Lee Yongwan desperately searched for something to criticize.

"Let's appraise it. For the safety of the people who might end up eating that rice, we need to verify it."

Regardless of his true motives, the argument wasn't wrong.

Magically-grown crops were typically inedible for normal humans. So, an appraisal was certainly necessary.

"We'll lend you our guild's appraiser. I'm quite curious myself—what kind of product grows in one second."

With a sly, slimy grin, Yongwan waited eagerly.

He was counting down to the moment the appraiser declared the crop tainted, so he could brand Leon a fraud.

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"A-Appraisal result is in!"

"T-That was fast."

"Our guild has very capable appraisers."

Yongwan braced himself, eagerly anticipating the words: "This rice is inedible."

But the appraiser, sweating bullets, hesitated—then finally managed to speak.

"The result... is Rare-grade!"

"Huh?"

"E-Every single stalk of this rice is classified as Rare!"