Chung Chohong

Chung Chohong is a Korean Earthling, one of Carpe Diem's veteran fighters, and later a Level 7 Guardian of Valhalla. A former Red Mark who survived Paradise's exploitation, she presents herself as impatient, foul-mouthed, and eager for a fight. Her more enduring trait is loyalty: once she accepts Seol Jihu as a teammate and leader, she repeatedly risks herself for him, keeps faith after his apparent death, and helps turn Carpe Diem's loose companionship into Valhalla's lasting community.

Biography

Carpe Diem's blunt protector

Chohong first meets Seol as one of the established members of Carpe Diem. She objects to evaluating an unknown recruit merely because Jang Maldong asked them to look at him, but follows Dylan's decision and joins the Forest of Denial expedition. Her skepticism is practical rather than disloyal: when a Lioner turns on the weaker party members, she places herself between it and Seol. She also answers his questions even while complaining that he always chooses her instead of the better-informed people around them. The trip establishes the pattern of their relationship—abrasive talk masking dependable protection. (Chapters 25–32)

Seol's return to Carpe Diem gives Chohong a younger comrade with whom she can argue without ceremony. During later rescue work she helps search the Delphinion Laboratory, refuses to let him look into a room whose contents might traumatize him, and abandons her assigned route as soon as she learns that Hugo Richard is alive. In combat she manifests as a Battle Maiden, blocking the Nest's tentacles and burning them away with divine power while creating an opening for the group. The mission matters beyond its immediate victory: it fulfills the royal service requirement for her advancement and confirms that her aggression can be directed toward saving people rather than merely winning fights. (Chapters 36–45)

When Seol later disappears in the border region, Chohong refuses the assumption that he is dead. She travels toward the border to search for a chance to help his escape, then races back when news of his survival arrives. His false claim of amnesia exposes how frightened and guilty she had been; her anger returns only after she realizes he is teasing her. That exchange gives their usual rough comedy emotional weight. Chohong can physically overpower him, but will not do so while he is wounded, and Seol's trust in that restraint lets him treat her as family rather than an intimidating senior. (Chapters 49–50)

High Ranker and Banquet survivor

Chohong advances from a Warrior with a technical Priest foundation to Level 5 Templar. She has enough accumulated combat experience to qualify, while her participation in the rescue mission satisfies the royal family's dangerous service condition. Jang judges her route as expedient because she strengthened Manifestation instead of reaching a separate martial enlightenment, but Chohong treats the promotion as the realization of a long-held ambition. Seol marks it by giving her the +2 Thorn of Steel, a weapon valuable enough to free her savings for proper armor. The gift also becomes a durable sign of their attachment. (Chapters 55–59)

As a High Ranker, Chohong joins Seol's Banquet team and supplies its most forceful close defense. She battles Orc Champions and helps the party progress when the stages become lethal, but her strength does not make her immune to the Banquet's traps. The experience reinforces her preference for a trusted group whose members can cover one another; even when she mocks Hugo's fear afterward, she has survived because Kazuki and the others support her at the points where she cannot break through alone. (Chapters 60–71)

That same loyalty shapes Carpe Diem after Dylan's departure. Chohong accepts the Yi siblings because Seol and Jang approve them, but warns them not to impede the team. She is initially its strongest official member and remains ready to fight anyone who tries to take Seol by force. Her response is rarely subtle, yet it gives the changing organization a stable core: newcomers know that her loyalty is difficult to win but not conditional once granted. (Chapters 72–83 and 94–103)

Arden Valley, death, and return

At Arden Valley, Chohong serves in the forward force, smashing weakened Parasites and immediately challenging Seol when his actions appear dangerously unexplained. Her anger comes from concern rather than a desire to control him. Against the Army Commanders, however, an ordinary High Ranker's strength is insufficient. She is mortally wounded during the collapse of the defense and survives only when Seo Yuhui's miracle restores her along with the other fallen allies. (Chapters 84–93)

The revival changes the consequences of the battle without erasing the fact that Chohong died beside the people she chose. Afterward she resumes Carpe Diem's work, supports Seol's expeditions, and readily accepts Flone as another unconventional teammate. She relocates from Haramark to Eva rather than preserving the old group as a memorial to Dylan, placing her loyalty in its living members and their future. (Chapters 94–124)

Founding Valhalla

In Eva, Chohong answers Seol's trust before he offers an explanation. When he appears armed and asks her and Hugo to follow, both equip themselves and go because his past decisions have earned that response. She fights through the city's hostile organizations and stands with the group as Carpe Diem becomes Valhalla. Chohong refuses to lead one of its new teams—administration and command do not suit her—but remains one of its indispensable founding combatants rather than mistaking rank for leadership aptitude. (Chapters 126–137)

Her role becomes explicit when Valhalla is reorganized: she advances to Level 6 High Templar and joins Seol's main team with Eun Yuri and Urara Hoshino. That placement turns her long personal loyalty into an organizational function. She guards the representative at close range, responds immediately when he gives a combat order, and leaves planning or diplomacy to members better suited to it. (Chapters 137 and 154–161)

The Spirit Realm and Tigol

During the Spirit Realm expedition, Chohong's hybrid foundation proves especially valuable against evil-aligned enemies. The Thorn of Steel radiates white energy against will-o'-wisps, and her manifested state helps the group crack Raging Temperance's barrier and survive the fighting around Twisted Kindness. After the battle, her black hair returns from silver when she dismisses Battle Maiden Manifestation, showing that the form is a maintained combat state rather than a permanent transformation. (Chapters 138–149)

She then crosses into Tigol Fortress with the expedition and continues fighting through the coalition battle. Although she can contest ordinary Parasites and contribute to combined attacks on Army Commanders, she cannot match those commanders by herself. Her usefulness lies in committing force at the moment Seol's plan creates an opening and in remaining effective beside other High Rankers. The victory broadens her experience from human expeditions to a war fought alongside the Federation and reinforces Valhalla's reputation as a group whose founders personally enter its most dangerous operations. (Chapters 150–153)

Loss at the Imperial Oath

Chohong later accompanies operations against corrupt Earthling powers and the Imperial Oath expedition. She breaks enemy formations when Seol signals and helps escort the expedition's survivors, but she cannot accept his decision to stay behind. When his ruined body returns, Kazuki must physically stop her from charging back into enemy territory. She finally drops the Thorn of Steel and grieves with the rest of Valhalla. (Chapters 169–188)

Her response after the retreat distinguishes attachment from denial. Chohong keeps watch from the valley fortress's highest post, eating and sleeping there while looking down the road even though she knows what happened. She nevertheless participates in the attempt to restore Seol, asks practical questions about the Divine Wishes, and remains with the group when he returns. Waiting becomes her way of preserving the place to which he can come back rather than throwing away another life in retaliation. (Chapters 188–192)

Final war and life afterward

Before the final campaign, Seol's Divine Wish supplies the contribution points for Chohong to advance from Level 6 High Templar to Level 7 Guardian. Using Valkyrie Skirt and the Thorn of Steel, she follows Hugo's charge and helps hold the coalition's line against the Army Commanders. The gap remains severe: after observing what it takes to inconvenience Twisted Kindness, she warns that at least four High Rankers must move together. Her mature battlefield judgment is therefore not caution replacing courage, but an understanding that loyalty requires coordination rather than isolated sacrifice. (Chapters 194–200)

After the Parasites' defeat, Chohong remains part of the Earth-side and Paradise-side family gathered around Seol. A possible future shows her with a quieter, more mature air, cooking in an apron; later events place her among the women who stand with him before his parents. The supplied corpus presents this domestic future as continuity, not a rejection of the fighter she was: she still speaks plainly and joins Valhalla's work, but now has a home in which vigilance and strength are not her only ways to care for others. (Chapters 204–205, 223, and 253)

Appearance and personality

Chohong is an athletic Korean woman usually seen with black hair tied in a ponytail. Off duty she favors sleeveless tops and short “dolphin” shorts; in battle she carries an inverted triangular shield and a heavy spiked mace. Manifestation turns her hair silver and surrounds her equipment and attacks with pale divine light. (Chapters 25, 33, 39, 77, and 149)

She is profane, impatient, physically expressive, and quick to reach for her weapon. Drinking, rough jokes, and arguments with Hugo form much of her social language. Those habits can make her seem thoughtless, but her history as a Red Mark has taught her how coercive Paradise can be, and she recognizes exploitation even when she cannot articulate a political answer. She dislikes elaborate command, yet understands the emotional conditions of people who were forced to climb from the bottom. (Chapters 36, 80, 103, 133, and 167)

Chohong's defining contradiction is that she dramatizes irritation while concealing fear and tenderness. She protects Seol from traumatic sights, searches for him when others presume him dead, and waits at the fortress after his second apparent death. Her growth does not soften her into passivity. It lets her admit through action that people matter to her and convert the urge to charge alone into the discipline to fight beside them. (Chapters 42, 50, 188–200)

Abilities and class

Chohong begins on a Priest-derived path but fights as a Warrior, eventually becoming a Level 5 Templar, Level 6 High Templar, and Level 7 Guardian. The hybrid route gives her close-range power, shield defense, and anti-evil divine energy rather than the broad prepared spell repertoire of a dedicated Priest. Jang's assessment is important: her High Rank advancement comes from strengthening Manifestation, not from achieving an independent martial enlightenment. (Chapters 39, 55, 59, 80, 161, 175, and 194)

Battle Maiden Manifestation and Valkyrie Skirt

Manifestation is Chohong's principal class ability. It changes her into a silver-haired Battle Maiden, surrounds her with divine conflagration, and reinforces both attack and defense. Against the Delphinion Nest, her shining shield throws off multiple tentacles while a mace strike destroys them and the surrounding divine fire evaporates the remains. Later uses let her batter evil-aligned beings and contribute to attacks on Army Commanders. (Chapters 39, 55, and 145)

The form must be activated and dismissed. Following the Spirit Realm battle, Chohong falls back exhausted as her hair returns to black, establishing a stamina cost even though the corpus does not give a duration or cooldown. By the final war the manifestation spell is identified as Valkyrie Skirt. The later name may mark the developed form of the same class ability, but the corpus does not provide a complete skill progression or prove that every earlier Manifestation effect belongs to that exact named variant. (Chapters 149 and 197)

Manifestation raises Chohong far above ordinary combatants but does not close the gap to an Army Commander. Raging Temperance can repel her contribution, and Twisted Kindness still requires several High Rankers acting together. Her best applications therefore combine a reinforced shield, a heavy anti-evil strike, and allied openings rather than treating the transformation as invulnerability. (Chapters 145–152 and 197–200)

Close combat and defense

Chohong specializes in direct mace-and-shield fighting. She can hold a charging monster's line, rupture ordinary fighters with a single blow, and use the shield to absorb attacks that would reach weaker party members. Her technique is experienced and forceful, but Jang explicitly contrasts it with a martial artist's independent enlightenment. The corpus establishes results and long practice, not a named weapon school or predictive combat sense. (Chapters 27, 39, 59, 86, 126, and 174)

Her Priest origin allows her to carry holy or anti-evil energy through her weapon. This is especially effective against will-o'-wisps and other evil-aligned enemies, while the +3 Thorn of Steel supplies a durable, enhanced focus for the blows. The weapon's enhancement and Chohong's class power are distinct: upgrading the mace improves the equipment, while Manifestation supplies the silver-haired state and divine conflagration. (Chapters 56, 145, 154, and 161)

Rank, limits, and latest state

Promotion to High Templar raises Chohong from Level 5 to Level 6 and places her in Valhalla's main team. A later Divine Wish advances her to Level 7 Guardian, making her a Unique Ranker before the final campaign. The corpus does not show a complete Status Window for either rank and does not identify every ability gained as a Guardian. Her demonstrated latest combat state can manifest Valkyrie Skirt, channel anti-evil force through the Thorn of Steel, and operate with other elite fighters in the final war. (Chapters 161, 175, 194, and 197–200)

Power progression

Relationships

• Seol Jihu: Chohong moves from skeptical senior teammate to one of Seol's most loyal companions. Their insults and teasing depend on deep trust; her searches, grief, and later family role reveal the attachment beneath them. (Chapters 25–32, 50, 188–192, and 223–253)
• Hugo Richard: Hugo is her oldest recurring sparring partner in Carpe Diem. Their constant arguments coexist with practiced battlefield coordination and shared loyalty to the team. (Chapters 25–36, 80, 145, and 197)
• Jang Maldong: Jang trained Chohong, criticizes the shortcuts and limits in her development, and remains one of the few people who can stop her with a gesture. She complains about him while continuing to rely on his standards. (Chapters 55–60, 80, and 230)
• Seo Yuhui: Seo revives Chohong at Arden Valley. Chohong later treats her as part of the same close circle, mixing suspicion of her intimacy with Seol and trust in her judgment. (Chapters 92–103 and 169–171)
• Phi Sora: Phi becomes another founding front-line fighter with whom Chohong trains, drinks, argues, and attacks in formation. Their shared grief after the Imperial Oath and paired charge in the final war show the depth beneath the banter. (Chapters 80–97, 161–167, 188, and 197)

Items

• Thorn of Steel: Seol gives Chohong the meteorite mace for her Level 5 promotion. She enhances it from +2 to +3 and retains it as her signature weapon through the final campaign. (Chapters 56, 154, 161, and 197)