Karlton

Karlton is Gorgon's incorruptible north-checkpoint chief, later its Law Horn Lord and one of Jaehwan's most steadfast allies. His understanding of justice evolves from literal obedience to written statutes into a self-authored law capable of bridging worlds. Though rarely the strongest fighter present, his refusal to abandon either his duty or his Citadel Lord repeatedly holds a path open for others. (Chapters 19, 45, 226, 234–236)

Biography

Karlton the Stubborn at Gorgon's north gate

Karlton has guarded Gorgon's northern checkpoint for fifty-five years when Jaehwan arrives in Chaos. The strongest of the four checkpoint chiefs, he has never allowed the gate to be breached and has earned the name “Stubborn” for enforcing even minor rules without bribes or exceptions. His advanced command Skill, Edict, can force third-stage Adapters to kneel through recited law. Jaehwan instead resists the command and reflects its mental pressure, but Karlton treats that resistance as evidence to examine rather than an insult to punish. (Chapters 19–20)

His legal rigidity is tested when Geumcheon's men create a hostage crisis. Karlton uses Edict to force most of the attackers down and Silver Restraint to bind Adapters with chains of light, personally entering danger rather than delegating the law's cost. When the released Black Cloud contaminates him while he protects nearby residents, he reaches more than ninety-percent Forgetting and asks Jaehwan to kill him before he becomes a monster, as Gorgon's law requires. Jaehwan rejects the institution's fatalism but respects Karlton's integrity enough to save him with the power taken from Garnak's horn. (Chapters 29–31)

Law Horn Lord and the liberation of Chaos

After Jaehwan takes control of Gorgon, he appoints the still-bandaged Karlton as Law Horn Lord. Karlton brings the same scrutiny to the new government, worrying about corruption at his old checkpoint even while accepting reforms to the legal order. Under Euren, his Edict becomes more refined, but his hope no longer rests on statutes alone. Watching Gorgon change under Jaehwan convinces him that institutions can be rebuilt rather than merely obeyed, beginning the transition from a gatekeeper of inherited rules to a guardian who judges what those rules serve. (Chapters 45–50)

Karlton joins Carpe Diem and undergoes two hundred subjective years of training in Cayman's accelerated environment, compressed into about ten outside days. He rises from a Fifth Adapter to a third-stage Awakened One and becomes the First Company Commander, second only to Cayman among Gorgon's fighters. The training also sharpens his awareness of institutional costs: he raises concerns about the hundredfold time ratio, psychological damage, and suicides among trainees instead of treating strength as sufficient justification. Unable to perceive a Unique World despite his Awakening, he nevertheless invokes his public duty and asks to join Jaehwan's expedition. (Chapters 70–80)

That duty does not make him invulnerable. Beside Chunghuh, Karlton barely blocks Sa Myeonghun's attack long enough to save Cayman and ruins a hand in the attempt. Later, when the Abyss Expedition begins to doubt Jaehwan after the Pineal Thread is cut, Karlton never joins the suspicion. He follows Jaehwan into the Abyss and supports him from behind, establishing a pattern that will define their relationship: Karlton questions systems and tactics freely, but he does not abandon a person whose justice he has chosen to trust. (Chapters 93, 98–100)

The long road through the Abyss and Metaverse

Separation in the Abyss gives Karlton an independent life, including a public following and two more years of training before his reunion with Jaehwan. Guided in part by Sirwen Armelt, he spends his accumulated resources without hesitation to climb the Metaverse and reach his companions. His old Silver Restraint has changed with him: Awakening converts the bestowed System Skill into a personal law-type Setting, activated through rules Karlton declares himself. At the beginning of Fourth Awakening he still lacks both a Sanctuary and a Unique World, but the law now originates in his own judgment. (Chapters 102–160)

Karlton uses the Silver Holy Spear, his new Setting, and a variation of Stab to restrain the Clockmakers while Jaehwan advances. Jaehwan entrusts the rear line to him without argument. On the Metaverse's ninth floor, Karlton is already attacking the ceiling when the others reject the demand to kill fellow passengers; he understands Jaehwan's choice before it is spoken and adds his World Power to the opening. He survives the Tower's collapse, resumes training Stab with Runald, and later leaves to reunite with Chunghuh and Sirwen while urging Jaehwan to gather a force of his own. (Chapters 160–177)

Citadel Gorgon and the New World

By the Great Forest campaign, Karlton serves among the Guides of Destruction and possesses World Power comparable to a top-grade god. He fights beside Sirwen and Runald, yet even at Fourth Awakening he still has no Unique World. When Jaehwan slips away toward Highseeker, Karlton chases him for hours. Jaehwan warns that the destination means death and that Karlton lacks the world needed to survive, but Karlton refuses to turn back: Jaehwan remains his Citadel Lord, and Karlton regards their disagreement not as obedience against reason but as a clash between two forms of justice that must be faced together. (Chapters 209, 218, 226)

Before the battle with Maiad, Karlton creates a link that lets him transfer World Power to Jaehwan with unusually low loss. Maiad's Plausibility Destruction nearly severs it, but Jaehwan restores the connection with Cognitive Dissonance, allowing Karlton to retain his senses and send every remaining reserve. Under that pressure Karlton finally develops the Unique World Citadel Gorgon, formed from the city whose people endured a world without ordinary death while continuing to defend justice. The world briefly neutralizes the boundary between Chaos and the Abyss, turning the countless people who believe in Jaehwan into temporary Followers and channeling their power into the battle. (Chapters 234–236)

Karlton survives into the political order that follows. He works with Yu Seolha's Committee, organizes documents, stands with Jaehwan's companions when Jaehwan leaves to face Big Brother, and openly asks afterward whether their decision was right. During the later collapse he defends the Assembly Hall's western gate against Vicegerents, still acting as the same keeper of a threatened threshold he had been at Gorgon. His uncertainty does not paralyze him; it shows that his mature justice includes doubt, responsibility, and action rather than blind confidence in a written answer. (Chapters 236–248)

Karlton grows old in the New World. In his final recorded reflection, his once-bright silver wings have weakened, and he looks back on the choices that bound his life to Jaehwan and the others. News of his death reaches Sirwen one month later. Jaehwan's subsequent revision does not undo that mortal ending as an established event, but it preserves Karlton in the recreated story, fighting, laughing, and grieving beside Chunghuh, Sirwen, and Runald. His law survives less as a code than as memory shared by those companions. (Chapters 262–264)

Appearance and personality

Karlton is a tall, handsome man with disheveled golden hair tied back, blue eyes, smooth skin, and a silver aura resembling wings. He descends from a collateral Celestial branch and carries angelic blood, traits that remain visible in both his appearance and his innate power. By old age the silver wings have weakened, offering a quiet physical measure of the long life separating Gorgon's checkpoint from the New World. (Chapters 19, 262)

At first Karlton appears almost comically literal. He carries a legal dictionary, memorizes Gorgon's rules, rejects every bribe, and will arrest a minor offender with the same seriousness he brings to a major criminal. That stubbornness is not cruelty, however. He risks contamination to save civilians, accepts death when he believes the law requires it, and acknowledges contrary evidence when Jaehwan survives Edict. His incorruptibility is rooted in service rather than appetite for authority. (Chapters 19–20, 29–31)

Experience makes Karlton more flexible without making him less principled. He questions dangerous training practices, accepts reforms, and eventually writes the Edicts that govern his own Setting. Loyalty to Jaehwan never becomes passive obedience: Karlton argues, warns, and wonders whether their choices were right, yet he remains when leaving would make those judgments meaningless. His most characteristic acts are therefore neither speeches nor victories, but holding gates, maintaining links, and shouldering consequences after stronger figures move ahead. (Chapters 45–50, 80, 226, 234–248)

Powers and limitations

• Celestial heritage and Adapter abilities: Karlton's mixed Celestial blood produces his silver winglike aura and the innate Skill Silver Restraint, which manifests as chains particularly effective against Adapters. As a checkpoint chief he also wields a halberd and has enough reputation to be considered capable of hunting Garnak. These advantages do not place him beyond injury: the Black Cloud nearly causes total Forgetting, and a Field Commander later overwhelms him despite his advancement. (Chapters 19, 29–31, 93)

• Edict: Edict is an advanced word-command Skill associated with recognized officials. Karlton recites a law and issues its command, compelling ordinary targets and even advanced Adapters to obey. Its authority is neither absolute nor purely vocal: Jaehwan's unusually solid soul resists it and reflects mental damage back upon Karlton. Euren later improves his command of Edict, while Awakening lets Karlton move from enforcing inherited System rules toward declaring laws grounded in his own worldview. (Chapters 19–20, 45, 160)

• Silver Restraint Setting: After Awakening, Karlton reconstructs Silver Restraint as a personal law-type Setting rather than a chain supplied by the System. He activates it by proclaiming self-authored Edicts, including rules governing conversation, and produces silver bindings capable of restraining Metaverse opponents. The ability reflects his growth as a lawgiver, but at the beginning of Fourth Awakening it does not supply him with a Sanctuary or Unique World; those remain explicit gaps in his development. (Chapters 160–161, 218, 226)

• Stab and spear combat: Karlton adopts the Silver Holy Spear and trains in Stab for years, developing a forceful variation described as Hard Stab. His technique is useful for restraint, formation fighting, and attacking barriers, and he continues practicing after the Metaverse. It is not equivalent to Jaehwan's mastery, and Karlton more often uses it to preserve an opening or support a stronger attacker than to decide a battle alone. (Chapters 160–176)

• World Power transfer and Citadel Gorgon: Karlton can establish a connection that supplies Jaehwan with World Power efficiently enough to persist under extreme pressure. His eventual Unique World, Citadel Gorgon, briefly removes the boundary between Chaos and the Abyss and converts believers in Jaehwan into temporary Followers whose World Power can reach him. The effect is short-lived and collective by design: Karlton does not manufacture power, but creates the legal and spatial passage through which an existing community can act. (Chapters 226, 234–236)

Power progression

Relationships

• Jaehwan: Karlton first confronts Jaehwan as an official and becomes his Law Horn Lord after recognizing the justice behind his defiance. He follows Jaehwan into the Abyss, trusts him when the expedition wavers, and ultimately refuses to let him face Maiad alone. Citadel Gorgon turns that loyalty into a bridge connecting Jaehwan with everyone in Chaos who believes in him. (Chapters 19–20, 45, 98–100, 226, 234–236)

• Chunghuh: Chunghuh and Karlton repeatedly form the dependable rear line of Jaehwan's group. They save Cayman together, reunite during Karlton's travels, stand at the front of the Committee, and defend opposite gates of the Assembly Hall. In old age Runald remembers them together as elder brothers whose earlier deaths help him understand the loneliness of survival. (Chapters 93, 177, 237, 248, 262)

• Cayman: Cayman oversees the compressed training that raises Karlton to third-stage Awakening and commands Carpe Diem above him. Karlton respects that structure while still raising concerns about its human cost. His ruined hand in the effort to save Cayman confirms that those objections are not reluctance to fight, but a commander's insistence that strength and responsibility remain connected. (Chapters 70–80, 93)

• Sirwen Armelt and Runald: Sirwen assists Karlton in the Abyss and later fights beside him and Runald among the Guides of Destruction. Runald also trains Stab with Karlton after the Metaverse. Both outlive him, and Sirwen is the one who receives news of his death, placing Karlton within the smaller circle whose companionship persists beyond the wars they shared. (Chapters 160, 176–177, 218, 262)

Items

• Silver Holy Spear: Karlton's principal weapon during the Metaverse campaign. He combines the spear with Silver Restraint and his own variation of Stab when holding back the Clockmakers and creating space for Jaehwan to continue upward. (Chapters 160–161)

• Stubborn's Legal Dictionary: Karlton habitually carries and memorizes a legal dictionary, a mundane object that becomes emblematic of his early approach to justice. It supplies no supernatural power, but the story recalls it even in the revised world as the defining counterpart to his identity: a man who kept law physically close until he learned to author its meaning for himself. (Chapters 19, 261)