The Astral Barrier—the absolute membrane of the Original Creator—was no longer a shield. It was a dying lung. Beyond the cracks, the vacuum of space had become a slaughterhouse of concepts, Stories and Probability.
At the same time, on the outskirts of the very galaxy great battle was happening in, three figures of Dokkaebis emerged.
The Star Stream's system windows bled.
[Attention! Outer Deities are entering the Scenario!]
[Outer Deity 'Primordial Hunger' has entered the Scenario!]
[Outer Deity 'Inextinguishable Ravings' has entered the Scenario!]
[Outer Deity 'Goddess of Fate' has entered the Scenario!]
[Outer Deity 'High-Dimensional Overseer' has entered the Scenario!]
Standing at the precipice of the breach were three Great Dokkaebis.
Halong, in his magician's suit, gripped his old-fashioned cane until his white fur bristled. His seven red horns glowed with a frantic, pulsing light.
Beside him, Bihyung—now a towering humanoid draped in white tiger leather, his three yellow horns emanating the dense stories—looked at the horizon with a grimace.
The third, Noksu, appeared as a refined, indigo-furred scholar with silver horns and eyes that mirrored an endless archive of forgotten histories.
"Great Dominators!" Halong's voice boomed through his cane, amplified by Probability. "Why do you interfere with the local flow? The Star Will does not permit such a massive influx of external logic! Retreat now, or face the erasure of your tributaries within this world's Story!"
The reply was a [Convergence].
A dark vortex revealing bared white teeth and chaotic liquid encompassed the space where the stars should have been. "He" simply exhaled. The instinct to Devour slammed into the Dokkaebis.
Behind "Him," the Inextinguishable Ravings manifested as a shifting kaleidoscope of discordant colors, projecting madness directly into their consciousness.
To the left, the Goddess of Fate stood as a three-bodied nightmare in white silk—weaving, gathering, and judging.
To the right, the High-dimensional Overseer watched with an untouchable shadow's indifference, "His" sublunary eyes already beginning to flatten the 3D space into a 2D canvas.
A sudden, irresistible pull gripped the Great Dokkaebis. Their very True Bodies were being forcibly dragged toward the bared teeth of the vortex.
Noksu tried to unroll his scroll to declare a law of distance, but the High-Dimensional Overseer, an untouchable shadow with eyes containing the entire universe, gazed down.
Under that gaze, Noksu's three-dimensional form began to thin. He became flat, like a paper figurine, his silver robes merging into a two-dimensional Painting of the void.
The Great Dokkaebis were swept aside like dust.
Halong's cane snapped.
Bihyung coughed out sparks of Story, his tiger leather charred.
"Why..." Bihyung gasped, sinking to one knee. "Why would the Story King send us here?"
Bihyung was trying to spark enough Story-power and Probability to break the Convergence.
Suddenly, two new statuses flared with the intensity of colliding galaxies.
[Constellation 'Secretive Plotter' is looking at you.]
[■■ 'Last Witness of the Unwritten End' is looking at you.]
"Bihyung," a calm, teasing voice echoed.
A flash of Twilight ignited.
Kim Dokja appeared, his black coat fluttering in the solar winds, his red armor—the gift from Tomer—glowing with a paradoxical heat. He used Annihilation.
A coat of pure midnight, trimmed in the red armor of a fallen king, fluttered in the vacuum. Kim Dokja stepped through the breach, his hand resting on the shoulder of the Great Dokkaebi. His friend and companion that helped him a lot in the past.
"You grew a lot," Dokja joked, though his eyes were cold. "But you're still too loud."
The "Convergence" pull affecting the Dokkaebis was not suppressed—it was deleted. The fate-thread of the attraction ceased to exist as if it had never been woven. Dokja stood in his [Nephalem Transformation], his body a shimmering bridge between Light and Darkness, imposing the [Gray Dominion].
Beside him, the Secretive Plotter unleashed a Status so heavy it physically anchored the flickering space. The Status that turned the surrounding stars dim.
The Outer Deities recoiled.
They recognized that aura—the cold, stellar majesty of the Supernova Dominator.
"You consumed 'Him'?" The Inextinguishable Ravings projected a thought of pure shock. "A mere Constellation... consumed a Great Old One?"
The Plotter didn't answer.
He opened his hand, and a star was born within his palm.
[Story 'Hellscape of Eternity' has begun its storytelling!]
[Giant Story 'Pilgrim of the Lonely Apocalypse' is howling!]
[Giant Story, 'The Star-Eater of the Demon Realm!', is revealing its fangs!]
The Secretive Plotter moved first.
He manifested his [Mythical Creature Form]: a star cluster composed of a myriad of explosive suns. He became a [Great Attractor], gravitationally pulling the true bodies of the Outer Deities toward him.
The Plotter utilized the Fundamental Forces.
He imposed Weight and Density upon the vacuum.
The High-Dimensional Overseer tried to ascend to the 10th dimension to escape, but the Plotter manipulated Gravity, bending the higher dimensions back into the gravitational well of his exploding suns.
The space between them ignited.
Repeated nuclear fusions triggered by the Condenser Pathway turned the vacuum into a genuine sun.
The light was bright enough to blind an Angel through the barrier, revealing the formless consciousness of the Inextinguishable Ravings.
The Primordial Hunger responded.
The dark vortex of teeth expanded, attempting to eat the Plotter's suns. Black holes appeared in "His" mouth, swallowing the heat and the light.
He imposed [Weight and Density] onto the Hunger's very essence.
The vortex slowed.
Primordial Hunger attempted to Devour the attack, but the Plotter's status as a Condenser meant he was creating True Matter faster than it could be erased.
The Plotter used the symbolism of reality resisting mysticism, dissipating the Ravings' mental assault with the sheer mass of his physical existence.
['Gray Dominion' is activated!]
Simultaneously, Kim Dokja moved against the Inextinguishable Ravings.
Huge twilight wings erupted from his back, shimmering with the paradox of light and darkness.
As a Nephilim, he imposed the law of [Equilibrium].
The hostile alignments of the Outer Deities were reduced by 30% instantly.
"Goddess of Fate!" Dokja shouted.
The three-bodied woman raised an illusory silver-black knife. The [Blade of Fate] descended to sever Dokja's tributary from the River of Fate.
['Annihilation'!]
Dokja's hand swept through the air.
The knife was deleted as if it had never existed.
The causality of the strike was erased from the record.
Dokja turned his gaze toward the shadow.
The Overseer was unfurling illusory strings, creating a [Dimensional Painting].
The Great Dokkaebis were already being pulled into the canvas, their bodies thinning into paper figurines.
[Skill 'Protagonist's Fabrication' is activated!]
[Fabricating Fake Scenario: 'The Feast of the Satiated God'.]
The Primordial Hunger suddenly paused.
To "His" perception, the battlefield was replaced by an endless banquet of Uniquenesses and Sefirot.
For a primitive being ruled by hunger, the illusion was a tactical stun.
"Now!" Dokja shouted.
He tapped into [The Power of the Narrative's Core].
Dokja swung the Unbroken Faith, dealing Paradox Damage.
He struck the Goddess of Fate's armless central body. The "Judgment" she was weaving against the Plotter was shattered by a strike that ignored all attribute-based resistances.
The Plotter didn't waste the second.
He achieved [Density of a Neutron Star].
He slammed into the High-dimensional Overseer, not through space, but through dimensions.
Using the Condenser authority, he distorted the dimensions the Overseer was trying to manipulate once more.
The "Painting" cracked.
The suns within it went Supernova, obliterating the Overseer's strings.
The Overseer ascended to the tenth dimension to escape, but the Plotter followed, his Tidal Scholar powers pulling the fabric of unstable space, not giving a chance to trap Dokja or Great Dokkaebis inside the Dimensional Painting, where the Deity was omnipotent.
The Great Dokkaebis provided support—Bihyung weaving the Probability to buff the Plotter's gravity, while Halong used his cane to deflect the Cosmic Rays fired by the Overseer.
The battle raged for what felt like eons and seconds simultaneously.
The Great Dokkaebis, protected by Dokja's [Threshold of the End], used their old-fashioned canes to channel fragments of the Star Will, firing bolts of concentrated Probability at the Goddess of Fate.
Suddenly, the Plotter's suns began to collapse into Black Holes prematurely.
Time slowed dramatically.
The Goddess of Fate condensed a Blade of Fate once more, slicing through the Plotter's tributary.
Dokja and Noksu were busy deflecting Primodial Hunger attacks.
Bihyung and Halong fought with the maddness of Inextinguishable Ravings.
The Plotter flinched as several of his internal suns went dark, his connection to reality momentarily severed by the Final Judgment.
[System Alert!]
[Outer Deity 'Circle of Inevitability' has entered the Scenario!]
"Convergence is inevitable," a new, terrifying voice vibrated through the fabric of space.
The Circle of Inevitability manifested as a series of interlocking, golden rings that stretched across the galaxy.
A massive, illusory river appeared—the River of Fate.
With the arrival of the Circle, the Goddess of Fate's power was amplified tenfold.
All branches of causality began to narrow, leading to one single, inescapable outcome: The Failure of the Guardians.
The balance shattered.
Dokja's [Birth] authority tried to heal the Plotter's collapsing stars.
Even though using both Birth and Annihilation in succession triggers "Backlash of Paradox", reducing Dokja's HP, he didn't care.
But the Circle of Inevitability ensured that the damage was inevitable.
Every heal was countered by a pre-written wound.
"It's over," the Inextinguishable Ravings projected, "His" voice now a physical weight. "The Star Stream cannot support the probability of your survival."
[The Fourth Wall is shaking!]
Dokja felt the Fourth Wall vibrating violently.
[Giant Story 'Season of Light and Darkness' roars in pain!]
[Giant Story 'Torch that Swallowed Myth' has finished its storytelling!]
The Plotter was being compressed by his own Gravity, turned against him by the Circle's authority over the "Finality" of a star's life.
Dokja's Twilight Body began to flicker as the Inextinguishable Ravings successfully implanted madness into the Dokkaebis, turning Bihyung and Halong against their allies.
The vacuum grew silent.
The Outer Deities prepared their final strike—a combination of [Ultimate Judgment], [Devour], and [Dimensional Erasure].
[Outer Deities 'Mother Tree of Desire' and 'Indescribable Mist' are retreating from the battlefield!]
[Kings of Outer Gods are retreating!]
Looks like the battle of Shakyamuni, Great Sage, Orthodox Gods, Amon and Adam was finally coming to an end. Dokja and Secretive Plotter with the three Great Dokkaebis didn't give even a chance for the other Outer Deities to invade the scenario.
But what do they do next?
Then, the world turned gray.
A thick, impenetrable fog suddenly swallowed the outskirts of the galaxy.
It wasn't the Fog of the Western Continent, nor was it the demonic mist of Baal.
It was a fog of History and Mystery.
Living beings within the fog—even the Outer Deities—found their thoughts stuttering.
Even the madness-stricken Dokkaebis—suddenly became sluggish or filled with a cunning that wasn't theirs.
The High-Dimensional Overseer's "Truth" vision was fooled; the Goddess of Fate's threads were grafted onto illusions.
The Primordial Hunger became dull-witted, "His" teeth snapping at shadows.
Numerous rules malfunctioned.
Symbols were fooled.
The pressure from the Outer Deities momentarily stagnated.
Time stopped.
At the edge of the galaxy, within the darkness inside a black trench coat that seemed to hold the weight of all secrets, smooth tentacles inscribed with mysterious patterns suddenly emerged.
They slipped into black gloves at the sleeves and lifted a cane, which was beautiful, elegant, and radiated a terrifying aura of death and decay.
[Outer Deity 'Monarch of Decay' is interested in your cane!]
The silk top hat tilted upward.
A face slowly emerged from the darkness—a face with black hair and deep brown eyes that held the wisdom of a thousand forgotten epochs.
It was a face that Kim Dokja and the Secretive Plotter knew better than their own.
[The 'Star Will' is trembling in reverence!]
It was Klein Moretti.
Klein Moretti stood against the tide.
He simply existed, and the "Probability" of the universe bowed to its new master.
Dokja whispered, his twilight wings folding in relief. "You're late."
Klein didn't look back.
'He' tapped his cane against the empty air.
'He' used his true voice.
[The 'Fool' who belongs to the past, the present, and the future has returned.]
The gray fog expanded.
The Lord of Mysteries was born.
['Lv. 0 The Once and Future King' Ultimate Skill's effect dissipates in one minute!]
===
< Sub Scenario – Apocalypse Prevention >
Category: Sub
Difficulty: ???
Clear Conditions: Prevent the Outer Deities of invading the 'Hidden Scenario' stage.
Time Limit: Until 'Star Will' finds effective way of resisting and punishing Outer Deities.
Reward: ???
Failure: Absolute erasure of the 'Main Stage' (Earth)
===
[The ending,] Klein whispered, his voice echoing through the Fog of History, [is mine to decide.]