The outskirts of the galaxy had become a canvas of impossible geometry, and Klein Moretti held the brush.
The one-minute timer on his ultimate skill, [Lv. 0 The Once and Future King], began its ruthless countdown.
To the Outer Deities, he was the Lord of Mysteries—a pillar of the universe whose very gaze could reorder reality.
They did not know his "Status" was a borrowed miracle flickering on the edge of a backlash.
Klein stepped forward.
He was [Grafting] the concept of "Distance" onto the "Void." In an instant, the gap between him and the Circle of Inevitability ceased to exist.
The golden rings of Inevitability tried to contract, seeking to fix Klein's fate into a point of death. Klein simply raised his cane.
[I am the Fool,] he whispered, his true voice layered with the madness of a thousand history fog remnants.
He fooled the logic of the Goddess of Fate.
The illusory mercury river—the River of Fate—suddenly branched into a billion impossible tributaries.
The "Inevitable" outcome she had woven was no longer certain; it became a mere "Probability" in a sea of chaotic "Maybes."
The Secretive Plotter, feeling the crushing gravity around him lift, roared as his exploded suns reignited.
Beside him, Kim Dokja flapped his twilight wings, his eyes glowing with the intensity of a reader.
Dokja screamed.
Dokja activated [Story's Law].
He wasn't just using a skill; he was rewriting the laws of the current engagement.
"The story of the Outer Deities," Dokja proclaimed, "ends here."
[The Skill 'Interpreter' is rewriting the local Narrative!]
[Attribute 'Paradox Damage' is being applied to the 'Primordial Hunger'!]
The Plotter slammed into the High-Dimensional Overseer, his neutron-star density shattering the deity's dimensional paintings like glass.
Simultaneously, Klein pointed his gloved hand at the Inextinguishable Ravings.
He didn't silence the ravings.
He [Grafted] them onto the Primordial Hunger.
The primitive beast, ruled only by desire, was suddenly flooded with the philosophical essence of the first existence.
Its vortex-like mouth stuttered as it began to try and "Devour" its own newfound consciousness.
But the clock was ticking.
45 seconds remaining.
The Outer Deities, realizing the "Logic" of this world had been hijacked by the return of the The Fool, prepared to retaliate by summoning the full weight of the Cosmos.
Then, the corners of the universe began to howl.
Not with ravings, but with the sound of paws on the fabric of time.
From the sharp angles of the cracked reality, blue-gray mist seeped out.
Thin, skeletal figures with elongated snouts and eyes that glowed with the hunger of the beginning of time emerged.
Dokja had already seen them before.
The Hounds of Tindalos.
They recognized "Angles" in the straight line of time. The Outer Deities, by forcibly entering this Scenario, had created massive temporal distortions.
The Hounds lunged.
They didn't bite flesh; they bit into the Symbolism and Probability of the deities.
The Goddess of Fate shrieked as a Hound tore a tributary from her white silk robes.
The Circle of Inevitability found its golden rings being chewed into rusted iron.
Realizing that the "Probability" of this stage had turned toxic, the Outer Deities began to withdraw. Their tributaries retreated into the shadows of the Star Stream, pursued by the baying of the Hounds.
[The Sub Scenario – 'Apocalypse Prevention' has been completed!]
['Star Will' is shocked by your achivements!]
[You have earned a new Myth-Grade Story: 'The One Who Guarded the Edge of the Galaxy'.]
As the last Outer Deity vanished, the Lord of Mysteries' silhouette began to crack.
[Backlash detected!]
[The Ultimate Skill 'The Once and Future King' has ended.]
[Warning! Foreign Mythical logic is being rejected by the Star Stream!]
['Word Will' kisses 'Star Stream'!]
The messages stopped.
Dokja couldn't help but face palm.
['Star Will' has come to consesus!]
[This skill cannot be used again for 30 days.]
Klein's maggot-vortex form collapsed violently.
He solidified back into Gehrman Sparrow, his skin pale and his eyes bleeding from the spiritual strain.
He fell, caught only by a mass of black threads woven by the Secretive Plotter.
Beside them, Kim Dokja coughed out a mouthful of golden-black blood, mixed with fragments of his stories.
[The Skill 'Interpreter' has ended!]
['Temporary Exhaustion' is active.]
[All stats are reduced by 20% for 20 minutes.]
"Haa... haa..." Dokja gasped, his wings disappearing as his HP flickered into the red. The consecutive use of Birth and Annihilation had left his narrative core frayed. "We... we did it."
"Not yet," the Secretive Plotter rumbled, his own stellar form shrinking back into the scarred Yoo Joonghyuk appearance. He looked at Gehrman Sparrow, whose body was convulsing. "Someone is here."
From the empty vacuum, where no light should have remained, a voice echoed.
It was a voice filled with an unbearable, playful malice.
"Found you."
A man stepped out of the shadows of a nearby planetoid.
He wore a high-collared black coat and a pointed top hat.
Tucked into his right eye socket was a crystal monocle.
Amon.
The God of Error smiled, the reflection in his monocle showing the broken forms of the three heroes.
"Secretive Plotter," Amon tilted his head. "I have heard different stories about you. Pleasure to meet."
"What do you want, Amon?" The Plotter growled, his gravity field flaring weakly.
But the sentence did not reach anyone, since it was stolen.
'He' chuckled.
"Not what," Amon adjusted his monocle, his gaze fixing on the half-conscious Klein. "But who."
Dokja grit his teeth, forcing himself to stand.
[Skill 'Protagonist's Fabrication' is activated!]
[Fabricating Fake Scenario: 'The Return of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven'.]
A spectral image of a golden staff loomed in the distance, a fake ripple of probability designed to distract.
But Amon didn't even look.
"A cheap fraud," Amon chuckled.
Suddenly, the Star Stream itself seemed to react.
Great Dokkaebis utilized Bureau's Authority, sensing Amon's presence as a threat to the Scenario's stability, and attempted to impose restrictions.
Gravity—the Plotter's last remaining ounce of authority—pressed down on Amon.
Amon simply smiled.
"I have stolen something for you."
He raised his hand.
"A gift from 'Her'. The same gift that got Aucuses—the Eternal Blazing Sun—dead."
Bihyung, who had been shivering in the background, saw the monocle gleam.
He knew that if Amon took another step, there was nothing they could do.
"Go!" Bihyung shrieked, clicking his fingers.
[The Great Dokkaebi 'Bihyung' is spending massive Probability!]
[Forced Relocation is occurring!]
The last thing Dokja heard before the world dissolved into a sickening warp was Amon's laughter.
[The Fourth Wall is protecting your mind.]
The transfer wasn't clean.
It felt like being dragged through a meat grinder of memories.
When Dokja's feet hit the ground—or rather, the sodden, shifting deck of a floating ruin—the air was thick with the smell of salt and rotted divinity.
They were in the Sea of Ruins.
The sky was a dark, bruised purple.
Above them, a phantom sun chariot—shining with a light so fierce it could not be viewed directly—traversed the horizon.
This was the remnant power of the Eternal Blazing Sun, a scar on reality that burned the eyes of anyone who dared to look up.
"Ugh..." Dokja clutched his head.
The air was filled with The Ravings of the True Creator.
The voices whispered of blood and sacrifice.
He looked toward the shore.
Massive, mutated plants with human-like faces were growing out of the floating debris, their vines pulsing with the remnant aura of the Earth Mother.
"Klein!" Dokja lunged toward the adventurer.
Gehrman Sparrow lay on the wet wood of the ruin, his body twitching.
Cracks of silver light were appearing on his skin—probability leaks.
His incarnation body was failing to hold his soul and stories together.
Dokja stood up, looking at the distant silhouette of the Giant King's Court hovering in the clouds.
He looked around frantically.
In the middle of the shifting sea, looming like a jagged tooth against the horizon, was a massive, magical structure.
The Tower of Miracles.
"There!" Dokja pointed.
They began to move, Dokja activating his [Nephalem Transformation] one last time to carry Klein's convulsing form.
The Sea of Ruins fought them at every turn. The pressure of the Evernight Goddess's dream world began to descend as the sky darkened.
They reached the base of the Tower.
Dokja slammed his hand against the gigantic doors.
[Entering the 'Tower of Miracles'.]
Suddenly, the air behind them folded.
A monocled figure appeared on the edge of the floating ruin, his hands in his pockets.
Amon looked at the Tower, then at the disappearing figures of his prey.
"Interesting," Amon whispered.
Inside the first floor of the Tower, the environment was cold and highly dangerous.
Klein was on the floor, his body fracturing.
The silver cracks were spreading to his face.
"Damn it!" Dokja shoved a high-tier recovery item into Klein's mouth.
[The Item 'Great Return Pill' has failed to take effect.]
[The target's injuries are 'Conceptual' and 'Probabilistic'.]
"Klein, stay with me!" Dokja yelled, his hands glowing with the power of [Birth].
Nothing worked.
"Fourth Wall!" Dokja screamed into the void of his own mind.
The Fourth Wall remained silent.
Dokja felt the chill of despair. Was this it? After surviving the edge of the galaxy, would his companion die?
[Story 'Life and Death Companions' lowers its head.]
Suddenly, the air in the room vibrated.
Illusory teeth, composed of myriads of stories, lines of text, and flickering paragraphs, manifested in the air around Dokja.
A cold, mechanical message appeared in the center of Dokja's vision.
[ K im o k j a an d hi s co m pa n io ns ar e id iots. ]
The Fourth Wall didn't wait for a response.
The illusory teeth clamped down on Klein's body.