"Yoo Joonghyuk is waiting, you idiot. If you're late, he's probably going to try and chop your head off your shoulders," Han Sooyoung remarked, adjusting her coat as she turned toward the door. "Or worse mop it. Our Janitor doesn't like to wait, you know. Hurry up."
She left the room, the click of the latch echoing in the sudden silence. Dokja reached for his coat, but the space in front of him didn't just ripple—it folded like a piece of velvet being tucked away.
From the absolute void, a woman stepped out.
She had the unmistakable features of Arianna, the Matron of the Evernight Cloister—the same midnight-black hair and eyes that looked like obsidian pools. Yet, the solemnity was broken by her attire. She was wearing a pleated skirt, a knitted sweater vest, and a Gryffindor tie.
"Sorry," the woman said, adjusting her round glasses. "I was interrupted mid-event. I am Xenodice, daughter of Arianna."
Inside the Fourth Wall, the figure of Klein Moretti nearly dropped his conceptual tea.
[Arianna... had a daughter? Since when? Is this a result of the Convergence? A narrative mutation?]
"We don't have time," Xenodice said, her voice carrying a terrifying authority despite the Hermione Granger cosplay. She reached out and grabbed Dokja's wrist. "The Goddess wishes to see you."
One moment they were in Seoul; the next, they were standing in the heart of Washington D.C. But it wasn't the D.C. of the old world. The skyscrapers were wrapped in Victorian stonework, and massive banners representing the Augustus, Castiya, and Sauron royal families draped from the heights of the Washington Monument.
It was a city where modern steel met the imperial rot of the Loen and Intis empires.
Xenodice led him through the White House, which now functioned as a high-security cathedral. They descended deep underground into a vault shielded by Concealment.
"The Goddess wants you to take this," Xenodice said, pointing to a single card resting on a velvet cushion.
It was the Fool Card.
The moment Dokja's fingers brushed the surface, the vault vanished.
The air suddenly turned sweet—the heavy, comforting scent of night vanilla. The sky was an eternal, peaceful twilight, dominated by a massive, gentle moon.
[True God 'Evernight Goddess' is looking at you.]
A woman stood in the center of the serene space, her form veiled in a gown of stars. Amanises didn't speak with her mouth; her thoughts resonated directly with Dokja's soul.
"I have investigated the source of the distortion," the Goddess whispered. "It led back to you."
Dokja straightened his posture.
"Your Blessed, Mr. Moretti is safe, inside my individual skill. But, if I let him out, previous owner of the Sefirah Castle will overtake his body. We have a plan, Your Holiness. And... we don't actually need the card. The Ancient Sun God showed Klein the true recipe and the ritual required for Sequence 0 – The Fool."
A ripple of genuine confusion passed through the Goddess's calm aura. The mention of the Third Epoch and Above the Sequence concepts was a breach of cosmic secrecy.
"You know too much for a Constellation," Amanises noted, her gaze deepening. "But I will not hinder you. The Great Old Ones are already scratching at the cracks of the world. Antigonus is currently in the Mount Alberta Range in Canada. You must go immediately."
She paused, her starlight veil fluttering.
"Be careful. Amon has been sighted in South America, and the Hidden Sage has been hunted. The 'Error' is looking for the 'Fool' after you helped the Great Dokkaebis with Dominators."
With a wave of her hand, the vanilla-scented peace shattered.
Dokja blinked, finding himself back beside a confused-looking Xenodice at the foot of a snowy mountain range.
"The Goddess told us to go to Alberta," Dokja said, shaking off the daze.
Xenodice frowned, adjusting her wand (which was actually a high-grade sealed artifact), but she didn't argue. She tapped the ground, and the world dissolved into the Spirit World.
They emerged in a militarized nightmare. The Feysac Empire had moved with brutal efficiency, annexing the Canadian wilderness before the Heroes Association could even file a protest.
The territory was now a high-security zone sponsored by
Giant-blooded warriors with frost-covered beards patrolled the perimeter, and hunters tracked monsters across the drifts.
"I can go no further," Xenodice said, looking at the unnatural fog clinging to the peaks. "From here, you walk alone."
Dokja's Midday Tryst pinged incessantly.
[Han Sooyoung]:WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!
[Yoo Joonghyuk]:I'm going to kill you.
...
Dokja ignored them.
He unfurled his gray Nephalem wings, the blend of light and darkness kicking up a flurry of snow as he took to the sky.
[The exclusive skill 'Bookmark' is activated!]
[The 4th bookmark, Lycaon is selected!]
[The exclusive skill 'Way of the Wind' Lv. 10 (+4) is activated!]
As he breached the 2,000-meter mark, a woman with a chilling smile appeared in mid-air. The Sealed Artifact 0-17, stood in his path. She didn't attack; she simply smiled and waved a hand.
[You have been 'Concealed' from reality.]
The world turned gray.
Dokja landed in a deserted, silent town.
Half-eaten food sat on tables; laundry hung frozen in the wind.
This was Foggy Town, a secret realm where the Evernight Goddess had hidden the madness of the past.
"Will your companions be worried?" Klein's voice sounded inside the Fourth Wall, tinged with guilt.
"They must be used to it by now," Dokja replied, his boots crunching on the cobblestones.
"You're cruel, Dokja."
"I'm doing it so they don't have to see what's inside that cathedral," Dokja countered.
['Fourth Wall' says that Kim Dokja is stupid.]
Dokja pushed open the heavy oak doors of the town's central cathedral. Immediately, his thoughts became sluggish. Thousands of transparent threads dangled from the vaulted ceiling, twitching as they sought to hook into his spirit.
['Fourth Wall' is vibrating intensely!]
[Story 'The Last Witness of the Unwritten End' is telling its tale!]
Dokja's status flared, the gray twilight of his Nephalem form pushing back the invisible pressure. He walked toward the altar, where a massive throne stood.
Sitting upon it was a nightmare. It wasn't a man, but a swarm of translucent maggots—the Worms of Spirit—coiling and roiling into a humanoid shape. It was the mad Half-Fool, Antigonus.
The air around him was a vortex of Fooling and Miracles gone wrong.
Dokja stopped at the base of the throne. The maggots pulsed, a thousand voices whispering "Hornacis... Flegrea..." into his mind.
Dokja looked at the swarm, his eyes reflecting the cold logic of the Cryptologist.
"Should we begin, Klein?"
***
The high-altitude conference hall of the Heroes Association headquarters didn't just feel crowded; it felt like the center of gravity for a dozen different universes. Outside, the sky was a jagged, kaleidoscopic mess where the Astral Barrier had once been, but inside, the tension was thick enough to stall a train.
The room was a map of the current world's power.
On one side sat
The air around the Tarot Club delegation was serene yet heavy. Fors Wall, wearing her traveler's cloak, looked slightly bored but kept a sharp eye on the Apocrypha representatives, Anna Croft and the deputy Atlas Xander who is also a member of Nine Stars. Xio Derecha sat with military posture, her hand never straying far from her blade, while Derrick Berg—the "Little Sun"—sat as a pillar of literal light, his presence acting as a natural anchor for the room's fraying nerves.
Opposite them sat the core of the Essence of the Strait. Yoo Yeonha looked like a queen on her throne, her fingers flying across a holographic interface. Kim Suho, Shin Jonghak, and Chae Nayun sat beside her, their faces etched with the fatigue of the recent battles in South America and the Western Continent.
Different politicians, archibishops of churches and high-ranking members of ruling families also gathered in the left part of the conference hall.
The heavy mahogany doors swung open without a sound. A man dressed in functional black tactical gear stepped into the room.
"Kim Hajin," Suho whispered, the name ripples through the room like a shockwave.
To the world, he was Fenrir, the terrifying mercenary. To the Chameleon Troupe, he was the Black Seat. But now, he carried the distinct, overwhelming weight of a Constellation. The status radiating from him was unrecognizable—it was sharp, precise, and carried the hum of a story that was still being written.
Hajin's eyes scanned the room. They lingered for a painful, awkward second on Chae Nayun, who had stiffened in her seat, before he turned his gaze toward Yoo Yeonha.
"The scenario in Mongolia is finalized," Hajin reported, his voice steady. "Pandemonium and the unsealed Western Continent are officially under the joint control of the Chameleon Troupe and the Heroes Association. It's still a mess out there. Master-rank heroes and official Beyonders are still trading blows with the Blood Sanctify Sect, the Rose School of Thought, and the Sinners."
Hajin walked toward the Tarot Club's section and took a seat near Fors Wall and Xio Derecha. His eyes flashed.
"You must be Madam Magician and Miss Judgment," Hajin said, nodding to them. "Mr. Fool—" he almost slipped and said Klein, but caught himself—"Mr. Fool told me a lot about you."
Fors Wall blinked, her bored expression vanishing instantly. "Mr. Fool?"
Hajin didn't answer. He simply leaned back as the room dimmed and a giant projector flared to life.
Yoo Yeonha stood up, her silhouette sharp against the glowing screen. Giant, blood-red letters formed on the wall:
[FINAL SCENARIO]
"We have five days," Yeonha began, her voice echoing through the silence. "The unsealing of the Western Continent has accelerated the Convergence. The Bureau is forcing the Final Scenario."
"Wait," Hajin interrupted, his hand raised.
The room went cold. Interrupting Yoo Yeonha during a briefing was a feat few dared to attempt. Hajin looked at her with a sudden, intense focus.
"The Dimensional Entropy. Is it safe?"
Yoo Yeonha blinked, confused by the sudden change in subject.
"The Church of the God of Steam and Machinery returned it to the Essence of the Strait yesterday. It's currently in our high-security vault. Why?"
Hajin didn't wait for the explanation.
He whistled, and a small, translucent hawk—Spartan—manifested on his shoulder.
"Hajin? Where are you going?" Kim Suho called out.
"I have remembered something," Hajin replied, his form already beginning to blur into a swirl of stardust. "Please contact me later through Chameleon Troupe."
With a soft pop, he vanished, leaving the conference room in stunned silence. Yoo Yeonha let out a long, weary sigh, rubbing her temples.
"He's always like that," she muttered, before looking back at the map.