The fable, 「Demon King of Salvation」.

As the core fable that placed Kim Dokja among the constellations, its reenactment was extremely difficult.

[Some of the conditions for ‘Staging’ have been fulfilled.]

At some point, it seemed the cleanup of the ‘high-grade demons’ had finished, as Lee Hyunsung, Lee Jihye, and Shin Yuseung gathered around us.

Right on cue, Ji Eunyu pushed through the brush and appeared. Jung Heewon was slung over her back.

With this, including the fallen Lee Gilyoung, most of the members that made up <Kim Dokja Company> were now present.

Representing them, Yu Joonghyuk stared at the Demon King of Salvation standing some distance away and muttered,

“So that bastard is a ‘Great Demon’, huh.”

“Yes.”

“You. What kind of dirty scheme are you plotting again?”

“A dirty scheme? This is a perfectly legitimate operation.”

Given that this place was the ‘Recycling Center’ and the scenario was ‘Hunt the Demon King of Salvation’, there was more than enough Plausibility itself for the requirements of 「Staging」.

As if he had seen through my entire design, the Demon King of Salvation kept nodding his head.

「This should be fun.」

Before I realized it, I bit down hard on my lip.

Can you really say something like that even at a moment like this.

For him, who looked thrilled like a child, I now had to write the final sentence he wanted.

The Demon King of Salvation spread his arms wide, as if volunteering to play the villain himself, and said,

“Alright. Let’s begin.”

Tsssss— with the rippling background, the stage opened.

As Lee Jihye, Lee Hyunsung, Shin Yuseung, and Kim Namwoon surrounded the Demon King of Salvation from all sides, Killer King and Cha Yerin, Lee Dansoo and Gyeong Sein joined in right after.

“Attack!”

With Lee Jihye’s shout, a sharp blade-light swept across the Demon King of Salvation’s entire body. Through the pale dust billowing up, Lee Hyunsung’s and Gyeong Sein’s shoulder charges followed.

The Demon King of Salvation raised both hands and caught the two of them.

「The party members were rushing in.」

With both of the Demon King of Salvation’s hands tied up, Cha Yerin, who had activated [Versus Action Combat], and Kim Namwoon, who had activated [Knife Fighting], aimed for his back.

「In <Star Stream>, existence itself is ‘story’.」

A combined attack of [Baekcheong Qi] and [Blackening].

Sword qi dyed black and white tore through the Demon King of Salvation’s back.

「Amid the countless gazes of stars pouring down from midair, the story meant to kill me was approaching, one sentence at a time.」

It felt strange. This was once the story that had killed him.

I remembered <Kim Dokja Company> from back then. Among them, there wasn’t a single person who truly wanted to kill Kim Dokja.

But what about now?

“Side! It’s open!”

Lee Jihye, Lee Hyunsung, and Kim Namwoon were all swinging their weapons at Kim Dokja without the slightest hesitation.

The only ones showing hesitant movements were Shin Yuseung and the readers like me. Gyeong Sein and Lee Dansoo kept turning toward me, asking with their eyes.

「Is this okay?」

They knew who the Demon King of Salvation was and why he was standing there.

They knew what he had sacrificed to protect this universe. Even so, I nodded to them.

Because only like this could this story be changed.

“Master!”

The final attack came from Yu Joonghyuk. The Moon Halberd in his hands surged forward, scattering pitch-black sword qi. The golden sword qi clinging to the spear-blade struck the Demon King of Salvation’s belly straight on.

Kim Namwoon sneered,

“Did we get him?”

Through the hazy dust, the figure of the Demon King of Salvation emerged. Despite the party’s combined assault, he was almost completely uninjured.

Astonished, Kim Namwoon muttered,

“What kind of durability—”

“Master, can we really take that thing down?”

[The ‘73rd Demon King’ enters a new phase!]

At the same time as Lee Jihye’s grumbling, a message rang out from midair.

[Great Demon King, ‘Demon King of Salvation’, rises in grade!]

“Are you kidding me. He gets even stronger from there?”

Blades of magic power erupted from across the Demon King of Salvation’s body. Using [Wind’s Path] to raise barriers, he was leisurely holding off the entire party.

「Youngest. This fable doesn’t make me ‘weaker’. You haven’t forgotten, have you.」

I remembered too.

During the 73rd Demon King scenario, he had survived even after taking the full assault of <Kim Dokja Company>.

Han Sooyoung’s [Avatar], Jung Heewon’s [Hell Flames of Judgment], and Shin Yuseung’s Chimera Dragon—none of it had worked on him.

He was the scenario boss, the ‘Demon King of Salvation’.

“Yu Joonghyuk!”

But whether the opponent was a Demon King or a constellation, the influence of 「Staging」 was absolute.

“Take this!”

Yu Joonghyuk caught the Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword I threw. In that instant, he seemed to grasp why I had thrown it.

“A resurrection trait, huh.”

The Demon King of Salvation answered in my place.

“That’s right. I revive [N O V E L I G H T] even if I die.”

“This sword can delete resurrection traits.”

“That’s true.”

The Demon King of Salvation nodded as if agreeing, then broke into a playful grin.

“But I wonder whether you can really do it.”

Instead of answering, Yu Joonghyuk swung the Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword.

「Power obtained through a fable is ultimately destined to collapse by a fable. My resurrection trait, ‘Eight Lives’, originates from the authority of the constellation Yamata no Orochi.」

The trajectory of [Heaven-Splitting Sword Dao] was etched along the blade of the Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword. The sword strike that erased even resurrection traits reached the Demon King of Salvation’s chest, and his lips twitched slightly.

[The reenactment of ‘Staging’ wavers.]

Yu Joonghyuk’s sword technique wavered in surprise, and then the Demon King of Salvation swept both hands and knocked the blade away.

It was unbelievable.

The power of 「Staging」 was absolute. No matter how much he was the Demon King of Salvation, there was no way he should have been able to take the Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword.

I staggered toward the battlefield. Yu Joonghyuk, who had stepped back, blocked my way.

“Don’t come. In that condition, you’ll die.”

“What did he just say to you?”

I had seen it clearly.

The Demon King of Salvation said something to Yu Joonghyuk, and from that moment, Yu Joonghyuk’s state changed.

Yu Joonghyuk hesitated briefly, then confessed in a low, growling voice.

“He said I wouldn’t be able to use this sword properly.”

That he couldn’t use the sword?

I wondered what that meant, and then a message surfaced.

[The current target is suffering the side effects of ‘Shackles of Truth’.]

Shackles of Truth.

One of the ‘fable engravings’ Yu Joonghyuk possessed, sealing part of his memories as the price for gaining great power.

I quickly looked up and asked,

“Don’t tell me you forgot how to use the sword?”

“I can’t use it like I used to.”

I see.

In the 41st round, Yu Joonghyuk’s primary weapon was the spear. So he must have offered up ‘how to use a sword’ as the sacrifice for a fable engraving.

From afar, the Demon King of Salvation looked this way and sneered.

「Now do you get it?」

I replied calmly on purpose.

「I expected as much.」

「Oh? Then you know the solution too.」

Maybe because the fatigue had built up, my consciousness kept blurring. It flickered out for brief instants, several times.

Right now, it felt like ‘that’ might be possible.

“Yu Joonghyuk. From now on, think about me.”

“What nonsense are you—”

Yu Joonghyuk glared at me, his expression hardening. Immediately after, a skill activated.

[Exclusive skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’, activates!]

The moment my incarnation body collapsed, my soul lodged itself inside Yu Joonghyuk’s incarnation body through [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint].

Startled, Yu Joonghyuk said,

“You bastard, how did—”

There’s no time to explain! Grip the sword!

The Demon King of Salvation’s phase passed once more.

Now the party wasn’t pushing him back at all—they were being driven back in a scramble. Every time the Demon King of Salvation casually moved a hand, massive shockwaves erupted, pressing down on the group.

Yu Joonghyuk shook his head.

“In my current state, I can’t use this sword properly. I’d be better off taking up a spear—”

No. This time, you have to take the sword. And those too!

Yu Joonghyuk picked up the two holy swords lying beside my incarnation body—Raybringer and Light Wish.

[Exclusive skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’, is pushed to the limit!]
[Exclusive skill, ‘Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World’, activates!]

Then, the text of ‘Annihilation Method’ began to surface.

「In the darkness, Yu Joonghyuk took up his sword.」

In sync with the flow of the text, Yu Joonghyuk took up the sword once more.

「Within the temporal strata of the dark dimension, Yu Joonghyuk swung his sword, again and again.」

Yu Joonghyuk, who had undergone extreme training countless times to become a transcendent. His records were being transmitted back to Yu Joonghyuk through me.

Realizing something was happening, the Demon King of Salvation’s smile deepened.

「Impressive.」

This was a strategy Kim Dokja had once used. Awakening Yu Joonghyuk’s forgotten fables through ‘Annihilation Method’.

「You’ve grown a lot, youngest.」

The Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword collided with the Mole Cricket Knife.

A tearing screech split the sky.

Again and again, the two blades went for each other’s throats, chests, shoulders. Thighs were torn, shoulders split, blood splashed across cheeks.

Even so, the swords did not stop.

This wasn’t enough.

The Demon King of Salvation had probably known I would use ‘Annihilation Method’.

With a ‘story’ he already knew, I couldn’t defeat him.

That was why—

「A story the Demon King of Salvation does not know.」

I had to write this story again, the one I had failed to complete in the past.

Calmly, I sketched an old scene in my mind. It was the story of a warden who ruled infinite time.

「Ma Hyeonseong looked at the Great Demon.」

A flicker of bewilderment crossed the Demon King of Salvation’s expression.

「Looking closer, the Great Demon seemed to resemble him. Or perhaps it was he who resembled the Great Demon. Over the course of their long battle, they had finally become parts of one another.」

Yu Joonghyuk!

「He knew the story wouldn’t end just because the Great Demon was defeated here. He knew the one who reached the end of a long battle would become lonely. Once even his sole true adversary—the Great Demon—disappeared, his world would be filled with emptiness.」

Raybringer and Light Wish shone with a brilliant light, then fused into a single sword.

The holy sword.

Light Bringer.

The decisive weapon of Ma Hyeonseong, protagonist of 『Infinite Warden』, and the only weapon capable of dealing effective damage to the Great Demon.

「Even so, he decided to walk toward that emptiness.」

With a radiant beam, the holy sword Light Bringer shone.

「He decided to cut down the only one who understood him, and to witness for himself the end of this forest where nothing would remain.」

One of the Demon King of Salvation’s arms flew through the air. His fluttering coat tore, and the Mole Cricket Knife shattered. I saw him hastily convert ‘Thought’ into Unbreakable Conviction.

But that was a mistake.

[The reenactment rate of Staging rises!]

If the Mole Cricket Knife heightened the reenactment of the Geumho Station stage, then Unbreakable Conviction contributed to the reenactment of 「Demon King of Salvation」.

“Ah.”

As if by magic, Yu Joonghyuk’s right hand moved. A blade cut across the radiance revealed by Light Bringer. A heaven-splitting strike that shattered a sky studded with stars was loaded onto the tip of the Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword.

With the sound of flesh being pierced, the expanding wave of magic power swept through the center of the battlefield like a storm.

[Constellations of nebula <Olympus> widen their eyes!]
[Constellations of nebula <Veda> doubt their eyes at your performance!]
[Some constellations of nebula <Asgard> attempt to invade the Recycling Center!]
[All constellations of the ‘Recycling Center’ fix their gaze upon the battlefield!]
……

[You have achieved a non-existent achievement!]
[All dokkaebis of the Administration Bureau are aghast at your fable!]
……

[Exclusive skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’, is deactivated!]

I woke up, vomiting blood in a gush. With a mangled incarnation body, I gasped for breath several times and awkwardly got to my feet.

I began to stagger forward.

“Please.”

That was when someone took my hand.

“Don’t kill him.”

Along with the fading voice, the hand holding mine vanished. I felt no trace of a presence.

For a moment, I wondered if it had been Lee Gilyoung.

After staring briefly at the spot where Lee Gilyoung had disappeared, I staggered forward again.

On the ground where pitch-black dust had settled, the party members lay collapsed—Lee Jihye, Lee Hyunsung, Kim Namwoon, Shin Yuseung…….

And at the center of the dust storm, someone knelt.

I called his name.

“Kim Dokja.”

There was no answer. I called him again.

“Demon King of Salvation.”

Then he lifted his head. My hyung was there, his belly pierced by the Heaven-Piercing Cloud Sword, blood trailing down as he smiled.

[Great Demon King, ‘Demon King of Salvation’, meets his fate.]

The ancient prophecy of the Great Nebula was once again approaching fulfillment.

「Constellation ‘Demon King of Salvation’ will die within the story he loved.」

Facing that fate, he smiled.

Is this truly the story you wanted? Can you really say you love even a story like this?

[Your backer constellation fully transfers his grade to you.]

A star that had hung in an endlessly high sky. A star that had watched over me again and again from that sky. Now, that star was within reach if I stretched out my hand.

I slowly knelt before him.

“What a shame.”

Like someone who had finally graduated from this story, the Demon King of Salvation was smiling so brightly it was dazzling.

“I want to read it once more.”