Dramatization versus dramatization.

Yoo Joonghyuk was shocked that a tactic like this was even possible.

[Fable, ‘Tyrant King Slayer’ stammers as if flustered!]

It was possible to cover an already-established ‘stage’ with another ‘stage’?

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ continues the story!]

Then the voice in his head—the Demon King of Salvation—snickered.

—Honestly, it’s my first time doing it too. I wasn’t sure if it’d work.

But it worked.

Yoo Joonghyuk could clearly feel the power of ‘dramatization’ surging from his entire body.

「Amid the countless gazes of stars pouring down from the sky, the story that would kill me was approaching, sentence by sentence.」

It was a fable from a worldline he didn’t know. In that fable, Yoo Joonghyuk killed Kim Dokja. More precisely, he and his companions killed Kim Dokja.

"Why did something like that happen?"

—Curious?

Yoo Joonghyuk frowned as if he didn’t like it.

What he liked even less was the effect of the ‘Ultimate Murim Dumpling’.

To be fair, the effect itself wasn’t the problem. It literally made the consumed target’s incarnation body into its absolute peak.

The problem was the period that effect defined as his ‘absolute peak’.

"Why is my absolute peak in another worldline?"

The ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ contained in that fable was weaker than he was now. He didn’t possess power on the level of a constellation, and his mastery of the Heaven-Splitting Swordsmanship hadn’t broken through to a higher realm either.

And yet, the ‘Ultimate Murim Dumpling’ chose the ‘Yoo Joonghyuk’ inside that fable as his absolute peak.

As if reading his thoughts, Kim Dokja chuckled.

—Because that’s the most popular story, isn’t it?

There was no need to ask, popular with whom. Probably the constellations. And the <Star Stream>.

For reasons he didn’t know, the constellations of that worldline liked that story—and so, it provided plausibility.

[The plausibility of another worldline strengthens your body.]

With explosive leg strength, Yoo Joonghyuk shot forward in an instant and drove his spear out.

Cheon Inho staggered back, startled by a tyrannical spear strike different from before. With a screeching frictional sound, the blade of ‘Unbreakable Faith’ wavered precariously.

Cheon Inho, who had even activated ‘demon king transformation’, was being pushed back.

As dark red feathers and white feathers scattered like they were dancing, the two men’s fables faced each other.

[Fable, ‘Tyrant King Slayer’ continues the story!]

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ continues the story!]

It was like a wolf and a leopard tearing into each other. The fables contained in spear strikes and sword strikes collided nonstop, snarling.

Cheon Inho muttered as if impressed.

"I never expected you to bring in a ‘stage’ from another worldline. To use the fact that I became Kim Dokja like this against me."

"…"

"Is it the wisdom of the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ who descended on you?"

Just as expected, Cheon Inho seemed to have noticed Kim Dokja’s presence.

Cheon Inho added as if warning him,

"Demon King of Salvation. This world is the ‘41st turn’. It isn’t the worldline you lived in."

—He’s getting talkative now that he’s losing, that bastard.

"Do you think you can keep interfering with this worldline like that? You won’t have much plausibility left now."

—Hey, keep pushing.

"How long do you think this <Star Stream> will tolerate your rampage? Do you want to be erased like this?"

—Ignore him. If we force him to the limit right now, we win.

With a tzzzt sound, a small spark jumped from Yoo Joonghyuk’s entire body.

[The connection of Exclusive Skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’, is unstable.]

Cheon Inho’s point was true. In reality, the [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] used by the first Kim Dokja was endlessly unstable compared to the youngest’s.

That couldn’t be helped—because he was an existence residing inside the [Fourth Wall]. In the first place, it was an absurd situation for a Kim Dokja inside the [Fourth Wall] to be affecting the scenario like this at all.

And yet, the impossible had become possible because—

[The plausibility of the ‘Fourth Wall’ stirs.]

Because the wishes of the little Kim Dokjas inside the [Fourth Wall] existed.

Every ‘little Kim Dokja’ was, to varying degrees, a fragment of the ‘Oldest Dream’. So the dream they dreamed together became a kind of powerful plausibility.

Of course, since they were all pretty young little kids, there was no telling how long that concentration would last…

—It’s fine, so don’t worry and just fight.

The first Kim Dokja said in a fierce voice.

—As long as that bastard doesn’t give up claiming that he’s ‘Kim Dokja’, this ‘stage’ will remain valid.

Cheon Inho was an extra who had dreamed of being the ‘protagonist’ all along. So there was no way he would ever let go of this chance he’d gotten—getting his hands on the protagonist’s name.

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ roars!]

So from Yoo Joonghyuk’s perspective, right now was the decisive chance to kill the ‘protagonist’.

[Fable, ‘Tyrant King Slayer’ goes on a rampage!]

Fable versus fable. The conflicting stages began to thrash, trying to devour each other. Each time the fables collided, wounds increased across both Cheon Inho’s and Yoo Joonghyuk’s bodies.

As the drawn-out stalemate continued, Cheon Inho’s narrowed eyes thinned even further.

[Fable, ‘When All the Stars Close Their Eyes’ begins a story!]

In the end, Cheon Inho pulled out another fable. It was the main fable of Cheon Inho from the 40th turn.

「When All the Stars Close Their Eyes」.

Pitch-black darkness began to settle over everything like snow. Wherever the darkness landed, light went out and the scenery faded.

Cheon Inho’s epithet was ‘One Who Deceived the Stars’.

In the darkness where the gazes of all the stars vanished, he became complete at last.

Spot.

The instant Yoo Joonghyuk’s vision was swallowed by the dark, a blade grazed his thigh and the side of his waist. Yoo Joonghyuk adjusted his grip on his spear, frowning.

Even in their last clash, Yoo Joonghyuk had once suffered badly from this fable. Thankfully, because of that experience, Yoo Joonghyuk knew the method to break it.

"Open your eyes, you damn stars."

At Yoo Joonghyuk’s words, Cheon Inho spoke in a voice that sounded deliberately surprised.

"Oh, dear. Don’t tell me you restored ‘that fable’ through the time stratum?"

While experiencing the 40th turn time stratum, Yoo Joonghyuk hadn’t just been sitting around doing nothing. From the moment he revived through [Lion Summoning], Yoo Joonghyuk had been keeping in mind what ‘fable’ he would take with him when he returned to the 41st turn.

And now, from Yoo Joonghyuk’s entire body, the fable of the 40th turn was beginning its story once again.

[Fable, ‘King Who Leads the Stars’ begins a story.]

Yoo Joonghyuk’s fable, 「King Who Leads the Stars」. It was a fable that brightened the world’s darkness by burning the plausibility of the stars that followed him.

But Cheon Inho spoke as if he pitied him.

"However, that ‘fable’ only has meaning when there are stars that follow you."

"…"

"Did you forget, Yoo Joonghyuk? This isn’t the 40th turn. There isn’t a single constellation that follows you."

On top of that, the ‘Domain of Terror’ was a region where the gazes of constellations were blocked. Even if there were constellations willing to take his side, there was no way they would be watching this scene right now.

But Yoo Joonghyuk said in a low voice.

"There is one."

At the same time, light began to seep out from somewhere.

Shockingly, the place that light flowed from was Cheon Inho’s body.

Startled, Cheon Inho looked down at himself and muttered.

"How…."

"Because that guy is a constellation too."

As if a single light was enough, Yoo Joonghyuk aimed at that light and leveled his spear.

"Now I can see."

Yoo Joonghyuk’s spear, thrown like an arrow, pierced Cheon Inho’s thigh.

Cheon Inho cried out in astonishment, clutching his thigh as he swung his sword.

"It’s still useless! With a stage that incomplete, you can never kill me!"

A spark flickered again in midair. The spark was concentrated especially on Yoo Joonghyuk’s ‘spear’—and the reason was clear.

「And finally, a single sword pierced my heart.」

In the fable of the 「Demon King of Salvation」, what killed Kim Dokja wasn’t a ‘spear’, but a ‘sword’.

Knowing that, Cheon Inho said as if mocking him,

"If you’d used a sword like I advised, this wouldn’t have happened."

"If you want to nitpick flaws in dramatization, it’s the same on your side."

[Fable, ‘Tyrant King Slayer’ stammers.]

Cheon Inho possessed Cheon Inho’s flesh, but he was claiming the identity of ‘Kim Dokja’.

Because of that, even the ‘Tyrant King Slayer’ he carried was in a state where it couldn’t fully display its original status.

"Cheon Inho. Do you want to defeat me?"

"Of course."

"There is a way for you to defeat me."

"Oh? I’d like to hear the trap, at least."

"Stop being Kim Dokja."

"…"

"Why no answer? Didn’t you want to defeat me?"

Yoo Joonghyuk thought.

Cheon Inho must have become stronger by absorbing ‘that guy’s’ soul by some method.

That was how he had become ‘Kim Dokja’.

Then what if, conversely, he could be made to vomit that guy’s soul back out?

"Didn’t you say you wanted to be the protagonist? Was your resolve only that much?"

"…"

"The ‘Sophist of Evil’ I knew wasn’t someone that small. He might dig vile and cunning traps, but he wasn’t a coward who hid while leaning on another existence’s name-value. So—"

Lightly swinging his spear to open distance, Yoo Joonghyuk said,

"You right now aren’t even ‘Cheon Inho’."

"What do you know."

A voice grinding its teeth.

Fury was embedded in Cheon Inho’s swordplay.

"You, who were born as the protagonist of a story from the start— you, who endured life after being given lofty and noble meaning— what do you know about those who weren’t chosen?"

"I don’t. And I don’t want to know."

Each time light burst out in the darkness, fables spilled down from both of their bodies.

Amid panting breaths echoing out, the two of them swung spear and sword at each other, and swung again.

Without any understanding of each other, they used their weapons only to kill each # Nоvеlight # other.

Cheon Inho smiled.

"In the end, I win."

It was a smile as if, just by continuing this fight, his objective was already being achieved.

"How long do you think the Demon King of Salvation can keep helping you?"

The power of 「dramatization」 residing on Yoo Joonghyuk’s body was decreasing little by little.

"The protagonist of this worldline has already changed. The story the stars want to see has naturally changed too. That fable can’t protect you forever."

"…"

"Yoo Joonghyuk. Become my companion now. Then I will show you the end of this world."

That was when the ‘King of Terror’ reacted.

A massive earthquake shook the entire ‘big house’. In the unsteady view, the Outer Gods of the Domain of Terror howled once again.

And something began.

[The ‘King of Terror’ strongly reacts to the fable before him!]

Thunder struck the sky, and a gigantic fissure tore open. And at the same time, an existence forced his way through that fissure.

He was a dokkaebi envoy dispatched to the ‘Domain of Terror’ on behalf of the ‘Bureau’.

[Wow, what is this—]

It was Bihyung. Bihyung glanced over at Cheon Inho and Yoo Joonghyuk as if urgently assessing the situation, then immediately understood his mission.

[Constellation-nims. Opening an emergency temporary channel!]

The moment the temporary channel opened, starlight began to pour in through the crack.

[Multiple constellations have confirmed the ‘Domain of Terror’!]

[Nebula <Eden> confirms the interior of the ‘Domain of Terror’!]

[Nebula <Asgard> confirms the interior of the ‘Domain of Terror’!]

[Nebula <Olympus> confirms the interior of the ‘Domain of Terror’!]

…

As the interior of the ‘Domain of Terror’, which had been hidden behind a veil, was revealed, the ‘big house’ filled with riotous starlight.

[The constellations of the major nebulae are shocked by the interior scenery of the ‘Domain of Terror’!]

[The ‘King of Terror’ manifests authority.]

[Within the channel of this region, no constellation can use ‘indirect messages’.]

As if refusing to tolerate any interference with this story, the sky was blanketed in silence.

While countless star-lights glittered without words, Cheon Inho and Yoo Joonghyuk aimed sword and spear at each other.

With a tzzzt sound, at last, the fable that had been wrapping Yoo Joonghyuk disappeared.

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ ends the story.]

With that, Cheon Inho wore a face as if he had foreseen his victory.

"It’s over now, Yoo Joonghyuk."

But the next moment, a single star-light in the sky blinked.

It was starlight that came from <Eden>.

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ stammers.]

Then another star-light glittered. This time, it came from <Emperor>.

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ catches his breath.]

Yet another star-light glittered. This one flowed in from among the small and mid-sized nebulae of the ‘Absolute Evil’ line.

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ continues the story.]

Emitting light even brighter than before, the fable began its story again.

Cheon Inho stared up at the sky with eyes wide, as if he couldn’t believe it.

It couldn’t be.

The fable residing on Yoo Joonghyuk right now wasn’t one from this worldline. It wasn’t a story that the constellations of this worldline had enjoyed—rejoicing over it, grieving over it.

"Don’t tell me—"

And yet, the fable continued.

That meant there were stars who wanted that story.

It meant there were stars who existed who would burn themselves if they had to, just to illuminate that fable.

[Fable, ‘Demon King of Salvation’ gazes at the far sky.]

Therefore, the story continues once more.

To prove that even now, in this universe, there are still stars who like this story.