How many long years did the King of Terror have to endure for this moment?

It was a terrible and beautiful and brilliant and mysterious dream. A nightmare that at last announced the end of a world. An endless darkness with no end in sight, whose source no starlight would dare illuminate.

In that darkness, the Final Dragon’s tail moved.

【Kim Dokja!】

Jang Hayoung, who had crossed the threshold late, shouted. But her voice was buried in the story of the giant fable and couldn’t be heard.

The King of Terror’s finger dropped from above to below, and in time with it, the Final Dragon’s tail slammed down.

[Giant fable, ‘Season of Light and Darkness’ is reenacted!]

The Final Dragon’s tail swing flew in with a roar. Its first shockwave crossed over the threshold of the time stratum.

Through [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] Stage 0, I watched that scene. The time the King of Terror had endured in order to dream this dream pierced through my soul and passed on.

[Fable, ‘King of Terror’ begins its story.]

At that moment, I was the King of Terror, and the King of Terror was me.

Kim Dokja, who had dreamed and dreamed for a long time in the “big house,” which was far too small compared to the world he had longed for.

「“Hayoung.”」

And there was a warrior who had stayed by his side.

「“Do you think I’ll be able to dream a happy dream someday.”」

Even he, who loved sorrow more than anyone, actually wanted to dream a happy dream.

But he didn’t know what kind of dream was a “happy dream.” He had forgotten what it was, and maybe he never even learned.

To him, Jang Hayoung said.

「“Dreaming a happy dream isn’t what’s important.”」

As she stroked the head of the boy who had now forgotten even what happiness meant, Jang Hayoung told him an old story.

「“What’s important is that you’re alive right now.”」

Jang Hayoung also didn’t know what happiness was, either.

She just had the sentences of the wall she had scribbled for a long time.

Precious sentences she had stacked up and recorded one by one on the unidentified wall—the “Wall of Impossible Communication”—hoping that someday someone would read them again.

After a long time, she was reading those sentences again. She was reading them herself, the sentences she had hoped someone would read for her.

Helping Aileen with things at Clock Point Etica (“Honestly, I don’t really know much about clocks.”).

The taste of the “Demon Gopchang Stir-fry of the Ruin Mountain Lodge” that Chef Marc had made (“If you don’t eat it just because of how it looks, you’re the one who loses out.”).

The day she first came face to face with Kim Dokja in the world of a terrible scenario (“Some pale bastard shoulder-checked me…….”).

The moment time began to flow again in the Demon World that had stopped (“It felt so hopeless.”).

The memory of her, who had lived her whole life lamenting her own talent, blooming that talent for the first time and becoming Kim Dokja’s “warrior” (“Back then, it was really overwhelming.”).

The time when people who hadn’t been given any role in the scenario could all become “Kim Dokja” as everyone shouted “revolution” on the same day at the same time (“I probably can never forget it.”).

Jang Hayoung talked about all those things as if she was troubled, as if she was sad—or as if she was happy.

Kim Dokja listened to those stories in silence, then nodded and asked.

「“Is that happiness?”」

Jang Hayoung fell silent for a moment, then smiled faintly and answered.

「“I don’t know.”」

「“Why are you telling me this?”」

「“Because I want you to be alive.”」

The moment I drew in a breath, the fable vanished.

[Fable, ‘King of Terror’ ends its story.]

Toward warrior Jang Hayoung, who was shouting this way from afar, the King of Terror said,

【I’m sorry. For not being able to keep the promise to the end.】

The shockwave of the tail swing that was approaching while crushing the entire upper part of the “room of the time stratum.”

According to the main story, the “Final Dragon”’s “first tail swing” devastates a quarter of <Star Stream>.

The tail swing consisted of three stages of shockwaves, and the “shockwave” approaching right now was the “first shockwave” of them.

At that moment, Zeus’s Astrape aimed at the sky. The <Olympus> fleet, having completed its formation, was waiting for orders.

[Fire.]

Dozens of ships fired their flash cannons at the same time.

Magic cannons carrying, no less, the giant fable of <Olympus>.

The tremendous force contained in each shot swept away the nearby Outer Gods and collided with the Final Dragon’s shockwave.

Kugugugugu!

But even under that immense bombardment, the shockwave didn’t take the slightest hit.

The end, approaching slowly and faithfully.

The faces of the Twelve Divine Seats darkened as they confirmed that wave.

[How can that be……!]

That was the Final Dragon’s power. The disaster of <Star Stream> that ended the Holy Demon Great War.

Even so, there wasn’t absolutely no way to stop that tail swing.

The Kim Dokja of the main story had stopped that shockwave before.

「The first shockwave of the tail swing is made of ‘electric shock.’」

Considering the lineup of constellations who endured the shockwave in the main story, Zeus, a myth-grade constellation who handled “lightning,” had more than enough qualification to block that first shockwave.

And yet Zeus’s judgment was this.

[Withdraw.]

A portal opened in midair, and the ships began to back away.

In that brief moment, Zeus had decided.

Even if they neutralized the “first shockwave,” it would be difficult to fully endure the Final Dragon’s power here.

Even if they endured it, he must have judged that it would bring him more loss than gain.

It was cowardly, but a wise choice.

Because—

Tztztztztztztz!

Right after the tail swing began, everything in the apocalypse region began to be swept up by the Backlash of Plausibility.

【Aaaaaaaaaaah!】

A space where it wouldn’t be strange for existence to shatter at any moment.

No normal constellation would want to stay in a region like this for even a second.

[You damn fragments of the Oldest Dream.]

Zeus, vanishing beyond the portal, turned back this way at the very end.

[<Olympus> will definitely reclaim our ■■.]

With those words as the last, Zeus and the Twelve Divine Seats’ presence vanished completely.

[A Great Nebula, <Olympus>, endures massive damage and exits the ‘apocalypse region’.]

I let out a bitter laugh inside.

After making things like this, they were going to run away by themselves.

Still, with this, <Olympus> would have taken an enormous hit to its “giant fable.”

No matter how much the “scale of Plausibility” had broken, the power Zeus used in the “apocalypse region” was authority fit only for the final chapter of a scenario.

Maybe this time, they might have to step down from the “top three” Great Nebulae.

Anyway, if it’s like this, what happens to us?

<Olympus> was gone, but the shockwave left by the “first tail swing” was still sweeping toward us.

【Oooooooo!】

Terrified Outer Gods were fleeing into different “time strata.”

I considered calling Jaehwan again, but as Jang Hayoung had said, there was no way to summon him anymore.

That meant from now on we had to block that shockwave with our own strength.

In the main story, the lineup of constellations that stopped that “tail swing” was four in total.

Thor and Dionysus, Kim Dokja with [Incarnation] activated, and Kyrioos. Only after they joined forces did they barely stop the “first shockwave.”

But there is no Thor here, and no Dionysus.

What’s here is…….

[So that thing finally woke up. Looks like my disciple failed.]

When I turned around, Cheok Jun-gyeong was squinting at me. Fortunately, it seemed the captain-level figures of the “Transcendent Alliance” had preserved their lives.

[But it’s still too early to give up.]

Kyrioos, who had come out of the “big house,” rose into the sky as he released the status of transcendence with [Incarnation] activated.

[There is ‘paradox’ here.]

With a kudedeuk sound, the Baekcheong lightning he released began to neutralize the shockwave.

Kugugugugu.

But it was impossible with him alone.

No matter that he was one of the captains of the “Transcendent Alliance,” if just a single Transcendent could stop the “first shockwave,” the Final Dragon wouldn’t even be called a disaster.

Fortunately, he wasn’t alone.

【Uaaaaaah!】

Beside Kyrioos, who was burning black, the King of the Transcendents—Jang Hayoung—charged in with [Incarnation] activated.

After that, unnamed Outer Gods joined them at their side.

【Oooooooo!】

Was it an illusion?

At a glance, the backs of the Outer Gods exerting themselves looked just like Thor and Indra.

As Jang Hayoung too began to burn black all over, she turned around and shouted.

【Kim Dokja! Close the door! Hurry!】

Only after hearing that did a thought suddenly occur to me.

That the Final Dragon’s tail swing had swept over the apocalypse region was because the “King of Terror” had opened the door of the “time stratum.”

Then conversely, if the King of Terror could just close that door once again—

「The King of Terror cannot close the ‘door.’」

[Exclusive skill, ‘Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint’ Stage 0 is released.]

As [Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint] was released, the King of Terror sneezed violently into the air. I burst out of his mouth along with sticky mucus.

【Youngest.】

With a light dizziness, I opened my eyes in my incarnation body. The King of Terror burning dazzlingly was in front of me.

I knew why he was calling me.

He was Kim Dokja who only dreamed the most terrible dreams. In order to summon the Final Dragon, he had just squandered all the Plausibility he possessed.

【I can’t close that ‘door.’】

He couldn’t stop his nightmare.

【Soon the train will come, and I’ll put you and the kids on that train. So you can evacuate far away from this ‘apocalypse region’.】

Even in the final moment, he was worrying about others, not himself.

“Are you giving up like this? We’ve come this far. We can do it! It’s a disaster you called, so you should be able to erase it too. So—”

As if brushing my words aside, the King of Terror shook his head.

【Even though I’ve dreamed for so long, the only dreams I could dream were nightmares.】

“But.”

【Except maybe for one single dream.】

After lightly sweeping his gaze over the entirety of the apocalypse region, the King of Terror turned back to me one last time.

It was truly a suffocating gaze. Unable to endure it, I staggered.

【Maybe this moment is.】

When I first met the “King of Terror,” I thought he was a little scary. But damn it, in this moment, I was thinking that his appearance was beautiful.

I thought the appearance of him staking everything to protect all these others was more Kim Dokja than any Kim Dokja I knew.

【The reason I’ve been dreaming until now.】

From far away, I heard a horn. The familiar sound of wheels running along rails.

From far away, a subway train was approaching.

「The subway on the way home from work」.

The train that had brought us into this terrible world of scenarios.

【Thank you for letting me dream a good dream, Youngest.】

Even so, only that train was the only salvation that could rescue us from hell in this moment.

“Let’s go together.”

Holding onto his hand tightly, I said. Then the King of Terror shook his head.

【I can’t. Because soon I’ll be the ‘apocalypse region’ itself.】

“If you die here, then in the end, don’t all the dreams you collected disappear too?”

【…….】

“There’s one way.”

Looking back and forth between the shockwave that had come right up to us, and the train running from far away, I finished speaking.

“A way for nothing in this apocalypse region to disappear, and to avoid the ‘end.’”