I stared at that sentence carefully.
In this story, the ‘reunion’ I want can’t be achieved?

[The ‘Great Fable’ stops the story.]
Before I could even resolve my question, the sentence in front of my eyes scattered.

Why did the ‘Great Fable’ activate all of a sudden? It wasn’t that 「Staging」 occurred, and it wasn’t a situation where I had forcibly drawn on the power of a fable. If that was the case, did the [Fourth Wall] activate and read the fable on its own?

“Demon King of Salvation.”

I tried calling again with Kim Dokja’s smartphone.

[Currently, ‘call connection’ is not possible.]

What was it. Did something happen again inside the [Fourth Wall]?

I slowly took a deep breath, then tried to calmly grasp the situation. I had read a sentence that looked like it would be a lethal foreshadowing no matter who saw it, but just as in the main story, not all foreshadowing necessarily comes true in the worst possible form.

For example, the fable said the ‘reunion I want’ couldn’t be achieved, but it didn’t say that ‘reunion’ itself would be impossible.

Of course, I was a little uneasy.

At least several months had passed since I last saw the companions. It was a length of time where it wouldn’t be strange if something had happened. Still, I believed in the companions. And I believed in Yoo Joonghyuk and Jung Heewon, and Jieunyu. Even if I wasn’t there, if they were there, the companions would be safe.

They had to be safe.

Creeeak.

The wreckage of a broken building caught on my foot. As I stepped on the wreckage, I recalled the memory of when I first entered the ‘apocalypse region’. The Transcendent Alliance. The memory of driving back the horrors together with Yoo Joonghyuk, and Kim Anna, and wandering the ‘time strata’.

The memory of checking Cheon Inho’s 40th round also came back to me.

Come to think of it, after that, I hadn’t met Cheon Inho. Since he was a ‘Horror Recorder’, he wouldn’t disappear just because the apocalypse region had been destroyed.

The Sophist of Evil, Cheon Inho. The existence that raised the ‘Kim Dokja of the snowfield’.

In the end, what was that bastard’s goal? Would he be satisfied with seeing the end of the 40th round ‘time stratum’ through me, with driving the ‘apocalypse region’ to its end?

Even though those vicious scenarios had swept past in a storm, there were still big questions left for me.

The scenery of the drill ground where the transcendents once laughed and chatted came into view. Kyrioos, Cheok Jun-gyeong… did the masters and transcendents safely board the train and escape?

I walked through the apocalypse region as if reviewing old pages one by one. I walked the end-of-the-world region, then walked the mid region again. A path that I had to risk my life to enter was unbelievably easy to leave. No horror blocked me.

Now, the ‘apocalypse region’ was in a state where it had lost its regional effect. The ‘apocalypse region’ did not protect or isolate Otherworldly Divinities, and it did not provide Plausibility for them to exist.

In other words, ‘horror’ had now lost its value as ‘horror’.

A world without Tooth Fin, without Alien Traffic Light.

The darkness where the story had disappeared was lonely and deep. How long had I walked like that? A crying sound came from within the darkness.

Grrrr.

Reflexively, I moved my hand to ‘Unbreakable Conviction’ and looked around. That distinctive sensation crawling over the fine hairs.

An Otherworldly Divinity.

The entities revealing themselves in the dim darkness were missing heads, or missing arms. Monsters that had once been horrors, but now couldn’t even become horrors anymore.

I knew the name people called them.

“You.”

I looked at the ‘Nameless Ones’ with pity.

“Just go. I don’t want to kill you.”

Maybe those words slipped out without me realizing because the ‘King of Terror’ was together inside me.

Even though I was gradually raising my aura, the ‘Nameless Ones’ didn’t retreat. Not running even while trembling in fear probably meant their situation wouldn’t change whether they died to me or died while fleeing.

I let out a light sigh and activated the ‘Blade of Conviction’.

Still, why were the ‘Nameless Ones’ still left here?

This place was no longer the ‘apocalypse region’. For the ‘Nameless Ones’ to wander around a place where the regional effect didn’t activate, the local scenario number would have to be at least in the 80s. But could that really be?

Oooooo!

As I cut down the approaching ‘Nameless Ones’, I thought. Getting out of here comes first.

“Sorry, but I won’t go easy on you.”

Fortunately, for the current me, that wasn’t such a difficult thing.

*

Namgung Myeong was carefully walking through the entry region of the apocalypse region.

“Hey, move it, hurry up!”

A threatening shout coming from behind. Namgung Myeong frowned and quickened his steps.

“You all know your quotas, right? The bastards who don’t fill their quotas today will have their heads fly off.”

At the overseer’s voice, the expressions of the incarnations beside Namgung Myeong darkened.

“Damn it, how the hell are we supposed to fill that damned quota?”

“They’re doing it on purpose, obviously. There’s no way there are any fragment scraps left in the ‘apocalypse region’ now.”

“Shh, be quiet. You’ll get heard.”

The grumbling incarnations were all wearing worn martial robes, their faces smeared thick with soot. At a glance, they looked like the ‘collection slaves’ of the Demon Realm. It was something that would’ve been unthinkable for them not long ago.

Because they were the famous rising martial talents of <The First Murim>.

Divine Spear Master Eon Gisoo.
Little White Tiger Moyong Shin.

Martial artists who would surely take the upper placing ranks if a World’s Number One Later-Generation Tournament were held.

But now, they were nothing more than toys of the nebulae, in charge of collecting fragments.

“Myeonga. What do you think? If we just bolt into the apocalypse region’s interior during this expedition…”

Namgung Myeong shook his head.

“No. We’ll get caught.”

“Do you have no pride? Have you already thrown the dignity of the great Namgung Clan onto the ground?”

Namgung Myeong. He was once the young clan head of the Namgung Clan, one of the Five Great Clans that ruled this ‘Murim’.

“If Elder Jincheon finds out you ended up like this…”

“Gisoo, stop.”

In the end, Moyong Shin, who couldn’t bear it any longer, cut in. Namgung Myeong lowered his head without a word.

Eon Gisoo kept talking.

“Fine. No matter what you guys say, I’m bolting this time.”

“Gisoo.”

“If I get my hands on even one fragment inside there, do you think I’m gonna offer it up like ‘here you go’? I’ll absorb it right away and—”

“Gisoo. Stop—”

At Moyong Shin’s attempt to dissuade him, Eon Gisoo turned back with an annoyed face.

“Divine Spear Master Eon Gisoo.”

The overseer with jet-black horns rising from his head was standing there. The overseer, who at a glance resembled a demonic human, twisted his head at a strange angle and glared at Eon Gisoo.

“O, Overseer…”

Eon Gisoo threw himself down flat. The overseer looked down at the trembling Eon Gisoo for a moment, then patted his shoulders and raised him up.

“For this expedition, you lead the way.”

“Yes? But…”

“Why? You don’t like it?”

“N-no… understood.”

Eon Gisoo sprang up and quickly moved to the front of the collectors. The incarnations, including Moyong Shin, looked at Eon Gisoo with worried eyes.

“Are you going to be okay? If you go out front, you’ll be used as a ‘tail’.”

“I know. Even if that’s the case, what is it besides dying?”

Even if he said that, Eon Gisoo’s expression was pale.

It had already been over a hundred times that ‘collectors’ were deployed into the apocalypse region. Those hundred-something collections taught them one single lesson.

「Never volunteer to be the ‘tail’.」

The ‘tail’ of the collection team was bait to lure the ‘Nameless Ones’. A nickname attached with the meaning that if something happened, they’d cut off the ‘tail’ and run.

Eon Gisoo pressed his lips together hard. He knew the day would come when he became the ‘tail’, but to think it would be today.

The one who comforted Eon Gisoo was Namgung Myeong.

“Eon Gisoo. Becoming the tail doesn’t mean you’ll definitely die.”

“……”

“Don’t worry. I’m here. If they come close, I’ll tell you right away.”

Young clan head Namgung Myeong was one of the few survivors of the previous ‘apocalypse region incursion’. What’s more, he had once been contaminated by the apocalypse region’s ‘otherworldly fable’, and in exchange for surviving that contamination, he became able to sense the ‘Otherworldly Divinities’ approaching from far away.

Eon Gisoo stared blankly at Namgung Myeong, then asked.

“Myeonga. But with your ability, isn’t it possible?”

“What is.”

“Running into the apocalypse region’s interior.”

“You’re still on that.”

“You can tell when the Otherworldly Divinities are coming. Then even inside the apocalypse region, you could keep dodging them and running around, couldn’t you?”

After a brief silence, Namgung Myeong asked.

“If you run around like that, then what? What changes?”

“We look for the transcendents who disappeared.”

The transcendents who disappeared.

Eon Gisoo’s eyes were burning.

“We’re going to find humanity’s last hope. You know, right? They’ll never turn their backs on us. If they find out Murim ended up like this, if they find out what those Great Nebula bastards did, they’ll never—”

“Gisoo. Did you forget?”

Namgung Myeong’s voice sank as if settling. His gaze wandering the darkness of the apocalypse region was recalling a single scene from a long-ago past.

“Even the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint was defeated.”

“……”

“The god of Murim we thought was stronger than anyone was defeated by them.”

“So you’re saying we should give up here? There are lots of transcendents besides the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint. If we can find even one of them…”

“It’s already been a long time since the apocalypse region met its end. But besides the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint, no one came to help us. What do you think that means?”

Eon Gisoo bit down on his lips as if he didn’t want to admit it, then spoke again.

“Still, we don’t know. There could be circumstances. And the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint didn’t lose to them. The Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint just—”

“Gisoo. It’s coming.”

At Namgung Myeong’s signal, Eon Gisoo snapped his head toward the front. It still wasn’t in his sight, but he could feel the darkness writhing.

Namgung Myeong added quickly.

“Hold the musk sachet incense and run into the darkness to the right diagonal. Make a wide circle as you go around once, then run along the east, count thirty minutes, and come back following the scent.”

Eon Gisoo nodded. Namgung Myeong had just told him the only way he could survive against the ‘Nameless Ones’.

“Let’s meet alive.”

With those words, Eon Gisoo jumped into the darkness. His objective was to draw the ‘Nameless Ones’’ attention until the first collection ended.

But at that moment, a single beam of light flew in from behind the group.

“Aaaah!”

With the scream, Eon Gisoo could be seen tumbling across the ground. A sharp spear of light had pierced through his thigh.

The one who threw the spear was obvious.

“Divine Spear Master Eon Gisoo failed to fill even half the quota in the last ‘expedition’.”

The overseer was speaking.

“If you don’t fill the quota, that’s what happens.”

Eon Gisoo, limping, screamed. Then something revealed itself within the darkness. The Nameless Ones. They rushed Eon Gisoo and immediately began biting and tearing his flesh.

“S-save—”

One of the few remaining later-generation elites of Murim died in an instant.

After confirming his friend’s death, Namgung Myeong turned his head toward the overseer.

“Overseer. He was bait.”

“So?”

“If the bait dies already, the mortality rate of the remaining members rises.”

“Starting from this expedition, we won’t consider mortality. When the Nameless Ones appear, hunt them, and push into deeper regions. There’s nothing to get in the entry region anymore.”

As he said that, the overseer began to lead the way. Each time a brilliant sword aura split the darkness, the ‘Nameless Ones’ toppled over one after another.

Watching that sight from behind, the incarnations sighed.

“My god. To think the overseer was that strong…”

“I heard he received fragment scraps from a Great Nebula.”

Fragment scraps.

「The ‘pieces’ the ‘King of Terror’ left behind as it disappeared.」

A divine object that could grant power approaching that of a ‘Constellation’ with only a tiny scrap. Their reason for coming to the apocalypse region in the first place was to pick up those scraps of the King of Terror.

After finishing off three or four more ‘Nameless Ones’, the overseer turned back and asked.

“Namgung Myeong, how many more are left?”

“About ten.”

“Rank?”

“Lowest.”

“If it’s that much, it’s worth trying. Everyone, get it together and follow. Today, we’re going to the ‘mid region’.”

The overseer, who hadn’t gained power that long ago, seemed to want to test his own might.

By the time the overseer, swinging his sword wildly, advanced beyond a certain distance, Namgung Myeong quietly muttered toward Moyong Shin behind him.

“Moyong Shin. Count to ten and run.”

“What? What nonsense is that. You saw Gisoo die earlier, didn’t you?”

The one who runs is killed. That was the rule of this ‘expedition party’. But Namgung Myeong shook his head.

“This expedition will fail.”

An otherworldly fable was shining in Namgung Myeong’s left iris, which was glowing strangely.

Moyong Shin murmured in a voice of shock.

“Myeonga, don’t tell me you…”

During the past hundred-something expeditions, there were only a few times Namgung Myeong made an expression like that. The last time he made that expression, the ‘end-of-the-world-grade horror’ called ‘Tooth Fin’ had descended.

“If it’s now, you can run. The overseer is drunk on his own power and went in too deep.”

“What about you? What about you?”

Without a word, Namgung Myeong pointed at his neck. Unlike the other incarnations, a jet-black belt reminiscent of a dog collar was fastened around it.

“If I run, the overseer will notice.”

“……”

“Gisoo died. I can’t lose you too.”

Moyong Shin moved his lips toward his friend a few times. Then he lowered his head and said.

“I’m sorry, Myeonga.”

With those words, Moyong Shin immediately began running back. Other incarnations who sensed something strange also took the hint and followed Moyong Shin.

When more than half the collection team had run, the overseer finally realized what was happening and shouted.

“What? Where did everyone go?”

The overseer, breathing hard with rage, approached Namgung Myeong. Namgung Myeong said.

“Overseer.”

“What?”

“It’s coming.”

With that, a pack of ‘Nameless Ones’ that appeared from behind pounced on the overseer.

“You damn bastards—”

Oooooo!

“This kind of, this kind of thing—”

In a flash, five or six ‘Nameless Ones’ rushed in and tore at the overseer’s arms and legs. He shook them off, cut them down, stabbed.

But whenever one died, another that appeared again bit into the overseer.

“Ten! Didn’t you say ten!”

The overseer, now streaming fables all over his body, screamed at Namgung Myeong with bloodshot eyes.

“You bastard, don’t tell me—”

A giant baby that appeared from behind swung its arm and cut the overseer’s neck off.

For something that had made the later-generation elites tremble in fear, it was a ridiculously empty ending.

Namgung Myeong smiled hollowly as he watched the waves of monsters surging in. Were there still this many ‘Nameless Ones’ hidden away?

Before the disaster that was coming, Namgung Myeong dropped to his knees and slowly slumped down.

He lost his father, and he lost the Heaven-Breaking Sword Saint he respected. And now even his old friend left his side.

If he survived longer like this, there was no hope at all.

His Murim had already perished.

The day that would come someday had simply come a little earlier.

Then the ‘Nameless Ones’ that surged in covered his entire body. The sensation of something brushing past his shoulders, his torso, his head.

But why?

The Otherworldly Divinities didn’t attack him.

Was it because he didn’t show an aggressive reaction? Or was it because of the ‘otherworldly fable’ that had settled in him?

He couldn’t say for sure which it was.

When he slightly opened his eyes, the state of the ‘Nameless Ones’ was a little strange. Their movement was subtly different from usual, as if they were ignoring him. Namgung Myeong, who lived a life where running away was normal, immediately realized what was happening.

‘They’re running away from something.’

At the point where the wave of ‘Nameless Ones’ ended, something was walking over. If it was something that could terrify the ‘Nameless Ones’ like this, it was surely a powerful Outer God on the level of ‘end-of-the-world-grade’.

Namgung Myeong cried out in a trembling voice.

“Outer God! I will contract with you!”

With his eyes squeezed shut, he kept talking. He knew the Outer God wouldn’t understand his language. He knew it would crush his existence like an insect. Even so, there was nothing else he could do.

“I will offer all the fables I have! Please destroy this world! Those damned stars, the constellations, all of them—”

He wanted to say even one word, to convey his despair to the Outer God.

But.

“Um, excuse me, but.”

The Outer God answered.

When he slowly opened his eyes, a man was standing before him.

At first, he thought it was an Outer God in human form, but it was different. He could definitely feel the aura of an Outer God, but at the same time, there was another kind of aura coming from him.

It was an aura Namgung Myeong had long admired. A ‘bearing’ only those who trained for long years in a ‘time stratum’ could give off.

“Now, if I hear the words ‘ruin’ or ‘contract’, it gives me goosebumps just from hearing it.”

Namgung Myeong blankly looked up /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ at the man. The words that came out of his throat lingered around the tip of his tongue for a long time.

“Could it be… are you the Transcendent Alliance?”

The man smiled white and said.

“Yes, I’m the youngest among them.”

“W-why did you only come now?”

“Well.”

It had been a grueling stretch of years.

But it seemed it was the same for the man, too.

“There were still too many stories I didn’t know.”

Eight years after the apocalypse region was destroyed.

The last survivor of the Transcendent Alliance finally returned to the scenario region.