Gyeong Sein grabbed Kim Dokja’s sleeve like a person who’d lost her mind.

“Dokja.”

Without even realizing that she had called this man ‘Kim Dokja,’ Gyeong Sein urgently tugged at Kim Dokja’s sleeve.

“We have to run.”

The constellations still hadn’t found them. It wasn’t too late to flee. Whether they used [Wind’s Path] or bought a scenario escape ticket from the ‘dokkaebi bag,’ they had to get out of here. Otherwise—

“No. Miss Sein.”

Kim Dokja’s gaze was directed at the manor. Cha Yerin was there, recovering right now.

Kim Dokja knew. If he left this place, those stars would take their companions hostage.

“Call the other companions.”

All over again, Kim Dokja’s words felt like they flew into her heart and lodged there.

「Companions.」

The Kim Dokja in front of her truly thought of them as companions.

“And you?”

“I’ll buy time.”

Kim Dokja’s back as he turned around like that was small. A slender torso, just like what Gyeong Sein had read before. Watching his back sway as if it would break in the wind, Gyeong Sein realized a certain fact.

「Even if she called the companions, there was no way they could face those stars.」

Constellations of <Veda>, <Olympus>, <Asgard>, and <Tamra> were there.

[A Great Nebula is supporting the stars’ Plausibility.]

<First Murim> was a scenario region in the 20s. A region where the original stars could never descend.

And yet those stars were revealing their true faces in a lower scenario, accepting enormous blood loss.

Each one was a star reaching the late stage of fable-grade. If even one of them used its full power, the party would be erased without a trace.

To face those stars alone, Kim Dokja was advancing. Using the excuse of telling her to call the companions, giving Gyeong Sein an excuse to run away, he was advancing alone.

「Just like the day he first became the ‘Oldest Dream.’」

The ‘Kim Dokja’ he truly wanted to protect wasn’t the Kim Dokja in front of her. And yet, it was also certainly Kim Dokja.

“I can’t leave you alone.”

Kim Dokja slowly turned his head and glanced at Gyeong Sein. His eyes looked slightly surprised.

“If you’re Kim Dokja, then I’m Kim Dokja too.”

At Gyeong Sein’s words, Kim Dokja’s head slowly moved.

“If that’s the case.”

Kim Dokja said with a white smile.

“Then, from now on, no matter what you see, don’t be surprised.”

Before she could even ask what that meant, the stars in the sky glittered in an instant.

[So you were there.]

The moment she sucked in a breath, four constellations appeared before her eyes.

Tsssss.

Four stars shining brightly.

As constellations that must never descend into a lower scenario revealed their status all at once, the incarnations in the area became half-dead.

Incarnations of Murim, who had just begun reconstruction, collapsed to the ground with groans. There were even incarnations foaming at the mouth, unable to breathe.

Maybe the incarnations who had fainted were the lucky ones. The moment she faced the tremendous status they were spewing out, Gyeong Sein felt like she would lose her mind on the spot.

“Ah, ahh. Ahhhhh…….”

Unable to overcome fear, Gyeong Sein collapsed and groaned.

The stars glanced at her like she was an insect, then soon opened their mouths toward Kim Dokja.

[Fragment of the Oldest Dream. Why did you break the promise?]

When Apollo, Almighty Sun, spoke an oracle, as if they’d been waiting, the other stars also began to speak.

[There was no talk that you would directly intervene in the scenario.]

[What were you thinking, appearing here? Don’t tell me you forgot the pact with us?]

Each time the oracle continued, blood ran from Gyeong Sein’s ears. It felt like her head would crack open. The trembling of her entire body wouldn’t stop.

Their status is different. The fact that she had to fight things like that in order to see the scenario’s ending didn’t feel believable at all.

And yet, as if those stars weren’t frightening at all, Kim Dokja smiled and said.

“Let’s skip the unnecessary talk. You didn’t come here just to protest to me, did you?”

Was it because of the subtle condescension in his tone? The expressions of the constellations changed.

[What did you just say?]

“You came to covet me. Right?”

[What are you saying…….]

“There’s no need to force yourself to deny it. I paid the price and descended here, so you must have thought this was your chance too. Isn’t that right?”

Gyeong Sein blankly listened to Kim Dokja’s continuing words. In that moment, Kim Dokja didn’t look like the ‘Kim Dokja’ in the story he knew.

“Are you going to deny that you came to bare those ugly teeth at me?”

Kim Dokja slowly moved his steps. One step, two steps. Each time he approached the constellations, she could see the constellations flinch and twitch their shoulders.

“I have no lingering attachment. It was all received from <Star Stream> anyway. Then it’s right to return it to <Star Stream>.”

In an instant, it felt like the surrounding scenery changed. A wind like thin ice blew from somewhere.

Kim Dokja was walking alone down a single path in the snowfield.

[Fable, ‘Messiah of the Snowfield,’ begins its story.]

Gyeong Sein, and the other constellations too, stared at him as if possessed.

「Every star in the world was shining on him.」

In that moment, Kim Dokja’s coat fell to the ground. Next, his tie, his dress shirt slid down to the ground. Each time he took a step, pieces of Kim Dokja’s clothing were falling to the ground.

The stars held their breath and watched him.

Soon, Kim Dokja, who had even taken off his shoes, stood before the stars. His naked body was revealed in broad daylight.

The moment she saw that white back, Gyeong Sein fell into confusion. It was clearly a human body, and yet Kim Dokja’s body didn’t feel like a human’s at all. No, in the first place, it wasn’t flesh. In other words, it was—

「A story about a story. A myth about a myth.」

Kim Dokja, shining brightly under the starlight, was there.

Apollo, Almighty Sun, Vidar, Terminator of War, and Owner of Baekrokdam were already kneeling.

An image was forming on their empty retinas.

The single existence that filled their universe was commanding them.

“Take whatever you want, as much as you want.”

The moment permission fell, the stars rose from their places.

The first to move was Apollo. A rough oracle burst from his mouth.

[I, I— I am— this isn’t what I— ghhh—]

His eyes, struggling to reject the fable before him, began to slowly turn red. His unfocused pupils trembled, and a beastlike howl flowed from his mouth.

[Guaaaaaaah!]

Apollo, crawling on the ground like a four-legged beast, lunged at Kim Dokja. As if caressing the body of a beloved lover, Apollo grabbed Kim Dokja’s shoulders with trembling hands and drove his teeth in.

The moment blood-red tales splashed up, the other two gods also sprang up from their places.

[Aaaaaaaaah!]

A primordial hunger without face or dignity seized them. The crazily blinking stars panted and shed tears. There, there was no ‘Twelve Gods of Olympus,’ no ‘Lokapala,’ no ‘fable-grade constellation.’

There were only sick stars that coveted the story in front of them.

Apollo greedily bit into Kim Dokja’s shoulder, and Vidar tore at Kim Dokja’s arm. Then Owner of Baekrokdam bent down and bit into Kim Dokja’s ankle.

[Ooooooo—]

A single fable was piercing their souls.

A fable that violently overwhelmed the reader’s soul.

The fable was ruling their souls.

As if those stars were admirable, Kim Dokja smiled and offered them his flesh.

And he looked at the one star that resisted his fable until the end.

“Agni. You, come closer too.”

The only star that didn’t tear at his flesh. ‘Flame of Purification’ Agni was there.

Agni, setting flames over his entire body and burning himself, was resisting his desire with bloodshot eyes.

[I am, a great, Lokapala.]

A fable surged from his pale mouth. Agni, smashing his own head down with an axe, roared and declared.

[I will not eat.]

Agni, who didn’t abandon his pride to the end, let out a grief-soaked, monstrous scream and fled the scenario.

Kim Dokja silently stared at the place where Agni vanished.

The other three stars, startled, knelt as if apologetic.

[We are sorry. ‘Oldest Dream.’]

Kim Dokja said to the stars, prostrated as if worshiping a god.

“No.”

Then, with an expression without even a trace of agitation, he looked up at the sky and added,

“In the end, <Veda> will come too.”

[They will.]

Gyeong Sein was confused. She couldn’t understand the scenery unfolding before her at all.

Why was Kim Dokja using that kind of tone. Why did he offer his body to the stars. She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything.

If there was one thing that was certain, it was that the moment she saw Kim Dokja’s naked body, Gyeong Sein was also seized by a horrible thought.

「I want to become one.」

Even knowing that was the kind of thought Nirvana would have, the moment she saw Kim Dokja, Gyeong Sein couldn’t stop thinking it.

Only after Kim Dokja picked up and put on the clothes that had fallen to the ground did the thought barely stop.

“Since I’ve entrusted my blood and flesh to you, one day you will come looking for me again.”

At Kim Dokja’s words, the stars lowered their heads as if it was an honor beyond measure.

Looking down at the crowns of those stars, Kim Dokja continued.

“It will be a long road. It might be a road that never ends. But just as my brother did, I will walk that road too. And thus, I will complete this world line’s ■■.”

The stars sighed. The three stars answered at the same time.

[We will illuminate those footsteps.]

“Until I reclaim myself, what I gave is yours. Instead—”

A fierce light rose in Kim Dokja’s eyes. The gaze reflecting the stars’ light warned the stars.

“You will rebuild this ruined city.”

As the divine decree fell, the stars that raised their heads trembled.

“In the fertile land of horror, coins made from my blood will well up.”

The stars that received that order all cried out at once. A bright light welled up from their entire bodies. According to the contract, the stars’ Plausibility moved.

「The blessings of the stars will scatter and bloom over the town. And thus, with the blood and flesh of the dream, the rebuilding of a new sky and a new land will begin.」

As the stars of <Olympus> and <Asgard>, and <Tamra> shone ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) over the entire city, the dying trees began to regain vitality.

Kim Dokja continued.

“You will make the city prosper until my brother arrives here. And thus, you will prepare <Star Stream>’s final story.”

「This place will become a forest of horror. It will become a cradle that gathers the blood and flesh of the dream to make a single god.」

Growing trees formed a forest. Buildings symbolizing each nebula were rising like the Tower of Babel over the ruined Murim.

Kim Dokja and the stars stared at the scenery of the new city for a long time.

Incarnations soaked in cheers and emotion were gathering in front of the nebulae’s buildings.

Seeing that, Apollo smiled with satisfaction and opened his mouth.

[May the servant of a lowly story ask the name of this land.]

Then Kim Dokja answered.

“From now on, this place’s name is ‘New Murim Earth.’”