More than anything, what kinds of monsters were the monsters behind me right now.
Weren’t they the top-tier beings of this worldview that made your chest swell on its own!
Especially the White King and that Giant of Annihilating Evil are real, genuine monsters.
‘The Giant of Annihilating Evil is here too. This is more than possible.’
The Giant of Annihilating Evil was the star guardian who was in charge of Wilhelm’s last star.
So I knew him well.
On top of that, he was also the star guardian I got along with the worst.
He’s nothing like a gentle bastard like Dramut, if I so much as act like I know him a little, he’ll blow my head off on the spot.
But his martial power was the strongest among the star guardians.
If I can use him, there’s no better card than that.
‘Two strongest cards in my hand.’
A shift in thinking.
No matter how I look at it, I can’t not use this.
Rather, not using it would be stupid.
I’m the only one who knows what’s inside there, aren’t I?
“What is he doing?”
“He was stalling and now he’s backing off?”
“Looks like breaking a unique-grade mystery is impossible after all.”
The star guardians each chimed in.
Just as they said, I was stepping backward one step at a time.
If I loiter in front of a mystery for no reason, I’ll get slaughtered by those nightmares as-is.
Only after putting some distance between us did I slowly raise my right hand.
‘I don’t need to raise my hand, but giving them this much of a fake is fine.’
If I want to destroy the mystery, it’s enough just to look at it.
But by adding a hand motion, I intended to plant a strong impression in these monsters.
Also, if they turn into enemies later, this motion will buy me even 0.1 seconds of time.
I slowly looked at the mystery of the curtain.
‘Disappear.’
***
‘What is he doing?’
Dramut was fidgeting in anxiety.
Because Randolph had been stopped for a long while in front of the mystery.
“What a waste of time.”
“We should just go back even now.”
“That a mere corpse crow would erase a unique-grade mystery, was nonsense from the start.”
The star guardians shook their heads.
Saying to stop this waste of time right now.
At the same time, their eyes turned to Dramut.
The one who recommended the corpse crow, and brought him, was all Dramut.
The youngest and weakest among the star guardians, a snake of mythical species.
“You need to sharpen your eye more, descendant of Jörmungandr.”
“Your spirit was nice, but······.”
The star guardians flicked their tongues after glaring at Dramut with a look that said they knew it.
To begin with, the very idea of bringing a corpse crow of the curse line close to a sacred star was something that could not exist.
Dramut’s confidence was nothing but useless bravado.
“He’s even backing off?”
“Tsk tsk. Looks like he’s thinking of giving up.”
Now it was certain.
That corpse crow can’t destroy a unique-grade mystery.
Of course, destroying a mystery itself is a shocking ability, but if he can’t destroy every mystery, there’s no need to expect it, or fear it.
‘So it really is too much for him.’
The White King also shrugged as he watched Randolph step back.
Well yeah, unique-grade is absolute. The meaning of the ‘unique’ grade was that it is the origin and standard of everything.
To destroy that is to twist the rules of the world.
No matter how he broke through all the Mythical Hall, would the Tower ever grant the power to twist rules.
‘Was that just a pointless hope?’
For a fleeting moment, the White King clearly felt it.
That his mystery feared that corpse crow.
The mystery the White King possessed was also unique-grade. After combining countless mysteries and clothing himself in them, there was practically no being who could surpass him through mystery.
The standard of existence, and authority.
Was it simply a misunderstanding?
Were the words that corpse crow spat out nothing more than empty boasting?
It was then.
“Hm?”
In everyone’s impatience, expectation, and disappointment, the corpse crow raised one hand.
At the same time.
Krrrk-!
Cracks began to spread across the unique-grade mystery.
“······!!!”
“Cracks in the mystery······!”
As cracks formed and the mystery split, it fragmented in an instant and the curtain shattered.
In an instant.
Everyone watching couldn’t suppress their shock.
To think he’d really break a mystery.
And a unique-grade mystery at that!
Because no one expected it at all, the surprise was even greater.
But after the mystery vanished, what was inside made them even more shocked.
“That is?”
“Dead of the abyss?”
“No. Those are the servants of ‘ruin.’”
“They were corrupting the star!”
The star guardians immediately identified the beings that had been inside the mystery.
Ruin, that turned Pangaenia into hell.
The servants who followed that ruin had been inside the mystery.
And what’s more.
“That warp is the ‘Dimension fissure’ ruin used when it invaded the continent.”
“It’s exactly as written in the ‘Apocalypse.’”
“······ We have to wipe it all out.”
A warp so enormous it was beyond comparison appeared before them.
They recognized at a glance that it was a Dimension fissure.
Because it was exactly the same as in the ‘Apocalypse.’
<‘The First Wall’ has been destroyed.>
<‘Dimension fissure’ has been created.>
<The surrounding field is being transformed into the ‘Swamp of the Dead’ state.>
The surrounding field began to expand rapidly.
The underground of Kramdel was connected to the ‘Swamp of the Dead’ in an instant.
Those around it had no choice but to be swept up too.
―You are, an uninvited one.
The king of the Dimension fissure pointed at me and spoke.
Black armor and a helm.
Likewise a giant, riding a massive horse clad in black iron armor!
Yet for some reason, that figure feels familiar to me.
‘The first King of Hell, the gatekeeper of the Demon Realm, Ahram.’
Crazy.
Eight hells that pierce through the Demon Realm.
He was clearly Ahram, the gatekeeper and dead-king who managed the first hell, the ‘Swamp of the Dead.’
In the Demon Realm there were a total of eight hells, and every single one was so horrific it deserved to be called hell.
In the Swamp of the Dead alone, half the soldiers who participated in the great expedition died.
‘But I definitely killed him?’
Still, Ahram was someone I killed.
A guy I killed is alive.
Even his underlings were brazenly alive.
―K······ni······ght!
Ahram’s eyes were aimed only at me.
The star guardians, even the White King, weren’t in his eyes at all.
He recognized me.
Me, who had been the Knight King Wilhelm.
Me, the one who killed him.
‘He got stronger by the star.’
He even seemed stronger than before.
Ahram raised the blackened star.
Hwaaaaaaaaaaaah!
In that moment, the dead surged and formed a massive orb of souls.
Hideous hybrids fused from countless corpses and dead.
And between them, I see another familiar face.
‘······ Why is Andasar’s face over there again?’
I wondered where she’d gone.
Now Andasar’s face had become the core of a Skinned Hybrid.
Her hair had turned white and her expression looked like a vicious ghost, but it was definitely Andasar.
There couldn’t be a bigger madhouse of a party.
***
At that time.
Simultaneously, everyone in the world looked up at the sky.
“What the hell······ is that······?”
“Another world?”
“W-why is the sky······.”
Pangaenia was being reflected in the sky.
As if it might collide.
“Don’t tell me that’s that interdimensional world?”
“Ah······! I saw this situation in the ‘Interdimensional Community’!”
“Then is the full-scale invasion starting now?”
Everyone was shocked, trembling in fear.
Already twice, interdimensional monsters had invaded.
The number of buildings destroyed and humans killed by those dreadful monsters had reached the hundreds of thousands.
If not for the Dimension Warriors, the damage would have grown exponentially.
After that, the ‘Interdimensional Community’ roughly told what would happen in the future.
That the invasions so far were nothing but interdimensional scouts.
‘When the Dimension fissure opens, the real great invasion begins.’
······ Master.
With a smile at the corner of his mouth, he was looking at the current situation from the rooftop of a building.
Together with thirty warriors.
《Pangaenia Collapse Rate has reached 10%.》
《‘Main Quest??? : Eliminate the King of the Dimension fissure’ has begun.》
《If you fail to eliminate the King of the Dimension fissure within 30 days, all Dimension fissures will open and ‘ruin’ will appear.》
《Afterward, complete erosion of Pangaenia and Earth will proceed.》
《Reward : Differential payout according to contribution ranking》
《On failure : ‘Ruin’ appears on Earth》
With the first Dimension fissure opening, a massive invasion began.
But, he had expected it.
'I've been waiting for this day.'
Countless rankers including Master had been eagerly awaiting this day.
After today, the world would change perfectly.
It would be remade into a world where players reign.
Master had prepared for three years for this day.
Step by step, from beneath the surface.
‘Eliminate the King of the Dimension fissure, and surpass Gracia.’
Gracia.
The undisputed strongest human.
But Master decided to use this chance as a foothold to overtake him.
No matter how Gracia was, he wouldn’t have built a force as large as his own.
And the raid on the Dimension fissure was a battle of forces.
Even if Gracia was the strongest human, it was impossible for him to involve himself in everything happening simultaneously all over the world.
Master had built his forces and laid his foundation for three years.
This fight, he can’t lose.
But then.
“······ Why isn’t anything showing up?”
Master’s expression gradually crumpled.
The Dimension fissures had clearly opened.
All over the world, at the same time.
But no matter how long they waited, nothing showed up.
And that wasn’t the only strange thing.
《The raid on the ‘King of the Dimension fissure’ is in progress.》
《Progress 1.3%》
《Progress 2.5%》
《Progress 7.8%》
“······ What is this.”
Treasure of the Constellations
The Dimension fissures opened, the quest began, and they were preparing the ‘raid,’ but.
All they could see in the sky was Pangaenia reflected like an afterimage, and black ‘Dimension fissures’ open here and there.
The fissures opened, but even after waiting a long while, not a speck of dust came out.
Yet the progress kept rising on its own.
“······ Is it the same everywhere else?”
“Yes, Master. They say only fissures are open everywhere, but no invading monsters are visible.”
All the warriors gathered around were contacting places all over the world.
The conclusion was, ‘there is no invasion.’
“Then who is progressing this?”
Master frowned.
If no invasion was happening, the progress shouldn’t be moving.
That would mean there’s no one raiding.
《Progress 11.3%》
······ But the progress was climbing steeply.
When you become a player, the first things you meet are the status window and collapse rate.
They drill it into every player’s mind that when collapse rate reaches 10%, the first fissure occurs on Earth.
That’s how important it is, and how dangerous it is.
Naturally, it couldn’t be easy.
That’s why they’d prepared for years.
‘Five Dimension fissures visible to the naked eye.’
Five, just to the naked eye.
The number of Dimension fissures opened across the whole world would be in the tens of thousands.
If monsters invaded through all those fissures, there should be at least hundreds of thousands of them.
Destruction would be progressing by the second, screams would be heard, and the world should have been exploding.
The picture was supposed to be players descending using the Fragment of the Broken Golden Rule, showing their might to the entire world, and finally taking the King of the Dimension fissure themselves.
“Where’s Gracia?”
“They say he’s still in Korea.”
Gracia is still in Korea.
Why?
What is there to eat in that tiny piece of land that he’s drifting there this long.
If he saw signs of fissures opening, shouldn’t he return to America as normal?
‘He could get to America in half a day.’
Sword of Stars Gracia. He handles thousands of swords at once.
And every single sword, not one of them wasn’t a treasure. Swords that fly through the sky or fold space were overflowing.
But he’s in Korea even though fissures opened.
On that small land, the number of fissures opening can’t be many.
‘Is he aiming for something else?’
When the progress started rising steeply, the first person Master suspected was Gracia.
He thought Gracia might be monopolizing the Dimension fissure monsters by himself.
But if he’s in Korea, then at least to Gracia, raiding the Dimension fissures isn’t the most important purpose.
It means something more important than that is in Korea.
What could that be?