The Eternal Monarch's True Power

Main Quest 11 was over.

I tilted my head as the Hunt List rose before my eyes along with it.

So the process remains, is that it?

Result Denial.

The Eternal Monarch's true authority was not merely the power to ignore a single rule — it was the power to negate the outcome itself.

But negation of a result was not the same as turning back time. A certain measure of the process was bound to remain.

Apparently, the fruits of that process had been reflected in the Main Quest.

Even without killing them, if you win the Starlight Expedition, it still counts as a hunt.

I hadn't killed every participant.

But hunting carries two meanings.

The act of taking mountain or field beasts with tools.

Or the act of a stronger beast seizing a weaker one as prey.

If both the former and the latter counted as a "hunt," then the list floating before me wasn't entirely incomprehensible.

Except for one thing.

I've never hunted the Divine Skin Chimera.

The island's master — that god of hybrids — I had never even properly laid eyes on.

And the Eternal Meditator being the Eternal Monarch?

Seeking the answer, I looked at the man standing before me.

"……You did not cast yourself aside."

A height approaching two meters.

A powerfully built man with three eyes.

Each of those three eyes held a different form — the right blazed with fire, the left was frozen solid, and the eye set in his forehead was filled with pitch-black darkness.

This man was the Eternal Monarch.

The being who, in the distant past, had defended God's Island against Ruin.

"What is it you say I didn't cast aside?"

"Yourself. Your future. Every possibility that was yours."

"And you're saying you did?"

"Ah, I did. For the sake of a single moment of completion. You saw him yourself, did you not — the Eternal Meditator. That other self of mine, reduced to a grotesque hybrid."

"……The Eternal Meditator is the Divine Skin Chimera?"

The Eternal Monarch nodded.

"I used my authority to evade the ending Ruin had prepared, and to protect my homeland and my people from Ruin, I abandoned myself. I became a monster drunk on power. The reason it tempted you was the same as mine."

Cast it aside.

Yourself.

For that alone, the Divine Skin Chimera had put on its performance.

"The Divine Skin Chimera had taken root in you. It poured every ounce of its strength into intoxicating you with power. As a result, you became capable of contending even with the Dominators of the Abyss and the Primal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beings."

The Randolph who had abandoned me had grown strong.

But that meant the source of his power was not solely the act of casting me aside.

The Divine Skin Chimera.

It had been fanning Randolph's flames.

"Why would it do that?"

"……In the end, it is only a half. No matter how strong it becomes, no matter how far it surpasses its limits — with only half, it can only keep losing. That hybrid's hideous form is the proof."

The Eternal Monarch shook his head.

As though regretting the choice he had made long ago.

He had grown strong for a single moment — and in the end, he had lost everything.

There was nothing to be gained by abandoning oneself.

And even if something were gained, what meaning would it hold?

The end of that path was nothing but despair.

The remaining half had lost itself as well, and become a hybrid.

…I see.

So that was it.

Now I understood.

I opened my mouth.

"So it tried to take my body and failed."

"Correct. The hybrid sought to become king on its own. But you did not abandon yourself. Having lost its place to stand, the Divine Skin Chimera was annihilated. In Isabella's stead."

"……Hm? Annihilated in Isabella's stead — that doesn't add up. I definitely offered the Gate as the price."

"Truth is a fickle creature."

The Eternal Monarch gave a dry chuckle.

As though he could already picture how the scene had played out.

"Your choice itself had already completed the price. The fact that you did not abandon yourself. The thing I could not do. The thing no one else could do."

"Then the Gate is… still intact?"

"No. Of course it cannot simply remain as it was. 'Eternal Monarch Randolph' is one of the things obtained on this island. My authority nullifies every reward."

"Then……"

"Park Hyunmyeong."

"……"

For a moment, I couldn't speak.

How did he know my name so precisely?

As though seeing straight through me, those three eyes were reading me completely.

"The hybrid must have assumed Isabella would naturally forsake you. That once she learned the truth, Isabella would fly into a rage. Perhaps you yourself half-believed the same."

"……"

"The result was the opposite. Isabella accepted her own annihilation for your sake, and you, too, were prepared to surrender what you held most precious for hers. Is that not truly beautiful?"

The two characters that form the word bond.

Nothing more beautiful exists in this world.

And yet my mouth would not open.

As if telling me simply to listen.

As if our time was not long.

He continued.

"You do not exist alone. Your existence is completed through connection. That connection holds a power far greater than you imagine."

"As you are now, you have forged a bond strong enough to unlock even the memories the Operators sealed away. The characters you once played will begin to recall, little by little, the memories tied to you — even without transcending."

The Operators had contracted with the people of Pangenia and veiled their memories.

Sin Disease.

The affliction of becoming a character, moved by a gamer's hand.

But they had hidden the most critical memory of all — that the choice had been their own.

They had cast the players as "sinners" and set them against one another.

At first, I had thought it was the goddesses' doing.

Leah. Pina. The twin goddesses have nothing to do with this.

Those two would never have stoked humanity's conflicts.

Most likely, the Architect.

The one who designed this System.

That one would be the Operator.

The Eternal Monarch spoke again.

"Accept it. Through connection, you will at last be able to strike a balance."

Accept the connection.

For the balance between reality and Pangenia would be set right.

Then the Eternal Monarch offered words heavy with meaning.

"Furthermore — results vanish, but the process remains. The Dominators of the Abyss and the Primal beings will lose their memories of you. But their feelings toward you will linger."

"Use those feelings."

"Use the memories that remain with you."

"And thereby, reign."

"That is the true power held by the Eternal Monarch's authority."

"I may have failed… but you — you can succeed."

KRRRRUMBLE!

That was when it happened.

The black sky collapsed and came pouring down in a cascade of ruin.

"Our time is up."

The Eternal Monarch stretched out his hand.

Another Gate appeared.

"I entrust my descendants and our homeland to you."

Whoosh!

With those final words, I was pulled through — drawn beyond the Gate as though swallowed whole.

The scenery changed.

Before I knew it, I was outside.

Not the Abyss — Pangenia.

It's closed.

The black-hole path leading into the Abyss had already vanished without a trace.

"…It seems we've been ejected."

Isabella stood beside me.

But Isabella was not the only one there.

"What is that?"

"Pardon?"

Isabella blinked.

Did she not know?

"The thing flying around next to you."

When I corrected myself, Isabella turned her head sideways — and recoiled in horror.

"Th-this is……?!"

There really was something bizarre there.

—This is infuriating. Why must I be reduced to a body like this!

A hybrid no larger than a grown man's fist.

A massive eye drifting through the air.

No matter how you looked at it, that was the Divine Skin Chimera in miniature form.

"Why is something like this beside me……?"

Isabella's face went white.

She seemed to have some inkling of what it meant.

—Why must I be bound to a woman like this, you bastard Truth!

"……"

Hadn't it been annihilated in Isabella's place?

Even the Eternal Monarch seemed not to have anticipated this turn of events.

Who would have guessed the Divine Skin Chimera would become Isabella's pet.

And given how it was screaming about "Truth," it seemed that rather than being annihilated, it had been forcibly bound as a subordinate.

So that's what he meant by fickle.

Wasn't Truth the one who produced results no one could foresee?

In that regard, it rather resembled me.

"Lord Randolph. What is this thing?"

I couldn't help but snort.

"It's the Divine Skin Chimera."

"……? That's a rather long name for a bug."

"Haha!"

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bug.

Who in the entire world would call the Divine Skin Chimera a bug?

Only Isabella, under heaven and earth.

Still — the fact that she didn't know the Divine Skin Chimera's name meant Isabella had indeed lost her memories.

Every memory she had recovered that was connected to me.

But it didn't matter.

Memories could be built back up again, little by little.

—This bitch is pretending to have lost her memories.

"……?!"

—Embarrassed, are you?

"……!!!"

—Heh heh. Stupid girl. I know everything about you. I can know everything. So submit to m—

"Silence."

—……Gwek?!

What was this comedy sketch?

With a single word from Isabella, the hybrid's mouth was sealed shut.

A scene that made it abundantly clear who stood above and who stood below.

But wasn't the Divine Skin Chimera ultimately the Eternal Monarch's other half?

It talks like a marketplace thug.

It was hard to believe this thing and the Eternal Monarch were the same being.

Even granting that it had lost itself and become a hybrid, the two simply would not match up.

But there was something that bothered me even more.

"You… didn't lose your memories?"

"……"

Isabella pressed her lips tight.

But her reaction made it certain.

She had not lost her memories.

I had been sure she would have — and yet.

How on earth had she kept them?

Is this another of Truth's whims?

Or perhaps it was thanks to that bug… no, the Divine Skin Chimera.

And if her memories were intact—

I will yearn for you for all eternity, Park Hyunmyeong.

What exactly had those words meant?

Yearning.

To desire something desperately, for all eternity.

Without those words, I never would have made it back.

I wanted to ask — but my mouth simply would not open.

"That's a relief."

"……Yes."

Silence held for a while after that.

It was a more pleasant silence than I would have expected.

I shrugged my shoulders, intending to put this quiet stretch to use.

Status window.

There was something I needed to check first.

The Eternal Monarch had said it.

That I had not offered Eternal Monarch Randolph's Hidden Trait as a sacrifice.

But that I would not remain as "Eternal Monarch Randolph."

If it had changed, I needed to confirm what name it had changed into.

There would surely be other changes as well.

"……"

And when I opened the status window—

I couldn't react at all.

Not a death-cry of shock or horror, not even a thought that I was lucky or that this was insane — nothing came.

It was clearly a result that surpassed every expectation, that outstripped imagination itself.

But the result that appeared was simply too far outside anything I had anticipated.

And before I could even gather my emotions—