The First Wall Falls

More than anything else, the monsters standing behind me right now—what kind of monsters were they?

Weren't they the absolute apex of this world's power hierarchy, beings so overwhelming that just knowing they were there made my chest swell with grandeur?

The White King and that Giant of Annihilation, especially, were the real deal.

The Giant of Annihilation is here too. This is more than doable.

The Giant of Annihilation had been the guardian of Wilhelm's final star.

So I knew him well.

He was also the star guardian I got along with the least.

He was nothing like Dramut—not remotely gentle—and if I so much as pretended to know him, he would crush my skull on the spot.

But his combat power was the strongest among all the star guardians.

If I could use him, there was no better card to play.

I've drawn two of the strongest hands in the deck.

A shift in thinking.

No matter how I looked at it, there was no way I could not use this.

Not using it would be the stupid move.

I was the only one who knew what was sealed inside that barrier, after all.

"What's he doing?"

"He was stalling, and now he's backing away?"

"As expected—breaking a Unique-grade Mystery was impossible from the start."

The star guardians each threw in a comment.

Just as they said, I was stepping backward, one pace at a time.

If I kept loitering in front of the Mystery, those nightmares inside would slaughter me where I stood.

Only after putting a decent distance between us did I slowly raise my right hand.

I don't actually need to raise my hand—but a little theatrics like this should be fine.

To destroy a Mystery, all I had to do was look at it.

But by adding a hand gesture, I intended to burn a powerful impression into these monsters.

And if they ever turned against me later, that motion might buy me even a tenth of a second.

I slowly fixed my gaze on the veiled Mystery.

Disappear.

What the hell is he doing?

Dramut was fretting himself into knots.

Randolph had been standing frozen in front of the Mystery for far too long.

"A waste of time."

"We'd be better off turning back now."

"A mere Corpse Crow destroying a Unique-grade Mystery was absurd from the beginning."

The star guardians shook their heads, arguing that this waste of time should stop immediately.

At the same time, their eyes all turned toward Dramut.

He was the one who had recommended the Corpse Crow and brought him here—the youngest and weakest Mythic-species serpent among the star guardians gathered in this place.

"You need to sharpen your eye for talent, descendant of Jormungandr."

"The spirit was admirable, but…"

The star guardians shot Dramut looks that said I told you so, then clicked their tongues.

The very idea of allowing a curse-aligned Corpse Crow near a sacred star was unthinkable to begin with.

Dramut's confidence had been nothing more than empty bravado.

"He's even backing away?"

"Tsk tsk. Looks like he's given up."

It was certain now.

That Corpse Crow could not destroy a Unique-grade Mystery.

Of course, the ability to destroy Mysteries at all was astonishing—but if he couldn't destroy every Mystery, there was no need to hope, and no need to fear.

Too much for him after all, it seems.

The White King also shrugged as he watched Randolph retreat.

Well, Unique grade was absolute. Being the origin and the standard of all things—that was what the rank of Unique meant.

Destroying one meant twisting the rules of the world itself.

No matter how thoroughly someone had broken through every crown of Myth, the Tower would never grant the power to bend the rules.

Was it a pointless hope?

For the briefest instant, the White King had clearly felt it—

his own Mystery recoiling in fear of that Corpse Crow.

The Mystery the White King possessed was also Unique grade. He had fused countless Mysteries into himself alone; almost no being could surpass him as a Mystery.

The measure of existence itself. Authority incarnate.

Had it simply been a delusion?

Had every word that Corpse Crow spat been nothing but empty bluster?

That was when it happened.

"Hm?"

Amid everyone's impatience, expectation, and disappointment, the Corpse Crow raised one hand.

And in the same instant—

CRACK—!

A fissure began to spread across the Unique-grade Mystery.

"……!!!"

"A crack in the Mystery…!"

As the fissure split open, the Mystery shattered in an instant, the veil collapsing into fragments.

In an instant.

Every single being watching ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was struck speechless with shock.

He had actually broken the Mystery.

A Unique-grade Mystery, no less!

Because they had expected nothing, the astonishment hit all the harder.

But what waited inside after the Mystery vanished forced them into an even greater horror.

"What is that?"

"The Dead of the Abyss?"

"No. Those are the servants of Ruin."

"They were contaminating the star!"

The star guardians identified the beings inside the Mystery at once.

Ruin—the force that had turned Pangenia into hell.

The servants who followed that Ruin had been sealed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠within the Mystery.

And more than that—

"That warp is the Dimensional Rift Ruin used when it invaded the continent."

"Exactly as written in the Apocalypse."

"……We have to wipe them all out."

The colossal warp that had appeared before them—

they recognized it as a Dimensional Rift at a single glance.

It was identical to the description in the Apocalypse.

The surrounding field began expanding at a terrifying speed.

The underground of Kramdel was instantly connected to the Swamp of the Dead.

Everyone nearby was inevitably swept up in it.

The king of the Dimensional Rift pointed at me and spoke.

Black armor and a black helm.

A giant astride a massive steed clad in the same black plate!

And yet, for some reason, that figure looked familiar to me.

The king of the First Hell. Gatekeeper of the Demon Realm—Ahram.

Insane.

There were eight hells piercing through the Demon Realm.

Among them, the gatekeeper who managed the first hell—the Swamp of the Dead—and the King of the Dead himself: Ahram, without a doubt.

The Demon Realm held a total of eight hells, and each one was so nightmarish it truly deserved the name.

In the Swamp of the Dead alone, half the soldiers who had joined the Great Expedition had died.

I definitely killed him, didn't I?

But Ahram—I had killed him.

The one I killed was alive.

Even his subordinates were standing there, perfectly intact.

Ahram's eyes were locked on me alone.

Neither the star guardians nor even the White King registered in his gaze.

He had recognized me.

Me, who had once been the Knight King Wilhelm.

The existence that had killed him.

He's grown stronger through the star.

He even seemed more powerful than before.

Ahram raised the star that had been dyed black.

HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

In that instant the Dead surged into a frenzy, forming a colossal sphere of souls.

Hideous hybrids fused from countless corpses and Dead.

And among them, another familiar face appeared.

……Why is Andasar's face over there?

So that was where she'd gone.

Andasar's face had become the core of a flesh hybrid.

Her hair had turned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pure white, and her expression was pure demon—but it was unmistakably Andasar.

This was a full-blown catastrophe party.

At that same moment.

Simultaneously, every person across the entire world looked up at the sky.

"What the hell… is that…?"

"Another world?"

"Wh-why is there something in the sky…"

The continent of Pangenia was reflected in the heavens.

As if it were about to collide.

"Don't tell me that's the other dimension?"

"Ah…! I saw this situation in the Other-dimensional Community!"

"Then the real invasion is starting?"

Everyone reeled in shock and terror.

Twice already, monsters from another dimension had invaded.

The buildings those nightmarish creatures had destroyed and the humans they had killed numbered in the hundreds of thousands.

Even that would have ballooned exponentially if not for the Dimension Warriors.

Afterward, the Other-dimensional Community had roughly outlined what was coming next.

The invasions so far had been nothing more than scouts from the other dimension.

Once the Dimensional Rifts open, the full-scale Great Invasion begins.

……Master.

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he watched the current situation from a rooftop.

Alongside nearly thirty warriors.

The first Dimensional Rift had opened, and the full-scale invasion had begun.

But he had expected this.

I've been waiting for this day alone.

Master and countless other rankers had been counting down the days to this moment.

Once today passed, the world would change completely.

It would transform into a world ruled by Players.

Master had prepared for this day for three years.

Step by step, from the shadows.

Eliminate the King of the Dimensional Rift and surpass Gracia.

Gracia.

The undisputed strongest human.

But Master had resolved to use this opportunity as a springboard to leap past him.

No matter how strong Gracia was, he couldn't have built a force on Master's scale.

And raiding the Dimensional Rifts was, above all, a war of factions.

Gracia might be the strongest human, but it was impossible for him to involve himself in every event erupting simultaneously across the world.

Master had spent three years accumulating power and laying foundations.

This fight—he could not lose.

And yet.

"……Why isn't anything appearing?"

Master's expression gradually twisted.

The Dimensional Rifts had clearly opened.

Simultaneously, all across the world.

But no matter how long he waited, nothing appeared.

And that wasn't the only strange thing.

"……What the hell is this."

The Constellation's Treasure.

The Dimensional Rifts had opened, the quest had begun, and they had been preparing for the "raid"—

yet all that was visible in the sky was the afterimage of the Pangenia continent and the black Dimensional Rifts that had opened here and there.

The rifts had opened, but even after waiting a long time, not so much as a speck of dust came out.

And yet the progress bar kept climbing on its own.

"……Is it the same everywhere else?"

"Yes, Master. Reports say that everywhere, only the rifts have opened—no invading monsters are visible."

All the warriors gathered around him were contacting locations across the world.

The conclusion: there was no invasion.

"Then who's making this progress?"

Master furrowed his brow.

If no invasion was happening, then no progress should be happening either.

That would mean no one was raiding it at all.

……But the progress was climbing steeply.

The first things a Player encountered were the status window and the Collapse Rate.

The system hammered into every Player's mind that when the Collapse Rate hit 10%, the first rift would open on Earth.

That important. That dangerous.

Of course it wouldn't be easy.

That was why they had prepared for years.

Just the Dimensional Rifts visible to the naked eye—five of them.

Five to the naked eye alone.

The total number of Dimensional Rifts opened across the world would exceed tens of thousands.

If monsters poured through every one of those rifts, there would be hundreds of thousands of them at minimum.

Destruction should have been unfolding by the second, screams should have been rising, and the world should have been exploding.

Then the Players would use Broken Fragments of the Golden Rule to descend, display their might before the entire world, and finally—he himself would claim the King of the Dimensional Rift.

That was the picture.

"Where's Gracia?"

"He's still in Korea, sir."

Gracia was still in Korea.

Why?

What was there to feast on in that tiny scrap of land that he would drift around this long?

Once signs of the rifts appeared, the normal move was to return to America, wasn't it?

He could reach America in half a day.

Sword Saint Gracia. He commanded thousands of swords simultaneously.

And not a single one of those blades was anything less than a treasure. Swords that flew through the sky and folded space were a dime a dozen for him.

And yet, even with the rifts open, he remained in Korea.

In that small country, the number of rifts that would open could only be a handful.

Does he have some other scheme?

When the progress started climbing so steeply, the first person Master suspected was Gracia.

The thought that he might be monopolizing the Dimensional Rift monsters all by himself had crossed his mind.

But if he was in Korea, then at the very least, raiding the Dimensional Rifts was not his highest priority.

It meant something more important than that was in Korea.

What could it be?