Birth of a Star Guardian
The Giant of Extinction realized his mistake a moment too late.
He should never have charged in, unable to master that flash of rage.
"Goddess!"
The Giant of Extinction cried out toward the star. He begged the goddess stained in black. Please, calm yourself. Please, return to what you were.
The Eye of the Goddess Fina…
The Giant of Extinction stared at the eye that lay at the heart of the black hole. Fina — twin sister of the goddess Rhea. The Goddess of the Sky. Why had her eye fallen here? Why was it steeped in evil, thrashing under evil's grip?
—Kh… Hahaha!
Ahram sneered at the Giant of Extinction. Struggle all you like — this explosion cannot be stopped. I'll take every last Star Guardian with me.
—What…?
But Ahram's mockery did not last. He felt it. Something was coming. His instincts screamed it. That something had to be avoided at all costs.
He was afraid. Terrified. He could not understand why a King of Hell would feel such things. Only one truth was certain: he had to get away.
—Let go of me…!
It approached with deliberate slowness. For all its danger, it was not fast — dodging it should have been easy. The problem was the Giant of Extinction holding Ahram locked in place.
Ahram thrashed. His instincts told him that if that something reached him, it was over. It was so terrifying he almost preferred to detonate and simply cease to exist.
He had to escape. He had to run!
But he could not escape. He could not run. The Giant of Extinction had pinned him so thoroughly he could not so much as twitch. The very act of self-destruction had become the chain around his own ankle.
Shhk!
And then Ahram understood. Something had touched his forehead. That something was sealing him.
Ahram carefully brushed his brow. What sat upon his head was a sealing hoop — one of overwhelming power, strong enough to bind even a King of Hell.
Such a seal could not be common. And Ahram had seen one before. Long ago. In the distant ancient past. The artifact that had once sealed the being closest to godhood itself.
—Th-the Gingoa…?
The legendary sealing hoop. The Gingoa.
He could not use his power. His mana would not answer. It was as if his body no longer belonged to him.
"Out of the way, caw."
His body moved on its own. Ahram could only stare in horror. The corpse crow that had appeared before him was no ordinary undead crow. The memories he had read from the star, and his own soul, both knew that bird.
The name he had to kill. The name he wanted to kill.
The Knight King Wilhelm…!
Wilhelm — the natural enemy of the Demon Realm. But no words would come. He could do nothing at all.
Even if you bind me, you cannot stop the star's rampage!
Ahram sneered. Fool. No matter how tightly the Gingoa shackled him, the blackened star would not return. The rampage was still underway.
"You're in the way, caw."
"…What are you?"
The Giant of Extinction was equally shaken. Ahram had been sealed in an instant — and between them, a corpse crow had appeared. An unidentified undead crow that had erased a Unique-rank mystery and sealed Ahram besides.
"Lose some weight, caw. What kind of body is that, caw."
"You're telling me… to lose weight…?"
There was no one left in this world reckless enough to tell the Giant of Extinction to slim down. They were all dead. Anyone who said such a thing in front of him would not remain among the living for long.
"So this is the goddess's star, caw?"
The corpse crow spoke as if it barely cared. With Ahram sealed, the rampaging black star had separated from his body. The Giant of Extinction clicked his tongue.
"You walked in here to die, you idiot. You should have fled with the White King while you had the chance."
"I just need to calm this star, don't I, caw?"
"Even the Star Guardians cannot do that. If a cursed crow like you so much as touches a sacred star, you'll burn to ash on the spot."
He'd heard that line somewhere before. When he'd first met Dramut and claimed Wilhelm's fallen star, the serpent had said much the same thing.
"I told you to move, caw."
"…"
The Giant of Extinction shifted slightly aside — as if to say, go ahead and try. As he stepped back, a black zone like a black hole was revealed. Touch it and you would be sucked in, or, as the giant had said, burst into flame.
But I rose without hesitation and reached for the rampaging black star.
So you were looking for me.
The moment my hand met the star, I knew. This was the star that had been searching for me all along. From the hot springs. No — from long before that.
The Eye of the Goddess Fina looked at me.
"Nnh…!"
And then the memories of the Goddess Fina began to pour into my mind.
The Knight King Wilhelm had been seized by the Demon King.
He was a being who had never truly received a goddess's blessing. A great hero who had climbed to that height alone, without divine aid — but the Demon King was a creature that could not be destroyed without a goddess's vested power.
"You monster. To push me this far without a single goddess's authority behind you…"
The Demon King spoke with genuine revulsion. No one had ever driven him to this state before. He had been reduced to rags. That indestructible body, capable of resurrection again and again, had been pulverized. The man before him possessed a rank that surpassed even the power of immortality.
"But that is your undoing."
It was fine. The flesh was dead, but the Demon King's essence was not. Without a goddess's power, annihilating him was impossible. In fact, this was ideal. If he claimed this monster's body, the Demon King would become stronger still.
The Demon King's essence began to invade Wilhelm's flesh.
—No!
Fina, Goddess of the Sky, had watched the entire scene from beginning to end. If Wilhelm's body fell to the Demon King here, this world was finished. Not only this world — every dimension connected to it would collapse before that ruin.
But she had never dreamed Wilhelm would threaten even the Demon King. She had never imagined he could grow this far without a goddess's authority.
It was not Wilhelm who was extraordinary. It was the one who moved him. He, connected from that other world, was what allowed Wilhelm to surpass his limits. He was the one who had completed Wilhelm to this degree.
—I'm sorry.
In the end, Fina took Wilhelm's life. If the Demon King claimed a living body along with every star, the chance would be lost forever. The one beyond would be stripped of his chance as well.
But killing a completed being like Wilhelm was dangerous even for her. Goddess or not, Wilhelm was one who had stood against Ruin and won. In exchange for taking Wilhelm's life, Fina had no choice but to abandon her own body as well.
—Please. O supreme and great one, I beg of you.
The Goddess Fina's body shattered and fell as a star. But she had no regrets. At least a final chance had been born.
Fina herself did not know who he was. She only prayed that the one who had moved Wilhelm was someone who loved Pangenia. For there was no being more honorable or greater than he. And still she prayed that he would leap higher than before — that he would be the one to lead every world.
A recollection of memory. The final prayer the Goddess Fina had held before her body scattered painted itself across my mind.
In the end, every beginning and every end was Wilhelm. This entire situation had been born from the death of the Knight King Wilhelm.
When she took Wilhelm's life, the Goddess Fina shattered as well.
It had never been as simple as restarting the game after a blue screen. That restart had been possible because of Fina. If the Goddess Fina had not sacrificed herself to kill Wilhelm, I would never have been given a second chance.
The problem was the star she had left behind in that sacrifice.
So the Demon King claimed Fina's star.
Instead of Wilhelm's intact body and the five stars, he had taken Fina's flesh and shattered it. Then he rebuilt the Demon Realm and set his sights on invading Earth. Originally the Demon Realm had been half-destroyed — but Fina's star seemed to have accelerated its restoration.
The star's rampage is subsiding.
Main Quest ???: Eliminate the King of the Dimensional Rift
Status: COMPLETE
The main quest completion message floated up. Fortunately, sealing him with the Gingoa alone had counted as an "elimination."
But what unsettled me more were the stares around me.
"What are you all looking at, caw?"
Every Star Guardian — even the White King and the Four Lords — was staring at me as if they could not believe what they had seen, as if they were stunned.
Then the Star Guardians began to speak, one by one.
"A Star Guardian?"
"A corpse crow is a Star Guardian?"
What? A Star Guardian? Were they talking about me?
But Star Guardians were only ever majestic Mythical beasts or powerful phantasmic creatures. I had never seen any other kind of Star Guardian.
Rumble!
At that moment the Giant of Extinction slowly rose to his feet. He looked down at me, his face twisting as if he hated to admit it — and yet had no choice.
"…A new Star Guardian has been born."
Unique Skill Plunder
Dimension Warriors.
The great warriors who had crossed from another dimension to protect Earth. They had warned of this invasion again and again.
—Before long, the full-scale invasion will begin.
—It starts within the month. Only we Dimension Warriors can protect you.
—Every government on Earth must cooperate. Prepare for annihilation!
The invasion from another dimension would destroy the world. But if they worked together, they could overcome it!
Perhaps it was the aftermath of the two previous invasions. One by one, people began to cooperate with the Dimension Warriors regarding the "full-scale invasion" they had warned of. The unknown terror had become a tangible threat.
And so, at last, that day arrived.
Another world's sky rose overhead. A phenomenon unfolding simultaneously across the entire globe left humanity in shock.
Online and offline alike, the world erupted into chaos. And when a vast black dimensional rift opened in the sky, the Other-dimensional Community was flooded with desperate inquiries.
Master and the so-called "8 Heroes." As countless people searched for them, broadcast stations across the world began capturing their images in real time.
The moment the dimensional rifts opened, the 8 Heroes took the lead, "descending" to prepare for the enemies about to pour through.
"Trust in us alone!"
"We will protect you from the invasion of another dimension!"
"As long as we stand, the world is safe!"
The many heroes filling the broadcasts cast themselves as saviors. The golden light that wrapped them as they descended and transformed was more than enough to dazzle the public. They looked like warriors straight out of myth and legend — standing ready with weapons in hand, every inch the picture of valor.
And they were no mere impostors dressed up for show. They were genuine monsters — the kind that made creatures capable of moving and shattering mountains alone tremble in fear.
With real superheroes walking the earth, the people could not help but go wild.
The moment the invasion truly began, their prestige would pierce the heavens.
The 8 Heroes were at ease. Their confidence overflowed.