Chapter 398

Chapter 398
Chapter 398: The Veil is Lifted.

—

Star Guardians.

The holy entities tasked with the protection of the Goddess’s Stars.

In return for their eternal guardianship of these Stars, they are gifted with undying life and immense strength.

Furthermore, they serve as the ultimate arbiters, testing the character of those who seek worthiness.

As beings whose existence transcends the limitations of common races, a silent pact has always dictated that they remain neutral in the worldly conflicts of other species.

However, that has changed.

“I wish to know. Is it not a fundamental law that Star Guardians refrain from interfering in the racial wars of this world?”

The Star Guardians had discarded their neutrality.

As the opposing forces prepared to storm the labyrinth, the Guardians had moved to occupy the strategic rear.

This was a blatant breach of their sacred code, a move without historical parallel.

The Golden Fox posed this question while sliding a slender, sharp blade from her belt, but the Giant of Evil Annihilation met her query with a firm rebuttal.

“The primary mandate of a Star Guardian is to preserve the equilibrium of existence.”

“And how does ambushing us from the shadows contribute to the equilibrium of existence?”

“…The justification for our actions is not something you are permitted to know.”

The Druid of the Golden Rule.

He was a figure currently engaged in the restoration of the world’s sanctity.

He was ushering a new dawn into Pangenia, a realm long smothered by shadows.

The awakening of the World Tree and the resurgence of the Druid lineage were signs of this change.

The territories once lost to the dark void were resurfacing, and the Star Guardians could sense the literal birth of a secondary World Tree.

What was the true significance of these shifting tides?

—The world… is healing. At long last, it is returning to its proper state!

The Giant of Evil Annihilation felt a surge of triumph.

Reality was reverting to its original form, the state it held before the arrival of ‘Ruin’, the force that had annihilated everything and cast the world into the dark pits.

If the world could be fully mended, then the goddess herself would surely return.

It felt as though destiny was granting them a second chance.

It was even possible that a final confrontation with ‘Ruin’ was on the horizon.

They could not allow the same cataclysm to repeat itself.

Consequently, it was only natural for the Star Guardians to commit their full strength to supporting the ‘Druid of the Golden Rule’.

Naturally, they felt no obligation to explain this to their enemies.

Certainly not to the Death God Cult, that malevolent organization.

Even the Star Guardians struggled to grasp the full depth of that group’s true nature.

Those villains operated just within the boundaries of the world’s balance, all while surreptitiously growing their influence.

Shing.

The woman behind the golden fox mask gave a subtle, knowing smirk.

While she hadn’t anticipated the Star Guardians taking such a direct hand, the feeling was mutual; they were equally ignorant of her secrets.

Specifically, they knew nothing of her, the ‘Golden Fox’.

“I have always harbored a curiosity regarding the location of the ‘Mother Star’.”

The paramount celestial body among all the Goddess’s Stars.

Yet, it was a star that had never been witnessed by any living soul.

While theories were many, its existence remained unproven.

Nonetheless, myths regarding its power were legendary.

—It must wield the supreme radiance that originally repelled Ruin.

—No. The Mother Star likely holds dominion over the flow of time.

—It is a star capable of generating life itself, manifesting existence from the void.

The hypotheses were endless.

Among them, a chilling minority opinion suggested something far more unsettling.

—Perhaps Ruin successfully cast all reality into the abyss, and Pangenia is merely a ‘replica’ world forged by the goddess. The ‘Mother Star’ would hold the records of this truth.

—The ‘Mother Star’ is not a celestial body, but Pangenia itself!

Still, these were merely guesses.

In truth, the only being who possessed knowledge of its whereabouts was the ‘Giant of Evil Annihilation’.

The difficulty lay in the fact that the Giant of Evil Annihilation’s own location was impossible to pin down.

Yet, the Golden Fox remained intrigued.

Her own investigations suggested that these theories were not entirely without merit.

“By striking you down, I expect to uncover the path to the ‘Mother Star’.”

The Giant of Evil Annihilation had delivered himself right to her.

The Golden Fox’s smile widened.

And—

Swish!

In a heartbeat, her form vanished into thin air.

“……!”

The Giant of Evil Annihilation lost his target completely.

Where had she vanished to?

He scanned the horizon and the heavens above, but the Golden Fox was nowhere to be found.

“…Behind you.”

Suddenly, the Golden Fox, who had seemingly dissolved into the atmosphere, reappeared directly at the Giant of Evil Annihilation’s back.

‘How is this possible?’

He hadn’t sensed a thing.

In fact, it felt as though she was impossible to perceive.

It was as if she existed within a permanent blind spot.

—Falling Blossoms.

Instantly, the air was filled with the drifting petals of pink plum blossoms.

As the petals touched the ground.

Rumble!

The Giant of Evil Annihilation staggered, losing his footing.

His physical form was reputed to be the most resilient in existence.

He was a being capable of shrugging off any physical assault.

And yet, he had been struck.

His impenetrable hide had been breached.

The Giant of Evil Annihilation pivoted violently, launching a massive fist toward the Golden Fox.

‘I have you now.’

In making her move, she had exposed herself.

There was no way she could dodge a strike at this range.

No mortal could survive the weight of his divine power!

Thud—.

…However.

The devastating punch was stopped effortlessly.

The Golden Fox halted the Giant of Evil Annihilation’s massive fist using nothing but the index finger of her right hand.

Despite the vast disparity in physical scale and raw energy.

Such a blow should have been impossible to parry with a single finger.

“You clearly haven’t mastered the proper application of force, dear.”

“……!”

What was happening?

The Giant of Evil Annihilation found the reality before him utterly incomprehensible.

A human could not possibly endure his strength.

To repel it with a finger defied all logic.

This proved the Golden Fox was far from human.

Only then did the Giant of Evil Annihilation begin to grasp the truth.

The secret behind a human’s ability to withstand his might.

As their forms made contact, the hidden truths previously veiled from his sight began to manifest.

“You allowed an ‘Outer God’ to enter you… and then you consumed it…?”

“I see you’ve finally noticed.”

The Golden Fox offered no denial.

She was, after all, the true mastermind guiding the ‘Balrog Order’.

Outer Gods.

Lesser deities.

They were interdimensional trespassers who had no place in this world.

They were parasitic entities of no benefit to anyone.

The Star Guardians had been monitoring their activities with great concern.

They were prepared to intervene if these beings ever threatened the world’s stability.

But the essence of the ‘Outer God’ emanating from the Golden Fox was…

‘It isn’t just one.’

Multiple Outer Gods had attempted to inhabit this woman’s vessel.

And the Golden Fox had dominated and devoured every single one of them.

“Tell me… was the recent surge in Outer God incarnations your doing as well?”

“Indeed, we are the chosen. Every miracle that transpires in this realm is by our design.”

Hold on.

Did she say ‘we’?

The Giant of Evil Annihilation’s eyes shook as he looked past the Golden Fox.

‘…I see them now.’

The others wearing the golden masks.

They had transcended humanity.

From their backs, ‘divine wings’—invisible to the eyes of ordinary mortals—were unfurled.

But the act of devouring an ‘Outer God’ was an absurdity that broke all laws of nature.

How could a mere human host consume a deity from the outside?

The Giant of Evil Annihilation finally realized the purpose behind it all.

—Kikikiki!

—Kekekekekeke!

‘The Orthodox. Those heralds of death…’

The eleven death gods known as the Orthodox.

They had feasted upon the spirits and the essence of the Outer Gods.

Just as they gorged themselves during the Feast of the Death God, they had harvested the souls of these alien invaders.

‘This was the plan… from the very start…!’

According to the tenets of the Death God Cult, the ‘Sleeping Emperor’ was said to have descended from the heavens bearing eleven eggs.

These offspring matured by consuming souls.

It was as if they were training for this very moment.

The Orthodox were engineered specifically to prey upon the souls of ‘Outer Gods’.

The Balrog Order’s mission to summon these gods was merely a way to provide them with fodder.

Why had he failed to realize this earlier?

Had he been so blind?

If he had intervened before they attained this level of power.

There would have been ample opportunity to stop them.

‘I must put an end to this now.’

He steeled his resolve.

But the moment had already passed.

“By ending your life, I will finally secure the coordinates of the ‘Mother Star’.”

Flash!

A brilliant radiance erupted from the Golden Fox’s sword.

The steel found its mark, carving through the Giant of Evil Annihilation with surgical precision.

“…Now, fade away.”

Ruuuumble!

Split perfectly in two, the massive form of the Giant of Evil Annihilation collapsed to the earth.

“Kuaaak!”

“Cough!”

The air was thick with the sounds of agony.

The conflict, which had initially seemed like a stalemate, was turning into a rout.

As the minutes ticked by, Kramdel’s monstrous legions were being thinned out.

…Yet, the black beasts proved impossible to put down.

Not a single one stayed dead.

Whenever one took a fatal wound and fell, a dark energy would flow from a nearby ‘black beast’.

Infused with this dark current, the fallen creature would rise once more to rejoin the fray.

It was as if their life forces were all woven into a single, collective thread.

Gooooooooooooo-!

Destruction King Mok roared in frustration.

The black beasts weren’t even engaging Destruction King Mok directly.

Instead, the entity pinning Destruction King Mok down was a colossal titan.

…It was ‘Despair’.

Trapped in Despair’s iron grip, Destruction King Mok found himself paralyzed.

Worse still, the myriad eyes covering Destruction King Mok’s form began to shut, one by one.

“Even if you tap into the legacy of the White Tiger Tribe, a pretender is still just a pretender.”

The Black King gave a cold laugh.

And pinned beneath his boot.

Grrrrr…

The White King lay there, gasping for air.

The gap in their strength was insurmountable.

It was a level of power that defied all expectation.

“What have you done, Black King…”

This was unnatural.

This level of dominance far exceeded the known capabilities of the Black Tiger Tribe.

The Black King smirked.

“This is the authentic manifestation of ‘Despair’.”

“Despair… you mean that horror you infused with the ‘Snake King’s’ essence?”

The second Juyeok, the Snake King.

His spiritual resonance was clearly emanating from within ‘Despair’.

Despair was an entity that even Destruction King Mok was powerless to resist.

Yet, it was baffling how the Black King could exercise such control over such a creature.

“The Black Tiger Tribe has dedicated ages to the study of ‘Despair’. It represents the ‘pinnacle of evolutionary progress’.”

…The claim that the Black Tiger Tribe had held ‘Despair’ for so long was a revelation.

The White Tiger Tribe had been completely oblivious.

They hadn’t even suspected its existence.

Had they known, they would have risked everything to destroy it, which is why the Black Tiger Tribe had gone to such lengths to keep it hidden.

The fact that he was revealing it now meant his control over it was absolute.

Squeeeeze!

The Black King ground his heel into the White King’s face as he continued.

“The Four Perils are enigmatic and complex entities. So much so that even the ancient Empire failed to harness the ‘Four Perils’ correctly. But we, the Black Tiger Tribe, have decoded their lineage and their secrets. While you arrogant fools in the White Tiger Tribe were idle and complacent.”

The Black King radiated certainty.

The Four Perils, Despair.

This was the masterpiece that he and his tribe had brought to fruition.

It was on a completely different level than something like Destruction King Mok.

“…Are you claiming a nightmare like that has a divine origin?”

“The Four Perils are deities cast down from the celestial realms.”

“……”

“Now, using your lifeblood, we shall achieve true perfection.”

The legacy of the White Tiger Tribe combined with the legacy of the Black Tiger Tribe.

When these two powers merge, the path to the ultimate state finally opens.

He would gain the ability to track and rouse the remaining members of the Four Perils.

Craaack-

The Black King bared his teeth.

And.

Stab!

He buried his sharp fangs deep into the White King’s throat.

The Dark Elf Lord bit his lip in frustration.

“This has taken an unfortunate turn…”

The ground around him was littered with the fallen.

Every single one was a dark elf.

He was the sole survivor of his kind on this battlefield.

The situation was mirrored on the other side.

Dragon God Lucaria.

The young girl who had decimated the dark elf forces lay unconscious, her eyes tightly shut.

She had fallen only after he, the Lord, had tapped into his suppressed potential.

“…You have witnessed ‘me’, so I am left with no choice but to end you.”

He hadn’t intended for Lucaria to die, but his hand was forced.

He had quickly erected a ‘curtain’ of energy to block the sight of Hypnos and the others, but Lucaria, standing right before him, had seen his true identity.

The Dark Elf Lord.

No.

A different name had materialized clearly above his head.

【Mint Chocolate Taste, ??LV】