Chapter 136

Chapter 136
## Chapter: 136
Chapter Title: Unprecedented Myth

Everything was crystalline.

If my path hadn’t led me to Paysalmer.

And if I had simply allowed her to follow her own course, Isabella would have perished.

Her intention had been to host the Demon Blood King within her own flesh, severing every connection to the world before plunging into the bottomless dark.

“But why……”

As I breached the fabric of reality and stepped back into the world, I met Isabella’s wide, shaking eyes.

“Why would you do this……!”

She stared at me, her gaze thick with a total lack of comprehension.

Even as she writhed in the throes of her transformation, she couldn’t grasp the logic behind my interference.

Yet, my motivation was transparent.

I simply refused to let you die.

While the Isabella I first met might have been nothing more than a role I played and discarded, she had evolved into my most steadfast ally.

A partner I could trust with my life without a second thought.

The companion who had stood by me, breathing the same air and marching forward since the moment I was dropped into this unforgiving reality.

Therefore, Isabella.

I need you to stay alive.

“I have no home to return to regardless. There is no one waiting for me, not a single roof where I belong…… Is that not the truth, Sir Randolph?”

It appeared that in the moment of her transcendence, Isabella had regained the full weight of her past.

She remembered her roots within the Dersian imperial family.

She remembered the sting of being cast aside by those of her own blood.

That was the anchor holding her back from returning.

“Our bond is merely a ‘contract’ after all. Why would you offer yourself as a ‘sacrifice’ for someone like me? For what possible reason……?”

……A relationship defined by a contract.

A single year of commitment.

My part of the deal was to uncover her history and grant her true autonomy. That was our pact.

Employer and employee. A bond based on a financial transaction for her prowess.

It was never supposed to be deeper than that.

I was barred from showing Isabella my true self.

To do so would invite disaster—a connection as volatile as a primed explosive.

I viewed her as a brother-in-arms, a fellow warrior, and a friend, yet this ‘link’ constructed on a foundation of deception was incredibly fragile.

‘Even if it is built on a lie.’

I can accept that.

One might label these emotions as guilt or mere sympathy.

Whether by design or accident, Isabella had once lost her life because of my actions.

I could not stand by and watch her lose her future as well.

I couldn’t abandon this woman to a lonely end fueled by hopelessness.

“Ah……”

Isabella looked on, her expression vacant.

Was she even capable of processing this as her own failing?

I offered no verbal reply.

My task was to excise the final source of corruption and draw the Demon Blood King into my own vessel.

To be honest, I lacked certainty.

Despite this body’s history of miraculous survival, my dormant qualities rarely triggered for the paths I chose of my own volition.

Nonetheless, I forged ahead.

In that heartbeat.

《’The One Who Devours Their Own Tail’》

《A requirement for the activation of ‘Ouroboros’ Stigma’ has been fulfilled.》

《A ‘Sacred Circle’ is carved into the flesh through the act of ‘self-sacrifice.’》

《’Ouroboros’ Poison’ saturates the ‘Sacred Circle.’》

《The ‘Ouroboros – Poisoned Chalice’ stigma has reached completion.》

《Stamina has increased by 10.》

《Natural recovery rate has increased by 1,000%.》

《It persists until it consumes its own form. It remains standing until the final breath. The ‘Indomitable’ trait has been applied.》

‘……I was certain every variable was accounted for.’

The Demon Blood King, advancing toward the heart of the rot beyond the cosmic gateway, knit his brows in frustration.

His arrangements had been surgical.

His progeny was not prone to making mistakes.

She was a creature who chased flawlessness and wouldn’t permit even the smallest oversight, wasn’t she?

And yet, the rhythm was off.

Specifically, the condition of the source of the rot.

‘Why has it not been completely claimed?’

If the final anchor of corruption remained, its consciousness and physical form should have been utterly subjugated.

At that point, it would have mirrored his own likeness as the Demon Blood King, allowing him to inhabit that vessel.

The true work would only begin once he had surpassed the limitations of every existing being.

But the process was stalled.

‘Neither the spirit nor the flesh—nothing has fallen under my sway.’

……The progress had flatlined.

The final source of corruption was merely skimming the exterior of the wretch’s form.

The Demon Blood King quickly deduced the cause.

‘There are barricades protecting the consciousness and the body.’

Fortress-like obstructions were preventing the corruption from seeping inward.

He scoffed.

The Demon Blood King was momentarily stunned.

He had operated under the belief that even deities could be tainted.

What was the fundamental nature of this individual that allowed him to defy the rot so stubbornly?

‘No matter, I shall shatter them.’

But even the strongest walls could be breached.

No matter the reinforcement, they would buckle under the weight of a siege engine.

And the Demon Blood King was the ultimate siege engine.

Now that his very essence had breached the dimensional threshold, no fortification, regardless of its strength, could endure.

Particularly since he intended to dismantle them from within.

It was a far simpler task.

‘Fall.’

The world shook!

Anchored in place with eyes squeezed shut, I ground my teeth together.

The sweat rolling off me had turned into a literal deluge.

By the time my entire frame was drenched and blood began to seep from my locked jaw and clenched hands.

【’Giant’s Magic Resistance’ has been toppled by the ‘Demon Blood King.’】

The defense of the Giant’s Magic Resistance that had held back the rot was finally shattered.

A sickening snap echoed!

In that moment, the agony intensified tenfold.

The sensation was as if my legs were being hacked away.

Had it not been for the Ouroboros stigma bolstering my physical reserves and recovery, the sheer pain would have forced a blackout.

My muscles jumped and spasmed!

Simultaneously, the skin across my legs began to crawl.

It was the physical manifestation of my mind and body being slowly overtaken and consumed.

【’Beast Lord’ has been toppled by the ‘Demon Blood King.’】

It felt as though my very face was being torn apart.

However, my anatomy had been forged anew with every hidden trait I possessed.

I wouldn’t surrender everything just because ‘Giant’s Magic Resistance’ had failed.

I still had twelve lines of defense left for him to overcome.

‘What an absolute terror.’

I had to give him credit.

To think a being existed that could manually dismantle hidden traits.

The prospect of such a creature being unleashed upon the world was nothing short of a nightmare.

【’Golden Grace’ has been toppled by the ‘Demon Blood King.’】

My posture faltered.

I lost my footing.

I slammed a hand against the earth, fighting with everything I had to keep from collapsing.

【’All Master’ has been toppled by the ‘Demon Blood King.’】

Agony surged through my lower half, followed by a terrifying void where sensation used to be.

Standing would be impossible now.

This was the first time my own hidden traits had been turned against me with such ferocity.

【’Mutation’ has been toppled by the ‘Demon Blood King.’】

Darkness took my sight.

Curse it all.

That made five.

Gore-streaked tears fell from my eyes, and I fought a desperate impulse to claw them out.

But this was only the preamble.

【Void】, 【Weapon Master】, 【Great Sage】, and even 【All Master】.

A total of nine hidden traits were obliterated in a heartbeat.

Who was this monster? By now, I fully grasped why Isabella had been so intent on burying him in the abyss.

I understood why the legendary Jörmungandr, the serpent that consumes the world, identified the Demon Blood King as the ‘mightiest entity.’

Because of his assault, my body was already teetering on the edge of total failure.

My thoughts were as thick and confused as if I were heavily sedated.

《’Indomitable’ effect has triggered!》

《All sensation of pain has been extinguished.》

《Endurance has increased by 500%.》

In that instant, a tidal wave of life force surged back through me.

It was like the first swallow of water after collapsing in a wasteland—a profound, cooling relief.

It didn’t fix everything, but it was enough.

Sufficient to continue the struggle against him.

I locked my jaw once more.

‘Ten. Only four barriers remain.’

The Demon Blood King took stock of his progress.

The ten fortifications he had demolished.

They were equivalent to fundamental ‘truths,’ yet they hadn’t been enough to impede his advance.

‘Four are left. But these final four are of a different caliber than the rest.’

Each of these remaining walls carried a distinct identity.

He had just leveled ‘Dexterity,’ leaving only four.

‘Heavenly, High Druid of Great Nature, Heart of the Eternal Lord, Eternal Randolph.’

The Demon Blood King rubbed his chin in contemplation.

What were these supposed to be?

They were concepts he had never encountered.

Truths and designations that had no place in his understood reality.

He recognized the essence of the first ten, but these four were an absolute enigma.

‘The walls I have broken all belong to the ‘Epochs.”

The Epochs.

The titles of fundamental standards or points of origin.

All such standards were recognized as ‘truths.’

Thus, the first ten walls were established, existing truths.

‘Every barrier I shattered was unique. They were primal anchors brought to life by different entities across the ages.’

He began to understand.

The nature of those specific traits.

Names etched by those who had once awakened their power.

Gateways designed to reach a specific destination!

‘Even with the power of such truths, they failed to arrive. What heights were they attempting to scale by leaving these markers behind?’

Was there some fabled paradise they sought?

What was undeniable was that the beings capable of forging such truths had all failed, one after another.

The wreckage of the first ten proved it.

But the final four walls were ‘newly forged truths.’

Concepts unknown even to the Demon Blood King.

The Great Unknown.

For a being who had unraveled the secrets of the cosmos, such a void in his knowledge was jarring.

‘Is it possible this creature is truly a god?’

Furthermore, he had never witnessed a single vessel containing so many truths at once.

Under normal circumstances, such concentrated power would cause a host to detonate.

A standard human frame simply couldn’t contain it.

Mortals lacked the capacity to hold that much existence or to expand their spiritual vessel to such a degree.

Only deities, or those who walked the threshold of divinity like himself, could manage it.

‘I am a seeker of truth. There is no mystery I cannot solve.’

This was becoming fascinating.

This mortal’s anatomy.

The fourteen truths held within this single human.

Particularly the final four that remained standing.

The Demon Blood King stroked his chin thoughtfully.

He focused his intent on one of the four remaining barriers.

‘Heavenly.’

A gateway and a wall guarding the inner sanctum of the mind.

If he could dominate and conquer this one, the rest would fall like dominos.

The Demon Blood King pressed his palm against the barrier labeled Heavenly.

Then.

‘What is this?’

From the surface of the wall, a gargantuan eye and a sprawling mouth manifested before him.

The eye fixed its gaze on the Demon Blood King.

The mouth.

Heh-heh!

It twisted into a grin, as if finding the situation deeply entertaining.

With Indomitable in effect, the agony had evaporated.

My consciousness became a lake of calm, reinforced by a will that could not be snapped.

Even though Dexterity had been lost, the core of my hidden traits remained.

Four were still standing.

And those four were fundamentally separate from the ten that had already collapsed.

‘The pressure stopped.’

Suddenly, the Demon Blood King’s relentless assault ceased.

The entity that had been tearing through my defenses like an unstoppable force.

He had made contact with one of the four remaining traits and frozen in his tracks.

What was he thinking?

As I questioned his silence and tried to make sense of the pause.

A vibration hummed!

Abruptly, a tremor raced through my entire being, and the sharp, piercing sensation in my gut—as if I’d ingested glass—began to fade into a dull thrum.

Minutes later.

A heavy surge!

……It was absorbed.

And the process didn’t stop there.

《Hidden trait ‘King of the Demon Blood Clan’ has been acquired.》

《A fresh talent has been awakened.》

《An ‘announcement’ concerning the ‘new talent’ has been published.》

《All participants can now allocate SP to develop the associated talents.》

《The ‘Rift Tower’ has appeared.》

《Within the ‘Rift Tower,’ participants can earn SP and shards of the Golden Rule. Furthermore, level caps can be bypassed depending on the floor reached.》

《Two additional announcements have been published.》

……

《’Main Quest 8 – Cleanse the Urban Corruption’ has been successfully completed!》

《Calculating results.》

The One Who Forged an Unprecedented Myth

“……A fresh talent?”

“The Rift Tower?”