928 Episode 53 Record War (4)

Two piercing eyes twinkled in the pitch-black darkness of the theater.

The sound of someone regularly knocking on the theater door. Asmodeus ignored the noise and focused on the screen.

A man shouted on the screen. A middle-aged man, splattered with demon blood, was stabbing the fallen 'Dark Guardian' with a groundhog knife.

Thump, thump, thump. The knocking on the theater door grew louder. Asmodeus frowned, sighed in annoyance, then turned off the screen and opened the theater door.

'Hermit' was an Assistant Recorder Asmodeus had recently recruited. While his writing style was gloomy, he demonstrated a talent for manifesting [Fate] in shorthand, and he was thought to be a useful one to have.

He seemed somewhat self-conscious, but he was relatively reserved. He had achieved the 'Red' rank in Bicheonhori's Record Archive, so I thought it wouldn't be a problem to recruit him...

Asmodeus watched Hermit rambling on faster than he could transcribe [Fate], deciding to listen to his story.

A summary of Hermit's words was as follows.

A Recorder wearing a 'white fox mask' appeared in Bicheonhori's subspace, the 'Record Archive'. But the mysterious Recorder had 'traded' information that sounded unusual at first glance.

Asmodeus's sudden laughter made Hermit look puzzled. Asmodeus cleared his throat slightly and added,

At Asmodeus's expression of interest, Hermit's voice brightened significantly.

It was then that a small murmur was heard from a corner of the theater.

A child's singing voice. While Hermit paused at the strangeness in the voice, the other children in the audience began to speak one by one.

The children sang in unison.

A strange probability gripped the theater.

Hermit, feeling a terrible dizziness, stumbled.

He looked up and saw Asmodeus, his expression enchanted.

As if he had forgotten the story he had been hearing, Asmodeus left Hermit behind and trudged to the audience, where he collapsed.

A moment later, a video began to appear on the torn theater screen.

The mere sound of the chorus made his stomach churn. The story of 'Fear' resonated within Asmodeus, and he began to cry.

Above the 'New Murim District', the King of Fear descended.

The shrieks of the Recorders of Fear. Even amidst all this, the desperate struggle of the Recorders continued, trying to write down even one more sentence.

Gazing upon the battlefield on the margins, where the desire to write, read, and survive swirled, Asmodeus spoke to the Hermit, who was leaning against a corner of the theater, trembling.

A single line determines life and death, a single line writes someone's [Fate]. And a single line can determine the end of a world.

The crucial question is who writes that 'last sentence' and how.

'Constellation hunting' was beginning.

The moment I activated the story, I instinctively recalled Han Sooyoung's words.

The second mode Han Sooyoung spoke of was to borrow the power of the 'King of Fear'.

The moment I stepped into the 'Great Hall', the darkness of the world spoke to me.

The screams of Outer Gods scattered throughout the <Star Stream>. Distant Outer Gods, scattered across each worldline, gazed upon me.

Even though I would normally panic, I wasn't afraid. Perhaps it was because I subconsciously realized they weren't hostile to me.

Of course, not all Outer Gods were so welcoming.

The next moment, with an incredible spark, a story flowed out from within me.

The Second Kim Dokja's main story, the Giant Tale, 'Watcher of Light and Darkness', was stirring.

A context incomparably more distant than the existing stories began to sweep through me.

Amidst the searing pain in my brain, my sense of self gradually became blurred.

Is this why Han Sooyoung told me not to use it? I desperately recalled the story of the 'Second'. To master this story, I needed to emulate its master, even if only a little.

The source of the <Star Stream>—a being born from fragments of the 'Oldest Dream'. The master of the 'Time Fault' who dreams and delights in interpreting them.

Everyone who has ever recorded his life struggles to leave behind even a single line of interpretation, and every star that has seen him retreats in a fear that light cannot interpret—

Unlike the First, who was somewhat talkative, I rarely spoke to the Second.

However, I remembered the scenery I had seen with him in the 'Big House'. His feelings about the 'Time Fault'. His Outer Gods—the compassion he showed to Outer Gods. His curiosity that did not ignore the stories of mere extras or villains.

Merely maintaining my existence felt like my mind would collapse.

Barely holding onto my senses, I walked the path of the 'Great Hall'.

A path of stars and darkness. Through gazes mingled with fear and awe, the exit from the 'Hall' finally came into view.

Ashen shade seemed to descend upon every landscape of the world.

Living things burned to death, not even a single collar left. The traces of all beings fading away were trampled upon my eyes.

This was the world the 'King of Fear' had seen.

The God of Flames, burning the earth, looked up in astonishment.

Have you ever seen a god terrified?

I was watching.

While all living things that felt 'fear' were hesitant to raise their heads, I slowly walked toward the God of Flame.

The presence of the 'King of Fear' filled the entire 'New Murim District'.

The maddened Recorders were spewing out meaningless sentences, confronted by a fear they couldn't interpret.

Agni, too, was watching me, reading something entirely different.

The end of the world. The scene of the 'Final Wall' reached twice through the 'King of Fear'. The possibility of an apocalypse that all Constellations both awe and fear.

The god, having glimpsed this possibility, began to shed tears of blood from his entire body.

Some of the Recorders, sensing ominousness, finally attempted to escape the scenario.

At my call, sparks swept across the entire 'New Murim District'.

I will not let a single one escape. I will not let you escape the sentences you wrote. I will not let you ignore the old sorrow.

With every step Agni took, the groans of the Recorders seemed to echo in my ears.

Agni, barely regaining his composure after receiving the probability from <Vedas>, shouted as he endured the aftershock of probability.

He was right. Right now, I couldn't use the overwhelming power of 'Fear' that the 'King of Fear' had displayed.

His sanctuary, the Fear Realm, had already been destroyed, and the 'Time Faults' he controlled had all been closed.

Now, I was just Kim Dokja, wearing the 'King of Fear's' clothes.

Like cornered rats, the Recorders were gathering again. Now, they too were desperate.

It was only natural. If Agni died here, they would die too.

Looking at the Recorders, I quietly smiled.

They would now understand what it meant to achieve a balance of probability with the great Lokapala simply by 'existing'.

I slowly opened my mouth.

As if the world had stopped, all words in the world fell silent before the tranquil mantra.

The sky turned pitch black, and the Constellations held their breath. The Recorders, who had stopped recording, focused on my words.

As if engraving a mantra into their souls, I record their fear.

This is a kind of apocalypse.

Agni shouted hysterically.

And in the next moment, an unusual aftershock began to ripple through his body.

The sentences surrounding him were disintegrating. All the stories that had reinforced, praised, and protected his probability were crumbling.

Agni, astonished, hurriedly turned and glanced into the empty air.

With this power, all the Recorders in this scenario area have just heard 'information they should not hear'.

Agni's incarnation, strengthened by the Recorders' [Fate], weakened, and the god's incarnation, unable to contain the probability condensed within, began to swell.

With a blast of probability, Agni's entire body exploded before my eyes.