The Main Characters That Only I Know

Chapter 441:

A baptism of death descended from the sky.

Lord Wi Muhyuk raised his great sword high, heightening his defensive aura to the extreme.

Ting, ting, ting.

Countless spears thrown by Elohim struck his protective aura. Wi Muhyuk gritted his teeth and endured. The impact that his aura couldn’t completely absorb shook his body, and blood trickled from his tightly closed lips.

Not only Wi Muhyuk but the entire allied forces gathered in squads, doing their utmost to defend together.

However, there were some who failed to group together properly, and their end was horrific.

Outside the translucent aura, people were dying. Their figures reflected in Wi Muhyuk’s retina.

Pierced by spears, swept up in explosions, their bodies were torn apart, scattering as fragments of text.

Wi Muhyuk trembled as he watched those dying.

‘At least for those I am protecting now…’

Behind Wi Muhyuk, who was extending his defensive aura, dozens of people were huddled together.

Even if he could do nothing else, he vowed to protect at least those behind him.

For what reason?

I have nothing left to protect.

‘I am…’

Since the death of his beloved daughter and wife, he had lost his purpose in life.

It was said that, in the Mental Realm, those who have a story could bring the dead back to life. Believing only in that, he had tried to use the World of Thought to meet his wife and daughter again.

But ultimately, he chose reality.

He could no longer hold his wife’s hand or embrace his daughter.

There was nothing left for him to protect.

But even so, he couldn’t stop fighting.

This world forced him to fight. If no one fought, then someone would die.

So, to keep others from dying, he once again took up his sword as the Military God.

‘I have grown stronger.’

Since that time. After releasing the text Schrödinger and losing a great deal of power, he had trained and become even stronger.

It was all just to protect.

He looked back. What he saw were the gazes of people looking at his back with desperate eyes. Among them, even young children were mixed in. Having enough power to be a minimum fighting force, children had joined the battlefield.

Yes.

Though he had no family left to protect, he still had things to defend.

‘I won’t lose anything more.’

That’s why he stood here now.

What covered the sky were the growing numbers of despairing enemies. He didn’t think he could confront them all. Even with the allied forces’ strength, it was nearly impossible to fight such a vast enemy force.

But he had to fight. At least if he could prove his existence with this.

Don’t give up and keep moving forward.

If it were that man, he would have done so in this moment.

* * *

[Hmm?]

Looking down at the battlefield, Logos felt something strange.

The level of despair coming from them was far less intense than he had expected.

Given the sheer power he had unleashed, pushing them all at once, his calculations were that they would collapse into disarray and crumble.

The damage was severe, but, strangely enough, few seemed ready to give up.

Why?

Could this too have happened because of that unpredictable factor? Was this snowballing from that initial miscalculation?

[No, it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, it’s irrelevant.]

Nothing in this world happens by willpower alone.

He was the creator of this world. He had never permitted anything outside of what he had created.

The lack of despair was curious, but it was still enough.

The fate of death wouldn’t change.

[More importantly… it seems I am missing a fragment.]

A page from the Codex he had retrieved from Yu-hyun.

The very edge of it had been slightly torn away.

One single fragment. He hadn’t managed to retrieve it.

As the owner of the Codex, could I have missed a fragment? There was still one piece I hadn’t reclaimed?

Logos thought of one being, locked away inside his book.

Kang Yu-hyun.

The man still held one fragment.

[…Well, it doesn’t matter. He was drawn into the Abyss and won’t escape anyway.]

There, he would be consumed and dissolved into nutrients, his final fragment returning to Logos’ hands.

Nothing would change. Only the time until the moment of promise was slightly delayed.

Until then, he would watch.

The end of the universe, which might hold the sole possibility.

* * *

“Ha ha! Fenrir! Look at this sight!”

In mid-air, Odin, mounted on Sleipnir, thrust his spear.

He bared his teeth in wild laughter. Below him, where he faced Kwon Jia, unfolded a red hellscape.

“This is the end for you, who dared to defy Logos!”

“Shut up!”

The mouth of the purple wolf lunged toward Odin. It was a devouring maw that would tear and consume everything, ultimately leading even itself to ruin.

Odin thrust Gungnir forward and shattered it.

The galloping horse paused mid-air.

“So it was Kang Yu-hyun, wasn’t it? That he managed to get into the depths of the Foundation was something neither I nor Zeus anticipated. But look at him now! He failed in the end! Going up against Logos? Against the creator of this world?”

What was the result of all that?

The solitary fortress of the Foundation had increased to a total of six.

From there, Elohim surged forth alongside the newly appointed Judges.

Even if the allied forces had been in perfect condition, they could never have withstood this massive, powerful flood, one potent enough to erase this world.

“This is what happens when mere humans overreach their limits!”

The Great Spirits, even the First Generation, the highest among them, bowed to Logos.

It wasn’t an issue of pride or anything like that. In this world, that was simply the natural order.

Questioning the immutable law, the truth of Pangu, was something only fools would do.

Odin detested those fools.

Those ignorant beings with loud voices. Those who failed to grasp the bigger picture. Those who didn’t know when to bow and always held their heads high.

Insignificant vermin-like humans.

“Vermin should crawl on the ground as vermin do!”

Odin hated humans.

To him, their actions were foolish, heedlessly challenging impossible feats.

Why were they so desperate to achieve something they couldn’t?

Why couldn’t they just be content with their assigned roles, like him?

Every time he saw it, irritation surged from deep within him.

Arrogant.

So very arrogant.

“And that’s why you always fail, over and over again!”

Bang!

Kwon Jia’s drawn sword and Odin’s spear clashed multiple times in mid-air.

A massive shockwave spread out, sweeping away and shattering the nearby Elohim.

“Fenrir! No, wielder of the Bookmark! In the end, all your struggling is nothing more than a futile act! Don’t you see? Even if you throw everything away and sacrifice your life, it will be meaningless!”

“Shut up! That’s something I’ll only know by trying!”

Realizing that Fenrir’s power was insufficient, she drew upon something else.

Black shadows rose from Kwon Jia’s body, transforming into the form of beasts that lunged at Odin.

Beasts from scripture. From them sprang an army of endless malice.

Six hundred sixty-six black beasts.

Thud, thud, thud!

Odin fiercely swung Gungnir, cutting down the beasts with every strike.

Red flashes streaked, piercing the dark mud-like creatures.

“Not only can you wield Fenrir’s power, but even the Beast’s strength? No wonder Magni died. But it’s not enough. Even this isn’t enough. If you can’t surpass even me, how do you intend to stand against Logos?”

“Then I’ll just kill you now and kill Logos next.”

Kwon Jia and Odin.

Their forms drew close and then separated.

The attacks exchanged between them defied understanding. Space twisted, and an array of explosions filled the air.

In the brief stalemate, each left wounds upon the other and retreated.

“Kill me and then kill Logos? Ha. Have you forgotten how many failures you, the owner of the Bookmark, have endured until now?”

“Shut up. It’s different this time.”

“Do you trust the companions you brought along? How laughable. Yes, you may indeed retain your memories into the next universe. Based on what unfolds now, you could make better, more certain choices. But will your companions be able to do the same?”

“……”

To outsiders, being a regressor might seem like a coveted trait, but that’s a shallow view.

A regressor—especially someone like Kwon Jia—didn’t get to restart from any desired moment in the past, only being forcibly reset to a designated point.

But the most terrifying part was that her cherished companions wouldn’t remember her if she returned.

Cursed to live in a loop, bound by fate, with even loved ones unable to recognize her in a world where she’s isolated.

Such was the reality of an eternal regressor.

Kwon Jia, too, had suffered countless wounds because of that.

She realized how painful it was to give her heart to someone.

But instead, Kwon Jia laughed.

“So what if that’s the case?”

After meeting that man,

she was able to remember her old self, the part she had forgotten.

“I remember it clearly. Everything happening now and what’s to come in this world.”

“But everyone else will forget, even those moments they shared with you.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What?”

“When that time comes, I’ll just tell them again. If they don’t know, they don’t need to. But I will remember.”

Kwon Jia raised her left hand and placed it over her chest.

Beyond the beating of her heart, there was an unbroken spirit within her.

It was burning with even stronger passion than before.

“Since I remember, I can start over again, with everyone.”

“You…”

“Don’t remember? Can’t remember? Then I’ll make them remember, even if I have to knock it into them.”

“He won’t recognize you, and he won’t even know where you are.”

“Then I’ll go find him.”

Kwon Jia laughed lightly.

“Over and over, I’ll go to him. I’ll tell him who I am and what we did in the past.”

She had once thought of this power as a curse.

Even now, it was hard to avoid thinking that way.

After all, she had suffered through pain countless times.

“But thanks to this ability, I’ve gained another chance.”

So she would keep challenging herself.

Until she succeeded.

The process would undoubtedly be grueling, and she might not know when she would succeed. She might go through countless failures again.

But it didn’t matter.

Now, she knew all too well what was truly precious.

“Of course, I must do my best at this moment too. It’s one of the rare chances I’ve reached until now.”

Odin’s face turned cold as he looked at Kwon Jia’s unwaveringly sincere expression.

Her response was not what he had expected.

It didn’t sit well with him.

It was annoying. Deep within him, the emotions he harbored against humans were stirring like an erupting volcano.

Odin twisted his lips in a sneer.

“No one will understand or accept your actions.”

“I don’t care if they don’t. This is something I have to do.”

Odin’s face contorted.

It was unpleasant.

Unpleasant and repulsive.

Why did that woman refuse to give up? Why didn’t she acknowledge her own limits?

‘Because she’s foolish. Too stupid to realize what she’s saying.’

Was that really true? Were humans truly too foolish to understand surrender?

Perhaps the truly foolish ones were they themselves, dismissing everything as impossible and giving up without trying.

He remembered a conversation with the one called Fenrir in this era.

In the last universe, the Odin who came before him was a man of even greater wisdom and true foresight.

Unlike himself, he had held humans in high regard.

He said they might achieve what even they couldn’t.

‘No!’

Odin fiercely rejected the dark feelings stirring within him.

Hadn’t he done well until now? So why was he suddenly feeling this unease?

Yes, it was all because of that woman. Kwon Jia’s unyielding resolve was unsettling him.

Grit.

“Fine. Then try. Go beyond my corpse, the body of Odin, the Usurper, and reach Logos if you can!”

This was a trial. A trial to see if this insignificant human could reach her goal.

Such was history, such was myth.

Gods always delivered trials to humankind.

This was merely a continuation of that.

* * *

Boom!

Countless lightning bolts fell from the sky.

The moment it registered in her eyes, they were already descending upon her at incredible speed. The moment Kang Hye-rim sensed the lightning’s approach, she immediately moved.

Gracefully twisting her body in mid-air, she slipped through the gaps in the lightning, escaping danger.

There was a beauty in her movement close to art itself.

Watching her, Zeus, who had unleashed the lightning, expressed his admiration.

“Oh, splendid. Absolutely splendid. What a glorious sight it is.”

“Sh-shut up!”

Kang Hye-rim was about to rush toward Zeus, but she quickly halted herself in her tracks.

Directly in her path, where she would have continued running, lightning had swept through.

If she’d been just a bit slower, she would’ve been struck.

Beyond the reach of her sword, Zeus watched her with a look of regret.

“Why not give up on resisting? It pains my heart to raise my hand against the woman who will be my bride.”

“Who do you think you are?!”

“Do you still not understand? I haven’t been serious. Every attack so far was just playing around. Do you know why? The moment I unleash my full strength, you’ll be reduced to ash. So stop.”

Otherwise, he would truly have to kill her.

Zeus was sincere. He was that type of being—a Divine Spirit endlessly genuine toward women he fancied, which made him all the more vile.

Kang Hye-rim, panting, spat.

“Who do you think you are?”

“Are you still thinking about that man? He’s going to die anyway. Defying Logos makes that inevitable.”

“Yu-hyun will come back. He promised me.”

“Promises made by humans are just words. Even if words have power in the Mental Realm, that’s all they are. No matter how strong human willpower is, it cannot reach the gods.”

“Then I’ll just keep going until it does.”

Kang Hye-rim raised her sword. Zeus yawned as if he were bored.

Tsk.

Blinded by something impure, she doesn’t understand what truly matters.

Then he’d have to make her realize it, even if he had to use some pain.

“Don’t hold it against me, even if it hurts a little.”

“Look who’s talking.”

Kang Hye-rim rushed toward him again. Zeus responded by merely flicking a finger. That had been enough just a moment ago.

He was Zeus, the god of the sky. With a slight movement of his finger, he unleashed a storm of powerful currents that swept across the area.

The sands of Armageddon melted away under the lightning, revealing the ground beneath.

The earth itself shattered under the lightning, unable to withstand the shock, and broke apart, scattering in all directions.

Kang Hye-rim maneuvered through the chaos.

‘She still hasn’t fallen?’

Zeus narrowed his eyes. Even transcendents who surpassed humanity would find this attack unbearable.

Yet Kang Hye-rim pressed forward, closing the distance between them.

‘Impressive, but that’s all. The distance is still vast.’

That thought lasted only a moment.

From Kang Hye-rim, a ray of light shot toward him.

Before he could react to what it was, a sharp pain ran along Zeus’s cheek.

Zeus placed his right hand on his cheek.

‘Blood?’

His divine blood stained his fingertips. The blood quickly turned into letters and faded away.

I… am injured?

In disbelief, Zeus looked at Kang Hye-rim.

“How was that? I spared you; that could’ve taken your head.”

“……”

Facing Kang Hye-rim’s mocking gaze, the calmness on Zeus’s face vanished.

A shadow fell over his face as intense static surged around him.

Crackle!

“How dare you.”

His white hair, neatly slicked back, began to stir around him.

In mid-air, his white hair and beard swayed like the mane of a lion.

“A mere human, claiming she spared me? You’ve invoked my wrath.”

Rumble!

The thunder echoed, shaking the very atmosphere, causing the space itself to tremble as if in an earthquake.

Zeus raised one hand toward the sky.

Very well. Then he wouldn’t hold back any longer. He would fight seriously.

“Come forth, Astrape.”

As Zeus murmured softly, a brilliant bolt of lightning gathered in his right hand.

The lightning took the form of a spear.

Just the appearance of Zeus’s main weapon, Astrape, caused the ground around him to ripple and melt.

Its blinding brilliance and intense heat.

It was as if it were a divine punishment for a mortal daring to challenge a god’s position.

‘Can I do it?’

Kang Hye-rim clenched her teeth.

Her taunts had been meant to provoke, but she had truly aimed to kill with her previous strike. It had missed, merely grazing his cheek.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

With that failed strike and Zeus now showing his true strength, it seemed impossible for her to win.

But even so, she had to fight.

She couldn’t let go of her sword.

As she resolved herself, a warm light descended behind her.

“You are…?”

“I’ve come to assist. Now focus on the enemy before you.”

The Divine Spirit of Eden, the Archangel Michael, extended his white wings, shielding her from the intense heat.

Standing beside Kang Hye-rim, he spoke.

“I will open a path.”