In the center of the carnage, Kim Hajin—now synchronized as the Fifth Sage—stood as a terrifying monument to the "Extra's" rebellion.
Two extra arms, forged from golden light and Aether, sprouted from his shoulders, allowing him to wield the Extra's Bow and the Desert Eagle simultaneously.
That was the first time Hajin could use his eyes to look through the information of the bow he had synthesized.
Its limbs resembled blackened lotus petals reinforced with golden hieroglyphic veins.
[You have interesting eyes, Maknae, I've never seen the world as clearly as now!]
'Heh, thanks.'
===
[Lv.20 Extra's Bow]
[Rank: Myth (Genesis)]
[Attribute: Chaos / Spirit / Anti-Destiny]
○ Lv.10 Narrative Neutrality— Attacks from this bow are treated as non-heroic actions.
— Fate-based evasion, prophecy, and "chosen one" protections are partially ignored.
○ Lv.0 Extra's Privilege— When targeting an enemy stronger than the user, damage and accuracy scale upward.
— This effect does not activate if the user is acknowledged as the "protagonist" of the scenario.
○ Lv. 12 Shadow-Petaled Arrow— Arrows fired manifest layered black lotus petals upon impact. Each layer consumes enemy buffs, barriers, or resistances before damage is applied.
○ Lv.1 Author's Interference
—Not affected by Probability of Star Stream.
===
"This isn't a pilgrimage anymore," Hajin's voice resonated through the Star Stream, a resonance of five overlapping lives.
He pulled the string of the Extra's Bow with his primary arms while his secondary hands fanned the hammer of the Desert Eagle, which had morphed into a shotgun that fired shrapnel made of Essence of Strait bullets.
'I love you Yoo Yeonha!' Hajin thanked Yoo Yeonha for the bullets she made. They were infused with Dimesional Entropy eternal mana.
[Who's Yoo Yeonha?]
[What about that girl which you call Boss?]
'Aish! Stop peeking at my thoughts!'
[Giant Story 'The One Who Shattered the Night's Throne' is roaring!]
[Every kill is increasing the 'Outer God' share of the Fable!]
It was a massacre.
Each Dark Ore arrow from the bow ignored the narrative defenses of the
Beside him, Boss moved like a literal shadow of death.
In her Yasha form, she was a whirlwind of obsidian blades and black mana, her shadows elongating to swallow entire squads of the Emperor's personal guard.
Audrey Hall, in her half-dragon form, hovered above, her psychic waves destabilizing the "Reason" of the enemy, causing them to hallucinate their own deletions from the script.
"Yuri! Stay behind me!" Droon yelled.
Yi Yuri was pale, her hands glowing with a frantic light as she pushed her healing authority to its absolute maximum. She was mending the entire group in real-time, but the sheer volume of backlash was reaching her limit. Droon's shadows acted as a physical shield, swatting away incoming heavenly spears. Nearby, Mimyo sat curled in a ball, his black fur pulsing with a silver light as he continued to digest the Box of the Great Old Ones.
A group of 12 Immortals of the Peach Pagoda lunged at the vulnerable rabbit, but they were met by a wall of dawn. Derrick Berg, the Justice Mentor, stood his ground, the Glory Crown emitting a pure, solid spherical barrier of holy light that both protected his companions and prevented the targets from escaping.
"You will not touch the little one," Derrick stated, his Justice Halo weakening the Constellations' malice.
On the flank, Anna Croft was a ghost with daggers.
Using her Sequence 7: Fool pathway abilities, she danced through the flames of the battlefield. When a spear pierced her, she turned into a paper figurine, her real body manifesting twenty meters away in a swirl of sparks. But it was her Stigma of the Wenny King—[Story-Weaving Shapeshifter]—that truly terrified the enemy.
She was literally swapping the "Narrative Positions" of the enemy commanders, causing them to be struck by their own fleet's orbital fire.
The most helpful was Evandel, with her thousands of miraculous beasts, and most importantly Beast Generals like Unicorn and Fenrir, she completly countered 100,000 army of
Khalifa acted as the group's spatial anchor. Spatial rifts opened like jagged mouths in the air, catching incoming heavenly missiles and re-teleporting them directly into the rear ranks of the Emperor's army.
Any projectiles that slipped through the rifts were instantly detonated by Hajin's Desert Eagle rifle with auto-tracking bullets.
Amidst the chaos, a single red line of killing intent cut through Hajin's perception.
He turned just as a black, fletched arrow humming with the status of a Devil whistled toward his head.
Hajin ducked, the arrow grazing his platinum-blonde hair. On a distant peak stood the devil Leraje, the Sun Wukong of the [Devil's Journey to the West].
"You're the only archer worth killing here, Black Lotus!" Leraje shouted, her voice carrying the weight of a Great Story.
The two entered a high-speed duel that bypassed the logic of the surrounding war. Leraje fired arrows of condensed demonic magic that curved in mid-air, while Hajin responded with arrows of Dark Ore and Athena's Moonlight, bolstered by Aether.
The sky between the peaks became a spiderweb of glowing streaks, a clash of pure marksmanship where a single millisecond of hesitation meant death.
Just as Hajin notched the Arrow of Extra to take aim at the Jade Emperor, the sky rotted.
The golden clouds of the
A giant vortex opened, smelling of ancient fertility and stagnant decay.
At the center of this nightmare stood Perle, the Sequence 3: Vortex Weaver.
Having retreated from Derrick, Perle had used her Vortex Weaving to act as a platform for a transaction that the Star Stream should never have permitted.
She had made a deal with the Mother Goddess of Depravity.
['Star Will' accepts the intervention as "Revenge"!]
[Outer Deity 'Mother Goddess of Depravity' is descending!]
From the vortex, 'She' began to descend.
The mere sight of the Goddess caused multiple Beyonders and lower-tier Constellations to collapse, their bodies erupting in uncontrolled mutations.
The [Great Hole], from which Evandel and Yoo Sangah emerged fifteen minutes ago, bleeded. Out of it's boundaries fell tenths of fanatics.
"Mother... Mother has returned!" the falling members of the Rose School of Thought and Nightstalkers screamed as they tumbled through the great holes in the sky.
"Primodial Moon! Bless us with your crimson light! Ha-ha-ha!"
Hajin felt the corruption clawing at his mind, a madness older than the Star Stream.
But then, a soft, familiar light enveloped the group.
['Wall that Decides Samsara' is protecting you!]
[Constellation 'Mandala's Guardian' has entered the Scenario!]
Yoo Sangah stood atop the white jade altar, her hands folded in a mudra of absolute peace.
The Mandala behind her rotated, filtering the Goddess's influence into a manageable static.
"Hajin-ssi," Sangah said, her voice a calm anchor in the storm. "Finish it. Now."
The Mother Goddess let out a laugh that sounded like the tectonic plates of the moon grinding together. She reached out to crush Yoo Sangah in whose body Shakyamuni was incarnating in.
Ding-dong!
A system message, louder than the Goddess's laughter, shook the universe.
[Current shares of 'Outer God' for the applicable scenario is 100%.]
[Main Scenario #95 has reached its conclusion!]
[Outer Gods — 'Yogoes' are now recognized by the Great Fable!]
The
[Impossible! The script... the original story is gone!]
The Goddess of Depravity paused, her eyes narrowing in fury.
She did not want to leave.
She was bearing a monumental cost in probability to stay, seeking the blood and revenge.
['Star Will' strongly advices 'Mother Goddess of Depravity' to leave the stage!]
The Star Will debated for a heartbeat, the probability sparks nearly setting the atmosphere on fire.
Then, a new red window manifested.
[Main Scenario #96 – 'Great War of the Heavenly Worlds' is beginning!]
The escalation was instantaneous.
Three Myth-grade Constellations of the
[Constellation 'Great Preceptor of Harmonious Order' is entering the Scenario!]
'Who's that?' Hajin wondered.
[You may know him by the other name — Confucius.], Douzhanshengfo answered inside Hajin's head.
[Constellation 'The Primordial Sage of Inaction' is descending!]
[That's Laozi.]
[Constellation 'Sovereign of the Primal Yellow' is preparing to descend!]
They looked at the Fifth Sage with eyes that held the weight of five thousand years of order.
[We shall not forget what happened here today, Great Sage,] the Preceptor spoke. [But you are still a part of the Heavens. The Mother Goddess has come for revenge. The Heavens need the Sage once more.]
Sun Wukong laughed, a wild, hysterical sound.
[Well, that's not what I expected...]
Hajin felt his body beginning to separate from the Great Sage's form.
The synchronization was ending.
It was kinda satisfying... like the protective film of the phone's screen Hajin was 'peeled off' the muscular figure of Sun Wukong.
"Maknae," the Most Ancient Liberator said, looking at Hajin. "You've done your part. Now, go. This isn't your battle anymore."
Khalifa roared as he tore a massive rift in the fabric of the stage.
On the other side, the gray, smoke-filled skyline of Seoul was visible.
"Hajin! Move!" Boss grabbed his arm, her Yasha form fading as her strength failed.
The four Sun Wukongs—the Great Sage, Bimawen, Meihouwang, and Douzhanshengfo—stood together, a wall of gold and chaos blocking the Mother Goddess.
"Go, Sun Wukong, Author of the Void," the Meihouwang smirked, scratching his chin. "We'll make sure they remember who the 'Main Characters' really are."
"No, Evandel! Why are you..." Hajin's hand reached Evandel.
[System Alert!]
[If you don't leave the Stage, you'll become the participant of the #96 Main Scenario!]
['Star Will' strongly advices you to leave!]
Evandel stood near Yoo Sangah, giant wolf appeared out of nowhere - Fenrir.
"I will help Yoo Sangah, don't worry I'm already not that little girl."
Hajin and the group tumbled through the rift.
"I love you, Haj—..." she stopped midsentence, "Dad."
Tear went down her cheek.
The last thing he saw was the Most Ancient Liberator lunging at the Goddess of Depravity, his Ruyi Bang expanding until it touched the moon.
The group slammed onto the gray asphalt of Seoul.
'N-no, Evandel!'
The transition from the golden, incense-scented air of the Heavenly Palace to the cold, metallic ozone of the ruined city was like a physical blow.
Hajin gasped, his four arms retracting as the Extra's Bow dissolved into his Stigma.
They were back.
But there was no time for Hajin to think about Evandel.
There was no time for relief.
The ground began to shake—a deep, tectonic groan that didn't stop.
"The sky..." Audrey whispered, pointing upward.
The Astral Barrier—the shimmering, geometric shield that had protected Earth from the true terrors of the Cosmos since the beginning of the Convergence—was no longer there.
It didn't shatter like a glass dome hit by a sledgehammer.
Through the cracks, the stars didn't look like points of light.
They looked like eyes.
A cold, blood-red window appeared in the center of everyone's vision.
[You have entered the stage of Scenario #??? – The Apocalypse]
The earthquake intensified as a shadow larger than the continent began to fall over Korea.
The "Convergence" was no longer a theory.
The end have arrived.