Chapter 784 : Original Script

Beyond reality, constructed by mystical powers, lies the terrifying legendary city of Tivian.

Within the thick fog, on a street at the edge of the East District, a nimble figure darted swiftly between buildings. Behind her trailed countless pursuing shadows, while she dodged elemental blasts erupting around her with thunderous force.

“These guys are seriously troublesome…”

Now fully awakened, Nephthys, currently in the guise of Thief K, was entangled in a chase with stone gargoyles and Aurum Gargoyles attempting to capture her. At present, she was employing all kinds of powers to evade at least two of the gilded ones.

“Hmph… Don’t even think about catching me!”

…

Elsewhere, within the magnificent Crystal Palace at the heart of Pritt’s World Plaza, a fake coronation ceremony was abruptly interrupted by a thunderous roar from the sky. Violent storms began to rage chaotically through the vast palace. Just before this chaos, a resplendent figure had been lifted and gently carried out of the palace by the wind, landing safely on the ground.

“Anna!”

Having been steadily carried out by the breeze, Isabelle had just landed and instinctively shouted toward the palace ahead. At this moment, she was anxious to rush in and help. However, the terrifying abilities shown by the mysterious enemy made her hesitate—her intervention might only make things worse.

“Anna… Damn it… Who is it this time targeting our nation again? Why is Pritt always coveted by such powerful mystical forces? Am I really capable of being queen…?”

Listening to the raging winds howling from the Crystal Palace, Isabelle clenched her teeth and muttered to herself. She had yet to realize that the real target was not Pritt itself. She and her nation were merely collateral damage.

Just as Isabelle was wallowing in her own helplessness, a voice suddenly echoed within her mind, making her eyes widen slightly in astonishment.

“What is this…”

…

Back inside the Crystal Palace, Anna, having regained consciousness during her spiritual projection state and assuming the form of the Nation Guardian, Storm Knight, had successfully saved Isabelle but was now locked in a fierce battle.

Her opponent was the current leader of the Dark Gold Society, the Dark Coin Noble, who wielded a portion of the Commercial Gold divinity. His ability allowed him to forcibly commodify all things—including mystical abilities—and conduct enforced transactions. Against such a power, even Anna struggled. Fortunately, at the most critical moment, one of the Church’s Seven Living Saints, Cardinal of Secrets Artcheli, arrived just in time.

Using the shadow cast by her light bullet, Artcheli ambushed the Dark Coin Noble from behind. As a Gold-rank Shadow, her speed far exceeded ordinary perception. With a prepared assault bolstered by mystical equipment, she was even faster than Anna. When she lunged from the shadows, not even the Noble’s reflexes—already enhanced by commodified abilities—reacted in time.

Clang!

Seizing the moment, Artcheli’s blade swung straight at the Dark Coin Noble’s neck. Despite being infused with high-ranking Shadow enchantment, the blade didn’t sever his flesh. Instead, a clear ringing sound rang out as sparks scattered from the impact.

Even with Gold-ranking Shadow enchantment, a normal blade strike could not penetrate the Noble’s Stone armor. It was clear that, aside from his innate defense, he had further enhanced his protection using numerous powerful items. To break through, Artcheli would need another method—and thankfully, she had one.

In an instant, the shadow cast by light betrayed its master and acted of its own accord. Artcheli’s shadow wielded a blade of darkness and slashed at the shadow of the Dark Coin Noble. As the shadow’s head was cleanly cut off, so too was the Noble’s real head—suddenly and without warning, it dropped from his neck.

Just then, a grayish-yellow cube appeared beside him, opened itself, and emitted a soft glow. Within the glow, the severed head and neck of the Noble began to meld into a viscous metal, rapidly extending toward each other and seamlessly rejoining. The moment the head reattached, his eyes finally turned toward Artcheli.

Witnessing this, Artcheli’s eyes widened slightly, and her shadow swiftly resumed slashing—severing limbs and carving deep wounds into his body. But each gash immediately turned molten and healed, and each severed limb reattached just like the head had.

Then, Artcheli’s shadow began to distort. Countless shadow clones split rapidly from her main shadow, surrounding the Dark Coin Noble and swinging their shadow blades, seemingly intent on slicing him into shreds like shavings from a whistle. However, the Noble, now fully recovered, would no longer allow her free rein.

“Buy out…”

With those two whispered words, Artcheli’s shadow clones instantly lost form, ceased attacking, and transformed into slithering trails of darkness that gathered into the Noble’s hand—condensing into a small, silver-black cube. Artcheli was visibly stunned by the sight.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

“What…”

“So it was the famed Cardinal of Secrets from the Church. My apologies for the discourtesy… Please, accept this as my apology gift.”

With an eerie tone, the Dark Coin Noble opened the cube. Streams of shadow flowed out, falling to the ground and transforming into shadow doppelgängers in his own image—wielding shadow staves and charging straight at Artcheli. She quickly summoned more shadow clones to intercept, but with another flick of his hand, the Noble bought them all out, nullifying her defense.

With her own forces bribed into surrender, the shadow doppelgängers continued their assault toward Artcheli’s true body. But just then, countless invisible blades fell from the sky at high speed. The earth exploded with booming force as deep trenches erupted, and the incoming shadows were obliterated.

Looking up with her sword in hand, Artcheli saw a young knight maiden flying through the sky.

Anna, wielding her banner-lance, launched into a dive straight at the Dark Coin Noble. Artcheli also regrouped and charged forward again. Facing the renewed onslaught of two rapid attackers, the Noble’s powers activated once more.

“Your speed… is quite the commodity.”

With another whisper, he acted—purchasing Anna and Artcheli’s extraordinary speed. Though only for a brief time and not enough to permanently seize the ability, it still drastically slowed them down—causing both of them to sense something ominous.

Then, in their eyes, they saw another cube appear in the Dark Coin Noble’s hand—this time orange-yellow in color. When it opened, a dazzling golden fireball shot out, rapidly expanded in the sky, and exploded.

BOOM!!!

With blinding light and deafening thunder, a colossal explosion erupted from within the Crystal Palace, surging outward and engulfing the entire World Plaza, even extending further to consume nearly half of Tivian’s East District. Amid the violent tremors, a blazing fireball slowly rose—forming a mushroom cloud that pierced the sky.

Having temporarily stripped his enemies of their mobility, the Dark Coin Noble decisively unleashed a massive area-of-effect destruction. He believed neither opponent could escape in time—nor could they match his resistance to such catastrophic damage.

…

Tivian in the story-world, North District.

Unlike the thunderous clamor of the East District, the North District was deathly silent. On its deserted boulevards, the streetlights flickered faintly, and the tall buildings cast deep shadows into the thick fog. A chill of silence and death hung over every corner of the streets.

Above the fog and beneath the blood moon, flocks of crows circled, wings spread as they scouted the fog-veiled world below. Invisible beings searched through the mist, seemingly in confused pursuit. Emaciated, bloodthirsty hounds darted about the alleys and corners, chasing after every suspicious scent.

Atop the towering belfry in the cathedral district stood a tall figure—wearing a top hat and cloak, hands stained with blood. Beneath the brim of his hat, his crimson eyes swept vigilantly across the fog, as if trying to pierce through to whatever hid within. Behind this figure, the gaunt and withered Hafdar stood silently on the church rooftop, seemingly awaiting something. On his shoulder perched a one-eyed parrot wearing a black captain's hat, restlessly glancing around in all directions.

Somewhere in a street corner shrouded by fog, Dorothy was crouched and concealed. A blood-stained cloak draped over her shoulders, and she wore a battered top hat—relying on this disguise to preserve herself amidst the perilous, foggy night.

“An ability that can commodify and forcibly purchase or rent all mystical powers, huh? The Commercial Gold divinity really is a nuisance… Compared to Hafdar, that Dark Coin Noble is the real problem. I just hope Anna and Artcheli can hold out for now…”

While attuning herself to the battle unfolding in the East District, Dorothy thought silently. Due to the Noble’s interference in her battlefield not long ago, she had chosen to remain hidden for the time being, avoiding further confrontation with Hafdar.

The Dark Coin Noble’s forced purchasing ability appeared to work on any target within effective perception range. There seemed to be some sort of mystical link between him and Hafdar, one that allowed the Noble to sense Dorothy through Hafdar and apply his ability upon her.

From the very start, Dorothy had her entire spiritual thread ability forcibly rented away. Without this foundational ability, her divine skill Fatebinding Chain also became unusable, leaving her struggling against Hafdar’s Night Demon assaults.

Still, even without the spiritual thread, Dorothy had other abilities. With her divine authority, these were sufficient to defeat Hafdar—after all, she was a Crimson-rank bearing supreme deity’s divinity. But if the Noble kept force-renting her base powers, she would eventually become someone who held divinity without the foundation to use it. That would place her at a great disadvantage against Hafdar. Thus, Dorothy chose not to fight head-on after losing her spiritual thread and instead went into hiding.

“Now that I think about it… that Dark Coin Noble’s divine ability, while unreasonable, isn’t without limits. His forced purchases, though overbearing, can’t touch everything. For instance, divinity. Otherwise, when facing the Fatebinding Chains, he wouldn’t have only bought the base ability (spiritual thread) and not the whole skill. Clearly, divinity is something he can’t purchase… or perhaps its cost is simply too great for him to bear.

“Another limit lies in rank difference. Against a Crimson-rank like me, the Noble can forcibly strip away one ability system and hold it for a longer time—causing prolonged power loss. But when facing temporary Golds like Anna or Saint Name Golds like Artcheli, he can only buy manifested or actively-used ability entities, resulting in a much shorter disruption.

“And finally, one more observable limitation: he likely can’t purchase an entire Beyonder’s power set all at once. The Noble seems to require witnessing a power being displayed, activated, or used before he can buy it—like a customer needing a product demo before purchase. If he hasn’t seen or sensed it directly, he can’t buy it.

“That’s probably why he didn’t just strip away all of our powers the moment we appeared. If he could purchase everything without observation, Anna and Artcheli wouldn’t have lasted a second. And I would’ve lost all my powers immediately—not just spiritual thread…”

Dorothy reflected. If she had lost all her powers in one go, she wouldn’t have been able to hide like this. And although Hafdar had summoned many anecdotal bodies to search for her, they hadn’t found her yet.

In this boxed-in story world shaped around a horror theme, Night Demon—as predators—automatically marked every other being as prey. They could supposedly sense their prey unconditionally. No one should be able to hide from a Night Demon’s hunt.

In this world, the undying Night Demon could instantly teleport to its prey and slay them. The prey’s identity would be eroded by rapid psychological profiling from the world itself, gradually forgetting who they were. They would flee in terror without resisting, even if they possessed great power. Crimsons would perceive themselves as worthless mortals, unable to muster any fighting spirit.

Even Gold-rank Beyonders would gradually suffer mental instability and terror under this constant profiling, heavily impairing their strength. The longer one stayed, the worse it got.

The reason Dorothy, Artcheli, and Anna weren’t affected mentally was because Dorothy was constantly stabilizing their minds with divine personality profiling, anchoring their identities.

This story world had been created by Hafdar, based on Tivian’s legendary tale of the Night Demon—a perfect vessel for crafting anecdotal bodies. Within this fog-shrouded domain, no matter where Dorothy fled, she shouldn’t have been able to escape. The only reason she remained undetected… was because she had become a Night Demon herself.

Yes, Dorothy had also manifested a Night Demon anecdotal body—and infused it with a trace of Stone spirituality. By equipping it on herself, she gained certain Night Demon traits and abilities.

This was the result of Dorothy’s recent developments in anecdotal body research. Previously, she could only create spiritual forms of anecdotal bodies. Now, she had achieved equipment-ization, allowing even non–Body Possession Path users to utilize some of their powers.

While not as powerful as the spirit possessions used by those on the Body Possession Path, it was more versatile. Currently, both Dorothy’s cloak and hat were anecdotal equipment. As a side note, after further advancement, Dorothy could now directly sublimate an anecdotal prototype into a true anecdotal body—no longer requiring spirit possession. Of course, Anna’s heroic weaponization was something else entirely—its divine nature made it a different category of power.

Through her equipment, Dorothy had become a Night Demon—able to use Fog Night Stealth to silently merge into the story world’s mist. More importantly, her version of the Night Demon possessed Hunter’s Marking. Though not as potent as Hafdar’s, it allowed her to replace her own “prey” mark with a “hunter” mark, thus throwing off Hafdar’s Night Demon from tracking her.

The mysterious divine presence of Revelation had once interfered with Dorothy by triggering a divine disturbance, allowing Hafdar and the Noble to locate her and send Aurum Gargoyles to strike. Dorothy had assumed she had been marked with some sort of locator. But when she later used Mirror Moon memory restriction to shield herself from harmful divine memetics and noticed the enemy didn’t react, she realized she had never been marked. It had only been a momentary burst from a loss of control in her Revelation spirituality, which Hafdar—who had been closely monitoring—picked up on.

If she had truly been marked, Hafdar would’ve noticed immediately once the shielding took effect.

Thus, Dorothy now confirmed that Hafdar had no current means to detect her. The situation was in deadlock—but neither she nor Hafdar intended to drag things out.

At this moment, within the foggy night of the cathedral district, three other Night Demon anecdotal bodies created by Dorothy were ready. These were flesh-bodied Night Demons crafted through the Chalice spirituality. Like Dorothy, they could move through the mist and bore the hunter’s mark. Under her control, they had already stealthily infiltrated the cathedral district—closing in on Hafdar himself.

Dorothy planned to assassinate Hafdar directly using them.

Silently, the Night Demon assassins crept up the cathedral roof, drawing closer and closer to Hafdar. Once within striking distance, they obeyed Dorothy’s command—and struck.

But the very moment they launched their ambush, the parrot perched on Hafdar’s shoulder—the one-eyed creature with a captain’s hat—suddenly froze, then let out a sharp, piercing cry. At that moment, Hafdar’s usually narrowed eyes opened slightly.

According to old sailor and fisherman folklore, the legendary pirate Jero possessed a parrot that could foresee dangerous weather and various crises. Since Pritt was an island nation, Tivian had no shortage of sailors and fishermen. Though tales of Jero’s parrot had grown scarce over time, Hafdar, as a Gold-rank, could easily manifest even rare legends like this into physical form.

Warned by Jero’s parrot, Hafdar immediately sensed the impending danger. His most powerful Night Demon instantly vanished from the top of the belfry and reappeared at Hafdar’s side, directly confronting the three “selves” emerging from the fog. With a flurry of bloody blades, Dorothy’s three Night Demon anecdotal bodies were shredded to pieces.

“So that’s it… You used a legend identical to mine to evade the hunter’s tracking? Somewhat clever—but not quite enough…”

Watching the splattered blood mist around him, Hafdar murmured calmly. Having seen those Night Demons, he had fully deduced Dorothy’s concealment tactic and immediately began his counterattack.

Facing the thick, swirling fog, Hafdar spoke as though proclaiming a decree.

“The tale I recite is the true canonical one; all others are false and fabricated…”

His words echoed throughout the misty air, and with them came a sudden, invisible shift.

Anecdote consolidation. As a Bewitching Path Gold-rank Beyonder, Hafdar now forcibly asserted his authority over the narrative of the Night Demon within a wide region. He claimed exclusive storytelling rights—only his version of the Night Demon tale was valid, while all others were false and thus denied. Like two storytellers telling the same legend, the more popular one could discredit the other as fiction.

Due to this narrative suppression, Dorothy’s Night Demon equipment immediately lost all effectiveness. She could no longer create any Night Demon-related anecdotal bodies. Worse still, her status as “prey” reappeared—and was instantly detected by Hafdar’s Night Demon.

“Begin the hunt!”

Hafdar issued his command, and the Night Demon vanished again—only to reappear right in front of Dorothy!

“Here it comes…”

Facing the newly materialized Night Demon and having lost her cloak and hat, Dorothy remained composed. She released a blinding bolt of lightning that shattered the creature’s body. Without waiting for the undead killer to reform, she raised her hand again—the clouds above the cathedral district gathered thickly, and crackling arcs of electricity flickered within. A divine thunderbolt was about to strike—targeting Hafdar. The parrot on his shoulder let out another piercing alarm cry.

Despite the divine thunder descending, Hafdar remained unmoved. Even if it carried divinity, he wasn’t afraid—because his powerful ally had acted. At the moment Dorothy manifested her lightning and revealed her location, the Dark Coin Noble struck again, forcibly renting her entire lightning ability, just as he had with her spiritual thread earlier.

Instantly, all the lightning accumulated in the sky disappeared. A slight smile formed on Hafdar’s lips. The Night Demon’s shattered form rapidly reassembled and reappeared before Dorothy. Now without her lightning powers, Dorothy found it even harder to resist the Night Demon. Meanwhile, all of Hafdar’s dispersed anecdotal bodies were rapidly converging on her location.

In that moment, everything seemed decided. Hafdar's face lit up with a triumphant, frenzied grin—until he noticed something strange.

Even though the thunderclouds had vanished… Jero’s parrot was still shrieking.

“Urgh!”

Pain—searing, living pain that Hafdar had not felt for thousands of years as an undead—shot through his chest. In the days since his resurrection, he had never once experienced this sensation.

Startled, he looked down and saw a rusted dagger protruding from his blood-soaked chest, just above his newly-beating heart. Blood dripped slowly from the blade’s tip.

“This is…”

He turned his head in shock and saw a figure standing behind him: blood-stained noble garments, a top hat, face wrapped in bandages, and a cloak drenched in gore. The classic image of the legendary Night Demon. Hafdar’s eyes widened.

“A Night Demon?! Again?! Another manifested legend from that damn thief?! But he had already negated every version of the Night Demon legend besides his own. How could another exist?!

“Unless…

“The… Original Script…”

Grinding his teeth, Hafdar uttered the only possible explanation.

“This Night Demon… was the source of all Night Demon legends—the Original Script, the foundation of the entire Night Demon mythos! It was the Night Demon itself.”

“Die!”

Roaring in fury, Hafdar conjured a horde of bizarre creatures into the air—emaciated hounds, half-fish humanoids, enormous kraken-like monsters. Dozens of demonic beasts surged at the Original Night Demon. But it deftly dodged a few strikes, then turned and fled into the fog.

Hafdar produced a finely crafted vial of shimmering liquid and downed it. His fatal wound quickly began to heal.

“Your Grace, I did it!”

Within the mist, the original Night Demon, fleeing the anecdotal onslaught, cried out joyfully in her mind—and soon received a response.

“Well done, Isabelle. We’ll resume the coronation after we get out…”

The Night Demon legend passed down in Tivian was, in truth, a manifestation of the Eight-Spired Nest’s infiltration of the Pritt royal family. Using the Spider Queen’s power, they desecrated Mirror Moon’s ritual sites, corroded its influence in Pritt, and leveraged the mystic link between Mirror Moon and the secretive Despenser family to manipulate the royal bloodline into becoming their puppets.

As revealed by Artcheli’s later investigation, most so-called Night Demons were actually Despenser royals under mind control. Whether as part of a broader plan or mere testing, the Eight-Spired Nest manipulated these royals into carrying out covert missions—including assassinations of high-profile targets.

Among them was Isabelle, once regarded as a powerless figurehead princess, overlooked due to her weak abilities, lax security, minimal supervision, and shallow involvement in mysticism. This made her the perfect assassin.

Under the Eight-Spired Nest’s control, Isabelle unknowingly committed at least 60% of Tivian’s Night Demon killings, including the infamous Duke Barrett assassination. In a sense, the current Queen of Pritt was the Night Demon herself—the origin and foundation of the entire legend. No matter how the tale evolved, its cornerstone was her.

Isabelle was the original script of the Night Demon. Thus, Dorothy could elevate her directly into an original anecdotal body—a Night Demon that could not be negated, even by a Gold-rank Bewitching Path Beyonder like Hafdar.

Dorothy herself also possessed Bewitching Path abilities. As a Revelation Beyonder, she could analyze the nature of her own powers and infer the structure of Gold-rank abilities. Thus, she had anticipated that Hafdar, once he realized how she was hiding from his Night Demon, would retaliate by seizing narrative authority.

In other words, Dorothy knew Hafdar would try to consolidate and deny all alternate Night Demon narratives, so she prepared Isabelle—a Night Demon he could not refute—in advance. Once Hafdar exhausted his negation, relaxed his guard, and moved in to strike, Isabelle launched her surprise attack.

To assist her, Dorothy even pretended to launch divine lightning at Hafdar—to divert the parrot’s danger sense, making Hafdar think the danger it detected was her lightning, not Isabelle.

“Don’t get cocky, thief! You’re not going to stir up any real storm!”

After having his anecdotal bodies repel Isabelle, Hafdar shouted in rage. Though gravely wounded, he hadn’t lost the ability to fight. Now that the assassin threat had passed, and the unexpected ambush had failed, Dorothy was finished.

Under Hafdar’s command, hounds and his reformed Night Demon charged Dorothy again. In response, Dorothy manifested various anecdotal bodies—werewolves, vampires, ghosts—as her defense. While many lesser anecdotal bodies were destroyed, the Night Demon tore through them with ease.

Dorothy kept summoning anecdotal bodies to act as shields, buying time against Hafdar’s onslaught. But then, the Dark Coin Noble intervened once more, forcibly renting the ability Dorothy was currently using to manifest anecdotes.

In an instant, all of Dorothy’s summoned anecdotal entities vanished.

Now stripped of nearly all her powers, Dorothy was completely vulnerable before Hafdar’s rampaging Night Demon. And yet—her expression remained unchanged. Not a hint of panic crossed her face.

Because—at that moment—the blood moon’s foggy sky split open with a thunderous crack, revealing a deep rift across the heavens.

And Hafdar’s expression… changed.

…

Eastern Coast of Pritt, Tivian.

Nighttime. In the real world’s Tivian, inside the still-unfinished Hymn Cathedral in the North District, a white-robed nun who had been devoutly praying before the altar suddenly opened her eyes. Her expression turned solemn as she stood and turned around, speaking in a firm voice.

“Cardinal... Her Grace has sent word. We can begin preparations.”

“Oh? It’s finally time?”

Before Vania, a figure clad in a lavish cardinal’s robe and wearing a mask that concealed their face responded steadily. He slowly bowed forward, pressing a rough, calloused hand against the pre-drawn magic array.

“Yes… the boundary has indeed become unstable. Its creator has been greatly affected. Now’s our chance…”

While sensing the fluctuations, Alberto spoke with calm gravity. From his body, an invisible but powerful wave radiated outward—rippling into the very fabric of space, resonating through the inner framework of the world.

Dorothy had deciphered the memetic attack early on but pretended to fall victim to it to stall for time—buying time for reinforcements from Holy Mount. The Dark Coin Noble seemed to desire something from Isabelle’s coronation, and thus chose to play along. Dorothy, also needing time, had no issue playing the part.

In the end, the reinforcement from Holy Mount wasn’t just Cardinal Artcheli. After Vania had informed them of Dorothy’s situation, another cardinal had come on his own accord—Foundation Cardinal Saint Alberto.

After arriving in Tivian, Alberto swiftly detected a semi-inner realm—a parasitic half-realm deeply linked to Tivian and anchored to the reverse side of the world: Hafdar’s story world. While Artcheli entered it through her boundary-stealth ability to restrain the Dark Coin Noble, Alberto remained in the real world.

This wasn’t due to lack of power. In fact, Alberto possessed the means to attack the half-realm directly from the real world, to obliterate it. However, this power required a long casting period and continuous output. Any premature activity would have alerted Hafdar and the Noble and might’ve led to unpredictable contingencies. Dorothy didn’t want that. Thus, while inside the story world, she chose not to have Alberto act immediately.

Ultimately, through extensive coordination, Dorothy and Alberto formulated a plan. According to Alberto, for his ability to cause destructive impact from the outset, the story world’s structure had to already be unstable—a condition that could be met by seriously injuring its creator, Hafdar.

So they finalized the strategy: Dorothy would wound Hafdar inside the story world, and Alberto would seize that moment to act.

Now, that wound had been delivered—by Isabelle.

Now, it was Alberto’s turn.

“Waver… foundation of the boundary…

Collapse… pillars of the domain…

Worldquake Wave.”

Murmuring softly, Alberto activated the pre-prepared ritual. Through the circle, he channeled his power into the inner side of real-world Tivian—toward the parasitic story world.

This power formed an outward-expanding seismic wave, shaking the hidden structure of the world.

A spacequake. Alberto’s dimensional seismic wave began to violently rattle the fragile half-realm. Since Hafdar’s injury had already caused instability, this further shock now pushed it to the brink of collapse.

And the result was…

Within the story world, the sky beneath the blood moon cracked open, forming a massive rupture.

From the real world’s night sky, the radiance of the full moon poured through the gap—shining directly into the sealed story world.

…

Within that world, on a misty street, a massive blood-soaked figure charged violently toward its prey—Hafdar’s Night Demon, intent on slaughtering a now nearly powerless target.

But before it could strike—

A blade of nothingness, silent and invisible, sliced through space, shearing the Night Demon’s sword into pieces before it touched its prey. Then came its hand, then its body, then the rest of the charging anecdotal bodies. All were cut into countless fragments, suspended in the air.

What the Night Demon last saw… was the moonlight filtering through the crack in the sky, piercing layers of fog and descending onto a radiant, silver, dreamlike divine form—glowing skin, a gown of stardust, and eyes reflecting the Milky Way.

Today was Isabelle’s coronation day. The date had not been chosen at random. Hafdar believed that by choosing this day, he could ensure Dorothy’s presence in Tivian. But Dorothy, too, had welcomed a confrontation on this day.

As a royal of the Secret-Keeping line, Isabelle had selected her coronation to align with the Mirror Moon Goddess’s sacred time—the full moon.

Thus, when the story world fractured and real moonlight poured in, and as the legal power of the real world extended into the half-realm, Mirror Moon divinity descended in response.

At the Crystal Palace in the real world, the priestesses of the Court of Secrets had long since gathered. Alongside many Despenser royals, they began their ritual and chanted the sacred hymns. When the crack opened, Queen Isabelle herself joined in singing—calling upon the Mirror Moon Goddess.

This ritual had been personally revised by Mirror Moon from an original secrecy rite. Though it had lost its secrecy function, it had become vastly stronger at invoking the moon’s power. Through it, Dorothy regained Mirror Moon’s divinity, and entered a full Divine Descent form.

As the Night Demon’s fragmented body began to reform once more through its immortality, Dorothy extended a single finger. A miniature black hole formed at her fingertip, its immense gravitational pull sucking in all the fragments—along with surrounding buildings and streets, tearing them into debris.

When the black hole finally vanished, a vast crater remained.

“Dark-night divinity! So that thief really is what we feared… the current heir of the God of Night!”

“Damn… the boundary barrier is being attacked… why now of all times?!”

Seeing the distant devastation, Hafdar’s expression twisted. His confidence shattered, and a desire to retreat bloomed in his heart.

“No… I need to leave!”

But just as Hafdar prepared to escape, Dorothy’s eyes—gleaming like a sea of stars—turned toward him.

In the next instant, Hafdar and the cathedral within the story world were shredded by countless invisible blades. They were reduced to tiny fragments.

Then, at the center of the wreckage, another black hole formed—devouring all the debris.

In that final moment before Hafdar’s remains were consumed, a purple crystal pendant with distinctive First Dynasty styling suddenly emitted a glow.

Immediately, Hafdar’s fragments transformed into symbols and data. Most were swallowed by the black hole, but a portion—under some strange power—vanished into thin air.

Dorothy, seeing the crystal pendant just before it was consumed, halted the black hole—letting the pendant fall gently into her hand.

“So someone was waiting to receive him… That one’s divine interference is still raw—not even a proper chosen vessel yet. But… the timing wasn’t bad. And clever too, cautious…”

Dorothy murmured, gazing at the pendant. Then she turned her eyes toward the east and slowly raised her hand—drawing a sweeping motion across the air.

In an instant, a massive invisible blade swept across the space before her.

And with that—

The entire story-world Tivian was sliced apart.

Every skyscraper split in two.

All upper floors tilted and slid to one side, collapsing with thunderous noise, leaving behind perfectly clean-cut lower halves.

All of this not only sliced the entire city apart—it also struck the Dark Coin Noble, who had nearly overwhelmed both Anna and Artcheli, cutting him clean in half midair above the World Plaza’s great pit. The entire story world was likewise cleaved apart, triggering its collapse.

“Kh… damn… you old mummy! How could she still summon such divine power?!”

As the collapsing story space shattered around him, the Dark Coin Noble coughed, his body reassembling while he gritted his teeth and cursed. He now clearly realized that what had descended was beyond anything he could handle.

Before he had time for any further reaction, countless invisible blades reappeared around him—striking all at once. In the next second, his entire being—body and soul—would be shredded into dust.

CLANG--!!

Just then, a resonant sound like a bell toll echoed out. A radiant burst of light erupted from the Noble’s body, and an ancient, battered, primordial great bell—plain, worn, and scarred by age—manifested around him, shielding him from all the invisible blades.

Upon the bell’s weathered surface, Dorothy sensed divinity. This was clearly a divine armament—a relic that automatically activated to protect him in a moment of mortal danger. It was the Dark Coin Noble’s final trump card.

Dorothy paused for a beat, then attempted to interfere directly with the bell’s interior via her powers. Finding it sufficiently reinforced by divine force, she pointed her finger. At her fingertip, divine stormwinds compressed to the limit, transforming into a brilliant white beam that shot forward, striking the ancient bell with a thunderous impact.

Within the collapsing story world, Dorothy fired beam after beam of white divine light at the bell. Though she didn’t destroy it immediately, cracks began to spread across its surface. Clearly, despite the bell being imbued with Stone divinity, it couldn’t endure Dorothy’s full-powered assault forever—it was only a matter of time before it broke.

Trapped inside, the Dark Coin Noble had lost all composure. Tension etched his face. Desperate, he tried to purchase Dorothy’s abilities—but it had no effect.

This was no ordinary ability, nor even a divinely-enhanced one that could be disrupted by disabling the base power. This was a pure divine miracle—nothing to buy, nothing to intercept.

He realized it now: Dorothy’s current status had surpassed what he could deal with. To fight her any longer was pure folly—he had to escape.

Putting thought into action, the Noble took out a seemingly ordinary wooden door from his magical storage. Just as he was about to open it and flee, Hafdar’s voice echoed in his mind.

“Don’t open the door! That woman’s dark-night divinity has completely scrambled the boundary network. Any spatial travel now will scatter you across time and space—I’m digitized and even I don’t dare leave!”

The Noble froze. Then burst into a furious string of curses.

“You’ve got the nerve to talk to me right now?! You rotted old crypt fossil! Buried for thousands of years—did your brain decompose too?! I helped you this far and still you let her call down divine force like this!”

“You camel-bellied bastard street merchant! If your brain’s not shriveled to the size of a coin, you’d realize now’s not the time to argue! Don’t listen to me, and neither of us will survive that little bitch!”

Hafdar fired back mercilessly. Hearing this, the Noble froze again, clenched his teeth, and finally growled.

“Fine! So what now?!”

“Simple. If you’re willing to pay enough, we’ll both make it out. Sure, we’ve lost big this time—but follow my plan, and we can at least scrape a minimal payout from this mess…”

Hafdar’s digitized voice laid out a method. As the Noble listened, his expression contorted. His lips twitched, his jaw clenched. After suppressing his urge to scream, he managed a tense response.

“Fine.”

With that, he took a deep breath and unleashed his full power.

But this time, his target wasn’t Dorothy.

His target… was the land of Pritt beneath his feet, now in the real world.

“With gold, I rent the nation… And claim myself its sovereign—”

With the Dark Coin Noble’s ability unleashed, in that instant, the entirety of Tivian and its surrounding region was severed—legally, mystically, historically, even from the collective consciousness of the people.

Tivian became independent from Pritt—its capital and several districts forcibly extracted and turned into a new nation, with the Noble as king.

This massive-scale forced leasing consumed centuries worth of accumulated wealth from both the Dark Coin Noble and the entire Dark Gold Society. Within moments, more than half of the Society’s total fortune had vanished.

By renting and severing Tivian from Pritt, the Noble erased its connections to Pritt’s legal, historical, and mystical influence.

But Dorothy’s Divine Descent form was heavily reliant on Mirror Moon’s lingering effects in Pritt—its legal foundations, myths, and mystic resonance.

Sensing the shift, Dorothy immediately evacuated from Tivian and its surrounding territory, leaving the leased area, though she maintained her beam of white divine light.

“So you had this move too… what a conveniently troublesome power…”

Though she kept attacking, the chaotic spatial interference she had placed over Tivian ceased functioning. For now, the Dark Coin Noble could escape.

As a final move, he took advantage of his temporary sovereign bond with the land, and, with Hafdar’s aid, scanned every corner of Tivian’s vast districts.

There, he located two key targets. Nephthys, still tangled with the stone gargoyles and her family's golden scepter, lying at home.

He controlled the ground to form two giant mouths—one to swallow the golden scepter (a dead object, easily taken), and one to grab Nephthys. Though caught off guard, Nephthys triggered her Thief K escape ability, teleporting away in time.

At last, the Dark Coin Noble prepared to flee. Just as he considered retrieving his final trump card—the ancient divine bell—he heard it groan under pressure.

Hafdar’s voice called again.

“Forget it! If you retract that thing, we’ll both die immediately—there’ll be no escape!”

Grimacing bitterly, the Noble clutched his aching heart. Giving up any chance of venting his rage on Tivian with an earthquake, he opened the wooden door and stepped through.

Once he left, the leasing of Tivian’s land was instantly terminated.

Sensing the change, Dorothy immediately ceased her divine output. If she had fired for two more seconds, the bell would’ve shattered.

Dorothy quickly flew to the ancient bell. With a gust of wind, she tore it open, revealing a lone standing wooden door, like a portable dimensional gate.

The Dark Coin Noble was already gone.

After abandoning numerous divine armaments, tools, and over half the entire wealth of the Dark Gold Society, he and Hafdar had narrowly escaped with their lives.