Chapter 426

In the cataclysmic battle that erased everything, Kanzaki Rei’s core was shattered countless times.

And just as many times, it regenerated.

Fortunately, none of those attacks were deliberately aimed at him. They weren’t specifically targeting the "core" itself, so even after destruction, there was always room—time—for recovery.

Although the "core" was the totality of his existence...

...it was not entirely him.

Kanzaki Rei could alter his core to a certain extent, reshaping it into something better suited for survival within a given environment.

As for the "core" beneath the abyssal sea—

he was observing that as well.

From within the depths, he could see monsters emerging through fissures—cracks that led to dungeons.

Or perhaps, more accurately...

they should be called nests.

Creatures stepped out from those nests, yet they were completely unlike the monsters people were familiar with.

They weren’t towering.They weren’t grotesquely complex.

Instead, they were almost indistinguishable from ordinary humans—like people who had simply developed certain monstrous traits.

As he observed—

Kanzaki Rei felt his talent activate.

"Deepest Truth" had triggered.

A "female" monster with hollow, empty eyes stepped out from one of the nests. In that instant, his consciousness seemed to slip into a trance.

But in the very next moment—

his talent dispelled the illusion entirely.

And as the haze cleared, Kanzaki Rei understood what was happening.

Wherever it appeared, it created a space of illusion. Anyone within its range would experience hallucinations.

This... was a ninth-tier monster.

Could it be—

the legendary Nest Lord?

Every nest was said to have a master.

And according to speculation among scholars and adventurers, the most powerful entity within a nest was a ninth-tier Nest Lord.

As for verified records...?

Heh. None existed.

Even the concept of a "nest" itself was little more than folklore to most people.

The vast majority knew almost nothing about dungeons. Commoners didn’t even reach the level of understanding nests—they simply believed dungeons were places where monsters lived, hunting grounds where adventurers earned bounties.

And if a dungeon wasn’t properly cleared, the monsters would spill out and wreak havoc.

Nests? Nest layers?

Those ideas didn’t even exist in their awareness.

Entering a nest was not the same as entering a dungeon.

Dungeons were typically enclosed spaces, bounded and limited. Even if one explored them thoroughly through normal means, one would never glimpse the full structure of a nest.

The only known ways to enter a nest were:

—sacrificing one’s soul to a dungeon,—or finding certain rare, specialized entry points.

It was said that a complete nest consisted of countless interconnected chambers—forming a vast network.

A network so immense that it rivaled entire oceans of the real world.

Some scholars from the White Tower had even speculated that a complete nest might be larger than the entire known world.

And now—

the ninth-tier monster before his eyes...

might very well be a true Nest Lord.

Sitting inside a restaurant, Kanzaki Rei’s lips twitched slightly.

He was starting to wonder—

whether "Unsolvable Enigma" would truly hold up under these conditions.

—Shhh—

The monsters emerging from the nests didn’t seem to notice his presence at all.

Through his grid-based transformation, Kanzaki Rei’s "core" had become indistinguishable from an ordinary stone on the planet...

And with the added concealment of "Unsolvable Enigma", nothing drew attention to him.

One by one, the monsters vanished from his sight.

Some descended deeper into the abyss.

Others rose toward the surface.

...

He also saw the crimson legion deploy a grand formation—blood energy surging skyward, an overwhelming battle intent pressing down upon the Primordial Sea!

One day...

Two days...

Three days...

All he knew was that the distant Secret Sea churned violently.

Even here, in the Moon Sea, faint tremors could be felt.

The once-calm waters had begun to rise into massive tides.

Gigantic waves, hundreds of meters high, surged from the coastline and pushed inland toward Misirushu.

On Earth, waves of this scale would spell global catastrophe.

But here...

hundreds of meters?

That wasn’t even considered extraordinary.

The waves traveled thousands of kilometers before gradually subsiding.

Along the way, most cities managed to neutralize the disaster.

There were losses—property damage, certainly—but casualties were minimal.

Only the weakest coastal villages suffered true devastation.

Those unfortunate civilians...

Ten days passed.

The Moon Sea roiled with turbulence. The sky shifted in strange, unnatural colors.

But in the end, it was just rough seas—and a slightly higher frequency of monster incursions.

Extreme conditions like this weren’t unheard of.

To the people living by the Moon Sea, it was nothing unusual.

They would never imagine—

that these phenomena were merely aftershocks of what was happening in the Secret Sea.

Ten days.

And the Secret Sea had been completely transformed.

The war had begun to settle.

At first, it seemed like the Primordial Sea—or perhaps Sophia—would claim victory.

But the final victor...

was beyond anything Kanzaki Rei had anticipated.

On the fifth day—

cracks appeared across the sky.

Darkness poured from them.

And from within that darkness, swarms of insects emerged.

The sea itself began to darken—

stained black as the corruption spread.

At the same time, the insect hordes charged toward the crimson legion.

They clashed.

Endless swarms against a perfectly coordinated army—disciplined, unified, moving as one.

In that prolonged and horrifying battle...

darkness seeped into the legion.

Gradually. Invisibly.

By the time anyone realized—

the Primordial Sea had already calmed.

Kumironi had fallen unconscious, completely losing awareness.

Though the crimson legion had not suffered significant losses—

they had begun to retreat.

And when it was over—

the Secret Sea had become a domain of pure darkness.

Fissures covered its surface.

Countless eggs were laid across the waters—

and hatched within moments.

The Secret Sea had become a paradise for insect-type monsters.

The angels were gone.

The legion had withdrawn.

The Lord of the Ocean no longer stirred.

The Primordial Sea lay still.

Kanzaki Rei could still see the thread of fate—their deaths had not yet arrived.

The Primordial Sea and the Ocean Lord were not dead.

But neither showed any signs of movement.

Everything... had settled.

And the ultimate victor—

was none of the figures he had encountered on the first day.

Darkness had prevailed.

And with it—

came the swarm.

He had heard before that the insect nests were at war with the Dark Church—that there was deep enmity between them.

He had even witnessed it himself—Dark Church forces fighting within insect nests.

And yet now—

darkness and the insect nests stood together.

Together, they had transformed the Secret Sea into a black ocean—

a breeding ground for the swarm.

Thirteen days.

After the darkness had fully consumed the Secret Sea, the still-unconscious Kumironi was taken away by a black-haired woman.

No further changes occurred.

The crimson legion had vanished completely.

Now, the Secret Sea was filled with nothing but swarming, grotesque insects.

This place...

could now truly be called a nest.

It seemed there would be no more variables.

The outcome was decided.

The Secret Sea’s final victor... was confirmed.

"This... is the ending the Secret Sea would reach if I hadn’t summoned Shiro."

"And it’s not any better."

Though he had already foreseen this outcome through repeated simulations...

Only by witnessing it firsthand—

could it truly be confirmed.

After all—

there had been more than a few times where predictions and reality didn’t quite align.