The pillar of white-hot lightning didn't just strike; it redefined the concept of "Heavenly Punishment." The sky over the forest near Chernobyl didn't just crack; it screamed.
Klein didn't flinch. His figure flickered, entering the state of [Bizarreness]. To the eyes of the Angels, he was there, yet he was an abstract shadow, a ghost existing between the physical and the spirit world. He raised the Cane of the Depraved Monarch, and the dark curtain of the [Realm of Mysteries] slammed down.
The forest was instantly severed from the world. No information could leave. No prayer could reach.
"A Sequence 1 'Attendant'?" Herabergen's voice was a calm analysis that vibrated through Dokja's skull. "Impressive growth. But you are a fledgling trying to hide a storm in a tea-cup."
Kim Dokja didn't wait for the dialogue to finish. His eyes flickered with blue sparks as the System windows exploded in front of him.
[The skill 'Reading Comprehension' has been activated!]
===
Sealed Artifact: "The Grief of the Silent Giant"
Owner: Leodero
Pathway: Twilight Giant
Appearance: A rusted, oversized iron shackle.
Ability: [Absolute Weight].
Downside: The user's body slowly petrifies. If worn for too long, the user will turn into a mindless stone statue.
Sealing: Must be bathed in the blood of a dragon every sunset.
===
Sealed Artifact: "The Mirror of the Primeval Witch"
Owner: Aucuses
Pathway: Demoness
Appearance: A handheld mirror made of black ice.
Ability: [Frozen Radiance].
Downside: The user experiences "Eternal Menstruation" of the soul—a constant, agonizing drain of spirituality and an influx of chaotic, feminine emotions that threaten to shatter their male godhood.
Sealing: Must be kept wrapped in the hair of a virgin saint who died in great despair or in ashes of Darkness Pathway demigod.
===
Sealed Artifact: "The Ledger of Stolen Loopholes"
Owner: Herabergen
Pathway: Error, Visionary
Appearance: A dusty, leather-bound ledger.
Ability: [Rule Theft].
Downside: The user's "Time" begins to leak. For every minute the book is open, the user loses a decade of their natural lifespan.
Sealing: Must be stored in the depths of the ocean.
===
"They're loaded with Grade-0s," Dokja muttered, his voice cold. "Hajin, if you can see this, thanks for the ring. I'm going to need every bit of it."
[The exclusive skill 'Nephalem Transformation Lv. 2' is activated!]
[Gray Dominion is imposing the law of 'Equilibrium'.]
Dokja's gray wings unfurled, casting a shadow that felt like lead. Around him, the blinding heat of Aucuses and the electrical pressure of Leodero visibly dimmed—reduced by 30% as the "Gray Dominion" forced the extreme alignments toward neutrality.
"Sun?" Dokja looked at Aucuses, his hand glowing with a terrifying, white-hot fire.
A sound that shouldn't exist in this era. A train.
[Giant Story 'Torch That Swallowed the Myth' explodes in rage!]
He unleashed a train of Surya storms—a literal locomotive of solar fire—roaring toward the White Angel.
"Sun?" Aucuses' voice was a searing roar. "Let us see whose light is absolute."
Aucuses opened his arms, embracing Dokja's fire. Instead of burning him, the fire began to melt into the scenery. Aucuses used [Pure White Light], turning the destruction into liberation. The two solar powers clashed, turning the forest into a white void where even shadows were incinerated.
Meanwhile, Klein moved like a blur of madness. He raised his left hand, the Hunger of the Digital Void pulsing with a toxic green light and black dots.
[File 5: Naboredisley - Active]
[Spirit Inhaling!]
A spiritual vacuum erupted, a black hole designed to siphon the very soul of the Wind Angel. The air groaned as Leodero's Spirit Body Threads were sucked toward the glove.
"Insolence!" Leodero roared. He didn't resist the suction. He became it.
[Incarnation of Light]
Leodero transformed into a pure energy body, moving at a speed that ignored mass.
He circled the vacuum at near-light speeds, creating a [Storm Hell] that disrupted the information-gathering of the Digital Hunger. The vacuum didn't find a spirit; it found a hurricane. Klein was thrown back, his physical body cracking like porcelain, only to reassemble through [Bizarreness].
"Grafting!" Klein pointed his cane.
He grafted the Speed of Leodero to the Stagnation of the Ground. Suddenly, the Wind Angel stumbled, his god-like speed being transferred into the dirt beneath him, causing the earth to explode in a sonic boom while he slowed to a crawl.
"Now, Dokja!" Klein shouted.
Dokja appeared behind Leodero, his sword Unbroken Faith wreathed in [Paradox Damage].
[Twin-Origin Authority: Annihilation]
He swung. The blade didn't cut flesh; it deleted the "Barrier of Wind" protecting Leodero as if it had never existed.
"ARGH!" Leodero shrieked as the strike ignored his resistances, carving a deep wound across his turquoise armor.
But the battle wasn't one-sided.
Herabergen, the Wisdom Angel, had been watching. His eyes swirled with millions of symbols. "I have Cognized your patterns," he whispered.
Aucuses, now only blinding light, clashed with the train. He pulled the Mirror of the Primeval Witch.
"God says: The Sun is Cold," Aucuses chanted, using a [Notary] command amplified by the mirror.
Melting under the Sun Authority of Aucuses train of fire didn't explode; it froze. The golden flames turned into jagged, black ice mid-air, crashing to the ground and shattering into conceptual shards that tried to pierce Dokja's Spirit Body.
"Grafting!" Klein pointed his cane at the shards.
He grafted the Concept of Sharpness from the ice shards to the Leaves of the Trees surrounding the three Angels. In an instant, the forest turned into a whirlwind of green razors. Millions of leaves, each capable of slicing through a Sequence 4 demigod, swarmed the traitors.
Leodero snorted. He slammed his gauntlet—The Grief of the Silent Giant—into the air.
The "Weight" of the artifact expanded in a sphere. The leaves didn't just stop; they were crushed into the dirt by a gravity so intense the earth collapsed into a crater fifty meters deep.
"My turn," Leodero growled.
He transformed into his [Complete Mythical Creature Form]. A giant, terrifying octopus-like creature wreathed in indigo lightning. But thanks to the rusted shackle on his tentacle, the lightning wasn't bright. It was a dull, greyish-black.
['Fourth Wall' protects your mental state!]
[Descent of Calamity: Twilight Storm]
Black lightning rained down. It didn't just burn; it caused anything it touched to "Age" and "Decay" instantly.
Klein raised his left hand.
[File 5: Naboredisley - Active]
[Spirit Inhaling!]
The black hole at the center of the glove roared, trying to pull the "Aging" effect out of the air. But Herabergen was faster. He tapped his Ledger of Stolen Loopholes.
"I steal the 'Direction' of your hunger," Herabergen whispered.
Suddenly, the suction of the glove reversed. Instead of inhaling the storm, it began to exhale the compressed malice of the 9th Demon King directly into Klein's own face.
"Tsk!" Klein used [Paper Figurine Substitute].
His body exploded into confetti, reassembling a hundred meters away. He was pale, his spirituality draining at an alarming rate. Dealing with three Angels who could cover each other's weaknesses was a nightmare.
Then, Klein and Dokja felt a sudden, sickening sensation of weightlessness.
"What's happening?" Dokja gasped. He looked at his hands. They were turning transparent.
He looked at Herabergen. The Wisdom Angel was holding an ordinary-looking book with a brown goatskin cover.
[Groselle's Travels].
The book was open. Two drops of blood flew from the battlefield and soaked into the pages.
"The script requires you to leave the stage," Herabergen said with a mocking smile. "Enter the story, and stay there until we have feasted."
The world began to tilt. The forest, the lightning, and the white-gold light started to blur into a series of ink-drawn illustrations. Klein and Dokja were being pulled into the goatskin pages.
"By the time you return," Herabergen smiled, his face a mask of cold wisdom, "the Lord will be a memory. Everything will be over."
"Nothing is over," Dokja spat. He felt the pull of the book, a story demanding to be filled. But he was Kim Dokja. He was the one who reads the end.
He ignored the probability warnings.
In this Recorded Past, the 'Star Will' was a mess. He could push further.
[Sequence 8: Swindler powers activated.]
[Mental Disruption / Thought Misdirection]
Dokja broadcasted a powerful hallucination to the three Angels: the image of Klein and Dokja already vanishing into the book.
"Grafting!" Klein screamed, pointing at the Realm of Mysteries.
He didn't graft a target. He grafted a Logic. He grafted the "Inside of the Book" to the "Current Coordinates of the Forest".
CREAK.
The universe groaned. Klein was sucked into the book, but because of the Graft, the "Concealment" he had created didn't vanish—it stayed anchored to the physical world, trapping the three Angels inside the darkened forest even as their targets disappeared.
"Klein, graft my story to this place!" Dokja grinned, looks like he had a plan.
Klein vanished first, sucked into the pages of Groselle's Travels.
Dokja remained for a heartbeat longer.
Dokja lingered, his [Fourth Wall] roaring with sparks as it rejected the book's narrative pull. He looked at the three shocked Angels, who realized the "Intruders" were still standing there, shimmering with a terrifying power.
"Try to survive this," Dokja whispered.
He reached for the highest narrative he possessed.
[Twin-Origin Authority: Annihilation] — He deleted the "Transportation" effect on his own body, grounding himself in the reality of the forest.
[The 'Star Will' is howling in agony!]
[A Sealed Artifact's power is interfering!]
Dokja's HP plummeted as the paradox of staying while being summoned tore at him. But he didn't stop. He unleashed his most powerful story.
"I don't know the nature of your powers, but I have figured out how to interfere with it..." Herabergen's eyes widened as [The Ledger of Stolen Loopholes] hovered around him.
[Giant Story 'Season of Light and Darkness' begins its storytelling!]
"You think you can write my end?" Dokja looked at Herabergen, his eyes turning into a void of white and black.
The sky didn't just turn dark.
It vanished.
No stars remained in the night sky of Realm of Mysteries.
From the cracks in the void, a colossal shadow—the Apocalyptic Dragon—lowered its head into the forest.
[The Apocalypse Scenario has been forcibly summoned into the Recorded Past!]
[Probability of Third Epoch is affected by 'Realm of Mysteries'!]
"WHAT IS THIS?!" Leodero roared, his lightning flickering in fear.
"A Story you weren't meant to read," Dokja's voice faded as he was finally pulled into the book.
The last thing the three Angels saw before the Apocalyptic Dragon opened its maw was Kim Dokja's face, smiling like a reader who had just found a hidden chapter.