#climax arc

[immortal-tale]

I don't know why, but this scene really surprised me. I only "shipped" Junghyeok and Dokja but not as serious as now. This scene...wow...

I can't help but think that Joongdok may actually be canon...

(Though I already know it isn't 😭)

Another post, another proof of joongdok.

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Yu Jung-Hyeok grasped the [Dark Heavenly Demon Sword] tightly as he crossed the vast emptiness.

He was able to cross the fog of darkness he couldn’t possibly traverse with his own powers alone with the aid of Jeong Hui-Won and Han Su-Yeong.

[Grace of the Constellation, ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’, is permeating into you.]

[Grace from the Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’, is permeating into you.]

Even then, his magical power reserve continued to fall. The density of the fog grew heavier and the starlight grew fainter in turn. Yu Jung-Hyeok gritted his teeth.

He needed a sharper, keener, more accurate story.

A Fable that could pierce through that fog of Calamity somehow….

[Fable, ‘the One who Opposes the Miracle’, is continuing with its storytelling.]

There it was. Right there in the path of emptiness he was gazing at, the history he lived alongside Kim Dok-Ja lay scattered like the Milky Way. Yu Jung-Hyeok ran on that path.

[Fable, ‘One Who Murdered an Outer God’, is continuing with its storytelling.]

He ran on one of the Fables, and….

[Fable, ‘Giant’s Liberator’, is continuing with its storytelling.]

And, as he ran on yet another Fable, his Incarnation Body began moving faster and faster. Soon, gentle rays of golden light enveloped his entire figure. Transcendence level two, then three…. The moment he surpassed level four, his body transformed temporarily.

Wu-dududuk.

Bones all over his body screamed, and as if it had been completely overhauled, his appearance changed to become even more agile than before.

And eventually, into Transcendence level five.

[Fable, ‘Comrade of Life and Death’, is continuing with its storytelling.]

He saw a star dying alone in the distance. But to him, that guy no longer looked like a Constellation now.

Kim Dok-Ja.

It was still not too late.

The Fables they remembered still remained, and the people who remembered him were still alive. The story he so wanted to create, it was still alive and kicking in this world.

[Fable, ‘Kim Dok-Ja Company’, is continuing with its storytelling.]

You mustn’t die in this place.

[Incarnation Body’s durability has reached its limit!]

[The ‘Ark’ is calling out to you!]

Yu Jung-Hyeok suddenly felt a powerful suction force pulling him from behind. That power was preventing him from getting closer to Kim Dok-Ja.

[Constellation, the ‘Guardian of the Mandala’, is calling out to you.]

“Shut up!”

Yu Jung-Hyeok resisted against all those forces and advanced forward. Kim Dok-Ja was right in front of his nose. Ten steps away, nine, eight…. He endured against sparks tearing into his body and continued to march on.

Five steps away, four….

He reached out.

He reached out towards the ends of Kim Dok-Ja’s clothes drifting aimlessly in the emptiness. The moment his hand was about to touch the fabric…

[immortal-tale]

Kim Dokja, you've truly found your real family.

I hope that in another universe, you know that. From the depths of my heart, I wish that in another version of this story, you've lived with them outside the scenarios.

See what's in front of you some day, Kim Dokja.

(Another post, another proof that Kim Dokja is loved and cared by a lot of people in this lifetime and beyond.)

ps. This is VERY long

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“Ahjussssiiiiii!!”

Yi Ji-Hye yelled out in sheer desperation and fired her cannons at the fog of darkness. Of course, none of the cannon shells could damage the main body of the Nameless Mist. One couldn’t even tell where its body started and ended, after all.

Unfortunately, the companions were unable to control their overwhelming emotions.

“No, no, no!!”

Shin Yu-Seung fitfully cried out as if she had been inflicted with an illness of repeating the exact same words. And as if it was resonating with her emotions, the Chimera Dragon spat out one Breath after another in the air.

The eyes of Yi Gil-Yeong standing next to them were half-blurry, unfocused. As his entire body quivered, ominous demonic aura began oozing out from him.

“Contract…. I will…. I won’t…. will….”

And in front of these three, another three stepped forward. Facing the horrifying Calamity that they had been dreading all along, each of the companions lost their reasoning in their own ways. Some let themselves go, falling to a flood of emotions, while others managed to hold on to their broken reasoning in some elaborate manner.

Yu Jung-Hyeok unleashed his transcended form.

Han Su-Yeong was draped by the Black Flame Dragon.

And Jeong Hui-Won had opened the eyes of God-slaying.

Without giving anyone a chance to stop them, the three stepped forward at the same time, and they glanced at each other. Then, someone else did stop them from the front.

It was Anna Croft.

“All of you, please stop! You mustn’t break away from the battlefield!”

[Nebula, <Asgard>, is currently commanding the battlefield.]

Anna Croft’s voice, along with <Asgard>’s Great Fable, managed to tie all three of them to their spots.

Yu Jung-Hyeok’s expression crumpled unsightly. “Get out of my sight.”

“This isn’t what the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ wanted!”

“What the ‘Demon King of Salvation’ wanted?”

Han Su-Yeong’s left arm was lit in black flames as if there was no more need to listen here.

Anna Croft quickly spoke. “I’ve begun seeing bits of the future.”

The Fables were now flowing within her [Eye of the Great Demon].

“It might be that this is because he has really done it.” Anna Croft sounded genuinely impressed. She looked at the fierce battle of the two Calamities taking place in the distant sky and spoke. “To save this world, he really….”

“God damn it! Who cares about saving the world and shit?! We want to….!”

“His sacrifice is truly noble. Do you not understand what that means?”

“You better shut your mouth!”

Han Su-Yeong blew her top and roared out. Her scary aura managed to momentarily shut Anna Croft up.

“Why should Kim Dok-Ja save this world? Why should that bastard sacrifice himself for such a stupid waste-of-time?! Is this stinking world even worth saving?!”

Her voice was cracking up from anger. It was a voice belonging to someone who had been suppressing her rage over and over again. The prophet looked at that face, and listened to that voice, and recalled a story from her past.

“The ‘Demon King of Salvation’ also said the same thing once upon a time.”

– Whether this world is worth protecting or not, one should wait and see first.

Was it back during the Gourmet Association? The ‘Demon King of Salvation’ once said that to her. Anna Croft knew very well what he meant back then.

This world was one being ruled by Dokkaebis and Constellations. She, too, created ‘Zarathustras’ in order to change this world, after all.

Anna Croft raised her head and looked at the sky once more. Even as a prophet, she couldn’t tell if he was still asking that question of this world. However….

“He’s over there right now.”

Some Fables were to be proven not by words, but through one’s actions.

“He has met you people in this world, has he not?”

For the first time ever, the three’s expressions changed to something quite similar to one another after hearing her.

Anna Croft continued on with a cautious tone of voice. “Please, have faith in me, the prophet. We need to save up our strength, and then, aim for the moment when the two Calamities fight each other and destroy themselves. Only then will our survival be guaranteed.”

“Prophet? You think you’re the only one who can tell the future?”

That was when Anna Croft realised something.

Han Su-Yeong’s surrounding vicinity was overflowing with the Fable of [Predictive Plagiarism]. The Regressor Yu Jung-Hyeok was studying and observing the situation without rest through his [Eye of Sage] in the meantime.

It wasn’t only the prophet who could predict the future. These two also possessed insight far superior to others when it came to reading future events.

Even then, they still chose to save Kim Dok-Ja.

Jeong Hui-Won unsheathed her sword and spoke. “I don’t know anything about the future. However, I do know this. You said that you want to save this world? It’s the same for me, too.”

Her determination manifested in the whitish flames billowing on the [Sword of Judgement].

“That man is the world I wish to save.”

[immortal-tale]

All teachers should be like this, BUT DON'T DIE!!!! You can die because of old age.

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For some extraordinary reason, though, what appeared in my mind wasn’t the contents of the ‘Ways of Survival’, but my life during my middle school years. Memories of me sneakily using the PC without the knowledge of my cousins to read the ‘Ways of Survival’, or when I was doodling on the corners of the school textbook. Memories, when I transcribed the contents of the novel on a notebook, or when I drew up the chart of the power scale of all the characters.

– Dok-Ja, would you like to become a writer when you grow up?

A teacher asked me that after discovering my doodling. I replied that what I wanted to become wasn’t a writer, but a reader. The teacher formed a strange expression after hearing that, but eventually smiled back at me.

– That’s not such a bad idea. Because a book needs a reader to be complete, you see.

That teacher-nim who said that to me passed away four days later due to a car accident.

That was life.