“……”
A massive gate made of pitch-black marble blocked our path. Ancient characters engraved on its surface flickered faintly, their light waxing and waning repeatedly.
As I tried to examine the characters closely, they only became more incomprehensible, transforming into unintelligible forms the more I looked.
Watching this, Arkhan let out a hollow laugh.
“……A Forbidden Seal.”
A Forbidden Seal, the ancient characters cursed to consume the souls of those who dare to read them. In short, these grotesque symbols engraved on the gate served as a seal to guard the tower. This was hardly surprising. By the time one reaches the Great Labyrinth, the entire location itself is often sealed away in this manner.
The Arcasian Tower was surely designed so that access to its interior is only granted when all Forbidden Seals have been read.
The problem lies in the fact that anyone who correctly recites the Forbidden Seal will instantly be afflicted with a curse that drives them mad.
“Rudine.”
“Yes?”
To me, this was of no significance. I had deliberately brought Rudine along for this purpose. She’s already been tainted by the madness of Thousandfold Slaughter. To someone who has already lost her mind, a curse that drives one insane holds no meaning.
“Go ahead and read it.”
“Alright.”
Upon hearing my command, Rudine approached the gate and began reciting the characters engraved on it.
At that very moment—
Kuuuuuung!
All the characters carved into the wall lit up simultaneously, their emitted light growing increasingly intense. A suffocating pressure bore down upon my entire being.
Moments later—
Squeeeeeeeech!
A new passage leading inside the tower opened with a loud vibration. The gate slowly creaked open, releasing a chilling aura from within.
“Yiik…!”
Adina, her ears twitching, hid behind Arkhan. Her trembling purple irises glittered brightly. Given the intensity of her spiritual perception’s reaction, it was clear that this tower was far from ordinary.
“Traces?”
“…They lead that way.”
With her fingertip, she pointed inside the tower. Glancing through the entrance, we could see corridors and staircases defying geometric principles. Structures flipped upside down and inside out, creating an optical illusion as though the interior was being inverted into the exterior. The hallways stretched infinitely, resembling a Moebius strip.
As if to confirm, there was no doubt that this setup, perhaps designed to ultimately reward with the Rune of Space, fit the outrageous essence of the rune’s name.
The moment we stepped over the threshold, the flow of air changed. Even the atmosphere itself felt alien. Intuitively, I could sense that space was twisted in impossible ways.
Then, Rudine’s voice came from behind.
“Luke.”
“What is it?”
“Didn’t the scripture explicitly state that it was sealed underground in the tower?”
“That’s correct.”
“But there are no stairs leading down?”
Rudine was right. Inside the tower, there was nothing but a staircase leading to the top. A thorough check revealed the same – no hidden passages, no additional structures. Just an eerie spiral staircase pointing upwards.
It wasn’t plausible that Arkhan had misled us, nor was it likely that the scripture was wrong. This implied—
“It’s probably the ‘rule’ of this place.”
“…Rule?”
“Yes, didn’t I mention earlier? Realms are not subject to the order of the world.”
A space that forcibly imposes its own independent rules onto the world – that’s the essence of what a Realm is. Even though the scripture clearly stated ‘underground,’ it might not refer to the underground as we understand it within this space. Realms don’t conform to common sense after all.
Without hesitation, I moved toward the staircase.
“Come with me.”
The moment I took the first step, an odd sensation wrapped around my entire body. With each step up the staircase, space warped, distorting our perception. When we climbed the first spiral staircase and arrived at the first floor—
“Ludine, watch out!”
Adina’s urgent cry echoed. Turning back, I saw a peculiar sight – the staircase we had just climbed moments ago was beginning to fold up, as if a large bookshelf were being closed.
And the problem? Rudine was right in the middle of that folding staircase.
“Rudine!”
I reached out, but it was too late. The staircase folded completely, eliminating the surface beneath her feet. But contrary to expectations, Rudine didn’t fall. The section of the staircase beneath her feet had transformed into the ceiling, and Rudine remained standing on it effortlessly.
“…Huh?”
We all tilted our heads back to look up at Rudine hanging from the ceiling. It was as if the ceiling had become her floor. Her hair and clothes were stretched out toward the ceiling, yet from our perspective, she appeared to be standing upside-down.
“Haha, this is fun.”
Arkhan laughed mischievously and suddenly took a step toward the wall. Her foot didn’t slip off the wall; instead, she walked across it as if it were flat ground.
We were all in the same space, yet everyone had a different surface for their “floor.” For me and Adina, it was the surface beneath our feet, for Rudine it was the ceiling, and for Arkhan, it was the wall.
“…So annoying.”
All dimensions were tangled together. There was no distinction between up and down, inside and outside. It was as though someone had deliberately ripped apart and glued the spaces together.
This place didn’t merely ignore geometric principles; it was as though several spaces had been connected together, with each plane following its own rules. I immediately called out to Adina.
“Adina, traces?”
“…Upwards.”
“Lead the way. I’ll follow.”
Rudine on the ceiling, Arkhan on the wall, Adina and I on the floor – we all moved toward the top, walking along our respective planes.
After a long ascent, when we reached the seventh floor, an even more bizarre scene unfolded. Dozens of corridors appeared before us, all identical, impossible to distinguish.
“…That one.”
Without hesitation, Adina pointed to one of the dozens of corridors. The selected passage glowed with a dark light as if confirming it was the correct path, and we stepped through it.
Each time we passed through the corridor, a ringing filled our ears, and the sensation of space tearing enveloped our bodies. It was a strange feeling, akin to walking the boundary between reality and unreality.
How long had we walked?
Kuuuuung!
The moment we passed the end of the corridor, my steps instinctively stopped. Even Arkhan, who had been following behind, let out a breath with wide eyes.
The sight before us was… an incomprehensible space. An infinitely spiraling abyss unfolded endlessly. Strangely, when you looked upward, it seemed to lead downward, and when you looked downward, it seemed to lead upward, creating an optical illusion. Everything appeared to be converging into a single point while simultaneously expanding infinitely.
‘Wait… didn’t this kind of space appear in the original work?’
Suddenly, a line from memory struck me like a lightning bolt.
The place where the rules of the world converge.
Where the boundary between reality and fiction collapses.
A paradox where all existing spaces infinitely connect yet ultimately converge into a single point.
“The Abyss…”
I muttered unintentionally. It appeared as if the entire space of the tower converged here, twisted geometric structures infinitely spiraling, depicting the ultimate depth where reality’s foundation lies. The ‘underground’ mentioned in the scripture referred to this Abyss.
And there, at last, we discovered it.
A stone structure reminiscent of an altar.
Upon it, a single ancient book glowing brilliantly.
“…The Scripture.”
The Rune of Space.
We finally found it.
*
“…”
Emerging from the corridor, Arkhan was utterly baffled. From the moment we entered the tower to the instant we passed through the passage, every experience was a blend of chaos and the unknown.
And now, at this moment, even she could not suppress her shock.
“…Insane.”
The Abyss. A space where reality itself has evolved into complete abnormality, a forgotten ‘Realm’ from the dawn of time. It was a place even deeper than the edge of this world, where it touched the Outer Sea.
And right before our eyes, the long-sought scripture lay.
The golden irises of Arkhan dilated. Her penetrating insight, capable of seeing through the origins of all things, attempted to probe the scripture obsessively.
“Gurgh—!”
Involuntarily, Arkhan clutched her head and stopped her insight. Her instincts screamed that this was not something she should dare to unravel. Despite living for centuries and seeing countless things, never before had she felt such primal danger.
“Huhk… huhk…”
It was, literally, a thing of awe. The moment she comprehended it, her entire body hair stood on end, and tremors ran through her. This was not a simple fear but rather an instinctive rejection sensed by life itself.
And behind the scripture—
A massive orb of darkness floated there.
Crack—
A fine crack appeared on the surface of the orb. It grew wider, eventually spreading across the entire rounded surface.
And then—
Crackkk!
The orb shattered. A snake eating its own tail appeared, then split into two. It became four, then eight… infinitely multiplying while consuming itself. The endless self-devouring cycle filled the void, expanding into larger circles.
In the midst of this endless cycle of proliferation and destruction, it began to distort. Countless eyes flickered between the scales of the serpent, and at the center, a grotesque pattern reminiscent of an inverted Tree of Life moved dynamically.
A being that visualized chaos itself, akin to the imagery of a Clow diagram. A heterogenous entity from the Outer Sea, slumbering at the bottom of the world. A supreme being for whom even the rules of the world are meaningless.
“…The Outer God.”
The Outer God, Ouroboros. More precisely, its fragment.
‘Dangerous.’
For the first time, she genuinely felt the threat. This was a creature not easily manageable even for someone of her caliber, a Grand Lord.
“Sixteenth Lord, we need to retreat.”
She spoke, but—
Clomp. Clomp.
Luke Richter was slowly moving forward. As if on a casual stroll, he walked toward the altar where the scripture lay.
“Stop! That’s—”
But his steps did not halt. Luke stopped in front of the altar, slowly lifting the scripture.
At that moment—
“It absorbs karma.”
He muttered something, then—
[ To the great pilgrim bearing the burden of karma, reveal the purpose of your visit to the sacred ground.]
A bizarre, indescribable voice slashed through the eardrums, vibrating against the brain.
“Force sacrifice.”
[ Offering? ]
“The Monster of Iphrashia.”
[ State the price for the sacrifice. ]
“The authority of the Realm is requested.”
The moment those final words left his lips, the ring of Iphrashia on Luke’s finger turned to ash and dissipated into the air. A brief moment later, everything around them was engulfed in pitch blackness. Countless stars densely decorating the void began moving as if they had their own consciousness, drawing the shape of a tree.
Squeeeeeech!!
The scripture glowed as the rune was engraved beneath Luke’s left eye.
‘What is this…’
Arkhan couldn’t close her mouth. A massive torrent of golden energy was being released from the scripture and absorbed into his body, a sight akin to a fundamental rule of the world settling into a human’s flesh.
And he uttered something softly.
“Realm.”
The tattoo under Luke’s left eye emitted a blue light. The space around him began to warp, as though cracks were forming in a mirror, revealing glimpses of a different dimension through the fissures.
The cracks spread, invading reality. Around Luke, the space of the Abyss was transforming into another dimension. Endless depths were turning into a space of pure white.
“Initiation.”
The tattoo under his right eye also illuminated with blue light. The two lights resonated, forming a massive strange clockwork in the air.
Kuuuwoooong!
A tremendous roar erupted as the clockwork’s hour and minute hands began to reverse rotation. Time flowed backward, erasing the space. Ouroboros’ infinite growth rewound to its origin point.
“Void.”
Luke extended his hand. The golden vapor that burst from his fingertips enwrapped the clockwork, beginning to fold the surrounding space.
“Absolute.”
Instantly, a massive fissure slashed through the pristine white realm. It wasn’t just a line; it was an absolute severance that bisected spacetime itself, akin to a massive blade splitting the world in half.
Squeeeech!!!
The fissure drawn through the form of the Ouroboros began to slowly widen. Beyond the gap lay absolute emptiness. A true void devoid of time, space, or existence.
“…What is this?”
The endlessly widening fissure extended to the very edge of the Abyss. The realm itself split in two, completely severing the form of Ouroboros.
Kwaaaaaa—!!
Between the colossal fissures cleaving the pitch-black depth—
A cross-section of the world revealed its face.
