Chapter 52

Should I just close my eyes for a second? It would take Hae-gun some time to reach the eleventh floor anyway, so resting until then should be safe. As long as I don’t lose consciousness entirely.

As he closed his leaden eyelids, his body slumped. He had only leaned his temple against the stall partition, yet a heavy drowsiness pulled him under as though he were sinking into a feather bed.

Eui-rim forced one thought to latch onto the next, desperately fighting to stay tethered to reality. He weighed what excuses to offer once Hae-gun found him, trying to organize the critical tasks that lay ahead.

[The vessel cannot endure the power.]

[How pitiful.]

Right. How pitiful…

…Huh?

The sudden voice jolted him like a sheer drop off a cliff. Before Eui-rim could gather his wits, the darkness behind his eyelids exploded with light, and an unimaginable expanse unfurled before him.

Looking around in a daze, he found a pale, ethereal realm stretching to the horizon instead of the cramped restroom stall. Boundless mountain ranges rolled beneath an endless sea of mist, evoking the mythical Peach Blossom Spring from ancient ink paintings.

Don’t tell me I just died in a toilet stall.

Even while telling himself that was absurd, a cold shiver crawled down his spine. A pale river winding through the mist looked suspiciously like the waters of the Underworld, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

[Of course you haven’t died.]

[For this is not the afterlife.]

Whirling toward the sound, Eui-rim spotted a silhouette perched upon a low ridge. The figure’s features were so blurred and fluid that neither age nor gender could be discerned.

He observed the apparition with guarded eyes.

At the very least, it was not one of the Gatekeepers of the Timeline. Those beings invariably appeared as children, their eyes gleaming iridescently like opals. As Eui-rim watched, the silhouette curved its indistinct eyes into a soft arch, radiating a strangely benevolent aura.

[Do not be afraid.]

[For you already know me.]

“I know you?” Eui-rim asked.

The figure nodded lightly, then continued in a leisurely tone.

[We met when you crossed the timeline as well.]

I assumed it wasn’t a gatekeeper. Was my guess wrong?

At his doubt, the figure burst into hearty laughter and began to ripple. Shedding its humanoid shape, it expanded into a colossal apparatus towering like a mountain range—the unmistakable golden Scales he had encountered when crossing the timeline.

“…The Scales?”

Laughter echoed once more at his bewildered mutter. Watching the entity shrink back into human guise, Eui-rim grimaced.

It wasn’t a mere object, but a conscious entity?

No wonder the phrasing had sounded peculiar whenever the ⟨Seo Hae-gun⟩ of his previous timeline spoke of the Scales. If it were a mere inanimate artifact, Hae-gun would never have spoken of it as a thinking entity. Eui-rim had been far too careless in his assumptions.

“I was told you are the arbiter of balance. Are you permitted to intervene and meet me like this?” Eui-rim asked.

If its absolute role was balance, shouldn’t it remain an impartial observer rather than tipping the scales for an individual?

[Some of the fragments crossed the line, causing the balance to tilt.]

[I have merely come to level it once more.]

“Crossing the line…?”

[They defied the flow of time and rushed to expand their domain beyond the dungeon.]

[Even though humanity has not yet assembled the personnel capable of opposing such power.]

The explanation sounded reasonable on the surface, yet a chill of doubt pricked him the moment the words settled. If the violation was merely expanding beyond dungeon boundaries before humanity was prepared, that meant spreading devastation within dungeons was entirely permissible. Worse still, it implied that given enough time, the fragments’ expansion into the human world would eventually be sanctioned as part of the natural order.

Just like the ⟨Seo Hae-gun⟩ of the previous loop, the Scales seemed to read his silent thoughts, offering an effortless, fluid response. Swallowing a wry grimace, Eui-rim pressed for answers.

“The natural order?”

[Just as those who seek to devour require those who stand in their way to prevent it,]

[Infinite birth and evolution naturally demand a price.]

Straight out of a science fiction script. The price of evolution being total annihilation by cosmic parasites? It would be far easier to accept that an exhausted Earth had simply decided to purge humanity through natural disasters.

“Then why awaken us as New Humanity in the first place? If evolution demands such a horrific price, wouldn’t it have been better if no one had awakened at all?”

[Of course, at first, it was not necessary.]

At his sharp question, the Scales’ brow furrowed. Letting out a long, mournful sigh, the entity spoke in a hushed tone.

[However, with the passing of ages, the power of the fragments grew far too great.]

[They have now mastered how to wedge through the fissures in balance and order.]

[Since they will stop at nothing to return to the primordial universe, I had to bestow power.]

“Are you saying even you cannot stop them?”

[Indeed.]

[All I can do is grant the power to resist them, so that the primordial universe may never be reborn.]

Eui-rim had assumed the entity was omnipotent because it governed cosmic balance, but that very mandate seemed to bind its hands in iron chains.

Its inability to intervene directly suddenly made sense. If the Scales were an omnipotent deity, the dungeon catastrophe would never have unfolded in the first place.

“…What on earth is this primordial universe? The fragments invoke it with obsessive fixation.”

[The era when what was called the Origin, or Chaos, held sway.]

[It refers to the time when only the Origin reigned as the absolute existence and sole power.]

“Then the fragments constantly screeching about returning to the primordial universe…” Eui-rim trailed off, piecing the truth together. They meant an era where the Origin reigned supreme without law or counterweight. “In that universe, the Scales wouldn’t exist either.”

No verbal answer came, but the entity’s serene smile was affirmation enough. Imagining a ruined cosmos where the scattered fragments merged into an all-consuming void, Eui-rim felt a shudder of revulsion.

Damned bastards. Would it kill them to just coexist peacefully?

“Then what must be done to stop them? Frankly, I don’t see how I can possibly face them alone.”

[Which is why I continue to bestow power upon you.]

“If that was your intention, you made me far too frail,” Eui-rim retorted flatly.

If hemorrhaging blood at least granted him the power to crush a Fragment with his bare hands, that would be one thing. If he possessed offensive skills to slay monsters, he wouldn’t feel so utterly helpless.

Yet his current abilities couldn’t resolve a single crisis on their own. Far from destroying a Fragment, he couldn’t deal a scratch of direct damage to an ordinary ghoul.

Can you really act so generous when this is all you’re giving me?

[It is hardly my fault that your vessel cannot endure the power.]

The sheer unfairness of it stung. Restricting his baseline rank to D was the Scales’ own doing, yet the entity dared to blame his vessel?

Then you should have just handed me a combat skill instead of a supporter role!

[You harbor far more complaints than you let on.]

“…My apologies.”

[Well, it is only natural to feel anger when you cannot bear the load.]

Amused by his grumbling thoughts, the Scales chuckled before stepping down from the ridge. Bearing that same enigmatic smile, the entity closed the distance.

[Rejoice nonetheless.]

[Since the other side crossed the line first, I can now unlock this for you as well.]

A chorus of crystalline giggles echoed across the mist, and five children materialized around the Scales. Staring in shock at the beings he knew all too well—the Gatekeepers of the Timeline—Eui-rim frowned. Gone was their insufferable, condescending arrogance; their posture before the Scales was reverent, bowed in absolute submission.

Patting their small heads fondly, the Scales spoke.

[The gatekeepers have tempered it, so that even with your dust-like weight, you may bear it.]

With a flick of its wrist, the Scales plucked an object from thin air and tossed it to Eui-rim. It was a blue-gray gemstone, its hue vividly reminiscent of the Seo Hae-gun from his previous life, shaped like an ethereal dungeon mana crystal.

The blue-gray stone flared with brilliant radiance just as the world around them collapsed into pitch darkness.

As absolute night swallowed the misty landscape, the gemstone shattered into dazzling motes of light and plunged straight into his chest.

The air before him rippled, and a familiar crystalline system window materialized.

A skill and a trait.

It was an official notification declaring that both had bloomed simultaneously.

There was no time to process the sudden directive. The ground beneath his feet vanished completely.

Like the swallowing shadows that consumed the humans turned into hosts,

Eui-rim plummeted into an endless abyss from which there was no escape.

Crash!

A deafening, violent impact shattered his slumber.

Eui-rim snapped his eyes open as seismic tremors rattled the floor, the sight of the mangled stall door dragging him violently back to reality.

I don’t think… I was dreaming.