I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-395

**395. *My* World**

—

“The Empire’s soldiers are heading toward the Labyrinth City.”

“The Black King has broken through the southern front and crossed into the Central Continent.”

“White King, what are your orders?”

Cramdel.

Having received the reports from his four main forces, the White King furrowed his brow.

The Empire and the Black King—both of whom he had been watching closely—had begun to move.

But their destination was puzzling.

The Labyrinth City?

“……Fifth-Pillar is already dead.”

No sooner had the White King finished speaking than—

“…You mean *that* Fifth-Pillar?”

“That mad crow…!”

“G-good heavens……”

All the commanders let out incredulous exclamations.

Fifth-Pillar—the mad crow.

That monstrous being was dead?

He had seemed like the sort of creature that would never die, no matter how many times you killed him.

An ominous existence, one that had even threatened the White King himself.

*I saw it clearly when he mixed souls with the Druid of the Golden Law.*

Yet there was no doubt—Fifth-Pillar, the master of the Labyrinth City, was dead.

The White King had confirmed it himself in the World Tree Dungeon.

The Druid of the Golden Scale.

It had seemed as though Fifth-Pillar had been devoured by him.

Just in case, the White King had tried to verify Fifth-Pillar’s survival, but he had already vanished from the world as if he had evaporated.

There was no trace of him anywhere.

Meaning it wasn’t a mistake of sight or sensation.

But still—

*Crunch.*

The White King ground his teeth.

He had tried to avenge Fifth-Pillar, who had restored his fangs, but he had failed.

The Druid of the Golden Scale—a being who, despite embodying the Golden Scale, possessed darkness deeper than anyone else.

The White King had tried to devour that soul as well, only to find himself on the verge of being devoured instead.

Yet despite that, the Druid of the Golden Scale had not consumed the White King.

*He spared me. Humiliating as it is… if he had wanted to, the Druid of the Golden Scale could have erased me then and there.*

Not just his body—his soul itself could have been completely wiped out.

In the future visions the White King possessed, only certain death had been painted.

And yet, for reasons unknown, the Druid of the Golden Scale spared him, even though the White King had been the one to strike first.

After that, the White King gave up on killing him.

The difference in their standing was simply too great.

…There was no conceivable way to kill that monster in whom light and darkness coexisted.

It was no different from surrender.

If he didn’t, the entire North would have been erased.

“We can’t lose Fifth-Pillar’s city as well.”

Though he hadn’t truly repaid the debt between them, this was the best conclusion the White King could reach.

At the very least, he would protect Fifth-Pillar’s city.

Just as he had declared in the beginning.

That attacking the Labyrinth City was the same as attacking him.

And he couldn’t simply sit back and watch the Black King’s advance either.

The White King spoke quietly.

“Prepare everyone. The time for the hunt has come.”

—

—

A force of nearly ten thousand under the White King entered the Labyrinth City.

The sheer scale of the procession was enough to leave one gaping—but the White King was far from the only one to arrive.

Five hundred elves led by Auril,

The Giant of Ruin and nearly twenty Star Guardians,

The Ancient Phoenix Al Raum and his offspring,

The Guardian of Light and numerous statues,

The legendary druid Albino and ten pavilion lords,

Kasim and the Knights of Radiance,

And even the Knights of the Round Table riding fairy dragons!

“…What am I even looking at right now?”

“Is this… a dream?”

The Executioners’ eyes went wide.

They too belonged to the Reaper Cult and had witnessed the Empire’s absurd might up close—

…but what they were seeing now was in no way inferior to the Empire.

Yet no matter how one looked at it, this was a combination that should have been impossible.

Creatures scattered across the continent, with no points of contact whatsoever.

So many different races joining forces like this—

There was no precedent for it in history.

And each faction alone possessed enough strength to contend with an entire kingdom.

Yet here there were nearly ten such groups.

“…Why are you all gathered in the Labyrinth City?”

The White King asked with a frown.

Though they had competed together in the World Tree Dungeon, he couldn’t understand why they had all assembled in Fifth-Pillar’s city.

Kasim stepped forward.

“I summoned them. To protect the Druid of the Golden Scale.”

“…What? The Druid of the Golden Scale is here?”

“Yes. If the ‘First Flame’ on that altar goes out, the Druid of the Golden Scale will die.”

Kasim pointed toward the blazing **First Flame** burning at the center of the grand palace.

That flame was the sole force sustaining the Druid of the Golden Scale’s life.

But the White King couldn’t understand.

“Wait. What does Fifth-Pillar have to do with the Druid of the Golden Scale?”

“I’m told they share a very deep connection.”

“No… what?”

“He even said you’d come on your own, even if you weren’t invited.”

The White King’s thoughts grew even more tangled.

The presence and scent of Fifth-Pillar he had felt from the Druid of the Golden Scale.

Could all of that be connected to that *flame*?

He didn’t know what “a very deep connection” entailed—but placing something as vital as one’s own heart in Fifth-Pillar’s city said more than enough.

So then… perhaps—

“…Is Fifth-Pillar… alive?”

The very fact that Fifth-Pillar was dead might itself be a misunderstanding.

“He is alive—together with that flame.”

At the White King’s question, Hudson answered.

But that, too, sounded strange.

“Didn’t you say the First Flame is the Druid of the Golden Scale’s lifeline?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then you’re saying Fifth-Pillar is also alive together with the First Flame?”

“Yes. It’s difficult to explain in detail, but it is an undeniable fact.”

“……”

A headache throbbed through his head.

It defied common sense entirely.

The First Flame in the Labyrinth City.

The Druid of the Golden Scale had deliberately placed something akin to his own heart here—and now Fifth-Pillar was said to be alive along with it.

Which meant…

“So… you’re saying Fifth-Pillar… *is* the Druid of the Golden Scale?”

The White King asked, half in disbelief.

No other explanation came to mind.

But did that make sense?

Fifth-Pillar.

That ominous corpse crow.

That thing that carried darkness everywhere it went—was actually the Druid of the Golden Scale?

Wasn’t that absurd?

The Druid of the Golden Scale was a monster among monsters, incomparably powerful.

The sheer vastness of his soul had nearly swept the White King into oblivion.

And yet that being had masqueraded as a corpse crow, acting as one of his main forces?

Why?

Even if one yielded a hundred steps, a thousand, ten thousand—

There was no reason for that.

*It doesn’t add up. There’s no way that’s possible.*

Even as he spoke, the White King shook his head inwardly, finding the thought ridiculous.

He was the one who had even tried to arrange a marriage with his daughter Aria.

Though it had failed, it meant he had observed Fifth-Pillar closely.

Fifth-Pillar and the Druid were completely different.

In appearance, temperament, presence, dignity—everything.

They could not possibly be the same being.

Then Hudson spoke.

“Yes.”

“……”

Hah.

In the end, the White King clamped his mouth shut and closed his eyes.

Never in his life had he experienced such a shock.

—

—

 

…After barely regaining his composure,

the White King thought—

*So that’s why… the scent was always so strong.*

If they were truly one and the same, then of course the scent would match.

But who in the world would look at the Druid of the Golden Scale and think of Fifth-Pillar?

Their appearances, dispositions, auras—everything was different.

No—above all, Fifth-Pillar was a *corpse crow*.

A corpse crow!

A crow that fed on corpses and a druid who protected nature could never stand on the same plane.

And yet… in retrospect—

*A mere corpse crow couldn’t possibly have achieved feats like that.*

He was shifting from outright denial toward reluctant acceptance.

Fifth-Pillar’s debut had been dazzling.

Had he not conquered the Tower of Mysteries—something even the White King himself had failed to do?

He had claimed the Abyssal Labyrinth alone, becoming a being dangerous enough to chill the White King to the bone.

If all of that had been possible because he was actually the Druid of the Golden Scale, then it made a certain amount of sense.

*Did he change his form… and hide his power?*

But it was still strange.

Why go that far?

“If Fifth-Pillar is the Druid of the Golden Scale… why accept becoming one of my main forces?”

“He said there was something he absolutely had to do in the North. In his original form, it would have been difficult to move around there.”

“Don’t tell me…”

The White King spoke heavily.

A sudden thought had struck him.

The reason the Druid of the Golden Scale had become Fifth-Pillar and stayed in the North.

*Was he testing me?*

Could it be that from the very beginning, he had approached with the intention of testing the White King?

Returning the fang Wilhelm had taken, sparing his life in the World Tree Dungeon—were all of those part of that test?

*He could have killed me at any time…*

Realizing that, the White King’s fur stood on end.

Fifth-Pillar had approached him with intent from the start.

To test him.

And if he failed that test, he would have been killed.

That was why he had always felt such an ominous aura from Fifth-Pillar.

In that moment,

memories of how he had treated Fifth-Pillar flashed through his mind.

Had there been anything that might have crossed a line?

“….”

…He couldn’t recall many pleasant memories between them.

*Gulp.*

Recalling everything that had happened, the White King couldn’t help but swallow hard.

—

—

 

When I opened my eyes, a pure white world greeted me.

An endless, infinite expanse.

Countless collapsed walls lay scattered before me.

The moment I saw it, I knew where this was.

*Inside me.*

This was the world that expressed my inner self—my soul.

The inside of the “door” that the Demon Blood King and the Primordial Heavenly Demon had entered.

Perhaps this was the afterlife itself.

Maybe the end of death was nothing more than looking back upon one’s own soul.

I slowly approached the fallen, crumbled walls.

They could no longer even be called “walls”—just debris.

Tap.

Tap.

I began stacking them again, one by one.

Of course, I had no idea what the wall had originally looked like before it collapsed.

This was my first time here.

But if I was already dead, wasn’t there nothing else to do anyway?

*Slowly. At my own pace.*

With a small chuckle, I shaped the wall in my own way.

There was no need to rush.

In fact, it had been a long time since I’d felt this relaxed.

No—so long that I couldn’t even remember the last time I had felt this kind of ease.

I vaguely remembered enjoying myself when I played games.

*What game was it that I played again…?*

But was it really a game?

My memories were hazy.

I remembered trying hard.

To fulfill a dream.

*What kind of dream did I have?*

Did I even have one?

Wasn’t Park Hyun-myung just a man who drifted through life?

Someone who was only good at games.

*…This is kind of funny.*

Well, whatever.

It didn’t matter anymore.

I was already dead.

And rebuilding a wall with bricks was surprisingly fun.

As its shape gradually took form, it became awkward to even call it a wall.

This… what was it?

Was it really a wall to begin with?

For some reason, it didn’t feel like one.

Well, I could build whatever I wanted with bricks.

Right.

I should rebuild it.

I tore the wall down again and began shaping the bricks into something completely different.

—……

And far in the distance,

a gigantic eye was staring at me.

As if caught off guard.