I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-124

Ch-124

—

**They raised their weapons.**

Gracia let out a deep sigh.

**KWA-RA-ROONG!**

Lightning struck in an instant.

Among the thousand swords roaming through the sky, one came crashing down like a thunderbolt, stabbing into the ground nearby.

Seeing a corpse split cleanly in half would terrify them enough to back off.

“Th-the smell of meat!”

“C-couldn’t we… couldn’t we eat that meat?”

…Ah.

They’d gone insane. Truly insane. The Abyss had driven their minds off the edge.

Just as it once had done to Gracia.

Even if he slaughtered all of them like this, would anything be solved?

But here and now, absolute leadership was required.

That they had dared attack him meant that leadership had begun to crack.

*‘I need to set an example.’*

—Either die like vermin, or do what needs to be done.

That was what he had to enforce.

To avoid dying like vermin—

To at least die as humans—

He could not allow this place to devolve into a hell of mutual slaughter and cannibalism.

Gracia raised one hand.

Where all could see, intending to butcher them all if necessary.

“A—the egg is cracking!”

It happened then.

A man ran toward Gracia to report.

“The egg?”

“Yes! The black egg!”

Gracia grimaced, then moved swiftly.

The black egg that had come from Baal’s abdomen—

If cracks had formed, it meant it would soon hatch.

Reaching the center of the Abyss, Gracia involuntarily held his breath.

**CRRRACK!**

…The black egg truly was cracking.

*‘What in the world is going to hatch from within that thing?’*

A fully evolved Baal? Or something else entirely?

He could not know.

He could not even predict.

But he knew that it would not be anything ordinary.

Gracia and everyone around him watched the egg with tense, rigid expressions as it began to hatch.

—

—

 

“Oooh!”

“It’s waking!”

“The god is awakening!”

Countless gaunt, hollow-faced people murmured about the birth of the “black egg.”

From the beginning, opinions about the black egg had been divided.

An evolved form of Baal?
Or a god who had slain Baal?

No one knew what would emerge once it hatched.

But one thing they had in common—

They all knelt before the black egg and **prayed**.

“Please! Please!”

“Spare us!”

“Have mercy, have mercy…!”

Whatever it was—please, let it take them out of this place.

For over a month, the people trapped in the Abyss were desperate.

Dragged here without warning, living each day in fear of when they might die.

If not for Gracia’s powerful control, this place would have already become chaos—

People tearing and devouring each other.

The black egg had already become an object of **worship** for hundreds of thousands.

They firmly believed that only the black egg could save them.

Hundreds of thousands of starving, exhausted fanatics knelt before the egg with clasped hands.

Hunger and despair had twisted them into this.

Even Gracia could not stop this tide of madness.

“Sir Gracia. Could it be that a being from the ‘deeper Abyss’ will emerge?”

At a player’s question, Gracia shook his head.

“…Whatever comes out, our task is the same. We must protect the people.”

To say that 600,000 lives rested in their hands was no exaggeration.

Gracia drew in a deep breath.

Then—

*“Heavenly Swords.”*

A thousand swords floated into the air, surrounding the black egg.

If the one who awakened was Baal, he could strike immediately.

**Zzzzt… ZZZZZT!**

From the thousand swords, blue sword-energy began to rise.

At the same time, lightning-like radiance flickered in Gracia’s eyes.

His strongest skill—**Heaven’s Judgment**.

An overwhelming attack that calls down a thousand lightning strikes to erase the enemy.

**CHRRRR!
CHRRRRRRRRR!**

A technique that consumed all his mana and stamina in a single use.

Its drawbacks—long preparation time, and once used, he would be unable to move for nearly a week.
He rarely used this ultimate technique.

“Is that… is that the ‘Heaven’s Judgment Mode’?”

“I’d only heard of it. Never thought I’d see it in person…”

“No one’s ever survived being hit by it.”

So-called “Judgment Mode.”

Players gaped in awe, eyes glued to the sight.

Even in the first battle against Baal, they had not seen Gracia assume this form.

But unlike their astonishment, Gracia was unbearably tense.

Sweat evaporated the moment it formed, but only because his body was so overheated from the strain.

“You must step back! It’s dangerous to get close—fall back as much as you can!”

Even now, someone was looking after the civilians.

A beautiful woman.

The Pure-White Knight, **Serengeti**.

She alone stood tall and unwavering.

Even though the goat-mask companion who’d fought beside her had surely died inside the cocoon.

*Beautiful.*

Whenever he felt he was about to crumble, Gracia looked to her.

Seeing her unwavering resolve stabilized his heart.

He could not understand these feelings.

Was this… love?

But she was a being of Pangenia.

It was a love that could never be fulfilled.

So simply looking from afar was enough.

**CRRRACK!**

“Ah…!”

“It’s… it’s splitting!”

The cracks spreading across the egg deepened.

Everyone fell silent at once.

All watched the hatching of the black egg in breathless quiet.

And then—

**Sssssssssss…**

Smoke poured from the egg.

The smoke twisted into form, becoming a shape like a black ghost.

A ghost. No—no, that was…

“A Reaper…”

There was no mistaking it.

A Reaper.

The very one that had chased Gracia to the ends of the earth, stealing even his youth.

But something was wrong.

This one was different from any Reaper he’d seen before.

“What… what is that?”

“A ghost? A wraith?”

“Isn’t that a grim reaper?”

“Look, it’s holding a scythe. It’s a Reaper.”

People murmured anxiously.

…That was the first strange thing.

Normally, Reapers were invisible except to those who were “marked.”

No one had ever seen the Reapers chasing Gracia.

And that appearance—

“Doesn’t its face look… similar to Baal?”

“And those wings…”

…Yes.

Though it had the shape of a Reaper, its face eerily resembled Baal.

And one of the three wings on its back was identical to Baal’s.

Then—was this the being of the *deeper Abyss*?

Gracia slowly raised his hand.

The being opened its mouth.

—Kya.

…Kya?

What was that?

—Kyakyakyakyak!

The Reaper laughed cheerfully and swung its scythe.

Thinking it was an attack, Gracia almost countered—but—

The Reaper swung its scythe toward empty air.

*‘Toward empty space? Why?’*

Moments later, everyone understood.

**WHIIISH!
CRACK!**

A sharp impact.

Then the sound of something hard breaking.

**KUUUU-RRRRR!**

In the distance—
The “wall” of the Abyss was collapsing.

Impossible.

A wall that had never budged, no matter how desperately they attacked it.

The invisible barrier at the edge of the Abyss—

It was breaking, revealing the space beyond.

Another Abyss lay past it.

“What… what is that?”

“W-what…”

“A… ahhhh…”

The people trembled.

Naturally.

Even Gracia and the players stared, speechless.

Beyond the broken space—floating in the darkness—

Were countless **eyes**.

Eyes of the monsters of the Abyss.

Each one staring at them.

*‘…Those eyes—every one of them is a Ruler of the Abyss.’*

Only then did Gracia realize—

The Rulers of the Abyss had been watching this place from the beginning.

For reasons unknown.

Each Abyssal Ruler was a monstrous entity.

Even Baal was merely one among them.

But the number—

…The number of eyes was too many.

All of those were Abyssal Rulers?

What did the Abyss contain?

Why were they watching this place?

And how had that Reaper sliced through the barrier?

**Ziiing.
Ziiiing.
ZIIIIING.**

It happened then.

Without chance to question anything—

Countless “warps” began appearing under the people’s feet.

One per person.

Over 600,000 warps.

“W-what is this?”

“It’s the same as when we were summoned!”

“Warps! They’re warps!”

“We’re going back? We can return?!”

“It’s the Reaper of the black egg! It’s sending us home!”

“Thank you! Thank you!!”

“Praise the Reaper of the black egg!!!”

Chaos erupted.

The same warp that had abducted them was now returning them.

People vanished rapidly.

Sliding into the warps as if falling through air.

**CRACK!**

…And the egg was clearly finishing its hatching.

*‘I must confirm it.’*

Whatever it was.

Whatever existed inside that egg.

The Reaper who broke the barrier was merely an appendage.

The true body had not appeared yet.

Gracia evaded the warps and floated upward.

*‘I must confirm it.’*

He knew instinctively.

Only by confirming what emerged from the egg could he know humanity’s future.

Enemy? Ally?
Or at the very least—what it looked like.

**Ziiiiing!**

But the warps relentlessly chased him.

**Ziiing! Ziiiing!**

More warps formed, trying to forcibly pull him in.

Gracia gritted his teeth, using all his strength to evade and watch the egg’s hatching to the end.

The area was already empty.

All 600,000 people had been transported away.

Only Gracia remained.

And then—

**CRRRACK!**

At last, the egg completely broke.

*‘That form… it’s definitely—!’*

Gracia’s eyes widened at the sight of the being that emerged.

But that was the end.

At that moment, he too stepped on a warp
—and fell.

—

 

 

 

---