I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-207

Ch-207. **The Master of the Four Calamities, Baal**

—

…There was no way I saw it wrong.

The woman following right behind the Eight Fang Knights Order.

Without a doubt… it was Isabella.

My origin.

It felt like only yesterday that I disappeared together with Isabella von Dersian, who came from House Dersian.

I clearly heard it from Hudson.

*“Isabella has returned to where she belongs.”*

I believed it too.

That she went back to House Dersian to reclaim her rightful place.

Then why… why is Isabella **now standing with the Eight Fang Knight Order?**

*‘…So the place she returned to was the Eight Fang Knight Order after all.’*

A memory I had forgotten.

I thought she went back to reclaim her position in House Dersian.

That’s why I didn’t go looking.

That’s why I didn’t wonder about her actions afterward.

But now… this encounter here—utterly beyond expectation.

*“The crest of Fang. A squire.”*

To make things even stranger—Isabella seemed to be a squire of the Eight Fang Knight Order.

She wore the same armor embroidered with the number *eight* on the shoulder, yet unlike the official knights, the star on her chest **lacked the eight-pointed radiance**.

Looking closer, there were several others with similar armor toward the back of the column. All squires.

Though there were slight variations among the eight-pointed stars of the full knights, it was still a deeply perplexing thing.

*“The Empire’s symbol is the golden pentacle. So why does the Eight Fang Knight Order use an eight-pointed star?”*

A sudden curiosity.

They are the strongest knight order of the Empire.

As the Emperor’s closest vassals, shouldn’t they naturally be using the symbol of the Arhon Empire?

In Pangaenia, the pentacle is the symbol of the sacred star.

And the hexagram was a glory bestowed upon the *six houses* of the ancient empire, including the Hexagon.

But an **eight-pointed star**?

Now that I think about it, I never once saw lore in Pangaenia related to an eight-pointed star.

Perhaps it’s a feature unique to the Eight Fang Knight Order.

“…”

A brief moment.

Isabella’s eyes met mine.

Naturally.

But Isabella’s expression and gaze showed no change at all.

Could she… possibly not recognize me?

*Impossible.*

I shook my head internally.

There was no world where she would fail to recognize me.

There is no way she wouldn’t know the horrible omen standing before her.

Even if I had taken on another form—she would have recognized me.

She was the one who served beside me the longest.

*She’s simply pretending not to know me.*

Her face remained unchanged because we were standing in the heart of the Empire.

If Raiga, the commander of the Eight Fang Knight Order, or the Golden Mask learned that she and I knew one another—there would be instant and fatal consequences.

So she desperately pretended not to notice me.

“Interesting.”

It was then.

Raiga spoke first, his voice slightly excited as he faced me.

And simultaneously—

“…!”

“…!”

The eyes of the entire Eight Fang Knight Order sharpened.

No— not just the Palga knights.

The Golden Mask and the eleven high-ranking executives of the Reaper Cult also stared at me in shock.

Was it because I was the rightful summoner of *Baal*?

“Commander… is interested…!”

…Wait. It wasn’t because of Baal?

The man standing closest to Raiga trembled as he whispered in awe.

Like a heretic witnessing a divine miracle.

He stared at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Raiga, after examining me once more, stroked his chin and spoke:

“Even with the vessel through which I observe all things, I can’t properly read you. I cannot understand. You refuse to be understood…”

Not mere curiosity.

He pierced through my *Unobservable* ability in an instant.

No—he was going beyond the understanding of the **Radiant Pureblood’s Authority Ring**, which made observation impossible. He was approaching a more fundamental question.

Me. Randolph.

“Is that your *true* form?”

…Of course.

Raiga immediately questioned my essence.

Currently, I was wearing the **Armor of the Primordial Era**.

Using its “shape transformation” trait, I forged the Golden Goat Mask and transformed into the “Dreadful Omen” to exude overwhelming pressure.

Even though the Reaper Cult executives had not found that strange, Raiga—who had never seen me before—saw through it immediately.

I smirked.

“Does that matter?”

I did not care.

In this place, nothing is more worthless than one’s original form.

This place is overflowing with masked beings hiding their identities.

The Reaper Cult alone proves that.

Those who would never show their faces beneath masks and helms—far removed from their original selves.

“Hah! That is true enough.”

Understanding the meaning behind my words, Raiga nodded broadly.

Indeed, it was meaningless.

But clearly, that wasn’t the only thing that stirred his interest.

Tap.

Raiga took one step forward and slowly drew his sword.

Shuaaaaa!

Then golden radiance swirled around it.

*Sword force.*

There was no doubt.

That golden energy was not mere Sword Aura—**but Sword Force.**

The supreme force one could manifest only after reaching Sword Mastery Lv. 30.

Aside from myself, I had never seen another Sword Force user.

“…!!!”

Several Reaper Cult executives glared sharply at Raiga, but I—standing directly before him—did not flinch.

Seeing that, Raiga’s gaze gleamed.

“What matters is that you carry the same scent as I do. You cannot be analyzed, you cannot be observed—and yet your strength cannot be hidden.”

…The strong know the strong.

That was the implication.

In other words: Raiga—this monster—regarded me as a strong existence *equal* to himself.

But he wouldn’t have drawn Sword Force just for that.

There was deeper meaning behind his action and words.

Sssssss.

Calmly—

A serene, blue, refined Sword Force enveloped my body.

Not as flashy as Raiga’s—but disciplined, controlled, and pure.

“As expected…!”

Raiga smiled faintly, as though he knew it would happen.

He had instantly recognized that I was a Sword Force user like himself.

*But he could not be sure.*

He waited for *me* to manifest it—to prove it.

A sign that he still could not penetrate *Unobservable* nor my hidden traits.

Yet the words that followed from Raiga completely surpassed everyone’s expectations.

“Twelve-th Guardian… You are the *true* Baal.”

“…!!!”

“…………!!!”

—

—

 

**The Four Calamities**

Long ago, when the surface world still existed—there were four monstrous beasts of destruction that drove the world to ruin.

Massive abominations that shook the world with overwhelming size and power.

Depictions of the Four Calamities still remain scattered across the continent.

But do those stories tell the truth?

Did humans really *seal* them?

“The four greatest houses of the ancient empire waged war using the Four Calamities—Fang, Dersian, Arhon, and Rahon.”

The names of today’s houses are inherited from those of the ancient empire.

They firmly believed they could control the Four Calamities.

And thus they destroyed themselves.

The empire collapsed, and the world fell to Ruin.

They abused the power of the Calamities—never realizing that everything was a part of Ruin’s grand design.

So then—*who sealed the remaining Calamities?*

Some tales say the Hexagon did.

Others say sages or heavenly beings sealed them.

But—

*“The Calamities sealed themselves.”*

Raiga knew the truth.

He—who gathered the fragments of Ruin—was the closest to the truth.

The Calamities were never sealed by someone.

Because no one in existence could seal them.

They sealed themselves—and vanished from the world.

When Goddess Leah sacrificed herself to block Ruin, the Calamities merely retreated deep into the dark, waiting for Ruin to return.

*“If the Calamities begin to resurface one by one… Ruin is soon to reappear.”*

The appearance of the Calamities is tied directly to the rise of Ruin.

The first to appear was Baal.

When that beast emerged on the Mountain of the Cultivator, every city stirred.

Raiga could not move, for he was pursuing another fragment of Ruin elsewhere.

But he found something strange.

*“Baal… sank into the Abyss?”*

Absurd.

For a monster like Baal to become the “Lord of the Abyss itself”.

How could the Master of the Abyss **sink into** the Abyss?

He rules the Abyss.

For Baal—one of the Lords of the Abyss—to sink into the Abyss defied logic.

Unless—

*“…only the shell revived and is desperately trying to regain its power.”*

If only Baal’s *shell* had revived, then it was possible.

Baal’s true essence—the vessel containing his full power—could not revive with it.

*“The authority to push anything to its extreme.”*

The shell could not contain that divine authority revered even by gods.

Half revived into the world, it was natural to crave power.

So where did the other half—the authority—go?

*“…The Twelfth Guardian.”*

Raiga had heard the rumors.

But he had no interest.

A Guardian was a Guardian—nothing more than another of those decrepit old monsters of the Reaper Cult.

The Eight Fang Knight Order and the Reaper Cult were like water and oil.

They could never mix.

Raiga didn’t even like the fact that those decrepit monsters were inside the Imperial Palace.

So a Twelfth Guardian appearing—where there had never been one before—had nothing to do with him.

Or so he thought.

*“I assumed he was just another half-baked fraud.”*

But the thing standing before him—was different.

Very different.

Like the other Guardians, I was *Unobservable.*

Fine. That much was understandable.

All Guardians possessed it.

The problem was the *feeling*.

*“I cannot feel anything.”*

Unbelievably intriguing.

The moment we met, goosebumps erupted across his skin.

A being as strong as himself—and yet **Raiga could feel nothing** from me.

*Unobservable* prevents the reading of details and numbers.

But it cannot suppress instinct—intuition—or gut feeling.

Raiga possessed the absolute sense that allowed him to perceive all things.

If even he couldn’t feel anything—

Then…

*“It’s not just Unobservable. He possesses a phenomenon that overrides even my intuition.”*

This was no mere ability—but a **phenomenon.**

*“That thing was born as something fundamentally unknowable.”*

That’s just what I was.

A being impossible to define or judge from the beginning.

Naturally unknowable, naturally unfelt.

Thus even the shape before him likely wasn’t my true form.

So he asked.

*“Is that your true form?”*

—*Does that matter?*

The Twelfth Guardian, the Golden Goat, dismissed his question without hesitation.

As if to say that wasn’t what mattered.

What could possibly be more important?

*“Essence does not matter.”*

…Indeed.

My essence wasn’t the important part.

The important part was **my existence itself.**

A being whose mere presence resonated with Raiga’s instincts stood here in the heart of the Empire.

This situation.

This phenomenon.

*“Unbelievable—yet undeniable.”*

At first, he doubted.

The shell of Baal summoned inside the Empire.

And the one who summoned and wielded it.

*A being who uses the supreme energy of the sword—the energy only I could wield after extreme training.*

If someone could use *even that* effortlessly…

Then it was proper to assume they possessed the authority.

No—

Raiga shook his head, then smiled sincerely.

*“It is no exaggeration to say that he **is Baal itself**.”*

The Golden Goat standing before him—

could only be described as **the Calamity of the Four Calamities—Baal itself.**

 

 

 

 

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