**400. The Meaning of Building a ‘Home’**
—
What is a home?
It is a place to live.
A place that shields one from cold and heat, rain and wind—a place where one can dwell in safety. That is what a ‘home’ is.
It must be sturdy enough not to collapse from great shocks, comfortable, and capable of storing one’s precious belongings.
In short, a ‘home’ is everything that expresses a person.
And yet, Park Hyun-myung was building a home.
No one had taught him how, but instinctively he was forming the framework, laying the foundation, and stacking bricks one by one.
Not a simple shack, but a home like a vast castle.
And so… it felt strange.
Park Hyun-myung lived alone. He would not need a house that large.
Even if it were completed, it would be impossible for him to manage.
Then… what on earth was he planning to put inside, to build such an enormous home?
Even if he brought together all twelve walls that had collapsed earlier, it still seemed insufficient to complete it.
—…….
At first, the ‘Eye’ was flustered. But as time passed, curiosity began to grow.
At the sight of Park Hyun-myung completing himself entirely on his own.
Ordinarily, when a human accepts death, they stop moving, stop thinking.
Any creative drive is extinguished early on.
But Park Hyun-myung, after accepting death, was instead erupting with an even stronger creative impulse.
He had transcended death.
This was not something a mere human could do.
Not even a god of death could manage it.
Death is a process of being led into the realm of absolute nothingness.
The moment one recognizes it and accepts it, one should be incapable of doing anything.
Yet if, even beyond death, there remains a driving force that continues to move—
—…… the Demon of Greed.
There could be no doubt. Only the Demon of Greed.
And so the ‘Mouth’ that appeared beneath the Eye spoke as it watched Park Hyun-myung.
Park Hyun-myung was the Demon of Greed itself.
Long ago, a being that had even threatened Destruction for a single moment.
One that even the Heavens had taken note of……
A monster beyond comparison with mere devils.
Neither light nor darkness—only greed.
That creature was now truly opening its eyes.
—Wilhelm became the God of War. Randolph was completed as the End.
The ‘Mouth’ continued speaking.
Like the Eye, it was deeply intrigued.
Wilhelm manifested his own world through ‘Heaven-and-Earth Genesis’.
Even compared to the other ‘Founders’ who had created Hidden Traits, he stood as a God of War of far superior completion.
Martial God Wilhelm.
His stature had already reached that of a chief god.
Especially in a one-on-one battle, he could readily contend even with the Demon of Greed at its peak.
Then what of Randolph?
After accepting extreme darkness, he seized yet another Destruction—bearing the name of the End.
This was the fourth name of Destruction, one that did not even exist in the Heavens.
For in the Heavens, there had only ever been Ruin, Annihilation, and Destruction.
If Randolph were to unleash all his darkness, he could easily bring an entire world to its end.
Even now, he was functioning as a ‘Key of the Heavens’.
—Demon of Greed. What do you wish to create?
…Now, only Park Hyun-myung remained.
Because of the nature of the Demon of Greed, Wilhelm and Randolph had been able to reach completion.
Yet Park Hyun-myung remained incomplete.
Perhaps because two beings of overwhelming power stood behind him,
he seemed unsure of how he himself should be completed.
But after accepting his own death,
Park Hyun-myung moved all the more fervently toward his completion.
A contradiction.
An impossible premise.
—Hah. Were Wilhelm and Randolph merely rehearsals…?
The Mouth could now understand why the Eye was watching Park Hyun-myung with such fascination.
Long ago, the Demon of Greed had failed to kill Destruction.
It had reached Destruction—but only that far.
Yet it had reached it.
To reach meant to have followed close enough.
To have felt the gap. To have seen it.
Which meant—
…if given another chance, it could break it.
If it did not give up.
If it continued to greed endlessly.
Yes.
The nature of the Demon of Greed had required experimentation.
To learn how to reach Destruction.
To learn how it must change in order to defeat it.
That was why Wilhelm and Randolph had been completed.
They were, quite literally, rehearsals.
Through creating one’s own world and bringing about the End—through witnessing both extremes—
the Demon of Greed learned things it could not understand on its own, through Wilhelm and Randolph.
And now, the Demon of Greed was no longer acting merely as a disposition.
It had begun its true course.
Park Hyun-myung, here and now, was no different from the Demon of Greed itself.
That massive castle-like home was a stronghold from which to kill Destruction,
and a vessel meant to contain the culmination of all that the Demon of Greed had realized.
…Is it not astonishing?
That such irrational behavior was not calculated,
but carried out purely by instinct.
A desire solely to win.
An eternity of training born from greed.
—…… I look forward to its completion.
Beyond imagination.
That the Demon of Greed had practiced beforehand with Wilhelm and Randolph, all for the sake of building this house—it was almost absurd.
Of course, it might never be completed.
The house was simply too large.
So large that even dismantling twelve walls would not suffice.
Where would the remaining materials even come from?
If it was an entirely new conception, it likely would not interfere with the Heavens or Wilhelm.
And even if it were completed, Park Hyun-myung’s will already presupposed ‘death’.
Already, the ‘home’ was influencing both the outside world and the ‘Labyrinth’…
But to keep Park Hyun-myung alive, there would need to be a powerful memory—something capable of eliciting a response from him.
—However… the ‘fire’ may go out.
As the Eye looked outward, the Mouth spoke.
The Labyrinth.
If the ‘First Flame’ at its end were extinguished, Park Hyun-myung’s soul would vanish as well.
The First Flame was the final means of proving his existence.
Yet the resistance of those invading the Labyrinth was fierce.
Would Park Hyun-myung’s companions be able to protect the First Flame?
Would the Demon of Greed, who had wandered without a home for his entire life, finally complete his own house?
The Eye and the Mouth decided to simply watch.
Whatever the outcome—
…the dice had already been cast.
*
*
“…Damn it.”
Somewhere on the continent of Pangaenia.
A man sprang to his feet, scowling.
Above his head floated the name **MintChocoIsDelicious**.
“To think the Blade Dragon God would show up of all things…”
The Blade Dragon God, Hana.
Though she had established herself as a Dragon God of Earth, she was not recognized as one by the ‘Dragon God Council’.
Even so, she was absurdly strong.
Stronger than when she first appeared.
“I lost an avatar I was fond of.”
The man shook his head.
The Dark Elf Lord had been an avatar he had painstakingly nurtured over a long period.
It had even survived the Tower of the War God alone.
And yet he lost it in an instant.
Because the Blade Dragon God’s martial power far exceeded his expectations.
It was incomparable even to when he faced the Second Invasion’s Archduke, Issera.
Haa.
Letting out a small sigh, the man clicked his tongue.
What was lost was lost.
There was no bringing it back.
‘The Black King can’t die yet…’
What worried him was that all his efforts might come to nothing.
Especially the Black King—it was not yet time for him to die.
Too early for his exit.
Though he himself had died, that was precisely why he had actively participated in the Labyrinth expedition.
‘Only the Black King, who awakened Despair, can locate the remaining two Calamities.’
His goal was the resurrection of all the Four Calamities.
That was why the Black Lion Clan came to possess Despair.
He himself had found the slumbering Despair and given it to them.
Baal and Despair had been resurrected, but the remaining two could not be found.
To be honest, even Baal’s resurrection was hard to believe.
‘Randolph…’
Anything entangled with Randolph was never normal.
As a fundamentally abnormal existence, it made sense that he had resurrected Baal.
This time was no different.
Every being defending against the Reaper Cult’s invasion exceeded imagination.
“Aslan-nim. King Frederich has come to see you.”
“…I’ll be right out.”
He replied softly to the sudden voice.
Aslan.
The master of the **Aslan Merchant Guild**, one of Pangaenia’s three great trading companies.
He, too, was an avatar of MintChocoIsDelicious.
At the same time, the name engraved above his head began to fade.
‘Until I recover my Karma, I’ll have to operate with this avatar for a while.’
The Dark Elf Lord’s death had caused him to lose a massive amount of Karma.
‘At this rate… logging back into my main body will take some time.’
Shaking his head, Aslan stepped out.
*
*
“Kaaagh!”
“M-my arm!”
It was, in effect, a massacre.
The Reaper Cult’s soldiers were being butchered before the Blade Dragon God.
They could not resist.
They could not even flee.
Yet the Reaper Cult’s executives watched the scene with indifference.
“She’s gone berserk.”
“Yes. Without a doubt—a berserker.”
That state—
It looked like sheer madness.
Hardly something that could be called a normal Dragon God.
That must have been why the Dark Elf Lord had died without mounting any real resistance.
They did not know why she had entered such a frenzied state, but—
…there was no way it could last long.
She would eventually self-destruct.
“Then… is it my turn?”
A man wearing a **pig mask** stepped forward.
A huge body, bloated with layers of fat.
“For an opponent of that caliber, you are well suited.”
Golden Mask nodded in agreement.
To engage the berserk Blade Dragon God head-on would be foolish.
Judging by the intense mana radiating from her, even they would find it difficult to win without sacrifices.
But she was a monster that would self-destruct if time were simply dragged out.
And there was no one better than the Golden Pig at stalling for time.
Hoooo—
The man in the golden pig mask opened his mouth and inhaled deeply.
Then—
KWAHOOOOONG!
The ground shook, and everything around began to be sucked into his mouth.
The soldiers were no exception.
Not even the Blade Dragon God.
“Guuurgh!”
After absorbing more than a hundred soldiers and the Blade Dragon God, the Golden Pig let out a belch.
A terrifying appetite.
Among them, he was unmatched in the authority to devour and imprison all things.
He had limits when it came to consuming massive beings like Star Guardians, but something roughly human-sized like the Blade Dragon God had no chance of escape.
His stomach was likewise invincible.
After devouring Outer Gods, it had grown even stronger.
A Dragon God was nothing by comparison.
Once the berserk state ended, she would be digested as-is.
“I’ll rest for a bit until digestion finishes.”
His only weakness was that he could not move until digestion was complete.
The Golden Pig sat down.
And then—
“Hmm…?!”
Gurgle!
Gurgle!
Suddenly, his belly churned violently.
“W-what’s happening?”
The Golden Pig panicked.
This had never happened before.
The pain was so severe he could barely think.
In that instant—
“G-gah!”
The Golden Pig screamed.
Because it did not end with mere pain.
RIIIP!
…His belly split open, tearing apart from both sides.
The Golden Pig’s death rattle ended there.
He died instantly.
Then—
SPLAAASH!
Something tore its way out of his stomach.
A monster drenched in blood.
The Blade Dragon God, Hana.
At the same time—
…the faces of the Reaper Cult executives watching her were filled with bewilderment.
This was the first time they had ever seen a creature the Golden Pig could not digest.
And that gaze, that appearance…
“…It seems we’ll have to go all out as well.”
Golden Mask spoke gravely.
