I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-414

**Chapter 414. Are You Ready to Face the Real Thing, Fake?**

—

Since when had it been?

Probably from the moment the characters I had raised began to gather.

That was when I realized—

That I hadn’t died.

The game characters I had poured my heart into keeping alive were waiting for me in reality.

Feeling gratitude.

Praying for my survival.

How romantic was that?

“Romance…”

When I played games, I always chased romance.

There was no way I could have kept digging into Pangaenia endlessly without it.

But after possessing Randolph, I followed reality.

The moment I recalled that forgotten word, the world began to look more three-dimensional.

The vision that had been trapped deep within my mind shifted back into reality.

And the first thing I saw was the labyrinth, reduced to utter ruin.

I also saw my companions there, fighting the enemies in my stead.

Giving everything they had.

Risking their lives just to protect me.

“…This is a first.”

So this was what it felt like to be protected.

That too was romantic.

But this wasn’t the time to dawdle.

The longer I delayed returning, the more uncontrollable the damage became.

And the moment the **Golden Mask** completed itself as **Annihilation**, the **End** within me had begun to react as well.

Part of me wanted to ask the *eyeball* to tell me the way back, but—

‘It wouldn’t have told me anyway.’

That thing wasn’t a guide.

It was a thorough bystander.

An existence that only watched, from beginning to end.

Of course, it wasn’t as if there was no method.

Opening a **door**.

The eyeball itself was also a door.

The moment I recognized it, I could have forcibly opened that door using the keys I possessed.

But then, I would simply become **another Destruction**.

Following Randolph’s End, I too would have become something similar.

‘That’s not the door I’m meant to open.’

At least, not now.

The door I was meant to open—

I walked straight back home.

I stood before the door of the massive, castle-like house.

Slowly, I reached out and grasped the doorknob.

Creeeak—

The door opened.

“Well then… shall we go in?”

I said with a smile to the beings standing behind me.

Though there was no answer, I felt like I knew what they were saying.

Do whatever you want.

Isn’t that romance?

Nodding, I stepped inside.

Then, looking around at the far more devastated scenery than I had expected, I spoke.

“…Am I a bit late?”

After all the twists and turns, I had finally come home.

*

*

 

It felt as if time had stopped.

Everyone’s gaze—

As if by prior agreement—was fixed on a single point.

They were just staring, dumbfounded.

“…Am I a bit late?”

And that was what he said after showing up like this?

After things had reached this point?

“I… it’s fine.”

Isabella spoke.

Annoying as it was, just the fact that he had returned—just seeing his face again—was enough to satisfy her.

It felt like the world had brightened.

“You’re quite late, actually.”

Hudson said with a good-natured grin.

The tension had almost made him retch, but seeing him, a smile bloomed on his lips as if nothing had happened.

“We believed in you.”

Abelof, vice-captain of the Round Table, said as he raised his sword.

“Huh? Weren’t you all not believing? Was it just me?”

Serengeti joked.

“It’s an honor to meet you before I die, Phantom.”

The **Thunder Lion** too.

“…Not bad, Phantom.”

The **Salgwi** as well.

“We will fight with you!”

“We will follow you!”

“Phantom—!!”

All the **avatars**, including the Executors, shouted in unison.

They had finally met him.

Their eyes, their expressions—though their mouths were silent—were all saying the same thing.

…Thank you.

After such a long time, after so many turns, they finally had the chance to express their gratitude.

At the same time, their fighting spirit overflowed.

A resolve to die alongside him if need be.

However, regardless of their resolve, another problem arose.

“Why aren’t they moving?”

“The Destruction soldiers… they’ve stopped?”

The Destruction soldiers that had been pressing them relentlessly had frozen.

Literally frozen.

They didn’t move an inch.

It had started the moment Phantom crossed the fire.

Most people didn’t know why.

But Isabella did.

She had noticed, at least a little, the change in **Park Hyunmyung**.

That the Park Hyunmyung who had returned was no longer the same as before.

How should she put it—

‘His composure… has stabilized.’

He had gained composure.

A type of emotion that hadn’t existed before.

At the same time, his overall condition had become stable.

It was hard to explain precisely—

But at least in this situation, she could say this much.

“It’s because two Destructions are facing each other within one world…”

That must be why.

Those were **Destruction’s** soldiers.

They weren’t Annihilation’s own troops.

He had merely summoned soldiers that *Destruction* controlled.

Normally, only one type of Destruction was needed to destroy a world.

But right now, two Destructions were confronting each other here.

Randolph’s **End**, and **Annihilation**.

Yet Park Hyunmyung wasn’t transformed into Randolph right now.

He stood in his original form.

There was no sign of the End at all.

And yet, he was using the authority of the End.

That extreme **darkness** he had once been unable to wield…!

‘…He can control the power of the End now.’

Isabella smiled softly.

She knew how much anguish he had suffered because he couldn’t control the power of the End.

How desperately he had tried to maintain balance.

But it had been impossible.

The darkness of the End had simply been too deep.

And yet, the returned Park Hyunmyung could now wield even that power.

Soon, Park Hyunmyung lifted his gaze to the sky.

He faced **Annihilation**.

“……”

—…….

There were no words.

None were needed.

They simply—

Recognized each other.

That the other was their natural enemy.

That one of them absolutely had to disappear.

In the next instant—

Snap!

Annihilation snapped his fingers.

Immediately, small supernovas formed around him.

【Great Extinction】

An ability that annihilates an entire species.

No matter how much the **First Fire** restrained him, it would not emerge unscathed from this explosion.

The First Fire and Phantom might survive—

But humans, and Destruction’s soldiers alike, would all evaporate.

He wouldn’t be able to protect everyone here.

…No—more precisely, he wouldn’t *choose* to protect them.

Annihilation thought.

‘You smell like me.’

Phantom resembled him.

Someone who had always agonized over his own identity.

If so, then like him, Phantom likely harbored varying degrees of hatred toward everyone but himself.

No—right now, that had to be the case.

He carried the unmistakable **scent of Destruction**.

Destruction was not a protector.

It was a destroyer.

That was why Annihilation wanted to see.

Whether Phantom would protect them—or not.

If he did, he would be disappointed.

And Phantom would be wounded.

Soon—

In a span too short even to blink.

In a realm of speed that no one but Phantom could perceive—

Shiiiiii—

Kuwaaaaaaaaang!

An explosion far greater than the one that had blown away the two gods erupted, centered on Annihilation.

*

*

 

The Golden Mask.

He had become **Annihilation**.

A form I might have become myself.

If I had failed to maintain balance, if I had surrendered to the darkness of the End—then that figure would have been me.

‘I have to stop him here.’

I knew it instantly.

Right now, Annihilation was bound to the **Labyrinth City**.

Because the First Fire was restraining him, his abilities and authority could not extend beyond the labyrinth.

The moment he escaped this place, calamity would descend upon Pangaenia.

I had to stop him.

No matter what, I had to kill him.

Before, it would have been impossible.

But now—

I looked up at the sky.

At some point, **Winter** was already in my hand.

The final twilight.

The winter so cold it pierced the bone.

I pointed the weapon—one I had only used in Randolph’s form—at Annihilation.

Facing the Great Extinction’s explosion.

“Heaven.”

I drew a line.

*Heaven*—the Heaven of the **Genesis of Heaven and Earth**.

The sword art Wilhelm had completed.

**Heaven** was a sword art that dominated space and controlled the opponent.

Reading the enemy, becoming the enemy, and surpassing the enemy—that was Wilhelm’s swordsmanship.

I brought my blade down upon the expanding explosion of the Great End.

In that instant—

Craaaaaack!

The flames split in two.

Neither the First Fire nor the people around it suffered a single scratch.

—…What kind of ability is that?

Annihilation tilted his head.

Because he knew this hadn’t merely been blocked.

It was a type of power he had never seen before.

The moment the Great End’s explosion touched the sword—

…the portion it touched simply vanished.

It evaporated.

I read its **structure**, and returned it to **nothingness**.

“It’s the sword art created by your *original*.”

Golden Mask.

I knew he was a copy of **Wilhelm**.

At first it had been speculation, but within my inner world, I had become certain.

Accepting the power of Annihilation—and wielding it freely—must have been thanks to Wilhelm’s blood.

But he didn’t know Wilhelm.

He didn’t even know what kind of swordsmanship Wilhelm wielded.

He only hated him.

Despised him.

So I smiled and said—

“Are you ready to face the **real thing**, *fake*?”

*

*

 

“…Sir Wilhelm.”

Abelof, vice-captain of the Round Table, wore a reverent expression.

In Park Hyunmyung’s current form, he saw Wilhelm.

The back of the Knight King he had gazed upon and followed endlessly.

Until now, it had never been this clear.

“That’s… Phantom.”

“He seems much stronger now, doesn’t he?”

Phantom’s avatars were stunned.

Park Hyunmyung had unquestionably surpassed Wilhelm of the Great Expedition.

Far beyond what they had witnessed back then.

But his strength defied common sense.

So overwhelming that even the pressure of War God Karas and Dragon God Einhassar seemed laughable.

Could Phantom truly transcend human limits by such an unfathomable margin?

“…He *is* the person we knew, right?”

The spear warrior Balte asked cautiously.

He felt different from the Park Hyunmyung he knew.

A far more transcendent existence.

This was on an entirely different axis from the power Park Hyunmyung had shown before.

If he had truly become Destruction, there would be nothing they could do.

“…Once before, Randolph resurrected. And he grew explosively then as well.”

Hudson swallowed and replied.

When facing the Four Calamities’ Baal, Randolph had once returned from death.

After that, he had grown at an absurd rate and become a being of an entirely different dimension.

But even taking that into account, this growth was unbelievable.

And he wasn’t even transformed into Randolph right now.

“He’s finally achieved it.”

At that moment, Isabella spoke.

When she had learned of Park Hyunmyung’s death, her eyes had died with him.

Now that he had revived, they had come back to life as well.

They seemed even clearer than before.

Hudson suddenly thought that Isabella might trust and follow Park Hyunmyung even more than he himself did.

“Achieved what, exactly?”

Her words were unexpected.

Not simply that he had resurrected and grown stronger—but that he had *achieved* something.

Achieved.

Meaning he had finally reached a goal.

Had Park Hyunmyung, who had only grown stronger endlessly, ever set such a goal?

As Hudson asked, curious, Isabella answered briefly.

“Level 10.”