Chapter 451. **Kidnapping**
—
If it had only been a matter of learning a *technique*, it would have been difficult.
Understanding runes.
I had never experienced them before, so I lacked even the most basic conceptual framework for their structure.
The rules of the world.
The bizarre phenomenon where, upon death, one becomes a *rune*.
But there were beings right beside me who helped me grasp the structure itself.
*The Demon Sword Satan, and Apsel.*
Aren’t these two among the most fundamental and primordial existences in this primal world?
Satan, who evolved from runes themselves into a demon sword, and Apsel, whose body—though now weakened—once belonged to one of the *Three Kings*.
Comparing and studying the two made understanding things easier than anything else.
*Thanks to Satan and Apsel, I was able to understand the rules of the world.*
That made it far from difficult.
The most important points were the *birth* of runes and their *evolution*.
Especially the birth of runes—unless one was a native of this world, it was nearly impossible to uncover.
*Where are runes created?*
I had to trace them back to their very origin.
Why was the world created with such a structure in the first place?
Since it was a laboratory made by the Celestial Realm, I assumed there must have been celestial intervention—but it was the opposite.
*It isn’t that the Celestial Realm intervened and made this world this way.
It’s because the world is this way that the Celestial Realm intervened.*
The world’s unique rules themselves had drawn them in.
In the end, everything comes down to *runes*.
At the center of the unique rules that even the Celestial Realm wanted to experiment on lies the rune.
And this rune—
*…A rune is a soul.*
That was my conclusion.
If it doesn’t exist in the living body but appears after death, then this rune must be the *soul* itself.
Perhaps the form of the soul has come to exist as a material entity.
The primordial creatures of this world consume refined souls and ascend to higher ranks.
Baek’s words—that even a sword, so long as it possesses a self, can expel runes—now made sense.
The self is the soul, and in this world, the soul is the rune.
All beings that possess a soul expel a rune when they die.
*Souls born into this world are unstable—beings that cannot be completed as one.*
And so they require other souls.
They were designed to devour one another and evolve.
I felt I understood the reason as well.
*There is no creator god. No—no one has ever created this world.*
Ordinarily, a world is born when a creator god—often called the Primordial God—takes root.
After that, a World Tree appears and nurtures life.
But this world has nothing.
No Primordial God. No World Tree. No being that has ascended to divine rank.
That is why.
This accidentally born world compels souls—runes—to be devoured and evolve endlessly, in order to give birth to something capable of sustaining the world itself.
*…A world with annihilation foretold.*
The first button was fastened wrong.
Naturally, the rest could never be fastened properly.
Above all, such a transcendent being is not made by devouring others.
The absence of a dragon god to protect the world means that even the absolutes of the Dragon God Council do not concern themselves with it.
And yet—
It was still struggling to live.
The world itself, and every being within it.
The more I studied Apsel’s body, the more captivated I became by this impossibly complex world of runes.
It looked as though everything evolved in a haphazard, ruleless manner—but in truth, all life was moving toward a single purpose.
*They want to be complete.*
They advance in hopes of stabilizing their unstable world.
And that possibility lies with the *dwarves*.
The single possibility the dwarves brought with them.
*By stabilizing unstable runes, part of that desire can be alleviated.*
That possibility is the *Gigant*.
A weapon that can evolve!
Ironically, the only weapon created by the dwarven god that could oppose knights had become the hope of this world.
The key to creating a Gigant is turning the soul’s *instability* into *stability*.
Aligning the soul’s wavelength, and altering the environment so the rune itself can grow faster.
The Demon Sword Satan is the best example.
By finding a rune with a matching wavelength and becoming *one* through mutual attraction, it achieved radical evolution.
Of course, even that cannot deny its similarity to *predation*.
The number of times it must devour for evolution has simply been reduced to an extreme degree.
Even reducing predation through rune stabilization would open far greater possibilities.
But my goal lay beyond that.
*The completion of a rune that can grow without predation.*
If a rune could grow without devouring anything at all—
Wouldn’t that be *primordial*?
The greatest archetypal existence would finally be born.
Such a being does not yet exist in this world.
Neither demon swords nor the *Three Kings* can evolve without predation.
They cannot grow stronger otherwise.
And so, looking at the first completed product, I said,
“A failure.”
A failure.
Far from the form of soul I desired.
My goal was to create a rune that evolves on its own, without predation.
“W-What nonsense are you spouting?!”
“After creating such a radiant rune…!”
“P-Please, teach me as well! How do you refine runes?!”
The blacksmiths were beside themselves.
Refining existing runes into Gigants was a craft only the dwarven god could perform.
They knew the theory of the technique, but none of them could actually refine runes.
And I had made it possible.
Originally, runes that appear when a living being dies only gain utility when consumed by another being. There was no way for a rune to consume another rune on its own.
But making a rune itself capable of predation through refinement—that was the core technique behind creating a Gigant.
And refining runes required an understanding of this world’s structure.
“……”
Baek looked at me with trembling eyes.
He opened his mouth, as if in awe.
*
*
Whenever training ended, Dietrich always went hunting outside the tunnels.
It was to confirm his growth, and at the same time feed runes to evolve the *Guardian Holy Sword*.
And whenever Dietrich left the tunnels, Apsel invariably followed him.
“This area’s starting to get boring. Let’s go farther today, Apsel.”
Having grown accustomed to it, Dietrich now called Apsel by name without hesitation.
Apsel didn’t really do anything, but somehow it felt like this must be what having a younger brother was like.
Maybe because of that—
Dietrich often told Apsel his own stories.
As dusk settled in.
Gazing at the crimson sun, Dietrich spoke.
“Ever since I was little, I got used to being alone. Whenever my mother went out to sea, she wouldn’t come back for months. Watching the setting sun and trembling alone at home—that was my role.”
“……”
“So when I was young, I hated my mother. I complained, asking why I was always the one who had to wait. Only when I got older did I realize that my mother, too, was waiting for someone her entire life.”
“……”
“I’ll make sure my precious people never have to wait for me. I won’t break my promises. I’ll become someone who can stand proudly before anyone.”
“……”
“I won’t abandon my family. Never.”
King Cernil.
The man who abandoned his mother—and abandoned Dietrich.
He even turned his back when Dietrich arrived in the kingdom.
Though he had become king through the Guardian Holy Sword, he never once showed his face.
Dietrich had no intention of becoming such a coward.
Abandoning one’s family—never.
Then suddenly, Dietrich let out a bitter smile.
“Sorry for rambling all of a sudden. Seeing the setting sun just brought back old memories… Anyway, let’s head back now, Apsel.”
“……”
Apsel stared blankly at Dietrich.
He opened the eyes he had kept closed, and gazed deep into something buried within Dietrich.
It was—
A radiant, pristine rune.
Apsel possessed eyes that could see the form of souls—*runes*.
But he had never seen such a *pure color* as Dietrich’s.
*What would that rune taste like?*
The thought rose instinctively.
“……!”
Apsel flinched and stumbled back.
“Why? What is it, Apsel?”
“……”
Apsel’s face drained of color.
He knew exactly what that thought meant.
Dwarves do not eat runes.
And yet, without question, Apsel had wanted to *eat* that rune.
Apsel shook his head from side to side.
And then, in that very moment—
“……!”
Apsel looked up at the sky.
He realized that transparent beings were gazing down at him from above.
Moments later, four knights appeared in the air.
As if shedding camouflage, they gradually gained color and form.
Sniff! Sniff!
“…Found him.”
The knight at the center sniffed the air, then smiled as he looked at Dietrich.
*
*
Guardian Knight Andro.
By order of the *Dark-Rune King*, he had been dispatched to investigate a *god from another world*.
It irritated him to have to obey an *upper knight* of lower rank than himself—but defying the king’s orders was out of the question.
Still, three guardian knights had been deployed.
Even when abducting the dwarven god, three guardian knights had been sent—so this might be more serious than expected.
But—
*Pathetic.*
Those they captured were laughably weak.
True, one of them had resisted quite a bit—but in the end, he was still just a dwarf.
Besides, the combat power of guardian knights was no longer what it used to be.
Compared to the past, their overall strength had been greatly standardized upward.
To the point that someone like Alchaka wouldn’t even dare challenge them.
So perhaps it was only natural—but still, weren’t they supposed to be a *god from another world*?
“Were these really the ones who killed Alchaka in a single blow?”
Andro asked, looking at the limp forms of Dietrich and Apsel.
The upper knight who had guided them here, Hooam, replied.
“They have the same scent.”
“That ominous residue of magic too?”
“Yes. And it’s coming from both of them.”
“Then why are they so weak?”
“……I don’t know. Maybe they exhausted all their strength fighting Alchaka?”
Hooam tilted his head.
From Dietrich and Apsel, the *scent of ominous magic* poured out.
Without being the source themselves, how could anyone emit such a strong scent?
And yet, for beings that supposedly killed Alchaka in one strike, they were undeniably too weak.
“You two take them back to the kingdom.”
“What are you planning to do here?”
“I’ll locate the tunnels in this area and wipe them out.”
Guardian Knight Andro was unsatisfied.
Capturing such weaklings hardly counted as an achievement.
Three guardian knights had been dispatched.
Returning like this would only disgrace the name of the guardian knights.
In the end, Hooam and the other two guardian knights nodded.
“Don’t be too late.”
“Yeah.”
Only after they departed did Andro begin to move.
Half a day later—
“…Found it.”
Andro had located a nearby tunnel.
Flap!
Black, bat-like wings sprouted from Guardian Knight Andro’s back.
From those wings, countless particles of magic began to gather.
Magic of such terrifying magnitude that the world itself trembled.
*I’ll evaporate everything—without leaving even a speck of dust.*
