I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-461

Chapter 461. **The Primordial Sword**

—

I had never truly wielded the power of **“the End.”**

Declaring the End—invoking the power that leads a world to destruction—was not something one could use at will.

Up until now, I had only brandished the End against **“existence”** itself.

But this situation was different from before.

‘Rundmal… that bastard has turned the world into his own domain.’

This very world had already become Rundmal’s territory.

It was bound to him.

As long as the world endured, he could draw upon infinite mana. Simply swinging the power of the End to kill him was no easy task.

To defeat Rundmal, I would have to bring the End not just to him, but to the entire world.

And so, I hesitated.

Because destroying a world gave me pause.

There were still beings who loved this world.

However, after listening to Satan and Rundmal’s conversation—and after clashing blades with him—my thoughts changed.

Rundmal.

After cutting him once, I understood.

If left alone, he would ruin every world.

He possessed greed without end.

A mass of desire that would never be satisfied—could never be satisfied.

I became certain that his way of thinking would never change.

‘What I desire… is Rundmal’s end.’

When the End is declared, the entire world is affected.

Yet what I wished to finish was this **“world of Rundmal.”**

And so, at the moment I declared the End—

The Tower of the End rose, and **the End** burst forth.

Gooooooo—

In an instant, the End spread throughout the world.

The sky was dyed pitch-black, and everything was swallowed by complete darkness.

Then—

“Domain expansion… no, is this a domain war?”

Rundmal spoke, disbelief filling his eyes.

What he and I were engaged in now was not a contest of brute force, but a **war of domains**.

“No matter how awe-inspiring you are, facing a world alone is impossible. And besides—this world is not yours.”

He was right.

Rundmal’s words were not wrong.

I was an outsider—someone from another dimension entirely.

The rules of this world, the flow of its mana, were different from anything I had experienced.

Naturally, that meant I could not exert my full strength here.

Kwaaaaaang!

At the very center of the world—

The ground split open, and something erupted forth. Enormous beyond belief… shaped like a gigantic worm.

It was crimson like blood, yet it was the very foundation that sustained this world.

The moment it emerged, it bit into **the End**.

“The End… separating that from you was your mistake. You won’t be able to withstand my mana now.”

Rundmal smiled.

It seemed he believed that the reason his attacks hadn’t worked until now was solely because I had kept the End around me.

Indeed, because of the End, Rundmal’s mana could not reach me.

And because of the world’s origin, I could not kill Rundmal either.

Killing Rundmal—who regenerated endlessly—was impossible by ordinary means.

That was why I had summoned the End and made it collide with Rundmal’s world.

“Let’s begin properly.”

I had set the stage where we could both kill—and be killed.

Rundmal was a being who moved the world itself.

Someone who had poured everything into preparing for this moment over countless ages.

Unlike before, even the End could not instantly drag this world into destruction.

“…Very well. I suppose the games end here.”

Perhaps sensing the danger, Rundmal’s expression hardened.

Soon, his entire body was dyed red.

His eyes became blazing suns, and crimson suns appeared across his body—on his shoulders, head, chest, and elsewhere.

“My body is the world itself. This is the ultimate evolution.”

He had completed his evolution by consolidating all the mana of every rune he had absorbed.

The mana he had unleashed earlier didn’t even qualify as child’s play.

The density of the power pouring out now was on an entirely different level.

In this state, Rundmal was like an absolute god.

When I had slain Annihilation and faced the gods of the heavens, I had felt something similar.

Though I had separated him from the world’s origin, I too had separated myself from the End—meaning I currently had no means to kill Rundmal outright.

But—

*Shrrng.*

I merged **Satan** and **Winter** into one.

Satan possessed the extreme heat that caused everything it touched to explode.

Winter, in contrast, held the extreme cold that could freeze every region within its sight.

They were supreme swords—but even that was not enough.

The reason I had perfectly refined the two was not simply to let them exist separately.

—Hahaha! Even if I die now, I’ll have no regrets!
—…Just this once.

Union.

To form a trinity—myself, Satan, and Winter.

This was the moment I had been waiting for as well.

《The Primordial Existence and the Supreme Existence temporarily merge.》

《This is a method completely different from the rules of this world.》

《Not eating or being eaten, but a true form of union.》

《A new “Truth” stirs from an act beyond regulation.》

《The “Primordial Sword (Truth Rank 1)” has been completed.》

*

*

“W-We have to run as far away as possible!”

Guardian Knight Andro shouted urgently.

He had realized that King Rundmal had begun manifesting his authority in earnest.

The full-scale encroachment of the world.

Preparations to devour everything.

Sending King Lemegheton to Pangaenia had been a calculated move as well.

With Lemegheton gone, no one could interfere with him.

“….”

Dietrich stared at the upheaval of the world.

Overwhelmed—that was the only way to describe it.

He couldn’t bring himself to speak.

A colossal red dragon, visible from across the entire world, burst forth and bit into the End—and the End, in turn, wrapped itself around the dragon as the battle began.

Dietrich had never seen a calamity of such magnitude.

No—no one ever had.

‘What in the world is this…?’

…Was this really a battle between living beings?

Even gods wouldn’t be able to wage war on this scale.

If those two had emerged in Pangaenia, a quarter of the continent would have been erased just by their appearance.

That was how immense it was.

“The dwarves are done for—but shouldn’t we at least survive?!”

“…We have to save them.”

The dwarves trapped in the tower.

Their bodies were utterly broken.

Limbs severed, organs eaten, signs of torture everywhere.

There were hundreds of them.

“Whoever’s closest will be devoured first!”

“I believe in Phantom.”

“No matter how much it’s ‘Destruction’… you can’t destroy a world that’s already meant to be destroyed!”

At present, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Rundmal the natural enemy of Destruction.

Because Rundmal himself had become a being that destroyed worlds.

Destruction grows stronger by destroying worlds after it appears.

But if there is no world left to destroy, that power inevitably weakens.

That was why the End had come to clash with the world’s origin.

And why Phantom couldn’t simply crush Rundmal.

However—

“That person is nothing like Destruction.”

Dietrich shook his head.

Phantom was not Destruction.

He was something far beyond that.

“Not Destruction?”

Guardian Knight Andro laughed in disbelief.

Even a child could see that the End was devouring the world and bringing ruin.

The one wielding it—Phantom—had to be Destruction as well.

“That person is… a savior.”

Dietrich had witnessed his miracles up close.

He had no interest in the world’s destruction.

If anything, he was desperate to save it.

How could someone like that be Destruction?

At that moment—

Dietrich turned his gaze toward Phantom.

“….”

“….”

A sudden silence fell over the world.

Not just Dietrich and Andro—everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes toward Phantom.

They had no choice.

Something completely different had appeared.

When the two swords merged, a being beyond common sense was born.

Its appearance was utterly crude—just a single sword.

“What is that…? How did you feed Satan to it?”

Rundmal tilted his head.

He couldn’t comprehend how an existence like Satan could be devoured by another sword.

He believed Satan had been eaten.

Concepts like union or enlightenment were entirely foreign to him.

Indeed.

In their world, there was no enlightenment.

Only devouring runes to grow stronger was considered truth.

They lacked reverence for life, appreciation for time, and the experience of self-reflection.

Without enlightenment, there was no soul.

Rundmal denied that Satan had blended into a different set of rules.

To him, it had been consumed—not united.

“…I’ll shatter it.”

Rundmal raised his sword.

The Sword of the Sun—melting everything.

Its mere existence scorched the surroundings.

*Shiiik!*

*Kwarrrrrng!*

Rundmal swung his blade.

A fierce sword wave—powerful enough to split even the sun—raged toward Phantom.

In the same instant, Rundmal charged alongside the strike.

*Kuwaaaaaang!*

The ground caved in.

Moving at imperceptible speed, Rundmal unleashed blow after blow.

Strike after strike, carving out a bottomless chattering abyss.

And with every hit—

Wounds began appearing across Phantom’s body.

His skin bubbled and burned, flesh scorching away.

‘Just blocking is already the limit.’

Naturally so.

With the End separated, there was no way to withstand his overwhelming mana.

And that wasn’t all.

Having completed his final evolution, Rundmal was invincible.

Even without killing his opponent, his attacks were lethal enough to burn away runes.

‘I can see your rune.’

Rundmal was not looking at flesh, but beyond it—at the rune itself.

Apsellon’s “eyes that pierce essence” had taken effect on him.

Proof that he had absorbed half of Apsellon’s rune.

How could one possibly stop such uncontrollable power?

Stripping away the End, stripping away the physical body—Phantom’s essence was revealed.

‘That must be your rune.’

He had hidden it well, but it could no longer be concealed.

Something like a massive house.

And within it lay Phantom’s most important thing.

Rundmal burned everything.

Phantom’s house was no exception.

But when the interior was exposed—

Rundmal’s pupils trembled.

‘It’s not just one rune…?’

Impossible.

A single being should be allowed only one rune.

Yet Phantom’s rune was not singular.

There were many.

Countless.

They had simply been gathered together into the form of a house.

Just like Satan and Winter had merged.

That was why he couldn’t understand it.

A being that destroyed worlds—yet guarded so many runes.

Not devouring runes, not consuming souls, but cherishing one another.

A different form of evolution—one that continued forward together.

It was utterly incompatible with destruction.

At that very instant—

“…I can see it too, Rundmal. Your ‘rune.’”

Phantom smiled.

Because he could see it.

Rundmal’s rune.

And beyond it—the deeper, more fundamental problem.

Rundmal’s true self—unstable to the extreme.

At last, he moved.

For the first time, shifting from pure defense, he swung his sword.

And then—

*Slash.*

The world split in two.

 

 

 

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