Chapter 578

There was a glorious era.

An era where humanity uncovered and controlled all the laws that governed the world, conquering and ruling to the very ends of the earth.

======[ Ghost Knight? ]======

“Ughhh…”

Footsteps trudged through the dawn mist. The knight, now fallen to monstrosity, sighed deeply as he reminisced about the past.

His body, twisted and tainted by dark magic, and his mind, rotting like a corpse in a swamp. Memories, distorted and fragmented like a melted painting.

After thousands of years of erosion by dark magic and the oppressive weight of the heavens, he had long forgotten even his own name.

Yet, there were things he could never forget.

The brilliance of the golden age. The city nights illuminated by magical lights like the Milky Way. The grandeur of airships sailing through the clouds… and the end, when everything turned black and crumbled.

‘Valtir…!’

The Ghost Knight pieced together the vivid fragments from the shattered ruins of his consciousness, slowly recalling memories buried in oblivion.

======[ Thousands of Years Ago ]======

The world was overrun by hordes of monsters led by the slaughter god Valtir. It was the army of the demon god that heralded the end of the golden age.

Cities that once shone with prosperity crumbled overnight, and countless lives were lost.

Knights’ swords were broken, magicians were devoured, and priests died crying out the name of God.

Even the Empire’s greatest heroes, who had conquered non-humans and subdued dragons, and the supreme warriors who had attained demigod status through divinity, fell.

The fierce Fen■■ and the grand sorcerer Lil■■ were captured and turned into monsters. Yormungand was killed with a shattered skull.

The Bloody Hogni was hacked to death by his own sword, and the berserker Heidrek was assassinated by a fallen demon.

Many other heroes, like Garm, Fjallar, and Hrungnir, met powerless deaths. It was the tragic fall of the golden age.

But no matter how powerful the enemy, they couldn’t just sit and wait for death.

The last emperor, Si■■d, drew the sword of Barnstokkr and headed to the battlefield.

While his forces desperately held back the monster horde, the sages left in the capital frantically researched a way to destroy the divine entity.

Four rune sorcerers at the pinnacle of magic and the princess bearing the holy mark of the goddess Gemina.

The five of them pooled their knowledge to devise a way to kill a god… and finally succeeded.

『The Twilight Plan』

A mad plan to destroy the divine entity using four runes, created by sacrificing the lives of four rune sorcerers and four hundred thousand souls.

In normal times, such a plan would have been insane, but with humanity’s extinction imminent, no one dared to oppose it.

Thus, the four runes were completed, soaked in the blood of four hundred thousand.

[ᚨ ] [ᚻ ] [ᛏ ] [ ᚲ ]

The warrior’s flame to slay a god.

The lone princess rejoiced. At last, the means to kill a god was complete.

All that remained was to summon the demigod hero who could wield the runes… her father, Emperor Si■■d.

And soon, Emperor Si■■d returned.

As a cold corpse clutching a broken sword.

—

The Twilight Plan, on the verge of its final step, was thwarted by the loss of its chosen one. Before the despairing survivors could find a new candidate, the monster horde pursuing the defeated army arrived.

The capital fell in less than a day.

The princess, grieving her father’s death, disappeared. The survivors retreated to the last line of defense, the Temple of Alfodr, where the four runes were stored.

There, they planned to make a desperate stand while searching for a new candidate. Though surrounded by the enemy, it was their best option.

The temple was protected by the grace of Alfodr, so unless Valtir himself attacked, the monster horde couldn’t breach it.

But.

– Whoosh!

The grace of Alfodr they trusted betrayed them at the last moment. A betrayal no one could have foreseen.

“What is this?!”

“Alfodr, what is this…!”

As the monsters surrounded the temple, the grace within revealed its true nature, transforming into a massive wave of dark magic that welcomed the monsters.

The thick dark magic swept through everyone in the temple, and the monster horde poured in without resistance.

“Ugh, ugh…! Get up! Get up and fight!”

“This is humanity’s last bastion! We must hold it no matter what!”

The defenders, shocked by the sudden turn of events, fought valiantly against the monsters. It was a brave yet desperate struggle, enough to momentarily halt the endless horde.

But bravery alone couldn’t withstand the corruption of dark magic.

“Ugh, ughhh! My body…! My body…!”

Those exposed to the overwhelming dark magic groaned and knelt.

Their bodies twisted grotesquely, and their minds grew hazy. It was the corruption that had turned countless strong warriors into monsters.

“Ughhh…! Damn it…! I can’t hold on…!”

They gritted their teeth, resisting the dark magic’s corruption, but it was as futile as holding one’s breath underwater.

One by one, the humans reached their limits and turned into monsters, each more grotesque and horrifying than the last.

“Grrrrr!”

The transformed knights, now monsters, lost their reason and attacked their former comrades. Blood soaked the temple.

—

As they fought to the bitter end, cutting down their transformed comrades, they realized why Alfodr’s grace had failed… no, why it had turned into dark magic.

Alfodr, who answered no prayers. Unlike the knights still holding on, all of Alfodr’s priests had turned into monsters.

The answer was clear.

They all understood. The slaughter god they had named Valtir, the demon god who had suddenly descended to bring humanity to ruin… was none other than their own god.

A shocking truth that shattered their faith. This temple wasn’t a bastion to protect humanity but the lair of the enemy. They had walked right into the enemy’s embrace.

Of course, realizing this now was too late. Death was upon them.

In the end, betrayed, enraged, and despairing, they chose to protect the runes of the Twilight Plan at all costs, believing that someday, someone would come.

Forever.

The knights carved curses against Alfodr into the temple walls and offered their lives and souls as sacrifices to the death goddess Belliona.

The Contract of the Dead. A forbidden ritual where they offered their very souls to Belliona to become her sustenance, in exchange for reviving their dead bodies as specters.

A desperate gamble, but Belliona answered their prayers.

Eight hundred souls vanished as food for death…

And eight corpses rose.

“Grrrrr…”

They growled with low, dark voices, raising longswords swirling with deathly energy toward the monsters flooding into the temple’s depths.

The fallen knights, now specters, fought an endless battle, dying and reviving repeatedly, guarding the temple’s depths until the one destined to inherit the Rune of Twilight would arrive.

Thousands of years passed.

‘And now… only I remain.’

The monsters’ corpses formed a vast lake, and even the specters, who had become nearly immortal through their contract with Belliona, eventually fell. The Temple of Alfodr sank into the earth, buried underground, and the connection to Belliona was severed.

Over the long years, the seven other specters crumbled one by one, returning to lifeless corpses. The last specter, his body tainted and corrupted by dark magic, descended into the temple’s depths to protect it to the end. There, he took one of the four preserved runes and embedded it into his sword.

[ᚻ ]

The Rune of Collapse.

Though it wasn’t the method envisioned by the rune sorcerers who created the Rune of Twilight, it was still a formidable power. Wielding the Sword of Ruin, the specter cut down every monster that approached, repeating a cycle of sleep and endless battle.

Until a human finally arrived, collapsing the temple and burying him.