Chapter 133 – Floor 20. The Beginning

The final floor of the Infinite Gallery of Knowledge.

An eternal river of heat and power.

The source that powers the vast repository of drifting knowledge across dimensions glowed red-hot, spewing immense energy into the void and warping space itself.

Its mere existence was a mythical spectacle that left everyone speechless.

“Hoo… what is this…”

“A power incomparable even to the nature spirits that once ruled entire mountain ranges.”

Albert, living from a human perspective, clutched his head as a headache struck from the sun-like heat, while Blue Tongue swallowed the heat radiating from the spirit”s heart, marveling continuously.

Anyone witnessing the impossible sight of pitch-black darkness burning in that heat would react similarly.

Even I, armed with 21st-century scientific knowledge, gave up trying to understand, dismissing it as fantasy.

“Hahahahaha!!! Finally, we break free from this task! Watch closely, my friend!”

“Noooooooo!!!!”

Regardless of us, Masterio raised his crude hammer high and shouted loudly into the void.

As if announcing to someone, proclaiming what he was about to do.

Leviana”s scream, almost a wail, about the destruction of the gallery echoed as the red demon spread his massive wings and plunged toward the last fragment of the Fate Cutter, locked within the gallery”s power source at millions of degrees Celsius below.

The temperature would incinerate his entire body instantly. Yet the demon was both a blacksmith and a designer.

He was also the architect capable of building the Infinite Gallery of Knowledge—a colossal hyperspace structure known only in legend.

He had reverse-engineered the squirrels” spaceship, reconstructed it, and was an engineer capable of creating a semi-permanent power source to fuel this enormous structure.

“Feels like hell after a long time!!!”

His voice burned, vanished, cooled, and reappeared, ringing loudly so it could not be ignored.

To the demon god, this heat was no obstacle.

Despite experiencing the absurd phenomenon of sound waves melting in the heat, the following massive roar swept away all thoughts like a storm.

Clang─!!!!

The resonant clash of solid metal against metal, affirming their convictions.

The fragments of the divine artifact, long steeped in immense heat and myth, and the hammer embodying the pinnacle of a demon”s life and craft, thundered through the gallery, shaking it violently.

Kugugugugugung──!!!

“Ah, ah…”

With a single hammer strike, cracks spiderwebbed across walls and floors, and ceiling stones crumbled, creating fissures.

Leviana, realizing the gallery was truly collapsing, began manipulating something with trembling hands despite being a doll.

“Hot stuff…”

If Masterio was the sub-boss of Floor 19, then the boss of Floor 20 was the power source of the gallery that Masterio was desperately hammering.

Normally, the Fate Cutter portal would open at the core of the power source upon completion of forging, but if this route wasn”t taken, the portal was opened by drawing some power from a control panel.

‘But that makes a full clear impossible.’

Masterio, the demon god, was neither hostile nor friendly—neutral.

Of course, I had no intention of stabbing and killing him, so ignoring him meant no full clear rewards.

But if the Fate Cutter forging route was taken, the story changed.

Once the Fate Cutter was forged and the power source destroyed, Masterio turned friendly, and the quest was marked complete.

‘The challenge was either to kill him or befriend him.’

Though the combat challenge was harder, the friendly route had a lower completion rate.

That was natural, given one was easy to achieve by stabbing, the other required build-up from the start.

Thud─!!!

Every powerful strike below sent towering pillars of flame shooting into the safe zone near the cliff.

“Thinking back on your suggestion, Shin Yuhyun… you knew the gallery would collapse from the start.”

“Well, yeah?”

Leviana narrowed her eyes sharply as she considered my invitation to come along, sheltering beneath the puppet librarian shielding her from falling stone dust.

Clack- clack- clack- clack-

Puppet librarians flooded down the stairs behind her, each carrying heavy sacks or crates.

“No time to leisurely pack. These are the intruder”s spoils. Take them.”

“Hut! Kuung! Ekkyut!”

One librarian opened a crate, revealing a dazzling pile of golden treasure reflecting fierce flames.

Albert gasped, coughing as if his lungs were burning, but I couldn”t take my eyes off the heavy, beautiful gold.

“Oh… wow…”

More librarians carried similarly sized crates and sacks behind.

Even I, having entered the realm of the superhuman, wasn”t sure I could carry all that gold and treasure, drooling and inhaling white powder, almost firing illegal guns in the marketplace.

“Seeing this, I truly admire Faker for maintaining his humble beginnings despite wealth and fame…”

“?”

“I worship you… oh GOAT…”

Gathering my resolve by praising the GOAT, everyone looked at me strangely, but what could I do?

“Who am I? One ton of gold, oh yeah.”

If I got the Fate Cutter and became a billionaire with no worries about feeding our spider, what else could I lack?

I suddenly understood why adventurers in novels always risked their lives crawling into dungeons despite being fragile.

“Hehehehehe…”

“Hahahahaha!!!”

Embracing the glittering gold, my laughter overlapped with Masterio”s joyous roar below, freed like a prisoner from chains.

***

Clang─! Clang─! Clang─!

Extreme heat that burns even concepts, and the rhythmic resonance of metal.

A being who must be born and inevitably die to be reborn burned himself madly, laughing wildly.

Old but still strong, his massive membranous wings ignited and vanished with each hammer strike, and his huge horns melted in real time under the white-hot blade”s immense energy, losing form.

“Ugh, uha! Hahahahaha!!!”

A tormenting sight.

Yet the demon, as if unaffected by physical pain, continued hammering with his red-hot hammer.

Clang──!!!

Pushiiiiiiiiiiiiit───!!!

The giant spherical anvil beneath the demon blacksmith, heated white-hot and holding the blade, cracked loudly.

“Oh! The time has come! Today, our lost hope shall be restored to its original form!”

The demon, god, and warrior held shards of divine artifacts, each imbued with memories and bonds.

These fragments of now-nonexistent relics were reforged by the infernal heat from the furnace, glowing white-hot.

Screech─

Though the demon”s hand sizzled and reeked, he laughed joyfully.

“This time, you can trust me, hero!”

Gripping the burning shards tightly, he struck the sword as if it were a hammer.

Kwaaaaaaang─!!!

Explosion, roar, heat, and sound.

With mythical upheaval filling the world, the molten furnace swayed wildly, shedding fragments into the void.

Like a star”s birth, light and streaks of light intertwined chaotically, drawn into the glowing blade.

The blade began to consume.

Devouring everything around it, filling its empty hunger, it bore the curse of the Fate Cutter.

“Please break the chains of fate bound around our necks─!!!”

Before the darkening blade, a mere demon prayed.

As the blade cooled, the demon sensed a gaze upon him.

Not physical, but spiritual—a soul”s indescribable evil licking at him.

“Hahaha!!! Have you realized now? But it”s far too late to stop me!”

Still, the demon laughed madly, clutching the child who had regained his form, wielding his hammer to build his legacy, and plunged it into the infernal core, his masterpiece.

Afterwards—everything stretched and faded into nothingness.

Simply being drawn toward a tiny point.

Old leather-bound books and parchment flew past, a portrait of an unknown woman brushed by.

Puppet dolls, and even the white pillar once debated for its design, now engraved with a fish, all fell toward that small point.

Except one.

A metal plate engraved with a fluffy tail on its underside cut through the void and passed into a starry realm.

The demon god closed his eyes at that scene.

‘Ah, I haven”t finished tearing that yet.’