Whoooo—

Wind clung to Cale and Alberu’s ankles.

Tap!

The two of them lightly crossed between buildings, then stopped atop one and looked down.

A vast property that even included a park.

At its center stood the Transparent Museum.

Woooo—woooo--- wooo--

The road leading to that museum.

A long straight road lined with gardens on both sides.

“As expected.”

The museum had not opened yet, so ordinarily no one should have been walking that road.

Wooooo—wooo---

But someone was walking there, wrapped in blazing red mana like flames.

Rosalyn.

She walked like herself.

Her steps were so proud and elegant that she looked like a crown prince walking toward a coronation.

Wheeeeeee----!

The alarm began to blare.

“There’s an intruder!”

“All personnel, formation!”

From inside the museum, or from the entrance—

Transparent Co. employees rushed toward Rosalyn from all four directions.

“Brother.”

Alberu swept over the scene with an indifferent gaze and spoke.

“For a place that’s supposedly just a museum, that’s quite a security force.”

“It is.”

“And every last one of them looks competent too.”

Alberu’s finger pointed toward the rear ranks among the people coming out from the museum entrance.

“Those ones—aren’t they the sort of strong fighters ordinary people couldn’t stop?”

Far too many guards for a mere museum.

And among the personnel appearing later, more slowly, there were also a few whose skill clearly looked far from ordinary.

“Looks like this really is the secret laboratory.”

At Alberu’s certainty, Cale nodded.

“Shall we go?”

“Yeah.”

The two of them pulled their eyes away from Rosalyn without the slightest lingering attachment.

Then they kicked off from where they stood.

Whoooo—

Their bodies wrapped in wind shot quickly toward the back of the museum.

“The laboratory map?”

“I memorized all of it.”

No one paid any attention to the two of them moving in secret, fast and silent.

“The moment the disguise magic comes off, we head straight underground according to the map.”

“Right. Basement level three, was it?”

“Yes. They said the secret research materials are there.”

“Then we just loot the place.”

The two of them sounded as if they were out for a stroll.

But at that moment—

KWA-AAAAAANG---!

A deafening blast struck, and the ground trembled.

Cale and Alberu turned toward the source of the vibration.

KWA-AAAAA---

The sun was rising, announcing that a new morning had come, though the sky still held the lingering air of dawn.

“As expected. Miss Rosalyn.”

A gigantic flame could be seen soaring toward that sky.

Like the sun, or like a rose.

The brilliant yet vivid red flames had the shape of either a serpent or an eastern dragon.

The reason no one had any time to notice Cale and Alberu’s intrusion—

“Hehe.”

Rosalyn greeted the people approaching her with a smile and lightly stamped her foot.

Boom!

But the ground thundered as if welcoming the steps of a giant.

“Stop her!”

“You may kill the intruder!”

“Attack!”

About two hundred people?

A museum has this many guards?

“Nice.”

Rosalyn looked at those charging toward her.

Ordinary guards.

People who looked like former professional soldiers.

People drawing out unusual powers, perhaps ability users.

Looking at all of them, she stamped her foot again.

Boom!

The vibration rang out.

Sssaaaaaa---

Starting from Rosalyn, fine red lines began to stretch outward in every direction.

Toward the magic stones and formations that she, Alberu, and Cale had secretly installed overnight along the outer grounds of the museum, which included a rather large park.

Her mana moved without restraint.

Crack!

And the instant those magic stones shattered and connected with her mana—

Wooooong-

The ground shook, and a gigantic red magic circle formed.

Crack, crack-crack, crack!

The bracelets wrapped all over her arms.

The magic stones in those bracelets began shattering one by one.

And all the while, Rosalyn’s smile only deepened.

“It’s been a while.”

Apitoyu.

Over there, she had not been able to fight properly.

Mana. The fact that such a thing would not move as she wished, that she could not move on her own without relying on the strength of her companions—just how—

“It was awful.”

And she had felt sorry.

To her companions, and to herself.

She still could not create an aura like Choi Han’s.

But she had never stopped honing her magic.

That was why she could be certain.

Free.

As long as mana itself was free, at least—

‘Now even a dragon would be worth trying.’

For Rosalyn, freedom had finally come again after a very long time.

She could use magic as much as she wanted, truly as much as she wanted.

Her companions had prepared the stage for her.

“Die!”

“Attack!”

Rosalyn opened her mouth as she watched the enemies coming at her after she had formed the enormous magic circle.

“Go.”

Her hand pointed forward.

Her mana reacted at once.

KWA-AAAAAA---

The gigantic red serpent that had been soaring into the sky lowered its head.

“Get out of ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) the way!”

“Damn it!”

And then it lunged toward the museum.

At the same time, Rosalyn lowered both hands to the ground.

Crack, crack!

Magic stones shattered apart.

“Hehe—”

By the time Rosalyn’s smile had grown deeper—

“Break it.”

Her command fell.

Crackkkkk--!

Dozens of magic stones shattered in an instant.

Every one of them had been top-grade, and enough money to run a decent territory for years vanished in a single moment.

And then—

Wooooo-----!

The red mana embedded in the ground.

Light began bursting upward from the magic circle.

And then, at that same moment—

KWA-AAAAANG!

The gigantic red serpent slammed into the museum.

And at the same time, two things happened.

Craaaack-----!

The people charging toward Rosalyn saw something, and without realizing it, they came to a halt.

“Huh?”

Like someone’s question, it seized everyone’s attention.

Craaaack---!

The red serpent and the red magic circle were breaking the museum.

More precisely, they were shattering the illusion disguising itself as a museum.

The Transparent Museum, famous as a structure that had won a global architecture grand prize.

Its surface was cracking apart like glass.

The people who had only believed they were guarding a museum could not hide their shock.

Meanwhile, a few did not stop at shock—they showed outright horror.

“T-this can’t be! Th-that spell His Young Master made—!”

They had definitely boasted that no one in the Third District could ever break it. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

That the true form of this secret laboratory would never be revealed.

And yet!

“Director!”

The museum director was grabbed by one of his subordinates, who asked what they should do, but he could not easily force out any reply.

“...They broke the Young Master’s magic...?”

Transparent Co.

No. Han Taeksoo, head of the Transparent Blood family.

The Young Master who would succeed him.

His skill in magic was said to rival even a Wanderer.

And yet—

“That person broke it?”

Just like that?

The director—

no, the head of the secret laboratory—slowly shifted his gaze.

His eyes turned toward the mage wrapped in massive red mana like a serpent, making it impossible for anyone to approach carelessly—and even if they did approach, the mana would sweep them away before even a speck of dust could touch her.

A woman with red hair and red eyes, like her red mana.

She was smiling brightly.

Crack, crack!

The shattering magic stones looked like jewels, and their fragments glittered as they swirled around her.

It was as if a red galaxy surrounded her.

Step.

Rosalyn started walking.

“With this much commotion, everyone’s going to be looking only at me.”

Smiling leisurely, she headed toward the enemies.

KWA-AAAAANG!

Even then, the red serpent and the magic circle—

Craaaack-!

—kept smashing the museum apart.

And gradually, a new building inside began to reveal itself.

A vast secret laboratory, five floors aboveground and three below.

People had believed it was only a museum with five floors above ground.

But in the three underground levels, horrific research had been carried out and its results recorded.

“There’s still plenty left.”

Rosalyn checked that two-thirds of the magic stones wrapped around her arms still remained, then looked up at the sky.

“So that’s what you call a helicopter?”

There were helicopters too.

“C-contact headquarters!”

“Surround that woman! Capture her somehow!”

She could feel the chaos in the crowd.

And probably, from here on, even more people would come at her.

Many of them would be enemies, but—

‘We need the world’s attention too.’

There would be ordinary civilians watching too.

That was exactly why they had moved at the moment the sun rose.

‘And our allies will come too.’

Rosalyn felt commotion building behind her.

And she saw the helicopters descending lower and lower.

“Haha—”

A laugh slipped out.

The director, seeing the helicopters, shouted.

“Th-that’s the Hero Guild—!”

“Aren’t they Anlomann’s lapdogs?!”

The Hero Guild, founded by some of the ability users loyal to Anlomann.

A helicopter bearing that guild’s mark had appeared here.

“Contact headquarters, now! Call the Young Master too!”

The director’s voice rose even higher.

“Miss Rosalyn!”

Rosalyn turned at the familiar voice calling to her from behind.

She saw President Anlomann himself advancing this way, having pushed aside the security personnel.

He had moved personally.

That meant he was that desperate, and it meant Anlomann had decided to use this very moment today to change the situation, no matter what problems might arise later.

Smirk.

Rosalyn smiled.

No matter what happened to the situation—

“I should do exactly what our commander told me to do, right?”

Crack.

Another magic stone shattered.

KWA-AAAAAA---!

Massive red mana bloomed in dazzling splendor.

So that on this Third District—

so that in this world—

every morning headline today would be about her.

“Hahaha, haha—”

Rosalyn unleashed her mana to her heart’s content.

Then she moved both hands.

“Turn it upside down!”

More than the times in the past when she had smashed apart royal palaces, Rosalyn decided to go even wilder today.

Only, compared to then, her power had grown several times over, so the result was, in the most literal sense—

Boom. Boom!

The ground shook.

KWA-AAAAA!

Everything around her broke apart.

It was sheer chaos.

*****

At that same time, somewhere else too, chaos—no, a legend—was being made.

New World, the game world of Raising My Precious Absolute God.

“Huh! What is that?”

In the Eastern Empire, a user pointed at the sky.

Caw. Caw.

Hundreds of crows were flying in orderly formation toward one direction.

And in the Western Empire—

Clack clack.

“Holy shit! Skeletons are moving! Aren’t those monsters?”

“What? What’s happening?”

Users saw over a thousand skeletons suddenly appear and begin moving in one direction.

Caw caw—

Above them, several crows cried ominously.

The sight was so sinister, so foreboding, that people could not even hunt carelessly.

“...What is that......?”

“Where are they...going?”

And scenes like that were happening all across New World.

Even—

“...Crows?”

“Yes. Crows suddenly appeared and filled the sky, then all moved toward one place!”

Within the territory of the Sixth Evil.

No, throughout all the territory of the Eight Evils as well.

“The skeletons!”

“...Why is there suddenly a whirlwind? And why is that wind moving west?”

“The dark red clouds moved east? Like they had a will of their own?”

As the heads of the Eight Evils reacted to the bizarre phenomena, the NPCs and users of New World realized one thing.

“...Don’t they all seem to be heading in the direction of the Seventh Evil?”

“Isn’t this connected to that thing from the video earlier? What’s happening in the Seventh Evil—”

“No, what the hell, what the hell is being born in the Seventh Evil?”

Never before had ominous signs like these—signs all pointing toward a single place—appeared across all of New World.

So people felt dread, but expectation too.

“Should we head toward the Seventh Evil?”

“Hey, gather information!”

And they began nonstop discussion about it.

“At last.”

Clopeh Sekka smiled.

“At last, a proper story is being created.”

The beginning of a legend was, after all, a story.

By the time it felt like his smile had become far too deep—

“Huff! Huff.”

“...This is exhausting.”

Gashan, the Tiger Tribe shaman, was sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath. And the necromancer Mary, unusually, had dropped down to the floor and was muttering blankly.

“...So this is legend... this is exhausting......”

“Huff, huff. That crazy bastard!”

Watching those two and Clopeh, the Heavenly Demon slowly shook his head from side to side.

Rarely, his face had grown serious.

“...This has gone beyond merely being fun.”

At first, he had helped a few times because it seemed interesting, but now he was starting to think the process of creating the legend of the Birth of Evil had become a little too serious.

Still, the Heavenly Demon glanced toward Clopeh before looking away.

He had no desire to step in and involve himself in something so troublesome.

“Hehe—”

Clopeh’s laughing eyes had gone so far off the rails that even Raon was avoiding him now.

But there was one being—

“I should go report to Lady Sheritt.”

—who was cheering him on.

That was Sheritt, the former Dragon Lord, Raon’s mother, and also the mother of the owner of Eruhaben Miru’s heart.

‘Clopeh. Discuss things with Lady Sheritt before proceeding.’

Just in case, Cale had entrusted Clopeh to Sheritt to prevent him from going too wild, but—

“Yes. The birth of a dragon is a great legend.”

Sheritt smiled with satisfaction after hearing Clopeh’s report.

Of course, another person was smiling with equal satisfaction beside the two of them.

“Hehe.”

Kesillia, former Pope and dragon half-blood.

She, the one who would form the knight order for Eruhaben Miru, sincerely wished for a grand and glorious Birth of Evil.

“As expected, Lord Cale Henituse brought exactly the right person.”

That was why she liked Clopeh very much.

And so another chaos—no, another legend—was being made.

Shake, shaake, shake—

The egg wrapped in the flower cloth trembled as it sensed the ominous energy.

*****

“Ghk!”

“Urgh!”

Two sturdily built agents collapsed to the floor.

Tap. Tap.

Lightly dusting off his hands, Alberu turned around and said to Cale:

“Punch in the number.”

“Yes.”

At the end of the corridor, where around thirty people had all been knocked unconscious—

right in front of the archive room of the basement level three laboratory—

Cale pulled a business card from his pocket.

Then he entered the archive room password.

Beep, beep-beep, beep—

The moment he finished entering the full twelve-digit password—

Shiiii---

The archive room door opened.

Cale stepped inside.

[Intruder detected]

And then a mechanical voice sounded.

[Protection process activated]

Cale smiled.

‘Even if someone enters simply by inputting the password, the biometric detection system inside will immediately recognize that the person is neither me nor the chairman.’

That was what Chief Secretary Kang Geunmok had told him.

‘Then the protection process will activate immediately. And that means... the archive room will self-destruct.’

For security purposes, the archive room itself would be blown away.

It was a bomb called the protection process.

‘It won’t even take a full minute.’

One minute was plenty.

Cale, don’t tell me, you’re not planning to use Instant, are you?

Of course not.

I’m not planning to use Instant for something this trivial.

“Why?”

Cale looked at Alberu and grinned.