The Main Characters That Only I Know

The room was engulfed in darkness as Baek-hyo entered, leaving no one else behind.

Piren stepped forward without hesitation in the pitch-black darkness.

She was a lord, and even an executor. She was not afraid or intimidated by the mere loss of sight.

‘But still, this darkness is very unreal.’

It was not impossible to create such darkness in the mixed world where stories became reality, but it was not something to be taken lightly. The touch of the darkness on her skin was chilling enough to make her shiver.

She wore a heavy magic armor over her whole body, and engraved dozens of protective spells on top of it. She also raised her energy to the extreme to shield herself.

It was an ultimate defense that could not be penetrated by anything but a massive attack, but the darkness that Yu-hyun emitted pierced through everything and seeped into her skin.

Piren could not dismiss it as a simple illusion. When she came out of the darkness, she did not see any of the soldiers who had moved with her.

‘Could it be, they were really devoured by the darkness?’

She regained her senses and saw that most of the magic circles in the armor she wore under her robe were destroyed. They did not recover even though they had an automatic restoration function.

She thought it was just darkness, but it was not ordinary darkness. Piren’s eyes filled with horror looked at Yu-hyun, who wore a mask of Aporia.

The fifth magic of the Seven Black Sky God Arts, Yoo Ha Myeol Geop.

The black mist that corroded the space swallowed and erased everything inside without exception.

The brave soldiers and Einherjar who came with Piren had all lost their lives inside the black mist.

‘But it doesn’t matter.’

They were no help in a fight between lords, especially those who had just crossed the barrier of transcendence.

The loss of power was not something to regret.

The original purpose was to kill Yu-hyun and Vice Chief Baek Seo-ryeon anyway.

Baek Seo-ryeon was hidden by Yu-hyun’s mysterious ability, and if Yu-hyun died, Baek Seo-ryeon would reveal himself again.

Killing Yu-hyun meant killing Baek Seo-ryeon as well.

Piren drew her sword and swung it at Yu-hyun.

“Hmm.”

Yu-hyun stretched out his arm to block Piren’s sword, but he felt something and pulled back his body.

He had a good intuition, as countless invisible slashes passed through where he had been standing a moment ago, cutting the surroundings like tofu.

It was not Piren’s skill. If it was, Yu-hyun would have noticed it.

“That sword. You’re using something strange.”

Yu-hyun’s eyes behind the mask looked at the sword that Piren held.

The slashes that were invisible before were all made by that sword.

“Did you notice?”

Piren asked him with admiration.

Usually, those who fought him for the first time were confused and panicked by the special ability of this mythical sword made by the Salio Empire, but Yu-hyun realized its essence with just one look.

“Is it a weapon of the Salio Empire?”

“Yes. But it’s useless to know.”

Piren said that and took out several daggers from inside her robe.

Yu-hyun sensed that they were not ordinary weapons.

‘Are they also magic tools of the Salio Empire?’

The Salio Empire rose as a single force not because of their aggressive movements.

They were those who pursued the extreme of magic engineering, which combined magic and science.

And most of the things they made were weapons specialized for war or fighting.

‘They said they followed the footsteps of the destroyed empire, but they weren’t just talking.’

They had actually implemented the technology of the Salio Empire, which was known to have achieved the essence of magic engineering.

Piren threw the daggers.

No, it was an insult to call it throwing.

The daggers floated in the air as if they had a will of their own and flew towards Yu-hyun.

The daggers that came from all angles at an incredible speed were threatening in themselves.

Yu-hyun laughed at Piren.

“You’re doing something pathetic.”

You think you can kill me with just five daggers? No, even if that’s not it, it doesn’t matter. Maybe Piren was trying to use the daggers to distract Yu-hyun’s attention and make him careless, but that was such a ridiculous idea that he couldn’t help but sneer.

“If you want to threaten me, you should have shot at least a thousand swords like Choi Do-yoon did.”

He said that and took out Baekryeon, which he had hidden until now.

He swung Baekryeon in the form of a sword and cut off all the flying daggers, then stabbed it at Piren’s forehead like a lightning bolt.

Piren widened her eyes at that sight.

Crack!

A translucent barrier appeared in the air just before Baekryeon stabbed Piren’s forehead, blocking the sword. But it was only for a moment, the weak barrier shattered like glass and scattered in the air.

In the meantime, Piren twisted her head with all her strength to avoid Yu-hyun’s stab.

Piren retreated back with cold sweat.

“Hmm. I was going to finish it with that just now, but you really have everything.”

He said that, but Yu-hyun couldn’t hide his disappointment in Piren.

He had some expectations for her, since she was supposed to be an executor like Choi Do-yoon, but the martial arts she showed him fell far short of his expectations.

If Choi Do-yoon’s strength was the result of reaching the limit of martial arts, then Piren’s case was closer to relying on equipment and items.

Piren’s pure martial power was only slightly above a lord-level. Even Kang Hye-rim, who was called the Black Thunder Lord, was too ashamed to compare herself to Choi Do-yoon, who was called the Sword Lord.

“Are you fighting to show off your weapons or something? If I get serious, will you show me your full power?”

“You…”

Piren couldn’t take her eyes off Yu-hyun’s hand that held Baekryeon.

“Where did you get that sword?”

“Oh. This?”

Yu-hyun lifted Baekryeon and smiled.

Well. Shee was the one who followed the trail of the Salio Empire, so she must have seen how amazing Baekryeon was.

“How did you get that sword…!”

“Why? Is that so strange?”

“That’s one of the masterpieces that were rarely made in the empire! It’s not a weapon for you to have!”

“It’s not strange to have something from an already destroyed empire.”

“Destroyed? The Salio Empire is eternal!”

“If you want to believe that, go ahead. But this sword was mine from the start.”

Yu-hyun said that and watched Piren’s reaction. She looked like she saw something unbelievable, and her reaction was more intense than he thought. Did she have some obsession with the Salio Empire sword, which was a symbol of the vanished empire?

‘Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.’

But there was something else that was strange.

Ever since he met the Salio Empire guys, Baekryeon’s words had decreased. Baekryeon, who used to say a word or two during fights, was silent now.

‘Baekryeon?’

[…]

‘Baekryeon.’

[Uh, yeah? Did you call me?]

Fortunately, he didn’t seem to be asleep or anything.

‘What’s wrong? Why are you so quiet?’

[No, it’s just… I have something to think about.]

‘Is it because of the Salio Empire?’

Baekryeon was a masterpiece weapon made by the Salio Territory, which was now destroyed. It was a mythical-level weapon that matched the weapons used by the gods in the mixed world, and it had the trait of growing stronger with its owner.

Baekryeon said he had almost no memory of the past, but he might have remembered something when he met the descendants of the destroyed empire.

[I’m not sure yet… I have something to worry about. I’m sorry if you were worried.]

‘No. I’m glad if you’re okay.’

He said that, but Baekryeon’s voice lacked strength as usual.

There must be something wrong, but he couldn’t know what it was, so Yu-hyun decided to focus on the fight in front of him.

“Why? You’re not going to attack anymore?”

“Impudent…!”

“If you’re so angry, then show me your sincerity. I’ve been disappointed by your poor skills since a while ago. You’re supposed to be an executor, but you’re nothing compared to Choi Do-yoon.”

“…Don’t mention that name!”

Piren shouted like she had a fit when Choi Do-yoon’s name came up.

Choi Do-yoon’s name was a switch that triggered her inferiority complex.

Piren herself felt it unconsciously.

Her strength was nothing but a fake that was achieved by receiving support from all kinds of magic tools from the Salio Empire.

Her actual level was no more than that of a normal lord. Of course, that alone could be considered as her great strength, but she couldn’t match the real executors.

She was in a situation where she filled her lack with magic tools. Yu-hyun felt disappointed in Piren for that reason.

Tool user.

Piren was nothing but an executor who was made to superficially boast that they had great power in Salio.

So Piren always felt her lack.

Well, she didn’t care much until then.

The problem was five years ago, when people from Earth came to the alliance.

Her left eye with an eyepatch twitched as she recalled that time.

That man.

He seemed to have scraped off all the strength there was. He was too strong.

And when he realized that his strength was built by his own power, without any external factors, Piren fell into agony over whether he was happy with himself.

“Even though you’re an executor, you didn’t get along very well.”

Yu-hyun felt a sense of deja vu at Piren’s reaction.

Yes. Where had he seen it before?

That was similar to his past self.

Choi Do-yoon, the man who possessed an absurd strength.

It was natural to feel that way when compared to him.

Yu-hyun thought the situation was ironic. He was the one who had a karmic bond with that man, but now he was using Choi Do-yoon’s name to provoke Piren.

‘Is it because of his obsession to become stronger quickly that he wears so many magic tools?’

Indeed, the level of the magic tools that Piren wore was suitable for versatile activities.

But they were fundamentally useless against a superior opponent, a kind of apostasy.

She didn’t dig deep into one well, but just learned a wide range of shallow skills.

Seo Sumin would have shaken her head and clicked her tongue if she saw it.

True strength was not relying on those weapons, but enhancing one’s own power through hard training.

“So, that tool foot is not the end of it. Why don’t you show me more?”

“I was going to do that anyway!”

Piren said that and took off the eye patch on her face that was covered by the robe.

There was no point in hiding it anymore since her identity was exposed.

What was inside her eye patch was a normal eye.

She thought she had a scar from an injury, but her eye was fine?

‘It’s an artificial eye. But not an ordinary one.’

The pupil-like thing expanded and contracted repeatedly, operating like a machine.

That artificial eye was also a kind of magic tool made by the magic engineering of the Salio Empire.

He didn’t know what he was trying to do with that, but he had to finish it before he did anything.

Yu-hyun made Baekryeon into a harpoon shape and threw it as it was.

He didn’t need to use Leviathan. If he did, the central administration building would collapse in half.

The strike that was much faster than the stabbing before aimed at Piren’s heart.

But Piren dodged the attack as if she read it.

‘She dodged it?’

It didn’t look like she reacted after seeing it.

It was more unnatural, as if she knew beforehand that the attack would come from this side.

“Hahaha. I can see everything.”

Piren laughed at the new landscape that unfolded as she revealed her artificial eye.

Yu-hyun couldn’t help but ask.

“What is that eye?”

“It’s a new eye that the emperor personally gave me. It scans and analyzes everything around me, and then reads even the future. Yes. This eye is the eye of Laplace, the essence of Salio Empire’s life engineering!”

Piren said that, when facing herself—the one who could see the future—you couldn’t match her anymore. Then she laughed and laughed again.

She was using Laplace’s eye for the first time.

She didn’t care if it worked properly or not, but the amount of information that came into her eye was no joke.

Whether it was because of the price of seeing the future, or because of the program embedded in the artificial eye that sent only the filtered information as much as possible, her optic nerve and brain felt like they were burning.

If a normal soldier had used this thing instead of a lord-class, her brain would have melted right away and he would have gone crazy.

But that was over now.

“Your attack will never reach me!”

“Laplace’s eye, the eye that sees the future… How interesting.”

Yu-hyun said that and swung Baekryeon in the shape of a sword at Piren.

Piren felt puzzled at the attack that was less heavy than before, but tried to dodge it anyway.

But then.

‘…What, what is this!’

Yu-hyun’s movement, which she thought she had dodged, naturally moved to where she was dodging.

When he read it and tried to dodge again, Yu-hyun’s sword followed Piren’s next movement as if he anticipated it.

Her left eye burned and screamed an error.

“You, what are you…!”

Piren trembled in fear and looked at the one-eyed mask that appeared on Yu-hyun’s face.

The source of the error that her artificial eye had been alerting since a while ago was that thing.

“Even if you call it an eye that sees the future, yours is nothing but a replica that imitates the real thing.”

“Yo, you don’t mean…”

“In front of the real Laplace’s demon, you dare to look at the future and argue.”

The red eye embedded in the mask.

The moment she met that eye, Piren had a hallucination of looking up at a huge demon in the dark.

“I don’t like this feeling.”