Beyond the Eternity

The lights cut out, plunging the room into complete darkness. It was the kind of darkness that raised an eerie sensation. Have you ever walked through shadowy forest and felt unseen eyes watching your every step?

That's exactly how I felt now. Wait... the lights went out in this place?

Confused voices erupted from the group.

"Huh? The lights suddenly went out?"

"Don't tell me this place is have a black out?"

"Ahh! I can't see anything like this. Did anyone bring a flashlight?"

Lights pierced through the darkness as Soo Jinyoung, Moon Jiyeon, and Yoo Rin activated their flashlights.

By now, everyone was on their feet, glancing around in confusion.

I also retrieved a flashlight from the Watcher's Dimension Star Coat and switched it on.

Reaching into the Watcher's Star Dimension Coat, I retrieved my own flashlight and switched it on.

"Ahjussi."

Miyuki tugged at my sleeve and moved closer. She was the only one without a flashlight.

I handed her mine. "Here, take this."

"Eh? Ahjussi, why are you giving me this?"

"You'll need it."

"But what about you?"

"Don't worry about me," I said, pulling out my smartphone. "I've got this."

[« Kim Jakga's smartphone »]

A miracle of humanity, this device had saved my life more times than I could count, even before the Main Stories began. On that unassuming Samsung S24, I had written stories, revised them, and shared them with the world through the platform.

What could one person do without their trusty smartphone?

I turned on the screen and checked the battery percentage.

[98%]

Ninety percent, huh?

The phone had plenty of charge left. And even if it did run out, I had spare batteries tucked away in the dimensional space of my star coat.

As expected, my habit of collecting spare batteries was more useful than I had imagined.

Soo Jinyoung's voice cut through the moment. Her tone was serious.

"We should leave this room."

"I agree. But where should we go? The other sections of the mansion are likely in the same situation."

"...."

There was silence. Soo Jinyoung didn't reply. She simply moved, heading out of the parlor without sparing a glance at Moon Jiyeon.

Moon Jiyeon scowled. "This woman... isn't she a bit rude?"

"Ugh... Did you ask a dumb question or what?"

"What? Excuse me?"

"She doesn't like repeating herself. Didn't she already tell us where we should go?"

"The Epitaph?"

"And where's the Epitaph?"

"At the Entrance Hall, where the portrait of the Witch of Darkness was displayed. Ah... Wait a minute…"

Moon Jiyeon's eyes widened in realization, and she glared at me. Took her this long to figure it out?

It was amusing to tease her, but the glare she gave me was like I'd just stolen her favorite teddy bear.

Ah, that's right. She strikes me as the kind of person who might hug a giant teddy bear to stave off her loneliness during the night. It's the kind of thing only someone with a soft, lonely side would do, even if they didn't admit it.

Was it mentioned in her character profile?

"Alright. Let's go. We don't want to keep Soo Jinyoung-nim waiting, or she might get angry~"

With a grin, I started walking out of the parlor with Miyuki, while Yoo Rin and Moon Jiyeon followed behind.

It didn't take long to reach the Entrance Hall.

By the time we arrived, Soo Jinyoung was already waiting, but something was wrong.

The Epitaph was gone.

"Huh? Where did it go? Wasn't it supposed to be here?"

"It disappeared, just like that?"

"That doesn't make sense."

Confused murmurs emerged from Moon Jiyeon, Yoo Rin, and Miyuki. The Epitaph, the one thing that was supposed to be in this place, had vanished.

It was truly strange.

It wasn't as if it had sprouted legs and scampered away on its own.

So how did it disappear?

I glanced at Soo Jinyoung, who wore a serious expression. It seemed she had already grasped the gravity of the situation.

I ran my fingers through my hair, looking at the others as I spoke.

"It looks like someone moved the Epitaph."

"What? That's impossible. There's no way someone could've moved it without us noticing. Look at this!"

Moon Jiyeon directed her flashlight at the empty space beneath the portrait where the Epitaph had once rested.

"There's no sign of disturbance. If someone had moved something as heavy as the Epitaph, there would've been noise or at least a trail left behind. But there's nothing. The only explanation is that it hasn't been moved at all and what we're seeing is an illusion."

"It's not an illusion."

Soo Jinyoung interrupted. She didn't stop there and continued speaking.

"I've already verified it. There are no hallucinations or hidden tricks at play. The Epitaph has truly been removed from its position."

"What? That makes no sense whatsoever. How can something be moved without leaving traces?"

I answered her question impatiently, "It wasn't moved. It was either repositioned or hidden."

"Repositioned?"

I ignored her question, letting my gaze sweep across the room. My tone dropped, heavy with an unsettling certainty.

"By the way, haven't you noticed the strange patterns? First, the loop we encountered at the start. Then the traps scattered across the house. Walkers turned into furniture. Objects mysteriously displaced. Fragmented memories vanishing. Ryu Yeji-ssi's inexplicable death. The Monster Room. The sudden blackout. And now, the Epitaph, the key to unraveling the Mystery, has disappeared without warning."

Shifting my gaze back to the group members, I studied their expressions one by one.

"No matter how you look at it, this place can't be called a normal house. If I were to claim that the house is alive... even that wouldn't fully capture the truth of what's happening here." Continue your saga on empire

Moon Jiyeon's face paled. "Wait… You don't mean…"n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Yes. That's exactly what I mean."

From a logical perspective, this Fable seemed straightforward — an investigation into the mystery of this cursed house. But despite its apparent simplicity, no walker had ever cleared it. Not even Song of the Fallen, Soo Jinyoung herself.

No one had ever come out of the Sixth Fable alive.

Something about it didn't sit right with me.

No matter how many times I turned it over in my mind, something didn't add up.

If the house was truly a living terror, Soo Jinyoung should have noticed it immediately. Her Demon Dragon Eyes were unmatched in discerning the flaws and true natures of the world. But for some reason, they didn't.

Why?

Was it possible that the Demon Dragon Eyes had failed to uncover the house's true essence? If so, did that mean even her eyes—those that saw through all forms of deception—were overwhelmed?

How could the house defy such an absolute power?

It was strange, undeniably so.

When I first read that scene in Song of the Fallen, I felt the same confusion. At a glance, it didn't make sense. It seemed like an inconsistency in the narrative made by the author. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to believe otherwise.

What if there was someone else behind the House?

In such a scenario, couldn't they have concealed the House's true nature with their own magic?

Perhaps it was the Witch of Darkness. Or perhaps it was someone else, acting under her orders.

Whoever they were, they had to be the ones orchestrating this mysterious phenomenon.

Ding!

The sharp chime echoed in my mind.

A moment later, a system message appeared before my eyes.

[A Hidden Fable is being generated.]

What? A hidden fable… in the Sixth Fable?

I scanned my surroundings and noticed the faint, gray fog creeping through the Entrance Hall. It didn't envelop the entire space, but it lingered in the corners, clinging like an ominous shadow.

There was no feeling of foreboding better than the appearance of the Gray Fog.

「 The Gray Fog signals the arrival of a mysterious phenomenon... Brace yourself for the unknown, or face certain death 」

Dammit.

"Everyone, listen—"

I turned sharply, intending to warn the group.

But I was too late.

They were already gone.

They had vanished without a trace of their existence, swallowed by the gray fog, lost to the relentless power of the unknown.

Like this, I was alone.

[The Hidden Fable — Devil's Roulette has begun.]

†

†

"Huh? What happened? Where is everyone?"

"Soo Jinyoung-ssi, Moon Jiyeon-nim…"

"Ahjussi? Yoo Rin-ssi?"

Soo Jinyoung, Moon Jiyeon, Yoo Rin, and Miyuki Kuroi all found themselves caught in the same bizarre phenomenon.

They were still standing in front of the Witch's portrait, but they couldn't see or interact with one another. It was as if they'd been separated into alternate dimensions within the house. No—perhaps that was exactly what had happened.

"Isn't this peculiar?"

Soo Jinyoung looked around. She seemed less unsettled and more intrigued by the situation.

Without a moment's hesitation, she activated a skill with a single thought.

['Demon Dragon Eyes' has been activated.]

Fu!

Her eyes transformed, narrowing into slits like that of a dragon's, as she began to analyze the Entrance Hall.

There was a birraze flow of «Errors» around the surrounding space. They twisted and turned relentlessly in an uncontrollable manner, but there was no chaos.

It was as though the 'flaws' were being manipulated like a thread by an unseen hand.

Soo Jinyoung frowned.

"These aren't ordinary distortions."

Even her voice was swallowed by the darkness, swallowed and disappearing into the gray fog.

She ignored that and continued with her observations.

'Errors' normally moved smoothly, like a river stream, and became chaotic only in two scenarios: First, if there was a distortion in the surrounding space, or second, if they were manipulated by a powerful force such as Magic or the Divine Power of a Constellation.

In this case, it seemed the cause was the latter.

「 A dimensional fragmentation, huh? Is that it? Considering the situation, that should be correct. Is it the same as the Library Dungeon? 」

「 Perhaps it's similar to the concept of back and front of a coin. The person responsible for this must have put the others in seperate spaces. 」

「 For what reason? Maybe they must have grown impatient and decided to take us out one by one. 」

She concluded that the House was designed to divide the participants. As she suspected, there was an entity behind it.

[A Hidden Fable is being generated.]

A system message appeared before Soo Jinyoung, and the same message appeared for all participants of the Sixth Fable.

"A Hidden Fable, now?"

"Huh? Isn't this suspicious?"

"Ah, what would Ahjussi do in this situation?"

Moon Jiyeon, Yoo Rin, and Miyuki, each trapped in separate dimensional spaces within the house, reacted in their own ways.

Soo Jinyoung quickly opened the system interface to check the contents of the Hidden Fable.

Her frown deepened as she read to the end, then, with a swift motion, she closed the system window.

「 It's just as I feared, we're being hunted down. 」

「 So the same troublesome people who have been hindering our progress have finally decided to show themselves, huh? 」

「 I wondered when they would finally show their noses. 」

She gripped the hilt of her sword — the Red Phoenix Sword, infused with the power of one of the «Four Gods»

Even though she had her suspicions, she had no real way of reaching those people, as the Demon Dragon Eyes failed to detect any hidden pathways.

But the opposing party chose to reveal themselves anyway for some reason.

Why?

Soo Jinyoung didn't know the exact reason behind the actions of the mysterious assailant. Whatever the case may be, she knew one thing for certain.

「 I'll make sure to slit their neck. 」

With the Red Phoenix Sword resting at her waist like a readied pistol, Soo Jinyoung moved cautiously through the dark mansion, shrouded in an indescribable mist.

At the same time, the other members of the group began to stir.

A few moments later, even Kim Jakga finally made his move, taking the first step after counting his toes.