Chapter 10
The Great Catastrophe (1)
The moment that name echoed through the air, space split apart.
From the rift emerged a man carrying an ancient golden celestial astrolabe.
Furcas.
One of the Seventy-Two Demons, the ruler of astronomy, astrology, and time.
Joo-Heon took out Shakespeare's Childhood Pen from his pocket and stood his ground.
Furcas stroked his long beard as he raised the celestial clock.
At its center, planets, constellations, and the axis of time revolved.
[Ilya Volgov used one of Solomon's Demon Relics—a relic capable of stopping time—to freeze the flow of time for the entire world, sparing only his companions.]
"Do you wish to witness a world where time no longer flows?"
This relic possessed the power to turn whatever was written into reality.
As the sentence was inscribed upon the ground, Ilya moved exactly as the words dictated.
Furcas muttered quietly and grasped the clock's axis with his fingertips.
Then—
"Furcas!"
Snap!
In an instant, everything stopped.
The beating wings of pigeons froze in midair.
People screaming remained with their mouths wide open.
Pedestrians who had been falling were suspended exactly where they were.
"That should do it for now."
...Everything had come to a halt.
Ilya nodded from beside him.
But then—
There was only one group still capable of moving.
Only Joo-Heon and the members of his team remained unaffected.
[Amazing! To think you'd stop the catastrophe like this! ♥]
[Time Stop Activated – The World Has Been Temporarily Frozen.]
[Maximum Duration: 30 Minutes]
[Warning: Once the duration expires, the global curse will forcibly resume.]
That damned book... it didn't stop?
The book laughed cheerfully.
Joo-Heon let out a relieved sigh.
[Did you really think a mere relic could affect someone whose job is to bring disasters? ♥]
[Still, since you managed to stop it, I'll award this world some bonus points!]
[But you won't be able to stop what's coming next. ♥]
It wasn't a tower.
It was a tower completely covered in blue.
At the same time, the pages of the book began turning on their own.
As though everything had already been predetermined, a single card revealed itself.
It depicted a black pickaxe shattering into countless fragments.
"...$&$*%?"
The team members shouted in confusion.
What is that?
They soon learned the identity of the tower.
[Congratulations, humanity! You became the apex predator among primates simply because you learned how to use tools.]
[The Curse of Vishvakarma. The Seal Upon Tools now begins. ♥]
BOOM!
"!"
A second tower burst upward.
This one was crimson.
The very first thing to crack...
...was humanity's tools.
Smartphones.
Computers.
Tableware.
Weapons.
Every invention mankind had ever created to use—
"$#*$&# *!"
"$%($*%(!!!!"
It felt as though the entire world had instantly regressed to the primitive age.
The book laughed in ecstasy.
[The Curse of Vishvakarma has been activated.]
[All tools, technologies, machines, weapons, and relics created by humanity are now disabled.]
[Ruined civilization returns to its beginning. Humanity can no longer use tools.]
[All "tools" have ceased functioning.]
[Relics bound to humans have been punished and can no longer be used.]
[There are two reasons humans evolved beyond beasts.]
[First—Language.]
[Second—Tools.]
[Now I'm going to take both away. ♥]
Joo-Heon frowned.
"Vishvakarma..."
Just as expected, a status window appeared before him.
Vishvakarma.
The divine craftsman of Indian mythology.
The god said to have forged every tool wielded by the gods.
In other words—
The very first creator of tools.
Which meant...
Joo-Heon grinned mockingly.
"So this is a curse that destroys everything made by human hands."
A way to counter the Curse of Tools...
But it didn't matter.
Once again, Joo-Heon used Shakespeare's Pen and began writing.
[It is not enough to suppress Majesty's power.]
[Consumable relics remain usable.]
"A tool doesn't have to be something held in your hand."
The Rulebook spoke.
Joo-Heon's fingertips traced glowing words through empty air.
[Can you overcome this curse as well? ♥]
[Can humanity survive without tools? Civilization is about to collapse. ♥]
[Writing is the axe that recreates thought. Stories are awls that pierce through time. Records are blades that never die. Relics born from language, memory, and stories stand beyond this curse.]
At that moment—
"$#*#& *!"
Like the heartbeat of a long-sealed heart beginning to beat again—
Golden light erupted from the written words.
Carried by that radiance, the relics that had fallen silent began breathing once more through writing and tradition.
The team erupted in cheers.
"##&(#$(!!"
Soon, another status window appeared.
Apparently...
Relics could still be used.
Just then—
[The Curse of Vishvakarma remains active.]
[However, relics born from stories and legends are exempt.]
[Although man-made tools cannot be used, relics born from memory remain functional.]
[Because they were born not from hands, but from narrative, they cannot be destroyed.]
"Captain!"
"!"
We can understand each other?
Just as everyone wondered what had happened—
The restoration specialist, Yoo Jaeha, came sprinting out of the house, drenched in sweat.
In his hand was a small translation relic.
King Solomon was said to understand not only humans, but also beasts, birds, and even demons.
Because that legend had manifested as a translation relic, everyone could understand one another's speech.
[Solomon's Earring That Hears the Voices of All Things (S-Rank / Bound Relic)]
At that moment, the blue tower floating in the distance trembled.
It was a bronze earring.
Yoo Jaeha instantly duplicated it into several copies and tossed them to the team.
The members hurriedly put them on.
Crack!
Thin, deep fractures spread across the earring's surface.
Then—
"How is it?"
"It works!"
"We can understand each other!"
"Ohhh! Finally!"
"Ilya, burn it!"
Now able to speak with everyone, Ilya quietly began chanting.
The book coughed.
"...Answer my call, Seventy-Two Legions of Hell. Master of Flames, you who breathe forth the fires of the Seven Hells..."
[…Cough... Cough!]
A magic circle formed in midair as blackish-red flames burst forth.
The comical book staggered, scattering torn pages through the air.
"Flegetanis! Forty-Eighth Demon Lord! Rise from the furnaces of Hell... and burn everything to ashes!"
[A-Amazing... To think you avoided the second curse like that!]
Soon, a humanoid demon wreathed in the flames of Hell appeared.
His face was pitch black, devoid of eyes, with flames burning where they should have been. Fire poured endlessly from his entire body.
Finally, he swept a hand through the air, sending an inferno roaring toward the book.
Joo-Heon narrowed his eyes as he stared at it.
Ilya's demon relic is practically Divine-grade. Yet that's only enough to make it flinch...
Fwoosh!
That meant the book existed on an even higher level.
The book exhaled as though breathing hot air and muttered,
[Very well. I'll admit you're impressive.]
[But... can you escape the remaining two?]
"...The collapse of the worldline?"
"...What?"
It wasn't an unfamiliar phrase.
After all, hadn't Majesty Yoo Jaeha once absentmindedly muttered something similar while entranced?
Joo-Heon held his breath.
"There are two more?"
The book twitched as it let out an eerie laugh.
[There will be a total of four curses cast upon this world. ♥]
[Let's see how many your Majesty can stop. ♥]
[If all four are stopped, this worldline will not collapse.]
"I'm jealous. Your world is still intact... because your gods were strong."
His own worldline had been destroyed by its gods.
Back then, Joo-Heon hadn't paid much attention to those words.
But now...
Majesty Yoo Jaeha had spoken as though he had personally experienced it.
When Joo-Heon turned toward him, Majesty Yoo Jaeha was already glaring at the book with undisguised hatred.
Then—
"...!"
[Just as Majesty said, memories are tools... and stories are relics.]
[That's why even when tools were sealed away, relics survived.]
[But can insignificant creatures like you actually use them?]
[No.]
[Because...!]
[The Third Curse. The Curse of the Nile—The Seal of Records has been activated. ♥]
At that moment...
Something astonishing happened.
Every word vanished from every book in the world.
Maps faded into blank white.
Even the memories inside people's minds slowly began to blur.
"...Who made this relic again?"
"...Wait... what was... my name...?"
Papyrus scrolls appeared across the sky.
They were the earliest form of written records—
The original medium of covenants and revelations from the age of the pyramids.
But moments later...
The papyrus burst into flames.
Knowledge was sealed.
Memories disappeared.
History itself was erased.
Textbooks.
Official documents.
War records.
Maps.
Books.
Every written record became nothing more than blank sheets.
[The Curse of the Nile is now in effect.]
[Records are erased. Memories disappear. History itself is rendered powerless.]
[The records of relics' origins have been deleted.]
[No one can remember how to use them.]
The team members stared blankly at the relics in their hands.
One stuffed his into his mouth.
Another banged his against the ground.
Someone else tried roasting one over a fire.
"...!"
"Is... this something you're supposed to eat?"
Joo-Heon realized the danger.
Relics were powers born from history, legends, myths, and folklore.
But if their origins were forgotten...
Memory went dark.
Knowledge vanished.
What remained were only empty shells of myths.
Majesty Yoo Jaeha let out a weary sigh.
"They're nothing more than strange objects now."
"They're just monsters whose purpose no one remembers."
"Now..."
"Only Majesties still remember how to use relics."
Just as expected—
Golden towers began rising all across the world.
His voice carried ridicule, exhaustion...
...and faint resignation.
Perhaps he had already concluded that Seo Joo-Heon would fall here as well.
He spoke quietly.
"...So that's what it was."
"The supreme gods of the Four Great Civilizations..."
"They've been destroying worldlines through that Rulebook."
"...The supreme gods of the Four Great Civilizations?"
"Yeah."
"The Tower of Babel."
"The Curse of Vishvakarma."
"The Curse of the Nile."
"Those curses are manifestations of their will."
"The worlds I knew..."
"...all fell in exactly that order."
"Humanity became stupid..."
"...and eventually destroyed itself."
He organized everything one step at a time.
The First Catastrophe—
The Tower of Babel.
The collapse of language.
The domain of Babylonian—Mesopotamian mythology.
If we're talking about the supreme gods there... it would probably be someone like Enlil or Enki.
The book floating in midair laughed in bliss.
[As expected, Their Excellencies' blueprint for humanity's extinction is flawless. ♥]
The Second Catastrophe—
The Curse of Vishvakarma.
The sealing of tools.
In other words...
Indian mythology.
Yet Joo-Heon simply grinned.
It wasn't a smile of provocation.
Nor one of resignation.
It was the smile of someone who had understood the puzzle.
Vishvakarma is the god who forged the gods' tools.
Naturally, Brahma or Vishnu would be connected.
And now...
He held Isis's Venom Fang.
The Third Curse—
The Curse of the Nile.
The sealing of records.
Egyptian mythology.
The corner of Joo-Heon's lips curled upward.
Dark blue venom coated the relic.
Once, it had nearly driven even the sun god Ra to death.
It was the crystallized relic of the scheme Isis had used to discover Ra's True Name.
"...You called it the Curse of the Nile, didn't you?"
"If I extract the Sun God's True Name with this..."
"...I'll uproot the Curse of the Nile itself."
Majesty Yoo Jaeha slowly lifted his head.
The book instinctively recoiled.
"That's right."
"So what?"
"The supreme god there..."
"Isn't it Ra, the Sun God?"
"...He is, but..."
"...Wait."
"Don't tell me...!"
[…That's cheating!]
Joo-Heon quietly reached into his coat and pulled something out.
He didn't bother answering.
Instead, gripping the fang now transformed into a dagger, he charged straight toward the golden tower.
[Stop! What do you think you're—!]
The book screamed in warning.
But Joo-Heon shouted back.
[The Curse of the Nile has been nullified.]
[Ra's True Name has been damaged.]
[Ra's authority is dispersing.]
[The Seal of Records has been lifted.]
"What am I doing?"
"You bastard!"
THUD!!
Isis's Venom Fang plunged deep into the heart of the tower.
The patterns covering its surface rippled violently.
At that instant...
The letters that had vanished from the world poured down like rain.
Forgotten names returned to ancient books.
The Yoo Jaeha of this world suddenly remembered how to use the relic in his hand and shouted,
"That's right!"
"This is how you use it!"
Crash!
The golden tower began to shatter.
Majesty Yoo Jaeha quietly looked at Joo-Heon.
His eyes were filled with shock...
...along with emotions far too complicated to describe.
"...You really are..."
Joo-Heon turned back toward him with a grin.
"What?"
"Starting to fall for me?"