The demon's body convulsed, screaming for release.
"…Karl…
Chosen…
Help… me…"
Karl stared up weakly, vision splitting into three separate images.
Agnes could only choke out static.
"K–Karl… his core is destabilizing—
Karl—something's—"
DOOM.
The orb pulsed—harder than before.
Agnes' HUD exploded into red.
NDA: 10 / 10 DETECTED
NEAR-DEATH MILESTONE REACHED
PREPARE FOR TRANSLOCATION
Agnes gasped.
"K–Karl—NDA is activating—!!"
Karl barely had the strength to raise his head.
"…Already…?"
The world around him folded.
Not visually—
Not slowly—
Not with any transition.
It simply ceased.
One instant, the demon towered over him, begging for release.
The next—
Everything was gone.
The dome.
The rubble.
The rails.
The demon.
Even the pain.
All of it blinked out like it had never existed.
Karl felt his stomach drop as reality inverted.
His broken vision cleared, and he found himself standing—no, floating—in an endless void of shimmering blue light that spiraled in every direction.
An infinite expanse.
A world with no floor, no sky, no time.
The Nexus of Creation.
Agnes' avatar flickered beside him, glitching, stabilizing, then widening her eyes.
"…We're… in…"
Karl breathed out slowly.
"…the Nexus…"
The air felt different here.
Weightless, yet heavy.
Cold, yet burning.
A place where his soul, not his body, existed.
Behind him, the space he arrived from stitched itself shut—sealing off the entire outside world as if the battle had never taken place.
Agnes checked the HUD again, voice trembling in awe.
"NDA milestone confirmed… 10 near-death experiences reached… Karl… this is your second awakening."
The void around him rippled.
Light began to converge.
Blueprints of machinery formed in glowing strokes.
Circuits traced themselves through the air.
Gears assembled and disassembled in fractal formations.
The Nexus was reacting to him.
Not welcoming him.
Measuring him.
Karl looked down at his hands—no blood, no wounds.
But the Drive Regulator burned with a soft, pulsing glow.
Agnes whispered.
"Karl… whatever comes next… it's something only you can claim…"
The Nexus of Creation thrummed, as though a massive engine somewhere in infinity was coming online.
Karl straightened, breath steady.
"…Then bring it on."
The Nexus pulsed once—
and then fell still.
A low vibration traveled through the infinite void, like the hum of a cosmic forge.
Agnes froze.
"…Karl… something's—coming."
Light thickened in front of them.
A silhouette stepped out of the radiant nothingness—
broad, metallic, ancient, and impossibly heavy.
Each footstep rang like a hammer striking an anvil.
CHING.
CHING.
CHING.
Molten-orange cracks ran across a colossal figure of living black metal.
A beard of shifting gears.
Eyes like twin suns.
Hephaestus emerged.
He regarded Karl for a moment, expression unreadable, then spoke in a low rumble that vibrated the entire Nexus.
"Ten near-deaths… you walk quickly toward destruction or greatness, Karl."
Karl swallowed.
He had heard this voice before—but only once.
Never like this.
"Hephaestus…?"
The Primordial nodded slightly.
"You stand in — the Nexus of Creation."
Karl steadied himself.
"Then tell me… what the hell was that thing I was fighting?"
Hephaestus lifted a hand.
And reality shifted.
Behind him, countless historical silhouettes appeared—
men, monsters, legends, myths.
One figure stepped forward.
A titanic humanoid shadow with a stone sling embedded in its skull.
The silhouette roared soundlessly.
Hephaestus spoke:
"You crossed blades with a Mythic Core Bearer."
The air cracked.
Agnes' avatar blinked rapidly.
"A Mythic… what?"
Hephaestus raised one massive hand.
The void darkened — and images formed around them:
Forgotten god-kings.
Monsters from folklore.
Warriors whispered about for centuries.
Creatures whose legends still ripple through humanity.
"These are demons shaped not by biology, but by memory."
He spoke like a hammer striking an anvil.
"The more mankind fears them, recalls them, or tells their stories…
the stronger they become."
Agnes' voice shrank.
"…So that's why Goliath got bigger…"
Karl's eyes widened.
"He… adapted? In real-time?"
Hephaestus nodded.
"Correct."
A new set of projections formed:
Book covers
History texts
Children's stories
Ancient paintings
Films
Preachers' sermons
Modern online media
Collective memory in the subconscious
"These are their power sources."
Agnes whispered:
"…So every human memory that includes Goliath— every retelling of David and Goliath — all of that FEAR makes him stronger?"
Karl tensed.
Hephaestus continued, voice like grinding steel.
"They are not born of flesh.
Not even born of the Abyss."
The silhouettes trembled, expanding into a mural of memory and fear.
"They are born from human remembrance.
Stories.
Myths.
Legends.
Every retelling shapes them.
Every fear empowers them."
He turned slightly.
"And yours… was named Goliath."
Karl blinked.
"…The Goliath? The giant who fought David?"
Hephaestus scoffed.
"A distorted memory of him.
Humanity remembers him as an unstoppable brute.
A giant of rage.
A monster who fell in humiliation.
That fear… that shame… that legend…"
He clenched his fist.
"…is what shaped the demon you faced."
Karl's breath caught in his chest.
"So… he wasn't actually Goliath himself.
Just… the idea of him?"
"Correct."
Hephaestus continued:
"He was once slain by a hero called David, but memory reshaped him.
He reincarnated, stronger than before, trapped by the very fear that empowers him."
Karl rubbed the back of his neck.
Karl frowned.
"He… begged me to kill him, what was happening to him at the end? That orb pulsing. Him screaming. Begging to die."
Hephaestus nodded slowly.
"That's the curse of Mythic Core Bearers. As long as the world remembers their legend, they get dragged back into existence. No free will. No rest. Just endless reincarnation."
He looked directly into Karl's eyes.
"He wanted release.
True death.
But you did not strike his core."
Hephaestus:
"Fear.
Retelling.
Myth.
Emotion.
All echoed endlessly across time."
The images warped.
Goliath's silhouette grew larger, more monstrous.
"His fear multiplier increases strength, regeneration, and speed.
His myth resonance enhances brute force beyond biological limits.
His cultural memory fuels his rage."
Karl's chest tightened.
"So… that thing I fought wasn't even his full strength?"
Hephaestus closed his eyes.
"You fought the 'forgotten' version.
When you wounded him…
you triggered the Reincarnation Shift."
The Nexus shook as Goliath's image morphed:
A calm giant →
A furious titan →
A mythic brute from legends.
Agnes froze in horror.
"…He transformed into the version people remembered."
Hephaestus:
"Yes.
Mythic Core Bearers shed their real selves when critically damaged.
They become the 'legend' humanity imagines."
He leaned closer.
"And Karl…
if he were remembered more…
that form would have been much worse."
Karl grit his teeth.
"So these things get stronger just because people talk about them?!"
"Yes."
"And I have to fight more of them?"
"For as long as humanity remembers gods, monsters, myths…
yes."
Karl clenched his jaw.
"The orb… that thing he tried to rip out…"
Hephaestus raised a finger.
The image of Goliath reappeared, the orb glowing painfully in his forehead.
"That orb is not merely his core.
It is the Anchor of Memory.
The crystallization of every story ever told about him."
The orb cracked faintly in the image.
"If shattered… his existence ends permanently.
If intact… even a fatal blow will not kill him."
Karl's stomach dropped.
"So I… I didn't finish him."
Hephaestus' eyes glowed hotter.
"You surpassed a legend."
Karl exhaled shakily.
"…Then why did it still live?"
Hephaestus answered with a heavy voice:
"Because you were one breath from death.
Had you pushed further, you would have killed the giant…and yourself.
And your strike got him close. Close enough he thought the anchor was finally breaking."
Karl's fist trembled.
Hephaestus placed a massive hand on his shoulder, surprisingly gentle.
"You made the right choice."
Karl stared at the void.
"…And now I'm here. NDA. Ten deaths."
"Yes."
The Nexus began glowing around them.
"You have reached your second milestone.
And so…"
Hephaestus extended his hand.
"…I shall give you what comes next."