I Am the Observable Universe's Constant Itself, the Bearer and Incarnation of the Rules of Creation (Please Keep Reading~)

The Dungeon's sixth floor.

As far as the eye could see, monsters still swarmed in overwhelming numbers.

They surged in from every direction, filling every inch of rocky ground where one could stand.

Ais could even clearly see Goblins and Dungeon Lizards roaring as they poured in from the enormous chamber connected to the next one over.

What made her scalp tingle even more was that, the moment they set foot on this floor, Killer Ants—creatures that should only appear on the seventh floor or lower—started frantically crawling out of cracks in the walls as if they were cheap goods at a street stall, free for the taking!

Their carapaces were incredibly hard. Faced with Killer Ants in such numbers, ordinary adventurers could only run for their lives.

But in the next instant, Ais moved almost at once.

The cold flash of the Sword of Despair leaving its sheath vanished in a blink. Her slender figure became a golden bolt of lightning as she plunged without hesitation into the densest part of the monster horde.

Yet, to her surprise—

It was as if her body possessed a will of its own.

The instant her foot stepped forward, a familiar yet unfamiliar sense of power rose from beneath her feet, carrying her lightly ahead.

The wind around her was no longer a blurred backdrop. She could feel it clearly, like a docile ribbon winding around her sword and her body.

She could "hear" the faint whimper of wind skimming over the monsters' carapaces, and "see" the tiny vortices forming in the air currents before the Killer Ants' compound eyes.

Steel-Cutting Dash!

Her movements flowed like water, without the slightest hesitation.

Her slender blade carved an elegant yet deadly arc through the air. The gust it created was strong enough to make several Goblins farther away stagger backward.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Several Killer Ants and Goblins froze almost simultaneously, then turned to ash, leaving only Magic Stones clinking to the ground.

After the strike, Ais came to a steady stop.

She instinctively lowered her head and looked at the hands gripping her sword.

Ais flexed her fingers a few times, feeling the smooth rhythm lingering in her fingertips.

This feeling... was strange.

Her body moved faster than she could think, with unbelievable precision.

She had never sensed the wind so clearly before, as if it had become an extension of her limbs.

Was it because of... last night's scheduled training?

She tried to remember, but her mind held only a vague warmth, like a painting soaked in warm water. She couldn't recall a single detail about the training.

While she was still puzzling over it, a figure raced past behind her.

"Miss Lefiya! Please!" Bell's voice was urgent.

Ais's gaze instinctively followed him.

She saw Lefiya raise her staff high as elven words flowed from her lips far faster than they had the day before:

"In the name of Wishe, I make my wish. Ancestors of the forest, noble kin, answer my voice... Elf Ring, I beseech you—lend me your power!"

The Elf Ring's light suddenly blazed, but the power that surged forth wasn't the familiar flood of elven magic. Instead, it was Thor's modified—

Requiem of Peace!

Boom—!

A violent magical explosion swept across the area ahead, tearing an enormous gap through the surging tide of monsters.

Bell didn't slow down at all. He charged straight into the newly cleared area, moving at astonishing speed.

His strength had also clearly increased. When three Goblins attacked him together, Bell actually deflected their attacks head-on.

Ais's pupils narrowed slightly.

She clearly saw a faint yet startling red glow enveloping Bell's body.

What was that?

A new kind of power?

Bell hadn't updated his status yet. Where had this increase in speed and strength come from?

A powerful sense of danger seized Ais.

Thor's guidance wasn't aimed at her alone.

Lefiya's chanting speed had visibly improved.

Bell had even mastered an unknown power.

They were all improving at an astonishing pace.

She couldn't fall behind.

Ais's expression tightened. Her figure became a streak of golden light as she followed Bell, plunging once more into the regrouping horde.

The monsters' roars, the whistle of weapons cutting through the air, and the bursts of magic intertwined.

The three of them darted through the tide of monsters, working together.

Ais's wind blades became more precise and fluid, Lefiya's spells flowed together more quickly, and Bell charged forward fearlessly, bolstered by the red glow.

With the three of them working so efficiently together, the sheer number of monsters that would have driven ordinary adventurers to despair quickly dwindled.

Noon.

On the Dungeon's seventh floor, inside a relatively quiet chamber.

A brief silence fell after the fierce battle.

They decided to take a short rest there.

Almost without thinking, Ais sat down about two or three fist-widths away from Thor.

Even she found it a little strange.

For some reason, ever since last night's training had ended, she had instinctively felt very safe staying close to Thor...

She quietly took out the lunch box Syr had prepared.

Lefiya followed close behind Ais and sat down on her left.

The intense hunger left her no time to worry about appearances.

As she opened her lunch box, she couldn't help muttering, "I never thought it would be this difficult just to make it down to the seventh floor..."

To improve adventurers' survival rates in the Dungeon, the Guild had detailed recommendations about what level they should reach before entering each floor.

For example, floors five through seven were recommended for Level 1 adventurers, with recommended attributes of G to F—that is, an attribute value of around 200 to 300.

Both she and Ais had been brought down to Level 1 from higher levels, and their highest individual attributes could reach 900 or more. Bell, though a rookie adventurer, was no weaker than either of them after Thor's training.

And yet a party like theirs had only just made it through the sixth floor and reached the seventh.

It was all because Thor had accompanied them into the Dungeon. The number of monsters they encountered had been far beyond anything they could have imagined.

Lefiya opened her lunch box with reverence for Syr's cooking—and a trace of barely concealed dread—and cautiously took a bite.

That taste... was really hard to describe as "delicious."

An indescribable assault instantly swept over her taste buds. Almost without thinking, she grabbed the bottle of drink beside her and gulped down a mouthful, only just managing to wash down the lump of food in her mouth.

She really didn't have the courage to keep eating the lunch, even if it could increase her stamina...

She glanced surreptitiously at Thor beside her.

He was calmly eating a lunch box identical to hers, unhurried and composed, without the slightest sign of strain.

Lefiya couldn't help feeling a little moved.

After spending time with him, Thor didn't seem nearly as frightening as Loki had described.

He could be happy, angry, or troubled. Of course, sometimes he could be a little wicked, too.

Oh, right—he was also a little bit of a pervert! Last night, he'd clearly been enjoying himself, yet he'd said it was all my fault!

How devious!

At the thought, Lefiya spitefully shoveled another big bite of lunch into her mouth.

That indescribable taste exploded in her mouth once more. She immediately grabbed the bottle and tipped back the rest of the drink, only then forcing down the assault.

Her mouth felt a little better, but she could no longer suppress her curiosity.

She looked at Thor's profile and finally couldn't resist asking.

"Lord Thor... So, what kind of god are you, exactly? Why do the gods above... all seem so afraid of you?"

Hmm?

Lefiya's sudden question took Thor by surprise. He looked around and saw Ais and Bell watching him with keen curiosity, both waiting for an answer.

"You're curious?"

Lefiya nodded in agreement. What kind of being could make Loki so terrified?

She really was curious.

Thor looked at the same longing in all three of their eyes and sighed.

"Very well. Since you're curious, I'll tell you."

He reached over and picked up the empty glass bottle Lefiya had been drinking from.

"Now, imagine this bottle as the original state of your universe."

He gently blew into the bottle.

Inside it, the Stardust he had extracted surged and spun, transforming into a nebula in the earliest stages of chaos. There was no light, no time, only turbulent currents of disordered energy.

"Then a living being was born inside the bottle." Thor's voice sounded as if he were recounting an ancient tale. "His appearance set the stagnant universe in motion. Time was born, space expanded, and all the rules you understand were established along with them."

As he spoke, the chaos inside the bottle began to change.

Specks of starlight kindled in the darkness. Nebulae began to spin and gather into spiral arms, while stars silently came into being and evolved within the bottle's walls.

Ais, Lefiya, and Bell instinctively leaned closer and held their breath, as if they were truly witnessing the magnificent epic of a universe coming into existence.

Thor continued to guide the Stardust's evolution inside the bottle.

"This first living being is what you call the Creator God. He began to create and shape the universe. The gods you know today—Zeus, Uranus, Freya... Loki included—weren't the original source."

"They were branches that gradually evolved and split off from that Creator God's divine authority. They became the administrators of this bottle, each in charge of a specific domain."

By this point, the three of them had roughly pieced together an image of the universe they lived in.

Lefiya couldn't help asking, "Then, Lord Thor... are you that Creator God?"

Thor shook his head and gave them an unexpected answer.

He took the two unopened bottles of drink in front of Bell and Ais and placed them side by side with the empty bottle representing the universe.

"And the universe isn't the only one." His gaze swept across the three bottles. "Outside your bottle, there are countless universes, far more than you could ever imagine."

He paused, seeming to search for an analogy that mortals could understand.

"Hmm... perhaps a hundred times more than all the stones in the Dungeon put together."

Lefiya tried to picture it, but her mind went blank.

The concept was so vast that it lay far beyond the limits of her understanding.

Thor waved his hand once more.

Several brilliant specks of Stardust spilled from his fingertips and gathered in the air above the bottles, taking shape as several enormous dragons made of starlight.

They stretched out their bodies and swam leisurely through the invisible void.

"And these," Thor said, pointing to the Starry Sky Dragons, "are what I am, and what my kind are."

His voice held the calm of one who had passed through an eternity.

"We were born at the beginning of all things, before civilization had even begun to sprout in your universe, before that Creator God had lit the first star."

"We roam across the boundless canvas, striving to fill it with wonders, so that the shimmering spectrum may bring accomplishment and joy to all who witness it."

As he spoke, his thoughts stirred.

One of the Starry Sky Dragons let out a silent, protracted cry, then dived down. Like a creature returning to its nest, it plunged bodily into the original glass bottle representing the universe.

In an instant!

The stars already born inside the bottle blazed with light. Countless new, even more brilliant stars appeared out of nowhere, sending rippling waves of starlight through the bottle and making the universe within instantly more dazzling and profound.

Thor picked up the bottle, now glittering with starlight.

"And this is our authority. We can cross dimensions, enter any 'bottle,' and exercise our authority to create stars."

At this point, Lefiya and Ais understood.

Thor's explanation was simple and clear.

Put simply, he wasn't the "Creator God" or "administrator" inside this universe. He was a [Creator God] from beyond the universe, capable of traveling between different dimensions and scattering stars.

His status truly was far above that of "administrators" like Loki.

Ais and Lefiya exchanged a glance.

They understood Thor's explanation, but they saw the same confusion in each other's eyes.

If Thor was simply a Creator God from beyond their universe, why hadn't Loki just called him an "Outer God" or a "Creator God"?

Why had she looked so... terrified, as if she had glimpsed some ultimate horror?

And why had she said things like Thor was a concept, a phenomenon—words they couldn't understand at all?

This explanation still didn't seem sufficient to solve the mystery.

Only then did Thor continue his unhurried account.

"Of course, that wasn't all." He spoke slowly. "I also went through a period... a period when I was betrayed and enslaved by the Aspects."

He said it lightly, as if recounting an insignificant past event.

"Of course, that was an extremely, extremely long time ago. So long ago that even time itself has grown hazy."

"After I completely erased those traitors, I set out alone to search for the ultimate knowledge of the universe."

"I no longer remember how much time passed after that... until..."

As Thor spoke, he raised his hand.

Several brilliant specks of Stardust gathered in his palm, spun, and took shape, finally forming a crystal-clear glass bottle that was completely empty.

Clack.

He gently set the bottle made of Stardust on the ground.

"Until... I understood the composition of 'glass' and the structure of a 'bottle.' I began drawing materials from the 'primordial void' of the multiverse, and blowing new, one-of-a-kind bottles with my own hands."

His gaze fell upon the Stardust bottle.

"At that point, what I created was no longer merely a starry sky."

Rather, it was a complete universe, with its own independent spacetime structure and underlying logic..."

Lefiya and Ais felt their hearts sink.

Create... a universe?

That was certainly far beyond anything they had imagined, enough to leave them stunned.

But...

That still didn't seem to explain the bone-deep fear in Loki.

It was as if that fear had touched on something even more fundamental.

And, of course, this wasn't the end of Thor's story.

Thor continued in an unhurried tone, his voice seeming to come from the edge of the universe:

"Later..."

He paused slightly, as if savoring that ultimate realization.

"I made the final leap."

"When I looked back, I realized..."

"I was no longer a star inside the bottle, nor the creator outside it."

"I had become the very 'glass' that made up the 'bottle.'"

"I had become the observable universe's very constants."

"I had become the vessel and embodiment of the laws of creation."