This paper asks why myths cannot be killed. Core claim: myth responds not to a need for natural explanation, but to a remainder in the conditions of subjecthood — the individual boundary cannot be rationally closed in the face of death. Science can replace the explanatory function of myth, but cannot touch its subject-function. Myth is the base layer's counter against emergence-layer colonization. The paper provides a two-layer model (base-layer intuition → emergence-layer narrative), a colonization/nurturing distinction, three colonization detection criteria, a unified four-question template applied to four civilizations (animism, ancient Egypt, Sumer, Chinese ancestor worship), and four testable predictions organized as a 2×2 matrix (base↔emergence × positive/negative). Bilingual: English and Chinese. 本文不讨论神话"真假",只讨论神话"为什么不可被消灭"。核心主张:神话是基础层对涌现层殖民的counter。本文给出一个二层模型、一个殖民/涵育区分、三条殖民检测判据、四个文明的统一结构分析、以及2×2矩阵的四条可检验预测。中英双语。 Keywords Self-as-an-End, mythology, remainder, colonization, nurturing, animism, ancestor worship, death anxiety, subject-conditions, base layer, emergence layer, chisel-construct cycle License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Resource Type Preprint Related Identifiers Is supplement to: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18528813 (SAE Paper 1: Systems, Emergence, and the Conditions of Personhood) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18666645 (SAE Paper 2: Internal Colonization and the Reconstruction of Subjecthood) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18727327 (SAE Paper 3: The Complete Self-as-an-End Framework) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18842450 (SAE Methodological Overview) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18914682 (ZFCρ: Remainder as Structural Limit of Formalization) References: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18829136 (SAE AI Consciousness Paper) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18871235 (SAE Posterior Quasi-Consciousness) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18867390 (SAE Education Paper) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18897147 (Introspection Application: To Study the Self)