The Antagonist VIII
No matter how important rooftops are in subculture—be they for love letters or dramatic confrontations—this wasn't the best place to have a relaxing conversation with the Saintess. The backdrop was just too grim. Even though time had stopped, the hellish landscape below spiraled outward into the distance.
"Let's go somewhere else to talk."
"Yes, let's."
"But is there no way to unfreeze the others from Time Stop?"
The Saintess shook her head. "That would be difficult. I need to be physically holding their hand to move them through the frozen world."
Now that she mentioned it, she was still holding my hand tightly. But then, I wondered—couldn't we just use the 'walking hand-in-hand' method to bring at least one more person along?
Before I could say anything, she added, "Unless they have a level of aura mastery like yours, it would be hard for them to survive. They would need to overcome the concept of 'time' itself."
"Hmm. That makes sense."
It was like surviving in the vacuum of space. For a regular person—or even a fairly trained Awakener—it would be nearly impossible to do something as simple as speaking.
"That's why I can pull off little tricks like this."
The Saintess let go of my hand. In my vision, her palm slowly drifted away, as if moving in slow motion, floating just 0.1 centimeters above my hand.
Clap.
And then, suddenly, I found myself standing in the first-floor lobby of the National Road Management Corps headquarters.
"...?"
"I just stopped time."
Her face remained expressionless. But as the self-proclaimed Guinness World Record Holder for Interpreting the Saintess's Expressions, I could detect the subtle air hidden beneath that cold exterior.
This woman... was having fun. She was feeling a bit elated.
"Wait a second, Saintess."
"The World."
Again, she let go of my hand. The next moment, I was standing in the middle of Babel Tower Plaza.
"..."
"Ta-da."
She said it in the most emotionless tone imaginable. Which meant she was probably the one who had carried me here while time was stopped.
"...Saintess."
"Yes?"
"You're in a really good mood, aren't you?"
"Yes. It's been 2,000 years since I last talked to someone."
"Yeah, I was alone for about 212 years after the Infinite Metagame screwed me over, so I can understand how it feels..."
It was the round when Ah-ryeon found me and said, "I love the café mocha you make, Guild Leader." I had hugged her like a child and cried.
Those 200 years of solitude had broken me, turning me into a pathetic regressor who could be beaten by that weirdo. This person in front of me had survived ten times that length of solitude...
In short, the Saintess was now in a "hyper-weakened" state.
Realizing this, I immediately scooped her up into a princess carry.
"Oh."
"You've been through a lot. Thank you, Saintess."
"..."
"If you hadn't stopped time, I honestly would have given up on this mission. I might have ended up as a regressor trapped in an eternal hell of repeating time."
During my 200-year isolation, the thing I needed most was human warmth. That was probably why I hugged Ah-ryeon so instinctively when I saw her. People understand others by reflecting on their own experiences, so I had a good idea of what the Saintess might want right now.
"..."
Fortunately, my guess wasn't wrong.
The Saintess quietly rested in my arms. Her sea-colored hair, which had grown slightly longer in her 2,000 years, swayed gently toward me.
"I know a good café nearby. Why don't we head there?"
"...No. Just walking around like this is fine."
"Oh. Alright, let's do that, then."
Step. Step.
We moved through the stillness of the world. The princess-carry pose we were in looked a bit ridiculous, but luckily, no one was around to see it.
Everyone else in the world was frozen in place, their breaths held. The people who had been trapped in the torment of the Mountain of Knives Hell and Boiling Oil Hell were frozen in mid-scream, their poses like sculptures.
We walked past those petrified figures.
"To be honest, I was a bit worried," the Saintess said, finally breaking the silence.
"Worried?"
"Yes. I'm a monster now." Her voice, though calm, carried a dryness that had lingered in her for a long time. "I've become a monster powerful enough to be classified as an Outer God. And you, Undertaker, you're nearly always hostile to monsters. So..."
"Ah, I see. You were worried I'd take one look at you and go, 'this damn monster,' and try to kill you?"
"Yes. I considered it a possibility."
I laughed. "If you ever see me react that way, kill me immediately. That would be a doppelganger."
No matter how important it was to rid the world of anomalies, it would never take precedence over the people around me. If I ever turned into some kind of monster-hunting machine who put that above everything else, then I'd be no different from a monster myself. I'd deserve to be hunted down.
Of course, the Saintess's body temperature was already far from human. It was as cold as a shadow. Probably around 15°C. But for someone who had spent 2,000 winters alone, she possessed a warmth that still awed me.
"..."
Then something curious happened.
Shhhk.
The Saintess's aura crawled up my arm, inching its way up toward me. Her aura was colorless and transparent, so outwardly, nothing changed. She remained still in my arms, quietly resting against me.
'Her aura control has become incredibly refined.'
Impressed, I summoned my own black aura and gently wrapped it around her transparent one as it made contact with my arm.
"..."
Her aura hesitated for a moment, then responded to my black aura, tentatively wrapping around it, like fingers intertwining in a delicate, cautious handshake. Together, transparent and black auras bloomed.
Just like how flowers bloom without making a sound, the Saintess closed her eyes as she nestled in my arms.
"..."
"..."
Aura had a warmth of its own.
What we were doing was, in essence, the same thing as humans exchanging body heat, using an aura technique that ordinary Awakeners couldn't even dream of mastering.
Perhaps the difference between humans and monsters wasn't a matter of internal temperature or the number of fingers we had. Maybe it came down to what we tried to imitate with those things.
For a while, we silently confirmed each other's humanity through that warmth.
"While I was living in this frozen world, I thought about ways to infiltrate Nut's domain."
We were in the café at the old Baekje Hospital, where Old Man Scho often talked to Mrs. Adele.
The Saintess sipped her coffee. It was the first cup of coffee I had made for her in a long time.
It was just instant coffee, though, made by ripping open a golden packet and pouring hot water over it. But that was her favorite. My pride as a barista had long since crumbled in the face of modern food technology.
"Did you have any success?"
"Unfortunately, no," she said with a shake of her head. "The closest I got was with the concept of 'life flashing before your eyes.' According to some stories, people who experience that can catch a glimpse of the afterlife. So I pushed myself to the brink of death to try it."
"Oh, that's a clever idea."
"Yes... But in the end, I still couldn't get past the glass barrier separating life and death."
The glass. It was the metaphor for 'something you can see through but can't cross.'
I wished I could just punch through that glass, but the barrier Nut had constructed was far stronger than the bulletproof glass used for the U.S. president's limousine.
Now that I thought about it, when Fairy No. 264 took me into the Inner World, that had been our best chance to break through...
But what's done is done. Regretting the past wouldn't help now.
"Tell me all the methods you tried."
"Of course."
We discussed the countless failed attempts the Saintess had made over the past 2,000 years.
Let me clarify—this wasn't a sign of her incompetence. In fact, Nut hadn't been able to interfere with the Saintess's Time Stop in all that time either. The Outer God had the power to turn the world into hell in a single day, yet it couldn't touch the frozen time that the Saintess had created.
When anomalies with the power of an Outer God clashed, their territorial battles played out in this way.
"Actually, your power and Nut's are polar opposites."
The Saintess tilted her head. "Really?"
"Yes. The world you freeze is, in a sense, 'nothingness.' Since time has stopped, there is no life, no pain, and no awareness."
And paradoxically, that nothingness was the complete opposite of hell.
"Hell, or the afterlife, is where people's souls continue to exist after death, a place of endless something," I concluded.
"I see."
"So, Nut can't invade your realm of nothingness, just as you can't invade her realm of something. You're opposites."
"...So, we're in an eternal stalemate, doomed to fight forever."
"If you're on your own." I rubbed my chin. "Glass. Glass. We need to break that glass. Anomalies related to glass...."
"Shouldn't we also consider mirrors?" the Saintess suggested. "You said that when you entered the Inner World, you saw your real-world self reflected in the glass."
"Yes. My image was projected below me, showing what I looked like in the real world."
"Then it's more like a 'mirror' than just 'glass.' After all, the afterlife is a copy of the living world."
"That's a good point. Hmm..."
The people of this world had been "copied and pasted" into Nut's domain. Then Nut claimed that the copy was the real thing, while we on the other side were just the souls suffering in hell. So, yes, the concept of a "mirror" was more accurate than just "glass."
"Mirrors. Mirrors, huh. That makes me think of doppelgangers... No, doppelgangers are part of the Hell of Infinite Time. It's more about identity confusion, then."
"The Ship of Theseus?"
"Possibly. If we list anomalies connected to identity confusion, we've got the Ship of Theseus, the Uyuni Desert, Cringe History Mosquito, and... Potato Saintess..."
"Please leave out the last one."
What? Who knows, that might be the most important clue of all.
"In any case," I acquiesced, "none of those seem directly connected to entering Nut's domain... Oh."
My mental database of anomalies had been combing through the past, and at that moment, it hit on a keyword.
"Mirrors!" I shot to my feet, still holding the Saintess's hand.
"Yes?"
"There's an anomaly related to mirrors, hell, and the living world! How could I have forgotten?"
How could I have missed it?
The anomaly that endlessly repeated the idea that this world is hell itself, thus, being born into such a world is a sin.
-Kill yourself.
The Magic Mirror, an anomaly born from the tale of Snow White.
That psychopath Yu Ji-won always had that mirror in her room. It was the perfect clue leading to the Goddess of the Night, Nut.
-x-X-x-
The Antagonist IX
If someone asked me who the easiest Korean to find in the world was, I would pick Yu Ji-won without hesitation.
If the Korean Peninsula's civilization were still intact and the presidential system still running smoothly, then Ji-won would live near the Blue House.
If the Eastern Holy State went mad, marched south, and founded the Holy Korean Empire? Ji-won would be delivering a eulogy next to Mo Gwang-seo and Christ.
In the end, Yu Ji-won was like a living, breathing Yeouido weather vane. Wherever she lived was modern-day Yeouido, Bukaksan, and Yongsan all rolled into one. If she packed up and moved, it would signal a major shift in the power structure of the Korean Peninsula.
You know how animals sense an earthquake before it happens and run away? She's that beast of power.
"This is the Magic Mirror."
Naturally, I was able to find Ji-won's lodging as easily as breathing.
It was exactly 11 meters away from the personal room of Noh Do-hwa, the National Road Management Corps leader.
"Oh. Have you visited this place before? After all, you've been alone for 2,000 years. Surely, you've seen quite a few places?"
"No." The Saintess shook her head. "I've seen it with Clairvoyance, but this is my first time actually coming here."
The room's interior was quite barren. Maps of the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, both large and small, covered the walls. There were hand-carved chess pieces and an empty armchair by the window. The only decoration in the room, besides a bookshelf lined with Romance of the Three Kingdomstexts, was nothing at all.
By the way, every time the name of one of my favorite characters appeared in those books, it was neatly highlighted in yellow.
All and all, it was terrifying. For your sake and for the sake of those around you, I hope you never encounter a genius psychopath of Yu Ji-won's caliber.
"Honestly, it still doesn't feel real to be seeing this in person."
"Come again?" I asked, surprised. "What do you mean?"
"Around the time 1,000 years had passed, my perspective became fixed in a 'third-person omniscient' view."
Ah. Now that she mentioned it...
"Are you saying you look down at things like in StarCraft, controlling units from above?"
"Wait a second."
The Saintess briefly let go of my hand, only to grab it again. In the instant that Time Stop was activated, I was petrified while she flitted somewhere and returned.
"Yes, something like that."
"...Did you seriously stop time just now to look up what StarCraft was because you didn't know?"
"Mr. Undertaker," the Saintess calmly replied, "it's a bit unreasonable to expect me to understand a game that was released in 1998."
"..."
But you said you were my age!
You said you'd aged the same as me!
A nation that forgets its history and traditions has no future. There's a reason why the Korean civilization collapsed.
"Moreover, I don't have an excellent memory like you do, so I forgot things like game names over a thousand years ago," the Saintess added.
"Ah. I apologize. My memory sometimes makes me inconsiderate of others' situations."
"It's fine. But that's why even now, it's hard for me to look you in the eye."
"..."
"It probably won't get any easier."
In the past, in the 107th cycle when she had fallen as an Executioner, the Saintess had said the exact same thing.
'...That's why you avoided meeting my eye and kept trying to cling to physical contact, wasn't it?'
It was difficult for her to confirm her position through sight. From the Saintess's point of view, everyone, including herself, was seen equally from an omniscient perspective. Because of that, she became more attached to physical touch.
Only the sensation of skin was proof that she still existed in this world.
'Hmm. Hugging her was definitely the right call.'
While still carrying the Saintess princess-style, I used my aura to tear through the blanket covering the magic mirror, revealing a smooth, full-length mirror.
In a normal cycle, the mirror would've greeted me with a, "Why don't you just die already?" the moment it saw my face―
"Mr. Undertaker, do you believe this mirror is a gateway to the Hidden World?"
"Yes. But it seems like it can't perceive us because time is stopped."
Strangely, neither the Saintess nor I were reflected in the surface of the mirror.
I suddenly felt like a vampire.
I pressed my palm against the glass experimentally, but there was no reaction. My hand didn't pass through, nor did anything unusual happen.
"Could you release the time stop for a moment?" I requested. "Two seconds should be enough. Let's place our hands on the mirror together."
"Okay."
The Saintess blinked.
- Please die immediately.
As soon as time resumed, the mirror spouted out its automatic response, and our reflections appeared on the surface. However, even though we pressed our palms against the glass, our bodies didn't pass through to the other side.
'Did it fail?'
After two seconds, time froze again.
At first glance, it seemed like nothing had been achieved, but I wasn't disappointed. When dealing with anomalies, you had to try everything.
"Saintess, could you bring in Tutorial Fairy No. 264 and Yu Ji-won?"
"Sure."
In the blink of an eye, the Saintess had disappeared, only to return with Fairy No. 264 and Yu Ji-won lying at my feet.
"I'm back," she greeted.
"Good work...?"
It was at that moment I realized something.
'Wait a second. The Saintess is still in my arms. Which means... she got down from my arms, went out, retrieved the two, then climbed back up and took my hand again?'
"...?"
The Saintess, who didn't seem to notice, tilted her head at me with her usual blank expression (which, to be fair, was always her expression).
"Is something wrong, Undertaker?"
"...Nothing at all. In any case, please hold the fairy's hand and release the Time Stop."
"Alright."
0.1 seconds later.
"Holy shiiiii—!"
Freed from the petrification of time, the fairy screamed and convulsed.
"What the hell is going on?! My breathing...! No, it feels like my very existence is being coated with white paint in real time...! Ugh! It's disgusting! Disgusting! The fairy's dying! I'm dying! I'm already dead...!"
"Here. I'll protect you with my aura."
"Ah. It's suddenly so much more comfortable. The fairy lives again."
The fairy went from looking like her eyes were about to pop out of her head to shaking that head of hers violently. "Hoek! Comrade Secretary! What is that counter-revolutionary thing?! Just being in the same space is enough to crush me into paste...!"
"She's an ally, so show some respect."
"Oho. Are you in your right mind, Comrade? This feels like the time when I heard the old Steel Secretary signed a non-aggression pact with an art school applicant."
"Then you know the Steel Secretary's specialty. Want me to call someone else?"
"Eek! Anything but a purge...! I swear eternal loyalty to the Secretary!"
I briefly explained the situation. "Alright, you need to set up a dream. Do you see this silver-haired human here? We're going to enter her dream."
"Oho."
"The dream's setting has to match the room we're in right now. See this mirror? Make sure it appears in the dream."
"Understood... But are you really going to enter this being's dream?" The fairy glanced nervously at the Saintess, beads of sweat rolling down her face. If this were a comic, I'd expect the word "gulp" to appear in a speech bubble.
"Yes."
"But Comrade, if we enter this being's dream, my mind will be toasted like a 120% charcoal-flavored toast."
"I'll protect you as best I can. Do a good job, and I'll give you a hundred sausages."
"Only the brave win the prize!"
We listened to the lullaby and entered Ji-won's dream. Once inside the dream, we found her sitting by the window, frozen in place.
So Time Stop still worked even in dreams.
The Saintess lifted her power.
"...Hmm?"
Ji-won blinked open her eyes.
"Undertaker, Your Excellency? And the Saintess too? What brings you both to my private quarters?"
"This is a dream, Ji-won."
"Excuse me?"
"Do you see that Tutorial Fairy? We entered your dream by riding the lullaby of the nightmare."
"Mm? Oh? Hmm...? Oho."
Ji-won looked around curiously.
"As expected of His Excellency, the Undertaker. As an awakener of your caliber, you can freely enter anyone's dream. No matter how sly a sycophant they may be in reality, they cannot hide their true nature in a dream. Who could ever conceal their essence from your shining, righteous eyes?"
"Please, just keep it to yourself."
"If Your Excellency has visited my dream, then there must be a reason—an urgent one, at that. How may I assist you?"
This one always knew how to word things when talking to me.
"First, let's take a look at the magic mirror together."
"Understood."
Without a second thought, the power-hungry psychopath trudged over and yanked aside the curtain hiding the mirror. The Saintess, Ji-won, the fairy, and I all appeared on the surface at once, making the mirror seem incredibly cramped.
- Please die immediately.
- Please die immediately.
The mirror spat out the automated message repeatedly as if it had a stuck button.
"Now."
"Yes."
Simultaneously, the Saintess and I reached out.
- Please die imme...
Shatter.
With a soft cracking sound, both our wrists passed through the 'inside' of the mirror.
We hadn't broken the glass. The surface remained intact. It had simply made the sound of something shattering.
"...!"
The Saintess's transparent aura flared for a brief moment.
A sign of surprise.
Having long since lost the ability to express emotions with her eyes or facial muscles, this was the Saintess's unique language.
A subtle, invisible expression of Aura—no one but me could understand this lonely foreign tongue. So instead of responding with words, I spread my aura and pulled hers closer. I matched my sentences to her grammar.
'Shall we go, Saintess?'
'Yes, Mr. Undertaker.'
A wordless conversation.
Hand in hand, I took the first step into the mirror, and the Saintess followed, her steps light and sure.
Shatter.
Shatter.
Shatter!
Each step we took across the narrow width of the mirror was accompanied by countless shattering noises. The sound was likely the Outer God throwing a tantrum after detecting foreign intruders in its domain.
But the moment the Saintess followed me inside and froze time once more,
Sh――
even the sound of glass breaking came to a halt.
When I lifted my gaze, we were standing hand in hand in the middle of Seoul Station.
Hundreds of people were frozen in place, turned to stone. The world was painted in monochrome, like a scene from an old black-and-white film.
The Saintess's power had covered the "reality."
I smiled. "We did it."
There, in the center of the sky where the sun should have been, the Outer God and Goddess of the Night, Nut, hung frozen and still with a wide-open eye.
Footnotes:
[1] Yutnori is a traditional board game played in Korea, especially during Korean New Year.
-x-X-x-
The Antagonist X
Everyone must have imagined it at least once as a child.
'What if the entire world stopped, but I could still move around freely? Wouldn't that be awesome?'
To Homo sapiens, the desire to take advantage of such situations is practically instinctual. Who hasn't fantasized about robbing a bank and becoming a billionaire while time is frozen?
That daydream from my childhood adolescence had, after several thousand years, become reality.
"It really does seem like civilization is intact. Oh, there's a Starbucks... Right, that green logo was what it looked like."
"Indeed."
The Saintess and I strolled casually through the colorless world of Outer God's domain, taking in all the sights tinted in shades of black and gray.
"After the Void's arrival, every brand became corrupted by Cthulhu symbols, so I'd forgotten what the original logos looked like. That was once a mermaid's figure."
"...And there are so many people. It's really crowded."
"This is before the population density of the Korean Peninsula dropped to a twentieth of what it once was."
"How is it that, in the middle of the day, these people are all sitting in cafés and restaurants instead of working?"
"Hmm. Perhaps they're working from their laptops?"
"Ah. So electronic devices haven't been corrupted by the anomalies yet."
I suppose anyone would feel at least a hint of it, but the Saintess and I lived in a world detached from civilization.
As a regressor, I had been permanently severed from my memories prior to the fourth cycle.
As for the Saintess, she had lived alone for thousands of years, forgetting much in the process.
And yet.
"By the way, it's amazing that you haven't forgotten me, Saintess. How did you manage to keep your memories of me for 2,000 years?"
A strange little twitch tugged at her lips. It was hard to tell if she wanted to smile or hold back her words. "...That's a secret. But Mr. Undertaker, why don't we take a look inside that café?"
"I don't mind... but just be careful not to eat anything. You remember the myth of Persephone, right? If you consume food from another world, you won't be able to return to reality."
"Yes, I'll be mindful."
We spent some time exploring the area around Seoul Station.
We entered a café, placed coffee cups on the table (though we didn't drink), sat side by side and pretended to take pictures with a smartphone (nothing showed up in the photos), and went to a bookstore to flip through various books...
'Come to think of it.'
There were a few moments when our hands slipped apart, causing me to freeze as time stopped again, but most of the time, we walked hand in hand.
'I've never spent this much time outside with the Saintess before.'
I had once gone to Beijing with her to hunt down the Butterfly Effect, but that was mostly spent walking along dark subway tracks.
'I wonder... is there no way to bring the Saintess into the next cycle?'
That thought—or perhaps that emotion—unexpectedly arose within me.
'This person has withstood thousands of years alone to prevent the world from collapsing. Surely, we have much in common.'
Though I had never revealed it, I too had long craved the warmth of a companion, someone who could endure the endless days and nights on the isolated island of time with me. This 267th cycle's Saintess, who was holding my hand right now... seemed more like a true comrade to a regressor than anyone I had ever known.
'Yes. That's right.'
One of us was a time traveler, the other a time stopper. One imprisoned by the eternal flow of time, the other confined to its eternal stillness.
No one could understand—or even perceive—either of us. But we could understand each other better than anyone else.
That one of us was an Outer God-level anomaly didn't matter in the slightest. If it came to that, I wouldn't mind humanity revering the Saintess as a new deity.
'But is there no way to break through the cycles...? Ah. Wait. What if I became the Saintess's Miko, her priestess?'
A brilliant idea.
Since we were both Awakeners with time-related powers, there might be a way to forge an Outer God-priestess relationship. Then, we could stay together.
There was hope. And when it came to clinging to hope, no one on Earth was more of an expert than me.
"Mr. Undertaker."
"..."
"Mr. Undertaker."
A cool hand, about 15°C, touched my cheek.
Before I knew it, the Saintess had placed her palm against my face.
"...Ah, my apologies," I said. "I was lost in thought for a moment. What is it?"
"I think it's about time we dealt with Nut."
"Hmm."
She was right. No matter how long we spent wandering through Nut's realm, teasing the anomaly, Outer Gods remained Outer Gods. The moment we let our guard down, they might launch a counterattack from an unexpected angle.
Reluctantly, I nodded. "You're right. Let's finish this quickly."
"Yes. But Nut is up there, in the sky, like the sun. What's your plan for taking her down?"
"It's simple. We'll just walk up there."
Shwip.
I manipulated my aura, creating a series of 'platforms' in the air. As the platforms stretched out in a domino-like sequence, a staircase appeared, leading directly into the sky.
It was a literal path to heaven.
The Saintess mumbled next to me, "...The way you hunt anomalies seems to rely a lot on brute force."
"Well, what good is Aura if not for this? I didn't train this hard just to show off. Let's go."
"Let's."
We both placed our feet on the translucent steps at the same time.
Ten meters, twenty meters. As we ascended, the lower platforms disappeared, while new ones formed above us.
Occasionally, the steps took on a dark hue when formed by my aura, and other times, they shimmered with the Saintess's translucent energy.
How long had we been climbing?
In a world where time had stopped, the concept of "how long" was meaningless. When I looked down, the ground seemed impossibly far below.
"Aha," I chuckled, causing the Saintess to tilt her head.
"What is it?"
"Nothing. I just realized I'm becoming more like you, Saintess."
"...?"
"You mentioned before that you see everything from an omniscient viewpoint. Look—now I can see all of Seoul, the entire Korean Peninsula, spread out beneath me. I've finally reached your level."
"..."
The Saintess, still not used to seeing the world from a first-person perspective, looked at me from an angle. In response, her grip on my hand tightened slightly.
"Yes, Mr. Undertaker."
We continued climbing.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—we didn't have to travel all the way to space, 150 million kilometers, to reach the spot where the sun usually hung. Nut's 'eye', which had replaced the sun, was shockingly close, located in the stratosphere.
"...I see."
Shwip.
The atmosphere was covered by a transparent glass-like barrier, and embedded in it was Nut's eye.
"The universe is gone. Only the sky remains."
"The constellations are etched into the glass. Should we break it?"
"No. If we break through this layer, there will probably be more layers beyond it. The glass is likely wrapped around the Earth in several layers."
Geocentrism: the ancient belief that the Earth was the center of the universe and all other stars revolved around it.
Nut, the Goddess of the Night, had brought this theory to life here. The same phenomenon was likely occurring in the real world, where Nut had begun corrupting reality. By turning all the empty space where humans couldn't live into nothingness, Nut had left the Earth as the only place for life to exist.[1]
It was the kind of violence befitting an Outer God.
"Heh," I scoffed. "If it weren't for you, Saintess, the entire world would have been swallowed by Nut."
"..."
"Now, I'll pierce Nut's eye."
Without hesitation, I drew my cane-sword Do-hwa and stabbed it into Nut's 'eye', this world's 'sun'.
The sun split in two.
Nut, the Outer God, offered no resistance.
Since time was frozen, Nut couldn't even scream in its death throes. When time resumed, the anomaly would be completely vanquished.
"It's done. Saintess, please unfreeze time now, and let's return to reality. I need to consult with you... about a way to break free from the cycles..."
There was no response.
"Saintess?"
I turned to look at her.
The Saintess stood still, eyes closed. Her expression was as serene and unreadable as always, her hand still clasping mine.
But.
"..."
In the colorless world, a crimson lotus bloomed inexplicably from the center of the Saintess's chest.
My body froze.
The blood drained from my face as my mind began to race, spinning so fast my ears buzzed with the sound of it.
This couldn't be happening.
Had the Outer God somehow counterattacked? Did it have a system in place to curse its killer upon death? But if that were the case, why had the blow struck the Saintess, not me—the one who had pierced Nut's eye...?
"I'm sorry, Mr. Undertaker."
In the midst of my chaotic thoughts, the Saintess's calm voice reached me like a single thread of clarity.
"There was one secret I hadn't told you."
Even with the crimson flower of blood blooming in her chest, there was no pain in her voice.
Only regret. Apology.
The kind of subtle emotion that only I, who understood her faint expressions, could perceive.
Her ocean-like voice spoke.
"I am Nut's apostle."
Time seemed to stop.
In the blink of an eye, the Aura stairs I had been standing on disappeared.
"...!"
My body lost balance, and I began to fall. Just as I was about to plummet from the stratosphere, time froze again.
The Saintess, kneeling on the steps above me, grasped my hand tightly. It was as if she were holding me at the edge of a cliff, preventing me from falling.
"Saintess! What is this...?!"
"Please, don't move."
The Saintess spoke softly.
"Don't activate your aura. Don't create new steps. Don't take any action toward me."
Blood was still flowing from her chest.
If Nut's eye and the Saintess's heart were connected, the wound must have been identical to the one I had inflicted on the Outer God.
"If you even show the slightest sign of movement, I'll let go of your hand and freeze time."
...
"You once said that Nut and I were opposites, didn't you? Nut creates the underworld, while I freeze time, making us fundamentally different. But you were wrong."
Drip.
Blood beaded from her chest, sliding down her clothes, and fell onto my cheek. It was where her palm had rested moments ago.
"That's not the important part. What matters is whether one sees the world of the living as 'hell'."
"..."
"You know it, don't you? I've been calling this world hell for a long time."
A flash of insight.
"This world is hell."
It was the 117th cycle.
The words the Saintess had spoken to me from within Infernal Hell flashed through my mind.
The world is hell, yet no one takes responsibility for it.
If time can't be turned forward, then it must be stopped.
What reason could there possibly be for me to allow time to continue in a world like this?
Hell is said to be 20,000 yojanas below the surface. But that's impossible.
Just one layer below the surface of that planet... it's all hell.
Ah.
Even back then. Yes, even then.
The Saintess had been in space. She had spoken to me from the moon, the symbol of the 'otherworld'.
Seeing the world as hell.
Having control over the universe.
Having the 'eye' to see the world from above, from an omniscient perspective.
Being capable of confronting and ambushing a regressor, the 'master of time.'
The answer was yes.
In those four ways, the Saintess and Nut shared the same traits.
If an Outer God could establish a sanctuary within the grave of Time Seal, isolated from the world...
If an awakener could freely move in a world where time was frozen...
It was only natural to assume that they were connected on some fundamental level.
"You probably thought I trained my Aura for 2,000 years to reach the level of an Outer God, but you were mistaken."
"Mistaken... how?"
"I'm sure I've spent hundreds, maybe even thousands of years in other cycles. Always observing people in frozen time. But the reason I became so much stronger in this cycle is because Nut's power has grown stronger."
"..."
"I am Nut's incarnation."
Drip.
"You can't kill Nut without killing me as well."
"Wait! We can seal the Outer God separately!" I shouted desperately. "Yo-hwa, the Baekwha High student council president, was the same! The Outer God called Infernal Void was sealed within her!"
The Saintess shook her head. "We aren't compatible enough, not in that way. Infernal Void was so unaware of the cycles that it couldn't even notice them. But Nut is different. Nut is the Outer God of time, the one responsible for the cycles of day and night, the repetition of each day. With each cycle, Nut won't reset—she'll only grow stronger."
"..."
"Even if we manage to seal Nut inside me, her power will only increase with each cycle. The contamination of my heart will worsen."
As I stood speechless, lips trembling, the Saintess continued.
"Mr. Undertaker. Can you really be certain that one day, I won't wake up and suddenly turn the entire world into hell?"
"..."
"Mr. Undertaker."
Stroke.
She gently clasped my hand, the one dangling in the air.
The Saintess's body was cold, but in the thin air of the stratosphere, hers was the only warmth.
"Please don't worry. I'll stay here and keep this place frozen."
For a moment, I didn't understand her words. My mind refused to accept them. "...What?"
"I'm sorry, but just because you stabbed me doesn't mean time will die."
Her voice was soft.
"Hold the void still?"
My lips moved on their own.
"For how long, exactly?"
"..."
"This is the 267th cycle. Already. And we still haven't saved the world. There might be hundreds more cycles—maybe even thousands. Are you saying... you'll keep holding this void still until then?"
"All moments are fleeting."
Stroke.
The Saintess bent down and touched my cheek, wiping away the blood with her cold fingers.
"I'll freeze everything here, including myself. Even if you regress to the next cycle, this place will remain frozen. In the end, the Outer God—and I—won't be able to interfere with your regression anymore."
There was something she hadn't said.
By freezing the world—including herself—it meant that the time stopper would be frozen too.
It would be a perfect seal. A flawless extermination.
No matter how many years passed—thousands, millions, billions, trillions—the world would move on as if nothing had happened.
Everything would move on, except for one person: me, the regressor, who would remember this moment for all of eternity.
"Mr. Undertaker."
"..."
"Thank you. Because you were there, I didn't give up. As long as you're on the other side, I won't see this world as hell."
I could feel it.
The Saintess was about to let go of my hand.
She was preparing to banish me from this void, sealing herself and this place, cutting herself off from the world.
This 267th cycle's Saintess would exist here—forever—quietly subduing an Outer God.
And no one would ever know.
No one would know that there had been a human here who had wished for the world not to turn into hell.
"This..."
My decision was purely impulsive.
"Take this."
I removed the bracelet from my left wrist and gently clasped it around the Saintess's right, the hand that was holding mine.
She tilted her head in confusion. "A bracelet...?"
"It's a Silver Bell."
Jingle.
The bell rang softly.
"It's the first thing I grab every time I wake up in Busan Station. It's just a keepsake, but... I'm sure it'll be a link that connects us."
"..."
"..."
"I'll find a way to unseal this place without letting you destroy the world. I'll come back for you."
And then—
The Saintess smiled.
—2,000 years after we were reunited, she finally looked me straight in the eye, something she had never been able to do before.
With one hand, she held my right hand, and with the other, she cupped my cheek. Like a child learning how to move for the first time, she awkwardly tilted her head to align her gaze with mine.
In that instant, the black-and-white world narrowed, filling everything between us with hues of white and black.
"Yes."
A fleeting pause.
The deep, ocean-like warmth lingered briefly on my lips.
"I'll see you... soon."
When I opened my eyes, a thin layer of glass had formed between us.
The Saintess, on the other side, smiled and reached out, frozen in place like a black-and-white photograph.
'Ah.'
I had let go of her hand.
No, it was the opposite. The world of frozen time was drifting away from me, as though I were falling into an abyss.
I reached out for her, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't reach the colorless world.
And then.
I returned to reality.
To a world without her.
Footnotes:
[1] Depending on the interpretation, a geocentric model can include a firmament, or a celestial barrier that separates life on Earth from the waters of primordial Chaos and nothingness beyond.
-x-X-x-
The Antagonist XI
When I returned to reality, it was summer. And the summer's day was dazzling.
The hellish land of swords, where blades rose up from beneath every step, had vanished. The molten steel that crept into alleyways and melted people's hearts had evaporated.
Even the Silver Bell that once hung from my wrist.
These were not the only things to say goodbye to this season.
"Uh...?"
"Huh? Why... Why am I on the roof...?"
No one remembered what had just happened.
Not Noh Do-hwa, not Sim Ah-ryeon, nor any of the other companions.
The same went for the Regressor Virus-infected protesters who had rallied in the square. The confused crowd began chatting with one another or returned to their workplaces.
It was as if they had all just woken from a brief daydream.
"The Saintess...?"
That dream must have been a nightmare.
"Sorry, but who is that?"
The Saintess of the 267th cycle had vanished.
From reality. And from memory.
"Captain Noh Do-hwa. Do you truly not remember? The existence of the Constellations?"
"The Constellations? You mean the nicknames you use to shitpost on SG Net?"
"No. There was someone who could watch every Awakener on the Korean Peninsula with Clairvoyance and send messages at will through Telepathy."
Do-hwa furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about? Is this some overpowered Awakener you dreamed up?"
No one remembered the Saintess from the 267th cycle.
It was exactly like my Time Seal. She had sealed herself along with Nut's domain in the Hidden World, so she could no longer affect reality. She isolated her very existence.
To ensure that not even the Night Goddess could interfere with me. To keep my regression free from the Outer God's contamination.
"..."
Summer passed.
"Hoeeek. Comrade Secretary! No matter how much of a dream we inhabit, that's just impossible! We can't enter the dream of someone who doesn't exist in reality!"
I had tried countless ways to reach the Saintess in her sealed world, the Hidden World.
And every attempt had failed.
When we had fought Nut, at least I could glimpse her behind a glass barrier, even though I couldn't cross it. Now, even that had become impossible.
The Magic Mirror had lost its function as a portal. No method allowed me to get closer to the world where the Saintess slept.
"We searched the dreams of everyone living on the Korean Peninsula, but we couldn't find anyone matching the person you described!"
But there had been someone like that.
"And she liked it even better if you secretly mixed in a spoonful of cinnamon."
"She had hair the color of water and eyes like the ocean. Her breathing and footsteps were so quiet, it was like she was swimming gracefully, not walking."
"She wasn't interested in the trivial matters of the world, always expressionless, never joining in on people's chatter. But she was still someone who could sacrifice herself for others."
"She was brilliant."
There had been someone like that.
"Hoeeek! Comrade Secretary! We mobilized every resource for six years, but we couldn't find her!"
The house in Yongsan where the Saintess had lived was now a ruin.
The tropical fish she had raised in the face of civilization's collapse were gone. The aquarium she had carefully cleaned and tended had turned to dust.
The study sessions she held every Wednesday, sitting at a table with others, were no longer.
With the loss of Clairvoyance and Telepathy, public safety on the Korean Peninsula rapidly deteriorated. When Awakeners lost their way in the Void:
- Mr. Undertaker.
- There's a person stranded. I'll give you their location.
The person who would send me those messages had disappeared. I could no longer rescue people as quickly as before.
No one found it strange.
And summer passed.
When Awakeners didn't fully understand their abilities or know how to strengthen them:
[The Librarian of the Great Library unlocks your true potential.]
[The Librarian of the Great Library has given you a quest.]
[Upon completing the quest, a special opportunity to enhance your ability will appear.]
The person who had subtly guided the Awakeners was gone. I could no longer help people on such a large scale.
The idea that, "At least the Constellations are watching over me," disappeared from people's minds, without them even knowing it was there in the first place. The belief that, "At least I can confide my worries to the Constellations," was gone as well.
No one found it strange.
And summer passed.
It was then that I realized something.
From the 1st cycle—where I had forgotten everything—through the 4th, and ever since the 5th, when I truly began to live as a regressor. There had always been a silent observer somewhere, quietly watching over the world.
Even in my lowest moments, they weren't as bad as they could have been. For all the lives I had lived as a regressor, there was still so much I hadn't grasped.
I wasn't ready to live in a world without you.
Then, summer passed.
It was time to move on to the next cycle.
I hadn't told anyone, but a certain fear had settled inside me by that point.
'What if the Saintess isn't in the next cycle either?'
The moment I opened my eyes in Busan Station in the 268th cycle, I rushed straight to the souvenir shop. I went to find the object I always picked up, without fail.
'It's here.'
The cheap Silver Bell I always bought for 9,900 won was still there on the shelf.
I fastened the Silver Bell to my wrist and hurriedly cleared the Tutorial Dungeon, making sure to display overwhelming power, enough to catch the interest of a certain someone who might be watching the Awakeners.
And then—
[The Saintess of National Salvation is astonished by your feat!]
[The Monarch of the Crimson Horse feels a sense of rivalry at your strength.]
[The Conqueror of the Alps takes note of your course.]
My knees nearly gave out.
I let out a breath. Relief swelled in my chest.
'She's here... Yes, she's here.'
Finally, it was clear. The only one separated from time was the Saintess of the 267th cycle.
But the existence of the Saintess herself had not been erased from the world. Perhaps after ascending to the level of an Outer God, she was treated as a different entity entirely.
Now, I could tell my comrades what had happened in the 267th cycle.
'But... I can't tell them.'
I walked into the bathroom of Busan Station and splashed cold water on my face. Since the city's water supply hadn't been cut off yet, the tap water was enough to cool my mind.
'I can't tell the Saintess what happened to her in the 267th cycle. If she finds out she has that potential... She won't hesitate.'
The same thing would surely happen again. It wasn't hard to imagine.
In a moment where the world faced imminent destruction, the Saintess would trigger Time Stop without hesitation and spend another thousand years alone.
'I can't let that happen.'
That's why I couldn't tell her.
It was the same situation as Dang Seo-rin. She had once confessed that if she ever realized her accumulated lifespan already exceeded several thousand years, she would immediately dip into that reserve in her greed at the first sign of danger.
The moment the Saintess became aware of such a powerful last resort, she would transform into an Outer God once more.
'I can't let that happen.'
'I must keep this secret.'
'This must never happen again―'
With a tinkling jingle, the Silver Bell hanging from my wrist rang.
"...?"
I hadn't been aware of it, but after washing my face, I had apparently placed my palm on the bathroom mirror.
'Huh?'
I looked up at the mirror. Reflected there was my damp face and dripping wet hair.
But that wasn't what caught my attention.
My palm.
The hand I had placed on the mirror.
'Cold.'
For some reason, the spot where my palm touched felt unusually cool.
If I had to guess its temperature... Yes.
Exactly 15°C.
"...!"
I pressed both hands against the mirror, yet it didn't matter how I touched the glass with my right hand. Only when my left hand—the one wearing the Silver Bell—touched the glass, did I feel that same sensation, that 15°C temperature.
'Ah.'
She was there.
You were here.
"Saintess."
You have to be.
"Saintess, can you hear me?"
There was no response.
I couldn't see her anymore. I couldn't cross to the other side.
We couldn't speak, and I couldn't hear her voice.
We couldn't sit together in the same room, reading books and listening to the sound of each other's breath.
All that remained was the memory and the faint warmth I felt through the glass—as if you were right there on the other side, pressing your hand against mine.
Perhaps, like me, you were touching the other side of the glass at that very moment. Frozen in time, along with the world.
"..."
But this was enough.
'As long as you exist, we will meet again.'
That was the fate of a regressor.
Maybe to some of them, to those screaming infected fated to regression, this was hell. But not to me.
If there was a way for a person like that to still be grateful for life, even after realizing the world repeated endlessly, it was simply because they longed to meet someone again.
And for the chance of that one reunion, a person could endure crossing millions of summers.
"...Please wait a little longer."
We were beings from opposite poles. I lived in the endless flow of time, while the Saintess resided at its end. I enjoyed wandering outside, while she preferred to gaze at the fish tank inside her room.
And now, we were separated by a mirror.
"Just close your eyes for a moment, and when you open them again, we'll be back in that season."
I slowly lifted my hand from the mirror.
For a while, the imprint of my palm and fingers remained faintly visible on the glass. And just before the marks disappeared—
I saw it.
The imprint of a smaller hand, delicate fingers, overlaying mine.
For a brief moment, our hands overlapped.
A message in white.
"Yes."
"I'll see you... soon."
Anomaly:Night Goddess, Nut
Aliases: Hell, Ruler of the Underworld, Mirror World, Geocentrism, Eye of Horus, Parmenides' Moon, Regressor Virus
Threat Level:Lv.5 Outer God-class (Alienation)
Subjugation in progress.
-x-X-x-
The Nameless One I
Novels are different from illustrations.
At first glance, this might sound like an obvious statement, but to me, the distinction is surprisingly significant.
For example, Lee Ha-yul. She lived with me in the Inunaki Tunnel, which I had converted into my hideout. Except during vacation rounds, she was almost always there. Compared to the other members, her attendance rate was truly overwhelming.
「Ah, I'm sorry, Hyung. I have thalassophobia, so living deep inside the Inunaki Tunnel is a bit... If something bursts in there, I'd drown right away, right?」
Seo Gyu usually stayed close to the headquarters of the National Road Management Corps.
「I... I am the Queen of the Eastern Holy State.」
Sim Ah-ryeon worked mostly as the Saintess of the North, so she didn't come to the hideout as often.
Oh Dok-seo was a rookie who joined after the 555th cycle, and lacked seniority.
But Lee Ha-yul, she consistently claimed the best spot in the hideout, no matter the time. Yet, despite this, she didn't appear much in my stories. Why?
There was a sad reason for that.
I present to you...
"...Ah, this coffee is quite delicious."
"Isn't it? I blended three of the Saintess's favorite instant coffees and added exactly one spoonful of cinnamon. This is her favorite brew."
"...Hey, Mr. Undertaker, if you've reached that level, shouldn't we stop calling it 'instant' coffee? Well, it does taste good."
Let's say this conversation took place between the Saintess and me at the hideout's café, 1,200 meters underground.
But this is a novel. If we strip away the filters of a novel and depict things more visually, the truth would look like this:
"...Ah, this coffee is quite delicious."
"Isn't it?"
(Beside me, Ha-yul silently lifted two coffee packs like twin swords. Image: Lee Ha-yul holding up two coffee packs like a warrior.)
"I blended three of the Saintess's favorite instant coffees and added exactly one spoonful of cinnamon. This is her favorite brew."
(Image: Lee Ha-yul playfully slapping my back with the coffee packs, as if she were part of the jazz band from Whiplash.)
"...Hey, Mr. Undertaker, if you've reached that level, shouldn't we stop calling it 'instant' coffee?"
(Image: Lee Ha-yul failing to control her Aura, causing the coffee pack to explode, spilling its contents all over my barista uniform.)
"Well, it still tastes good."
(Image: Me holding Lee Ha-yul's head as she struggles like a mischievous kid.)
See how different the scene is?
That's right.
As you all probably know, Ha-yul was born with a speech impediment. Normally, she traveled with her maid doll to voice her words. However, when it was just the two of us—especially when she was messing with me—she would ditch the maid and perform her 'silent protests'. Though I hadn't described it, Ha-yul was usually next to me in the hideout, pulling pranks about 80% of the time.
Why did she leave the maid behind when it was just the two of us?
'Ouch! Ouch, oppa, my skull! It's in danger!'
This girl could use her Aura to write on my back in real time. And since I had exceptional skills in reading Aura, I could easily interpret what she wanted to say.
"You'll be fine."
'Ah! No violence! No violence!'
"...You and Ha-yul seem really close. Almost like siblings with a big age gap."
Anyway.
Ha-yul was always forcing my readers to play a game of Spot the Difference.
Her methods of communication with me were diverse: writing on my back, vibrating her Aura to make her sound like a voiceroid, tapping Morse code into my palm...
And then, after receiving a thorough scalp massage from me, she would scurry behind the Saintess and pull out her sketchbook.
It read:
[Ex] [pla] [na] [tion]
?
[The Undertaker is a Monster] [Confirmed as a Regressor Monster] [When You Gaze into the Void, the Void Gazes Back] [This Regressor Has No Memories Before the Fourth cycle] [Is There Any Proof That This Monster Didn't Suddenly Appear After the Fourth cycle?] [Can Humanity Entrust Its Fate to a Monster Regressor?] [Is Korea Truly Safe This Way?]
....
[Monster] [Explanation] [Monster] [Explanation]
[The Undertaker Is a Colossal Monster]
[Explanation Please]
By the way, the sketchbook pages flipped at a speed of 0.3 seconds per sheet. If I didn't have eyes finely tuned with Aura, I wouldn't have been able to see a thing.
"...Undertaker, is something wrong?"
The Saintess noticed something was off and turned around, but with impeccable timing, Ha-yul quickly displayed a portrait she had drawn. It was an illustration of me, seriously brewing coffee. Thanks to the lessons she received from Sim Ah-ryeon, Ha-yul had gotten decent at drawing.
"Ah, it's a really cool drawing."
"..."
"By the way, Mr. Undertaker, could you tell me which three products you used in my coffee and in what ratio?"
The moment the Saintess turned her head back, Ha-yul flipped to the next page of her sketchbook.
(Image: The Regressor monster in a coffee-stained barista outfit, unleashing black Aura as he defeats awakened beings like Noh Do-hwa, Dang Seo-rin, and Sim Ah-ryeon, while destroying Busan.)
This little brat...
Of course, Ha-yul knew the Saintess turned off her Clairvoyance and Telepathy when she was relaxing with her coffee.
"Mm."
But despite Ha-yul's bratty antics, her point was valid.
The so-called Regressor Monster Theory.
As I've mentioned before, I have no memories of my family. My memories from before the 4th cycle are all a blur now. And that wasn't the only reason.
'Even in the cycles where I'd become somewhat famous, not a single person who knew me ever came to find me.'
Not a distant relative. Nor a childhood friend from my hometown. No one at all.
Once in a while, I'd get a call from the Reunion anomaly, inviting me to a class reunion, but I couldn't really consider that person a friend.
Oh, by the way, defeating the Reunion anomaly is incredibly challenging yet simple. Just drive up in a limousine like a Maybach S-Class Pullman or a supercar like a Ferrari. That'll instantly exorcize the anomaly, and it won't bother you again.
Returning to the main point...
'In the end, my family and acquaintances were probably all swept away by the Arrival of the Void and either died or went missing.'
It went all that far-fetched of a possibility. Didn't 19 out of every 20 people die in Korea? Most people with bad gacha luck lost all their connections, just like I did.
"Well... Should I seriously go search for them?"
"Huh?"
"Ah. Ha-yul keeps teasing me, asking if I'm really the Regressor Monster. So, I thought maybe I should investigate whether I really did appear out of nowhere during the fourth cycle."
(Image: Lee Ha-yul giving me a disgusted look for snitching on her pranks.)
"Oh... Um..." The Saintess set down her coffee cup. "Wouldn't that be difficult?"
"Why do you think that?"
"Because of your nature, Mr. Undertaker. I don't know much about the 'you' before the 4th cycle, but from what I've heard..." She hesitated briefly before continuing, "I imagine you probably Time Sealed the people closest to you, one by one."
"..."
"You said you cleared the Tutorial Dungeon in the 3rd cycle. So, right after you left Busan Station, I believe you sought out your family and acquaintances. And convinced them to―"
"Seal them in Crystal Tombstones. But now, I don't remember where those tombstones are or who I Time Sealed."
"That's just my guess, though."
She... had a point.
To find any clues about my family, I'd have to inspect every single Crystal Tombstone in Korea.
How many tombstones had I buried? At least 500,000. Who knows how many I couldn't keep track of?
"It's definitely going to be tough."
"Yes, unfortunately."
[Ex] [pla] [na] [tion]
At that moment, our discussion ended with Ha-yul's ridiculous placard still lingering. I had no intention of doing a Regressor version of In Search of Lost Time, so the idea was naturally shelved.[1]
Until the 267th cycle, that is.
As I've mentioned before, I mobilized every fairy in my arsenal to find any trace of the Saintess in the 267th cycle. I sent out the baku to scour the dreams of every survivor in Korea. Yet in the end, there was no sign of the 267th Saintess.
"Hoeeek."
However, I stumbled upon an entirely unexpected puzzle piece instead.
"I-isn't this the Secretary General?"
"Hm?"
"Look over there, in that person's dream, up on the hill. The figure walking past the supermarket!"
Fairy No. 264 invited me into someone's dream. It belonged to a 50-something woman I didn't recognize.
"...I can see it, but so what? Isn't that just a mother and child walking side by side?"
"The kid looks oddly similar to the Secretary General!"
"What?"
The dream revealed a vague silhouette that, according to the fairy, resembled me.
"Come on, it's way too blurry. You can barely make out their face. How could you say whether he looks like me?"
"Hoek, but the baku's instincts are telling me! The dark aura! That shadow, black as ink! Those dead fish-like eyes! The stomp of someone who resents the world, pounding the ground! That's definitely you, Secretary General... Gyaaaah! My skull! It's being crushed!"
"First of all, it's 'sense,' not 'instinct.'"
"V-violence is bad! No purging, please!"
I gave the fairy a scalp massage, frowning as I observed the dream. In the distance, a mother and child walked, barely noticeable at the edge of the dream's awareness.
'That kid is supposed to be me?'
The child looked like they were around elementary school age.
I felt no connection to them at all.
I brushed off the fairy's hunch, but similar reports kept trickling in over time.
"Secretary General! Look at this middle school graduation ceremony!"
"Where?"
"There! About 20 meters away from the dreamer, look at the crowd of students! There's a figure that just barely flashes by over someone's shoulder! It has to be the Secretary General from the past!"
I strained my vision, sharpening my Aura to its extreme limit—the kind of limit only the most refined Awakener like me could reach—just to catch a flicker of the silhouette.
I muttered in disbelief, "...This really is like a game of Where's Waldo. Only five thousand times harder."
Still, if the fairies were right, one thing was clear. The past I thought I'd lost forever, the memories before the 4th cycle, especially the original Undertaker from the 1st cycle...
There were fragments of it, hidden within these dreams.
Perhaps I wasn't a monster born suddenly in the 4th cycle.
And now, I had been handed a clue to piece together that lost puzzle.
Footnotes:
[1] In Search of Lost Time is a novel by French author Marcel Proust. In it, the narrator walks through memories of his younger years, often through moments of "involuntary memory" where something in his everyday life sparks a memory from childhood.
-x-X-x-
The Nameless One II
The original Undertaker from the first cycle, whom I couldn't remember at all. For the sake of convenience, let's call him the Original Undertaker, Undertaker: The Beginning, or Undertaker the First.
"Teacher, you said you wanted to call him something simple, but doesn't that sound way too grand?"
The person grumbling had orange hair thrown up in a ponytail, wore a white sailor uniform, and sported Jordan basketball shoes. It was none other than Baekhwa Girls' High School Student Council President, Cheon Yo-hwa, a VIP guest specifically invited to participate in this Original Undertaker "Spot the Difference" project.
"Anyway, Yo-hwa, I really need your help to piece together the Original Undertaker. Well, more accurately, I need assistance from Infinite Void."
"Ehck." Yo-hwa made a clearly displeased face. Despite how expressive she was, it never seemed to offend others—one of her curious traits. "Infinite Void? Why her?"
"Well, the Original Undertaker that appears in other people's dreams... How should I put it... The resolution is poor."
I led Cheon Yo-hwa through several dreamscapes and showed her the blurry silhouette that was supposedly the Original Undertaker.
"Oh, it's real! It's like looking at an old black-and-white photo that hasn't been restored yet!"
"Right?"
"Yeah! But even with this poor quality, you can tell right away—this little guy is adorable! Teacher, you used to wear a fuzzy hat when you were younger, huh? Hehe! Hehehe!"
Though she had been somewhat grossed out by the mention of Infinite Void, Yo-hwa's mood quickly lifted the moment she got a peek at my childhood self. With loud exclamations, she started examining the silhouette from every possible angle, moving around me excitedly.
I cleared my throat. "As of now, we've found 13 dreams featuring the Original Undertaker. This one shows the youngest version of him. The Original Undertaker that appears in these dreams is generally younger than a college student."
"Ugh, just look at those chubby cheeks! So cute! Teacher, is there no way to record these dreams, like take a video and keep it?"
"You're trying to show off to Dang Seo-rin, aren't you? Please, control yourself."
"Tsk." Yo-hwa's cheeks puffed up like a hamster.
"Anyway, call Infinite Void for a moment. I'm thinking of restoring the image quality based on the data that Infinite Void accumulated."
"Ugh... I hate loosening that bastard's leash even a little. But, fine. For the chance to see your childhood self up close... I'll allow it. Give me a second!"
Yo-hwa closed her eyes, and then, slip—the hairband tying up her ponytail loosened, causing her orange hair to cascade down.
Blink.
When her eyes reopened, her pupils and irises were gone. Only a dark, eerie red remained, staring back at me.
"Hello, sunbae."
A faint smile spread across the red well of her eyes.
"Been a while. Missed me?"
"Been a while. Let's skip the small talk."
"Oh, but sunbae, you're the one holding my hand, not the other way around."
Indeed.
Whether in the Void or in dreams, it was better to hold hands with your companions to avoid getting lost.
I scoffed and let go. Then Infinite Void, sealed within Cheon Yo-hwa's form, shrugged.
"You're so cold. Remember, I was born from this girl's personality because I got caught up in your schemes. It hurts to be treated this way by someone I like."
"Thank you for the feedback. I'll express my disinterest even more clearly from now on. Now, you know why you're here, right?"
"Yeah. I've been watching the whole time." Infinite Void tapped its lips thoughtfully. "But you know, it's hard for me to work at full capacity. After all, sunbae, you've placed so many seals on me, like Doppelganger, Split Personality, and Weakened Ally."
"You brought that on yourself."
"Oh, come on. Split Personality was all part of your master plan, wasn't it? By giving this girl a new name, you demoted me to being a mere second personality. Only someone as wickedly cunning as you could come up with that strategy."
"..."
"Not that I mind my current state. You know, they say it's better to be dumb than smart when trying to be happy. Self-awareness is fun in its own way."
I sighed. "Even for you, gathering data on my childhood should be intriguing, right? So, cooperate."
"Ah, fair point. Sure thing."
The agreement came more easily than expected.
Infinite Void reached out and touched the fuzzy hat of the Original Undertaker with its fingertips.
Crackle!
The surroundings crackled to life. The faces of the passersby, the size of the streetlights, and the shapes of the trees all began to warp. Even the bark of the trees seemed to grow detailed veins.
"Hold on a second. Ugh, this used to be easier when I had the Baku working under me. Now, it's a bit overwhelming thanks to a certain someone."
"Shall I make it even harder?"
"No thanks. Ah, got it. This is the best I can do."
With those words, the scene sharpened, becoming as detailed as reality, though the colors seemed slightly muted as if a brown filter had been laid over everything.
The blurry silhouette of the Original Undertaker's face became clear.
"..."
It was an ordinary child's face. Aside from the fact that his hat was a bit large and unusual, there were no distinguishing features. Just a regular elementary school boy.
Completely unaware that he was fated to endure thousands, no, tens of thousands of years in the future.
"...Is this really me?"
"Didn't the Baku tell you? They probably cross-referenced your name and personal info."
"Hmm."
"If you don't trust them, I can access the Baku's data myself and double-check for you."
I ignored that nonsense. "More importantly."
"Hm?"
"That woman holding hands with the boy here—she looks like my mother."
The elementary school boy was walking hand-in-hand with his mom. After confirming the appearance of the Original Undertaker, I immediately tried to examine her face as well, but...
"Why can't I see her face?"
Her face was missing.
More precisely, the "noise" Infinite Void had spread throughout the dream to restore the image wouldn't clear around her face. In the center of the noise, the words [404 - Not Found] flickered. It was probably Infinite Void's handiwork.
"Huh?" Infinite Void tilted its head at my question, already perched on a railing, swinging its legs. "Are you really asking because you don't know, sunbae? I thought you had a hunch."
"..."
"Time Seal. She's gone. There's no data left. Actually, her entire outfit should be covered in noise too, but I photoshopped it a bit to fill in the blanks."
So it was as I thought.
I wasn't particularly disappointed. How could I grieve over the loss of a memory that no longer existed?
"I see. Let's move on to the next dream."
"Yes, sunbae."
Using Infinite Void, I pressed on in search of the Original Undertaker.
Not only the 13 dreams I had already discovered, but in any dream where I could successfully restore the image, I tracked down more characters and unearthed their dreams as well.
At first, in the perspective of the dream's owner, the Original Undertaker was merely a distant extra walking past a store. But as I traced each connection in these dreams, his proximity to the dream owner changed.
From a 'customer who bought a hamburger with friends' to 'a kid who had a snowball fight near the same apartment' to 'a student in the neighboring class when I taught third grade' and, eventually, 'a casual friend of a friend who occasionally hung out with us'.
But then...
"Huh?"
Just as the Original Undertaker was about to go from 'friend of a friend' to 'close friend,' Infinite Void hit an invisible snag.
"Sunbae, this one's deleted too."
"Deleted? You mean Time Sealed?"
"Yeah. Look, your high school friend."
The friend walking home from school with the Original Undertaker was now distorted by noise, just like my mother. This time, not only the face but the entire body was covered in static, as if Infinite Void couldn't be bothered to edit it properly. In this hyper-realistic dreamscape, only the friend's outline stood out unnaturally, with the words [404 - Not Found] displayed over it.
In conclusion, the Original Undertaker wasn't actually walking home with a friend. To anyone else, it would look like he was smiling and talking to "empty space."
"Uhhh."
"..."
"Somehow, I think I know exactly where this is going."
The same pattern repeated over and over.
I could trace the Original Undertaker as a 'friend of a friend,' a 'neighbor of a neighbor,' or even someone in the next apartment. But no matter how close I got, at the final step, I always hit a [404] error.
No matter how precisely the dreams were restored, or how carefully I traced the human relationships, the result was always the same. In the end, the Original Undertaker would always be smiling and talking to "empty space."
In other words.
"Wow, sunbae, you really erased everyone around you, huh? How'd you even manage that?"
No one could get past a certain point with the Original Undertaker.
He had no family. No relatives. No friends. No acquaintances.
Only the remnants of distant relationships—those that could barely be considered extras—remained, like vestigial organs.
In other words, from the perspective of the people in the world, the Original Undertaker was just an extra in their lives, too.
He had no ties.
No connections.
He was the nameless one.
This wasn't just in the legal sense of the term. In the truest, most objective sense, the Undertaker of the first cycle was entirely excluded from the web of human relationships on Earth. It was almost awe-inspiring how perfectly he had erased himself from existence, leaving no connections behind.
"Aaah. No wonder I was powerless against you when I was Infinite Void. This explains so much."
In a hospital hallway, Yo-hwa leaned against the wall, watching the sparse crowd of patients passing by. This place was presumably where my mother had once worked. But it didn't provide much useful information. All I could deduce was that my mother had likely been a nurse. And even that conclusion was met with a [404] error.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, when I was a Void God, I governed over all matter and data, right? But compared to other humans, sunbae had no data at all. I couldn't calculate your behavioral patterns."
"Hmm."
"And on top of that, that weapon you carry around—Do-hwa, right? It gives off a similar vibe. Seriously, your compatibility with me was awful. It's practically cheating."
I stood next to Infinite Void in the hospital hallway, arms crossed, muttering to myself. "...Something feels off."
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"If I had truly gone this far to erase everyone around me with the Time Seal, then there should be Crystal Tombstones everywhere related to those people."
"Crystal Tombstones...? Oh, you mean those things only you can see, and that no one can enter without your permission?"
I nodded. "I've searched nearly all the Crystal Tombstones in Korea, but I haven't found a single one belonging to my family, my friends, or any of my acquaintances. Isn't that odd? Given how much we've explored, at least one should've turned up by now."
"Hmm..."
"And more importantly, the fact that I don't have any memories from before the 4th cycle is strange as well. Even if I erased my mother with the Time Seal, I should still retain memories of her."
"Wasn't that thousands of years ago? Isn't it natural to forget?"
"No, it's not."
I used my Aura like ink to write words into the air.
"I gained the Complete Memory ability in the 5th cycle. At that point, I shouldn't have completely forgotten about my mother. Not enough time had passed for that."
"Right..."
"So, by the 5th cycle, all the memories I had should have been permanently preserved by the Complete Memory ability. Things like my mother's face from the dream, or memories of my family." I frowned. "It makes no sense that I'd completely forget such important memories."
"...Oh?"
Infinite Void's expression grew intrigued.
"...You're right. By now, it might be a distant past, but to the 4th cycle version of you, this was only a few years ago. No matter how bad a person's memory is, it's impossible to completely forget family and friends."
"Exactly." My eyes narrowed. "There's another reason why the Undertaker of the 1st cycle has been completely erased."