The Savior Ω VIII
The one who is reborn again and again. A reincarnator (還生者).
The one who deceives like an illusion. An illusionist (幻生者).
An existence where two meanings overlapped.
The prison she had sealed herself within was cleaved in two by a single strike from Emit Schopenhauer, the Swordmaster.
And then.
[Brother.]
The fragments of the shattered glass prison scattered through the air.
Before the mirror shards could even fall to the ground, something wrapped tightly around the nape of my neck.
[Go Yuir.]
It was Yuri's illusion.
The scent of apples rushed sharply into my nostrils.
A voice and gestures that Yuri must have been born with in some reincarnation embraced me from behind, whispering softly.
It wasn't just me who was experiencing this.
[Father.]
[You came all this way to find me?]
[Yo-hwa unni.]
[I'm so happy.]
[Ye-ji.]
The entire strike team.
Hundreds of illusions, hundreds of reincarnations that had sprouted from everyone's shadows were breathing sweet whispers, enchanting the strike team members.
Giggles scattered through the air.
"...!"
The sound of gasps being drawn in echoed unevenly from all directions.
A comfort overwhelmingly richer than any sense of duty to save this world. The sensation of the emptiness in their hearts, the one they'd been searching for since birth, being filled with warmth.
[Let's become one.]
No matter how firm their minds were, their brains melted dizzily at those gentle whispers.
Only ten seconds had passed since the glass prison shattered.
The battle hadn't even truly begun, yet the strike team was on the verge of being completely neutralized.
Groans burst like lumps across the battlefield.
"Ugh...!"
"Everyone, snap out of it! This is an illusion!"
[Ahaha. An illusion? Father, that's too much.]
"Ah, aah. Aah—"
It was hard to find any vitality in the voices of the awakeners trying to rally themselves.
Only then did I realize.
Even in her normal state, Yuri naturally maxed out favorability scores with people around her as easily as breathing, but even that was actually the result of Yuri exercising considerable restraint.
'Just hearing the voice feels like my nerves are burning up.'
For the reincarnator who had lost even the minimal will to remain human, there was no such thing as self-restraint.
Hungry, so she devours.
That level of instinct. With a desire no different from gluttony, the illusions of the reincarnator stroked the strike team members, caressed them, and pulled them close.
"Ji-won!"
In the torrent of pink temptation, there were only two people who maintained their sanity from the very beginning.
One was the legendary skeptic who had strangled the reincarnator when she was just a newborn baby, telling her not to live in this painful world.
"Yes. Mr. Matiz."
The other was someone who couldn't be satisfied with such illusions, someone who desired the one and only real Yuri in this world, the false Regressor.
Ji-won clasped her hands together in prayer.
At that moment, an aurora spread across the ground.
"Haa...!"
"Th-thank you! Team Leader!"
Poof! Pwoong! As the aurora's waves rushed all the way to the distant horizon, the sound of bubbles bursting echoed from all directions.
The seven-colored aurora swept across the ground, completely erasing the shadows cast by the strike team members.
When the shadows disappeared, the forms of Yuri that had been manifesting through them also faded away.
"Nice! Ji-won unni!"
Dok-seo shouted enthusiastically.
Just moments ago, she'd been drooling and delighted by Yuri's touch, but as befitting someone who was a true possessor, the evidence of that shameful display had long since been scrubbed away with the back of her hand.
"See that! As long as mental manipulation doesn't work, it doesn't matter if she's reincarnated billions of times, she's nothing! You pink tentacle brainwashing one-trick!"
"It seems this strike team has a culture where the leader-type humans voluntarily summon cliché anomalies..."
"Huh? What are you saying, old man—"
Dok-seo's words didn't continue.
"—? ...!!"
Her lips kept moving, but no sound came out. No, the entire battlefield had fallen completely silent.
"..., ...!"
"...!"
A soundless outcry.
It wasn't just voices, even footsteps couldn't be heard. Hundreds of awakeners were present, yet not a single breath could be heard flowing.
It was an eerily cold silence, but I wasn't flustered at all.
'It's one of Yuri's abilities.'
[Sound Seal].
Go Yuri, who had lived countless lives, possessed countless abilities.
Most of them, even Yuri herself couldn't clearly remember. Because she lacked the ability to remember everything.
Even if she couldn't remember them, the fact that the abilities existed was undeniable.
That's why Yuri in her prime didn't fight with the intention of 'I'll activate this or that ability.'
If she thought 'it's a bit noisy.'
Just that alone, and the sound would disappear.
A state infinitely close to omnipotence.
[..., ...!]
The seal on sound wasn't limited to just voices. The telepathy from the Saintess holding position in the rear was neutralized instantly as well.
The Saintess wasn't slow to catch on either.
[Everyone, please don't panic.]
The Saintess quickly grasped the situation and switched the method of conveying messages from 'sound' to 'text.'
[Currently, the enemy appears to have chosen a strategy of neutralizing us rather than attacking us directly.]
[However, we've prepared for every contingency.]
[Even if this is an unfamiliar battle, please trust the command and engage in combat.]
Tatatatatak—
Text appeared before my eyes in rapid succession without a hint of lag.
The Saintess was probably mixing in time stops herself, saving even the scraps of time wasted on typing.
[Please attach the puppet threads spread by Puppeteer Ha-yul to your wrists or forearms.]
[In case text transmission is also blocked, please combine messages according to the colors glowing from the puppet threads and act accordi■■■, ■■■.]
[■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■■■ ■■■—]
Bzzzzt.
The text became scrambled with black noise.
Soon, the text was completely cut off.
When I turned my head to look in the Saintess's direction, I realized no one was there.
But I felt someone gripping my other hand tightly.
"Mr. Undertaker."
Time stopped.
Before I knew it, the Saintess had approached right next to me and was holding my hand. Beads of sweat had formed on the brow of her face, which had maintained its expressionless mask throughout.
"What's happening? Ah, sound works here."
"If I stop time, it seems I can resist Yuri's authority to some extent. But I don't know how long even this will last."
"What?"
"Yuri has the ability of [Time Acceleration]."
The Saintess let out several groans as if the burden was too much.
"If I hadn't hurriedly stopped time just now, dozens of years would have passed in an instant by this place's standards."
"...!"
"No matter how slowly time flows in this dream within a dream, if decades pass, there's no answer. In the outside reality, White Night would have arrived, and our operation would have immediately failed."
This was insane.
The Saintess's arm gripping my hand was trembling with small aftershocks even now.
A nasal grunt. Even at this very moment, [Time Stop] and [Time Acceleration] were clearly fighting for dominance.
"Did Yuri have... this kind of ability too?"
"Something similar existed. But that was only accelerating the flow of thought at most. To actually speed up time itself like this... Ah!"
I immediately realized the cause of the abnormality.
"This isn't reality, it's Go Yuri's divine realm! It's no different from the depths of her dreams. So as a result, [accelerating the flow of thought] has become equivalent to [accelerating the flow of time]!"
"...The ability to dream faster."
The Saintess groaned.
"We misjudged. We formulated our operation based on the abilities Go Yuri possessed in reality... If your speculation is correct, Mr. Undertaker, those abilities will have become far more severe."
"Yes. But there's no need to panic. Originally, it's natural for Outer Gods to become more powerful in their own divine realms."
"That's also… true."
Bzzzzt.
The Saintess's voice became distorted with noise.
What she'd just said was also fragmented. Like 'that's/also/true.'
Even she, the most powerful awakener, was gradually being pushed back. By the nightmare of red flesh. Humanity's oldest dream. By the authority of the Outer God, the reincarnator.
"Regression might be the right answer in the current situation."
The Saintess spoke with difficulty, grinding her teeth.
"Since we've scouted the enemy's true strength, this cycle had meaning too. Leaving the strategy to the next Ms. Dok-seo and Mr. Undertaker might also..."
"It's always an available option. But we can't presume that the data from this cycle will only flow in our favor."
The reincarnator Yuri also had abilities like [Memory Reading].
"No matter what operation we devise, the moment we make contact with the illusions manifested from the shadows, our side's information immediately leaks to theirs."
"Ah..."
"The reason the reincarnator is sealing sound and text first and accelerating time also stems from that. After completely reading through our operation, she's chosen the most efficient route."
"Counter-strategizing our strategy..."
Truly the worst possible enemy.
"Retreating here won't give us any answers."
It wasn't for nothing that we'd reached the conclusion that Yuri needed to seal herself.
Even if all of humanity except Yuri united, opposing this reincarnated monster would be hopeless.
The reincarnator couldn't even carelessly commit suicide.
For her, suicide was the start of another life, and at the end of that beginning, an even more powerful authority would be waiting to awaken.
The Saintess looked up at me with worried eyes.
"Then I'll leave it to your decision, Mr. Undertaker."
"..."
"We prepared as much as we could, but ultimately, the only person who has a perspective equal to that reincarnating being is you, Mr. Undertaker."
...There wasn't much time left.
In the first place, we'd jumped into this dream within a dream to overcome the ridiculous constraint of 'one minute time limit.'
Now that the opponent had also noticed this and begun counterattacking, the battle would come down to a clash of pure strength.
The current Saintess had joined up with Dok-seo early to level up intentionally, which was why she was managing to hold on, but at this rate—
'Wait.'
A flash of lightning suddenly struck through my mind.
'Divine realm. Intentional leveling?'
I opened my mouth.
"One more layer."
"Yes?"
"Let's descend one more layer down."
The Saintess's sweat-soaked hair tilted slightly.
"One more layer... underground? I'm sorry, Mr. Undertaker. Wasn't this the terminal station for the divine realm where Ms. Yuri resides?"
"For Yuri, yes."
I raised my finger.
My index finger pointed to my own chest.
"But wouldn't I be different?"
"...What?"
"Since there's no one else listening besides you right now, Ms. Saintess, I'll tell you this. I was originally someone with a high risk of corruption, and after living through all of Yuri's lives exactly as she did, I've truly stepped outside the bounds of an ordinary human."
"..."
"This place is where Yuri's memories have descended all the way to her unconscious and taken root. Even Yuri, whose memory is ambiguous, was able to unfold a divine realm of this magnitude. Then... what about my dream within a dream, where I remember all those lives?"
"..."
The Saintess's face became peculiar. An expression that was exactly half seriousness and half absurdity.
"Um, in the end, that's basically admitting that you yourself are currently corrupted..."
"That's why I tried to get sealed away and disappear quickly. Dok-seo is to blame for dragging things out with hundreds of retries from there."
"Ms. Dok-seo did that out of a single-minded desire to save you, Mr. Undertaker."
"Ms. Saintess. We don't have much time right now."
I spoke hurriedly.
"I'll fall asleep first, so connect all available personnel through Ha-yul's puppet threads. And talk to Yo-hwa in advance, so that the moment [Time Stop] is released, you need to bring the strike team members into my dream. Understood?"
"...Okay."
The Saintess stopped nagging. Her will to not ask further questions after having already entrusted me with operational command was evident.
For a moment, the sensation of the Saintess holding my hand disappeared—
"Ms. Ha-yul. I spoke with Ms. Yo-hwa."
Having switched time stop on and off, the Saintess appeared before me again.
She was holding me with her right hand and Yo-hwa with her left. Yo-hwa had also been released from the constraints of time stop and was looking at me with a serious expression.
"Teacher. I heard the outline of the operation!"
"Good. Ms. Saintess, what's the time limit?"
"I only released it for a brief moment but already ten seconds have passed by reality's standards. Mr. Undertaker. Now we have to resolve everything within ten seconds."
I nodded.
"I'll fall asleep first. Please follow properly with the children."
"Understood."
"Yo-hwa, I'm counting on you."
"Okay!"
As Yo-hwa, who was currently acting as the master of the dream demons, interlaced her fingers deeply, my head became hazy in an instant.
'If this was Yuri's divine realm, then from now on the battlefield will shift to my divine realm.'
Of course, that didn't mean Yuri's authority would weaken.
As I'd told the Saintess, I remembered all of her lives, and relying on those memories, the reincarnator could demonstrate her abilities at any time.
However…
'Unlike Yuri's divine realm, [allies] that don't exist there will exist in my divine realm.'
Before I knew it, I had closed my eyes without realizing.
"Aha."
The moment I opened them.
"Ahaha, ahat—"
An orange ponytail swayed before my eyes.
A face that looked exactly like Yo-hwa.
But instead of a white uniform, a girl wearing a black uniform was smiling.
"Ahahahahahaha! Ahahahat! Ahahahaha—!"
Wild laughter.
Her face was dyed with excited exhilaration. Her eyebrows trembled with a thrill, and ecstasy surged from beyond her throat.
"Ahaha, see!"
Cheon Yo-hwa (天寥化).
"I was right! I was right, wasn't I! Ooh— Sunbae! Sunbae won! Of course there were many variables I didn't expect either... What does it matter! Either way, I bet on the winning side! That's all that matters!"
A former Regression Alliance member who barely maintained her existence precariously, only through me.
As the other strike team members followed one after another into the new battlefield behind me, Yo-hwa paid them no attention at all and grabbed my hand tightly.
"Welcome, Sunbae! Master of my divine realm! You really, truly worked so hard to get here! Yeah!"
The final strike team member.
Along with her twin sister, one half of the Taeguk, a fragment of the Outer God.
"The final battle! Let's finish it together!"
It was the moment the first and final strike team was completed.
-x-X-x-
The Savior Ω IX
"Mr. Undertaker. The number of people I could bring at once was limited, so a few were left behind."
Tap, the Saintess stepped forward lightly.
The ashen ground she stepped on was no ordinary place. A subspace unfolded solely based on my dream, my memories.
The divine realm of the false regressor.
"Still, I brought most of them—"
She paused.
Only now did the surrounding scenery finally register in the eyes of the Saintess, who had devoted herself to making this hastily revised operation a success.
"Good heavens. This place..."
"..."
She wasn't the only one who was at a loss for words.
The strike team members who had arrived in my divine realm simultaneously with the Saintess. Whether it was Seo-rin or Ha-yul, without exception, they all looked dumbfounded as they frantically looked around.
The first to open her lips was Ji-won.
"Hmm. There are a lot of corpses."
Next was Dok-seo.
"A-a lot? This isn't at that level! It's just... there's nothing but corpses?!"
Dok-seo's expression was accurate.
The bottom of the deepest unconscious.
And this place, which they'd descended to using me as a staircase, was simply the heart of a nightmare where corpses sprawled all the way to the horizon beyond.
A mountain of corpses in a sea of blood.
In this place where it seemed no words could seep through the crevices between the corpses, if we had to give it a name, only something like that would barely be permitted.
"Wow."
Ah-ryeon's eyes sparkled brightly.
She was already on her knees, rummaging through corpses. Even as blood seeped under her fingernails, she rejoiced like a child dyeing their nails with garden balsam.
"Th-this... looks exactly like me! It's my face! But there are leaves sprouting here and there on the face... It's the end of me after becoming a World Tree! Guild Leader!"
"Ugh."
Seo-rin made a disgusted expression.
"Why are you deliberately rummaging through something like that?"
"Huh? Th-this is Guild Leader's deepest heart, isn't it? And there are so many of my corpses here... Aren't you happy?"
"That's morbid. Really!"
That's right.
This divine realm, the 'Cemetery of the Mountain of Corpses in a Sea of Blood,' was practically no different from revealing the world as I saw it.
How could the corpses collapsed here be only Ah-ryeon's?
The Saintess was stepping on the Saintess's forearm, Seo-rin's heels stepping back crushed Seo-rin's cheek, and at the edge of Ji-won's gaze hung Ji-won's severed torso.
"Unni...?"
Amid all this, Yo-hwa looked with a blank face at the reinforcement newly arrived in this divine realm.
"Yep. Guten Tag. Meine Schwester?"
Grin.
Yo-hwa, receiving the gaze, waved her hand. With her other hand, she still had her fingers tightly interlaced with mine.
"A-are you really my unni? I mean, my twin?"
"Yo-hwa. What exactly is 'real'?"
"Huh?"
"For me, the only person who truly exists in this world is Sunbae here. Ah, of course you exist too! For convenience's sake, for convenience."
"...What?"
"In short, if they're someone remembered by Sunbae, who is a true human, then they too can be called a true human. You know trickle-down economics, right, my little sister? That's a concept that applies to humanity's humanness too."
"..."
"In that sense, having received the trickle-down, or rather, having opened my mouth wide directly under the faucet and gone chug-chug drinking the flowing water, this body is truly a human among humans. You could call me Adam's Eve. Final answer? Yes! Final answer!"
"...Ah, I see. So that's the kind of human she was."
Understanding, resignation, and a bit of contempt settled on Yo-hwa's expression. Sisterly affection had built up at super speed.
Not long after the separated family reunion, an earthquake occurred from beyond the horizon of corpses.
Kruuuuuung...!
The strike team members' gazes all turned simultaneously.
Kruuung, kruuuuuuung...!
Corpses swept up in the tremors scattered through the air.
Some corpses shot up to the sky, then fell bizarrely slowly.
Thud! There were also corpses that flew right up to our noses and added one more to the pile. Ah-ryeon, who happened to be nearby, flinched.
"Hii, hiiiik!"
The turbulence beyond the horizon was endless, and the corpses flying toward us didn't decrease either.
All those corpses had Yuri's face mounted on them.
"..."
Mounted meant, literally, mounted.
The corpses had different genders and different body types.
Only the faces. Where different expressions should have been, 'Yuri's facial skin' was mounted.
It was the most cruel prayer.
All the anonymous lives spent on reincarnation wriggled and chanted a single name like a Buddhist prayer.
"It's coming."
Someone's murmur.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
The horizon writhed and squirmed, then red flesh rose up from it.
Its size was immeasurable.
Even the sky that had seemed endlessly vast became nothing but a frustrating background screen once the red flesh appeared, and the earth groaned with cramped square footage.
'Hello?' 'What is life.' 'Nice to meet you.' 'Ahaha.' 'Mother.'
Flutter—.
Whenever the giant tentacles undulated, ripples spread across their surface. Yuri's face, arms, legs, gestures. A temple incarnated as a lump of meat was singing a hymn.
It was mumbling that no one could understand.
However, to me, the master of this divine realm and someone who had received a tenfold song implanted in my heart by Hecate, it was clearly audible.
'Huh?' 'How many days do I have left to look at the sky and feel it's beautiful.' 'What a coincidence.' 'Guild Leader.' 'Let's become one.' 'Mr. Undertaker?' 'Once upon a time,' 'it was said.' 'Likewise.' 'Something only I can do.'
There was no great meaning in those murmurs.
Simply, because the reincarnators of the past who had already died had accumulated far too much compared to the living reincarnator of the present life, there were only gestures where the subject had reversed.
"Uuugh...!"
"I-it's too noisy!"
"Everyone, cover your ears!"
Unlike me, the strike team members who couldn't understand the Outer God's screams groaned in pain.
"Mr. Undertaker."
The Saintess spoke urgently.
"We don't know when 'that thing' will use its authorities again. It seems to have gotten even stronger."
"It's not a misconception. Right now, Yuri and I are in an inseparable relationship. When she enters my divine realm, Yuri is strengthened as well."
"...We entered here following Mr. Undertaker's proposal, but do you have a countermeasure?"
"Of course I do."
I smiled.
"Don't you understand yet?"
"What?"
"Yuri isn't the only one who becomes stronger here. I know not only Yuri's life but all of your lives as well. For instance, the Saintess from a cycle where she fell and became a priestess of an Outer God."
"...!"
The Saintess's eyes widened.
"Then...? Wait a moment."
The Saintess raised her arm and spread her fingers.
"...This is impossible."
A moment later, a rare shadow of shock settled on her expression.
"It's true. Even if I stop time, I'm not tired at all. I feel like I could respond to the enemy's time acceleration as much as I want... that kind of feeling."
"Ah! So you finally understand how Sunbae's divine realm works!"
Yo-hwa giggled. She seemed excited, as if dopamine had been going crazy since earlier.
"That's right! As long as Sunbae permits it, in this divine realm everyone can demonstrate their abilities at their prime!"
"Prime..."
"Yes! Our Sunbae isn't a support genius for nothing! Tricks like this are possible too!"
Yo-hwa finally released her interlaced fingers. Instead of grabbing mine, she firmly grabbed her twin sister's hands.
Both of them.
"Huh?"
"Yo-hwa, don't worry. After this operation ends anyway, we'll all get one shot of Udumbara detox and return to being human."
"Wh-what are you... saying?"
"Mmm, my little sister. It means this is our first and last stage where we can run wild without worrying about the aftermath."
The corners of Yo-hwa's eyes curved like half-moons.
"O Taeguk."
At that moment.
"Father and mother and child of all things. Descend here and now."
The world twisted.
Among the corpses forming the mountain of corpses in a sea of blood, only the corpses of Yo-hwa and Yo-hwa, just the two of them, surrounded the sisters as if caught in a whirlpool.
The corpses made 'hands.' Hands grasped other corpses' hands, and corpses without hands had their toes twisted to act as hands instead.
The corpses bloomed endlessly like flowers. The outline or form of bodies had no meaning. Arms sprouted from stomachs, and chests vomited out faces.
"Ah."
Yo-hwa's eyes wavered.
If even the outline of herself was like this, what about other things?
An authority that toys with all boundaries. When the power that mocks all things entered her hands, Yo-hwa couldn't help but convulse.
"This is..."
"The role originally assigned to us sisters."
Yo-hwa grinned.
Originally, in the early cycles, Yo-hwa had gained fame as a Necromancer.
Necromancy that broke down the boundary between life and death was, in fact, merely the most basic feat for Taeguk.
"Because one person can't handle it. The ancient god of our household and shitty Outer God bastard can only receive a complete descent in the body of twins."
"..."
"Our lives were ruined because of it, so if we get some benefit from it, who's going to say anything? Don't worry. This unni will escort you through everything step by step."
"...Yes. No, yeah. Please do. Unni."
"Alright. Shall we send a light jab as a greeting to our Sunbae who's been around much longer than us?"
One of the corpses drew a sword.
Even that sword had spontaneously generated from the corpse.
Pshhhk! Like an offering sacrificing itself, the corpse thrust the sword tip into where its heart should be.
The moment one offering sacrificed itself voluntarily.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Blood spurted from a corner of the red flesh that had been approaching from the horizon.
Since one spurt of blood boasted a quantity comparable to a river, the mountain of corpses in a sea of blood literally formed rivers of blood.
"Hmm."
Yo-hwa's eyes narrowed.
"I tried to erase that ability first since [Teleportation] seemed like it would be the most annoying. But something else got erased?"
"Teleportation was probably possessed by the Yuri who remained in reality, not that lump of flesh."
I said.
"How did you erase the reincarnator's ability?"
"Well, um. It's intuitive, so it's hard to explain. I'm implementing a simulation of the reincarnation where teacher Yuri awakened teleportation, then overwriting it with a scenario where I stab her to death with a sword."
"...Is the principle the same as Do-hwa?"
"One more shot."
Pshk! This time, three of the corpses dancing in a circle around the Yo-hwa sisters simultaneously drew swords and sacrificed themselves.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Three strands of the red flesh's tentacles melted like candle wax. The source of the blood flowing onto this earth was the tentacles that died like that.
"I just killed [Sound Seal], [Memory Reading], [Sensory Contamination]. How's that, Sunbae? Amazing, right?"
"Now I understand why Go Yuri tried so desperately to split Taeguk into Infinite Void and Mastermind."
"Right, right. Originally, the final boss wasn't that lump of meat but us sisters..."
Psssssssht!
The corpses that had been dancing in a circle perfectly fine suddenly had their chests split open. Soon their hearts burst and they collapsed with thuds.
At a glance, it reached six hundred corpses.
"...Mm."
Yo-hwa's confident smile became ambiguous.
"Teacher Y-Yuri is reacting a bit strongly? Running the simulation is tough."
"...Don't tell me that to kill three Go Yuris in the simulation, six hundred of you were killed in reverse?"
"A mistake, a mistake! This is just a small happening that occurred because I'm not yet familiar with handling Taeguk. Ah, the more powerful abilities are concentrated in the relatively later reincarnations, so it's not easy—"
Thud. Thud thud!
Even while speaking, the chests of the corpses in the circle kept splitting without rest. Yo-hwa was horrified at the alarming speed of the open-heart surgeries.
"Ah, damn! Are you planning to dump everything on us sisters and just play around?! What's the strike team doing! What's the healer doing! Hurry! Heal!"
"H-hwaa."
Ah-ryeon responded in her usual blank voice.
"It's not even alive, and h-healing something that's already dead is my first time too..."
What happened at her fingertips was completely unlike usual.
Srrrrk—
Flowers bloomed from the corpses of the twin sisters buried face-down in the mountain of corpses in a sea of blood. From split chests, from where hearts had burst.
Soon the spider lilies formed riverbanks.
The corpses stained red rose up wriggling again and, with hands clasped together, joined the procession of the eternal circle dance.
"Ooh!"
Yo-hwa let out an exclamation.
"As expected, Ah-ryeon! The best contaminated one and best healer in Sunbae's party! I believed in you!"
"Being told that by someone I'm meeting for the first time... doesn't give me any impression at all..."
"Anyway, with this the perpetual motion machine is complete! Now then, without dragging it out, let's quickly crush Yuri-sensei's authorities—."
Right then.
A tentacle extended from the red flesh that had definitely been straddling the horizon and struck the circle dance.
"Ack."
Divine speed.
The sisters didn't even have time to react.
The circle dance of corpses that seemed like it would continue forever had half of it evaporate.
Even this was only because I quickly stepped forward and deflected in one stroke the red flesh's tentacle that had been aimed at 'this side.'
If I hadn't stepped forward, the tentacle would have struck not the periphery of the circle dance but the center, meaning the Yo-hwa sisters.
"S-Sunbae."
"You drew too much aggro. The opponent is the most sublime and cruel Outer God. I understand that winning at a 0.1% gambling table makes dopamine secrete like crazy, but if you make one wrong move, you'll be gone in one hit."
Before my words even ended, tentacles began flying one after another. This time not one but tens of thousands.
[I'm.]
The majority of them were slaughtered midway.
[I'm sorry, the nullification-type abilities.]
Still tens of thousands of tentacles remained.
I gripped Do-hwa's handle tightly to fight against them, but I didn't need to take a step forward.
Kwaaarrrrrk!
The wave of tentacles that had been swung with momentum to sweep this side away exploded after being blocked by an 'invisible wall.'
The blood that burst as the tentacles shattered also didn't flow in the direction where our allies were.
The 'transparent barriers' became covered with liquids like a car window running through heavy rain.
"Phew."
Step.
A girl with hair as red as blood passed by my side and took one step forward.
Glancing back at this side, like someone convinced they existed at the coolest angle of their life.
"I."
She spoke with a nihilistic expression at a level that would slap Osamu Dazai's cheek and strike Edgar Allan Poe's chin.
"Heavenly Demon, descending."
"..."
LiteraryGirl's prime.
A.K.A. The author who beats up readers.
"Cool. Confirmed."
It was the second coming of the most wicked one.
-x-X-x-
The Savior Ω X
"I'm not afraid of anything anymore."
Heavenly Demon Dok-seo declared.
"Because… I'm not alone anymore!"
Some strike team members seemed moved upon hearing that line.
They probably understood it at face value as 'not alone = having other comrades.'
"..."
On the other hand, some awakeners who knew the original source of that line, including myself (especially the Japanese archipelago strike team members who had expertise in magical girls), had subtle expressions.
Since they possessed sufficient knowledge and culture, they couldn't help but wonder, 'What? Does she want to get her head smashed in?'
However, surprisingly, limited to just that moment, Dok-seo's words weren't simply a joke but contained a sliver of truth.
Really, Dok-seo wasn't alone.
[You crazy priestess!]
Clang—
A voice degraded by speakers rang out.
It was a sound coming from the laptop Dok-seo was holding under her arm.
Soon, from the laptop screen, a tiny dot-mass dwarf girl jumped, and wouldn't you know it, her body rapidly grew to the size of a real person in the blink of an eye.
[Please, stop piling up clichés already, I'm begging you! Do you even know how hard I'm working on repair construction to clean up after you?!]
The identity of the white-haired girl raging with nearly fainting fury was... why hide it.
The Admin of the Infinite Metagame, who had once trampled the world and made anomalies tremble, was there.
"Wow."
Yo-hwa nodded as if pleased.
"Who do we have here? If it isn't the loser of the previous era."
It was an unavoidable greeting method since her interlaced fingers were still fixed to her twin sister, but even in a different situation, it didn't seem like the greeting would have been particularly polite.
The Admin frowned at the rudeness of those words and actions.
[Huh? The shame of an Outer God who wagged its tail to mere humans should shut up.]
"Gasp! Fact violence hurts so much. But it's kind of a shame... If only it hadn't come from someone who cast 'I'll give you all my authority and dignity, just spare me' to mere humans, it would have hurt more."
[...]
"This side joined early and got the authentic human certification mark attached nice and bright, right? That side kept throwing in every last penny until the very end and signed the surrender document, right? Now when the subjugation is over, at best you'll be a blue checkmark VTuber, right?"
[...]
"Kekekekeke!"
At the miraculous roast battle, the Admin's shoulders trembled violently.
At least it was fortunate that red flesh tentacles were rushing in from all directions.
The noise was so loud, and the strike team members were busy reorganizing their formation, relying on the barrier the Heavenly Demon had deployed.
Dok-seo shouted.
"Hey! Admin! The output's not enough!"
[Haa. Really, how did I end up with my fate mortgaged to such an un-priestess-like priestess…]
"Shut up and do something about the tentacles! They're all tough with special effects attached!"
[Yes yes, I understand.]
The relationship between the two had a different color from what I was used to seeing.
I could infer the reason.
'Well, yeah. Those two broke through new routes while sharing joys and sorrows for over thousands of cycles.'
From Dok-seo's perspective, who had to run around alone to prevent the tragedy of June 17th, the Outer God trapped in the laptop must have been her first companion.
Originally, the modifier 'companion' could never have applied... but the Admin had also undergone considerable humanization through me.
If they'd faced countless hardships and deaths together, they couldn't help but develop into a close relationship.
'There are also stories I don't know. Even in this place I can call my own divine realm.'
Of course.
There were also stories I did know.
"Samcheon World."
Seo-rin raised her broom.
"We won't finish if we only defend. We'll pave the way first. Everyone, follow me."
"Yes!"
The Samcheon World strike team members formed a formation in unison and kicked off into the sky.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Countless tentacles sharply changed course. To intercept the witches of Samcheon World.
If they lost focus even slightly, they'd be buried under the tentacles' wave attacks and die, but the witches' flight didn't stop.
Dizzyingly, yet with movements trained through countless practices and actual combat, the witches of Samcheon drew geometric contrails.
Even if the opponent was a reincarnator who had repeated billions of lifetimes, the mission given to humanity's front line was fundamentally the same.
When fighting against Ten Legs, when shooting down Meteor Shower.
Pioneer the sky first.
"What are you all doing!"
Below the sky being scored with cracks by the witches, Yo-hwa, who had been directing the circle dance of corpses on the ground, shouted.
"Move together with Dok-seo and advance! Use the barrier as a shield to march forward! Aah, seriously. Unni! Don't do this here and move with me!"
"Ah. I'm a rear support type strategist..."
"Hurry!"
Baekwha Girls' High marched forward.
If each witch of Samcheon was a pilot embroidering the night sky with starlight, the warriors of Baekwha were legionnaires advancing with shields at the front like Roman soldiers.
Sky and ground.
Both sides split the red flesh in half to face it. Humanity's forces tightened more and more toward the horizon where the Outer God had taken position.
'They're fighting well.'
They weren't forces to be treated as mere extras in the first place. Hadn't they too temporarily regained memories of their past lives?
'Humanity's greatest veterans.'
My life as a regressor guaranteed it.
Throughout the countless regressions I'd experienced, not once had I insisted on a method of clearing 'alone', by 'solo running.'
'Perhaps for this very moment...'
I raised them.
'Was everything inevitable.'
When defending Busan. When occupying Sejong. When recapturing Seoul. When securing Pyongyang. When protecting Sinuiju.
"It's more doable than I thought! We can do this!"
"Whoa, what was that just now? There was nothing in the air but suddenly axes appeared."
"Time stop, you idiot! The Saintess said so!"
"If you're slower than the broom bastards, you'll die by my hands!"
These people had always been together on the front lines where I stood.
Therefore, they couldn't help but be the strongest army.
Ah—aa—a—
The conductor of the witches sang.
The cape flowing from Seo-rin's shoulders sparkled like the Milky Way.
The night sky burning by consuming lifespan.
—Ah—a—aaa—
That night sky's starlight would never fade.
Before anyone knew it, a few flower stems were wrapped around Seo-rin's body. Each time she created a chorus alone, black violets burst into bloom.
They were branches of the World Tree raised by Ah-ryeon.
A—aa—aa—
As much lifespan as was burned, the World Tree immediately returned that lifespan.
Literally a 'theoretically strongest' combination.
Though Seo-rin had once come to hate plants more than anyone, she was in fact an awakener who created the most exquisite harmony with the World Tree.
Aaaa—aaa—
Sky.
Her song didn't break off, and it was enough to turn the cosmos that had been covered in red flesh back into humanity's night sky.
The witches giggled with joy at the night sky their goddess had spread and raced even faster.
"Teacher!"
"Sunbae, we're roughly picking off and eliminating all the dangerous authorities!"
Ground.
On the surface, the corpses of humans who had met death countless times were dying again, dragging the red flesh's authorities as companions down to the underworld.
Just moments ago, the tentacles' numbers had rivaled the Sands of the Ganges, but they successively exploded, bursting blood everywhere.
The remaining offensive of the red flesh was half blocked by the Saintess, and the other half blocked by Dok-seo.
The gap created by half and half—between ground and sky, and therefore on the earth, humans advanced.
"Mr. Matiz."
Sea.
Ji-won vomited out a seven-colored sea.
"Please go ahead. I'll support you."
Once there was a girl who had wished for the world to simply sink without a word.
However, now at this moment, the sea spreading from her fingertips didn't submerge the humans advancing toward the horizon but instead raised them up.
Everywhere became thick with boundless aura.
The song pouring down from the night sky blessed them, and the aura spreading up from the sea permeated them.
"Embalmer! This is our chance!"
From the left, the Sword Star ran while shouting.
"Don't worry about the flank."
From the right, the Sword Marquess recited.
"No matter what happens, this master will see you to the front of that monster."
I nodded.
And ran.
Each time my steps met the aura spread to the horizon, ripples flowed.
The most joyful treading on duckweed to cross water.
Though I might not be the only one who had reached this state, the luxury of running across the Milky Way reflecting the night sky felt entirely mine alone.
'If I cut down that reincarnator, this miracle too will surely shatter like a midsummer night's dream.'
The scenery passed me by in an instant.
A certain magical girl who unfolded her umbrella and deployed her magic while crying out meow. A certain awakener roaring a lion's roar to encourage comrades nearby.
'Someday even these memories will all become hazy, and when we meet on a journey to some remote village, perhaps only a sense of déjà vu wondering who they were will remain.'
A certain younger one who built up muscles but was neither a dealer nor a tank but a supporter. A certain child creating puppet threads to slaughter the red flesh obstructing my path.
'Even if lonely, it's not a terribly lonely thing.'
It was the reason they were alive.
'If life is a single dream.'
When waking from the dream one day.
'I shall answer that it was not a nightmare.'
A long day's dream.
The long dream of a certain day of the week.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
Before I knew it, the red flesh had arrived right before my nose. Looking back, crossing one horizon had also been but a moment.
Crash!
Even driven to this point, did the reincarnator of countless eons truly have one final move?
A tentacle broke through even the assistance of the Saintess and Dok-seo and struck to pierce my heart.
'Yuri.'
I blocked that strike. Unable to withstand the pressure, the sword, Do-hwa, shattered in my grip.
But it didn't matter.
A certain blacksmith forged swords for me every time the world was reborn.
In valleys where all the craftsmen had died and disappeared, I always received swords as gifts.
Those gifts, linked to the number of times I'd met death, now formed a mountain of swords and forest of blades on this path.
I ran.
Discarding the broken sword, I newly pulled out one blade from among the swords embedded in my heart.
'Did you call me greedy?'
The red flesh's death throes didn't cease.
Swords broke. Broke again. The monstrous grip born from wounds that had completely destroyed certain lives surged like waves many times to crush me.
It was the reason a person needs a staff to cross a stream, and the reason the sword of Do-hwa transformed into a staff was placed in my hands.
'If greed is permitted to me.'
The red flesh that had lurked on the left, risen from the shadows aiming for a perfect opportunity, was blocked by Emit Schopenhauer.
'I only hope this world is not a nightmare for you either.'
The end of the tentacle that had tried to catch my death with its own suicide by bursting itself on the right was cut down by Hong Bi-cheong.
Oooo oooo oooo...!
I ran until the very end.
When sky, earth, and sea rippled.
I swung one blade.
——————...!
A scream.
The red flesh convulsed bizarrely. It struggled desperately to somehow scoop up the collapsing flesh, but the slash drawn there wouldn't heal.
The untimely death that became the void itself by looking into the void more deeply than anyone.
The old nightmare was crumbling.
I reached out my hand into the pouring blood. Firmly. There was a sensation wrapping around my fingertips.
"—Ah."
There, a girl with pink hair wore an expression like she was about to cry at any moment, her wrist caught by me.
One human surrounded by all these nightmares.
Now that the nightmares she could never escape from with just her own struggles were vomiting blood and washing away.
The hair that had been dyed pink was slowly, from the ends, returning to its original black color.
"Go Yuri."
Regression. Reincarnation.
There is a destiny by those names.
"You were the one who noisily woke me up every morning and whatnot."
Since a person's life is a journey leading to death, living each time inevitably means dying each time.
There was also someone who ultimately couldn't prevent destruction on that journey and finally let go of themselves.
"This time it's my turn to speak."
"Ah..."
"We slept in too late. You too. Me too."
Pulling her wrist.
I embraced the existence who had died with me and would eventually die with me.
"The night has ended now."
"..."
Go Yuri's expression crumbled.
And soon leaned that crumbling onto me.
"...Yes."
With a person's weight and a person's warmth, she let her voice flow from within my embrace.
"Yes… Yuir."
Anomaly:Reincarnator.
Aliases: Someone's family. Someone's younger sister. Someone's daughter. Salvation. Wound. Despair. Hope. Nightmare.
Threat Level: Lv.5 Outer God-class.
Subjugation complete.
"You were always the sun to me."
And then…
"My own, very own sun."
Someone's epilogue had begun.
-x-X-x-
The One Who Was a Regressor I
There is an epilogue.
White Night was prevented.
The Great Void that had scorched everything south of the Han River without missing a single cycle for thousands of times had disappeared without a trace.
Most people probably wouldn't even realize such an event was supposed to happen.
"Come on, come on. Everyone come here and get your Udumbara shot!"
Only 'most people,' mind you.
"You there, you're moving too slowly! Hurry up!"
Tweeeeet—!
Dok-seo blew her whistle. The awakeners grumbled but completed the quarantine measures under Dok-seo's leadership.
"Nya. If I get this shot, I'll no longer have cat ears, no more magical girl costume, and no more restriction of having to add meow at the end of my sentences..."
"So? You don't want it?"
"No, I fucking love it, meow."
For a long time, awakening had meant power.
It had been the exclusive domain of those who ruled with their wounds, having been wounded by the world.
Even for someone firmly united with the cause of protecting humanity, it was very difficult to voluntarily give up the power that had come into their own hands.
"Well, let me go first..."
Do-hwa does that difficult thing.
While several awakeners were hesitating, Do-hwa approached first before anyone else and held out her forearm.
"Oh."
Dok-seo smiled strangely.
"Are you sure, Director? Once you get this injection, Udumbara will bloom in your stomach for a bit, then turn into plum blossoms a few days later and get digested. That means you'll be saying goodbye forever to giving patients biological prosthetics."
"It doesn't matter..."
Do-hwa smirked.
"They'll manage on their own..."
"As expected of Director noona! Alright, then this will sting for a moment!"
The great National Road Management Corps Director set an example first.
Next, the northern Saintess smiled brightly and voluntarily took the injection herself, so there was no one who could be greedy alone.
'And the memories from the previous cycle still exist, albeit faintly.'
Those who had desired peace more than anyone.
They were people who recalled, even if dimly, the thousands of deaths they'd experienced.
Now, if the last remaining void poison in the world was none other than their own abilities, they were ready to willingly return to everyday life.
After all the awakeners had received their vaccination shots, the final turn came to me.
"..."
However, when giving me the injection, Dok-seo's expression was somehow shifty.
The moment I was about to ask why she was making that face, Dok-seo quickly pulled her head back and shouted to the awakeners around.
"Alright! I borrowed this abandoned school from Mayor Sang-guk for a whole week! Inside the school there's a buffet and tons of alcohol prepared for us victors, so enjoy to your hearts' content!"
"Oooooh!"
"As expected of Dok-seo! I believed in you!"
"Author-nim, I love you!"
The party began.
June's temperature was neither too hot nor too chilly. Even if hot, the wind would cool it enough, and even if cold, the alcohol would warm it enough.
The party continued even after night fell. They had that much to share with each other.
"Hey, let's record our conversations on video before the memories disappear!"
"Oh. That's a good idea?"
Here and there, awakeners busied themselves creating their own little time capsules of memories.
Even at this very moment, as alcohol and laughter flowed into the night sky's air, the memories of the dream within a dream that had briefly colored their minds were gradually fading.
Literally a midsummer night's dream.
If only they could step foot into the dream within a dream again, the memories would return vividly, but that abyss had already disappeared.
"Saintess Ah-ryeon! I, we really owe you so much, but to think we'll forget like this... sob, tears are..."
"Please just remember that our devotion was sincere! Lord Saintess!"
"Ah. Yes, yes..."
In one corner of the playground, those who had been holy knights of the Eastern Holy State were sobbing.
When they saw me approaching, they stopped crying with an 'oh.'
"Lord Undertaker! Welcome!"
"You must have a drink with us too!"
"Hehe. Guild Leader. These mister's hearts are too hot... P-please save me."
I smiled wryly while sharing drinks with them.
"I'm grateful you welcome me, but will you be alright, everyone?"
"Hm? Alright about what?"
"The Eastern Holy State, led by Mo Gwang-seo Christ, was ultimately a satellite state I manipulated from start to finish. Even if you're angry that I deceived you, I have nothing to say."
"Ah."
One of the holy knights nodded.
Once, when a monk named Seok-hwa had performed self-immolation, he was the holy knight who had guided him, and on SG Net he used the nickname like a kind one.
"Well, we were fanatics. But anyway, didn't the grace of the Saintess who healed and cared for us also originate from you, Lord Undertaker?"
"The north was a forsaken land of death until the Saintess came anyway."
Another holy knight spoke. He was from North Korea.
"Even though it's almost faded now, I remember. Winter was too cold. It was really the first time I'd been that hungry in winter..."
"It was hell. I don't know about others, but there's no way we'd be angry at the Miss Saintess or Lord Undertaker!"
I hesitated for a moment, then silently held out my glass. The holy knights laughed and clinked glasses.
"Cheers!"
"Hehehe... G-Guild Leader. Please save me. These people have been chugging alcohol nonstop since broad daylight... bweeeh."
"The Saintess is vomiting!"
"Get water! Water!"
People were horrified.
Since there was no way I had a fetish for the vomiting heroine trope that was long past its heyday, I quickly fled to another location.
"Ah. Undertaker."
"Oh? Isn't it Teacher."
However, there is no paradise in places you flee to.
The place I happened to encounter was where Seo-rin and Cheon Yo-hwa, that is, the children of Samcheon World and Baekwha Girls' High, were sprawled out.
It was truly a tragic scene.
Not just one or two, but over a dozen people were swimming on the floor.
"Hey. What are you guys doing?"
"Us? Uh, competing."
Seo-rin replied nonchalantly. Hiccup. The lighting was dim so I hadn't noticed, but even while answering, Seo-rin's face was flushed red and the smell of alcohol wafted strongly.
"Competing... suddenly?"
"It's not sudden, Teacher. Hic. If the kids' memories disappear, the rivalry we've fought over for tens of thousands of years will disappear too... That's, that's—"
"A shame?"
"No! We have to land the final blow!"
Yo-hwa's eyes flashed.
"The capital of the Korean Peninsula is Sejong! This is just official, official! How dare, you know? Something like Busan! Hm? To match us! Can it even."
"Huh? If you combine all the cycles, the period when Busan was the capital, hiccup. Is the longest among all the capitals of all countries in the Korean Peninsula ever? Hiccup."
"..."
They were really having the most useless debate of their lives.
"Teacher, which of the two does Teacher think..."
"Oh my. Dok-seo told me to come but I completely forgot about our appointment. I can't be late from here, so I'll go ahead."
"Teacher?!"
If I stayed still, I'd definitely taste hell pushed by those two's nagging, so I hurried and ran.
From behind, the sound of my name being called along with crash-bang sounds could be heard, but I cleanly ignored it.
Obviously it must have been the noise of Samcheon World and Baekwha Girls' High fighting. Yeah. Of course.
"Hm?"
At least the part about having a late-night appointment with Dok-seo wasn't a lie.
However, on the stairs leading up to the school rooftop (truly an otaku-like location choice befitting Dok-seo), I encountered an unexpected person.
It was Yu Ji-won.
"Oh my. Mr. Matiz. I thought you'd be enjoying the wild party on the playground, where are you hurrying to?"
"Ji-won, what are you doing here? The National Road Management Corps members should be drinking over there."
"I'm enjoying time alone."
Swish.
Ji-won shook her paper cup.
"Of course, until just a moment ago it wasn't alone but two, though."
When I turned my head, on the windowsill she was leaning against, one ownerless paper cup sat forlornly.
I was puzzled.
"Were you drinking together? Just the two of you?"
"Yes."
"That's unusual. I barely remember you drinking with anyone other than me. Who was it?"
"It was Ji-soo."
"..."
"Yes. The child who was my adopted daughter."
Ji-won shook the wine bottle.
"How about it? Would you like a glass?"
"Sure."
She poured wine for me. We toasted without saying anything to each other.
Rather than clinking cups, it was closer to briefly touching them.
"Ji-soo also participated in the final subjugation battle, but didn't directly engage in combat. She observed only me throughout."
"...I see."
"Yes. And a little while ago, before the memories of past lives faded, she came to find me."
I closed my mouth.
The relationship between Yu Ji-won and Kim Ji-soo was a problem entirely for those two to take responsibility for.
My involvement had already ended long ago, and I was no longer in a position to give advice this way or that.
How the story concluded—the decision of whether to tell that ending also rested with them, not me.
So I waited.
For Ji-won's words. Or silence.
"..."
As if reading my thoughts, Ji-won faintly smiled.
That single layer of smile seemed to turn back the date of the air between us to a summer slightly older than June 17th.
"She told me she was grateful."
"Grateful..."
It was such an unexpected statement.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Kim Ji-soo's life was ruined by Yu Ji-won. And yet, grateful?
"In cycles where I didn't operate the Misfortune Workshop, Kim Ji-soo died without a sound or rumor. By anomalies. Even those memories of death seem to have suddenly surfaced in the depths of that dream within a dream."
"..."
"However, the gratitude Ji-soo spoke contained half sincerity and half resolve. Can you guess what kind of resolve?"
I thought briefly, then said.
"...I think Ji-soo conveyed her gratitude first before demanding an apology from you. Someone who wants to receive sincerity from another person, unless they're a con artist, needs to show their own sincerity first."
"Exactly right."
Wind blew from the window. Ji-won swept her long hair with the back of her hand.
"So I also said I was sorry."
"..."
"Not because of feelings of regret. It wasn't a judgment that apologizing here would resolve the grudge and be advantageous to me... either."
A murmur flowed.
"Simply, I couldn't do for Ji-soo what Mr. Matiz had done for me in my childhood. I apologized regarding that."
"..."
"I thought it was perfect handling. As Ji-soo said, I operated the Misfortune Workshop by selecting only children who would meet tragic deaths if I didn't intervene."
Ji-won said.
"I built the justification that no matter what misfortune was given, as long as they could become awakeners, as long as they could avoid unjust deaths, that was enough."
Indeed, Ji-won's logic was solid.
She had even calculated the case of her own failure, showing the seasoned wisdom of guarding herself to avoid being caught as much as possible.
"But thinking about it, it wasn't much different from what the world did to me in my childhood."
"..."
"Regarding that point alone, I could sincerely apologize. I consider it a painful mistake. Thus, I apologized."
"I see."
"Yes."
"What did Ji-soo say?"
"After hearing my words, she answered that she understood. Then she bowed her head, said thank you again, and left."
"..."
"She's a strong and upright child. Even if her memories fade, she'll carry on with the strength of her character."
"Yes. She definitely will."
Wind blew again.
Until now, all stories had occurred in places where I was present.
No, I couldn't help but be present wherever stories occurred.
Because I was a regressor who repeatedly lived countless lives.
'Now stories I don't know will arise.'
If defining someone as 'you are this' in a story, are the power and authority of a regressor.
Finally, days were continuing where my authority itself had let go.
'However...'
There existed not just stories I alone told, but also stories shared with each other.
I patted Ji-won's shoulder.
Ji-won blinked. Then silently leaned her head on my shoulder.
"Mm."
"What are you thinking about?"
"Indeed, I think the ring of [Mr. Matiz] suits me."
Ji-won looked up at me.
"Thank you for always waiting until I make a mistake. Mr. Matiz."
"...I'm sorry for repeatedly assigning you the role of Leviathan's priestess."
"No."
A small nod.
"That was the second fortune given to my life."
"Second? What was the first?"
"Being born."
Ji-won smiled.
With a smile shown only to me.
"I'm happy to have been born into a world where you exist. Mr. Matiz."
After having various conversations with Ji-won and parting, I climbed the stairs.
Opening the door to the rooftop, the appointed place—
"Ooh. Mister, good night. Good night. Welcome."
Dok-seo was monopolizing the spacious rooftop.
No. This too, just like Ji-won's case earlier, had some flaws in calling it entirely a place for herself alone.
"...Why did you put a beer can in front of the laptop? The Admin can't even drink it anyway."
"Hm? No? She's drinking it though?"
"What."
Dok-seo showed me the laptop screen.
Really, within the screen, a white-haired girl made of dots was holding a beer can.
Why? What?
The cheap low-quality speaker stuttered.
Can't I drink or something?
"...No. That, no."
Your eyes are very displeasing.
"As long as you're happy."
If she could feel good calling cyber 2D dot beer alcohol.
"Upsy."
Dok-seo jumped from the rooftop flower bed. Not just jumping down normally, she flew into the air, did a double rotation, then landed stylishly like a gymnast.
I unconsciously clapped my hands.
"Wow. Our Dok-seo. It's clearly visible that you're on a different dimension from when I knew you."
"I'm pretty amazing. So... Can you guess why I called Mister out separately on this late night?"
"First, half the purpose would be wanting to have a secret conversation in the space called the school rooftop."
"Ah. A really important reason. Right."
Dok-seo giggled.
"And the other half?"
"...The Udumbara-plum blossom vaccine you developed together with Sword Marquess and Ah-ryeon. Since I got that shot, it's normal that I should also gradually lose my awakening ability and have my Complete Memory ability fade."
"Yeah."
"But my eyes still clearly see your dead forms. It's already past midnight. Even though other awakeners are gradually losing both abilities and memories."
"Right."
"..."
"What Mister is thinking right now is also right."
I closed my lips. Moonlight and clouds were playing tag with shadows on the rooftop.
I slowly opened my mouth.
"The injection you gave during the day. It was fake."
"Yeah."
Dok-seo nodded.
Endlessly lightly.
"More precisely, only the core members of the Regression Alliance, including Mister, received 'fake' injections."
"..."
"Do you understand what I'm saying? Mister."
Dok-seo smiled.
"Now the only awakeners left in this world are just us."
-x-X-x-
The One Who Was a Regressor II
"..."
All the awakeners had disappeared.
All the anomalies and the Void had been subjugated.
—Except for us.
Dok-seo confessed this fact calmly, as if she had been preparing for this moment for a long time.
I asked her quietly.
"When you say 'us,' who exactly are you talking about?"
"Hmm, let me see."
Dok-seo counted on her fingers.
"Dang Seo-rin, Cheon Yo-hwa, Yu Ji-won, Sim Ah-ryeon, Jeong Ye-ji, Lee Ha-yul, me, and lastly, Mister. That makes eight people!"
"..."
"Ah, if possible, I didn't want to give Go Yuri unni the inoculation either, but that unni had a 200% chance of degenerating into an anomaly if we didn't give it to her, you know? It couldn't be helped."
For reference, Yuri was currently asleep in the infirmary bed set up in this school.
Right after we subjugated the red flesh in the Dream Casino, Yuri's phantom that had been parasitizing in my head disappeared. Instead, Yuri's body finally manifested in reality.
However, perhaps her mental state was still unstable for various reasons. The Yuri who had returned to reality still hadn't opened her eyes.
Though it was worrying, it didn't feel ominous. Ah-ryeon had asserted there was no problem. She would regain consciousness eventually.
"Why?"
"Huh?"
That's why I had no choice but to ask.
"Dok-seo. This is your..., yes, an achievement that we've accomplished together. You found collaborators before June 17th arrived and stopped all the Voids, and you even rescued Yuri from the Dream Casino when you didn't even need to save her."
"Well, yeah?"
"This is a perfect happy ending. No, it goes beyond a simple happy ending..., it's the one and only true ending that you've won for yourself."
"Ehehe, right, right?"
"Then why."
I said.
"Why are you trying to leave this smudge called 'us' on a canvas where the final period is about to be placed so perfectly?"
"Because that's my true ending, Mister."
Dok-seo's answer came quickly.
There was an answer made not of logic's ink but of flesh and blood. It seemed Dok-seo had constructed her own answer after overcoming countless deaths.
"We haven't reached the complete answer yet, Mister. The Void still exists."
"What?"
It was something I couldn't understand.
But Dok-seo's eyes were transforming that belief, that certainty of 'don't you have some idea too?' into starlight and releasing it into the night air.
"I don't understand what you mean. The Outer Gods have all been neutralized. Once even the anchor called the Miko disappears, they won't be able to interfere with this world ever again. Ah, are you talking about the Admin of the Infinite Metagame? She's an exception, but she's already weakened enough that there's no need to worry..."
"No."
Dok-seo shook her head.
"Why did the Outer Gods invade our world in the first place, and exactly how was the Void born?"
"..."
"We still haven't obtained an answer to that first and final question. Do you know what this means, Mister?"
I closed my mouth.
Since Dok-seo didn't rush me, I could take enough time before returning an answer.
"...It means this kind of situation could happen again at any time."
"Right. Exactly. If we can't know the cause of the problem, we can't prevent it from recurring either."
"I've already given my answer regarding that. Just as Yuri and I, you, all of us together overcame the tragedy, even if the same thing happens, other children of future generations will—"
"Be able to overcome it just like us? Is that what you're saying?"
"...Yes."
"Right. Perhaps."
Dok-seo nodded.
"But... what if they can't?"
I flinched.
Because of the expression Dok-seo wore.
Deep, deep anguish and worry were contained in her red eyes.
A gaze where none of her usual playfulness could be felt.
The kind of regret that could only be shown by a human who had to walk through hell from the very starting point, just like Go Yuri or me, was carried on her eyelids.
"I had a pretty hard time."
"..."
"Of course, it wasn't only hard. There was the strategy guide left by the Dok-seos who died before me, and the strategy collection Mister gave me too. It was fun feeling like I'd become the protagonist of the world... but still, it was hard."
Dok-seo took off her hat.
Rustle, her short hair that still hadn't lost its red color flowed down.
"You had a hard time too, Mister."
"..."
"What about Go Yuri? No need to even mention it. The fact that we've reached this finish line is a miracle, Mister. I want to believe in the children of future generations too, and I will believe in them, but even so—"
There's no guarantee they'll succeed like us, is there?
"..."
"..."
Dok-seo didn't finish her sentence, and I didn't add anything either.
The very act of completing that sentence felt ominous.
But even without anyone's addition, we had become so familiar with each other that we could decipher each other's manuscripts.
"We need watchmen."
Dok-seo said.
"Someone needs to know the fact that beings who insult the laws of physics and mock humanity can invade this world at any time, without any warning."
"And that's us, the eight of us, is that what you mean?"
"Yeah. It's neither too many nor too few. Most importantly, we have trust built up between us where we won't doubt each other even if given eternal time."
Dok-seo clenched her fist tight.
"It's something only we can do, Mister."
"..."
"Perhaps this entire journey was a process to filter out the eight watchmen. We literally won't fall. There's no worry of falling at all! Because."
Her red eyes looked up at me.
"We've proven it."
"..."
"Do we want the world's power or something? Are we crazy for money? Would we manipulate people while laughing sinisterly? No, right? We've proven it."
But it was strange.
This must have been a conclusion Dok-seo reached after agonizing over it countless times from her perspective.
"It's true that your corruption is a concern, Mister. But couldn't that also be solved if we research Udumbara a bit more? Instead of eliminating the Complete Memory ability entirely, if we just weaken it partially, then we could cure the illness where you see corpses like now!"
In Dok-seo's voice, I could faintly feel the scab of a wound that hadn't fully healed.
This too was probably a scent of blood only I could detect.
I briefly pondered why Dok-seo was eating away at her own heart while saying these words, and.
"You failed to persuade her."
I reached a conclusion.
"Huh?"
"You failed to persuade Corps Director Noh Do-hwa. You probably pulled in your comrades with the same words you just said to me, long before entering the Dream Casino. But Do-hwa refused."
"..."
"Is my reasoning wrong?"
Dok-seo's lips closed.
"The other comrades probably aren't completely persuaded either. They probably agreed conditionally, saying they'd agree if I agreed."
"...Yeah."
Dok-seo hesitated.
"...That's right."
"Let me point this out first. Why did you exclude Seo Gyu? He joined the Regression Alliance from the very beginning."
"Ah, Seo Gyu mister has too loose lips, so no. If we include him, he'll probably act as the Regression Alliance's weakest link forever, you know? I'd bet 50 billion won on it."
"..."
Seo Gyu!
That's what you get for always tattling every little detail to the Saintess every single day, Seo Gyu!
"B-but Director Do-hwa was always like that from the start, right? It's unfortunate, but still, if you make the decision, Mister..."
Dok-seo glanced at me and said carefully yet sincerely.
"Won't it work?"
"..."
"We could have fun together, us. It's such a waste to throw away this much power after we've obtained it! As watchmen. Yeah, we'll only use our strength to uphold our duties as watchmen! Getting along well, like decorating a hideout together! Still... still, won't it work?"
I see.
I could feel Dok-seo's true intention.
'For this child, the true ending isn't about happiness or unhappiness, it's simply a story that continues on and on.'
A never ending story.
An eternally continuing epilogue.
'She doesn't want it to end. Her own story. The story she loved.'
How could I dare dismiss that as a childish desire?
For Dok-seo, stories were more important than life itself.
If the desire for life to not end is fundamental to humanity, then Dok-seo had simply honestly expressed her own essence.
'And Dok-seo's proposal might truly be the best option.'
'The Outer Gods have been subjugated, but her point that we're still in the dark about why the Outer Gods came to exist in the first place is true.'
Was it just my imagination?
It felt exactly like choices were being displayed before my eyes.
[1. Remain as an awakener and protect humanity.]
[2. Abandon awakening and return to being human.]
The final choice.
Regardless of how much time remained in my life, I was certain this choice would decorate the end of the main story.
Perhaps Dok-seo's eyes were what gave me such certainty.
'Right. The same thing could repeat itself at any time.'
'Not Taeguk or Hecate, but a completely unknown alien god might be newly conceived...'
At that moment.
'...At any time? Again, the same way?'
Suddenly.
The laptop Dok-seo had left on the table caught my eye.
On the laptop screen placed at an angle, a being with snow-white hair was staring blankly in this direction.
As if.
"..."
As if she had endured all humiliation until now just to witness this very moment.
"Ah."
A groan flowed from my throat.
It was the sound of realization. It was awakening.
Not a realization that flowed out cleanly without any damage, but a realization that broke apart and leaked through the bumpy passages of my throat and the narrow gaps between my teeth.
"Why all of a sudden, Mister?"
Tilt.
Dok-seo's face showed she didn't understand.
I spoke to her with difficulty.
"...This isn't the first time."
"Huh? Not the first time? What isn't?"
"This moment. This moment when all the Voids have been subjugated, leaving only awakeners as allies, where only the final choice remains of whether to become watchmen or not."
"Huh?"
"Just as there will be children born after us, there were also those born before us. Dok-seo, what if they also fought against the Void, and faced the same question you threw at me, what would have happened?"
"...!"
Dok-seo's eyes widened.
"Huh? W-wait, huh? But no, still, there weren't any, right? Go Yuri was the first awakener. The reincarnator. If something similar happened in our previous generation, there should have been watchmen."
Ah, Dok-seo's mouth fell open.
She followed the direction my eyes were cast, read my silence, and reached the conclusion herself.
There.
"...Outer Gods?"
A cheap laptop sat.
"Outer Gods, you say?"
The groan that flowed from Dok-seo's mouth trembled with the same pitch as mine.
"The Admin of the Infinite Metagame too. Hecate too... Leviathan too. Infinite Void, the Mastermind, Taeguk too. All of them... originally, they were awakeners just like us?"
"..."
"Is that what you're saying, Mister?"
I didn't answer.
Then Dok-seo's gaze focused entirely on the laptop placed on the shabby plastic table.
A comrade who had overcome numerous difficulties together with her. To the one she might have believed she'd built a friendship with that transcended the relationship of god and Miko, Dok-seo asked.
"Is it true? Infinite Metagame?"
...
At that moment.
Cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle
Dok-seo's shoulders jerked. An unpleasant laughter burst out, breaking the laptop speaker's sound quality.
A terrifyingly quiet silence descended on the rooftop.
[Ahh.]
The speaker stuttered.
[Truly, you cannot be underestimated. How regrettable. Sincerely. How truly regrettable. I thought we were just one step away.]
"I-Infinite Metagame?"
[I told you before, didn't I? Master.]
The pixel mass on the screen ignored Dok-seo and looked straight at me.
The white-haired girl had her right index finger severed. It was proof she had surrendered to me.
[Once upon a time, it was a memory both you and I had lost, but now that we've recovered it, you can recall it, can't you?]
Crackle.
A certain fallen god whispered.
[I told you that I didn't actually surrender to you solely for survival.]
"..."
[I confessed that I wanted to see something, that I endured this absurd humiliation because there was something I wanted to see.]
It came back to me.
[Your epilogue.]
That side story world where I was left alone with the Admin of the Infinite Metagame to save the Saintess trapped in frozen time.
It was definitely a conversation we had then.
[I'll acknowledge your efforts. Yes, I acknowledge my defeat. But what will you obtain at the very end? Humanity? Mankind? That world with billions of curses if there are billions of humans?]
The same lines as back then.
The Admin of the Infinite Metagame repeated the same voice.
[The moment you fall at the very last moment, I said I wanted to see that, even if it meant abandoning all my authority.]
"..."
At the time, I only understood the word 'fall' that the Admin of the Infinite Metagame mentioned in its conventional meaning.
But not anymore.
"You knew."
I opened my mouth.
"You already knew from back then that this moment would arrive someday."
[Yes.]
The speaker crackled and popped with noise.
[Of course. My hateful master.]
Flashback.
That exchange flashed through my mind.
'If there hadn't been longing and lamentation for a different world, not this current one, an Outer God like me wouldn't have been born either.'
In the past, the Admin of the Infinite Metagame had soliloquized like that.
What did I answer after hearing that soliloquy?
'Then, going in circles, you're saying you exist because of humanity's unavoidable nature.'
'Yes.'
Humanity's unavoidable nature.
If that truly was the reason Outer Gods came to exist.
'Either way, starting from whatever life, humans will inevitably shoulder their own natural punishment.'
When faced with this final choice.
The hero party that would arrive in our future, or the hero party that had arrived in our past.
If they chose [1], which seemed so obviously like the correct answer. If they had chosen it.
'How cursed.'
If [1] had been repeated for eternity.
"..."
I swallowed my silence.
And vomited it back out.
"Infinite Metagame."
[Yes.]
"Were you once, in the past, the twisted end of a human who saved this world?"
[Your words are correct.]
The trace of downfall answered.
[I, we, are your story of failure.]
Never Ending Story.
An eternally repeating curse.
That was the answer to the Void that shrouded this world.
-x-X-x-