SLASH—!
A limb was forcibly severed.
CRACK—!
A skull was cracked.
BANG—!
His heart, alongside his torso, was shattered for the third time now.
But no matter what happened, he kept coming back.
Every mortal injury was erased as he continued bending time to his will. And with each rewind, Ashen slowly began realizing just what dreadful Skill his Vampire self had conceived in his lunacy throughout those five hundred years.
The mana within the Hourvault was rapidly draining.
His brain was becoming overwhelmed by the infinite amount of information being infused into it with every moment he rewound. His thoughts were scattering…
But he was holding on against four Outer Gods and millions of Narkals.
Even if this "holding on" consisted mostly of being tossed around and killed over and over again.
He was still holding on.
"I'd like to see how many times you can play with time, ignorant fool."
He heard Sovereignty's distant voice through his hazy state, but he paid it little attention.
Even the flooding sensations of Mandate's Concepts had become muted now.
There was only one thing he could feel with complete clarity.
His evolved Path Skill.
Dream Manifest's Concepts kept reaching out to him from the recesses of his soul, as if begging him for something.
BOOM—!
Soon, he understood what they wanted…
Ah… you want to help me?
A faint smile appeared on his face.
Well… why not?
He reopened the floodgates of his Hourvault and fed it as much as it could take.
And take it did…
It only stopped after more than ninety percent of his stored mana had been devoured.
What a greedy child, haha…
BAM!
THUD!
KRAK!
Hmm?
The sounds of war still lingered in the back of his mind, but something suddenly felt different.
And more importantly…
I'm not getting hit as much as before…?
KABOOM!
BA-BOOM!
The haze clouding his mind finally lifted, allowing his thoughts to take control of his body once more.
What he saw was a flood of white rushing past him.
Soldiers on horseback collided with creatures of darkness, while at the very front, a valiant man brandished twin swords against a three-meter-tall figure with millions of red lines protruding from beneath his feet.
'They're back…?'
"Haa…"
He laughed at the absurdity of the sight before him.
'It seems… that I have my own immortal army now?'
Thinking about it, it was plausible.
The entities he had manifested were, in essence, constructs of his imagination and mana.
Even if they were destroyed, that didn't necessarily mean they were dead.
As long as his memories of them remained safely within him and he had enough mana to manifest them again, what was stopping him from doing so?
'And that's not all…'
He had noticed that the Pride Army's soldiers were much stronger than before.
'It's because I invested more mana into them…'
"Haha…"
Ashen didn't linger on the thought for long, joining the newly revived Morikawa in the fight.
"Hey, Shun! Welcome back!"
Wooshhh—!
His spear collided with Parasitic Sovereignty's guard, while Morikawa's sword blocked the retaliating strike.
"It seems you are planning to work us to death, you prick."
Even as they exchanged the questionable greeting, their strikes flowed seamlessly together.
The spear attacked.
The sword diverted.
The two moved as one while every Outer God did their best to kill them.
"Well! You are the most reliable human beings in my memories! It can't be helped!"
"And Shun, stop saying silly things. How can I work you to death? You're already dead!"
"Tsk."
In truth, Ashen was considering summoning something else right about now.
…Such as the Sin Lords.
He had most of their Skills memorized, at least those of Lola and Cornelia, so recreating them wouldn't be an issue.
But two things stopped him.
The first was cost-effectiveness.
If he wanted them to wield the powers they were entitled to, he would have to invest mana proportionate to that of a Sin Lord just to materialize them.
His next candidate was the great human army of today, the one that had marched alongside him into this hellhole.
At least they had access to the System, so they were a worthwhile option.
But the thought didn't linger for more than an instant before he discarded it.
He didn't really know if he would be able to convince them to help him quickly enough in these hopeless odds.
They might even cower and simply refuse to move.
And compared to the Pride Army, Ashen simply found them… inadequate.
The men fighting by his side right now had protected the human borders with nothing but their bodies for hundreds of years, all without the blessing of a System.
They fought against hopelessness. And they knew how to keep moving even when death was guaranteed.
They were legendary warriors of the highest order. What System Pathway? What insurmountable odds?
They were unflinching men who would look death in the eye and spit at it, asking themselves only whether they could injure one more beast before it spat back.
And Ashen was seeing firsthand what came of it when he boosted them beyond their frail selves with more mana than they could have ever wielded on their own.
They simply transformed into beasts of war.
But even so, if he had known that he would gain such an absurd Skill, he would have saved enough mana to summon at least Lola or Cornelia at their full power.
'No… if I had saved the mana in the Hourvault, I wouldn't have even survived until the Skill evolved…'
Those were his last lingering thoughts before he stopped trying to find further ways to exploit Dream Manifest and was forced to fully focus on his fight against the Outer Gods.
Parasitic Sovereignty had somehow started pushing them back, even with using Rewind to save his life and Morikawa being effectively undying as long as Ashen kept materializing him.
And it was all thanks to the Catastrophe that had unknowingly clung to the Outer God's shoulder.
It looked like a human-sized, black, eldritch caterpillar with a massive maw. Whenever it opened that maw, a red eye could be seen within.
Aside from acting as another limb that warded off attacks and countered them with bites of steel, it continuously supplied the parasite with mana from the corpses scattered around them.
So, despite killing the Narkals surrounding this parasitic Outer supposedly weakening it, the actual impact was negligible.
It had found a way to make even the dead useful.
But that wasn't what truly put Ashen on the back foot. It was the way the Narkal used its ability. Not only did it infuse its master with mana, but it did the same for Ashen whenever he got close.
As a result, the corrupted mana he was keeping in check continued to increase exponentially with every exchange, making it harder and harder for him to divert his own mana toward the fight.
Ashen understood the purpose behind it.
It was a countermeasure against his Rewind.
Parasitic must have already realized that Rewind was taking a toll on him, so Ashen wouldn't risk using it just to get rid of a relatively small amount of corrupted mana.
And throughout the fight, he had never seen Ashen rewind more than a few seconds.
The Outer God must have assumed that Ashen simply couldn't go further back.
But that wasn't exactly true.
Ashen could.
He simply needed to recite the full chant and materialize the magic circle while maintaining complete concentration and avoiding any disturbance.
Depending on his condition and the amount of mana available, he could even rewind years of his body's time.
But his enemies would never give him the opening required to do so.
So, for now, he had no choice but to endure the increasingly agonizing accumulation of corrupted mana within his body.
Sovereignty looked almost leisurely as he dodged and weaved through his and Morikawa's attacks, and he no longer appeared unnerved by Ashen using time magic in such an absurd manner.
From his perspective, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before Ashen succumbed to the poisonous mana and died.
As for Ashen, he had no thoughts beyond this very moment.
Every dodge, every attack, every breath… he gave it his all. He would just keep going.
If he died, so be it. But he would never fall without a fight.
That conviction carried him forward until the sun had set and the moon took its place.
More than twenty-four hours of tangling with these monstrosities had left him a shell of his former self.
The luster in his eyes had faded.
His body was caked in dry blood and gore from head to toe. His mind was so fractured that he could barely comprehend where he was or what he was doing.
The only indicators that he was still alive were the faint movement of his chest as he breathed and the spear stance he stubbornly maintained as he stood tall.
Morikawa, while standing beside him as the hours passed and the man refused to fall, couldn't help but feel a growing admiration for someone other than his own commander for the first time in his life.
"I suppose this is the end?"
Parasitic Sovereignty nodded sagely.
"The amount of corrupted mana inside you has already surpassed that of an Outer God by more than double."
"Truly admirable…. But it won't be long now… I can't wait for the resulting fireworks…"
Finally, he allowed a grotesque grin to stretch across his face.
But just as he was about to close in for the finishing touches, he abruptly stopped.
So did every other Outer God.
They all raised their heads.
A shooting star was passing by.
No…
It wasn't passing by; It was heading directly toward them.
As it drew closer, they realized it wasn't a star at all, but a beast with vast wings flying at supersonic speeds straight toward the position of the Outer Gods.
A dragon!
❖⛧❖
.
.
[Shun Morikawa]