Chapter 308

“…Ah.”

I lowered the hand that had been covering my ears. Because I had to cover my mouth. -I… I’m here, Aillet. But you, where on earth are you…? “…”

I had to control the feeling of going crazy.

The feeling of witnessing a dry salt desert becoming wet is utterly terrible.

This world, deviating from the original.

My tutorial might have been a curse to you.

I, too, harmed you.

Sometime, Reed’s words to me came to mind. -You should have appeared to me earlier. At least before the 94th iteration ended.

Now I understand why he specifically pointed out the 94th iteration.

But still, there’s something I don’t understand. -What to do? All the versions of me who would gladly trade your existence for the world’s salvation have died.

Reed had said that.

Yet, 117th iteration Tesillid Argent.

Why are you like this now?

Why, on earth, why.

“Why are you trading the world’s salvation now?!”

I feel like I’m going crazy. If I made you give up on your life, if, after all this, I became the cause again, I can’t bear it.

I have already lost Reed, the 100th iteration Tesillid Argent.

Even if I saved the world, half of my world feels already collapsed and destroyed.

“I can’t lose you too.”

Even as I clenched my teeth and pressed forward, the mental torment continued.

The five consecutive deaths were the same as in the original. The very words of the original, becoming a real past record, cruelly unfolded.

As always, it was the world that killed him.

The world entangled him in arson.

The world pushed him off a cliff.

The world hanged him on the execution ground.

The world surrounded him and drove swords into his body, one by one.

And that wicked world hypocritically even held his funeral.

After pouring poison into his mouth to put him to sleep, they placed him in a magnificent stone coffin and held a grand state funeral. He was buried, neglected amidst fabricated glory.

“Ugh.”

The world’s cruelty upset my mental stomach. I felt nauseous.

Yet, I endured. Just as Tesillid had, I endured and endured, walking forward.

Because this was the only way to him.

The 99th Iteration.

Through the questions taught by the Chaos Evil God, Tesillid could finally hear the truth from the Bible of Truth.

The cruel truth that God had abandoned the world, that the world abandoned by God had no power to envision a future, that it barely sustained itself through the repetition of the same time, and that his regressions served that role…

-Ha, ha, hahaha… Hahahahaha…!

The handsome man, laughing maniacally, miserably scraped at the floor.

-Ah… Is that so…? Is this the mercy you bestow upon the world you abandoned and left…?

-Damn God, why didn’t you just let it perish! Why! Why! Why do you insist on preserving such a world! Why does it have to be my regression of all things!

He drew ten long streaks of blood on the floor, and with frozen cheeks, he shed dark red tears, wailing at the top of his lungs.

And before his voice gave out, he begged one last time. -Bestow that paltry mercy upon me too… Please…

God thoroughly ignored even his last prayer.

And so, the devout Holy Knight died there.

The 100th Iteration.

Having accepted the Chaos Evil and become Reed, he was at the dimensional boundary, then tore through the space-time of the 17th iteration and emerged. He brought chaos to the human world and summoned evil.

But he failed.

The Chaos Evil that appeared in the human world through a single burst was not enough to completely collapse the world.

And the price of failure was ruin.

He was sealed in the abyss by the five strongest individuals of the continent.

Trapped in that profoundly cold and utterly dark place, he showed me only a faint silhouette. And that form was incomplete.

He was by no means alive. -…

Thus ended one term of life imprisonment.

What followed was repetition.

The 101st iteration, 102nd, 103rd, 104th, 105th… and so on, up to the 116th iteration.

While his lifespan was extended by the Well of Eternity’s water, accumulating thousands of years in solitude, a change occurred in his soul.

‘Is that…?’

His soul emitted a subtle light, acquiring a new tier. The pressure it exuded was qualitatively different from when he was Reed.

[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ says he seemed to be in the process of becoming a god.]

[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ explains that the divinity of ‘Strict Order and Goodness’ bestowed upon him seemed to provide the impetus for him to manifest a divine status.]

I found myself laughing without realizing it.

‘Strict Order and Goodness’, hidden within Mu Ellinas, takes 100,000 years just to recover its divinity, yet Tesillid Argent went almost to the point of acquiring divine status on his own in less than a tenth of that time.

[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ says if he had completed 10,000 years like this, he might have become a god.]

Meaning what he was experiencing was the asceticism of becoming a god.

At this point, I felt the laughter drain from my face.

To assign a grand and noble meaning to his suffering now is merely ridiculous.

‘Tesillid didn’t wish for such a thing.’

A Divine Throne is unnecessary.

Don’t arbitrarily try to give something to a person who only wished for a human-like life and death.

It was then. -…Who?

For the first time since the terrible punishment began, he reacted to something.

This meant there was an external stimulus.

And indeed, after a very long time, another being entered this abyss prison. That being was… [‘Sinner of the kalpa Abyss’ is exploring your existence.]

It was me.

I was no longer an observer of the illusion. My memories synchronized with the illusion, and I became a part of it.

Accordingly, the message’s blindness disappeared. [‘Sinner of the Eternal Abyss’ is exploring your existence.]

How surprised I was then by his tier, where I had to breathe even cautiously.

But in reality, he was merely the most miserable sinner in the world, trapped in a terrible body.

-Anyone is fine. Save me. Please.

-Just once, just one person.

-You could bestow salvation upon me, couldn’t you…?

Yes, I will save you.

My hand grabbed the Save Point. -…!

For the first time in ages, a ray of dawn light shone into the bottom of the abyss.

Thanks to that, I could glimpse his expression within the collapsing abyss.

It was a peaceful-looking face.

What a relief. A true relief.

That I saved you then.

That I killed you.

That I prevented you from becoming a god, pulling you back down to a mere human, it was truly a relief.

“…”

With that, the exhibition of 116 deaths ended.

My sight and hearing were once again completely under my control, and my muddled mind became clear.

Was it the effect of that? My will also grew stronger.

I must find Tesillid Argent quickly.

“Divine Descent.”

The divine light enveloping me unraveled like threads, extending in all directions.

These threads will find the lost one and guide me.

“I don’t want to wander in the abyss.”

I earnestly wished.

“Find him so we can return to the light together.”

With all my heart.

✠Tesillid was recalling his memories amidst his fading consciousness.

The life of the 117th iteration was but a fleeting moment for him. Yet, sometimes, someone can live an eternity in that single moment.

For humans endure today’s misfortune with yesterday’s happiness, and live drawing happiness that might be granted tomorrow.

He was no different.

‘Perhaps if I truly die someday and reincarnate, I can see her again.’

Because he decided to live kindly this life.

And because he felt he had lived kindly enough this time.

Couldn’t he also be granted that level of reward that all souls receive?

Then, he would have forgotten everything, so there was no choice but to recall them now.

With that in mind, he took out the things he had placed in the drawer of his most precious memories, one by one.

Among them, there was one memory he cherished the most. -Yes. Let’s live together in this timeline.

An endlessly long horizon majestically unfolded. He could not forget her figure, her eyes solely fixed on him against the backdrop of the deep blue world.

You probably don’t know how hard it was to restrain myself from wanting to embrace you then.

You probably don’t know how hard it was to suppress the urge to kiss you then.

He thought of a life with her.

To welcome the repeating four seasons in a peaceful home, to slowly grow old while looking at each other’s faces as time accumulated, and to close his eyes holding a warm hand in the final moment.

You probably don’t know how many times he secretly envisioned such wishes for you in his mind.

Yes, you probably don’t know. You won’t know.

That’s why he wanted to tell her.

He wanted to convey his precious feelings without reservation and talk.

He wanted to make more eye contact, and hear her voice more.

He wanted to live together.

Until the end of this timeline.

But now it was a wish that could not be fulfilled.

The Chaos Evil God had already fallen asleep within the divine tomb, a grave for itself. And in return, he, too, became unable to move a single finger.

This place was the deep sea, an abyss, a swamp, and the end of a cave without an exit. With a body withered like a corpse, he could not escape by himself.

He would die.

And death in this timeline was the true end. Since he had saved the world by sealing the Chaos Evil, eternal rest would be his reward.

He had to abandon lingering attachments, and illusions.

Let him forget the things he wanted to do with her.

Instead, let him substitute his lingering attachments with the satisfaction of having done what was best for her.

Reed was the only one who could handle the evil god. So this was the best choice for her and her world.

‘It can’t be undone anyway.’

Let him die.

Gladly.

For her.

How much time had passed like that?

His senses began to shut down one by one. As is typical for those approaching death, sight was the first to go, and hearing remained until the last.

But something strange happened.

Even though the world should have been nothing but silence and stillness, his remaining senses were stimulated. He heard sounds.

At first, it was a thunderous roar, as if pounding the world; a little later, gradually approaching footsteps; and then, after some time, a dragging sound, as if something was being pulled across the floor.

And finally…

“…I found you.”

It was a voice he longed for to the point of madness.

Instantly, a loud thumping sound resonated. It was the sound of his own heart beating.

The owner of the voice, who made blood rush quickly through all his veins with just a single word, drew closer.

Grind.

The lid that covered his head was removed. As the stone coffin opened, an immense amount of light poured in violently all at once.

To be able to feel light.

It seemed his dying body had, somehow, even revived his sight.

The revived Tesillid Argent’s five senses were functioning. Thanks to this, he instinctively knew the identity of this lighthouse-like light.

‘…Divine Descent.’

Chasing the light he couldn’t help but crave, he struggled to open his eyes. It wasn’t easy.

Meanwhile, she…

As if to show that the path to get here was not easy, Aillet Rodelain, covered in ash and blood, smiled with the brightest and happiest face in the world.

Although her eyes were crying.

“Last time you said it. That I was your world. That if I loved you, the whole world would love you.”

“…”

“But you know what? Do you know this?”

He felt her approaching breath. Her nose seemed to brush against his.

“Tesillid Argent.”

She confessed in a voice like the most beautiful melody in the world.

“You are my world too.”

“…”

“I came to save you, my world.”

“…”

At the touch on his lips, everything became clear. His senses, his consciousness. Like a fairy tale, he opened his eyes.

The sky-blue sea and fresh greenery met.

“Ail, let, Ro-del, lain.”

His eyes gazed at her, as if to engrave her onto his retina like an animal marking something it saw for the first time in its life.

Then, at some point, unable to bear it, his two arms tightly embraced her.

He wanted to live.

He wanted to get out of here.

With her.

A will and authority stronger than anything else began to exert a transcendent influence on the surroundings.

With a thunderous roar, space shattered into fragments and broke apart with a crash.

Even amidst the cataclysmic anomaly, the two paid no attention to anything other than embracing each other.

In their indifference, the world that enveloped them finally met its end.

It was the end of the Regression World.

Privilege for Possessors