Boom——!
Right after the earthquake, the entire bookstore was driven underground, and the wreckage of the building came crashing down.
“……What was that?”
Sprawled out in a bizarre posture, Epherene blankly stared up at the ceiling.
But the angle was strange. The scenery was strange too.
“Why are there shoes stuck to the ceiling?”
A pair of shoes clinging tightly to the sky.
Had the world turned upside down?
“……Ah. That’s not the ceiling, it’s the floor.”
It was my body that had been flipped over.
Epherene fiddled with her head and corrected her posture. She seemed to have taken a bit of a blow; she had symptoms of a concussion.
“Miss Epherene!”
Patapatapat—
Cute little footsteps approached. Lia, running through the dark underground.
“Are you okay?”
Epherene gave a bitter smile.
“Yeah. I’m okay. You?”
“Me too.”
“That’s a relief, but why did this place suddenly collapse?”
Muttering, she took out the woodsteel. The mana it emitted lit up the area.
Lia said,
“……It’s a quest.”
Her voice was quite serious. Epherene tilted her head.
“A quest?”
“Yes.”
Right now, in Lia’s eyes, a one-sentence quest had appeared.
[Main Quest: God]
The final main quest, begun far too early.
Considering her own growth and progress, it was an absolutely impossible, hopeless situation—but time had not yet run out.
“First, this way.”
Lia grabbed Epherene’s sleeve and led her.
There were many people unconscious throughout the corridor. Their groans darkened Epherene’s expression.
Step, step—
On the other hand, Lia did not even spare them a glance as she descended underground. She walked straight into the fissure at the bottom of the bookstore.
A coldness and composure unbecoming of a child.
Epherene asked cautiously,
“Lia. What is this quest?”
“……That.”
At that moment, Lia pointed somewhere.
In the darkness, the sound of something rippling came first. Seeing it, Epherene’s eyes widened.
“……A lake?”
“Yes.”
There was a lake in the middle of the underground.
A clear lake with gentle waves swaying across it.
Lia explained.
“It’s a passage leading to the outer side of the world. Those Altar bastards made these lakes all over the continent’s underground.”
Startled, Epherene placed a hand on Lia’s shoulder.
“……The Altar? Lia, you knew about them too?”
“Yes. I’m a little curious about the word ‘too,’ but I won’t ask right now. There’s no time—”
—Mm. So someone is there.
In that instant, a voice rose from the lake. Heavy, solemn, and resonant, a tone that filled the entire underground.
Epherene and Lia turned to the lake at the same time.
—I am sorry. I was trying to fish, and it seems I touched something wrong. Are you badly hurt?
“……Who are you?”
Epherene asked as she warmed up the mana in her body. Wiiing…… The woodsteel resonated sharply.
—Mm, if you ask that. I am “God.”
“……God?”
Lia’s expression hardened, and Epherene let out a hollow laugh.
“God? What kind of crazy nonsense…… Ah, are you the Altar’s big boss?”
—The Altar are my believers. And I am God.
“So you are the Altar.”
At that, Epherene placed a hand on her temple and began muttering something.
Yuren Principality bookstore underground— Yuren Principality bookstore underground— Yuren Principality bookstore underground—
She was memorizing information to deliver to Deculein after the regression.
—Hahaha. I suppose it is hard to believe?
God’s laughter.
Lia licked her lips, dry with tension, but Epherene shook her head and crossed her arms.
“Of course it is. Among people who say they’re kind, there’s no one who’s actually kind. They say they’re kind because they aren’t kind. Truly kind people don’t think they’re kind. Why? Because for truly kind people, the standard of kindness is extremely high. So to themselves, they aren’t kind people. That means you aren’t God either. You insist you’re God because you aren’t God.”
—…….
A brief silence followed the long sentence.
Then, an unexpected answer came back.
—Indeed, it is right for you to think that way. After all, humans are creatures of doubt, and the subject of faith is not I, but the believer.
“……Huh?”
Epherene was slightly flustered.
—I admit it. It has not been long since I awakened, so there is still much I do not know. It is my fault.
“…….”
He was unexpectedly mild.
His image was too different from all the atrocities the Altar bastards had committed so far.
—From now on, I will not refer to myself as God. I will strive so that you may recognize me as such.
Tap tap—
Just then, Lia touched her arm and whispered.
“He’s the final boss.”
“The final boss?”
“Yes. The enemy of the continent.”
—Do not worry.
Perhaps having heard that exchange, the lake spoke again.
—I will not harm you. Even if you are descendants of apostasy, it would be fair for you to be granted at least an opportunity. Also, Epherene of Luna.
“Huh? How do you know my name—”
—He will come soon.
“…….”
For a moment, Epherene was at a loss for words. Almost instinctively, she approached the lakeside. She peered into it.
—I am looking forward to it as well.
Reflected on the surface of the lake was a person with long red hair, whose appearance made it hard to tell whether they were a man or a woman, but judging from the voice, was probably a man.
“Are you talking about the professor? Professor Deculein?”
—That is correct. An ego that has transcended humanity, an immovable man who resists the world.
“……Wh-when?!”
He smiled without a word. Epherene narrowed her brow and was about to ask again, when suddenly.
She sensed the mana rippling within the lake.
All at once, one fact came to mind.
“The bomb.”
The starting point of this regression. The massive explosion that occurred on April 9th.
Murkan’s words, that the bomb would explode.
“So this lake was the bomb.”
No wonder they couldn’t find it.
—Haha.
The lake smiled, and Epherene stepped back again.
Lia asked,
“A bomb?”
“Yeah. There’s a lake in the Imperial Palace too. It always appears in the biography of the late Emperor Krebaim. He enjoyed fishing, you see…….”
It was at that moment.
Shrrrng— From behind came the sound of metal scraping. Silent footsteps, and a composed killing intent approaching.
Lia and Epherene slowly turned around.
“…….”
There were seven swordsmen in robes. All of them had covered their faces, but Epherene felt as if she knew all of their identities.
Epherene said,
“The biggest one there is Sir Jaylon, right?”
“…….”
There was no answer, but the chuckling smile was clear.
“And the rest of you, I know all—”
—Stop.
The voice of the lake cut off her words. The eyes of the knights and Epherene fixed on it again.
—She is a child who has taught me something. I have also promised not to harm her.
“…….”
Epherene and Lia blinked in confusion, and the swordsmen immediately withdrew.
“Huh?”
—Now go back.
He said. Epherene looked into the lakeside for a moment.
—We will meet before long. Epherene Luna, and…….
The head of the man reflected in the waves slowly moved. As if he were looking at Lia.
—Yu Ara.
“……Yu Ara?”
Lia’s body flinched. Epherene also narrowed her brow.
Yu Ara.
It was definitely a name she had heard somewhere before.
—You as well, whose soul is mixed.
“…….”
Lia exhaled a heated breath.
“You whose soul is mixed.”
It was the phrase the final boss used to refer to the player.
“Lia. Did you have another name? Yu Ara?”
Just as Epherene asked that.
Swaaaaa——
A dazzling cluster of light spread from the lake and swallowed the two of them.
* * *
……One day in February.
Late at night.
I am merely thinking. I am organizing the many tangled branches inside my mind.
“How strange.”
The world, the air, the flow—everything is peculiar. Everyday life feels like a scene I have seen several times in a single day, and now and then, I can even predict who will say what.
But the most questionable thing of all is right here, right now.
The underground of the Yukline mansion.
“Sand grains.”
My training, that is, “sand grains.”
This is training to separate a bundle of sand, one grain at a time, without breaking them. If two grains are picked up at once, or if they break while being moved, then I must start again from the beginning.
It is training that should clearly be difficult, training that it is only natural for it to be difficult.
“……It is easy.”
Too easy.
I moved an entire bundle of sand in two hours, let alone half a day, and repeated that training four more times.
“…….”
That is not all.
The mana I feel in my body. Third-grade mana, difficult to control and requiring ages to become accustomed to, is being refined almost perfectly.
Its flow is handled like my own limbs, and through it, all of my traits are being strengthened.
A dramatic advancement achieved in a very short time.
A fundamental growth of the self.
Is this some natural flow I do not know, or else…….
Chirp— chirp chirp——
The morning birdsong flowing in from outside the cave. A sense of dissonance and déjà vu spreading through my entire body.
Wrapped in those feelings, I climb up to the surface.
Chirp chirp— chirp chirp chirp—
Birdcalls of two syllables and three syllables respectively. The dawn light shining blue into the underground cave. The angle of incidence of five streams of light.
Déjà vu.
However, in this moment, there is one thing that is different. There is something new.
“……Sand.”
A handful of sand held in my bare hand.
Something I would never normally do.
I quietly opened my palm.
Rustle……
Grains of sand flowed between my fingers. They sank fleetingly onto the road surface, mixing with the soil and grass of the garden.
……I manifested 「Psychokinesis」.
Sssss……
A reversal of the fall. The sand that had flowed down floated back up and slipped between my fingers. It gathered into my palm.
“…….”
In that silence, I close my eyes.
In that darkness, fragments of some memory disturb my mind. Blurred afterimages seep in like blades.
Chirp chirp—
A two-syllable twittering piercing between the trees.
Chirp chirp chirp chirp—
Then a four-syllable reply.
The song of birds.
I opened my eyes. I looked at the sand pooled in my hand.
“The birds have not changed.”
The wind brushing past me now, the grass I tread upon, the swaying trees—nothing has changed.
“And yet…….”
How very strange.
Inside my head, entirely different thoughts and faces flicker. A voice I have not “yet” heard seeps into my ears.
All of them are connected to one person.
“……Epherene.”
I made some sort of promise with that girl.
My promises must, without fail, be kept.
* * *
The ninth regression, the tenth regression, the eleventh regression, the twelfth regression, the thirteenth regression, the fourteenth regression, the fifteenth regression, the sixteenth regression…….
Epherene’s regressions continued even after she met “God.” For nearly two years, Epherene endured alone.
Even if people forgot everything they had experienced with her, she did not mind; she only studied hard, strove, fled, so that there would be no waste in anything…….
In the meantime, the Altar rose ever sharper. Through their machinations, the situation intensified.
A great war broke out between nations and races.
Leok and Yuren, the Empire and the Kingdom, the Red Garnet and Arian…….
The more she repeated the regressions, the more she tried to solve things, the more the time after Deculein’s death only became tangled and ruined.
……And.
Today, April 8th, after twenty regressions.
“In just one month…….”
On the grounds of the Imperial University, the center of continental education. Atop the already half-destroyed clock tower, Epherene muttered blankly.
“The world ends up this ruined?”
The campus that had always been brilliant and always green had become ruins. It was falling apart helplessly.
“Yeah…….”
She had somehow survived, but the continent had already been eaten away by the Altar. It had become like this in just one month.
The cause was surely “God.” He did not seem to be caught in the regressions.
“……This life is ruined too.”
Those were Allen’s words. Epherene also quietly nodded.
In this life, Yuli had died, Sylvia had died, and Delric had died.
No, beyond individual deaths, the entire continent had fallen.
“But midnight is coming soon.”
Allen said. Epherene also nodded. For some reason, her heart was pounding.
“One minute left.”
Epherene looked behind her. There was a very large clock.
In other words, she had not climbed the clock tower for nothing.
“……Miss Epherene, are you all right?”
Allen asked in a rather worried tone. Epherene answered calmly.
“I don’t even know how many times you’ve asked me that.”
“Ah…… I suppose so?”
“Yes. And every time, I answer that I’m fine. Because I’m looking forward to it. Because hope is greater than disappointment.”
“Hope?”
“Yes.”
Epherene smiled brightly.
“When the time comes, everything will change all at once. Professor Deculein will appear and change everything for us.”
It was thanks to that belief.
The reason she endured even through the regressions, even while witnessing everyone’s deaths, even while watching the continent fall apart, and still did not let go of hope.
Epherene turned sharply to Allen.
“So of course I’m fine.”
Tick— tick— tick—
The sound of the moving second hand could be heard.
The time remaining until the twentieth regression, 30 seconds, 29 seconds, 28 seconds.
“……Still.”
A bitter smile appeared on Epherene’s lips as she looked at the clock.
“I do wish he would come already…….”
It was painful to repeatedly watch the deaths of other precious people, those who died for her sake. It was not something one could easily endure.
“He’ll come soon, won’t he?”
10 seconds, 9 seconds, 8 seconds.
Watching the clock gradually approach midnight, Epherene took a deep breath.
If Professor Deculein returned, she thought of the things she would tell him.
She recalled all the information she had gathered, the years, the experiences, the knowledge.
“Yes. I hope so too.”
Allen’s final words, as one who had survived with her. Epherene gave a small smile and nodded.
Dong———!
The bell rang, announcing midnight.
The end of the twentieth regression, and the beginning of the twenty-first.
Epherene closed her eyes and calmly accepted it.