The Broken Possessors of the Infinite Regression Academy - Chapter 184



Chapter 184 – Retrieving – 3

“Just step back to the opposite wall. It’s not likely to explode, but just in case.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. On the other side? Got it.”

The overlapping footsteps gradually grew distant along with the answer.

I closed my eyes and focused my consciousness. I felt the flow of power being sucked away somewhere. These were the things I felt as the fragments of memories I had absorbed began to fit together properly.

I gathered my nerves a little more. At the same time, I changed the flow. With a sound like something bursting out, the energy that was being sucked out seemed to stop for a moment, then flowed back in.

“Huh?!”

A lump in my throat and a lump in my throat rose up to my mouth. I coughed, and red blood fell out.

It was as effective as the blood. The tent seemed to flinch, but then began to flutter along my palm.

I roughly wiped the corners of my mouth, covered the bloody dirt, and lifted the cloth. I saw four people huddled against the opposite wall, their eyes wide with surprise.

It hasn’t been that long since we set off for the realm of the demon, but it felt like it had been a long time since we last saw each other, perhaps because there were so many things going on in the meantime.

“mummy!”

Priscilla was the first to run and hug me. She buried her mouth and nose in my arms and took a deep breath.

“… … ?”

Priscilla blinked a few times and sniffed again. It seemed she had detected the scent of blood. She covered his head and buried it in her arms so that he wouldn’t be caught for no reason.

Rosaria, who was about to run towards them with her arms outstretched, realized she was too late and awkwardly smiled as she approached them, while Elisier and Laura, as always, remained calm.

“I’m not really surprised anymore. What did you do?”

“It’s complicated to put into words. If you think about it simply, you can think of it as changing the flow. It’s like temporarily reversing the power that was leaving me.”

“Get away, you say? Your power? To whom?”

“To Aria.”

“… … Aria? I don’t know why that name comes up.”

Laura asked questioningly.

“I don’t understand this at all. Now that you’ve escaped, please explain what happened.”

“Okay, I don’t know how much time I’ll have though.”

I checked the sky. I couldn’t feel anything. That means that Demon King guy is still stalling for time.

At least it didn’t seem like Aria would come looking for him right away.

‘I won’t be able to run away anyway.’

If we send these four here first, it would be fortunate if they are not captured by Aria and taken hostage. It would be better to keep them close by. That way, they can at least try to protect them.

It’s absurd to say that we’ll run away together. The entire world is in Aria’s hands, so how far can we run if we run away?

From noble mtl dot com

“Aria was the culprit.”

“… … What?”

“It’s all Aria’s doing. She brought us here, and made the world like this.”

“Did you just say Aria?”

Laura frowned. Her expression was one of utter disbelief. It would make sense. Who set Aria’s personality? The author herself would know best how kind Aria was in the original.

“I never thought that woman would be the culprit… … There must be a reason for that. Do you happen to know the reason?”

“You should know.”

I hesitated to answer for a moment, trying to choose my words so as not to make it sound like it was Laura’s fault.

Ariya was gnashing her teeth, thinking that Laura was the cause and that she would somehow get revenge, but it was never Laura’s fault. Who in the world would have expected that a character would have an ego after completing a work?

“After you finished the piece… … I don’t know why, but Aria alone opened her eyes in a world where everything else had stopped. So this is a representation of the world Aria was in when she first opened her eyes. A world where all time had stopped.”

As soon as I finished speaking, everyone’s attention was focused on one person. Even Priscilla, who had been hugging me with a happy expression and rubbing my cheek, turned around in surprise, so I had nothing more to say.

Laura flinched and started to squirm.

“I, I don’t have that kind of talent! How on earth could I have done that!”

“I’m not doubting you, so calm down. No one knows why it happened. It could have been a simple coincidence, or maybe there was some other dark side that we don’t know about. Anyway, Aria was alone in that world where time stopped. For over a thousand years. What do you think Aria was thinking during that time?”

“Revenge, or hatred… … I guess. Then could it be that you brought me here too… …?”

“That’s right. It was for revenge. The fact that I intentionally repeated the regression to the same time period, and that I gradually lost my freedom with each repetition, was all part of revenge. To see you despair.”

Laura’s expression was filled with all sorts of complicated emotions as she heard those words. It must have been complicated to think that the reason she was locked up here was because of the hatred and revenge of the character in her novel.

The shock will be huge.

“Wait a minute. What about us? Let’s say you brought Laura here to get revenge on her so she wouldn’t become that crazy b*tch. Then what about us? There was no reason to bring us here, right?”

“Yes. In order for time in this world to continue to flow, we needed readers. Not people in these made-up novels, but real people from the outside world. After Laura gave up her ego and became a character in a novel, time stopped again, so we brought in new readers.”

“… … Was that the only reason you brought us here and made us suffer? To preserve this world?”

Suddenly, the sound of Elisier gnashing her teeth was heard.

“That’s right. I brought you here to use as a way to let time flow, and when your mind starts to deteriorate, I brought you back. When it starts to deteriorate again, I brought you back again. I thought of you as mere parts from the beginning. If I hadn’t read the prologue, Rosaria, you would have repeated the regression until your mind deteriorated and then collapsed. Aria would have brought someone new.”

“I guess I can’t forgive that woman. And yet she acts innocent. Did she deceive us from the beginning?”

Elisier was gnashing his teeth. It seemed as if he was thinking about the deaths he had experienced while he was the Demon King.

“… … .”

Rosaria didn’t look too good either. Her already pale skin was pale and drained of its color. She almost got ruined in the same way.

On the other hand, Priscilla had a face that said, “Oh, I see.” I didn’t ask why. It was obvious even without looking. It was probably because she was too damaged to get angry like the other two.

I felt like I needed to spend some time explaining it later. I put strength into the arm that was hugging my back. Priscilla hesitated for a moment, then smiled faintly and put strength into the arm that was hugging my neck.

“Where is that woman, my dear? Did you take care of her already?”

“No. That’s not it. What should I say… … It might sound a bit strange when you hear it.”

As I paused, question marks appeared above the heads of the three. Priscilla still had her face buried in her arms, so her expression was not visible.

“He’s probably still fighting the Demon King. He said he was buying time. Thanks to that, I was able to come and save you.”

The question mark floating above my head grew larger.

“The Demon King is here. Could it be someone who has become the new Demon King? Could it be that succubus?”

“That’s not it… … .”

I glanced at Laura. I wondered if it was okay to reveal it at this time. I could roughly guess how much of a shock she would be.

After hesitating a little longer, I finally opened my mouth. There was no turning back now that I had come this far.

“… … It means that I am fighting the Demon King of the world I first encountered.”

“what?!”

“Wait a minute. What did you just say?”

As expected, everyone looked very surprised.

“… … .”

Except for one Laura.

It was an expression that said either he didn’t understand what I was saying or he didn’t want to understand.

“… … I have just one question.”

Laura continued to speak slowly, forcing out her voice that was not coming out, with an expression on her face that looked like she was about to cry. Not only was her tone trembling, but she was also gradually becoming wet.

“The reason you were called the Demon King of the First World… … is that… … is that the reason I’m thinking of right?”

His eyes were filled with longing, as if he had guessed why the Demon King of the world I first encountered had appeared.

But eventually, the truth had to come out someday. That day has just come now. I nodded.

“that’s right.”

“sighe…….”

Laura’s knees buckled momentarily. Her body swayed violently. As Laura was about to fall to the floor, Elisier supported her from the side.

“Why on earth… … Why… … .”

“Wait a minute. What’s going on? Mira, the first world demon king you possessed, Laura, has something to do with it… … I mean, … .”

The voice that had been urgent became increasingly intermittent. It seemed as if he had realized what had happened while he was talking.

Her eyes, filled with confusion, looked back and forth between Laura, who was leaning against Elisier, and me, who was standing there indifferently. Then, perhaps deciding that it was not her place to interfere, she hesitated and stepped back.

“That’s why Aria stopped the regression after seeing me. As you all know, I’ve already been possessed once and returned alive. She was after the power that was in me. With Aria’s own power, she could only maintain this world, but with me, she said she could overturn the world itself.”

“… … Was that possible?”

“Aria must have done this because it was possible.”

“What the heck… … .”

I left Priscilla aside for a moment and approached Laura. Elisier pushed my arm slightly and made way for me. Her body collapsed against me.

Laura was breathing heavily, her face looking like she was about to cry.

“I, I’m sorry. I’m sorry… … If only I… … hadn’t been me… … .”

“It’s not your fault, so calm down.”

I smiled bitterly. It was because I remembered the conversation I had with Latina at the place where my memories were sealed.

At that time, I was the one crying and Latina was the one comforting her, but as time passed, the situations became reversed. Latina was also a character in Laura’s novel, so I thought that there were many things that were entangled in one way or another.

“But… … because of the novel I wrote, you… … .”

“It’s all in the past. If it were me before, I might have reacted differently. I might have gotten angry, or resented you. Because my before self was quick to ignore and avoid the past.”

Yes. If it were me before, I wouldn’t have been able to comfort Laura like this. If it were me before, who appeared fine on the outside but whose past trauma was rotting away in a corner of my heart.

“But now it’s different. There are things to protect, and new relationships have been formed. Do you know? I wonder if it’s really because I went through all this to save you.”

It’s all thanks to the four of you that I no longer feel phantom pain, and that I no longer feel pain when recalling past memories. Conversely, the four of you were also able to escape regression thanks to me.

There was no need to be tied down to the past any longer. All I had to do now was let go of my regrets and accept them.

“You just have to accept it. Just like me. Well, if things don’t work out, you have someone to rely on.”

So now it was Laura’s turn to accept her past, just as I had.

“Hip-hoo,” Laura hiccupped and buried her face in my chest. Along with the sound of her swallowing the tears that had filled her mouth, I could still hear her muttering low and fast enough that even I couldn’t understand it.

“So what do we do now? To get out of here, I have to kill Aria… … and knock her down?”

“Just ask if I should kill her. Why are you still using the same words to call her in this situation?”

“Ahem. Anyway. Is that how it should be?”

Rosaria, who had been hit, coughed in vain.

“Well, I don’t know. I think we should just defeat Aria like you said. But I don’t know how to do it alone so that the Demon Goddess and the Goddess can help.”

“… … Mira, you can take it down, right? Right?”

“I’ll try it myself and let you know. I’m on my way.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a dimensional gate opened nearby.

No, rather than opening, it would be more accurate to say it was ripped open. The space was squeezing open violently, and Aria appeared inside with a very angry face.

A red hand was seen holding the magic sword, cut off from the wrist. Aria was holding the blade of the magic sword. Judging from the way it looked, it was obvious what kind of fate it would meet.

‘I guess it didn’t work out for Aria after all.’

To begin with, it wasn’t the same power as when I fought him in the first world. Even taking that into account, it was still an almost one-sided atmosphere.

In the end, it’s a repetition of the question I asked when I met that guy. Can I defeat Aria without healing magic, and without my full power? The only thing that changed was the word Demon King to Aria.

“… … As expected, it’s Mira-san.”

Aria, who had appeared with a face full of evil, forced a smile upon seeing me. However, it was completely different from the bright smile she had shown before. It was a much more forced expression.

“What did you do that made the Demon King think so romantically of his fight with Mira?”

“Oh, I was wondering that too. I mean it seriously.”

“… … It’s annoying.”

Aria crushed the entire demon sword into pieces. The demon sword, compressed to the size of a ping-pong ball, rolled away.

“Everyone is disgusting except for Mira. Why on earth do I have to be treated like this? I’m just trying to right a wrong.”

His blue eyes turned to Laura, who was in my arms. For a moment, a spark ignited inside him. He gently pulled Laura away and held onto eternity.

Aria looked at the four people standing behind me in turn, then smiled with a completely different feeling from the forced smile from a moment ago.

“I thought about it for a long time. What should I do? Then, a really good idea came to me. Just rewind it.”

Tick, tick. I thought I heard the tick of a clock.

“Let’s start over again from the beginning.”

The scenery began to change.

The sky turned black and then became hazy as if motion blur had been set. It wasn’t just the sky. The nearby scenery and the ground beneath my feet were also becoming hazy.

“Aria, what are you doing now?”

“Gyaaah!”

I turned my head in surprise at Priscilla’s scream. Everyone was screaming with panicked faces. Elisier and Laura were no exception.

“No! No! I don’t want to go back!”

“I was wrong. Please forgive me. I don’t want to die again. So please… … .”

“Ah, ahhh… … ahhh… … .”

I synthesized that reaction and Aria’s words to figure out what the situation was.

It was a regression.

That’s the same regression that everyone else has been through so many times, except for me. I saw Aria screaming madly in the distance.

“Yes! We can start over! Don’t let anyone bother you! Just watch over me, Mira! I’ll be right there! Unlike those women who are obsessed with the original novel!”

“Mira! What should I do?! If we keep going like this… …!”

Fortunately, Rosaria remained sane. It seemed that this was because the number of regressions was not that many.

“First, let’s go and get Aria’s neck—huh?!”

I swayed in the headwind, barely holding on by pressing down on the eternity vertically. I squinted my eyes. And then I realized. This wasn’t a headwind.

It was a time when the entire world was rewinding and rushing forward. The people who had been frozen in place began to reverse all their actions. All results were rewinding to their causes.

I have to try everything I can. It was with that feeling that I drew a magic circle on my left hand at that very moment.

Suddenly, I felt the last piece of my memory come together.

From noble mtl dot com

“Do you know what the final step to awakening divinity is?”

“Uh… … No. I don’t know.”

“It is faith.”

“I feel more exhausted than I thought. Isn’t that normal?”

“It is the last, of course. The Divine gives strength even to those who do not believe wholeheartedly. Oh, where are you looking? Don’t look away and listen carefully. You may find it useful someday.”

“I don’t know why you would need me for this, but… … Okay. Anyway, why do you give strength to people who don’t believe in you?”

“Because that’s how you can trust yourself.”

“… … I don’t understand it more and more. If we have to believe in divinity, why do we give power to those who don’t believe in themselves because they can believe in themselves?”

“I never said a word about believing in divinity.”

“Huh? Then what do you want me to believe… … ?”

Latina chuckled.

“… … Is this what you meant by ‘I might have a use for it someday?’”

He raised his left hand. A radiance of light appeared in his palm. In the time that was rewinding like flowing water, a solid rock that would not float away appeared.

The rock soon became light, the light became divinity, and divinity soon became faith. The spear called faith, sharpened by divinity, rose up through the hand.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t use Gwangchang until then. Gwangchang, which had entered its final stage, was asking me questions. It was waiting with bated breath for me to answer that last question.

“Now… … I can finally answer that question, Latina.”

The last question that Gwangchang asked and the faith that Latina spoke of. It was a faith in qualifications.

The belief that I myself am a being capable of handling this power.

When I think about it, I’ve always wielded this power, but deep down I’ve always thought I wasn’t worthy of it. After all, I was a being born by slaughtering people who begged me to die, and sucking out their faith that risked their lives.

It was a hatred for Gwangchang, but it was also a hatred for myself.

But not now. For the first time, I held it not to destroy something, but to protect someone. At least for this moment, I was qualified to handle this thing called the Holy Spear, not the Gwangchang.

– It’s a belief in your own worth. Whether you are worthy of handling that power, whether you are a faithful being enough to do so.

“Now… … I understand.”

He thrust his spear into the ground with all his might. The light that flew out as if it were an explosion spread out like tree branches, and ‘captured’ the world itself.

Time, which was rewinding, stopped again.