CH 78

“Ha……”

A laugh came out of itself.

[‘The World-building God’ congratulates you, on being the first SS-class Transmigrator of the Transmigration Management Bureau.]

[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ also says that your stats were too high to be just an S Class.]

[‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ regrets not making you into her believer.]

Unlike the gods, I was not in the mood for jokes. There was something I needed to check right away.

“Descent.”

Suss!

It’s been 10 years.

My silver-colored hair fluttered in the wind. Invisible wings took my legs off the ground.

“Ah…”

If I don’t concentrate, it feels like I’ll fly away into the air.

My heart almost burst because of the overflowing power. It has become incomparably stronger than it was 10 years ago.

<Oh, Ellet? Why all of a sudden?!>

Agnes was bewildered at the sight of me wasting my special move.

<How can you use it like that, what about your fever!>

“Do not worry. And now other issues are more important.”

There is something to check by borrowing the power of the system while the tutorial quest hasn’t disappeared yet.

I waited anxiously, staring at the location where the shooting star fell. Finally, the system finished the calculation.

[<System> Your ranking changes. Current Rank: 2nd (▲6).]

2nd place.

“……”

I was a holder of saint-level divine power and even used Divine Advent while reaching the highest level of Aura Expert.

But even with all that, it’s still 2nd place.

“Ah, not even with this much……?”

I don’t even know how big the gap is with 1st place.

Spitting a dejected laugh, I clenched my fists wet with cold sweat.

Anyway, it happened. This completes the verification.

“Agnes.”

The situation was not relaxed enough for me to stay in shock.

I took a deep breath to relieve anxiety and tension, looked at the New moon, and warned Agnes

“Look carefully. This is the beginning.”

✠

Meanwhile, where the stars fell.

There was a being in the center of the crater where ash powder and sparks were flying. A man with long, black hair like a crow’s feather, surrounded by corrupted energy.

There were several names for him.

Newborn Chaos and Evil.

The Darkness conceived by light.

An exiled from the regressing world.

But there was another simple name that he himself preferred over such long monikers.

That’s right, ‘Reed’.

“……”

Reed opened his eyes.

The body, which had been curled up as if torn apart while begging for God’s mercy, rose slowly.

He lifted his head towards the deep-sea night sky. His face, revealed through the pouring long black hair, was demonically beautiful.

“Aah……”

Reed found something in the eastern sky.

The light of a lighthouse visible only to him.

“Descent of the Divinity….”

A dark smile quickly appeared on his face, which had been grimacing in displeasure.

“It’s a warm welcome.”

✠

At the same time as the system was temporarily down, something strange happened in the world.

<Oh my God.>

There was no such thing as a catastrophe as great as the end of the world.

The wind just went backward and.

<The moon….>

The celestial bodies moved in reverse. The stars and the moon in the night sky moved very quickly from west to east.

<E-Ellet, what the hell happened?>

“The world is broken.”

<The world……broken? What does that mean?>

There is a story that needs to be told before Agnes could understand that concept. 

“I promised to explain before. What is the identity of Thesilid Argent?”

My gaze was fixed on a cluster of stars moving in a huge arc from left to right. I said without doubt that Agnes would listen. 

“He is a regressor.”

<A regressor…?>

“A person who turns back time from the future and returns to the past. Not right now, but in 3 months he would become so. He is also the protagonist of this world. The world we live in is a ‘Regressing World’ that requires him to regress.”

<What? Regression world? Protagonist? What do you mean?>

“I know you don’t understand right now. But I don’t have time, so I’ll keep explaining.”

<……>

On the western horizon, the sun falls toward the sky.

The day has arrived. 

“The reason this regression world broke down is that there was a situation in which no regression was possible. That’s…”

I clenched my fist.

“When the main character is dead.”

That was the moment.

My field of vision darkened. My consciousness flew away as if someone had forced the switch off.

✠

“……”

When I woke up, I was in the bed in my room.

It was a time later than usual. The sun shone brightly through the window I forgot to close the curtains the night before yesterday.

<Ellet.>

Agnes was looking down at me with a stiff face. As if waiting for me to wake up, she brought the topic up.

<I can see why you wasted Descent without hesitation.>

“……”

<And why you didn’t do anything but just sit around doing nothing yesterday.>

An expressionless face looked out the window. There hung an auspicious double rainbow in the sky. What is the probability that a double rainbow will appear at the same location and at the same time for two days in a row?

A loud voice came from outside on behalf of our silence. 

“Look, maid! The Matron just arrived!”

“Al-already?! Oh my, the Madam probably hasn’t woken up yet!”

“There’s no more time! Hurry up, wake up the madam and help her in the morning preparations!”

The butler and the maid delivered the same good news as ‘yesterday’.

A perfect déjà vu.

However, there was no Agnes whose eyes twinkled in anticipation of meeting a close friend. Only purple eyes which trembled slightly.

<The day…went back.>

“Yes.”

A loop occurred.

Since time has gone back to yesterday, the Descent Penalty was also gone.

Note that this loop is not a regression. Since it was a completely different phenomenon, even the main character is not aware of such anomalies.

However, I was able to recognize the loop because I am a transmigrator from outside this regression world, and Agnes was influenced because her soul was bound to me.

Agnes, who experienced a phenomenon that went against any providences she knew, could not hide her shock.

I thought I should calm her down, so I explained the situation in a calm voice. 

“Because the protagonist died before he even became a regressor, the world turned back a day before the main character died.”

This is a tutorial period that is still before the original begins. Far from awakening the ability of infinite regression, the protagonist was even unaware of his fate as a regressor, which will heavily weigh on him.

He was still just an ordinary human.

However, from the point of view of the regression world, he was a precious part that forms the basis of this world Dying after becoming a regressor is a natural step, but dying before that is not welcomed. 

Therefore.

“The death of the protagonist who did not become a regressor is nullified.”

Making it something that never happened.

This loop phenomenon is a huge crime of deception committed by the regression world. That’s what I and Agnes witnessed now.

<The word ‘Protagonist’ is so strange. Does it make sense that a human being, not a god, becomes the center of the world?>

“It’s possible. Because that is the will of ‘Strict order and Goodwill’ that governed this world. Thesilid Argent was chosen by God.”

<……>

Originally, this world was destined to quickly perish as ‘Strict order and Goodwill’ abandoned it. However, the world rejected that, and ‘Strict order and Goodwill’ arranged the means for it to survive, albeit as a temporary measure.

It was an infinite repetition of the timeline using the regressor as a base. 

Agnes seemed to have lost her will to refute when the god she believed in was mentioned. She changed the question.

<Who killed Thesilid? That shooting star?>

“Yes. To borrow the words of Carpeus, the ‘Newborn Chaos and Evil’.”

<Haa, it wasn’t just nonsense cursing, it was real. From what I’ve heard, it seems that this being in higher in ranking than a Demon King.>

“Yes.”

Chaos is in its name. It is not difficult to guess its status as it’s directly opposite ‘Order and Goodwill’.

A newborn demonic vessel.

<By the way, can such high-ranking demon use their power outside the dungeon? Weren’t demons able to come out into the world only through dungeon bursts? The higher the dungeon’s owner, the more stringent the conditions for a burst to occur, right? Is ‘Chaos and Evil’ a special demon?>

The answer was simple.

“No. He is not a demon.”

<What?>

“He is human. He possesses the power of a demon, but for now, he’s human.”

<……>

Agnes couldn’t close her mouth.

“His purpose is only to destroy the world. There are no concessions or compromises with him.”

There is no other way but to confront such an existence by force. 

<No way, is that stronger than you?> 

“Yes.”

I clenched my fist. It’s painful to stay in second place even after using Descent of Divinity.

<Oh my God…>

Agnes seemed quite shocked by the arrival of a great evil. I felt sorry for her, but there was still some bad news to tell.

“This loop will repeat for a week.”