Was this really him?
The Sovereign found something he shouldn't have found.
And that resigned his death.
However, it gave him an ability.
The ability to regress.
And what seems to be....
Ezekiel couldn't comprehend it at all.
A rectangular icon filled with text.
Strength.... Defense.... Agility....
The hell is this?
And the Sovereign died as soon as he received those abilities.
The 2nd death.
The 3rd death.
They were all idiotic.
He had died from all sorts of reasons that Ezekiel couldn't comprehend.
Practicing his magic?
His magic was enough to kill him?
What sort of magic is that supposed to be?
The 10th death.
The 11th.
All for the same reason.
But in those deaths, the Sovereign had aged for a bit.
However, the deaths took a toll on him.
It seemed like he received his memories in each death.
The 23rd death.
He could tell.
The Sovereign was now afraid of using such abilities.
And in a world with no magic, what was the point in using them?
For that reason, the Sovereign lived a leisurely life, never progressing his abilities.
And for that reason, the Sovereign had finally seen through it all.
The calamity.
And that calamity resigned his death.
The 24th death.
The Sovereign realized he couldn't act casually.
And so, he decided to grow stronger.
A smart decision.
But his actions...?
Not so smart.
His death was rapid.
Reaching until the 90th death, where he had grown used to his powers, never dying anymore.
But still.
It wasn't enough.
The calamity took his life.
It was only until the 263rd death where he had finally found the solution.
And he had finally found it.
A way to spread mana in the world permanently.
In exchange, he would lose all of the memories he had up till this point.
In other words, a binding vow.
The [Curse] affinity.
And he regressed, losing his memories in the process.
His 264th regression.
This life was different.
He had a friend.
A boy with pale–white hair and ice–blue eyes.
The current appearance the Sovereign took.
Again, Ezekiel couldn't comprehend anything.
The boy.
His name was Brandon Locke.
And in a world filled with magic, he was the only boy with no mana.
Time passed.
The boy died.
A sorrowful feeling gripped the Sovereign.
However, he had no knowledge of his power to regress.
For that reason, he continued living.
Much until the calamity transpired, ultimately killing him in the process.
He regressed again.
And he continued to regress.
His 500th life.
All of his deaths had been the same.
Due to his lack of knowledge of harnessing his abilities, he continued to die in stupid ways that Ezekiel had found incredibly ridiculous.
And it continued.
No matter what he did, he couldn't prevent Brandon Locke's death.
He was lax, using his regression as assurance to save the boy.
Ultimately leading to his 2644th life.
—Why can't I save him?
The Sovereign began to question himself.
No, he had alway questioned himself.
As if saving Brandon Locke had become an obsession for him.
Ezekiel couldn't comprehend why.
Why go through such lengths for a single person?
The Sovereign gave up.
He gave up on everything.
In turn, he decided to live a life of leisure, settling with a woman.
Blonde hair and blue eyes.
The same woman who was in the room with Ezekiel just now.
The other Sovereign.
And to his surprise, Brandon Locke had lived throughout as well.
The two remained close friends.
Brandon Locke as well, settled with a woman. Deep–black hair and red eyes.
Or rather, as she liked to call herself, Ciel.
Time passed, and Raven Blackheart joined the group.
He lived a double life.
A member of the Primordials, and a ranker himself.
An SS+ ranker, to be precise.
The Primordials goals after all, aligned with his.
They were strong, and they were on humanity's side.
Wars erupted soon after.
A war between other races. A war between the Milis continent.
And in the end, his life ended the same way.
The world was destroyed.
And he regressed, keeping his memories intact.
But in the next life, he decided to do things differently.
At first, he was confused.
Why did he regress?
Was it all just a dream?
It took time until he had come to terms with it.
It was the 10,002nd regression.
She had finally appeared.
Ciel.
She had finally revealed all of her secrets after Raven had regressed.
And apparently, it was not just her memories that were kept intact, but she had also received his memories.
She had seen his memories of every regression.
As if two people were living in the same body.
And she passed the memories onto him.
The stress it took on him as he remembered everything took a toll on his body.
His hair had turned even darker, as well as his eyes.
He remembered all the previous regressions. In return, Ciel had lost her own memories of the previous regressions.
She had become a blank canvas.
An entirely new person.
No longer was she Amelia Constantine. But Ciel herself.
A total of 10,000 regressions surfaced in his mind.
And he called them the 0 progressions.
The most useless ones.
Regressions were useless.
If he were to make it right, then it was better for all the counterparts to live in the same timeline.
For that reason, he had a goal.
To find the [Time] affinity.
But in the 10,046th life, he had found out that it was impossible.
Time affinity was locked behind the laws of the world.
And that was unfair.
The laws had locked his only solution, yet the laws continued to make him suffer.
But he had realized there was a way.
The laws were only present when mana was present.
And so, he had finally found it.
A way to cut the world's mana.
To sacrifice his ability to regress with a binding vow.
A vow that was made through Brandon Locke.
The 10,003rd regression.
It was the most dangerous life he had ever lived.
If he were to die, then there was no turning back.
Just until he had found the [Time] affinity.
The ability that allowed him to leap through time.
It was different compared to regression. After all, his counterpart would still be present.
That being said, he had finally acquired the [Time] affinity.
And so, his scheming had begun.
To acquire abilities that would aid him.
However, he knew his body was permanently breaking down.
Until, once again, he had fully recreated a world that was most similar to his first life.
The 10,263rd regression.
A nostalgic feeling.
But that aside, he had realized how much he neglected his best–friend.
Brandon Locke.
Because of his thorough search for life with no mana, he had completely neglected his best–friend's request.
However, he was not in the right state of mind.
Brandon Locke must've been paranoid.
Stealing his affinity?
That was his to begin with.
He knew of Brandon's paranoia towards him.
However, that goes without saying.
They needed him to break.
Brandon Locke was acting against his plan without knowing it was the opposite.
He felt sorry for him. For that reason, he allowed Brandon Locke to scheme against him.
He moved according to his will. Brandon Locke had given up,
And finally, the 10,264th life.
The current progression.
His counterpart had possessed his best–friend. The version of him that lived in a world similar to his first life.
As if it was a full reset to him.
Only this time, he had kept the [Curse] affinity.
It was the greatest result he had ever produced.
It was then.
Two ink–black eyes looked back at him. Changing colors abruptly, ice–blue, ink–black.
Those eyes.
As if it stared deep within Ezekiel's soul.
—Forget.
Two cold words.
Clearly, Ezekiel had witnessed something he never should have.
Crack!
And Lancelott's body perished soon after.