“I would like to do everything you request of me, but I can’t do just that. After all, we won’t be able to talk if you crack my head.”
“Well, try harder!”
“You know you are being unreasonable, right?”
Bam!
Mana exploded between the two swords and made a huge shockwave. Both Zich and Zich Brave backed away. As soon as his feet touched the floor, Zich ran towards Zich Brave. Their swords collided again and many times more. Zich’s mana was completely free thanks to the Tree of Wind. The destructive force of his attacks was incomparably higher than all his previous attacks. However, it was the same for Zich Brave.
He possessed the same amount of mana as Zich, so he moved Estellade skillfully and blocked Zich’s attacks. Every time their swords clashed, Estellade’s light flashed and made lines in the air.
Bam!
There was another collision. If there had been a person in the vicinity, they would have died instantly from the mana’s shockwave and slashes from the two. That was how intense their fight was.
Flash!
Estellade’s light flashed again. Zich backed away with a disgruntled expression on his face. ‘I guess I have to give him credit on the way he uses Estellade.’
Estellade’s most noticeable trait was, of course, its light. Normally, Hans shot off this light and used it to wrap around his sword blade to increase its fighting power. Yet, Zich Brave added onto this technique and used a special skill called ‘Blinding Lights’. Of course, Hans used this skill occasionally too, but the way Zich Brave used it was on another level. With exquisitely perfect timing, Zich Brave covered Zich’s view multiple times. It was extremely deadly to become blinded even momentarily in the midst of a battle.
‘Should I say, as expected of me?’ Zich wondered with small admiration. Then, a second later, he was enraged by the fact that he had addressed Zich Brave as himself and swung his sword in a frenzy.
“Perhaps, did you suddenly become infuriated for some silly reason?”
“Shut up!” Zich viciously stamped down on Zich Brave’s comments.
The fight continued. Since they both had reached their peak in experiences, skills, and physique, it didn’t seem like their fight would reach a conclusion any time soon. However, as time passed, Zich began to gain the upper hand. The reason why he gained the advantage was because of the difference in their weapons.
Baaam!
Windur mercilessly cracked Estellade’s light. Although its light bothered Zich, besides this trait, Esterllade lagged behind Windur in every aspect such as durability, mana amplification, and so on. Both Zichs were aware of this fact. Thus, Zich acted confidently while Zich Brave frowned.
Bam!
Their attacks clashed again. This time, Zich Brave clearly had to back away. Zich didn’t miss this chance to chase after him. Zich Brave also didn’t seem like he planned to give Zich this moment. He let out an intense light and yelled, “Hey! This isn’t the time for this! I really have important things to talk about with you! So, please stop attack—!”
“I told you that cracking your head is my priority!”
“Like I said, I won’t be able to talk if you crack my head!” Zich Brave amplified his voice so that it cracked, but Zich didn’t slow down his attacks.
“No, there’s no meaning to cracking my head! You must know it too! I’m not the real Zich Brave. I’m sure you would not even feel that great if you cracked my head…”
“No matter if this is reality or a dream or something else, if I see Zich Brave, I have to crack his head first. It’s a rule that has been set since the beginning of time!”
“How could there be a rule like that!” Zich Brave yelled. Meanwhile, he evaded Windur flying his way by a hairbreadth and swung Estellade towards Zich. He clicked his tongue as he blocked Estellade.
“Fine! Then, after we finish talking, I will let you crack my head!”
The ringing sound from Windur stopped. Zich Brave was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
“…After talking?”
“Yes. You know that you must listen to what I have to say. You are just turning your eyes away from this fact because your hatred towards me is greater than that.”
“It’s not that I’m turning my eyes away from that fact. I simply want to crack your head while shouldering all the consequences from doing so.”
“…I don’t think that’s something you should boast about,” Zich Brave sighed and loosened his posture. Fortunately, Zich didn’t use that chance to attack. “Let me ask you this first. How much do you hate me?”
“More than Glen Zenard.”
“That’s too much.”
Zich placed Windur on his shoulders and slouched as he stared at Zich Brave. “So, why don’t you start talking then?”
“It feels as if you will slice my head off if I misspeak.”
“You know very well.”
Zich’s continuous unkind treatment irked Zich Brave slightly, so he said, “If I really give it my all, it won’t be easy for you.”
Yet, Zich flatly dismissed this statement. “I just proved to you well enough that I’m stronger than you in the battle we just had.”
“Not because of the differences in our skills, but our weapons.”
“It’s also a type of skill to acquire a good weapon. It’s also not something a person who has Estellade should say.” Although it wasn’t on par with Windur, Estellade was one of the top three weapons that Zich knew of.
“Let’s battle one more time after exchanging weapons!”
“Are you crazy?” Zich had no intention of giving Windur and disliked the idea of holding Estellade even more. Then, he said, “Stop saying nonsense and quickly tell me what you need to say.”
“Ha, no matter how harsh your words are, I suppose even you can’t withstand your curiosity,” Zich Brave laughed.
“No, it’s so that I can quickly crack your head.”
“…”
An expression that couldn’t have belonged to Zich Brave’s face appeared, but Zich didn’t even snort. In the end, Zich Brave relaxed his shoulders as if he’d given up. “Fine. My goal was to converse with you anyway.”
Zich Brave put back Estellade into his scabbard, and then seriously looked at Zich. “It’s our first—no, it’s not the first time since you saw me in your dream. I’ll still introduce myself. My name is Zich Brave. I’m you in the very first timeline, a timeline you don’t remember.”
Zich snorted to show his displeasure, but he did not deny Zich Brave’s words. “However, I’m obviously not Zich Brave himself. In the first place, whether it’s Steelwall or Brave or Moore, there’s only one existence that is Zich. I’m a type of matter that was made through the stored memories and mana of the World Tree.”
The World Tree. Even though a word that piqued Zich’s interest came out, Zich didn’t immediately interrupt Zich Brave to further dig for more information.
“The reason why I appeared in front of you is for one reason. I came to teach you the things you are curious about and ask for one request from you.”
Zich scowled. It looked as if he was restraining himself from immediately shouting, ‘No!’
Zich Brave read his expression and said, “You really do hate me.”
“Of course.” Zich immediately replied, “If you’re a matter formed out of memories, why did you appear in that form of all people? You didn’t need to be Zich Brave.”
“I’m being projected through you, so I can’t help but take your form. Moreover, of all the numerous Zichs that existed in the past, I thought that I was the best person to share this story.”
“You?”
“Yes, me.”
Even though Zich wanted to immediately slam Windur into Zich Brave’s self-confident face, he suppressed this desire with supernatural patience. It was not time for that yet.
“Well, even though I have the appearance, consciousness, and behavior of Zich Brave, my will right now is the World Tree’s will.”
The word ‘World Tree’ came out again. Regardless of what it was, the World Tree was probably deeply involved in this matter.
“Do you know what the World Tree is?”
“Isn’t it basically what those things are?” Zich pointed at the Tree of Wind behind him.
“Yep, but to be more exact, those guys are the World Tree’s clones.”
“…Clones?”
Zich turned his head back and stared at the Tree of Wind. The tree was still in the air surrounded by winds. The mana flowing out from the tree was still astounding. It wasn’t a surprise that those trees were the source of regressions. However, it was shocking to hear that those trees were just simply clones.
“We thought that there were a total of five trees, but are all five of those trees clones then?”
Zich Brave shook his head. “The four trees you saw are all of the World Tree’s clones. However, it’s not wrong to say that there are five trees.”
Zich was able to immediately catch the meaning behind Zich Brave’s words. “The last remaining tree is the original tree.”
“Yep.”
Zich let out a small sigh. If the clones were like this, how much mana did the original one have? Zich couldn’t even imagine it.
“Doesn’t the regression system use the power of the World Tree as its main source?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, that means the regression system is still going on.” Even for Zich, he felt a light sense of hopelessness when he thought that everything he did so far had been useless. However, he had been too hasty in his thoughts.
“No, the regression system has stopped functioning. Congratulations, Zich. You two were right.”
“…Then the possibility of Glen Zenard being able to regress is…”
“None.”
Zich laughed. His laugh made him sound elated since he made an extremely loud sound that shook the whole space. They had finally made a huge strike against the back of that blasted bastard’s head. Zich steadfastly did what he could do, but he couldn’t completely erase a small trace of anxiety in his heart since no matter what great things he did, it would all disappear if Glen just turned back time. However, right now, he heard that Glen Zenard had lost his power to regress.
“I can now fuck that guy over to my heart’s content!”
“…Is that the first thing you think of?”
“What else do I have to think of other than this?”
Zich Brave shook his head. It was a reaction that people who couldn’t understand him usually showed, so Zich paid no attention to it.
“Just tell me more about the regression system.” Even though the regression system no longer posed a threat to him, Zich was still curious about it. Even though the main culprit of all the numerous regressions was Glen Zenard, the main source of his power was the regression system.
“There’s nothing really much to explain. Most of what you know is all there is to it. It’s a system that uses the power of the original World Tree and four of its clones to turn back the entire world’s time. The system completely wipes all the efforts, results, success, mistakes, wrongs, and everything that humans achieved after the time set for regression. This is called the Brushel System. Of course, the one who activates the system is exempt from this.”
“What’s the condition to activate it?”
“Death.”
Zich had expected this.
“How much can it go back in time?”
“It differs based on how one uses it, but Glen Zenard thinks it can only go back to the same point in time. So, he uses it like that.”
“And how do you use it?”
“There’s a control device where the World Tree is located. Well, no one can completely control that device anymore.”
The World Tree was mentioned once again. Zich stared at Zich Brave. Zich Brave definitely said that his will was the World Tree’s will, and he said that he had come to ask for a request from Zich.
Thus, Zich decided to push all his other questions for later and asked, “What does the World Tree want?”
Zich Brave’s reply was extremely simple. “Freedom.”