No matter how angry or boiling with wrath they were, there was nothing more they could do. Both Zich and Til were at levels beyond what they could cope with and even their last hope, the Pyramid of Vengeful Souls, was in their hands. Additionally, their fighting forces had decreased with Nick’s death. The leader of the robed figures couldn’t think of a single way to overturn this situation and finding out how Zich gained the Pyramid in his hands seemed all meaningless now.
“Huh? It’s quiet. I thought you guys would be fussier than this.” Zich placed his Pyramid of Vengeful Souls back. His enemies’ responses had weakened; it meant that their mentality had completely broken down.
‘It won’t be fun to play with them in such a state.’ There was no point in tormenting them any longer. It was time for Zich to end things. Without saying more, Zich fixed his grip on his sword and Til followed suit.
‘Is he planning to wrap this up?’ The leader stared at Zich and Til with hopeless eyes. He could easily see his forthcoming future, and he predicted that he wouldn’t be able to breathe for much longer. Yet, there was no fear in his eyes.
‘This timeline is a failure.’ The leader knew today’s loss would eventually become nothing, as if it had never happened. There was no way that hero bastard would let this timeline be with all these changed variables running around.
‘However, I should resist till the end,’ the leader thought. Throughout all the timelines, Zich had never gone around acting like this. He needed to do all he could to get this information out.
“Let’s scatter from here on out.” The robed figures and the mercenaries stared at the leader. “Each man is on his own. Don’t think of anything else and just run!”
Swish! The leader turned around and ran. The mana imbued in his legs gave him great speed.
Swish! Swish! Swish! The robed figures moved next; they ran as soon as the leader’s foot took off. Although their combatant abilities were lacking compared to other areas of expertise, their speed was top-notch. Thus, they disappeared into the forest instantly. The mercenaries appeared to be in a frenzy for a bit, but they soon moved after the robed figures were a bit of a distance away from them. They too realized that this was their final attempt—their last gamble to survive.
“Oh, how fun.” Zich smirked. “I will take care of the robed figures. Mr. Til, please take care of the mercenaries.” Since the robed figures were faster than the mercenaries, it was only right for Zich with the faster legs to chase after them. Til nodded.
“You are not going to go easy on them because they used to be companions, right?” Zich asked. Even if these mercenaries never listened to Til on top of being betrayers, they had been his subordinates. From the beginning, Zich had let Til take care of the robed figures in consideration of this. Yet, these were unnecessary worries.
“Don’t worry.” Til watched coldly as his previous companions hurriedly made their escape. “I will clean up the mess as their ex-captain.”
“I understand.” There was no need to worry anymore. Zich’s body shot forward instantly, and Til also moved. He imbued mana into his legs and stomped his feet fervently. The ground sunk deeply, and his body flew forward. Even without sophisticated manipulation of his mana, Til’s enormous mana and strong durability transformed his body into a sharp arrow.
Flick!
“Kuaaah!”
Til sliced off the waist of the first mercenary he caught up with. The mercenary screamed, and as his blood and intestines scattered everywhere, his body collapsed to the floor. However, Til’s eyes were already chasing another prey.
Slice!
“Ahhhh!”
Crunch!
“Gurgle!”
The yelling continued to ring across the forest. The mercenaries also ran with all they had with mana wrapped around their legs, but they were far slower than Til. Furthermore, because they had to keep evading trees blocking their path, they couldn’t easily speed straight forward. Trees also blocked Til’s path, but he didn’t let them slow him down.
Bam! Bam! Bam! After slicing a tree in front of him, Til collided against the tree with his mana-filled body. The tree twisted, flew, crashed onto another tree and fell. It was such a simple, almost barbaric method to clear his path, but it was effective. The mercenaries couldn’t go too far before Til killed them.
“W-Wait, Captain! It’s me! I am part of Wolf’s Canine!” Some of the mercenaries tried to invoke Til’s sympathy as they begged for their lives. Yet, Til showed no mercy and struck them down.
“Urgh!” a mercenary yelled and fell over as his body was split into two. Til searched for other prey with cold eyes, and his movements showed not even the slightest hesitation.
* * *
Like Til, Zich was doing a good job getting rid of the robed figures.
Thud! Zich flew across the air as he stepped over the tree branches. In the dark, trees didn’t let out their characteristically green light and covered his view instead. However, Zich didn’t let this deter his ability to capture his prey.
Rustle! Zich’s body emerged from the tree leaves and branches and shot down the forest. In front of him, there was a robed figure hurriedly running away.
Slice!
“Urgh!”
Zich’s blade sliced through the robed figure’s body. The robed figure let out a shriek and after a short gasp, he died. Paying no mind to him, Zich jumped on top of another tree again. Since their special skill was stealth, the robed figures could hide their presence proficiently. However, Zich’s detecting skills were far superior to their stealth skills, and the number of the robed figures quickly dwindled until there was only one left: the leader.
Thud! Zich landed in front of the leader, and they stopped running.
“You’re the only one left now,” Zich said as he raised Windur.
“Did you kill all my underlings?”
“Yeah, you’re the last one.” The leader let out a sigh. He had expected this, and his gamble had ultimately failed. ‘Even so, I’m not going to die easily.’ He tightly clenched his fist. “Die!”
The leader rushed towards Zich. He used his increased physical abilities as a transformed monster to attack Zich, and Zich lightly swung Winfur.
Bammm! A loud explosion erupted between the two, and the surrounding trees shook. The birds holding their breaths and shivering in fear all instantly flew away. However, this lasted only for a moment, and silence soon fell upon the forest again.
“Cough!” The leader was sprawled out beneath a tree that had completely bent over from the shock of impact. His appearance was devastating. His limbs were bent in the opposite direction, and there was a large hole in his chest. Blood flowed out from his mouth, and blood spurted out of deep injuries all over his body. They were injuries that would have immediately killed off any ordinary person.
However, the leader was still breathing. His injuries seemed to be also repairing themselves, as his regenerative abilities were truly fitting for a monster. Since his injuries were so deep, however, it would still take some time for him to heal until he could start moving again. There was little chance that Zich, who was holding Windur in front of him, would wait that long for him to heal.
“Kill me.” Then, the leader continued, “I’m saying this just in case, but don’t think that I’ll spit out any information.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t have such false hopes.”
“Then, kill me however you like—whether you kill me immediately or after playing around with me.” The leader closed his eyes; there was almost no trace of fear in his appearance.
Zich stared at him for a bit. “You’re not getting scared.”
“Hmph! Did you think that I’d be shivering in fear?” the leader mocked Zich. Even though he was on the verge of death, it was clear that he wasn’t going to surrender to Zich. Instead, he provoked Zich with the rashness of an individual who had given up on everything—and it was Zich’s hobby to crush these types of people.
“Is it because your death would disappear as if it never happened in the first place?”
“…What nonsense are you talking about?” The leader’s expression slightly stiffened. Regardless of what Zich meant, there was no way that Zich knew about regression. Thus, the leader couldn’t help but stiffen when Zich spoke with a tone as if he knew their biggest secret.
However, the leader soon relaxed his expression. ‘There’s no way that this guy knows our secret.’ Contrary to his expectations, the leader completely lost his composure at Zich’s next words.
“I’m talking about how if that bastard Zenard turns back time, you’ll also return back to life. So isn’t that why you’re acting so confident right now?”
“…I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Act properly. Hey, your voice is shaking.” Zich poked the leader with the end of Windur. “Your life is hard, right? Since there are so many variables in this timeline, Glen Zenard must be throwing all kinds of tantrums. Gosh, it’s an absolute joke that he’s called the Sun Hero.”
The leader didn’t reply; his face became extremely pale. He had no idea how they were in this situation, but he was sure of one thing: ‘He knows about regression!’ The leader thought that this was the worst possible scenario. As Glen’s obsessive target, Zich was a human that needed to be the strongest Demon Lord. They instilled all the members in the organization with information about how dangerous Zich was. However, no one was afraid of him. No matter how dangerous the situation got, Zich was just a person who would play right into the plans.
However, Zich Moore, their most dangerous target, had already seen through most of their plans. ‘This is really dangerous.’ Sweat began to drip from the leader’s face.
“Woah, even if you changed into a monster, you can still sweat.” Zich wiped the leader’s sweat with his sleeve. Even though the blood on the leader’s face also got on his sleeve, Zich didn’t seem to mind. If a passing onlooker saw this sight, they might have mistaken Zich’s action as an extremely kind gesture, but Zich was merely playing with the leader.
“You’re not even making an excuse. I guess you must also know that if I know this much, none of your excuses would work on me.”
“…How did you find out?”
“It’s simple really. I also regressed.”
“What?”
“I regressed as the Demon Lord of Strength, Zich Moore.”
“Impossible!” His shouts sounded like screams. Blood spurted out of his throat when he shouted, but he paid no attention to his condition. If Zich’s words were true, there was a regression that they didn’t know about, and as a result, Zich Moore had regressed. It was then that everything began to make sense to the leader. “P-perhaps, is the variable for this timeline…!”
“It’s me.” Zich made a twisted smile. “Moreover, I have no plans to end the variables with just this amount. I plan to pull out the very root of your organization who dared to play with my life. Of course, Glen Zenard is included and the mastermind behind this all.”
“You even know about Master!”
“How about it? Are you starting to feel a bit of despair?”
“How were you able to obtain that information…”
“There’s no need for you to know, and I also don’t feel any reason to give you any more information.” Zich felt satisfied by the leader’s shocked expression which was full of despair. “Ah, there’s one more thing I need to tell you before you die.”
Zich placed Windur on the leader’s face. “You guys can’t regress anymore. I stopped the regression ability. You know what that means, right?” Zich smiled brightly and put power into his grip. “It’s over for you!”
Bam! The leader’s head burst into a red mist.