The man, Ultel, kept pouring his mana into the device. However, the device kept consuming his mana in vain, and there was no sign of the regression ability returning to the device.
‘Why? Why isn’t it activating?’ One could say that the Brushel System was everything to Ultel. The huge organization he had was nothing compared to this system. Yet, this system was failing to activate, and he was completely perplexed as to why. Ultel felt like he was losing his mind.
“Damn it!”
Bam! Ultel slammed the wall aggressively. If he could, he wanted to slam his fist on the device, but the feeble sense of judgment that he managed to preserve prevented him from doing so. What if the device really broke then?
‘After all this time, there’s no way it’s broken now,’ Ultel thought while looking at the unmoving device. ‘Did the device’s abnormalities worsen in the end?’
The system had been acting strangely recently. He felt anxious because of that and he had even gone to see Glen about it, but had been furiously beaten down.
Flick! Ultel turned around and stomped to where Windur was. Windur was the name of the gigantic tree that laid its roots on an island in the middle of a lava lake. This tree, which clearly had a big influence on the Brushel System, was a symbol of hope to Ultel; yet, right now, the system failed to work, and Windur seemed to be laughing at him.
“What’s the cause? Is it because of the vibrations from Windur? If that caused the system to halt, then, what should I...’ Ultel tried to rack through his head, but he couldn’t think of a solution. He felt as if he was walking on a dark night without a moon and star in sight. He thought he should try to fix the system, but with what knowledge? Ultel didn’t understand the fundamental principles of the system—he only knew the basic principles of how to operate the device.
‘The bastard Glen Zenard needs to regress!’ Whatever happened, even if the device was broken, if Glen regressed again, Ultel was sure that everything would return to normal. Of course, Glen would try not to regress. Those who fell into fear about the regression began to refuse regression itself. Since Glen also didn’t have the power to erase his regression ability, if he died, time would regress back to a specific time point. Thus, he could wait for Glen to die naturally or kill him personally.
‘His usefulness has dropped anyway. It doesn’t matter if he sees my true persona.’ At the same time, if he killed Glen without any preparations, Ultel might endanger himself. After all, without the core, he wouldn’t be able to take the memories with him in this timeline. Yet, after giving another person a dangerous ability like regression, Ultel had also prepared precautions for emergencies like this one. First of all, Ultel planted spies who monitored Glen since the beginning of the regression. Since this was before he accumulated the proper abilities, Glen failed to notice those monitoring him even after regressing so many times. If those spies noticed something off about Glen’s movements, they would report to Ultel right away.
Ultel also prepared a couple more precautions so there was no way Ultel would fall prey to Glen’s ambush. Of course, he didn’t know what kind of change could arise after regressing in all these abnormalities, but this was an emergency right now. He needed to undertake some risks. Moreover, Glen was swept with fear right now; there was a high possibility that he could plead Ultel to erase his regression ability. Like discovering a streak of light in the darkness, Ultel’s face brightened with hope.
Yet, that didn’t last for long, and another worry seeped into his mind and splashed cold water onto his flicker of hope.
‘Is there any guarantee that the regression will activate normally now?’ The device that controlled the Brushel System didn’t activate and Windur also showed abnormalities. Perhaps, this meant that something must have happened to Glen’s regression ability too.
‘I can’t be certain that the regression ability will work fine in this condition. I can’t rule out the possibility that it would work fine either, but since there are no guarantees, I have to leave Glen’s regression ability as the final possible option.’ Thus, Ultel pushed off his plan to activate Glen’s regression ability to the back corner of his mind for now.
‘If possible, fixing the Brushel System is the best option...’ He had been thinking of various options because he didn’t know how, but it wasn’t like there was no clue to where information about it could be.
“The information could be inside the Core.’ He couldn’t find something like that inside Lyla’s memories, but there was a possibility that he could’ve missed it. Even if there’s a very low possibility of finding it, he needed to still give it try.
‘Zich Moore, who was with the Core, was a largely changed variable this time too.’ Perhaps, he could be connected to the abnormality within the system.
‘If I need to take back the Core, I need to clash with that guy anyways.’ Ultel felt unwilling because he was reluctant to clash head-to-head with such a monster. He also failed to retrieve the Core because it was hard to track the whereabouts of Zich and his companions as they didn’t follow a set path. Not to mention, Glen was obsessed with Zich Moore too. Above all, he didn’t want to battle against Zich’s tremendous power, but right now, he couldn’t afford to pick and choose what to do.
‘I am going to take back Zich Moore and the Core even if I have to mobilize my entire army.’ To do so, they needed to assess Zich’s current strength. This wouldn’t be difficult to find out since they had someone who had recently fought with Zich not so long ago.
‘Glen Zenard. The last thing you’ll do has been finalized.’
Glen was now useless.
* * *
Glen was lying on top of the bed. All the windows of his room were covered with thick curtains, so his bedroom was very dark. However, even if there were no curtains, the room wouldn’t have been bright either, because it was around the time for the moon to work hard to run across the sky. After arriving at his destination, Glen fell dead asleep. Since he’d filled his belly by eating raw, wild animals, he wasn’t very hungry. His only desire was to satiate his need for sleep since he had run without any rest to get to a safe destination as fast as possible.
After sleeping for an entire day, Glen fully recovered his energy. If he were an ordinary person, he would have some fatigue and aching left, but with his skills, his physical condition recovered after a full day of sleep. However, even though he fully recovered his energy, Glen didn’t leave his room or depart from his bed. He just pulled his blanket over him and spent his time lying in a daze.
‘What do I do now?’ Glen thought as he looked up at the ceiling with blurry eyes. So far, he had run straight on toward his glorious goal without stopping. However, his goal had now been completely shattered. Getting branded as a villain throughout the whole world was only a matter of time, and the side effects of boosting his power too fast would soon overcome his body. Just recently, none of those things would have concerned him since he could just turn back time and return everything to its original state. However, now that he had lost his biggest asset, his regression ability—no, he had heard that he lost it.
‘Did I really lose my regression ability?’ His only source was Zich’s words. However, considering Zich’s confidence, it didn’t seem like a lie. Of course, since Zich Moore was extremely proficient at lying, there was a possibility that he could be lying this time as well. However, Glen couldn’t dare to check if he was lying or not. In order to confirm that he still had his regression ability, he needed to die first. It would be fortunate if he still had his regression ability and he lived, but if not, he would meet his final end. The long-forgotten fear of death possessed Glen’s whole body and grew to an exponential size, as if it was venting out its frustration at being kept locked up for so long.
‘What do I do now?’ The same question rose in Glen’s mind, but as expected, he couldn’t think of an answer again. Glen turned his head and heard the sound of activity outside his room. He sensed quite a few people coming into his room.
‘I told them to not come!’ Glen had told them to come and visit him only when bringing meals, but they had come in groups in the dead of night. Glen raised his upper body in a fit of annoyance but then began to get a bit scared because there was no reason for a group of people to come to visit him so late at night. The members of the organization had followed Glen’s order with absolute obedience so far; originally, they would never come in groups like this after Glen strongly ordered everyone to not approach his room. Not long ago, he would have just been annoyed and thought there must be an unknown reason.
However, it was different now. Glen hid Tornium, which was standing next to his bed, under his blanket.
“What’s the matter?!” Glen shouted as the crowd arrived in front of his door. His loud voice was quite imposing, but considering how his eyes were frantically shaking, it was clear that Glen was no different than a weak dog barking loudly to hide his fear. Glen waited for an answer, but no one answered.
Clack! A person tried to open the door, but the locked door did not open. However, they didn’t give up. Clack! Clack! The door rattled violently. Glen was already frightened, and he felt as if his heart would explode.
“W-who is it!?” He shouted a little louder than before, but there was still no answer.
Clack! After one last big shake, the door stopped rattling. But it was only for a moment. Crack! The whole door was ripped open. The twisted lock around the door handle shook pathetically and fell to the floor.
Bam! The door was thrown into the room and rolled next to the bed.
“...Ultel?” The figure responsible for destroying the door was no other than his loyal servant, Ultel. However, Glen doubted whether the man in front of him was really Ultel or not. Ultel had always shown extreme reverence for him and moved as Glen’s hands and feet. However, the Ultel in front of him was completely different. His eyes, which had always been lowered politely, looked directly at Glen, and his knees, which had always been on the floor when he stood in front of Glen, were as straight as could be. Above all, his actions made him seem very arrogant.
“Wh-what the hell are you doing?!” Glen couldn’t hide his shock. The reason why he thought this place would be safe was because Ultel and his force were here; this was how much Glen trusted Ultel. Yet for some unknown reason, Ultel’s attitude had completely changed. However, the first thing that came to Glen’s mind was not a question as to why Ultel had suddenly changed—it was where he should run away to if even Ultel was now hostile to him.
‘If I get kicked out of here, no place will be safe for me anymore!’ Glen was now on the verge of losing even his trusted support. He first had to make Ultel obey him again, and he could think about the reason behind Ultel’s change later on.
Glen jumped out of the bed and shouted, “How dare you act so rudely to me, the incarnation of Bellu?!”
Glen shouted the justification he had always used to fully control Ultel and his forces as he wished. Originally, as soon as Glen said this, all the men, including Ultel, would have fallen flat on the floor. However, no one fell to the floor.
“Ahahhahahhahaah!”
“Kehehehhehhehe!”
Only twisted laughter, filled with mockery, filled the room.