Glen was stunned. It was only natural, considering the fact that the organization that had faithfully followed whatever he told them to do in every timeline was laughing at him now. Rage penetrated through his fear and shot up.
‘Another thing I have never experienced!’ How many unexpected events did he have to experience in this timeline before someone was satisfied?
‘It’s all because of Zich Moore!’ This situation where he was pathetically moping on his bed and why his loyal subordinates were betraying him was all because of Zich.
“Glen Zenard,” Ultel said. After always politely addressing Glen as ‘master,’ Glen’s name easily came out of his mouth. “I have something I must ask you.”
It was a one-sided notice without giving any option to rebuke. It was an arrogant way of relaying news without any consideration for the other party’s feelings and made the listener reluctant to comply. Expectedly, Glen was offended.
“How insolent! Aren’t you afraid of Bellu’s punishment?!” Glen yelled once more, but the response he got back this time was the same as before.
“Stop saying that utter nonsense. I knew you weren’t Bellu’s incarnation from the beginning.”
“What...!”
“Furthermore, I don’t care about things like Bellu. Only some mindless idiots believe in that cultish god.”
“B-But you are the Pope of the Bellids!”
This was Ultel’s other identity: the Bellid Pope whom the whole world, especially the Karuwimans, were searching ardently all over for.
“Is there a law that states the Pope must believe in the god he serves?” It was such an explosive declaration. If the head of the church, the Pope, didn't believe in their religion’s god, who in the world believed in that god? Yet, Ultel and the subordinates around him remained calm. The robed figures simply served the Bellid Pope, Ultel, and were aware that they were an organization completely separate from the actual Bellids. However, Glen found it baffling that they didn’t even flinch at Ultel’s bold declaration of lack of faith. It felt like he became the only fool in the room.
“I’m repeating myself, but just answer the question. This isn’t a bad option for you either since I’m planning to give you what you want the most anyway.”
“...What do you mean by what I want the most?”
“The end of your regression ability.”
Glen’s eyes turned wide, clearly showing his surprise. His regression ability was supposed to be solely his. How was it possible that people who knew about his regression ability just kept suddenly popping out of everywhere?
“H-How do you know about the regression...?”
“I’m the one who gave you the ability.”
“...!”
Glen fell into another state of shock. He couldn’t come to his senses, and he felt as if his head had become a bell getting repeatedly hit from both sides.
“So, I can also take back the regression ability I gave you. I’m guessing that you are in a lot of pain right now. You probably can’t sleep because you know that you’ll regress again if you die.”
Glen’s mind was filled with nothing but shock and fear. However, there rose a doubt. It was true that he had trouble sleeping, yes, but it wasn’t because he didn’t want to regress again; it was for the completely opposite reason, which was that he could no longer regress. In that case...
“If you just answer the questions I ask you, I will take away your regression ability,” Ultel repeated.
“...Does that mean that you can give and retrieve the regression ability at your own will?”
“Yes.”
Glen’s eyes shone, and Ultel also noticed the change. He immediately backed away and yelled, “Block him!”
Flap! The blanket on top of the bed flew into the air and blocked the robed figures’ vision. However, those accompanying Ultel were the elites of their team. They possessed great abilities, unlike those who moved to support Glen’s acts of heroism around the world. A single blanket couldn’t deter them for a moment.
Swing! The blanket split into two at one of the robed figure’s swings, opening up their vision again and they saw Glen between the pieces of cloth. He was clutching onto a dark, black sword, and the robed figures released their mana in unison.
Baaam! There was a huge explosion. A whirlwind made of an enormous amount of mana swept the area; rather than a clash between weapons, the explosion looked like a natural disaster. And the explosion didn’t end at once. A continuous series of shocks and wind swirled around, causing a huge commotion.
One of the robed figures approached Ultel and asked, “Are you all right, sir?” Ultel dusted off the debris and dust on his clothes and replied, “I’m fine.”
His skills weren’t so lacking that he would die from such an attack. Although he had given most of it away to Glen, Ultel had also improved his own skills using the Clowon empire’s artifacts.
Ultel looked back to the space that used to be a room. Glen was in the midst of fighting the robed figures on top of the crumpled room and debris.
“It wasn’t that he reached his limit in regressing,” Ultel said.
“Is that so, sir?”
“There’s no way he would bare his fangs when I told him that I can halt his regression then. It doesn’t make sense if he’s scared of it.”
“Could it be that he’s expressing rage that you’ve used him until now?”
“The fear one gets toward regression when they reach their limit isn’t something that can be affected by a reason like that. Once the blessing of regression begins to feel like a curse, one would kneel to anyone who offers to free them from the curse even if the person is their worst enemy.”
“Yet, that idiot hero is attacking the very person who offered to undo his curse,” his subordinate noted.
“Yes, that means that his curse hasn’t been activated yet.” Either way, it wasn’t pleasant news. No, Ultel actually preferred that Glen didn’t think of his blessing as a curse yet since it meant that Glen could still continue to regress.
“Then why was that guy moping around like an abandoned dog?”
“I also can’t figure that one out, sir. If something happened, it must have happened during the war.”
“Hm, they say a dragon appeared, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Damn it, we couldn’t even get information about the battlefield because of him.” The Bellids in the Pinne Estate and the robed figures entrusted to Glen had been completely wiped out in the war, so they were unable to receive detailed information about what occurred. Glen had locked himself in a room as soon as he arrived, and he was no help either. Currently, information about the war was coming in slowly, little by little.
“Did he get scared by the dragon? I guess, since it’s the first time a dragon has appeared in all the timelines, it does make some sense that he’d react like this,” Ultel said.
“I don’t know, sir, but won’t we be able to find out after capturing him? It seems like he’ll get caught soon.”
“Hmm.” The battle was still fiercely going on, but overall, it looked as if Glen was slowly getting pushed back by the robed figures.
“What’s wrong with him?” Ultel cast a questionable gaze toward Glen; the Glen he knew had much higher skills than what he was showing right now.
‘Apart from Zich Moore in his prime, no one should be able to stop that hero-wannabe right now.’ Ultel despised Glen for all the humiliations and insults he had to put up with so far, and recently, he obtained one more reason to beat Glen down. However, the reason why he had proposed to stop Glen’s regression ability as a favor and tried to persuade Glen was all because of Glen’s skills. If they tried to use force to extract information from him, their organization would also suffer tremendous damage.
Of course, Ultel had a countermeasure to stop Glen, but even if he used that measure, a certain level of damage was expected. Since Ultel needed to attack not only Glen, but also Zich and Lyla, he wanted to minimize the damage to his organization as much as possible. The situation had turned awry and he had to use force, but unexpectedly, his subordinates were the ones driving Glen back.
“He shouldn’t be pushed back like this...”
“His movements are way too timid and passive. He looks like a man fighting for his life for the very first time—and an especially cowardly one at that.”
“There’s no way this is his first time fighting a life-threatening battle.” Rather, Glen had more experience fighting than anyone else in the world. Of course, Ultel had no complaints that Glen wasn’t able to fight properly; rather, it was a very fortunate matter. On the other hand, he couldn’t erase his suspicions.
Ultel had no way of knowing that Glen had recklessly aimed his sword at Ultel, hoping to regain his regression ability after hearing that Ultel had the ability to give and retrieve the power of regression. However, Glen remembered a second later that he had only one life and had become too scared to fight.
“Sir, why don’t you ask that too? I think it’s about time as well.”
“Yes, that’s true too.” The moment they said this, Glen began to vomit blood. Soon after, his movements became noticeably dull.
“Sir, it started.”
“Hmm.” There was a reason why Ultel was able to easily point his sword against Glen, who could be called the world’s second strongest, the first being Zich. Glen had used a relic from Clowon’s ruins to the fullest extent to boost his strength, and he suppressed the resulting side effects with a special drug. However, Ultel had switched the drug with a fake one. Glen would be fine for about half a year if he didn’t use his power, but if he used his power, the side effects would appear immediately.
“He’s still holding out well.”
As his subordinate said, Glen was persistently resisting while throwing up blood.
“In the first place, we expected significant damage from him even in that state. That’s how impressive Glen Zenard’s skills are, but now that he’s suddenly shrinking back like a cowardly dog, it’s become much easier to deal with him.”
Glen’s resistance gradually weakened. The robed figures were already leading the battle. Glen tried to escape, but the robed figures used their superior numbers to firmly block all of Glen’s possible paths to escape. Soon after...
“Ugh!” Glen’s movement stopped after he was stabbed in the stomach. The robed figures did not miss this opportunity and raised their swords against him. They showed no mercy; they could tear his limbs and crush his bones and intestines into powder—it was fine as long as they saved his ears to listen to questions and his mouth to answer them.
“Ahhhhhh!” Swords pierced his body all over, and strong punches and kicks landed above his wounds. It did not take long before Glen became completely incapacitated after being stabbed in the stomach, and he soon fell to the floor. His body was covered in blood, cuts, and holes. At first glance, he looked no different than a corpse. However, he was still breathing.
Splassh! One of the robed figures took out a potion and poured it on Glen. They had ripped him into shreds until he was on the verge of death, but to prevent him from really dying, they poured a potion on him. Some of Glen’s deep wounds disappeared, but the potion wasn’t enough to heal all of Glen’s injuries. However, no more potions were offered to him.
“We got him.” Ultel began walking towards Glen. He thought about how to make Glen obediently spit out information inside his head. However, one thing was clear—no matter what choice he made, it would not end well for Glen.
Ultel stood in front of Glen, who was groaning in pain and couldn’t stay focused. Ultel tapped Glen’s body with his foot as if he was touching a bug, and his gaze moved toward Tornium.
‘That object is far too great for this guy.’ Ultel picked up Tornium and smiled in satisfaction as he felt the destructive mana unique to Tornium.
* * *
Zich opened his eyes. His head was filled with piping-hot information straight from the main base–all sent by Lyla. “These guys sure are having fun.”