“Y-Y-You...!” Ultel’s eyes were bloodshot. Incomprehensible words and groans flowed out of his mouth. If someone saw him on a dark night, they would’ve immediately turned back and run, thinking he was a monster. No, even on a bright day, most would’ve kept their distance from him and turned away. Yet, Zich did not feel such emotions. Ultel’s current appearance was one Zich was very familiar with, and people he beat to the punch usually ended up looking just like Ultel in the end.
Of course, Zich didn’t go easy on Ultel just because he had reached this sorry state.
“What’s that face you’re making? A mastermind who used the whole world as his playground should act imperturbable, even in urgent situations like this one. How can you crumble just because you got beat up once? Even Glen Zenard endured situations like this well.”
Before the regression, Glen had suffered immensely because of Zich while trying to gather all sorts of information. Since his opponent was Moore and not Brave, he had to endure all sorts of humiliation and insults. Yet, Glen endured all that for his goal of creating the ‘perfect life’ he dreamed of. By contrast, Ultel was heaving and red-faced like a child just because he had gotten hit a couple of times.
Of course, the situation between Glen and Ultel was different. Glen used to possess the ability of regression that could turn everything that happened into nothing and he knew that he would have to endure many trials with Zich. To Ultel however, everything happening right now was a calamity that he had never expected.f𝙧𝑒𝑒𝘸e𝗯𝗻𝘰v𝒆l.c𝙤𝘮
Either way, Zich had no intention of acknowledging these differences.
“You and I laughed at Glen Zenard so hard before, but seeing you know, you don’t seem much better than that guy. Instead, you seem way worse than him. Perhaps, you are the rare specimen of this world that is even worse than Glen Zenard. Oh my, to think that I would be able to find such a rare creature! This must be a gift that the heavens are blessing to me for having done so many kind deeds!”
“You bastaaaard!”
“Ahahahah! As expected of Sir Zich! I knew I could trust him!” The louder Ultel shouted, the louder Lubella laughed. “I’m really glad I agreed when that bug said he wanted to talk to Sir Zich alone!”
“Ah, Lubella. Did you have a separate reason for agreeing at that time?” Leona asked. Walwiss and Tim tried to stop her with their gazes, but they failed to repress her curiosity.
“Considering Sir Zich’s personality, I thought he would be able to find things that he could mock his enemy about in their conversation and use them later! He didn’t betray my trust!”
“...Can you call that trust? Did the word ‘trust’ always sound so cheap?” Walwiss asked. However, his words didn’t reach Lubella—she was too busy cheering Zich on to lash Ultel with his tongue. Even while she did this, she didn’t forget to immediately heal her companions’ injuries so that no one could reprimand her.
Ruumble! As they conversed, the tower shook more and more. The shaking grew to the point that low-level monsters like the undead could no longer maintain their balance, and because Lubella and Walwiss couldn’t stand properly, Leona and Tile supported them. Even as they did that, the party members kept killing their enemies.
“Hey, Zich. Do we really have to destroy this tower?” Walwiss asked. It broke his heart that a tower filled with potential research materials would be destroyed. Thus, he pleaded desperately, “Since we already weakened our enemies, can’t we just advance forward and beat them?”
Yet, Walwiss’ hopes were crushed.
“As I said before, my goal isn’t to destroy the tower, but in the process of fulfilling my goal, the tower must crumble.”
The World Tree was currently maintaining the tower, and if the World Tree’s mana was cut off, the tower would evidently crumble. Right now, Hans’ crew, specifically Elena, was cutting off the World Tree’s mana from the tower.
“You really can’t prevent it?”
“Yes, it can’t be helped.”
Walwiss looked like a disappointed dog who had its food stolen. His shoulders drooped.
“It can’t be helped then.” Walwiss sighed deeply and raised his staff high. “I will have to take out my anger on those guys.”
“That’s a very good idea!” Lubella responded.
“You think so too? I see now that the Saintess has her good points.”
“Don't lose your mind from your disappointment!” Leona shouted from behind. Even though they usually bickered, Leona shouted in worry after seeing one of the few remaining sane-minded people turn to the dark side.
Although it was a humorous sight, there was nothing objectively funny about Walwiss taking out his anger on the enemies. The flames he shot out burned everyone around him instantly, and seeing this, Ultel clenched his teeth tightly. The situation was continuing to worsen. He wondered what he should do now. Should he continue to block Zich’s party here or leave them and go to the island to remove the trespassers? Yet, a report that removed all his hesitation soon came.
“Master!” A figure frantically ran toward him from above. It was the subordinate he had sent to the island with monsters and the undead to deal with the trespassers. Yet, he had abandoned his mission and returned with a frantic look on his face.
“What is it?! What happened to the mission that you are down here?!”
“T-The teleportation circle is no longer activating!”
“....!” Ultel’s eyes immediately turned back to Zich. His eyes reflected Zich’s sly, mocking smile again. Unable to endure it any longer, Ultel was about to shriek curses at Zich when—
Boooooom! A tremor incomparable to previous ones shook the entire tower.
***
Elena inhaled deeply. She sweated so much that her robes were soaked, but Elena didn’t care about such matters at all. She was too focused on pouring all her attention and efforts into controlling this device.
‘I stopped the mana flowing into the tower now.’ If she could, Elena wanted to immediately run up the steps to wake up her master. However, Lyla’s intentions were different—she prioritized defeating their enemy over her own awakening. Elena heard the sound of battle from a distance. Her companions were fighting their enemies, and the sound alone gave her a clear idea of how intense the battle was. However, the battle wouldn’t last long either, because no more reinforcements would come from the tower.
‘That man named Ultel didn’t come.’ Ultel was the true mastermind that secretly controlled the whole world. Elena had heard that even though the man who corrupted her father was Glen Zenard, the one who supported Glen Zenard and allowed him to run wild was Ultel. Naturally, Elena felt enormous resentment against Ultel, but she wasn’t acting solely on resentment. This was also a fight to save the world. And most of all...
‘Sir Zich will make him pay tenfold for any resentment that I have against him.’ Zich was reliable in many ways, but in terms of mocking and torturing people, no one could outperform him. ‘No, in the first place, I shouldn’t even compare him to other people. It would be terrifying to think that another person like him could exist in this world, right?’
Even though Zich was someone she respected as much as Lyla, she was still a mage and her evaluation was very objective. Moreover, she wasn’t disrespecting him. Even if he said this in front of him, Zich wouldn’t be phased in the least. Instead, he would either laugh out loud and agree with her or grumble a little bit and deny it.
‘The first part is a success.’ They divided the elite soldiers from the enemy’s side, and the rest of the enemies would be annihilated when the tower collapsed. The tower’s teleportation system also stopped working, so enemy reinforcements would no longer be able to arrive at the tower.
Ultel hadn’t locked Zich’s party in the tower. Instead, Zich was the one who locked Ultel and his subordinates in the tower while making the tower collapse in the process. Of course, the tower would not fall immediately. Even though the World Tree’s mana was maintaining the tower, it was also a physical structure that was supported by the ground. Regardless, it would not take long for the tower to crumble.
‘Then I’ll wake up Teacher now.’ The long-awaited time had finally arrived. The others could deal with Utel and his forces. Elena received information through the Key That Distorts Destiny and once again infused mana into the device.
‘Uh?’ However, Elena was flustered. The mana flowing into the device did not work as she intended. She tried to control the device by injecting a little more mana. However, the same thing happened. Unlike before, the World Tree’s mana flowed in an unruly and uncontrollable manner.
‘W-what’s wrong with this?’ Elena couldn’t complete the last step to wake up her beloved teacher no matter how hard she tried. New sweat began to trickle down her forehead, which was already soaked with sweat. The control device’s mana began to flow uncontrollably. On second thought, this wasn’t an error in the control device. Elena’s eyes moved towards the hole where the World Tree was.
‘The World Tree is...!’
Ziiiing!
A strong vibration came from the hole.
* * *
Glen was still tied up in the tower. As the battle between Zich’s party and Ultel and his forces intensified, the vibrations in the tower also intensified. After the World Tree’s mana was cut off, the tower continued to shake as he gradually fell, but Glen showed minimal movement. No—he wasn’t the one moving, his body was merely shaking along with the tower’s movements. Since his body was in complete tatters, it was not strange that he had no control over himself, and it seemed most likely that he would get caught up in the collapsing tower and meet his end.
All of Glen’s thoughts had ceased to exist due to his terrible pain and unbelievable reality. However, his thoughts began to gradually come alive again, and his thinking process was different from that of ordinary people. Most people in his situation would have likely cursed their opponent in extreme anger and hatred, or fallen into intense despair that their body would never return to normal and hoped that this hopeless life would end soon. A few would have somehow still been able to pull themselves out of this situation and fulfill their plans. However, Glen’s current state didn’t fit into any of these categories.
‘...Have to do it.’ Glen’s thoughts began to slowly get clearer. ‘...I have to make it.’
He didn’t think about his hatred for Ultel who manipulated his life or his resentment for Zich who destroyed his plot. Instead, he focused on a single goal and the reason for his countless regressions.
‘I need to make a perfect life.’ He had lived and done everything he could for this one goal: a life of a hero who’d be remembered for generations—an adventurous hero with beautiful and capable comrades and enacted justice against the greatest villain of all time.
All of his countless regressions were for this singular purpose. There had been many times when it was extremely difficult and painful. In particular, he didn’t know exactly why, but there had been a time when he felt extreme fear for a while. He had become afraid of regressing, and after continuing his life in that timeline, he had wanted to stop regressing and face death with the others.
However, he had overcome this intense fear, as his obsession to obtain the ‘perfect life’ triumphed over all fears and thoughts. After overcoming that hurdle, he no longer had any misgivings or idle thoughts. Before he felt this intense fear, he thought about different matters on an intermittent basis, but after overcoming it, he no longer thought about anything else. He became completely focused on his goal and thought that perhaps, fear was the last hurdle to test his will in achieving his goal. Even now, Glen couldn’t give up on his goal after reaching this state.
‘My perfect...life...’
Maybe it was an illusion, but it felt like he had regained some of his strength.
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