Chapter – 78
“Ha….”
A dry laugh escaped me without meaning to.
[‘The Word Spirit Who Builds the World’ congratulates the birth of the first SS-rank possessed individual of the Possession Management Bureau.]
[‘The Cynic Who Adjusts Balance’ says your stats were far too high to be merely S-rank anyway.]
[‘The Scales That Judge Souls’ laments failing to recruit you as a believer.]
Unlike the gods, I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. There was something I needed to confirm immediately.
“Divine Descent.”
With the promised activation word, I connected my body to the divine power of the Word Spirit.
It had been ten years.
My hair turned silver and fluttered wildly in the wind. Invisible wings lifted my feet from the ground.
“Ah….”
If I lost focus, it felt like I might soar endlessly into the distant sky.
My heart almost hurt from the overflowing power. Compared to ten years ago, I was incomparably stronger.
<Ah, Ailet? Suddenly?!>
Agnes was startled seeing me waste my ultimate move without warning.
<What about divine fever?! And you’re just using it like that!>
“Don’t worry. Besides, something else is more important right now.”
While the tutorial quest still existed, there was something I needed to check using the system.
With anxious anticipation, I stared toward where the meteor had fallen. Finally, the system finished calculating.
[<System> Your ranking has changed. Current rank: 2nd (▲6).]
Second place.
“……”
I had used Divine Descent while possessing saint-level divine power and being a top-tier Aura Expert.
And still… second place.
“Ha… even this isn’t enough…?”
I couldn’t even tell how large the gap with first place was.
Letting out a hollow laugh, I clenched my sweat-soaked fist.
Still, that was enough. The confirmation was complete.
“Agnes.”
This wasn’t a situation where I could remain in shock.
After calming my anxiety with a deep breath, I looked at the crescent-shaped nail moon.
I warned her:
“Watch carefully. It’s starting now.”
✠
Meanwhile, at the place where the star had fallen—
At the center of a crater filled with drifting ash and sparks, there was a being.
A man with long black hair like raven feathers, wrapped in a corrupt aura.
He had many names.
The newborn Chaos Evil.
Darkness conceived by light.
The exile of the regressed world.
But rather than those long titles, he preferred a simple name.
Lead.
“……”
Lead opened his eyes.
His body, curled as if thrown away after begging for divine mercy, slowly rose.
He lifted his head toward the deep-sea-like night sky. His face, revealed through the long black hair, was devilishly beautiful.
“Ahh….”
Lead found something in the eastern sky.
A lighthouse visible only to him.
“Divine Descent….”
His displeased expression soon turned into a deep smile.
“What a passionate welcome.”
✠
At the same time the system temporarily shut down, an anomaly occurred in the world.
<My goodness.>
It wasn’t some grand catastrophe like destruction.
The wind reversed direction.
And—
<The moon…>
The celestial bodies reversed.
The stars and moon moved rapidly from west to east across the night sky.
<A-Ailet, what in the world is happening?>
“The world is broken.”
<The world… broken? What does that mean?>
To make Agnes understand, there was something I needed to explain first.
“I promised I’d explain this before. About who Tesilid Argent really is.”
My gaze remained fixed on the arc of stars moving across the sky.
Without doubting Agnes would listen, I continued:
“He’s a regressor.”
<A regressor…?>
“Someone who turns back time and returns to the past from the future. Not yet though—he becomes one in three months. And he’s also the protagonist of this world. The world we live in is a ‘regression world’ that can only exist if he regresses.”
<What? Regression world? Protagonist? What are you talking about?>
“I know it’s hard to understand right now. But we don’t have time, so I’ll continue.”
<…….>
The sun rose against its normal direction from the western horizon.
Day arrived.
“The regression world broke because a situation occurred where regression became impossible. And that’s because…”
I clenched my fist.
“The protagonist died.”
At that moment—
My vision collapsed into darkness. Like someone forcibly flipped a switch, my consciousness disappeared.
✠
“……”
When I opened my eyes, I was in my bedroom.
It was much later than my usual waking time. Sunlight streamed through the window—I had forgotten to close the curtains the night before last.
<Ailet.>
Agnes was looking down at me with a stiff expression, as if she had been waiting for me to wake.
<Now I understand why you used Divine Descent without hesitation.>
“……”
<And why you did nothing yesterday.>
Her expressionless face turned toward the window. A pair of auspicious double rainbows hung in the sky.
What were the odds that double rainbows would appear in the exact same place at the exact same time two days in a row?
Outside, noisy voices replaced our silence.
“Hey! Head maid! The Grand Madam has just arrived!”
“Al-already?! Oh dear, my lady hasn’t even woken up yet!”
“This isn’t the time! Wake her and help her prepare for the morning!”
The butler and head maid delivered the exact same “good news” as yesterday.
Perfect déjà vu.
But Agnes no longer looked excited like she was about to meet a dear friend.
Her purple eyes trembled.
<The day… went back.>
“Yes.”
A rollback had occurred.
Time had returned to yesterday, so the Divine Descent penalty had also disappeared.
For reference, this rollback wasn’t regression. It was a completely different phenomenon, so even the protagonist wouldn’t notice it.
But I was a possessor from outside the world, so I could perceive the anomaly. And Agnes was affected because her soul was bound to mine.
Having experienced something that defied natural law, Agnes couldn’t hide her shock.
I figured at least one of us should remain calm, so I explained in an even tone:
“The protagonist died before he could become a regressor. So the world rewound one day to before his death.”
Right now was still the tutorial period, before the original story even began. The protagonist hadn’t awakened his infinite regression ability, nor did he know anything about the heavy fate awaiting him.
Right now, he was just an ordinary human.
But from the world’s perspective, he was a vital component forming its foundation. Dying after becoming a regressor would be welcome—but dying beforehand could not be allowed.
So—
“The world invalidated the death of the protagonist before he became a regressor.”
To fix the “error,” the world restored itself to a point before his death.
An enormous act of deception by the regression world.
And Agnes and I had just witnessed it.
<Calling him the protagonist feels so strange. He’s not a god—how can an ordinary human be the center of the world?>
“He can. Because that’s the will of ‘Strict Order and Good,’ the one that governs this world. Tesilid Argent was chosen by a god.”
<…….>
Originally, this world was destined to quickly collapse after being abandoned by Strict Order and Good.
But the world resisted, and Strict Order and Good prepared a temporary survival method.
That method was the infinite repetition of timelines using a regressor.
Agnes seemed unable to argue after hearing her god mentioned. Instead she asked something else.
<Who killed Tesilid? That falling star?>
“Yes. Borrowing Carpeios’s words—‘a newborn Chaos Evil.’”
<Hah… so it wasn’t just a curse phrase. Sounds like a high-ranking being even demon kings would worship.>
“That’s right.”
Just from the name Chaos Evil, it was clearly the opposite of Order and Good.
A god-level being that ruled all demons.
<But how can such a high-ranking demon use power outside a dungeon? Aren’t demons only able to appear through dungeon bursts?>
“That’s true.”
<The higher the dungeon master, the harder the burst conditions. Is this Chaos Evil something special?>
The answer was simple.
“No. He’s not a demon.”
<What?>
“He’s human. He just possesses power at the level of a demon god.”
<…….>
Agnes couldn’t close her mouth in shock.
“His only goal is the destruction of the world. You can’t negotiate or reason with him.”
A being that could only be opposed with strength.
<Is he… stronger than you?>
“Yes.”
I clenched my fist tightly. Being stuck at second place even after Divine Descent still stung.
<My goodness…>
Agnes seemed deeply shaken by the emergence of such overwhelming evil.
I felt bad, but there was still more bad news to deliver.
“This phenomenon will repeat for a week.”
That meant rollback would occur seven times.
