However, at this mont...
Annan suddenly felt a flash of brightness before his eyes, and his vision began to narrow. His body, initially floating in the air, gradually sank and landed on the ground.
His heart skipped a beat.
As expected—unsurprisingly—Annan quickly realized he had been kicked out from the rift in ti.
In that instant, a deep crimson inverted pentagram was branded onto Annan’s back.
The crimson power of Kornunos, the Fifth Cursed Object, poured into Annan’s body.
Annan’s Heart of Justice was instantly ignited by it—the crimson power surged into the Heart of Justice as if it were fuel, rapidly transmuting into a dazzling golden brilliance amidst a silent roar.
In the mont Annan reappeared in the void.
Annan clearly saw countless threads of fate of this era converging from every direction, instantly connecting to him. If one were to look down upon the empire’s territory from above, they would see a pale golden mist rapidly emanating from Annan as the center, spreading in the blink of an eye to cover the entire empire.
Or rather... at the very mont Annan reappeared in the world, he activated sothing anew.
That was the truth hidden in history, the mories sealed away by humanity.
People who had lived since that era to the present, regardless of what they were doing, froze in place—they suddenly gained mories about The Worm. And soon, they realized what that ant.
As the pale golden mist gradually descended from the sky and seeped into the earth, the dead of old were resurrected once more.
Their phantom-like radiance reconstructed their bodies again, as though scanning their forms afresh. Those bodies were the pinnacle of their physical states.
The revived players imdiately realized—the Heaven Wheel had returned—
"It has been a long ti... Your Majesty."
Daryl once again respectfully bowed to Annan. "I had actually guessed it just now; indeed, it was you who returned."
"How did you guess?"
Annan frowned deeply. "Logically speaking, the True Gods should have completely erased the mory of this trip. Even if you were present at the scene, you should have even less chance of knowing when I would return..."
Having lost the mories about The Worm, people had no way of knowing that The Worm would erge after one hundred eighty-six years. This ant they wouldn’t even rember that Annan would ’return after more than a century.’
"That’s correct. To prevent The Worm from gaining intelligence from us, we conducted a global mory wipe."
Daryl explained simply, "We lost our mories, but not our intellect.
"All of us forgot why you left us and when you would return... But those of us present at the ti, as well as Lady Kafney and other insiders, still rember that you used the Great Calamity Curio to travel to the future.
"We forgot The Worm, but not your existence. Based on what we know of you, you would never abandon us over sothing trivial or venture into the future alone... Also, invoking the ’Sixth Aspect Chronicle’ requires the permission of the True Gods.
"But even the True Gods lost their mories. So from that mont, we realized—you must have gone to the future to defeat so incomprehensibly powerful enemy, whose very na cannot be spoken or even rembered.
"And we all believed... regardless of how long it would take, you would undeniably achieve victory and return to us. Thus, we never forgot you. Almost every year, we would mistake so event as ’your return,’ only to find it proven false. Yet even after all that, we kept hoping.
"Because we were certain—you would definitely co back from the future. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in a hundred years... And it would always be in a future within arm’s reach.
"As long as we continued to live, as long as our existence stretched infinitely across the First Chronicle, we would eventually touch your existence again from the future."
Daryl replied, "Everyone was waiting for you, Your Majesty. None of us fled.
"It was the absence of mories about The Worm that compelled your followers to attempt to ascend as gods. Being unaware of the crisis behind the Third Gate resulted in more deaths along the way than successes... Yet so still managed to break through The Worm’s blockade and ascend as gods.
"Looking back now, I guess The Worm might not have wanted its existence exposed, which is why it didn’t fully block their path to ascension. Perhaps The Worm wasn’t as overwhelmingly powerful in sealing paths beyond the Heaven Wheel.
"In any case, this worked in our favor—The Worm’s conservative approach allowed our strength to grow."
"...Thank you all for your tireless efforts. Forgive my inadequate expression, but I truly don’t know what else to say."
Annan sighed. "Though for , it felt like just a mont had passed, for all of you...
"Additionally, I still don’t understand why I was abruptly cast out. Logically speaking, I should still be missing one na... Yet sohow, I suddenly obtained Kornunos."
"I rember now." Daryl nodded. "The five nas, correct?"
"Indeed... Among my players, a significant number aren’t natives of this world. Their threads of fate don’t originate from this realm, nor would they link to this world."
Annan furrowed his brow. "After ascending as gods, Maria and the others are now independent of the First Chronicle. They cannot be part of my support, my five nas.
"You didn’t guess—Clearstream brought here. But since you didn’t interact directly with , you shouldn’t have suddenly wrenched from history’s rift."
Moreover...
What was it, then, that beca the "fifth na," seemingly absent from Annan’s mory, yet triggered Kornunos’s chanism?
Although on the surface it seed trivial...
Annan instinctively sensed sothing amiss—
Why would Haoyun make "five nas" the key for Annan to obtain Kornunos? She could undoubtedly foresee the future... What exactly had Haoyun seen?
While pondering, Annan unconsciously raised his head to look at the large floor mirror in Daryl’s office.
He suddenly froze.
After a brief mont of contemplation.
Annan took slow, deliberate steps toward the mirror.
He extended his hand and lightly touched the reflection of his cheek.
"...So that’s how it is."
Annan murmured softly, "Should I say... no wonder it is .
"We’ve all been tricked, Daryl."
"You an...?"
Daryl hesitantly inquired.
Annan slowly responded, "If my understanding is correct, then the situation should be as follows...
"After gaining my intelligence, The Worm realized—so long as I still existed, all its actions would be aningless. The Heaven Wheel and The Worm are mortal enemies, but aside from the Heaven Wheel, no other god is even worth considering.
"Previously, I believed that the mont I encountered The Worm, it gained my wisdom and physical form..."
The faded mories began to resurface once more.
It was the illusion Annan fell into after viewing the Paper Princess’s painting—
[—Finally, I’ve found you.]
A voice, identical to Annan’s, spoke in Annan’s heart, brimming with delight:
[Lend your wisdom and body for a while... Heaven Wheel.]
In that instant, Annan’s inverted Winter Heart seed to fail. The long-lost emotions of fear, anger, despair... surged in an uncontrollable torrent, like a tsunami crashing onto a city in one brief mont.
Those feelings were so intense, so vivid.
So much so...
[—As if they didn’t even belong to Annan himself.]
"Because they weren’t my emotions to begin with."
Annan answered.
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