[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 213
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The Opposite Ⅹ
16
Everyone, at so point in their childhood, must have imagined it.
“Wouldn’t it be aweso if the world stopped and I was the only one who could move freely?”
To Homo sapiens, slacking off is almost a primal instinct.
Who hasn't had the fantasy of becoming a millionaire by robbing a bank while ti stands still?
That adolescent daydream from my childhood has now, after a few thousand years, co true.
"The civilization really does look intact. Ah, there's a Starbucks over there... Yes, it did have that green logo."
"Indeed."
We strolled together, just the Saintess and I, through the desolate domain of the alien god, now colored in shades of black and gray.
“Since the advent of the Void, all the logos have been corrupted into Cthulhu-like squid horrors, so it’s hard to rember what they originally looked like. But yes, they used to have that rmaid shape back in the day.”
"...And there are so many people. So many."
"This was before the population density of the Korean Peninsula dropped to 1/20 of its current level."
"How can all these people just sit in cafes and restaurants during the middle of the day instead of going to work?"
"Hmm, perhaps they're working on their laptops?"
"Oh, electronic devices haven't been corrupted by the horrors."
Like anyone in an apocalypse, the Saintess and I were living in a ti isolated from civilization.
As a regressor, I was forever cut off from my mories before the 4th turn.
The Saintess, a ti stopper, had forgotten much after living alone for thousands of years.
But rather...
"By the way, it's curious that you haven't forgotten about , Saintess. How have you managed to retain your mory of for 2,000 years?"
"..."
A subtle expression appeared on the Saintess's face, as if she was either trying to smile or suppressing one.
"That's a secret. But more importantly, Doctor Jang, would you like to step into that café over there?"
"I don't mind... but while it's fine to look around, you mustn't ingest anything. Do you rember the myth of Persephone? Those who consu food from another world cannot return to reality."
"Yes, I'll keep that in mind."
For a while, we enjoyed ourselves around the Seoul Station area in various ways.
We entered a café and placed coffee on the table (without drinking it). We sat side by side, taking photos with a smartphone (though nothing showed up). We browsed books in a bookstore...
'Now that I think about it...'
There were a few tis when the Saintess let go of my hand, causing even my ti to freeze, but for the most part, we kept holding hands as we walked around.
'This is the first ti I've been out and about with the Saintess like this.'
We'd gone to Beijing to stop the butterfly effect before, but even then, we mostly walked through dark subway tunnels.
'I wonder if there's a way to keep the current Saintess beyond this turn?'
That thought suddenly ca to .
Should I call it a thought? It was more like an emotion that suddenly sprang up within .
‘She's soone who has withstood thousands of years alone to prevent the world’s destruction. Surely, she'd be able to understand better than anyone.’
Though I hadn’t shown it until now, I too yearned for soone to share the endless days and nights with on this lonely island of ti, soone who could provide the human warmth I desperately needed.
The 267th turn of the Saintess, who was now holding my hand... Wouldn't she be more suited as a companion to a regressor than anyone else I've t so far?
‘Yes, definitely.’
One was a ti traveler, the other a ti stopper. One was imprisoned in the flow of eternity, the other in its stillness.
In a world where no one could understand—or even perceive—us, only we could truly understand each other.
The fact that one of us was a being on the level of an alien god didn’t matter at all.
If worse ca to worst, even if humanity worshipped the Saintess as their new deity, it wouldn’t matter to .
‘But how could I... Ah, wait. What if I beca the Saintess's apostle, her shrine maiden?’
A brilliant idea.
Since we were both awakened to ti, if we found the right way, we might be able to establish a relationship like that of a god and her shrine maiden.
Then, we could be together.
I saw hope. And if there was one thing I, Doctor Jang, was the world's foremost expert on, it was finding hope.
“Doctor Jang.”
“...”
“Doctor Jang.”
I felt a cool touch on my cheek, at about 15°C.
Noticing it, I realized the Saintess had placed her hand on my face.
“…Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought for a mont. What is it?”
“I think it’s ti to hunt Nut.”
“Hmm.”
Indeed.
No matter how much we had stopped ti and had fun roaming around Nut's domain like this...
An alien god was still an alien god. The mont we let our guard down, it might strike back in an unimaginable way.
Reluctantly, I nodded.
"You’re right. Let's finish this quickly."
“Yes. But Nut is positioned up there, like the sun in the sky. How do you plan to hunt it?”
"It’s simple. We just walk up there."
With a swish, I manipulated my dark aura to create a ‘footing’ before . As the platforms ford in a domino-like sequence, a staircase leading to the sky was completed in an instant.
It was literally a path to ascend to the heavens.
The Saintess murmured beside .
"...The way you hunt anomalies feels a bit like overpowering them with brute force, doesn't it?"
"What’s the point of having an aura if you don't use it? I trained so hard just for this. Now, please follow ."
"Yes."
Tap.
We both stepped onto the translucent staircase at the sa ti.
10 ters, 20 ters. As we ascended, the platforms below us disappeared, and new ones ford above.
Sotis the steps were dark-colored, made from my aura, and other tis they shimred transparent, when the Saintess took the lead.
How long had we been walking up?
In a world where ti had stopped and the word "how long" no longer had any real aning, I suddenly looked down and saw that the ground had receded far below us.
"Aha."
I laughed, and the Saintess tilted her head.
"Why are you laughing?"
"No reason. I just realized I’ve beco a bit more like you, Saintess."
"...?"
“Didn’t you say you could look down on all things from an omniscient perspective? Look. Seoul, the entire Korean Peninsula, is spread out below us. I’ve finally caught up to your view, Saintess.”
“…”
Still not used to viewing the world in first-person, the Saintess's gaze remained slightly angled toward .
Instead, the pressure of her hand gripping mine tightened slightly.
“Yes, Doctor Jang.”
We continued to climb the stairs.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, we didn’t actually need to climb the full 150 million kiloters to reach the point in space where the sun was positioned.
The atmosphere.
Surprisingly, Nut’s “eye,” which had replaced the sun’s position, was located near the stratosphere.
“Indeed.”
Swish.
I reached out and “touched” the “sky.”
The atmosphere was covered by a semi-transparent glass-like barrier. Nut’s eye was embedded in this glass barrier.
“The universe has vanished. There’s nothing but the sky.”
“Instead, constellations are engraved on the glass. Shall we try breaking it?”
“No, even if we break through the glass barrier, there will likely be another layer of glass beyond it. Several layers of glass must be enveloping the Earth.”
The geocentric model.
An ancient celestial belief that humanity had long trusted in. The hypothesis that the Earth is the center of the universe, and that all other stars rotate around it.
The goddess of the night sky, Nut, had descended upon this place with that belief.
Perhaps the sa phenonon was occurring in the reality that had begun to be tainted by Nut.
Eliminating the entire universe, which humanity didn’t inhabit, turning the surface into hell, and establishing this place as the only world.
It was violence befitting an Alien god.
“Hah, if not for you, Saintess, the whole world would have fallen into Nut’s embrace.”
“……”
“Then, I will pierce Nut’s eye.”
I drew my staff sword, Doha, and without a mont’s hesitation, stabbed it into Nut’s “eye,” the “sun” of this great void.
The sun split apart.
The Alien god couldn’t put up any resistance.
Due to the halted ti, Nut couldn’t even utter a death cry. If I were to restore ti now, the extermination would be complete.
“It’s done. Saintess, please release the ti now. And when we return to reality, could you spare a mont for a consultation? I need to discuss a turnhole for escaping the turn of repetitions...”
There was no response.
“Saintess?”
I turned to look beside .
The Saintess was silently closing her eyes.
Still expressionless, still bearing the scent of water, still holding my hand.
But.
“……”
A bright red stain.
In this colorless world, a crimson lotus flower was sohow blooming right in the center of the Saintess’s chest.
My entire body froze.
As my body turned pale, my mind began to whirl at an incredibly fast pace. The sound of my brain spinning was so loud that my ears felt numb.
This can’t be happening.
Could it be that the Alien god retaliated? Was there a system in place where a curse would activate upon their death, targeting the one who killed them? But if that were the case, why was it the Saintess’s body and not mine—the godslayer who stabbed the eye...
“I’m sorry, Doctor Jang.”
In my consciousness, stained with white noise, the Saintess’s calm voice resonated like a single thread.
“There’s actually one secret I hadn’t told you.”
Despite the red spider lily blooming from her chest, there was no pain in the Saintess’s voice.
Regret. Apology.
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Only such emotions, barely discernible to anyone but , were faintly mixed in her voice.
The water-like voice spoke.
“I am a priestess of Nut, the Alien god.”
A mont passed.
When I blinked for just a mont, the steps of aura that I had been standing on had vanished.
“……!”
My body suddenly lost its balance, and I collapsed. Just as I thought I was falling from the atmosphere, ti halted again and then resud.
The Saintess, kneeling on the steps with both knees, was holding my hand as I tried to fall from the sky. Looking down at .
As if barely catching soone falling from the edge of a cliff.
“Saintess, what in the world is this...!”
“Please don’t move.”
The Saintess spoke.
“Please don’t activate your aura. Don’t recreate the stairs. Don’t take any action towards .”
Even as she spoke, blood was still flowing from the Saintess’s chest.
If Nut’s eye and the Saintess’s heart were linked, then the wound on both would be exactly where I had stabbed with my sword.
“If you show any signs of moving, I’ll imdiately let go of this hand and stop ti.”
“……”
“You once said that Nut and I were opposites. That Nut, who creates the underworld, and I, who halts ti, are fundantally different. But you were wrong.”
Drip—
The blood that had flowed down from her chest trickled down her clothes and onto my cheek. It was where the Saintess’s hand had covered just monts ago.
“That’s not what matters. What’s important is whether we see the world where people live as ‘hell.’”
“……”
“Surely you know. That I’ve long called the world a hell.”
Suddenly.
—This world is hell.
The 117th turn.
The words the Saintess spoke to in the prison of infinity flashed through my mind.
—The world is hell, but no one takes responsibility.
—If ti can’t be moved forward, it must be stopped.
—Why should I allow ti to flow in such a world?
—Hell isn’t 20,000 yojanas deep. That’s impossible.
—Just beneath the surface.
—Just one layer beneath that planet has been entirely made into hell.
Ah.
Back then too—yes, back then too, the Saintess was in space. She was sitting in the “stellar world,” symbolized by the moon, talking with .
Is the world seen as hell?
Can one manipulate the universe at will?
Does one possess an omniscient viewpoint, looking down on the world from above?
Is one capable of opposing and ambushing a “ti ruler,” a regressor?
The answer to all these is “yes.”
In these four aspects, the Saintess and Nut shared identical traits.
If Alien god could freely establish a base within a [ti-seal] grave, isolated from the world’s flow...
If so awakened one could freely move alone in a world that had co to a standstill.
It was only natural to speculate that there might be an intrinsic connection between the two.
"Doctor Jang must have thought that I reached the realm of the alien god by training my aura for 2,000 years, but that's a bit off."
"What do you an, off...?"
"I'm sure I've spent hundreds or thousands of years in other turns as well. Always observing people with ti stopped. But the reason I beca particularly strong in this turn is because the power of the alien god linked to has grown stronger."
"......"
"I am an avatar of Nut."
Drip.
Blood brushed past my cheek and fell into the abyss below.
"You could say I'm the personality of a god without one. So you can't kill Nut alone. You must also hunt ."
"Please wait! We can seal away only the alien god!"
I shouted desperately.
"Yohwa, the student council president of Baekhwah High School, was like that too! The alien god Endless Hell was sealed within her personality..."
"We don't get along well."
The Saintess shook her head.
"Endless Hell would never have noticed even if the turns repeated. But Nut is different. Nut is the alien god of the turn of day and night, the repetition of days, and ti. As the turns repeat, instead of resetting, Nut will only grow stronger."
"......"
"Even if you sohow manage to isolate Nut within my mind, Nut's power would grow stronger with each turn. My heart would beco increasingly contaminated as well, Doctor Jang."
As my lips trembled and words failed , the Saintess spoke.
"Are you truly certain that I won't one day, at so mont, suddenly turn the world into hell?"
"......"
"Doctor Jang."
Caress.
The Saintess wrapped her hands around mine, hanging at the edge of the void.
Her touch was cool, but in the thinning air of this stratosphere, it was the only warmth.
"Please, don't worry. I'll keep ti stopped here."
For a mont, I didn't understand what the Saintess was saying. My mind refused to comprehend.
"Pardon...?"
"I'm sorry. But stabbing ti won't end it."
The Saintess's voice was quiet.
"There’s only one way to kill an anomaly of ti. I'll stop it here—the anomaly trying to interfere with your regression, the void—I'll hold it here. In this place."
"Hold it here?"
My lips parted.
"For how long, exactly?"
"......"
"This is the 267th turn. Already. And yet, there’s no sign of saving the world. It could take hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand turns. Until then... Until then, do you intend to keep this void frozen?"
"Everything is but a mont."
Caress.
The Saintess bent down and gently stroked my cheek this ti, wiping away her own blood with her own warmth.
"I will stop everything here, including myself. So even if you regress to the next turn, this place will remain frozen. As a result, the alien god, I, will no longer be able to interfere with your regressions."
"......"
She left sothing unsaid.
To stop the ti of the entire world, including herself.
That ant even the ti stopper herself would be frozen.
A truly perfect seal.
An absolute subjugation.
Even if a thousand years pass, ten thousand years pass, a hundred million years pass, and 256 quadrillion years flow by, no one will notice. The world will move on as if nothing had happened, in the indifferent flow of ti.
Except for one person.
, the regressor, who would rember this mont for eternity.
"Doctor Jang."
"......"
"Thank you. Because you were there, I didn’t give up. As long as you’re out there, I won’t see this place as hell."
I could feel it.
The Saintess was about to let go of my hand.
She was trying to exile from this void, to [seal] this place's ti along with herself, to isolate herself from the world.
That in the 267th turn, the Saintess existed here, and would continue to exist here, eternally, suppressing an alien god.
No one would ever know.
That there was once a human who existed here, wishing that the world would not turn into hell.
"This."
My decision was purely impulsive.
"Take this with you."
I removed the ornant from my left arm.
And placed it on the Saintess’s wrist, which was holding my hand.
The Saintess tilted her head in confusion.
"A bracelet...?"
"A silver bell."
Ting.
The silver bell rang. Lightly.
"It’s the first thing I acquire whenever I wake up at Busan Station. It’s just a souvenir with no special powers... But it will surely serve as a link between you and ."
"......"
"Please wait for . No matter how many turns it takes, no matter how long, I will co to save you. I promise."
"......"
"I will find a way to break this seal without you destroying the world, and I will return."
At that mont.
The Saintess smiled.
The Saintess who had not once looked in the eye since we reunited after stopping ti for 2,000 years, finally did. Clumsily. With one hand, she held my right hand, and with the other, she held my cheek.
For the first ti, like a child who had just learned a new gesture, she slowly adjusted the angle of her head, lowering it, aligning the angles of her eyes with mine.
The world's achromatic colors quickly narrowed between us, filling everything with black and white.
"Okay."
A mont of pause.
The warm color of deep water lingered on my lips for a brief mont.
"I'll see you in a little while."
She withdrew.
When I opened my eyes, a thin glass barrier, truly a thin glass barrier, was now between the Saintess and .
The Saintess, smiling on the other side of the glass, was frozen in place, reaching out her hand. Like a black-and-white photograph.
‘Ah.’
I, who had lost hold of the Saintess's hand, simply fell.
No, in truth, it was the opposite. The Saintess’s frozen world, having let go of my hand, was receding into the abyss.
I reached out desperately, calling for the Saintess, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t cross into the achromatic world.
And in the next mont.
I returned to reality, where she no longer existed.
[Translator - Jjescus]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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