Chapter 41 – Day 41

Day 41

“‘Again’ it’s here.”

The man looked around and muttered as if whispering.

More than that, ‘again’…

Something.

“That man is saying lines that give me a strange sense of déjà vu.”

Cheon Seoa, who sat down abruptly in a place where she could overlook the Sword Demon and the man at a glance, tilted her head.

Just listening to what that man is saying, it’s as if…

“It sounds like lines spoken by a regressor who has returned to the past.”

Well, it probably doesn’t matter much.

Cheon Seoa nodded as she muttered that.

Whether that man was a regressor or not wasn’t important.

The important thing was whether the Sword Demon could defeat that man.

They are both at a level that is ambiguously straddling somewhere between Original Energy and Transformation Energy.
Since the magnitude of their power can be said to be equal, what will determine the outcome of their fight is purely experience.

And so, Cheon Seoa, with eyes full of interest.
Watched their fight with curious eyes while eating popcorn she had brought from somewhere.

“Die-.”

Kwaaaaa-!

Even though the surrounding space had changed into a colosseum, the Sword Demon paid no attention to it.
The Sword Demon simply focused all his attention on the man before him and swung his sword.

Following the trajectory of the sword swung in a beautiful arc, a surging wave rushed towards the man.

In response, the man also swung his light sword containing heat reminiscent of the sun.

Kwang!
Chiiiiik!

The sea and the sun.
The moment the two collided, a massive explosion occurred along with an enormous amount of steam rising.

Even though they had only exchanged a single blow, the entire colosseum shook violently.

If that fight had taken place in reality, beyond simply damaging Neverland, the entire massive Neverland itself would have disappeared.

No, perhaps.

‘It might have caused even more damage than that.’

Cheon Seoa inwardly muttered that and showed a satisfied smile.

Indeed, it was a good decision to bring those two here.
If not, Neverland might have completely disappeared, right?

Cheon Seoa was still more focused on the damage to Neverland than on the humans who would die from their fight.

Meanwhile, the Sword Demon and the man, regardless of Cheon Seoa’s thoughts, were simply swinging their swords while focusing all their attention on each other.

Kwareureu-!

The sword in the Sword Demon’s hand swirled in a circle, creating a massive vortex that swallowed the man.

In response, the man raised his light sword high into the sky.

Chiiiiik-!

A small sun formed at the tip of the raised light sword, and the intense heat it emitted caused the sea created by the Sword Demon to evaporate frantically.

It was an exchange of blows without either side giving an inch.

If all superhumans on Earth, regardless of being heroes or villains, had witnessed their fight, they would have doubted their own eyes.

The power of the Sword Demon and the man was so overwhelming that even the word ‘extraordinary’ would be insufficient to describe it.

“How annoying.”

Haah-.

The Sword Demon furrowed his brow as he exhaled a low breath containing dark blue mist.

Looking at that man made him feel irritated to the bone.
It would be nice if he just died. Why does he struggle so much?
If he would just die obediently now, there would be no pain… well, not exactly. But still, I’m willing to kill him for sure in the end.
However, since he dared to try to kill the young lady, he should receive some punishment.

While the Sword Demon was harboring such thoughts, the man who had completely evaporated the surrounding sea raised his light sword again and said.

“It must be about time.”

…?
What nonsense is he talking about?

The Sword Demon’s eyes widened at the man’s sudden muttering.

“Kuk-!”

Suddenly, the Sword Demon let out a painful groan and clutched his chest.

An enormous power enveloping the entire body.
The power that gave a sense of omnipotence, as if anything could be done, drains away in an instant.

At the same time, the Sword Demon’s body also began to change.
The dark blue scales covering the entire body fall off with a clatter. The tail that had sprouted from the buttocks regresses as if time is being reversed.
The face, which resembled that of a dragon, also returned to the Sword Demon’s original face.

As the Sword Demon reverted from a ‘dragon-human’ back to a ‘human’, he staggered, coughing up a mouthful of black blood.

“What… is this…?”

The Sword Demon’s eyes shook wildly, as if unable to comprehend the sudden situation.

Why did the power suddenly disappear?
What? What happened?
Was it that man’s doing? Unable to defeat me in a direct confrontation, did he cowardly use some kind of poison?

To the Sword Demon looking at him with such eyes, the man opened his mouth.

“Your current state means that the Berserker Pill you happily consumed wasn’t a proper item to begin with. It’s true that the Berserker Pill gives strong power, but that power is given at the cost of the user’s life.”

Ah, so that’s what it was.
Was this the ‘minor risk’ that the lady mentioned earlier?

Ah, I’m sorry, my lady.
I tried to kill that man for you.
I guess I’m trash after all.
Still, I enjoyed it. And I was grateful.
If I hadn’t met you that day, I wouldn’t exist now.

Anyway.

“It’s a shame… I wanted to serve the young lady a little longer. And…”

I wanted to see the young lady debut as a VTuber…!

Bang-!

Behind the Sword Demon, who was muttering while staring into space with unfocused eyes, a fist made of condensed magic energy appears.
The magic fist then strikes the back of the Sword Demon’s head without hesitation, causing him to ‘once again’ fall face-first onto the ground, twitching.

“I keep telling you. I have no intention of becoming a VTuber or anything like that.”

When did she move?
Cheon Seoa appeared in front of the twitching Sword Demon on the ground, frowning as she muttered.

Meanwhile, the man looked at Cheon Seoa and said.

“Empress. Wasn’t the Sword Demon like your limbs? To feed him something like the Explosive Soul Pill. You really should disappear.”

“Well, it’s true that the Explosive Soul Pill burns the user’s life force to grant power. But did you think I would feed it to him recklessly without considering the side effects?”

Cheon Seoa smiled gently at the man’s words and pulled out a jewel from her spatial storage.

The man’s eyes widened as he saw the jewel in Cheon Seoa’s hand, glowing with a rich green light.

“You’re insane-! Just how many lives did you…!”

The man couldn’t finish his sentence.
That’s how terrifying the green jewel in Cheon Seoa’s hand was.

On the surface, it gave off a refreshing feeling, like a gentle breeze in nature.
But the man’s eyes could clearly see what the jewel in Cheon Seoa’s hand really was.

It was definitely not a normal object.

That small jewel contains countless lives that are oppressed and suffering, too numerous to even count.

Cheon Seoa smiled at the man who was shocked by the jewel in her hand.

“What’s the problem? If we can save the precious life of a Repairer with the lives of these useless ordinary people, they should be quite satisfied. Don’t you think so?”

Woong-!

In response to Cheon Seoa’s question, the green jewel let out a cry.

“Yes, yes. So, please transfer your lives to this child.”

Woong-! After stroking the crying jewel once, Cheon Seoa threw it onto the Sword Demon’s chest.
At the same time, as the green energy flowing from the jewel settled into the Sword Demon, his complexion, which had been so pale that he could have died at any moment, regained its original color.

“Perhaps, after the Agent, this child, the Sword Demon, might be the next to enter the state of Eternal Spirit. Don’t you think so?”

As Cheon Seoa spoke, something like a turtle shell made of magical energy appeared over her body.

Jjeong-!

In an instant, the man who had appeared behind Cheon Seoa swung his light sword, striking the turtle shell made of magical energy, the Black Demon Shell.

“I will definitely twist the future.”

“You keep singing about the future, future. What exactly did I do wrong in the future?”

“You don’t need to know. Just die here today along with the Sword Demon, and that’s it.”

“Hmm, what should I do? I don’t want to die yet. No, I became a Repairer in the first place because I didn’t want to die.”

Cheon Seoa smiled at the man’s words.

Shiver-!

Seeing Cheon Seoa’s smile, the man hurriedly threw himself away, feeling fear creeping up his spine.

At that moment.

Kwaaang-!

A streak of black lightning fell from the clear sky, striking the spot where the man had been standing.

“You have good instincts.”

“Tch-.”

The man clicked his tongue lowly.

Indeed, was this the power of the Empress?
The black lightning just now, though seemingly casually thrown by the Empress, clearly carried a power that could not be ignored.

Well, it was this kind of power that made the Empress show hostility towards humanity.

‘Humanity must have suffered a near-extinction level blow.’

The man muttered.

But things would be different now.

He would kill the Empress right here and completely erase the future of ‘humanity’s extinction’ that was about to occur.

…With this determination, the man charged towards Cheon Seoa.

“Die-!”

Whoosh-!
Fwoosh!

The light sword swung towards Cheon Seoa’s neck.
Following the trajectory of the light sword, flames as hot as the sun bloomed.

Clang!
Clang-clang-!

A man swings his sword countless times, splitting a single second over and over again.
Along with him, flames erupted and engulfed Cheon Seoa, but she remained unscathed.

Despite the man’s all-out attack, he couldn’t penetrate the Black Demon Armor covering Cheon Seoa’s body.

Meanwhile, Cheon Seoa, observing the man from within the Black Demon Armor.

“Ah! Now I remember! I thought it looked familiar. That sword. It’s the Sun God Sword, isn’t it?”

Cheon Seoa said with an innocent smile.

The Sun God Sword.
It was indeed a treasure worthy of being called a ‘God Sword’.

Not only was the sword’s performance exceptional, but the greatest power of the Sun God Sword, as its name suggests, was its ability to harness the power of the sun.

The overwhelming heat and flames that enveloped the man’s body were only possible because he borrowed the power of that Sun God Sword.

However.

“The Sun God Sword was definitely a treasure of the Sun Sect, one of the upper realm’s main sects. How did it end up in your hands?”

“You don’t need to know that-!”

The man shouted angrily, putting more force into his sword swing.

He already knew that Cheon Seoa was aware of the Sun God Sword’s existence from his previous experience.

No, even if Cheon Seoa learned about the existence of the Sun God Sword, nothing should have changed.

Yes, that’s how it should have been.
According to the ‘future’ the man had experienced.

But.

Crack-!

“Hmm, the Sun God’s Sword. The Sun God’s Sword. It’s understandable if it were an item from the lower realm, but there’s no way an item from the upper realm could have flowed into Earth. How on earth did this happen?”

Flinch-!

The man trembled.

Cheon Seoa, who walked out of the Black Raven Armor, grasped the blade of the Sun God’s Sword with lightning-like speed.
Despite the Sun God’s Sword emitting heat comparable to the sun even at this moment, Cheon Seoa’s hand that grasped such a blade was perfectly fine.

“How on earth…!”

The man muttered, looking at Cheon Seoa with trembling eyes as if he couldn’t believe it.

It’s impossible.
The heat emitted by the Sun God’s Sword is an extreme yang energy that even his master, who had reached the supreme state of Jiseon, couldn’t handle.

The only reason the man could use the Sun God’s Sword, which emits heat that doesn’t distinguish between friend and foe, was.
Because he was recognized as the owner of the Sun God’s Sword and was not affected by its heat at all.

But, to grasp such a Sun God’s Sword!
Is the empress before his eyes at an even higher level than his master?

No, no.
That couldn’t be possible.
The empress he had seen in numerous futures, although strong, was not this overwhelming!

Especially since the empress is a practitioner of magic arts.
A practitioner of magic arts achieving a higher level than his master?

That was an impossible story.

However.
Really.
What if the Empress is truly a being of a higher realm than the Master?
If she has reached the realm of heavenly immortality beyond earthly immortality, or even the higher realm of true immortality?
What if the strength of the Empress he had seen in the future wasn’t ‘real’?

Chills-!

The man, who had been connecting thought after thought, shuddered as a creeping fear ran up his spine.

He must escape!
Forget about the future, forget about the extinction of humanity, he must escape!

He must ‘regress’ once more to escape from the monster before his eyes!
He must return to the time when he had just come back to Earth from the Cultivation World, and hide from that monster’s sight!

With these thoughts in mind, the man unhesitatingly discarded the Sun God Sword and pulled out a talisman from his chest, shouting.

“Reverse Heaven-!”

Keeeeeng-!

As the spell inscribed on the talisman activated, the man disappeared without a trace.

Cheon Seoa looked at the space where the man who had vanished in an instant had been standing.

“Ah, I see. It was a technique from the Ancient Era. That’s not incomprehensible.”

The Ancient Era.
For the cultivators living in the current Cultivation World, it was a time in the distant past. Furthermore, it was a legendary era teeming with all sorts of inhuman secret techniques.

Moreover.

“I miss it. The Cultivation World back then was truly interesting.”

The ancient era was also the time when Cheon Seoa was active as a current member.

But.

“You can’t escape.”

Ziiik-.

As Cheon Seoa, who muttered as if whispering, gestured, the space tore apart.
Beyond the torn space, the figure of a man traveling backward in time could be glimpsed, and the man also had a look of shock on his face, as if he hadn’t expected Cheon Seoa to follow the art of regression.

“Don’t worry too much and come here.”

Kugugu-.

The magical energy flowing from Cheon Seoa took the form of a giant hand, moving to grab the man traveling back in time.

At that, the time axis the man was traveling along shook violently.

“Hmm, please don’t resist and just come quietly. Even though this is an independent dimension, restoring a collapsed time axis is quite a troublesome task.”

As Cheon Seoa was muttering like that, the giant hand made of magical energy finally grasped the fleeing man and pulled him out of the flow of time.

Kudangtang-.

The man, freed from the magical hand, tumbled onto the floor.
Perhaps because he had lost the Sun God’s Sword, the man’s body had long since returned to its original form.

“I have a lot to talk to you about.”

Looking down at the man trembling in fear, Cheon Seoa smiled brightly.