Ch.149Is there a seat available?

# 1.

“I will never give up.”

The moment Nahan muttered those words, Aria couldn’t help but feel a spark of hope.

Perhaps this man standing before her could bring about a new ending.

The situation was still desperate, and the obstacles ahead were mountainous.

Even if they solved the immediate problem, new ones would flood in.

Yet Aria could feel certain for one simple reason:

It was the look in the eyes of the savior from another world, trapped in the body of the Black Wolf.

She wanted to ask him.

What was it that raised you up again when you had reached your limit?

But before she could ask, she realized.

What had lifted Nahan now was nothing other than the existence of others.

That was the heart that only a hero could possess—valuing others above one’s own life.

“『How on earth…?』”

The moment Aria muttered those words, Nahan, having finished his thoughts, began to move.

Moving through frozen time, he approached the disappearing Abyss, contemplated for a while, then turned to Aria and asked:

“How much longer can you hold out?”

“『Pardon?』”

“You’re the one stopping time. How much longer do you think you can maintain it?”

After hesitating briefly, Aria checked her remaining spiritual energy and answered.

“『At most, a few more minutes.』”

This calculation assumed the Abyss wouldn’t resist.

“『If the Abyss uses its divine power to resist… even a few dozen seconds would be difficult.』”

How could she be so powerless?

Just as Aria was about to berate herself again for her inadequacy,

Nahan smirked.

“Then a few minutes should be enough.”

“『Why is that?』”

“Because it doesn’t want to die quickly either.”

His gaze was fixed on the Abyss, frozen in time as it was disappearing.

Already more than 80% gone, it would vanish within tens of seconds once time resumed flowing.

“I need to find a solution within that time. A way to save those who couldn’t be saved and eliminate the Abyss before us.”

After finishing his words, Nahan turned and stood beside Aria.

“I’m going to formulate a plan now. Let me know when you reach your limit.”

“『Won’t you share it with me? …I suppose it’s because I’m an incompetent god—』”

“That bastard’s eyeballs were moving.”

Despite facing imminent extinction, the current Abyss had obtained quasi-divine status.

“If it can hear or see within frozen time, any plan we make would be exposed, wouldn’t it?”

Finally understanding Nahan’s reasoning, Aria asked in a hushed voice:

“『Then what should we do? Even if you make a plan, if I don’t know what it is, I can’t help you…』”

Nahan patted her shoulder and replied just as quietly:

“Just follow my lead.”

“『What?』”

“I’ll make the plan, and you just help out as best you can.”

“『What does that even…?』”

Could they really formulate such a casual plan when the fate of the world hung in the balance?

As if sensing Aria’s concern, Nahan calmly declared:

“I’ve finished planning. Release time.”

“『W-wait a moment! Couldn’t we at least write it down—』”

“No need. I was going to tell you the first part of the plan anyway. If we delay any longer, the plan will fail, so could you please release time?”

“『Ah, um, yes…!』”

With his urging, time began to flow again.

Color returned to the black and white world, and everything that had been paused began to move once more.

“『So, what’s the first part of the plan?』”

A face with a glimmer of hope restored.

Nahan looked at that expectant face and smiled.

“First, we need to save the Abyss, right?”

“『What…?』”

“Think about it. If the Abyss disappears, we’ll never be able to save ‘Those Who Couldn’t Be Saved.'”

“『Well… that’s true, but what if it goes on a rampage after we save it?』”

A brief moment of silence settled just before time fully resumed.

Nahan pulled his lips into a wider smile and lightly clenched his right fist.

“Fighting.”

“『What?』”

“I told you. Follow my lead.”

“『Uh, wait!? W-wait a sec—!!』”

【Equipping Transcendent Artifact – <Ring of Iasos (Ex+)>】

【Transcendent Recovery Power!】

【<Black Wolf (Ex+)>’s body is recovering!】

【Due to the effect of Passive – <Black Wolf (Ex+)>, <Abyss (???)>’s disappearance is halted.】

.

.

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【Warning.】

【<Abyss (???)>’s hostility toward <World> has exceeded critical threshold.】

# 2.

Immediately after the Abyss’s disappearance was halted.

A new system window appeared before Nahan as he emerged from frozen time.

【Bad Ending – <???? ?? ??> → <Those Who Couldn’t Be Saved> is accelerating.】

The acceleration of the bad ending.

A phenomenon where the original scenario accelerates due to changes caused by Nahan’s intervention.

Nahan figured the variable at work this time was probably the Abyss’s rage.

‘It merged with the Dragon Elder and gained quasi-divine status, which likely allowed it to eavesdrop on the conversation between Aria and me in frozen time.’

As if reading Nahan’s thoughts, the awakened Abyss growled and shouted:

“『It’s, useless…!! Nothing…!! Nothing can stop my victory!!!』”

A monstrous cry filled with malice.

Just as Nahan had predicted, the Abyss had overheard their entire conversation in the frozen world.

The reason they had saved it.

It was clearly to free the souls trapped in <Those Who Couldn’t Be Saved> that it had been eagerly devouring.

But since <Those Who Couldn’t Be Saved> had become the source and core of its power.

The Abyss began to struggle desperately, clutching the barely restored area near its heart.

【Warning.】

【<Abyss (Ex+) – Merging> activates its 1st skill – Annihilation.(x100)】

【Annihilation descends.(x100)】

What had previously been like heavy rain was now thin like a shower—the Annihilation.

“Gardner’s—!!!”

“Don’t block it, dodge it.”

Crack.

Crack, crack, crack, crack.

Though smaller in size, the effect was still tremendous, causing all nearby support troops to take shelter near Asha and Yuria.

【<Protection (Ex-)> activates!】

【<Sacred Domain (Ex+)> activates!】

As brilliant golden light burst forth, the Annihilation scattered like shadows meeting light.

Selena, watching the Annihilation disappear like droplets, whispered to Asha:

“Can you feel it?”

“Yes. It’s definitely weaker.”

It wasn’t just Selena and Asha;

Yuria, who was also blocking the Annihilation with Asha, noticed it too and spoke up:

“Vice Captain, this…!!”

“I’m aware. Just focus on maintaining the Sacred Domain.”

“This turn, can we endure and then attack?”

Han Ryang’s question, as he watched for an opening.

Due to Nahan’s attempted mutual destruction, about 80% of its power had vanished, and now it was unleashing attacks wildly, having seen defeat approaching.

“Its judgment has become clouded.”

Han Ryang had spotted an opening because of this, and while Raktea agreed with his assessment, she quietly shook her head.

“Why not?”

A situation where a once overwhelmingly powerful being had become seemingly vulnerable.

When Han Ryang unconsciously expressed his doubt, Raktea quietly looked in one direction.

Her gaze fell on the area behind the Abyss.

Hidden in the shadows cast by the Abyss was another shadow similar to it:

【<Usurpation (Ex+)> is active.】

【Contract target – <Abyss (???)>’s passive – <Domain of the Abyss (???)> is active.】

It was Nahan, who had borrowed the Abyss’s skill through the Black Wolf contract and concealed himself.

“…The Captain?”

“Where, where… huh? Why does the Captain have the same power as the Abyss…?”

“Hmm… what in the world…”

Some of the members who belatedly discovered him muttered involuntarily, and following their murmurs, the gaze of the Light also shifted toward Nahan.

The members of the Light had similar reactions.

“He turned back out of fear—!! Mmph, mmph!!”

“You almost gave us away, you idiot…!!”

“Marine. Please seal Balkan’s mouth.”

“…Okay.”

Balkan, who had discovered Nahan using the same power as the Abyss, began jumping up and down frantically, but was barely restrained thanks to the others.

“Traitor—!! Mmph, mmph—!!”

“Ah, come on.”

Both the Black Wolf members and the Light members glared at Balkan in annoyance, but in truth, similar questions had begun to form in their minds as well.

The Black Wolf had learned through Nahan’s confession, and the Light through Asha.

That the current Black Wolf was not the Black Wolf they had known, but a being who had crossed over from another world to save this one.

And just now, he had nearly sacrificed his own life to destroy the Abyss, almost succeeding in a mutual destruction.

But he had failed.

The injured Abyss had barely survived and begun to rampage, while Nahan, who had chosen mutual destruction with it, was hiding behind the Abyss.

The Black Wolf and the Light could only draw two possible conclusions about Nahan:

One,

He was hiding to confront the Abyss.

Two,

He had switched sides to join the Abyss.

The Black Wolf members thought:

If the man before them had been the ‘original Black Wolf’ rather than the ‘possessed savior,’ there would have been no doubt it was the first option.

The Light members also thought:

If he hadn’t lied to them, they would naturally have assumed the former.

Of course, the latter thought arose under the premise of assuming the worst—”it couldn’t be, but”—yet this was the battlefield where the world’s fate hung in the balance.

‘If by any chance that person has turned to the Abyss’s side…’

What choice,

should we make?

And so, in that fleeting moment,

Just as most of those present harbored faint doubts,

“…Ah, this isn’t working.”

“『…!! I wondered where you went, so you were hiding there, Nahan!!』”

“Calm down for a moment. I have something to say.”

Nahan, who had been hiding, peeked out and approached the rampaging Abyss, asking:

“Um, is there room for one more at the feast?”

“『…?』”

“I just realized that since I broke all my contracts with my members to try for mutual destruction with you… I don’t have any means to fight back.”