Ch.185Return – 4

“Ugh, ahhh…!”

The moment branches extended from the spear, an immense pain surged through my entire body. Aria stabilized herself with difficulty as she let out a muffled groan, barely preventing herself from being pushed back.

After hastily surrounding herself with every defensive spell she could think of, the burning sensation on her skin finally began to subside. She narrowed her eyes. She could see the flow of time had stopped.

‘How did this happen?’

Aria was bewildered.

She had every reason to be. Whether when mentally breaking Laura or later when obtaining new components to maintain the world’s lifeline, her regression had never failed before.

But now, right before her eyes, that absolute faith was shattering. Aria stared blankly at the spear of light that had spread like a spider web in all directions, holding time itself in place.

It was magnificent. Even though it was the very object that had wounded her and was now hindering her, she found it impossible to view it negatively.

‘This can’t be happening…’

When she realized that it had caught and frozen the rewinding time, she felt goosebumps rise on her skin. What exactly was this thing, what potential did it possess that allowed it to interfere with time itself?

‘I’ve never seen anything like this in the fragments…’

This was something she hadn’t encountered even among the fragments of the broken world. She had thought Mira’s awakening ended when she slaughtered humans and the spear emitted light, but that wasn’t the case.

Even at this moment, the spear was growing more formidable. The sky was tangled with light. Soon, the world stopped regressing and fell into complete silence. Time no longer flowed.

Neither forward nor backward.

‘What, what should I do…’

Aria anxiously bit her fingernails. She hadn’t anticipated this scenario. It was supposed to be simple—absorb power, complete her final revenge, and reset the world with Mira.

Unfortunately, Aria the “protagonist,” who had always had everything go her way since absorbing the world’s fragments, had no experience dealing with such a situation.

“Mi-Mira…”

That’s when it happened. She heard a voice she never wanted to hear again. The blue eyes that had been staring blankly at the light regained their focus. Her pupils captured those who had been screaming in panic just moments ago.

They were now gathering around Mira with composed faces, unlike Aria. As they gathered, the spear shone even brighter, igniting flames in Aria’s eyes.

Flames of jealousy.

Now, Aria and those people were essentially no different. No, Aria could be considered superior, confident she could dispose of all four of them with a single gesture if they dared to attack her at once.

‘Mira… why…’

But why was the golden light protecting them instead of her? Destiny should have been on her side.

‘Those people, I must…’

Jealousy fueled her anger, and anger fueled her jealousy. As Aria’s murderous intent grew stronger, she sensed something.

Breaking through the pouring light, she struggled to identify the movement, and when she did, she froze in place.

‘Huh…?’

“It really… stopped. The regression.”

Rosaria murmured blankly as she touched the light from the spear. As the rewinding time stopped and sacred light spread, the other three who had regained their senses gathered around as if entranced.

“How did you do it?”

“My memories came back.”

I remembered what monsters I had faced in the first world, and how desperately I had fought against them. Looking back now, I realized what a truly insane world it had been.

Just one of those creatures appearing here could probably bring this world to the brink of destruction. Regardless of whether they were demons or humans.

“…Are you okay with those old memories?”

Priscilla asked cautiously. I nodded.

“I am now. I told you earlier. The old me would have been consumed by the past, but not anymore. If I were still in that state, I couldn’t have even begun the final stage.”

The condition for awakening was to have faith in oneself, so this would have been impossible for my former self who was full of self-loathing and saw the spear as nothing but a bundle of trauma.

Naturally, I wouldn’t have even been able to start the final stage.

“And… even if I weren’t okay, I have all of you. I also thought about how this is the first time I’ve wielded this to protect something rather than to kill. So I’m fine. As long as we’re together.”

What does it matter if it’s a bit embarrassing? It’s the truth.

Just as the four of you meeting me meant no more regressions, my entering this place meant I no longer had to suffer from recalling past memories.

“Mira…”

“Ahem, k-kuh, heehee! W-why are you saying such embarrassing things! That’s just natural between us!”

Priscilla clasped her hands in front of her chest, her eyes glistening with tears. Rosaria blushed and kept fanning herself.

“To see you smile so genuinely from the heart, it puts our minds at ease as well.”

“…Thank you for saying that… no, thank you…”

Elysier smiled brightly as if she hadn’t been in a panic just moments ago, and Laura quietly shed tears. Different from Priscilla’s tears.

While comforting the four, I stepped forward gripping the spear. As touching as this was, dealing with Aria took priority. There’s no telling what she might do next.

“…?”

But something was strange.

Just moments ago, she seemed to be grinding her teeth while staring at us, but now she was muttering something with a dazed expression. So that’s why she wasn’t attacking.

Thinking this was my chance, I moved to bind Aria but stopped. I sensed movement from the spear other than the six of us here. There were three of them.

‘…There are other people moving besides us? That shouldn’t be possible.’

What the spear did was essentially force time to stop as it tried to regress. Naturally, everyone in this world should be frozen. Yet there was movement—an impossibility.

Unless there were other possessors besides us.

I needed to figure out what was happening. I sent a kind of will through the spear toward the people who were curiously touching the light emanating from it.

The spear responded to my will, enveloping those people and bringing them toward us. They weren’t enemies, at least. If they had harbored any hostility, they would have been purified and disappeared the moment the light enveloped them.

“…!!!!!!”

When the light-enveloped figures reappeared nearby, not only I but also the four behind me and the newcomers themselves could only be shocked. I quietly murmured.

“Nika… Director… Leona…?”

It was Nika, who was frozen with her lips parted, Director Erestica with a confused expression, and Leona who was similarly stunned. We all hesitated, caught off guard by this completely unexpected situation.

“M-Master. What’s happening? Was this sacred power yours? Why was everyone frozen? Oh, wait? Master, compared to before you went to the demon realm… compared to before… uh…?”

Nika rattled off questions before stopping with wide eyes. Understandable, given how drastically my power had changed compared to before I went to the demon realm.

“I should be asking you that. How are you able to move? Just the three of you.”

I was just as perplexed. The four here make sense as possessors, and me of course, and Aria too.

But these three people had no reason or justification for it. I wondered if they might be possessors without even knowing it themselves.

“I don’t know… there was just a flash, and when I came to my senses, I was like this…”

Leona was still only covered by the coat I had given her. Standing up, the length was a bit precarious, requiring her to constantly pull down the hem with her hands. Even then, the area below her buttocks was slightly exposed.

“I’m in the same situation. I heard something alarming was happening at the academy and was returning, when suddenly I saw light before me.”

So none of them knew either.

As we all blinked at each other in confusion, a crazed laugh—hehehehe—came from somewhere. I turned my head. Aria was cackling with her shoulders shaking.

“That child… isn’t that Aria? What on earth is happening?”

“It’s a long story. Extremely long.”

At least when explaining to Priscilla, Rosaria, Laura, and Elysier, there was shared knowledge among possessors, but explaining the current situation to the Director would take an unimaginable amount of time.

“Hehehehe…”

Aria, who had been letting out laughter that could have been mistaken for crying, slowly raised her head.

“Mira. Aren’t you curious why those three can move?”

“…”

“It’s because of you, Mira. Because of you. Because they’re connected to you, because they were with you… that’s why they can move.”

Aria’s eyes were half-dead as she spoke.

“I… I spent over a thousand years alone, and only after picking up the fragments left when you escaped could I finally do something. That was me… but they awakened consciousness in frozen time after being close to you for barely a semester? That’s unfair. You’re too cruel, Mira.”

I’m not sure if it’s really because of me, but that’s not a proper comparison. If she wanted to compare, she should compare it to when she first awakened her consciousness, not after absorbing the world.

So it’s still a mystery why Aria can move, but there’s no way to find out anyway.

‘Come to think of it, what about Beatrice?’

If we’re talking about closeness to me, Beatrice would be overwhelmingly first. I checked the spear just in case. There was nothing else detected.

“…This is unfair.”

That statement was the signal.

—KWAGWAGWAGWANG!

“W-what is that?!”

In the distance, a massive monster erupted, tearing through the earth’s crust.

Its lower body resembled a snake, while its upper body looked like a lizard with six long necks. Each body had three heads, and four pairs of wings fluttered behind its back.

That wasn’t all. There was also a creature that looked like a shark combined with an octopus but swimming through the sky instead of water, and another that resembled a giant frog with a tongue made of lava.

“…”

Laura’s face turned blue, then white again.

Understandably so. These were all monsters described in the first world.

“Everyone, step back.”

I held back the five who were preparing to fight, except for Rosaria and Laura, and sent them behind me. They all had questioning expressions but obediently retreated.

It couldn’t be helped. The monsters from that world grow infinitely larger the longer they live, and once they exceed the size of a house, they’re practically impossible for ordinary soldiers to handle.

But the ones appearing now were each not just the size of a house but comparable to a decent-sized castle. The first monster that appeared was about the size of a small hill or slightly larger.

Honestly, rather than fighting them head-on, we’d be lucky if they didn’t die in one blow.

“I’ll handle them.”

I gripped the spear. The spear responded to my will, leaving a part to keep the world fixed while separating from it. I took my stance. A dragon with sixteen heads was glaring at me.

Ominous energy gathered in its mouth. I held the spear and layered magic over it. It was a spell I had tried once when holding Mahbat. The difference was that the power now was much stronger.

All eighteen heads fired beams simultaneously. Monsters hundreds of meters away melted just from the aftereffects. The purple beam flew straight at me.

I shifted my center of gravity to my right foot. I pulled my left shoulder back, then pushed forward with force, my left hand suddenly feeling lighter as I threw the light gathered in my palm.

—!!!!!!

For an instant, daylight came to the world where time had stopped.