Ch.209209. Time of Distortion (7)

“Ha, haha. Hahahahahahaha!!”

Despite being soaked to the bone, the High Priest burst into laughter as if he was about to lose his breath.

His laughter continued for quite some time, as if mocking what he’d just heard as absurd nonsense. Until he snorted and continued speaking.

Though he had been laughing mockingly, the High Priest seemed genuinely offended and dropped the polite speech he had been using until now.

“You, against me? Your delusions are severe. I’ll commend you for somehow defeating young Demian, but comparing yourself to me is beyond ridiculous.”

Dark magical energy bloomed like a flame above the High Priest’s hand.

“If I were to compare Demian’s power, it would be about this much. He wasn’t properly consecrated, after all.”

Then, an equally unpleasant magical energy rose above his other hand. It was fundamentally different from the flame-shaped magic on the opposite side.

“If the ritual had been properly performed and cleanly absorbed, it should be at least this much. The magical power that Demian consumed was at best 15%, you see.”

Even at a glance, the quality was clearly different.

Beyond that dimension, my entire body could sense that the magical energy he emanated was vastly different from Demian’s.

This man must have committed atrocities dozens of times worse than Demian against the Lakan tribe.

I sighed at the realization that I might have to face both Pimpert and the High Priest, but the true culprit was someone else.

That old madman.

All those Lycans were Lakans corrupted by the High Priest’s hand, and Levrant was attacked by the Lycan forces he controlled.

Before my regression, I don’t know what he did during the subjugation of Pimpert, but I’m certain this madman was involved.

‘So I must defeat him.’

I can’t allow him to set foot in Levrant, which would be filled with the blood and flesh of humans ravaged by Lycans.

“Oh? You haven’t lost your fighting spirit even after seeing this?”

“If something that trivial could make me lose my will to fight, I wouldn’t have brought you, the embodiment of magical power that Pimpert uses.”

“You’re like a moth to flame. A weak being who won’t last long anyway.”

If I can’t defeat him, everything I’ve built will collapse.

No. Perhaps an even more devastating outcome than before my regression awaits.

This isn’t mere speculation, but a certainty.

I’ve personally experienced battle with Pimpert’s Lycan legion.

I’ve directly felt that the seven-eyed Beholder up there is an opponent that would require the full strength of the entire Tembris party to barely defeat.

But there is one thing clearly different from back then.

“You’d be in trouble if you couldn’t go up there too, right?”

“What nonsense are you suddenly spouting?”

“Don’t pretend to be calm. That Beholder is your Calix, isn’t it? I know that if you want to supply magical power, you have no choice but to deliver it directly.”

The High Priest’s face rapidly hardened as if I’d hit the mark.

‘Yes. Otherwise, there’s no way he could use such magic independently.’

This too is not speculation but certainty.

The current Pimpert is not the same as he was then.

“You planned to absorb as much magical power as possible, transfer it to the Beholder—your Calix—and then broadcast a frequency across the principality with wide-area magic. If there were any who fell under brainwashing again, you would absorb their magic and gradually take control of the principality. Am I wrong?”

The regressor knows everything.

In the past, Pimpert had an enormous body filled with tremendous magical power.

The High Priest wasn’t visible anywhere at that time, but it’s simple enough to figure out what he did through comparison.

Moreover, with the addition of information about the Lakan tribe that I didn’t have before, I could recite details about Pimpert in great detail.

“You. A soon-to-be-dead man with an unnecessarily long tongue.”

The High Priest, his face contorted with anger, activated dozens of magical formations.

“I don’t know where you got such information, but it changes nothing. Disposing of you will take me three minutes. No, one minute should be enough.”

“…”

With Tembris currently missing three members’ worth of fighting power, facing both Pimpert and the High Priest would mean obvious defeat.

If things proceed that way, a future where Lycans led by the High Priest and Pimpert trample the principality will come.

An era will dawn where the High Priest becomes a tyrant, absorbing the power of all humans to rule.

The principality will be crushed so thoroughly that not even a revolution could arise, standing at a point of no return.

Yet despite this, the Tembris party and not a single soldier from the principality has come down here, handling the situation well. They must have correctly understood my intention in jumping into the lake with the High Priest.

Having reached Pimpert after finding a breakthrough and buying as much time as possible in the face of this sudden obstacle, time is no longer on Pimpert’s side.

“Still, I’d like to show you some mercy.”

“What mercy?”

“You seem to already know. About the sacrificial consecration.”

Of course I would know.

I was the one who directly fought Demian, heard the truth about the ampoules from Professor Dalia, and had contact with the Lakan tribe.

The High Priest tried to persuade Junon.

“Join me. I sought this power to protect humanity from the crisis that will come in the future.”

***

Protecting humanity by taking their power and brainwashing them? What nonsense.

“Have you gone senile in your old age? I can’t believe the absurdities you’re spouting.”

But the High Priest was sincere.

“Let me ask you one thing. Do you believe in the existence of gods?”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Well then, let me change the question. Do humans believe in gods?”

Humans do believe. In the existence of gods.

They have reached out to humans since ancient times, and because this has brought tremendous help to humanity, people don’t doubt it.

“You don’t need to answer; I already know. Yes, humans believe in gods, and gods have helped humans. But what if that were a lie?”

“More nonsense from you.”

“It’s not nonsense. What if the beings known as gods prophesied the destruction of the principality? Could you ignore that?”

“…What did you say?”

The pure and lofty gods never engage in direct conversation with lowly humans.

Then how did the gods help humans, and how did humans receive their help?

“I’ve been studying the divine language since my time in the Artena Empire. Even before becoming High Priest in the principality. I succeeded in interpreting every prophecy.”

It was through prophecy.

Only those who worship faith, master divinity, and study the language of the gods according to doctrine can interpret the language that gods bestow and impart.

Like the former High Priest, Defornice III, raising his voice before Junon.

“But while every divine message has fallen and been recorded in history, for decades, only one divine message has yet to be recorded. That was the forewarning of a certain being that would appear in the principality!”

After that, peculiar divine messages fell several times. For nearly 15 years, no one could decipher their meaning, and only one person succeeded in extracting a vague meaning.

The trembling old man before me. He was the only one who had awakened to the meaning of the divine message.

“This world has been turned back once. You may not know, but I can tell! The divine message pointed to it. The being called God proved that this world is the second world!”

The second world-line. This means there was a first, implying the existence of a world before the current one.

However, the previous world was completely destroyed.

Less than a century after the principality was established, it turned into a wasteland of magical beasts.

The Artena Empire. Humans had to return to that place covered in winter’s barrier.

The old man has no memory of the collapsed world. But there is no doubt that he could read divine messages even then.

He mentioned how he began researching sacrificial consecration rituals in the empire to prevent repeating the same future.

Uncovering the truth of the unfulfilled divine message, he revealed what he had discovered over decades.

That divine message was God’s punishment directed at the ugly humans.

“Soon, humans will be swept away in droves by what will appear. It will devour humanity’s very existence.”

How can one survive the wrath of God?

No matter how well humans face magical beasts and unite in times of crisis, this would be absolutely impossible.

“If we could concentrate the power of all humanity—starting with the Lakans, then consuming the principality, and finally the Artena Empire—into a single entity! That would surely rival even the power of God!!”

So the High Priest prepared.

Power to confront God.

Division born from jealousy and envy, unity shattered by arrogance and conceit—the final destination humans will reach is the end of the world.

The High Priest strongly claims it was to prevent that end.

However.

“Pfft, are you done rambling?”

To the boy, it was a claim that made him snort in derision.

“I almost yawned listening to your story. To summarize, you failed, right? And now you’re trying to fail again by doing this nonsense.”

“You… After I tried to show you mercy…!”

As the High Priest glared at him for daring to mock him, Junon retorted with a serious expression.

“Sorry, you senile old bastard. You never know how human affairs will turn out.”

Changing a predetermined future wasn’t wrong, but this was like drinking from a poisoned chalice.

Sacrificing that many humans to confront the power of God—to someone who remembered the past, it could never be the right answer.

“If that’s the prophecy you read, then I’ll make a prophecy too. None of your plans will succeed; they’ll all turn to bubbles. Because I’ll make it so.”

“How dare you… just because you have a mouth…!”

For the old man, this was not only trampling on his life’s philosophy but also a provocation tantamount to contempt.

He could no longer hold back.

“Let’s see how far that impudent mouth of yours can run!”

Dozens of magic circles unfold in the air.

The magic circles deployed with vast magical power were each designated as B-rank or higher high-level magic.

The target was clear: the boy who had lured the High Priest to the lakeside to buy time.

Fierce attacks followed, with the intent to reduce him to ashes.

Any human in that spot would likely leave no trace under the magic concentrated at a single point.

However.

“Ha! So, you’re quite tough, are you?! How about this! How about this?!”

Through the billowing smoke, the black-haired boy emerges with all limbs intact.

This time, the High Priest doubled the number of formations, creating an even harsher environment than before.

Then.

-Sssss.

“The magic… disappears?”

After breaking a small number of spells, the boy appears, nimbly moving his body and swiftly destroying the High Priest’s magic.

The high-concentration magical power wrapped around his gauntlet creates a magical barrier, and anything that touches that barrier is thoroughly shattered, regardless of its power.

Once again.

An impossible breakthrough occurred.

Deflecting incoming chains with magic, the caster escaped from that spot and widened the distance.

“Ha, so that’s how it is.”

Though it seemed absurd, the reason could be quickly understood.

Breaking magic that touches the magical barrier. Using precise and quick calculations to reverse-engineer and exploit magic formations. Using exploited formations to disrupt other spells.

And conserving magical power as much as possible with very precarious, barely sufficient movements.

That power, distinctly different from offsetting magic with magic. It must be the boy’s unique magic.

Though surprising that such a person exists, the High Priest realized this was absolutely not an opponent to be underestimated in battle, and poured out his magical power without reservation.

“Magnus. Encelia. I call upon you, spirits of the Rentel binary stars. Take my magical power as nourishment and manifest before me.”

Magic is very useful, but it alone has limitations.

For example, increasing enemy entities like the Lycans above.

“Eight rings of Intibra, I command by the divinity dissolved in nature. Trample the wild dog before me indiscriminately.”

An erratic attack of divine power and magical energy without a consistent pattern.

As if challenging him to break this too, the High Priest shouted.

“You’re quite admirable in technical aspects. However, you won’t be able to keep this up for long!”

He unleashed everything he had prepared at Junon all at once.

He wasn’t High Priest for nothing. He maintained the oldest tradition in divinity and, though lacking in magic, had numerous magical circuits to compensate.

The most outstanding power among them was undoubtedly the proficiency to use the magic of the sacrifices he had devoured.

Though the magical power consumption was high and efficiency poor, if he continuously used their representative powers, he could eventually seize victory.

The burdensome increase in entities. Numerical superiority through summoned beasts and spirits. He feared no opponent with his freely used holy and magical powers.

“…”

But the boy feels no fear.

He just runs. Toward the target he must subdue, he runs and runs.

Though he might arrive much later after going around and around, he doesn’t stop moving.

All magic blocking his path is shattered. Even if the number of enemies increases, they cannot block his way.

But it was equally reckless. The High Priest would certainly have prepared for a frontal approach.

The High Priest’s viscous magical power fills a spatial designation-type magic formation, not a projectile type.

Though surrounded, but…

-Crash!

“What…?”

Some formations about to activate broke, and while the rest activated, all the summoned beasts and spirits wrapped in chains were hit and disappeared.

Though the distance isn’t closing.

If he could lead this into a war of attrition, he could surely grasp victory.

‘Though he looks more tired than before, he couldn’t possibly survive all those hits. Yet why?’

Feeling something was wrong, the High Priest once again expended a large amount of magical power while closely observing his movements.

Watching this, he couldn’t help but be astonished.

‘No, that’s impossible. That divine message could never be fulfilled after that time…!’

With a dumbfounded face, he examines Junon’s appearance again and again.

The black hair and eyes that stand out no matter how you look at them. Pure black without any other color mixed in.

Additionally, in combat aspects, what he had considered insignificant power was not so at all.

Rather, it exactly matched the content of a recent divine message.

“It can’t be… Are you perhaps…”

He realized it.

The two constellations looking down from the highest place. The clock of fate they lowered.

All of it was pointing to the one person before him.