Chapter 21: Regression Complete! Perfect Empress!

Tower of Labyrinth, Fourth Floor.

Somewhere in the Jungle Standing before the Spring of Miracles, the Emperor took a small pendant from his pocket.

“Oh great ancestors, your unworthy descendant seeks your help.”

He infused the pendant with his magic and let go.

Buzzz

The pendant emitted a loud hum as it slowly floated into the air.

Soon, it began to shine brightly, radiating a clear aura.

Gulp

The Emperor swallowed nervously.

The Emperor’s Pendant, the supreme treasure passed down through generations of emperors.

It could only be used once and was the Empire’s secret weapon, only to be used in the direst of circumstances.

It was believed that only an extreme crisis, akin to a war threatening the Empire’s fate, would justify its use… but the current situation left no choice.

A spring that makes hair grow.

No territory, no castle, no strategic point in the Empire could be more important than this.

The Emperor closed his eyes tightly and decided to use this treasure, imbued with the spirit of the former Emperors.

Surely the ancestors would accept this choice.

Buzzz

After a short while, the pendant stopped emitting its aura.

“……”

A beautiful woman with sharp features slowly descended from the air.

“I greet the former Emperor.”

The Emperor knelt down and paid his respects to the Empress who had led the Empire to its zenith in the distant past.

“……a descendant, is it?”

“I am Ryan, the 27th Emperor.”

“The 27th… a considerable amount of time has passed.”

Empress Lea She ascended the throne as the 17th Emperor, inheriting the Imperial throne as a woman.

She was known in history as a conqueror who elevated the Empire from a mere regional power to the strongest nation on the continent.

She was a ruler so powerful that the balance and politics of the continent were said to have been reshaped by her alone.

After her natural death, before her soul returned to the earth, she split it and left a fragment within the pendant.

This was an extraordinary resurrection, an incomplete revival that could only last for half a day.

Thus, she had left a message to her descendants to use the pendant only in extreme crises.

“This is a jungle.”

“Yes, it is a jungle.”

“If you have summoned me, it must mean that the Empire is in crisis. But this jungle is not the Imperial capital. What is going on?”

Lea furrowed her elegant brows.

“We have summoned you, the former Emperor, due to an urgent matter requiring immediate attention for our Empire.”

“Immediate attention, you say…”

Snap

Lea snapped her fingers, and behind her appeared a throne magnificently carved for the Empress.

She lightly floated up and reclined sideways on the throne.

“Hmmm… it doesn’t seem that urgent.”

A pipe had somehow appeared in her mouth.

“More importantly, this is strange. I feel no depletion of my soul.”

A resurrection spell that defied the natural order by using part of her soul as a medium.

This spell maintained her presence by burning the soul as fuel, so normally, just existing should have depleted her remaining soul.

But she felt no such depletion now.

No depletion of the soul.

That meant she could maintain this state of resurrection indefinitely.

“Ah, that might be because this place is not the original continent but another world called Rudera.”

The Emperor’s face brightened.

“In this world, the concept of death does not exist. To be precise, even if one dies, they can be revived without any loss. That must be why your soul is not depleting.”

He had thought he could seek her help for only half a day, but with no soul depletion, he might be able to continuously receive her assistance in Rudera.

“Rudera? Another world?”

Though she had been a renowned strategist, the words pouring out of the Emperor were too unfamiliar for Lea to grasp the situation immediately.

“Well…”

The Emperor began to explain the emergence of Rudera, the appearance of the Tower of Labyrinth, the current state of the continent, and the reason for summoning Lea.

“No need. I will see for myself.”

Lea raised a hand to stop the Emperor.

A magic circle formed in her palm.

“This might sting a bit. I will look at your memories.”

A moment later.

“Hmm… so you summoned me just for this spring. Is that correct?”

“Y-yes! Th-that is correct.”

The Emperor maintained his posture with his hands behind his back and his head bowed to the ground.

Despite his trained physique, maintaining his posture was a task fraught with unbearable pain, even for him.

Yet, the emperor feared Lea’s wrath more than the pain.

“Sigh. I had imagined that there might come a day when an incompetent descendant would inherit the throne and the empire I built would tremble. But this is too shocking.”

Lea drew a puff from her pipe, wearing a look of disbelief.

“However, Your Majesty, the value of this spring is beyond estimation. No gold vein or mithril mine can compare to this spring.”

“I know. I know all too well.”

Lea had not only run the empire well but had also solidified its position as the dominant power on the continent.

It was impossible for her not to foresee the value of this spring for men.

“Men have always been obsessed with their hair since ancient times. If the existence of this spring were to become known across the continent, it would undoubtedly turn everything upside down. So, I understand why you summoned me.”

Lea rubbed her forehead.

“T-then, Your Majesty. C-could you possibly…”

“Ah, yes. I will help you.”

“Ohh!”

“This concerns my empire. There’s no reason not to help. The fourth floor of the Tower of the Labyrinth will belong to the empire. I will make it so.”

As long as there was no depletion of the soul, resurrection could continue indefinitely.

Her presence was no longer bound by time.

“By the way, the first emperor…”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“……”

Recalling that scene from the emperor’s memory, Lea could not continue speaking.

“I understand why you didn’t seek his help and called for me instead.”

“Ah, ahaha…”

“It seems he has found the love he was searching for all this time within Rudera.”

Even hundreds of years ago, when she ascended to the throne, the first emperor wandered between dimensions in search of love.

At that time, she admired his overwhelming strength.

“I thought of the empire as the last bastion, but it seems I must take on that role myself.”

Now, not a trace of respect remained.

Zzt

“!?!?….”

At that moment, Lea felt something attempting to interfere with her mind.

She quickly deployed a mental barrier, blocking the external intrusion.

“How dare you try to meddle with my mind… How insolent.”

Lea, the empress who had ascended to the position of a transcendental being as a grand mage.

Her mental barrier was of a different calibre altogether.

Even the gods could not penetrate her mind.

She swiftly dismantled and interpreted the suggestion that had attempted to infiltrate her mind.

“………It tried to lead me to meet a certain person.”

Lea reclined on the throne.

She recollected the memories she saw in the mind of the current emperor, Ryan, and organized the information about the God of Rudera.

The Demihuman King had obtained the religion and god that the Demihumans had desired so much.

The first emperor had found and fulfilled the love he had yearned to meet again.

The rulers of the Tower of the Labyrinth had each obtained what they desired most within the tower.

As if the God of Rudera had created an ideal world for them.

“Does the God of Rudera want to create an ideal world for each player?”

An ideal world created for each sentient being.

Everyone had their own world, and events unfolded according to the desires of each world’s owner.

A romantic world like a dream.

The most ideal answer where everyone could be happy.

Lea had once aspired to create such a world.

She thought that perhaps the God of Rudera intended that.

“But such a world must not exist.”

Having once aspired to it, she knew the problems such a world held.

A god with the same thoughts as her former self.

Lea felt intrigued for the first time in a long while.

Boom

A moment later, the massive tower of the fourth floor crumbled beneath Lea’s feet.

Ding

-The fourth floor of the Tower of the Labyrinth, the Miracle Jungle, has been cleared by player ‘Lea’ and 0 others.

“First, I need to find out about the man the god wanted me to meet.”

Information was needed.

Information about the god called GM.

Empress Lea soared high into the sky.