Chapter 104

Not long after the secret negotiation between the Hero and the Demon King.

Frey had knelt before Demon King Canos. The continent raged, but powerless rage was nothing more than the cries of the weak. The continent fell one by one.

Canos bound his loyal right-hand man, Oscar. Using the Demon King’s authority, he slapped on numerous false charges.

In a trial where Canos was prosecutor, defense attorney, accuser, and judge all at once, Oscar’s only option was to fight back. And that was exactly what Canos wanted.

“Because Frey made me promise! I want to see Oscar’s level before sending Joker back. I want to see the power of the world’s second strongest. And his growth potential.”

“Shut up, Canos! I don’t know what scheme you’re trying to trap me in, but there’s no way I’d fall for such a lousy plan!”

“Your will doesn’t matter. My mere intention to do something means your execution is as good as decided. That’s fate.”

“Screw that! If this is fate, I’ll chew it up and spit it out! Oh, should I leave the gold tooth? I’ll pull it out so you can sell it to a pawn shop for surgery fees!”

“Oscar. Struggle all you want.”

Shhhrrk-.

“Who said my name’s Oscar?! Right now, I’m Chaos!”

“…So you’ve used the Joker Card.”

Oscar went all out, aiming for Canos’ throat. The sky split and the earth crumbled in a catastrophic upheaval.

Every time Oscar flicked a finger or swung a fully-charged fist, explosions erupted. Like a wild monkey, Oscar bounded around the battlefield.

Standing to punish him, Canos didn’t use full force from the start. His purpose was to gauge Oscar’s true abilities.

Grrrrr-!

“Kyaaaah!”

“Oscar, or rather Chaos. Struggle with everything you’ve got.”

“You crazy bastard! You’ve already surpassed Demon King standards! Even a Demon God would tremble before you!”

“Is that all?”

“Not even close! I still have… Cough! Damn Merlin and his cursed magic lingering inside me…!”

At 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%… As Canos increased his power output, cracks began appearing in space, and Oscar’s body shattered into pieces.

The difference between egg and rock became increasingly clear.

Exactly 1 hour and 25 minutes after the battle started, when Canos reached 50% power, Oscar was finally subdued. At that moment, Canos’ eyes gleamed with a hint of interest and expectation.

Even with limbs torn apart and a battered body, Oscar gasped for breath and spoke.

“What… the hell are you… how strong are you?!”

“About 50%. This is the first time I’ve used this much power.”

“A creation of the Demon God surpassing the Demon God himself… Are you even the Demon King? What ARE you?!”

“Hmph, shut up. Oscar Lucifer. You’re about to be escorted to Tartarus.”

Canos’ cold verdict. A smirk appeared on Oscar’s lips.

“Hahahaha! Fine! This is enough to kill me! But don’t get the wrong idea! Though I may die, death isn’t the end—it’s the beginning! I’ll return someday and rip your head off, Canos!”

With those final words, Northern Duke of the Demon Realm, Oscar Lucifer, was imprisoned in Tartarus for 111 days.

Around 104 days later, Maria the Saintess, the daughter of the Church, who had been resisting alone against hundreds of thousands of Demon King soldiers, was finally captured. Canos sent Maria the Saintess to Tartarus in Babel Tower, as planned with Frey.

Three days before the executions, Frey visited Tartarus. She portrayed herself as a warrior filled with jealousy and inferiority complex, which gave credibility to some of her actions during academy days.

She even pretended to draw her sword in anger. There was no malice though—Frey’s goal was to strengthen the bond between Oscar and Maria.

She willingly played the villain, and it worked. Oscar tried to expose the “double-faced” warrior harassing Maria, while Maria even pulled out the Shield of the Sun to protect Oscar.

Of course, Oscar, who didn’t have much interaction with Frey, and Maria, who was always around Frey, were different. Maria sensed something “off” in Frey’s behavior. Eventually, this suspicion led her to suspect Frey was behind their regression.

Oscar picked up on Maria’s suspicion, but since he hadn’t directly asked, he misinterpreted it. He thought Maria knew about Frey’s “double-face” but was pretending not to, fearing for Frey’s safety if she lost control.

The day after Frey’s visit, Canos also visited Tartarus. His purpose was to make Oscar realize he was the “enemy.” During this, while pretending to be a politician, he received a sharp remark from Maria.

On the day of the execution, Frey and Canos went to the Temple of Time. They summoned Chronos, the God of Time, and waited for the prepared 111 days to complete.

They rewound time at the exact moment Oscar and Maria were executed. The targets of regression were four: Demon King Canos and God of Time Chronos, Joker Oscar, and Hero Frey. However, they didn’t know that Saintess Maria would intervene in their regression.

“Ho? We have an uninvited guest joining the flow?”

“Chronos? What do you mean…?”

“Just that Saintess Maria has hopped onto the time-travel train. Sharp senses. To figure us out in such a short time. The world sure is interesting.”

“Th-that…! What price must be paid?”

“That’s something to think about later. Hero Frey Dr. Siegfried, focus on fulfilling your promise to me. Don’t get distracted.”

“Kuh…!”

While Canos stood above Chronos, free from the laws of causality, others weren’t. Especially Frey, destined to bear Oscar’s causality, had to accept a heavy price.

“For the next 500 years. How old are you?”

“…Twenty-eight.”

“Imagine living your life twenty times over. Remember this: if you fail even once, the timeline will reset due to the distortion of causality. That’s my ‘restriction.'”

“Failure cannot be tolerated.”

“Your destination is the Divine Realm. A blessed land. Your body will recover automatically after the trials, but not your mind. Bite down hard and prepare yourself. The fate of the world rests on your shoulders. While I, the God of Time, set the rules of causality, its weight is beyond my domain.”

“…”

“Young hero, know that I’m rooting for you. As a ‘god’ created by this world’s faith, if you can’t withstand the causality, I’ll be annihilated by that damn Demon King. So I chose the lightest possible causality. Well, lightest among the heavy ones.”

Listening to Chronos’ heartfelt words, Frey headed to the Divine Realm, Canos returned to the Demon Realm, Oscar regressed to his childhood in the Demon Realm, and Maria’s wandering soul was confined to the Spirit World.

Thus, the world…

Buried the chapters of failure and aimed to create a chapter where all main characters triumphed.

Regressed to the past.

“…That’s all, Maria.”

“…”

“I’m sorry. Sending you to Joker and ordering your eyes to be damaged… Even if I had ten mouths, there’d be no excuse. If you want to curse me, curse me. If you want to hit me, hit me. Whatever way you choose to take revenge, I’ll gladly accept it.”

Frey’s calm confession came to an end. Her tone wavered like waves at times, but she held back the rising emotions until the very end, confessing about the past.

Her golden metallic eyes closed like a child waiting for punishment after committing a wrongdoing. She feared the reproach that would come from Maria.

However, Maria’s response was far from what Frey expected.

Woooom-.

“Great and merciful Lord, your precious and pitiable lamb has grown weary while upholding noble intentions. Please bestow your gracious blessing, send down healing waters, and provide a place of rest.”

A solemn prayer echoed beautifully. White holy energy swirled and seeped into Frey’s wounds. Her creaking knees moved smoothly again, and vitality returned to her exhausted body.

Startled, Frey looked up to see Maria gazing at her with limitless kindness.

“How could you decide such dangerous matters without consulting me?”

“You… you’re forgiving me? After what I did to you…?”

“Those who don’t repent deserve to relive their past endlessly, but if they do, the future is more important.”

“But… the wounds you suffered… Besides, you endured hardships for five hundred years too, didn’t you?”

“Isn’t that true for you as well, Hero?”

Maria neither scolded nor got angry or threw a tantrum. Instead, she enveloped Frey’s tired body with infinite kindness.

“You’re injured. Beyond what holy power can heal.”

“Oh, this? It’s fine. In the Divine Realm, all wounds heal quickly. Rest for a few hours, and these kinds of injuries will vanish…”

“No, I speak of your soul. It’s greatly wounded.”

“…”

Frey’s trembling pupils met Maria’s pure white ones. Feeling the round eyes burdensome, Frey lowered her head. Maria lifted her hand and embraced her sunken head.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“…!”

Just seven syllables. Yet, it melted the frozen heart of Frey, locked away like a barren desert without a single drop of rain. An oasis appeared.

It was a lonely battle. Every day fighting monsters never seen before, gradually being worn down like a nail-driven rock. Overwhelming pressure and responsibility weighed on her shoulders. The condition that she couldn’t afford to lose even once carried unimaginable weight.

Simply repeating battles day after day. As the years, decades, centuries passed, Frey’s soul inevitably wore out. Loneliness gnawed at human souls like leeches.

The more Frey succeeded, the more the gods cheered and celebrated, but that wasn’t what she desired. Alongside their cheers, they brought new monsters for her to face.

Most of all, the immense pressure was the greatest burden.

The lives of the entire continent rested on her shoulders. No matter how many bizarre monsters the gods brought into the arena, the situation never improved. Though experience taught her ways to defeat monsters more easily, there was no universal solution.

There were times she won using only her teeth after having her limbs crushed. Times she barely cut off an enemy’s head despite being split in half. Life-or-death battles where victory hung by a thread. Frey experienced countless such moments.

To say she never thought of giving up would be a lie. Whenever such thoughts arose, Frey erased them from her mind.

She couldn’t retreat, hesitate, or give up. She wasn’t standing here for her own safety or honor.

The lives of the entire continent depended on her. The moment she thought “What if I lose?”, visions of despair flooded her mind. She had to erase those primal doubts.

“Failure cannot be tolerated.” This meant putting everything into every swing of her sword, just like how ordinary people feel intense pressure in their stomachs during interviews or exams. For Frey, every moment was exam day.

One mistake and it was over. Maintaining razor-sharp concentration forever was a pain beyond any torture.

That pain, which no one understood…

“Now I will help too.”

“Sniffle, sniffle…!”

“You’ve worked so hard.”

And now, meeting someone who finally acknowledged, empathized, and caressed her…

Drip drip-.

Tears streamed down the Hero’s eyes.

The young girl cried her heart out for the first time in five hundred years.

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