Orpheus, who had gained the Abyssal Power, infiltrated the Archive.

He secretly entered, searching for the world that contained the story of himself and Kate while avoiding the director’s gaze.

Though his power as a being of destruction was immense, he managed to evade the director’s eye due to the homogeneity born from the world he hailed from.

The Abyssal Power gradually eroded the story, completely altering it.

Suddenly, creatures of the Abyss invaded the world, and the war that should have occurred between Kalyuga and Vilgames never happened.

As humanity fled from the Abyss, taking refuge in the underground sanctum, the Isian and Kate from this world could be together without the strife of their families.

“Yes!”

Orpheus cheered.

Finally, he had succeeded.

He found a world where Kate was safe, a world where he could save her.

If this world were to manifest in the cosmos, she would come back to life.

However, not everything flowed as intended.

Crack!

There was no time to react.

An Abyssal creature had bitten off the saint’s head.

The Abyss within Orpheus chuckled.

The Abyss had never planned to save her from the beginning.

“Ugghhh!”

Screaming, Orpheus reset the story.

The world holding the tale of him and the saint returned to the past.

This time, he altered the sequence to prevent the creatures from approaching the saint.

But then, this time, the saint approached the creature and ended up dead.

Reset again!

He killed all the creatures before the saint arrived, but this time it was the traitor of the sanctum who killed her.

Reset again!

After defeating the traitors and the creatures, the saint met her end during an internal conflict within the sanctum.

Reset again!

Reset again!

Reset again!

Reset again!

Reset again!

No matter what he did, the outcome remained the same.

No matter what he tried, she died.

Whatever you do, the result won’t change.

As long as my will resides in your existence, your survival will lead to her death.

And your life, I shall protect.

The Abyss seemed to mock him.

Reset again.

And again.

And again.

I had forgotten how many times it had been, thousands or tens of thousands.

I knew that if I gave up like this, she would never return, so I continued to repeat it, knowing this was the only way.

[As long as you can live, I’ll do anything.]

[As long as you can be happy, it doesn’t matter what happens to me.]

[So I will continue.]

[To play for you.]

[To erase the dissonance I am, in relation to your existence.]

[The eternally repeating ostinato.]

*

He was real.

Not a fake like me, but a genuine returner.

A returner who could endure infinite regressions and despair to save the woman he loved.

The Crown Prince moved forward with resolute determination.

Facing all the illusions, the Crown Prince finally reached the end of the road.

At the core of Orpheus, located deep within the mind world.

Before him stood the Orpheus, eroded by the Abyss.

“Orpheus.”

“Is that the Archive?”

His voice, tainted in darkness, was no longer Orpheus’s.

Fragments planted within Orpheus by the Abyss.

A part of the vast Abyss itself, and the true enemy of the Archive.

The Crown Prince drew his sword.

As he charged at the Abyssal Orpheus, the battle began.

Hundreds of mechanical arms from Orpheus targeted the Crown Prince.

Swinging a sword filled with various essences, the Crown Prince sliced through the mechanical arms.

Despite the numerous mechanical arms, he pressed forward, unleashing sword strikes toward Orpheus.

Suddenly, a colossal golem arm erupted from the ground to block his attack.

Boom!

Following the first golem, hundreds more appeared.

“Haaa!”

The Crown Prince ignited his entire body, unleashing the power of a hero as he charged in.

However, he was outmatched to handle so many golems and the Abyss at the same time.

Crash!

As a golem’s arm slammed down on the Crown Prince, he fell, spitting blood.

Mocking laughter from the Abyss swept over him as the golems lunged at him.

‘…Is this the end?’

He wanted to cut away the Abyss.

Having seen all the atrocities done by the Abyss through Orpheus’s illusions, he wanted to fulfill that wish, but… it seemed impossible.

At the moment the Crown Prince gave up in the forced defeat event and hung his head,

“Lift your head, apprentice director.”

The soul of Orpheus appeared and stood in front of the golems.

“What are you doing after I acknowledged you?”

“…Orpheus?”

The sudden appearance of him shocked the Abyss.

“How… are you here?”

Orpheus smirked.

“How many worlds do you think I’ve gone through in repetition?”

An opportunity honed through eternal regression.

Now was the time for counterattack.

Orpheus’s hand penetrated into the Crown Prince.

“You are the new melody that will vary my ostinato. The final note that will cut the vessel and aged melody of Orpheus and complete my play.”

The soul of Orpheus overlapped with the Crown Prince, moving his body.

“I’ll just borrow your body for a moment.”

Orpheus, in the Crown Prince’s body, shone with brilliant light as he charged forward.

“Get lost! I said don’t come near!”

Countless minions of the Abyssal Orpheus erupted forth, blocking his path, but he pressed on, crushing everything in his way.

His sword, having sliced through all the golems and Elder Guardians, reached the Abyss.

“Gggggh! How dare! A mere mortal!”

The Abyssal Orpheus clutched its severed arm and fell back.

The Abyss concentrated its power to release its true strength, but,

“That won’t do.”

Orpheus’s restrictions stopped it.

A constraint preventing it from abandoning its physical form.

“What kind of nonsense is this!”

The same applied to the Abyss that had taken over Orpheus’s body.

The fragments of the Abyss could not revert back to their original form, trapped within Orpheus’s body.

[Once a soul leaves the human body, it cannot be returned to its place.]

“How dare! How dare a mere mortal treat me with such contempt!”

The Abyss spewed mechanical devices from Orpheus’s body as it struggled.

Deadly attacks poured in, but Orpheus broke through them all with his sword.

Lasers sliced off his right arm, and mechanical arms crushed his left arm.

His abdomen split open, with internal organs spilling, yet he did not stop.

[I have made the world repeat so that the world reviving her could manifest.]

“Don’t come! I said don’t come! Gghh!”

Finally, after piercing through the saturation of lasers and mechanical arms, his sword pierced Orpheus’s body.

[The curse placed upon me by the Abyss means that as long as I exist, she will forever meet a death that repeats itself.]

“This… can’t be… dying…”

As Orpheus’s body turned to dust, so did the fragments of the Abyss within it.

[Thus, I will cut away this dissonance and complete my play for her.]

Bang!

As the core shattered, the dark space surrounding it began to collapse.

The Crown Prince felt Orpheus’s soul within him becoming faint.

[The finale of the final ostinato for her.]

Finally, as every fragment of his soul faded away, the Crown Prince awoke, exiting the mind world to the sanctum.

With the saint remaining in a world now free of the Abyss’s forces.

“Goodbye, my frog prince…”

As the eternally repeating dissonant play ended, the sunny sky above the surface was clearer and cleaner than ever.

*

“Good job, Zeol.”

The Crown Prince, back in the Archive, was met by the director.

“I’m sorry. I really didn’t see this coming. I didn’t think a being of destruction would infiltrate.”

The Crown Prince stood there blankly.

“Orpheus. I mean, Ian Kalyuga came to see me before. He wanted me to save a girl named Kate.”

The director continued speaking, but his words didn’t reach the Crown Prince’s ears.

“I never expected he would manage to conduct infinite regressions while harboring the Abyss. Especially while maintaining his sanity.”

The director marveled.

“Ian Kalyuga. That name may go down in history as the first being to hit back at the Abyss.”

The director picked up a book.

“The problem is that in the process, the story has been distorted. Someone who should be dead is alive, and someone who should be alive has vanished.”

[Do we have to kill the saint now?]

The Crown Prince’s eyes widened at the director’s words.

“No.”

He glared at the director.

“I will not permit that.”

There was an overwhelming will that if the book was even slightly touched, there would be consequences.

“…Really?”

Thud.

The director closed the book and chuckled softly.

“If that’s your will, then so be it. But since the story has changed, your score will be 9 points.”

With that, the director set down the book and left.

The Crown Prince fixed his gaze on the book sitting on the desk.

He could see the illusion dancing above it.

An illusion of a messy-haired girl and a boy awkwardly styled with his hair back, dancing to the first never-ending melody.