Return. (1)
Boom—!
The entire bookstore plunged underground right after the earthquake, and the building debris came crashing down in a rumble.
“……What the hell.”
Ifrin, sprawled out in an awkward pose, blankly stared up at the ceiling.
But the angle was weird. The scenery was off.
“Why are there shoes stuck to the ceiling?”
A pair of shoes clinging perfectly to the sky.
Did the world flip upside down?
“……Oh. It's not the ceiling—it's the floor.”
Her body had flipped instead.
Ifrin fiddled with her head as she righted herself. She felt a bit concussed from the impact.
“Ifrin!”
Patpatpat—
The sound of cute footsteps approaching. Lia, racing through the dark underground.
“You okay-eyo?”
Ifrin gave a wry smile.
“Yeah. I'm fine. You?”
“Me too-eyo.”
“Good. But why'd this place suddenly collapse?”
She muttered as she pulled out her Mugangcheol. The mana it emitted lit up the area.
Lia said,
“……It's a quest.”
Her voice was dead serious. Ifrin tilted her head.
“A quest?”
“Yeah.”
Right now, a single line of quest text hovered in Lia's vision.
God
The final main quest, starting far too early.
Considering her growth and progress, clearing it was absolutely impossible—a hopeless situation. But time hadn't fully run out yet.
“Come here first.”
Lia grabbed Ifrin's sleeve and led her along.
People lay unconscious all over the corridors. Their groans darkened Ifrin's expression.
Step step—
Lia, meanwhile, descended into the underground without a glance. She plunged straight into the cracks at the bookstore's basement floor.
A cold composure beyond her childlike years.
Ifrin asked cautiously,
“Lia. What's this quest thing?”
“……That.”
Then Lia pointed somewhere.
A rippling sound echoed first from the darkness. Ifrin's eyes widened at the sight.
“……A lake?”
“Yeah.”
A lake sat in the middle of the underground.
A clear lake with gentle waves lapping.
Lia explained,
“It's a passage to the outer edge of the world. The Altar bastards made these lakes all over the continent's underground.”
Ifrin flinched and placed a hand on Lia's shoulder.
“……The Altar? Lia, you knew about them too?”
“Yeah. The 'too' is kinda curious, but I won't ask now. No time—”
—Hm. Someone's there.
A voice rose from the lake. Deep, solemn, filling the underground.
Ifrin and Lia turned to the lake in unison.
—Sorry about that. I was fishing and must've touched something wrong. Does it hurt much?
“……Who are you.”
Ifrin prepped her mana as she asked. Whiiing…… Mugangcheol resonated sharply.
—Hm, if you ask... I am God.
“……God?”
Lia stiffened, while Ifrin let out a hollow laugh.
“God? What kinda crazy talk…… Oh, you're the Altar's big boss?”
—The Altar are my followers. I am God.
“Yup, Altar confirmed.”
Ifrin pressed her temple and began muttering something.
Yuren Duchy bookstore underground—Yuren Duchy bookstore underground—Yuren Duchy bookstore underground—
Memorizing info to pass to Deculein after regression.
—Hahaha. You won't believe it, will you?
God's laughter.
Lia licked her parched lips from tension, but Ifrin just shook her head and crossed her arms.
“Obviously. Nobody who calls themselves good is actually good. They say it 'cause they're not. Truly good people don't think they're good. Their standards are sky-high, so they don't see themselves that way. So you're no god. You're claiming it 'cause you're not.”
—……
A brief silence after the long rant.
Then an unexpected reply.
—Indeed, you're right to think that way. Humans are creatures of doubt, and faith comes from believers, not me.
“……Huh?”
Ifrin blinked in surprise.
—I admit it. I've only just awakened, so I know little. My failing.
“……”
Surprisingly meek.
Nothing like the atrocities the Altar had committed.
—From now on, I won't call myself God. I'll work to earn your recognition.
Tap tap—
Lia nudged her arm and whispered,
“Final boss-eyo.”
“Final boss?”
“Yeah. The continent's enemy.”
—No need to worry.
As if overhearing, the lake spoke again.
—I won't harm you. Even apostate descendants deserve a fair chance. And you, Ifrin Luna.
“Huh? How do you know my—”
—He will come soon.
“……”
Ifrin's words caught in her throat. Almost instinctively, she approached the lakeside and peered in.
—I'm looking forward to it too.
A man with red long hair—hard to tell gender by looks, but male by voice—shimmered on the lake's surface.
“The professor? You mean Professor Deculein right now?”
—Yes. The ego transcending humanity, the immovable man defying the world.
“……Wh-when?!”
He smiled silently. Ifrin narrowed her eyes to ask again, but suddenly.
She sensed mana rippling in the lake.
One fact hit her.
“Bomb.”
The start of this regression. The massive explosion on April 9th.
Murkan's warning about a bomb.
“This lake is the bomb.”
No wonder they couldn't find it.
—Haha.
The lake smiled, and Ifrin backed away.
Lia asked,
“Bomb-eyo?”
“Yeah. There's one in the Imperial Palace too. Always in the previous emperor Krevaim's biography. He loved fishing……”
Then.
Scraaape—metal scraping from behind. Silent footsteps, calm killing intent approaching.
Lia and Ifrin slowly turned.
“……”
Seven robed swordsmen. Faces hidden, but Ifrin knew their identities.
Ifrin said,
“The tallest one's Sir Jairun, right?”
“……”
No answer, but a clear tsking smile.
“I know the rest too—”
—Enough.
The lake cut her off. The swordsmen's and Ifrin's eyes fixed back there.
—She gave me guidance. And I promised no harm.
“……”
Ifrin and Lia blinked in confusion, and the swordsmen withdrew immediately.
“Huh?”
—Go now.
He said. Ifrin peered at the lakeside a moment longer.
—We'll meet soon. Ifrin Luna, and……
The man's head in the ripples slowly turned. As if looking at Lia.
—Yuarra.
“……Yuarra?”
Lia's body twitched. Ifrin furrowed her brow.
Yuarra.
A name she'd heard somewhere.
—Even you, with souls entwined.
“……”
Lia exhaled hot breath.
‘You, with souls entwined.’
The final boss referring to the player.
“Lia. Did you have another name? Yuarra?”
As Ifrin asked.
Whoosh—
A brilliant glow from the lake swallowed them both.
* * *
……One day in February.
Late at night.
I'm just thinking. Sorting the tangled branches in my mind.
“Peculiar.”
The world, the air, the flow— all strange. Everyday scenes feel seen a hundred times a day; I can predict who'll say what.
But the most mysterious is right here, now.
Yukline Manor's underground.
“Sand grains.”
My training: sand grains.
Separating a bundle of sand, grain by grain, without breaking any. If two stick or one breaks during transfer, start over.
Should be brutally hard, as expected.
“……Easy.”
Too easy.
The bundle took not half a day, but two hours. I repeated it four more times.
“……”
And that's not all.
The mana in my body. 3rd Grade mana, hard to control and slow to master, was nearly perfectly refined.
It flowed like my limbs, enhancing all my traits.
Dramatic progress in a very short time.
Fundamental personal growth.
Is this nature's flow I don't know, or……
Chirp— chirp chirp—
Morning birdsong drifting from outside the cave. Spreading unease and familiarity over my body.
Enveloped in them, I ascend to the surface.
Chirp chirp— chirp chirp chirp—
Two syllables, then three. Dawn light piercing the underground cave green. Five rays at specific angles.
Déjà vu.
But one thing different this moment. Something new.
“……Sand.”
A handful in my bare hand.
Something I would never do.
I slowly opened my palm.
Sift sifttt……
Grains flowed between fingers. Sank futilely to the ground, mixing with garden soil and grass.
……I manifested Telekinesis.
Swoooosh……
Reversing the fall. Fallen sand floated back, threading between fingers. Gathered in my palm.
“……”
In that silence, I closed my eyes.
In the darkness, memory fragments stirred my mind. Blurry afterimages pierced like blades.
Chirp chirp—
Two syllables threading through trees.
Chirp chirp chirp chirp—
Four in reply.
The birds' song.
I opened my eyes. Gazed at the sand pooled in my hand.
“The birds haven't changed.”
The breeze brushing me now, the crushed grass, the swaying trees—nothing changed.
“Yet……”
Strangely.
Completely different thoughts and faces flicker in my mind. A voice I ‘haven’t’ heard whispers in my ear.
All tied to one person.
“……Ifrin.”
I made a promise with her.
My promises must be kept.
* * *
Ninth regression, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth……
Ifrin's regressions continued even after meeting God. She endured nearly two years alone.
Even as everyone forgot her, she studied, trained, fled—without waste.
Meanwhile, the Altar sharpened. Their schemes escalated tensions.
Great war between nations, races.
Leok and Yuren, Empire and kingdoms, Altiegue and Arian……
The more regressions, the more efforts to fix—the more Deculein's death unraveled everything after.
……And.
Today, the twentieth regression, April 8th.
“In just one month……”
On the half-destroyed clock tower of the Empire University's grounds, the continent's education hub. Ifrin muttered blankly.
“The world falls like this.”
The once radiant, eternally green campus lay in ruins. Crumbling helplessly.
“Yeeah……”
She survived somehow, but the continent was rotten with Altar. In just one month.
The cause? Probably God. Unaffected by regressions.
“……This life's done for.”
Allen's words. Ifrin nodded quietly.
This life: Julie died, Sylvia died, Delik died.
No—beyond individuals, the continent fell.
“But midnight's soon.”
Allen said. Ifrin nodded. Her heart raced for some reason.
“One minute left.”
Ifrin glanced behind. A clock that size.
Not up the clock tower for nothing.
“……You okay, Ifrin?”
Allen asked worriedly. Ifrin replied calmly.
“No idea how many times you've asked that.”
“Ah…… right?”
“Yeah. And I always say I'm fine. 'Cause I'm excited. Hope outweighs disappointment.”
“Hope?”
“Yeah.”
Ifrin smiled brightly.
“When the time comes, everything changes at once. Professor Deculein appears and fixes it all.”
That belief sustained her.
Through regressions, deaths, continent's ruin—never losing hope.
Ifrin whirled to Allen.
“So yeah, I'm fine. Obviously.”
Tick— tick— tick—
The second hand moved.
Time to twentieth regression's end: 30 seconds, 29, 28.
“……Still.”
A wry smile on Ifrin's lips as she watched the clock.
“Wish he'd come already……”
Watching loved ones die for her, over and over—torment. Not easy to endure.
“He'll come soon, right?”
10 seconds, 9, 8.
Approaching midnight, Ifrin took a deep breath.
If Professor Deculein returned, words to tell him.
Recalling all saved info, time, experience, knowledge.
“Yeeah. Hope so too.”
Allen's last words, the lone survivor with her. Ifrin smirked and nodded.
Dooong——!
The bell tolling midnight.
Twentieth regression's end, twenty-first's start.
Ifrin closed her eyes and accepted it calmly.