Loop
A few minutes before Ariel found Oh Ji-seok.
"Hup."
BOOOOM!
She tore through the Kaijin with terrifying momentum, cutting them down in a whirlwind of slaughter.
"Grrrk... grk..."
"Gaaah!"
Even so, the monsters fought back with vicious tenacity. Although Trauma and Transfer had vanished from the scene, the Kaijin remaining in the seminar venue still possessed staggering combat strength. Sprouting writhing tentacles and whirling sawblades directly from their flesh, their sheer power was far beyond what the low- and mid-ranking heroes stranded in the hall could ever hope to handle. They were catastrophic horrors rated Threat Grade 1 or higher—monsters that demanded the intervention of at least one Top-Ranking Hero just to subdue.
"Out of my way."
Yet before Ariel's frenzied onslaught, even such monstrosities fell away like dry autumn leaves.
"I said, get out of my way...!"
Despite her overwhelming violence, a deep, hollow anxiety flickered within her haggard eyes.
"Please..."
Her physical vessel had already reached its absolute breaking point. Pushing it even a fraction further threatened to tear the muscle fibers throughout her entire body to shreds. But surrender was an impossibility.
"Please, just stay alive this time..."
She had watched him slip through her fingers again and again. This time, she had to reach him.
CRACK!
Putting every ounce of her remaining strength into her grip, Ariel wrenched the neck of the final Kaijin.
"W-Wait!"
A frantic voice cried out from behind her.
"St-Stop it!"
A hero's sidekick stumbled forward, her face as pale as a corpse.
"That person was a hero! He's human!"
"..."
"So, j-just subdue him for now—!"
Before the girl could finish her sentence—
CRUNCH!
The sickening snap of breaking vertebrae reverberated through the devastated seminar room.
"Ah..."
The sidekick collapsed onto her knees, staring in utter disbelief at the limp, broken corpse. Ariel cast a freezing, merciless glare down at her and whispered:
"Not anymore."
With that, she cast the twisted corpse aside and sprinted forward, entirely ignoring the horrified gazes around her.
"No... I lost too much time..."
Truthfully, her body was in no condition to take another step, let alone run. Yet she bit down hard on her lip, tasting copper as she drove herself forward.
Beep, bee-beep!
"Ah."
The moment she crossed into the outer perimeter, the timer on her wristwatch chimed softly.
"..."
And right at that very second, Oh Ji-seok's figure came into view in the distance.
"Again."
Ariel skidded to a halt. A flat, lifeless murmur spilled past her lips.
"I failed to protect you again."
Oh Ji-seok was slumped helplessly against a ruined wall. His limbs were neither severed nor horribly mutilated, but his clothes were drenched in dark crimson blood. The time limit had run out.
"No matter how many times I turn back the clock..."
A cracked, raspy whisper escaped her parched throat.
"I still can't stop your death."
It was a sight she had witnessed countless times before. No matter how quickly she broke out of her quarters, no matter how swiftly she slaughtered the assassins and Kaijin sent to butcher her, no matter how many times she rewound time and how desperately she struggled—the moment the clock reached this exact second, Oh Ji-seok invariably died.
"Why can't I ever reach you in time?"
Arriving too late like this was actually one of the gentler outcomes. There had been loops where his body was shredded into ribbons just inches before her fingertips could graze him. Loops where a hole was punched straight through his skull the very instant she caught him by the arm. Once, he had even drawn his final breath resting in her embrace as she frantically carried him out of the seminar venue. The faint, gentle smile he had given her in his dying moments was something burned so deeply into her soul that she could never forget it.
"You saved me back then..."
If he hadn't rescued her during those terrifying early loops, if he hadn't shielded her from danger until she learned how to endure this horrific nightmare, she couldn't begin to imagine what unspeakable atrocities would have been inflicted upon her across these endless cycles.
"So why can't I save you?"
That was why, now that she had clawed her way to enough strength to protect herself, she wanted to save him in return. Losing her sister had been more than enough agony for a lifetime.
"..."
Yet every effort had proved completely futile. She could escape mortal peril through her innate ability and regression, but Oh Ji-seok could not. The man who threw away his own life without hesitation to keep her safe was entirely unable to preserve his own. And on top of everything, the auto-save was hopelessly tangled.
Even so, Ariel could not give up.
Across innumerable loops, she had attempted every conceivable action. Naturally, many people within those iterations had betrayed her or turned their backs on her. All of them—except for Oh Ji-seok. He had never once abandoned her. He had always stood before her as a shield, always offering her warm encouragement. And the number of times he had laid down his life on her behalf was far beyond counting.
Why was he willing to go so far for her?
His answers to that question had varied wildly across different loops. But none of that mattered. Ariel knew better than anyone that every single word he spoke had been entirely sincere.
I have to kill myself.
Staring quietly down at Oh Ji-seok slumped against the wall, Ariel reached up and wrapped her trembling hands around her own throat.
Before my senses dull, I need to start over.
It was time to fulfill her promise to him—to become the greatest hero, no matter what it took.
Squeeze...
She began tightening her grip, forcing agonizing pressure onto her own windpipe.
Auto-Save Complete
"...Huh?"
The prompt announcing that the auto-save had finished flashed before her eyes at that exact moment.
"What...?"
Her mind went completely blank. A violent tremor tore through Ariel's entire frame.
"Th-This is wrong..."
Ever since the save point had overwritten itself in her room, the auto-save hadn't triggered a single time. So why was it suddenly flashing before her eyes right now?
"Why is this appearing...?"
Forcing a hollow, desperate smile, her face gradually contorted into sheer terror.
"Is it an error?"
A thick bead of cold sweat rolled down her temple.
SNAP!
After standing frozen for a long moment, she squeezed her eyes shut and viciously twisted her own neck.
"...It can't be."
The intimately familiar wave of blinding agony and nausea surged through her, only to wash away. Slowly, she forced her eyes open.
"There's no way it would change now..."
Ariel froze in place, petrified.
"...No."
She had undeniably broken her neck to trigger a regression. Yet what greeted her vision was not the ceiling of her lodging room, but Oh Ji-seok, still slumped limply against the ruined wall.
"..."
Standing in dazed stupor, she raised her hands and seized her neck once more.
Snap!
CRACK!
CRUUUUUNCH!
And so began a relentless, manic spree of self-mutilation.
"I can still... I can still keep going...!"
Yet no matter how many times she wrenched and crushed her own neck, the reality before her refused to shift.
"Just a little more, and I could have saved you..."
Crack...
"I even... perfected the strategy just recently..."
How much time had passed?
"Why... why of all times, right now...?"
Her hands finally slumped limply to her sides, unable to twist her neck again. Ariel stared down at Oh Ji-seok with hollow, dead eyes.
"...Wake up, Professor."
Her trembling voice began to drown in suffocating despair and ink-black darkness.
"My entire soul has already been dyed completely in your colors."
"Without you, I can't do anything anymore..."
"Cough..."
Out of nowhere, a faint, dry cough cut through the silence.
"...?"
Ariel's eyes widened into perfect circles.
"Who... who is there?"
Through the ringing in her ears came the unmistakable, clear voice of Oh Ji-seok.
"Professor...?"
"Is that you, Ariel?"
The man she had believed dead was coughing weakly, turning his gaze toward her.
"It's dangerous here... Pay no attention to me, just—"
Ariel took a dazed step forward, staring down at him in total disbelief. The moment those gentle, ever-selfless words reached her ears—
"Professor...!"
Tossing aside every doubt, question, and piece of logic, she threw herself entirely into his embrace.
"I finally reached you..."
A gentle, radiating warmth seeped into her trembling frame.
"I'm never letting go again..."
"...???"
For the first time across all her endless cycles, she held not his cold, stiff corpse, but his living, breathing warmth.
"Ariel? What is the matter?"
As I buried myself in his chest for a long time, Professor's deeply worried voice drifted down to me.
"Did something terrible happen?"
At the same time, a warm hand began gently stroking my hair. Basking in that soothing touch, I quietly raised my head and reached out with a trembling hand, pressing my palm against his chest.
Thump, thump...
Faint though it was, Professor's heart was beating steadily.
"Haaah..."
Only then did a profound sense of relief finally wash over me. With the auto-save having suddenly locked in, if his condition had been fatal, everything would have been irrevocably ruined.
"Ariel...?"
As I let out a long sigh, the tension melting from my limbs, his anxious voice sounded once more. He was always like this. No matter how perilous the situation was, even when he was on the brink of death, he never cared about his own well-being.
"Are you truly all right?"
His eyes held nothing but genuine concern for my safety.
"Professor."
Staring intently into his eyes, I took his hand into both of mine and spoke.
"I like you."
"Pardon?"
These were the words I had sworn to tell him the moment this hellish loop came to an end.
"I love you, Professor."
To the man who had saved me again and again.
"...?"
Yet Professor merely looked at me with an utterly baffled expression.
Of course. You wouldn't remember.
It was only natural. I remembered countless versions of him, but to him, I was merely Ariel Everray—a fresh student who had only just enrolled at the Hero Academy. A dull, stinging ache pinched the corner of my heart. At the end of countless loops, what I had finally arrived at was his bewildered expression.
"I have a favor to ask, Professor."
Still, none of that mattered.
"...A favor?"
Because I loved this man more than anything in the world.
"Please marry me."
To the point where a normal life would be impossible if he wasn't by my side.
"...If that's too fast, let's start by dating."
It seemed Professor's bewildered gaze wasn't the only thing I had gained from surviving the endless loops.
"Ariel, what has gotten into you so suddenly?"
"I've developed a severe case of codependency, Professor."
So please, cure me with your own hands.
Step, step...
Holding Oh Ji-seok's hand, Ariel slowly leaned her face toward his.
"...Who's there?"
The exact moment footsteps echoed from behind, Ariel whipped around, her voice razor-sharp and dripping with lethal malice.
"Trau—Professor Oh Ji-seok. There you are."
A low, measured voice drifted through the air.
"I came after receiving Miracle Shine's transmission."
Great Order was walking slowly toward them.
"I apologize for the delay. There were circumstances—"
"Hey."
Ariel cut her off, glaring at her with murderous intensity.
"Back away."
"What?"
Great Order tilted her head in confusion. In response, Ariel unleashed an overwhelming wave of pure bloodlust and issued a cold, venomous warning.
"I said, back away from the professor."
A freezing, suffocating silence descended over the ruins.
That woman cannot be allowed anywhere near him.
Amidst the terrifying atmosphere, Ariel glared daggers at Great Order as horrific memories surfaced from the depths of her mind.
Are you planning to accidentally kill the professor again, just like you did back then?
The absolute worst iteration, where everything had gone completely to hell.
The 1st loop.