Sinner Ian
[Game Terminated.]
Game Terminated
The crown prince returned to his bed in reality and sat up, propping himself on his elbows.
"...Damn it all."
He'd never imagined this.
That Orpheus guy was immune to save and load.
Wasn't Mengsa Castle the only force from the Abyss independent of the story? Or was Orpheus actually Mengsa Castle itself?
Either way, the story was ruined beyond repair.
Even if he went back to the start, that bastard would remember this run too.
"How is this even possible? It's not just some game?"
Even if he reset everything, an enemy that retained its memories? This wasn't game-level anymore... it was like creating a whole world.
It felt like all his common sense about games and programs was being overturned.
"..."
How should a regressor act against an enemy that recognizes and remembers regressions?
The crown prince pondered deeply, organizing his thoughts.
Actually, it wasn't that hard.
The decision to regress or not was entirely up to him, as long as he didn't screw up and use the save feature carelessly.
Reset only when things went south, save when they went well.
This fight favored him.
"Hero! You've opened your eyes!"
[Hero Born to Stop the Invasion from Another World]
—You have been summoned to an underground sanctuary as the hero destined to repel the monsters from another world. Humanity has fled underground to escape the invaders from the Abyss. Reclaim the surface from the final bastion of mankind, the sanctuary. And stop the minions of the Abyss infiltrating through the cracks of the Abyss erosion.
Logging back into the game, the saintess greeted him at the starting point of the story.
'Even if that guy regresses like me, he can't stop the entire environment from resetting.'
As long as the game progress wasn't saved, the crown prince had infinite chances.
'Then I'll just keep trying.'
The crown prince relocated the magitech department, including Ian Kaliuga.
A new lab inside the Holy Knight Order headquarters.
This should hold off Orpheus even if he broke in.
Or so he thought.
"You thought this puny setup could stop me?"
Crunch!
Preventing Ian Kaliuga's death? Not even close.
...Just try again.
This time, he set up the lab at the Holy Knight Order's garrison and stationed mages too.
No way this gets breached, right?
"Pointless efforts."
Crunch!
Still impossible.
Again.
"I told you." Crunch!
Again.
"Is this all you've got, deputy curator?" Crunch!
Again.
"Disappointing." Crunch!
Again. Crunch!
Orpheus was always one step ahead.
A...gain.
"Hero! You've opened your eyes!"
"Damn it all!"
The crown prince slammed his fist into the stone coffin, his face twisted in rage.
What the hell do I do?
Why can't I win?
We both remember the previous runs equally!
Inferiority and helplessness gnawed at his entire body.
"No choice but to bet everything on Ian Kaliuga."
For some reason, Orpheus obsessively targeted only Ian Kaliuga.
He was fixated on killing Ian to a fanatic degree.
If Ian was the target anyway, maybe hole up in the sanctuary without reclaiming the surface—just protect Ian Kaliuga.
Dig traps and wait; kill Orpheus when he shows, then head to the surface.
Fail? Reset and try again.
"Pardon? You're going to guard me, Hero?"
"Indeed. The Abyss scum are after you. Until I confirm your safety, you'll stay by my side."
And so the crown prince began spending time in seclusion with Ian and the saintess.
If anyone intruded, countless traps on standby would swarm the intruder.
As the crown prince inspected the defenses around the room, he overheard the saintess and Ian talking inside.
"You think the Hero's right to guard me too?"
"Don't overthink it, Ian. You're vital to our sanctuary's magitech. You're worth the Hero's personal protection..."
She'd reacted so strongly every time Ian died in past runs—clearly close friends.
"Do others think that too, Kate?"
"What are you saying, Ian?"
"You know we researchers got pushed to the most remote corner of the sanctuary. 'Useless for surface reclamation, yet hogging resources.'"
"That's just ignorant talk! Magitech is crucial! I believe you'll play a key role in reclaiming the surface!"
So that's how it was.
The crown prince finally understood why the magitech department was tucked at the sanctuary's edge unlike other divisions, and why faces soured when he ordered its defense.
'Magitech is heavily undervalued in this world.'
A far cry from his home continent, where magitech engineers drove massive progress.
"Hah. Sure, you're kind to everyone."
A loner gripped by inferiority, pushing away even those who cared.
The crown prince saw himself in Ian.
"But this is bad. If word gets out that the resource-hogging pigsty of magitech is getting special treatment from you the saintess and the Hero, the other researchers might face backlash."
"That's..."
"No issue there."
As the saintess hesitated, the crown prince burst in.
"Hero...!"
"I protect you both. Who dares harass you?"
Magitech was essential.
Without repairs and maintenance, sustainability would crumble, losing prolonged war capability.
To the crown prince, unlike the sanctuary folk, magitech was core—and Orpheus's top priority target.
"You two are vital to us, to the sanctuary. No need for guilt or burden."
Grr! The perfect monarch!
As the crown prince marveled at himself and extended a hand to Ian—
"...If a Hero like you had been there for us back then, things wouldn't have ended like this."
Ian dropped his glasses, head bowed, murmuring in a deep, sunken voice.
Crunch!
!!!!
Suddenly, countless mechanical arms sprang out, restraining the crown prince and saintess.
Traps Ian himself had installed to counter Orpheus.
"I-Ian! What the hell?!"
"Doing what must be done."
Ian lifted his head, a mask now covering his face.
"...You're Orpheus."
The crown prince masked his confusion and asked.
No way.
The Ians Orpheus killed before were real corpses.
Impossible for the same person.
Ian removed the mask, smirking with slicked-back hair and bare face.
"Strictly speaking, this guy's not me. I'm the future him."
"What do you mean?"
"No need to know. You won't be going back anyway."
"...What?"
Game Automatically Saved
The crown prince's eyes widened in shock.
Auto-save?
Akashic Archive had no separate save slots.
Auto-saving meant he could never load back to the past via save & load.
Ian pulled out a small device and tinkered with it.
Vmmm!
Mana condensed in the air, forming a small portal.
Thud, thud.
Out stepped a slicked-back Ian, more wrinkled and aged than the current one.
The Orpheus the crown prince knew.
"Ian? H-How are there two Ians?"
The saintess gawked, looking between them.
Whoosh!
Orpheus reached out; the mask flew from Ian's face to Orpheus's, attaching perfectly.
Ian's head was sucked into Orpheus's hand too.
"This sinner won't respawn either."
Crunch!
Orpheus smashed Ian's head into the ground; like past runs, it burst, splattering blood and brains.
"Ian! No!"
The saintess sobbed as before.
"...You're always so kind. That idiot Ian... even after I got you killed, you're always the same..."
Orpheus approached the saintess, reminiscing wistfully.
"Sorry."
His touch grazed her cheek; she fainted, slumping.
"Now, deputy curator. Our time."
Vrrr!
A mechanical device enveloped Orpheus's right hand.
It morphed into a beam weapon.
Game Automatically Saved
'Auto-save again!'
Cold sweat trickled down the crown prince's neck.
At this rate, even resets would loop this death infinitely.
If Orpheus killed him and triggered auto-save?
Story progression would halt completely.
The crown prince struggled against the mechanical arms, but the power emanating from them nullified all his abilities.
"Farewell."
Vmmm!
Boom!
Energy gathered in Orpheus's hand, firing a beam of destruction.
Just before it pierced the crown prince's head—
Kaboom!
Someone blocked between the crown prince and Orpheus, deflecting the beam.
A young black-haired boy.
"...Knew you'd show, Curator. Long time no see."
The curator of Akashic Archive.
"Orpheus. Never suspected Mengsa Castle's intrusion. How'd you fool my eyes?"
Orpheus shrugged at the curator's question.
"...I see. The protagonist of this story... was you. That's why I couldn't find you."
"Too late to realize, Curator. The Abyss's erosion of this world has passed the limit. Archive's authority no longer reaches here."
"...The Archive's power isn't all you know."
White divine light gathered in the curator's hand.
"Ho."
Orpheus sneered.
"You didn't think I'd just watch, did you?"
Orpheus reshaped his hand into an energy blade and charged the curator.
Clang!
The curator blocked and shouted.
"Raizeol! You're the last hope!"
Power flowed from the curator, enveloping Raizeol.
"Sending you into Orpheus's mental world! Cut out the core built by the Abyss inside him! That's the only way to stop the erosion in this world!"
Raizeol's vision narrowed gradually.
Through the thinning slits, he glimpsed the curator and Orpheus clashing—Orpheus grinning in satisfaction.
Even this moment, being pulled into his mental world by the curator's final power, seemed part of Orpheus's plan.