The Final Ostinato
Having obtained the power of the Abyss, Orpheus infiltrated the [Akashic Archive].
He evaded the Curator's gaze and sought out the world containing his story with Kate, slipping inside undetected. The power of the Destroyer Apostle he wielded was immense, but the affinity born from the world he himself had manifested allowed him to slip past the Curator's eyes.
The power of the Abyss eroded the story bit by bit, twisting it completely.
Sudden invaders from another realm—the monsters of the Abyss—descended upon the world, preventing the war between Kaliuga and Bilgamesh that should have occurred. As humanity fled underground to the holy site, pursued by the Abyss, Ian and Kate from this world could remain together without their families' feud.
'Yes!'
Orpheus cheered inwardly. He had finally succeeded. He had found a world where Kate survived—a world where he could save her. If this world manifested in the universe, she would live again.
But not everything went as planned.
Kwachik!
There was no time to react. An Abyss monster crunched down on the saintess's head.
The Abyss within Orpheus chuckled softly.
It had never intended to let her live from the start.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Orpheus screamed in agony and reset the story. The world containing his and the saintess's tale rewound to the past.
Orpheus tweaked this run slightly, ensuring the monsters couldn't reach the saintess. But this time, she approached the monster and died.
Reset again. He slaughtered all the monsters before the saintess arrived, only for a traitor in the holy site to kill her.
Reset. He killed the monsters and the traitor too, but infighting erupted within the holy site, and she died trying to stop it.
Reset. Reset. Reset. Reset. Reset...
No matter what he did, the outcome was the same. Whatever he tried, she died.
No matter what you do, the result won't change.
As long as my will resides in your existence, your survival leads to her death.
And I shall protect your life.
⟨ The Abyss's Mockery ⟩
Reset again. And again. And again.
He'd lost count—thousands? Tens of thousands? It didn't matter anymore.
Knowing that giving up meant she could never return, knowing this was his only way, he kept repeating.
[If only you could live, I would do anything.]
[If only you could be happy, I wouldn't care what happens to me.]
[So I'll keep going.]
[This performance for you.]
[To excise me—the dissonance in your existence.]
[An eternally repeating ostinato.]
He was the real deal. A true regressor, unlike a fake like me. One who could endure infinite regressions and despair to save the woman he loved.
The crown prince pressed forward with resolute will.
Having faced all the illusions, the crown prince finally reached the end of the path. The core of Orpheus, located at the deepest heart of the mental world. Before him stood Orpheus, eroded by the Abyss.
"Orpheus."
"[Akashic Archive], is it."
His voice, stained black, was no longer Orpheus's. It was a fragment the Abyss had planted within Orpheus—a massive piece of the Abyss itself, the true enemy of the [Akashic Archive].
The crown prince raised his sword. As he charged at the Abyss-tainted Orpheus, the battle began.
Hundreds of Orpheus's mechanical arms targeted the crown prince. He swung his sword, infused with multiple essences, slicing through the mechanical arms. Despite their numbers, he advanced, unleashing a sword beam at Orpheus.
A massive golem arm erupted from the floor, blocking the attack.
Kuung!
Following the first golem, hundreds more revealed themselves.
"Haaaaah!"
The crown prince ignited his entire body, unleashing the hero's power as he charged. But coping with that many golems and the Abyss simultaneously was beyond him.
Kwang!
A golem arm crushed down on the crown prince; he spat blood and collapsed. The Abyss mocked him, swinging its arm, and the golems lunged at him.
'...Is this the end?'
He wanted to sever the Abyss. Having witnessed through Orpheus's illusions all it had done, he wanted to fulfill his wish... but it seemed impossible.
As the crown prince yielded to the forced defeat event, bowing his head—
"Raise your head, acting curator."
Orpheus's soul appeared, blocking the golems.
"I finally acknowledged you, and this is how you act."
"...Orpheus?"
The Abyss recoiled in shock at his sudden appearance.
"H-how... are you here?!"
Orpheus twisted his lips.
"Do you have any idea how many worlds I've repeated?"
An opportunity seized through eons of regressions. Now was the time for counterattack.
Orpheus's hand entered the crown prince.
"You are the new melody that will vary my ostinato. The final note to cut away the outdated tune of 'Orpheus' and complete my performance."
Orpheus's soul overlapped with the crown prince, moving his body.
"Lend me your body for a moment."
Orpheus, in the crown prince's body, charged forth radiating brilliant light.
"Begone! I told you not to come!"
Countless minions of the Abyss Orpheus surged out to block him, but he pulverized them all, advancing relentlessly. His sword cleaved through every golem and elder guardian, finally reaching the Abyss.
"Gaaaaah! You dare! A mere mortal!"
The Abyss Orpheus clutched his severed arm, retreating. As it gathered power to unleash its true might—
"Not happening."
Orpheus's restraint blocked it. The constraint preventing him from abandoning his own flesh.
"This is absurd!"
It applied even to the Abyss that had stolen Orpheus's body. The Abyss fragment, unable to revert to its original form, was trapped in Orpheus's shell.
[Once a soul departs a human body, it cannot be restored.]
"You dare! You dare humiliate me, a mere mortal!"
The Abyss thrashed in Orpheus's body, spewing mechanical devices. Lethal attacks poured in, but Orpheus pierced through with his sword foremost. Lasers severed his right arm; mechanical arms crushed his left. His abdomen split open, spilling organs, but he didn't stop.
[I repeated worlds until one where she revives manifested.]
"Don't come! I told you not to—urk!"
Finally breaking through the barrage of lasers and mechanical arms, his sword pierced Orpheus's body.
[The curse the Abyss placed on me: as long as I exist, she faces eternal repeated death.]
"I can't... die like this..."
Orpheus's body crumbled to dust and vanished, the Abyss fragment within it dissipating as well.
[Thus, I sever this dissonance called 'me' and complete the performance for her.]
Pang!
With the core destroyed, the surrounding black space began to collapse. The crown prince felt Orpheus's soul within him fading.
[The final note of the last ostinato—for her.]
At last, even the last wisp of his soul vanished entirely, and the crown prince opened his eyes in the holy site, escaping the mental world.
With the saintess who remained in the purified world, now free of all Abyss forces.
"Farewell, my frog prince..."
The eternally repeating dissonant performance ended, and the sky over the brightened surface world was clearer and purer than ever.
"Good work, Raizeol."
Back in the [Akashic Archive], the Curator appeared before the crown prince.
"Sorry. I never imagined a Destroyer Apostle would infiltrate."
The crown prince just stood there blankly.
"Orpheus—Ian Kaliuga, that guy—came to me once before. To save a woman named Kate."
The Curator continued, but it fell on deaf ears.
"Who'd have thought he'd endure infinite regressions with the Abyss inside, all while keeping his sanity."
The Curator marveled.
"Ian Kaliuga. His name might go down in history—as the first to land a blow on the Abyss."
The Curator picked up a book.
"The problem is how the story got distorted in the process. What to do? Someone who should have died lived, and someone who should live vanished."
At the Curator's words, the crown prince's eyes widened.
"No."
His glare pierced the Curator.
"I won't allow that."
His will radiated: touch the book, and he wouldn't be spared.
"...Is that so?"
Thud.
The Curator closed the book with a smirk.
"If your will demands it, fine. But since the story's distorted, your test score is a 9."
The Curator set the book down and departed.
The crown prince stared at the book on the desk. He could see the illusion hovering above it.
An illusion of a tomboyish girl and a boy awkwardly styling his hair back, dancing to the first eternal melody.