Chapter 213
Chapter 213
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 213
Chapter Title: The Saintess's Secret
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16
Everyone's probably imagined it at least once when they were kids.
"What if the whole world stopped, but I could move around freely? Wouldn't that be awesome?"
For Homo sapiens, free rides are second nature.
In a frozen world, anyone could fantasize about turning into a bank robber and climbing the billionaire tech tree.
That adolescent daydream from childhood had finally come true, thousands of years later.
"It really looks like civilization is intact. Oh, there's a Starbucks over there... Yeah, that green logo."
"Right?"
We chatted idly.
The realm of the Outsider God, dyed in black and gray monochrome, and the Saintess and I strolled through it like it was a park.
"After the Void arrived, all the logos got corrupted into Cthulhu squid jerky, so I forgot what they originally looked like. Back in the day, it was a mermaid shape like that."
"...There are so many people. A ton."
"This was before the Korean Peninsula's population density dropped to 1/20th."
"How can everyone be sitting in cafes and restaurants in the middle of the day instead of going to work?"
"Hmm. Well, probably working on laptops?"
"Ah. Electronics haven't been corrupted by the anomalies."
Anyone would be nostalgic for civilization in the apocalypse, but the Saintess and I were living in a time especially severed from it.
As a regressor, I was cut off forever from memories before the 4th regression.
As a time-stopper, the Saintess had lived alone for thousands of years and forgotten so much.
Instead.
"By the way, on a different note, it's amazing you didn't forget about me, Saintess. How did you hold onto memories of me for 2,000 years?"
"......"
The Saintess's lips twisted into an ambiguous expression. Like she was trying to smile, or maybe bite her lip.
"That's a secret. More importantly, Undertaker. Want to check out that cafe over there?"
"I don't mind... But if you're just looking, fine. Don't put anything in your mouth, though. Remember the Persephone myth? Eat food from another world, and you can't return to reality."
"Got it. I'll be careful."
We spent a while enjoying ourselves around Seoul Station.
Entered a cafe and set coffee on the table (didn't drink it). Sat side by side taking smartphone pics (nothing showed up). Browsed a bookstore flipping through books...
'Come to think of it.'
A few times, my hand slipped from the Saintess's, freezing my time too. But mostly, we walked hand in hand.
'This is the first time I've gone out exploring so thoroughly with the Saintess.'
I had gone to Beijing once chasing the Butterfly Effect. But even then, it was mostly along dark subway tracks.
'Is there a way to keep the current Saintess going into the next regression and beyond?'
The thought hit me suddenly.
Or more like a feeling welled up.
'She endured thousands of years alone to stop the world from ending. She'll definitely understand me.'
I'd never shown it, but I desperately needed someone to share the lonely island of time—days and nights—with human warmth.
Wasn't the Saintess of the 267th regression, holding my hand now, more suited as a regressor's companion than any connection I'd passed by?
'Yeah. Definitely.'
One a time traveler, the other a time-stopper. One imprisoned in eternity's flow, the other confined in its halt.
In a world where no one could understand—or even perceive—them, we two could understand each other more than anyone.
Even if one was an Outsider God-level anomaly, it didn't matter.
Worst case, humanity could worship her as a new god, and it wouldn't faze me.
'But a way to surpass regression... Ah. Wait. What if I become the Saintess's apostle or shaman?'
A brilliant idea.
Both awakened to time-related powers, so with some tinkering, we might establish an Outsider God-shaman bond.
Then we could be together.
Hope glimmered. And wasn't I, the Undertaker, the world's top expert at grasping hope?
"Undertaker."
"......"
"Undertaker."
A cool 15°C touched my cheek.
I realized the Saintess had placed her palm on it.
"...Sorry. Got lost in thought. What is it?"
"I think it's about time we subjugate Nut."
"Yeah."
Fair enough.
No matter how we'd frozen time and roamed Nut's domain teabagging gleefully.
An Outsider God was still an Outsider God. The moment we slipped, it might counter from an unimaginable angle.
I nodded, pushing aside inexplicable regret.
"You're right. Let's get it done."
"Yeah. But Nut's up there, positioned like the sun. How do you plan to subjugate it?"
"Simple. We'll walk up."
Shhk.
I manipulated my dark aura to create a 'step' in front of me. Steps lined up like dominoes, instantly forming stairs to the sky.
A literal stairway to heaven.
The Saintess murmured beside me.
"...Your anomaly subjugation style feels pretty brute-force."
"Save the aura for boiling stew? This is why I trained to death. Come on."
"Got it."
Step-.
We stepped onto the translucent stairs together.
10 meters, 20 meters. As we climbed, steps below vanished, new ones generated above.
Sometimes my stairs gleamed dark, sometimes the Saintess preempted with transparent ones shimmering.
How long had we climbed?
In a time-stopped world where 'how long' meant nothing, looking down revealed the ground dizzyingly far below.
"Ahaha."
I laughed, and the Saintess tilted her head.
"What?"
"Just... I feel like I've become like you, Saintess."
"......?"
"You said you look down on all things from an omniscient viewpoint. See? Seoul, the peninsula—all spread out below. Finally, my view overlaps with yours."
"......"
Still unused to viewing things from a first-person perspective, the Saintess glanced obliquely at me.
Instead, the grip on my hand tightened slightly.
"Yeah. Undertaker."
We kept climbing.
Luckily or not, we didn't need to climb 150 million kilometers to the sun's position in space.
Stratosphere.
Nut's 'eyeball' replacing the sun hovered astonishingly near the stratospheric boundary.
"...Indeed."
Shhk.
I reached out and 'touched' the 'sky.'
The atmosphere was covered in translucent glass. Nut's eyeball was embedded in it.
"Space is gone. Just sky everywhere."
"But constellations are etched into the glass. Shall we break it?"
"No. Even if we shatter it, another layer would unfold. Multiple glass layers encasing Earth."
Geocentrism.
Humanity's ancient cosmology: Earth at the center, stars orbiting it.
The night sky goddess Nut had manifested that hypothesis here.
Probably the same phenomenon creeping into reality as it corrupted under Nut.
Erasing uninhabited space as nothingness, turning the surface to hell while making this the sole living world.
Violence befitting an Outsider God.
"Ha, if not for you, Saintess, the whole world would've been cradled in Nut's embrace."
"......"
"Now, I'll pierce Nut's eye."
I drew my cane-sword Do-ha and thrust it without hesitation into Nut's 'eye'—this great void's 'sun.'
The sun split.
The Outsider God offered no resistance.
With time frozen, Nut couldn't even scream its death throes. Restart time, and subjugation would complete.
"All set. Saintess, release the time now. Then back to reality for a quick consult. About a loophole to escape the regression cycle..."
No reply.
"Saintess?"
I turned.
She stood with eyes closed.
Still expressionless, still water-scented, still holding my hand.
Only.
"......"
Crimson bloodstain.
In the monochrome world, a scarlet lotus bloomed dead center on the Saintess's chest.
My body froze solid.
Skin paling white, mind raced at blinding speed. Whirr—eardrums dulled from the brain's overdrive.
Impossible.
Did the Outsider God counterattack? A curse triggering on its killer? But why her body, not mine—the one who stabbed the eye?
"Sorry, Undertaker."
Her calm voice pierced the white-noise haze of my consciousness.
"There was one secret I didn't tell you."
No pain laced her voice, despite the blood flower blooming on her chest.
Regret. Shame.
Those faint emotions, discernible only to me, mingled transparently.
The water hue spoke.
"I'm Nut's shaman."
17
A split-second passed.
Blink, and the aura stairs under my feet vanished.
"......!"
Body lost balance, collapsing. Plummeting from the stratosphere? Then time froze and unfroze again.
The Saintess gripped my falling hand from above. Kneeling on stairs. Looking down at me.
Like barely catching someone off a cliff edge.
"Saintess, what the—!"
"Don't move."
She said.
"Don't activate aura. Don't make new stairs. Don't take any action against me."
Blood still seeped from her chest.
If Nut's eye linked to her heart, the wounds matched exactly where my blade pierced.
"Any sign of movement, and I'll let go and stop time."
"......"
"You said Nut and I are polar opposites, Undertaker. Nut creates the afterlife, I stop time—fundamentally different. But that's wrong."
Drip-.
Blood trailed down her clothes onto my cheek, where her palm had been.
"That's not the point. What matters is seeing the surface world where people live as 'hell.'"
"......"
"You know, don't you, Undertaker? I've called the world hell for a long time."
Suddenly.
-This world is hell.
117th regression.
Her words from the endless prison flashed through my mind.
-The world is hell, but no one takes responsibility.
-If you can't roll back time, stop it.
-Why should I allow time's flow for such a world to keep existing?
-Hell's depths are 20,000 light-years below? No way.
-One layer.
-Just one layer beneath that planet's surface is hell, without exception.
Ah.
Back then too—she was in space. Perched in the 'otherworld' symbolized by the moon, talking to me.
Does she see the world as hell?
Can she freely manipulate space?
Does she have an 'eye' looking down from above, an omniscient viewpoint?
...Is she a time expert enough to ambush a 'master of time' regressor?
All answers: yes.
On four points, the Saintess and Nut shared traits.
If some Outsider God could set up a base freely in a [Time Seal] graveyard isolated from the world's flow.
If some Awakener could move freely in a stopped world.
A connection between them was naturally inferred.
"You thought I reached Outsider God level by training aura for 2,000 years, but that's slightly off."
"Off how..."
"I probably spent hundreds or thousands of years in other regressions too. Always stopping time to observe people. But this regression, my power surged because the Outsider God I'm linked to grew stronger."
"......"
"I'm Nut's clone."
Drip.
Blood grazed my cheek, plummeting into the abyss.
"You could call me the Outsider God's personality. So you can't just kill Nut. You have to subjugate me too."
"Wait! We can seal just the Outsider God separately!"
I bellowed.
"Yo-hwa did it too—the Hundred Flowers student president! Mugun was an Outsider God sealed inside her personality..."
"Not compatible with you, Undertaker."
She shook her head.
"Mugun wouldn't notice regressions repeating. But Nut's different. Nut's the Outsider God of day-night cycles, daily repeats, time's isolation. Each regression, instead of resetting, it only grows stronger."
"......"
"Even if isolated in my mind somehow, next regression, Nut's power amplifies. My heart's corruption progresses. Undertaker."
She addressed my speechless, trembling lips.
"Do you really believe that one day, one moment, I won't suddenly wake and turn the world to hell?"
"......"
"Undertaker."
Stroke.
She wrapped her hands around my dangling one.
Her temperature was cool, but in the thinning stratospheric air, it was the only warmth.
"Please don't worry. I'll stop time here, in this place."
I didn't grasp her words at first. My mind refused.
"Pardon...?"
"Sorry. But stabbing with a sword doesn't kill time."
Her voice was quiet.
"This is the only way to kill a time anomaly trying to corrupt your regressions—with the Void. I'll hold it stopped. Here."
"Hold it stopped."
My lips parted.
"Until when, exactly?"
"......"
"267th regression already. And no sign of saving the world yet. Hundreds, maybe thousands more. You mean... you'll keep this Void stopped that long?"
"All is but a moment."
Stroke.
She leaned, caressing my cheek, wiping her heart's blood with her warmth.
"Including myself, I'll freeze everything here. Even in your next regression, this stays stopped. Effectively, the Outsider God—me—can't interfere anymore."
"......"
What she didn't say.
Stopping the world's time, including her own.
Freezing the time-stopper herself.
A perfect, flawless seal.
Perfect subjugation.
A thousand years, ten million, a hundred million pass, 2.5 trillion kalpas flow—no one notices. The world flows on as if nothing happened, impermanent.
Only one person.
Me, the regressor, would remember this eternally.
"Undertaker."
"......"
"Thank you. Because of you, I didn't give up. As long as you're out there, I won't see that place as hell."
I felt it.
She was about to let go.
Exile me from this Void, [seal] herself and this place's time, isolating from the world.
The 267th Saintess existing here, forever, suppressing one Outsider God.
No one would know.
Just that one human hoped the world wouldn't turn to hell.
"Here."
My decision was utterly impulsive.
"Take this."
I removed the accessory from my left arm.
Slid it onto the wrist holding my hand.
She tilted her head.
"A bracelet...?"
"Silver bell."
Jingle.
It rang lightly.
"The first thing I grab every time I wake at Busan Station. No effect, just a souvenir... But it'll connect us, surely."
"......"
"Wait for me. No matter the regressions, how long, I'll come save you. Definitely."
"......"
"Even if the seal breaks, I'll find a way you won't destroy the world. And return."
Then.
She smiled.
After reuniting post-2,000 years of stopped time, never once looking straight at me, she finally did—one hand gripping my right, the other my cheek.
Like a child learning to move, slowly aligning her head, bowing to meet my eyes.
The monochrome world narrowed between us, recoloring everything black and white.
"Yes."
A split-second pause.
Deep water hue lingered briefly on my lips.
"See you... soon."
It parted.
Eyes open, a thin glass membrane—razor-thin—separated us.
Beyond the glass, the Saintess remained frozen, smiling, hand extended. Like a black-and-white photo.
'Ah.'
Hand slipping from hers, I fell.
No—her stopped world slipped away into the abyss.
I reached desperately—Saintess!—but couldn't cross back to the monochrome realm—
Next instant.
Back to reality without her.