Chapter 31: Reversal and Regression
Destiny.
All this time, I thought my death was preordained. Something I couldn’t escape by regressing…inevitable.
Until I met Zetto.
The wind whipped my hair around. I breathe in as hard as I can and exhale.
“Whoa…”
Zetto’s sword has changed.
In the previous episode, Zetto said it was his teacher’s sword.
I already know who Zetto’s teacher is.
A female swordswoman who had made a name for herself in the past, Purple Moon Sierra.
Her skill was said to be comparable to that of the Sword Saint.
She was a great person who had taught Zetto many things. Unfortunately, to Zetto, she seemed to have already passed away.
‘Why is he so much faster than before?’
It had been after the Labyrinth incident that Zetto had obtained his master’s sword but now, it was a little timelier.
“…Maybe it’s because my behavior has changed.”
I muttered to myself that no one could hear. Talking to myself was a stupid habit I developed after my regression.
“I don’t know, Zetto.”
I don’t know how my behavior might have affected him.
I’m not the same person I was before. So much had changed that I couldn’t tell.
I’ve experienced countless times that my actions have changed other people’s behavior and futures, but Zetto’s was the one that bothered me the most.
I wondered if he knew he would die at this rate.
If he approached me, would I push him away?
To keep him out of my life and let him live his life normally.
I knew very well that it was the easiest and best thing for him. I knew it, but I couldn’t.
There had been too many failures and deaths. Enough to make me mentally exhausted.
It was Zetto who prevented me from dying.
When ‘the day’ came, I deliberately avoided Zetto.
I didn’t want to drag him, who had become so important to me, into this tragic story with a predictable ending. However, on that day, Zetto appeared like a hero and rescued me from danger.
He saved me and then died in my place.
Is it fate that someone must die after all?
If it really was such a crappy fate, I wanted to defy it, just as Zetto had defied it by preventing my death.
“…It’s okay.”
I spoke the words I’d been repeating thousands and thousands of times since the regression had begun, barely able to keep myself together.
It’s okay. Nothing had happened yet.
But what if my actions had changed him?
And if he didn’t come to my side this time. If he doesn’t come to my rescue…
…I don’t think that would be okay, even if it was the only way to save him.
I was even thinking of ‘taking’ him first, if I had to.
I was being selfish and disgusting but I couldn’t live without him.
“Ugh…”
The wind was unnecessarily cold as the ugly thoughts raced through my head.
I wrapped my arms tightly around my withered knees.
I’ve never lived for happiness. My life has always been about survival, survival, and more survival.
I just wanted to live but after I met Zetto, everything changed. I felt newness in my routine, and I felt at peace whenever I was with him.
I guess that’s what I can hope for.
I slowly stood up from the roof where I was squatting.
“Zetto, what are you doing now?”
Probably training.
He was a great striver.
From the roof of the towering clock tower, everything seemed small.
The world was at my feet and I felt empowered to defy fate.
It was my favorite place to go whenever I felt frustrated or anxious.
The unobstructed view was one of the things I wanted to introduce to Zetto one day.
I’m sure he would find it refreshing to breathe in the open air.
“…I’ll do my best.”
I had to go see Zetto and the ocean. I had to fulfill a wish he didn’t know he had.
With those thoughts, I slowly descended from the roof.
The platinum-haired girl sitting on the roof of the clock tower at the center of the city left a crackling spark and vanished in an instant.
***
“Reverse the flow of mana?!”
I exclaimed, my voice rising at Sierra’s absurd explanation.
[ Yes, that is the beginning of Reverse Heaven, Reverse Hand, and Reverse Flow. ]
Sierra recited the explanation again in a blunt voice, as if it were no big deal.
Outside the academy, deep in the woods where no one else was traveling there was no sign of Kaen, so I could talk to Sierra in peace.
The reason I came here, instead of the old training grounds, was to test Reverse Heaven.
Now that I have the skill, I should use it. The status window told me that I had knowledge of the skill, but Sierra, who had become a Spectral Sword, was here so as a natural progression, I was learning the skill from her.
“It’s shallow knowledge, but generally speaking, if you twist the flow of mana… Won’t it cause internal injuries…?”
[ I don’t know how ordinary you are, don’t be so scared, at least try it once. ]
Sierra gave me a sour look.
I sprawled on the floor, concentrating on the flow of my mana.
I already knew how to reverse the flow of mana, since I already had the knowledge of Reverse Heaven in my head.
I could feel the mana slowly flowing through my body and if I twist it backwards…
“…Gulp!”
Blood poured out of my mouth with a sharp pain. No surprise.
Sierra sneaks up on me and pats me on the back, as if she knew it was coming.
“How did this happen… Were you trying to make a crazy sword technique?”
At my question, Sierra ponders, then opens her mouth.
[ …Do you know how many times I’ve been defeated by the Sword Saint? ]
“Hmm… I don’t know the exact number.”
[ Seventy-six times. ]
Sierra stops patting my back and stands in front of me.
She has the eyes of a fierce beast, with only the feral instinct to bite at any moment.
[That was the number of times I had been defeated by the Sword Saint. It hadn’t been life or death, but I managed to escape with my life. I thought it was fate, that I was bound to lose to him….]
“…But you didn’t give up.”
[Yes. I never gave up. But when it came to swordsmanship, if I was earth, he was heaven. His swordsmanship and mine were far apart.]
Sierra continues, raising her palm to the sky.
Earth and sky.
[ If he is the sky… if it is my fate to be defeated by him… ]
Then, in time with her words, she turns her palm downward.
[ I will defy him, and that is the Sierra Reverse Heaven. ]
Sierra’s words echoed in my head, sending shivers down my spine and raising goosebumps.
The words defying fate resonated with me.
Fate and Aizel’s death.
‘And the looming sense of… my failure.’
I, too, was trying to defy fate.
[…Clumsy mana manipulation is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. Don’t try to be delicate and fine-tuned. Try to channel a larger, broader flow.]
After Sierra’s more straightforward explanation, I tried mana backflow once more but this time, I didn’t bother to micromanage it.
I reversed a wider flow of mana at once.
Instantly, the flow of mana in my body is reversed.
My body loses its strength and becomes loose and my movements become noticeably slower but I wasn’t slow by any means.
Soon, I was on my feet.
Reverse grip is the basis of Reverse Heaven so with my right hand, I reverse-grasped the Spectral Sword.
Next, I performed the first of the techniques that Sierra had taught me and that I knew from skill acquisition.
It wasn’t the stance of the attack or the strength of the slash that mattered. It was all about going against the flow.
The technique was organized by pages, like a book, with chapters like Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
Each chapter had a different thing to defy and what I was about to attempt is Chapter 1.
‘The thing I want to defy is…’
I slashed diagonally with the Spectral Sword then I fluidly turned and slashed through the air a couple more times.
I finished the flowing motion with a final slash and a few trees were cut down as I made the slash.
Even though I’m sure I’m looking into thin air, I can hear the leaves raining down in the distance and the severed branches tumbling to the ground.
Some of the deeply cut trees fell with a thud but no sword energy emanated from them, nor were they cut by the sword steel.
‘…Space.’
It disturbed space.
The Spectral Sword chopped down a tree that shouldn’t have even touched the concept of space. This was Sierra Style Reverse Heaven, Chapter 1, Space.
Judging from the relatively clean success, it seems that the Reverse Heavenly Skill obtained through the Ghost Slayer Technique is working well.
[ Disciple, did you just reach a trance-like state…? ]
Sierra, who was watching carefully from the side, asked me in a low voice. Judging by her expression, she didn’t expect me to succeed on the first try.
I had a status window, which was extremely abnormal for her.
It was not unreasonable to think that she must have spent decades practicing this sword technique.
‘Trance state…’
Trance, a state of extreme concentration in which one forgets one’s own existence.
Since I couldn’t announce the existence of the status window, it seems like a good excuse in this situation.
“I’m a little freaked out… My sword touched a tree that was far away… I could definitely feel the cut.”
I scratched my head and shuddered.
[Luckily, it’s within the range of your senses. My apprentice…you might be a genius. I can’t believe how fast you learn….The transformation just now was flawless.]
Sierra continues to admire me.
‘This… I should probably pace myself…’
I find Sierra’s admiration overwhelming, so I change the subject.
“Didn’t it hurt, since you’re connected to the sword?”
[The blade didn’t feel any different no matter how much impact was applied to it; the rest of it is just a matter of getting used to it, and that was only because it was a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time…I try to forget that memory…]
I thought to myself as I listened to Sierra blush and I wonder which part of the Spectral Sword is connected to which sensation.
I don’t know, but maybe I’ll find out when it’ll be time to clean it.
[By the way… what do you think of the Reverse Heaven I created? I’d love to hear what you think of it.]
Sierra’s eyes narrowed and she asked me.
“I’m surprised it’s a sword technique created by a human.”
This was not flattery for her. It was a pure expression of what she had experienced, without any additions.
[Defying space, defying time. I defy space, I defy time. In the end, I will even defy the heavens, for that is the mystery of the Reverse Heaven.]
“Then the final chapter…”
Reverse Heaven was still unfinished since Sierra died just before it was completed.
[The final chapter… as you can see, I never finished it.]
Sierra paused for a moment, then cupped my cheek and said.
[Reverse God. That is the final chapter of Reverse Heaven that you will complete.]
“Reverse…God…?”
[ Yes, it means to defy the gods who gave you your fate. ]
“It sounds like you’re going to get in trouble if the priests hear you, haha…”
[ It’s okay, they wouldn’t hear me anyway. ]
Sierra snorts at my joke.
Listening to Sierra’s explanation, I can’t even begin to fathom the full power of Reverse Heaven.
‘She says it’s a sword technique designed to defeat Sword Saint…Was she thinking of defeating gods…?’
Even in the game, I had heard that her understanding of swordsmanship surpassed that of a Sword Saint…but I didn’t dare to think it would be this good.
I looked back at the first chapter of Reverse Heaven I just used.
While I was using Chapter 1 my mana was constantly depleted. When I use it, I can travel through space and leap over distances, allowing my strikes to reach much further.
As such, it seemed like this skill is more of a passive skill than an active skill, more like a mode.
‘”Chapter 1 Space” is a mode that allows you to attack from a distance without using sword energy.’
Considering the effects of my Weakness Detection and Blindfold, its power will be multiplied and since I didn’t use any sword energy, it would be easy to catch my opponents off guard.
If Chapter 1 is this good, what will Chapter 2, Time, be like? I had no idea what the final chapter, Reverse God, would be like.
Unfortunately, I was only able to use Chapter 1 so far. I guess that’s the limit for level 2.
For Chapter 2, I only had a vague idea of what it was, thanks to Sierra’s description and skill level.
Chapter 1 defied space, and Chapter 2 defied time.
‘I wonder how many chapters there are…?’
I didn’t have much information on the skill, so I’ll have to ask Sierra about it in the future.
Anyway, I only had one chapter to work with, but that was enough for now. The rest is just a matter of leveling up the Ghost Slayer Technique.
For every 4 levels of Ghost Slayer Technique, I’ll get 1 level of Reverse Heaven.
Considering the performance, it was definitely not a bad investment.
I was pleased with the results and in the short time I’ve been using it, I’ve found its performance to be monstrous.
If there was a problem…
“But it’s using up quite a bit of mana…”
I said, hesitantly sitting down against the tree behind me. I needed the bracelet to restore my mana for a while.
Sierra came up beside me and spoke in a friendly voice.
[ Given the gap in skill between you and me, I think it’s best to use it only when it’s moderately important, for now. ]
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
[You’ll have to get used to the reverse grip, too. You’re still clumsy.]
Sierra continued to train me for a while after that, a proud look on her face.
‘This must be her first time teaching someone.’
She was already quite the ‘teacher’.