A large ember flickered. The thing analysed as a missile was the cluster of killing intent personally shot by Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration.
There was also the principle of [Spatial Severance] embedded inside. A translucent frame of killing intent appeared inside the banquet hall that physically blocked every door and window.
The inside was in chaos. Tables went flying and walls were broken. Flames that began from the explosion were scorching the carpet.
Some were injured. Children cried in shock while adults shouted with a pale countenance.
Yu Jitae looked at Bom. Due to her surprise, she was grabbing her chest, anxiously looking around with her widened eyes. Overall, she looked okay.
Fortunately, there was no-one dead yet because Lugiathan instinctively reacted in time at the moment of the attack to embrace the missile with an alternate dimension.
However, that was just the beginning of the attack.
Soon, ‘those guys’ would probably show themselves.
If he told them about this beforehand, it would have been possible to stop it from happening. However, there was a reason why Yu Jitae had to defeat Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration.
Should ‘he’ escape this place, his plan would definitely end up failing. Not only would he not be able to defeat Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration due to his lack of strength, after being recognised by him once, he would end up being locked in the circulation of his authority.
[Regression].
After desperately begging the white bird, Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration had earned the ability to use one of Vintage Clock’s abilities that shouldn’t have been possible. It was the ability to set a starting point of his time regression in an outer dimension with a reigning sovereign, and return to that point with death.
This ability to choose the [Starting Point] was the greatest weapon contained by ‘Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration’. At the same time, it was the one Yu Jitae was the most cautious of.
Soon, black figures appeared behind the window while covering the constellations at the back with their bodies. Humans with wings wielding swords, spears and bows began to break into the palace.
[Punishment of an Archduke (SS)]
This was one of the three authorities Yu Jitae stole by killing the Demon Archduke. It was an authority that became stronger by temporarily taking the power away from the true body. He didn’t like it that much and it was thus one he didn’t use very often.
Even though each of those entities actually gave off a tremendous dignity, they were only interpreted as winged humans in this world.
“Intruders!”
“Damn it. Flee the kids!”
In suit, the black dragons took out their weapons and dashed into the fallen angels.
Meanwhile, he gazed outside the window at the things approaching from a distance. He had to be ready for ‘Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration’ to come in any time.
However, it seemed that Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration wasn’t able to come to this place. To be exact, Lugiathan had made the large black barriers even stronger to stop his approach.
[Great Barrier (SS)]
He squinted his eyes.
Off in the distance amidst the darkness, outside the black walls surrounding the palace, he saw a human figure.
It was ‘him’.
“What in the world is that thing!”
Lugiathan uttered a shout while activating the protective barrier. She seemed fairly surprised by the extraordinary strength of her opponent.
“Is it a sovereign?”
“No Your Majesty! It’s not a sovereign!”
It was then. A misty cloud of mana explosively appeared behind ‘his’ right arm.
That was probably [Shapeless Sword].
Yu Jitae watched with his eyes squinted.
In the distant past, the weak Yu Jitae needed more tools to defeat his opponents. Because of that, he gradually increased the number of blessings and authorities under his belt. From five, to ten, hundred, five hundred and a thousand…
However, even though he was able to use thousands of abilities and authorities, at one point he dropped all those tools and no longer used them. After obtaining one perfect tool, all his other superficial tools became useless.
[Shapeless Sword (SS) – 4th Form]
It was the authority that had crushed the head of the Demon Archduke.
[God Slaying Form]
A power strong enough to divide the world into two struck down at Lugiathan’s Great Barrier.
Kwaaaaa—!!!
That ear-splitting roar shook the heavens and the earths. Mana travelled faster than sound and pushed away all the moisture in the air with a white aftershock.
“Kuhuk!”
Lugiathan tightly gripped onto her chest in pain.
“Our King!”
“Are you alright?”
“I am fine! You hurry up and repel the intruders!”
Nonetheless, she used to be a sovereign of a world in the past, and was now the chief of a dragon race. Her Great Barrier was standing strong.
Yu Jitae looked at the ‘guy’.
Standing in front of the dark dimensional barrier, he was tapping the half-broken dimension with his hand.
The enemy wasn’t flustered by the unbreakable wall. He was simply contemplating whether he should break this and go in, or go back and restart from the beginning…
‘He’ would not be able to enter the palace in his ‘1st iteration’, and things were about to go back in time soon.
Yu Jitae turned his body and looked at the banquet hall.
“Die!”
“…!”
The chaotic room was ruined due to the fight between the fallen angels and the black dragons. In the conceptual world, he could see black flames trying to devour the fallen angels while a spearhead followed the sharp wind to stab one of the arms of a black dragon.
Screams. Furious shouts. Commands. Tears.
It was when Yu Jitae was looking for the young Bom.
“What are you doing there! Hurry up and come here!”
Instead of him, it was she who managed to find him.
She had placed a large table sideways and was hiding behind it. He went to her side and lowered his body to find baby Bom healing the wounds of other injured hatchlings.
“We could not leave the palace.”
That was to be expected. And it would have been a problem even if they did break it, because breaking the [Spatial Severance] would send information about the breaker to ‘him’.
‘He’ was ridiculously thorough when fighting against an enemy. Once ‘he’ had access to one piece of information, that would snowball in the next iterations and create new variables for Yu Jitae.
“N, noona! Over there! Your sister is…!”
That was when one of the hatchlings shouted out loud.
Sister?
Yu Jitae turned his gaze and found the young Myu who had yet to evacuate properly. Although no-one was targeting her as of yet, she appeared to be in a perilous state.
“W, what should we do?”
“I’ll bring her here!”
Bom was about to dash out on reflex but one of the injured hatchlings held onto its stomach while groaning in pain.
“Hkk…”
There was a broken piece of metal stuck on the child’s stomach. ‘Ah! Wait!’, saying that, Bom stopped her feet that were about to dash out and focused on healing the child.
That was when Yu Jitae raised his body but the young Bom reacted by grabbing onto his arm with a flinch.
“Where are you going? Don’t move for no reason, and stay here!”
Her tiny fingers grasping onto his sleeves were shivering.
“I’m done healing. I’ll go.”
Even though she was frightened, she was still trying to protect him. But her pretence started to crumble when one of the fallen angels started walking towards her.
“It, it’s coming. Stay behind me.”
Her voice trembled as the enemy drew near.
In that instant, Yu Jitae kneeled next to baby Bom who was tightly holding onto his arm.
“Girl. Give that sword to me.”
“What…?”
“Come on. Pass it to me.”
He had set this place as the battlefield due to an unavoidable reason, but that didn’t mean he should look away from the needless sacrifices.
It was becoming increasingly worse for the dragons. A new command must have been given to the fallen angels – 〚Kill as many dragons as possible.〛It meant that ‘he’ had predicted the failure of this iteration and had entered the process of gathering information.
Yu Jitae was now going to save as many black hatchlings as possible without getting discovered by him, even though it might all be rendered meaningless the moment time travelled back to the past.
“J, just hide here. You’ll die if you go there.”
The fallen angel started walking faster and soon, it was evidently running with them as the target.
Shaking his head, he reached out to the sword in her hands. She was still reluctant and held firmly onto the sword as hard as she could, thinking that a mere human wouldn’t possibly be able to beat a dragon in strength.
That was why,
When Yu Jitae snatched the sword away from her hands all too easily, her eyes widened into circles.
“I won’t die.”
Leaving behind the astonished Bom, Yu Jitae carried the sword. Power had an endogenous origin and was not fully revealed until it was consciously used by the user. On the other hand, it would be fully revealed the moment it was used.
He slowly unsheathed the sword.
Shrring—
At the same time, his presence and his killing intent rushed out from within as the air turned excruciatingly heavy.
“…!”
Running towards the one who was dashing at him, he went past it with a swing of his sword.
In just one strike, the fallen angel lost its head. The head dropped on the ground as blood gushed out from the wound.
***
After killing four fallen angels, he saved baby Myu and brought her to the safe area behind the table, and also sneakily saved a few of the black dragons that were close to dying.
That was when Lugiathan suddenly dashed up and took the young Bom away. It was to be expected, considering how her eyes had constantly been monitoring Bom the whole time.
Lugiathan hid her behind the throne and covered her with the veil. That was the Non-Providential World of [Primal Time] that Bom had been staying in.
Baby Bom did not try to go in. Only after getting slapped by her mother did she enter it alongside Myu.
It was when the fight was reaching the end, when the black dragons had killed almost all of the fallen angels.
Suddenly, the world started to slow down. Yu Jitae opened his eyes with a glare and identified the exact point in time.
After slowing down, the world came to a complete stop, before starting to rewind back.
The sword was plucked out of the fallen angel that was dead and its body rose back up on its own. Time went backwards through all the chaos and fight, as fragments left each and every part of the banquet hall to gather into a dot. Then, it shattered the window and flew outward.
This phenomenon could be explained with one line.
Just then, ‘he’ had killed himself.
[Turning Point Regression]
He had rewound time through suicide after gathering information about this failed iteration. After being completely wound back, time finally started flowing properly again.
He checked the time. The time fixed as the turning point was when Yu Jitae met the Protector. It was right before the start of the banquet, and when the groups of black dragons were sharing light conversations and drinks.
Yu Jitae was the only one who wasn’t affected in that room.
However, he merged into the shadow with certainty. He headed to the veil behind the throne and walked inside.
Baby Bom was there.
She wasn’t swept away by the reverse timeflow either.
“…!”
Seeing Yu Jitae, her eyes that were trembling from anxiety widened into circles.
“Y, you…”
“I’m sure you’re confused. But you have to come to yourself as soon as possible. We don’t have much time in our hands.”
“W, what are you talking about? And what was that thing that just happened–!”
Things henceforth were very important.
It took about 5 hours and 30 minutes until the first attack, but the second attack would probably come in about 5 hours.
However, Yu Jitae couldn’t fully stop ‘him’ by himself.
He needed the help of the young Bom.
“Listen carefully.”