The illusionary body of Ny-ar-la, the Third Lord of the Abyss.
Her head fell and rolled around the ashen dimension.
Yu Jitae dispersed his killing intent. Because it was talking nonsense; because it dared to try to negotiate; and because it pretended to know something which should only be known by him. It was true that he had felt such emotions.
However, he was always the type to prioritise calculations. The basis of the Abyss and it’s very depths were too far and low for it to be connected with Earth. It was near impossible for the lord of that place to directly influence Earth with its own power.
Therefore, it wouldn’t get bothersome.
That was when the rolling head automatically stopped at a certain point and raised its face up.
[…Impudent.]
The head with scattering fragments of white light spoke to him. Even now, it was acting like a girl and the gentle smile on its face was gross.
Every time he saw one, they were like that.
The demons weren’t all pathetic and clingy for no reason.
[You twisted existence. I have definitely shown you goodwill.]
Slowly the voice of the illusion turned unisexual.
[But now with you ignoring my goodwill like this, I want to see a very interesting scene of you suffering a bit more.]
[Now I’ve lost interest in whether that child’s mind is destroyed or not. But throwing away my power which I managed to raise up with difficulty would be a shame.]
With a voice that now resembled that of a monster, Ny-ar-la smiled with a gentle appearance.
[So I am going to lock you up in this place and the world of dream will be imprisoned inside my child in its entirety. You will be locked here and you’ll realise that you will never be able to leave this place ever again.]
[In this place, forever–]
Slam.
Yu Jitae crushed the head of the illusionary body with his foot and made it explode. White fragments of light scattered like feathers and covered the sky.
The mouth remained intact until the very end. Left by itself on the ground, the remaining jaw threw out words in pauses.
[–You. Will. Be. Locked. Here. Forever.]
That was like a signal flare.
The girl’s jaw and the body all turned into white light and began covering the world. Following suit, the world of darkness which was divided by two boundaries was slowly erased away.
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] is disappointed!>
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] wishes to get even the slightest clue about the Horizon of Providence.>
You shut up.
<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: Q.Q >
Soon, Noah’s world of dream began changing.
Yu Jitae was now inside a large cave that resembled a large plaza.
In the centre of the plaza was a scaffold which was dozens of metres above the ground and Noah was kneeling down with his head on the ground in the gallows.
Under the gallows, countless humans were standing in circles watching Yu Jitae.
It was noisy. They were jeering.
“You can’t kill him!”
“He’s the god! He doesn’t die! Do you even know the time he spent living!”
“Come down! You filthy creature!”
“You devil!”
The Regressor glanced across the cave with an indifferent gaze. The cave was tall yet completely sealed away, and there were existences inside the unconsciousness that were crazily obsessed with Noah’s life. In addition, there was the old Noah facing him with a smile as if confident that he wouldn’t die, despite kneeling down in the gallows.
This was inside Noah’s unconsciousness.
It seemed that Ny-ar-la had locked him up in this place in order to prove itself right before leaving.
Funnily enough, the faces of the jeering humans around the gallows all had the same face as Noah.
They were the 997 unconsciousness that had been swallowed by Noah. The intense desire to live of those humans had now become Noah himself.
“You can’t kill him ever—!”
“”YOU CAN’T!””
“You accursed being! Come down immediately!”
“Come down!” “Come down!”
“Come down!” “Come down!”
“Come down!” “Come down!”
Before long, the Noahs inside Noah went mad and began shouting.
“”COME DOWN—!””
Their insanity came in like a storm and pressured Yu Jitae. Their screams, jeers and yells shook the Regresor’s ears.
Among the shouting ones were those that were inflicting pain on themselves. They bit on their own flesh and bellowed with their bleeding mouth.
There were even those that slashed their own heads. With their heads half-cut-off from their bodies, they twitched on the ground and yelled.
If the one standing on the spot was anyone other than Yu Jitae, or if this was Yu Jitae’s fourth iteration or before, he would have been overwhelmed by their vigour.
Noah’s desire to live was this hideous.
However, Yu Jitae grasped the killing intent in his hand without another word. He was not disturbed and in fact didn’t feel anything from it.
You are an unkillable existence? What a joke.
What life had he gone through, just for this moment?
There is no value in things that aren’t rare.
At a certain point, ‘life’ was no longer a rare thing for Yu Jitae and he was able to die whenever necessary to go back in time.
But since it was always more efficient to live than to die, the Regressor decided to live on.
However, the fifth round’s Yu Jitae felt the need for death for the first time in his life. His strength had reached the limit of a human and there were things that couldn’t be killed with half-assed killing intent.
‘I am Eternal, Immortal’
Noah, whose attachment to life was monstrously clingy, had made a fool of Yu Jitae who had been geared with killing intent.
‘Omniscient and Omnipotent.’
Inside the dreams, his body restored itself every time it was destroyed.
That was the case even though his imagination had been depleted after the long battle. When he beheaded him, the decapitated head floated back up and attached itself again. If he exploded it, the fragments of flesh gathered together and formed its original shape.
‘Who dares to say that they can possibly kill me?’
If he burned him, the scalds soon disappeared, and only his flesh froze in a world of ice. He didn’t die even when his breath stopped.
The Regressor thought that Noah’s body was like his own that went against the flow of time.
‘As long as your desperation does not reach me, you will never be able to kill me here. This is my world–.’
But at a certain point when his imagination was restored and Yu Jitae was once again swallowed into his imagination, Yu Jitae realised that it wasn’t the likes of a regression.
That was the foundation of all strength.
[Desire]
Noah’s ‘desire to live’ had exceeded a point that could be had as a mortal. Even during death, he couldn’t die nor did he wish for death – such an existence gazed up at him.
‘In this place, I am the god.’
In front was a living and breathing flesh of life.
His desire to live was stronger than Yu Jitae’s desire to kill, and because of that Yu Jitae was unable to kill Noah in his dream.
To him, life had lost its rarity. He thought to himself that he might not be able to end the loop of regression after 20 and even after a 100 iterations.
If it was going to be a repeating life, Noah would hold his feet back every single time.
Yu Jitae needed a tool that could kill him.
Thus, the Regressor pondered.
When the ones being killed by his hands wished to live, Noah swallowed their ‘desire to live’ and strengthened his own survivability.
Yu Jitae didn’t have a convenient authority like Noah. However, after scanning through and learning about every authority of his, he realised that he had a similar tool with him.
It was none other than [Vintage Clock (EX)].
<You have failed in saving the Earth. The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] rewinds the world’s time.>
After the end of the fifth iteration, when the world rewound itself back in time; when the Regressor opened his eyes in a rainy city of Korea.
He decided to go and be killed by someone.
The ‘desires to live’ that had been swallowed by Noah was roughly 997. Since it was unclear how much it would change in the various iterations, he had to absorb a lot more ‘desires to kill’ than that.
Therefore, he had to make someone want to kill him and he had to die to that person.
The method itself wasn’t difficult.
He went up to someone and took their precious ones.
Going to a filial child, he killed his parents and said to the son that night while showing the bodies of his parents.
‘I killed your parents.’
It wasn’t a good feeling.
The faint emotions as a human that had remained until that point, were felt screaming that he didn’t want to do this.
‘I killed your son.’
But he still had to do it,
‘I killed your husband.’
And that was his life.
‘Kill me if you dare.’
He was then murdered by the enraged people.
<The existence, [Yu Jitae] has entered the abnormal status, [Death].>
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] collects the wish of the killer, [Kim Chulgon].>
<You have failed in saving the Earth. The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] rewinds the world’s time.>
He was repeatedly killed.
<The existence, [Yu Jitae] has entered the abnormal status, [Death].>
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] collects the wish of the killer, [Oh Minji].>
<You have failed in saving the Earth. The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] rewinds the world’s time.>
And was killed time after time.
In order to die, all the authorities and blessings protecting his body had to be lifted. Thus, the pain of death that came with the process was solely for Yu Jitae to shoulder.
‘Die! Dieeeeee! You murderer–!!’
His physical body being ripped was painful.
‘Why, why did you do that… What did our family ever do to you?’
‘You will burn in hell forever. I will curse you till I die.’
And the hatreds of others were slightly more painful.
Back then, that was the case.
Every time someone killed him, their emotions and desire to kill were absorbed. A dark poison-like substance dropped and merged itself into his blood. One drop, two drops, ten drops… the sticky and disgusting poison began encroaching his blood vessels and the heart.
10 deaths.
50 regressions.
And when the world restarted for the 100th time.
A change occurred inside Yu Jitae.
<With your desire to kill that has exceeded the limit, the world’s Providence gifts you with an authority.>
<Obtained Authority: [Shapeless Sword (A)]>
Killing intent began showing itself in a shape.
However, he was still lacking in numbers. Noah had swallowed 997 desires to live, so the Regressor had to gather a lot more desire to kill.
It was truly a crazy act.
After 200 regressions, the grade of the authority changed.
<Evolved Authority: [Shapeless Sword (A+)]
He had been killed 200 times.
Gradually, he no longer felt the pain of death. Once he got used to it, death felt a lot easier and he was no longer afraid of pain.
<Evolved Authority: [Shapeless Sword (S)]>
Then, he was killed another 300 times.
At that point, he no longer felt afraid or apologetic of others’ hatred against him. He completely got rid of hypocrisy from himself.
He had no choice but to do this in order to kill Noah? It was wrong. He was a selfish existence that took crazy measures like this for his own necessity.
He was but a sinner.
<Evolved Authority: [Shapeless Sword (S+)]>
For the final time, he was killed 500 more times.
During that, he sometimes forgot what was happening and what was going on with himself.
He had started doing this shit in order to become something, but forgot what he was trying to be, and had already turned into something he himself didn’t know of before realising it.
<Evolved Authority: [Shapeless Sword (SS)]>
And with 1100 deaths, Yu Jitae’s insane deeds came to an end.
Those were times that had only been for death without any other action. Since he did not assign any meaning to the iterations that had solely been for death.
<You have failed in saving the Earth. The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] rewinds the world’s time.>
He thought to himself, that this was the start of the sixth iteration.
Although he didn’t end up encountering him in the sixth iteration because Noah had hidden himself.
He was able to meet Noah in the seventh iteration.
“…”
There were clamouring humans. Their voices of hatred and jeers left in unison while Noah reflected his confidence in his desire to live with a sneer.
Killing intent gathered in the Regressor’s hand in the form of a tornado and formed a shape.
[Shapeless Sword (SS)]
The Regressor’s killing intent resulting from his 1100 deaths from those filled with hatred, that had solely been for this moment, slashed Noah’s body in half and killed him.
“—–!”
The last thing he saw was the look of disbelief hanging on Noah’s face.
In an instant, the jeering outcries stopped.
He kicked Noah’s corpse with his foot and dropped it off the scaffold. Then, he slowly gazed at the ‘desires to live’ that had been screaming their guts out.
Noah’s dream had come to an end.
Gradually, the ashen world began dispersing like a fog.
He gazed at the ‘desires to live’. Once the main body’s desire ended, the existences that had been swallowed by the demon’s dream floundered their arms around and started carrying out meaningless gestures. They shook their heads, flailed their arms and walked endlessly in a direction.
Close to a thousand existences danced.
Slowly, the scenery before his eyes scattered and vanished.