Chapter 82
‘What happened?’
Marvis jumped from his seat and rushed out of the machine room. He heard Mason calling after him in surprise, but he didn’t look back.
His head started to ache, so he stopped momentarily and pressed his throbbing temples, causing his mind to become hazy.
What had he been thinking about? And why was he heading toward the plaza?
Before resolving these questions, Marvis was overwhelmed by an intense sensation and looked up. He felt a crack in the barrier.
‘I must invade the Holy City. Leading all my summoned beasts.’
Marvis, who had been heading to the upper level where Dig was sleeping, suddenly stopped. Somehow, it felt like this had happened before. Was it just a feeling?
No, it wasn’t just a feeling. Marvis clearly remembered feeling a crack in the barrier and then flying toward the blue sky on his summoned beast.
‘When was that?’
His memories were chaotically mixed. Fragmentary scenes vaguely appeared in his mind before scattering again.
The blue sky of the Holy City, crowds gathered at the temple, people screaming and fleeing at the sight of the summoned beasts, and the Divine Master.
The woman who had been uttering incomprehensible words stood up abruptly on the back of the summoned beast, then fell and died.
‘No. That couldn’t have happened.’
Marvis grabbed the iron bars of a non-functioning ancient relic and took a deep breath. The blurry scenes, whether premonitions or delusions, soon dispersed.
‘I must not be in my right mind. I should rest today.’
He felt the urge to invade the Holy City, but upon calm reflection, that was a very strange idea.
The relationship between demons and humans wasn’t good, but since their territories were separated by barriers, there was no reason to covet human land.
So he couldn’t understand why he suddenly had this impulse. They say sometimes people unconsciously do incomprehensible things—was this one of those times?
However, the possibility of impulsive actions leading to good results was extremely low.
Marvis suppressed the impulse, released the iron bars, and moved away from the ancient relic. The death screams came just as he turned to walk toward the mansion.
“Master! Master!”
“The dawn sky, ah!”
When Marvis turned around at the sound of Miki and Morgan calling him, a flashing light consumed the bodies of his two subordinates.
Where the two had been, only charred marks remained.
Marvis looked up at the sky. Normally, looking up from the 99th underground floor of the Dark City, the sky should only be visible as a dot.
But the hole above his head was larger than the artificial sun hanging over the plaza.
He realized that half of the upper levels of the underground city had melted away in the dawn light only after lightning struck before his eyes.
“Aaargh!”
“Save me!”
The light fell like a blade without even the sound of thunder. Residents of the Dark City who were hit by the dawn light burned away without leaving even ashes.
Questions like why they were dying when they weren’t beings who died from sunlight were meaningless. It was impossible to deny the phenomenon happening before his eyes.
“Everyone, evacuate to places where the light doesn’t reach!”
The radio wasn’t working. After shouting to the citizens, Marvis hoisted onto one shoulder an elderly man with horns who was desperately walking while dragging one leg.
When dawn light poured from above, his shoulder became lighter. The old man had melted away in the light.
But Marvis didn’t melt.
‘Why?’
Everything before his eyes was filled with white light, then instantly turned dark.
In the darkness, semi-transparent green letters appeared with a scratching sound.
;If you return to the starting point before reaching Niflheim or fail the abduction, the Marvis route will be blocked and replaced with Niflheim being destroyed by the dawn sky
;Return to the first screen instead of loading directly to avoid complications
WAIT
BEGIN TITLE
Though they were clearly recognizable characters, he couldn’t understand their meaning. As Marvis tried to examine them more carefully, the letters disappeared from his sight.
Then he saw the machine room.
“…Huh?”
Mason was repeating the same words again. By this point, Marvis wondered if he might actually be a parrot.
“Mason. I have something to ask you.”
“Oh, Marvis? What is it? Questions are always welcome!”
Thinking it was about the newly maintained pipes, Mason asked with enthusiasm.
“It seems like time is repeating itself.”
Marvis thought he was saying something crazy. But he couldn’t stop.
He told Mason what he remembered. The world collapsing and perishing, and how at the moment he witnessed the destruction, he returned to the machine room as if time had been rewound, facing Mason again.
After hearing Marvis’s story, Mason tilted his head.
“What a strange reaction. Isn’t the world destined to perish anyway?”
“What?”
“Without a savior, the world cannot continue to exist. It’s simply perishing when its time comes.”
Adjusting his thick glasses, Mason dusted off his hands and put his gloves back on.
“What are you saying. Our leader is quite a fearful person.”
“Wait, Mason. I clearly felt the world ending. But then I returned here again. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“It’s not strange. That’s just how the world works.”
Is that how the world works? Seeing Mason speak so calmly, as if stating an obvious fact without any doubt, somehow made it seem true.
Without a savior, the world perishes.
And he returns to the time before destruction.
Only to watch the world perish again.
‘So that… was the natural order.’
Marvis swallowed a hollow laugh.
Yes. Without the Divine Master, the world perishes.
And when the world perishes, he travels back in time and repeats his life until the world perishes again.
How long must he repeat this life? That was unknown.
Surely he didn’t notice the strangeness at first. After all, the memory of a perishing world quickly fades when you relax even a little.
The residue of memories that would be deleted upon return had accumulated until Marvis began to notice.
How many times had it been repeated? Counting would be meaningless. There was no way to count anyway.
“Listen, Master.”
Mason, who had already put on his hat, picked up his work bag and looked up at Marvis.
“Fighting the world alone is foolish. Don’t focus too much on things you can’t handle. It eats away at you.”
“Mason. Don’t you think at all that this world is wrong?”
“Thinking about it doesn’t change anything.”
“….”
“You’re our leader, so I hope you’ll make wiser decisions.”
Mason shrugged, then turned and left the machine room.
“Now that I’ve finished my work, I can drink to my heart’s content! That’s the joy of my life, haha!”
Could one be like that even knowing the world would end tomorrow?
No, perhaps knowing wouldn’t change anything.
If you can’t prevent the world’s destruction, perhaps seeking today’s happiness like Mason is the wiser way to live.
But Marvis didn’t want to do that.
“Hah…”
He felt a crack in the barrier. The thought came to him that he should lead his summoned beasts and invade the Holy City. And also that he should meet the Divine Master.
‘So this wretched chain will continue from now on.’
Having repeatedly witnessed scenes of destruction in this short repeating time, his head felt like it was about to split.
‘Not a savior of the perishing world, but the core of the apocalypse that destroys the world.’
Marvis gritted his teeth and left the machine room.
‘Should I just kill her?’
If he killed the Divine Master, the world would lose its savior and perish, and time might rewind again.
But Marvis, who had watched the world perish several times without knowing why, was already thoroughly angry.
He needed somewhere to vent this anger.
Marvis mounted Dig and led his summoned beasts.
The waves carrying the night sky rippled, and black bubbles rose. What seemed like bubbles formed into bird shapes and spread their large wings.
“Let’s go, Dig.”
When he grabbed the feathers on its back, Dig soared high. Hundreds of summoned beasts followed behind Dig.
Though he didn’t remember training them, not a single beast broke formation, and all followed Marvis’s lead. It was truly strange.
“I am here!”
She didn’t need to announce her location since she was easily recognizable. Unnecessary kindness.
Without dismounting from his summoned beast, Marvis snatched the slender woman’s waist. The body touching his arm was unusually warm.
‘What’s this?’
Marvis examined the woman sitting quietly beside him.
She looked the same as when he had seen her before, but the atmosphere was different. And so was her expression.
Warm body, smooth hair, glowing skin, and even a sweet fragrance.
The being who had seemed like a doll made of inorganic material was now vividly radiant.
“….”
His murderous intent melted away like snow. The moment their eyes met, Marvis could understand why he had taken such incomprehensible actions.
‘I was born to meet this woman.’
It was an emotion far from sweet feelings or excitement.
Neither coincidence nor fate. Simply a being born that way.
If he had to give it a name, it was more like a brand.
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