Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint - Chapter 476 - Episode 90 - One Person (5)

As the friction noises loudly tangled up with waves of magical energy, Yu Jung-Hyeok raised his voice. [[Been a while, Uriel. My old comrade-in-arms.]]

[[Shut up! You are not Yu Jung-Hyeok! You are…!!]] The 999th turn’s Uriel shouted out as if she had been made fun of just now. Conflagration of destruction spread out everywhere and ignited the oxygen in the air. Within this hell of choking, hard-to-breathe dry heat, she continued to speak. [[The Yu Jung-Hyeok I knew died in that place.]]

Her Fables growled like a wounded wolf. Her expression could only be made by someone who lost something far too precious to her. And while carrying such an expression, she pointed her sword at us.

[[And it was you bastard who killed him.]]

Her Fable was crying out now.

⸢[I’ll kill him. I’ll definitely kill him. Without a doubt, I shall make sure to kill him.]⸥

The 999th turn’s Uriel held onto Yu Jung-Hyeok’s Incarnation Body wasting away due to the ‘Other World Pledge’ and cried in sorrow.

⸢[Regardless of what needs to be done, even if that means crossing world-lines, I will definitely avenge you. Even if I end up leaving the side of Good to become Evil!!]⸥

And so, the ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’ became the ‘Living Flame’. She was an Archangel who chose to become an ‘Outer supreme-ruler’ for the sake of her vengeance. That was her reason for being here.

[[‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’ doesn’t die. Only the regression waits.]]

[[Shut up! Such words won’t….!]]

Yu Jung-Hyeok deflected some more flames tinged with boundless rage and continued on. [[He awoke again, and lived through the 1000th turn. He then died, only to move onto the 1001st. And so, he continued to live on and on. And on.]]

I too know of that life. A life that no one remembered, a life that he couldn’t share with anyone else. Yu Jung-Hyeok continued to live such a life all alone.

[[And eventually, he became me.]]

Uriel pounced, looking as if she had heard something she shouldn’t have. She swung her [Flames of Retribution] in desperation, cutting his side, then slicing into his stomach. And in a blink, her blade circled around and took aim at his neck. He didn’t try to stop her, as if this was the just punishment he’d been waiting for. And then….

Like magic, Uriel’s blade came to a halt.

[[You, you, you…. are….]]

Uriel probably knew this, too – that her vengeance could never be fulfilled. Because, the one who stole away her most precious comrade-in-arms happened to be the very same comrade, that’s why.

Yu Jung-Hyeok spoke to her. [[If you want, go ahead and kill me. The ‘Secretive Plotter’ who took your world-line away is none other than me, after all.]]

Uriel howled out in anguish, then cried out loudly.

Just as her sword moved again, the ocean exploded along with the loud ‘Ka-boom!!’

Her sword was flung in the air. The Flames of Retribution stabbed into the ocean, and slowly sank beneath the waves while vaporising the water.

Yu Jung-Hyeok wasn’t responsible for that.

Shu-wuuuu….

The cannon smoke rose up from the other side of the waves. It was the 999th turn’s Yi Ji-Hye who fired a shell.

[[That’s enough, Uriel.]] Her voice was thickly tinged with joy and madness as she carried on. [[Yes, we know it, too. We already knew it all too well….]]

She staggered across the ocean’s surface and approached this side. Yu Jung-Hyeok didn’t avoid her pale hand.

[[Captain. You’re inside somewhere, right? You’ve become something else now, but you as you are definitely inside, right? You’re still alive, right??]]

Rather than tears, Chaos flooded out from Yi Ji-Hye’s eyes like fine powder seemingly made out from the pitch-black darkness. He looked at her and nodded his head.

[999th turn’s ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’ is looking at his old comrade-in-arms.]

The 999th turn’s Yi Ji-Hye grasped onto his sleeve and slowly crumbled.

I could only look at his back. His back, where I couldn’t read his expressions at all.

⸢It was the trickery of the world-line that caused Yu Jung-Hyeok to become many.⸥

Yu Jung-Hyeok who lived during the 0th turn became the 1st turn’s Yu Jung-Hyeok, then he became the 2nd turn’s. And the 2nd turn went on to become the 3rd – and then, the 4th.

Abnormal events of the past and future interfering with each other ran rampant and made everyone forget that crucial fact, but this was the undeniable truth.

⸢A regressor actually doesn’t regress. What actually regresses isn’t him, but everything else excluding him.⸥

The time for everyone else would rewind, but his own time would continue to march forward.

Even though the world-lines had split up and some became the 1864th turn’s Yu Jung-Hyeok while someone else became the ‘Secretive Plotter’, but still….

⸢From the beginning, he was just ‘one person’ who kept walking on one continuous, unbroken path.⸥

However, could these people be able to handle the truth?

⸢Someone only lived on for the sake of her revenge.⸥

Uriel, still raising her flames.

⸢Someone only lived on for the sake of continuing on with his will.⸥

Yi Hyeon-Seong, who couldn’t shed tears anymore.

⸢Someone only lived on for the sake of fighting him one more time.⸥

Kim Nam-Woon, standing askew in the air and glaring daggers in this direction.

⸢And someone only lived on for the sake of reviving those times she lived alongside him.⸥

Yi Ji-Hye, currently crumpled, looking vacant.

Yu Jung-Hyeok told them that ‘regression couldn’t change anything’. However, his regression did change someone’s life. The ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’ was the world to these people. A world that helped them live on even after their own world-line was annihilated.

⸢Kim Dok-Ja’s plan was precisely about this ‘world’.⸥

If, by any chance, these people still remembered their world even now…

And, if they accepted this ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’ once more as their captain, then…

⸢If so, then there might not be a reason to continue with this battle.⸥

[[If you’re really the captain, then… You must know what I want, then.]] The 999th turn’s Yi Ji-Hye smiled brightly. [[Let’s go back, captain. Let’s start from the beginning again.]] She held onto his wrist and spoke. [[Let’s destroy this world-line together. Ng? We made a deal with the Dokkaebi King, you see? If we destroy this world-line, he will send us back. He will get in touch with your Sponsor, the ‘Most Ancient Dream’, and….]]

I hurriedly looked at him.

– Yu Jung-Hyeok.

He must never stimulate them negatively here. No, he definitely needed to use the most suitable words to win them over. Even if he had to lie, he needed to agree, before it was too….

“Yi Ji-Hye.”

Yu Jung-Hyeok looked at her and spoke. Not through his true voice, but with his physical voice.

The 999th turn’s Yi Ji-Hye shrunk her shoulders when subjected under his gaze. Just like on that day when she first learned to wield her sword from her master.

“Is that what you really want?”

[[……]]

“Do you believe that you’ll become happy if everything reverts to how it was back then?”

[[The captain I knew, he…. He’d never say things like that.]] The 999th turn’s Yi Ji-Hye bit her lip and let go of his hand. [[He’s someone who regressed 999 times. He didn’t falter even when living through that inordinate amount of time. That man, he’d never say something so weak, and….]]

“A man who regressed 999 times can grow tired by the 1000th,” said Yu Jung-Hyeok in a voice so honest that even I was left stunned. “Even if one endured 1000 lifetimes, one can still give up during the 1001st.”

The voice was so thick with boundless fatigue that even I became dazed by it.

[[There’s no way… That’s not possible. The captain I remember is….!]]

“He would not give up. Indeed. However, if that’s everything you remember about ‘Yu Jung-Hyeok’, then….”

I needed to say something. I need to tell him that he must not say these things. But I couldn’t.

“….Then, that Yu Jung-Hyeok is dead.”

That was his heart laid bare. A man who lived 1864 lifetimes, a man who had never truly expressed himself, had finally bared his soul.

Yi Ji-Hye cried out, sounding more like a shriek. [[Not true! That can’t be true!!]]

“He shall not regress anymore.”

I saw some things sparkle in the distant sky – they were stars.

[Constellation, ‘Demon-like Judge of Fire’, is scanning the vicinity with an anxious face!]

[Constellation, ‘Most Ancient Liberator’, is asking about his maknae’s well-being!]

[Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’, declares that he will use both of his hands this time!]

Stars that watched our stories from a very long time ago were approaching this side. And beyond them, our companions were also rushing towards us.