It was so absurd that a curse I rarely used came out. At this point, I thought the Evil God was just toying with them before killing them. This time too, the God had nothing to say and apologized in a barely audible small voice, saying sorry.
I struck Park Sichan on the crown of his head with my hand held sideways, meaning for him to get a grip.
“Ow! Why are you hitting me?”
“To fix your head that’s saying such things even after seeing how things are going.”
“Hey. He’s not a machine, he’ll just get dumber, so how are you planning to handle it if you do this?”
Kim Minsik glared at Park Sichan who got hit once and shook his head. It was a hopeless case treatment.
“Hey!”
“I’m sorry for hitting you, so stop it. Both of you put your foreheads on my hands.”
I withdrew the mana that had been used to draw the magic circle and held out both hands. Since Park Sichan was already at eye level while hugging me, only Kim Minsik needed to bend his knees. He sat cross-legged comfortably.
Even if they pretended otherwise, both Lee Rihyung and these guys too. Tension was written on their faces. Whether from crying, the area around their eyes was also swollen. Well, people were dying. It made sense. I placed one hand each on their foreheads. Then I warned them.
“You’ll feel a strange energy, but don’t move as much as possible. If you touch it wrong, it’ll be a disaster. And if the rejection reaction is severe, you might feel nauseous. Your head will also hurt quite a bit. You’ll also feel like it’s being split in two.”
Without giving the two time to be flustered by my rapidly spat out words, I immediately cast mental magic. Since it would take too long to memorize, I was going to engrave it in their heads.
Creeping. Thin mana entered their bodies. As it penetrated their minds, Park Sichan’s expression turned pale. He was gripping his ruined pants tightly, biting his lips until they bled, holding back his groans.
“Done.”
As I withdrew the magic, Park Sichan covered his mouth with his hand and kept dry heaving. Kim Minsik seemed only dizzy, with no other particular reaction. It was their first time receiving mental magic, and this was satisfactory. At least they didn’t faint.
While casting the magic, I also checked their mana—Kim Minsik’s was average and Park Sichan belonged to the high side. He seemed to be sensitive on top of that. Even between close friends, this was something that shouldn’t be done, but the current situation was an exception.
“Get up. We have to go.”
I took care of the two. Seeing Park Sichan’s complexion showing no signs of improvement, I wondered whether to apply divine power to make him comfortable, but he’d be fine soon so it was better to conserve mana as much as possible.
The Evil God wasn’t easygoing, so I had to use it as sparingly as possible. Actually, jumping into battle right now without any strategy, there was more than one or two concerns. As I said earlier, it was like prey going to a predator on its own feet.
“Let’s go to where you were originally. I don’t know, so lead the way.”
“Yeah.”
Since Park Sichan, who would normally answer first, wasn’t in good condition, Kim Minsik answered briefly. I really wondered if I should apply divine power, but I could see him gradually improving.
The more we followed the two, the closer we got to sounds of things breaking and exploding. And small fries also appeared. Mana and divine power were too precious to deal with those small fries. Since I wasn’t killing them, Park Sichan spoke in a dubious tone as if fumbling through his memories.
“So…… is this it?”
A fireball shot rapidly from the magic circle burning red. Thanks to injecting it into their heads, they could use magic immediately without drawing formulas and ancient language. Since making a mistake even in one place while reciting formulas could activate a different magic, I did well to do it this way.
However, because it didn’t hit the monster’s core, he couldn’t end its breath. I did wonder where he hit. And as the monster became more excited from being attacked, Kim Minsik deployed an attack magic circle and killed it.
“You blockhead. You have to use it together with the accuracy-increasing magic.”
“Crazy. There’s such a thing?”
Looking at how he examined the magic circles I told him about and applied them, Kim Minsik’s sense itself was superior. Park Sichan had more mana though. It would be nice if the two mixed appropriately, but unfortunately.
Since they didn’t have divine power, they couldn’t see the cores properly, but the more we advanced, the better the two caught small fries than at first. At that moment, a loud sound rang out and rising smoke covered us hazily. I felt the presence of monsters beside us. About three, but the two couldn’t get their bearings because of the smoke.
This time it seemed I had to handle it. I wrapped divine power around my eyes like glasses lenses and threw compressed mana in the form of spears at the three cores glowing red. In one breath, the monsters’ cores shattered and they died.
“There’s none around.”
I said while sweeping away the smoke with magic. The two made surprised expressions at the monster corpses that died cleanly in one shot, but those faces didn’t enter my eyes. Because over there, Ruvlian and the Evil God who had taken over the parallel world Ruvlian’s body were confronting each other.
“As much as possible, stick together you two. Since you match well.”
“What? Where are you,”
Kim Minsik’s words were cut off as I teleported. Going to Ruvlian’s side who was floating in the air, I blocked the mana flying like a whip. Then I healed Ruvlian. Fortunately, there seemed to be no major injuries.
“You finally came out, Hero.”
The voice was the same, but the tone and the feeling it gave were different. If the parallel world Ruvlian exuded a rich, strangely dangerous atmosphere, the Evil God gave off a dangerous atmosphere in a different sense. It was even somewhat gloomy.
“You don’t know how much I’ve been waiting for you to come while watching pathetic humans struggle.”
As if bored, he moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. Then he raised the corners of his mouth as if ripping his lips. At the smile reminiscent of the Joker, goosebumps rose up my spine.
“Because I wanted to kill you.”
As the following voice ended, the attacks that had stopped immediately rushed in fiercely. It wasn’t just the parallel world Ruvlian’s power. As if the Evil God’s power was also included, unlike earlier when they were confronting each other, the attacks became even stronger.
Ruvlian and I deployed defensive magic circles. The attacks bounced off the barrier and stuck into the ground. With a loud sound, the floor that had been asphalt shattered into pieces, scattering acrid powder everywhere. I could sense the presence of people bustling about in confusion. It seemed I had to attack while being mindful of the people below being toyed with by monsters. It was nothing if not troublesome.
“If it bothers you that much, I can personally kill them for you.”
As the low voice fell, simultaneously the attacks that had been heading toward Ruvlian and me gracefully changed direction. The end of the curve was aimed at Lee Rihyung who was alone. Since his divine power had awakened, he couldn’t defend like Kim Minsik or Park Sichan. As soon as that thought occurred, I teleported and pulled Lee Rihyung by embracing his waist.
Bang! With a huge noise, the place where Lee Rihyung had been was dented by an invisible force. If I had been even a little bit late, what would have been dented wasn’t the ground but Lee Rihyung’s skin. All this gray powder would have been dyed red.
Heat properly flared up. There was no doubt he deliberately attacked Lee Rihyung who couldn’t defend. Even if he used a defensive magic circle, it was power with enough force to cause great damage if he hadn’t dodged using his body.
I could feel his arms trembling. It was because Lee Rihyung, whose complexion had turned deathly pale, was gripping my arms tightly. He kept opening and closing his mouth while looking at me. As if instinctively feeling he would have died if I hadn’t come, words wouldn’t come out at all due to fear.
“Rihyung.”
“……”
“You don’t have to speak.”
To be frank, I wanted to tell him not to be here. Since he couldn’t use divine power properly and didn’t know how to fight well, I wanted to tell him to just go to a safe place with Park Sichan and Kim Minsik. The reason I couldn’t was because being in my sight was better than going somewhere.
I didn’t think other areas would be fine, and even if he ran away, the Evil God could find him. With that power, there was nothing he couldn’t do. That’s why I couldn’t tell him to run away or give false comfort.
“See over there? I have to go back there.”
Ruvlian fighting the Evil God was struggling. Even if it was the Evil God that even the God attached to me couldn’t beat, even if there was no chance of winning, if Ruvlian was there, I had to go first. I couldn’t let him die.
Strength entered the hand gripping my arm. When I turned my gaze back to Lee Rihyung, he stared at me with frightened eyes. He tried to pretend to be okay, but collapsed helplessly at the fear of death in one blow.
“I can’t stay by your side. So get a proper grip. You almost really died just now.”
That’s why I made him realize reality. I made him clearly feel the fact that he was in a situation where he would die if he didn’t stay alert.
Appropriate tension and fear help in not losing one’s mind. Right now he was consumed by fear, so I had to say something to appropriately release it.
“But I’ll come if it’s dangerous. Like just now. And I’ll take you to Park Sichan and Kim Minsik, so stay with those two. Did you understand what I said?”
“Yeah…… I understood.”
The barely uttered voice rang in my ears. I left Lee Rihyung where Park Sichan and Kim Minsik were and cast defensive magic on the three. Additionally, magic that would notify them if they sensed a threat.
Going back to Ruvlian, I quickly healed his wounds and blocked the Evil God’s attacks. While doing so, I constantly worried about alternatives to buy time or solve this. Block, stab, block, block. The attacks gradually became swifter. It became difficult to attack by finding gaps.
I dug into the fundamental cause. The reason the Evil God could exert power like this was because the Evil God, who couldn’t come directly to the human realm due to checks, made a contract with the parallel world Ruvlian and thereby obtained a dead body. He took control of the body only after he died. Then…….
Slowly retracing the events that occurred in sequence, a hollow laugh flowed out at the conclusion that emerged. When the parallel world Ruvlian died, saying the choice was mine, vividly making me remember the perfect magic circle to turn back time to the desired time period on purpose—it must have meant to use it if I wanted to correct what was twisted.
As time and space became misaligned and mixed, I had lived in a place that wasn’t my inherent world, and the parallel world’s Baek Sihyeon died following my fate. If everything was twisted and I wanted to reverse it.
But it seemed I had to use it differently.
Having entered into thought while casting only defensive magic, I bit my lips. How was the parallel world Ruvlian able to make the choice to turn back time, abandoning all memories and all emotions? I thought his blind affection directed at me was tremendous.
My head is a complete mess. I rather wanted to look for another way, but my eyes caught Ruvlian struggling and my friends killing monsters.
Everyone forgetting, with memories that only I possess and relationships returning to nothing. It was terrible. Especially when it came to Ruvlian. If I turned it back we wouldn’t have any business with each other, but thinking that only I would have feelings made my stomach burn. How much would the concentration of emotions differ?
However, but, nevertheless. Conjunctions contradictory to the previous sentence lined up in my head. The ends of sentences made with those conjunctions were all exactly the same.
However, but, nevertheless.
I had no choice but to turn back time.
For my precious ones and for myself.
