“I will become one of the characters on the stage!”
Muen’s expression was incomparably serious, as though he stood before a vast army, delivering a challenge to the enemy commander that would decide the course of this war.
Even if, to the enemy... that challenge was so laughable.
“...It’s useless.”
Gaius remained just as calm, showing no emotional change because of Muen’s declaration.
“As you said, this performance is already about to end. All you can do is obediently remain your spectator self and appreciate the curtain falling on this final ending. Aside from that... you can do nothing.”
Though he said so...
Gaius’s fingers suddenly moved slightly.
The Witch of Repentance nodded in understanding.
No longer wasting time on such meaningless things, although the Witch of Repentance had already conceived countless ways to kill Muen in her heart, she still first took Fubeka and continued upward.
Fubeka shrank back, trembled, wept...
But it was useless, because there was no one here who could save her.
Ripples spread across the starry sky. Countless strands of starlight descended, twining toward the frail Fubeka...
“Father... anyone... please... please save me...”
Fubeka prayed in a trembling voice, praying for the hero who would save her to descend.
...
“Indeed, right now I can’t do anything.”
Of course Muen could not answer Fubeka’s prayer either. He was not the hero she was hoping for. He did not even glance toward that curtain of heaven, instead continuing to speak with Gaius:
“But that does not mean I have no way to join this performance.”
“Oh? What exactly do you intend to do?”
Gaius finally began to gradually lose patience, and his question went straight to the point.
“Isn’t it simple?”
Muen stretched out his hand and pointed at... Gaius himself.
“Using the method you taught me.”
“Us?”
Gaius pondered in confusion. Suddenly, he seemed to think of something, and his expression finally turned a little solemn.
“Could you already have mastered that to this degree? No... impossible. You are still so weak. Strength cannot deceive anyone. You cannot do it. In fact... you have no way to pay that price at all.”
“Yes, I have no way to pay that price. However...”
The corner of Muen’s mouth curved into a mocking smile.
“Don’t forget. Stepping on your own left foot with your right foot to fly into the sky... no, I should say, taking out a loan to cause trouble, isn’t a trick only you can use.”
“Could you...”
Gaius’s pupils suddenly shrank.
“No, impossible. That kind of thing...”
Gaius refused to believe it in every possible way.
Because that kind of thing was absolutely impossible even in theory. Because it had already completely exceeded theory and common sense.
“No... if it is that madwoman... If it is that madwoman, then she really might... create a monster like this.”
The world called him a lunatic.
But he knew that the most insane person was absolutely not him.
The greatest, most naive lunatic in this world was...
All his previous composure gone, Gaius suddenly waved his large sleeve, and terrifying power crushed straight toward Muen.
But...
Holy Light descended, perfectly countering and annihilating that power.
“Our battle is not over yet.”
Hezekiah sneered. “Are you not taking this senior brother of yours a little too lightly?”
“Repentance!”
Gaius ignored Hezekiah and roared directly.
“Understood.”
The Witch of Repentance also moved with extreme speed. She directly abandoned Fubeka beside her for the moment, carrying the killing intent of several failures as she charged violently toward Muen.
But...
The bloodstained iron shovel wobbled, and the limping man blocked her path.
“It has been a long time, Olive... no, I should call you the Witch of Repentance now.”
The priest took the sacred text from his robes and smiled. “There is still a piece of unfinished cause and effect between us too, isn’t there?”
“...”
The sky split open, and silent throbbing spread.
The Lord of the Stars, who was descending here, seemed to have also detected something, and His movements of descent became incomparably violent.
But in the end... He was the one farthest away.
“What spectators, what not spectators—honestly, I really hate this way of describing things.”
“At any rate, I count as the yellow-haired villain with an extremely strong presence in all kinds of stories. I’m an important character destined to leave a deep impression on the audience. At a time like this, how could I possibly not stand at the center of the stage?”
Just as he had said to the priest before, Muen raised his middle finger at Gaius, at the Witch of Repentance, and even specially used an illumination spell to conjure a third hand so he could flip off the Lord of the Stars as well.
Then he said:
“Round two begins, **.”
“No!!!”
Gaius roared again.
Yet it was useless.
Muen closed his eyes.
In his mental space, the Black Book floated in the deepest reaches, a faint layer of light radiating around it, giving it an extreme sense of presence.
However, Muen glanced at it, and the Black Book sensibly dispersed the faint light, sinking into the deeper reaches of his consciousness.
This time, he had not come to find it.
Muen raised his head and looked toward the heights of his mental space.
In that void, the pitch-black sun with a pure-white corona still hung soundlessly. It silently overlooked everything in this mental space, and overlooked Muen as well.
Muen met the black sun’s gaze.
Gradually, a black sun rose in Muen’s pupils as well.
Black sun and black sun echoed each other from afar, even every turning of the pure-white corona completely identical.
Gradually, Muen’s figure also seemed to be reflected within the black sun.
And at the same time that figure appeared, Muen lost consciousness. This mimetic body in the mental space seemed to become a puppet.
Or perhaps, his consciousness had arrived upon the black sun.
He simply watched “himself” from on high, watched that tiny body’s lips part slightly, and solemnly speak...
—[Prayer]
[With my blood, my flesh, my bones, my soul, and all that I am]
[To... ▌▌▌▌, ▌▌▌▌, ▌▌▌▌▌—▌▌▌▌]
[I pray for the mighty power to reverse time!]
Boom!
The black sun suddenly swelled. The holy corona danced wildly, surrounding that bottomless pitch-black sun as it devoured everything around it at high speed.
Muen’s blood, Muen’s flesh, Muen’s bones, Muen’s soul, and even... everything that was Muen.
All of it was devoured!
Dong!
A grand bell chime, clearer than ever before, echoed through Saint Blancfazesiya, echoed through the Kingdom, and even echoed through... the entire world.
“Yes, yes, yes... that’s it!”
The sea of flowers.
The white-haired little girl in pink strawberry pajamas stood up in excitement, dancing with joy. An unprecedented fervor appeared in her amber-clear crimson eyes.
“That’s it, my dear disciple...”
“If you want to control time and become the master of time, how could you not first defeat time?”
“So struggle! Fight! Burn everything you are!”
“Go completely smash this [present] that you dislike!”
White hair and the strawberry nightdress danced with the wild wind.
A huge rumble resounded through heaven and earth.
All the flowers beneath Mela’s feet withered at extreme speed, as though they had walked through their entire lives in those few short seconds.
The earth split open. In the deeper place below...
Countless enormous ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) gears began to turn with a crash, meshing with one another and releasing a bell chime that echoed through the world.
Artificial Authority, Eternal Clock.
—Activated.
