***
It was silent for a breath on the battlefield. All of Trannori's invaders froze wherever they stood, time grinding to a halt. Only the most powerful beings on the planet remained capable of movement.
In the heart of the crater, my central heart of aether vibrated and spun in the dead Outer God's grip—until it tore free from his stone fingers and launched itself into my chest, reviving me mid-flight as my corpse was hurled across the planet. I bounced across stone and dirt until I crashed into the wall of a mountain.
[Skill: Horizon Chain — Sanity Anchor!]
"Ow..." I groaned, feeling my rib bones, flesh, and muscle regenerate—knitting over the hole in my chest and sealing away the three hearts of aether beneath. Rocks and soil that had forced their way inside were expelled in clumps.
I still couldn't see. The regeneration of my eyes was taking too long. Dabbing my sockets with my fingers, I realized why—the anti-matter from Drallknit's sword had permeated them.
Banging the back of my skull against the wall, I sighed. "No point wasting aether just to watch another universe be unmade."
[Skill: Sephiwrath — Gate Closure]
[Skill: Winter Inverse — Clothe Shift]
With a thought, I disabled my powers. The [Sephiwrath] veins that once glowed across my body dimmed into scars, then faded to unblemished skin. [Winter Inverse] reformed my armour into clothes, while the remaining scales retreated beneath my flesh.
I heard footsteps crunching atop the nearby stones. My head twitched. I prepared to flood my sockets with aether to purge the anti-matter and restore my vision—
—but then I heard the figure slump down on the other side of the wall, choosing to sit.
I listened carefully.
Their tired breath.
A nervous heartbeat inside a worn chest.
A subtle tremble in their posture, as the wind played through feathers and hair and curled around the horns above her ears.
I knew who it was instantly.
"Did you feel like you had fun?" she asked softly.
Dropping my head in quiet amusement, I took a moment to respond. "I think I did," I murmured, then found the words I always asked in return. "...Have you been happy without me, Vita?"
"Heh..." A despondent laugh escaped her. I heard her curl up tighter against the wall. "Still such a brutally honest man. Sometimes I think you care more about the brutality than the honesty of what you say, my love."
I paused. Rethinking my answer.
"I laughed a lot," I admitted. "So... enjoyment must've been part of the process. The Oblivion Hunter, Drallknit. It'll be nice to meet them in another universe. But I think... the closest I've come to happiness in the last seven-thousand years is this moment right now."
She hitched a breath and twisted in place. I sensed her starting to move around the wall, but she stopped herself.
"...My dear star," she whispered, "you still know how to play with a woman's heart. How am I supposed to feel when you treat me like this... after everything I've done these last thirty thousand years?"
I didn't have to ask. I knew. After I was sealed into the at the end of the Sealing War, Vita rampaged across the stars.
She slew over thirty Hell-Kings in the
Eventually, she was banned from leaving the
"I'm such a sinful woman," Vita said with a pained breath. "Pushing you away like I did... I should've realized it was Sathuna's whispers messing with my head. It's not your fault we could never have a child, my love. It's mine."
I didn't say anything. But I knew that was a lie.
Her voice betrayed her. But the sorrow behind it—that was real.
Still, it was my fault. I'm not supposed to exist. How could I create life when I'm a paradox. Causality doesn't allow it. The universe itself doesn't allow it.
"...Aren't you going to say something?" Vita asked, desperate. "Chastise me. Berate my decisions. Belittle me for my mistakes like everyone else did? Just... say something. Please. I don't want to be alone."
She was talking about the
Still, I said what I wanted to say.
"You are the one person who should regret nothing you've done."
My voice came out softer than I expected—gentle, like I was speaking to more than one person who needed to hear it.
"All sins are attempts to fill voids within ourselves. You were crying in silence, screaming without sound, trying to fill that void when we first met. You're still trying, even now. And you can't be blamed for that. Not when the emptiness only grew. Even when it destroyed you. What matters now... is what you choose to do next. No matter how pointless it seems. Live."
Vita pulled her knees to her chest, steadying her shaky breath. Angry that I wasn't angry. That I was just... myself. The emotionless one. Twisted logic in physical form, speaking with the same haunted calm as always.
"You almost sound like you wish to exist," Vita muttered.
I chuckled faintly, leaning my head back against the stone. "You still see right through me." Silence settled in again. But before it could last—"You know," I said, "I'm currently blind because of the anti-matter in my eyes—"
Before I could finish, she was already moving. Rounding the wall, burying her head in my chest. Only then did I feel it—the wetness of her tears soaking into my shirt. Only then did I realise she'd been crying this whole time.
I'd thought I would've heard it. Even with my dulled senses. But some grief makes no sound.
"I'll see the real you next time," I promised, pressing a kiss into the wheat-gold crown of her hair as I felt the horizon fold in on itself and the universal regression begin.
"I'll wait for you as long as it takes, Nameless Traveler," Vita whispered, arms tightening around me in defiance of time's unraveling.
And then, like a tide swallowing the shore, the remade current of time washed over the fractured edges of the old universe. Erasing and replacing it, flowing backward in a seamless tide of reversal as I sat unmoving against the mountain.
Vita was drawn from my chest in reverse, retracing her battle with Propheira and Neveah, returning to Anplagace like a scene being rewound.
One by one, the
The crescendo of my battle with the Oblivion Hunter Drallknit was unmade, the war against a pantheon of clashing divinities unraveled, and the invasion of the planet was reversed. So completely that it had never happened. The world, once on the brink of annihilation, was restored to its state twenty years prior, before Sathuna's ritual had ever stirred it from slumber.
And finally, as antimatter streamed from my eyes and the healing took root, the regression halted—returning everything to the precise moment it always did: the genesis of Arthur Moonleaf's fourth life. I watched as the sun rolled back into the sky, then resumed its natural climb as time settled.
"Well, that was touching," Thorn muttered as he sauntered into view, feathers still ash-dark, voice laced with distaste. "Disgusting to watch, but touching. Anyway, we've got work to do, pisspot."
"Glad to see you're still arrogant after nearly dying," I said to the black spectre of a raven.
"What can I say? God wept the moment they realised I was more perfect than they were. A little existential reset isn't going to finish me off." He ruffled his wings, pleased with himself. "Now, where to? The hot witch or the multi-faced egomaniac?"
"I know which one you'd rather visit first," I said, scratching an itch from my newly formed eyes.
Thorn shrugged his wings. "Don't judge me just because I'm a grateful bird and you're an emotionally constipated psychopath."
With a sigh, I pulled my hand away and stood, turning to see Ingrik and the other ink-spirits forming behind him like smoke given shape.
"Felcrii first," I said. "We owe Sathuna our thanks for reviving you. And Clarity's likely to throw a tantrum over me not mentioning the ritual."
"They might surprise you and be happy about it," Thorn offered.
"Meh," I scoffed, shaking my head. Clarity? Grateful? Maybe it aligned with their goals, but they'd never admit that a volunteer messiah had been useful to them. "Let's just go."
Thorn rolled his eyes and landed on my shoulder.
Turning to the spirits, I nodded. "Thank you, all of you. Apologies for the chaos this time."
"We exist to serve, my Archon," Taul said with a low bow.
"A king shouldn't apologize to his servants," Ingrik chastised, though his tone was gentle. "But it's that honesty that earns our loyalty, your lordship. Command us, and we obey." With a fist to his chest, Ingrik vanished, followed by the others.
Then Sune dropped from Ventu's back before the ink-beast dissolved, landing beside me with a grin. She petted Thorn. "Sune is happy Thorn is back! And Ingrik! But Taul still hates you. Sune wants to go fishing later, okay?"
"Of course hissy-fit wants me dead," Thorn muttered, wings curling like fists. "I'll go fishing with you later, Sune."
"Thorn promised fishing! Haha!" The Kitsune girl cheered, jumping gleefully into the air before vanishing again.
I glanced at Thorn, curious. Since when had he started humoring Sune's whims without manipulating them?
Catching me staring, the raven scowled. "What? We going or are you taking a mental snapshot of my divine glory?"
I rolled my eyes. "Let's go."
[Skill: Hollow Void — Mach Void!]
A magic circle formed beneath me, erupting upward in a pillar of light. We launched through the void between spaces, slipping past dimensions until we reappeared within the headmistress's office at Sathuna's academy.
"She must've been expecting us," I muttered, noting how we'd bypassed the university's defensive barriers entirely.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Sathuna said, seated at her desk with her usual smirk. "The ritual worked. My mind's now immune to Arthur Moonleaf's regressions, and I can place anchors in time for him whenever I choose. Creating and destroying a new temporal concept? Completely worth it. Thorn's revival was a small price to pay."
"Hey!" Thorn squawked, visibly offended. "And here I thought we were getting close. I expected... feelings!"
"Not in the slightest, repulsive crow," Sathuna deadpanned. "I haven't forgotten the time you seduced half my students into nightly flings."
Thorn chuckled in surrender as Sathuna leaned back, watching him fondly.
"Still, I'll admit it was quiet without you. The Traveler would be even more unhinged without his shadow."
Thorn sparkled, somehow, as if joy manifested on his abyssal feathers. "You do care, you sentimental enchantress. Gimme a hug, you radiant temptress!" He dove off my shoulder toward her chest.
Sathuna conjured a barrier just in time. Thorn smacked into it and slid dramatically down her desk. She poked him with her wand, amused, then patted him like a scolded pet and he fully leaned into it.
Her attention turned to me. "Now that Thorn's back, I can begin constructing the future you came from. Foundations are already in motion. You're welcome, by the way. But first, I need to explore the connected galaxies—understand the known and unknown variables that led to your... 'release.' I might even figure out what made you."
"That'll take thousands of years exploring just six thousand galaxies," I said, leaning on her desk. "Or a few hundred regressions, if we're being technical."
"If I had your speed, I'd be done in a decade." She sighed, keeping Thorn pinned under her wand. "Pity the void magic I invented isn't as refined, fast, or versatile as your authority over the void. Makes me wonder how someone as dumb as you managed it."
"Thanks for the compliment, witch." I shot back.
She smirked. Thorn wrestled her wand like it was a duelling saber as it floated opposite him on Sathuna's desk.
"Say," I added. "You didn't share regression immunity with the other Crusaders, did you?"
Sathuna paused. Her blindfolded face turned slightly, surprised at the question.
"I saw the ritual's setup back on the mountain. Even with my basic grasp of wizardry, I understood enough. You could have made them all immune. Why didn't you?"
She replied with practiced calm. "Not all of us are capable of staying sane while going insane like you. I break under trauma. Sifo Ren's mechanical memory has limits no matter how strange a machine he is. Kazemyth may be a demigod, but that only makes him half-immortal. And Teuxer? He's human—pure-blooded. You know how petty and competitive he is. He'd sell his soul for the tiniest advantage over an opponent. Not that he could anymore after selling it to me already. Letting him know future challenges to usurp and improve on is not a good use of his time."
"What about Vita?" I pressed. "She's probably the only one besides you and Wukong who could withstand the madness."
There was a flicker behind the blindfold. For the first time, she really looked at me. "She asked me not to," Sathuna said. "I offered, but she refused. Or maybe I'm lying. You'd have to read my mind to know for sure, Kralscell of Sentience." The witch teased being playfully coy.
I exhaled slowly, ignoring the bait. "I'm not bored enough to dive into that mess."
I scooped Thorn by the tail, dragging him from his battle with the wand and stuffing him into my coat's hood.
"Enjoy this endless loop, Sathuna. It's just a small corner of the hell i broke out from to begin my travels."
She watched me go, silent. I activated [Mach Void] and vanished into space-time.
Left alone, Sathuna touched her chin, murmuring softly, "You know what hell is like? Now that's a bombshell, oh Traveler mine. Just what did you suffer through in that place to become the monster you are today?"