Chapter 128: Reincarnation
You regain consciousness after a period of chaos. You open your eyes to a familiar yet strange ceiling, not the collapsing Vortex of Genesis.
You try to move but find your limbs are short and weak; you have become an infant.
Around you, the muffled sounds of your Aunt and Uncle arguing are just like your most painful childhood memories. You realize with surprise that you have returned to the past.
But… why is the destructive power deep within your soul, capable of incinerating all things, still present?
Just as you try to comprehend the current situation, that 'unspeakable' gaze from the distant void descends once more. It is completely different from the last time. The first gaze was an acknowledgment of your 'destruction' will. This time, the gaze seems to come from another equally great existence—Memory; it is attracted by the cyclical memories you bear.
You feel that in addition to the destructive, mad power within you, another completely opposite great power has been injected. Two extreme powers form a dangerous balance deep within your soul, like the twin births of a god and a demon.
In the days that followed, you were like an observer, coldly experiencing the future you already knew. Hunger, abuse, humiliation… these experiences that once caused you immense pain are now nothing more than ridiculous farces in your eyes.
At 8 years old, the door that imprisoned you was opened with that familiar 'click' sound. The girl wearing a hood, with gray cat ears, poked her head in, revealing her small fangs, and said with a smile, "Sure enough, there's a Little Wildcat hiding here."
Everything was exactly as in your memory. You looked at Cifera and finally confirmed that you had fallen into some kind of cycle, or rather… a regression.
You began to think. The memory fragments obtained after killing the Thief of Fire pieced together in your mind. That man, who looked exactly like Phainon, had witnessed Cifera's different deaths, Mydei's different endings, and Tribbie's countless sacrifices in countless cycles…
Amphoreus was indeed in a cycle. But Anaxa's theory was wrong.
There was no such thing as a 'next cycle where creation is completed and the Chrysos Heir becomes a new Titan.' This was more like a stuck mechanism, repeatedly returning to the starting point, making Phainon, the 'Savior,' constantly repeat his failed Journey of Chasing the Flame until he went mad and became the Thief of Fire.
Re-creation was a deception from beginning to end. And in the last cycle, Lygus, who called himself the 'Ritual Observer,' looked too suspicious when the world collapsed. Could it be that Amphoreus was so abnormal because of him?
You vaguely felt that to break this cage, the key lay with Phainon, the Thief of Fire, and Lygus behind the scenes.
From age 9 to 19, you didn't change anything. You and Cifera acted as heroes in Dolos City, shared bread on rooftops, and secretly watched plays late at night. You greedily savored every single moment with her, as if to make up for a thousand years of longing.
Cifera noticed the way you looked at her more than once. There was always an unfathomable sadness in that gaze, which she couldn't understand.
"Hey, Little Wildcat," she would say, patting your head with a smile. "Why do you always look at me like that? I don't have some incurable disease, and I won't leave you."
Whenever this happened, you just smiled and said it was nothing, but the sadness in your eyes deepened.
At age 20, for the rest of your life, you choose—
Practice the Way of Destruction, destroy Amphoreus.
Go to re-create.
Stop the Journey of Chasing the Flame.
At this moment, Orion felt his soul being pulled away, extracted from the simulation. Consciousness gradually returned, and memories were fully restored… Only then did he realize that his experience of simulating Amphoreus was too real. He only came back to his senses when the system suddenly presented options, realizing he was still in Belobog.
Immediately, Orion began to consider which option to choose.
Through the system error, combined with the plot, he already knew that this entire Amphoreus was merely a simulated world calculated by a super machine called the 'Emperor's Scepter,' and all the people, including himself in the simulation, were just data.
Since it's data…
"Destroying Amphoreus won't help break the cycle, but… I can earn villain points! It's always better to earn more points, right?"
So he didn't hesitate. "I choose 1!"
You choose to practice the Way of Destruction. The destructive power within your body was instantly unleashed.
After leaving Cifera without saying goodbye, you first massacred Dolos City, nailing the king and all the blood-sucking nobles to the city walls. Subsequently, your footsteps traversed Amphoreus. A terrifying swordsman in a cloak, wielding a black sword, became a legend more despairing than the Black Tide.
The snow in Aedelia was dyed blood-red, the ruins of Suspended Edge City were utterly crushed, and the Tree Garden of knowledge in the Mind-Awakening Tree Court was uprooted…
Finally, you arrived at Okhema. You annihilated all remaining Chrysos Heir; no one survived.
In this final moment of Amphoreus, heaven and earth collapsed, and a torrent of data swallowed everything.
[Successfully destroyed Amphoreus, villain points +1000!]
Your consciousness… drifted away again. When you came to, you were lying in that crib again, with the sounds of your Aunt and Uncle arguing in your ears. The madness of destruction faded from your eyes, and reason returned… You found that even destroying the entire world would still bring you back here. Everything seemed futile.
The Black Tide would come, and Cifera… would still die.
Second cycle.
You met Cifera again and once again spent 12 happy years with her.
At age 20, you choose—
Go to re-create.
Stop the Journey of Chasing the Flame.
Elopement.
Orion looked at the options and pondered for a moment. The 'destruction' option disappeared; it seemed the system determined this path was unfeasible.
Since destroying Amphoreus couldn't change the outcome, then… what about escaping? He looked at option 3. Elopement… what would happen if he and Cifera completely ignored Amphoreus? Most likely nothing… but he just wanted to try.
"I choose 3."
You found Cifera and told her you wanted to elope with her.
[Inorin Note:
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