Five Time Regressor Walks the King’s Path - Chapter 38
Chapter 38
Without telling them the rest, I opened my closed eyes.
[You have entered Floor 25, Stage ‘Those Who Have Been Devoured by Illusions’, administered by ‘Cruelty-Stained Greeting’.]
[The ‘Proprietor of Floor 25’, ‘Cruelty-Stained Greeting’, greets you.]
[The ‘Proprietor of Floor 25’, ‘Cruelty-Stained Greeting’, appropriately omits the explanation.]
Perhaps it thought I’d already figured out the clear conditions, but the Constellation even omitted the Floor’s explanation.
“Run away!”
The same screams of the same people rang out.
The Phantom Hunters present fled, and a Degenerate God appeared through the old oriental-style buildings.
As soon as it found me, it rushed in just like before, and I pulled out the Heavenly Star Sword.
Sixth Form—
Ten Thousand Bolts.
Ten thousand cuts followed.
The moment the lightning struck, it reached the Degenerate God and divided it into 10,000 pieces as the blood stained my body.
[The blood of the Degenerate God seeps in through your hand.]
[The Authority of the rampaging Degenerate God is ‘Contagion’. Its blood is trying to turn you into a Phantom.]
The same situation as before.
And…
[The Ring of Neutralization is activated.]
[Degenerate God’s Wrath has stopped at 50%.]
After the Ring of Neutralization was activated, my arms were wrapped in black scales and my nails turned black.
The moment I checked the horns on my head.
[You inherited the Authority, ‘Contagion’.]
I inherited the Authority, ‘Contagion’.
With this, the foundation was set.
[Congratulations. You’ve cleared Floor 25 once more.]
[The ‘Proprietor of Floor 25’, ‘Cruelty-Stained Greeting’, omits the compensation, as you have already received compensation.]
The Constellation also notified me that I cleared Floor 25.
When I looked around, I couldn’t see the group on Sword Queen’s side that should’ve come in together.
Well, it made sense. In the beginning, it was explained that Floor 25 was a private Floor.
Since it would merge on Floor 26, Sword Queen and her party wouldn’t be able to meet me until they’d gotten through Floor 25.
“It’s more comfortable for me.”
As I looked around, I thought that it was better for me anyway, since they’re annoying.
Waiting a bit longer, they would surely appear. And sure enough, I began to sense something in the distance.
As soon as I felt the presence full of vigilance, I leaped in that direction and soon put one person on the floor.
“Ah, eek!”
The subject was Ho Sung-Ah, the daughter of Ho Baek-San.
Pinned down by me, she tried to get out using her aura, but there was no way she could get away.
Sung-Ah was shocked to see that she was losing even with her aura and strength. Weapons flew from all directions in an attempt to save her.
I smashed the ones that flew in by swinging the Heavenly Star Sword.
When those who lost their weapons blanked out in surprise, Lee-Han was the only one who tried to fight me.
“Let go of Sung-Ah!”
But the attacking Lee-Han was overpowered with just one hand.
Lee-Han was lying on the floor just like Sung-Ah. He struggled to get away from me, and I didn’t want to deal with him, so I hit his abdomen and knocked him out.
“Lee-Han!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve only knocked him out. The key’s here, right?”
Taking out a number of keys from Sung-Ah’s back pocket, I left them alone and stood up.
Sung-Ah and Lee-Han were quickly overpowered, so the other Phantom Hunters couldn’t even think of stopping me.
I raised the aura-filled key that led to Sung-Ah’s house and turned it in the air.
When the lock was opened with a click, I entered through the door that appeared.
Sung-Ah hurriedly tried to follow me, but I had already locked the door back.
As soon as I entered, masked men holding weapons appeared.
“Move.”
A voice full of aura spread out.
With a single word, everyone’s body stiffened, and nobody could restrict me.
Walking through the gaps of the frozen men, I walked down the hallway along the yard and came down to the basement where Ho Baek-San was.
As soon as I entered the basement, people who thought I was an enemy rushed at me. I easily overpowered them all and opened the final door of the basement.
“You’ve made quite a noisy entrance. It looks like the Baek-Ho family is dead. I can’t believe they couldn’t stop an uninvited guest.”
I heard Ho Baek-San’s voice, and him clicking his tongue while saying, “It’s too bad.”
I clenched my fist when I heard his voice again. The voice that lamented his dying self, and how he failed to finish what he had started with Preeminent Fury.
Ho Baek-San would die within the next four days.
That’s why I hurriedly rushed here.
“Ho Baek-San.”
“Since you know my name, you must have already visited our Floor. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you.”
Ho Baek-San sat on the bed across the transparent glass wall while wearing a bitter look.
For him who was only waiting for his death, this room was just like a cage locking up a bird.
“Yes, it’s as you say. I’ve been here before to see you on this Floor. I talked to you and became the heir to your family.”
“Even though you appeared with such a ruckus, you were strong enough to come without hurting anyone, so it makes sense. So, did you beat Preeminent Fury?”
“I couldn’t beat her. Because… After you die, she falls and becomes a Degenerate God.”
Ho Baek-San’s bitter face suddenly changed.
As if he heard something he didn’t think of at all.
“What do you mean? Preeminent Fury turns into a Degenerate God?”
“That’s exactly what I said. Ho Baek-San, after you die, Preeminent Fury falls, becomes a Degenerate God, and brings about this world’s destruction. They also spread a deadly disease throughout the world in an instant.”
“…Destruction. That… That’s the end of our world?”
Ho Baek-San’s eyes gradually changed to show his surprise at hearing the word, destruction.
Emptiness, grief, and sadness.
Ho Baek-San was a mixture of various emotions. He shuddered at what was ahead, a world that would eventually collapse.
To think that the world he’d protected so far was on the path to instant destruction.
To think that his death was the catalyst.
“Ho Baek-San, you said all your memories were just implanted in you by the Constellation.”
“…”
“Think again. Is that feeling you have right now really created by implanted memories? Your past… Is every past you spoke of made by the Constellation?”
“My past…”
“Do you think everything you have achieved so far is a lie?”
“…What are you trying to say?”
Questions floated through the eyes of Ho Baek-San, which had been stained with despair.
He looked at me from the other side of the glass wall. His expression seemed to convey that he couldn’t quite understand what I was getting at.
“The ending with Preeminent Fury. Is it really okay to leave it to others?”
“That’s…”
Ho Baek-San hesitated.
“Are you going to leave it to those who don’t even know the work you’ve been doing all your life?”
“But I…”
Ho Baek-San looked down at his own body.
Legs that barely moved, and hands that couldn’t even form a proper fist.
That was the body of Ho Baek-San.
“Ho Baek-San.”
I called his name.
“Preeminent Fury is waiting for you.”
Then, I broke the glass cage that locked him up.
A broken piece of glass slid across the floor, sparkling in the light.
Beyond that stood Ho Baek-San.
He built a glass wall.
He walled himself off from the world.
He turned away from everything beyond the glass wall and only waited for death.
But now, when the glass wall was broken, he realized that he was once again connected to the world he’d disconnected from, and shrank back once more.
I stood right in front of the broken glass wall, took off the Ring of Neutralization, and threw it at him.
When Ho Baek-San received the ring with a confused look, I spoke to him again.
“Your fight, your life, isn’t over yet.”
I swiftly cut my own hand with the Heavenly Star Sword, causing a thick stream of blood to drip down.
I reached out my hand to Ho Baek-San.
To he who had yet to come out from within the glass.
“Why… Just why… What do you…”
He had to come out to hold my hand.
Having lived in a glass cage since the epidemic worsened, he no longer had the strength to move properly.
“Walk out on your own, Ho Baek-San.”
However, even while questioning me, his feet were moving forward, step by step.
A broken piece of glass stained his bare feet with blood.
The pain penetrated deep into his foot.
But slowly, slowly, he approached me.
And when he stood right in front of me, he opened his mouth one more time.
“I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. But I guess I’ve said something pathetic to you before.”
With his head down, he spoke weakly as if he was recalling his former self.
“I haven’t realized what you want from me yet. But you’re thinking of putting me back in front of Preeminent Fury.”
He put the Ring of Neutralization I threw to him on his finger and lifted his head.
The eyes of the Ho Baek-San I stood in front of no longer waited for death.
Forward to a fresh future.
His eyes were drawing from what they were when he once defended the world.
Ho Baek-San’s hand clasped mine.
My blood stained his hands and a calm smile gently floated to his lips.
“I beg you. Would you please bring me in front of Preeminent Fury again?”
With those words, his world began to move again.
The blood triggered the Authority, ‘Contagion’, which gradually began to change his body.
The horn came out and black scales covered the bloodied hand.
Thanks to the Ring of Neutralization, it stopped at 50%, a half Phantom. He looked down at his body and realized that he had regained his previous vitality.
“I see. Is it a Phantom Ending?”
“It’s only progressed by 50%. Preeminent Fury has the power to control Phantoms. With this, that authority won’t work. You can fight without worry.”
I checked it myself.
But there was one problem.
“Although you’re a Phantom now, you’re still half-human, and infected. This should lengthen the time by a bit, but you’ll still die sooner or later.”
When he heard me, he lightly released my hand.
Then, he approached the wall. He hit it, splitting it open to reveal an old bone knife.
Holding the knife in his hand, he looked at me without any of his previous lifeless appearance.
“What are you doing? Let’s go.”
So that’s how he behaves as soon as he regains his life.
Looking at Ho Baek-San, who seemed to have returned to being the world’s strongest Phantom Hunter, I laughed and left the basement with him.
Taking in the outside air for the first time in a long while, he exhaled lightly and immediately wrapped himself with aura.
Ho Baek-San took an explosive leap with me and started running at a furious speed while I followed lightly.
“You’re following me well. I’ve pulled up quite a bit of aura around me.”
“You’re slow. Do you think you can beat Preeminent Fury like that?”
“Haha, don’t worry. Preeminent Fury is nothing.”
He shouted triumphantly, but I knew.
Ho Baek-San had not completely regained the body he had in his heyday.
It’s just that becoming 50% Phantom was enough support to at least move his broken body.
Therefore, Ho Baek-San would not be able to properly fight against Preeminent Fury.
Even though he knew this, he was heading to her without hesitation.
To burn the last embers of his life with Preeminent Fury.
So, we ran toward the sanctuary.
