Free Web Novel[Third time... Again.]
[Fifth time... Where does the Salvation Society have so many people from? Again.]
[Eleventh time... I made a mistake... Again.]
[Thirty-seventh time... An ability that can remotely break the target’s limbs? Need to remember that. Again.]
[Forty-fifth time... So this guy’s strength isn’t poison, but swordsmanship. Again.]
[One hundred and first time... Is this... support? Again.]
[Three hundred and sixty-second time... I refuse to believe it... Again!]
[The...]
Pero opened his eyes.
Sparse woods divided the dim sky like an ink painting. Beneath the flames, the gravestones stood eerie as ghostly shadows.
It was a scene enough to scare children to tears, but Pero did not feel afraid.
Because this place was equally familiar to him.
In those memories that had just recovered, he had fallen asleep here who knew how many times, and had danced in front of those gravestones who knew how many times.
In a certain sense, aside from the people sleeping here forever, and a certain priest who had holed up here for decades, he was already more familiar with every blade of grass and every tree here than anyone else.
“Awake?”
The voice from his dreams came over. Pero slightly turned his head and saw that familiar figure beside the campfire, toying with black flame in his hand and smiling at him.
Just a smile was enough to make a calm heart ripple.
“Mm.”
Pero nodded.
“Anything wrong with your body?”
“No.”
“Anywhere uncomfortable?”
“No.”
“Hungry?”
“...A little.”
“Looks like you really are fine.”
Muen handed him a bowl of stew that had already been cooked. Aviva’s cooking was good enough that even he, accustomed to the chefs of a ducal estate, would praise it.
“Thank you.”
Pero took the stew and began eating in small bites.
Muen watched for a while, put away the black flame in his hand, and suddenly stood up.
“If there’s nothing wrong, I’ll leave first. I still have something to do.”
“Mm...”
Pero softly answered, then suddenly seemed to remember something and called out to Muen.
“Wait. You... you’re going to continue doing that thing again?”
“That thing?”
“I... I saw some scenes.”
Pero lowered his head.
Those scenes had just surfaced before his eyes.
They were drifting afterimages, like a dream.
But because they had appeared too many times, repeated too many times, they were now drawn with incomparable clarity in his mind.
“You saw them?”
Muen thought briefly.
“In that case, your memories regarding those things also...”
“Those memories have all recovered.”
Pero nodded, his expression somewhat sorrowful.
“But to me, they’re nothing more than memories that kept repeating.”
“...As expected, is it because you became my so-called believer?”
Muen rubbed his chin. To be honest, even now, he still found these things surprising and unbelievable.
After all, when he had made Pero become his believer back then, it had merely been to comfort this kid. He had never expected it to trigger this kind of unexpected chain reaction.
Pero was no longer affected by the rewind of time, and had recovered his previous memories.
He could also use Muen’s black flame through prayer.
It was no different from those clergy members of the Church.
The only difference was that what he believed in was not some extraordinary god, but merely a weak human.
All right, perhaps this human contained a tiny bit of Evil God component... but this was still a miracle shocking enough to astonish people.
“Is it because I let him come into contact with my black flame at the time?”
No.
A believer was not something he could make someone become just because he wanted it. It required faith from the heart. So the important thing was not what he had said, but Pero himself.
“I never thought there would come a day when I had my own believer too.”
Thinking of this, Muen suddenly smiled, raised his hand, and vigorously rubbed Pero’s head.
“As my number one believer, I hereby appoint you as the pope of my Black Sun Cult. Remember to spread the gospel of my Black Sun Cult when you go out in the future.”
“I-I don’t want to be any pope!”
Pero forcefully shook off Muen’s hand, his cheeks red as he said angrily.
“Once you join my religion, these things aren’t up to you anymore.”
Muen chuckled, looking exactly like some evil incarnation that deceived people’s hearts.
“But let’s talk about that later. There isn’t much time. I really have to go.”
Muen turned around.
In the night, heavy dark clouds covered the entire city. Although there was no rain, they still pressed down until people could hardly breathe.
In the distance, flames rose and died, looping endlessly, leaving behind only death and disaster.
This matter was not yet over. He still had to step onto the stage again.
“Will you win?” Pero lifted his head and asked.
“Are you doubting me?” Muen asked in return.
“N-No, but you’ve already come so many times, so this time...” Pero bit his lip and muttered in a mosquito-like hum, “I’m still worried about you...”
Pero knew that he believed in the person before him more than anyone.
Because every time he was about to despair, this person would descend from the sky and save him.
He did not believe in the Goddess whom more than ninety percent of this city believed in. He believed in him.
So he would definitely be able to save all this.
Definitely.
Only...
“This time, can you really...”
Those unimaginable repeated scenes surfaced in his mind again, making Pero subconsciously ask that question.
The moment his memories returned, Pero had felt a suffocating sensation like the deep sea.
But those were only memories.
Repeated memories.
Yet for him...
They were not merely memories.
Every single time was a real, painful, despairing experience.
Blood and killing, helplessness and exhaustion, pushing forward with everything he had, only for everything to vanish in an instant after the eventual failure.
Almost all the most painful things in the world were embodied in those repetitions, like the giant in a storybook who endlessly pushed a stone up a mountain.
Every time, he could not reach the end. Every time, he could only watch the boulder roll down and return to where it started.
Pero did not want him to continue.
Even though he knew clearly that only he could save all this.
This had nothing to do with faith.
It was only a tiny selfishness sprouting deep in his heart.
“I have to go.”
“Then I’ll also...”
A brave idea surged into Pero’s mind, making him almost blurt out his greatest secret...
“Don’t worry. This time, it will definitely work, because I’ve already obtained the necessary item for victory. All that’s left is to go to the final stage and deliver the last blow to the boss.”
Muen seemed to sense Pero’s small thoughts as well. He directly interrupted him and said softly,
“You just wait here for my good news.”
“Necessary item?”
Pero showed a slightly puzzled expression. In the scenes before, he had not seen any so-called necessary item.
“Mm... it’s this.”
After thinking about it, Muen saw no need to hide it and directly took out the grand barrier control core, showing it to Pero.
“Last time, I almost cleared the stage. This was the only thing missing. So this time will definitely work. Understand?”
“This... is...?”
Pero’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Just a core.”
Muen smiled.
“A core that can settle everything in one strike.”
“Core...”
Faint ripples rose in the depths of Pero’s eyes, like a calm lake being disturbed, ring after ring spreading outward.
He thought he had hidden it well, but some splashes still flew out.
“What’s wrong?”
“N-Nothing... It’s just, can I ask how you got it?”
Pero hesitated for a moment and asked,
“It sounds amazing. I’m curious.”
“It’s nothing much.”
Muen looked into Pero’s eyes and kept smiling.
“A guy named Aurier gave it to me, that’s all.”
“Aurier...”
Pero suddenly staggered back a few steps, his small face deathly pale.
“What’s wrong?”
Muen supported Pero’s arm.
“You know this person?”
“No, I don’t. I don’t know him... and nothing’s wrong.”
Pero drew back as if he had been shocked by electricity. Although he did his best to maintain calm, his eyes still subconsciously fixed on the thing in Muen’s palm.
It was as if the object in Muen’s hand was something that filled him with incomparable loathing... and even fear.
That fear even made the tiny bit of courage he had just summoned shrink back again.
“Really nothing?”
“N-Nothing. My body just feels a little unwell, that’s all. That’s right... just physical discomfort.”
“Is that so?”
Muen did not continue pressing.
“Then rest properly. I’m leaving first.”
“Mm.”
Pero nodded.
“T-Take care...”
Muen turned and gradually vanished into the black flame.
“Wait...”
Pero opened his mouth.
He wanted to call Muen back and say something.
But a coldness that swallowed everything suddenly surged out from the depths of his memory. Even though he had just experienced such an enormous baptism of memories, he still could not drive away that chill.
In the end, he could not say anything.
Not until Muen disappeared from sight.
...
Yet in a shadow Pero could not see, Muen suddenly looked back.
“So it wasn’t coincidence after all.”
In his hand, the emblem that had guided Muen to find the grand barrier core was radiating warmth.
...
...
“That child has a secret.”
Outside the small wooden hut, the priest leaned against the doorframe that no longer had a door and looked toward the warehouse.
“Although his own strength isn’t high, his foundation is unbelievably good. He clearly had enormous resources invested in him when he was young. A tiny orphanage like this couldn’t possibly afford that.”
“I know.”
Muen was checking the supplies he would need later. Hearing this, he answered calmly without even raising his head.
“You’re not curious?”
The priest raised a brow.
“And judging from his reaction, he seems to recognize the grand barrier core in your hand. That’s rather thought-provoking. Ordinary noble children don’t have the qualifications to recognize that thing. And he also...”
The priest gestured twice in front of his chest, darkly hinting at something.
“What’s there to be curious about? Everyone has secrets.”
Muen took out high-grade holy oil and began doing pre-battle maintenance on Elizabeth.
As a weapon forged from an original Holy Sword embryo, it naturally did not require maintenance like ordinary weapons.
But for weapons with living spirits, keeping them in a pleasant mood before battle was also a very important step.
“But what if she could help your operation?”
The priest was puzzled.
“For example, what if that grand barrier core needs some special bloodline to activate its final ability?”
“That’s way too clichéd. Besides, didn’t you already check just now? This thing doesn’t require any bloodline as a condition.” Muen was speechless.
“I checked it, yes. But what if?”
“There is no what if. That person named Donna said that the Kingdom’s grand barrier and the Empire’s restriction were designed by the same person, and I’ve already guessed which guy it was. Since the Empire’s thing doesn’t require it, the Kingdom’s naturally won’t require it either. That guy with rotten taste wouldn’t set such a boring condition.”
“And...”
Muen patted his own small arms and legs.
“Do you think I still have the spare strength right now to bring a burden with me and kill my way in and out seven times?”
Last time, in the Abyss, he had been able to bring someone and fight all the way out of the encirclement not because he was fierce and invincible, but because the person he had brought was Ariel. Putting aside everything else, even while unconscious, Ariel could still wear magical armor and help him block some damage.
But Pero?
Even if he had a mysterious identity, he was ultimately only an ordinary person, and still a minor. A stray arrow could take his life.
To be honest, bringing him into the palace and charging in and out seven times was something even Zhao Yun from his previous life would not dare to do so fiercely.
After all, what Zhao Yun had to protect was at least only a baby, something he could carry in his arms.
Where could Muen hide Pero?
Stuff him into a pocket?
“That’s true...” The priest nodded, feeling that it really was not feasible.
“But I still feel that you—”
“All right. Let’s set aside those unnecessary thoughts for now.”
Muen finished the maintenance. While he was at it, he flourished the blade, and the pure-white short blade gave a pleased, soft hum, clearly very satisfied with this maintenance.
“Let’s begin this performance first. The other actors are waiting for me, the protagonist, to appear. They’re probably already impatient.”
“How many chances do you still have?”
The priest put away his joking expression and asked seriously,
“Ten times... five times... or is it... only this one chance left? I don’t believe this kind of rewind of yours is endless. The time to pay the price should be close, right?”
“Is that important?”
Muen stood up, facing this burning city and the profound darkness behind the flames.
He had neither joy nor sorrow, nor fear. He merely gripped the weapon in his hand tightly.
“No matter how many times, before I kick that old bastard’s balls apart and win this game, I won’t stop moving forward.”
