Chapter 288

In the deep, deep darkness. At the very bottom of the frozen pit,


The corpse clutching the thorn in its hand lay half-dead, quietly closing its eyes. The moment the thorn pierced, its consciousness had already left its body. So, it couldn’t be called alive. But it couldn’t be called dead yet either.

All other parts of the body had now become useless, gradually ceasing to function. The eyes had long gone blind, and the arms had lost the strength to move. The nose could no longer smell, and the ears could no longer hear. It wasn’t because of the freezing cold. It was simply no longer necessary.

Only the brain, essential for storing the fragile memories of this life, and the heart, which kept the brain alive, were still functioning. But even they would soon stop. Once all thoughts had drained from the brain, the empty shell would no longer matter.

A new vessel wasn’t needed either. For a being that could exist eternally through thought alone, the body was nothing more than an unnecessary material.


To break free from the oppression of matter, only one final step was needed.

Placing one block of cheese on a jar, then another, and finally a third—when removing them, the order would inevitably be reversed. The last one placed would be the first to go. Memories were the same.

As if some omnipotent being had flipped life backward, the memories flowing before his eyes began to rewind. The most recent memories were pulled out first, one by one. Rewinding, rewinding, and rewinding again. They seeped through the slowly dying brain and vanished into the void beyond. The past reversed, and soon the image of Bimoa shooting out beams of light passed by. Time seemed to flow backward, and instead of emitting light, it absorbed the beams.

Though it only seemed like memories playing in reverse,


What had once melted entire glaciers and emerged now plunged into boiling water, freezing solid and disappearing. Next, the Arctic came into view. The Arctic lingered for a while. There was no turning back now. The memories stored in this body were gradually being lost.

But in truth,


Nothing was truly being lost.


The memories had simply found a safer storage.


One human was meeting death, and something else was being born.

The flowing memories reached the bonds. The first meeting with Yanid. The first meeting with Ardein. And even the first meeting with Roka. Quickly reversing, they reached the distant past. Each time, the priest’s lips twitched. Soon, a serene smile formed on his face.

Was this the life flashing before his eyes as he faced death? He instinctively realized that this death was different from any other. Though he had experienced death many times before, this time, he likely wouldn’t be able to revive. The miracle of resurrection wouldn’t work this time.


Because being revived is different from being reborn.

What appeared as the memories passed wasn’t mere illusion. It was everything the mind had stored. What he had seen, felt, and all the thoughts and emotions he had held at the time surged like waves. Emotions changed rapidly, even in a single moment. Especially when he saw the moment he parted ways with the Hero Party, the smile on his lips momentarily turned somber.

But just as throwing a large rock into a small pond creates a big splash,


While throwing the same rock into the ocean only creates a small ripple,


All the emotional turbulence and upheaval now only shook a tiny part, like a typhoon in a teacup. Thanks to that, he could calmly face his past self—or rather, selves.

In the fleeting memories, the day of the final battle with Grimudo finally surfaced.


No, it should have. What should have appeared in that memory was the Demon King’s overwhelming power and the despair of the Hero Party. Yes, that image did appear. But what followed was something entirely unexpected.

A burning red sun.


A black spot floating on a surging sea of fire.


A brilliant scarlet blaze swimming through and scorching the sea of stars.


Had he seen such a sight even once, he could never have forgotten it.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten,


But that he had no choice but to forget.


Only then did he realize what he had seen during the battle with the Demon King,


And why he had fallen into despair.

He had undoubtedly seen too far into the future.


And that it was destined to arrive soon.


The brief glimpse he had seen at the Observatory of Star’s Dream vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Soon, the image of Yurinel standing before the Demon King, thrusting her sword and retreating, appeared, but the vivid image of the sun remained in his memory.

When that furious sun covered the sky in flames,


The earth burned like copper in a furnace. Even the eternal glaciers of the Arctic melted and evaporated, and the seas boiled. Everything combustible crackled and burned, and pillars of fire rose wherever they could be seen. Crimson magma flowed across the ground, replacing dried-up riverbeds…

Most people didn’t even get to witness the majestic sight, turning to charcoal and vanishing.


Even if they had seen it, they had no time to record it.


The true cataclysm swept the world without giving humanity any time. A single moment was enough to sweep from one end of the continent to the other.

Even that memory soon faded, and the moments of adventure with the Hero Party passed by. Moments from a distant past, even hazier than his memories, now came back vividly. The hateful image of the Manticore brushed past him, and even the meeting with that person, which he couldn’t fully recall now, resurfaced. As time began to regress beyond reversing, he saw those who had long since entered their graves.

Old Gort from the carpentry shop, who seemed gruff but was kind at heart.


Lora from the general store, who won hearts by giving precious candies to children.


And others who had once loved him, and whom he had loved, but had been forgotten in the flow of time. Now, only tombstones marked their existence, and the victims of the Manticore smiled at his childhood self. So, he smiled back.

When he saw his parents again, tears briefly welled up in his closed eyes. The tears flowed down his cheeks without freezing in the cold Arctic air.


Finally, when there were no more memories to pull out, he found himself standing tall in the void. The priest looked down at what had once been his body.

The peacefully smiling corpse was no longer needed. So, when the Demon King suddenly pierced through the void, picked up his body, and carried it beyond the sky, he was somewhat surprised but didn’t stop it. He was simply lost in thought, lingering on what he had seen.

Looking up at the sky, faint starlight, almost invisible to the eye, poured down over the deep, deep pit. Something sharper than sight and more precise than intuition accurately captured the stars’ forms. Now, he could see their true nature without approaching, and perhaps he could even reach them. The bright stars were right before him.

And the sun! The ancient star that had illuminated this land even before the Primal Body, the source of all life, had settled here. His gaze briefly turned toward the blazing celestial body.


Though he had never felt anything strange about it before, now it seemed unnaturally bizarre. That sun was burning in an eerily abnormal way.

-Now you realize it. Your world was destined to be swept away by the sun’s flames 26 years from now. That would have been the end of the cycle. Even what you call the Primal Body wouldn’t have withstood the planet being roasted whole.

A sudden voice. And a familiar one.


When the priest turned his head at the sound,


A familiar face greeted him.

-That’s how one world ends, and the sun’s inhabitants achieve their purpose. To them, this small world is no different from moldy bread. It must be thrown into the fireplace and burned to be cleansed.


‘Faceless Angel!’


-That’s how this world is sterilized entirely. That is the cataclysm. An inevitable fate you couldn’t escape no matter what choices you made. Do you remember now what you thought when you glimpsed that possible future?