Chapter 25
A ruined church in Incheon
Back when the Black God Church was at its peak. People were gathered at a church building in Incheon that they used to use.
Of course, people weren't gathered there with good intentions.
In a place beyond government control, and what's more at a site where criminal organizations used to flourish, there was no way good people would gather.
Those figures wrapped in black robes were freaks enveloped in Demonic Power.
"Your Excellency. Divine Sword Choi Si-woo keeps interfering with our plans."
One man's lament.
It was because their plot to overthrow Hanseong was being thwarted by Choi Si-woo, known as the 2nd Divine Sword.
Because of that, the Black God Church was having trouble reviving.
All they had were Cores to make Mutants, but they'd already used up all the low-grade Cores and Si-woo had subjugated all the Mutants too.
"How did a Divine Sword User get so strong in such a short time?"
"As long as Hanseong and the other Hunter Academies remain, they'll be a huge obstacle to reviving our Black God Church."
"Especially this year's batch is no joke. Even excluding the Divine Sword, there's Yoo Eun-ha with her Light Speed alias, Flame of Purification Spear Han Soo-ji, Spirit Arrow Reina. Those are just the standouts, and the other classes aren't pushovers either."
They'd underestimated Hanseong, thinking it was an era of peace.
"Before they get any stronger, we need to either brainwash them or kill them."
They'll only get stronger from here, so we need to deal with them early or we'll be in trouble.
"We've lost many followers just dealing with the Divine Sword. And somehow that bastard Si-woo caught all our followers inside Hanseong. Who can we even send?"
"Then I'll go myself."
A man cut into the Black God Church executives' conversation.
This man had been supplying resources to the weakened Black God Church forces and handling their combat strength from the shadows.
Seeing the Black God Church he'd carefully nurtured starting to collapse from Si-woo's counterattack, he decided it was time to step in personally.
"You'll go yourself?"
"This Divine Sword seems even better than Jin-seok - wouldn't he make a perfect vessel?"
A vessel. A being needed to contain the evil god worshipped by the Black God Church.
Choi Si-woo, with his powerful strength and willpower chosen by the Constellation of the Divine Sword, was perfect as a vessel candidate for the Black God Church.
"True. But for our god to descend, he needs to be wrapped in Demonic Power, not light."
"What would happen if we put this SS Core into Si-woo?"
An ominous purple orb glimmered in the man's hand.
"Can you do it?"
"I'll do whatever it takes to tarnish the Divine Sword name."
The man smiled viciously as he quietly gathered his spear and left the church.
* * *
The Academy gave students free time until the Group Battle to work on teamwork.
The others were probably working hard, but we only matched positions for one day.
Teamwork my ass. It was consideration for Rosaria.
Excluding her, our teamwork was already solid, so we just practiced protecting the Healer.
And Eun-ha. Don't come to the Academy until I call for you.
What?
Somehow I delayed it but. It's dangerous. I'll call you on the day of the Group Battle.
Reina and Han Soo-ji found it suspicious too, but somehow he convinced them and they accepted it, and Rosaria had to go to the Hunter Association for church business.
My intuition is definitely right.
I needed to find out. Just what the hell happens in the near future.
At least I want to live.
If I can only live in this place that might be a dream or reality, I want to survive here until the end.
So I had to ask the Akashic Record.
"Akashic Record. What happens if we change the future? Like if Si-woo knows the future and takes out enemies early?"
[You can prevent immediate threats, but messing with Causality will end up causing new threats.］
So basically what Si-woo's doing is meaningless?
So the event where I die will just happen even bigger?
"Are you saying that if I'm fated to die, even if I prevent one death I'll just meet death again?"
[4/_#! ）4#41
I won't die?
"Then what about the black mister that still flickers in my vision?"
[Perhaps it's connected to that too.］
"Damn it."
The upcoming Mutant raid is connected to that black mister too?
Just what the hell was this body's Eun-ha doing?
This is absolutely not my fault. This is stuff the previous Eun-ha did.
Not me.
"What will I do in the future?"
[Unknown. But whatever you choose will just repeat.］
"Repeat?"
The Akashic Record wouldn't answer beyond that.
If I really pressed, it would probably answer. But I'm afraid of getting a brain hemorrhage.
I decided to stop here. No point in hearing more.
[The answer exists so close. Master just isn't looking for it.］
"I am looking. More desperately than anyone."
No way. If I die then the team and everything else is pointless. Moreover, if messing with Causality makes it harder to save this world from destruction, I absolutely need to stay alive. No, at least I should tell Si-woo.
Because he's the Protagonist. It might be a bit irresponsible, but if I tell him, he'll get stronger on his own. That's just what Protagonists do.
"Fuck, this is scary."
All I have is Acceleration.
Can't do shadow boxing with Acceleration and Parallel Circuit when I don't even know when they'll raid.
And I can't even do it for long.
It exhausts me completely. My whole body itches and even with cigarettes as treatment, I can't last long.
"If Causality was adjusted then this Group Battle is definitely it."
The huge Event of the Group Battle and the Academy's Barrier being lifted.
Even if they deploy Hunters, they won't deploy S-Class ones, and the domestic top Hunters will obviously only show up for the finals.
Can I really trust Firebat?
What if an SS-Class Mutant comes?
This is the worst case scenario. Si-woo is definitely stronger than in the original. Since Causality was adjusted they won't send a suitable Mutant. They'll definitely send one stronger than Si-woo like in the original.
The Nurse Teacher is useless.
Looking at the ranks of Mutants that haven't shown up yet means Si-woo took them out. Meaning Si-woo is at least A-Class.
If we assume the regression was before the final battle, then SS-Class or higher.
"No. Before the final battle Si-woo's hair turns silver and his eyes turn golden from divine awakening. Current Si-woo has ash-colored hair. His eyes are normal too."
So we need to estimate reasonably high.
A-Class maybe? Then an S-Class or higher Mutant could come.
S-Class means SS-Class. It's just a simple assumption, but highly possible.
The Mutant that raided back then was A-Class.
Even that was only because Si-woo could briefly synchronize with the Divine Sword.
Then what triggered that?
"Yoo Eun-ha's death."
In the end, Yoo Eun-ha's death drives the story forward.
The Akashic Record's words were bullshit no matter how you look at it. The nerve to arrogantly claim it has all the world's knowledge when it can't even read my status window.
So in the end do I need to let myself get killed by the Mutant raiding the Academy?
"...Fuck."
* * *
Internet Broadcasting Club
A woman was rifling through files.
The woman in dolphin pants and a white t-shirt was Lee Yoo-jeong.
She was digging through files she had made for a while.
"This is strange."
She had checked many students' status windows until now.
Though she couldn't become the heir to the Cheonsan Group, as its princess she used her ability to identify students with abilities suitable for Cheonsan among Hanseong's students.
Thanks to that she ended up making status files and recently wrote profiles for students left and right.
But sure enough, she couldn't properly read only Eun-ha.
This was humiliating for her.
Eun-ha who showed her the new world of Yuri. She desperately wanted to know her information.
"I'll figure it out no matter what."
The clue must be in those sealed characters made of special symbols rather than the name Yoo Eun-ha.
Characters made of weird symbols that aren't even ancient text.
Symbols that can be typed on a computer.
Yoo-jeong checked Eun-ha's status again.
She who had already seen and recorded it in her head could analyze Eun-ha's status again just from the hair Eun-ha dropped in the club room.
Name– Yoo=＠%[］[］ [）＠[］＠1
Age ?? years old
Gender Female
The name changed.
Just what happened for the name to change?
"Ah, I was being stupid."
These aren't just some characters. Rather than digging deeper by analyzing, these characters need to be 'decoded'.
The changed characters and previous characters probably meant the same thing.
Just what will come out when these characters are decoded?
Yoo-jeong felt motivation welling up for the first time in a while.
And several dozen minutes later. She screamed when she saw the decoded text.
* * *
Hanseong Academy.
Divine Sword User Choi Si-woo who sent Eun-ha home was biting his nails while pacing back and forth.
"I made sure Eun-ha can't come for a while, but when will the Mutants show up?"
[With bad luck, on the day of the Group Battle.］
"I really wish they'd come before then."
Si-woo glanced at Han Soo-ji and Reina working hard to raise their specs in the simulation training room.
Those two were definitely much stronger than before the regression.
Even if Mutants raid, they probably won't go down easily.
Rather, they'll be combat strength. They're probably stronger than the Hunters currently stationed at the Academy.
He strictly trained those two for the past 3 days too, so the Group Battle should be no problem.
"Since Park Jun-hyeok called Cheok Jun-gyeong from Class B is training at the Academy too."
The Black God Church's forces and other Mutants probably won't target the Group Battle day.
They've taken quite heavy losses until now. So they won't target the Group Battle day when at least A-Class high-ranked Hunters will be deployed.
"Then these few days are the critical period."
Right now the Academy only has Association Hunters and Guild Hunters.
There are quite a few, but they're B-Class or lower at best.
Though we can't ignore numbers, it's clear they'll get swept away if the villain is S-Class.
[Still, we can handle up to S-Class.］
"That's true but."
There's another problem. Even though he regressed, he didn't inherit all the power he had before regression.
He only synchronized with the Divine Sword. His body hasn't awakened enough to handle that synchronization yet.
Plus recently he's been focusing on impressing Eun-ha...
[You want to think about that at a time like this? Focus on scoring points from this incident.］
"Yes."
[Wait, I sense powerful Demonic Power. This is? You felt it too?］
A sinister malice that only those synchronized with the Divine Sword could feel. And intense Demonic Power that even normal Hunters could sense.
It was definitely from a Mutant. Otherwise there wouldn't be commotion outside.
"The battle with the Hunters has started."
[Seems this isn't ordinary. It'll be tough.］
"Still gotta do it. It shouldn't be something we can't handle."
There will be much bigger things ahead, so we can't get scared by just this.
At least it's fortunate Eun-ha isn't here.
Though we can't contact her, since there's no word from the Association, Eun-ha should still be at home.
Then we can relax.
Si-woo gripped his Divine Sword and walked out of the training ground.
And what his eyes saw was a man standing atop countless Hunter corpses.
"Why are you...?"
Seeing that man's face, Si-woo's face twisted with rage, despair, and hatred.
* * *