Chapter 371
Chapter 371
Marilyn couldn’t open her mouth. She stared at Zich’s chilling eyes and scrunched her nose.
‘How much does he exactly know?’ She wondered, but soon realized how meaningless it was to wonder. ‘He seems to know everything that’s important anyways.’ Besides, she heard something much more astonishing.
‘He went through a regression?’ How could that be possible? From what she knew, the only ones who regressed were the hero idiot and her master.
‘There’s no way there’s another person can regress…’ It wasn’t such a commonplace ability, but seeing Zich’s current behavior and attitude, it seemed true that he had regressed; and if he had really regressed like he claimed, Marilyn wondered what would happen if Zich used the power of the regression like her organization did. To say it simply, it would be an utter nightmare.
‘Even that hero idiot said he never had a satisfying win after regressing so many times.’
Zich’s dormant abilities were astounding. Thus, if he had the advantage of going through a regression on top of that—it made Marilyn’s mind dizzy. Would her organization even be able to beat him then? No, if people with the regressing abilities competed, would there even be a winner among them?
‘If Sir Zich really has a regression ability like that hero idiot, there’s no point in killing him here!’
To a person with the regression ability, there was no true loss; it was simply another trial and error. Even the quick-witted and intelligent Marilyn didn’t know what more to do in this situation.
‘Let me get more information for now and check if Sir Zich really has the same ability as the hero idiot.’ If that was really the case, she had to prioritize reporting the situation to her master rather than trying to kill Zich.
“Would it be all right for me to ask one more question?”
“Don’t you have more than one to ask? I’m sure all kinds of questions are circling inside your head right now like how I gained the regression ability, what the extent of my ability is, how it compares to your organization’s regression ability, and so on.”
“As expected of you, Sir Zich, you know me so well. Then, like you said, let me take back my request to just ask one question. Could you tell me the answer to everything you just mentioned right now?”
Lyla was impressed. Although Marilyn was baffled just a moment before, she had regained her calm once again and responded to Zich’s words comfortably. Indeed, she showed signs of a capable advisor whom Zich had relied on before the regression.
“Of course, as long as you accept my condition.”
“What is it?”
“Become my subordinate.”
“…”
Marilyn parted her lips. Joining Zich was a very appealing offer. Although it didn’t last long, she had been happy to accompany him. Furthermore, she would’ve joined Zich as his subordinate if the original plan had progressed like normal; however, the purpose of her joining was to bring upon Zich’s fall as a spy and that wasn’t what Zich wanted. Zich wanted her to completely leave her organization and swear absolute loyalty to him. She didn’t even need to think a second more for a condition like that. Marilyn shook her head.
“It’s impossible for me to fulfill that condition.” She thought for a moment of promising a false loyalty to Zich and going under him, but a shady method like that didn’t seem like it would work on the current Zich. ‘If I tried that, all my information could be stolen from me instead.’ It was a high possibility considering Zich’s abilities.
“You are quite firm. I suppose the brainwashing was very thorough to the point that it forced you to love a specific person.”
“Who knows?” She gave a mysterious reply but repressed the shakings on the corners of her mouth. ‘He even knows about that?’ she thought. She began to fear his knowledge more and more.
“Well, fine. As I thought, we can’t have a proper conversation.”
“You are misunderstanding. I want to have a proper conversation with you, Sir Zich.”
“Yeah, sure. How can I believe you? You were so dedicated even before the regression, which makes it hurt more that you were the betrayer.”
Zich lifted Windur. “Do you know about the people who will become your companions in the future? Vampire, Succubus, and Werewolf?”
“…I know.” There was no point in denying it now.
“Are you aware that I changed their futures?”
“I also know that.” It was one of the reasons why her master said this timeline was ruined.
“Joachim and Evelyn are going on a new path. They also became lovers.”
“Is that so? How great!” Was she pretending? Yet, Marilyn appeared like she was genuinely celebrating; there was no point in her acting right now either.
‘As I thought, she was made to feel affection for those guys beforehand too.’ This made Zich feel more complicated. “But it was too late for Tim. I met him after your guys corrupted him.”
“That is good news—”
“That’s why I killed him.”
“….!”
Marilyn shut her mouth. She knew that if she excluded herself, Tim was the subordinate who had gotten along the best with Zich. If they considered the fact that Marilyn had been set to match with Zich from start to finish, it might be accurate to say that Tim had naturally connected with Zich the best. Thus, it was more shocking to hear that he had killed Tim.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t think I would feel this kind of emotion. I had to kill one of my subordinates whom I treasured the most…” Mana began to pour into Windur. “I am sad, Marilyn.”
Zich’s body shot out like a flash of light. He sliced the shadows protecting Marilyn and sped forward. Simultaneously, large fireballs shot from behind and supported Zich by burning the surrounding shadows. Zich was fast. Although the surrounding shadows were battling him with numbers, Zich continued to spring forward as if they were hardly a hindrance. Of course, Marilyn didn’t stand still. When she waved her hand, the statues and shadows began moving again. They stood in front of Marilyn and covered her with their bodies while attacking Zich. The ones in the rear directly attacked Lyla, and Marilyn activated curses with her staff.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Explosions erupted continuously. Zich had moved deeper into enemy territory by pushing the statues back, but five stone statues blocked him this time. Shadows also rushed towards him. Of course, the shadows no longer posed a challenge to Zich right now. However, the problem was Marilyn’s curses that discreetly seeped through the gaps between the shadows.
Crush!
Light came out as Zich shattered a curse with his fist. From a glance, it seemed as if Marilyn’s curses didn’t pose any danger to Zich at all, and he was able to easily shatter them with his fists. However, this was not the case. They were a significant challenge to Zich. Marilyn’s curses came so close to Zich that he couldn’t slice them with Windur, so he had to fuse mana into his hand and shatter them with it.
Moreover, Marilyn’s curses went beyond just shooting lights towards him. While these curses were less effective, there were curses that Marilyn could immediately cast upon people as long as they were within her sight. Zich’s movements grew duller from the many curses already cast upon him. On the other hand, the curses that Marilyn could cast by sight were not very powerful curses. Of course, as a powerful curse caster, even Marilyn’s weak curses were strong, but Zich’s mana resistance was extremely high.
Slice!
Zich sliced a shadow that jumped from his side, and then smoothly swung his sword again.
Bang!
Windur shattered a curse that suddenly popped out from the shadow’s back.
‘He was able to block that?’ Marilyn was shocked. This was a skill that Marilyn hadn’t even shown in her practice battle with Lyla. It was a skill where she attached a curse to an insect she summoned or an ally, and when they reached the target, the curse would suddenly pop out and ambush its target. However, Zich was able to masterfully block this skill. Marilyn was certain that Zich hadn’t blocked her skill by merely reacting fast. He knew about this skill.
‘As expected, did he learn all of my skills before his regression?’
Marilyn was not disappointed. Only one of her skills had become ineffective. Moreover, she was the one at an advantage right now.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
While Zich was still moving forward, the situation was slowly leaning towards Marilyn’s favor. Zich’s strength was frightening, but since Lyla’s magic didn’t work on the stone statues, Zich and Lyla’s side was losing in terms of sheer power. Since Lyla was there and also a mage with weak defenses, Zich could also not move farther away to capture Marilyn either. The biggest role of those in the front was to protect those at the rear.
As the battle became more advantageous for her, Marilyn lowered her guard, and this feeling grew bigger as Zich and Lyla were pushed farther back.
“Sir Zich, why don’t you give up?” Marilyn continued, “If you give me all the information you know about regression, I’ll stop now. By the way, Sir Zich, you are a very popular figure in our organization.”
That hero idiot and her master both thought very highly of Zich. It was probably because of incidents that happened in different timelines, but Marilyn did not know what happened during those timelines and she didn’t want to know either. The only thing that Marilyn wanted was to be with Zich in all the timelines that repeated infinitely until her master could reach his goal.
“Regardless of your knowledge about the existence of regression, you’ll never be able to beat us in the end. We’ve been regressing for a longer time than you can even imagine.”
Marilyn’s voice sounded like a mother consoling her child, a lover whispering sweet words, and a devil tempting a human. “Regression is really an extraordinary power. I know how hard it is to give up. But no matter how hard and difficult life gets, if the whole world goes back in time, all your troubles and pain become nothing. Haven’t you already experienced it, Sir Zich? So you should forget all the hard and difficult things that are tying you down. Live together with me in this loop we don’t know when it’ll ever end. Forever.”
Marilyn’s eyes burned subtly as she looked at Zich. Her eyes were affectionate despite the signs of madness in them. Regardless of Marilyn’s intentions, Zich could definitely feel that her heart was at least sincere. Marilyn was a great beauty. Even though she was a bit less beautiful than Lyla, it was because Lyla’s beauty surpassed that of a human, and it wasn’t because there was any fault in Marilyn’s appearance. If a beauty like Marilyn spoke tenderly with love and affection, most men’s hearts would have wavered, but Zich’s expression did not change in the least. Instead, his expression was freezing cold.
“I refuse! I don’t need a life in which I’m played around by others. It’s much better to live a life the way I want, even if it’s just once!”
“As expected, that’s your final decision.” Marilyn let out a sigh. “Then, I guess it can’t be helped. I have no choice but to use a rough method.”
When Marilyn waved her hand, the statues and shadows’ attacks became even more rough. It seemed as if Zich and Lyla were going to be swept in by their attacks at any moment.
“How long do you think you will be able to last? As long as you have a burden called Lyla, it’ll be too much for you. Why don’t you give up?”
“I’ll give you one word of advice, Marilyn.”
“What is it? If it’s your advice, I’ll ardently listen to it with both my ears. If you also add in words of surrender, I think it’ll also be much better as well.”
“If it was you in the future, you would have never let down your guard even if I was getting pushed back. Even more so if an extremely skilled mage was with me!”
Crassssssh!
Zich made a wide swing with Windur and a strong storm made from his swing burst out. The statues faltered back.
Crash!
At the same time, Lyla’s magic sprung out, and Zich and Lyla’s surroundings became clean. However, Marilyn wasn’t troubled. The statues had merely retreated back a bit, and she could easily fill up the shadows again. Her advantage hadn’t changed at all.
Flash!
Lyla shot out a wind spell. Marilyn moved the statues in front of the spell’s trajectory; the spell that hit the statue would disappear without causing any damage. However, an unexpected sight appeared in front of Marilyn. Zich pulled Lyla’s magic towards Windur, swept it around his sword, and shot it back out with his mana.
“Huh?” Even before Marilyn’s dumbfounded voice fully disappeared—
Bammmmm!
The sound of the statue’s upper body ripping apart rang loudly in the tomb.