Episode 659
“Kill them all!”
The air was thick with the roar of battle cries and the clashing of weapons, echoing in Zeke’s ears. He lifted his head, surveying the chaotic scene before him, and muttered under his breath.
“Damn it…”
He was back at the beginning.
The recent events had confirmed one thing for him.
‘If either Alicia or I die, time resets.’
He couldn’t fathom why the past, conjured by the seed of the realm, kept looping in this manner. But the reason didn’t matter. The real issue was that if he couldn’t find a way out, he’d be trapped in this endless cycle forever.
As Zeke pondered, a hunting dog lunged at him from behind. Without even glancing back, he drew his dagger and swiftly dispatched the beast. He’d lost count of how many times he’d killed this creature.
‘I need to take down Cain, who even uses Shadow Armor.’
If he had his original powers, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But in his current reincarnated body, he couldn’t think of a way to stop him.
‘What techniques can I use now? There’s the Resonance Wave, the Soul Spell, and…’
As he slowly organized his thoughts, he realized he still had his most powerful technique at his disposal.
Gripping Gram, Zeke unleashed the power of the Elemental Sword.
Vrrrrr!
Mana surged into Gram, causing it to vibrate. Elemental power, which transformed mana into the four elements by channeling the will of nature, allowed Zeke to convert the mana concentrated in his sword into the power of wind.
Whoosh!
Though faint, he could feel the wind’s power infusing Gram.
‘But this reincarnated body lacks a dragon’s heart. I can summon elemental power, but it’s not enough to fully wield the Elemental Sword.’
Zeke decided to try using each of the four elements. The powers of wind and water seemed to have some effect, albeit limited. Still, he had to make the most of what he had to stop Cain.
Avoiding the imperial knights charging at him, Zeke stealthily made his way up the tower of Himonas Castle.
From the tower, he could already see Cain and Alicia facing off against each other.
At that moment, Alicia charged at Cain, channeling the power of the Grand Sage.
The image of Alicia being impaled by shadow blades flashed through Zeke’s mind.
Hidden from view, he sprang forward, swinging his sword at Cain.
Crash!
Zeke’s strike landed just before Alicia entered the range of the Shadow Armor’s attack.
Thud!
The shadows rose to block Zeke’s attack.
Taking advantage of the opening, Zeke dashed towards Alicia.
“Your Grace! Fall back!”
Alicia, startled by Zeke’s sudden appearance, instinctively retreated.
Just then, shadow blades erupted from where she had been standing.
Barely dodging the blades, Alicia looked at Zeke and asked, “Murray? What are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story. For now, we need to work together to stop him.”
If he couldn’t face Cain alone, he needed to find another way. He believed that by joining forces with Alicia, who wielded the power of the Wolf King Fenrir, they could find a way to defeat him.
Zeke explained to Alicia, “That artifact he has will attack with shadow blades or form a shield if you get too close.”
Alicia furrowed her brow at Zeke’s words. “An artifact like that? Incredible.”
Zeke tightened his grip on Gram and said, “I’ll distract him and block the shadows. When you see an opening, strike his neck. Your sword, Hershion, is made of orichalcum, so you’ll need to channel all your power into it.”
Alicia, though puzzled by Zeke’s knowledge of an enemy she’d never seen before, nodded. In their past life, she had trusted Zeke Murray that much.
“Understood.”
Zeke exchanged a glance with Alicia, then charged forward with Gram in hand.
Cain lashed out with an aura blade shaped like a whip at the swiftly advancing Zeke.
Zeke summoned a barrier with his Soul Spell to block Cain’s attack, using the recoil to leap into the air.
Whoosh!
Riding the wind currents of the Elemental Sword’s wind field, Zeke maneuvered in mid-air towards Cain.
Cain attempted to ensnare Zeke with shadows as he soared above.
‘Now’s my chance.’
Zeke concentrated elemental power into Gram, summoning a field of water.
Crash!
Zeke’s sword altered the flow of the shadows, slicing through them as he advanced on Cain.
Zeke unleashed the ultimate sword technique he had perfected beyond the Dragon Slayer and Dragon Sword techniques: the Infinite Sword Art.
Infinite Sword Art Secret Technique
First Form
Sun and Moon Slash
Zeke’s sword unleashed a slash that could cut through even the sun and moon.
Caught off guard, Cain retaliated with a powerful red aura, sending a strike towards Zeke.
Crash!
The clash of their attacks created a violent explosion.
In that moment, Zeke spun around, driving his sword into the ground to unleash a Resonance Wave.
Vrrrrr!
The wave disrupted the function of Cain’s Hershion for a brief moment.
As the attack landed, Zeke shouted, “Your Grace! Now!”
Cain, startled by the shout, turned to see Alicia closing in, her sword raised high.
He tried to summon the Shadow Armor, but Alicia’s sword was faster.
“Haaah!”
Alicia’s sword, imbued with the power of the Grand Sage, pierced Cain’s neck.
Crunch!
The orichalcum Hershion, the armor of the goddess Theia, seemed to resist Alicia’s sword.
But Alicia’s power was too much for even orichalcum to withstand.
Crack!
As she poured more strength into her attack, her sword began to penetrate the armor.
Cain’s eyes widened in shock beneath his helmet.
“This can’t be…!”
Slice!
Alicia’s sword severed Cain’s neck.
Thud!
Cain’s head hit the ground with a dull thud.
With the Shadow Armor dispelled and Theia’s Hershion reverting to its original form, Zeke finally felt a sense of relief.
‘It’s done. I’ve stopped him and saved Alicia.’
He had passed the trial set by the seed of the realm.
But then, it happened.
Vrrrrr!
Zeke’s vision went black.
“Kill them all!”
The familiar roar of battle cries and clashing weapons filled the air once more.
Zeke looked around, bewildered by the all-too-familiar scene.
“Why?”
He had thought that defeating Cain and saving Alicia would resolve the lingering regrets in his heart and end the trial.
Yet, despite killing Cain, time had reset again, proving his assumption wrong.
‘Then what is it that they want?’
Zeke pondered, suspecting that perhaps he needed to be the one to kill Cain, not Alicia, to end this trial.
With a new goal in mind, Zeke managed to kill Cain with his own sword on the fifteenth attempt, rather than relying on Alicia.
But even then, time reset once more.
Killing Cain wasn’t the key to escaping this abyss of the past.
Crunch!
Returning to the same spot for the hundredth time, Zeke killed the same hunting dog with a weary expression, gazing up at the tower on the fortress wall.
And he realized a truth he didn’t want to accept.
‘I’m trapped here.’
Just like the malevolent god Azitahaka and the evil god Chaos, who were imprisoned in isolated realms, Zeke was trapped in this endlessly looping prison of time.
He wondered if the twisted constellations had deceived him, luring him into this prison of his own accord.
Lost in thought, he sat down, leaning against the fortress wall, seemingly exhausted.
Boom!
Nearby, the battle raged on, with soldiers killing and being killed, and cannonballs reducing the walls to rubble.
In the midst of the chaos, Zeke sat there, detached, as if he were an audience member watching a dramatic play unfold on stage.
Then, a thought crossed his mind.
‘A stage?’
A play is always performed on the same stage, with the same actors, repeating the same story.
Zeke felt as if he were trapped on an eternal stage, a play that would never end.
In his past life, he had been an outsider to this stage.
The story had ended with Himonas’s defeat in this war, and the Northern Duke taking his own life.
And Zeke had wanted to change the ending of that play.
‘But what does that mean?’
By returning to the past, his previous life had already been erased, and all those deaths had never happened.
Zeke’s gaze fell on Gram, the sword he held.
The indescribable darkness had given him Gram, a weapon that shouldn’t exist in his current life.
As if passing a prop from a finished play to another stage.
In that moment, a thought struck Zeke.
‘Is my past life truly gone?’
He had assumed that because time had reset and he was living a new life, everything he knew had vanished.
But while time and the world had changed, what had existed hadn’t disappeared.
The proof was Zeke himself.
Zeke couldn’t deny the existence of a past life, a vanished stage, as long as he remembered it. Though the stage of that timeline was no longer visible, its essence lingered deep within him.
The moment he realized this, a message appeared before his eyes.
[In response to the user’s realization, the seed of the domain blooms.]
[The unique domain ‘Vanished Stage’ has sprouted.]
Seeing the message, Zeke stood up. Somehow, he had transformed from Zeke Murray into Zeke Draker, dressed in attire befitting the latter.
He was never meant to be a performer on this stage. He had merely defined himself as a character suited for the role he desired.
Another message appeared before him.
[By linking with the unique domain ‘Vanished Stage,’ you have acquired the unique power ‘Immutable.’]
[The user can retain their identity on any stage through the power ‘Immutable.’]
At first glance, the ability to retain one’s identity on any stage might seem trivial, but Zeke thought otherwise.
To confront Apollyon, the sun god at the pinnacle of all constellations, one had to enter his unique domain. Apollyon’s domain was akin to a stage he had crafted. The master of the stage could assign roles to those who entered and manipulate them as desired.
However, if one could retain their identity, they could act contrary to the stage master’s wishes. Zeke was immutable, capable of choosing his own role.
Rumble!
The sound of Himonas’s walls crumbling echoed again. Zeke raised his hand, and astonishingly, time froze, halting everything. This was possible because the ‘Vanished Stage,’ a part of his past, existed within his domain, allowing him to control it at will.
Zeke also realized he could summon the non-existent vanished stage into his unique domain. As he surveyed his frozen stage, he slowly spoke.
“Twisted constellations, I permit you to ascend this stage.”
With his words, the scenery began to change.
Rumble!
The crumbling Himonas fortress vanished, replaced by a bizarre landscape. Columns inscribed with indecipherable symbols from an unknown civilization stood haphazardly, and the walls bore a variety of disparate artworks. The bricks on the ground were a chaotic mix, lacking any sense of uniformity.
It was a world truly twisted.
Zeke had allowed the world of ancient, now non-existent beings to enter his unique domain. As the scene completed, he turned to face a peculiar door, layered with countless styles, and approached it.
He reached out, and as the door slowly opened, another message appeared before him.
[You have discovered the Shrine of the Twisted Constellations.]