Episode 1135
Chapter 259: The Truth of the World, Your Truth, My Truth (4)

Rosa gazed into Jin’s trembling eyes, soaked with hatred, determination, and confusion. Within them, her past flowed like a silent river.

Twenty years ago, the Demon Empire’s conquest force reached the 13th dimension—the world where Rosa had lived. By then, the Demon Empire had already subjugated over a hundred dimensions, and Runcandel of the 13th dimension had no power to stop them.

Even without Keliak’s direct intervention, they couldn’t hold out for a day. Siron, who rushed back, was powerless alone.

At that moment, Rosa begged for her life.

Ziphl humiliated her, ordering Rosa to personally execute the last remaining Runcandel. She accepted the task.

The Demon Empire never trusted her loyalty. Yet Keliak showed a strange fascination with Runcandel—the first dimension to surrender among countless others.

“Keliak never trusted me,” Rosa thought bitterly.

No words came out. Sgeugeuk! Jin had already drawn his sword from her heart, snatched the orb from Rosa’s grasp, and was heading toward Valeria. To Rosa, fallen and fading, his retreating figure seemed like a slow-motion image.

Time felt frozen.

“But I guess I was interesting to him. He gave me the name Silin Ziphl and removed my oath.”

“Betray me whenever you want. You can never defy me anyway.”

From then on, Keliak saw Rosa that way. Not just Rosa, but he regarded all humans in the Demon Empire like that.

Following his orders, Rosa traveled across dimensions, earning her reputation in the conquest wars. Few in the Demon Empire had killed more Runcandel than she had.

Along the way, she reached Changseong and mastered arcane magic that only pure-blooded Ziphl could learn. By the time she stepped back from the battlefield to focus on hunting rebels, few within the Demon Empire even knew she was from Runcandel. Officially, Rosa Runcandel of the 13th dimension was declared dead.

From the moment she, as Silin, killed about thirty Valeria Histers of the Gray Owl rebel faction, the Demon Empire’s soldiers revered Rosa as a legend. She was the only one to succeed hundreds of dimensional gate missions.

“I always longed for it. For at least one world, a Runcandel strong enough to defeat the Demon Empire. If not a Runcandel, then at least one rebel with the power to kill Keliak.”

A Runcandel who couldn’t even stop herself couldn’t hope to challenge the Demon Empire, and a rebel she couldn’t defeat couldn’t kill Keliak.

So she drove every war and battle to be more ruthless, crushing even her fellow Demon Empire soldiers with cruelty that made them recoil.

That was how Rosa sought hope.

And now, here in the 677th dimension—the place where it all began—she finally found it. Jin’s sword piercing her heart was nothing less than salvation. She no longer cared about her life, as long as Runcandel could thrive again.

As Rosa watched Jin’s figure grow faint, she summoned her last strength and spoke.

“Live forever, Runcandel…!”

At the moment Rosa died, Jin too felt as if time had stopped.

It was because of the memory orb clenched in his hand. Reality blurred instantly, and Valeria’s past memories began to wash over Jin like a tide.

[This is incomprehensible.]

Soldret’s voice echoed.

He couldn’t understand why he had chosen Jin a thousand years ago. To choose Jin, he had to know that Jin would exist a thousand years later.

[I believed then, as I do now, that only Temar was hope. I prepared everything for Temar. I created this space with Lokia and set it so only he could enter. I believed I could resurrect him. That’s why I sealed away the lost memories of myself and Temar in the tombs, manipulated by Ziphl.]

Only Jin Runcandel was the Runcandel unknown to the Demon Empire. Therefore, he was the only hope.

Soldret learned this truth a thousand years after the Sword Demon War, when he met me.

I was the first to perceive the multiverse.

One day in 1808, I stumbled upon a record in an ancient archive that documented the multiverse: countless dimensions born from historical manipulation, the Demon Empire, and even their leader Keliak Ziphl.

Soldret had always used his power for Temar in every world, but there was no record of him ever defeating Ziphl.

All the records were detailed as if these events had already happened once. As I read, I became certain.

The end was coming. The world would be destroyed by Keliak Ziphl of the 33rd dimension.

“I don’t understand either, Soldret. This place is clearly the pocket dimension you and Lokia created. Yet here lies Valeria’s archive.”

The very archive where I first saw the multiverse’s records was here.

This pocket dimension, which we prepared for Jin, was made by Soldret and Lokia. Yet even they didn’t know Valeria’s archive existed here.

[But why did I choose Jin? It can’t be unrelated to all this.]

“…When I first met Jin three years ago, I reached out to him unlike usual. I still don’t know why I did. I was running from Ziphl, barely able to save myself, yet the moment I saw him, I felt an overwhelming urge to reach out.”

Three years ago, Jin became my disciple, found new meaning in life, became my lover, and Soldret’s contractor.

Now, mourning Jin’s death, I plan his future with Soldret in this dim space. Jin died a meaningless death while we were busy studying the multiverse’s records.

Is all this really coincidence?

Perhaps I’ve already lived through it all once and failed to stop Ziphl, leaving behind these records.

Or maybe, since time flows differently across dimensions, some Valeria Hister in another dimension created this archive here—a rebel named Valeria Hister, known as the Gray Owl.

My head was spinning. As Soldret said, it was incomprehensible. I couldn’t even tell where the incident began, and the paradoxes were hard to accept.

But one thing was clear.

Our sole mission was to stop Ziphl. And we chose Jin, who died for that cause.

He alone was the Runcandel unknown to the Demon Empire, the one Soldret chose a thousand years ago, and the only one I reached out to first.

Above all—

If I hadn’t met Jin, I would never have seen the archive in Soldret’s pocket dimension.

If I hadn’t met Jin, Soldret would never have known the truth of the multiverse.

If I hadn’t met Jin, I too would have resisted Ziphl without knowing the truth and eventually met my death.

So I chose Jin. There were too many questions that couldn’t even begin without him. But even if not, I probably would have chosen him—just as Soldret did a thousand years ago, without any reason.

Two years have passed since then.

No matter what we tried, there was no way to bring Jin back. We found parts of his body, but that wasn’t enough. Too much time had passed since his death, and even the Tears of Numerus, which we obtained with great difficulty, had no effect.

August 2, 1810, 7:22 p.m.

The Demon Empire’s invasion began. Soldret and I fled the hellscape of Inse in an instant, retreating to the pocket dimension.

Runcandel and Kinzelo never believed us until the end.

But even if they had, what would it have mattered? They couldn’t even handle the historical manipulation by Ziphl in this world, let alone the Demon Empire. Siron Runcandel had fallen into demonic corruption, and Orgal Remilias couldn’t even stand without the Solar Blade.

[According to the records we confirmed, the Demon Empire began their attack on this land at exactly that time. We can’t stop Ziphl like this. Soon, this place will be discovered too.]

If that happened, it would be the end. This was the last world not yet conquered by the Demon Empire.

Nothing is written about what happened next. Even if we could revive Jin now, would he have the power to stop the Demon Empire?

If there’s any good news, it’s that we still have one option left.

“We have to turn back time, Soldret.”

[…Yes, that’s the only way.]

Turning back time.

That was the method we chose to save Jin. More precisely, I chose it.

Soldret could reverse time at the cost of his own existence. But from the moment he realized this, he saw it not as a way to save Jin, but as a means to resurrect Temar.

By turning back time a thousand years to before Temar’s death, preventing Ziphl’s historical manipulation from ever happening—that was the fundamental solution to erase the multiverse.

But his power wasn’t enough to rewind that far. According to Soldret, thirty years was the current limit. He was searching for a way to extend that period, but the Demon Empire didn’t wait.

Thirty years—the number itself pointed to Jin. If he were alive, Jin would be thirty now.

[Hopefully, not just here, but all dimensions’ time will rewind thirty years. That way, the Demon Empire won’t be able to invade this world again so soon. Valeria, someone must remember this…]

As he summoned the power to reverse time, I found Jin’s upper body, sealed with magic.

I began engraving records onto his body—records that might be erased by time or might be passed down as they were.

You will be reborn.

Don’t forget us then. Don’t forget any of this.

[Valeria, if I go back thirty years, I’ll cease to exist. Everything will change… Of course, you and I won’t meet, and it’ll be impossible for Jin and me to make a contract.]

If Solderet turns back time, a completely new history will begin—one that no record has ever captured.

[We’re putting everything on Jin. We’re placing an enormous burden on him…]

Nothing is certain.

Is it only our world’s time that will rewind? Can we break the demon’s seal and restore the world to its rightful place? Will Jin be able to access the records I left behind? Will we ever meet again?

We don’t know any of this, but we chose Jin.

Maybe it’s just our selfishness. Even if it’s the end, maybe it’s better to just let things flow as they will.

[Take care of what’s behind us, Valeria. And… Jin.]

Solderet’s body suddenly shone brightly, and I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, I found myself facing an endless, pure white space.

It was a dimensional passage.