CHAPTER 49: SURVIVE

Xenos, after many hours of well-needed sleep, eventually fluttered his eyes open.

Before he could move or even think—

Ding!

His system arrived.

—

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║OVERFLOW!║

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║☆ LEVEL UP X 5 ☆║

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[EXP = 500]

[Level: 17 → 22]

[+ 15 STAT POINTS!]

[You Have Stepped Closer To Divinity.]

—

’Hoh...’

As expected, breaking the Rune was the way to go.

A few more levels and he’d be as strong as a seasoned Priest...

—

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║Game System Online║

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{Level: 22}

[• EXP: 75 / 128 •]

{Health Points}

[• HP: 296/296 → 566/566 •]

{Divinity}

[• D: 304/304 → 666/666 •]

{Statistics}

[Strength] 15 → 19 (E → E+) (World Avg: C+)

[Intelligence] 20 → 28 (D- → D) (Academy Avg: C+)

[Willpower] 20 → 25 (D-) (Academy Avg: C+)

[Speed] 17 → 20 (E+ → D-) (Academy Avg: B-)

[Endurance] 20 → 24 (D-) (Academy Avg: B-)

[Appearance] 70 (B+) (Academy Avg: C)

[Personality] -1 (G) (Academy Avg: C)

[Luck] 60 (B) (Academy Avg: C)

—

All this effort was more than worth it.

Perhaps he was ready to start doing the more insane stuff now, like, for example...

’Hey Eris, and good afternoon.’

Xenos pushed himself up.

’Good afternoon, and yes?’

He took a moment, thinking about how much he wanted to reveal, and continued:

’Can you lead me to one of your Followers, Nikalaos Andreas, the bearer of the now Time Rune?’

Eris was the one who now took a moment, many thoughts going through Her pretty head.

’...Yes, he seems not to have moved in a while, but... how do you know—’

She cut Herself off before completing that sentence, knowing full well by now how secretive and cautious he was.

’Does it relate to you taking over this body?’

Xenos nodded, appreciating Her gentleness.

’Yes, it does, and call it my transmigration.’

He could hear Her nod.

’I see. Thank you for answering that. I’m sure it wasn’t something you liked doing.’

Xenos shook his head.

’No, I might be crazy, but at least I know how forthcoming you are with me, always putting me first, so I should do this at least.’

What a rare moment this was...

A deranged man and a chaotic but gentle covered Goddess being direct with each other and genuinely listening to each other...

Too bad it wasn’t going to last.

’So where is he?’

Xenos had a man to kill.

Ding!

—

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║NEW QUEST!║

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[Objective: Kill Nikalaos Andreas]

—

And his system knew that too.

***

Nikalaos was a coward.

He wasn’t ashamed of it, at least not anymore.

He had been, once upon a time, back when he still cared about his House’s reputation and the people who whispered behind his back.

But that was before the incident... before the night he’d gotten himself drunk and picked a fight with some Runebearer in a backwater inn.

Only later did he find him to be a Hades heir.

And he, Nikalaos?

Nothing more than a middling fool from an old House that barely held on to its land.

Damn that Goddess, he should’ve never knelt to Her...

It was by accident; he fell for no more than a moment.

Almost instantly, he was accepted.

He saw not even a whiff of a Friend of God.

None of it made sense, but he’d long since given up on that.

In any case, he should’ve died that night.

He didn’t, and that terrified him.

Because ever since then...

Nikalaos knew they were coming.

Around him, the cave walls groaned as he paced back and forth, torchlight flickering across damp stone.

It wasn’t much, just a hollow in some mountain he crossed, but it was his hollow.

He’d spent the last few months digging into the earth like a mole, carving out tunnels, layers, and side chambers. Every inch of it was wired with traps, and Scrolls that he’d bought, which were spells stored in Divine Paper, all tested a dozen times over.

Tripwire spells near the entrance, sound-detecting spells in the ceiling, and explosive ones along the tunnel floor, covered with a thin sheet of dust so no one could see them.

He stopped at one, crouched down, and wiped sweat from his forehead.

’Still active.’

The thing was glowing a faint blue.

"Good girl."

He patted the Scroll like it was a pet.

"You always behave, don’t you? Hehehe..."

His laugh came out wrong, revealing his less-than-ideal state of mind.

His hands shook as he checked the next trap, then the next, and the next.

"The pressure spell still works... surge barrier intact... weaken-field humming."

Nikalaos mumbled to himself as he went, the sound of his voice making the loneliness less suffocating...

He hated silence.

Silence meant something was listening.

Every time he thought about closing his eyes, he’d see that night again.

The flash of red, the fire escaping that man’s palm, the feeling of power so absolute it made him want to vomit. He’d barely escaped with his Rune intact. Literally.

It wasn’t luck, no; all he had was Calamity.

That was pure, pathetic, cowardly desperation.

And now he lived here, hiding and waiting for the day they found him.

He crouched down near a wall of hanging heads, where, beneath them, sat even more traps.

Nikalaos double-checked each tripwire, muttering, "Still intact... still active..." before stopping at one that looked like it was about to snap.

"Oh no, no, no, no. I can’t replace another one!"

He pressed his hand against the wire, pouring a bit of Divinity in.

Somehow, the trap reformed a little, stabilizing.

"Good. That’s better."

He stood up, cracked his neck, and exhaled.

"All operational. Everything is perfect. No one’s getting in here."

He smiled, a crooked, tired—

Schwing!

Something fast moved through the air.

With it came a whisper and a glint.

Before he could even turn around...

Thud!

The world went dark.

When he opened his eyes, he wasn’t in the cave anymore.

He floated in an endless and still blackness.

And before him... something spun.

A glowing ring of light.

No, not a ring, a Rune.

His Rune.

Fortune’s Wheel.

It turned endlessly, a ticking clock that had lost its rhythm.

Once, twice, three times, until it finally...

DING!

Stopped.

A blinding flash followed.

Blink.

"AAAAGGGHHHHHH!"

Nikalaos screamed awake, stumbling backward while clutching his neck.

His heart was beating, his lungs were working, and his hands were shaking.

He looked around the cave in a panic.

The torches and the spells—he’d studied them for long.

If anything were different, he would easily know.

And they looked as they did earlier.

All were EXACTLY as before.

Nikalaos couldn’t doubt it.

"I..."

His knees buckled.

"I died."

It wasn’t possible.

"I really died."

But the ache in his chest said otherwise.

"If I didn’t choose Time..."

His voice trembled.

"...I’d be gone for good."

His breathing quickened.

"Who—who in Tartaros—who killed me?!"

Nikalaos started roughly biting his nails.

"It has to be them."

He could feel the pain and taste the blood, but he couldn’t stop.

"It has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be them, it has to be—"

The man had snapped.

"You useless things!"

Nikalaos turned toward his traps.

"You’re supposed to WARN me! You were supposed to trigger!"

He slammed his foot into the wall, beyond crazy.

"You think you’re clever, huh?! You think you’re funny?! Worthless—"

"So you really can go back in time~."

His body went rigid.

That calmly playful voice.

He turned with wide eyes and saw him.

A tall, lanky figure leaning lazily against the wall.

This was no man... he had to be...

He had to be a Daemon!

"It’s funny."

The figure tilted his head.

"You’re a time-looping mortal. How... useless."

Nikalaos opened his mouth, but no words came.

"Ah—"

A sword slid clean through his chest.

He felt the cold aftershock of Divinity being snuffed out.

"You will run out of Divinity."

The Daemon whispered.

Blink.

Time rewound.

Nikalaos stumbled back to the start once more.

"FUCK!"

He clutched his skull, his mind racked with pain.

"It worked again! It actually worked!"

The man didn’t stop to think or wonder how.

He just screamed again and again while running out of the cave.

Unbeknownst to him, something beyond him had touched his Rune.

Xenos’s Calamity.

It shouldn’t have been possible for the Rune to activate twice.

There was no way it could; it was a one-time use ability.

A Rune so impossibly impossible that its success rate was a statistical anomaly.

This here was nothing more than a divine error.

A scene so impossible that it could be called a...

Glitch. Yes, a glitch.

And yet it kept working.

Because, well, Xenos’s Calamity wanted it to.

So Nikalaos died again.

Again and again...

And again, and...

Again.

Each time faster and messier.

Xenos always found him.

It was destiny.

By the fifth regression—

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!"

By the seventh—

"HOW DO YOU KNOW?!"

By the eighth—

"CAN YOU SEE THE FUTURE?!"

By the tenth—

"IS A GOD HELPING YOU?!"

Each time, the answer was silence.

And each time Xenos killed him without hesitation.

By the twelfth—

"Ah."

Nikalaos slipped.

A stupid misstep, his foot catching on a rock.

He cracked his head on the floor before Xenos even swung.

Was this really destiny? Or just bad luck?

It didn’t matter.

He died anyway.

The loops went on.

One hundred.

Two hundred.

Five hundred...

He stopped keeping count and stopped fighting back.

Sometimes he’d beg, sometimes he’d laugh, and sometimes he’d cry.

Each time, though, Xenos was a little closer to ending this all.

Until, at the very end, on loop seven, seven, seven...

Nikalaos finally saw him clearly.

He saw his pale skin.

His flash white hair.

And something that could never be missed.

Gray eyes empty of everything but a faint, cruel curiosity.

"W-What are you...?"

They both knew the answer.

This... Daemon was Nikalaos’s death.

"Your hunt has ended..."

There was a flicker.

"Break."

His vision blurred before suddenly...

His head pounded, leaving his shoulders.

But how? The Daemon was far from him?!

Had his rewinds attracted another?!

Oh, it didn’t matter.

His eyes saw the night sky...

The one bright moon.

Ugly.

It was so ugly that night.

***

Indeed, Xenos wasn’t who killed that man.

It was someone else... someone much stronger.

Xenos knew it at first glance; Nikolas’s killer was a Priest.

A Runebearer likely many levels above him.

He, once the hunter, became the prey.

Now he had one objective...

Ding!

One quest.

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║QUEST UPDATED!║

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[New Objective: SURVIVE]

—

’...damn.’