CHAPTER 135: SHE’S NOT A REGRESSOR

[The battle that was to be fought eternally.]

’It all started when Captain Rose was still around our age... actually, it started way before that.’

When the Witch who put the curse on this floor was still around, she faced a terrible accident due to the demonic forces that had chased her all the way down to this floor.

Back then, she lost something precious to her, or it was better to say that she almost lost something precious to her.

’The demonic forces had injured her subordinate severely. The wounds were not something that would heal immediately, so the witch did something that she should not have done.’

Turning the entire floor into a spell base, she cursed the land that was peaceful and normal.

[The Curse of Lament]

She created an elaborate time loop that trapped everything, including the people of the cities, as well as the creatures that turn into monsters, in a special world.

Every ten years, the cities’ people would experience a tragic monster attack that wasn’t supposed to be logical. It was a phenomenon meant to be for the higher floors and not something that should happen on the lower floor.

But she made this phenomenon different from the actual ’Crimson moon’ that appears around the higher floors.

The Red Moon was the indication of the loop’s completion.

Every time the red moon arrived, the town’s people would have to defend themselves against the monsters, against the threats, and survive somehow.

The loop was not a trap, but a training module aimed to strengthen the people, and ultimately, the subordinate of the witch that was wounded by the demonic forces.

’The Grandmaster Rose Blazeborn became captain Rose and re-lived a false life with false memories.’

Every night, she fought the monsters in her dreams, and she gained experience to fight against the Demonic forces that were actually trapped around the floor.

’The unique monsters are the things that carry the fragmented powers of those demonic creatures.’

Eliminating them was the same as eliminating the powers of the demonic forces that were sealed under the curse.

Every time Captain Rose experienced this battle, she would learn something from it. In this simulation that went on for not one dream but for all the years she had spent as Captain Rose inside of this cursed land, she would gain precious experience.

Over the years, as she slowly finished the creatures of the monster waves, she also chopped away the powers of the demonic forces, slowly weakening them.

’The players’ appearance was not part of the loop, so the ’curse’ that was supposed to work the same way in this loop cycle as well, did not work like usual.’

With more of the demonic powers extracted, the curse produced more powerful beings containing demonic fragments.

’But we dealt with them before the monster waves.’

Now that the demonic forces were weakened to the most they had ever been, the curse would automatically push for further eradication of the demonic forces.

’With the appearance of Ziggy, someone Captain Rose can trust with her life, she, as a connective circuit of the curse, was able to open up a new path that had not been possible in the past.’

She has had students before, people she could trust and people she had taught herself, but in the simulations that were played every night, she saw them struggling against the monsters and falling to them miserably.

She did not want to see them suffering; it was difficult for her as well, so she left them behind. And as soon as she did, she was back on the battlefield on her own again.

’The curse made her experience the worst; there was just enough to strengthen her enough to be able to go against those monsters by herself.’

It wasn’t right, but that was just how the curse was made.

The loop that went on for so many years had, in fact, taken many lives. The flow of time may have been in a repetitive format, but the happenings were not as simple as they looked.

Aside from her, every living being here was experiencing the flow of time differently.

The nights she experienced fighting against those monsters were the actual nights that were spent on the night of the red moon, and when she lost, everything would revert to the original day.

As a day passed for her and a new morning came, despite the ten years that had passed for her, along with the rest of the people on the floor, she would come back to the present day, leaving behind the memories of the years that had passed.

’Now, some might argue that she was the same as a Regressor, beings who come back in time.’

But that was not the case, no.

The nightmares that she was experiencing, the battles she fought, and the life experience she left behind when she woke up in a new morning were different from the reality that she had previously experienced.

The world may be the same, but her actions would change the current loop and then the ultimate outcome at this specific time after the initial waves were concluded.

’She was not a regressor...’

Not traditionally, at least. The cause of the rest of the loop was her death. The curse that had accepted the spiritual creature as its core, the fox-muffler wrapped around KiRA’s neck, was the thing that experienced the actual time regression.

Ultimately, the curse was there. The Captain was in the center of the curse. The Core of the curse was the fox, and by changing the core into something that they could destroy in the future, they would be able to deal with the curse.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

-BOOOOOOOOOOM!

-SWAAAAAAA...!

But there were monsters all around them right now, and soon, the weakened demonic forces would appear here as well.

’The battle that is ongoing with the players and the trusted natives of the land would only come to a close if we are somehow victorious.’

There were only two ways to win as well: either eradicating the demonic forces, which would be impossible, even with everything we have right now, or the second way would be what KiRA had planned.

[{ "Ziggy." }]

[{ "Is it time?" }]

[{ "Yes." }]

Sparks flew on the battlefield with the explosions and sounds of metal clanging present everywhere around them.

There were battles going on all around them. Players and natives were both currently fighting against the monsters that, by appearance, were just as ugly as the rest of the monsters of the waves.

They were not affected by the red rain, though, so they still retained their basic primal instincts, something that changed everything about the way the players were approaching them.

With the instincts to deal with the players while maintaining their lives to deal as much damage as possible, the players needed to work together to take down each one of them or work as their commanders instructed.

There were thousands of monsters present on this vast battlefield right now, coming out from the forest on all four sides.

The players and natives of the different cities who were now gathered in one place could see how they were fighting these monsters directly.

The command was still in the hands of the leading figures from each of the factions: Ziggy was the one commanding a portion of the association forces along with the Professor and the other representatives.

Dame Althea commanded the focus of the principality.

The northern forces were doing their own things with their different factions and individuals under them.

Among the natives, the ones like the vice captain of the 16th city, as well as the other powerful forces from different cities, handled the monsters in their own manner.

Since there was not enough space for everyone to move as they wished, there was mutual cooperation among the forces.

Putting their differences and rivalries aside, they fought for the shared purpose of survival. This was a battlefield where the enemy was the same, but still, the ones that proved to be the most helpful on this battlefield were not the powerful people who could take down the monsters on their own.

{ "Everyone, we will now begin a mass cleanse in the 12th section!" }

On a battlefield where hundreds of people were fighting, the role of the support class people or those with unique support skills like Izzy’s was the most helpful one.

The Saintess from the association, who had Mass buffing and healing skills, Izzy, who could harmonise a big group of people and connect them with a telepathic link, as well as the mages who had other kinds of skills, were the biggest help here.

The swordsmen and other weapon wielders were strong. There were Aura users and those who had their unique ways to fight were taking on the monsters on their own as well, but they were not as helpful as the healers.

-Clank! Clank! Clank!

-Boooooooooooom!

The battle was nothing special; however, Captain Rose could feel a unique faith in the people present around her that she had never felt before.

These were the same people who were strong enough to fight against the waves of the monsters and survive the calamities.

Thanks to them, the bloodied battlefield that was the land of corpses in her dream looked a little less like the hell she remembered from her dreams.

She could still feel some threat, a strange feeling she had felt before, but could not remember the exact origin of it.

But, at the very least, she was confident right now.