Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

REAPER SCANS

Only three days after leaving the ravine, Allen arrived at the forest he’d located the witch to be in.

“We… we have arrived, sir.”

The coachman—who hadn’t made a single stop—appeared tired of the nonstop driving. The frame of the carriage had slightly bent and was covered by scratches everywhere.

“I’ll go alone. If a day passes and I don't come out, go ahead and return to the city.”

The coachman hid behind a distant rock with a frightened look on his face, as though he could feel that the witch was here.

“Y-yes, sir.”

Allen smiled briefly at him before looking at the dim forest ahead of him.

⟬Did he say that there’s no name for the forest? I mean, I guess there are no herbs or mushrooms or anything like that. It is just another forest, like any other…⟭

Allen thought of the questions he’d asked about the forest while still in the carriage.

He wasn’t going to allow anyone else to go into this forest anymore.

‘It’s not like there aren’t any other forests around here, so people should be able to stay away from here.’

The word ‘witch’, alone, was ominous enough. That people would shy away should be the natural result.

As though she were displeased with simply looking at the forest as Allen had been, Vestla—who waited by Allen's waistline—murmured:

⟬Hey, didn’t you say we’re almost outta time? Aren't we gonna go?⟭

“No, I need to check this out for a moment.”

Allen squinted and stared within the forest. His senses rushed out and headed towards the depths of the forest, but Allen couldn't feel anything there.

Almost as if there weren’t a witch.

‘Could this be a trap?’

He’d stretched his senses out into the forest the second he stepped out of the carriage, but he’d been thwarted by the trap that the witch had likely prepared to counter him and hadn’t been able to find a thing.

‘This’ll be my first time fighting a real witch.’

Allen’s heart beat slightly quicker than usual. He’d never battled a witch before, not even in his previous life.

⟬What’s wrong? Scared? Earlier, you struck a pose and proclaimed, ‘Witch, I'm coming for you!’⟭

“Who said that?”

Allen smirked and grabbed Vestla's handle.

It was a new feeling, chasing the witch and destroying the source of the curse that ate away at his people. It was something that Julius had done in his previous life. Allen just had a strange feeling about doing the same thing himself.

He narrowed his sensing range to just his immediate surroundings and stepped forward. The old leaves rustled and crumbled at his pace—neither slow nor fast. The moment he took another step—

Step.

⟬Oh.⟭

—his surroundings changed. 

But Allen wasn’t taken aback.

The moment before the landscape around him changed, he had sent out a thread and lowered his posture.

“…Even without granting us a proper greeting, I'm sure she knows we're here.”

⟬Who knows if she's watching in secret and making preparations?⟭

“That's funny.”

Allen moved without lowering his guard.

The forest was quiet. Submerged in silence—absent even the buzzing of insects—it was reminiscent of his time at the Spring of Spirits. However, unlike that forest filled with vitality, this one was gloomy, as if fully deprived of life.

A bleak wind blew across the barren path.

There were no living creatures in the dead forest.

‘Even after the witch dies, this land will remain distorted.’

As he continued on to the center of the forest, where the witch was meant to be, Allen opened his mouth.

“Do you know anything about witches?”

⟬Hm… not really? I’ve never seen one directly, so I don’t really know anything.⟭

“They're crafty buggers. They ruin people—cast the curses that are going around now. You really don’t know anything?”

⟬I knew maybe a thing or two like that?⟭

“I thought so.”

Allen deliberately acted as if he were showing gaps in his defense during his conversation with Vestla, yet nobody attacked.

Once they’d reached the center of the forest without any trouble, Allen realized the strangeness of the situation. 

“Why is no one attacking?”

⟬…Huh, I don't know. Maybe she ran away?⟭

He’d thought that monsters, zombies, or, at least, her servants would try to attack him.

Allen picked up his pace. Something was off. Had she not prepared anything? It was weird, but it didn't make sense to run away now. It'd be better to set a trap of his own, instead…

⟬…Was the forest always this big?⟭

“What?”

Allen stopped walking.

“What?”

⟬…Ah, I didn’t mean to kick you. Are you alright?⟭

“No, not that. What did you say before?”

⟬Was the forest always this big?⟭

“Good catch.”

Allen bit his lip and kicked the ground, as if he realized something.

Violent steps smashed trees and rocks, blowing dust away. Surprised by his sudden actions, Vestla cried:

⟬What are you doing?! What if someone attacks you!⟭

At one point, after the strong giant’s body had advanced through the forest, tearing down everything in its path, Allen stopped.

⟬Aren’t sorcerers supposed to be rational people?!⟭

“Take a look around.”

⟬What do you mean, ‘Look around’! You’re just going to destroy it all… Huh?]

Vestla, who’d been nagging him as much as possible, suddenly stopped.

“We should’ve already left the forest at this pace, but what about the surroundings?”

There was nothing different about it, yet Allen never made a fuss. The broken tree had returned to its original place, and the smashed rock remained intact, as if nothing had ever happened to it.

⟬Huh? Huh? What’s going on?⟭

From Allen's hand, she looked around several times and said in a puzzled tone:

⟬…Is this a hallucination? No, it can’t be.⟭

“To be precise, it's a barrier composed of an illusion.”

Allen frowned—a rare sight.

“I should have known from the moment you came to that conclusion, but I was careless.”

He had simply let it go with a vague acceptance that, of course, a forest housing a witch would feel so strange. The fact that the Spring of Spirits had a similar appearance helped sell the forest’s appearance to Allen.

‘Would it have been wiser to have avoided the barrier and looked for her in a different way?’

Allen thought coldly.

⟬…What are you going to do, then? Is there a way to break out of the barrier?⟭

Vestla asked in a rather serious tone. Allen slowly thought through his viable options.

‘Reverse calculating the barrier was always impossible.’

He only knew the basics of the barrier system, so it was out of the question.

‘Then, is there no other choice but to break down the entire space where the barrier is?’

As they had moved away from the entrance of the forest, they’d missed their opportunity to break the barrier down at its edge—the easiest location to do so.

So, then, what?

‘I’ll open a gap.’

There were direct and indirect points of contact between the barrier and spatial systems. Although he may not have been quite as efficient as a sorcerer skilled in the barrier system, it’d be possible for him to withdraw his own body.

This method was the most feasible because it’d be almost impossible to find the central axis of the barrier, the only other place where they could try to destroy it.

Allen quickly pulled together the threads scattered around him and pulsed out countless small shock waves. The waves vibrated through the space to search for a crack in the barrier.

‘A barrier this huge cannot be perfect.’

If he could find even one small weakness, he could open a gap.

Allen's hand tapped sound in the air busily, like it was searching for something. The barrier’s axis wasn’t over here. If you twisted this little wheel over here, then…

“Got it.”

Allen’s countless skeins of thread pierced into a single point in the air and began to twist themselves about each other. He felt something being forced open.

* * *

* * * 

The amount of mana consumed by this was unusual.

‘…Tsk, should I have studied barriers, too?’

Creeeeaaaaak…

Just when he thought he could escape safely if he had just a little time.

⟬Hurry, Look over there!⟭

Vestla, who’d been quiet to avoid distracting Allen, suddenly yelled.

Allen's eyes looked at where Vestla had shouted for him to.

Groan.

Shriek!

Gurgle.

Skeletons, ghouls, zombies, banshees, and other monsters.

Were they real? Or were they another fantasy? Either way, Allen and Vestla really were inside the barrier.

Allen took a stance with a smile on his face.

"You were right, Vestla."

⟬…Ahaha, really, now?⟭

Allen glared at her, and Vestla hurriedly closed her mouth and flew into Allen's hand.

"Don’t speak so carelessly next time."

⟬…Yes.⟭

As Allen swung, his threads weaved to form dozens of needles, flying toward the bodies.

“…I hope we can get this all done with today.”

Bang!

A wave of bodies approached.

* * *

Allen's sword struck down onto headless rusty armor. With a rattling sound, the figure turned into a pile of scrap metal split in half.

But that wasn't the end.

As if filling the gap left by the now-halved ghoul, a zombie with cracked, rotten skin pushed its way into his face. But as soon as he shook his fist, its head exploded, soaking the air with rotten brain juices.

How many were left?

“Vestla!”

⟬One minute!⟭

Allen shouted and launched Vestla into the air, and she quickly checked her opponents’ numbers.

⟬There're still a lot! What if their numbers never decrease?⟭

Allen frowned. They were not real—they were illusions.

‘No, they could be a characteristic of the barrier, just like how those trees and rocks returned to their original state.’

Either way, this spelled bad news for Allen.

Gurgle, gurgle.

A ghoul, revealing his hideous muscles, fell towards him head first with his knife-like nails still shining. Allen hit the air, bending the ghoul with a huge shock wave. He stomped the lowered head with his foot, collapsing the head into itself with just a touch.

The waves of monsters approached Allen ceaselessly. Even though he’d been able to take a look through Vestla’s eyes, there were still so many that he couldn’t see an end.

Allen used his new body.

With his overwhelming physical ability, he shattered the corpses’ bones, and blocked attacks with steel-like skin as a shield.

As he battled wave after wave of monsters, Allen thought. 

‘There’s no end to this.’

As if the witch had started manipulating the monsters, at some point they cleverly arranged themselves into formations and began to move in a way so as to finally start chipping away at Allen’s strength. 

‘Physical strength isn’t the problem.’

He didn’t think that his giant's body would collapse as a result of these kinds of attacks.

However, if the attacks were to continue, his mind would become tired, even more than his body. 

“Vestla! Grow!”

⟬Got it! Ha!⟭ 

Allen caught her body, falling under its heavy weight, and twisted it through the air. He screamed, feeling as though his muscles were going to break. The air around let out a swooshing noise as a shadow formed over their heads.

A slow-moving sword may only lead to overwhelming violence as a result of its weight.

Crash!

A ten-meter-wide divet in the ground formed around Allen as small pieces of meat scattered on the shattered ground and rolled around.

‘Even if I do this, it’ll all go back to its original state.’

But it didn't matter.

It was all to create a crack.

He immediately let go with his hand and gathered his threads. If these monsters were the servants of his opponent, and if those servants were subordinate to her, then…

‘I can take them away.’

[Contracts], [Domain], [Force], [Capture].

The four concepts drawn from his imagination mixed and transformed into a single technique. His thread split into thousands of strands and went for the fallen bodies lying on the ground.

The flesh began to wriggle and regather.

Allen laughed, satisfied as he witnessed the thread mixing itself into the flesh.

“Forced contract.”

As his core worked tirelessly, his hands moved delicately like a puppeteer.

“Go, monsters.”

Attack each other like crazy.

Before he even knew it, the monsters, who’d returned to their original forms completely, began to confront the waves of corpses still rushing towards him.

Allen supported their every movement with his senses, conjuring up a splitting headache.

'I can't keep doing this for long…’

He didn’t know much about the summoning system, so he had no choice but to control them manually.  Since they were already dead, Call of the Cradle wouldn’t work. He needed to find a way to escape as he bought time.

Seeing Allen troubled, Vestla—floating next to him—opened her mouth with a reluctant voice:

[…There is a way out.]

Allen endured the headache as he turned his head. The illegible characters engraved on Vestla’s black surface—something he’d thought just a decoration—began to flash and glow.

“Vestla, what is this…?”

⟬Once I do this, I don't know how long it’ll be until I come back. It could be a month—or even a year.⟭

“Didn't you say you had no special abilities?”

Allen asked in a disbelieving tone through his headache. Vestla replied, bewildered:

⟬Well, I only realized it a few days ago! Come on, make a choice quickly!⟭

Escape here now using her ability, or wait it out and find another way?

His answer came quickly.

‘It'd be a shame to use her powers now.’

He didn't know what kind of ability she’d have, but if there was only one chance to take that risk, it’d be much more useful to use it during a more significant and/or life-threatening moment than now.

But it wasn’t like there was anything else he could do otherwise. 

It wouldn’t be easy to escape the barrier unless his opponent left, first.

‘If we were to keep tearing down the forest until we found the axis of the barrier, instead…’

Most of the bodies that were controlled by Allen were already incapacitated, and time wasn’t going to stop.

⟬Hurry up and decide! You said you had work to do!⟭

‘Okay, let’s go.’

The moment that Allen opened his shut eyes and made his decision…

Shimmer.

The white book suddenly opened, and letters began to write themselves onto the white paper.

「The book connected to ◯◯◯◯ confirms the conditions. ◯◯’s presence is known! The target associated with ◯◯ is nearby! They want to stop ◯◯!」

「The conditions are met. ◯◯◯ ◯◯ (tentative name) is manifested!」

「Three steps to the right. Two steps back. A shock wave reaching up to 400 meters within eight seconds.」

"This is…"

A new variable had emerged.