I'm an Infinite Regressor, But I've Got Stories to Tell-Chapter 434

The one who is born again and again. Reincarnator (還生者).

The one who deceives like an illusion. Reincarnator (幻生者).

A being upon which those two meanings overlap.

That being’s self-imposed prison, the sealed cage of Emmet Schopenhauer, was cleaved cleanly in two by the Sword Saint’s strike.

And then—

—“Brother.”

The fractured surfaces of the shattered glass prison scattered.

Before the countless shards of mirror raining down could even reach the ground, something suddenly wrapped tightly around the back of my neck.

—“Mr. Go Yuri.”

It was the illusion of Go Yuri.

The scent of apples rushed sharply into my nasal passages.

A voice and gestures that Go Yuri must have been born with in some previous reincarnation whispered softly as she embraced me from behind.

It wasn’t something that happened to me alone.

—“Father.”

—“You’ve come all the way here to find me?”

—“Sister Yo Hwa.”

—“I’m so happy.”

—“Yeji.”

Every single member of the assault team.

From the shadows cast by each person, countless illusions—reincarnations—rose up one by one, exhaling sweet breaths and ensnaring the team members.

Kyaahahaha—laughter spread.

“……!”

Sounds of breath being sharply inhaled leaked out of rhythm from all directions.

An overwhelming, dense comfort drowned out the sense of duty to save this world. A sensation like the warm filling of an empty void in the heart one had searched for since birth.

—“Let’s become one.”

No matter how steadfast the mind, the soft whisper melted the brain into dizziness.

Only ten seconds had passed since the glass prison shattered.

The real battle hadn’t even begun, yet the assault team was already on the verge of being incapacitated.

Groans burst here and there across the battlefield.

“Ugh…!”

“Everyone, get a hold of yourselves! This is an illusion!”

—“Ahaha. Illusion, Father? That’s so cruel.”

“Ah, aaah. Aaaah—.”

Even the shouting awakeners’ voices lacked any trace of vitality.

Only then did I realize it.

Even under normal circumstances, Go Yuri could naturally capture a perfect 100 favorability with everyone around her as if breathing—but that, in truth, was because she had been holding herself back considerably.

‘Just hearing her voice makes the nerves feel like they’re burning away.’

A Reincarnator (幻生者) who had lost even the slightest will to remain human possessed no self-restraint.

Hungry, she devours.

A level of instinct no different from gluttony. The illusions of the Reincarnator caressed, stroked, and pulled at the assault members with desire indistinguishable from hunger.

“Jiwon!”

Amid the pink torrent of temptation, only two people managed to maintain their sanity from the start.

One was the extreme skeptic who, when the Reincarnator had been an infant, had strangled her rather than let her live in this painful world.

“Yes, Mr. Matiz.”

The other was someone who couldn’t be satisfied by an illusion like this—

the false regressor who desired only the one true Go Yuri that existed in this world.

Yoo Ji-won brought her hands together in prayer.

In that instant, an aurora spread across the ground.

“Haah…!”

“Th-thank you! Captain!”

Boom! Boom! The waves of aurora rolled out toward the distant horizon, accompanied by sounds like bursting bubbles.

The seven-colored aurora swept along the ground, erasing every shadow cast by the assault members.

As the shadows vanished, the illusions that Go Yuri had conjured by drawing upon them disappeared as well.

“Nice one, Jiwon unnie!”

Oh Dok Seo shouted with vigor.

Just moments before, she had been drooling and smiling under Go Yuri’s touch, but the traces of that unprofessional disgrace had already been scrubbed away furiously with a hand brush long ago.

“See that? As long as mental interference doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter if she’s been reborn hundreds of millions of times—she’s nothing! You pink, brainwashing-tentacled freak!”

“So this assault team’s leader-level humans have a culture of summoning their own clichés, I see…”

“Hah? What are you saying, old ma—”

Oh Dok Seo’s words didn’t finish.

“―――? ……!!”

Her lips moved, but no sound came out. No—sound itself had vanished from the battlefield.

“……, ……!”

“………!”

A silent outcry.

Not only voices, but even footsteps disappeared. Though hundreds of awakened ones stood here, not even a breath could be heard.

It was an unnervingly cold silence, but I was not at all surprised.

‘That’s Go Yuri’s ability.’

[Sound Sealing].

Having lived countless lives, Go Yuri possessed countless abilities.

Most of them she herself couldn’t clearly remember, for she lacked the ability to retain every memory.

Even so, the fact that the abilities existed remained true.

That’s why, in her prime, Go Yuri never fought with the thought, “I will now activate this or that power.”

When she thought, “It’s a bit too noisy,”

—That alone made sound vanish.

A realm close to omnipotence.

[……, ……!]

The sealing of sound wasn’t limited to the voice. Even the Saintess’s telepathy from the rear was instantly neutralized.

The Saintess was not slow to notice.

[Everyone, please don’t panic.]

The Saintess immediately grasped the situation and shifted her message delivery method from “sound” to “text.”

[The opponent seems to have chosen a strategy focused on neutralizing us, rather than directly attacking.]

[But we have prepared for every possible case.]

[Even if this type of battle feels unfamiliar, please trust the command and engage.]

Tktktktk—

Text appeared continuously before our eyes without even a second’s delay.

The Saintess must have been mixing in time-stoppage, saving even the spare moments wasted between keystrokes.

[Please attach the puppeteer Ha Yuryul’s puppet threads around your wrists or arms.]

[In case even text transmission is blocked, interpret and act according to the color patterns that light up on the threads■■■, ■■■.]

[■■■ ■ ■ ■ ■■■ ■■■―.]

Bzzzt.

The text was drowned in black static.

And soon, it stopped completely.

The moment I turned toward the direction where the Saintess should be, I realized she was gone.

Only the sensation of someone tightly gripping my hand remained.

“Mr. Undertaker.”

Time had stopped.

At some point, the Saintess had approached right next to me and taken my hand. Sweat beaded between her brows—she who had always worn an expressionless face.

“What is it? Ah, sound works here.”

“If I stop time, I can somewhat resist Go Yuri’s power. But… I don’t know how long this will hold.”

“Yes?”

“Go Yuri has the ability of [Time Acceleration].”

The Saintess groaned weakly, clearly strained.

“If I hadn’t rushed to stop time just now, decades would’ve passed here in an instant.”

“……!”

“Even if time flows slower within dreams, decades would still be too long. In the outside world, the White Night would’ve dawned, and our operation would’ve instantly failed.”

Damn.

The Saintess’s arm, holding my hand, trembled faintly.

A suppressed nasal sound—she was clearly engaged in a fierce struggle between [Time Stop] and [Time Acceleration] for control.

“Did Go Yuri… have this kind of ability before?”

“She had something similar. But that was only a matter of accelerating her thought processes, not the flow of time itself… Ah!”

I realized the cause immediately.

“This isn’t reality. It’s Go Yuri’s divine domain! It’s practically her deepest dream! So, in the end, accelerating her thoughts becomes equivalent to accelerating the flow of time itself!”

“…An ability to dream faster.”

The Saintess groaned.

“We misjudged. We planned our operation based on the powers Go Yuri possessed in reality… If your assumption is correct, Undertaker, then those powers have become far more terrible.”

“Yes. But there’s no need to panic. It’s natural for an Outer God to become stronger in their own divine domain.”

“That’s… true.”

Bzzzzt.

The Saintess’s voice twisted into static.

Even what she said was fragmented — “That’s / true / indeed.”

Even she, the strongest awakener, was being gradually overwhelmed. By the nightmare of red flesh, humanity’s oldest dream — the Outer God’s authority of Reincarnation (幻生).

“In this situation… regression might be the answer.”

The Saintess bit down hard, forcing the words out.

“We’ve at least scouted the opponent’s full power. This round wasn’t in vain. Maybe… we can leave the next assault to Oh Dok Seo and you, Undertaker…”

“That’s always an option. But we can’t assume this round’s data will only benefit us.”

Go Yuri, as a Reincarnator, possessed the ability of [Memory Reading].

“No matter what strategy we create, the moment Go Yuri’s illusions touch us, our information leaks immediately.”

“Ah…”

“That’s why she blocked sound and text, and accelerated time. She saw through our plan completely and chose the most efficient path.”

“She’s… counterattacking our strategy…”

The worst possible opponent.

“Retreating here won’t solve anything.”

There was a reason Go Yuri had concluded she must seal herself away.

Even if all humanity united without her, resisting this reincarnating monster would be hopeless.

And a Reincarnator couldn’t even commit suicide recklessly.

For her, suicide was merely the beginning of another life—and at that beginning, an even greater power would awaken once more.

The Saintess looked up at me with worry.

“Then… I’ll leave the decision to you, Undertaker.”

“……”

“No one else can stand at the same eye level as that Reincarnator but you.”

…Time was running out.

We had entered the dream-within-a-dream to overcome the absurd limit of “one minute.”

Now that the enemy had caught on and countered, this battle would inevitably come down to raw power.

If not for the Saintess leveling up early by joining Oh Dok Seo, she wouldn’t have been able to hold out this long. At this rate—

‘Wait.’

A flash of realization struck.

‘A divine domain… and deliberate level-up?’

I opened my mouth.

“One floor deeper.”

“…What?”

“Let’s descend one level deeper.”

The Saintess’s sweat-damp hair tilted slightly.

“One level… below? I’m sorry, Undertaker, but isn’t this the final level of Go Yuri’s divine domain?”

“For Go Yuri, yes.”

I raised a finger.

And pointed at my chest.

“But not for me.”

“…What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you this because no one else can hear us right now. I’ve always been at high risk of corruption—and after reliving Go Yuri’s entire life, I’ve stepped completely outside the bounds of an ordinary human.”

“……”

“This place exists because Go Yuri’s memories sank deep into her subconscious. Even with her vague recollections, she could unfold a domain like this. So then… what kind of dream would mine be—one that remembers every part of her life?”

“……”

The Saintess’s face turned subtly complex—a blend of seriousness and disbelief.

“Then… you’re basically admitting you’re already corrupted, Undertaker…”

“That’s why I wanted to be sealed and disappear quickly. It’s Oh Dok Seo’s fault for dragging me through hundreds of retries.”

“She only wanted to save you.”

“Saintess. We don’t have much time.”

I spoke quickly.

“I’ll fall asleep first. Link everyone through Ha Yuryul’s puppet threads. Then talk with Yo Hwa—once the time-stop breaks, bring the assault team straight into my dream. Understood?”

“…Yes.”

The Saintess stopped talking. She’d already given me command authority, so she didn’t question further.

For an instant, the feeling of her hand vanished—

“Ha Yuryul, I’ve spoken with Yo Hwa.”

The Saintess reappeared before me, switching the time stop on and off freely.

She held me with her right hand, and Yo Hwa with her left. Yo Hwa, freed from temporal restraint, was watching me with a grave expression.

“Teacher, I’ve been briefed on the operation!”

“Good. Saintess, how much time left?”

“I only released it for a moment, but already ten seconds have passed in reality. Undertaker, you have only ten seconds to end this.”

I nodded.

“I’ll go to sleep first. Bring everyone safely after me.”

“Understood.”

“Yo Hwa, I’m counting on you.”

“Yes!”

As Yo Hwa, the current ruler of the dream demons, clasped my hands tightly, drowsiness swept over me in an instant.

‘If this place was Go Yuri’s divine domain, then the battlefield will now shift to mine.’

Of course, that didn’t mean Go Yuri’s power would weaken.

As I told the Saintess, I remembered all her lives, and by those memories, the Reincarnator could always exert her abilities.

However—

‘There’s one difference: my domain holds allies that hers does not.’

Before I knew it, my eyes had closed.

“Ah.”

And when they opened—

“Ahaha, ahahaha—!”

Before me, orange ponytail swaying wildly, stood a girl.

A face identical to Yo Hwa—but wearing a black uniform instead of white.

“Ahahahahaha! Ahahahah! Ahahaha—!”

Mad laughter.

Her face flushed with excitement; her brows trembled with ecstasy; and from her throat, delight overflowed.

“Ahaha, see?!”

Cheon Hwa.

“I was right! I was right! Mm-hmm, senpai won! Sure, there were tons of unexpected variables, but who cares?! I bet everything on the winning side—that’s all that matters!”

A former member of the Regression Alliance—barely maintaining existence through me alone.

As the rest of the assault team followed behind into this new battlefield, Cheon Hwa ignored them completely and grabbed my hand.

“Welcome, senpai! My domain’s master! You’ve come so far—really, truly, good job!”

The final member of the assault team.

One half of the Outer God twins forming the Taegeuk (太極).

“The final battle! Let’s finish this together!”

It was the moment the first and last assault team was finally complete.