The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System-Chapter 98: YOU BASTARD II

***

From far above, Death watched.

Light swallowed Ignotus whole, drowning him in white.

The air rippled faintly, and the sound of life finally faded.

Death lingered there, its black obvious in the bright clouds.

A being like it simply existed, a silent spectator to a story that refused to end.

And its eyes, if they could be called eyes, stayed on one Soul.

Ignotus’s.

Even with him gone, the remnants of his Will glimmered faintly beneath the light.

That spark of madness, luck, calamity, and defiance...

It pulsed through this white abyss.

"...strange."

It turned slightly, looking down.

Lykos. Ulv. Merlin. Gaia. Aurelia.

The others, once broken and bloodied, were now fully healed, their minds especially, receiving their rewards with solemn eyes.

Only Ignotus had gotten the Runes, of course, but that didn’t mean they were given nothing.

All five were left with acceptable Divine Relics.

Death didn’t care for them, however.

They were alive; it had done its duty.

None of them mattered, not compared to him.

Because what Death had just witnessed was something wrong.

Ignotus was not supposed to be.

He was a being of Luck and Calamity, two forces that should never coexist.

One brought miracles, and the other, ruin. Yet somehow, both flowed through him as though his body was made to host contradiction.

And still—

"Why...?"

Death tilted its head slightly, curiosity shimmering in the void of its form.

"Why do I feel bits of myself in him?"

The question had no answer.

For the first time in countless ages, Death didn’t understand what it was looking at.

This boy deeply carried the scent of an ending. Almost like Death itself had marked him long ago, lacing his Soul with finality only for him to escape it and embody Life once more.

Death had seen ’countless’ Runebearers, ’countless’ Souls, and not one of them had slipped away from its grasp.

There was no chance it could be a result of his Luck.

And it definitely wasn’t due to his Will.

Something deeper was at play.

Death descended slowly, its cloak of void brushing against the ground.

It extended a hand woven from silence and opened its palm.

A mask formed there.

Divine, but not the one it wore earlier.

This was Death’s own mask, as black as it was white.

Emptiness could be felt from it, for it was a part of Death itself.

It looked at the mask for a long time before speaking, the words carrying a tired tone:

"...you truly intrigue me, child."

There was something like faint amusement in its voice.

"You walk with luck in your left hand and ruin in your right, and still, you touch my shadow without fear."

The mask shimmered faintly.

"So then... let’s see what becomes of you."

With a soft motion, Death released the mask.

It fell slowly, vanishing into the light where Ignotus had gone.

And Death, for the first time in a very long while, felt something other than inevitability.

"Perhaps you’ll come to me."

It felt anticipation.

"Perhaps when that day comes, I’ll finally be free."

The world shivered around it.

"Ignotus."

"The others... they are not better than you. They are simply born unlucky."

"Pain, trials, and tribulations—those are the gifts this realm gives to its chosen."

"As my existence has always been a battlefield, I have seen this truth."

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest of Souls..."

"The greatest characters are seared with scars."

"Keep embracing your pain, Ignotus."

"Never stop seeing the other side of the medal."

The light dimmed.

"You are, in fact..."

Its form began to fade, dissolving into smoke that rose toward the clouds.

"...the most talented amongst them all."

Death was gone.

***

When the light faded...

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

Noise.

A wall of noise met Ignotus.

He flinched, feeling a slight deja vu.

’...it seems they picked it up from Death.’

Indeed, and the entire Colosseum exploded with its sound.

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

Thousands of people screamed his new title, stomping and chanting.

Even the ground beneath him seemed to vibrate from the weight of it.

Many screamed at these people, reminding them what Ignotus supposedly was, but they heard none of it, in a literal sense almost.

That spoke of just how easily hype could take over someone’s mind.

The whole place looked like it had gone insane.

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

Something that Ignotus found somewhat weird.

If this were in his past life, he’d have no problem with it.

The realm was... Corrupted. Desensitized to gore and the like.

This dungeon was nothing.

But now? Before the fall? Did that apply as well?

He didn’t believe that.

Did that mean they had all forgotten what happened?

Did they see only the final cycle where the cohort won?

Had the situation been reversed?

Perhaps.

Again, as twisted as this realm was, he didn’t believe they’d react like that if they truly saw what happened.

Their minds most likely filled in the blanks... as brains liked to do, making sense of what didn’t make sense, even if by a lie.

A lie that Ignotus wasn’t willing to break.

’Ignorance is bliss.’

More than that, he didn’t want to ruin the mood.

After all, this was something he enjoyed quite a bit.

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

A small group was even waving a banner with his name on it.

’How did they do that so fast?’

While Ignotus questioned that, forgetting that the trial essentially took an entire day, giving them lots of time to do that and more, somewhere up high, Lothar grinned ear to ear.

Commentating now would’ve ruined the flow, so he simply watched the chaos unfold.

And what beautiful chaos it was, Ignotus standing strong while blankly looking at those roaring his title.

’I’ve never received such a welcome even though I was a coalition leader...’

Though enjoying it, he seemed more confused than victorious.

’Welcome back.’

But a beautiful voice in his head took him out of it.

It was Eris, her tone carrying a lovely smile.

Ignotus grinned faintly.

’I appreciate it, my Lady~.’

He began to wave at the crowd, thanking them.

’You’ve done so incredibly well, I can’t even begin to—’

’There’s no need. We’re in this together.’

She took a moment only to giggle.

’Since when were you capable of saying something like that?’

Ignotus shrugged while hyping up the crowd like a conductor.

’Death taught me a few things.’

And speaking of what he was taught...

Ding!

—

╔════════════╗

║QUEST UPDATED!║

╚════════════╝

[Main Quest: Break The World]

[Objective]

[• Break The Great Houses’ Hold On The Realm]

[• End The Three Great House Lords]

[• Tear This Realm’s Very Core]

[Rewards: ???]

— 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

These objectives were somewhat vague, but...

’They are mine.’

And no one could deny that any longer.

Eris’s smile softened further at it.

Emotions had defeated Her.

So She stayed quiet.

For now, She’d let Ignotus have his moment.

And certainly, he had it, rousing the crowd louder and louder.

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

"STRANGER!"

He felt the realm only belonged to him in those moments.

Yet eventually, he had enough celebrating and clutched his fists.

With a rough gesture projected to all, the crowd slowly quieted.

And now that he could think a little, he turned to look at his fellow students.

Besides his cohort, there were maybe a few dozen students left standing at best, all half-broken or dead.

Most weren’t even celebrating but were rather staring at him, their heads lowered, their eyes full of both fear and disbelief.

Those who weren’t looking at him were his cohort.

Lykos was sitting on the ground, staring into nothing, like his brain had malfunctioned.

Mer sat beside him, one hand pressed to her temple, while Ulv stood behind them, holding on to a few items, his face showing obvious disappointment.

Aur was on her knees, clutching her whip and something else in trembling anger.

Gaia stood off to the side, crowded by a few people, one of them familiar.

’Theodore...’

It seemed that those were her family, checking more on the rewards she’d gotten rather than on Gaia herself.

Yeah, this wasn’t exactly a happy sight.

They, too, seemed to have remembered.

But Ignotus, being Ignotus, didn’t care.

He was rather focused on a promise.

One that he made just before the game.

And that promise came from a particular wolf.

"Ulv!"

Ignotus’s grin widened.

"It’s time to get me my money—"

"YOU BASTARD!"

A voice cut through his words.

’Man...’

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

’It looks like I’m never getting that gold.’