Regressor, Possessor, Reincarnator

From the moment they discovered this was the place from the revelation, they searched everything they could to identify the purpose of the knowledge they’d been given. In the process, they succeeded in understanding the meaning behind the name of this place sought after by the tribesmen—the Ness of Stars.

"The ‘Ness of Stars’, huh. Ness of Stars… What a fitting name."

A ’ness’ usually referred to a promontory or headland—a protruding area of land surrounded by the sea on three sides.

But where could there be such a place in the desert?

From this, they also surmised that it would be referring to a place in veiled language or metaphor. With such a unique name, they expected that it would be a ruins site of some sort.

However, they never could have imagined that ‘Ness of Stars’ might have a literal meaning.

"Wow, a shooting star!"

"Look, a meteor! There’s a meteor falling! Hurry and come see!"

"I told you! It's today! Am I finally freed from calculating the comet's cycle?”

There was an audible murmur coming from outside the camp, vocalizing the admiration of the Academy’s cadets.

Thousands of meteors showered down from the night sky, trailing their long tails behind.

At the same time, the ground began to tremble.

Rumble, rumble.

"Wh-what!"

"Is this an earthquake?"

"Run! Where are the professors? Where is Master Jaqnelle?!"

The tribal chief quietly closed his eyes as his old body shook with the earth.

"It has begun."

In a short while, both the wishes of the stars and the wishes of the tribe would be fulfilled.

The ruins, once buried deep, now protruded out of the ground as an island.

The earth rumbled, and countless screams rose in chorus.

Out of the sky poured a sea of stars.

The stars themselves began to ripple around the ruins.

* * *

The floor, the walls, the ceiling.

Everything around them began to quake.

「? Remove yourself from a 300-meter radius within 3 seconds. Failure will result in strengthened mental barriers and resistance to spatial movement being imposed. Escape from the ruins within the next 17 minutes and 18 seconds.」

It came from out of the blue.

Allen exclaimed without thinking too far into it. There was no time for hesitation.

「3 seconds.」

"Get out of here!"

"Allen, what are you…”

"Let's talk about what's going on for a second…”

The flustered expression of his team members captured his gaze. Allen flung himself into action. It was a waste of time to even try persuading them.

"I'll explain later!"

He gathered up as much of his physical strength as possible. But not without wrestling out the escape artifact he’d kept tucked in his pocket.

'It’s just as I thought… it isn’t working.’

Allen bit his lips, sensing the urgency of the situation, and grabbed onto the nearby Milred. 

「2 seconds.」

"Allen, what's going on—!”

"Sorry."

"Argh!"

She was hurled far down the passage without time to form a coherent decision.

Next up was Alexius, looking up at the sky as if something he’d been waiting for had finally arrived. Allen dragged the guide behind him.

"I’ll hear you out later."

"Underst—"

He wasn’t given the chance to finish his sentence before his body rose and flew away like Milred’s.

「1 second.」

Evan and Ariel were together a little further away, and William had also moved a short distance away to recover his physical strength.

'If it's impossible to get all three, then…!' 

Crash!

His heavy footprints engraved themselves into the hard floor. An exponentially accelerated body shot toward William.

The target of the spontaneous plot opened his mouth with a bewildered look. But he was ignored. A belated explanation would have to do.

Allen grabbed him and threw him toward the other end of the space, where Ariel and Evan were located.

"Ahhhhhhh—!"

William’s cry stretched across the room until the very moment Evan and Ariel safely caught him.

「0 seconds.」

The air rippled.

Allen’s vision faltered for a moment, shaking his consciousness.

Thousands of threads unfurled from Allen's body, resisting the space-shift.

Pop!

A moment later, Allen opened his eyes to see Milred picking herself up after having tumbled across the floor.

Ariel, William, and Evan had disappeared somewhere.

Just as she was about to say something, a white light enveloped her, as if the artifact had belatedly activated.

Realizing that she couldn’t resist the transportation, she began to say, "Be careful—!"

And then, she disappeared.

Allen looked toward Alexius and realized that he, too, seemed to have been transported without even the chance to get to his feet.

'It isn’t disappearing this time either, huh.'

Examining the white book revealed that, unlike in the witch's forest, the sentences visible there emitted a clear presence that showed no signs of smudging or fading away.

「Storm-pale」

「Wind-withered」

「The hawk bleached white by the wind」

A dear friend of the Nameless One who would stand atop the ashes. The Incarnation of Wisdom, akin to the original pair of ravens.

「Vedrfolnir has awakened.」

A new sentence had appeared.

* * *

* * *

By the time they’d processed the tremor that shook the ruins, it was already too late.

"W-wait, this is…”

"What happened…”

"The artifact was activated…!”

Pop!

The group members were enveloped into bursts of white light before they could grasp the situation.

When Julius realized that all the members of his team had disappeared, he quickly checked his Quest Window.

「Kill the ancient monster sealed in the ruins and prevent disaster yourself! Time limit: 2:17:18.

Reward: Fragment of truth(???)」

"Almost two hours left… There’s plenty of time.”

Megaruins held precious treasures that fit their theme hidden within their depths. Very few people knew about megaruins since they rarely appeared and, when they did, weren’t explored as deeply as they could be, either.

However, he knew just how much Heisel benefited from this piece of knowledge in the original , so Julius had been looking for a chance to separate himself from his team members, anyway.

'I need to grab it for myself. It’s now or never.’

Julius had to find the Hidden Piece.

‘Although these ruins are a little different from the ordinary ones…’

There still had to be treasure somewhere.

That was the law of the ruins.

It had never been proven wrong in the original .

“I initially thought that just locating it would be the biggest obstacle, but…”

That was no longer the case.

"Dongdong, come out."

He tapped on the bag he was carrying at his elbow. A bundle of white fur promptly poked its head out, then jumped energetically out of the bag.

Gyaho! Gyaho!

"Dongdong, let's go to the most precious thing here. Wherever the thing with the highest value is.”

Gyaho?

"Well, something that isn't just a gold coin, but still an object, um… Wait, give me a moment.”

Julius raised the bundle of fur to eye level, then put his forehead against Dongdong’s so their physical connection could overcome the communication barrier.

Ancient ruins.

The law of the ruins.

A treasure of high value.

The only one in existence.

It could be a magic book, a living doll, or even the blueprint for a secret weapon.

Julius's thoughts were conveyed to Dongdong verbatim.

"Do you understand now?”

Dongdong was also a god. A young god, to be sure, but he had special abilities, nevertheless.

The god from the Heavenly Forest had the power to grant that which a person may desire.

What about Dongdong?

'The ability to uncover treasure.'

Right now, Dongdong could only search for treasures around him, but if he grew up well, he might be able to locate treasures that had so far only appeared in legends.

Perhaps even the weapons that were only mentioned by name in the original .

Gyaho! Gyaho!

"Good! Let's go!"

Dongdong began to jump, the fur ball bouncing around with vigor.

‘I’ll let the boss get to the Hidden Piece first, and then… I'll figure it out there or something, I guess.’ 

Finding it quickly wouldn’t result in a greater reward, and the useful main and supporting actors would survive on their own.

They wouldn’t die in vain.

"The rest of them should pull their own weight.”

It was none of his business.

* * *

Ariel drew her bow, ignoring the pain at her fingertips.

Fwish.

"Guaghhh!"

"Garrrrg!"

Gargle, gargle!

Guardians swarmed around them frantically. There seemed to be no end to the monsters joining in.

They had fallen someplace in the ruins as a result of the sudden space-shift.

Fortunately, they had all been together and stayed that way after the transport, but for some reason, the escape artifact didn't work.

"Evan! Hang in there!"

"Cough, I got it! I can hold out as long as I feel like it, so relax!"

Evan moved desperately toward one of the narrow crossroads.

Baroque Style Arcane Technique - Dew Claws.

Wolves hunted alone. His body became abnormally fast, his movements growing quicker and quicker until even his afterglow was visible.

The blue line darting in his wake blocked the passage.

"A little more! A little more…!”

He executed his typical mana-driven attack with everything he had. Green magic gathered in the corner of his eye, connecting with the arrows.

The Hail family's arrows rained down.

Hail Style Arcane Technique - Downpour.

"Evan, get back now—!"

An arrow flew right over where his eyes had just been situated.

Another wave of arrows swept over the crowds of monsters and guardians.

Crash!

Fragments hailed down and punctured holes that rippled across the sea of monsters.

Screeeeech!

The lifeless guardians met the same fate.

A gap formed in the center of the hurricane of foes.

"Ariel, don't overdo it…”

"Please be quiet!"

William shut himself up at her cry. His complexion was pale, as he’d been severely injured from the attack of a guardian right next to him when they’d first been transported.

"If I don't overdo it now, when will I ever?"

One more shot. Then another, and one more.

She only had so many arrows. There was a limit to the number of foes she could finish off.

To survive this, to hold out, they had to cut down their enemies’ numbers. However, her reality was different from her ideal.

"One more shot… Blergh."

She vomited blood, having overworked her mana circulation. William hurriedly healed her.

Visibly exhausted, she said, "How long have we been here?”

"It’s…"

William hesitated and finally answered.

"It's only been ten minutes."

"…That's all?”

They wouldn’t last long at this rate.

She looked back up to see Evan fall back, unable to hold out with the momentary loss of support. With one final blow, he stepped back and roughly ripped off the necklace he was wearing.

"Baroque!"

His shout summoned a large clam from the necklace, sitting upright and blocking the passage.

"Evan, what…?"

"It’s an ancient relic my family gave me. The clam is supposed to be used as shelter to hide in…”

He shrugged his shoulders and tried to smile.

"What else can we do if all three of us can't go inside? I have no choice but to use it like this."

Ariel felt a slight bit of relief thanks to him. Soon after, she opened her mouth with a serious expression.

"What shall we do now?”

"…There have been other cases like ours during this practice raid, so the rescue team should be coming. Even if they aren’t, there are professors who came to the ruins, so I’m sure we’ll see them soon."

Since this happened on the seventh floor of the ruins, could they afford to send a rescue team straight away?

How would the professors know they were here?

William replied, trying to suppress all his anxiety, "How many times has something like this happened at the Academy? I’m sure it'll be alright."

"Really? You think so…?”

"Yes, absolutely."

At William's serious expression, Ariel immediately smiled as if she had lost the energy to worry, and said playfully, "William, are you trying to flirt with me? I mean, I was kind of thinking the same thing, too, you know?”

"Now, stop joking around. Isn't this an emergency…?”

William blushed. Ariel looked at him cutely and nodded.

"Let’s hang out again after all this."

"I…"

"Just the two of us."

Unable to find anything to say in response, William could only nod quietly.

"…Yeah, let’s do that."

They’d weaved a bubble around them, one completely at odds with their perilous reality. Evan, who had been silent until that point, spoke in a grave tone.

"William."

"Evan, it's not that I don't understand the situation. It’s just, I'm gonna catch my breath for a second…”

At Ariel's rushed excuse, Evan shook his head.

“Someone’s coming."

"What?"

"Someone is coming this way."

At the end of the passage, from the same direction of the endless swarms of the monsters and guardians of the ruins, a bundle of white fur and another figure stepped out of the darkness.

His hair was that familiar bright blue and his face full of youth.

"Oh, there's someone here?”

Gyaho?

There was hope.

* * *

"Establish a stronghold!"

"Where are the professors?!”

"More importantly, take the wounded! Can't you see his wounds?”

The students' voices were rising.

That spectacular view of thousands of meteors falling across the sky was nothing short of superb. However, nobody was watching the scene at present.

It was chaos on earth.

They had thought that once the earthquake and its tremors had ceased, that everything would be over, but that was unfortunately just wishful thinking.

Shortly after the earthquake, guardians and monsters from the ruins began to pour out of the entrance.

The professors who had gone down into the ruins were left uninformed on the situation, and the whereabouts and activities of the remaining professors were unknown.

Therefore, it was up to the upperclassmen students who had gone through a short training program to lead their juniors through this calamity.

They remained as calm as they could, fending off attacks from centering from the four spire entrances.

Fortunately, the rate of damage done was decreasing thanks to their quick response, but the number of enemies was most certainly not.

"Miss, there are students over there…!”

"Okay, calm down.”

Rachael's role was to retrieve the students who used their escape artifact and bring them to safety.

It was a role that only she could play, what with her family’s trademark space-shifting magic.

"Flash."

A yellow light flickered.

She deftly maneuvered through the spatial transportation that even Allen still found difficult to manage, and approached the students who had just escaped.

"What the hell happened…?”

"Julius! Julius! Hey, where did you go?"

"You all are…"

Still mindlessly caught up in her routine, she paused.

Although she couldn't make out their faces in the darkness, these had to be members of Julius's group.

"The supplementary class…?"

Aveline raised her head at Rachael's murmur.

"Yes, ma’am! There's another kid with us named Julius, but we don't know where he is…”

"I'll talk to you again a little later."

She noticed a nearby monster and used her magic.

A yellow mist seemed to envelop their bodies, before she opened her mouth.

"Flash."

Blink.

In an instant, the scene around them changed, the landscape around them completely different.

Rachael frowned for a moment, as if she had used a lot more magic than intended, and opened her mouth.

"So, what were you going to say?”

"Well, there's a member of our group named Julius, and we think he's still in the ruins somewhere," Aveline said in a rather urgent, yet still respectful tone, like she didn’t have the courage to speak informally to her senior.

Rachael looked at her thoughtfully for a moment and nodded. "Okay. I'll talk to the rescue team, so go rest for now."

She sent them to the back where the healers were located, saying that no matter what they had to tell her, treatment had to come first. Someone could check on them there and choose to send them back to the frontlines, or assign them a different role.

'…Allen, I hope you're safe.’

She had never gotten the chance to see him, thinking she would disturb him and his team during the practice.  After the first incident occurred, though, she urgently tried to find him, but could not. Instead, she only found a few of his team members.

‘They said he was on the seventh floor—the lowest floor—before triggering the artifact.’

A rescue team, a search party. Anything would be fine.

She just needed a reason to go down there.

She quickly headed to where the upperclassmen were.

This was the only way she could help him.

—————

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