Chapter 484
‘This is fascinating.’
Time itself was rewinding. The entire world was being pulled back into the past.
It was a kind of massive law.
If not for the [Boundary Line], Taesan wouldn’t have been able to resist its pull either.
He looked toward the immortal. The man’s body was also being dragged backward through time.
He was struggling to resist it to some degree, his face twisted in agony—but that was all. He couldn’t stop the reversal of his own existence. All he could do was suffer through it.
And finally—
The rewinding time came to an end.
“…Huff.”
The immortal let out a trembling breath. Taesan turned his gaze back outside.
The plaza looked perfectly clean again, as if it had been freshly tidied just a day ago.
But the people were not the same.
The moment the flow of time returned to normal, their faces distorted once more.
Mad laughter burst out, and the same crazed actions resumed.
‘An endlessly repeating time loop.’
“We are trapped here,” the immortal said. His face was even more exhausted than before.
“You’ve only just entered this place, so the laws here haven’t bound you yet. But the longer you stay, the more you’ll be caught in its cycle. Please, leave this twisted world while you can.”
But Taesan had no intention of leaving. He asked calmly,
“How long has this world been like this?”
The immortal didn’t answer. He only closed his eyes and exhaled softly, his entire being hollowed out.
Taesan watched him silently for a moment, then approached.
Despite his complete mental collapse, the immortal’s physical body was flawless—unharmed and perfect.
Standing before him, Taesan spoke.
“I can grant your wish.”
The immortal’s eyes opened slightly.
Taesan drew his sword.
“I can kill you.”
A gray shimmer filled the air. The immortal’s pupils widened.
“…What?”
“I used it earlier. Were you too far gone to notice?”
The immortal stared at the [Boundary Line] as if entranced.
“The power of the Old Gods? No… It’s not of this world either. That is…”
“It’s hard to explain precisely,” Taesan said. “But you can feel it, can’t you? What this can do?”
The [Boundary Line] distorted laws and disrupted interference itself.
It could sever the immortal’s existence—cutting away the part of him fused with Ouroboros and granting him true death.
Suddenly, desperation filled the immortal’s face.
He staggered to his feet from the throne and clutched at Taesan’s pants.
“P-please… Great one… Please, grant me death… I beg of you…”
He pressed his forehead to the floor.
“Show mercy to me… please…”
He had once been a mighty immortal, a ruler of this world. Surely, countless people had worshiped him. To reach such heights, he must have endured endless hardship and trials.
And yet now, he knelt like a child, begging for Taesan’s mercy.
“If that’s truly what you wish, I’ll grant it. But I have a condition.”
“W-what is it…?”
“Information. About this world.”
Taesan’s voice was steady.
“Everything you know about this place.”
“If… if I tell you that, you’ll grant me death?”
“Yes.”
The immortal’s face brightened with hope.
—
“Where should I begin?”
“From the start. How did all this happen?”
“The start… right.”
The immortal’s speech faltered. It had probably been ages since he had tried to think clearly, and it showed. His words were slow, halting, but still understandable.
“…One day, the serpent swallowed us. We don’t know why. When we came to our senses, we were already inside Ouroboros.”
“Since when?”
“I don’t know. I’ve long since lost count of how much time has passed. I only know… it has been a very, very long time.”
Even an immortal had reached the limits of his mind, unable to measure time anymore.
After struggling to recall, he spoke again.
“Come to think of it… before we were swallowed, there were rumors. They said the war of the universe had ended.”
“…A war ended?”
“Yes. I don’t know what kind of war it was, but that’s what people were saying—especially among the immortals. Our planet was in a remote part of the universe, so we didn’t know the details.”
A war of the universe.
One memory flickered through Taesan’s mind.
‘The war between the Old Gods and the transcendents.’
A long, endless conflict between opposing beings who fought for dominion over the universe. The victors were the transcendents.
The defeated Old Gods were sealed away beyond the reach of the world.
That had been an age so ancient that even most transcendents had forgotten it.
Which meant these beings had been alive since that era.
Even for a transcendent, that was an unimaginable span of time—far too long for mortals to endure. It was no wonder their minds had shattered beyond even divine restoration.
“Go on.”
“At first, we didn’t notice. Some of the stronger ones sensed that something had changed, but no one understood what. Only those who had reached immortality realized the Serpent of Cycles had devoured us. But… even they didn’t know more than that.”
Ouroboros acted only at the end of cycles. Beyond that one fact, no one knew anything about it.
“Since nothing seemed different, we kept living as usual.”
They sold goods, dressed elegantly, danced in ballrooms—life went on.
“But after a single day passed inside the serpent, the world… went backward again.”
His voice trembled, as though recalling a nightmare he wanted to forget.
“Since then, we have repeated the same day for eternity.”
“They all went insane.”
“The flow of time did not restore our minds. At first, some rejoiced. But after a hundred years, no one could remain sane. After five hundred, reason itself disappeared.”
Clang!
Something shattered outside the window. The immortal wiped his face.
“They probably don’t even realize what they’re doing anymore. They just repeat, like broken machines.”
From his words, Taesan was sure of it now.
What was affecting them was the same power as the [Ouroboros’ Stone].
But this time, the effect wasn’t limited to one person—it was influencing the entire world.
Originally, it must have been a mechanism to renew cycles, but something had twisted it into this distorted form.
“There were other strong beings here too, weren’t there?”
The immortal nodded weakly.
“We weren’t the only ones devoured. Since part of the universe was swallowed, many immortals came with it. Among them were planetary gods as well.”
“I can’t sense any of them now.”
“This is just the outer region,” the immortal said bitterly.
“I didn’t just sit idle, you know. In the beginning, before I was completely corrupted, I could still resist the forced cycle to a degree. Together with other immortals and planetary gods, we sought the Serpent of Cycles itself.”
“You were already inside Ouroboros, and yet you tried to find it ‘inside’?”
“I thought the same thing. But a transcendent among us said this: what swallowed us was merely the serpent’s power. Its true body lies deeper within.”
“…There’s a transcendent here who knows that?”
Even the magician hadn’t known anything about Ouroboros’s interior.
But a transcendent trapped here did.
“I can’t recall the name… but that one was strong. It wouldn’t be strange if they knew. So we followed them deeper.”
Taesan didn’t need to ask how that ended.
The immortal spoke, his face hard.
“The deeper we went, the more distorted everything became. It was… the Abyss. I turned back midway, but those who didn’t never returned.”
“I see.”
“That’s everything I know.”
The immortal looked up at him. His eyes were filled with desperate pleading.
“Now… will you grant me death?”
“One more thing. You said you saw a woman. What did you mean?”
“Ah…”
The immortal’s voice faltered. He strained to recall.
“I can’t remember clearly… but a woman came once. She seemed frightened and uneasy… but the details are hazy.”
“Long black hair, black eyes?”
“I think… yes.”
Lee Taeyeon.
Taesan’s eyes narrowed.
That must have been before the time reset. And yet, the immortal still remembered her.
Which meant time here flowed differently than outside.
“Alright.”
Taesan nodded.
For the first time, the immortal’s face brightened.
“You’ll grant my wish?”
“Yes.”
“Ah… thank goodness…”
Taesan lifted [Bardray].
The gray energy enveloped the blade.
“Thank you…”
Taesan raised his sword.
“Any last words?”
“I am… their king.”
The immortal looked toward the window.
Outside, countless mortals were still trapped in madness, enslaved to the rewinding time.
“I was their ruler. The one who should lead them. But I’m tired. I just… want to rest.”
“I understand.”
Squelch.
The blade pierced the immortal’s chest.
Relief softened his face—a man finally freed.
The [Boundary Line] erased the power of Ouroboros entwined within him, guiding him to true death. The power within him dispersed, flowing into Akasha and Bardray.
[Well… that’s a strange feeling.]
Bardray muttered quietly.
He had never reached immortality in life. To him, immortality had been something sacred and unreachable.
And now, one who had attained it had begged for death.
Taesan sheathed his sword and organized the information he’d gathered.
‘The true body of Ouroboros.’
The serpent that devoured the universe was merely its authority. The real Ouroboros lay deeper within.
‘The deeper you go, the more distorted it becomes.’
Not just time reversing—but something entirely alien.
Even immortals couldn’t endure it.
‘And a transcendent.’
A being of very high rank—perhaps one who governed a concept itself.
That transcendent was still here.
It was possible they’d died long ago, but a being of that magnitude might have survived.
Those were his next two objectives.
Taesan gathered his mana.
The condensed energy mixed with divinity and darkness.
[You have activated Teleportation (Chaos).]
Taesan’s body leapt toward the deeper depths of Ouroboros.