After showing all sorts of bizarre apocalyptic visions of the future, I’d planted the suspicion of being a ‘limitless regressor’ among the faculty.
“Phoenix.”
“Yeah?”
“Among the prophecies of the future you’ve seen, which ones were the most horrific or despair-inducing?”
“You mean out of all the prophecies I’ve seen?”
“Yes. From the prophecies.”
Led by Yunia, the members of the Old School Building started coaxing me—little by little—into revealing the kind of “terrible future I might’ve personally experienced.”
“Well. There were so many that it’s kind of hard to say which was the worst.”
“But still, you could probably rank at least the top ten, right?”
“To pick a top ten, I’d have to have seen at least ten bad futures. Are you saying you believe I’ve already seen that many?”
“Uh… then top five?”
“I can pick a top ten.”
Publicly, I’m a prophet—a being trying to prepare for the Apocalypse.
But how they interpret that? That’s entirely up to their own misunderstandings.
“Well, from my perspective, my personal number one is already decided.”
“What is it?”
“The one where angels annihilate all of humanity, leaving behind only the virgins they find amusing, toy with them for a while, and then, as soon as the women start aging, they toss them aside and just leave to another world.”
“…”
The students in the Old School Building probably heard about this from the faculty in passing.
Whether it’s true or not, at the very least, it sounds plausible enough to imagine.
So all I had to do was tailor my response accordingly.
“To the angels, humanity was no different from playthings. Pets, maybe? But calling them companions is a bit much. If they’d really loved human women, they would’ve taken them with them, wouldn’t they?”
“Then… the remaining humanity…”
“There wasn’t a single male left. So humanity went extinct. Some tried to awaken ancient sealed beings, others attempted to resurrect men using necromancy. But, well, in the end, nothing worked.”
“I see… So the rest is speculation?”
“Just a guess.”
I looked into Yunia’s mind.
Of course, actual mind-reading is impossible, but one can tell just from expressions and eyes.
— So, he returned to the past before becoming the only man left in such a world.
— Or maybe that’s just speculation. Perhaps Phoenix was sent back before the angels could kill him—the last remaining male.
— No, wait. Phoenix might have some kind of infinite regression trigger. Like, ‘This timeline’s a failure,’ and he just returns to the past.
Even just glancing at the looks exchanged among the three in the Vermilion Bird Class told me exactly what they were thinking.
Because magic always carries a fragment of thought, and from their bodies, the magic that leaked carried parts of their intent and ideas.
If they were aware of that, they would’ve immediately contained their mana or masked their thoughts.
But I didn’t bother pointing it out.
“Still, I think that’s a better outcome. Rather than some kind of hyper-yuri world where humanity, to escape the angels, creates K-BL-type countermeasures and ends up turning all men into something else entirely.”
“Cough!”
“Is something wrong, Instructor Kadisha?”
“No, just… the researchers who helped make that world—surely they weren’t from the Emerald Magic Tower, right?”
“They probably contributed a bit. But I’d guess it was mostly other surviving Towers using their research to push further. If they believed their studies were humanity’s last hope, that’d light a new kind of fire in their hearts. Even someone like Alastair, the descendant of the Sage, might’ve been involved.”
“R-Right. Haha…”
Instructor Kadisha took a flustered sip of her tea.
After all, if there was an Apocalypse she was directly involved in, it would make her uncomfortable—even if it was in some unimaginable future.
“There’s no need to worry about it so much. Just because something happens in the future doesn’t mean you have to make a different choice in the past.”
“Y-you really think so?”
“Of course. I mean, imagine someone causing a world war just because they didn’t get into an art college. Would it make sense for that guy to learn this and then spend his whole life doing nothing but trying to get into art school?”
“Y-you’re not talking about me… are you?”
“Of course not.”
Even though I was clearly referencing the story of the great hero Ad*lf who pulled the trigger to kill H*tler, Shuri reacted like I was talking about her personally.
“I think putting on tinted glasses like that doesn’t really help with humanity’s survival or prosperity. It’s enough to live in the present as-is, dream of a happy future, and simply eliminate or cut off the elements that get in the way.”
“Hmm…”
“So on that note—how about each of you share one Apocalypse you’re tied to?”
Thump.
Everyone in the classroom gulped, glancing around nervously.
Sure, they were curious, but who would be happy to hear about a future where humanity gets wiped out?
“Ah. Evangeline is an exception.”
“Huh? Why me?”
“Because in the future I saw, you weren’t there.”
“Wait, don’t tell me…?”
Evangeline smirked, tugging the corner of her lips.
At the same time, the other students gave her envious glances.
Mana scan.
From how they’re talking about things like a “regression singularity” or “a variable that shouldn’t exist,” they must be assuming that the reason I’m focusing so much on Evangeline is because she’s some kind of irregularity that emerged during the regression process.
“Still, I can more or less guess.”
“Guess what?”
“The downfall of di Ercy.”
I don’t actually know whether such an apocalypse exists, but if there were a downfall due to DLC, there’s really only one possibility:
‘They monetized it so hard it got flamed to hell, and in the end, no more DLCs were ever released and all updates stopped.’
They sold everything there was to sell.
They drained every last drop of value. And now, since gamers have stopped opening their wallets, they’ll just try to make them open them in a new way.
Maybe a mobile game.
Or maybe something like <Esdinas of Heaven 2: The Revenge of di Ercy>.
“Hey, Phoenix. Why’d you go silent in the middle of your story?”
“I figured it’d be better not to say anything.”
“Okay, so it’s one of those stories. The kind that’s better left unheard, even as a joke, right?”
“Something like that.”
Like: the di Ercy Empire, having come to rule the world, ends up collapsing under its own mismanagement. The continent splits into sixteen nations. Humanity falls into civil war, fracturing and fighting until the stage shifts to Esdinas 2.
Or: the protagonist picks Evangeline di Ercy, the imperial princess of the di Ercy Empire, as their route and becomes a kind of regent—but dies from overwork because there’s just so much to do in the Empire.
A good ending isn’t just about the world’s fate.
It only truly means something if the protagonist who played through it gets a happy ending too.
“Hey, Phoenix.”
“Yeah?”
“Out of all the futures you’ve seen… was there ever one where you were happy?”
“A future where I was happy?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…”
A world where the player was happy, huh…
“I’m sure there were. But in the end, I doubt the core issue was ever resolved.”
Sure, maybe the protagonist got to live happily ever after with the heroine.
But underneath that normal ending was a world where the Church of the Goddess remained untouched, the Demon King was still sealed in the Demon World, and humanity continued to live under the constant threat of the Angels.
“Maybe it was just a fleeting happiness. Unless the world’s distortion is cut off entirely.”
“…If that distortion could be cut off, would your endless journey finally come to an end?”
“Probably, yeah.”
If I managed to destroy Heaven, and the Demon King came to the surface to help humanity flourish, then maybe that timeline would finally be a proper world for me to live in.
‘Not that it’s anything more than a first run.’
As a player, I’ve conquered countless timelines.
But as Phoenix, this is my very first.
And there won’t be a next time.
Because I intend to reach the true ending on this first attempt.
“Still, since we’ve come this far, there won’t be a next time.”
“…Right. We’ll do everything we can to help.”
“Thanks. I’d really appreciate it if you could help make sure the future written in prophecy doesn’t come to pass. On that note…”
“Wait. What are you planning this time?”
“What else? Training, of course.”
If I want to see the true ending, the player’s companions all need to hit max level at the very least.
“Combining the Vermilion Bird Class and the Azure Dragon Class gives us a decent balance. It’s about time we tackled that place we haven’t opened yet.”
“That place… don’t tell me—?”
“The Old Library. Let’s go.”
Two parties.
“I need to introduce them to the Azure Dragon Class anyway, and now we’re finally in a position to solve the issues.”
Right now, I’m in a place where I can assist both parties.
“And personally, I’d like to try out an experiment.”
Even unlocking just one of the Seven Magic Towers could trigger a corresponding seal release—and potentially summon the soul, if not the source of its power.
“Let’s head to the Tower of Earth.”
