Chương 99: The Regressor's Warning

Thick black mist blanketed the entire Forbidden Forest behind the Tower of Knowledge. The ancient pine trees bent under an invisible pressure, letting out dry, brittle cracks through the still air. Blocking the path leading to the Floor 2 entrance of the World Tower was a figure hovering half a meter off the ground. She wore a grey cloak, torn to shreds, her entire body wrapped in bandages that glowed with a faint amber light.

In her hand she held a rusted, chipped longsword — dozens of nicks along its edge — yet the blade radiated a cold temporal distortion that warped the space around it. Lucian stopped, hands in his coat pockets. Behind him, Sylvia, Astra, Eleanor, and Evelyn immediately tightened their grips on their weapons. Ting! A dim black Unified System v2. 0 notification appeared before him. [SPECIAL TARGET: THE REGRESSOR, LILIA RAVENCREST] Level: 92 (7th-cycle soul remnant). Rank: A — Legendary (weakened state).

Current Combat Power: 2, 100, 000, 000 (2. 1 BILLION!) Trait: Fully immune to conventional prophecy and fate-based magic. [WORLD HISTORY STATISTICS:] Number of recorded collapse cycles witnessed by Lilia Ravencrest: 7. Number of times Lucian has cared about the apocalypse when it doesn't cut into profits: 0. Lilia slowly raised the rusted sword, its tip aimed straight at Lucian's nose. Beneath her tattered hood, a pair of deep amber eyes, carrying the anguish of centuries of war, stared at the ten-year-old boy.

Her voice came out layered with the resonance of a fractured timeline.

"Anomaly... you don't belong to this timeline!" Lucian raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a fully tuition-paying student, heading into the dungeon for academic research. Are you shaking me down for a toll?" Lilia's grip tightened on the rusted hilt, every muscle beneath her bandages taut, her voice tragic and heavy.

"I have lived through seven cycles of reincarnation! I have watched this world collapse seven times beneath the boots of the Abyss's legions! I have seen the capital of Solaris drowned in a sea of blood, seen Princess Eleanor die on a ruined fortress wall, seen the Holy Maiden Astra drained to a withered husk by her seal!" She stepped forward through the air, her voice shaking the entire forest.

"But in all seven of those cycles... YOU NEVER EXISTED!" Lucian scratched his head and turned to Evelyn beside him. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Does this trope sound familiar?" Evelyn pushed her silver glasses up her nose, calmly chewing a piece of arcane gum.

"Textbook Regressor character, reliving the timeline. Let me guess, next she's going to call you the 'Chaos Variable' throwing off the future's script." Lilia glared, roaring.

"You are the Chaos Variable ruining this world's entire future!" Lucian and Evelyn let out a synchronized sigh, glancing at each other and shrugging.

"Called it." CLANG! A brilliant streak of gold light tore through the black mist. Eleanor lunged forward, the Royal Holy Sword drawn from its sheath, cutting straight through the space between Lucian and Lilia's rusted blade. Her blue eyes blazed with cold holy light, her white cloak whipping in the wind.

"Whatever your timeline says, Lucian Vance belongs to this one. Care to test what happens if you touch a hair on his head?" Astra stepped up beside Eleanor at an unhurried pace, one hand holding a half-eaten strawberry ice cream bar, the other resting the heavy Sun-Slaying Dragon Sword against her shoulder, her ash-grey eyes calm as she looked at Lilia.

"If you try to hurt Lucian, I'll cut you in half." Lilia froze in midair. The rusted sword in her hand slowly lowered half an inch. She stared at Eleanor — who, by rights, should have been a cruel, solitary Ice Queen, dead atop a pile of corpses at eighteen — now standing tall, radiating vitality and courage, defending a classmate.

She looked at Astra — who, by rights, should have been a withered husk, drained dry by the Church at the bottom of some temple — now wearing a modest floral dress, cheeks flushed, eating strawberry ice cream while radiating eighteen billion points of Combat Power. And she looked at Lucian — a ten-year-old boy standing there yawning, pulling out a bag of sunflower seeds to share with the scholar beside him.

Every memory of seven cycles of hell, rivers of blood, and absolute despair buckled under evidence that this history had diverged beyond anything her memories could forecast. Her memories could no longer forecast what came next. It was filled instead with arguments over money, fifty-gold employment contracts, floral dresses, and the bright smiles of people whose survival had once looked impossible. Click. The rusted longsword slipped from Lilia's hand, planting itself into the moss-covered ground below.

The Regressor dropped to both knees in midair, burying her face in her hands. Hot tears rolled down through her white bandages as she broke into choked sobs.

"This timeline... why... why is it so warm..." Lucian watched the girl sobbing in midair and sheathed his silver dagger. He stepped forward, reached into his spatial ring, pulled out a clean white silk handkerchief, and held it out.

"Wipe your eyes. Sitting here crying isn't going to fix anything." Lilia, trembling, took the handkerchief, lifting her tear-filled amber eyes to look straight at Lucian's face. In the mind of someone who'd lived through seven cycles of reincarnation, a stunned realization formed, tempered by trauma and skepticism. His choices were producing an impossible positive divergence — but her memories were data, not prophecy, and she would need to see what came next.

Lilia took a deep breath, reached into her chest, and pulled out a shard of magical crystal glowing with a warm amber light, placing it in Lucian's hand.

"In each of my previous cycles, a verified risk did not begin at the border." She pointed toward the black metal gate of the World Tower.

"At the bottom of Floor 10 of this tower... an Ancient Black Dragon carrying a ten-thousand-year-old Void Curse is preparing to awaken this winter. Go there before it breaks its seal." Lucian took the shard of temporal crystal and tucked it into his spatial ring. He looked up at the fifty-meter metal gate, letting out a low, resonant growl, the corner of his mouth curling into a familiar smile.

"A Black Dragon, huh?" He turned to Evelyn and Astra.

"Looks like... our next investment portfolio just picked up another dragon."