Chapter 127
Turning back time. It was something Alice couldn’t have possibly imagined.
“So… this world was originally destroyed, and Lord Helios reversed time to before the dark specter destroyed the world?” “Yes. That’s right.” “But… what does that have to do with me?”
The fact that this world had regressed was astonishing. However, it didn’t seem related to her. After all, she wasn’t originally from this world.
“Of course, you had no direct connection to that event. But by my choosing you, you’ve become connected now.”
Alice’s expression soured. She couldn’t understand what he meant at all. “What do you mean?”
“You remember what I said about countless worlds existing under infinite dimensions, right?” “Yes.”
Unless she were a goldfish, how could she forget what she’d just heard? As Alice nodded, the deity moved his small lips again.
“There’s a law of dimensions established by the gods to prevent those countless worlds from falling into chaos. It states that divine intervention potent enough to shake a world must never occur. Yet I broke that law.”
“If you broke the law…”
“Because of that, I had to face the gods’ judgment. At the trial, I narrowly avoided annihilation but received the punishment of being unable to use my power in my world for ten thousand years.”
“Ten thousand years?”
Ten thousand years. For a human like Alice with a lifespan of at most a little over a hundred years, it was an unimaginably long time. But the deity continued with an unbothered face.
“Yes, ten thousand years. Thus, now I can barely send revelations to my children and cannot bestow even small blessings. That’s why I sought you out. Since you’re not a soul of my world, you can receive my power.”
“Hmm… but is that allowed? I don’t think the command not to use power in this world for ten thousand years meant it was okay to summon a soul from another world…”
As the deity’s face grew increasingly displeased with each word, Alice let her sentence trail off. But she couldn’t help thinking this seemed like a loophole.
Especially in a situation where he was being punished—what if he got caught with this backdoor scheme? It seemed risky. However, the deity answered with a completely nonchalant face.
“Well, you’re right. What I’ve done is indeed a cowardly trick. But I had no choice. If I were to withdraw from this world for ten thousand years, it’s obvious the dark specter would destroy this world again. How could I just stand by?”
That was true. Otherwise, there would have been no point in turning back time.
“And strictly speaking, I haven’t completely ignored the punishment imposed on me. They only said I must not interfere with the fate of the souls of this world.”
He added a final explanation. “You, who crossed over from another dimension, are an anomaly beyond this world. Even they cannot prevent you from receiving my power and intervening.”
It seemed a bit forced, but it wasn’t entirely irrational. Alice nodded in agreement, as if entranced by the deity’s words. Then suddenly, an ominous premonition struck her.
Alice looked at the deity, who was quietly watching her, and asked slowly: “So you’re not saying… that I should eliminate the dark specter in your place… are you?”
“Yes. That’s exactly it. You are the soul I specially selected to eliminate the dark specter.”
For the first time, the deity looked at Alice with a smooth smile of satisfaction. And at that moment, Alice couldn’t help but exclaim:
“What the hell!”
“What? ‘Hell’?! Did you just curse at me? At me, born with the noble power of light even among the gods—a mere human dares!”
Having clearly heard Alice’s vehement expression, Helios shouted with a shocked face. Seeing the deity with his chubby cheeks flushed red, looking like he might grab the back of her neck at any moment, Alice hastily shook her head.
“Oh my, how could a mere human like me say such vulgar words to the venerable Lord Helios? I absolutely didn’t direct those words at you.”
In truth, she had cursed at the deity. After all, Alice’s life goal was to live a long, safe life, yet now she was being told to save the world.
It was absurd. To eliminate the dark specter in place of the deity? She didn’t want to encounter something called a “specter”—dark and dangerous even in name—even in passing.
But she couldn’t admit to cursing him while facing a god, so she was flatly denying it with a straight face. What if she got struck by lightning for admitting it?
The deity looked at Alice with narrowed eyes, then exhaled a displeased “hmph.” “It seems like a lie, but it would make me even angrier to think it wasn’t, so I’ll let it pass this time.”
Alice cleared her throat and carefully opened her mouth. This wasn’t the important issue right now. “But Lord Helios. You just said that I was chosen to eliminate the dark specter.”
“Yes. You are a very fortunate soul to have been chosen by this Helios.”
Fortunate my ass. Against her will, she was about to be placed at the front line of battle. She’d be lucky if her head didn’t get chopped off. Alice suppressed the words rising to her throat and drooped the corners of her eyes.
“Lord Helios. I understand your grand intention, but no matter how I look at it, I don’t think I’m the material to save this world.”
She then placed her hand on her chest with an expression full of anxiety, as if her trembling heart wouldn’t calm down. “I’m just a commoner who wants to live quietly and peacefully. To defeat the dark specter and change the fate of the world… I’m not someone born with a hero’s destiny.”
In her heart, she wanted to scream “I don’t want to! I won’t do it! I can’t do it!” but out of respect for being in front of a deity, she was being relatively polite.
Yet although she had initially just pretended to be afraid, as she spoke, her heart truly began to race with fear. It was true that she had successfully navigated many events to survive so far.
But she had no confidence in saving the world. It was like suddenly feeling suffocated by the pressure. If she failed, it meant not just her own demise, but the destruction of everyone. It was too much for someone who had lived with a commoner’s mindset.
“Don’t worry. You’ll do well.” But the deity spoke with a face showing no sign of wavering.
“Despite possessing a body that should have died due to a mistaken possession, you ultimately changed fate and survived. When your soul accidentally entered another body, I was concerned…”
“Wait. I wasn’t supposed to enter this body originally?” Mistaken possession?
Sensing something strange in Helios’s words, Alice interrupted to ask. “Well, the body you should have originally entered wasn’t that one, but that of someone closest to the Empress. Since you came to this world to eliminate the dark specter, naturally you should have been beside the Empress, who is the host of the specter.”
The deity continued, furrowing his brow: “But while crossing dimensions, due to my mistake, your soul was drawn into that body instead.”
“Ahem,” the deity cleared his throat somewhat embarrassedly. “I couldn’t extract your soul again as I had used too much power. So I had to simply watch while I recovered my strength… but contrary to my worries, you survived well.”
“…”
The deity spoke with satisfaction: “Alice Dearrut. You not only changed the fate of the body you entered but also changed the fates of others around you who should have died.”
For the first time since manifesting, the deity spoke with a smile: “I thought your will to live was extraordinary when I first brought your soul, but you truly exceeded my expectations. Therefore, you should be able to eliminate the dark specter as well. You’re a child who will save this world, if only because you don’t want to die.”
Alice organized the deity’s words in her mind. So… the conclusion is that I, Alice Dearrut, wasn’t supposed to enter the body of a supporting character who dies early on? It means I ended up suffering needlessly because I mistakenly entered this body.
The deity seemed very pleased with her struggle to survive in Alice’s body. As if he had visually confirmed the abilities of his mercenary.
But Alice, the person concerned, wanted to smack the deity on the head as he smiled with satisfaction. From pleasing Grand Madam Quillian to surviving assassins sent by the Empress. It might have been easy to watch, but it certainly wasn’t easy for Alice who experienced it all.
For a supposedly great sun god, he makes too many mistakes, like during the spiritual realm incident. Alice felt indignant, but she held back since the results so far hadn’t been bad. Especially since becoming Alice Dearrut allowed her to save Kylus. Had she become the Empress’s confidant, she likely wouldn’t have even seen Kylus’s face.
As Alice was organizing her thoughts, the deity called her in a solemn voice: “Alice.” “Yes?”
“From now on, you must find fragments of the dark specter. The Empress, who was the last host, surely has fragments of the specter. They’re probably contained in some small object. Bring it to me as quickly as possible.”
“An object containing fragments of the dark specter…”
“Now, because I turned back time, the dark specter’s memories have disappeared and it has regressed with time, but even though it’s a specter that never became a god, it still possesses some divine power, so it will eventually remember the regression.
The deity slightly furrowed his brow and continued with a subdued gaze: “When that happens, the dark specter will try to revive differently from the past, and then it will be difficult to stop with your power alone, so you must hurry.”
“I see… Wait, hold on.” Alice, who had been nodding as if entranced by the deity’s serious atmosphere, paused and came to her senses.
