Chapter 201. The End of Regret
3,971st battle.
The accumulated number of the Eastern Empire's central army has exceeded one million.
4,105th battle.
When the identical individuals among the secured soldiers were called a 'set,' a set with a whopping fifty members was born.
Having been captured by [The Warrior's Binding] 50 times, I was curious and asked his name.
He was a Heavenly Thunder Gunner named Yoo Reung-gwang.
4,463rd battle.
The number of monster legion individuals has reached one million.
I began to change my strategy.
A simple test in preparation for the final battle.
This battle does not end with a win.
I have two personal goals.
First, I must save everyone possible.
Second, the additional appearance of the monster legion in this battle must be unrelated to the Empire and its allies.
The reason I added the second goal is that I will not be remaining in this world.
It's a country I've gone to great lengths to save, and I don't want a situation where it collapses in my absence due to debates like 'the emperor or someone that day must have been a demon worshipper!'
[[Warrior's Binding] is deployed.]
[The bound enemy is summoned.]
[Summoned troops: Pupated Variant (9), Unstable Variant (15), Eastern Central Army Elite Spearman (3), Eastern Central Army Spearman (14)]
Therefore, an experiment is needed on how to 'naturally' release the monster legion and the Eastern central army among the enemy lines.
Ultimately, to make it seem as if the Eastern Empire, after dealing with demons, was caught up in a power they could not control, and self-destructed due to internal strife.
For now, it's just a test phase, so I haven't released many.
A dozen spearmen.
About twenty monsters.
<The power of the Warrior. But can you really make a change with just that?>
Although the God of War's 'mocking line' was added in the middle.
It doesn't matter.
After all, at the end of the battle, he's the one who will be clutching his head and begging me to tell him my intentions.
I increase the scale of the test while repeatedly hearing his 'welcome,' mockery, and anguished cries of 'what are you thinking.'
4,719th battle.
For the first time, I saved all the key figures.
From Olif, Karen, and Brol, who had been with me since the early days of the newly formed mercenary band.
To Yula Katran, the 'Frozen Knight' of the Imperial Secret Knight Order, with whom I had only started to have various conversations after taking on the identity of the emperor.
5,004th battle.
I released a hundred thousand monster legion troops at once.
The monsters, suddenly summoned in the middle of the battlefield, latched onto the incarnate body of the Outer God, the 'Devouring Flesh,' which the God of War had descended at the beginning of the battle.
A huge, amorphous lump of meat, like a slime mixed with intestines, eyeballs, brains, fat layers and muscles, and parts of limbs, screamed.
And the swarm of large and small, black and writhing monsters enveloped it like a swarm of ants covering a piece of candy.
<The power of the Warrior. How did you secure so many variants? No, even if you did, why would you deliberately pin down the incarnate body of an Outer God? What is your scheme?>
I ignored him.
My gaze is only on the battlefield.
It's effective.
The incarnate body of the Outer God, captured by the monsters, is being dragged to the outskirts of the battlefield slowly but surely.
He dispelled the summon before long because the main force of the expeditionary force was about to join in.
But I got the result.
As I had felt when I blew away 'Chop-Chop' along with the city, the guys who have descended as incarnate bodies have physical limits.
It's just that that limit is so high that it's difficult to gauge by common sense.
But what if it's not about killing them, but just holding them down?
Given the monsters' characteristic of infinite regeneration, it should be possible with a sufficient number.
After all, the final battle is scheduled to be a quick one, without dragging on.
5,277th battle.
I released 600,000 monster legion troops.
<You madman!>
The God of War screamed and descended all five Outer Gods, and blocked the 600,000 monster legion troops that were about to strike the flank of the Eastern expeditionary force.
To be precise, he thinks he blocked them.
The reality is that I am the one holding those five Outer Gods to the ground.
When their opponents suddenly disappeared, Kkumteuli and the other Outer Gods looked back at me from above the battlefield map.
‘Uh, master?’
“Why?”
‘If it's Outer Gods, you can leave them to us. If you hold them all down, master, what are we supposed to do? Should we go down to the ground too?’
“There's the divine throne of the God of War, isn't there? That also has the power of four Outer Gods. Take it easy. Stall for time without getting hurt.”
The number of Outer Gods on this side is nine.
On that side, there are five, but combined with the divine throne, they form a comparable level of military strength.
Although its influence did not reach the ground, the battle of the deities taking place in the sky was also a fierce and bloody one in its own way.
Even if they are immortal beings, if the battle continues for more than a fortnight, both sides will suffer near-annihilation damage.
Since I have no intention of starting a new timeline, it would be no different from dying.
5,450th battle.
Finally.
I won.
<……How.>
I saved all my comrades.
The casualties of the defense force, including civilians, remained in the triple digits.
The Eastern expeditionary force, before three days had passed since the battle began, suffered a fatal blow from the 'side effect' of endlessly summoning monsters from another dimension after mishandling an eerie power.
On top of that, the 'second unit' of the expeditionary force, which was originally 'supposed to hide and then support the main force,' rebelled and jumped into the messy battlefield.
Of course, it's all a performance.
[[Warrior's Binding] is deployed.]
[The bound enemy is summoned.]
[Bound troops: Pupated Variant (510,828), Unstable Variant (342,911), Eastern Grand General (1,491), Eastern Escort Warrior (23,011), Eastern Heavenly Thunder Gunner (97,317), Eastern Central Army Elite Polearm Soldier…….]
<How. How can this be. So futile. To think that a mere lord who doesn't even know what he's doing has won.>
Things that could not be dealt with by mere numbers were handled by the heroes.
'The Lord of Flame,' Ella Siollus, drove out and killed the flame monster.
The flying monster fell amidst the efforts of Count Ash and the queen of the elves, and the support fire of the fleet of aerial battleships.
The immortal warrior Randal broke into the middle of the enemy formation and chopped up the vicious Taoist who had turned into a monster with his axe and sword.
The Ratmen who had dug deep into the underground of the Imperial Capital were dealt with by the dwarves led by William and the King-of-Kings, Ungol.
The Lumer Legion that had marched from the south was dealt with by the Church army and three heroes respectively.
However, it was not a battle without sacrifices.
Tribus von Zarhill, the 'human necromancer who received the grace of God,' who fought at the forefront against the Lumer Legion.
And the Iron-Blooded Emperor, Lui Karlos, who, as a fellow monarch, personally brought peace to the Eastern Emperor who had turned into a monster.
Two heroes died.
Although the sound of mourning echoed in the Imperial Capital.
At the same time, sighs of relief and laughter of joy also flowed from all over.
At the victory.
At the relief of being alive.
At the hope for the future.
Faces with smiles, big and small.
“……”
On the God of War's strategy table.
I wanted to take in those smiles, so I looked down at the battlefield map for a long time, then raised my head.
<I admit it. I have been defeated.>
The God of War said.
No, the former God of War.
That's right.
The divine throne has now passed to me.
<Then…. you will naturally know what to do now, won't you?>
Is it part of the power and knowledge one obtains as the next God of War?
After winning the fight, I feel my mind clearing up.
The knowledge that I had only vaguely known from the Warrior has naturally seeped into my mind as if it were common sense.
<You may sit on this divine throne. It is now your place.>
This world.
No, the repeating 'worlds' are governed by the law of war.
He, who was the Eastern Emperor in a different timeline, defeated the God of War of his time in his world.
And now, he has been defeated in the same way and is handing over the divine throne to me.
In this way, the power of war grows stronger with each repeating world.
It is truly a method that feels malicious.
The infinite potential of humanity could one day be the starting point to stop the tragedy.
But on the contrary, that very infinity makes the power of war even stronger, so the endlessly continuing timelines can never be saved.
A stronger hero is born.
He seizes victory from the previous war and becomes a stronger war.
And becomes an even more immortal war, and will bind the next worlds to come.
Because a hero who has lived a life of only war and sacrificed much to seize victory has no reason to abandon even the seat he is to sit on and stop the war.
<Sit.>
The previous god descended from the throne.
The giant body, which was comparable to a star, gradually shrank and became the size of a mere mortal, like me.
As if meekly conforming to some great law, the man who had been glaring at me as if to kill me just a moment ago bowed his head to me.
Pointing to the shining throne he had just descended from with his wrinkled fingertips.
<Sit.>
I can feel it.
That the divine throne is waiting for me.
Every time the old man who was a god tells me to sit, the divine throne emits a light of temptation that cannot be described with words.
If I sit there.
No, even if I just place my hand on it, infinite power will flow into me.
The power of the masterless god will make me its new master, and I will live eternally as long as I am not defeated, and taste a piece of omnipotence.
<Sit.>
But.
[You are Nameless Ash.]
[Following the destiny of a hero, save the world from the apocalypse.]
I remember the two lines of the notification window that had appeared like a destiny on the day I woke up as a death row inmate in Burken Fortress.
“……”
I meet the gaze of another 'me,' who is looking at me silently from a far distance, showing anxiety for the first time.
I remembered.
The reason he seemed so gaunt.
At that time, my health was not very good.
It hadn't been long since I was discharged from the hospital, and my spirit was too broken to start managing my physical strength again.
Looking at his face, a certain scene suddenly came to mind.
When I sat in front of the computer to start the morning, the face I saw every day on the turned-off monitor screen overlaps with his.
Why did I live without smiling so much back then.
“Why are you looking at me like a puppy that needs to poop? Are you scared I'll change my mind?”
I lightly made a joke and met his eyes.
As if he had read my intentions, he erased his anxiety and let out a chuckle.
I smiled back.
Like a mirror.
I took a step.
Thud.
<……Huh?>
I still don't know.
So who is the being who dropped me here to save this world?
How did he create a connection with another world that even the law that governs this world, the God of War, is not aware of?
What did the game company know?
Is the production team a tool, or the unknown being itself?
Why did he choose me?
Thud.
<W-where are you going!>
Is it because I have a place to go back to?
If so, was everyone who played this game a candidate?
But I fell here from the first time I played.
Did other people's plays create other timelines?
Thud.
<Where are you going? Why aren't you sitting here!>
I don't know.
Well, I'm not curious right now.
What I'm curious about now is whether I left a can of Coke in the fridge.
I hope it's a Coke Zero, if possible.
To be honest, it's a deliberate mind control.
Because if I think more about this world, only regrets will remain.
I continued to walk, thinking whether pizza or chicken would be better for the first delivery.
<You're going to refuse the power of the divine throne? You're going to throw away the achievements you've built up your entire life, your cherished comrades, like a worn-out shoe?>
They'll live well on their own.
My comrades are all outstanding.
I walked without a word.
Past the old God of War, who had become a small old man, and the giant divine throne, towards the dark corner at the end of the room.
The divine throne was not the only thing that suddenly appeared when the old man was defeated.
There is one more thing.
A small door.
A black, old door that a single grown man can barely pass through.
A small exit that I feel I won't be able to leave if I accept even a little of the god's power.
<There is nothing there! If you go out through that door, no, that crack, it's just an empty void! It's no different from death!>
Is that how it feels to the old man?
It's different for me.
That's the way back.
I knew it instinctively.
I'm almost there.
Now, in front of the door.
I suddenly looked back.
The old man was shouting something at me with a face like a demon.
<You! You can't stop me…!>
<Intruder! Intruder!>
<Trying to twist the laws of the world…!>
<I will give you all glory, wealth, and pleasure….>
<Come back. Come…!>
No.
It's not the old man.
It's not just one person.
The divine throne itself.
All the 'old wars' that had sat on the divine throne in the infinitely repeated timelines are shouting at me.
They are trying to scare me, persuade me, threaten me, and tempt me.
But it's strange.
It must be the will of a powerful law that governs the world.
But instead of being scared, I found it so pathetic that I laughed.
I naturally nodded my head.
He cannot harm me.
I ignored him and opened the door.
I see a pitch-black darkness.
I took a step.
<Omnipotent power…!>
<Kill……!>
<……….>
The screams recede.
“……”
My senses blur.
All the power I have gained here disappears.
The connection with my main body on the ground blurs.
All my senses become faintly dull.
Even my body and soul scatter.
Leaving only the smallest self behind.
And.
[Game Clear.]
[You have saved the world.]
The world was plunged into darkness.
[Thank you.]