The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System-Chapter 90: Slay The Stranger II

*** 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Ulv defaulted to violence.

Lykos turned bitter and jealous, revealing his insecurity.

Merlin lashed out with hidden ego and scorn.

Aurelia became confrontational and self-righteous.

Gaia snapped, the timid one finally breaking under ridicule.

And lastly, Ignotus... stayed eerily calm, a most different man.

Those who watched outside saw all of that clearly.

Had they just lost the top six performers in the Colosseum game?

Just like that?

...what?

How was that at all fair?

It made zero sense.

Those were the thoughts that plagued many in the Colosseum. And yes, that was ’many’ but not all—oh, far from it.

"THE FIRST ROUND IS OVER!"

Lothar was the loudest of them.

"REMEMBER THIS FEELING BEFORE YOU FORGET IT!"

Those who heard of this trial knew that they were in for a treat.

"WE WILL SEE THE FINAL ONE BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!"

He looked up and raised both his hands.

"MY GODS! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

Yes, no doubt, They were.

***

Much like that time with Nikolas, the world rewound.

The first thing heard by the realm was the wet, awful squelch of blood crawling backward, dragging itself from the walls, the ground, and the bodies.

Ignotus returned to his feet, his hands unclenched from around his own neck.

He then stepped, uncrushed, and lifted his foot from Ulv’s chest, the sword that had stabbed through Mer’s throat flying back into his hand.

Meanwhile, the rest did the same, Ulv’s broken body popping upright with a sickening crack, his head twisting back into place, as did Lykos’s, Mer’s, Gaia’s, and Aur’s.

Their limbs slid back into sockets while their bones realigned with crisp, reversed clicks.

Flames inhaled themselves, shrinking into nothing, making the air go cold again.

Their corpses were fully straight, and they walked backward.

Six puppets on invisible strings called time.

’Time’ was unmaking itself here.

"Hhh—mmh—rrhhh—!"

"Xen—no—"

"...riA—!"

Even speech went backward, their words sucking back into their throats.

Every motion snapped in reverse, with them being none the wiser.

Or rather, only five of them didn’t know.

One saw everything clearly.

Yet he couldn’t stop it.

He couldn’t do anything.

But then—

Thud.

Everything resumed.

They stood again before the start of the corridor.

Massive black roots surrounded them, the same as before.

Nothing looked different; rather, nothing should’ve been different.

And yet—

"...so, are we sure this way leads to the Runes?"

Ulv scratched his head, asking a question he hadn’t asked before.

"Of course."

Ignotus replied automatically while walking forward.

"This place feels really... wrong."

Behind him, Gaia hummed nervously.

"Everything feels wrong to you."

Mer muttered with a lazy stretch.

"I-It’s not my fault; it’s creepy!"

"You say that every ten minutes."

Aur sighed, brushing past them.

"Let’s just move."

It was a familiar conversation, but not quite.

Still, it made sense, word for word, as something that they’d say.

Even the order they walked in was similar.

This wasn’t déjà vu.

It wasn’t at all.

Lykos stopped mid-step.

His eyes darted left and right while slowly widening.

He looked at them all like they were ghosts.

"...no."

His voice came out small.

"No, no, no... this—we—"

He swallowed hard.

"We’ve already done this."

Indeed, Lykos was the boy who saw.

The only one who remembered.

Everyone turned to him.

"Hm?"

Ulv blinked.

"Are you okay, my Lord?"

"No—yes, I mean what I said!"

Lykos quickly shouted.

"We’ve been through here already! This corridor—we walked it, we—we fought each other! We died!"

They all stared at him, confused.

Mer sighed, the first of them to move.

"You’re not funny, Lykos."

"I’m not joking!"

He stepped closer to them.

"Gaia, you were burned to ash—Ignotus, you killed me—"

"Alright, Lord, that’s enough."

Ulv held up both hands.

He was more than willing to entertain his Lord, but...

Ignotus killing them? Killing Lykos?

Yeah, no way that’d happen.

They didn’t give him his money yet!

"Did you hit your head or something? Should we go for a break while you—"

"I remember!"

Lykos’s voice shook now.

"We killed each other! All of us—!"

Ignotus tilted his head slightly with an unreadable expression.

"You guys keep asking if it’s a joke, but... What’s the punchline supposed to be?"

Lykos turned to him, hope returning to color his face.

"You—you know something, don’t you?"

"No."

Ignotus shook his head, turned around, and resumed walking.

"I just think that if you were hallucinating, I’d hope you’d at least hallucinate something more interesting than that."

Ulv barked a laugh.

"See? He thinks so too. Maybe the tree truly made you hallucinate."

"I’m not crazy!"

Lykos’s voice cracked again.

"We died!"

Mer rolled her eyes.

"Well, we’re alive now. So stop whining."

Aur shook her head.

"It’s normal; he’s just stressed."

"Yeah..."

Gaia agreed.

"Maybe we should rest?"

Lykos clutched his fluff.

"You don’t get it."

Ignotus heard him but remained silent.

He looked down the corridor, his eyes narrowing slightly.

’Rewinded world, huh? Not the first time that’s happened around me.’

Despite the seriousness of the situation, his thoughts were unbothered.

’But why him? Why only Lykos?’

He folded his arms, thinking.

’A puzzle...’

Indeed, there had to be a pattern...

Maybe the tree was testing them...

His brows furrowed.

’Wait... what was I just thinking about?’

He frowned harder, trying hard to remember.

But it slipped away, like mist through his fingers.

No matter how many times he tried to recall, nothing.

"...ah, shit."

Entirely blank.

"That’s new."

Ignotus didn’t know what this ’new’ was, but he knew that it was ’new.’

It was very confusing, enough that by the time he blinked, shaking himself out of those endless thoughts, the tension had returned. More than that, the rage did as well.

"We can’t fight, we can’t—YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!"

"What are you babbling about now?"

Mer groaned.

"Don’t you feel it?! It’s happening again!"

"My Lord, I beg of you, please relax; you’re being too..."

Ulv revealed an irritated face.

"Paranoid. I won’t eat the chicken just because she’s annoying."

"Paranoid?! Last time you split her in half!"

The group froze, and Aur’s expression hardened.

"You’re getting on my nerves; control your Lord, Guard Ulv."

"That’s not—"

"I mean, he would say that..."

She coldly cut him off.

"After you lost our duel last week."

Lykos grabbed at his own face.

"Ugh, not this again—"

"It wasn’t even close!"

Ulv snapped.

"You only tied because of luck!"

Mer clicked her tongue.

"Oh, here we go."

"Stay out of it, cat!"

Aur barked, but Mer didn’t listen:

"I wish you were always this delusional."

"You—!"

"You idiots, stop!"

Lykos yelled, stepping between them.

"That’s it; that’s what happened before! This is how it starts!"

Ulv scoffed, and for the first time since Ignotus met them...

"You’re acting like some kind of oracle. Shut up already."

He spoke badly to his Lord.

"Ugh, you buffoon!"

Lykos turned to him.

"I’m trying to save you!"

"Save me? Please. You should save yourself from whatever you’re doing now."

Lykos’s fists clenched.

"You dumb—"

But Ignotus suddenly spoke:

"He’s right."

Everyone turned to him.

Lykos froze while the others stared.

"...what?"

Ulv asked, and Ignotus shrugged.

"Something is missing."

The man was so sharp that he realized the existence of a non-existence.

He only needed Lykos’s constant begging to remind him of that.

Truly, Ignotus was a Wise Fool.

"That’s really not funny... you should be serious for once."

Ignotus looked Gaia’s way.

"I didn’t say it was."

Lykos breathed out and smiled weakly, relieved for a moment.

"T-Thank you—see? He gets it!"

"Yeah..."

Ignotus scratched his chin.

"But the others don’t, so we need to reset."

Lykos’s upper body suddenly fell, splattering blood all over.

It had begun.

A single slash from Ignotus.

Ulv, who walked backwards from his Lord’s corpse, bumped into Aur.

"Watch it, mutt!"

Aur shoved him, and he growled.

"Say that again."

"Gladly, dog-boy."

Mer smirked faintly.

"This is getting fun."

"Shut up."

Gaia snapped once more.

"All you do is pretend that you don’t care!"

"Oh, look who finally talks."

Mer sneered.

"Didn’t think you had it in you."

If Lykos were here, he’d scream for them to stop while stumbling between them, trying to get them to understand that they were being controlled by the tree, that they weren’t themselves...

But unfortunately, he was Ignotus’s first casualty, and he wasn’t going to be the last.

Aur attacked Ulv with her whip, and he blocked it with his great sword. Only for both his and her heads to fall from their necks, dropping to the ground, where an earth wall was conjured.

Gaia had managed to react this time, protecting herself from being burnt alive. Yet the moment Mer snapped her fingers...

Her flames roared brighter, swallowing the wall and Gaia whole.

Mer then turned, or at least tried to, before Ignotus slammed her into the wall.

She tried to shoot out her flames, but she was too late.

A sword had found its way into her heart.

Pulling the sword out, Ignotus stared down at her, with no emotion at all, and crushed her skull underfoot.

Only when they were all dead did he smile once more.

Without admiring the carnage around him, which just minutes ago had been his companions, his hands rose, wrapping tight around his own throat.

The light in his eyes dimmed, and the world...

Blinked... "again."