Going back to when he parted ways with Ludwig in the skies above Babel, at that time, Se-Hoon had immediately moved to his assigned Demon Realm: the Forest of Repetition.

Whoosh-

The pristine Whitespace rushed past his eyes in an instant, then Se-Hoon found a dense forest unfolding in front of him. The distance of several thousand kilometers was crossed in a single leap to bring him atop the cliff where his fellow assignees were waiting.

“Ah, you’re here.”

Amir looked away from the sight of the Forest of Repetition below the cliff to wave and greet him. Upon seeing only him, though, Se-Hoon immediately glanced around.

“Where are Sung-Ha and Luize?”

“Luize said there was something she wanted to check, so they went down together for a bit.”

“Really? Where—ah, over there?”

Looking down the cliff, Se-Hoon quickly spotted the two at the boundary of the Forest of Repetition. Luize, her form concealed by the Ascension Ring, was carefully examining something while Sung-Ha silently stood guard at her side.

I told them to stay put unless it was something serious... Se-Hoon frowned slightly at the two below.

Just as he was about to check with them whether something had changed in the Forest of Repetition, however, Amir stopped him with a light tap on his shoulder.

“When is the Chairman going to begin the operation?”

To anyone else, it was a casual question. To Se-Hoon, however, it overlapped with another voice echoing in his ears—the whisper of Zayed, who was possessing Amir’s body.

“He’s asking whether it’s really okay to accompany the Trailblazer.”

“...”

Se-Hoon cast a brief glance toward Jason, who was seated off to the side on a rock. Jason was just staring blankly toward the Forest of Repetition; it was completely impossible to tell what he was thinking.

“...I asked him to wait one minute. He should start soon,” Se-Hoon answered after some hesitation.

“This place is better than the others.”

Aside from Ludwig, the Garden of Void had poor compatibility with everyone; as for the Abyss of Demons, it was a battlefield with poor compatibility for Jason, whose power was optimized for direct combat.

In contrast, from the environment of the Demon Realm to his matchup with the Harbinger of Destruction, the Forest of Repetition overwhelmingly favored Jason—both proven by his record before the regression.

I still can’t believe over thirty percent of the Destroyer of Moralities’ soul was destroyed even with the Destroyer of Ruins joining the assault.

Though the Trailblazer had died foolishly due to charging in alone and had ended overwhelmed by the joint attack of Moralities and Ruins, he had proved just how dangerous he was. Just the fact that two Harbingers of Destruction—normally as self-righteous as the Perfect Ones—had cooperated was enough.

That was why, if the Destroyer of Ruins were to be born again in the Forest of Repetition, Jason alone should be able to eliminate it.

“Understood. I’ll tell those two to come back.”

“Send a signal if things go sideways.”

“...”

Watching Amir head toward the cliff, Se-Hoon mulled over Zayed’s remark.

If things go sideways... huh.

Since regressing, Se-Hoon had grown closer to the Perfect Ones and learned their powers, allowing him to understand their pasts and desires that formed their roots. Yet there were still those whose origins remained unfathomable—especially the Seeker and the Trailblazer.

The Seeker... I guess I’ll never know since she died. But that guy—I can’t get a read on him at all.

Whether it was what had happened in his past, what desires he pursued, or even what his power of Premotion truly entailed, Se-Hoon knew nothing. And worse still, the man himself didn’t seem to know either.

He’s definitely similar to Wurgen, but...

In Wurgen’s case, he had died just before his ascension, turning him into an immortal undead without memory of his desire at that moment. Could Jason have experienced something similar right before ascending? Was that why he, too, had become an incomplete Perfect One as a result?

...What a headache.

The doubts sparked by Zayed’s question spiraled endlessly in Se-Hoon’s mind.

The outcome of the demon realm eliminations, humanity’s future, coexistence with the Golden Ring, the direction in which power should be perfected—the time to decide on answers he had long postponed had finally come. Se-Hoon finally understood what Baek-Yeon meant by her final words.

“Someday... when you enter the Forest of Repetition... you’ll face the final decision that determines the future.... I don’t know which path will be right... but if I could give you one piece of advice... try your best to cherish your connections... just like you are doing now...”

Within the Great Demon Realm, which looked unchanged from his memories, what choice would he make? Se-Hoon fell even deeper into contemplation—

“It’s starting.”

A beat after Jason’s murmur, the space above the orbital layer began compressing under an immense force.

Rumble-

That space layer was without even the slightest gap... perfect compression within a world of countless overlapping voids. Seeing Ludwig freely unleash his power without concern for the planet’s safety, Se-Hoon inadvertently let out a dry laugh.

So space compression can go that far...

The extreme compression force twisted Earth’s orbit and atmosphere, tearing apart the black Void clouds to reveal the Golden Ring shining brighter than usual beyond them.

Terra’s struggle to neutralize the planet-wide repercussions with her own power aside, the Golden Ring itself was struggling to stabilize the world as a whole, strained to its limits by Ludwig’s power.

The true strength of the Emperor of Ascension...

Such a display of strength could never have been witnessed without completing the Planetary Reinforcement Plan. To see that compressed space clash with the Garden of Void... Se-Hoon was deeply curious, but he suppressed his curiosity and refocused on the Forest of Repetition.

“Se-Hoon!”

The three who had gone down the cliff returned.

Glancing at them, Se-Hoon gazed up to measure the growing power above the orbit.

“We’ll be entering soon—just give me the key points.”

“The Forest of Repetition is expanding,” Luize answered as she reverted her steel mask, Hati, back into a choker. “When I first checked, it was about one centimeter per minute. But it’s speeding up. Something’s happening inside.”

“...”

Se-Hoon’s brow furrowed. The forest, which had been shrinking for unknown reasons, was suddenly expanding instead?

There was only one explanation.

Someone is reinforcing the Forest of Repetition.

Realizing that a Harbinger of Destruction—or something on that level—had emerged within, Se-Hoon clicked his tongue and stared at the eerily silent forest.

“Looks like they predicted our move—”

Crack.

Ludwig’s strike split the sky along with the Demon Realm, announcing the start of battle.

“The plan?”

At Sung-Ha’s question, all eyes turned to Se-Hoon. He didn’t need to think. There was no time to hesitate.

“We break through head-on.”

If the enemy had prepared an ambush, then they would simply use what they had prepared as well.

“Head-on.”

“So, straight through.”

“Head-on it is.”

With no complaints, the three smiled and drew their weapons. Meanwhile, Jason approached from behind.

“I go first, right?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about possible casualties. Go all out.”

“Alright.”

Jason walked to the edge of the cliff, his gaze fixed on the dense forest below.

Flowing clouds tangled with rewound clouds. Raging winds twisted against winds flowing backward. Incoming waves shattered against retreating ones. Everywhere in sight, the Demon Realm was a place where the present and past collided endlessly, repeating over and over and over.

Staring at that chaos, Jason’s world slowed.

Before the clouds intertwined, before the winds twisted, before the waves broke. From the forest’s outer edge to its core, he found the gaps where spacetime did not repeat. A moment so finely divided it was almost indistinguishable from total stasis.

It was a silent world. And in it, Jason’s fist slowly shot forward.

BOOM!

The entire Forest of Repetition vanished in a brilliant burst of light.

RUMBLE!

The cliff beneath Se-Hoon’s group promptly collapsed under the shockwave, leaving the three falling with stares of utter disbelief.

So this is a Perfect One’s full power?

What kind of monstrosity is that...? Does he even have a limit?

A normal ambush won’t work.

Like Ludwig, Jason had unleashed his full power without regard for his surroundings. His blitzing speed and overwhelming force left Sung-Ha, Luize, and Amir reeling—

“Get ready for the next one!”

Se-Hoon’s shout brought them back.

“It’s not over yet!”

If they were facing an ordinary Danger Zone, that blue-white wasteland below would have been the end. However, they were tackling a Great Demon Realm that contained a Harbinger Shard. Such a place would never fall so easily.

And as if proving that certainty, grotesque power began seeping from within the blue-white light.

The earlier shockwave and thunderous roar were drawn back toward the center, followed by another flash of ‌light created by Jason’s fist. The Forest of Repetition was rewinding spacetime, restoring itself to the moment before it was annihilated.

Seeing that, even as they fell, the three swiftly activated the plan they had prepared.

Shing!

Amir’s Frost Alchemy formed hundreds of ice pillars in midair, then Luize reinforced them with Incantation Magic before scattering them across the forest.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The pillars embedded themselves throughout the half-restored forest. From each pillar, a frigid cold radiated outward, freezing the ground, and the forest’s restoration began to stutter. By freezing spacetime itself, they interfered with the restoration so that they could lock the realm in its current state.

By doing so, the environment that endlessly repeated would repeat those specific spacetime segments instead, thus causing irreversible damage to itself. The countermeasure devised over three days of training worked—just as Amir intended.

Crack-

However, the Forest of Repetition wasn’t so helpless.

Boom!

Explosions erupted near the ice pillars. By locally repeating the explosion that had occurred when Jason annihilated the Demon Realm, the Forest was attempting to destroy the pillars indirectly through them.

“Tsk... Se-Hoon!” Amir shouted, realizing he couldn’t finish it alone.

Hearing that, Se-Hoon clasped his hands together and clicked his tongue.

“So we’re using it after all...!”

His clasped hands slowly twisted and opened, palms aligning vertically as a black line formed between them and spread apart. The Eye of the Nether, Wurgen’s symbol, was opened once again.

Its indifferent gaze landed on the forest that was trying to rewind time.

Infinite Reincarnation: Heavenshrouded Eyes of the Netherworld

The Final Revelation of the Eternal Nocturne spread across the sky, opening up countless eyes that all gazed down upon the land.

Rumble-

Centered on Amir’s ice pillars, the darkness of the Netherworld spread in all directions, forcing the displaced cold to sink even deeper. The land of death, reinforced with glacial frost and the chill of the dead, devoured the surroundings.

Then, to deliver the final stroke, Sung-Ha swung Shadowgrief.

Swish-

A black singularity shot from the spear’s tip, resonating with the Heavenshrouded Eyes of the Netherworld as it expanded into a black sun.

WOONG!

Amir’s Frost Alchemy, Luize’s Incantation Magic, and Se-Hoon’s power—the three forces were perfectly merged with the resonance from Sung-Ha’s spear to become a single technique.

Quadruple Resonance: Nether Glacial Extremity Wheel

A new law of the Netherworld eroded reality, freezing everything.

CRACK-

The blue-white light and the rewinding forest were both frozen solid, locked in place. At last, for even a short moment, the Forest of Repetition had been completely neutralized.

The five landed and charged forward.

“Spread out and find the Harbinger Shard while it’s like this!”

Until the Harbinger Shard—the Demon Realm’s core—was destroyed, they could not afford complacency. Crossing the frozen land, they entered the devastated interior.

Thanks to them, entities that had wandered the forest for decades and were eventually assimilated into it were freed from the cycle, allowed to meet death within the ice. The outer regions had completely collapsed, exhausted of their power. However, nowhere was the Haringer Shard to be seen... nor the being that had seemingly reinforced the forest.

Did they take the shard and flee? No, if that were the case, the Forest’s power should have vanished entirely.

Still unseen, something had seized control of the Forest of Repetition and was hiding somewhere within. To find it, Se-Hoon attempted to observe his surroundings with his power of Perception—

Swish-

A familiar sound echoed in his ears.

It was so familiar that Se-Hoon’s head slowly turned, his gaze drawn as if possessed.

“It’s been a while, Hound.”

There, behind him, the Destroyer of Moralities greeted him with a smile.