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Chapter 488: Outer Celestial, Ubbo-Sathla (8)

The Chang-Sun of Worldline #801 was the most troubling of them all. Where his other versions would have given up already, he burned with fury instead, hunting her down all the way here.

The Chang-Sun in front of her was the reason why she made this risky gamble in the first place. On top of already being on edge because of her seemingly eternal <Punishment>, he made her feel as if she would be stuck in this Rollback loop forever, forcing her hand.

―I can’t meaninglessly endure this life anymore. I’m neither alive nor dead, so let’s find who keeps rewinding this Wheel and ask...

The outcome of her gamble couldn’t be any worse. She had lost all her powers and Authorities and was now shackled with Divine Steel chains, leaving her in a situation as frustrating as a Rollback loop. Perhaps this was better than meaninglessly repeating her everyday life, but she still hadn’t made her peace with Chang-Sun, the cause of everything.

“Killing you is the only way to end this tiring Rollback loop,” Chang-Sun answered.

“Rollback?” Ubbo-Sathla smiled coldly. “Ah, you must be talking about the Wheel.”

Knowing that venting her anger wouldn’t make any difference, she just looked back and forth between her feet and Chang-Sun. As long as they were trapped in this huge trap made by <Dull Darkness>, they couldn’t kill each other nor escape this prison; there was nothing they could do.

“It’s the opposite for me. I should kill you and all of your other versions, you sickeningly tiring leeches,” Ubbo-Sathla said, her anger slowly making her raise her voice.

“Don’t you have to destroy all Worldlines to do that?”

Having a hard time holding back her rage, she shouted, “That’s what infuriates me! You people are cockroaches! I kill you over and over, yet you still keep crawling out of nowhere to torment me!”

“Then stop destroying Worldlines.”

“Do you really think it’s that easy?! That is a <Punishment> from <Deus Ex Machina>, duty granted by <Supreme Light>, job given by <Dull Darkness>!”

“What in the world is this <Punishment> of yours? Killing me?” Chang-Sun asked.

“Executioner!”

“... Executioner?”

“Yes. It is my <Punishment> and duty to take care of Worldlines that could be ruined. It’s their nonsense of how I should end the worlds I started!” Ubbo-Sathla shouted.

Her words finally made Chang-Sun realize the pain that Ubbo-Sathla had been going through.

‘Original Sin.’

Multiverses, parallel universes, the superstring theory... all these ideas were derived from the endless creation of Worldlines. Since this process wasted a lot of energy and there was a limit to Entropies, it could eventually threaten the stability of the Great Universe if left unsupervised.

To prevent that, Worldlines that had outlived their lifespan or were irreversibly ruined had to be picked out and erased. That was where Ubbo-Sathla came in. She brought <Extinction> to those Worldlines in a way far cleaner than normal.

However, their inhabitants naturally couldn’t accept such a sentence. <Extinction> killed everyone in a Worldline, erased their accomplishments, and ended their bloodlines. Hence, they resisted and attempted to nullify it. Chang-Sun was the outcome of that resistance.

‘At the end of my <Punishment>... I meet Ubbo-Sathla while she’s searching for the Mother Terra Celestial’s remains. During our encounter, the Worldline’s future is decided. Is that what’s happening here?’

<Deus Ex Machina> set the stage so he could mediate the process. This was likely the reason Perkwunos told him that they had to defeat <Deus Ex Machina>.

‘What would happen after I kill Ubbo-Sathla? Will that end <Extinction>?’ Chang-Sun wondered.

Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing. No one had gotten that far.

“I coincidentally ran into <Deus Ex Machina> some time ago. I asked when in the world this <Punishment> will end.” Ubbo-Sathla seemed willing to tell Chang-Sun everything she knew now that things had turned out this way. They would have had this conversation sooner or later anyway. “He told me that it’ll end when I consider it as an <Adversity>. It’s bullshit!”

The word <Adversity> rang in Chang-Sun’s ears. ‘I have to rise above this <Punishment>? What happens afterward? What in the world is going on right now?’

Chang-Sun slightly frowned. “Why did you come here instead of going after the Mother Terra Celestial’s remains? I thought that was your goal.”

“Finding my other half won’t make a difference. I’ll still be lesser than Emperors... still stuck in my <Punishment>.”

“What’s your goal?”

“I was going to protest to the one who rewinds the Wheel, but I ended up in this mess instead.” Ubbo-Sathla laughed self-mockingly.

Chang-Sun’s eyes slightly widened in surprise. “You know who’s behind this Rollback loop?”

“There’s no way I wouldn’t. I sense huge amounts of <Darkness> every time a Worldline is violently rewound.”

The word <Darkness> caught Chang-Sun’s attention. That would mean <Dull Darkness> was the one behind the Rollback loop. However, this foundation of Eros, Nyx, and everything else in the universe was supposed to be in deep slumber, and his main consciousness was supposed to be missing.

‘Then Teacher suddenly disappeared...!’ Chang-Sun gaped.

His previous speculation could be right after all. Perhaps Mephistopheles did disappear because he discovered a trace of <Dull Darkness>. However, that posed a new question. If <Dull Darkness> was the twin brother of <Deus Ex Machina>, and <Deus Ex Machina> was the one who gave Chang-Sun and Ubbo-Sathla their <Punishments>, why was <Dull Darkness> looking after Chang-Sun?

‘If <Dull Darkness> doesn’t agree with his twin brother, can’t he just show up himself?’

Chang-Sun began to think of reasons <Dull Darkness> had to help him from afar instead of directly interfering.

Considering Bel-Marduk had also said that the Rollback loop in his original Worldline exhausted him, <Dull Darkness> had likely been doing the same for the other Chang-Suns.

Chang-Sun had no idea what was going on right now. Everything was far too confusing.

<Deus Ex Machina>, whom he believed to be his ally, was allegedly the mastermind behind all this, and <Dull Darkness>, whom he thought had nothing to do with this, was actually helping him from the shadows. Moreover, the person he believed to be <Supreme Light> was only his representative...

Perhaps he was just a pawn in this enormous chessboard known as the Great Universe. The Emperors moving him back and forth naturally exhausted him.

Chang-Sun clenched his teeth, realizing that he had to find out more about what was going on and get a lot stronger. That seemed to be the only way to be free from this <Punishment>.

“You came to R’lyeh because you wanted to talk to your Dull Father.” Chang-Sun guessed.

Ubbo-Sathla pursed her lips and turned her head to the side. Since she had already said everything she needed and everything was over for her, she didn’t feel the necessity to continue talking. However, it only showed Chang-Sun the level of her despair.

Using the cheat called the Rollback loop, he could try as many times as he needed. Meanwhile, she was never given a chance.

Chang-Sun now understood why Ubbo-Sathla didn’t like him and his other selves all that much. From her perspective, it would be like fighting a kid only to come back home and find her father, who should be protecting her, standing up for her enemy. She wished to ask Dull Father for his reasons and beg him to help her, but her efforts ended in failure.

After being ensnared by the enormous trap set by <Dull Darkness>, she was sent to prison. She probably felt completely abandoned by her father and as if she had no one to rely on anymore. Having completely given up, her eyes showed no emotion even as she confessed everything she knew.

‘... She’s also a victim in the end.’

Chang-Sun empathized with Ubbo-Sathla. He had gone through the same thing before.

He became just like her when he grew apart from his family and lost Ithaca. Back then, he felt as if he was alone in this world and unsure how he should walk out of the darkness.

“The Rollback loop is still active, which means <Dull Darkness> is close even if he’s not here.”

Ubbo-Sathla looked at Chang-Sun again. “What are you trying to say?”

Chang-Sun’s expression now showed determination. “Ubbo-Sathla, I can get you out of this place.”

Ubbo-Sathla’s eyes widened. “What?”

Chang-Sun quietly pulled out his golden key. Realizing that it was what allowed him to keep coming after her, she quieted down.

“No matter your story, I can’t forgive you. I’m sure the feeling is mutual.”

“Get to the point.”

“I’m going to kill you, but an Outer Celestial can’t be killed completely.”

Ubbo-Sathla smirked. “I see. You want me to join you.”

Celestial Cannibalism. Chang-Sun would swallow Ubbo-Sathla just like what he had done with the Incendiary Burial Whale.

Ubbo-Sathla scoffed. “Ha! You sure know how to sugarcoat your desire for pow—!”

“You aren’t wrong, but that’s not the only thing I’m trying to do here. I’ll be looking for <Dull Darkness>. I also have many questions for him. When I find him, I’ll give you a chance to ask him your questions yourself.”

Ubbo-Sathla pursed her lips. Chang-Sun had no reason to make her such an offer. After all, he could simply kill her to absorb her power.

“... You hate me, don’t you? Why are you doing this for me?” she asked.

“I used to be just like you. I envied everyone else around me because they all seemed happy. I was the only one who didn’t.”

Ubbo-Sathla’s lips trembled.

Chang-Sun continued, “You’re going through the same thing, aren’t you? You’re suffering and yet you have to be hated. For every <Extinction> you deliver, you drown in a flood of condemnation and resentment. At the same time, you envy their happiness.”

Ubbo-Sathla called beings of Eros vermin, but her condescension was part of her self-justification to spare her heart even more wounds.

“That is my reason. If you don’t like how I’m phrasing it... well, let’s just say I’m doing this on a whim, just like how you told me your story.”

After a brief silence, Ubbo-Sathla burst into feeble laughter. “Ha... Hahahaha...”

She covered her face with her hands, but it wasn’t enough to stop the tears from falling on the floor. “This is annoying. I can’t believe the person I’ve grown so tired of is also the one who would end up understanding me and actually treating me with consideration.”

Chang-Sun opened the prison cell door using his golden key.

Clink!

“Wh-what? Why did her door suddenly open?”

“You have the key?”

“Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Me too! Get me out of here too! Please!”

The nearby prisoners caused an even bigger commotion than the ones earlier. Paying no attention to them, Chang-Sun walked into the solitary cell. Tied to the wall, Ubbo-Sathla looked up at Chang-Sun, revealing her teary eyes.

“Can you even kill me?” she asked.

Chang-Sun nodded and pulled out the Nereid Stone, which Bel-Marduk had tossed to him when he jumped into the gate of R’lyeh. It would be difficult to annihilate an Outer Celestial without it.

Staaaab!

Chang-Sun thrust the sharpened Nereid Stone into Ubbo-Sathla’s chest, which was where her main core was.

Kieeeeeeh!

[‘Gaia’s Curse’ has been activated, disintegrating the <Myths> of an unknown being!]

Ominous ghost wails filled the cell.

Pzzz―!

Ooong, ooooong!

Ubbo-Sathla disintegrated into particles, leaving behind a brilliant golden jewel—the mass of all the <Star Fragments> that she had swallowed.