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A young man with messy black hair looked at the scene in front of him. A formerly large castle constructed by the Giant Spirit Bees was now a pile of ruins; there wasn't even a single bee left.
"What?! What happened here?"
Even as he desperately searched for what he was looking for, he was unable to find it. His face was full of disbelief and frustration.
"This wasn't supposed to happen... Who did this?!" He screamed. "Without the Spirit Bee Queen's Royal Jelly, I can't synthesize the next pill properly!"
He had planned to obtain a precious item from the Queen of this castle, a deliciously sweet royal jelly capable of creating a powerful elixir that would boost his body's strength even further.
Yet it was nowhere to be seen now.
Someone had clearly come here, killed all the bees and the boss, and then left!
"But who…? This didn't happen back then." He muttered to himself. "Who did this? Have I already created a butterfly effect?"
Although he started to remember that woman who had kicked him, he quickly decided to calm himself down and move to another location.
He had no time to waste!
…
At the peak of the Snow Mountain on the first floor, the young man screamed in frustration. He had hunted a bunch of Frost Spiders just now, but these were monsters he didn't particularly care about.
"Where is the Frost Wyvern King?!"
The Frost Wyvern King, another S-Rank Monster of the first floor, was a mighty foe no Players dared to hunt.
"Now how will I get the Winter Bringer?"
His scales, bones, claws, and fangs could forge an incredible weapon with his synthesis abilities, known as the Winter Bringer, an almighty blade capable of freezing and cutting foes.
Yet… He was unable to find the wyvern, even when he entered its lair. There weren't even the younger wyverns left, the entire flock was slain!
"This is just a coincidence, right? Yeah… Maybe they moved somewhere else."
He kept looking forward; he couldn't give up on his goals as the only Regressor.
After all, the responsibility of saving Earth was weighing on his shoulders.
He moved ahead relentlessly.
…
A smile surged on the young man's handsome face as he looked into the boiling volcano. There were some giant, red-skinned ogre-type foes there.
"Finally! At least the Blazing Ogres are here!"
With a wicked smile full of bloodlust, he rushed to hunt down the group of S-Rank Monsters
"As long as I can hunt these guys and gather their bodies, I can at least make myself decent armor!"
As he rushed downwards, he suddenly came to a halt once he confronted the red-skinned ogre-like "monsters" walking around.
His "foes" screamed in fear and ran away from the scene, dropping the bags full of ores they had been mining here.
"Huh? Wait!"
He looked towards their group, realizing there were at least thirty or forty people. Yes, people, these weren't humanoid monsters.
"Devils?"
With a trembling voice, the largest of the devils pointed a sword at him.
"W-What do you want?! Who are you?!"
"No, wait…! I… Ah."
The regressor sheathed his black sword and then sighed. Keeping his own anger in check, he felt incredibly frustrated to realize the lair of the Blazing Ogres was now being occupied by a small tribe of Fire Devils, people that originate from higher floors in the Tower.
"Didn't Blazing Ogres live here before?"
"Blazing Ogres?!"
"Why are you calling us like that?"
"We are not Blazing Ogres!"
"Did someone call us like that?"
"Such an insult…"
Amongst the many races of the Tower, Devils often suffered the worst cases of racism, often compared to ogre-type monsters such as Trolls, Ogres, and Hobgoblins.
Calling them Blazing Ogres was a great insult!
"Leave this place at once! You come out of nowhere, scaring the children who were trying to mine some resources, and now call us blazing ogres?! Get off!"
The chief of the tribe, a muscular man wielding a blazing spear, pointed his weapon at the Regressor.
"I'm… I'm sorry."
He quickly left, completely disappointed and disheartened.
"What the hell is happening? Why are all the things I want gone?"
As he looked into the distance, he decided to move back to the Nexus City he had only visited briefly, without even checking anything or speaking with anybody.
As a Regressor, he believed he couldn't waste time with "NPC" and had to save Earth at all costs, so speaking with people or caring about the situation on the first floor wasn't his business.
Yet.
"Huh? What… What do you mean the church of light is gone?!"
He had changed his Class after awakening his Regressor abilities; therefore, he had never visited the Church of Light to obtain a Class before.
Now, after finally coming to visit it after his Regression, he found out the place where it formerly was located had now been occupied by a group of food stalls.
The rubble or other things left behind by the church being destroyed were gone, the streets were made clean, and the noble in charge of the city decided to leave the area free for any food stall to sit there.
So in the last week, it has become a well-known spot for adventurers or other people to come enjoy the delicious food on the first floor at cheap prices.
"I'm sorry to say this... But are you okay in the head, young man?" Wondered a dwarf who was selling meat skewers with a very spicy sauce. "The church of light was demolished by a very strong player some time ago! It was completely destroyed by every country on the entire continent. I also heard the Goddess of Light died. There's a new God around."
"Huh? WHAT?!"
Seth fell to his knees as he looked down at the floor.
Everything was going wrong!
All his opportunities were snatched away.
The church of light was gone; without it, he wouldn't be able to obtain divine relics by extorting the pope or the priests.
And even less, obtaining a small blessing from the goddess of light would have given him the necessary ability to properly explore the second-floor ruins he wanted to find.
But above all, the goddess herself.
Was gone!
"This has to be a joke…"
He hadn't been present in the tower when it happened, unfortunately.
"There's a new god now? Who… Who is it?"
"Look, man, I am not going to give more information to a beggar like you."
"Please just tell me! I'll give you as much money as you want!"
Seth threw the dwarf a sack of coins.
"Hmph."
The dwarf quickly pocketed the sack of coins and nodded.
"Well… If you're going to be so sincere, it is Leviathan, a serpent god of creation or something; I don't know. Everyone loves him because he used his Miracles to give everyone a bountiful harvest." The dwarf spoke.
"Leviathan?!" Seth muttered. "But isn't that just a Divine Monster?! That thing from the sea is a god now? You've got to be kidding me…"
He still remembered battling that monster in the previous timeline and slaying it after joining hands with the many avatars of the Gods of the first floor and a hundred more Players.
It was an incredible raid that everyone did to save the fate of the first floor from being flooded!
But now that damned eel has become the first floor's only god?!
"Who… Who did this? Who is doing this?!" He asked the dwarf desperately.
"If you're asking who destroyed the tower, everyone knows her at this point." The dwarf shrugged. "An incredibly strong Player, a woman with no limits. Some speculate she even killed the gods. Her name's Bing Xue; she comes from Earth."
"B-Bing Xue…"
Seth smiled, laughing.
"Hah… Hahah… Of course… Of course, it's HER!"
With a scream full of frustration, Seth smashed the floor and almost broke it.
"Oi, be careful! So are you buying or not?"
"…"
Seth remained in silence for a brief moment.
"Hey?" The dwarf asked.
"…Please give me two skewers with extra spicy sauce." Seth sighed.
"Okay, I'll give you some beer too; you seem to be going through some hard times, son." The gentle dwarf helped Seth have a meal.
However, as he enjoyed the food and the banter, he sighed.
"What the hell do I do now?"
The Regressor had no idea what to do now!
.
.
.
(Bing Xue POV)
Ding!
[You have activated the [Undead God Summon (SSS)]!]
[You have summoned the [Tower God]: {Lord Of Deep Darkness}!]
[The God has been summoned with most of their Memories Intact and with 40% of their former Stats and Abilities.]
[Summoning Duration: 2 Hours.]
[You have summoned the [Tower God]: {The Brilliant Mother Of Light}!]
[The God has been summoned with most of their Memories Intact and with 40% of their former Stats and Abilities.]
[Summoning Duration: 2 Hours.]
Both Gods stood in front of me now. It seemed that because they only had forty percent of their former stats and abilities, they came out in a much smaller and, if I dare say, adorable form.
"What's happening now?! Why am I a baby?" The Goddess cried, looking at her own appearance. "Where's my beauty? My light! I dislike this appearance! You! Didn't you kill me?! You want to kill me twice now?!"
"Sis… Sister, calm down…" The God muttered timidly, trying to extend his skeletal hand towards her shoulder.
"Ugh, don't touch me with your hands! They're so cold and creepy!" The girl cried angrily, pushing the god away and making him fall to the floor.
"Agh…!" He groaned. "S-Sister… Sorry…"
I can see they don't get along. Or well, he tries to get along with her, but she's really not sociable, huh? What an annoying little brat! Even after reviving her, she's still treating everyone like shit.
"I've summoned you with a Skill I obtained." I sighed. "It seems this is now a thing. You can only stay for two hours, apparently. No wait, you can stay indefinitely as long as I inject you with Primordial Essence, which I have in endless amounts."
Ding!
[You have begun injecting foreign energies into the links with the two summoned Gods.]
[The energy is fueling their manifestations.]
[+1 Hour of Summoning Time]
[+6 Hour of Summoning Time]
[+3 Hour of Summoning Time]
[+2 Hour of Summoning Time]
[+10 Hour of Summoning Time]
[…]
[You can keep the Gods summoned indefinitely as long as you share your foreign energies with their Divine Links.]
Well, this makes things easier.
"Why… How is this possible? Didn't you completely kill me?" The goddess asked me. "Is this some wicked game for you? Are you going to torture us now?"
"Not such a thing. I've summoned you to experiment with my new Skill." I said. "This has confirmed a few things. One of them is that you keep your memories, even the ones before your deaths. Second, your power has decreased significantly, and your appearance has changed into child-like forms. Third, I seem to possess the ability to order you to do things, like a puppeteer controlling their puppets."
"What? S-So we are your slaves now?!" The goddess panicked.
"I mean, we died…" The god muttered. "It isn't as if we had any other option. And… It isn't as if we died without a good reason. We thought our actions… Would never have repercussions. B-but we killed a lot of people… A-And someone eventually came to avenge them…"
"What? I…!" The goddess remained silent after that, as if she were thinking something. "Ugh… I… Well, I-I guess… Maybe. Ugh, but even then, I didn't want to die, you know? I was sorry, but… maybe too late?"
"Now it is not too late, I suppose," I said. "I've slain you two, yes. You've been dethroned, and your former selves no longer exist. But you've been given a second chance; let's call this reincarnation, maybe. You've paid for your sins, but now you can redeem yourselves by working to protect the people you once slaughtered."
"That's insane! Why would I want to protect ANYBODY!" Said the goddess. "I might feel sorry, but I already died; that was enough payment!"
"I-I would like to help, if possible." The god, in the other case, seemed willing to change. "You taught me a valuable lesson as we fought. I experienced the thrill of living and fighting for my life, and I finally understood how those people I tormented felt as well. I want to change, to help somehow. This is an opportunity I don't want to let go."
"Good, you're changing, I see." I smiled, nodding. "Perhaps I could make you my disciple, Lord of Deep Darkness—no, you need a new name, I believe. Umbra, how about it?"
"Ooh, I'll take it, thank you." He bowed his head. "A-And disciple… I hadn't considered such a thing. Perhaps this could help me. It could help me understand life much better."
"You are eager to learn." I smiled, extending my hand towards him and helping him stand back up. "Now, you. Goddess."
"I am the Mother Goddess, and I am not taking any name from you!" She said it angrily. "Hmph!"
"S-Sister… Please be more respectful." The god sighed.
"Shut it!" The goddess barked back.
Their dynamic was not healthy at all…
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