Crypian’s head rolled across the cold marble floor before finally coming to a stop near the foot of one of the pillars.
A second later, his body collapsed heavily behind it.
Thud.
Silence descended over the chamber so suddenly that it almost felt unreal.
The nobles stood frozen in place, their eyes wide as they stared toward Commander Cassian.
So looked pale while others unconsciously lowered their gazes toward the blood slowly spreading across the floor. Even Sebastian’s expression had stiffened completely.
However...despite the horror filling the room, nobody truly thought the outco unexpected.
Not after those words. The Church viewed the Goddess as their mother. To the devoted, insulting Her was already unforgivable. But those final words had crossed far beyond insult.
In the eyes of the paladins, Crypian had ceased being human the mont the recording finished.
Commander Cassian calmly flicked the blood from his sword before returning it to its sheath with a sharp tallic click.
His face remained cold, yet the fury lingering within his eyes had still not completely faded.
anwhile, several steps away from the corpse, Uriel stood completely motionless.
’...Fuck ,’ he thought blankly.
The words echoed through his mind repeatedly while his expression slowly twisted with regret.
He truly had gone too far. At the ti, he never imagined the Church would hesitate to execute soone from the Thorne family so easily.
That was precisely why he made the recording as vicious as possible. He wanted Crypian cornered beyond recovery.
But now the result of that recklessness stood directly before him.
"Fuck..." Uriel cursed inwardly again as bitterness spread through his chest.
A long sigh escaped his lips before he slowly lowered himself onto the floor.
There was nothing left to do now.
Crypian was already dead. All Uriel could do was hope that when the regression began, his past self would understand sothing from the fragnts left behind. Perhaps a sense of déjà vu would be enough.
Commander Cassian finally turned toward him.
"Your Holiness..." The mont the commander saw the Saint sitting directly on the floor with such a defeated expression, the coldness around him disappeared almost instantly.
Worry replaced it instead. Cassian imdiately strode forward before lowering himself slightly.
"Why are you sitting on the ground like this?" he asked, his voice noticeably softer now.
Uriel rely gave a weak smile. "You can sit too if you want," he said tiredly. "There’s no need to keep straining your legs."
The nobles exchanged confused glances.
Even the paladins looked slightly uncertain now.
"In just a few more seconds," Uriel continued quietly, "the present will change anyway..."
Another sigh escaped him. For a brief mont, complete silence followed his words.
Commander Cassian frowned faintly. "What are you...."
"Please, for the love of the Goddess, shut up for a mont!" Uriel suddenly snapped.
The entire chamber froze. Everyone stared at him in shock.
The Saint had always remained calm and composed no matter the situation. Even monts ago, while handling accusations of blasphemy, his voice had never risen once.
But now irritation and exhaustion were openly visible across his face.
Several nobles imdiately lowered their heads nervously while the paladins stiffened in place.
Commander Cassian himself looked completely caught off guard.
"Your Holiness..." he began carefully, genuine concern appearing within his expression. "Are you perhaps feeling unwell? Did I...do sothing wr...."
"Will all of you just stay quiet?" Uriel snapped again, this ti sounding even more annoyed.
A cold snort followed. That alone was enough to silence the entire hall instantly.
Nobody dared speak another word. The atmosphere beca strangely heavy once more, but this ti it was not because of rage nor killing intent....it was simply confusion.
The nobles could not understand why the Saint suddenly seed so frustrated after Crypian’s execution. The paladins were even more unsettled. To them, the Saint’s emotions were not sothing trivial.
If he was displeased, then sothing had to be wrong. And among them all, Commander Cassian appeared the most disturbed.
Had he acted too quickly? The thought quietly surfaced within his mind.
After all, he had killed Crypian without waiting for the Saint’s final verdict.
At that mont his anger had completely overwheld him. Was the Saint upset because of that?
Cassian’s brows slowly furrowed as unease crept into his chest.
anwhile, Uriel remained seated on the floor in silence.
Another sigh escaped him. "...Is that the third sigh already?" he wondered absentmindedly.
Still, none of it mattered now. Everything would reset soon anyway.
Honestly...if possible, he would have preferred Crypian’s regression to function through parallel worlds instead. That way this tiline could continue existing normally without being overwritten each cycle.
But he already knew better. From his main body’s mories, Uriel understood clearly that Crypian’s regression did not create alternate realities.
It rewound the sa world. aning sowhere very soon, the future itself would begin changing again.
As Uriel sat there silently, a sudden wave of unfamiliar nostalgia washed over him.
It ca without warning. A strange sensation, distant yet intimate, like rembering a dream he had never actually lived.
And with it.."...It’s started," Uriel muttered inwardly.
A dull pain slowly spread through his mind.
At first it was only a faint ache behind his eyes, but monts later fragnts of mories began surfacing one after another.
mories that did not belong to this present.
"Huh...?" From the side, Count Kalan suddenly staggered before collapsing onto one knee.
His hand imdiately grabbed his head.
"What...what is happening...?" he muttered painfully.
Veins slowly appeared across his forehead as his breathing turned uneven. Inside his mind, mories were forcing themselves into place.
Scenes, voices, conversations. Things he rembered and yet sohow did not.
The contradiction alone made his head feel as though it was splitting apart.
Then beside him, Count Xavier suddenly let out a groan as well.
"Ahh...!" He nearly lost balance before clutching his own head tightly.
And before anyone inside the chamber could understand what was happening, more bodies began collapsing one after another.
Sebastian fell against the table while breathing heavily. Several nobles dropped directly onto the marble floor in panic.
Even the paladins lost their composure.
Commander Cassian himself staggered backward before grabbing the side of his head tightly.
The chamber that had once stood in absolute silence suddenly descended into chaos.
"What is this?!"
"My head.....!"
"What’s happening to ?!"
Pained voices echoed endlessly throughout the hall. Their mories were changing. ...No...rewriting.
The events they had just experienced were slowly vanishing, overwritten by a different sequence entirely. Existing mories twisted violently while new ones forced themselves into place.
The process itself felt unbearable. Commander Cassian gritted his teeth as cold sweat ford across his forehead.
Crypian’s execution, the blood on his sword, corpse lying on the floor.....All of it began fading rapidly from his mind.
In its place ca unfamiliar mories ca flooding in.
The contradiction between the two tilines slamd into his mind so violently that panic imdiately overwheld him.
"What is even happening?!" Cassian shouted.
The mont those words left his mouth, another sharp surge of pain exploded inside his head.
"AHHHHHHHHHH—!"
The commander’s scream thundered throughout the chamber as he dropped onto one knee completely.
Uriel’s own condition was not much better.
Fragnts of altered mories continuously collided within his mind while a splitting headache spread through his skull.
Combined with the nobles screaming endlessly around him, irritation rapidly overtook whatever patience he had left.
"For fuck’s sake," Uriel snapped while pressing a hand against his forehead, "will all of you just shut the fuck up already?!"
But nobody responded. Most of them could barely even hear him anymore.
The chamber had already descended completely into confusion and despair.
And then. ....Whosh.
A strange distortion suddenly spread across the room. One of the nobles vanished instantly.
The space where he once stood beca empty as though he had never existed there at all.
Whosh. Another disappeared...then another. One after another, bodies throughout the chamber began vanishing without warning.
The paladins, the nobles, Sebastian.
Even Commander Cassian disappeared mid-scream.
At so point, even Crypian’s corpse had vanished from the bloodstained floor. The chamber itself gradually beca emptier and emptier.
Uriel quietly watched the scene while enduring the pain pounding inside his head.
"...What a shitty ability," he muttered bitterly.
Whosh. The final distortion swallowed him whole.
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