The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System-Chapter 24: Everybody Died

Indeed, a God was physically before Ignotus.

Once a Mist of Death turned into being, eventually becoming a God.

Thankfully for Ignotus’s sanity and life, Achlys’s form, as one would expect, was hidden behind Her fog, leaving only Her thin figure and pulsating black eyes visible.

Because, of course, if he saw Her, death would claim him before he even realized it.

Eris, back in the Parish, was different; he didn’t see the true Her, only a manifestation of Her.

Sure, even that would affect mortals, but perhaps that meant that Ignotus had a resistance of some kind...?

Well, he wasn’t focusing on that now.

A GOD WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM.

His mind experienced whiplash as if it were jolted awake.

Everything Ignotus was forced to stare at those eyes, unable to leave them.

And those eyes stared back, something close to shock passing through them.

Was it due to his doing the impossible despite being the weakest of Runebearers?

Or did She, like Eris, see what She wasn’t supposed to see?

"...You are of a unique Soul."

Ah, it seemed to be the latter.

"What are you?"

So very much the latter.

"Your current Soul is too large for a mere Seeker."

Her voice was low and grating...

"A Disciple’s level perhaps."

A sound of death.

"How?"

One that had rumbled Ignotus...

"I’m..."

Though only for a moment.

"I’m no different than any other Seeker."

Getting his bearings about him, he shook his head and focused up.

"It’s only that I’ve gone through time."

She tilted Her head.

"In what way? And how?"

He shrugged.

"My last moments angered someone too strong."

Achlys sighed, as did Eris in his mind, two Goddesses that he was confidently skirting around the truth with, making the former annoyed and the latter exacerbated.

"You didn’t really explain the what. So would you tell me?"

Ignotus shook his head once more.

"First, I need my reward for this trial."

"A Soul Glyph?"

"A Soul Glyph."

Achlys waved Her hand, forming tens and tens of Arcane behind Her.

"Choose your reward."

He looked at them, and yet...

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His Beholding Eyes told him nothing.

Yes, as expected, it couldn’t work for those too out of reach.

"Which one allows me to... edit my Runes?"

She tilted Her fog-covered head once more.

"Isn’t that just tweaking your Arcane to get slightly different outputs? You’ll learn that later on; won’t such a Rune be a waste?"

"No, that simply changes the output of a Rune; I want to change the Rune itself."

If he could see Her face, he’d notice that She raised Her brows.

"That’s a heavy thing you’re asking for; I’d need to request more from you."

"Oh, and what might someone of your stature request?"

A red-eyed figure blinked in and out of existence.

"BE REASONABLE."

It seemed that Eris used the Divinity concentrated here for just that moment.

Waving Her hands at Eris’s words, Achlys asked:

"You’ve saved the ’what’ for this, haven’t you?"

He nodded, and She instructed him:

"Your memories. Show me them."

Ignotus grinned.

"I don’t think you’ll be able to handle it."

"Are you calling me weak?"

Her voice grew agitated, though he didn’t seem affected.

"Compared to ’Them?’ The Higher Gods? I’d say yes."

Achlys got close, pausing just before his face.

"Do you want to die, BOY?"

Ignotus didn’t lower his eyes.

"No, I don’t, you idiot."

Instead, he enraged Her further.

"I’ll kill you!"

Her fog rushed him from all directions, about to suffocate him, but—

"CEASE."

Eris interfered once more, Her figure quelling the fog.

"AND YOU! STOP TRYING TO MAKE HER MAD."

Ignotus shrugged his shoulders a second time.

"I can’t help it; it’s not every day you can talk shit to a descended God."

Achlys sighed, giving up, and asked again:

"Will... will you allow me?"

"Bah, fine..."

Ignotus sat down...

"Just don’t say I didn’t warn you."

And everything turned dark.

***

What took the place of the darkness were the white walls of a small room.

A twenty-or-so-year-old man sat on the edge of the bed, calmly looking down.

His white hair was cut short, and his eyes were entirely red, a bit too unblinking to be normal.

Someone... stood in front of him, drinking from a glass of whiskey.

"Ignotus... I’m sorry, but I can’t do much. Only you can stop it."

The man cleared his throat and forced a smile.

"It’s your Demon... a heart Demon."

Ignotus kept still.

"Hm."

"Really? That’s it?"

The man’s voice lowered.

"Is there nothing more you want to say?"

Ignotus shook his head once, an answer enough.

"Please... my friend..."

The man sighed before setting his glass down.

"Look at me."

Ignotus tilted his head up, finally looking at the man.

Incredibly pale-skinned, with tall, thin ears.

He looked to be the definition of mystic.

"Marcus, I don’t need a therapist."

Scoffing at his words, the man produced a book.

"How about you look at this, then?"

Ignotus frowned a little.

"I’m no longer fit to be your leader, so why bother?"

Ignotus’s fists trembled a little.

"There’s no need for it..."

He felt a pain that passed.

"I can’t return."

His right hand pointed at himself.

"I came here to fix my body, not sit through some damn mental evaluation. Stop trying to upsell me and just do your damned job."

Marcus didn’t show much of a reaction, as if expecting this.

"This is a part of my ’job,’ Ignotus; it is you who isn’t allowing me to do it."

"..."

Ignotus said nothing.

"...did you know?"

At Marcus’s sighing question, Ignotus let out a quiet sigh of his own.

"Hm, yes, I don’t know what to call it, but... there was always something wrong with me. And no, it wasn’t the deaths, or the stress, or those three bastards... that only lit it up."

Those words left him so easily.

"It’s..."

Only the final ones made him pause.

"It’s how I am now."

Marcus nodded slowly.

"Schizoid Personality Disorder."

His tone became a bit more professional.

"In plain words, it means you can’t connect with people like most can. Emotions like love, rage, jealousy... they don’t stay with you. They pass right through, and no, it’s not depression or despair. You are simply... wired differently; your mind does not process things the way we do."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The words hung heavy in the air until finally...

"I don’t want to live like this."

Ignotus smiled.

"I know..."

As did Marcus, better this time.

"So talk to me; I can’t let you go, especially not without discussing this."

He opened the book and began to read its most recent lines:

"The first act had concluded..."

Ignotus chuckled as he calmly listened to his own writing.

"We all knew how it was going to end, didn’t we?"

Something that was never meant to see the light of day.

"The Third Stratum fell and..."

He slowly closed his eyes.

"Everybody died."

His smile left him.

"It’s going to happen again."