Chapter 396: Guardian of the World (5)

A problem arises. He barely resolves it. Another problem arises. He searches for a solution again.

He was exhausted. He felt like a rat running endlessly on a wheel. Regret started to creep in.

—Is this truly worth doing?

Even if he were to seize Astra Shunaph's power and become a new god of death, it didn't mean the world would return to how it once was. He would have to follow the fate of the Monarch of Death precisely. Only then would that power remain his.

That meant he would have to commit every sin that Karnak had once committed, at every fixed point in history, all the way up to the brink of destruction. Was it truly worth protecting the world by going this far?

After all, what would remain was nothing but a world filled with death. Would he really be saving the world by killing all living beings, raising them as undead, and drowning the land in malice and death energy? Could that really be called saving the world?

Temptation whispered.

—Wouldn't it be cleaner to let the world end?

Rather than letting it rot and fester in disgrace, wouldn't it be better to burn it all down with his own hands, while it was still at its most beautiful?

Each time, Tesranach reaffirmed his wavering resolve. I cannot give up.

That was merely the thinking of the living, not the thinking of the world. I must not give up.

He was not the guardian of life, but the guardian of the world. I do not have the right to give up.

He continued studying ways to secretly send his subordinates into the past. Thus was born the compromise known as the Anti-Time-Space Transcender.

He discovered that, like the Four Governors of Necropia, those who had already been undead in the past could be regressed in time without setting a fixed point, and without issue.

By using those archliches who returned to the past, he could create an anchor in spacetime without detection. With that anchor, even the martial kings and archmages could return to the past without alerting the dragon emperor.

It was a plan riddled with uncertainties, but there were no alternatives. Tesranach summoned the Four Grand Governors and sent them into the past.

That was when the unexpected happened. Demphis, the first to return to the past, became entangled with a growing Karnak, which caused a distortion in spacetime.

Despite Tesranach's efforts in making his domain rich and eliminating his family, that wicked Monarch of Death continued to slowly regain his strength. Tesranach wasn't exactly surprised. Karnak had always been that kind of man.

If Karnak had ever been the sort to give up necromancy, the world would never have fallen so far in the first place. As spacetime twisted, cause and effect were reversed.

Artifacts yet to be created crossed over into timelines where they shouldn't yet exist. Karnak quickly pierced through the true nature of Anti-Time-Space Transcenders after obtaining them. He truly was the rightful master of death.

What had been an incomplete transcendence artifact became complete through Karnak, and that wisdom even reached Tesranach in the Void.

Empowered, Tesranach continued with his plan. He would keep sending his subordinates into the past using the artifacts, expand the cult's influence, and once the divine grace reached a sufficient threshold, he would steal the fate of the Monarch of Death and send his avatar into this era.

Naturally, not everything went smoothly. Karnak continued to obstruct his destiny, and Tesranach had to revise the plan over and over.m Even so, Tesranach pressed on without rest.

He knew. Even if he saved the world this way, it would be a dead world. Even if the plan succeeded, it would still require him to personally kill this world once.

But afterward, after that dreadful calamity had swept through the land... Even in a dead world, new seeds of life will surely sprout.

That, he could accept.

This time, without fail... Though he would bear death and walk forever through hell, he would be able to smile at a reborn world. I will save the world!

***

"What comes after, you've experienced yourselves. You should know the gist of it." The baby dragon withdrew its projected memories. "There. That is the truth of Tesranach."

Karnak also dispelled the spell. Darkness once again enveloped the cave. The dragon emperor of the present quietly asked, "What do you make of it?"

All eyes turned to Karnak.

"Uh... so basically..."

Whether they killed Karnak, let him live, sealed him, or left him alone, the world was doomed regardless?

Leven muttered in disbelief, "Shouldn't we be helping Tesranach at this point?"

But if Tesranach became the god of death, the entire world would turn into a land of death.

"Yeah... no thanks to that."

"Then what are we even supposed to do?!"

Everyone was confused. They had been thinking only of how to stop Tesranach, how to defeat him and save the world. But it turned out that the one trying to save the world was Tesranach himself. The one who had always been whining about food was apparently destined to destroy it instead.

Karnak scratched his head. "Well, not like I have a choice here."

If Tesranach obtained Astra Shunaph's power, the first thing he would do was annihilate Karnak's soul, down to its last scrap. So Karnak absolutely had to stop him. If not, he would be finished.

Milia cautiously asked, "But isn't that all just a future that hasn't happened yet?"

Now, Karnak understood that the rest of the world would vanish if he attempted to regress in time.

"Even knowing that, would you really go through with it?"

Varos, the loyal servant of a hundred years, along with Leven and Serati—who had known Karnak the longest—tilted their heads in doubt.

"Would the young master?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Sounds like something he'd definitely do..."

Even Drel and Dios, who had become vassals more recently, didn't give particularly reassuring answers.

"He might not think so now..."

"But people never know what they'll do until the moment comes."

Lapicel, who would've normally taken Karnak's side without hesitation, was uncharacteristically quiet. It seemed the entire situation had thrown her off.

Grateria offered a faint, bitter smile. "There was, in fact, such a future. I simply couldn't show it all."

Tesranach had tried everything after countless failures. Naturally, he had even clung to Karnak's legs, begging him not to regress and destroy the world. And yet, Karnak had gone through with it without a shred of hesitation.

Karnak nodded. "Well, from my perspective, the best move is to live out this life and regress right before I die."

What did it matter if the world ended or not? By then, he would already be back in the past, living a new life.

Then Serati asked, "Then what about us?"

"Hm?"

"All of us left behind will just die in the middle of the world ending?"

Karnak's expression hardened slightly. By now, he'd come to have people he cared about, including Serati, Lapicel, and the other vassals. Regressing in time would mean abandoning them all to die in the apocalypse.

"Serati's right."

Karnak changed his mind. He had changed. He was no longer the same self-centered Monarch of Death he once was. He couldn't leave them behind.

"I'll just take everyone with me when I regress!"

Serati's face crumpled in dismay. "Oh great, so we're back to that kind of thinking again?"

Come to think of it, looking back on Tesranach's memories, even through all those countless regressions, he had always brought Varos with him.

She scoffed and muttered sarcastically, "Can't Lord Karnak just kill himself now? If he becomes Astra Shunaph and then does absolutely nothing, we won't have to worry about anything..."

Of course, she knew full well that wasn't a real solution. Hadn't Karnak abandoned everything and regressed in the first place to escape that endless hell? Whether he was good or evil was never the point. When death stares a person in the face, their instinct is to find any way to survive. You couldn't blame someone for not wanting to die.

"Sigh... I can finally understand Tesranach's anguish."

***

A heavy silence followed. No one spoke, for everyone was lost in their own thoughts.

It was Dios who broke it. "O Ancient One."

He turned toward the pale baby dragon. "Can you not grant us your wisdom?"

"My wisdom?" Grateria, who had been silently observing the situation, replied with a hint of confusion. "Have you forgotten? Tesranach is the future me."

Which meant any conclusion he could reach, Tesranach had already reached. "There is no other wisdom I can offer. Tesranach already proved that."

Dios pressed again, "Then why are you helping us?"

Grateria had gone so far as to possess Floke's body just to deliver this information to Karnak's group. But if he had no other solution, shouldn't he be fulfilling his role as a guardian by siding with Tesranach instead?

"The difference between us is not wisdom." The baby dragon shook his head slowly. "It is our position."

To Grateria, Tesranach's past was still just a future yet to come. "Tesranach seeks to turn the present into hell in order to save a future that has not yet come."

But to the current dragon emperor, it was his duty as a guardian to stop the destruction happening now.

"Even if that leads to a predetermined end?"

"Yes. The future is not set in stone. Acting accordingly is the right course." He replied firmly, then gave a bitter smile. "But if you ask whether that path will lead to a good outcome... I can't say I believe that either."

Even if they defeated Tesranach, how could they possibly stop a dying Karnak from regressing decades later and repeating everything again? Everyone wore grave expressions, Karnak included.

What if someone demanded a vow: Live a happy life, and when your time comes, die without regret? One might agree without hesitation in the moment, and without a doubt, the feeling would be genuine in the moment.

But could anyone guarantee they'd still mean it decades later, with death staring them in the face? No, they were likely not to.

Of all the lies humans told, few were spoken with deliberate deceit from the start. Most were truths at the time they were uttered, only to fade and wither as time passed.

Karnak shook his head slowly. "To be honest, I wouldn't trust myself in that situation either."

The night deepened, and the once-bright campfire had begun to dwindle. Drel tossed in some firewood, and the embers flared anew. The crackling of the flames gently filled the forest. The silence went undisturbed, despite there being eight people gathered around the embers.

Only after a long pause did Serati speak. Her voice was calm, but resolute. "We have to stop Tesranach. He must not become the god of death." ℴℴ𝘮

Grateria raised an intrigued brow. "Even if stopping him means this world will perish?"

"Back then, there may have been no one else who could stop Karnak besides Tesranach. But now, we're here, aren't we?"

"Do you have any reason to believe you'll succeed?"

Grateria wasn't objecting. He was simply curious. He simply wondered whether Serati was speaking from raw emotion or had a concrete basis for her belief.

"The dragon emperor lived for thousands of years and went so far as to become Tesranach to stop him... and even then, he failed time and time again."

Serati didn't deny that. "Maybe we won't succeed. I don't know."

But one thing, at least, was certain. The fate of the world could no longer be left in Tesranach's hands. He was someone who had failed too many times.

"It may be a cruel thing to say..." A shadow of deep indigo flickered across Serati's eyes. "But would you keep entrusting your business to a merchant who's gone bankrupt again and again?"