Time travel and time-reversal were not unfamiliar to Tina. Many literary works had similar premises, and likewise, she understood just how terrifying time travel truly was.
Time had returned to that year long ago, when she and Sathya had just reached adulthood, four months after they entered the Dopervise Holy Academy following their magic assessment.
Year 1123 of the Common Calendar, the Sanctuary Hall.
According to memories she struggled to recall, their relationship would fracture in the coming years, eventually leading to them parting ways, followed by the war.
Of course, none of this was what she should be worrying about right now.
The blood-drenched girl standing before her was indeed Sathya.
The blood was not hers.
“Sister Tina~!”
She was as excited as a cute little pet, begging for affection. The person she had killed, however, was casually tossed behind her, his eyes wide in a frozen, gruesome expression of disbelief.
Bishop Sheffield.
He had died a miserable death, killed before he could cast even a single spell.
Sheffield was a lecturer at the Holy Academy. On the surface, he was highly respected, but in secret, he engaged in unspeakable, shameful deeds.
Tina only remembered that Sheffield had wanted to kill her, solely to promote the apprentice Saintess, Sathya.
Her death was meant to go unnoticed by anyone.
That day, though Tina had survived, her magic circuits suffered irreversible damage.
From then on, she no longer possessed the magical talent to stand alongside Sathya, completely losing her status as an apprentice Saintess.
If not for the bishop, her relationship with Sathya would not have taken such an extreme turn.
“Sister Tina, Sheffield is dead! Hehehe, no one can stop us from loving each other now. I love you~ I can't believe I succeeded!” Sathya's crazed voice echoed through the hall. Her twisted, smiling face made it impossible to associate her with the image of a holy Saintess.
Sathya's memories had been retained through the time reset.
Of course, Tina liked Sathya too.
She liked her enough to want to rush forward and hug her, stroke her head, and tell her that she knew everything, that her efforts weren't in vain... to tell her that she had already fallen in love, so there was no need for forgiveness, nor any need for apologies.
But Sathya's condition was worse than it looked.
Yes, the moment they crossed over, Tina had realized it.
Sathya was not human.
She had poured all of her mana and life force into creating time magic. While seventy years of experience hadn't aged her—her beautiful eyes and delicate features still looking like treasures bestowed by the heavens—
the reason she could consume her life force and extend her lifespan for so many years wasn't because she balanced cultivation and research.
It was because she had turned herself into a monster.
No...
She wasn't just any ordinary monster.
She was a high-tier abyssal magical beast sustained entirely by obsession—a formidable foe rarely seen once in a century, even in human history.
Unfortunately, because she had weakened her body to resurrect Tina, her magic core—which sustained her body—had been destroyed by the Church clerics who stormed the town. That fatal wound had actually been preserved even after the Time Reversal!
To put it simply, Sathya was now a monster without a magic core.
The only drive keeping her in existence was her obsession with resurrecting Tina. If she lost that support... Tina didn't dare imagine the consequences.
She was already resurrected.
Was Sathya satisfied?
No, she had not gotten what she desired.
Because Tina had not yet said those words.
“I love you. I know everything you've done for me. Thank you for your hard work, Sathya.”
—Tina kept those words choked down in her throat.
Because the moment she spoke them, Sathya would fulfill her wish.
For an obsessed monster without a magic core, fulfilling her wish meant the end.
Tina could gamble, but she didn't dare to.
Not only would she not gamble, she also had to—absolutely had to—save Sathya.
There was no system arrangement or script, let alone any sense of responsibility or morality.
It was entirely her own conscious choice.
“Sathya, what... what did you do?”
Tina took a few steps back, her wide eyes filled with terror.
At the same time, Sathya froze.
Dismay, confusion, bewilderment...
Hadn't the magic succeeded? Did Sister Tina not love her? What memories had she lost? The world had clearly restarted, yet she hadn't brought back her original memories?
Tina was calm enough to naturally understand how much Sathya had sacrificed for this single Time Reversal spell.
Did she hate Sathya?
Yes, she hated her, even loathed her, wanting her to die... but that was all decades ago.
The only thing that came to her mind was that little girl who had quietly watched over her, so pure and lovely...
When Tina hid the fact that she knew the truth, the morbid smile on Sathya's face vanished.
In its place, a pair of icy eyes pierced her gaze, and her body twitched.
She remembered what a selfish, pathetic creature she was, when she had clearly done it all for Tina's sake.
She had reversed time, but now, because the other party did not understand her love, she grew terrified—even desperate, jealous, and angry.
The golden hall was quickly shrouded in darkness.
Black flames began to spread from beneath Sathya's feet, expanding like a tide. They crawled up the walls like the countless tentacles of some ancient god, creeping over the exquisite murals. At this moment, a black lake had already submerged Tina's ankles.
This eerie power was scorching hot; any ordinary human would have quickly died in it. Tina widened her eyes, able to clearly see the girl before her—her pupils had turned crimson, and within that crimson was a cross. How bizarre and sacred, a virtual desecration of the Church.
Countless vine-like black flames swirled around her, as if serving and pleasing their master.
Yet, this very girl who could be called a “monster” was Sathya.
Just as Tina saw, she had become a monster.
Boom!
The powerful blast of air left Tina struggling to breathe, the girl's rage supplanting her reason.
The black flames condensed into a massive pitch-black hand, lifting Tina from the ground, gripping her in its palm, and raising her to the girl's face.
A familiar yet eerie voice, layered with overlapping tones, escaped the girl's mouth.
“Why, why, why, why...?”
She repeated “why” over and over again.
She even had the thought of making Tina die together with her.
If she let Tina go on living, she would make friends with others.
She would even get to know many people whom she herself had never met, becoming best friends with them.
She would find a partner, completely forgetting that someone named “Sathya” had ever existed.
She will definitely forget me, she definitely will...
Because she doesn't remember, she knows nothing...
Rate on N.U.
