0. At the End of Despair
Add opened his eyes and realized that his face was on the ground. Sensation of the floor on his
cheek felt cold and chilling.
“This place is……”
After speaking with a sinking voice, Add tried to get up while looking around but groaned from the
pain. His arms hurt as if they were getting torn apart.
Add’s pupils shook narrowly as he looked down at his arms dripping with blood.
“Wait……..”
He didn’t know where this place was. But he knew what just happened.
Devil who destroyed the world and was ridiculing everything was…..
“Ah……”
Add himself.
“Ahhhh…”
Add suppressed himself from screaming. He was filled with impulse of wanting to scream but even
screaming felt like a waste of time. In a frantic attempt to suppress his scream, fear and pain, he bit
down on his lower lips so hard to the point where blood started dripping down.
Add finally managed to suppress his emotions only after his chin became all b.l.o.o.d.y. Of course, that
didn’t mean he was still sane. How does it make sense to stay sane after he left everyone to die by
his future self, that devil, and escaped by himself?
“Exactly how did I…….?
No matter how much he agonized over it, how much he suppressed his feelings and thought, he still
couldn’t figure out how things turned out like this. How can it be possible for him from the future
to be the main culprit behind everything?
Add kept thinking despite the burning pain in his arms but he still couldn’t get any answers.
“Kukukuk…….”
4
One thing he became sure of was the reason for his 20 million failures. What stood in his way wasn’t
something vague like destiny or some freakish coincidence.
He couldn’t achieve his dearest wish because Add from the future, the devil was standing in his way.
“I don’t get it. I don’t get it at all. But….”
Add’s mouth was forming a twisted smile. This wasn’t the time to smile but he couldn’t bear without
smiling.
He ran away by himself leaving all of his comrades behind. So what?
This wasn’t even the first time. He already repeatedly rewound time to save Eve and also to prevent
others from dying. He must have rewound much more in those times that he couldn’t remember.
He didn’t have even a speck of wish to sentimentalize and cry about it now. He had to move
forward. This wasn’t the time to pay attention to the emotion that was filling up his heart.
“There’s a new enemy to defeat.”
Yes, he actually felt more at ease after thinking like this. He found out the cause of the problem so
all he had to do now was to search for a solution.
Add collected his heart then carefully got up from the floor. It was agonizing to do so due to the
severe pain in his arm that felt as if they were being shattered.
“Let’s heal myself up first…..then come up with a plan.”
It wasn’t that his wounds healed automatically by time traveling. Add tried to take out a potion from
his belt pouch but sighed. All of his potions were shattered due to him blocking D’s attack.
“Cheap things.”
Well, it was a shockwave that even Dynamos couldn’t withstand. It didn’t make sense to expect that
potions could have withstood it. Add tried to take off his jacket to stop the bleeding then frowned
from realizing a strange sensation.
There was a foreign object inside his jacket.
He carefully moved his hand to take it out. It was a white fox. It had the appearance of a small
human but it had fox ears on its head and fox tails on its bottom. It must have been hanging on to
insides of Add’s jacket.
“…..What is this?”
But unlike his mouth that reacted out of surprise, Add’s clever brain came up with a conclusion
instantly.
5
Eun came into the s.p.a.ce-time wormhole together with him in this time travel. But he couldn’t see
Eun anywhere even though he looked around.
They haven’t time traveled together before so he couldn’t be sure yet. But…..
“Could this be?”
It was a bit heavy to keep carrying in his hand. This small fox presumed to be Eun didn’t show any
signs of waking up even though Add put her down on the floor.
She was breathing lightly and looked to be sound asleep.
“…….”
Add didn’t have an inch of positive impression towards Eun but this wasn’t the time to nitpick. Add
looked around his surroundings to estimate to which time he time traveled.
This was a room composed of red bricks. There were numerous books on the bookshelf to the side
and various suspicious looking potions on the desk.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Time travels so far had been going back to the point where Add desired. But he couldn’t figure out
when and where he arrived because Eun was the one who initiated the time travel this time.
It would be simple if he could ask Eun, but she was sound asleep and didn’t look like she was
waking up any time soon. Add gave up looking around the room and was trying to exit….. When
the door suddenly opened and someone entered.
It was Eve.
Eve entered the room and saw Add. She snapped coldly.
“I don’t get why you didn’t open the door when you were in the room. Just how long are you going
to make me wait?”
“……”
“Was your experiment this time sewing up your own mouth?”
Add stared at Eve blankly then quickly turned his head away to avoid her gaze. Looking at Eve
made something surge up from his heart and he couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t make any conclusions
about this complicated feeling…… But one thing he was sure of was relief.
He came back in time. He was given another chance to save Eve and the other El Search Party
members.
6
Add ignored the tingling sensation on the tip of his nose as he replied calmly as possible.
“Kukukuk….. You’re the same as ever.”
“I don’t need any incomprehensible answers from you. Let me simply state my business. Why did
you call for me, Add?”
“……”
I wonder why? I want to know too. Add swallowed these words as he stole a look at Eve. He didn’t
know where this place was and Eve’s attires were also ones that he had never seen.
Add was about to answer accordingly when Eve frowned.
“What kind of ruckus were you causing for your arms to end up like that?”
“……It was nothing. I’m going to heal it first so wait.”
Eve shook her head then snapped her finger.
“Humans are so inconvenient. Wait a moment. Oberon!”
Soon as Eve shouted, a dimension gate opened beside her and a Nasod that Add had never seen
before appeared. …..Add’s eyes widened from shock of seeing this.
No way, Eve had this kind of ability? Eve didn’t seem concerned by Add’s shocked reaction as she
made a gesture with her chin to order Oberon, the Nasod she just summoned.
“Heal that man’s arm. He must have gotten hurt from doing strange experiments again. How pitiful.”
Why was the tone of Eve’s voice strangely unfriendly? Of course, Add had done things to get on
Eve’s nerves many times before but it had a bizarrely different nuance this time.
Anyways, when Oberon, the Nasod Eve summoned slowly approached him, Add unintentionally
ended up stepping back.
He would have normally burned up with his desire for research but he was injured right now, most
of his Dynamos were broken, Eve was acting bizarrely cold and she was even nonchalantly
performing abilities he had never seen before.
It was obvious for Add to get alerted.
‘I knew she could call upon weapons through dimension gates, but was she able to even summon
advanced Nasods like this?’
When Add backed up to avoid Oberon, Eve who was looking from the back with her arms crossed
sighed reluctantly.
7
“I don’t get why you’re dragging this on longer than it should. Ophelia!”
Dimension gate opened upon Eve’s call and a female type Nasod appeared this time. Now Add
wasn’t just surprised, he was about to faint. Eve right now didn’t seem burdened at all from
summoning two entire advanced Nasods through a dimension gate.
Eve who was pompously sitting on her Nasod gears ordered Oberon and Ophelia.
“Treat that man appropriately then make him reveal why he called for me. It doesn’t matter if you
do it by force.”
“W, wait!”
Add’s desperate call must have worked because Ophelia and Oberon stopped then looked back at
Eve. Eve who was observing while resting her chin on her hand replied stiffly.
“Are you going to say something useless again?”
“……Where’s everyone else?”
Eve had strangely changed and he couldn’t tell what time period this was. It was the first time
something like this had happened.
Something was strange. Things had changed too much compared to time travels up till now.
“Elsword, Chung and Ara are staying at the lodge. Rena and Elesis when to scout the surrou……”
“What?!”
Add raised his voice. Eve frowned slightly as if she was offended. But Add couldn’t believe the
name he just heard.
“E, Elesis?”
“……..Did you even forget our comrade’s name?”
“…..”
Add blinked with a blank expression. Elesis isn’t their enemy?
Not only that, but judging from Eve’s tone, she was speaking about Elesis as if she was very familiar,
even calling her comrade.
“Strange, this is strange……”
Add murmured nervously as he stroked his eye patch.
8
This was totally unfamiliar. He had to admit time travels up till now had been a continuous march of
suffering to save the others. But it hadn’t been something this unfamiliar.
He felt right now like a sailor who encountered a storm and had been drifting all this time with
broken sails and oars…but then suddenly came upon an uninhabited island.
The environment had changed too much.
“Could this be…..?”
“Add, I won’t forgive you if this is a measly joke.”
Eve scolded coldly. Add shook his head frantically to deny.
“I’m not joking! I’m organizing my thoughts so wait, wait just a bit more.”
“……..”
Fact that Add was being serious must have been conveyed because Eve made Ophelia and Oberon
back out with a hand gesture. Add nervously looked down at his feet then looked around the room
again seeking for an answer.
After time traveling, Eve now had a different atmosphere than before and a different ability. Not
just that, but Elesis sudden became their ally, their comrade.
……Of course, it was better than her being their enemy. Having her as an ally will help them
immensely. But the uneasiness from this unfamiliar situation was much larger than the feeling of
gladness.
It felt like he had been sailing through a vast ocean called ‘time’ relying on just one compa.s.s, but
that compa.s.s just broke.
“Could this be…..a time that I can’t remember?”
Did he return to one of the 20 million times that he couldn’t remember? But he couldn’t
understand how these kinds of variables could be created.
Add was looking around the room again anxiously but was unable to find anything that caught his
attention. But then his eyes suddenly widened.
It’s all red.
“…….”
He saw buildings outside the window. Add suppressed a groan from the appearances and color of
the buildings. If Eve’s attire and change in ability had led him towards suspicion, this was a certainty.
“Where….. is this place, Eve?”
9
“Did you call for me to mock me with such trivial words?”
“…….Please, answer me properly.”
He unconsciously said the word please. Seeing Add blankly look outside the window while asking
desperately, Eve sighed then narrowed her eyes.
As if she was reluctantly going to play along.
“This is Lanox.”
Name he had never heard before, scenery he had never seen before.
This made it certain.
This was a time that Add didn’t know about.