A Villain's Will to Survive novel Chapter 362

Chapter 362: Epilogue (5) Part 2

#18. Eternal Winter

The journey through the passage was disorienting, and after passing through a strange, nauseating sensation where their entire bodies were instantly twisted and their bones and muscles shook, as if they were rapidly passing through a wormhole of inverted spacetime, they arrived in a forgotten and lost past—an era that no one on the continent had ever experienced.

"It is an eternal winter," Sophien said.

It was an eternal winter of ten thousand years, a world where everything had been frozen.

“Yes, that’s right. Fortunately, it isn’t unbearably cold. I wonder if that’s because it’s almost time to wake up?” Epherene replied.

Sophien and Epherene looked around at the blue, frozen continent. The cosmos and the earth were in perfect hibernation, just as they had been before the destruction, waiting for the spring that would soon come.

“But we should go now, since we can’t stay here for long.”

However, there was no time to stand around, and therefore Epherene took the lead and opened the lighthouse door, and Sophien calmly followed her.

Tick, tock—!

At that moment, the sound of a clock in her ears made Epherene's body freeze for a second, and her face was colored with tension.

“Is it the world’s interference?” Sophien asked, observing Epherene’s expression.

“... Yes, we need to hurry.”

The ticking of the second hand, originating from her heart, was a countdown to the world's interference.

If we were to fail to save Deculein before the proper time, would we, as the deterrence, create a major problem? Epherene thought.

"Let's move!" Epherene said, and clutching the canvas to her chest, she ran up the stairs of the lighthouse.

Tick, tock—

The ticking of the second hand, which gradually grew faster with each step, remained in a stable zone.

Tick, tock—

Fortunately, Epherene already knew Deculein's location, and her Wood Steel was showing her the way.

Tick, tock—

With the Wood Steel as their guide, they ran and ran, until at last they reached the heart of the eternal winter.

“O-Over there... the Professor is over there.”

“Indeed.”

Knight Yulie stood guard over the place where Deculein was standing and remained as upright and dignified as a crane, as if he alone had not been frozen.

Tick, tock—

Epherene approached Deculein, and at the feet of his hibernating body, she poured mana into Sylvia’s canvas and turned to look at Sophien.

"What is there to hesitate about?" Sophien asked, nodding her head.

“... Hoo.”

It was a single deep breath.

Hummmm—

The mana that Epherene had manifested wrapped around the frozen Deculein as she carefully lifted him and placed him inside the canvas.

Tick, tock—!

But all at once, at the sound that was growing more urgent, Epherene pressed her lips together, though there remained work left to be done.

Tick, tock—!

Immediately after, a clear, ringing alarm sounded in her mind once more, and it was probably the final countdown.

Craaaaaaack...!

Immediately afterward, a temporal rift echoed from somewhere, and cracks, as if an ice sheet were splitting, began to form in various places in space.

This was an error that they had predicted would definitely occur and was an interference from the deterrence they had once experienced. If left as it was, it would be a disaster that would once again bring the destruction of the continent.

However, Epherene had already expected this to happen and had also prepared a way to solve it.

"Your Majesty," Epherene called to the Empress.

The Empress watched Epherene without a word.

"Your Majesty, you should first—"

“Epherene,” Sophien interrupted, drawing the canvas that held Deculein's image into her hands with a simple use of Telekinesis.

“Your Majesty! What do you mean—”

“I shall handle the rest,” the Empress interrupted, shrugging her shoulders with the air of someone who understood everything.

However, for Epherene, this was an alarming and unexpected situation.

“Your Majesty!” Epherene exclaimed, her head shaking in urgency.

Shing—!

With a sharp sound of a sword cutting off Epherene’s shout, Sophien drew the sword at her waist and aimed its blade at Epherene.

“To stop this rift, a sacrifice is needed, is it not? Must you enter the rift yourself to seal it, as you are attempting now?” Sophien said.

Craaaaaaack—!

It was as if, in response to Sophien’s words, the distortion of spacetime roared louder.

"However, you are arrogant, Epherene. I distinctly said that I, myself, would make the sacrifice.”

“... Your Majesty,” Epherene said, her face hardened.

At the sight of Epherene, who seemed to show even a hint of hostility, Sophien could only twist her lips, as if finding it endearing.

“Your Majesty should not make that sacrifice, nor would Professor Deculein want it, and neither do I.”

“Hmm... I wonder,” muttered Sophien, a calm expression on her face as she touched her chin.

Epherene looked straight into the Empress's eyes and talked back, given the gravity of the situation.

“The Empire needs you, Your Majesty, to lead the Empire in the right direction—”

“No, the Empire is already headed in the right direction.” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Craaaaack—!

“Hah, indeed. As you say, I have always been right,” Sophien replied with a satisfied smile, as though she had made an excellent point. “However, the fact that I have never once been wrong has caused my people to see me as nothing more than absolute reason, believing my words no matter how nonsensical they may be.”

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