I’m an Infinite Regressor, But I’ve Got Stories to Tell - Chapter 358

The Missing X

Aura is an energy that appears in works of fiction as a natural phenomenon of sorts, serving as an all‑purpose power. But in reality, nothing comes for free.

By now, you well know that even Aura actually originates from an Outer God, that it is no more than another Anomaly.

And so, here is a question naturally follows:

Then what of Magic?

Originally, Awakeners could be classified as either Aura‑type or Magic‑type. Although Aura had developed to a monstrous degree on the Korean peninsula—thanks to the influence of a certain regressor—the same could not be said of the situation just across the sea in the Japanese archipelago.

The Great Priestess. Manyo Neko. Phantom Blade. Obsidian Qin.

Among those acquainted with the Regressor, every one of them possessed a magic‑based ability. From the outset, they were even known as Awakener “Magical Girls” here.

Thus, the Regressor formed a hypothesis.

If so, might not Magic share a similar origin with Aura?

A premonition triggered only after confirming Yu Ji‑won’s case. A reasoned conviction.

The Regressor immediately began to investigate.

If there is an Outer God of magic, then a Magic Miko must also exist. And if current circumstances are anything to go by, that Magic Miko is likely among those around me.

Why were Mikos so plentiful only on the Korean peninsula, of all places? It could not be that the Outer Gods were infused with national pride. Otherwise, the protagonist of this story would have been Jung Sang‑guk.

The answer was simple.

To grow strong enough to become a Miko, one must survive to the very end and level up. And the world’s best environment for leveling up is none other than being within the Regressor’s vicinity.

It was a form of natural selection.

In theory, countless people had the potential to become Mikos of the Infinite Metagame. Yet most fell out early, unable to overcome Anomalies and the Void. But the Miko apprentice, Oh Dok‑seo, the one who dwelled near the Regressor, continued to survive.

She acquired elixirs. She mastered the Aura Heart Method. Riding the optimal tech tree arranged by the Regressor, she grew powerful with overwhelming efficiency compared to other competitors.

Thus, it was she who was chosen.

Thɩ𝑠 𝙘hȺpƚ𝘦r ɪ𝐬 pοṡṯ℮ḍ b𝙮 𝒦𝑖𝖙𝘦𝗇𝗼ⱽᥱ𝘭

Of course, this alone could not explain the unique case of Yu Ji‑won, but that would be a topic for another discussion.

If I can identify the Magic Miko in my midst… I can ambush and capture her before the Outer God reveals its claws.

The decision was swift in its making, and the action as a result even more swift.

The Regressor questioned those around him quickly yet cautiously.

“Hmm? Infinite Void? Well… I’ve heard she uses Black Magic, unlike the Great Witch of the Samcheon World, but it’s not really magic, is it?”

First candidate: the younger Cheon Yo-hwa.

“Strictly speaking, I seize corpses or people, overwrite their data, and then command them like familiars. It only looks like magic. In reality, I handle the data of all things. The question of whether Infinite Void is an Outer God of magic… it just doesn’t feel right, you know? Ehehe. Sorry, sunbae, I’m not much help!”

Candidate rejected. Next.

“Come on, sunbae. It’s not Mastermind—it’s the one running the simulated universe. Doesn’t it look more like a scientist than a wizard?”

Second candidate: the elder Cheon Yo-hwa.

“In terms of imagery, Mastermind is more strategist than mage. Calculating optimal routes by weighing every possibility. If magic is a miracle, Mastermind’s power is strategy—or AI. It’s entirely contrary to the idea of miracles.”

Candidate rejected. Next.

“Hmm… Probably not, right? Also, Cheon Yo-hwa’s a notorious loser.”

Third candidate: Oh Dok‑seo.

“Aura and magic are both common tropes in fiction, so at first glance, one might think it’s within the Infinite Metagame’s domain… But Aura’s always belonged to Ji‑won. I see that the Infinite Metagame cannot create something from nothing. Its specialty is overlaying ‘fictional elements’ onto pre‑existing things, distorting them. Mister, you can make something look like magic, but you can’t truly create magic itself.”

Candidate rejected. Next.

Next.

There should be a next.

[Oppa?]

It wasn’t Lee Ha‑yul.

“Hmm? Guild Leader, what is it?”

It wasn’t Sim Ah‑ryeon either.

[Mr. Undertaker?]

Nor the Saintess.

No. At that point, the Regressor was already in considerable confusion, for beyond the mystery of just who this Miko was, the bigger problem was who the Outer God of Magic could be.

It isn’t Infinite Void. It isn’t Mastermind. Not Cheon Yo-hwa, not Monster Wave, naturally not Leviathan.

The Regressor hesitated.

Then which Outer God governs magic?

It was understandable that the Regressor spiraled into a rut of rumination. From his knowledge, only one candidate remained.

The Night Goddess, Nut.

But Nut was sealed by the Saintess of the 267th cycle. Phenomena related to Nut should have, for all intents and purposes, “disappeared.” Yet magic still continued to exist.

Why?

Perhaps the culprit was not Nut.

Perhaps there was an enigmatic Outer God even the Regressor did not know.

And yet…

“No.”

Cheon Yo-hwa, the Miko who had reached into the simulated universe and temporarily harnessed the power of Mastermind, affirmed it.

“All the Anomalies that you’ve deemed Outer God‑level have surfaced already, sunbae. There are no additional external factors here. Even if there were, I would stop them.”

[It does not exist.]

Once the Infinite Metagame, the one who came closer to the throne of Anomalies than any—Infinite Void, Mastermind, Monster Wave—fully surrendered, its very existence diminished and it could no longer lie.

[The number of Outer Gods is seven. This is an already established fact.]

[Of course, an effective “overlap” in which two Outer Gods are in practice “one” remains possible.]

[“One‑Seven” is the number of sorcery. The absolute boundary. Even if you need not understand it, please believe it.]

[On the name of Oh Dok‑seo.]

Even if the reliability of that testimony abruptly plummeted at the end, Infinite Metagame had long utterly surrendered. It dared not utter lies.

Then.

Then…

The worst possibility.

Suppose for a second…

Though he dared not think it.

He was the Regressor, a superhuman who had resolved to bear the weight of the world. No matter how uncomfortable the truth, he had to confront it.

Suppose the Saintess’s seal was imperfect?

A hypothesis.

The Regressor muttered, as if vomiting the words rather than thinking.

Suppose that Nut’s presence, bound by the Saintess’s Time Stop, was only half a seal.

The silver bell jingled.

Then what would happen?

It was simple when one thought it through. Affection for the Saintess, dependence, guilt, gratitude—all had merely clouded the Regressor’s sight for a moment.

Ah.

Looking back to the 267th cycle, at the moment the world nearly perished under Nut’s power, a contradiction was still at play.

Before the Saintess could be reborn as Nut’s Miko, Nut had already descended and brought hell to the world. The Saintess Fell only afterward.

It was a temporal contradiction.

For Nut to be powerful enough to turn the world into hell, the Miko sharing Nut’s power must have been equally strong. After all, a Miko was the conduit for an Outer God to manifest on Earth. If the conduit were not solid, the Outer God could not cross over.

And yet, Nut… Even before the Saintess Fell, Nut’s power was more than sufficient—overflowing, even.

That was it.

The Saintess Fell only later, too late.

When did the Saintess stop time and resolve to Fall herself? At the brink of unredeemable despair, when the world’s destruction seemed irreversible.

“I will now prove that hypothesis wrong.”

“Farewell, Undertaker.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

At that desperate moment when the Regressor was driven to despair, the Saintess stopped time.

In reverse.

Time itself reversed.

It was not that the Miko Saintess grew so strong that the Outer God Nut fully manifested. It was only after the Outer God Nut manifested that the latecomer Miko Saintess Awakened.

The green light went out.

The red light began blinking.

The Saintess was never Nut’s Miko to begin with.

There was only one conclusion.

The Saintess forcibly connected with Nut. Despite not being destined to be a Miko, she stole that position, defying the natural order.

In other words, a rebellion. No, a usurpation.

Only one conclusion.

The one truly bound to Nut was not the Saintess, but someone else.

Only one.

She hated flowers.

If she touched the Udumbara, the world’s most splendid bloom, it felt as if everything she had built would vanish.

Instinctively, unconsciously, she recoiled.

She was more suited for magic than anyone.

When the Japanese Magical Girls developed the Word Magic system to fight Anomalies, only she pioneered her own magic, Cursed Song Incantation. Strangely, it was a miracle that only she could perform on this Earth.

She was a being who, upon receiving something as an offering, would return something of equal value. If she gathered lives on Earth to create hell, she would build heaven in the Otherworld for the same price.

It didn’t matter whether it was “hell” or “heaven.” One should have noted that this entity, unlike other Anomalies, was most strict about exchange.

One must not be ensnared by the appearance of a flattened Earth.

If one had recalled that “flatness” could also be interpreted as “equality” or “fairness.”

○

〓〓〓

●

She…

If it was to make this world equal…

Ⅱ

● Ⅱ ○

Ⅱ

She even created a single sun to balance the weight on the scales.

She was the owner of the golden scales.

She was the greatest witch.

She was the judge who first established justice in this ruined world.

She was the Lord of Utopia, who placed paradise nowhere to be found opposite the broken world on the scales.

In the middle of an intersection where green and red lights blinked, she who said she had lost her entire family stared up at the sky as if alone in the world.

In truth, the name “Nut” did not suit her. A name more fitting must exist.

“…Ah.”

The Night Goddess.

The deity governing sorcery and magic.

The one who presides over the moon and night, crossroads, souls, good and evil, and the threefold Samcheon World of sky, earth, and sea.

Ἑκάτη.

Hecate.

“Hello? Did you lose your way too?”

She was Dang Seo‑rin. ​

Where breath and voice were far from all and only two were allowed to be, the universe was unbearably quiet.

There, on the moon’s surface, which had long since become something other than a planet, its surface unnaturally pristine.

I struggled to pry my lips open to speak. “…It’s still too early to conclude that you are Nut, Dang Seo‑rin. You might simply be a Miko.”

“Well.”

Whether she sensed my anxious heart or not, her voice was calm, as it was when she viewed Utopia’s flower garden earlier.

“Actually, I’m still curious. That ‘Miko’ you mention—what exactly is that? Can you really draw a sharp line between Outer Gods and Mikos? ‘All the damage done to the world is the Anomaly’s fault. Humans were only ever randomly destined to be Mikos.’ It’s a rather gentle distinction, but… Undertaker, perhaps that classification you created is actually a projection of your own hopes—or even your own greed.”

Seo‑rin waved her finger.

“Shall I play devil’s advocate for a moment? What if it’s the exact opposite—entrusting the desire to reshape the world, to paint it in one’s own colors, to the Anomalies, while Mikos live as ordinary humans, pretending to be innocent victims?”

“…That’s not true.”

“Mm. Sorry. I was just entertaining the idea. But I wanted to point out that your dichotomy of Outer God versus Miko is actually pretty blurry.”

Her mutterings drifted on. If this were a normal universe, that voice would never have reached me.

“Actually, I’ve been uncertain of what I am… ever since that night, after I heard a shard of truth from you.”

“You are human.”

“Perhaps.”

Then she said it.

“Perhaps I’m both.”

And I had no reply.

“Hey, you know, Undertaker. I want to ask you one more thing.”

Déjà vu.

Memories of the past and impressions of the present intertwined.

A crossroads of time, not space.

“You promised you would never harm me no matter what. Even if I became an Anomaly, even if I stained every corner of the world in the Void, even if I razed everything to the ground, you told me you would still stand by my side.”

Dang Seo‑rin lips lifted in a smile split half by light and half by shadow.

“Even now, will you still be on my side?”