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“Ah, you’re finally opening up,” the King of Gods said in a satisfied tone. Even though Henry had made it this far with his abilities, the King of Gods could tell that he was still human.

After a satisfied nod, the King of Gods reached out and gently placed his hand on Henry’s shoulder. Henry was shaking as though he had confessed to some terrible crime. His eyes twitched as he stared at the King of Gods, anxious about what would happen next.

The King of Gods found Henry’s reaction pitiful, and he couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

“Then what is your true desire?”

“What I really want is…”

When Henry learned about the power of time, he had his mind solely focused on curing the blind believers, knowing that he could put an end to those abhorrent experiments.

However, when he got lost in his thoughts every now and again, his mind would drift away from the blind believers to something else.

Everyone had fantasized at least once about what they would do if they could control time, and Henry was no different. It was only natural for a person to think about what they would look like in the future or what they would change if they could go back in time.

Of course, out of all the possibilities, the idea of going back in time was by far the most appealing one. Everyone was convinced that there were no clear-cut answers in life, that everything was a series of choices accompanied by uncertainty. And so, there was no going back on mistakes.

However, Henry believed that if he could go back in the past, he could live for a better future than the one looming before him.

So, when the King of Gods asked him for his true desire, his mind wandered back in time, past the blind believers, beyond Arthus, all the way to the day of his execution. However, as he thought about it, he realized how great it would be if he could go all the way back before his execution, or even before Arthus started messing around with politics.

If only he could return to that time, he could save his State Contributors comrades from dying. He could also change his personality for the better and remedy his weak-kneed attitude. However, the if only situations kept piling on top of each other, and the point in time that needed altering kept drifting farther and farther away into the past.

The King of Gods knew what Henry was going through, so he called out to him to bring him back to his senses.

“Henry.”

However, Henry couldn’t answer. He was dizzy and confused as he thought about all the things he had been forced to do to get to this point, even killing himself in order to bring down the Heavenly God. He was also dazed by how easily everything had worked out in retrospect.

As his mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts, his heart was pounding as though a beast was coming after him.

‘How far back in time do I need to go?’

Henry had one opportunity to set things right, so he had to be very careful in choosing the point in time to return to. However, given how everything had happened in the blink of an eye, he just wasn’t able to be meticulous about it in this exact moment. His mind wasn’t clear enough to reflect on his entire life and choose.

As he contemplated, he met eyes with the King of Gods, but he quickly looked away because he felt pressured by his gaze, even though he knew that the King of Gods probably wasn’t trying to make him uncomfortable.

In this moment, the gaze of the King of Gods was the most uncomfortable thing in the world for Henry.

All the events, all the pain, all the individuals he had encountered throughout his life—all his memories flashed through his mind.

Then, after what felt like the longest minute in his entire life, Henry came to a conclusion.

“I want to go back to that time…”

“Are you sure…?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… That time…”

The King of Gods found Henry’s answer quite amusing, and he could tell that Henry had given a lot of thought to this decision. And so, he was genuinely willing to lend his powers to Henry once.

But of course, nothing came without a price.

“Alright Henry,” said the King of Gods.

“Yes…?”

“Your desire, I can genuinely feel how badly you want it to become true. I will lend you my power, as I said. However, there are some conditions you must follow.”

At this, Henry’s eyes shimmered with hope, but the word “conditions” bugged him, so he decided to listen to what the King of Gods had to say before he celebrated.

“When you say conditions… What could they be…?”

“I will let you go back to the time you want. However, you must give up everything you have right now.”

“Everything I have right now?”

“Yes. Including things like your divine power and such.”

Hearing this, Henry thought about what he had, and he realized that he had quite a lot: a new kingdom under his name, divine powers, worshipers, the dimensional powers received from the Demon King, and, of course, the 9th-Circle he had awakened thanks to those dimensional powers.

But apart from giving up everything he had, the King of Gods had another condition. He poked Henry in the chest and said, “And also this.”

As the King of Gods had his finger placed exactly where his heart was, Henry stared at him in surprise.

“This? What do you mean, King of Gods?”

“I’m sure you know what I mean. Henry, I want your heart. Of course, I don’t need all of it. I just need this much of it,” the King of Gods explained while pinching his thumb and index finger to the size of a fingernail.

Seeing this, Henry felt creeped out. Then, feigning ignorance, he asked, “King of Gods… May I ask you why you would want a piece of my heart?”

“Hehe, I’m not going to tell you.”

“Pardon?”

“You can walk away if you don’t like my conditions. I’m sure you’ve realized that you already have so much. What I’m saying is your desire to go back in time might be more of an emotional phase for you.”

“Emotional…? King of Gods, absolutely not! I’ve pondered enough on this!”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes!”

“Hmm, interesting. I can’t figure out why you want to go back in time so desperately when others want to become transcendent beings like gods.”

At this, Henry decided to remain silent, but the King of Gods could tell from his expression what he was thinking about.

“Alright. I will allow you to go back in time, and the only thing you will take back with you is your memory. Everything else, you must leave behind here. With that, let me ask you one last time Henry. Do you really want to go back to that time?”

“I…”

Henry’s heart was pounding even harder, knowing that he would finally be able to fulfill his wish of going back in time with the next couple of words he was about to say. And so, he figured there was no reason to hesitate.

“Yes. I want to go back to that time”

“Alright,” the King of Gods said with a smirk. He proceeded to give Henry one last hug, and at that moment, Henry felt like someone had pierced his heart, and the pain caused him to collapse.

Soon enough, Henry turned into ashes as though he had been burned from inside out.

“I shall watch what comes of your decision, Henry Morris.”

With that, Henry’s body disappeared with the whistling wind, leaving no traces behind.

***

Henry woke up coughing. He felt like he had swallowed something he wasn’t supposed to. For some reason, his coughing wouldn’t stop, so he sat upright, hoping that would help.

He felt dizzy, and his whole body felt weak. He couldn’t even see clearly. As he tried his best to come to his senses, he looked around and recognized a familiar-looking blanket and tent.

He kept looking around, eventually laying his eyes on a mirror. As he looked at his reflection, his eyes widened instantly.

“Huh?!”

Henry looked at himself, surprised. He touched his face, which felt strangely unfamiliar, completely different from how he was supposed to look.

He had his original face, the visage of a great sage, not the one of the eldest son of a rural family. And that was when it dawned upon him. His eyes widened as though he had seen a ghost, yet the smile that spread across his face was the broadest he had worn in years.

His wish had been granted—he had returned to the past. He sprang to his feet as if struck by lightning. He ran his hands over his body, feeling his bony frame and slender muscles. That was when he remembered that he used to wear a robe to hide his scrawny frame because he had been a magic supremacist.

Of course, he knew some basic martial arts, but not enough to stand a chance against a real fighter.

But none of that mattered to Henry at the moment. He didn’t care how scrawny he was.

He had finally gone back in time.

Cough, cough!

His throat felt extremely dry, and his lungs felt as though they were full of dust. This uncomfortable sensation reminded him of where he stood as an Archmage that had specialized solely on magic.

He quickly put on his armor and robe. He then reached out for his one and only weapon, the World’s Wisdom, which was in the corner of his room.

With the Wisdom in hand, he snapped his finger. Fresh air went into his lungs, and he soon felt cleaned up. He spat out everything that had obstructed his breathing—a mixture of phlegm with some black substance that looked like dust.

Feeling refreshed, he opened the leather-padded door to take off.

Swoosh!

The wind was surprisingly strong. The sky had a purple hue to it, and there were other green barracks like his around. Seeing this, Henry couldn’t help but grin. He clutched the Wisdom even tighter, shaking with joy.

“I’m back… I’m really back…!”

The strong wind and purple sky—Henry was in the Third District of the Demonic Beast Forest. The air in this district had more toxins than oxygen, so a lot of mages had put up purification barriers so that everyone could breathe.

But that didn’t mean it was easy to breathe; those measures merely allowed the mages to breathe without dying. And Henry, with his current body, was extremely weak against poison, given that he had not yet consumed Venom’s Heart at this point in time.

“Archmage, you’re up early!” saluted a guard that was passing by,

“Oh… Yes, yes,” replied Henry awkwardly while saluting back.

“I suggest you get some more sleep as we still have some time ‘till sunrise. I’ll wake you at the right time, Archmage.”

“Hmm, maybe I should.”

“Yes, Archmage.”

Henry finally felt like he was back to his senses. He then patted the guard on the shoulder.

“Thanks, but there’s no need to wake me up. I’ll get up on my own.”

“Very well, Archmage. Then have a good rest of the night.”

With that, the guard saluted once again, and Henry returned to his barrack. He then turned his attention to the map of the Demonic Beast Forest along with the strategy map that had figures of their armies. There were ink marks splattered all across the map.

From what he remembered, he had spent every day figuring out a way to reduce casualties by working on the map. However, given that he had gotten rid of the First District and the Demon Realm Gap, this map was no more than a piece of rubbish.

He snapped his fingers, and everything on the table went into his subspace. He then placed a notebook made out of leather and took his quill. He felt like he wouldn’t have enough time to plan everything out even if he started right then. But he wasn’t too worried. If he didn’t have enough time that day, he knew he could continue the next day. He knew that his life was only going to get better from this point onward.

With a bright smile on his face, Henry proceeded to jot down things.