Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage - Chapter 358: The Heavens (3)

‘A different choice?’

Although Henry was clearly stunned, he bit his lips, trying to conceal his surprise. He pondered on what the heavenly being had said, but no matter how much he thought about it, it made no sense to him.

The heavenly being bowed and politely greeted Henry.

“In any case, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Virtus, and I’m a Virtue, a fifth-rank angel of the heavens.”

A Virtue and a fifth-rank angel of the heavens—these were all new words to Henry. The archangel was the only type of angel he knew about, having learned about that from his encounter with Ganisel.

As Henry rolled his eyes in silence, Virtus said, “I don’t expect you to know what I’m talking about, since you’re the first human, or god, to ever set foot in the heavens.”

Virtus explained how special of a guest Henry was with a composed smile, but his smile only managed to make Henry feel even more humiliated.

“…I don’t care about that, but what do you mean by a different choice?”

“It’s just as I’ve said. Sir Henry, you’ve already made the same choice five times, and this would be your sixth one. The Heavenly God is giving you a sixth chance already.”

“Five times…?”

“That’s right.”

It took Henry a while to realize what Virtus meant.

The angel was essentially saying that he had done the same thing five times ever since he had arrived in the heavens.

‘And so this is the sixth time the Heavenly God is stopping me?’

Henry didn’t understand. He didn’t remember repeating something five times, and he certainly wasn’t challenging anyone or anything a sixth time.

But suddenly, a few pieces of information assembled in Henry’s head, and like a bolt of lightning, he remembered something he had forgotten all this time.

“Damn it…!”

Just as he remembered what he had forgotten, Henry opened a dimensional gap and left swiftly without saying anything to Virtus.

The dimensional gap closed.

None of the angels that filled the sky were able to track Henry down, since none of them wielded dimensional powers. In fact, they didn’t even pursue such powers.

Virtus smiled bitterly as he watched Henry disappear.

“You finally realized.”

Twang-!

The melodious sounds of the lyre echoed softly through the skies.

***

Henry returned to the Demon Realm, breathing heavily as soon as he emerged from the dimensional gap.

The toxic air in the Demon Realm pierced his lungs, but that helped him return to his senses. After a few moments, when he had finally calmed down, he found a rock and sat down on it.

“Heavenly God, you bastard! How dare you…!” Henry muttered. He couldn’t help cursing at the Heavenly God after realizing what Virtus had meant earlier.

The angel had told him that he had displayed the same behavior five times and that he was on his sixth attempt at something. He had also urged Henry to make a different choice this time.

Virtus had spoken as though he was familiar with something that Henry had no memory of.

That meant that some kind of event that Henry wasn’t aware of kept repeating itself. Henry remembered that the Heavenly God possessed the power to manipulate time, and he figured that it had to be connected to that particular event.

‘I’m sure of it. He turned back time.’

As far as Henry knew, the Heavenly God was the only entity that possessed the power to manipulate time, so he had to be the one who had turned back time, not the Virtue.

Henry also remembered Virtus saying that he had learned about him not too long ago. That would mean that Virtus had also been sent back in time along with Henry, and he had only displayed his knowledge to Henry because the Heavenly God had ordered him to do so.

When Henry’s thoughts reached this point, he looked astonished. He was overcome with anger, futility, and shame.

Henry couldn’t even imagine how much the Heavenly God must’ve laughed at whatever foolish thing he had kept doing up until his sixth attempt.

Henry’s face was flushed. He wondered just how pathetic he must’ve looked as a god in front of another god. He clenched his fists and bit his lip.

He didn’t know what exactly he had done five times in a row, but he could still take an educated guess.

‘Alright, given my personality, I must’ve tried to make him surrender. I’m sure of it.’

Henry would’ve most likely tried to do something about Virtus’ arrogant attitude. Thinking about his last encounter, Henry knew that he probably would’ve tried to reduce all the angels to ashes with his magic and cut them to pieces with his sword.

He would’ve done that to get their superior to show himself, just as Ganisel had told him.

However, the Heavenly God must’ve seen Henry act that way multiple times, and each time, he must’ve turned back time and hoped for Henry to choose a different approach.

‘And this would be the sixth time.’

If the Heavenly God hadn’t ordered Virtus to reveal everything to him, Henry would’ve remained in the dark, likely trapped in the loop of time that the Heavenly God had created.

However, the Heavenly God hadn’t left Henry like that. Instead, he had sent Virtus to deliver a message to him so that he would make a different choice on his sixth attempt.

All this time, Henry had been completely manipulated by the Heavenly God.

He released his fist, sighed again, and rubbed his face.

‘I didn’t expect the Heavenly God to act this way…’

Henry had been completely caught off guard by this. He knew that the Heavenly God had the power of time, but he hadn’t predicted that the god would use that power against him.

Henry had no choice but to admit that he had been careless and that he had underestimated the Heavenly God.

He suddenly remembered Ganisel telling him that heavenly beings were hypocritical. At that time, he hadn’t paid too much attention to Ganisel’s warning, but thinking about it now, it made a lot of sense.

And even though Henry hadn’t met the Heavenly God yet, he figured that he couldn’t be a benevolent god, given how much he had sabotaged him already.

Henry thought long and hard, but no matter how he looked at it, the power of time the Heavenly God possessed seemed almost invincible.

If the Heavenly God kept using his power the same way he had so far, there was virtually no way to counter him.

After all, if he went against another powerful being, he could just rewind time if it seemed like he would lose the fight. He could then analyze the factors that had led to his defeat and face his challenger again, the probability of victory being much higher than before.

The more Henry thought about it, the more he felt like he was facing a giant brick wall.

‘Aren’t there any limitations to the power of time?’

His train of thought quickly reached the fundamental principles of the power of time. But how could he possibly understand the power of time used by a god when he didn’t even understand the existing principles of time in the realm of magic?

Frustrated by the lack of answers, Henry ruffled his hair.

“Damn it…”

Henry was getting desperate, but he couldn’t possibly let go of the one hope of helping those people stuck in his laboratory, not after finally getting a lead.

Thinking that the power of time was invincible, Henry tried to rack his brains to find some kind of limitation to that power, some loophole or weakness, anything.

But deep down, Henry knew that there was no such thing. After all, if the dimensional powers granted by the Demon Gad had no limitations, why would the power of time be any different?

‘Is there really no way?’

He didn’t want to return to the Snow Spire and continue that experiment forever, not knowing when it would end. Besides, the answer was still right under his nose. It was right there, almost within his grasp, but nonetheless out of reach.

Henry let out a short sigh and got up from his seat. He brushed the dust off his bottom and collected himself.

‘No, it’s still too early to give up.’

It was still too early for Henry to conclude that it was impossible and give up. Even if there really was no way, he still wanted to try again.

After all, Henry was an ambitious human before he was a god.

‘I’ll have to go see Ganisel first.’

Henry made up his mind to find Ganisel and consult with him. Of course, he had assured Ganisel of his success before departing the Demon Realm, but he had no other choice.

Henry got Ganisel’s coordinates and set out to meet with him.

***

It wasn’t hard to find Ganisel again.

He was diligently taking lessons from Gretel to become more powerful, with the goal of being a legitimate Demon King, just as Henry had told him.

Henry went up to Ganisel and got straight to the point.

“…I see.”

Ganisel’s expression darkened after listening to Henry’s story, but he also nodded in understanding as though he wasn’t surprised by what had happened.

During their conversation, Henry recounted how the cupids had inexplicably come back to life after being decapitated by Klever.

“What you saw was probably the power of the holy relic that Virtus received from the Heavenly God,” said Ganisel.

“Holy relic?”

“That’s right. Holy relics are only granted to a few angels, and they each carry a special power.”

Ganisel explained how the cupids had managed to come back to life and how holy relics worked.

Besides that, Henry learned more about the heavens, such as geographic features and the types of angels and their hierarchy.

After listening to Ganisel’s explanation, Henry realized that Virtus was a fairly high-ranking angel.

“A fifth-rank Virtue, huh…”

“He’s a fifth-rank, so he’s about in the middle. There are a total of nine ranks of angels in the heavens, and the Heavenly God is the only being in the ninth rank, right at the top.”

“So as an archangel, you were in the eighth rank?”

“That’s right.”

There were a total of nine ranks in the heavens, the ninth being the highest, and each of them having a unique title. Ganisel had been in the eighth rank, an archangel, and he had even commanded other archangels.

Listening to his explanations, Henry realized just how powerful Ganisel had been in the heavens. However, he sighed as Ganisel kept explaining things. After all, he hadn’t come all this way to hear about the culture of the heavens.

Seeing Henry look worried and impatient, Ganisel looked at him with pity and said, “Henry, that’s why I’ve been trying to make an army.”

“An army?”

“That’s right. As you’ve just realized, one cannot defeat the Heavenly God by oneself. He can manipulate time, so the number of tactics you can use against him is very small.”

“Number of tactics? What do you mean?”

“A single individual is bound to always lose against the Heavenly God because he can just rewind time and analyze your strategy and patterns. But with an army, it’s different. An army has numerous soldiers, which means that there would be far too many variables and possibilities for the Heavenly God to see through all of them. He wouldn’t be able to analyze and plan against everything.”

That was the reason Ganisel needed an army.

“Variables, huh…”

As Henry listened to Ganisel, he was forced to admit that he had been hasty. Ganisel had spent years strategizing on how to deal with the Heavenly God, and yet Henry had rushed to challenge the Heavenly God right away. The fact that he himself was a god and that he possessed dimensional powers had given him too much confidence.

Henry was ashamed of his arrogance, and he decided to make up for it.

“Ganisel…”

“Yes?”

“I should’ve thought this through more. I know this may sound strange, but will you lend me your strength?”

“Haha, that’s the best thing I’ve heard so far!”

Henry and Ganisel—the incomplete god and the Demon King candidate joined forces to deal with their common enemy, the Heavenly God.