The Author's POV

'Why did it happen again?'

While sitting on the curb in front of the bus with a perplexed expression on his face, Kevin mused to himself about the situation.

Why did they die again?

He did everything that he was supposed to do.

He didn't go toward the inner city and lead his parents away from home, yet, they still died.

This time by a road accident.

The demons weren't even responsible for their deaths.

Kevin's gaze lifted toward the clouds in the sky. Staring at the clouds that were moving ever so slowly in the sky, he had a sudden thought.

'...I wanted to spend more time with them.'

***

Bang―!

"Watch out, Kevin!"

Once more, Kevin watched as his parents threw their bodies over to protect him. This time, their bodies were completely severed in half, and blood spilt all over Kevin.

The expressions of helplessness and anguish that they displayed just prior to passing away left an indelible mark on his mind as he could only watch them die in front of him.

Crash―!

"Get behind me, Kevin!"

Booom―!

"Ahhhh!"

Unbeknownst to him, the same events kept happening over and over again with each and every one of his regressions.

Before Kevin even realized it, he had reached his twentieth regression, and for the twentieth time, both of his parents had passed away right before his very eyes.

This time, it was due to an explosion that occurred outside of the city.

'...Why?'

Kevin never managed to muster the required strength to come to the aid of his mother and father, no matter how many times he tried. Each time, they would suffer a horrible death, and he would be left all by himself once more.

The heaviness in his heart, which had been barely noticeable at first, became increasingly obvious with each and every one of his regressions, and it intensified with the passing of his parents in all of the regressions.

Over the course of those twenty regressions, he would have an immeasurably better chance of defeating Jezebeth, but despite his best efforts, he continued to fall short in every single one of his endeavours.

Kevin understood that it was only a matter of time before he could beat Jezebeth.

Be it one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand, or a million regressions...

Kevin had all the time in the world to accumulate experience and become stronger.

Jezebeth was still ahead of him by quite a lot, but Kevin knew that his time would come very soon.

...In those times, with each regression, he would spend more and more time with his parents. By the time the twentieth regression happened, he had spent at least a century of his life with them.

He pretty much knew them like the back of his hand.

...and it was because of this that he found it more difficult to part ways with them every five years since his birth.

After each of their deaths, he would experience a sharp pain, and the colour that had been slowly developing in his vision would slowly fade away.

continue indefinitely, with

It was their fate.

here, you bastards! Come and get me

forget about me! Go

best to divert the attention of the

'Why? ...Why?'

inside of his mind, his eyes drawn toward the scenes in

before their own. Putting your needs above mine is how I show you that

his fourth regression rang in

eyes, trickling down the side of

during this time that he finally better understood the meaning of his

hand forward toward where his parents were,

"Don't go..."

Don't leave me.

*

Many years later.

Ashton City, Lock Library

came to a stop near a particular word as he paged through a book about human

unwanted. People who are lonely often crave human contact, but

on the area around him, and he traced his finger across the definition that was in front of him with

some reason, he felt that the

quite get it, but ever since the passing of his parents, he had the impression that the world, which seemed already to be devoid of meaning to him, had taken on an

better understand the sensations

600 years old if one counted all of

time, the sensation of emptiness that was eating away at his body gradually became worse, to the point

also why he was

better understand what he was feeling and find an answer to

over and looked

guide

records to have

staring at the book in front of him

root of all of his problems at the moment was his identity. The identity of a human. A social being that thrived on what was known as

never be forced to deal with such pointless issues; however, as more time passed and regressions took place, Kevin realized

that he experienced in the immediate

could not

himself from the world or ignore whatever was happening around him, like the death of his parents or his own

that made Kevin realize that he could no longer ignore the

to better understand this so called thing

Clank―!

chair and grabbed the book that was

"Hm?"

was on the verge of turning around to return the book when he suddenly became aware of

was someone else

was approximately three in the morning, and it was very strange to see someone still in the library at that

considering that exam season has

turning around, saw a young, skinny man with

to a large book, and beside him was a

[Demon anatomy]

out

and what

staring at the books that were

that his hair was covering his face, it was obvious that the young man was showing signs of anxiety,

Mind breaker curse... where is it? ...where is it? ...There must be a way ...There has to be

for the cure to the

stopping in front of the young man and startling him out of his

"Eh, ah!"

Clank―!

deafening crash. It was a

changed dramatically the moment his eyes landed on

"You...you're Kevin Voss."