I was badly battered from the impact of crashing through the carriage, and a searing pain throbbed through my entire arm.
"My arm... I can't move my arm!" I stammered, panic rising in my chest.
Ora immediately tried to settle me down, her voice sharp. "Panic won't help you. Command the sword to restore your arm."
Supplying what little focus I had left, I followed her instructions. I commanded the Time Sword to revert my injury. A warm energy enveloped my limb, and in a flash, the bone knit back together. The agonizing pain vanished as if the fracture had never happened.
Ora explained that Time Heal works much like Rewind, capable of reverting a person's physical state by up to five minutes. However, she warned me that it drains a massive amount of my stamina.
"Don't rely on Time Heal too much," Ora added. "It's useless if you run out of energy mid-fight. It's better to just not get hit in the first place."
I stood up and climbed out of the wreckage. It was easy for her to say "don't get hit," but my real problem was how to defeat a monster whose skin could repel a legendary blade.
Ora explained that I needed to output enough energy to overwhelm the goblin's natural defenses, but she cautioned that a single failed strike could leave me completely depleted. However, the Goblin King had a weakness: his massive size made him slow and easily exhausted. Once he tired, his energy barrier would weaken.
"You just need to wear him down," she instructed.
I wasn't sure if that was a viable plan. Using the Time Sword to dodge his attacks drained me just as much as his movements drained him. It was a race to see whose tank would hit empty first. To save my energy, Ora told me to stop using the sword and simply lead him on a chase.
"Here goes nothing," I muttered.
I hurled a stone at the Goblin King's head to draw his ire. It worked. Roaring with fury, the beast began to lumber after me. I was faster, but I worried about our relative stamina.
"You really think a beast that big will tire out before I do?" I asked Ora.
Ora sounded doubtful. "Honestly? He probably has more stamina than you. You'd better think of a clever way to stay alive."
I ran until my lungs burned. I could still feel his overwhelming presence behind me, showing no signs of slowing down.
"This is bad. He's gaining on me."
In my haste through the dense forest, I didn't see the drop-off. Before I could stop, I tumbled over the edge of a fifty-meter cliff. Because of his momentum, the Goblin King couldn't stop either—he went over the edge right with me.
"Oh, no! Not like this!"
"Use Rewind on yourself! Now!" Ora screamed.
I focused on my own body and activated the spell. My surroundings blurred, and suddenly, I was back on solid ground, mid-sprint. Knowing the cliff was there this time, I dug my heels into the dirt and skidded to a halt.
"That... was too close." I collapsed onto the grass, gasping for air.
A second later, a massive, sickening thud echoed from below. The Goblin King had hit the ravine floor. Down there, the ground was a bed of jagged rocks. Even with his protective barrier, his sheer mass made the fall fatal.
To be certain, I climbed down to check the body. The "King" was dead. I took the crown from his head and a necklace he was wearing—I figured they might be worth something in town.
A few minutes later, I returned to the site of the ambush. The carriages were abandoned. I wondered if the passengers had escaped, but the sight of several dead guards nearby suggested a grim struggle.
"Poor guys... Hey, Ora, if the Time Sword can revert time, can it bring them back?"
Ora's voice was somber. "The sword can revert the body, but not the soul. They've been dead too long. With your current limits, you can't reach back far enough to undo a death."
"So... it depends on my strength? If I get stronger, could I actually resurrect someone?"
Ora admitted that if the conditions were right and the window of time hadn't passed, it was possible to restart a heart and a brain using the sword's power. However, she strictly forbade me from counting on it. Time Revival was different from Time Heal; using it just once would drain as much energy as using Rewind ten times in a row.
"You're too weak," she said. "If you tried it now, you'd pass out in the middle of this monster-infested forest, and I wouldn't be able to protect you."
As I scouted the remaining carriages, I found a girl slumped inside one of them. She had fainted during the attack. She had short, violet hair and was a Musang—a feline demi-human. What caught my attention, however, were the shackles on her wrists. She was a prisoner.
"Why is she bound?"
Suddenly, Ora materialized from the crystal, her tiny face pale with shock. "It can't be... I don't believe it. Not here."
"What is it? Do you know her?"
"I'm not mistaken," Ora whispered, her voice trembling with gravity. "That's Lavender. She's the one we're looking for. You are looking at the Seventh Member of the Black Scorpion."
I froze. "This girl? She's one of the destroyers?"
I looked at the pitiful, unconscious girl and back at the spirit. "Are you sure? She looks... harmless."
"I am certain," Ora insisted. "She is the one who destroyed the Aben Province, which includes Hayem. She is responsible for the deaths of over three million people in this land."
I was confused. If she was a kingdom-toppling monster, why was she unconscious and in chains?
"If she's the Great Destroyer, why is she a prisoner in a slave carriage?"
"Does that matter?!" Ora snapped. "Do it now!"
"Do what?"
Ora smacked me on the head. "The mission! Kill her while she's asleep!"
I recoiled in horror. She wanted me to murder a defenseless, unconscious girl to prevent a war that hadn't happened yet. I refused immediately. I'm a man, not an executioner.
"Aren, listen to me! This is the person who will kill everyone you know!"
"I hear you, but I can't just kill her like this! Besides, I'm not even 100% sure it's her!"
"Why won't you trust me?!" Ora shrieked. "What do you want to do? Wait for her to wake up and ask her if she's the mass murderer Lavender?"
"Actually... that sounds like a good idea."
Ora smacked me again, screaming that we couldn't take that risk. Lavender possessed a Celestial Item of her own, just like the Time Sword.
Ignoring Ora's protests, I picked up the girl and carried her out of the carriage. I told Ora her information might be wrong—if this girl had a Celestial Item, she wouldn't be in chains. I needed to know the truth first.
"I'm taking her back to the shack. We'll wait for her to wake up."
Back at the abandoned house, I laid her on the bed. Up close, she just looked like an ordinary Musang girl. Eventually, her eyes fluttered open. The moment she saw me, her face contorted with pure terror.
She scrambled to the corner of the bed, shaking. "Please... please don't hurt me," she whimpered.
I tried to calm her down, explaining that I had rescued her from the goblins. But the fear stayed in her eyes. "I brought you here because it wasn't safe out there. I don't have any bad intentions."
She didn't answer. She pulled the thin blanket over herself, hiding. I decided to give her some space. I went to the other room and grabbed some bread and water I'd gotten from the hunters.
"Here, eat something. I know you're scared, but I promise you're safe here."
Slowly, she peeked out from under the blanket. She looked at the food with desperate hunger. I told her there was more if she wanted it, but she just turned away again.
"I need to know your name," I said softly. "Or where you live, so I can help you get home."
Silence filled the room. I sighed and turned to leave, but before I reached the door, she spoke.
"They call me... Lavender. I'm from Hayem City. I'm a slave... I don't have a home to go back to, only the dungeon in my master's house."
I froze. "A slave?"
Suddenly, Ora erupted from the crystal, shouting, "I told you! It's her! Now, kill her! Kill her now!"
At the sound of Ora's voice, Lavender dove back under the covers, sobbing and pleading for her life. "Please! Don't hurt me! I'll do anything you say! Anything!"
"Shut up, Ora!" I barked. I turned to Lavender. "She's just... a weird pet. She's joking. You're fine."
Ora started punching me with her tiny fists. I grabbed her and dragged her out of the room.
"What are you doing?!" Ora hissed. "You said you'd kill her if she was Lavender! What more proof do you need?"
"Ora, look at her! She's a terrified slave! How can I kill someone who's begging for mercy?"
"She will kill millions, Aren! That is the point of us being here!"
"Maybe," I argued. "But she hasn't done it yet. Look at her—she can't even protect herself from a goblin. Something is wrong here."
I wondered if something terrible happened to her that forced her to become a monster later on. I didn't think it was fair to execute her for a crime she hadn't committed.
"It's not justice to punish her for a future that hasn't happened," I said firmly.
Ora fumed, but eventually, she sighed. "Fine. You have a point. But this is a huge risk. We had a chance to end the war before it started." She looked at me. "So, what's your plan, 'Hero'?"
I didn't have a plan. I just knew I couldn't kill her.
I went back into the room and apologized for Ora. I introduced her as a "suspicious spirit."
"She thinks everyone is a bad person," I said with a small smile. "But you seem kind, right?"
She didn't respond, but I kept my voice gentle. I introduced myself as Aren, a simple hunter living in the woods, and offered her my help. She still wouldn't speak, so I left her alone with the food. She needed time to think—and I needed time to figure out how a terrified slave girl becomes the end of the world.