By Zephyria 
“Ah…”
I must have fainted for a moment. When I woke up with a sudden tingling in my arm, my vision was all shimmering. Because of that, I thought I had finally died and gone to some kind of heaven.
Blink.
Blink, blink, blink.
“…Did I finally die?”
Even in heaven, my voice works fine… I mumbled blankly. Considering that the place I’m lying on is hard and uncomfortable, heaven isn’t all that great… I was lost in such thoughts when it happened.
Who died! Get up right now?
With a torrent of clear voices, the lid that had been blurring my vision with its shimmer burst open. …Huh? A, a lid?
“…!”
Reflexively, my upper body tensed up. When I hurriedly got up, the place I was lying in was… none other than a coffin…
“What. I guess I really died…”
I couldn’t help but think that. It was strange how shimmering my vision was; the place I was lying was a spacious, rectangular box that looked like it had been carved out of a single, giant diamond. It even had enough width and breadth for two or three people to fit comfortably. No matter how generously I looked at it, it didn’t seem like anything more or less than a coffin.
Are you just going to keep talking nonsense, human?
Thwack! Someone aimed for my forehead from the air, quite forcefully. I easily caught it. The problem was that it was completely unexpected timing; if I knew it was coming, there was no way I couldn’t avoid it.
Eeeeek, let go! Let me go…!
“A fly… A fly in a coffin…”
A, a fly? A coffin? What are you talking about without knowing your place!
Do you think there’s another Sanctuary as wide and comfortable as this one?
To me, the Arch-spirit of the great Sanctuary, how dare you! How dare you!
Even though it’s talking about a great Sanctuary and an Arch-spirit, its voice has no dignity at all. I gripped the trembling, bluish lump of light in my palm even tighter. After a few more feeble attempts to escape, the lump of light (probably a Spirit) deflated like air being let out, and soon turned into a small, round figure the size of my thumb.
“Eh, this is a Spirit…?”
It’s too small. I unconsciously muttered as I brought the Spirit trapped in my grasp right in front of my eyes. It wasn’t much different from the appearance I had only seen in illustrations. The big eyes and chubby, cute cheeks were the same. However, because it was so small, it somehow lacked the dignity of a Spirit.
The Spirit seemed to have its pride hurt by my exclamation of “Eh,” and puffed out its cheeks with all its might. But even then, it still lacked dignity. It just became a little cuter.
“What are you? And where is this?”
I shook the Spirit, which was clearly sulking, and immediately asked.
The place I woke up was a narrow cave that, at best, would be completely full if about ten adults went inside. In the middle of that narrow space, a luxurious diamond coffin that didn’t match the cramped space was placed all alone. The lid was half-open because I had gotten up.
It might not be appropriate to say this without understanding Allen’s suddenly changed identity or abilities, but I was still one of the people who knew this world better than anyone else. No one knew more about the ‘original game,’ which was the foundation of this world, than I did. I had experienced it firsthand, and more than anything, I was the PR person for this game, who had memorized even the detailed Settings that ordinary players would glance at and forget. But nowhere in the detailed Setting books that I had seen countless times did such a background or space exist. The Spirit that was always released from the Jewel Seal and left a blessed Spirit Stone for Allen was also a ‘normal’ water-attribute Spirit, and had nothing to do with the unheard-of stories of Sanctuaries and Arch-spirits.
I told you, it’s a Sanctuary.
It’s one of the few remaining sacred grounds of the ancient gods that have now disappeared.
Do you know how amazing it is that it’s maintaining this much area?
“Gods…? Suddenly?”
Huh?
“In this game, gods were just something hastily created to throw in forced Settings like Alphas and Omegas, weren’t they?”
I didn’t necessarily expect understanding. After all, it would be difficult for the Spirit, who also belonged to this world, to immediately believe that the world it was living in was actually a fictional game.
A game, human. You know some pretty interesting words.
It was from that moment that our conversation, which had been full of question marks, began to take the form of proper communication.
Somehow… It looked frighteningly similar to that marionette.
Yes, it was you. [OOOO] I was so curious about.
.
The Spirit muttered something, but as if it had been heavily filtered, the word didn’t reach my ears.
I can’t reveal it yet.
Well, fine. Anyway, I’ve wanted to meet you for a long time.
Welcome, nice to meet you.
The Spirit lightly escaped from my hand and fluttered into the air, as if the fact that it had been helplessly trapped in my hand just a moment ago was all a pretense.
I’ll explain only as much as you can understand.
The role of mine that you know is just what’s superficially defined.
I always wake up at a set time, when a set person comes, and give the same Blessing, then return here, to the Sanctuary.
The sparkling blue light was bewitching. The tiny shadow, grinning like a mischievous child, no longer looked small.
And then I protect this place and fall asleep peacefully again.
Waiting for the next [Iteration] to begin, waiting for my turn to [appear] again.
“…!”
Yes, your guess is correct, blessed child.
This is the only place in this world that ‘doesn’t rewind,’ and therefore is promised only an eternally enduring today between a yesterday that will forever sleep and a tomorrow that will never come.
The only place where the power of the greedy administrator doesn’t reach.
It’s not a misunderstanding. The Spirit clearly said, ‘Iteration,’ exactly, ‘Iteration’…
Let me introduce myself again.
I am the Sanctuary, where the last breath of the ancient gods remains, and the Arch-spirit, the Sanctuary’s only guardian.
The sudden onslaught of rapid information was more intense than the torrent that had been sweeping me away earlier. There were a lot of incomprehensible words like ancient gods and whatnot, but I obsessively tried to remember the Spirit’s words. I tried to engrave every single word into my brain. It would be nice to have a convenient skill that makes it easy to remember in times like this. Don’t you think?
…….
What is it…? Hey, what are you doing? System. System!
…….
No matter how much I called, the System remained silent. There wasn’t even the notification that I had seen before saying that the Communication protocol was blocked. It was as if… even the channel for announcements was blocked.
It’s no use. Didn’t I just say?
This is the only place where the power of the greedy administrator doesn’t reach.
“Could it be that the administrator you’re talking about is…”
Ah, right, you call him ‘System,’ don’t you.
A young god blinded by greed.
God. The Spirit redefined the System, which had been kinder to me than anyone else while also leading the way to despair more than anyone else, with a very simple word.
It felt like someone had hit me hard on the head.
Why… Why hadn’t I even suspected it? When I thought about it, it was obvious. What else could a being with the ability to manipulate the world’s order at will and play with human will so casually be if not a god?
I just knew it instinctively. The being that had taken away all of my suspicion and awareness was also, none other than, a god.
As I came to that realization, a primal sense of betrayal began to boil fiercely from deep within my heart.
The god of this world loved the protagonist, ‘Allen Hamilton,’ more than anything, and repeatedly drove ‘Noah Hamilton,’ who stood on the opposite side, into the lowest and most insignificant corners of the world.
The god of this world, who loved Allen and hated me to death, was ultimately… the System? Even though he never granted what I truly wanted, he at least sometimes pitied me, and I firmly believed that he would watch over me until the very end.
□□ is looking for you.
Since I made a contract with him from the time you started rewinding…, if you think about it, you’ve been rewound a lot too, haven’t you?
It’s amazing that that soul is still functioning properly. Ah, I guess it’s not in very good condition.
It’s just that he’s somehow managed to piece together the fragments that have already been shattered.
The Spirit’s voice sounded quite cheerful. I decided to ignore the urgent message that had slipped into that gap.
Oh, you poor and pitiful soul.
Thanks to you, I’ve lasted a long time too, so I’ll give you a hint.
This is a ‘place that doesn’t rewind.’ If you make this your grave, even God won’t be able to reverse your choice by going back in time.
“I, I…”
I can die. I can finally end it.
Now, what are you going to do?
The cheerful voice and gentle tone were just terrifyingly tempting.