Extra's Descent

263 total progressions.

And each one had ended in tragedy.

"You're Raven Blackheart."

To be precise, Raven Blackheart of a progression where mana had never existed.

A timeline where Jin fully cut the flow of mana, in hopes of ending it all.

The 262nd progression.

And yet tragedy befell that timeline.

"So my mother…."

"That's right."

She's dead.

"Each timeline flows continuously. And we thought you were our best chance to finally end it all."

Because he had lived a whole different life than them.

A variant of Raven Blackheart who had grown up in a world with no magic.

He was the only one different, throughout all the progression.

And what Jin needed was 'something different.'

Anything.

Just so things would finally be….

"Different."

"You are his gamble."

"And are you working for them?"

After all, he said 'our'.

"Just like how he's manipulating you, I'm manipulating them."

"...."

"I was gullible at first."

A child born with the curse affinity.

The Cursed Child, Brandon Locke.

The curse of having the ability to peek through every timeline, giving him the impression of visions.

It was spontaneous, and he never had control of it.

"In the first progression, I've seen everything."

The deaths of his loved ones.

The Wraith's descending.

The Sovereign's combatting the force.

And the world being the battlefield, a pathway that crosses both realms.

"My sister's death was the first event. I've pleaded with Jin to save her each time, and yet…"

The other Brandon stifled a chuckle and looked at his lifeless sister—laying on the ground.

"It was never possible."

They saw it as an opportunity.

"I've found out their schemes without alerting them."

An opportunity to crush his soul. Much to the point where he would give up.

"After they saw my desperation, they stopped trying to save her. I found out about it in the 157th progression. It was then when they began scheming to indirectly kill her."

To make him give up.

"They wanted something from me. Something that Jin could never get, despite pulling so many strings."

"That's…."

"The curse affinity."

The power to bypass the laws of the world for a meager sacrifice.

"The strongest and most beautiful affinity."

"If curse is the strongest, then couldn't you bypass the laws and save the world?"

"You've been in my body. You know how weak I actually am, right?"

Just because he claims the affinity was the strongest, didn't mean he was the strongest.

Raven understood that.

"Plus, binding vows are the only things accessible to me. I can't do what you can."

"I see."

"The laws of this world are heavily strict with life and death. Why do you think humanity has never come up with a healing potion before…?"

Nor was the life affinity able to revive the dead.

"Then how was the system granting me healing potions?"

"Good question. I was about to elaborate on the system."

An ability only available to beings closest to the Sovereigns.

The Sovereign's Will.

And the Sovereign's fragment.

It was a way for them to slowly integrate the Sovereign's powers safely without destroying their bodies.

Amelia Constantine.

Raven Blackheart. М@Ꮩ*ᒪΞƜҎ$ҮЯ

Jin.

And the current Brandon.

"But here's the catch."

"...."

"Since you came from a world with no mana, you never had an ability to begin with."

Skill Weaver.

"It's a fake. The system had led you to believe you could create skills with it."

Skill Weaver.

Sovereign of Creation.

And his stats.

All false pretenses that led him to believe that he was getting stronger.

"But that's not it."

The other Brandon shook his head.

"Your system…"

"...."

"It's been tampered with."

The other Brandon began to elaborate further.

Skill Weaver, a false skill given to him as soon as they took his fragment, implanting him inside Brandon Locke's body.

A skill given to him by none other than Jin.

"It's Jin's way to peek into your system, giving you his power in the form of stats. And that skill creation of yours…"

A way for Jin to transfer all of his abilities inside the current Brandon Locke's body.

"He knows all of the skills you're about to create. It's written in the tome connected to your system. All he had to do was give you something similar that he already has."

And the quests?

"All from Jin."

Which was the main reason why he had stopped receiving quests at some point.

"Because he was busy preparing for the Sovereigns' descent."

"What is the point of all this?"

Raven asked.

"That Skill Weaver or Sovereign of Creation of yours… It's cancer. With that, he can take your body anytime."

And his main goal?

"To get the curse affinity."

Something he could never manage to do.

"He wanted me to give up, fully manipulating me into accepting his demands."

"...."

"But you see, I've made my own set of preparations for that. When finally, I was ready, it happened."

His transmigration.

"All I had to do was find you through visions. It wasn't too hard, you were the previous progression after all."

Upon finally finding Raven, Jin had implanted the tome, ensuring he read it to prepare for his transmigration.

"Or rather…."

The novel.

The story of his first progression.

"I get it. So the two of us, we're nothing but a means to an end."

Raven stated.

"All of this, he's gambled it all on this progression. So that means…"

"It's the last one."

"Makes sense."

He had lost the ability to regress, in exchange for creating the false Skill Weaver skill.

"But that doesn't answer everything. If Jin had schemed all of this. Then what was the purpose of killing Belle? They knew I wasn't you anymore, so what's the point…?"

"Haha."

"Are you really laughing right now?"

"No, I just thought of something funny."

"...."

"Belle's death…. Ciel wanted to use it to break you."

"...."

"Just like what they did to me, they want you to rely on them. To fully become their subordinate. You've had such thoughts, right?"

He in fact did.

The thought of fully joining the Primordials, taking in tasks without a care for others….

Of course he had thought about it.

"But this is where they made a blunder."

The curse affinity.

"They have no knowledge of you ever having it."