2. 100 Million Years Button and Prison of Time [2] – part 2

I immediately turned the tip of the sword towards my chest, and closed my eyes.

Now I just have to stab myself.

The pain will only last for a brief moment.

Yes, that’s all it takes.

That is all… and yet…

「Why won’t my hand move…」

My hand felt as though it was petrified.

I simply felt afraid.

The fear of death far overwhelmed my present agony.

That’s what I had thought.

10 000 years later.

I had stopped thinking.

Raise the sword overhead, and swing in downwards.

I became an existence which simply repeated that concept.

Why do I swing the sword?

Why do I live?

In the first place, what is 『I』?

I had forgotten everything.

Even when I fell into that state – I never let go of the sword.

I must never let it go, is what I thought.

It might be some sort of obsession.

Even after 100 thousand years… 1 million years… 10 million years… I kept swinging the sword throughout.

Finally it became, 99999999 Year 12 Month 31 Day 23 Hour 59 Minute 59 Second… one second later, this world slowly started to collapse.

「Over… at last…」

The existence known as I, will be pulled back into reality.

(Never… push that… button again……)

I etched that onto my soul.

That is the Devil’s Button.

Something that must not exist in this world ー a cursed button.

(When I return to the real world, destroying that button will be my first task…)

Never forgive the hermit of time.

Never forgive that bastard geezer who sent me into this hell.

I will beat him to a pulp.

And when he can no longer move, I will make his hand push the 100 million years button.

I will make him go through the same hell as I did.

I will make him experience 100 million years in this hellish empty world.

I closed my eyes gently so the black light that burned in my chest wouldn’t disappear.

■

A mere few seconds laterー I was once again, back in that white world.

Unbelievably, the clock suspended in mid-air indicated, 00000000 Year 1 Month 1 Day 00 Minute 01 Second.

「…………Ha!?」

I doubted my own eyes.

Impossible, Impossible Impossible Impossible…!

「Did I… push it again…!?」

There is no doubt, after returning to reality… I pushed it.

The cursed 100 million years button.

I have to go through… that insanely long time… once again…?

「U, U, UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

I screamed.

I screamed and screamed while running around.

However, I didn’t go mad.

In this world, when emotions swell up beyond a certain threshold, it will be forcibly restrained.

Happiness, Sadness, Joy, Regret ー none of these can exceed beyond a certain line.

This prison of time, will never ever allow emotions which make you 『Forget the time』.

Regardless of my raising hell, the clock suspended mid-air continuously and precisely marks the passage of time, second by second.

After that, I looped around the real world and the prison of time countless times.

The stupid, foolish and helpless me in the real world, pushed the 100 million years button countless times.

Can’t fault myself either.

After all, the me over there, does not have the memory of this 100 million years of hell.

I have to find some other way.

The way things are, I will be eternally trapped in this world.

I have to do something.

(But… what should I do?)

There is no means of conveying this hell to the me in the real world.

The worst part of this world is… the moment I escape this world, my memories are wiped clean spotless.

Therefore, I am eternally stuck in this loop.

Eternally… in this hell of a world.

As I went through this world for the eighth time, a sudden thought flashed through my mind.

「Right… That’s right…… There was such an easy way to escape this world…」

Haha.

There was definitely something wrong with me to not think of it earlier.

Why didn’t I realise something so simple?

How laughable… The answer was already in my hands.

「If I can cut this world, wouldn’t I be able to break free from here…?!」

That’s right.

A sword is essentially a thing that cuts.

Grass, Tree, Rock – and anything else that is its target.

(If so, it wouldn’t be strange to cut『This World』)

No, I have decided to cut it.

Otherwise it won’t work.

The only reason I can’t cut the world right this instance is because I don’t have that power.

Surely, if I tempered and disciplined myself, I can become a magnificent swordsman who can cut this world.

(Fortunately, I have infinite time…)

After that, I single-mindedly swung my sword insanely.

A sword technique that cuts the world – seeking for that one slash which would provide sanctuary.

……Somewhere within me, even I, knew it was ridiculous.

But, if I didn’t have some sort of goal… if I didn’t have something to cling onto… I might break.

No… just holding onto this ridiculous goal might mean I’m already broken.

However, it will truly be over if I recognised that.

Therefore I,

(CutCutCutCutCutCutCutCutCutCut…!)

I kept swinging the sword with that prayer constantly ringing in mind.

Like the auto suggestions that naturally appear in search-engines – Being able to cut the world was a given. Not being able to cut it was more ridiculous.

I kept praying so much that I believed it from the bottom of my heart.

And several million years later, an unusual phenomenon occurred.

「Wh!?」

For just an instant, when I swung the sword in a downwards arc, the space that my sword passed through『Wavered』.

I did not mistake it. It certainly wavered.

The space, the world – I was able to cut it slightly.

「Ha, Hahaha… I knew it, I can cut it… I can cut the world!」

I laughed out loud.

I rolled around laughing as though I had gone mad.

After that, 100 thousand years… 1 million years… I continued swinging the sword single-mindedly.

The 『Waver』trail left behind by the sword gradually and ever so slightly increasedー but it certainly had grown larger.

To the point of being able to feel the change.

That there is growth.

That I can see the end.

I was happy more than anything… and I kept swinging my sword.

And just like that, at this moment, the time was 99999999 Year 12 Month 31 Day 23 Hour 59 Minute 30 Second.

In another 30 seconds, the next loop will begin.

「…fuuuh」

I can do this.

I don’t know why, but I had that conviction.

「This is farewell, white world」

Thinking so made me feel strange.

A nostalgia-like… yearning-like… vague feeling.

「Regardless, I never want to come here again」

With a soft laugh, I lined up the sword at my eye level.

「See ya, time prison」

I bid farewell to this place which I had spent 10 billion years.

Then I took the stance of holding the sword above my head, and then swung it down resolutely.

「ーHAA!」

At that moment, a huge slash entered the space –