The Extra's Regressor Wives

The moment those two words left Aldric’s mouth, the unease in Lathel’s chest turned into fear.

He wanted to rush forward.

Wanted to stop the decision that had just been made.

But time still held his body completely frozen. Even Pandora remained silent, leaving Lathel with no choice but to watch the fragment before him in total helplessness.

Aldric glanced at the sleeping villagers again and curled his lips.

"They’re just a bunch of NPCs anyway. They exist inside my world. Dying to replenish the protagonist’s fate is probably the greatest value these insects could ever have."

Morgana immediately frowned.

"What is an NPC?"

Aldric either did not hear her or simply did not care.

The moment his choice was confirmed, the sky above the village began turning red.

The younger guard was the first to notice.

He stopped walking and looked up.

A crimson glow was rapidly expanding across the night sky.

His face turned pale.

"Uncle..."

The middle-aged guard looked up as well.

An enormous sphere of fire was falling from the heavens.

"ALARM!"

The young man sprinted toward the bell near the gate and pulled the rope with all his strength.

CLANG! CLANG!

The bell had only rung twice when crimson light swallowed the entire village.

BOOM!!!

The fireball crashed into the center of the settlement.

The houses closest to the impact were pulverized by the shockwave before they even had time to catch fire. Wooden roofs were hurled into the air, windows exploded outward, and burning pieces of timber and stone scattered through the streets.

Several villagers had barely opened their doors before the wave of scorching air knocked them to the ground.

Only seconds later, the flames began spreading.

"FIRE!"

"GET OUT!"

"HELP THEM!"

A barefoot man wearing only sleeping trousers rushed from a burning house.

He had taken only a few steps when he suddenly turned around.

His face changed instantly.

"Lina!"

His wife rushed over and grabbed his arm.

"Don’t go back! The roof is about to collapse!"

"She’s still inside!"

The man tore his arm free and ran straight back into the fire.

His wife tried to follow.

A burning support beam collapsed across the doorway.

She screamed the names of her husband and daughter until her voice broke while several people nearby dragged her backward before the rest of the roof came down.

At the entrance to the village, the middle-aged guard used both hands to wrench the wooden barrier away from the gate.

Dozens of villagers were already running toward him.

He barely had time to breathe.

"Don’t push! Stay calm! Move in order!"

Another explosion sounded.

A burning tree toppled across the road.

Panic immediately tore through the crowd.

Those behind continued forcing their way forward.

People in front stumbled and fell.

Children screamed for their parents while adults shouted the names of family members.

The crackling flames, collapsing houses, crying, and terrified voices blended into one chaotic roar.

Just hearing it made Lathel feel as though something were crushing his chest.

Then, among all those screams—

a child called out.

"Mom!"

Lathel immediately recognized the girl from before.

She was running barefoot through the road, her hair disheveled, still wearing the thin clothes she had slept in.

"Mom!"

A figure suddenly rushed from one of the burning houses.

Her mother immediately scooped the girl into her arms and ran toward the far end of the village.

"Mom... I’m scared..."

"It’s okay. I’m here."

They had barely made it farther down the road when a burning beam crashed directly in front of them.

BANG!

The path was blocked.

The mother turned.

Fire had already spread across both sides behind them.

She looked around desperately.

There was nowhere left to run.

In the end, she dropped to her knees, pulled her daughter into her arms, and covered the child completely with her own body.

The little girl began crying harder.

"Mom..."

"It’s okay."

The woman’s own voice was trembling now.

But her arms remained locked tightly around her daughter.

"Close your eyes."

"Mom..."

"Listen to me. Close your eyes."

The flames reached them.

Their silhouettes vanished behind the red.

Tears instantly filled Lathel’s eyes.

He wanted to tear through the fragment.

Wanted to pull them out.

But no matter how violently his consciousness struggled, the distance in front of him never changed.

All Lathel could do was stand there and watch.

Watch one house after another collapse.

Watch people who had done nothing wrong disappear into the fire.

A man trapped beneath a fallen beam was still trying to crawl toward a child lying several meters away.

A dog circled its owner’s motionless body and barked without stopping.

The young guard from earlier had already caught fire, yet he still carried two small children to the fence and threw them over one at a time.

When he tried to climb over after them—

an explosion erupted behind him.

His body disappeared inside the flames.

The screams slowly became fewer.

Then the crying began to fade.

Eventually, only the sound of burning wood remained as the village collapsed piece by piece.

At that moment, hundreds of golden lights began rising from the ruins.

They flew through the darkness and poured directly into Aldric’s body.

He immediately raised his head.

The screaming remnants inside his mind rapidly weakened.

His chaotic mana stabilized.

Even the cultivation foundation he had forcibly raised through Ancient Magic began consolidating at a speed that made Morgana stare in shock.

She studied Aldric for a moment.

"The backlash is disappearing..."

Her expression became more serious.

"Even your foundation is stabilizing. What exactly did you just do?"

Aldric did not answer.

He was staring at the burning village.

And smiling.

"Hahaha... They died well."

Lathel felt cold from head to toe.

Aldric waved one hand as though all the screaming he had just heard had merely been annoying noise.

"There are people everywhere in this world. So what if a few hundred die?"

His smile widened.

"If the System finds a city next time, that would be better. Tens of thousands of lives should be enough to last me quite a while."

Morgana stared at him strangely.

"A city? What are you talking about?"

Aldric still ignored her.

Lathel did not take his eyes off him.

The anger he had felt earlier had changed into something colder.

Something far harder to describe.

He remembered their last battle.

Remembered Pandora trying to crush Aldric’s head.

Remembered how he had fought to regain control of his own body and stopped her.

’I let him live.’

That thought made Lathel’s hands tremble despite the frozen time around him.

If he had not stopped Pandora that day—the people in this village might still be alive.

Tomorrow, that little girl might have eaten the honey cake she had begged her mother for.

The two guards might still have been arguing about who had been forced to sleep in the stable.

That mother might still have been holding her daughter in bed instead of dying with her inside a sea of fire.

’What did I do?’

Lathel clenched his teeth.

Inside the fragment, Aldric crouched down, took the valuable items from the desiccated corpse at his feet, then casually stood again.

"Tomorrow, I’ll find a few more."

He brushed the dust from his clothes.

The smile remained on his face.

"And I’ll see what else the System can give me."

Lathel stared at that face.

Only one thought remained in his mind.

’He really isn’t human.’

Crack!

The fragment suddenly shattered.

Then the entire space disappeared into darkness.

Lathel shot upright in bed.

The moment his breathing returned, it became chaotic.

The magic lamps on the wall flickered normally again.

The curtain that had been frozen in the wind dropped back into place as though nothing had happened.

The particle of dust Lathel had seen earlier finally continued falling toward the floor.

Everything had taken place in an instant so brief that if the memories had not remained perfectly clear, he might have believed he had only experienced a nightmare.

But the tears on his face were real.

The screams from the village were still echoing inside his head.

Pandora immediately sensed something was wrong.

"Lathel?"

He did not answer.

"Lathel, what happened?"

Lathel sat motionless on the bed.

His hands were trembling so violently that he could not hold them still.

He tried to take a deep breath, but his chest felt as though something had wrapped around it and was squeezing tighter with every second.

In the end, he bent forward and covered his face with both hands.

Tears immediately slipped between his fingers.

Pandora fell silent.

Since entering Lathel’s soul, she had seen him injured.

Angry.

Helpless.

But she had never seen him cry hard enough that his entire body trembled.

"What did you see?"

Lathel could not answer.

Only a few rough, broken sounds escaped his throat.

His hands were shaking too badly to form clear signs.

All he could hear was that child calling for her mother.

Then the woman’s trembling voice telling her daughter to close her eyes.

Every time Lathel’s shoulders shook, the silver chain around his wrist struck the bedframe.

Clink... clink...

For once, Pandora did not keep asking.

After a while, her voice lowered.

"If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t."

She paused.

"Just... try to calm down first."

Lathel did not react.

At that moment—

the door suddenly flew open.

Catrina nearly rushed straight into the room.

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