Chapter 1

Let me tell you about this world.

The universe was born in ancient times, roughly 8 billion years ago.

However, it might be a little tricky to define what exactly constitutes a “year,” as there is a slight difference between ours and yours. A year can be understood as the orbital period of each planet, and the concept of a “day” is determined by its rotation.

But in terms of the timekeeping you’re familiar with on the planet Earth, we’re talking about 8 billion years.

In the beginning, this universe had only three deities.

One of them was named Castus, who governed creation and regeneration.

Another was Shalnakif, who oversaw progress and growth.

And the last was Albaf, the goddess of destruction and the end.

These three deities created and maintained the universe. They crafted the stars, the earth, the sky, and life. They nurtured them, destroyed them at times, and then created anew.

Now, around 1,000 years ago, this world underwent a major turning point.

It’s called “The Great Vanishing.”

The universe was destroyed once.

An intelligent being invented time-travel technology, commonly known as a time machine.

She was a genius from a young age but endured every form of abuse—physical, mental, and sexual—at the hands of her parents. In her despair, she regretted being born.

To erase herself, she traveled back in time and killed her parents before she could be born.

Thus, the “paradox of parent-killing” occurred.

If she killed her parents, she couldn’t exist to kill them. But if she didn’t kill them, she would be born and eventually kill them. Time entered an infinite loop.

In the moment she killed them, she endlessly fluctuated between existence and non-existence. In the instant of that fluctuation, the 21 grams of her soul were multiplied infinitely within the space she occupied. And in that moment, infinite mass was created.

As a result, infinite gravity was produced.

The universe was swallowed by the supermassive black hole that appeared out of nowhere.

Everything disappeared.

It was a phenomenon known as the “Big Crunch.”

This universe had no corrective forces to fix history, nor any concept of parallel worlds.

After the Great Vanishing, the universe was “rebuilt.”

The gods didn’t seem to have the intention to redo everything from scratch. Instead, they selected suitable fragments from the accumulated information of 8 billion years, like piecing together a collage, and “restarted time.”

Although many parts of the world were left with inconsistencies and unnatural gaps, the world was revived in this way.

Currently, everything in this world has been restored by the hands of the gods. Humanity only has 1,000 years of history, possessing fragmented, patchwork technologies, trying to rebuild an imperfect civilization.

However, when the universe was reborn, a more serious issue arose.

The “death” of one of the gods.

The immense, sudden collapse damaged not only the universe but the gods themselves.

When the universe was destroyed, Castus and Shalnakif quickly revived. Their domains were regeneration and growth, so resurrecting themselves and mending their broken bodies was easy for them.

However, the goddess of destruction, Albaf, could not do the same.

Her body was shattered, and she ceased to function.

Her broken form was absorbed into the reborn universe, scattering into countless fragments.

This left the surviving two deities in a dilemma.

The three gods had always functioned together as a whole. But now, as they tried to move the newly reborn universe, they encountered difficulties.

To create and progress, things must also be destroyed.

Let’s get a little philosophical here, for example, “yesterday.”

After a day has passed, “yesterday” must be consumed and discarded. Without the end of a day, the next day cannot begin.

If “yesterday” doesn’t properly vanish, neither today nor tomorrow can come. In other words, they won’t properly exist.

This would cause the timeline and fate to break down and reverse. The perfectly designed plan of the gods would be thrown off balance, and the things meant to happen tomorrow wouldn’t occur, leading to completely different outcomes.

A man destined to be a hero might die quietly of hunger by the roadside.

A sage fated to create a groundbreaking invention could be killed in a trivial argument.

A boy destined to become a great hero might be stillborn, while a girl meant to become a saint who would light up the world might succumb to a plague.

…In short, many misfortunes would occur.

Eventually, crude substitutes naturally began to emerge as the world tried to restore its own balance.

People called them “monsters,” “demons,” “creatures,” or “apparitions.”

These apparitions took on the role of destruction and the end in the reconstructed world following the Great Vanishing, acting in the place of the goddess.

They are drawn to abandoned cities, decaying swamps, and the deep hours of the night due to their nature. Things that have been destroyed, discarded, or corrupted, such as “yesterday” as it passes away, serve as their conceptual nourishment.

But in the end, they are nothing more than poor imitations…

These apparitions lack the power to select and destroy what needs to be destroyed for the proper functioning of the world, as the goddess once did.

Even Castus and Shalnakif were unable to create gods equal to themselves.

The world, having lost its perfection, is pitiful. The universe, once flawless, now behaves unpredictably and unstably.

The movements of the stars have become strange, fate twists and reshapes itself, and those with malice in their hearts become even worse.

Poverty, despair, and hedonism grip the hearts of people. Hatred fuels the world, misfortune upon misfortune piles up, and death begets more death.

It seems that the amount of despair is increasing in proportion to the world’s imbalance, as it amplifies within people’s hearts.

…And so.

I want to ask you to help fix this world.

In other words, I want you to resurrect the goddess of destruction. Restore the proper functioning of this broken world.

Hunt down the apparitions, and gather the fragments of the imprisoned goddess.

When all the pieces are collected, the goddess will be revived.

Now, “Savior.”

Save this world.