Read Novel Full Chapter 262: Stuck Inside The Loop
Chapter 262: Stuck Inside The Loop
The blood rain continued to pour, washing away the crimson stains that covered the dark road. King Iscaron no longer cried.
The grief that had consumed him only moments ago gradually disappeared, replaced by a terrifying calm that made him seem even more frightening than before.
He gently laid the High Concubine’s body on the ground before placing one hand over her chest. A faint silver mist slowly rose from her body, gathering above his palm like drifting smoke before finally settling there.
Ulrich immediately recognized what the King was doing.
He was pulling out her soul.
“If this world refuses to grant us justice, then I shall create a place where no one shall ever judge us again,” Iscaron said quietly, his voice carrying neither anger nor despair anymore. It was the voice of a king who had already accepted the path before him.
“Neither the False God nor the heavens shall separate us. From this day onward, only our souls shall remain together, and this world shall remember our love for all eternity.”
The memory immediately began to accelerate. Days passed in mere seconds, seasons changed one after another, and before long even years slipped away.
Ulrich watched as the once mighty King gradually grew weaker. His body withered while the light within his eyes slowly faded until death finally claimed him.
News of his passing spread across the kingdom, and a grand funeral worthy of the Blessed King of Morum was held before every noble and citizen. Yet the coffin buried beneath countless mourning eyes was empty.
Only a handful of Iscaron’s most trusted retainers knew the truth.
Under the cover of a snowstorm, they carried his real coffin far beyond the capital, climbing toward the frozen north where no prince nor princess would ever dare set foot.
There, beside the woman he had loved until his final breath, they buried their King in complete silence. No prayers were spoken, no farewell was given. The only sound accompanying the funeral was the endless blizzard sweeping across the empty land.
As the last handful of earth covered the coffin, Iscaron’s voice echoed through the memory once again, as though his soul had been waiting for this very moment.
“Let this place become our eternity. Let our first meeting and our final farewell repeat until the end of time itself, and let no one who enters ever escape the fate we could not.”
The ground immediately answered his vow.
The empty northern land began to tremble as though something beneath it had awakened. Snow swirled violently into the sky while the frozen plains stretched farther and farther before suddenly rising from the horizon.
The ground itself folded upward, layers of stone forcing their way toward the heavens until cliffs, valleys, and jagged ridges gradually took shape.
His mind raced as every assumption he had made since entering this mountain began to crumble. Piece by piece, he discarded each flawed theory before fitting the truth together, finally seeing the complete picture hidden beneath centuries of lies.
Ulrich realized he had been wrong from the very beginning.
He had always believed the High Concubine was the master of this domain, or at least someone capable of influencing it. Every time they failed and died, whether in the frozen wilderness or inside that cursed palace, her figure would always appear before him.
Then time would rewind, the mountain would return to its original state, and the three of them would awaken as though nothing had ever happened.
He thought it was her spirit guiding them.He thought she was deliberately giving them another chance to uncover the truth buried beneath this mountain.
But none of it had anything to do with her.
The realization sent a chill through his body, one far colder than the blizzard surrounding them.
‘We were never being saved.’
Ulrich lowered his gaze, watching the snow swirl across the mountaintop while his expression gradually darkened.
‘We were simply caught inside the gears.’
Everything finally made sense.
Their repeated death was the curse King Iscaron had left behind before his death.
Yet something had changed over the passing centuries. The domain was no longer as perfect as it had once been.
The frozen statues scattered across the mountain proved that outsiders had managed to enter a place that should have remained completely sealed.
It had become unstable.
Perhaps the endless passage of time had weakened the curse. Perhaps it was because of the crest, Bjorne or Latros. Whatever the reason, small fractures had begun to appear, allowing the domain to momentarily overlap with reality.
The domain did not care whether they belonged there or not. The moment someone crossed its boundary, they became another piece of the cycle, another existence bound by King Iscaron’s eternal prison.
When Ulrich and his companions were killed, the domain simply returned to the beginning, resetting everything within its boundaries as though the previous events had never happened.
Their souls were dragged back alongside the memories, forced to repeat the same journey over and over again without the slightest regard for their own lives.
A bitter smile slowly formed on Ulrich’s lips.
They were nothing more than strangers who had wandered into a prison whose walls had finally begun to crack. And now that they had become part of its cycle, the mountain would never let them leave until they found a way to break the curse itself.
Ulrich suddenly let out a bitter laugh, causing Andrew and Matthew to turn toward him with puzzled expressions.
“What’s wrong, Lord Ulrich?” Matthew asked.
“It would seem we are in a rather unfortunate situation, Matthew… Andrew.” A faint smile appeared on Ulrich’s face, though there was no amusement behind it.
“From this moment onward, neither of you must die. Should that happen, I doubt we will ever find our way out of this place again. This mountain bears King Iscaron’s curse, and curse of the first blood pact. I would not be surprised if the False God’s influence still lingers within this domain. So… be careful.”
Matthew did not fully understand the weight behind those words, but Andrew did. His expression gradually hardened before he gave a firm nod.
“Then we’ll get out of here alive,” he said. “I won’t become your burden.”
Before Ulrich could respond, Matthew suddenly narrowed his eyes. His hand immediately reached for the pistol tucked into his waistband as he stared past Ulrich’s shoulder.
“Who’s there?”
The three of them turned at the same time.
Footsteps echoed softly through the snow as a lone figure slowly emerged from the blizzard. Judging from his build, he looked no older than Matthew, yet there was something strangely familiar about him.
As the distance between them gradually closed and his face became clear, all three of them fell silent.
“Seamus?” Andrew was the first to speak, unable to hide the surprise in his voice as he stared at the young man’s face, which bore an uncanny resemblance to him.