"—ey! Gil—!"
My consciousness surfaced, and I bolted upright with a start.
"Hey, Gil, are you all right?"
Some had their eyes wide in astonishment; others stood with their mouths half-agape. Every single person in the room was staring at me in shock.
This was the grand conference hall of the New City of Ket Nya. And judging by the presence of the various tribal chiefs, a council meeting was currently in session. If that was the case... was everything I just experienced a precognitive dream?
Overwhelmed with sudden relief, the strength drained completely from my body, and I collapsed onto the floor. An acute surge of nausea hit me, and I heaved, vomiting violently across the floorboards. Weeping uncontrollably, I kept throwing up until my stomach was completely empty.
Eventually, the storm raging within me subsided, and a semblance of calm returned to my thoughts.
The meeting had been temporarily suspended, set to reconvene in an hour.
"Gil, don't tell me it was another precognitive dream?" Kiji asked, his expression grave.
"Yeah..."
I gave a nod, but a nagging doubt that had lingered in the back of my mind refused to go away: Was it truly just a precognitive dream? If it had been nothing more than a nightmare, too many things about it didn't add up.
First, it had been far too realistic. Having previously experienced what felt like memories of that utter scumbag, I had assumed vivid dreams were within the realm of possibility, but could a mere dream really replicate pain with such terrifying accuracy? To me, the agony had been unmistakably real. There was no way my present self could simply dismiss it as an illusion of the mind.
Second, it was far too extensive for a dream. From what I had gathered, I had abruptly passed out in the middle of speaking during the meeting. When Kiji shook me, I had suddenly awakened and leapt to my feet. In other words, that entire, agonizing ordeal had occurred in the span of a single instant. Could a dream truly encompass so much detail in a heartbeat?
Third, the catalyst that shattered the nightmare had been death itself. If these were simply prophetic visions, dying shouldn't have been a prerequisite for waking up.
And finally, the most baffling discrepancy of all: Exactly when had I started having this "dream"?
My most immediate memory was of being captured by Urokoonu, tortured, and murdered. Being told that I had merely fainted during a council meeting didn't resonate with me in the slightest. Up until now, I had blindly assumed that was how my precognitive dreams functioned, but after experiencing this repeatedly, it was far more sensible to accept that it wasn't a dream at all, but reality.
In other words, I was dying over and over, rewinding and redoing reality. Viewed through that lens, every single piece fell into place.
"What did you see this time?"
"It's bad... the absolute worst..."
Slowly, I began recounting everything I had lived through.
"That truly is a nightmare," Kiji muttered, crossing his arms with a troubled scowl.
I gave a firm nod in agreement.
"Yeah. As long as their barrier is active, there's no ordinary way to head to the northwest—or anywhere north of this city, for that matter."
"Even if you say that, to the south are sheer cliffs! Evacuation is the only option left for our people!"
He wasn't wrong. But that was precisely what I had pried out of Urokoonu at the very end. Even if we fled south, Char would inevitably be captured and sacrificed for their dark ritual. There was no longer any doubt that evacuating would do nothing more than buy us a little time. If that was the case—
"Exactly. That's why we have to find a blind spot in their barrier and reach that place no matter what!"
When it came down to it, reaching that supreme, strongest being was our only hope. To pull it off, I had to utilize every weapon at my disposal and face the challenge head-on. Naturally, if an insignificant, powerless person like me was going to outmaneuver them, my only trump card was this ability to reset upon death.
Of course, I wasn't some twisted pervert who derived pleasure from pain. I despised suffering, and I had no desire to experience such agony again. But losing Char was something I dreaded far more. I could never stand by and let everyone meet such a gruesome, horrific fate.
Once I steeled my resolve, an astonishing sense of clarity washed over me.
"I'm going to act alone from here on. Kiji, please persuade the others and proceed with the evacuation!"
"Wait! If your dream really is the truth, then even if everyone flees—"
Cutting off Kiji's objection, I shouted over my shoulder:
"It'll at least buy us some time!"
With that, I bolted from the conference hall. Either way, unless I uncovered a gap in their barrier, none of us had any hope of survival. Naturally, I couldn't ignore the possibility that this next reset might be my last. Even so, sitting back and waiting meant certain death for everyone. I refused to let that happen.
I'm going to do this!
Steeling my resolve once more, I set off on my nightmare journey back into the jaws of death.