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Blanc realized something was very wrong. The missing soldiers had reappeared, and their perception of time differed from his group's.

To test his theory, Blanc took out a teleportation card.

"Mr. Garrot, I have a few ideas I'd like to test. Just wait here for me."

Without waiting for a reply, Blanc steadily poured magic power into the card. Soon, however, he sensed a boundary to his teleportation. He had not reached its maximum range; something was blocking it.

With a swish, the card in Blanc's hand crumbled, and he appeared beside the boundary.

Blanc tried to keep walking outward, but resistance arose, preventing him from taking another step.

Blanc could sense an invisible barrier before him, and its magic power felt familiar. It was magic similar to that of the Eclipse Gate and the Time of Memories.

A spacetime barrier?

After sorting through the information, he could roughly conclude that a spacetime barrier covered the area around the ruins, cutting anyone who entered off from the outside world. As for when he had entered it, Blanc recalled the faint sense of something being wrong when he first entered town. The barrier had probably expanded dramatically at that moment, engulfing everyone in town.

A trace of cold sweat formed at Blanc's temple, and his head began to ache. Anything that could cover an entire town in an instant was no simple matter. This mission would probably be a tough one, and he had already fallen into its trap right at the start. He would have to proceed more cautiously.

Blanc quickly activated Take Over Magic: Mahoraga Form. Although he knew no spacetime magic, he still had the all-purpose Mahoraga.

Blanc repeatedly made contact with the barrier, while Mahoraga's ability continuously analyzed it. Click, click, click, click.

Soon, Blanc's hand passed smoothly through the barrier, and then his entire body followed, bringing him outside.

The information relayed by Mahoraga's analysis also told Blanc what the barrier did. It not only separated the inside from the outside, but also trapped time within it in an endless loop. Everything inside would restart at regular intervals.

No wonder the people who had been missing for so long had no idea they had disappeared when they were found. They kept reliving the day they went missing, never realizing they had lost contact with the outside world.

Presumably, the earlier scouting parties were in the same situation.

Blanc's original plan had been to send a clone inside to investigate the exact cause while he waited somewhere safe for the results. That would have been the safest approach.

Now, that plan appeared unworkable. His attempt to synchronize his consciousness with his clone from outside the barrier had failed. Inside and outside were two separate spacetimes, making communication impossible.

And his clones currently could not take over Mahoraga, so they would still be affected by the spacetime resets. Even if they discovered something, a single reset would render all their efforts useless.

With that in mind, Blanc maintained his Take Over form and reentered the barrier. A short while later, he returned to Garrot.

"Mr. Blanc, what is..." Seeing Blanc return in a different form, and recalling his sudden departure earlier, Garrot was full of questions.

"Mr. Garrot, this is far enough. I already have a general idea of what's behind this incident, so leave the rest to me. Staying here won't help much. Go back and wait for news from me."

"I may only be an ordinary knight, without the power of a mighty wizard like you. But as the leader of the defense force, how could I stand by and watch you face danger alone while I cower behind you like a coward?!"

"Please let me come with you! Even if all I can do is scout ahead or distract the enemy, I won't back down!" Garrot stared straight at Blanc, his eyes burning with determination and unwillingness to give up.

Faced with this hot-blooded knight, who would throw away his life for the town's safety and was ready to rush to the front lines to get himself killed at any moment, Blanc rubbed his temples helplessly.

Still, seeing Garrot's sincere resolve to protect the town, Blanc did not get angry. He stepped forward and patted Garrot on the shoulder.

"Mr. Garrot, your sense of duty as a leader and your commitment to the town are truly admirable. But what lies ahead is beyond the realm of ordinary people."

"I won't need you to guide me any farther. I'll go straight into the ruins and investigate the source of the 'Divine Disappearance.'"

Blanc had no intention of telling him that the barrier already covered the entire town. That would only cause needless panic, so he put on a serious expression and bluffed.

"If you come with me, I'll have to devote most of my attention to protecting you, which will prevent me from bringing my full strength to bear against the core of the ruins."

"Mr. Garrot, you're the defense force's only commander. If something happens to you here too, Olt Town behind us will truly be left leaderless and helpless. Keeping yourself alive to reassure the people and organize an evacuation is the best way to fulfill your duty to the town. Do you understand?"

Garrot clenched his fists and lowered his head in thought for a moment. Finally, he relaxed his fists and replied in a low voice.

"In that case, I'll leave the front lines entirely to you! I'll return to town at once and organize the entire defense force to establish a second line of defense. As long as I, Garrot, still draw breath, I won't let panic over the disturbance in the ruins shake the town's foundations!"

"Go on. With you looking after things back here, I can rest easy." Blanc smiled faintly and waved him off.

Garrot hesitated no longer. With a resolute expression, he turned and strode swiftly back toward town.

Only after confirming that Garrot's presence had vanished entirely from his perception did Blanc quietly breathe a sigh of relief. The gentle smile instantly disappeared from his face, replaced by a grave expression.

"Now, then... let's see just what caused all this panic."

Blanc's clone headed toward the distant ruins, encountering several soldiers from earlier scouting parties along the way. They, too, were trapped in the time loop, their faces set with determination as they marched straight toward the ruins.

Seeing them, Blanc stopped them in the name of Garrot, the defense force's leader, and ordered them to suspend their mission and retreat immediately. Otherwise, if a battle erupted in the core area, he would have to divide his attention to protect them.

As he drew closer to the ruins, Blanc could faintly sense fluctuations of spacetime magic coming from within. Passing through the final layer of distorted mist, he finally saw the Ancient Ruins revealed in full.

They were magnificent ruins that seemed to have been utterly abandoned by time. Huge, broken pillars of black stone stood all around, carved with unfamiliar ancient patterns and heavy with the weight of ages.

Strangely, however, the entire site had an extremely unstable, translucent, illusory quality. It seemed liable to vanish like a mirage at any moment, yet the pull of certain specific points stubbornly held its form together.

After entering the ruins and exploring for a while, Blanc reached their center, where an old Magic Grimoire floated in the air, emitting a dim glow. Looking closely, he saw a peculiar green clover design emblazoned in the very center of its cover.

As Blanc studied the Magic Grimoire, he suddenly remembered seeing something similar. The Time of Memories, the Magic Grimoire that could let people travel through time, looked much like this book.

Could they be works by the same author? Is this the source of the incident?

Seeing nothing around him except the Magic Grimoire, and no obvious danger, Blanc walked straight toward it, intending to pick it up for a look.

However, the instant Blanc came within a few meters of the Magic Book, the Magic Grimoire burst into light, and then-

The world stopped without warning.

The wind fell silent. Dust drifting down over the ruins froze in midair. Even the light emanating from the Magic Grimoire fell into absolute stillness.

Then came a frenzied reversal.

The clone dissipated, and Blanc, observing from afar, was affected as well.

The scenery around him rewound as though someone had hit a rewind button at a hundred times normal speed. The ruins, the mist, and the forest path hurtled backward. Blanc's mind reeled, and before this tremendous power that transcended the rules, even his conscious awareness was forcibly paused.

When his consciousness began flowing again like the tide, Blanc's eyes snapped open.

He was greeted by the familiar yet unbearably oppressive stillness of central Olt Town. People came and went along the streets, their steps hurried and heavy. Vendors on either side mechanically arranged their stalls, and an unshakable anxiety and fear gripped every face.

Everything seemed to have reset perfectly to the moment Blanc first arrived in central Olt Town, but one thing was different.

Click.

The crisp sound of a turning wheel abruptly rang beside Blanc's ear.

Blanc looked down at his hands, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. He was still maintaining his Mahoraga Take Over form, and a shield of magic power had formed over his body, resisting the magic that sought to assimilate him.

He had been reset, but not completely. Blanc still retained his memories.

So that's how it works... analyzing the edge of the barrier alone isn't enough to make me completely immune to the core area's forceful rewind.

Blanc rolled his neck. Though a drop of cold sweat trickled from his temple, a hint of excitement appeared on his face. Inwardly, he was certain of victory.

Since the wheel has turned, the adaptation process has already begun. This rewind ability may defy all reason, but soon it'll stop working!

Blanc glanced at the lifeless street nearby, then toward the distant command post. Since he still had his memories, there was nothing to worry about on this "second run."

A few more rewinds should be enough to complete the adaptation.

Blanc looked toward the ruins. This time, he could not even be bothered to enter the command post, sparing himself the time it would take to introduce himself to the mayor and Garrot all over again.

He turned around, his figure blurring into an afterimage, and raced once more toward the Ancient Ruins outside town along the now-familiar route!