Eleanor was walking towards a clearing behind Avaron main building since apparently, Sylvia was waiting for her there.

However, she froze upon catching a glimpse of what was transpiring.

'THIS SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING!'

What Eleanor saw was 1 boy and 4 girls; They were Sylvia, Ria, Krista, Amelia, and... Raun.

Sylvia was sitting with Ria, while Raun was standing between Amelia and Krista, blabbering about something. Although, Amelia didn't seem to be paying much attention to Raun, as she occasionally glanced at Ria with sparkling eyes.

However, what made Eleanor react that way wasn't the fact that Raun looked like he was being surrounded by a harem, but that—

"GET OUT OF THERE"

—A purplish-black fissure was forming above their head.

Ria, startled by her loud shout, snapped her head in Eleanor's direction. "Huh? Princess? What are you doi—"

"JUST RUN AWA—"

BOOM—!

The fissure suddenly exploded into a rift in space, swallowing the group of 5 students.

"So much for resting...", Eleanor cursed under her breath.

Staring at the ominous black rift that looked like it wanted to devour the entirety of this world, Eleanor pondered over whether or not she should go inside the rift and save Sylvia and her 'friends' or not.

But, after a few moments of thinking, she decided to—

"Fuck it! This regression is already ruined. The worst that can happen right now is me restarting again"

—Dive into the rift.

Vuam—!
...

"Can't believe I'm here again so soon", Eleanor chuckled to herself.

A melting black hole, which was actually the realm's sun, that looked like a bleeding wound in the ominous red sky, and the putrid sensation of dense Void mana in the air all reminded Eleanor that she had stepped into the Evil god's domain.

To her left, there was a pitch black tower with gigantic beasts flying around it.

To her right, was an expansive field of black grass that seemingly spanned to the edge of the realm.

And in front of her, was a dense forest of black trees.

This was where she fought, and died countless times in her previous regressions.

However, she didn't have time to linger on nostalgic thoughts for long, as she needed to ensure that the students who were passed out on the ground were safe.

'They aren't used to dense Void mana, huh? Even Krista is out cold'

She then closed her eyes in concentration, spreading her Aether out; Almost immediately, a thin layer of pale gold hue enveloped everyone.

"Haaah...", Eleanor sighed in relief. If she was even a minute late, everyone here except for Krista and Sylvia would have been corrupted.

In the Void realm, only Void mages, Aether-based lifeforms or people with Holy mana/protection can negate the corruption. 

Of course, Void mages or Part-voids can stay there indefinitely without any drawbacks. And in fact, they even get stronger the longer they stay.

However, Aether-based life forms like Eleanor can only resist the corruption for so long, as they have to continuously expend Aether to fend off against Void mana.

Judging by the rate at how her Aether was being drained, Eleanor estimated that she only had 10 minutes before the Void would corrupt her.

Well, Krista could probably protect everyone here from the corruption with much more efficiency. However, she was still unconscious. 

Thus, Eleanor waited for everyone, or at least Krista, to wake up while thinking about her next course of action.

She couldn't count on finding a random Void rift, as the chance of randomly stumbling upon one in the wild was near zero.

Thus, she had to find another way to get back to her world.

<[Light blade]>

A rapier made of Light appeared in Eleanor's hands. The intense heat and brightness it gave off was far superior to the blade made of moonlight Eleanor used to fight Theodore.

However, Eleanor frowned at the sight of her blade.

'Not good... we're too far away from the sun'

The sun of the Void realm was, in fact, very reachable, as it floated at the center of the world.

Staring at her Light rapier, Eleanor concluded that they were at the very edge of the realm. Which was bad news since—

'We're not close to any cities...'

And by extension, they couldn't reach the most sure-fire way for them to get back to their dimension.

'Alright then, time to restart'

Eleanor placed her rapier over her own throat, wanting to end this regression before she got corrupted, but—

'Huh?'

—She noticed a sign, written in an unknown language.

Well, unknown to everyone except for Eleanor herself.

She hadn't been wasting her past regressions doing nothing after all.

"Kerutakl advw ciatuswt...", Eleanor muttered as she read the sign.

Eleanor's eyes then suddenly widened open in surprise and happiness upon seeing what it meant.

"A RIFT FACILITY?"

She was truly lucky. A rift facility being this far from the black sun was most likely abandoned, so she didn't have to worry about encountering any Void fiends.

'I guess it's not yet time for this regression to end after all'

That is, assuming that the facility was still functional.

"Ughhhh..."

Eleanor broke into a wide smile upon hearing the groaning sound of someone. "You're finally up, huh?"
...

<[Void skewer]>

"That's the 4th one~", Krista whistled as she ran towards the now-dead Void beast.

Raun's eyes darted around. After confirming that there were no more dangers, he joked. "Heh, good job Krista. It's like I'm getting protected by a harem"

Eleanor just shook her head at this and sighed inwardly.

'He even has the guts to joke in this situation'

Of course, Raun didn't joke just for the sake of it. He was trying to ease the tension, as Amelia and Ria were shaking in fright; They were just too afraid of never coming back to their home again.

Sylvia was trying to fight the Void beasts on her own, but Eleanor always killed them before they even got close to Sylvia's attack range.

After all, Sylvia had gotten lost chasing Void beasts countless times in past regressions, which would have been comical if it didn't always lead to Sylvia getting corrupted, thus giving the Void realm another extremely powerful Void lord, one that could freely use Aether as she wished.

'I don't want to fight her again...', Eleanor shuddered as she recalled many of her fights against the corrupted Sylvia - the only Void lord that wasn't affected by Aether or Holy mana.

Instead, she only got stronger from absorbing them.

And the corrupted Sylvia was quite merciless against her enemies too. 

'No, merciless isn't enough to describe her. She acted more like a lunatic, a psycho!'

Even Eleanor, who had turned somewhat apathetic and numb to pain thanks to her regressions, couldn't help but to scream in extreme agony whenever Void lord Sylvia captured and tortured her.

'What a fucking sadist'

Pausing her horrifying thoughts there, Eleanor look down to her hands, which were enveloped in a thin purple hue that gave her an hour, instead of the original 10 minutes, before the protection against the corruption broke down. 

This was all thanks to Krista Nightshade.

Ever since Krista regained consciousness, Eleanor had been instructing her on how to protect others with her Void mana. And surprisingly, she learned how to do it almost immediately.

'Did she become stronger somehow because viscount Nightshade is still alive?', Eleanor thought.

Giving it more thoughts, Eleanor came to the conclusion that it was probably the case. The viscount was one of the most powerful Void mages in the Empire after all, having reached <A-> rank just 3 years ago.

And certainly, anyone would get much stronger if they directly trained under such an individual.

'Maybe I should start letting Irene Nightshade live in the next regressions'

Snapping out of her own thoughts, Eleanor turned her head towards Krista, now was now touching the dead Void beast.

[Arise], Krista muttered; A shadow shaped like the Void beast rose from the corpse, and melted into Krista's shadow.¹Literally Sung Jinwoo from solo leveling

'It's still intriguing whenever I look at it'

Even after multiple regressions, Krista's power to enslave dead Void beasts never failed to amaze her.

This was why Krista was one of, if not Arthur's most important ally, and why Eleanor was currently glaring daggers at Raun.

This little shit right here messed up the timeline by seducing Krista and Amelia, who would be responsible for bringing Arthur back from death in a future incident.

If it wasn't for her plans involving Theodore, Eleanor would've murdered the shit out of him a long time ago.

"Haaaah..."

Sighing, she decided that Raun still had some uses. Thus, he would not die, at least right now.

<[Hardlight needles]>

Woooosh—! Spurt—!

"AH! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?", Raun was terrified as Eleanor's Light needles grazed his cheeks, barely missing him.

Ignoring Raun, Eleanor turned to Krista. "Krista, over there!"

Glancing in Raun's direction, Krista nodded happily and ran towards the Void beast that was just behind him.

Seeing Raun's completely horrified face, Eleanor was sure that he didn't even notice the Void beast that was sneaking up on him.

'Tch, how did someone as weak as him seduce the Saintess of Life and Krista at the same time?'

Eleanor then calmed herself down, deciding to not think about it anymore, all for the sake of keeping her sanity, which she was already on the verge of losing, intact.

CLAP—!

"Alright!", Eleanor said as she clapped her hands. "Let's keep going. We're close to the building I saw earlier"

Although they still had a whole hour left, Eleanor didn't like to leave things to chances. Thus, she decided that it was better to active the Rift first.

Then, if she was still in the mood, maybe she would help Krista go hunt more Void beasts.
...

"Woah! Is this..."

"Yes, it's our way home", Eleanor said as she stepped into the building.

The facility looked like a building in modern 'Earth', which was a strange sight for everyone here except for Eleanor.

"A- Are you sure this will s- send us back?", Ria asked with a shaky voice.

"The Imperial family has been researching the Void realm for centuries, so of course I'm sure it will take us home", Eleanor replied calmly. She had been asked this exact same question many times in past regressions. So much so that she gave her previous answer out of pure reflex.

"T- That's right! Master, please trust the Princess more", Amelia suddenly interjected.

"I guess you're right. Thank you, my discipline", said Ria as she patted Amelia's head.

Frowning at the strange interaction between Ria and Amelia, Eleanor spoke. "Now, follow me a—"

""""PRINCESS!""""

Eleanor snapped her head at the source of the sudden shout, only to find 5, no, 6 individuals dashing towards her.

5 of them were dressing in the Empire's standard military uniform, while the other person was in civilian clothes.

"Stop, state your affiliation!". Eleanor was fairly certain that they were probably one of the expedition teams her father sent into the Void rifts. However, she wanted to play it safe.

An Angel, most likely the leader of the group, stepped up and bowed respectfully. "Yes, your highness. We are Expedition team number 2 sent by the Emperor himself" 

Hearing this, Eleanor closely scrutinized their formations.

2 Demons, 1 Angel, it was the minimum needed to venture into the Void realm without being corrupted in under a week.

The reason why there must be at least 3 Aether users in a team is that when a person runs out of Aether, the others can cover for him. Thus, the protective barrier can be active at all time. 

Well, the other 2 members were just comprised of random races, so nothing special could be said about them.

'Standard Void realm expedition formation... they're sufficiently strong too', Eleanor thought.

After some more observations, Eleanor sighed in relief. 'They're the real deal... But what's with the Human?'

What she found to be strange was the inclusion of an orangish-red eyed, gray-haired Human female whose age was probably the same as Eleanor's.

And more importantly, judging by her clothes and lack of appropriate equipment, the girl was most likely a civilian.

Well, an extremely attractive civilian, Eleanor had to admit. But a civilian nonetheless.

"Hey—", Eleanor whispered to the group leader, "—Why is there a civilian in your group?"

"Huh, her? She's a someone that got sucked in a rift. She claimed that she got to the Void realm just mere seconds before we found her. You don't need to worry, we checked her body and there were no signs of corruption"

"I see...", muttered Eleanor.

"More importantly, your highness, why are you here?"

Sighing, Eleanor answered. "A rift suddenly opened with I was with several more students and we got transported.", Eleanor then pointed at Krista. "Luckily, we got a Void mage with us"

"I'm glad you're okay, your highness. As you can probably tell, this is a Rift facility. We are here to open a rift and send that civilian home anyways so we might as well send you back too"

Nodding, Eleanor then walked towards the civilian, who was warily looking at them.

'Can't believe I have to keep my image, even in this place...'

"Hello!", Eleanor said with a bright smile.

The civilian timidly returned the greetings. "H- Hi..."

"What's your name?"

"L- Lyra Myrsky"

Eleanor then extended her hand to the civilian. "Don't be scared, Lyra. Come here, I will take you home"

The gray-haired girl looked like she was hesitant to take Eleanor's hand, but eventually complied after a few seconds of consideration. "T- Thank you"
...

Eleanor was walking through the facility while holding the girl's hand. She didn't know what the girl was feeling, but Eleanor was very anxious right now, but she didn't dare to let it show on her face.

'WHY ARE YOU HERE?'

Feeling the girl's Mana, Eleanor was sure that she was, in fact, Theodore Gray, the other regressor.

Amelia looked at Lyra, no, Theodore with a disturbed gaze, while Raun was looking at him with hostility.

Eleanor was certain that Sylvia recognized Lyra Myrsky's true identity as Theodore, judging by how her eyes sparkled at the sight of him.

The only one who wasn't reacting strangely to Theodore Gray's disguise was Ria Pyrian, who was probably too busy being scared while clinging to Amelia.

'It seems like he doesn't know that I know his identity', Eleanor thought.

Using this chance, Eleanor also inspected Theodore's Mana to confirm if he was on the Void fiends' side or not.

'Good', she thought as she found no traces of Void mana inside him.

"..."

"..."

Walking in silence, they finally arrived at the control room.

Inside, was a control board with many strange buttons, and an oval shaped metal gate.

"Alright, we're here. Princess, please prepare yourself. I'm going to activate it now"

Tak—! Tak—! Tak—!...

Sounds of buttons being pressed could be heard as the Angel swept his hand through the control board with expertise.

'Looks like the training program I created didn't go to waste after all', Eleanor thought.

"I'm almost done. Princess, tell your friends to get close to the Rift gate"

Seeing that everyone had gotten close enough, the Angel nodded as he prepared to activate the Rift.

"Safe travels, princess!"

Tak—!

Vuam—!
...

Ria cried her eyes out while hugging Amelia upon seeing that she was now just outside the capital.

"WAHHHHH! WE'RE FINALLY BACK"

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as they had just escaped the Evil god's domain, everyone but Eleanor.

The others might not have been aware but Eleanor had noticed that—

'There were no power sources...'

—Nothing was powering the Rift station. She had became aware of it as soon as she stepped inside the control room.

It meant that the Rift they had just entered was probably a natural one instead of one created by the facility. However—

'Natural Rift my ass! I'd rather try to change Arthur's personality than hope for it to appear'

—Rather than counting on the impossible nature of such a Rift forming at the perfect location and at the perfect time, Eleanor had another thought.

'Was it him?', Eleanor thought about the person who was holding her hand.

Just before the Rift appeared, Eleanor had sensed a surge of Spatial attribute Mana.

In her group, only Sylvia had Space affinity, but Eleanor knew about Sylvia's unique space magic, and it had nothing to do with rifts.

That meant—

'It must be him...'

—Theodore was the one that was responsible for the Rift, Eleanor guessed.

'If that's the case, there's more of a reason to put a leash on him!'

Eleanor was excited. She originally thought this regression was a bust, considering how the Rifts appeared 1 year earlier than normal. However, with the inclusion of Theodore's powers, some of her previously unrealistic plans might now have a chance to work.

Nodding her head in excitement and satisfaction, Eleanor turned around. "Lyra, how about you co— huh?"

Eleanor was surprised, as the one holding her hand was Sylvia, not Theodore. And Theodore was nowhere to be seen.

"Sylvia!", Eleanor shouted. "Where did the gray-haired girl go?"

"Hm? She went that way", Sylvia pointed towards the Southern gate of the Capital. 

"Raun said that he couldn't leave a lady to go alone so he also went with her", she continued.

"I see, thanks, Sylvia"

Eleanor then turned around and turned on her holographic phone.

===

Me: Kasumi!

Me: Send the assassins to the Capital now

Me: Our target is there

===

Turning off her phone, Eleanor couldn't help but let out a smile.

Raun and her target, Theodore, was together. This was the perfect chance to execute the plan.

'You'd better not disappoint me, Theodore Gray...'

"..."

"..."

"Are you going to keep holding my hand?"

"Sorry", Sylvia apologized in a flat tone.

Despite that, Sylvia had no intention of letting go, as—

'Warm...'

—Eleanor's hands were unusually warm today.

That, and the fact that Sylvia wanted to somehow get back at Eleanor for deliberately not letting her fight any Void beasts today.

'That's right! Grovel in annoyance muhahahaha!', Sylvia inwardly laughed like a maniac, all while still keeping an expressionless face.