Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 9 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 4===

Basara could only stare at the scene in front of him. He saw from the windows of his vehicle, a massive crater, – no -, a gaping hole in the side of the mountain. If it was a meteor or something, it should have left a crater in the side of the mountain. Instead, something punctured through the mountain. But what scared Basara wasn’t the sheer size of the destruction unleashed on the cliffside. What scared him was that this scene was identical to what happened 5 years ago.

“Why…”

Mio heard Basara mutter to himself from her seat in front. But there wasn’t much she could do to comfort him. After all, she was not there 5 years ago, to understand what exactly Basara was going through. Her words of comfort would not do anything to alleviate the nightmare that Basara had been trying to repress in the back of his mind all this time: the memory of wiping out entire families and houses. Mio glanced towards Yuki and Kurumi, in the hopes that they could comfort Basara, but instead saw them maintain their silence as they stared down at their feet.

“That area where your powers went rampant…it seems like time has simply stopped in that exact area.”

Shuuya spoke with a heavy heart as he continued driving.

“It’s as if that area has been cut off into some separate dimension. Whether it be physical matter or magic, nothing seems to affect that area.”

In other words, Basara’s sins will remain there forever, a gaping scar in the beautiful face of Mother Nature.

“So that’s why…”

Basara understood now. Understood why Yuki was so cold to him the first time they met again at school. Why Takashi and Kurumi were out for his blood, and why the girls were acting quiet. While Basara was trying to put the events of 5 years ago behind him after being ousted from the village with his father, the people of the village were reminded of the tragedy every single time they looked outside. And this will not change for the foreseeable future. Basara’s sins and his mistakes were forever.