The woman in crimson smirked, her eyes twin voids swallowing the light. Her face mirrored mine perfectly—the sharp jawline, the scar above the brow, even the stupid bedhead I'd woken up with. But her aura… it was mine. The raw, unfiltered stench of creation. The kind that made mortals kneel and galaxies tremble.
"Cat got your tongue, Creator?" she purred, twirling the Godslayer Blade like a toy. The black crystal shard hummed, its edge rippling with entropy. "Or should I call you Kaito? How… quaint."
Behind me, Lila and Headmaster Orion froze in the vault's doorway. I didn't blame them. Seeing your classmate's doppelgänger casually holding a weapon that could unmake reality tends to kill conversation.
"Who. Are. You." My voice wasn't a question. It was a command, layered with divine resonance. The walls cracked.
The Echo laughed—a sound like shattering glass. "Still playing the amnesiac? Cute. Let's jog your memory." She tossed the Godslayer Blade into the air. It hovered, spinning lazily. "I'm the fragment you left behind when you sealed your powers. The failsafe. The witness to your greatest failure."
A headache spiked behind my eyes. Flashes erupted—a battlefield strewn with dead gods, a collapsing universe, her voice screaming, "You can't run forever!"
"Kaito!" Lila's voice cut through the fog. "What's she talking about?!"
The Echo flicked her fingers. A crimson chain lashed out, binding Lila and the Headmaster to the wall. "No interruptions, pests. The grown-ups are talking."
I stepped forward, mana boiling under my skin. "Let. Them. Go."
"Or what?" She grinned, leaning against the pedestal. "You'll smite me? With what power? You're a shadow of yourself. A god who forgot his own name."
She wasn't wrong. The vault in my mind was still half-locked, memories oozing out like syrup. But the arrogance in her tone lit a fuse in my gut.
"Enough."
The word tore through the vault. Reality warped—stone melted, gravity inverted, and the Echo staggered. For a heartbeat, fear flickered in her eyes.
Then she laughed harder. "There he is! The tyrant who carved existence from chaos! But…" She snapped her fingers.
The Godslayer Blade moved.
One second it hovered. The next, it was buried in my chest.
Cold. So cold it burned.
I looked down. No blood. Just cracks spreading across my skin, glowing like fractured starlight. The Blade pulsed, drinking my divinity.
"Kaito!" Lila screamed, thrashing against her bonds.
The Echo sauntered closer, tracing a finger down my cheek. "You see? You're mortal now. Fragile. And your enemies? They're coming. The ones you abandoned. The ones you betrayed."
Memories surged—a council of primordial beings, their faces twisted in rage. "You created us, then left us to rot!" A vote. A verdict. "The Creator must die."
I gripped the Blade's hilt, my hands blistering. "Why warn me? If you're my 'fragment,' why not just kill me?"
Her smile faded. "Because I'm not just a fragment. I'm your regret. Your guilt. And unlike you, I don't want to die." She yanked the Blade free. I collapsed, gasping as the cracks in my skin sealed. "The Godslayer was a trap. They knew you'd come here. They're already in this world, wearing faces you trust. And when they find you…"
A tremor shook the vault. Distant screams echoed—human and demon alike.
"Too late," the Echo whispered. "They're here."
The vault's ceiling exploded.
A figure descended, wreathed in golden flames. Tall, radiant, with wings of pure light. His face was achingly familiar—a hero from the academy's stained-glass windows.
"Saint Aldric?!" Headmaster Orion choked. "But you died centuries ago!"
The saint's eyes locked onto me, burning with hatred. "Found you."
The Echo vanished in a swirl of crimson smoke, her laughter lingering. "Good luck, me. You'll need it."
Saint Aldric swung his sword. A crescent of holy fire obliterated the vault's walls, forcing me to dive as the blast incinerated stone. Lila and the Headmaster tumbled into rubble.
"Kaito, what the hell is happening?!" Lila yelled, scrambling to free herself.
"Longer story!" I rolled to my feet, mana flaring. Aldric's aura reeked of celestial magic—but corrupted, twisted. Possessed.
"Judgment has come, Creator," he boomed, his voice echoing with a thousand tongues. "The Primordial Council sends their regards."
He lunged. His blade met my palm, the clash shredding the air into shockwaves.
"You're not Aldric," I growled, straining against his strength. "What are you?"
His face split into a grotesque smile. "A vessel."
His chest burst open. Tendrils of black ichor spewed out, lashing toward my throat. I ducked, hurling a kinetic blast that blew him through three walls.
"Lila! Headmaster! Evacuate the academy!" I shouted.
"And leave you?!" Lila protested, finally breaking free.
"Yes." I flexed my hands, summoning twin orbs of starlight. "This isn't a demon. It's a Herald—a god-eater. You can't fight it."
Aldric emerged from the debris, his body contorting, wings rotting into skeletal appendages. The Herald's true form seeped through—a pulsating mass of eyes, teeth, and blasphemy.
"We will feast on your essence," it droned. "Your death will be the song that ends all songs."
"Yeah, heard that before." I launched the orbs. "Burn."
The explosion lit the night sky. The Herald screeched, ichor spraying as its flesh charred. But it reformed instantly, bigger, hungrier.
Shit. My mortal body was hitting its limits. Cracks reopened on my arms.
"Kaito!" Lila's voice again. Stubborn as always. She'd dragged the Headmaster to safety but sprinted back, her wand blazing. "Eat this, ugly!"
She fired a beam of prismatic light—a ninth-tier spell way above her pay grade. The Herald flinched, giving me an opening.
I tackled it through a tower wall, our fall scattering students below.
"Lila! I said go!" I snarled, pinning the Herald as it thrashed.
"And miss the show?" She landed beside me, panting but grinning. "You're not the only badass here."
The Herald roared, tendrils slamming into us. Lila blocked with a barrier, gritting her teeth. "Any bright ideas, oh mighty Creator?"
A memory sparked. The Vault. The Godslayer Blade.
"The shard!" I shouted. "It's a focus! Shatter it, and the Herald loses its tether!"
"On it!" She blasted off toward the rubble.
The Herald's tendrils coiled around my neck. "You trust mortals? How far you've fallen."
I grinned bloody. "They're annoying. But they grow on you."
"Die."
Its maw engulfed me—
A pink lightning bolt struck its eye.
"Hey, tentacle-face!" Lila stood atop a crumbling pillar, the Godslayer Shard raised high. "Catch!"
She threw it. I caught it mid-air, the Blade's hilt searing my palm.
"NO!" The Herald recoiled.
I plunged the shard into its core.
The world went white.
Silence.
I stood in a void, the Herald's essence dissipating around me. The Godslayer Shard floated nearby, inert.
"This changes nothing," the Herald hissed, its voice fading. "They are legion. They are endless. And they will devour your new… friends."
Its presence vanished.
I woke to Lila slapping my face.
"Wake up, idiot! No dying allowed!"
I swatted her hand. "I'm divine. Slapping doesn't help."
She hugged me. Tight. "You're also a moron."
The academy lay in ruins. Students emerged from hiding, staring at me with a mix of awe and terror. Headmaster Orion limped over, his beard singed.
"You," he wheezed, "have explaining to do."
I stood, wincing. "Later. First, we need to—"
A cheer cut me off.
"Kaito! Kaito! Kaito!"
The crowd parted as a girl marched forward—silver hair, crimson eyes, and a smirk that screamed trouble. She wore a combat leotard with more belts than sense and carried a sword longer than she was tall.
"Not bad, Creator," she said, tossing me a smirk. "But I could've killed that thing faster."
Lila bristled. "Who the hell are you?!"
The girl twirled her sword, cleaving a rift in the air. "Aria von Hellstrom. Transfer student. Also…" She winked at me. "Your new bodyguard. The Headmaster hired me."
Orion coughed. "I did no such—"
"Lie!" Aria sang. "Anyway, Kaito? You've got a harem to build and an apocalypse to stop. Let's move!"
Lila looked ready to strangle her. I sighed.
Godhood was less complicated.