The crown again.The cheers again.The same hollow words filling the air.
But this time, something inside me cracked.
I couldn't take it anymore.
---
I laughed.
It started small, a broken chuckle,but it kept spilling out of me,louder, sharper, until the crowd's chant was drowned out by my own voice.
They kept cheering.Kept clapping.Kept smiling.
And I hated it.
---
I swung my sword.
The soldier fell again, his body twitching before the world rewound.I didn't stop.
I cut him down again.And again.And again.
Each time, his whisper clawed through the reset."Why… can't I leave…?"
---
I turned on the knight.
He raised his blade, proud and flawless,but I carved straight through his armor.
His eyes flickered with something real,something terrified,before the script snapped him back into place.
---
The priestess.The mage.The baker.The crowd.
I tore through all of them.
Their blood sprayed for a second,their screams slipped through for a heartbeat,before the world rewound,forcing them back into smiling masks.
---
The resets came faster now.
The cheers stuttered.The words overlapped.Faces blurred, then snapped into place too late.
The cracks spread across the sky like lightning.The sound of breaking glass filled my ears.
---
I laughed harder.
Every swing of my sword made the world falter.Every scream that slipped through the cracks pushed me further.
If this world wanted a hero,I would give them a monster.
---
The mage's grin twitched,frozen too long,jaw locked wide.
The priestess sobbed through her smile,tears cutting down her cheeks.
The knight's voice broke,his line stumbling,echoing wrong.
---
The crowd roared and cheered,but their mouths didn't match the sound anymore.
It was chaos.A broken machine running wild.
And I was the one tearing out its gears.
---
The sky split wider,a thousand fractures spidering across it,the blue bleeding into black.
The ground trembled beneath my boots.The city walls flickered in and out,half-solid, half-illusion.
---
I dropped to my knees, sword digging into the stone.
My breath came in ragged gasps.Sweat dripped down my face.
And for the first time—the crowd's cheering stopped.
Silence.
---
The world was breaking.And I was the one breaking it.