The world was burning.
Not with fire—but with mana.
Unchained, colorless mana poured through the sky like liquid glass, streaking across the heavens in hues no mortal eyes were meant to see. The ground groaned beneath my boots, trembling as mountains split and oceans boiled. Even the wind had turned heavy—thick with the stench of iron, ash, and despair.
All around me, the remnants of an army knelt among ruins.
Humans with broken swords.
Elves with singed hair and shattered staves.
Dwarves whose armor no longer shone.
Even the horned demons—the same ones who once hunted us—now bowed their heads beneath the same dying sun.
The sky was falling apart.
And so was everything else.
I stood there, at the edge of the broken world, a jagged blade clutched in my trembling hand. My mana core pulsed erratically inside me—its color shifting from blue to red to white, as if unsure what it was anymore.
Above the desolation, it floated.
A being beyond form, yet wearing every shape imaginable. Its body rippled like smoke made of starlight, and where eyes should have been, there burned two collapsing suns. Its voice wasn't heard—it reverberated inside my skull, filling every thought with weight.
"You should have never tried to rewrite fate, child of two souls."
My breath caught. Blood filled my mouth.
The world screamed around us, splitting open in ribbons of light and void. Every nerve in my body caught fire. My bones felt like they were turning to dust.
And still, I laughed.
"Rewrite fate?" I whispered, my voice barely more than a rasp. "You think fate was ever yours to write?"
The formless god tilted its head, curious—almost human for a moment.
I raised my sword—cracked, bloodstained, half of it gone—and poured every last drop of mana I had left into it. My unstable core flared one final time, burning through colors faster than my eyes could follow.
For that single heartbeat… the world went still.
I felt every soul that had ever touched mine.
Every friend. Every rival. Every name I'd sworn to protect.
Her voice echoed faintly in the storm.
And I smiled.
Because even if this was the end—
Even if the stars themselves collapsed—
I had already chosen my path long ago.
I would break the chains.
I would tear down destiny.
And if fate was a god…
Then I'd be the demon that killed it.
"This is how it all began," I remember saying once.
Back when I was still human.
Back when I knew nothing of mana, fate, or the weight of power.
I was just a boy who read tales of other worlds—
Until the day I opened my eyes inside one…
as the villain's shadow.