"So… this is how it all ends?"
I whispered to myself as I looked around the battlefield — a sea of corpses, smoke, and shattered hope.
Proud warriors, knights, nobles, and so-called geniuses — all lay dead. Men and women who once claimed to be humanity's brightest were reduced to lifeless flesh in the blink of an eye.
ROOOOAR!
A sound tore through the heavens — a roar so massive that the air itself seemed to shatter. My ears rang. My heart froze.
Hovering above us was the creature that had ended humanity's age. A nightmare beyond imagination.
Its body was that of a serpent — nearly two hundred meters long, with scales that gleamed gold and black under the crimson sky. Its mane shimmered like molten metal, and its breath carried the stench of burnt worlds.
Two eyes — vast, cold, and reptilian — gazed down upon us. Not with anger. Not with cruelty. But with indifference.
That, somehow, made it even more terrifying.
"H-Haha…"
A broken voice dragged my attention sideways.
A boy — no, a young man — sat slumped nearby. Half of his face was melted away, his right eye nothing more than blackened ruin. The remaining eye was fixed on the sky, gleaming with madness.
"Even a god couldn't defeat that thing," he muttered, laughing weakly. "So what chance did we ever have?"
Before I could answer, he lifted his sword — and slit his own throat.
I didn't even flinch.
Maybe because I was barely alive myself. My legs were crushed, my right arm gone, blood pooling beneath me like a dark halo.
It was a miracle I was even conscious.
But instead of sorrow, what I felt was… relief.
The war was over. Humanity was gone. There was no one left to save.
I looked up at the serpent once more and for some reason, I found myself admiring it.
Its existence was absolute. Perfect. Unquestionable.
In front of that creature's power, all of humanity's pride, its armies, its geniuses, its gods was meaningless.
Everyone I once thought invincible died just like that… no different from me.
I chuckled weakly, blood filling my throat. I didn't even know why I was smiling.
Maybe it was the peace of finally accepting the truth, that everything ends, no matter how high we climb.
The only thing I regret now...
...is dying a damn virgin.
Can you imagine my pain? Fifty-four years old — and not once did I taste love, or even the warmth of a woman's touch.
I laughed weakly to myself, my voice rasping between the sounds of distant thunder and the monster's roars.
"What a joke…" I muttered. "I fought all my life, and for what? To die alone and untouched."
I was abandoned by my family at seventeen. Cast out like trash.
I wanted to prove them wrong, to show them that I could stand on my own — so I became a mercenary.
I hunted monsters, spilled blood, and clawed my way through life one corpse at a time. And I was good at it. Damn good.
But fate's a cruel bastard.
One day, I got caught in the crossfire between a cult that worshipped monsters and a church that wanted to exterminate them.
From that moment on, my life turned into a nightmare.
Couldn't eat without checking the shadows. Couldn't sleep without clutching my blade. Couldn't love anyone, because the moment I showed weakness, those lunatics would've torn everything from me.
Fifteen years ago, I joined this war — not to be a hero, but to run away. I thought dying on the battlefield would be easier than dying hunted.
I thought I'd at least have a clean death.
Guess not.
I looked at the sky again. The monster's golden-black mane shimmered like divine flame against the blood-red clouds. Its crimson eyes burned through the heavens.
"Befitting, really…" I muttered with a faint smile. "For humanity to vanish like this."
I wondered, almost peacefully, what would this world look like without humans?
My vision blurred. My body felt numb. I couldn't even feel the pain anymore — only sleepiness.
'Heh... maybe this is it.'
I let my eyes close.
But then — light.
A blinding, searing light burst from my chest, piercing through my dimming sight.
'What the hell—'
I looked down to see my old necklace — the one I'd worn for years as a lucky charm — glowing with violent brilliance. Cracks of gold light spread across it like molten veins.
The serpent's eyes shifted. For the first time, its pupils trembled.
ROOOOAR!
Its roar shook the heavens as it dove toward me with impossible speed.
"What the hell is going on?!" I shouted, trying to clutch the necklace with my remaining hand — but my fingers slipped.
And the last thing I saw...
...was the gaping maw of the creature that destroyed all of humanity, swallowing me whole.
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
The sound of birds.
Birds?
I jolted up.
"Wait—bed?!"
My hands grabbed at the sheets beneath me. Soft. Warm. Definitely a bed.
"What the hell is going on?!" I blurted, eyes darting around the room.
Sunlight poured through a window. There was noise outside — the faint chatter of people, the sound of carts and laughter.
Laughter.
I hadn't heard that in decades.
My heart hammered. I looked down at my hands — thin, pale, smooth. The calluses from years of sword training were gone.
"No way..."
I ran my hands over my body. The gashes that should've split me open were gone. Not even a scar. My skin, once rough like old leather, felt soft — almost fragile.
I touched my right arm — the one that had been torn clean off.
It was there.
"You've gotta be kidding me…"
I stared in disbelief. Even my head — which should've been half-eaten by that damn serpent — was perfectly fine.
What in the world…?
I'd lived through battlefields soaked in blood. I'd crawled out of grave pits and watched comrades turn into monsters. I'd been called the Demon Lord, for heaven's sake — but never, not once, had I experienced something like this.
"Calm down," I muttered to myself. "Figure out the situation first."
I took a deep breath.
At least I'm alive.
That thought alone made something in my chest loosen. Death had already claimed me once — yet here I was, breathing again. Whether it was fate, karma, or some twisted joke of the gods… I'd take it.
"Alive, huh…" I chuckled bitterly. "Guess I should be happy about that."
Flap!
I threw off the thing covering me.
"A blanket?" I murmured. It was soft, far too luxurious for a man who'd slept on dirt for most of his life.
I scanned the room. The bed was large, the furniture finely crafted, the curtains embroidered with golden threads.
"This isn't some noble's house… is it?"
The place was definitely upper-class. I couldn't shake the weird feeling that I'd seen something like it before.
As I turned, my eyes caught something — a mirror hanging on the wall.
"Huh?"
I stepped closer, almost afraid to look.
The reflection staring back was... familiar, yet strange.
Smooth skin. Messy black hair. Bright eyes.
I rubbed my cheeks. A small pimple glared back at me like a mocking dot of truth.
"No way…"
I leaned in closer, disbelief growing by the second.
"I became younger?" I shouted, voice cracking in shock.
The boy in the mirror mimicked my every move — my open mouth, my trembling hands, my wide eyes.
My face… was that of my fourteen-year-old self.
****