Huh…? Why am I in pain? Why am I burning? Ah, that's right, it's because of my own stupidity.

How many years has it been? 100? 200? 300? I don't know how much time has passed since I sacrificed myself to the flame, but it seems like the light is dying once again. Many warriors came to this forsaken place, coming to fight my hollowed body, and losing each time.

Maybe I shouldn't have gotten too strong when I died? I mean, I maxed out all of my stats, learned as many spells as I could, and had the best weapon and armor there were when I hurled myself to the first flame.

No one has yet to replace me, and even though I could see through my body's eyes, I cannot control it anymore due to the fact that I have gone hollow. Centuries, or even millenniums, of suffering and despair would do that to anyone.

But I have yet to break, my soul that is. I am clinging on one last hope that one day, this flame will die out and I would finally be free.

I was a dumbass; I shouldn't have fallen for that serpent's untruthful words. That snake said that I should sacrifice myself to the flame and blah, blah, blah. Bah! I should've just become the dark lord, or, what I prefer to call, The Bringer of Humanity.

The Dark Lord isn't some kind of demon king that would bring an end to all but, in fact, he is the very entity that would lead humanity to their destiny, to their stolen greatness.

While Frampt was very against the Age of Dark, Kaathe also didn't like the Age of Light.

While the latter doesn't sound that good, the Age of Light would more likely bring the end of the world than save it. Why is that so? Because the Age of Light was only a temporary thing, along with the rule of Gwyn.

By sacrificing himself to extend the light, Gwyn managed to, uh, what do I call it, hmm? Ah, yes, he managed to fuck everything! Instead of accepting the natural things that nature provided us, Gwyn, in his all-knowing jackassness, decided that "the Age of Light must continue".

If I had another chance to shove my sword up his ass again, I'll do it without hesitation. By the way, that's how I killed him, plunging my sword through his ass.

Now, why do I know of this? Because, for every undead warrior my hollowed-body kills, I get their memories. A bit of them anyway, but it was more than enough for me to piece things together.

My hollowed body just stood there, mindlessly, waiting for the next undead warrior to challenge it once again but that time never came.

I don't know what happened but for almost a millennium, no undead warrior ever came. Not one person has tried to replace me, and that kind of thing puzzles me. On one hand, there's a chance that the first flame won't be relit ever again, and on the other hand, I won't be able to get out of this place without anyone replacing me.

While I'm pretty sure I won't ever break since I've managed to be in this state for many, many, many years, boredom still gets the best of me. Sure, I could focus on trying to remember the memories I had before I was the Chosen Undead. But they've been long gone. I didn't know what to do anymore.

I sighed, and raised my hand to hold my forehea-… wait, raise my hand?

I widened my eyes, why? Because I just noticed that I could now control the movements of my body!

I stood up, and jumped around like a madman, also screaming like a madman.

"Hahahaha! Look who's back, ya fucking Gwyn cock-suckers! I swear to Nito, I'll find a way to travel back in time and beat Gwyn's ass black and blue, just like how I time-traveled back in time to defeat Artorias and Manus' asses black and blue!" As you've probably noticed, I'm not exactly fond of our lord and savior, Gwyn, and his slimy servants, along with Manus, who bashed my head for how many times that I forgot.

But if I indeed find a way to travel back in time, maybe I'll be able to save them, my friends.

'Even though we met in the strangest way possible, you are the best comrade I've ever had. And, well, I've racked up quite the debt to you, haven't I? I think it's time I pay for all of the times you've saved me.'

'I am Siegmeyer of Catarina! And you shalt feel my wrath!'

'O-Oh, you didn't need my help at all. W-Well, you've saved me, once again. Huff, huff, I'm exhausted. Hahahahaha!'

Siegmeyer, the Adventurer, a friend that I failed. I should've let him die back then, at least with his honor intact. But he hollowed with shame, and his daughter had to kill him.

He is but the many examples of friends that I couldn't save. Even with all of my strength, my miracles, my pyromancy, and my equipment, all of them were useless in front of the hands of fate.

But it's useless thinking about it now. Time travel? Hah, that's only possible if someone is capable of breaching through the fabric of space and time. Even when that asshat Gwyn was in his prime, he couldn't do any time travelling stuff. If he did, he would've gone back in time and helped his former self to conquer the Eternal Dragons easily and told him what would happen in the near future.

I'm sure the Gwyn that I know from what Kaathe had told me would've done exactly that. I mean, what kind of father would let a scaleless lizard fuck his own daughter? Gwyn. Who lets his closest ally leave because of the said dragon fucking the daughter? Gwyn. Who imprisons their granddaughter inside a magical painting for some bullshit reason? Gwyn. And who's the dumbass that made ME replace him to burn for eternity? Fucking, Gwyn!

"Anyway, I should probably leave this place, it's a lot dustier than I expected. Wait, why is there a pattern of a humanoid body right beside the pillar? Hmm, don't remember, probably some nobody," I said as I checked my inventory and storage box, which, to my surprise, all of my items were still there. None of them have gotten rusty or broken.

Soon, I walked towards the broken door path, leading to a staircase filled with cracked pillars that surprisingly still held the top of this thing pretty well.

The stair led to a large dark hole, with nothing in it. There were no exits or anything. It seems like time has destroyed most of this place. I wonder how the Firelink is still holding up. It's probably gone also.

I sighed, and said, "I think I need to use some 'drastic' measures."

I took out a staff, the catalyst of that old goat Logan, and then I started chanting.

I closed my eyes, and pointed the catalyst on top of me.

Light slowly gathered around the tip of the catalyst, this went on for a couple of minutes before I said, "Crystal Souls Spear!"

*BOOM!*

After waiting for the dust to settle, I opened my eyes and a hole 5 times the size of my body was opened up. Solaire used to criticize me for my rash attitude since I destroyed quite a few properties whenever I went on a quest to link the fire. Especially Nito's grave, I destroyed everything around that place with my pyromancy. Even the so-called "Death God" Nito died at my flaming hands.

The irony.

Anyway, this hole should probably reach the surface, or at least I think it should.

I took a deep breath, squatted a little, building the muscles in my legs, and then jumped.

Since I maxed out my stats, all of them having 150 stats each, I was able to attain the strength of a god, capable of swiping trees from their roots without a problem.

Unfortunately, it didn't lead to the surface but it did lead me to a large place that I think used to be the New Londo Ruins. But even then, I barely recognized it because the place was very dry and the buildings that stood here back then were gone, leaving only dust to huddle.

But that's not the thing that made me the most puzzled, the thing that puzzled me the most was that dozens upon dozens of giants walked the place mindlessly, though seemingly weak.

The place was dark but since I am the Chosen Undead, and I've spent millenniums in a dark place, I might as well have night-vision. That's how I was able to see these… filthy beings.

They were naked from the day they were born but oddly enough, they didn't have any genitals or nipples. And some of them were, uh, shaped weirdly. Some were incredibly small and had the heads of an egg and eyes attached to where their forehead is supposed to be. Some were incredibly thin, and some were just walking weirdly.

But these are giants, they're not supposed to be as deformed as these ones. I've seen Gough, and I can definitely say that these beings are not one of his descendants.

I tried conversing with them but they didn't even bathe me an eye. Even when I walked past them, they wouldn't even notice me. It's like I don't exist to them.

As I was walking around, examining the weird giants, I saw light somewhere in the corner of my vision. There, shaped like a giant door, was the exit to this place. There used to be a valley there filled with drakes but are they gone now?

I started sprinting towards the exit as the dusty golden armor of Ornstein clanked. I arrived outside, and my eyes started to hurt a little but that quickly faded away.

I looked around me and the valley that I used to know was not filled with trees and other plants. The trees were also weird, since they were taller and thicker than I was used to. But I guess things evolved differently in the last many years.

I looked up and saw the exit of the valley; the top of this place, which is the surface.

Again, I took a deep breath, "Heup!" squatted a little, and then jumped.

I landed on the soft grass of the forest of giant trees, and I was amazed. Trees these tall didn't exist back then, at least not this many. But hundreds of them, if not thousands, are sprouted all over this place.

Again, I saw many weird giants wandering around the forest but this time, 3 of them took notice of me.

I sighed in relief, thinking that they were sentient.

I don't know if they could understand my tongue but I still spoke, and said as they slowly approached me, "Hey, giants, do you have a settlement or something?"

I waited for them to respond, when they suddenly tried to grab forcefully. I frowned, and did not move a single inch as I swatted their hands easily with a flick of my arm. They stumbled down to their asses, and I said, "What was that for? Do you guys wanna die? Even Gough was smart enough not to piss me off, and out of all things, I hate anyone touching me. It feels dirty, you know? Especially when unhygienic shitty gigantic bastards just tried to grab me, forcefully."

I couldn't hold my disgust towards them but they still kept attacking them, as they stood up and launched themselves towards me.

"You dare!?" I asked the creatures, a bit angry.

They still didn't stop, so I took matters into my own hands… and slapped their heads off simultaneously.

*Bam* *Bam* *Bam*

The giant heads flew in different directions, mostly crushing into the giant trees. The bodies fell to the ground, unmoving.

I dusted off my hands, and said, "I seem to have gotten a bit rusty. If it was me thousands of years ago, I would've been able to smash their entire bodies into smashed meat with a single slap. Again, I blame you for this, Gwyn, the lord of all assholes."

As I was about to turn around, I heard something.

Slowly, I turned to look at what was going on and saw the three headless giants regenerating their heads while standing up.

I was a bit surprised but not shocked because there were many enemies back then that could regenerate or even revive themselves.

But I saw steam coming out of their regenerating heads, and I said, "Fascinating. Are these creatures perhaps the result of the first flame dying? Or were they made by someone?"

It seems like these giants possess no emotions, intelligence, or anything that reminds me of the giant I knew. But they do possess the power to regenerate themselves at extreme speed.

Seeing them regenerate, I thought of an idea, and smirked, "I wonder if they can still regenerate once I chop them to pieces."

I took out a katana, a normal one that the undead merchant gave to me, and without any hesitation, I disappeared in a flash and reappeared in my previous location after a couple of seconds.

I stared at the 3 giants as they slowly fell apart, piece by piece. Blood sprayed like a waterfall, and, unfortunately, some of them touched my dusty armor.

I clicked my tongue, and said, "I swear t—if this thing leaves a stain on my armor…" I stopped my sentence when I saw the blood evaporate.

"What the?"

Then I looked at the chopped up giants, and saw that their bodies were evaporating through steam also.

'Wait, why are they dying? Shouldn't they regenerate like earlier?' Then, realization struck me, "Is it possible that these things have a weakness? What am I saying? Of course they do! If they didn't have one and had this regenerating abilities since they were born or created, then it wouldn't make sense!"

I must've hit a weak spot when I chopped them to pieces, I would thoroughly research this later. For now, I should see there are still civilizations in this godforsaken world.

I was about to hop into the top of the trees, when I heard a scream. This time, it was human-like.

"AHHHH! DON'T COME NEAR ME!"

"DON'T KILL ME! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!"

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

I am positive that the creatures screaming were humans.

I followed the sound, ignoring the obstacles in my way, like the bushes, and straight-up sprinted towards it.

When I arrived, I only saw countless puddles of blood coming from many corpses of humans in an open field, where there were dozens of these giants eating… eating the corpses.

This isn't the worst thing I've seen but it's still disturbing to see a sight like this one.

The remaining humans were running, though there were only a few of them, around a dozen or so.

Now, I contemplated whether to save them or not, but I decided to act now and ask later.

While Manus was stronger, faster, and more talented at sorcery than I am, I was still able to beat him by trying to be faster, and succeeded.

And now, I am as fast as the speed of sound, capable of masking the booming sound of me breaking through that speed, as I slashed every giant in my sight to pieces.

When I stopped my rampage, I was already in front of the remaining survivors as the titans slowly fell apart, burning away into steam behind me.

The 10 survivors stared at me in shock, awe, and a little bit of fear.

'Hmm, how should I converse with these people? I know that we both speak the same language but times are different now. From what I have seen, these people seem to fear these mindless giants, which appalled me since these giants are not as strong as the giants I've met. The giants I met could carry boulders twice the size of their bodies but these things… they're not even capable of doing that. I guess I should try to talk to these people to understand what's going on,' I thought, staring back at my audience.

I smiled at them, and said, "Do you people have a settlement around here?" I asked them only one question for now as to not make them uncomfortable.

A person, a woman, then nodded, saying, "Y-Yes, we have. B-But we have just gone out of the walls when we were chased by t-the titans, and we c-cannot return until we have taken Wall Maria back."

'Wall Maria…? Oh, so that's how they stayed alive even when human-eating giants are wandering everywhere, they have walls tall and thick enough that none of these mindless and pathetic giants can get in. But it seems like they lost this Wall Maria to the beings they call Titans, AKA, the giants,' I said in my thoughts, analyzing every word the woman said.

"S-Savior, would you kindly tell us your name?" The woman suddenly asked, though the title she gave me felt familiar for some reason, it's just like how everyone back then called me the "Chosen Undead".

I nodded at her, and said, "My name? I am… I… am…" Huh? What was my name again? Did I spend too much time in the Kiln that I have even forgotten my own name?

I tried to remember my name but nothing came to mind. I could remember the names of the people closest to me, and yet I cannot even remember my own blessed name? I am not liking this irony.

I thought about it, and decided to make a fake name for now.

"A-Ah, d-don't bother my words, Savior, you don't have to tell me if it's really important," The woman said, suddenly becoming nervous.

I simply chuckled at her, and said, "Don't worry, my name is Aldritch. I don't know much of the world since I've spent my time living in a cave for years, so could you kindly inform me of what's going on?"

I mentally patted myself behind my back since I just thought of the word "Eldritch" and decided to change the first letter to "A", making it "Aldritch". Sounds like a pretty ominous and yet, cool name.

"E-Eh?" The woman seems surprised.

An old man wearing a hat and a short cloak then said, "Maria, I'll take it from here."

Basically, there were 3 Walls that have protected humans since the last 100 years from the titans. There is Wall Maria, Rose, and Sina. Each of those walls have numerous districts that also housed many people but particularly, Wall Maria seems to have been breached by a titan a hundred times larger than the normal ones a year ago, they call it "The Colossal Titan", which was said to be a little bit taller than the walls.

The refugees from Wall Maria were sent to Wall Rose but because there was a shortage of resources, the higher ups decided to send 250,000 men and women, without any training, to fight the titans.

It's been more or less 6 hours since they left the walls to fight the titans and "retake" Wall Maria and from what the old man said, it's been a pretty disastrous day for all of them. In just those few hours, just under a quarter of them were either eaten or trampled on by the titans.

They were heading to the Shiganshina district to somehow block the hole where the titans came in but I could see that's pretty impossible. These people are too weak to do that.

Though, I admire the refugees' decision to split up into groups so that they could last longer just after they left the walls.

The old man stared at the ground, sitting on said ground while a bonfire was lit in front of us, while explaining the knowledge he held of what had happened, "Humanity is at the brink of extinction, and the titans are there to make sure we stay down. I left my grandson back there, hoping that he would start his own family and that the colossal titan never breaches the second wall, but that's a bit too much to hope for. While we were fighting the titans, we tried to keep our hope, saying that it's for the future. If we died now, the resources that they would've spent on us old generation would instead be focused towards the new generation. But even then, despair overtook me. Imagine my, no, our surprise when we saw you, an armored knight, slaughter a group of titans in less than a moment." The old man, Arlert, chuckled at that.

Night had fallen, so I decided to start a fire here, in the middle of a titan-infested land, using my pyromancy. But if a titan approaches us, it'll die the moment it steps foot into my temporary-territory.

I listened to old man Arlelt, his opinions about the government, his despair, and his grandson.

The others have fallen asleep, with the woman, Maria, sleeping right beside me. She seems to have developed some kind of dependence on me after I saved her from the jaws of a titan.

Looking at the woman, Arlelt developed a somber expression face, saying, "This is the first time I've seen Maria become this comfortable since her parents died after the Colossal Titan breached the wall. She is the only one alive after her family got eaten by the titans. Out of all of us, she's the most determined to kill the titans to avenge her family," the old-looking man then turned his eyes on me, saying, "She sees a ray of hope in you, you know? She probably thinks that if she could stay with you, she would get stronger. I admire her determination, to be honest, because I don't have something like that."

I nodded at Arlelt's words.

"I see…" I muttered while staring at the pretty face of the amber-haired woman.

While her story is tragic, in a world like this, I suspect that this kind of story is also quite common.

Looking at the forest of giant trees behind me, I thought, 'I could seal the breached wall of Shiganshina and make everything better for them but… I don't want to play the hero role anymore. I became a hero for everyone, and where did that get me? Left to burn to ashes.

A Hero is someone everyone expects to sacrifice himself for the greater good, and I did that. I believed in their words, the words of those who believed in the gods, and went to relit the embers of the first flame to keep the light from going out.

I suffered for thousands of years because of that stupid decision.

But now, what do I do? I haven't got the time earlier to think of my next step after getting out of the Kiln but now, I have time. Lots of it.

I could live in those walls, get myself some good money, buy a house there, and just live for the next centuries or millenniums without any care for the world. But that's just a tad bit boring, don't you think? I'm a man of adventure! I ventured to the unknown to kill evil dragons, gods, and eldritch horrors!

I am… someone who would never, ever give up. That's how I grew stronger.

I let a smile grace my face as I stared at the moonlight, whispering my resolve, "From now on, I will travel through this world and have as much fun as possible."

Arlelt had fallen asleep moments ago, so I decided to silently guard them from the titans.

After all, undead do not sleep.