Kazuma looked around the dark empty void in front of him. It would be a lie if he said he hadn't expected something like this. Yet in the face of the endless abyss in front of him Kazuma could not help but let out a small whimper.

Had Megumin and the crew been there to see him make such a pathetic sound, there was no doubt they would have laughed at him. Thinking of his friends being safe and sound outside of this endless prison certainly did make the experience a bit more bearable. A small smile formed on his face, entertaining the thought of his friends being able to live a peaceful life in a world free of the demon king.

Of course he would have much preferred being with them over spending the rest of who knows what in this barren land, but in no way did he regret what he did.

"Trial - Void's Reclamation. Evaluating Challenger. Analyzing Possibilities. Permission Requested. Permission Obtained."

Kazuma jumped from the sudden intrusion. Although the word "trial" intrigued him his intuition warned him of danger. Who knew what would happen if you died in the void. It was a risk Kazuma simply couldn't take.

Activating "Flee" Kazuma bolted off without a destination in mind. As long as he was far far away from whatever that voice was it was fine. Kazuma ran and ran, while he himself did not understand why he so desperately clung on to life, Kazuma ran from what he deemed as "danger"; to no avail.

"Initiating Test."

Kazuma let out a blood curdling scream as his brain was intruded by some unknown force, forcing him unconscious.

"Trial one"

--

When he opened his eyes he was greeted by a devastating sight. Axel was run over by Beldia's hordes of undeads. The stench of blood was heavy in the air was in the air, Kazuma covered his nose and began investigating. Something had definitely gone horribly wrong. Hundreds of questions ran through his mind. How did this happen? Wasn't Beldia dead? Did he fail to eliminate the Demon King? Where are his friends? His head hurt, the all this thinking could not be good for his brain, and the bloody smell definitely wasn't helping.

For now he had to compose himself. There was no possibly way Beldia survived that, in the first place the landscape around Axel was too similar to when he had originally met Beldia. This was not what ended up of his friends but some sort of reality formed by the trial. If that was the case, he needed to do something to escape from here.

Perhaps completing this trial would lead him to finally escaping the void. Kazuma took deep breaths, which did not do much consider the air's condition but in any case he was calm now. He tried not to think of if he was wrong or not. He was not certain if he would be able to continue on if he thought about what happened of his friends in this reality. Instead he thought of ways to escape.

What would one try to test him on by sending him into this sort of reality. Facing Beldia for the first time, Kazuma had used numerous cheap tricks to win with the cost of unfathomable debt and a death sentence. Not to mention he had Aqua at his side at the time, the ultimate counter against all undeads.

Simply put, not even a miracle could allow the current Kazuma to beat Beldia. If that was the subject of the test he had to pass, he might as well give up now. But then he saw him, running towards Beldia in full plate armor was non other than the very man he had stolen a cursed sword from. Cursed sword in hand and his two attendants at his side Misurugi opening his mouth to presumably get the general's attention.

No longer the newbie he was before, Kazuma immediately knew that Misurugi's sword, as powerful as, it was could not do so much as leave a scratch on Beldia. Kazuma was not sure if his friends were still alive in this whatever you call it. But for the sake of his friends who may still be alive he stopped the young hero who he used to despise. Putting his hand into one of his pockets, Kazuma pulled out a pendant with a blue string attached to it and handed it to Misurugi.

"It's a magical item that greatly augments your damage output towards undeads. If your going to go fight that freak you'll need at least this."

Misurugi looked like he wanted to say something in return, but the havoc being caused by Beldia did not leave time for that. Instead, he flashed a greatful smile at Kazuma and ran towards the battle field. Suddenly, the world froze around Kazuma.

"Trial 1 completed."

"Whew, so it was a trial."

Kazuma whispered to himself in relief, final glad the torture was over. He doubted he could have stayed any longer in that world without going insane. The idea of the friends he sacrificed himself for dying was just too much to handle for him With this trial done maybe he'll finally be out of the void, finally be able to meet his friends again.

"Trial 2 initiated."

——————————————————————————-

Trial 54, human emotions were being to become foreign feelings to Kazuma. He no longer felt fear, anger, love or even sadness as he once did. Yet, he still struggled, for the sake of his friends who were nothing more than a enviable memory.

Trial 143, Kazuma was desperate to feel as if he were human again, he was far too deprived of emotions and would do anything to feel them again. He stuttered having come up with a bright idea.

"Emotion... human emotion... pain ha- haha... thats an emotion... a human emotion. I'll take any emotion at this point. Any emotion. any emotion. any emotion. any emotion. any emotion. any emotion..."

Kazuma grabbed chunchunmaru. Such a silly name, he had long forgotten who had named it for him, some trials taking over a decade to complete. After all this time he would be able to feel something again, he would be whole again... Blood splattered onto the floor as Kazuma smiled with satisfaction and pleasure. Not the kind a masochist would feel from such actions but the pleasure of being able to feel something again in this prison where anything felt numb. Noting to himself that it was a very effective idea, he thanked himself for grabbing the weapon in a previous trial. From his very own corpse.

Trial 1064, although his actions with chunchunaru helped, even that began to feel dull. Through his once again emotion deprived mind, insanity began seeping in like never before. A grin formed on Kazuma's face. He started chuckling, which soon turned into full blown laughter. How long had it been since he last laughed or smiled.

"I'll get to back you."

Kazuma whispered.

"Megumin, Aqua, Darkness."

At this point he wasn't sure what those names meant anymore. He was only certain those names should hold some sort of value to him. Were they his friends? Perhaps they were people he wanted to take revenge on. Either way he would have to get to them to figure that out. He had to escape. He laughed.

"And you better be prepared."

—————————

"Trial 10000 Completed. Authorization granted."

Kazuma suddenly saw a opening in the void, a bright place filled with green and blue. Was this another trial? He wobbled towards the bright light. He attempted to lean on the light. Instead, he fell right through it. Landing on grass Kazuma grunted to the slight thud he felt from falling into it. When he barely managed to force himself to roll over look at the sky, which would only be there if he was truly back, he found himself staring at a face that his subconscious told him was a familiar face.

"Kazuma?"

—————————

2 years ago:

Megumin watched as the form of Kazuma disappeared along with the Demon King. Surely the egoistic and lazy Kazuma would never truly sacrifice himself even if it was for the entire town of Axel. Would he? Megumin lingered around for over 5 hours, yet the familiar form of Kazuma never returned. Reality soon soon dawned upon her. She had heard the true nature of the item Kazuma used from Vanir only a couple weeks earlier.

"That means... Ka-Kazuma."

The once prideful Megumin, who only cared for releasing her explosion magic on worthy opponents broke down. Tears stained her face as her crimson eyes gleamed brightly with emotion.

"I-I could have saved him if I just learnt other magic."

Flashback

When the Demon King's army invaded Axel she could do nothing but watch. If she were to use explosion magic even if she held herself back many houses and innocent civilians would be blown up. She still considered it, Kazuma and her party were in danger and if she could do something she should! It was then that Kazuma told her to back down with a reassuring smile. Pulling out an item from his back pocket he walked towards the Demon King.

As if he just realized what would happen in this turn of events Vanir burst out from the shop he was protecting.

"Brat don't do i-"

"My name is Satou Kazuma, the legendary hero who slew the Demon King! Remember my name well!"

Kazuma screamed out loud for the entire town to hear. With a battle cry he ran up to the Demon King, dodging every attack his minions sent at him with the use of some sort of thief skill. He then smashed the item he was holding into the chest of king.

A bright purple light illuminated the town of Axel. Megumin was the only one to keep her eyes open during the flash, and the scenery she took in shook her to her very core. Along with the Demon King, Kazuma was gone.

Flashback end

Megumin couldn't breathe. She thought everything would go okay when Kazuma used her skill points all on explosion magic. Obviously as he was not an explosion magic expert the skill points were not used optimally to increase the power she would deal. But it was the gesture that counted for her. Thinking of that fond memory Megumin cursed her naivety. Had she known her stubborn actions would lead to such an outcome she would have gladly learnt any spell Kazuma wanted her to learn.

"I-i'm sorry Kazuma..."

Heeeey, Hoooodi here managed to find sometime in my life to write fanfiction so here's the result. I honestly believable I poured and heart and soul into this one and am pretty proud of it.

Even so I'd love to hear any kind of constructive criticism as I'm still an amateur writer. Please comment on any sort of grammatical or spelling error and I'll fix it asap.

This story was inspired by the ReZero fanfiction : Sealed although most of the plot line including the entire universe(XD) is different. Still, huge credits to the writer I'm The Person.

Thanking you all for reading to the end and I bid you all a great rest of the day(or night).

Wait one more thing, while I do love all of my fans, for this specific fanfiction I will not take any suggestions on what to do besides writing advice. By this I mean the plot and the over all setting of the story the characters that appear in it. I will still accept any kind of suggestions for my writing skills as I stated above.

-Hoooodi