I...

... Why is this happening to me?

This was the thought of the prince, Corneus Midgar...

What was once a proud, young prince laid down on his bed, with a wholly uncaring look.

Unbefitting of one.

He was only 9 years old, even though in reality it was three hundred and nine years including what was in his past life. How was he that old?

Did you read the summary? He was in a loop that lasted 1.5 years before it restarts.

He was 31 by that time, and he merely died of COVID-19. In such cases he did meet a ROB, or a random omnipotent being.

'... That bastard was silent, and before I could speak he just made me fall into a massive abyss for an hour... that prick.'

Despair began to fill his heart each loop, currently unable to cope with the fact that he really is in a loop.

Why? Why did this happen to him? He's going to be like Touma Kamijou!

At least, what he experienced was incredibly light compared to that person, because after a certain point of the loop, he'll black out and wake up in this same spot.

At least he didn't end up dying horribly, right?

But, maybe...

"Tsk! This is not like me, the prince! Don't compare me to anybody!!" He yelled out, loudly enough as he left the bed he was laying in.

And just in time, a few guards entered the room. They were in a light armor, showing their mob character faces as they were looking quite worried about him.

"My prince! Are you okay?" One of the guards asked, checking upon him.

"Umu..."

'... That was embarrassing.' He thought, as the two guards were assured of his condition, nodding to each other.

After that, everything was normal... Except Corneus was almost always at the state of despair, which Iris, his biological older sister decided to try and find out what was Causing him to be like that.

Alexia also tried to find out what happened to him, to no avail. It worried her even more, actually.

She was in a state of confusion until with a mere white lie, most of their worries were gone.

At this loop, Corneus began to contemplate his choices regarding the future loops. The same events will happen, despite minor (or major) deviations caused by him or the world around him.

Should he still drown himself in despair, or what?

Will he succumb to hopelessness?

The answer is no.

He was hoping otherwise.

He prayed to whatever God that exists, doesn't matter who was who, if he was cursed to life an eternal life in an endless loop, then...

...

...

[ LOOP 300 ]

Corneus didn't do anything, succumbing to despair and hopelessness.

For 300 years.

He fully developed a cold, uncaring personality this time. Though this is temporary, he will remember this as his utterly embarrassing times.

[ LOOP 600 AND ONWARDS ]

Despite the hopelessness of not being able to get out of the loop, Corneus' desire and hope to break it and the hope to witness what was beyond the loop and what his existence will bring.

He saw a new light before this loop in the form of him having people he could trust, despite him needing to meet them and convince them again and again.

It had turned into a habit between a few tens of loops.

He decided to study magic and learn it himself, which wasn't that hard nor it was pretty easy.

This was his other new light in hopes to break his loop.

He took it to interest to study and investigate the Cult Of Diabolos, the whole structure of Midgar Kingdom, even bits and pieces of the Oriana Kingdom and the City State Alliance, neighboring countries behind the borders of this kingdom.

Decidedly his own actions of curiosity had allowed him to obtain so much information that he decided to find out his own kingdom's problems that will be used once he truly broke the loop.

How?

Through magic, of course!

"...?! I feel like exploding-"

But then he died of a strange phenomena that happened inside of him.

[ LOOP 2000 ]

Boredom filled Corneus' existence.

Despite this, his goal remained unchanged.

At this point, he decided to take a deeper look into girls and women who have been inflicted with the "Demonic Possession".

To his surprise, as he doesn't even know this anime, he found out that it was caused by an immensely fluctuating mana.

Not just that, he actually remembered something similar happening to him in 1200 past loops, something within him started to feel like exploding.

Then he exploded, taking a whole castle with him.

Of course, he failed containing the extreme fluctuation of his mana in almost half of these loops (and died), but he eventually learned extreme mana control.

It wasn't simple, but his search for something meaningful to break his loop began to mold him into an insane person.

He rarely talked to his biological sister, nor at Alexia. It was beginning to feel worthless.

'... Damn that ROB... He sent me to this personal hell for no reason!'

Hopefully that ROB's higher ups notice and kick his ass.

[ Loop 3000 ]

He eventually found a way to extend this loop.

Not just that, he decided to have fun, playing as Demon King Diabolos and even impersonating him.

After all, what should he do now? He had drowned in the shadows of grief, doubt, sadness, despair, hopelessness, and...

"Tell me... where is my hope?" He asked Iris, who took several steps forward, her legs shaky as his mask fell off.

"Why did this happen to you? In these ten years, Alexia died, this kingdom is at a disarray, and you tried to impersonate this Diabolos?! Why!?" She sobbed out, before kneeling forward and grasped her sword.

"... I don't know... This all went too wrong."

'... I don't really know... But I need to do something... Better. Sacrifices are probably needed.'

Corneas sighed, raising his hand just to hold her cheek.

"... Kill me, I can't... hold him much longer. And thanks."

She did.

Yet to him, it went horribly wrong.

So horribly wrong that, he realized he had been using a shitty villain persona.

And then he woke up in his bed, nothing different from the previous loops.

Though in the next loops, he found out how to gain certain amount of control over concepts like time, space, destruction, creation, and a few more.

The only problem was that it didn't work in breaking the loop, leaving him to wonder how the hell was this even possible.

Corneus, once again had blamed the ROB.

Still, his dedication did not waver.

He needed to look for a better way.

[ LOOP 5000 ]

He found out how to travel to other worlds, and due to his insane mana capacity, no problems arose.

This was far better than destroying his kingdom, and killing certain people for several reasons over and over again.

Wandering through worlds for decades, in each loop, over and over again would bore him.

So he traveled through a thousand worlds, meeting heroes, villains, demon King's, races, and Earths.

He fought certain Monarchs and Rulers and defeated them with barely a problem between one of his loops where he travelled through space and time.

That time, he met a red haired man like himself, and he was a dragon named Antares.

Another time was when he met a certain person in a world where somebody can return to death.

And oh boy, he looked just like that guy. There was no battle between them since before it began, this loop had already been over.

His wisdom began to grow this time, adapting a calm, confident personality he wanted to keep until he broke out of it.

[ LOOP 6667 ]

This time, he decided to just rest on a lake, naked, his ashen body dipped down until his head was the only thing above it.

Corneus heated it up to an acceptable level, turning the lake into a massive hot spring in the process.

"I've contemplated a few thousand times already, should I contemplate again?" He questioned himself.

"Destruction, after destruction, I kept seeking for ways to free myself. I've made the kindest of gestures, raised heroes, raised even villains, saved maidens and people, became a hero and a Demon King.

And in the end, breaking the loop was otherwise impossible.

Why?

No, no way...

Maybe the key to breaking the loop might have been right beside me this whole time?"

Sighing deeply, he decided to spend his time relaxing.

Until...

"I've decided, the next loop will be the last."

[ LOOP 6666 ]

And eventually, he decided to have the greatest and craziest idea he had ever wanted to do: Travel Back In Time.

How? Every time he looped, he realized that near his bed, there was a book about the Three Heroes and Diabolos. Corneus only noticed this once before his hand grabbed his face in disappointment, maybe it was also embarrassment?

He then decided: "How about I replace Diabolos? I've got a few hundred years left to spare before the loop comes back."

He did just that.

Did he regret it?

Initially, yes.

A year later, no.

Other than leaving heavily important parts of history that may be rewritten and twisted by a certain cult, he fully embraced his "Demon King Diabolos" self.

One small problem was: the humans were too cowardly.

He also didn't regret that he created a fake Diabolos with his magic before embracing his human self, having three wives until his life's end.

And they were the three heroes that were in the history books, too! Cool. Except they're... Actually female.

Seriously expected.

Well, he actually had a fourth, but he realized that certain woman was too similar to his "Fake Diabolos", leaving him to contemplate on how in his name did the two of them fuse.

She probably was the girl he rescued from being experimented days after he arrived to this timeline.

That wasn't his problem now, though.

The most surprising part was, once he died, a bright light covered his vision, before everything became dark.

Strange. This never happened before.

And, for a certain reason, his mind felt very relieved.

Though...

'... Why do I feel so small?'

It was minutes before he realized he had become a baby. So what did he do next?

He cried in relief for two minutes.

'... Does this mean... I've broken the loop?! Ah, finally! This is the best moment in my whole life, but I'm going to have to play the baby habits game now, right? Oh well...'

[ ~ TO • BE • CONTINUED ~ ]