"Damn it!!!"
On a battlefield, corpses littering about endlessly, seeming to wait for the judgement to come.
The ashes and black smoke arose from the flames that burn brightly sourced from aftereffect of the prior casted spells.
The heart-piercing cries of help and anguish continuously tormented the battlefield in an eerie situation, increasing the dreadfulness of the battlefield.
Besides a particular lifeless corpse, kneeled a trembling figure of a young man. His fists forcefully dug into the hard, rocky surface, spilling fresh blood from their wounds.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all!!!!"
As tears streamed out from the young man's green eyes, the situation in the battlefield has worsened, but he remained still.
"I tried so hard... So fucking hard... So why? Why it doesn't matter in the end?"
"I... I continuously tread the path to peace between the Kingdoms, sacrificing my dignity, my honor, my pride...!!! But it becomes nothing more but a fucking ploy initiated by some bastards!!!"
The young man screamed to the sky, pouring his anguish out to the open air.
"I have given up everything..."
"I stayed countless nights to improvise the plans... I lead the people to the right path... I live a life impossible for peace to be attained. All for this single goal... So why... Why do I have to lose everything all because of some stupid arrogant bastards who know nothing at all? I do not understand..."
He lifted his head up, revealing the unkempt auburn hair through the flying ambers of the burning flames.
World Projection #18 I
Progression to Peace: 97%
I A failed attempt decreases the progression to peace. I
Progression to Peace: 96%
I A failed attempt... I
...Progression to Peace: 1%
He grimaced. This world...
It's officially over.
It was pathetic. How the cheers of the soldiers at the front resounded through the vast impersonation of Hell, not knowing that the foes they triumph over by playing a cowardly tactic was the only way they could survive.
The young man gritted his teeth as he brushed the golden hair of the corpse beside him, her current state does not lessen her angelic appearance at all.
"Iris... I am sorry."
The young princess has grown up, turning into a heroic woman who could uphold the Kingdom's burdens on her petite frame, which did not diminish the nobility and dignity she naturally exuded.
Yet, her shining light dimmed, all because of some ploys for more and more authority and power. For glory and honour, she laid down her life to fight against their enemies.
Not knowing the stench of filthy greed permeating her very ally.
Hopeless, the young man forcefully lifted his body and stood up, looking over the looming horizon, waiting for what was to come.
"The Hero... I am not qualified..."
He laughed. He laughed and he cried, as the horizon gradually was filled with impending power, no doubt was sourced from the enemy that had been waiting.
"Pay for your sins, pay for your dimwitted, foolish greed."
The cheers gradually disappeared, replaced by the atmosphere of fear and despair.
"Good job... Very well done, Fools! You betrayed the very being that could counter my very existence. I thank you for that, worthless foes."
An army, far more than what his eyes could perceive, filled the horizon slowly. The assemblage of Orcs, Trolls, Wyverns... Every imaginable monster this world has shown, all gathered up in a single army.
At the front, the figure of a monstrous demon with piercing, purple eyes and staggering, black horns cackled crazily as its aura rose uncontrolled. His generals stood right behind him, each leading their own races as they gazed towards the shivering army coldly.
It's the eternal enemy of the heroes, the Demon King.
"It's easier than I initially thought. Because of your insignificant greed for more power, you overlooked the whole situation, remaining still in your small, pitiful world. You sacrificed the only thing that mattered in this whole situation, which was so funny to me!"
"Why... H-How...?"
A surge of rage amid hopelessness arose within the young man's chest. You dare to ask such a question?
"Belverg Kingdom has always been a thorn in my side, remained unhindered in its goal to exterminate me. I scoured pathetically in the past countless times, being pursued by its heroes. But you did it! You brought it down! So thank you. Now, I could bend the world to its knees as I please. And as for your reward..."
The Demon King laughed manically at the end, its purple-piercing eyes widened to the limit as glee flashed within them.
The young man, knowing everything has ended up in futility, closed his eyes. He wished to cherish the moments that made him take up the seemingly impossible mission in the first place.
He wished to remember the reason he wanted to tilt this hopeless world from destruction.
And finally...
"Kazuma."
A voice, a tune of melody, that called him by his original name in the past.
"To be the Hero just for me, I don't think it's worth it."
A voice that drove him past his initial purpose and reason for existing.
"I think it's enough for you to be here with me."
He wondered why he continued when she was gone, and yet...
"...Hey, I think... I think I'll be leaving soon. Hehe, with this... I-I think you'll be the hero just fine..."
"I grant you an eternal suffering."
I A failed attempt decreases the progression to peace. I
Progression to Peace: 0%
I You failed to save the world I
And the whole world was engulfed in a torrential wave of demonic power.
-0-0-0-
...It's wet.
Megumin rubbed her eyes and realized, they were moist. Feeling embarrassed, she quickly gets up and takes a look at herself with the mirror at her bedside.
She woke up from her sleep too suddenly, and by the time she realized, tears seamlessly streamed out of her eyes.
It's been like this for the past few weeks. The mysterious remembrances from her dreams. At times, the visage of her beloved comrade fighting to uphold the world's peace makes her feel vigorous.
There were also times when he stumbled midway by some unforeseen variables, resulting in a tragic death, making her eyes moist.
Times when he stood at the top of the world as the strongest existence, making her feel proud and ecstatic, and also adoration...
The times when he overcome opponents many times stronger than his own, defying all odds, turning her breaths rapid in excitement.
It's heart breaking when he simply gave up and let himself rot, making her extremely uncomfortable and resentful.
"Argh, these dreams are disturbing my sleep!"
But there was one thing that made her heart churn when she witnessed these dreams.
It's the fact that he will call out foreign memories at the end of his path. And the most frustrating part is the incompleteness of her dreams.
They only showed the critical moment when he was about to face his demise, turning them into her nightmares.
She couldn't understand. Even when one of the scenarios showed that he was the strongest in the world, how come the culmination... Still end up him meeting his demise?
"How come he became so idiotic as to die over and over again, anyway?"
Megumin snorted to relieve her emotions, but her heart was still churning in anguish, and her eyes could not stop the tears.
She sadly looked at herself in the mirror, how her beautiful, nigh-perfect face she was proud of being painted with tears and was flushed from her sadness.
Her lips couldn't resist the urge to turn downwards, perfectly portraying an anguished young girl who seemed to long for her love to come back.
She clenched her chest, feeling the every bit of her anguished heart's movement. Slowly turning into a sobbing mess.
"Kazuma... You pervert..."
-0-0-0-
"I have failed."
He blankly stared at the Goddess in front of him.
"I gave everything and I still failed."
The Goddess remained silent on her throne. The silver strands of her hair peacefully wavered in the air, as her regal purple eyes remained still on his slumped figure.
"Again, again and again... I always failed..."
"For a powerless, bless-less being like you, to single-handedly turn the tide and almost amend a hopeless world to a peaceful world... I can't figure out the part where you ultimately failed."
"Stop. I don't need a half-assed comfort."
The Goddess pursed her lips at the sight of a depressed hero, her lithe finger tapping her throne in rhythm. A Hero who takes up an impossible mission for a wish from her.
"If you still complaining after achieving such an impossible accomplishment, I don't know what other Heroes would say."
"Do I look like I give a damn about that?"
The distraught, yet still handsome face of the Hero snapped to her, sneering rudely. Her mouth twitched, and a surge to smack his head arose.
Undeterred, she swiftly created a small hole besides her and her arm shoot up, partly appearing besides his head and give him a good smack.
"Guh! Why did you do that?!"
"Do you even have to ask?"
The Goddess's eyes narrowed, expressing her annoyance.
"Even Gods cannot simply fix a hopeless world, but you, without any assistance whatsoever, almost achieve such an unprecedented achievement."
"Almost, that's the key word. What's the point of talking about all this when it doesn't matter in the end?"
The Hero looked down in the end. Despite the nonchalant front he put up, a tinge of sadness and despair flashed in his eyes. He withstood everything, all for that little chance so that the world could be saved.
But fate is fickle, too fickle. With just a turn, what he had built up tirelessly, all crumbled down with nothing but a malicious push.
He couldn't help but clenched his fists. Every complaint, injustice and the unfairness of the world he suffered, all was compressed into a single moment.
To give everything, and still failed miserably.
"..."
Tears. They're tears.
His little bit of dignity feels appalled, and yet he let them streamed out.
It's unfair.
So damn unfair.
He doesn't even remember anymore how many times he has failed.
It was as if every world was hell bent on failing him, sneering at his futile attempt. It pushed him from behind, the thing he was supposed to protect...
It felt as if it was delighted to see his guts being torn apart by his enemies.
How could those people save the world so easily? With just a head-on confrontation with the Demon King, they could easily solve all the major factors of World Destruction.
"Satou Kazuma."
A melodious tone called out.
The Hero widened his eyes, and a jolt of shock awoke him from his stupor, snapping his head to the Goddess in front of him.
Satou Kazuma.
"Do you remember that name?"
How could he forget that name?
It was the name that was given to him the moment he was just born.
A name that contained his aspirations and his foolish dreams.
"Tell me, do you hate that name?"
Why would he hate that name?
"After all, it was that identity of yours that forced you to push forward and keep accepting unreasonable duties. The identity that wanted to be the sacred existence, the Hero."
Hearing that, the Hero, Kazuma couldn't help but laugh.
"Why are you talking as if I'm not Kazuma?"
He pointed at himself confidently, showing her a wide grin, but the Goddess immediately shook her head.
"You've been using an entire identity for at least a decade, and despite all the efforts you tirelessly thrived to achieve your goal, you ultimately failed by some foolish, worthless mortals. It's usual for you to hold grudges towards your past self that instigate you to wanting to become a Hero, no?"
The Goddess explained, looking at him with her regal purple eyes knowingly, but Kazuma just raised an eyebrow.
"You're quite confident."
His current face is embarrassing, but in front of this Goddess, who has accompanied him through the darkest times, a tear-stained face of a man like his is not worth mentioning.
She's seen worse of him. She's seen a man so fearful he defecated and micturated in place, his body trembled in unadulterated fear as it drenched in its own excrement and puke. She's seen it all.
So what's worth a tear-strained face in front of her?
"I can't believe you remained stubborn despite everything else that has happened. Just why?"
Finally frustrated, the Goddess put a hand on her forehead, and quizzically looked at him with bewildered yet soft eyes.
"It is... It is worth it? Just for a repetition of meeting your beloved?"
Kazuma fell silent.
And then he smiled.
"Goddess, she's the reason I wanted to save worlds."
It's enough for an answer. Enough to convey his conviction towards this holy Goddess.
The Goddess, after a certain period of silence, finally sighed, but her tilted lips betrayed the indifference and the arrogance her being always exuded.
"A foolish person who wouldn't give up even if it meant being tormented in hell. I've never thought an improbable fiction could be mimicked in reality."
It's the act of a fool. But when Kazuma's mind depicted that girl's smile, everything was ascertained.
"Just make me suffer in a wrecked world again."
"Fool."
The Goddess mocked him playfully, which surprised him. But he couldn't respond, as the sudden pillar of light penetrating the seemingly infinite, dark ceiling engulfed his being.
And he disappeared in a flash.
"Goddess-sama..."
A being engulfed in a holy, golden light, with a pair of pure white wings appeared within a rift beside the Goddess.
"Yes?"
The Goddess slowly glanced at the being, the halo above its head easily determined the being as an Angel.
"Just why didn't you tell the Savior the worlds he succeeded in saving? With the major problems he solved, he turned those chaotic worlds into a world with its major threat as its only issue, making the tasks to preserve those worlds effortless, and also lifting the restriction made by the Order so that we could only meddle with the things that we could meddle in the mortal worlds."
The angel expressed with a tint of injustice, her face showed awe and reverence, and also adoration as she glimpsed at the place the Savior previously stood on.
"A being who only needs us to use the power of teleportation to save worlds... He doesn't even need a blessing..."
In the end, even her golden eyes showed fanaticism, wanting nothing more than to gallop the Savior so she could take him to the highest Heaven and let him enjoy everything it has to offer.
The Goddess did not answer. She just blankly stared at the couch he used to lie on. And with a wave of her hand, the angel's face distorted as she disappeared within a newly created rift below her.
"Goddess...!!"
"Do not intrude into something that has nothing to do with you."
The Goddess's tone is excessively cold. Her regal purple eyes' composure was gone, and what replaced them was a glint of severe possessiveness.
"If only there's no restriction... I could exterminate those beings who know my beloved's existence. You dare laid your eyes on his sacred physical manifestation?"
She remembered those moments. A being who has no regard towards those concepts like "Impossible" and "Absolutes", crushing those despairing convictions as he went on and saved worlds all for his beloved one.
It's fine if he knew he succeeded, but he did not. He was convinced that he had failed, but he kept going.
For her, he's like a bright existence. A being that is composed mainly of hope and devotion. It's like a warm, beautiful fire that brightens her apathetic, boring, cold world.
She wanted his love too.
"Just another world... And you'll have enough karma to ascend to Godhood. I'll wait for you, my beloved... You don't have to suffer anymore..."
Her purple eyes shined, behind them showed a never ending possessiveness. She smiled sweetly, yet it seemed psychotic.
She stood up from her throne and stride towards the previously occupied couch slowly, preparing to do something only she herself knows...
-0-0-0-
He opened his eyes.
The warm ceiling made out of wood and the interior that was mainly built out of logs and planks, emitting warmth perfect for a cold winter.
He rises from his doze, looking out of the window, revealing the boundless forest to his eyes.
"It seemed... I choose to have another attempt in the end."
Kazuma sighed hopelessly, yet not a single regret could be felt. Although he couldn't help but smile wryly.
He couldn't remember anything, but perhaps because the memory loss happened too many times, his intuition could regain some of the reasons this transpired.
The first thing he always recalled is an aspect that defined his existence.
The identity that people of this world will recognize him as.
And a name appeared within his mind.
"...Satou Kazuma."
It's strange. A supposedly new name, yet he felt like it had been with him for the longest time.
"Satou Kazuma. Surnamed Satou and forenamed Kazuma. An unfortunate soul who, by some accident, was transferred into another world to defeat the Demon King and bring peace to the world... What a familiar goal."
He smiled but decided to let go of the familiarity. He chooses not to overthink. Just another attempt, another world to be saved.
"Let's see what I can get from the predecessor's memories."
And not to his surprise, a blue interface manifested on his face.
World Projection #19 I
Progression to Peace: 17%
"Not too bad."
17% in progression means that the major conflicts and issues have been partly solved. It's not a bad start, but it was too quick to conclude. After all, it ultimately depends on the world's customs and rules.
"Let's just hope it's not something like marrying anyone is legal as long as they're strong enough and alike..."
It would be fucking hard to save a world if it was that chaotic and immoral in the first place. A good world is a world with established laws and justice. The world where people acknowledged the law, morality, and justice, with flexibility and conscience, of course.
"Well, this town doesn't seem so bad."
Town Axel, a town under the jurisdiction of Belverg Kingdom is a well-known Beginner's Town, as the monsters outside its walls were weak enough for Beginners to kill.
Kazuma began to sort out these memories. He emphasized the memories that mattered in his journey, while keeping the miscellaneous ones at the back. In respect of his predecessor.
"I'm currently a level 5 Adventurer-class Adventurer, a well-known weakest class holder. My advantage is the freedom to learn any skills, but my stats, especially the potentials, to put it frankly, are the shittiest of shit..."
It's pretty bad.
Kazuma picked up the Adventurer Card, a tool to identify his constitution, and grimaced at its horrendousness. His skill set is not too bad, having attained 5 different skills so far, but his stats cannot even match a normal, ordinary adult.
And he was supposed to be a level 5 Adventurer...
"Let's hope that studying and exercising could help."
Putting that aside, he furrowed his eyebrows. According to a particular memory, he has a comrade with him. Which is actually the reason the weak, mentally and physically, predecessor could survive up until now.
It's a magician. A girl magician. Her name is...
"...Megumin."
A peculiar name. It's not hard to pronounce, it's just a name without any particular meaning. He wondered what her parents were thinking when they gave her this name...
But then, the door of the room was opened. He turned around to face his new companion. But he froze.
A girl with a pair of crimson eyes, with two long bangs framing her face. Her impeccable face, which he was so familiar with, gazed at him with perplexion and apprehension.
Kazuma may forget everything else. He forgot his original name, his identity, the place he came from, those years' worth of memories... But if there's a thing he wouldn't forget, a memory that he carried with him throughout his journey...
The memory his being refused to forget...
It's that face.
The reason he did all of this.
It's the same person. Just with a different name.
"Kazuma, why haven't you woken up yet? You lazy bum."
The same voice. The same gait. The same girl...
He turned silent. He cannot answer. He cannot even budge to give her an affirmative nod.
The girl put a hand on her hip as she tilted her head at him, annoyed at the lack of response.
"If you refused to go and want to sleep again, then I'll just go alone."
Kazuma was still stunned. He did not expect the reason he saved worlds to appeared immediately right after he woke up.
It's like intending to get a degree when you go to college, but they give you the degree immediately right after you joined the college.
It's a foreign analogy, but his heart felt like it's right.
This girl...
Kazuma truly missed her.
"I'll go change."
He smiled. And Megumin was stunned.
Such a calm yet serene smile. A pervert can't smile like that. His smile... It looks so similar to the figure of her dreams.
"Maybe I overthink it," Megumin mumbled out as she closed the door and strode out.
Caution: I'll change Megumin a bit. After all, in the canon she's a lil bitch. I'm sorry, but she's getting on my nerves every time she acted up with her nonsense. Like what was that nonsensical "More than friends but less than lovers"? Just change it to best friends, goddamn–!
I'll just change a little bit. Just a lil bit.