* * *
Humanity lost.
The hero chosen by the gods fell to the Demon King and fled, battered and broken.
As his comrades’ corpses piled around him, he fled in desperation, spurred on by blood-soaked pleas: “You are our only hope. Live.”
He escaped the Demon King’s sight for now, but no one felt safe.
Everywhere was the same: devastation, corpses, and the dying.
The Demon King didn’t want humans as slaves.
He wanted them obliterated—to build a new kingdom for his kind.
With even the hero defeated, how could the human world, trampled underfoot, ever be saved?
But there was hope.
A blinding light appeared before my eyes.
A prayer, filled with desperation, had summoned a single opportunity.
“I grant you one chance to return to the past.”
Through my blood-soaked, dimming vision, I could clearly see the holy light.
The hero knelt before the god, hands clasped, head bowed.
A golden gate opened before him.
“To one person only.”
The meaning was clear.
The hero, the one humanity had pinned its hopes on, would return to the past.
But I was dying.
‘I don’t want to die…’
The blood that had once driven my heart had long since drained away.
My tenuous grasp on consciousness faded.
Fear consumed me.
Would I disappear forever?
Would this be the end?
No. Not yet.
There was so much I hadn’t done.
My life had barely begun.
“Am I worthy to bear your will?”
The hero hesitated.
Why? Why are you hesitating?
I wanted to live.
To go back and save myself.
To do the things I hadn’t yet done.
“I’m not sure if I’m qualified.”
“It’s love.”
The god’s voice rang out.
“To wield the sacred sword, you must understand true love.”
True love? What kind of vague nonsense was that?
A subjective concept, open to interpretation, had brought humanity to this brink?
My mind went blank.
I could barely think anymore.
Just step through the gate already! Save the world, hero!
“Once you grasp love, the sacred sword will become a part of you.”
Please, save me.
My life was all but extinguished.
My consciousness clung to my body by the barest thread.
Even so, I wanted to live.
The hero hesitated further, and the wide-open gate began to close.
What if it shut completely?
What if the god abandoned us in disappointment?
No.
Absolutely not.
That couldn’t happen.
Muscles that refused to move trembled as I forced my legs forward.
Step by staggering step, I moved.
The hero’s eyes, unwavering even in battles with the Demon King, widened as they met mine.
If you won’t take this chance—
If the gate will close anyway—
“Then I will!”
I threw myself through the gate.
The golden light swallowed me as the door slammed shut behind me.
The pain of my mangled body overwhelmed me.
Before I could see the world turn back, I lost consciousness.
* * *
