“Where… is this?”
I had lost consciousness.
It was the price I paid for recklessly using the Fragment of Chaos.
So, I thought I had died.
“It’s pitch dark.”
Waking up in utter darkness without a speck of light was strange.
“This is… a wall.”
As I groped around, my hand touched a wall of indeterminate height.
Not knowing where it ended, I decided to walk along it aimlessly.
There was nothing else I could do anyway.
Step by step… I walked, searching for an exit.
As I wandered, I saw a faint glimmer of light in the distance.
“An exit?”
I moved toward it, and the light grew larger and brighter.
The blinding brightness burned fiercely, obscuring my vision.
I felt as if I were going blind.
I tightly closed my eyes to shield them from the growing light.
When I opened them again, I saw a puzzling sight instead of an exit.
“That’s… me.”
Black hair, brown eyes, drooping eyelids, and an expressionless face.
Standing before me was none other than Theonar.
“What in the world is this…”
I could move freely, but I couldn’t interact with where he stood.
It was like watching CCTV footage.
“Ah, I miss Mom.”
Theonar sighed deeply as he sat on a bench, gazing at the night sky.
“Would killing the demon god even let me return?”
It seemed he was searching for a way back to reality.
Perhaps it was shortly after his possession.
Was he retracing old memories?
It felt like one of those life-flashing-before-your-eyes moments people talked about.
The scene sped up, showing glimpses of Theonar’s mundane life in Arcane.
Crackle.
Static noises suddenly distorted the footage.
“Tch, where does a mere commoner think he can meddle?”
“…..”
A man with green hair was trampling a battered Theonar.
Tears of frustration streamed down Theonar’s face.
“Oh? What’s this? A man crying like a baby?”
Wham!
Theonar cried out in agony as his head was kicked, but no one in the crowd came to his aid.
“…Ugh, I really hate this.”
After his tormentors left, Theonar lay motionless on the cold ground.
It took a long time before anyone found him.
Clatter!
The scene shifted again, quickly skipping through fragments of his life.
During the day, he hovered around Ian and the heroines, trying to catch their attention.
At night, he practiced swordsmanship alone in an empty training ground.
He sacrificed sleep to maintain his grueling routine, persisting even as his body and mind deteriorated.
Despite the hardships, he never gave up hope.
He challenged those who had humiliated him once more, but—
“Where does a mere commoner think he can dare?”
Unfortunately, he was crushed again, unable to achieve anything.
“…..”
Perhaps he’d grown accustomed to losing; his face showed no emotion.
Even so, he dragged his weary body back to the training ground, a place where he practiced daily, rain or shine, at the same time, in the same spot.
But that night, he didn’t pick up his sword.
Was it because the moon was hidden by clouds?
Or because his circumstances were so bleak?
That night felt darker than usual.
“If I’ve come this far, shouldn’t the author at least throw me a bone…?”
Disheveled and dirtied, he sat on the ground, looking utterly defeated.
“I tried so hard…”
He stared into the void, pouring out his anger and resentment.
“Sniff… Sob… I really tried… But what am I supposed to do with this talentless body…?”
He wept, letting out the frustrations he had bottled up.
His cries grew hoarse as he vented his despair over his plight, unable to comprehend why he had to endure such suffering.
His laments continued until he fell asleep from exhaustion.
Watching him, I didn’t feel pity but rather a sense of confusion.
“…This isn’t the past, is it?”
He was Theonar, but the man in the footage wasn’t me.
“I can’t make sense of this.”
Before I could fully grasp my countless questions, crackle.
Static noises distorted the footage once again.
“Gah…”
“Theonar! Are you okay?”
“If you’re hurt, step back!”
This time, he was the one wounded and bleeding.
Ian and the heroines positioned themselves around him, driving away the charging beasts.
“…I’m sorry. Because of me.”
“Good. Then go get treated.”
Stepping on the ground filled with dark energy, Theonar and Venice entered the cave.
“Don’t overdo it. What are you going to do if you push yourself and end up riddled with holes?”
She offered a concerned piece of advice while treating Theonar.
However,
“Haa… I guess that’s how it looks to you.”
He rejected the conversation Venice started with a brusque attitude.
“It’s done. You shouldn’t strain yourself for a day or two.”
Vanice glared at him but, as if used to his behavior, finished the treatment without much concern and left the cave.
“Somehow, I followed, but was this the right choice…”
He couldn’t take his eyes off the wound that had just been I cut so deeply it exposed the bone.
‘All I see are barren lands and plants distorted by dark energy.’
Seeing Ian and the heroines gathered together, it seemed this was the time they had formed a special unit to kill the Demon King.
However, the fact that Theonar was among them was clearly different from the original story.
‘The future…? Or the past…?’
It might have been both.
I continued watching the strange images that kept flowing.
Through them, I realized that Theonar had made great efforts.
‘As expected, compared to others, his abilities are lacking.’
Occasionally, he pulled off incredible feats, saving his companions from crises.
But most of the time, he was the one being protected.
“… Where are you going?”
“Shut up. I’ll handle it myself.”
Even while his companions rested, he kept training relentlessly, never giving up on improving himself.
In what seemed like an otherwise smooth journey, one significant change occurred.
“Ahhhhhh!”
While practicing with his sword alone, he suddenly screamed
and collapsed to the ground.
“No, this can’t be happening.”
Clutching his head with both hands, he groaned in pain, muttering desperately.
“Ah… home… Yes, home… But… where was home again?”
“No! Damn it! Remember! You have to remember!”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.”
“My home, Earth… my country… the place I lived…”
His eyes lost their light, and his dry lips began to crack and crumble.
He looked as if his sanity had crumbled, consumed by madness.
For a long time, he muttered to himself like a lunatic.
Suddenly, he stopped.
“I have to… do something… anything. Yes, I have to, so I can go back.”
At some point, he rose and resumed training with determination.
…Could it be?
Watching him, I felt chills run down my spine.
How could I not recognize it?
‘Did his existence fade away?’
Memory erasure.
It was the penalty that occurred as my presence diminished after being assigned the role of an extra.
‘Then, is that me?’
I was confused. If that was really me, what did these images mean?
The future?
Or the past?
They were too vivid to dismiss as mere illusions.
However, as I analyzed each detail, one question suddenly came to mind.
It was about the definition of presence.
‘But why did the memories disappear? I was definitely with Ian and the heroines…’
From what I knew, presence increased when the main characters “recognized” me.
If that was the case, memory loss shouldn’t have happened
while I was with them.
‘… Did I misunderstand something?”
When I first possessed this body, there was no detailed explanation about presence.
Everything I knew was based on my own deductions.
‘One thing is clear: being near the main characters doesn’t guarantee safety.”
Just as I wondered if the video would continue, the scene went black, just like in the beginning.
* * *
Shortly after, my consciousness also abruptly faded.
“Wow, back then, my flesh was so soft.”
Theonar suddenly jumped up, inspecting his body here and there.
Watching him, Bakal let out a scoff, as if in disbelief.
“Hah, has he gone mad before dying?”
The presence he exuded moments ago had vanished without a trace, and not a single speck of magic could be felt.
‘Was I mistaken?”
Bakal wondered if his senses had dulled after wandering on missions for so long.
He approached slowly, grabbed Theonar by the neck, and lifted him high.
“As a reward for entertaining me a little, I’ll let you go peacefully.”
Just as he was about to crush Theonar’s neck, intending to shatter his bones-
“Spit.”
A sticky, unpleasant liquid splattered onto Bakal’s face.
“…Crazy or bold, I wonder?”
“What’s going on here?”
“The scar above the eyebrow…. It really is that muscle-bound monkey I used to know.”
“Tsk, I suppose I’ll have to break that jaw of yours first.”
Bakal immediately attempted to rip out the freely moving jaw, but-
Thud.
He was stopped by the hand Theonar extended.
“As I thought, it wasn’t my imagination earlier, huh?”
The exterior was the same as before.
But strangely, the atmosphere had shifted.
Moreover, that body, which didn’t emit even a speck of magical energy, possessed the strength to push him back-a former heir to the War God.
This wasn’t a normal situation.
“Alright, if you get it, let go of me now.”
Theonar shook off Bakal’s grip in one swift move.
“…Ha, this is getting interesting.”
“Indeed, it’s my first time ever killing the same person twice.”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
‘No time to waste.’
As much as he wanted to investigate the sudden shift in this guy’s demeanor, outside, they were deploying every means to destroy this place.
He thought it was sturdy enough, but his opponent was the saintess who could even annihilate the magic imbued with His energy.
Dragging this out any longer would be truly dangerous.
“I don’t know what nonsense you’re spouting, but unfortunately, I’m not in the mood to humor you.”
Bakal aimed at Theonar’s head and threw a powerful punch.
Bang!
A tremendous shockwave erupted.
“What a shame’
The punch had a satisfying weight to it, as if it would shatter anything into pieces.
Or so he had thought.
“The strength is still there. Though, for now, it’s still at a cute level.”
“H-how…?”
But Theonar effortlessly blocked the punch and immediately countered.
Smash!
A kick to his side caused Bakal to feel a twisting pain in his guts as though his insides had been scrambled.
If he hadn’t reflexively focused his magic, his waist might have been snapped in half from the impact.
“… And you’re still grinning in this situation. Creepy bastard.”
But Bakal didn’t flinch.
Instead-
“Kahaha! So that’s what Narvain was talking about. It’s definitely you! This level of abnormal strength…”
He burst into a fit of maniacal laughter, completely overtaken by excitement, and forgot his original mission, engaging Theonar
in a fight.
“What a nuisance.”
Theonar still emitted no magical energy.
Or rather, it seemed Bakal couldn’t perceive it.
Realizing that his own desired peak wasn’t the limit, Bakal descended further into madness.
“Just how far have you climbed? The 8th level? The 9th level? How can one achieve strength that sends shivers down my spine?”
Even as his thighs were torn and his bones jutted out of his flesh, Bakal didn’t feel pain.
“Levels? Such things are meaningless.”
“Then what is it? How did you obtain such overwhelming power, even surpassing what He couldn’t reach?”
“If you’re curious, come ask me in hell.”
Theonar swung his sword at the charging Bakal.
A strike neither fast nor slow.
It didn’t carry surging magic, nor any profound technique.
Slash!
Yet his sword cut through everything in its path.
Bakal, the sky, and even the space surrounding them were all cleaved apart.
“So, when power overflows, anything becomes possible, huh.”
The collapsing space slowly crumbled.
Outside, many people had already gathered.
Not just the students he had helped but also the professors who realized something was wrong.
“Theo…”
“In the end, it’s come to this.”
Floating in midair, Theonar looked down at them with a faintly sorrowful expression.
With a clumsy smile, he said, “Make sure you succeed.”
He took in the faces of everyone who had gathered there, one by one, and lowered his head.
Then,
Crash!
He plummeted straight to the ground.