Chapter 69: Truly terrifying first playthrough story

The blood-red sky that had lost its color.

No longer could any warm sunlight be found.

On the dry and barren land, no trace of life could be felt, and not a single blade of grass had sprouted.

A world that had long since perished.

No one could argue against this assertion.

Of course, efforts had been made to avoid this outcome.

Everyone had struggled and fought with all their might, desperately resisting.

But in the end, those efforts went unrewarded.

The countless sacrifices and struggles of people were crushed under the weight of an enormous fate.

Reality was far too cruel.

The demons were simply overwhelming.

The demons who had thoroughly concealed their identities.

The 7th-ranked Amon had disguised himself as a student at the Huangli Academy.

The 5th-ranked Marbas had already swallowed the royal family and was slowly crumbling the empire.

The behind-the-scenes scheming carried out by the two.

‘But who could have noticed?’

A perfect disguise, impervious to any magic.

To see through such deception, one would have to be a monster with superhuman insight, someone who had lived through eternity.

It was an impossible challenge.

However, the issue wasn’t just the hidden demons.

The Golden Gong, aiming to seize control of the crumbling academy.

The damned black mages who, even as the world was falling apart, still acted recklessly, worsening the situation.

And then there were the beastmen, deceived by demons and turned into monsters, adding to the chaos.

In this situation, the demons attacked.

And in a single decisive moment, the coordinated strike of the demons led to humanity’s swift destruction.

But… not all of humanity was wiped out.

There were two humans still alive in this world.

The only ones left.

“Now, it’s just the swordswoman who has given up on revenge, on hiding her identity, on everything… and that man.”

Her, herself.

In other words, Ciel and a strange man.

They were all that remained of the human race.

It was truly a hopeless situation.

To make matters worse, the other survivor, the man, was in a completely strange state.

”How can a human be this negative?”

Ciel didn’t even know the man’s name or age.

He always wore a mask.

“There’s no need to reveal my identity to anyone. Who knows when someone will stab me in the back?”

His eyes reflected deep suspicion and distrust.

At first, Ciel didn’t think much of it.

Someone who had lived in a slum would naturally develop mistrust of others.

She just passed it off as that.

“Wh-what did you just do?”

“Don’t make a fuss. This is a crude trick. When you’re lacking skill, you resort to cheap methods.”

The mad wizard had created a cannon out of a rubber duck.

A toy that made squeaky sounds.

There was a magic recording spell attached to it.

He had altered the spell, turning it into a bomb powerful enough to wipe out an entire city.

And then, he casually mentioned it.

Ciel thought he might be bragging, but when she looked into his eyes, all she saw was an overwhelming sense of helplessness.

The man truly believed in what he was saying.

‘With such talent and skill, how could he be so pessimistic and gloomy?’

Ciel couldn’t understand it at all.

‘Could it be that the demons were playing with her?’

‘Was she the last human left in the world, and the demons had created this absurd figure just to mock her?’

Sometimes she wondered, but even if it were true, it wouldn’t make a difference.

The world had already ended.

Nothing would change, no matter what happened.

But if that man were real…

If she believed that he was real, maybe she could hold onto some hope.

“I’ll turn it back. Even if it’s meaningless.”

The man had said it.

That he would reverse the flow of time in this world.

And, with it, he would create another chance.

‘Who else but that pessimistic man would say something like that?’

Reversing time was impossible in the first place.

Even if they entered the second playthrough, they couldn’t pass on their memories.

Even if they did, fate could not be defied.

What was happening now was nothing more than a futile self-soothing.

The end was already certain.

But that white-haired man’s talent was real.

Even if reversing time seemed absurd, he would likely accomplish it effortlessly.

That was enough for her.

***

Ciel, acting separately from the man, gathered information.

After much hardship, she found the Sage’s arrangement.

A relic in the shape of a crystal orb that could connect minds, free from the restrictions of time and worlds.

This could definitely help the man.

Thinking this, Ciel rushed to deliver it, only to be betrayed by the Demon King, Riyan.

Her power and soul were stolen, and Riyan, now fully aligned with the demons, began to thrive.

With her last strength, Ciel warned her second playthrough self to kill him, but it was ignored.

Such a thing never happened.

The man, despite his flaws, was a good person.

There was no reason for him to betray her.

Telling her to kill him with the opportunity she had caught was absurd.

[So, there’s only one rat left.]

The demon grins.

Ciel’s body, already dying, struggles to move.

The demon’s hand pierces her heart.

The crystal orb she had desperately obtained was also stolen by the demon.

The demon smiles at the orb.

It seemed like he was plotting something unpleasant.

In the end, all her efforts were meaningless.

That truth was now proven in this very moment, but Ciel didn’t feel tormented.

She had always failed.

Pathetically, she hadn’t been able to save anyone.

At this point, she was too jaded to be discouraged by failure.

Instead of despair, what she felt was regret.

”That man… he’s more fragile than he looks.”

His attitude was always sharp.

He appeared to distrust and guard himself against everyone.

But whenever he saw a dead body on the streets, he always had a sad look in his eyes.

He felt sympathy, even for people he didn’t know.

”I don’t care about anyone else.”

”Nothing is more important than my own life.”

She had always said these words aloud.

But in crucial moments, he would step forward for others.

He was more compassionate than he seemed.

If he ever found out that she had died, he would surely be devastated.

…She had wanted to tell him before she died.

That he was a greater person than he thought.

That she trusted him, and that he should trust himself too.

Thinking this, she felt a deep sense of regret, but…

Well, it probably wouldn’t matter much.

He was who he was.

A person who could always turn the impossible into possible.

She was sure… he would rise again.

He would stand up and do something absurd, as usual.

So, there was no need to worry.

Ciel, in her first playthrough, simply closed her eyes quietly.

The demon clutched his throbbing head.

A headache surged through him.

Memories swirled and mixed together, making his mind dizzy.

The cause of the pain was frustratingly simple.

Some crazy woman had shattered the crystal orb.

Not only had she shattered the world of the mind, cutting off the connection, but she was also crushing the orb itself.

”How did she figure out I was a fake?”

The disguise had been perfect.

He had even referred to the memories of the real Ciel from the first playthrough to imitate her perfectly.

‘So why had he been found out?’

The demon tried to recall but couldn’t.

The shock had left his mind foggy, and his memories were blurred.

It was a golden opportunity to easily deal with Riyan.

He hadn’t been able to doubt the words from his past self, connected through the mysterious crystal orb.

He had planned to deal with Riyan, the demon king, who had been falsely accused.

But he had squandered that chance.

Perhaps it was because of the prophecy.

It seemed like he had some insight into his own disguise.

That was frustrating, but…

”Well, it’s not something to worry about too much.”

The demon truly thought so.

‘Did they think they could win by turning back time?’

‘Could the immense gap be overturned in an instant?’

That was impossible.

Time travel.

Riyan was certainly a frightening opponent, but there was no way he could have cast such a grand spell and still be in perfect condition.

He had only a meager amount of magical power.

A body incapable of mastering even a single martial art.

He would probably lose his current memories too.

‘How could he possibly lose to such an opponent?’

”In the end, we win.”

Riyan, now powerless, was no match for him.

A strategist armed with brilliant tactics.

No one among the demons could defeat him, the most cunning of them all.

Riyan, now weakened, would meet a terrible end.

He would make Riyan regret being born.

The demon, Marbas, smiled wickedly.

…It was a truly terrifying warning.