"Huh… this doesn't look like the Demon King's castle."
The words slipped out of Aress's mouth before he could stop them. The sharp scent of tar and car exhaust tickled his nose, stinging slightly. Neon lights buzzed overhead, and a flickering 7-Eleven sign stood crooked on a rusted pole nearby. Cars honked in the distance. Somewhere, a police siren echoed faintly.
Aress looked around, dumbfounded.
Concrete streets. Traffic lights. Advertisement banners in multiple languages. Giant screens on skyscrapers flashing colorful holographic commercials about guilds, potions, and dungeon clearance services.
This wasn't the battlefield of gods where he had just fought moments ago.
This… was Earth.
Or at least, a version of it.
His hands instinctively went to his armor—still there. The enchanted obsidian armor forged by the Dwarven Kings. His sword remained strapped across his back, the hilt pulsing faintly with ethereal light. His long white hair, streaked with ash and dried blood, fluttered gently in the urban breeze.
Aress blinked. Three seconds passed.
"This is Tokyo," he muttered. "But something's seriously wrong…"
Twenty years ago, he'd vanished from this world after being summoned to another realm. Three years had passed in that world. Three brutal years of wars, gods, and monsters.
He had survived. He had conquered. He had killed gods.
And now, he was back.
But the Tokyo he knew didn't have flying drones yelling about dungeon openings, kids walking around with mana detectors, or people casually using magic in public.
A teenage boy dashed past him, holding a glowing tablet and a small mana orb in his palm.
"Move it, uncle! Dungeon gate's closing in five minutes!"
The orb pulsed, and flames flickered in his hand like a controlled fire spell.
Aress stared blankly at the kid's back.
That… was a Fire Seed, a basic fire incantation he hadn't seen in two decades. When he had left Earth, the world was normal—mundane, technology-based, and painfully boring.
Now, there were signs of magic flowing through the air. Faint, but ever-present.
He extended his hand slightly, fingers tracing the space in front of him. The mana was different. Weaker than the other world's, but no longer nonexistent.
So this world awakened while I was gone…
Just then, a loud crash echoed from a nearby alleyway.
A goblin—yes, a real green-skinned, snarling goblin—flew out of the alley and smacked into a dumpster. Its body hit the metal with a loud clang before it groaned and slumped unconscious.
A boy in his twenties stepped out of the alley a second later, spinning a flaming baseball bat in his hand.
"Stupid E-Class dungeon spawn. Get back inside your gate!"
He dusted his oversized hoodie and glanced at Aress.
"…Yo, bro. You lost or something? What raid are you cosplaying for?"
"Cosplay?" Aress repeated. "What is that?"
The guy tilted his head. "Huh? Are you for real?"
Aress didn't answer.
Then, a high-pitched whirring noise filled the air as a floating orb-like drone hovered down in front of him.
[ALERT: UNREGISTERED MANA SIGNATURE DETECTED]Scanning for identification…Warning: Power output exceeds S-rank benchmark.Threat Level: Unknown.
Aress sighed. His hand moved with muscle memory.
He channeled his mana silently and released a faint pulse, disrupting the scan. The drone's screen glitched before it exploded in a harmless puff of sparks.
Still worked.
He turned and walked away, ignoring the stunned expressions of passersby.
Two hours later, Aress stood on the rooftop of a tall building, watching the modern cityscape below.
Billboards flashed with digital ads for mana boosters, enchanted gear, and private dungeon raid tickets. Guild names like "Black Fang," "Stardust Phoenix," and "Oblivion Knights" were plastered everywhere.
The world had changed.
The people had changed.
Earth had become a fantasy world.
He sat down at the edge of the rooftop, letting his legs dangle over the side. The night breeze was cool. It smelled faintly of ozone, blood, and… civilization.
He opened his status screen by instinct.
Name: AressAge: 24Titles: Transcended Godslayer · Worldwalker · Dragon's PactbearerLevel: ∞Class: UndefinedSkills: 999+ (Hidden)Threat Rank: [ERROR – System Unable to Measure]Mana Density: 978,434x higher than local averageInventory: Sword of Eternity, Godbreaker Armor, 1x Soulstone of Azh'Rai, 999 Skill Points (Unused)
He stared at the menu for a moment, then dismissed it.
"So I'm basically a walking anomaly," he muttered to himself. "Figures."
He leaned back against a ventilation unit and closed his eyes.
Twenty years… I've only been gone three. What happened here?
The sky was dotted with blinking lights—some stars, some drones, some distant mana flares from people battling monsters below.
Aress didn't know what was waiting for him in this world, but something inside his gut told him peace wouldn't come easily.
He had been summoned to fight in another world. He had won. And now… now he was back in his original world, only to discover that it had become just as chaotic.
"Peaceful life, huh?" he said quietly, a bitter smirk forming on his face. "Let's see how long that lasts."
A flicker of movement caught his eye.
He looked up and saw a massive billboard projecting the face of a man in shining armor.
Hero of Humanity, it read. The man's name was Arkael.
Aress's expression hardened.
"…Arkael?"
He hadn't heard that name in years. They had been summoned together. But only Aress had returned.
The billboard flickered, and the hero's face vanished into darkness.
Elsewhere, in a room deep underground, several figures in dark suits stood before a glowing screen.
One of the dots on the monitor blinked red, pulsing with enormous mana fluctuations.
"He's returned," said a calm voice. "After twenty years… the anomaly has resurfaced."
Another figure leaned forward. "Do we engage?"
"No," said the first. "We observe. For now."
The monitor zoomed in on the blinking red dot.
Subject Name: AressStatus: AwakenedPower Class: [UNKNOWN]Location: Sector 7, Tokyo Region.
Aress, meanwhile, sat under the stars, unaware that his presence had already stirred a storm.
And so, the story begins.
A man who was once summoned to save a world now returns to find his own turned upside down.
Can he live peacefully?
Or will the world drag him into chaos once more?