Consciousness felt like a river, flowing forward, ceaselessly washing everything along.
When Kevin opened his eyes, his familiar office was right there.
The program on his monitor looked exactly like he'd left it. He checked the time.
"Huh? This is the exact moment I left. Are the time rates different between worlds?"
He leaned back in his chair, stared at his unfinished code in a daze for a while, then slowly curved his lips and looked out the window.
"Feels like a dream. Another world. Friends. Adventures."
"I wonder how those guys are doing. They should've gone home too, right?"
"…Wait, I can just ask."
He opened the group chat with his mind and sent a message: You guys back in your worlds yet?
Replies came instantly. Only then did he relax and look back at his work.
"…Anyway. Back to the grind."
—
Light footsteps echoed through the space station. Star greeted the researchers she'd come to know over the past days.
"Something happen? You're in a great mood today, Star."
"Yeah. Something good."
"Going to see Station Master Asta?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Want to grab dinner after?"
"After I'm done."
In the main cabin, Star spotted the person she'd come to see at once.
A pink-haired girl—the wealthy station head of Herta Space Station, the absurdly rich Miss Asta.
"Yo! Asta, eaten yet?" Star waved.
Asta turned with a smile. "Not yet. What brings you here today?"
"Something I need to tell you."
"Okay, what is it?"
Star handed her an envelope.
"This is…?" Asta accepted it, uncertain.
"My resignation letter. Thanks for looking after me all this time."
Asta hadn't expected it so suddenly. "Is there something wrong with the station? Workplace bullying? You can tell me."
Star waved it off, smiling. "Who could bully me? I just want to try a different road."
She looked Asta in the eye. "I'm going to the Astral Express."
Asta studied her serious face, then smiled. "Got it. I'll accept your resignation. This month's salary will be paid as usual."
"Are you leaving now? Or waiting for the Express crew to come here and going with them?"
Star shook her head. "I'm going to find them."
"Then… come back often."
"Don't worry."
As Star's figure left, Asta chuckled softly. From the start, she'd felt Star didn't belong confined to the station. She was meant to be free.
"May the stars be with you."
—
"Grab my hand!"
Is the hand I'm supposed to grab… yours?
The Doctor felt scammed. He'd hyped himself up for this moment, even looked forward to it—then the moment the coffin lid was pried open, he froze.
Where were the beast-eared girls?
Why was it a burly man?!
Ember, you dog, I'm going to kill you!
The Doctor took the offered hand and was hauled upright. When he looked around at the people surrounding him, he asked blankly, "Uh… who are you?"
"Us? Reunion Movement. I'm Kevin."
"Evil spirit. Our leader wants to see you."
The Doctor sucked in a cold breath and let go.
"Hold on. I need a second."
He flopped right back into his coffin, brain running at maximum overdrive, reaching a single result:
"Ember you bastard! You said Rhodes Island! Why is it Reunion?!"
—
This was a trial.
A trial to defeat the weak, powerless self he used to be.
People are destined to grow.
Those who stop in place will be eliminated.
Guda, the you who stagnates—how can you withstand the power I gained in another world?
Let me scatter you here and now!
"Hey! Guda, you've been blocking the way long enough."
"Move."
Ember pointed at the slowly reviving Guda.
Sadly, this former hero couldn't understand human speech anymore.
"Is that so? Right. How many times have we fought by now?"
Guda: "…"
"Yeah. Who could even remember at this point?"
Ember's face split into a wild grin.
"Time to finish this. Once and for all!"
At that instant, the wind moved—
Not a natural wind, but the shockwave of Guda's body tearing through the air.
"Come!"
Ember drew the Coiled Sword!
Shrill metal rang out as blade met halberd again and again.
In seconds, they exchanged a full round. Ember's body was already bleeding.
This was Hero Guda.
Perfect technique. Terrifying physical strength. Even mindless, he was still a monster.
Blood kept flowing. Ember's eyes grew more fevered.
Yes—this was the fight he wanted.
No distractions. Full force. Drive the weapon through the enemy and win. Pure, brutal battle.
Back in the dragon world, the best fight he'd ever had was against Odin—the bastard who'd tortured him nonstop.
Later, he hadn't wanted to go too far on Cassell. If you start trouble and police come to arrest you, beating up the cops is a bit much.
As for Xia Mi? Don't even mention her. Total nutcase.
"Only you can satisfy me, Guda!" Ember's eyes ignited, golden and blazing.
The battle slammed into high gear.
He felt his blood roil like magma. If he wasn't wrong, that was his dragon blood.
He was pure-blood now. So where was the dragon power?
Still asleep inside him.
Fight. Fight. Fight.
Burn the blood awake!
"Guda, I need you to help me cultivate!"
Guda answered with a blow that could shatter the earth.
He spun in the air and slammed his halberd down, smashing Ember into the ground.
The earth burst; silence fell. Guda slowly drew back, about to return to his post.
Then a dragonlike roar erupted from below.
Ember shot out of the crater, landing hard. Coiled Sword on his shoulder, stance low, eyes locked on Guda. Blood poured off him, and he didn't care.
There was only Guda.
Even without reason, Guda seemed to sense something change in the man he'd killed so casually.
But it didn't matter. No matter what changed, he was still a mindless monster.
The fight resumed.
A pure melee.
Every wound only made Ember's seemingly endless blood boil hotter—as if getting refined.
From being suppressed, to parity, to suppression.
Their next clash sent one of them flying again.
This time, it was Guda.
Scales covered Ember's body now. He looked like a true blood-soaked beast, golden eyes pinning Guda in place, waiting for him to stand.
Guda rose as expected, gripped his halberd, and charged.
But it was already over.
The moment he fell behind, it was over. His attacks could no longer threaten Ember.
He had lost.
As the fight dragged on, black matter seeped from Guda's body. His movements stiffened.
Ember halted mid-charge.
He wasn't mindless yet. He knew what that was.
"…Pus of Man?"
The burden of this world. When the fire faded, the god-set shackles loosened. Darkness inside humans couldn't be suppressed, becoming a breeding ground, bursting into Pus of Man.
"But isn't that a little small?" the thought flickered by.
He didn't dwell. Time to end it.
"Though you killed me countless times, your teaching is carved into my bones. To let you die as a human, I'll offer my full-power strike!"
His back writhed. A heartbeat later, dragon wings unfurled and carried him into the sky.
The elements around him began to distort—calm at first, then raging.
Pressure surged.
Four elements compressed to a single point. A fireball bloomed in his hand.
One second. Two. Three.
The fireball swelled.
By the seventh second, it had grown fifty meters wide, like a miniature sun.
Guda stared, even the Pus of Man seemingly freezing in fear.
Ember spoke two words clearly:
"Rhein."
The sun detonated.
A terrifying shockwave poured downward. The earth rolled, everything burned. The light was so fierce it lit the chaotic heavens like a real sunrise.
Like a true sun.
The explosion lasted less than a second—only the aftershock remained. Yet the destruction spread terrifyingly far.
And this was with Ember controlling it.
When the dust cleared, Ember—skin scorched as if burned alive—fell from the sky and smashed onto molten ground.
"Damn… should've thought twice before showing off." He crawled up from the heat. Guda was gone—reduced to ash.
Ember surveyed the devastation with satisfaction.
"Told you my Rhein is the strongest. Next time I'll let those three see what a nuke looks like."
After a few breaths, strength returned. He looked toward the towering structure ahead—
Firelink Shrine.
Good thing it had been far enough away. He'd controlled the blast so it shouldn't be damaged. Any internal effect… who knew.
He waved at where Guda had stood.
"I'm going."
He stepped forward—his first real step in this world.
He trudged through ruins he had made, Coiled Sword clenched tight. He expected phantoms to attack.
None came.
No surprises even as he reached the staircase leading straight into Firelink Shrine.
He didn't climb right away. He turned back to the dim horizon and the path behind him.
"Not easy," he said, voice heavy with feeling.
No one knew the bitterness inside those words.
As an ordinary person, this world had been hell.
Undeath was gift and curse. Death was agony. The first time he died, he rolled on the ground screaming.
Then he feared dying again, became cautious—
But after dying again and again, numbness came. He charged Guda repeatedly, only to keep himself from despair.
Now it was over.
He glanced at the group chat messages asking after him and smiled.
"I won't be like before anymore."
As if parting with his past self, he turned and climbed the stairs into Firelink Shrine.
But once inside, the scene was nothing like his memory.
Ancient and dim. Only weak candlelight remained.
And there were no signs of life.
Yet it wasn't empty.
He saw someone.
And someone saw him.
"…This is awful."
A bad premonition surged. Ember stepped down from the stairs toward the lone figure.
"You made quite a commotion. And… it was dazzling. I liked it," said the small king on the throne.
Ember looked up at him.
Ludleth, the Dwarf King.
He still looked shriveled, but not exactly as Ember remembered.
"Heh. Thanks. Mind if I ask something?" Ember came to the base of the throne.
"Gladly. I've not spoken to anyone in a long time," Ludleth nodded.
"What's going on here? Why are you the only one?"
"Because they ran away," Ludleth said, eyes drifting to the empty thrones.
"They chose to abandon the fire."
"And I am the only one who stayed."
"To prolong this age."
He looked back at Ember, voice slow and weary. "You came both early… and late."
Ember: "…Don't tell me I'm in a side story too."
-------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get access to early chapters by joining my Patreon!
Find me at My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
I, Herta's Fiancé, the Universe's Number One Male Fist (114 Chapter (Simulpub-Full) )
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Succubus in Sixth Street (400 Chapter)
Reborn in Type-Moon, My Sister is Aoko Aozaki (254 Chapter)
MyGO!! A Story Voiced by Me (140 Chapter)
BLEACH: Blade of Purification (158 Chapter)
Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi (400 Chapter)
My Real Job is Spying on Konoha, but I'm Also its Hokage (140 Chapter)
The Pinnacle of the Navy! Starting from Being Captured by Garp (172 Chapter)
Watching Yu-Gi-Oh! short videos is making the veteran players lose...(80 Chapter)
Uma Musume : The Trainer Who Just Wants to Live (200 Chapter)
Zenless Zone Zero The Random Kamen Rider (200 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: It All Began With Me Being Stepped On by Arlecchino (120 Chapter)
Naruto: I Can Synthesize Summoning Beasts (96 Chapter)
Demon Slayer: The Great Swordsman's System, Disciple of Yoriichi (140 Chapter)
My Wife is a General, but I'm an Emanator of Abundance! (160 Chapter)
Type-Moon: My Nine-Fold Path (140 Chapter)
Uma Musume: They're Peeking at My Diary, and All of Tracen is Panickin (Ending)
The Wild History of Type-Moon world (70 Chapter)
Reborn in Conan, But I Refuse to Be the Bad Guy (80 Chapter)
Ruan Mei is begging me to go back? But there's no going back anymore (140 Chapter)
Just a Slacker at Tracen Academy (165 Chapter)
Survival in Blue Archive (70 Chapter)
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Doma Wasn't Hated Today, Either (100 Chapter)
The Vibe of This Chat Group is a Little Off (100 Chapter)
Heartbreak Simulator: I Broke Them and Made Them Cry (80 Chapter)
The Talentless Trainer Doesn't Want to Restart (80 Chapter)
A Journey Starting as a Quincy (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: The Master of Romance Obstruction (80 Chapter)
Uma Musume: You Can't Be a Hero Without a Little Chemical Enhancement (40 Chapter)
Honkai Impact 3rd Your Boyfriend is Really Amazing (40 Chapter)
Warhammer 40K: My Fiancée, Fulgrim (180 Chapter)
Classroom of the Elite: Trying to Capture Me! (120 Chapter)
Genshin Impact My Named Senji Muramas (150 Chapter)
A Chef, the Vice-Captain of the Rocks Pirates? (160 Chapter)
Naruto : My Uchiha Girlfriend is Too Tsundere (130 Chapter)
Type-Moon: Reincarnated in a Lostbelt, I Became the Alien God (90 Chapter)
The Way These Horse Girls Look at Me Is Terrifying! (160 Chapter)
Naruto: Tsunade's Deskmate (130 Chapter)
I Just Want to Live a Normal (50 Chapter).
Genshin Impact: A Hundred Confessions? It's Just a System Task (70 Chapter)
OnePiece : Starting as a Veteran of the Roger Pirates (60 Chapter)
Uma Musume : I Have Special Horse Taming Techniques (180 Chapter)
Uma Musume : My other self is a Horse Girl (110 Chapter)
Jujutsu Kaisen : All Affection Stats Maxed Out (190 Chapter)
Satou Kazuma's Decision to Live by Swindling, Starting from Re:Zero (60 Chapter)
Bleach : Ichigo! Take Over the Soul Society (78 Chapter)
Crossover Anime: The Master of Plagiarism with a 'Love Obstacle (130 Chapter)
Arknights Succubus Nurturing System, But I'm a Quiet Office Worker (80 Chapter)
Genshin Impact: Using My Personas to Break the Hearts of Players (50 Chapter)
One Punch Man : i am King? (140 Chapter)
Genshin: My Stats Are Irresistible (50 Chapter)
Naruto: Master of Dream Fulfillment! (60 Chapter)
Why Are All My Chat Group Friends Spin-Off Characters? (80 Chapter)
If there's a particular novel you're enjoying on Patron, please give it a 'like' so I know to focus on it