"Ahhh!" A voice echoed.
It was mine.
"Haah... Haaah... haah," I panted, struggling to catch my breath.
But I couldn't.
"ARCK!" A sharp cry escaped my throat as, in an instant, it felt as though something inside me had violently imploded.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The scream didn't come from my mouth but deep within me, a primal cry of torment, reverberating in every fiber of my being.
The pain was beyond anything I had ever felt before. It was a crushing, brain-splitting pain, almost too much to bear.
Ha.
Hahahaha.
It hurt so much that, bizarrely, it almost felt... funny.
I had always endured pain, but this? This was something else.
I just continue to suffer.
More and more.
And it seemed only more suffering awaited me.
Sighs.
I wonder...
What kind of life did I live before all of this? Was there even a life before the torment began? I can't remember.
I couldn't remember anything before the pain.
Haah.
I honestly hope it would end someday.
I really did.
….
….
"Haah!" I gasped, waking up once again.
I looked around.
This...
It wasn't dark, nor was it bright.
It was... weird.
"Haah... haah..." I panted, my breaths still heavy.
And then I felt it.
A discomforting, stinging sensation at my waist.
It was incredibly painful if I focused on it.
I sat up and looked down.
Black.
Black sand.
I scooped a handful of it, bringing it close to my face.
"Hm? Bone?" I muttered, feeling the texture against my palm.
Like grind bone.
It was a sharp discomforting feeling.
"Puff!" I blew on it, and it floated away into the air.
Where the hell am I?
I looked around.
Everything was red.
The sky... blood red.
Then, suddenly...
[DING!]
[WELCOME, [??????] TO THE END OF TIME]
...Hm. The system.
Before I could even think about it, another interface appeared in my vision.
┌───────────────────────────── SYSTEM ONLINE ─────────────────────────────┐
│ INTERFACE ACTIVATED… │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Designation : SOUL CLASS – UNREGISTERED │
│ Soul Integrity : 14% – CRITICAL │
│ Karmic Debt : ████████████████ (Value Concealed) │
│ Trial Status : UNINITIATED │
│ Objective : SURVIVE TRIALS [0 / 10 COMPLETED] │
│ ⚠ │
│ Warning: System tether is unstable. │
│ Full functionality locked until initial trials are cleared. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌───────────────────────────── BASIC INFORMATION ─────────────────────────┐
│ Name : ??? │
│ Soul Type : FRACTURED │
│ Classification : PROSPECTIVE ENTITY │
│ Eligibility : PENDING VALIDATION │
│ Reality Anchor : 0.23% │
│ Corruption Level : 5% and rising… │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
※ NOTE: This interface can only be viewed once. ※
I stared at the strange information displayed before me, my mind racing with a thousand questions.
But I stayed silent.
I don't know why, but instinctively, I knew I wouldn't get any answers, no matter how much I asked. So, I just kept my thoughts to myself.
"No name," I muttered.
Well, I am still a soul.
I don't have a name.
The karmic debt is hidden.
Come to think of it, I only know I have an immense karmic debt, but I've never really seen it.
...Sigh.
I glanced at the other information—soul integrity and designation.
Well, that doesn't seem important for now.
I scrolled further down.
The trials.
Ten.
It just as he said.
...But it hasn't started yet.
"System tether is unstable. Full functionality locked until initial trials are cleared," I read aloud, instantly understanding what that actually implied.
The third trial.
Sigh.
I looked further down.
Wait.
"Soul... fractured?" I thought, frowning. What does that mean?
Is... my soul fractured?
...Sigh.
Who's going to give me the answer?
Yeah, no one.
This is so frustrating.
I glanced at the rest of the details but didn't find anything that grabbed my attention—except...
"Corruption," I muttered, then turned to look at my hand.
Wait a minute.
I looked closely at it, and only now did I truly notice something.
"Darkness?" I whispered.
What the hell?
Suddenly...
[DING!]
[Sponsor has made a connection]
[Soul has been found to be connected to a divine being]
[The Fallen God - Omithar]
"FALLEN GOD?!" I screamed, my eyes widening.
Wait.
Is the keeper actually a god?
But.
I thought he wasn't really one?
Fallen?
No, no, no, no.
This doesn't make sense.
Was he once a god or something?
Isn't he the keeper?
This...
This is getting more complicated than I thought.
[Soul has obtained ability from sponsor]
[User's Status]
Sponsor: Omithar
Abilities: Alternate Reality.
Description: User is able to create an identical version of themselves from an alternate reality. This skill can only be used once every 5 hours. The user can only bring one alternate version of themselves from one alternate reality. Any attempt to bring another version from another reality will compromise the existing reality, leading to a self-sentient version of the user's alternate self.
Instinct: 20
Sanity: 5 (Negative indicates dangerous levels of insanity)
Vitality: 9
Willpower: ???
Sanity: 5
Alternate Reality.
That sounds like a pretty broken skill.
I frowned.
I kept reading it over and over again. But the more I read, the more a nagging thought kept creeping in—one I prayed wasn't true.
And yet, deep down, I knew.
It might just be the missing piece I'd been searching for all this time.
"Alternate reality…"
I muttered, my eyes lingering on the description.
A Sponsor.
Now it made sense.
So the gods choose a stray soul, place their bets, and see how it all plays out.
A promising stray, perhaps.
But in my case, my sponsor is the Keeper.
It said I gained an ability from my sponsor.
That could only mean one thing—he gave me an ability, one tied to his essence. I don't know the rules surrounding that, but the logic seems sound.
Still…
Can a sponsor bestow a power they don't possess themselves?
…Unlikely.
From what I know about the gods, each of them embodies a unique law or concept. That's their core. Their domain.
So if the Keeper gave me an ability… then it must be tied to his own domain.
Reality.
A fallen god. That's what it said.
So the bastard was once a god.
Something must have happened to strip him of that divinity. Maybe being the Keeper is some form of punishment.
Could that be the "true mission" he hinted at?
Something tied to reclaiming his lost godhood?
Sigh…
I don't have all the answers yet.
But I do know this: he was probably a god of time. Or something very close to it.
And if that's the case… shouldn't he have been one of the strongest?
I used to underestimate the power of time—until I really thought about it.
Time, in the hands of someone who can control it, is absolute.
But even then, he fell.
Something doesn't add up.
In fact, this just strengthens my theory.
He was desperately looking for a soul to manipulate. To use.
And somehow… I became that soul.
Maybe, from the very beginning, he had his sights set on me.
All the karmic debt accumulating across my lifetimes—it wasn't coincidence.
It was him.
He wanted it that way.
He knew exactly what he was building toward.
Sigh.
Alternate reality…
Maybe every time I got too close to escaping the cycle, he changed the outcome.
Like Anna…
She was the most innocent girl I'd ever known in that lifetime—until she started screwing me like some unhinged nymphomaniac.
The look on her face.
That wasn't her at all.
It was like some an addict, some pleasure monster who couldn't stop.
Who wanted to die doing it.
That wasn't natural.
It was him.
He did something.
Sigh…
[DING!]
[The first trial will now begin in 58:23.03]
I glanced around one last time.
Took a breath.
I'm going to find out what happened.
I clenched my fists tighter.
I will uncover everything.
And one day, with my own two hands…
I'll kill that bastard for everything he put me through.
I swear it.
....
A/N- A review or a powerstone; all this author needs is one from you.