Gray somehow found himself in front of a pub.

It was a small building called 'Distant Streams'. Despite that, it seemed to be pretty popular. At least a dozen or so adventurers were inside, drinking as if there was no tomorrow. Was it to celebrate, or to forget?

Forget?

...Forget.

-Forget everything. He wanted to forget everything that had happened to him, that would happen to him. It seemed his body had read his mood and moved on its own accord, finding a suitable place.

He entered the pub.

The layout was straightforward. The bar was directly in front of the entrance, manned by a barista in a suit. Before the bar were some stools, places where the patrons could nurse a drink without needing to move for refills.

His arrival drew the attention of a group of people who had been eating near the door.

They seemed vaguely familiar to Gray, a group of three women and a red-haired man.

Was it because they didn't recognize him or because they saw his mood? Either way, they returned to what they were doing shortly after he took a few steps inside.

"What will you have, Sir?"

The barista called out to him as he walked in.

Gray sat down at the bar and dropped a fistful of gold coins on the counter.

"...Give me whatever this much will buy."

The barista's eyes widened for a brief moment, and then he nodded. "As you wish, Sir. It will be just one moment."

His coins were swept away, and the barista walked to the room behind the countertop to prepare Gray's drink.

As he was sitting there, he found his eyes drawn to the surroundings.

-Lively. Perhaps because of the dreary weather outside, the people inside were celebrating with extreme vigor.

Music, loud voices boasting on who was superior, cat calls made to female adventurers.

Everything was colorful. Almost too colorful.

Annoying.

For a brief moment, he felt his hand twitch towards his sword.

Easy. It would be so easy to draw his blade and shut them all up.

Nothing escaped his eyes now.

The bald man over in the corner of the room with a pewter mug had a limp on his left side. Though hidden well, it was there. His smile was wide, and his voice boomed with confidence, but Gray knew that a single feint to the man's right would be enough time for Gray to run him through.

The annoying girl surrounded by a flock of men in the other corner of the room was weak as well. She was talking about how she and her allies had taken down a horde of dragons all by themselves. Whether she was lying or not, Gray didn't know. What he did know, however, was that she was only at the beginning of the Champion level. Far too slow to react if he decided to throw a coin at her head at that moment.

Weak and meaningless boasts. Perhaps the only ones who weren't were the red-haired man and the three women around him.

They were the loudest of all in the room.

A stern blonde beauty was reprimanding the red-haired man, while a blue-haired petite beauty clung to his arm. Across from them, a classical beauty with dark hair and eyes watched with a slight smirk.

They were annoying, but because they were strong, he resisted the urge to shut them up.

"Here you are, Sir. A pint of ambrosia, the finest we have." The return of the barista drew Gray out of his murderous thoughts.

It was a tall glass of golden liquid.

Sweet. It surprisingly didn't smell of alcohol, but rather honey interspersed with vanilla.

The barista gave Gray an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid we don't have world dew, but I believe this won't be any bit inferior."

Gray simply nodded and took the glass.

Seeing that, the barista walked off to serve other customers.

Gray stared at his reflection in the golden liquid for a few moments and then took a sip.

...Sweet. It was like he thought, though the taste was nothing like its scent. It was more chemical, the sickening sweetness of cough syrup.

Despite its foul taste, it seemed to do the job. His irritation, thoughts, ego... all of it slipped away the moment he took a sip.

It was almost as if he had been dropped into the river Lethe, where his memories and worries were washed away to start anew.

...He didn't know how long he sat there, nursing his drink. Everything was a blur, a foggy mess where he couldn't even remember his own name.

But that was exactly what he wanted.

Meaningless. Everything around him was meaningless, so what was the point of thinking at all?

Forget. Forgetting was the only thing in his mind, and he could almost feel his entire thoughts being washed away with his drink. A normally unpleasant sensation, but one that he welcomed at that time.

-And then he overheard a conversation.

"Did you hear? Apparently another Divine Artifact has been found!"

He didn't know who had spoken, and he didn't care. But the words of the one who answered...

"Hah! Who cares about that? A friend of mine just came back from Xian and he found a dozen of those."

"Really?"

"Of course! It's the legendary land of mysteries! I've even heard that a dragon is hidden somewhere there who can grant any wish!"

Sudden clarity.

Like that, the fog around Gray's mind vanished. Before he knew it, he was walking over to the ones who had spoken.

...Surprisingly or not, it was the baldy and the annoying girl he noted earlier. The one who had boasted about the dragon though was the bald man.

"Hey. Are you lying about the dragon?"

"Hm?" The bald guy glanced at Gray and scoffed. "What's it to you, kid? Go back to your fancy drink- kuh!"

Gray crossed the distance and grabbed the man's neck with his left hand, lifting the man up as easily as an adult does a child.

A panicked scream. From the girl.

Gray narrowed his eyes and lashed out with his right hand.

She was noisy, so he would stop that. Energy bent to his magical prowess and invisible blades began to slash towards the weaknesses inherent in her body, the death written inside her very being-

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"Oi, oi, oi. Let's not be too hasty there, friend?"

A firm hand clasped around his arm.

It was the red-haired man. The 'Hero' he had met while heading to Rorin village.

"...Let go."

Dangerous or not, powerful or not, at that moment Gray was not one to be pushed.

Perhaps the red-haired man realized that as he shrugged. "Easy there. I'm just keeping you from doing something you might regret. We are in Eternia, after all. Even if you can use space magic, it wouldn't keep you from being chased down by the royal knights, you know? It'd probably be a good idea to let that guy go."

Gray narrowed his eyes at the hero's words, but grudgingly accepted the logic behind them.

He let the bald man drop to the floor. The instant Gray did so, the bald man scrambled to his feet and ran out of the pub.

Gray frowned, but did nothing. The reason for that was the still firm grasp the hero had on Gray's arm.

The hero let go after seeing Gray's inaction and then let out a warm smile. "There you go. Now, you wanted to know more about that dragon in Xian, right? Well, I happen to know quite a bit about that guy. Why don't we sit down and have a civil chat about it?"

Gray glared in response.

"Fine, fine. We can talk about it here." The hero held his hands up and shrugged. "Anyway... what do you want to know?"

"...Can it really grant any wish?"

Having a wish granted. A miracle performed.

If that was true, then couldn't he bring Eliza back to life? Wish that she was resurrected with a normal lifespan?

Too good to be true. It had to be too good to be true. But even if it was just a fantasy, a delusion spun by some rambling fool in a distant land, if it had even the slightest grain of truth...

"No."

The hero's curt response threw a bucket over Gray's kindling spark of hope.

-Of course. Even if this was a fantasy world, a convenient plot device like that couldn't exist. Bringing back the dead or turning back time... such things continued to belong in the realm beyond human reach.

"However, he can grant most wishes. That guy... I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to resurrect someone. That's what you really want to ask, right?"

A sly grin on the hero's face. An expression Gray would have wanted nothing more than to wipe clean with the edge of his blade. But he resisted that urge. At the moment, the hero had the upperhand.

"...Then, where is it?"

"Hah, do you think it's that easy to get a wish granted? Even if I told you how to get there, you still have to beat the guy in order to get your wish granted, you know? As you are now... you're a lot stronger than last time, but far from strong enough. That guy reached the Almighty level thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years ago. To try and fight him like you are now... well, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say a single breath from him would turn you into dust."

"...I'll worry about myself. Just tell me where I can find it."

The hero sighed. "Well if you're that determined..."

Before the hero could finish talking, that stern blonde beauty came over and said, "Yuu! Are you truly going to reveal the location of that dragon to this man?"

Gray narrowed his eyes.

She was strong... but not as strong as the red-haired hero.

Not as strong as him.

"Easy there, Angie. It's fine, it's fine. We're all friends here, after all. Right, Gray?"

Gray turned his gaze back on the man... on Yuu.

"...I won't ask how you know my name. But I'm at the end of my patience now. If you don't tell me, don't blame me for what happens next."

A single breath. No matter how strong Yuu was, the red-haired hero wouldn't be fast enough to stop him from killing the blonde woman beside him.

Not only that, but the other beauties sitting at the table... yes, they weren't as strong as Gray either.

A single attack. Refracting space to strike three times at once. Ripping through the cracks in their being.

He could do it. He didn't know how or why, but he could intuitively feel that he could do it.

One moment was all it would take.

One moment, one breath, three deaths...

"But Yuu-"

Gray tensed.

"Angie. Shut up."

The playful voice was gone, replaced by cold steel.

Hearing that, Angie was quiet and gave a meek nod.

When she did, Yuu turned back to Gray and said, "Alright then. Don't blame me for your death. You can find the dragon at Yajin Mountain in Xian. I'd recommend not going alone, since the dragon will grant the wish of all who beat him, but if you insist on dying-"

Gray didn't need to hear anything else.

Without a word, he turned around and left the bar.

-Raining. It seemed that the rain still hadn't stopped, even after his long hours nursing his drink in the bar.

Not only that, but it was night now, making it impossible for anybody to see anything in the city.

But he wasn't just 'anybody'.

The eyes given to him by Eliza at the cost of her remaining life... the ones that showed Gray the cracks of the world along with the flaws of those he met. With those, the city was as clear as daylight.

"A wish..."

Gray muttered and made his way through the city.

A wish. A way to overturn the cruel hand that this world had dealt him. A means to even cheat death and steal back Eliza from his grasp.

...But he was weak. He was still far too weak to even think about challenging the dragon.

"Then... I just have to get stronger, don't I?"

It was simple.

If he was weak, then he just had to get stronger.

As he was, his body was just on the threshold of breaking the Champion realm and entering the Braveheart realm. As for his magical prowess, that had reached the Braveheart realm long ago.

Stronger. He had to get stronger. Strong enough to overturn the Almighty. Strong enough where not even death could take away the ones he loved.

"Strength, knowledge, ability..."

He was lacking in every aspect.

-But that was fine. It was to be expected of someone like him who had not been born in this world. Yet, because of that fact... he also knew methods of getting powerful, quickly.

"Ha. Haha. Hahaha! Did you think this was enough to stop me, World? Did you think this was enough to break me?!"

Mad laughter. Standing alone in the streets with rain coming down, even the most hardened of criminals would keep a wide berdth, let alone any normal civilians.

Gray shook his head. His laughter stopped, but a twisted grin had taken its place. "Bringing Eliza into my life but stealing her away. Sending me here and giving me hope to return home only to reveal it was fake. Fine. Fine."

Magical prowess was a measure of one's ability to channel energy. Magic was simply a phenomenon born from the result of channeling that energy. And by channeling that energy, the body simultaneously grew more powerful, becoming accustomed to ever increasing burdens and acclimatizing as a result.

For someone like him who had come from another world where countless individuals had fantasized about magic and other worlds, where there were countless people who had written up elaborate systems grounded in self-consistent realities... it was only a matter of time.

Time, and resources.

"Magic stones... the crystallization of the world's energy. I'll need a lot of those. And sigils. I'll need more sigils like the one I got from the True Water Rune."

A plan. He knew what to do, and he knew how to get there.

All it would take was time.

...Yes. Time.

Filled with countless ideas to gain strength, Gray left Eternia, his footsteps unheard beneath the falling rain.

----------------------------------------

Yuu watched Gray leave from his seat by the window and let out a sigh. Is this enough?

The promise he had made to her all those years ago... After crossing worlds and slaying the divine, finally, he was able to fulfill it.

“But Eliza… are you sure that this was the best choice for him?” he muttered.

That man… he was broken. Broken in ways that even he, the one who betrayed humanity couldn’t comprehend. Left alone in this world…

“Yuu! Are you even listening?”

Angie’s voice drew the old hero out of his thoughts.

He smiled and put Gray out of his mind.

He had done his part. Whatever happened next… it no longer concerned him.

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As Gray walked away from Eternia under the cover of rain and darkness, a man with brown hair and a non-descript face was sitting at a desk in the Eternal Castle. All around him, various reports and papers were left half-filled.

Those in the upper-nobility would know him as Lord Fenrir.

As for the hidden forces of the Eternal Kingdom... they would know him as Founder Simon, leader of the organization called Hel.

At the moment, he was holding something in his hands. A strange, rectangular device with a glass screen. By his feet, there was another strange item. It was a bag made of a material that couldn't be identified even by the kingdom's most famous alchemists.

"Hm... so this is the Divine Artifact that will allow us to kill the Demon King? Seems innocent enough... hard to believe it nullifies magic when it seems so fragile."

If Gray was there, he would recognize it. After all, it belonged to him.

A smartphone made in the 21st century and embodying humanity's current knowledge. Within it, the operating system reflecting a world's different rules lay dormant.

Simon shrugged and put the device inside the most secure place in Eternia... his desk drawer.

"Well, I suppose I should tell the princess about the mission's success." Simon sighed as he remembered what it entailed. "And to think it cost me 'Piercing Death' just to reveal it... the thought of that is sickening. Don't you think so, Bob?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

The one who answered was a knight standing close by the door to Simon's office.

His name wasn't really Bob, but he'd long given up on correcting Simon, the man who was both fond of monologues and saying whatever he wanted.

"Glad to hear you agree. Now let's go get some dinner."

"Sir? What about the princess?"

Simon scowled. "That brat can wait. Just because of that damned ‘Goddess’ I had to get rid of the queen I had cultivated from a simple pawn. Do you know how many years that set me back? DO YOU?!"

"No, Sir."

Simon nodded. "Right. You don't. Now come on. I haven't eaten anything all day and I heard that we've gotten some new prisoners recently."

"...Yes, Sir. Young and powerful Anima, just as you asked."

"Wonderful. Let's get to it then."

The knight called Bob gave Simon a curt nod and then led the way to the dungeons.

Behind him, the monster disguised in human skin licked his lip in anticipation.

----------------------------------------

The office was empty. The lair of the monster garbed as a human was left unprotected upon his departure.

Of course. They were in the center of Eternia, the capital of humanity's kingdom and motherland. To reach it, one would have had to bypass countless guards as well as somehow obscure themselves from the view of the Goddess watching over the kingdom.

-But the person who appeared from within that office had done just that.

It was a powerfully built man with golden hair and silver eyes. Looking around the room, his gaze soon found the drawer that Simon had hidden the smartphone in.

With a single wave, the drawer instantly opened, revealing not only the smartphone, but valuable documents that exposed all of the kingdom's covert actions.

The man swept them all up into his bag and then closed the drawer.

In the next moment, he was gone, leaving no trace of him behind.

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A hero from another world and his companions.

A monster lurking in the shadows of the kingdom.

A demon infiltrating the monster’s lair.

Three major parties, representing forces that could change the course of the world.

Unbeknownst to them, soon, a meaningless hero would emerge.

Soon, the world would know of Nihil.

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End Book 1: Return Void