Surprise, in truth the story ended in chapter 32. I was actually supposed to end this at 31 chapters, but I messed up slightly with the pacing. This was supposed to be a story the lasted only a month, or at the very least 31 days of daily uploads, but for whatever reason, I decided to edit the beginning a bit and add side-stories.
Now while in reality, the story hasn't completed, and if I wanted to I could go on for several more large arcs that would allow the story to easily go beyond a hundred chapters. But I don't have that time, the amount of time I can dedicate to a single chapter each day is about half an hour to an hour. Usually, I upload weekly with my other stories so this is by no means too much of a problem, but since this has been a daily release and I didn't stockpile any chapters it has led to a few problems.
So until I finish my next semester or until next summer this will be where the story ends. Everything beyond this point is merely a few explanations to some things that might have been unclear and a summary of what happened. And for all of you leaving at this point, until next time.
~ Summary Sorta
So let's start with the premise I guess, to make this clear A World Beyond is essentially an Isekai story. The original premise was that there was a world ravaged by a Demon King every 100 years and a Hero would rise up to stop him each time. But each recurring Demon King would always be stronger than the last forcing the Heroes to grow stronger in response. But after 900 years the Heroes and Demon King have grown strong enough to the point that they threatened to destroy the very world in their battles.
So, in the end, the Holy Empire chose to make a deal with the Demons and during the battle with the 13th Demon King (Yes 13, not 9, there were 4 more before the current one, but they were weak enough that a Hero wasn't needed) and the 9th Hero they used the lives of all the people who died in the battle as a sacrifice to send the two of them to the other world. The mastermind of this plot was the host of the Demon King himself!
It was explained in the story sort of but I'll explain it here just for the sake of doing so. The Demon King is basically a curse, that's why no matter how many times the Demon King dies he just comes back later. As for the Hero, each Hero is an entirely different person each time, but the Heroes leave behind items for the next Hero that contain their memories, abilities, and most importantly their emotions. The Empire has basically used these items, and a lot of coercion to turn the Heroes over the years into the most loyal living weapon in the Empire's possession.
There are also various explanations for how each of these things work, and how the soul is the where memories are stored and its relation to power, but that might be going on a bit of a tangent. But that's essentially the basic premise.
And when the Hero and the Demon King(By the way this is a bit confusing but I refer to the host as the Demon King and the actual curse as the Demon King's curse, but I also refer to previous Demon Kings as just the Demon King instead of two separate things. So there are three Demon Kings. The Demon King(MCs Brother), the Demon Kings(Past Demon Kings), and the Demon King's Curse(The thing controlling them) get sent to another world the MC is born and the Demon King ends up his twin brother.
~ Clarifications and Tid Bits
1. The MC birth was abnormal in the fact that he was never supposed to exist, while the Demon King and his curse ended up just posessing the MC's brother which did exist. So the MC was a single soul in a single body, while Quinn was 2 souls in a single body (Technically 3, but that's beyond the point)
2. Karen was from our Earth and was basically an Isekai MC that wasn't an MC. Like the Demon King she possessed Pandora's body but unlike Quinn where the original personality remained in control Karen took over control. Pandora is also the one that caused the destruction of the Five Element Alliance in the story. Karen is also unable to control Pandora or use her powers, and Pandora's powers cause harm to her body.
Also, Karen thought Hiro could save her cause she thought he was also an MC and would basically be able to do anything. And while she's right in the sense that he was the MC, I'm the author so she'd have died eventually anyway.
3. Hiro's Father the Baron blames Hiro for his Wife's death, but he also has a Mistress and while I didn't really show it all that much has more than a master-servant relationship with the head maid. He also knew her from back at the Academy.
4. Baldar isn't gay and Maria was actually partially aware of Quinn's peculiar circumstances.
5. Francis liked Collette and Collette had a small crush on Hiro. I was actually trying to find a way to kill her in the 31 chapters, but in the end, I couldn't. Shame.
6. Karen isn't the only Isekai MC, the unknown voice that communicated with Hiro was someone also aware that he didn't belong in the story. His character was not named or made known beyond his voice.
7. Mors was the MC of the story Karen read, but despite this Karen refuses to come in contact with him due to his role in the story being that he kills Pandora since Pandora is linked to the cult Mors hates.
8. While Hiro is in another world, the Demon King Aslo picked a world as close to their original one as possible hence why there was Mana. However the Mana in their new world was different so Hiro found it difficult to use any spells, and do to various reasons that I could explain but would take pages too Qi came into being. Though the two worlds Mana shared many principles such as their origin being the Dragon Veins.
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9. Thomas is Dead, he's the butler before the bandit attack that was mentioned slightly. He was one of Baron's Magic Knights and also a graduate from the academy, in the bandit episode he had caught wind of a scheme and moved with a group to deal with the problem at hand. This lead to him being injured and later died at the hands of the kidnappers.
10. Hiro noticed things were off, but you wouldn't really think just cause some things were off that you're suddenly in another world. Being reborn also wasn't anything new to him, because his memories make him feel as if he's been reborn several times. A number of his conclusions were even right, for example, he thought his brother was a Demon King, however, the reason he denies this is because from what he's aware of, which is why the Empire told him, the Demon King never picks a Human host. Instead, Hiro tried to kill his brother cause he thought he was like Karen or that Karen took control of him. Hiro would just keep finding reasons to deny things even if he himself felt they were likely to be true.
11. Albis is an immortal elf and helped create the original Divine Artifacts.
12. The Emperor may or may not be insane. The Empire was only as successful as it was due to the help from the Southern Countries who feared that if the Empire fell they would as well. But if they were to find out the threat of the Demon King was gone it was likely the Empire would fall apart, so the Emperor chose to ally himself with the Demons and in return for giving them land he would be able to bolster his army.
13. Quinn hated sleeping, this was because he was still affected by the Demon King's curse leading Quinn to experience nightmares whenever he goes to sleep. The curse was severely weakened due to the Demon King Aslo's spell, but it was still an eternal curse and Aslo couldn't find a way to destroy it or seal it permanently. However, Aslo did feel sorry for Quinn and while originally only wanting to be an observer he would teach Quinn lessons in his mind and even help him bear the burden of the curse. So while his father neglected him, Quinn became a competent mage thanks to Aslo's help.
Quinn also feared his brother due to memories of the Heroes killing the Demon King being passed into his mind whenever he slept. And Aslo would occasionally take over Quinn's body causing his eyes to change. Quinn also possesses a talent for magic and due to Aslo's teaching he see's the world completely differently. He actually tore apart his brother's black sphere freeing Karen without Aslo's help.
14. During the last few chapters Aslo used his soul as a bridge to connect Quinn and Hiro's, souls. He did this so that he could transfer the curse from Quinn to Hiro which was the reason he was spending so much time talking to Hiro. Though he was also just venting. But he didn't want Hiro to notice what was going on and even tried agitating him by revealing the truth.
~ Spoilers Sorta
Now since it might be a year since I continue this story or more here's what I was planning on doing. After chapter 32 and the Demon King's Curse and Hiro would fuse. There would be a 7-year time skip and Hiro would be 18. And yes Hiro, cause he's alive, but technically not really.
We would find out MC in Tribole the massive Empire to the north and Hiro would have lost his memories as both the Demon King and the Hero. However, he would find himself being inexplicably powerful. This is due to the fact that Hero's have very broken and shattered souls while the curse is merely a bunch of souls being forcibly held together. In a sense, their quite similar but the Hero's soul was originally whole before being broken. while the curse was taken already broken souls and trying to make them whole.
So when Aslo fused the two of them the two fused instead of being left separate and became an entirely new person. So in a sense, the soul known as Hiro died, while a new being born from his soul remained. For now I'll just keep calling this person Hiro, and by the way, Hiro isn't entirely gone either. He noticed what was happening and created something similar to a Divine Artifact however it just contained his memories and had no other special abilities. He used the magic amulet that turns into armor as a base before molding into a ring.
The new MC carries this ring around with him as he thinks its the only way for him to figure out who he truly is. Anyway, the MC does stuff in Tribole, before ending up in the Five Elements Alliance, where he then has to make a side-trip to Beliom. before going back and having to deal with the internal conflict. The Alliance is later destroyed, and the beast tide occurs as well. New Hiro follows the refugees of Lugh all the way back to Renton where he reunites with his old friends.
Other stuff happens and the MC also meets a lot of Isekai MCs and such along the way.
~Explination Sorta
As for why I did this, well I've had the idea on my mind for this story for a while now. Like a while. But as much as decent as I think the premise is, the execution of it has been a bit weird and I was well aware of this from the very beginning. There were a few ways I could have written this story imo.
1. From the Hero's view, the Hero would be unaware of the truth and would eventually find out what happened denying it to the end before eventually he would be forced into becoming another person. (This is the path I chose)
2. From the Demon King's/Quinn's perspective. Either way, it could have worked, but if I started with Quinn I would have to start at a young age and have to constantly go over all his nightmares before having the Demon King explaining things when he was older. Or I could start from the Demon King's perspective and have everyone know everything from the start.
3. I could have started on the fused Hero and Demon King and gotten to all this complicated shit after the reunion. Personally, I don't really like this option.
Personally, while I liked the premise, I wasn't particularly keen on any of these methods. Even the one I chose I didn't like. There were too many questions, the MC would have to constantly deny things, and until the end, the MC seemed kinda pathetic.
The second option also had no real mystery to it, everything was known, and nothing exciting would happen. Quinn didn't really want to stand out all that much, and he didn't do much of anything in particular so there wouldn't be too much of a story. That or I'd have to do a ton more time skips.
And the third option would take too long and it might just seem like an out of nowhere twist. Though it's not like a lot of the twists weren't out of nowhere as things were.
As for why I decided on 31 days. Well I started this in June and June is my birthday month, so I decided to take the time to just sorta spend time not working(though in a sense writing is working), and do this. I knew it wouldn't really turn out good either, with how I was doing things, but eh. So now I've gone over schedule and this is where we are.
Idk. I guess I'll see you all next time.