In a dark cave centipedes cascaded inside as Welnir a lowly general soldier from the 8th division laid in the filth struggling to live.
"Dammit, why, just why did they fucking send me into a death trap!"
Welnir regretted in his thoughts as he was never talented enough to enter any prestigious academies and had to draft in the army of the kingdom to earn a living.
In this world only those talented enough could move up in the world, and those who manipulated the wars were the powerful mages that had the power to destroy mountains and split the sea. In this situation Welnir's kingdom, which was the Divine Kingdom, had exhausted its mortal soldiers first. To them, Welnir was just cannon fodder to slightly weaken the enemy before bombarding them with actual mages and fighters.
Welnir hated that fact. He was weak, insignificant, bullied by mages in the kingdom he was born in because he had no talent for magic. Being talented in magic was the key to success, if one was born in a commoner's family they would rise to a noble immediately. Unfortunately for Welnir he had tested his talent, but he was completely talentless.
In the cave Welnir kept struggling to live as he was wounded by a powerful mage. Welnir himself was surprised he was alive since it was almost guaranteed for a mere mortal to die against a mage. This was the case because people without talent can't contain mana, if one was forcefully given or inserted mana in their bodies they would explode and bleed out.
Though as a few days had passed it was clear Welnir was dying at a fast rate. His vision was becoming blurry, his muscles had become faint felt, and the centipedes he was eating for sustenance were poisonous. It was only his tiny bit of luck that had saved him as he deduced that the mage that had wounded him used a weak ability that barely used any mana, therefore making him survive for how long he had survived now.
"huff, huff, dammit to think I would die a lowly soldier and be used as cannon fodder. If I had just one more chance to start over and have the power..."
Welnir was a man that endeavored the powers of the mages, the destruction, the ability to become stronger and stronger. Though as he lived the life of a regular man he trained the hardest, trying to achieve strength that equated to a mage. But from the result of his recent battle it never equated to anything, he was still weak, only having achieved the absolute physique of the peak of being human, the limit.
As Welnir was lying he vomited as the poison was finally consuming his own life. Knowing he was dying Welnir took off his broken armor and crawled further inside the mysterious cave he had fallen into to hide. He had only crawled because he had wanted to find at least a place to peacefully pass. Though as he kept crawling he had only found rubbles of rocks and contaminated pits of water.
Finding this out he didn't give up as he kept trying to find a place. As he searched further he shockingly found deep slashes of a sword inside the cave. He was surprised since as he entered the cave the interior was almost impossible to break, a material he had never thought had ever existed to be able to resist a metal sword. To Welnir, a tree, rock, or boulder was a mere punching bag he could easily destroy. Though the material in the cave he found was basically impenetrable.
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As he crawled deeper and deeper he found more slashes as he deduced it was a fight between mages. Though Welnir knew it was dangerous to advance, he knew he was dead anyway so he kept advancing. Crawling, Welnir found the end of the cave and in wide eyes he saw something strange, it was a skeleton. The skeleton wore a robe that exposed the ribcage and the skeleton had many rings on his fingers. What was strange was that the skeleton was not of mage origin. Welnir knew this because in the military they had taught that even the skeletons of mages would emit mana regardless of their age.
Though as Welnir inspected the skeleton it emitted a deathly feeling that was almost similar to mana, but there was a clear difference that made Welnir say otherwise.
"H-human, I-I have been waiting for you as my prophecies never lie to me."
Suddenly, Welnir's mouth was agape as the skeleton's body moved, turning its head and hand towards Welnir.
"W-what are you?! How can a skeleton talk?!"
"Do not worry, I guess they call you a mortal, Welnir? We have died and our race too has become extinct, they call us Demons of the 99th inheritance. We have kept our last conscience and power here to find the right host to revive our right to the throne of this world."
Processing this information Welnir was confused as he had never heard of the race of demons before. In the world there were 4 great races: the Humans, Elves, Giants, and the Dragon Kin. To him those were the only races that existed as they were the ones who conquered the world and created the kingdoms in the world.
"Demon? Who are the demons? I've never heard of a race that resembles that name."
"We are the wretch of the world, a forgotten thriving race, millions of years ago we were the pioneers of discovering the true power of what they call mana. We bear the power of the truth and the construction of true mana. Though those days have gone and past, our race had sacrificed all of our power to this very point of the river of time. The 100th inheritance will lead our appearance once again in this world. You will lead as the new king and bring to revive the demon race to this world, that is your fate."
Hearing this Welnir was shocked as he knew he was only a human, how could he become an extinct race, let alone become strong enough to rise in the world to make this prophecy become true?
"Do not worry once again, the power we have accumulated in this very body transcends any power in existence. What we need is a person to man the ship, our prophecy had told us the one that leads would die. We have constructed our most hidden and powerful ability that we ourselves would never dare to use, to warp time itself. Though for this prophecy we will sacrifice anything to rise once again."
Hearing what the skeleton was saying, Welnir noticed that the skeleton spoke in a collective of voices of varying persons. It was clear that they had truly sacrificed everyone in their race as a whole to revive it in the end.
"Why me? I'm talentless, even if you turn back time itself I would never amount to anything. I had no talent in magic in the first place."
"That again is no worry, you will inherit the 100th inheritance. The inheritance will give you our blood, our power, and you will become king. Though, be wary that those who are kind hearted will never amount to anything, that is our law. We live to exterminate those who oppose and have opposed us, the dragon kin and elves will not get away with what they have done."
When Welnir heard this, his wish to have one more chance became true. If he accepted this he would finally be able to fight like a mage and feel the strength that he had always wanted. Contemplating this Welnir was already onboard since he was dying already so he had no choice regardless.
"Okay, I accept this role, I will bring the demon race to its peak. I am grateful, no matter what, I will bring this to the truth of your prophecy. To think our fates intertwine I will never forget your sacrifices to wait so long for me!"
Welnir accepted quickly as he finally had the chance to become strong and his secret intent he had hidden in his heart would be possible, to destroy the Divine Kingdom. This was his intent because the kingdom had always despised him for being talentless, he had done so much for them yet they had always thrown him to death's door, never rewarding him anything for his sacrifice.
"Well said, your time is withering so I will start traversing time. We await your liberation as we become free from the shackles that bind us from our extinction."
As the skeleton said this suddenly the universe froze completely still. Every star, every planet, every comet, everything stopped as it all reversed. The reversing universe finally stopped spinning as it stopped specifically 40 years ago, a time when Welnir was only 5 years old.