“Is it really over now?” Zayn asked in between two labored breaths.

His chest heaved up and down heavily and the view of his remaining eye was already hazy. He couldn’t even muster enough strength to get up from the ground. His left leg was shredded into bits of flesh, revealing the majority of his bones whereas his right leg was missing.

Blood and internal organs gushed out of the gaping wounds in his chest, draining the last remnants of his life rapidly. However, he was not sad, not really. Zayn expected to die sooner or later. When the Forgotten Lands descended onto Earth he should have known that his death was only a matter of time.

However, he survived. Countless times.

Zayn fought, his life hanging onto a thin thread, yet he survived.

He continued to fight and strived to survive against all odds. While Zayn overcame the obstacles thrown his way, his friends and family hadn’t been as lucky. Or were they lucky to have escaped this hellhole?

Zayn was not even sure why he continued to fight at some point over the last few years.

Did he fight to become the savior of humanity? No. It was already too late for that. He was not the type of person to play a savior, either. Did he fight to survive? You must be sorely mistaken if you think that Zayn wanted to be the only one to survive the descent of the Forgotten Lands.

No.

All Zayn wanted was to take down those responsible for the descent of the Forgotten Lands and those supporting their descent.

They had taken everything from him. It was his last mission to do the exact same thing.

Unfortunately, the result was miserable. It was pathetic, just like the state of his body.

He sat in a puddle of blood – his blood – and would soon die.

The only reason he was a little bit satisfied with himself was that he took out one of those bastards responsible for the destruction of humanity. Looking down at his blood-soaked hand Zayn smiled.

A heart rested in his hands. It was silver, engraved with countless miniature runes, and glowed brightly. Silver blood spread across his fingers and trickled down into the puddle of crimson blood.

Zayn’s remaining eye traveled to the figure resting next to him. It was the owner of the heart. A Deity of some sort. He called himself the one and only God and that earth ought to belong to him.

In reality, however, the Deity was merely a Lesser God, who crossed the world-bridges to conquer Earth prematurely. Earth was not yet ready for the tremendous power of the Lesser God. Therefore, the world-bridges – ancient creations, and remnants of the Primordial Pantheon’s first generation – restrained the Lesser God’s power to the upper limit earth could handle.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean anyone could do something against the power, or the armies of the Lesser God. He killed those who resisted him and enslaved everyone else. His subordinates spread rapidly and razed everything in their path to the ground.

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Zayn was not strong enough to deal with the Lesser God as well. That was why his friends died protecting him. They died right in front of Zayn, desperately hoping that he could continue their work, that he could save Earth. His friends hoped that Zayn could become a hero.

But Zayn knew better than anyone that he didn’t have the means to become the hero everyone prayed for desperately. He was not strong enough he had never been.

Yet, he ended up killing the Lesser God and his subordinates.

Zayn continued to lean against the massive body of the Lesser God’s Behemoth and closed his eyes.

‘At least, I managed to kill one of them…’ He thought for a moment. He grith his teeth and swallowed hard.

‘Who the hell am I kidding? I didn’t manage to do anything. So what if that bastard is dead? Humans will cease to exist and I didn’t manage to protect anyone.’

“Fuck this shit.”

Zayn coughed up blood as the last words escaped his lips. His eyelids grew heavier, and his body temperature dropped gradually. He felt cold, eerily cold.

‘If I could only return…’

Zayn didn’t feel pain anymore. His eyes closed naturally, and his body slipped to the right, his grip around the Lesser God’s heart tightening.

‘...I would redo everything, and…protect everyone…’

Regret filled his heart as his body stiffened. A single tear trickled down his cheek. Then darkness embraced him.

**

On the other side of the world-bridges in a pristine palace that covered the entirety of a floating island.

A humongous figure, shrouded in silver and gold sparks that revolved around it naturally, towered above a pool of shimmering water. The scenes of the Lesser God’s defeat and Earth’s state were mirrored within the shimmering water.

“He escaped his little prison and managed to pass by the guards to reach Earth before burning down the Root of Origin in less than two weeks. All of that just to escape our grasp and to die at the hands of a mortal. What a pathetic idiot. How did someone like this manage to attain godhood?” The towering figure thundered, his voice shrouded in a thick layer of Divine Power.

The entire floating island tremored as the Divine Power swept through the palace and the islands alongside.

A smaller figure kneeled in front of the divine being, his forehead pressed tightly against the marble floor.

“Your Excellency…what are we going to do now? Without the Root of Origin the Panth—...”

“Silence!” The divine being thundered, releasing enough pressure to press the smaller figure’s head into the floor. The floor cracked open, pushing the pathetic existence even deeper into the marbled floor.

“Use the Tear of Time,” the divine being ordered.

“Y-Your excellency. Using the Tear of Time will postpone our plans by years. We–...” The small figure shut its mouth the moment he realized what he was doing. He continued to press his head against the marble floor.

“As you command, Your Excellency!”

“Let’s return to the start of the initialization.”

At that moment the shadows in the pristine palace moved. The divine being’s eyes trailed behind the shadows until a woman shrouded in darkness emerged from the shadows.

“What about the God Killer? The Tear of Time will not only restore the Root of Origin. It will bring back the God Killer as well,” The woman asked, smiling from one ear to another through the darkness that coated her entire existence.

The Divine Being merely smiled.

“There is no need to waste a single thought about a mere mortal: He won’t remember anything. No mortal can escape the power of the Tear of Time.”

‘It’s also impossible for mortals to kill a God,’ The woman wanted to say, but she decided to remain silent. She felt that something interesting was about to happen, and the last thing she desired was to warn the Primordial Pantheon.

It was about time that someone replaced the council, and maybe it was about time for her to make a move.

The era was about to change.