Kaiser died.

Sometimes, life is cruelly unfair. No matter how much one trains, prepares, or plans, when fate decides to tip the scales, even the best-laid strategies crumble. It doesn’t need a reason. It simply labels the tragedy as *unfortunate*.

Just as when Kaiser had been so close to victory, only to be ambushed by Bakar in a moment of vulnerability. The battle should have been his. Victory was within his grasp, just millimeters away—until it wasn’t. Cornered, exhausted, and out of options, he had no choice but to face the inevitable.

And similar to now.

The boulders came first, raining down with a force that could crush entire buildings. Kaiser felt the cold, stifling pull of the Southern Boundary the moment his back brushed against its edge. Before he could even react, the world twisted around him. One second he was fighting gravity, and the next, he was midair, tumbling into the unknown.

For a fleeting moment, he caught a glimpse of something absurdly vast—a body of water stretching far beyond comprehension, swirling unnaturally. His breath hitched, then realized he was falling from great height.

The solid ground rushed up to meet him with brutal force. His body slammed into jagged black stone, bones shattering upon impact. His skull cracked with a sickening sound, and mercifully, unconsciousness claimed him for a brief instant.

But fate wasn’t done.

The boulders followed him down, massive and unrelenting, crushing his prone body before rolling onward. Somehow, even in his mangled state, he clung to life, but the nightmare only grew worse. Because he had landed on the steep slope of a jagged stone mountain. Gravity claimed him, and he was sent tumbling down, caught in an uncontrollable spiral alongside the relentless boulders.

Kaiser’s body became a ragdoll in the chaos, bouncing violently off sharp outcroppings. Bones snapped, muscles tore, and the unforgiving stones ripped at his flesh. The pain was excruciating, a torment he had never experienced before, incomparable to even when the invaders thrashed him around with its long neck swinging.

At first, he tried to heal, to activate his immortality and push through. But it was pointless. Every bone he regenerated snapped again an instant later, every patch of skin he mended was torn anew. The sheer momentum of the fall mocked his attempts at survival, constantly hitting his poor body as it bounced on hard rocks and rolled.

So he gave up.

He let his body remain broken, conserving his strength as he injured the torture and waited for a chance to stop the endless descent. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of agony, he saw a jagged crack in the mountainside, large enough to grip. Summoning every ounce of willpower he had left, Kaiser repaired his shattered arm in a burst of agonizing effort and lunged for the crevice.

His hand caught it, thankfully. The momentum nearly ripped his arm from its socket, but he held on, gritting his teeth against the pain as the boulders rolled past him.

Hanging there on the steep incline, his body battered and bruised, Kaiser let out a shuddering breath. He activated his immortality again, forcing his broken bones to mend, his shredded muscles to stitch back together. Each second of healing brought a fresh wave of discomfort, but better than excruciating pain of grievous wounds. Finally, his body was whole again, though, he still felt like torn apart, broken and mangled mentally.

Leaning against the freezing black stone, Kaiser gasped for air. His pale face was twisted in pain, anger and exhaustion. The torment he had endured was unlike anything he had ever faced, causing his body to subconsciously shake from the lingering memory. The air was cold around him, seeping chilliness through his tattered leather armor and clothes.

Kaiser just rest there for a while, hanging silently like a dead man. Eventually, he muttered hoarsely.

“I swear, dying on my first day in Greenland would’ve been less humiliating than this.” at least there, he lived for a couple of hours with the company of a goddess before unfortunately encountering the Bandits. Here, however, not even a minute pass and his already dead.

He paused, then spat bitterly, “It’s not even my fault! Blame my rotten luck! DAMN IT, THAT HURT!”

The cold stone beneath him sapped the last remnants of warmth from his body, but his rage burned hot. Memories of Bakar flooded his mind, along with the cruel hand fate seemed to play against him time and time again despite his struggle. And now, his unable to fulfill his promise of returning. The thought of his misfortune frustrated his to the Brim, boiling up into uncontrollable anger.

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Suddenly, he roared into the void.

“F*ck luck! F*ck all its ancestors and relatives, if it even HAS any! What the f*ck did I do to deserve this?!”

Nothing, really. In fact, Kai did a heroic deed that saved countless lives, yet here he is, clinging to a colossal mountain side, alone, cold and lost, adding to his infuriation.

However, luck itself seemed to take offense and spat in return.

A gust of air swept over him, sending a chilling breeze on his back, carrying with it the low, grating sound of something alive.

Six serrated limbs, akin to crab legs, surrounded him, piercing into the rock with an audible crunch. Each ending in a single razor-sharp claws, dyed black.

Kaiser froze. Then, slowly, he turned his head up.

A grotesque creature loomed above him, its body covered in leathery, bat-like skin that blended in the dim light. Four malformed wings twitched on its back, their veined membranes pulsing as if alive.

But the worst part was its face—or lack thereof. Its head was embedded in its wide body from the looks of it, a grotesque mouth was a vertical slit running down its underbelly, lined with rows of needle-like teeth. On its top dangled two antennae, each tipped with glistening black eyes that swayed and twitched as they studied him.

Kaiser forgot to breathe for a moment, shocked by repulsive terror, but then, against all reason, he smirked sarcastically.

“Okay, I take that back…”

His grin widened, twisted and daring. That of someone who has lost everything and doesn't give a sh*t to everything.

“Like hell I would! What are you waiting for, you overgrown insect? EAT ME! COME ON, TRY—”

The creature lunged, its mouth splitting open unnaturally wide.

And it did. It swallowed him whole.

The world went dark, the creature’s grotesque gullet squeezing around him. Yet even in the suffocating blackness, Kaiser’s voice echoed, muffled but unbroken, devoid of fear.

“...You’re gonna regret that, you ugly bastard!”

...

'What now?'

All he saw was black, the oppressive darkness of the insect’s stomach pressing down on him. Slimy walls clung to his skin, and viscous, acidic fluids pooled around him. Kaiser was unarmed—Windslayer had been lost somewhere during his hellish tumble down the mountainside, because even his arm wasn't spared from being broken. Yet, strangely, there was no panic in his expression.

In fact, he looked...relaxed. Kinda bored, actually.

The interior of the creature was unexpectedly warm. The tight, slimy embrace of its insides seemed almost snug, the liquid heat spreading through his body like a grotesque, suffocating blanket. The caustic stomach acid that would eventually dissolve him was little more than a mild sting, barely scratching the surface of his battle-hardened pain tolerance. After everything he had endured, this was nothing—if he didn't stay too long.

He leaned back against the pulsating wall, letting out a tired sigh.

The only things that truly bothered him were the foul stench—a vile, sour rot that clung to his lungs—and the limited supply of air. But even that wasn’t enough to rattle him.

He was too tired for that.

Too weary.

Everything that had happened up to this moment—the hellish battles in the burning woods, dangerous chase with the massive dinosaur, hopeless against Bakar, the Boundary, the endless, excruciating fall—had drained him mentally. He didn’t have the energy to rage, to scream, or even to fight back.

Kaiser just wanted to rest.

He closed his eyes and let the quiet engulf him. The world outside—Greenland, its invaders, its people—felt impossibly distant. He tried to ignore the intrusive thoughts clawing at his mind, tried to push them away and surrender to the dark, but they refused to be silenced.

He had failed. Not his others, but himself.

That truth burned deeper than any acid could. He had failed Cia and Ariella.

Especially Cia, after convincing the blind girl that lost all hope in life to live for him and promised to return confidently knowing death couldn't stop him only to miserably disappear without a trace. Because as fate would have it, it freaking sent one of the ancient Players and an accursed Boundary on his path of return, in the most unfortunate moment. Vanishing him from Greenland, and now, he didn't know what to do, his lost and tried to think, to move.

Fate was probably laughing in his face.

He could picture Cia now—alone, waiting for him, tears streaming down her face as the realization struck. How could he have been so careless? How could he have let her down like this? No words can measure his disappointment to himself.

And Ariella... He wasn’t even sure what she would feel. Would the enigmatic goddess grieve for him? Or would she dismiss him as just another mortal who had dared to stand beside her? He didn’t know, and the uncertainty twisted in his chest like a knife.

He let out a hollow laugh, the sound swallowed by the creature’s insides. The absurdity of it all hitting him. He had imagined a triumphant return— awarded with generous amounts of gold enough to fill an extravagant bathtub in his future mansion, be paraded in the streets, showered in praises even though he would likely avoid it. Still, anything is better than falling down a jagged mountain. Beaten, battered, and swallowed whole by an overgrown insect in some dark Realm.

His chest tightened with anger and helplessness.

His thoughts drifted back to Greenland, to the people he had fought for and the lives he had saved. Would they remember him? Or would his disappearance fade into obscurity, just another forgotten casualty in a world overrun by chaos? Then again, he gives no sh*ts about that, only Cia and Ariella, the only two people he had to a family, people that won't leave him. Funny that he was then one to leave, despite being immortal.

Kaiser closed his eyes again, his jaw tightening. He hated this. The helplessness. The loss. The unbearable distance between him and the people he cherished.

And yet, beneath the exhaustion, a flicker of determination stirred.

His alive, isn't he?

'They’re in another Realm...'

The thought cut through the haze of his despair, sharp and clear. And if they were in another Realm, then he’d just have to find a way to cross it.

Kaiser opened his eyes, the darkness around him no longer oppressive but a canvas for his resolve.

“...Then so be it.”

His voice was low, a whisper swallowed by the grotesque confines of the creature’s stomach. But it was filled with steel.

No matter how far he had to go. No matter what stood in his way. He would claw his way back to them. To Cia and Ariella, to his stepdaughters...

He coughed, trying hard to vanish intrusive thoughts.

'Seriously, what was I thinking back then? How the heck did that even happen? Can't I just, you know, have a normal relationship...?'

Unfortunately, what's done is done.

Suddenly, a transparent blade stabbed through him, its glass-like tip emerging from his abdomen. The huge insect shrieked outside.

He grunted with a smile.

"Took you long enough."

In the distance, a dazzling young woman with silky pink hair noticed a falling creature. She thought for a brief moment, before shifting directions.