“Son, wake up and come have breakfast. You will be late for work.”

From somewhere, some called me. A voice of a female, with a stern yet soft voice, woke me up.

“Where is this place?”

Getting up, I looked around. A small normal room came into my view.

Standing up from the bed, I came downstairs and entered the room where I can hear the voice of the woman.

“Come have breakfast. See, even your father wakes up earlier than you.”

In what seemed like a kitchen, there were two people present. The woman looked at me and then looked at someone beside her.

Following her gaze, I found a man in his 40s sitting while sipping tea and reading the newspaper. After taking a sip, he looked at me, no, directly in my eyes, and said.

“Sit, my son. You must be tired from the work.”

Before I could reply to him properly, my mouth automatically spoke.

“Yes, father.”

Looking at this, it felt like a long-lost memory that I cannot even remember.

After that, I, or the person they refer to as their son, sat, and we all continued to eat our breakfast happily. After finishing their food, they both looked at me with a strange expression in their eyes that I cannot describe.

My eyes moistened without my knowledge as I looked towards what they will speak to me.

“Son, it’s time to wake up now.”

The man who identified himself as my father spoke first. Following him, the mother(?) too spoke.

“That’s right. You have to wake up now so that you can save us and this world.”

What are they... talking about? Saving the world? Who are they? Why do they feel so familiar? Why.... do they call me their son?

These questions appeared in my mind, as I tried to answer them, and ask them but only a single sentence came out of my mouth.

“But I am a.... monster.”

“?!”

To my surprise, it was me who spoke not someone else.

‘I can speak? But... before I...’

Moments ago it just felt like I was watching the memory of someone, mimicking what has happened but now, I could speak.

Just then, they spoke, with a gentle smile on their face answering the question that I always wanted, yearned to hear.

“No, you are our son. You cannot be a monster. ‘That’ world depends on you. So go and save ‘that’ world.”

“Fulfil your destiny, my son.”

As soon as the words fell, the surrounding started to crack, and their image also slowly cracked, but they just sat there, smiling.

Suddenly, something pulled me as the cracks in the surroundings increased.

“N-No!! Don’t go!! PLEASE!!”

I tried to reach them. I wanted to hold them, to hug them and never let go of them, but I cannot as something pulled me away even harder.

No matter what I tried to do nothing changed except their gentle smile and gaze.

“Always remember, you are the savior of this world, not a monster my son.”

And so, in an instant, everything shattered and disappeared and I finally opened my eyes.

***

Opening my eyes, what came into my view was a bright magnificent ceiling covered in various paintings and gems. In the middle of the ceiling, there was a painting of a woman bigger and more beautiful than others.

My mind flooded with the thoughts of the dream that I just had but before I could even try to stabilize them, someone called to me.

“How are you, O summoned hero?”

“Hmm?”

While still lying down, I lifted my head to find the one who called me.

Some meters away from me stood a man in attire fully white with gold stripes. He held a staff, wholly gold, radiating bright divine light similar to that of the Sword of Salvation.

After a while, he came near to me and examined me. Not finding anything dangerous as I was already naked, he held his hand towards me.

“Please take my hand and help yourself.”

Holding his hand and looking at him smiling, my instinct called out to me.

‘He is dangerous. No matter what, a man with a staff radiating divine light would never approach an unde-‘

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“Wait, am I a human now?”

I observed that my hands that touched his, my feet, and my chest are being pinkish again. I felt the warmth in every part of my body.

This made me realize, that I am a human now.

Placing my palm on my chest, I felt the beat of my heart that has stopped beating ages ago. Tears flowed out of my eyes, and tasting them made me accept that now I am a fully fledged human.

My hands trembled, tears flowed out nonstop, my heart beat faster, and my face felt hot indicating that I returned to being a human.

Looking at me in that state, the man in front of me asked worriedly.

“Are you okay? It may be surprising for you to meet someone strange in a strange place, but be assured, you are finally free.”

“Free? What do you mean by free?”

“That-”

Before he could answer, someone entered the hall.

“-That means you are free from the sufferings of that world.”

The one who answered his question was not the man in front of me, but another one who entered there.

A man with a robust structure clad in silver armor and a velvet cape entered the room with confidence on his face as he spoke.

“You must be confused as to where you are and why are you here. Please do not worry as we are the ones who saved you from the pits of hell.”

After finishing his words he extended his hands toward me for a handshake.

“Do not worry. You are now in the other world, like the isekai.”

But his words didn’t reach my ears at all as his face reminded me of someone.

“You. Aren’t you the silver hero? One of the first awakened. How are you here?”

His expression which was so soft moments ago changed. The soft demeanor that he showed and displayed now changed with a hint of hostility visible in his eyes.

“Yeah, that was my name, but so what?”

With eyes as if looking down on a lowlife, he looked at me.

‘So he knows my past, huh? Just shake the hands already so that I can find whether or not the prophecy is true.’

In the silver hero’s mind, his past didn’t matter as he inwardly urged the naked man to shake his hands, but the naked man had other plans.

“Why are you here when the world needed you? Were you kidnapped by someone from here?”

“How dare you speak to his highness, the king like this? Know your place.”

The guards who accompanied him pointed their swords at the naked man. Even though the man in front of him was someone newly summoned, it was still too much for them to see someone question their king like this.

But what they didn’t know is that the man in front of them is something beyond their king. One who controlled the army of death, one who killed every devil putting an end to the apocalypse and making the whole of humankind extinct now stood in front of them.

“I guess your soldiers don’t have any manners. How dare your puny minions point their swords at me?”

With just his glare, an unbelievable pressure fell into the place. A murderous intent so high fell upon them that it forced the soldiers to kneel on the spot. Even the king and the one who summoned the man were not spared by the killing intent. They somehow managed to stand there, but for the second time, they experienced something this terrible.

“S-Stop at once!! How dare you release your murderous intent on your saviors?”

“Then how dare they pointed their swords at me? I guess like a king, the soldiers were manner less.”

The king tried to stand up for his soldiers but the naked man never backed down.

“And for your information, the world of ours is doomed now. Everything is finished. So don’t ever think that you saved me.”

“What?!”

Hearing the naked man, the king was shocked as he stood there, frozen while the naked man then took hold of his hand and pulled him near him.

“So, I warn you. Never ever say that you saved me.”

***

After everything calmed down, the king, the summoner, and the summoned sat down, facing each other in a room. The two who laughed and smiled earlier were nowhere to be found. Instead, a weird expression is plastered on their face.

And the reason for that sat in front of them, dressed in a robe which they gave him to wear.

After a moment of silence, the robed man finally spoke, breaking the silence between them.

“So tell me from the start, how are you here when our world needed you? And what is with this summoning stuff?”

The target of the question was none other than the king. After hesitating for a while, he spoke heavily.

“It was 3 years after the day of the apocalypse when one day I, with my team was fighting the legion of devils when a white light suddenly enveloped me with strange symbols under my feet.”

“The next moment, my body disintegrated and before I knew it I was in this world.”

“I tried to find my team, but I only found one man standing in front of me.”

“So was he the one who summoned you?”

Upon noticing the gaze of the robed man upon him, the summoner laughed weirdly. Looking at the pathetic state of the man, the king continued.

“Yes. He is a royal priest of the Goddess of Life. He claimed it was the Goddess’s will to summon me here.”

“And what? He got another will from the goddess to summon me. Is that what you are trying to say?”

“Yes.”

The robed man sat silently, trying to comprehend the information he got. Looking at the robed man being silent, the king hesitantly spoke to him.

“S-So, what happened to our world? Are the devils dead? You said our world is doomed. What does that me-”

“Everyone is dead.”

Not letting him complete his question, the robed man gave him the answer. Just three words. The Three heavy words felt like something unimaginable to the king.

“WHAT!!”

The king slammed his both palms on the table and stood up. His face paled after hearing the news about his world after a long time. He never expected it to turn out like this.

“Who killed them? What about the government and the awakened?”

They bombarded the robed man with various questions but the man thought to himself.

‘Should I just reveal everything? But it means this man would hate me.’

This world is full of mysteries and I cannot afford to make this man in front of me my enemy. As for what he said, I have to investigate more about this summoning and goddess.

The world when it was on the brink of destruction gave birth to awakened but despite that, our world met its doom. Even though I was the one responsible for its destruction, it cannot be ignored that if the ones who went missing like him would have existed there, I wouldn’t be able to kill anybody.

So for now, my only goal should be learning more about this world and the mystery behind the summoning of these awakened.

“Oii summoner.” The robed man spoke, ignoring the king.

Hearing his voice, the summoner who silently sat there, shrieked again.

“Answer me. Why is your goddess summoning the awakened from our world? Does she not know about the situation in our world?”

The summoner, hearing the question remained silent.

In the past, even he also thought the same. How can they trust these ‘heroes’ when these heroes can’t save their world? But when he asked his goddess about this, this is what he heard.

“Their world is already on the verge of end. What I am doing simply saving them.”

The answer, full of hypocrisy and arrogance made him question his faith in the goddess, but even then he viewed the situation in another way.

The world from where their heroes came from is already on the brink of destruction, so to him, the words of the goddess felt right and so he continued to summon the people. Eventually, the world which needed awakened the most was left with no one to protect it.

And now, in front of him sat the last survivor of the world from which they stole its hope. His mind was in conflict. Even though it was blasphemy to question the will of the goddess, the way the man in front of him described his situation finally made him question the goddess. But he cannot say it out loud or else they will brand him as a heretic.

“Answer me. Why the hell did something like this happen?”

The robed man slammed his fist and pursued him to answer.

“The demon king.”

But the one who answered him was the king. The king who listened to the words of the robed man finally revealed the reason behind their summoning.

The robed man then looked at the king with a questioning gaze.

“What do you mean by a demon king?”

***