– Whatever was left buried for centuries, should've been left buried forever.

Hmm, what was that famous saying again? Ah, yes – 'Curiosity killed the cat'. Curiosity killed the cat, they say.

Heh, if only reality was that merciful...

The accursed curiosity that led us to that dreadful mansion that day..... had already killed a fifth of the entire human population.

Now, as I helplessly watch the world slowly crumble apart around me, knowing that I can't change anything – all I can do is curse my past oblivious self.....every. single. day.

Every bloody time when I see someone die before my eyes, I curse that curiosity of ours, that naive ignorance we were so full of.

Every day, I wonder – is there really any reason for me to live anymore? To continue my existence even when I know it better than anyone – that there is nothing but despair and pain waiting for me at the end of this road?

No, wait.... Haha, I think I got it now.

Right, maybe I don't need to curse myself anymore. After all, what use would cursing myself have, when the greatest curse in the world is already bound to my body…?

Shouldn't that count as enough punishment for all those deaths and destruction the three of us had caused?

Ahh, but… isn't it unfair that only I have to continue living on with this curse while they both get the early ticket out?

– Dammit, all three of us should've been punished together instead!

It was so unfair. Totally, completely, and utterly UNFAIR!!!

The Ancient Gods and Heroes of War are now awakening one by one. The dreadful 'wave' is spreading far faster than I initially thought.

Has it already been a month since the Sun has gone out...?

A cold darkness that envelops everything, a rancid smell of death lingering all around, wars that devastate countries overnight, incurable plagues that appear without any warning. Haha, I know this pattern pretty well.

Things are still quite stable for now. Thanks to all the governments and military powers in the world desperately fighting back, the world hadn't truly collapsed just yet...

However, this resistance was never meant to last. As the bearer of the greatest curse in the world and the cause of this apocalypse, I know this fact too well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The only thing humanity could do from now on was to choose how they went out.

Would they be willing to desperately fight to the bitter end, or accept their fates early on and throw all the remaining nuclear warheads at those ancient beings and end the world themselves?

Both ways, this world is slowly heading towards its inevitable destruction. There was no changing that fact.

But… Since I've already come so far, I guess I shouldn't be too concerned about a few million more deaths. That vague sense of 'humanity' I so desperately didn't want to discard for so long, I think I'm ready to give up on it now.

Maybe I was hoping for a miracle. Maybe I thought that the God I used to pray to was going to descend someday – just like those 'beings' – if only I didn't stop hoping.

Hah. Hahaha. How delusional of me to think that an all-powerful God would descend and undo all of our mistakes like it was nothing, right? Right....

AS IF THERE WERE SUCH CONVENIENT THINGS IN LIFE...!!!

But that's fine now. All that idiocy and naivety of mine ends today. If I truly wished something to happen in this wretched world, I could only depend on myself and no one else.

If this madness wasn't going to stop anyway, at least, let me become the inhuman being who can thrive in that chaos and madness. Let me fully embrace the calamity all those beings fear so much!

This curse that brought the entire world to its ruin, let me truly become the harbinger of its advent!!!

At least that way, I would be able to survive when humanity finally chose that second option in the end.

That's right. Since I didn't die by now, I won't die even in the future. Not 10 years later, not 30 years later…

No matter how many years it takes, I JUST. WON'T. DIE!!!

Even if I end up spending an eternity alone by myself, I refuse to die after coming this far!!

...Even if that means becoming an incarnation of chaos myself.

—

Inside a shabby, dimly illuminated room, the aggressive scribbling noises suddenly came to a halt.

"Max... Max! Where are you...?!"

As if on cue, a loud voice echoed from the outside, before a bulky man suddenly shoved himself in through the shaky door, panting heavily as he gathered his breath.

"We... w-we have found it! We found the 'Pandemic's hideout!"

A dark-brown haired teenager carefully tidied up the diary he had been writing till now, before lifting his head and staring at the panting intruder standing by the shack's door with a gloomy pair of eyes.

"...How many?"

An unexpectedly raspy voice came out of the teenager's mouth, making the intruder momentarily gulp down his saliva in tension.

"Uh, F-Five... Five of our scouts died."

The teenager slowly nodded his head.

"...Five, huh. That is lower than before."

"...Well, it's all thanks to the relics you gave us. Without those, none of them would've had the chance to get away in time."

"I only did what was necessary. Now, let's go before that wretched thing takes even more lives."

The teenager stood up, going ahead and disappearing into the pitch-black darkness outside the dimly lit room. The bulky man soon followed after him, subtly cursing under his breath while making sure that the young man couldn't hear him.

Only a barely flickering flame of a small candle was left burning weakly inside the shabby-looking shack.

But even that light was soon extinguished, leaving behind a silent darkness that seemed to devour everything.