Inside a seven-story building, on the fifth floor, a weak blue light was still visible in the dark night as the screen from a laptop continued to light up the room near the window. The room had five beds, two tables, one sink, a small fridge, and a mirror above the sink. It was a minimal room for students, and while the bathrooms were communal on each floor, everyone who wanted to take a shower had to walk through the hallway naked, only with a towel around their lower parts. Thankfully enough, the rooms were separated by gender, meaning that there was another building for all females with a similar design.
Now, just finish with the conclusion and be done with this project as well...
A young man with dark hair and brown tired eyes tipped on his laptop in bed while everyone else was sleeping soundly. He was the only one still awake in his room. Or rather, in the whole building, as the clock was 5 in the morning and he didn’t get to sleep a wink, his projects for university had been piling up until now because of work.
Working while being a student... What torture.
He sure hated his predicament, but he couldn’t afford to just drop either his studies or work because of his financial status and pressure from his family to continue his studies.
Well, whatever… Let’s sleep.
Finally closing the laptop, he placed it beside his bed and finally lied down to sleep. But, one hour later,
-BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!-
The phone of one of his roommates started vibrating loudly on the wooden table, and then a loud ringtone made the young man open his eyes wide, his heart almost jumping out of his chest from the loud ringtone.
"Yawn~… Bro, I slept so good.
"Just shut that loud-ass phone, damnit.
The young man groaned tiredly and turned around while covering his head with his pillow. The other three roommates also got up and started preparing as they had to go to classes.
The guy with the loud phone who just talked leaned closer to him while smiling amused.
"Come on, Darius. It was not my fault you stood awake until early morning. Just when did you fall asleep?"
"I didn’t..."
"Damn. I bet it sucks to be in your shoes. But anyway! Quickly get up. We got a seminary first thing in the morning, and with that damn old fossil at that. You know that if you have more than two absences, he will drop you no matter how well you do, right? And you already wasted your two absences the other week."
"Groan~…"
He felt like crying as his sleepy eyes were tearing exhausted. But he knew he had no other choice and just got up. After changing his clothes, washing his face, and eating some milk with cereals, he prepared to take his daily supplements to help him get through the day.
"Hey, where did you put the rat poison I brought the other day?"
"Huh? Rat-poison? We have such a thing?"
Well, I bought some. Until the hole in the wall under my bed gets covered, rats will continue to come out and nib at our stuff. I got some poison and wanted to spread it around the hole, but after I placed it on my table, it disappeared."
The other three guys started talking together while Darius sleepily opened more little bottles and took out one pill from each of them, too tired to even look if he took the same pill again from the same bottle, gulping them down anyway.
"Oh, wait. You meant that red bottle? I didn’t look at it properly, so I thought it was one of Darius’ supplements. I placed… it… there…….."
"…. Oh shit."
"Hm? Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
Feeling their gazes, he turned to them, only to see how everyone turned white in the face. Not sure what happened, Darius looked down and saw how the very last bottle he took a pill out of was exactly the red one, his face palling the next moment.
-DROP-
He dropped the bottle, and his face started to change color: from white to red to green, then to purple.
"F-fuck! Quick! Make him spit it!"
"Punch him in the stomach or something! Do the Heimlich maneuver!"
"Oh fuck! Oh shit! Bro, he’s dying!"
The other three quickly went to Darius and tried to make him puke, either by making some amateurish maneuver or punching him in the stomach, or simply by being unable to handle the situation and panicking while cursing out loud.
"Guh! Pfft!"
"H-he’s puking?! It’s working!"
"N-no! Stop! That’s blood!"
"What?!"
The others quickly stopped, and one of them decided to call the police while the others supported Darius, unsure what to do.
"It’s rat poison that potent these days, man?! Where did you even buy such a thing? It can kill elephants!"
"A-a friend showed me a guy who has really strong stuff. Those are home-made and, uhh…"
"What the fuck?! That's the same as black market! Couldn’t you have gone to a normal drugstore?!"
"I-it was cheaper, okay?! Besides, isn’t it your fault for not even looking at what you’re putting near his supplements?!"
"Was I the one who made him take them?! Fuck you!"
"No, fuck you!"
"Shut the fuck up both of you! I’m trying to talk on the phone! ... S-so, yeah, on the XX street, n-number, uhm, 6! Ye-yes, it was 6, a-and, f-floor 5…"
Although the dorm’s room was loud and in mayhem, to Darius, everything seemed quieter and quieter, barely hearing anything as his vision started to blur and narrow.
I’m… so damn sleepy…
If he was dying or just passed out from overworking again, he couldn’t care less. He was so tired, he couldn’t even feel the pain of having his insides destroyed by the potent poison.
Although it was hard to create such a potent poison in this day and age, the fact that his friend was able to get such a crazy product made one wonder just who he came in contact with. That poison worked like some crazy venom, taking down his organs one after another by the second.
I wonder if tomorrow I’ll be able to play for a bit… I haven’t gotten to open my daily chest for a week now…
The only thing that actually remained in his head was the game he used to play whenever he had a bit of free time: a post-apocalyptic fantasy-type massive multiplayer online (MMO) game. He remembered that back when he first started it, he saw some news about it over the fact that the game’s creator was able to build the story and everything based on a few dreams he continued to have along its development. Darius found this idea quite weird in itself, but he couldn’t deny the quick mechanics and cool combos that were based on reflexes and quick thinking. The game was a rollercoaster as every boss was strong and able to even one-shot, while the rewards were on par, making the player feel great achievements after every dungeon.
Well… whatever…
Unable to see or hear anything anymore, Darius succumbs to the silence and darkness, his body falling weak.
.
… Huh?
Wild memories, overwhelming feelings, and a humongous amount of information suddenly rushed inside his mind at a speed that his consciousness was unable to process, seeing everything like passing thoughts that filled his head, going one after another like flashes of images before his eyes.
Wait… what are these? And… some of these are familiar…? Is this- agh! My head!
Darius moved about and was unable to take it anymore as the rushing thoughts were so overwhelming and even loud. The pain became physical as he felt his head snapping.
"Guh…"
He groaned while turning and opening his eyes in his bed, the room still being dark as it was early in the morning.
Damn. What’s the clock?
He reached out to the clock on top of the stand near his bed.
Wait… clock?
He grabbed the mechanical table-clock that showed 5:00 AM and frowned as the overly familiar feeling made him understand that there was nothing wrong with it.
This… the military, right?
He looked around and saw rows upon rows of bunk beds, with men of similar age as him sleeping soundly in them.
These memories… are mine, right?
It was a weird feeling. He felt like it was his first time in this place, seeing these people. But at the same time, he felt like he had been living under such conditions forever, nothing being out of the ordinary. On one hand, he felt like he was just an ordinary university student who was barely keeping up with his studies and work, suffering from malnutrition. On the other hand, he felt like he was a killing machine trained since childhood to fight and eliminate the Humanity Coalition’s enemies, be they humans or monsters, even at the cost of his own life.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
W-what… Just what is going on?
He got up, as he was unable to sleep any further, and walked down the weirdly familiar corridor of the barrack, entering the communal bathroom for men. He went to the metallic sink and washed his face. The moment he looked up, he froze in place.
T-this is... me... ?
A young man with dark hair and brown eyes, he looked identical to his former self, from the dark circles under his eyes to the mole on the lower left side of his neck. However, if there were any differences, then that would be pretty much everything else.
I'm hella fit.
He wasn’t burly like some of his roommates, but his muscles were evident enough to be used for an anatomy class, being especially ripped. No fat was visible; only muscle tissues were visibly tensing and relaxing underneath his skin after every move, with veins in full view as if he just carried weights. He was as if made out of stone, to the point where slightly clenching his fists made his forearms appear as if sculpted by antique Greeks.
Haha~… this is crazy.
He was amazed by his own body, and he even took off his shirt. However, after doing so, he was surprised by the many scars present here and there; stitched marks, bullet holes, and cuts that didn’t seem to be only from knives.
W-wait. These aren’t just from training…
Claw marks were here and there, and on his arms, even biting marks were visible, made by creatures as if out of this world. He remembered that they would occasionally be sent out on missions to eliminate monsters that permeated the human territories and also train against them by being placed in a coliseum-like arena with only a knife and a gun to fight against them and get accustomed to fighting against such monsters.
Those creatures… They look different, but I feel like I’ve seen their concept before…
Memories started to appear in his mind, and after understanding what was happening, a wide grin appeared on his face.
"This world is... from the game I played, [Spirit Wielder]?!"
He rushed outside the barrack, and just as he expected, a large pillar of purple-dark color was illuminating the sky in the distance as a storm was swirling around it, with dark clouds spinning around and purple lightning constantly flashing. The image was as if the world waited to end while all of that was at a distance of around 1200km. It normally shouldn’t even be visible from so far away, but under the darkness of the night and the pillar itself being larger than 100km in diameter, the light was still visible even though they were on a whole other continent from it. Around the pillar, dark-purple clouds were covering territories as far as the eyes could see. The storm was also especially visible as it spammed for an area of 1000km around, showing the effect of the dangerous miasma that was emanated by the pillar. Strictly speaking, an ice age of constant thunder and toxic gas covered such a large area, making it impossible for any creature from Earth to live there.
Based on Darius’ memories of the game, this world suffered a great calamity that engulfed the whole European continent.
The world was engulfed by a crack in space and time, from where more mythical and demonic creatures started to engulf the world. These were monsters that appeared as if from Hell through an underground crack that was known to be locked by the prehistoric beings with a golden door that was pried open by archaeologists who discovered it. However, the deadliest element from this underground rift was the miasma that was polluting the air, ground, water, and everything it touched. The energy emanating from that world was called Miasma and the rift itself was called the Gateway to Hell. The miasma behaved as if with a will, corrupting the minds of every living being and giving them incredible powers in return for surrendering their souls to their own desires.
With the appearance of this rift, throughout the whole globe, more portals appeared that engulfed more people inside of it. After around 45 years or so since the appearance of the spatial rift, weird phenomena started happening throughout the continent corrupted by the Miasma. From the sky, bodies enveloped in golden energy showered over the border area of the land like sparkling falling stars, releasing a great deal of purifying energy that offered the chance for whoever was released by the rift to be saved by the human squads that defended the borders.
Most of those who returned and were failed to be revived by the salvation squads were turned into demons and dangerous monsters shortly after escaping from the rift, while a very few of them returned as Mages or very rarely as Spirit Wielders, able to use great powers by controlling the natural energies of this world known as Ether, without losing themselves.
The Mages were those who showed superhuman powers and magic abilities, while Spirit Wielders were beings comparable to the Demigods of the legends, some showing powers great enough to blow a mountain on their own. And the most dangerous thing was the fact that youngsters and even children had the greatest chances of emerging as Mages or Spirit Wielders for some unknown reason, while adults rarely ended up as mages after being expelled by the rift, most of the time appearing as normal humans or corrupt monsters. This was especially dangerous because of a teenager’s lack of self-control, who ended up most of the time unable to control their own powers and only harming those around them.
And because of that, extremist factions appeared between the normal humans who wanted to lock the superhumans away for their own good.
Darius’ knowledge made him feel shocked and excited. The graphics of the game were initially rather childish, with no blood and barely any gore, but the story made it depressing enough to show just how dire the situation was.
If you had asked anyone in-game if they wanted to live in that world, most probably the greater majority would say "Hell no".
Now this is a great opportunity.
However, one of those who would agree to live in this world happened to be Darius as well, with a large grin appearing on his face.
The game has six heroes, and from the looks of it, I’m a simple soldier. An elite one at that? Great! Although the elites were groomed to be extremists who didn’t wish to have anything to do with the Superhumans, if we can ally the two camps before we start fighting between each other like fools, then we could lower the casualties’ head count by a large margin. However, for that, I must meet one of the heroes. I wonder which one would be faster.
He walked back inside the bathroom to wash his eyes as he felt a bit dirty, then a sleepy voice resounded from the bathroom’s entrance.
"Ugh… Darius? Why are you awake so early? Another dream?"
"Huh?"
He turned to a tall young man, and his eyes opened wide. More memories flowed through his head as the familiar face tried to look his way, but his tired eyes were yet to get used to the strong lights inside the bathroom.
"An-..drew?"
One of his roommates from his past life and his best friend in this life, both memories overlapping and making Darius look at him in complete awe. Then suddenly, a quick thought flashed through his mind as he quickly asked,
"A-Andrew! Did you die as well?!"
"Uh, die? Dude, are you sleep-talking again? Last time, you said something about some book of power. Now you died in your dreams?"
"…"
Seeing Andrew so confused made Darius aware that he didn’t gain any memories from some other world like he did.
Darius then stared once again in the mirror and succumbed to his own thoughts.
Seeing how I look more or less identical to my past-life self, have the same name, and my roommate's here as well, I’m pretty sure this is... a parallel world.
This conclusion made Darius shudder. What were the chances for the game’s developer to come up with a story that was based on the happenings of another world’s? Were his dreams that he said the game was based on actually information from his parallel self? Or was it all just some crazy coincidence? No, but, as stated before, what were the chances?
Either way, I must accept the fact that I can’t return anymore, while this world is my home now.
This thought made Darius turn white in the face, but he still remained calm. Thanks to his parallel self, who experienced a great deal of danger and went through grueling training, his mentality was fortified well enough to be able to remain collected. Even so, his blood still turned cold as he remembered that he actually died after taking some extremely potent poison, while in this universe, the world is threatened to be destroyed by some rift in space.
Either way, a feeling of excitement swirled inside of him as resolution flashed through his eyes, his fists clenched tightly.
Having knowledge of this world can be no coincidence. I shall make full use of it and do my best to help humanity survive, as many as possible! Starting today, things will change…
.
Four years later, the humans’ camp was completely decimated.
How did… things turn out like this…?
Dressed in clothes and gear made out of rare materials, Darius was lying down on drenched red dirt, looking at the dark sky that flashed with purple lightning a few times per second.
How did I become like this…?
His neck was cut open, his chest was dented in, and his torso was slashed all the way to the other side, while large bullet holes were filling his whole body, with his forehead and heart area being especially penetrated through. Even so, for some reason, he was still conscious, as if his soul refused to disconnect from the damaged body.
"T-the devil is dead!"
"They killed our lord! Take their heads as revenge!"
"Darius! No!!!"
"What useless last struggles!"
How did… the world turn out this way…?
The ones who made Darius like that were a combined attack from the four remaining heroes: the swordsman Icarus Avram; the gunslinger Amanda Goldfield; the fighter Ian Armand; and the reaper Rosy Nightwish. 4 out of the 6 main heroes of this world.
The other two, the Beastwoman Sora Kim and the One-Woman-Army Annabelle of the 6th unit, were fighting against the heroes after being corrupted by the void’s miasma.
The world itself was in flames as the city they were in was completely in ruins, not a soul in sight, except for the huge army of demonic followers that gained the title of The greatest terrorist underground faction, made of fanatics, corrupt superhumans, and monsters controlled by the said members, together with the heroes who continued to fight them desperately.
Why am I… like this…?
A feeling of frustration combined with self-hatred and anguish made him not rest well until his very last moment, the great army behind him shouting in grief as the dark blood of their lord smeared the floor.
.
I thought I was summoned into this world to save it… But in the end, I became its demise.
Darkness and nothingness enveloped him.
My ignorance and arrogance made me rush forward blindly, not thinking twice before acting. Now the consequences of my actions came back to bite me as I altered the future to my own liking with foolish confidence, destroying myself and the world along with me.
Darius thought to himself as he opened his eyes again, seeing himself in the same barracks as when he first appeared in this world.
"…"
He rose up and looked at his hands, at the people around him that he saw die with his own eyes or even kill them himself, then at the clock that showed 5 AM in the morning. He got up and went to the bathroom to wash his face and look in the mirror.
"…"
His eyes were sharp and hollow, nothing like what they were back when he first appeared in this world: full of spirit, confident, and filled with life. If anything, they were completely opposite now, and it was justified as he was the one who brought this world to its end.
"Ugh… Darius? Why are you awake so early? Another dream?"