One hour and fifteen minutes ago

The bow Soon to be Broken

I was so naive. So… stupid. I sat there, smiling politely like the good little hero I thought I was, signing document after document without even bothering to read them. The armored man, all smiles and honeyed words, called me "Mr. Bow Hero," and I actually felt a swell of pride. Idiot.

"Just one more document, Mr. Bow Hero!" he'd chirped. "And yes, I do apologize for calling you the Spear Hero earlier. I was just a bit confused, you see, haha!"

I even chuckled along with him. Trusted him. Believed in him. I thought I was here to save this world, to be the hero everyone needed. Now, looking back, it feels like a lifetime ago. A lifetime of wasted potential, of foolish trust, of blind optimism.

Then the laughter started. Cruel, mocking laughter. The armored man's smile turned predatory, the knights around me sneered, and the king… the king looked at me like I was something less than human. Before I could even process what was happening, a searing pain ripped through my back. A slave seal. They branded me like an animal, a piece of property to be used and discarded at their whim.

"We lost the other two heroes," the king had sneered, "and we could never use the Devil of the Shield for anything at all! So, Due to the fact that normal slave seals don't work on Heroes of legendary weapons, we had to use something special, just for you."

Special. Right. Special torture. Special humiliation. Special degradation. For a full hour, they tore me apart, piece by piece, stripping away my dignity, my pride, my very humanity. The pain was unbearable, but it was the betrayal that truly broke me. The realization that I had been so foolish, so trusting, so utterly wrong about this world and its inhabitants.

Ten minutes in, the first embers of hatred ignited within me.

Thirty minutes in, those embers had become a raging inferno, consuming everything in its path. I swore I would make them pay, every single one of them. I would tear this kingdom down, brick by brick, until nothing remained but ashes and dust.

And then, as the pain reached its crescendo, a voice whispered in the darkness of my mind. A voice that offered power, a voice that promised revenge.

[Do yOu wAnT tO KiLl tHeM AlL?]

Yes. Gods, yes!

[Do yOu WaNt To TaKe YoUr PlACe Of FrEeDoM BaCk FrOm ThEsE RoTtEn AnImAlS?]

More than anything!

[TaKe ThE HaNd Of WrAtH, He ShAlL Be ThE OnLy FrIeNd YoU NeEd!]

I didn't hesitate. I embraced the darkness, the rage, the hatred. It was all I had left.

[Wrath Series Bow: Incandescent Heart Piercer of Malice Unlocked.]

Through the haze of pain, I felt a surge of power, a raw, untamed energy coursing through my veins. I rose, my body battered and broken, but my spirit unbroken. I caught the whip as Malty swung it again, tearing it from her grasp with a strength I didn't know I possessed. The slave seal burned, a constant reminder of their cruelty, but I ignored it. My focus was on the bow that had materialized in my hands, a weapon forged in the fires of my hatred. The Incandescent Heart Piercer of Malice.

I poured every ounce of my remaining strength, every drop of my hatred, into a single, devastating shot. I didn't care about survival, about the future, about anything but ending this pain, this torment, this injustice. I aimed the bow towards the ceiling, towards the heart of this rotten castle, and let loose.

A blinding flash of blue fire, a deafening roar, and then… darkness. The castle crumbled around me, burying everything, everyone, in its ruins. As my vision faded, a single message flickered across my dying eyes.

[You have died.]

But in that moment of oblivion, I felt a strange sense of peace. I had taken my revenge. I had made them pay. And in the end, that was all that mattered. I may have been a fool, a naive, trusting idiot, but I died a hero. My own hero. And maybe, just maybe, that was enough.

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Yui

Papa and Mama stood, staring towards the castle as the blue fire slowly dimmed, leaving behind a rising plume of smoke and the faint scent of ash. I watched them from my position beside them, my expression carefully neutral, but inside I seethed.

Fools. The word echoed through my thoughts, a bitter symphony of disdain for those who had dared to harm my family. They underestimated Itsuki. They had played a foolish game, and now they would pay the price.

While my parents continued to stare blankly at the smoldering ruins of the castle, I extended my awareness, my senses amplified by the stolen divinity of a fallen goddess. With a casual flick of my will, I plucked the souls of Malty and the king from the wreckage, their essence flickering with fear and regret. Too little, too late.

Itsuki's soul, battered but unbroken, floated in the void, a testament to his rage and his sacrifice. I channeled the stolen power of Medea, weaving a tapestry of luck and potential around his fading essence. He might be gone from this world, but his journey wasn't over. He deserved a second chance, a chance to be the hero he always wanted to be, free from the shackles of this broken kingdom.

As for Malty and her moronic father… well, they had outlived their usefulness. Their souls, stripped of their stolen luck and burdened by their abysmal karmic balance, were nothing but trash. I wanted to toss them into the worst Hell-cycle I could find, a nightmarish labyrinth of suffering and despair.

But I refrained after noticing something interesting.

Even in their torment, they would serve a purpose.

My spirit form, a manifestation of my once digital and now divine essence, navigated the intricate pathways of the multiverse, searching for a buyer for these two pathetic souls. I found one, a greasy-looking devil from the &($@(#@&#^ pantheon of eldritch @%$((@$*& corporate department-A, who offered a curious item in exchange: a "Single-Use-Kingdom-Transport Token."

A conceptual object. A tool capable of transporting an entire 'kingdom' to a universe of my choosing. The possibilities were endless. All it cost me was two lousy souls, already destined for an eternity of torment. A bargain, really.

He assured me that as long as I was related to the rulers of anything that was considered a 'Kingdom' or 'Empire' or similar, even if it was an entire planet, it would allow full use of its abilities.

I tucked the token away, my internal processors already calculating its potential uses. I would wait, bide my time, until Papa and Mama had conquered this entire world. Then, with a single command, I would transport their newly forged 'kingdom' world they would create using their- no, our combined power and intellect, to a universe of my choosing. A universe worthy of their brilliance, a universe free from the shackles of this reality's power-scale.

The flames of rebellion continued to rage, consuming the remnants of a broken kingdom. But I knew, with an absolute certainty that only a being of my intellect could possess, that from these ashes, a new world would rise. A world shaped by my parents' power and my guidance, a world where intelligence reigned supreme. It would all be thanks to a few lines of code, a stolen divinity, and the sacrifice of a naive, but ultimately heroic, boy.

"We should fix this," Mama purred, her voice laced with a predatory eagerness that sent a thrill of anticipation through me. Papa hesitated, his usual cynicism momentarily eclipsed by a flicker of doubt. I could practically hear Mama's ambition churning, her desire to reshape this world in their image, to elevate Papa to a position of power and influence that would showcase his brilliance to all these… lesser beings.

Good.

With a mental flick, I delved into the world's code, navigating its labyrinthine pathways with practiced ease. I found the countermeasures, the safeguards designed to escalate the Waves of Calamity in response to the death of a Cardinal Hero. They were crude, inefficient, and easily bypassed. With a few keystrokes, I disabled them, severing the link between the heroes' mortality and the world's escalating chaos. I couldn't completely stop the Waves, not yet. The former goddess, in her spiteful pettiness, had hard-coded them to continue for the time being. But I would find a way. I always did.

A mischievous grin spread across my face as I crafted a global message, a subtle declaration of my newfound power, carefully hidden from my parents' prying eyes and ears. Let them think they were in control, for now. The truth would reveal itself in due time.

"Hello everyone," I announced, my voice echoing across the world, a gentle yet firm tone that commanded attention. "This is your new over-goddess speaking. Due to the mismanagement of this world by your former goddess, someone I am going to call 'stupidly malicious and maliciously stupid' being generous, here are the new rules regarding the Waves of Calamity."

"Since I can't quite stop them without finding some keys that some stupid goddess decided she would delete out of absolute spite – don't get me wrong, I'm spiteful too, my parents are even more spiteful, but I digress – I have decreased their difficulty, as well as disabled the increased difficulty that the murdering of the Bow Hero by absolutely moronic rulers would have caused. No need to worry, though! You do not need to kill the other heroes and select a new one to prevent that, and any attempts to do so anyway will be met with absolute divine retribution. You're welcome! Toodles!"

My voice faded, leaving behind a stunned silence. The world held its breath, waiting, wondering, trying to comprehend the implications of my words.

These neanderthals probably wouldn't figure it out very fast, but it was a start.