The bone ax lodged in the middle of some person’s face. With a crack, their skull shattered and their life ended in front of the power of the ax.

Yet, just hitting anyone once didn’t feel enough.

Not enough at all.

I kicked the person and dislodged the ax off their head. With one hand, I grabbed the dead body’s neck and with the other chopped its limbs off.

The same way they had made Rimi suffer, I was going to impart it on them.

Only after cutting off both the hands and the neck of the person did I turn to the next. All around me, all over the place, a similar sight had been unfolding.

As if they had sensed my thoughts, the undead soldiers—my own past selves, slaughtered the villagers.

“No… no not my wife…”

“Don’t… stop! I don’t want to kill my husband! Let me go!”

A skeleton struck a sword into somebody’s already beheaded wife in front of their eyes, while two others forced a couple to kill each other. The skeletons grabbed their hands and forced their knives into each other.

There were more than hundreds of weapons here. How many people from how many cities had they killed? What about those children?

Such thoughts entered my mind as I smashed the head of another person to the ground, but they quickly dissipated. My eyes kept trailing toward the side, where the corpses of my two friends lay.

How strange.

No matter how many times I saw them.

This feeling did not change.

There was no wrath, no grief. Only a strange coldness filled me.

Had I become a monster? No.

It was because I had decided. That was all. A simple decision made it all seem pointless.

Blood was all around the place. The blood that continued to spill out of the villagers reached the pyre of fire.

Ah. Good idea.

I walked around and found a villager trying to run away. I lifted him up and dragged him over to the pyre.

“No, no no no!”

I slit the villager’s neck in front of the pyre. It was an emergency blood-based water hose that would take care of the flame.

Nodding, I turned away. Some villagers were trying to escape this place by running into the woods, but the skeletons weren’t merciful enough.

Like hungry hounds on a blood trail, the skeletons charged after the villagers and lodged them into the woods with their weapons.

My eyes trailed over the space. It was all ending. Everything.

The skeletons outnumbered everything. They seemed to be in the hundreds, and I had barely managed to summon all of them.

The ones whose stats were too low to move were stuck on the ground, but even the ones that crawled made themselves useful. With their teeth, their hands—anything that they could, they used to kill the enemy.

Even the giant serpent that had been watching it all, their ‘lord’ seemed to have stopped screaming.

They had made a child into that thing. How long was it wishing for their death?

The serpent did not move, so I let it be.

My eyes landed on the one that I had saved for the end. The weak skeletons had kept her safe and tied down.

“Control through eyes… huh?” I stepped toward her as I held my ax tight.

I wasn’t going to let her off easily. I raised the ax high and brought my other hand to my eyes. If there were no eyes, what could she control me through?

I moved my hand to my eyes as the world turned upside down. My feet were still on the ground, but there was no body on them.

I could see my feet.

[Don’t hurt… mom-my]

Ah…

The snake moved.

***

Bella raised her head in shock. All the villagers were dead, but suddenly, all the skeletons stopped moving too.

It was strange. The weight holding her down to the ground disappeared.

She slowly looked up and around her. All the skeletons had fallen to the ground. Near her was the giant serpent, her ‘lord,’ who kept saying the words that the undeserving vessel forced them to.

Bella looked at the snake, it was swallowing something. Something whole.

Her eyes then landed on the feet of the ‘creature’ that had wreaked havoc over the entire village. In a single night, everything came crashing down.

People that had been in the village for years died, slaughtered.

Bella couldn’t say she was sad though. She was happy they were dead, in time she would have killed them herself.

After all, these were the same bastards that her husband had sold her off to during the famine. That scumbag who didn’t wish to work and sold his wife for even a half-drank bottle of alcohol.

These were the same bastards who had tortured her to no end. And the same women who had done nothing despite knowing what their husbands subjected her to day in and out.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

That was why, the day her lord descended, the first person she fed him was her bastard husband, and then everyone whom she disliked.

The ones who were still alive were under her control. Her toys.

[Mom-my?]

The lord called for her.

A smile blossomed on Bella’s face. There was no sound except for her lords.

It was over. The nightmare was over.

“Hah…” She won. She was chosen by her lord and helped again. “Haha… HAHAHA… HAHAHAHAHA!”

Bella laughed. She laughed and laughed, in relief, in the humor of it all, she reveled.

[Mom-my… It hurts…]

Bella’s eyes trailed to the Lord again.

She slowly took a step closer. Yes, she was chosen. She was above all these bastards that only brought her suffering. That demon was banished too.

Everything was over.

Righteousness had won. Worship had won.

She had won—

—CLANG!

The body of the serpent extended outward. Bella who was getting closer to her lord stopped. An ominous chill ran up her spine.

She could hear the voices of the bones gathering together again. The skeletons were rising once more.

[Mom-my? It hurts… It hurts it hurts it hurts…]

Over and over, the serpent’s body expanded closer to her. The clangs resounded louder with each passing moment.

[AHHHHH!!]

It tore off. The body of the serpent split from within. Blood, guts, and stomach juices spurted on Bella’s face as the serpent was cut apart from the inside.

Fear took over her body.

A hand extended out of the serpent, then another. That ‘monster’ tore her lord open from the inside and stepped out.

He too was covered in blood. His clothes were burnt onto his skin, but his eyes.

His eyes were still indifferent.

The same as before. As everything was beneath him.

“M-m-m-monster…” Bella muttered.

She took a step back. Her body trembled with deep intensity. She felt sick to her stomach, as if her very organs would pour out in vomit.

She had to use her magic. Right now, she had to stop him right now—

The man raised his fingers and stabbed them into her eyes. As he pulled his hand away, her eyeballs dragged out too.

Bella’s mouth opened as a scream left her. Pain unlike anything she had felt shook her to her very soul...

“Control through eyes… was it?”

The skeletons around gathered near Bella.

It was over. Her last chance, her spell, she couldn’t hope to use it now. Her lord was dead anyway, the one that had bestowed her the ability.

The man took a step forward.

Bella felt the ground turn over and the clouds fall to her feet.

She took a step back.

“No… please… no, w-we can revive the lord… the lord will surely bless you. I promise. W-w-we can birth another vessel and revive the—”

The man swung the axe and cut her tongue off.

“AH…?” Bella yelped. Her words stopped flowing as gasps left her. “Gahg huh.. ah?”

“AHHHHHH!!”

She screamed in pain and covered her mouth, right then, a kick was planted in her stomach.

Bella slid and fell to the ground, and the skeletons all around her stepped away. They gathered in a line as if making way for that monster.

For death to claim her soul.

“Ah… ah…”

The monster took a step forward.

“Run,” he said.

Blinded, Bella struggled to get on her feet. She stood up and started to run in front of her.

With a step or two, she fell on her face.

And the sound of the man approaching grew louder.

“Ah… auhhhh…”

Groans left her as she cried for help. Bella got back on her feet and charged ahead. She tripped over nothing, and this time, he caught up.

The man swung his axe and a deep gash tore through her back.

“Run.”

Bella bit her lips through the pain and charged ahead again. She couldn’t see anything, but she knew this village, and so she ran.

The woman who couldn’t tell her left from her right anymore ran as fast as her feet could carry her.

She wanted someone, anyone to help her.

So she ran to the only place she could run to.

Each time she fell, the man and his army of skeletons would follow.

“Run.”

He cut her arms.

“Run.”

Her shoulders.

“Run.”

Her legs.

A trail of blood was left in her wake. With her body maimed, all she could do was crawl on her hands.

She crawled, with all her strength. She crawled.

Help. Just some help. She prayed and prayed for help as she crawled closer to the church in the village.

But.

“I caught up again.”

Bella dropped her head to the ground. If only her stupid child could have been a stronger vessel. If only the foolish villagers could have killed this monster. If only the adventurers' guild had sent a different party.

She wouldn’t have had to face this.

The monster lowered his ax.

If only…

.

.

.

***

A corpse lay at my feet. The bone ax separated the corpse's head and body.

With this.

It was over.

Everything was over.

I slowly turned and looked at a skeleton soldier.

“Go,” I said, and it ran into the village. My eyes fell on the woman once more.

The sight that I had created back at the fire flashed through my head.

After all this… how could I claim to be a human?

How could I say I was better than these bastards?

It was over. Everything. My revenge was over, and now it was time to end my suffering too.

The skeleton I had sent away soon returned with a rope. I tied it in a noose and rolled it in my hands.

“You all go away from this hell.”

With those words, the skeletons started to fade away into purple miasma.

The sense of strength that I had felt disappeared. I couldn’t live.

I didn’t have anything anymore. After losing everything, I even threw away my humanity and my right to live.

That’s why, I decided to kill myself. Just like the time I had been buried underground, this time I would hang. I had already died thrice, it wouldn’t take long for my stats to go to 0.

Even if I didn’t die, I would eventually be too frail to even breathe. All of this would be over. If an eternity of suffering awaited me, so be it.

A chuckle left me as I stepped ahead. That woman had run all the way to the church.

It wasn’t a bad place to die. There would be more than enough space to hang inside.

My life in this world zoomed past my head. The time I spent with my newfound family. The time with the Lich. Even the two weeks at the palace.

“Hah…”

My feet dragged ahead, my thoughts in a different place.

A man who wished to revive his family without dying and became a Lich. A girl who saw her mother and her village's desperate pleas and turned into a monster that brought rain and good health.

Why the hell was I even in this world?

There were many mysteries, but those didn’t concern me.

I stopped in front of the gate and meekly pushed my hand ahead.

I remembered it was a pretty night. But I didn’t dare to stain the view any further.

My eyes went only halfway above the door, at the signboard on top.

[The Gods Always Have A Plan] it read.

The Gods Always Have A Plan…

The same gods that had abandoned this village? The people that had come here? Even Rimi and Evans? How hilarious.

Every time I heard that phrase, I couldn’t help but scoff.

Suddenly, my mind blanked.

Everytime… I heard the phrase…?

[That boy with no abilities, Ian?]

[The gods always have a plan, and you are not a person to harm a child—]

If there was no Oracle, I wouldn’t have been in the ground.

If the commander had decided to kill me himself. Even to the end, if he had killed me instead of burying me alive.

They would have known about Undying…

[Die again…?]

If I hadn’t been left alone, I wouldn’t have met the Lich.

If the Lich hadn’t found out a clue to his goal through me, he would have left at the first sight of the Imperial Knights instead of stubbornly trying to continue his research.

I wouldn’t have met Evans and Rimi.

[You know what they say, the gods always have a plan.]

I wouldn’t have learned.

I wouldn’t have become stronger.

I wouldn’t have come to this village.

Evans and Rimi would still be alive. So would this village that continued to harm people.

A man who suddenly turned into a Lich even though such things did not happen in this world.

A girl who heard her mother’s plea and the village’s suffering and turned into a being that granted their wishes, even though such things did not happen in this world.

I and the heroes who were called to this world to fight a great threat.

Even though the demons had existed for as long as the humans had.

My body staggered as a connection formed in my head. My legs went weak, and my knees trembled.

I fell on my back. The Lich, the Serpent, and I.

My eyes shook, and every cell in my body screamed out.

From the beginning.

“No… no no no no…”

All of this…

“No… it’s not possible… it’s not…”

Was part of their plan.

I fell limp.

From the beginning. The Undying, the burying, and Evans and Rimi. While the heroes grew stronger… I was used to keep these ‘threats’ that flipped the logic of the world in check.

The great threat that this sudden transformation posed.

And my role in stopping it.

Even if it meant Rimi and Evans dying. Even if meant being buried. Since the threats died too…

“Ah….”

Everything was a part of their plan.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”