"Please go to... my room and delete... all files... from my computer, if necessary... destroy the computer..."
A young man in his twenties said, his words choked with blood filling his throat, the blood coming from a wound he received on the right side of his chest.
Due to the corruption present in the spear that wounded him, healing was impossible without a healer of at least A rank, something that was not possible at that moment.
How he received this wound was a story for later; all we know is that it was due to his work in this crazy world.
"Leave it to Ascher, as a man, I understand the importance of wiping your data,"
Kolen said, a man in his thirties with a wealth of experience. After saying this, they burst out laughing—at least they tried, because the first had a hole in his chest and the second had tears streaming down his face, knowing that his best friend, the man who was like a brother to him, was taking his last breaths.
The two had a moment to relax. But they quickly returned to their previous tense state.
"Kolen, I want you to take care of my family... protect them. And..."
Cough, Cough!!
"For Ascher, don't strain yourself, we might be able to get you to a healer, we..."
The words stuck in Kolen's throat when he saw the determined look on Ascher's face.
They both knew this was the end of Ascher's life; he was only staying alive through sheer willpower and stubbornness, just to say a few more words. "Promise me... this, Kolen."
"I promise, I'll protect them with my life."
"Well, and to do that, take my eyes and transplant them into you. With your physical fitness and my eyes, you should be able to reach S-rank."
Kolen was startled, as Ascher's eyes were the reason he reached A-rank even with a D-rank body.
Given the importance of this matter, Kolen considered denying it, but seeing the look on his face that he wouldn't take no for an answer, Kolen could only accept it with a nod.
"Now I can die in peace... it's a shame I didn't declare myself... to her."
"..."
As he listened to his brother's last words, not of blood but of weapons, Kolen could only weep silently. "If I'm reincarnated... in some magical world, I'll find a way to return..., until then, take care..., it was an honor to fight... by your side... Kolen..."
With these last words, Ascher closed his pearly blue eyes and, with a faint smile on his face, took his last breath.
There was no light at the end of the tunnel, no life passing before him, nothing like that. He simply stopped feeling, whether it was the emotions of leaving his loved ones behind, the pain of the hole the spear left, the burning of the corrosion caused by the energy of corruption—he no longer felt any of these pains or feelings. Only nothingness greeted him the moment he stopped breathing.
A capable warrior, who gave his life to protect his family and his world for ten long years.
It was fighting, without leaving any regrets behind, that he reached the end of his life in the year 2225 AD.
While Ascher's soul departed planet Earth, Kolen took his body. After twenty minutes, he managed to calm down and left the dungeon, without saying a word, to fulfill the wishes of the brother-in-arms who fought by his side and saved his life countless times with frightening precision.
"Don't worry, Ascher, I will honor the promise I made to you. I will protect everyone and I will rebuild humanity once again. You will be remembered forever, as the hero you always were."
Earth would continue its struggle for many, many years. Humanity would have to survive without one of its strongest defenders today. And it might even see all Earthlings become extinct, or the invading creatures overcome. But only the future will tell.
For Ascher, this no longer matters, for he was no longer part of this reality.
….
An unknown amount of time passed, and Ascher, who hadn't even known he existed, regained consciousness.
Suddenly, he began to remember the events. In order to save Kolen from an axe blow from a corrosive Troll, he let himself be hit by a spear thrown from a distance by another Troll.
He could have easily dodged; he saw the spear being thrown, but if he had dodged, he wouldn't have been able to fire the arrow in time, and Kolen would have been split in half.
Why not save himself first, you ask? Because Kolen had a wife and two children to raise, and he had his parents and his sister, but his sister was stronger than he was; they could hold their own. He would have preferred to save them both, but his body forced him to choose only one, and as a certain ninja would say:
"Those who abandon their companions are worse than trash."
"I remember all this, so why am I still alive, why can't I move, why can't I feel my body?"
As his mind raced with thoughts and questions he couldn't fathom.
A light began to appear, and he felt as if he were being pressed from all sides, his ability to feel also returned at that instant.
He began to feel a great deal of pain, and before he could think he was dying again, everything became clear to him, and he began to hear voices.
He took a breath after an unknown amount of time, without breathing. And immediately a pain came to his lungs that lasted seconds, making him instinctively scream.
Seeing a baby cry and struggle in her hands, a brown-haired woman, wearing a ribbon, with a metal emblem carved on her forehead, spoke. "Uzumaki Kilin, your delivery was successful, you had a healthy boy."
"Let me see my baby!" Kilin said.
And in response, a medical ninja, dressed in white, handed the baby to the woman who had just given birth, but who didn't seem to have even a hint of a sigh.
Such is the frightening vitality of the Uzumaki clan.
She picked up the baby, looked into his beautiful royal blue eyes, and immediately began to cry with joy and sadness because she and her son would be taken away from the baby's father.
She didn't even care about the looks around her: one of joy, barely restraining herself from rushing forward and hugging them both.
One of tenderness, like a grandmother looking at her grandchildren.
And several looks that seemed to see through everything, conveying only disgust, anger, disgust, and an almost mad desire to end this red-haired, blue-eyed freak.
'This sounds like the ancient language of the long-extinct country of Japan. And Uzumaki. Those white eyes around almost everyone, the red hair. My limbs are all tiny, what's happening to me? Have I turned into a baby?'
'Could this be what I'm really thinking?!'
As Ascher contemplated what was happening to him and his strange situation, the people around him began to talk.
He snapped out of his thoughts, and heard a loud slap, followed by a fierce voice.
"I should kill you, Hyuga Ishikawa, this baby who's nothing but a freak right now."
"Damn it, that baby is me. You have to kill me now that I feel like I've been reborn!"
"What cursed place have I ended up in? Where they kill babies who aren't even a day old."
Ascher cursed his fate, for being able to die as soon as he was reborn.