There was once a time I used to live on Earth.
Back then, my friend asked a stupid question,
"Hey Art, imagine if you had immortality! What would you do?"
If I'd given him a different answer that day, maybe… I wouldn't be here now.
What did I say again? Ah! Right, something just as stupid.
"Hm, I will always try to do things differently so that I will never get bored."
A few hours later, I got hit by a truck. Died instantly.
Talk about irony.
How long has it been since I transmigrated into this god forsaken world?
15 years but... 6 times.
Six endings. Six lifetimes spent trying to stop the inevitable.
Well, in a few minutes, the 6th loop is going to end, and I'll be forced to live those goddamn 15 years all over again.
-BOOM
My eyes moved towards the sound; it was a piece of moon.
The cloudless crimson sky above, the bloody ruins below.
The wind currents change, ash falls move as the silence cracks.
It won't be long before the world explodes.
Currently, in the entire world, I was the only one alive. But... in my current state, people would rather die than live like me.
My body was burning due to unnatural heatwaves, burning and regenerating in a constant, agonizing cycle.
A human torch, what I was. And the problem was the pain... I never got used to it, not even after the sixth time.
In case you are wondering, why am I still alive?
Well, I am Immortal.
Funny, right? I am a living joke of destiny.
A useless and weakest Immortal there is.
"I am a... Failure"
A failure who can't even save his world six times straight.
But for the past 90 years, I had been searching for a way to break the cycle.
And at last, I had found a clue, a single name, etched into bone in a place that should not exist, but I was too late to get hold of it.
Things are going to be different in my 7th loop.
It doesn't matter even if it was a false hope. I will hold onto it.
"Ha... haha... hahaha..."
I am done. I am so done playing a hero.
I should never have seen things from others' perspectives and given them a choice. I always thought the more people in, the better chances, but...
My methods were... wrong.
"I won't give a damn about others any longer; this time I will do things in my fucking bloody way."
"Efficiency over people."
I whispered, as blood began to stream from my violet eyes.
"Self over sympathy."
"If the world is going to end anyway, then I'll make it happen on my own terms."
As my words echoed in the burning silence, the world seemed to pause. The shaking stopped for a single, breathless second.
-KABOOM
The world exploded. My vision blurred. Time unraveled. The world folded in on itself like paper.
As the ear-shattering sound fell silent, a familiar male voice called my name,
"Caelir Strix".