I ran with everything I had.
I ran and ran until my lungs burned and my breath turned to ragged gasps. The further I pushed, the louder my body screamed in protest. Yet, I didn't stop. I couldn't.
I wanted to see Nyau again.
If I died here, the world would likely rewind. It was impossible to know exactly how far back I would go, but based on past experience, I would probably end up back in the dungeon while Hero Eligion was still alive.
If that happened, my relationship with Nyau would be reset.
Maybe I could build that same bond with her again. But the fear that I wouldn't—that I couldn't—loomed over me. After all, once I finally saved the world from its doomed fate, I would have to return to the world 100 years later. We would be torn apart regardless.
My mind drifted back to Vampire Eudite. In the end, I had never been able to regain the deep connection we once shared.
That was why this timeline was so precious. The Nyau who loved me, the one who existed right now, was only in this specific moment.
So, I wanted to live for her. I wanted to reach her one more time just to tell her I loved her.
Even as I sprinted, Nyau was fighting a desperate battle against Demon King Zoga. I didn't know how much longer she could hold him off. There was a very real, terrifying possibility that she had already been killed in the time it took me to get this far.
Hurry. Just a second faster. I have to get back to her—
"Yo. Took a while to track you down, kid."
"You certainly got tossed quite a distance."
Two figures stood in my path: Warrior Golgano and Holy Knight Kanaria. The traitors.
"Why...?" I muttered, the word escaping my lips before I could stop it.
"Why? Because leaving a wild card like you running around is a pain," Golgano replied.
"It is our Master's will," Kanaria added. "The order was to capture you. We've been searching for you through the chaos of the Demon King Army."
Of all the times for them to block my way.
"Get out of my road."
Time was slipping through my fingers, and they were here to waste it.
"Kanaria, don't kill him," Golgano warned.
"I know. I just have to break him enough to drag him back."
Holy Knight Kanaria nodded, drawing the Parasitic Sword: Puppeteer and lunging at me.
I caught her blade with my own, shifting immediately into a counter. I had fought Kanaria across countless timelines. The memory of her movements was etched into my very soul, flowing through my veins like instinct. She wasn't an opponent I couldn't beat.
As our blades clashed, I looked for an opening. If I could just land one solid blow, I could move past her—
"You shouldn't let your eyes wander."
The voice came from directly behind me. Simultaneously, a massive impact shattered the air against my back.
"Gah!"
I doubled over, coughing up blood as a groan escaped my throat. Dammit. He’d closed the distance while I was distracted.
Against Holy Knight Kanaria alone, I had a chance. But against both her and Warrior Golgano working in tandem, victory was a pipe dream.
"What? Still trying to stand?" Golgano let out a weary sigh.
"Don't... get in my way."
"Huh?"
"There's somewhere I have to go. Someone I have to save. So please... move."
I appealed to them, knowing it was useless even as the words left my mouth.
"Like we give a damn about your problems," Golgano sneered, a twisted, mocking grin spreading across his face. "We aren't letting you slip away again."
I knew that. I knew better than anyone that these two weren't the type to listen to reason.
"Fine. Then I'll just have to kill you both."
I was done living with regrets. I knew exactly what I had to do.
"Hmph. For a dying man, he certainly has a big mouth," Holy Knight Kanaria said, her nose wrinkling in distaste at Kiska’s defiance.
"Don't drop your guard," Golgano warned her. He noticed the casual way she stood and felt the need to caution her.
"I know, I know."
She nodded, but Golgano remained uneasy. Kiska was dangerous. If you treated him like a weakling, you’d find your head rolling on the ground before you could blink.
When they had first met in Kataroff Village, Golgano had dismissed him as a mundane youth—a slightly skilled adventurer, perhaps, but one who lacked the aura of a true powerhouse.
But his weapon, the Parasitic Scythe: Kyogenmawashi, had told him otherwise.
“He has a bad smell,” it had hissed.
The Parasitic Series were weapons forged by the Master of Chaosism specifically to combat Heroes. It was said that Heroes possessed a nonsensical ability to manipulate causality itself to ensure their victory. Golgano didn't fully grasp the mechanics of "changing causality," but he understood that it made a Hero nearly invincible.
The Parasitic weapons could sense those shifts in causality. It was a vague, hazy intuition, but the Kyogenmawashi had flagged Kiska as "dangerous."
That meant this boy possessed the power of a Hero.
It made no sense. Chaosism had orchestrated events to ensure Eligion was the sole Hero in the world. How a common guide like Kiska had obtained that power was a mystery.
But because he possessed it, he couldn't be killed. A Hero could simply twist fate to survive or undo their death. He had to be captured.
Master gives some damn impossible orders, Golgano thought with a grimace. Beating an opponent into submission without accidentally killing them was an exhausting chore.
"Just stay down and rot already!" Golgano roared, swinging the Parasitic Scythe: Kyogenmawashi in a wide arc.
"Gah!"
Kiska was sent flying, coughing up more blood as he tumbled across the ground. Golgano had lost count of how many times he’d struck the boy.
"Hey, kid. You really want more? Just give up."
"Shut... up..."
Despite the state of him, Kiska dragged himself up again. He was a mess of bruises and open wounds. By all rights, he shouldn't have been able to move, yet his eyes remained fixed on them.
"Golgano, as long as he’s breathing, it’s fine, right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Then leave this to me."
Kanaria stepped toward Kiska, the Parasitic Sword: Puppeteer glinting in her hand. Without hesitation, she drove the blade through Kiska’s right arm.
"Ugh, even I felt that one," Golgano muttered, shivering at the sound of tearing flesh.
Kanaria didn't stop. She began stabbing him repeatedly, her voice rising in a frantic rhythm.
"Die! Die! Die! Die!"
By the time she stopped, Kiska had slumped over, completely still.
"Hey, Kanaria! That's enough!" Golgano barked, stepping forward to pull her back.
If the kid died, they were in deep trouble. Kiska was lying in a pool of his own blood, motionless. For a moment, Golgano was certain she had gone too far.
Then, Kiska’s body twitched.
Slowly, agonizingly, he stood up. Golgano felt a brief flash of relief—Oh, good, he's still alive.
"Give it back," Kiska whispered, his voice low and raspy. "That belongs to me."
Golgano frowned. The words were nonsensical. What was he talking about?
In the next heartbeat, Kiska did something that defied all logic.
He lunged forward. Not with a weapon, but with his jaw unhinged, his mouth open wide.
His target was the Parasitic Sword: Puppeteer in Kanaria's hand.
Golgano watched in pure, stunned silence. Is he... trying to eat it?
Was he trying to steal a Parasitic weapon? That should have been impossible. Golgano remembered the ritual of bonding with his own scythe—taking it into his body to become its host. But stealing a weapon already bound to another? He had never heard of such a thing.
A sudden, sharp instinct screamed at Golgano to intervene, but he was too slow. Kiska had already closed his jaws around the blade, and the Parasitic Sword: Puppeteer vanished into his body.
It was a desperate gamble.
In the world 100 years from now, this weapon and I were already one, but in this era, I had yet to encounter it. Still, it was the only card I had left to play.
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer on the battlefield. I stood in a void of shifting dimensions—a dark expanse dotted with flickering embers of flame.
The Inner World.
I remembered Puppeteer using that name for this place.
"Was it you who woke me?"
There, standing before me, was Puppeteer.