Prologue

My story started off as well as one could expect.

I suddenly appeared in a fantasy world of swords and magic with a system. In a familiar setting…

This world was definitely the same one as that novel I'd read: 'Soldier of the Apocalypse'.

About an old gentleman whose mind rotted to the point of dementia being reborn as a child again.

His mental age slowly being recovered with time.

And so did his memories of a bygone past where he was a war hero. One both feared and respected.

Even if the latter was merely propaganda…

As expected, even though his face was black and blue, scars covering his body, he could still stand.

Unlike me…

I laid there in a pool of blood along with three others. Their dead bodies having become ragged.

The worried face of the 'young man', the protagonist of this world, came into my view.

It was bruised badly…

He held me up while looking at what was left of our friends in agony. Unable to bear the pain.

Tears ran down his face…

"Don't leave… I don't want to be alone again. Not after all this time. Don't…" He wept on me.

"Simon…" I couldn't look him in the eye.

"Don't worry. I'll do something about this. You just focus on surviving." He tried sending his Mana.

But it was too late. My body was broken.

"I'm… sorry..." Strength was leaving my body rapidly the more I tried to speak my heart.

My hand reaching out towards the youth.

"Don't be. This… This isn't your fault." Simon couldn't understand why I was apologising.

I was going to die anyway. So might as well say it all. Reveal my big secret. The sin I'd committed.

"Simon… When you were young, I played with your fate. Everything is a disaster, because… I…"

"Adam!" Simon shook me awake before my consciousness waned. No, I needed to say it.

Don't give up like always.

Say it. SAY IT.

"I thought this was the world of a novel. You and everyone else being characters from it." I started to speak, and it somehow became easier to talk the more my strongly suppressed guilt had boiled over.

First, I started from where I'd come from.

Earth, just like he did. This, Simon already knew beforehand. Only adding one major detail I'd hid.

That there was a book in that world that had his name and destiny written down. A hero of fate.

Through trials and tribulations. He alone would've stood against this disaster and saved the world.

If only I hadn't interfered…

After having fallen into this world by accident, I'd initially wanted to return back by hook or by crook.

It all started from there.

I started manipulating destiny and twisting his story until it became an unrecognisable mess.

To the point I couldn't predict the future anymore.

Finding the hidden treasures Simon would've found myself, then using it to bolster my horrible talent.

I didn't want to be left behind…

When a disaster threatens the whole world, it's only natural I'd search high and low for strength.

Doing all I could to survive this world.

But wasn't that my biggest sin?

I should've died early on. That way no one would've suffered from fates that shouldn't have existed.

Why did I try to live without considering the consequences? How many I'd heart by being here.

Simon, you should hate me.

Your little sister died because of my mistake. I'd only hurt you. Making your life a miserable hell.

"I'm sorry…" My words came out clearer.

I'm sorry. I messed up your destiny.

I'm sorry. Innocents were killed because of the changes I made. The whole world was dead.

No one of this world had survived.

Only the two of us were left behind.

So why were you looking at me like that? Don't…

I'm sorry… I'm sorry…

"Don't apologise." Simon didn't seem that moved by my words. Did he think I was just hallucinating?

Or was he comforting me?

The empty comfort given to put my soul to rest.

"I'm sorry…" My mouth was a broken tape recorder.

"Even if I believe you, so what?" He just spoke up.

Silencing me from saying 'nonsense'.

I knew he wouldn't believe me. It was just too crazy, wasn't it? That this world was just a novel.

"I'm sorry…" Were the last thing I spoke with my dying breath. My body gave out at that point.

Numbness stared to overcome me.

There were so many regrets. So much that had been left unspoken. I should've said it clearly.

I'm… sorry…

…..

….

…

..

.

This bastard son of a- Hah… He's gone.

I looked at his lifeless body in my arms. Adam's heartbeat had stopped. Making look deeper at him.

Such a darn fool…

Crazier things had happened in my lifetime. It's not like his story was something I could just ignore.

Even so, that meant nothing at all.

No one could predict the future.

Adam, you should have more pride in your actions.

Nothing you did was easy.

Stealing treasures? I never wanted or needed any to begin with. You know that better than me.

After all, didn't I still kill that bastard dragon?

My eyes looked up to the sky to see the blood red gash that parted the heavens. It was still bleeding.

The 'World Dragon' was dead.

We were barely able to save Gaia from absolute destruction. Even if it's not the life we know, this won't be the end of all of it. People will appear again after eons. Becoming the new humanity.

I won't get to see it happen, but I hope we can be reincarnated as friends once again by that time.

Ah… Looks like I've gone senile a second time.

Thank you for accompanying this old man.

Even until the very end, you stood by my side.

What more could I have asked for?

Even if you read it in some novel, there was no way you would've been able to understand my heart.

The loneliness the haunted me…

I thought I'd be alone for the rest of my life. That everything would end without accomplishments.

But then you guys came into my life.

I put Adam's body down and rested it against what was left of a wall, then dug a body from the debris.

'Wesker…' This was the name of this princely figure. His face was abnormally white post-death.

The man, Wesker O'Brian, had died in the initial shock of the cataclysm. His soul was destroyed.

The moment the World Dragon was born, it let out a soul shaking Dragon Roar across the lands.

If I had acted faster, then maybe I could've done something to save him… but it was too late.

Wesker was no more.

I remembered his overflowing positivity. The times we made up because he was there to bind us.

The heart of our team.

If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have dared to trust anyone. Life had become much too scary for me.

But he stood by us.

Even when we were ungrateful and foolish, he was mature enough to laugh with our amusing stunts.

I placed him next to Adam and wiped the blood off of his face. He would have wanted me to do that.

This guy loved his looks.

The next person I dig out was someone who had unintentionally become the core of our strength.

Without her, we wouldn't have lasted long.

Old wounds covered her body. Her eyes had no pupils. As one could guess, she was born blind.

Her name was 'Faith Ernest'.

A werewolf that had a hard time trusting others as much as I did in the past. Traumatised by her past.

'Thank you.' If it wasn't for her, the World Dragon's claw, which rivalled a dwarf planet, would have fallen onto Gaia and destroyed everything. Because of doing that, half her body had become cinders.

Even so, I cleaned up her appearance.

The wig she wore to hide the baldness formed from having the roots of her hair pulled out was there.

Even though it had become as tattered as the rest of her. There was no longer any noise in my heart.

Because nothing could express this feeling at all.

After placing her next to Adam and Wesker, I dug out the last person who had died here horribly.

The person I cared the most in this friend group.

My first and best friend, Sapphire Swordwick.

Her body had withered after using up all her strength to give me the opportunity to attack.

Helping me kill the World Dragon in one go.

If she hadn't lost her mind after losing everyone she ever loved, then maybe she would've lived.

But regrets were useless.

There was no way that prophetic novel Adam spoke of would've mattered in the end of it all.

Words were just words.

Knowing the future and actually interacting with it were two different concepts. It wasn't all clear.

The fact that Adam himself wasn't included in that novel meant it'd already strayed from the original.

That's why… Don't apologise.

I put Sapphire next to him and Wesker, then leaned on the wall myself after being overcome by fatigue.

Damn… I'd overstrained my body.

That last attack took as much out of me as Sapphire experienced. I was barely holding on.

My life was fading…

"Adam… Wesker… Sapphire… Faith…" I called out to them one by one, but no one answered my call.

Again, I was left alone.

We died as heroes. We did our best when it came down to it. If there was one tiny regret left, then…

It was that we started hunting 'them' too late.

By the time we realised the seriousness of the situation, they'd already completed the ceremony.

Our loss in the war was guaranteed at that point.

My life started to drift away… There was nothing left for me in this world, so I didn't resist the tug of the darkness. The call that sunk my consciousness into the depth of the abyss. Never to awaken again.

Thank, guys… It was a good run.