Prologue - End of the 8th World

The sounds of explosions rang throughout a broken battlefield as a battered and bloodied young man struggled to stand up.

His whole body was wounded and he couldn't even stand up properly, but he held tightly onto his rune-engraved longsword and used it as a crutch to move forward.

He looked around and painfully gazed at the bodies of his fallen comrades that laid strewn on the battlefield, lifeless and without movement. He sighed to himself as he grasped his sword tightly.

Even though this wasn't the first time he's seen so much death and destruction, the young man still couldn't get used to it. Right at this moment, the sword in his hand felt extremely heavy and he just wanted to lay on the ground to rest.

"Goddess Uria's Champion, please stay strong. Our battle isn't finished yet," A young woman's tired voice echoed from next to the battered young man causing him to perk up.

The young man turned his head to the side and eyed the beautiful woman whose current appearance was worse for wear and nodded, "I can still fight, Merlina. How are your injuries? Maybe you should rest…"

"I'm fine, Neo. I can still keep going," The young woman replied with a strained smile.

"..."

Neo eyed Merlina's arm that had been severed from an earlier battle with one of their enemy's most powerful commanders, an Archdemon named Helios who served under the world's greatest enemy, the Demon King.

Merlina's injury was no longer bleeding as she had used healing magic to patch it up, but since her arm had been obliterated and cursed with one of the Archdemon's magic, she could no longer regenerate it.

As the two were picking themselves up, a half-man half-beast person that was built like a tiger dragged himself over to them and said, "If the three of us are here, then that means we've dealt with 3 of the 4 Archdemons, right? Helios, Fengari, and Asterai, the only Archdemon left is Kenos, who Sigurd is handling."

Upon hearing the man's rugged voice, Merlina quickly turned to him and cried in surprise, "Sun Go Kong, you're still alive!"

The Martial King, Sun Go Kong, who was sporting a nasty injury on his chest, chuckled and asked her, "Would you like it if I was dead, Archmage Merlina?"

"Haha, of course not! It's reassuring now that you're here!" Merlina said as she cast a healing spell on the Martial King's wound.

Despite looking extremely battered and beaten, the Martial King had a smirk on his face and laughed without feeling bothered by any of his grave injuries. He sensed some people rushing towards them from behind and said with a look of relief, "The Saintess is on her way. Once we have our wounds treated, shall we go to our final battle or wait for Sigurd?"

"Isn't it best if we wait for Sigurd? Or even better, go and help him out? He's not a Chosen like us," Merlina spoke up and said.

Sun Go Kong shook his head and replied, "He'll be fine. There's no way that the Sword Saint would lose to Kenos. In terms of swordsmanship, Sigurd far out-classes Kenos who wields the same weapon as him."

"I may outclass her, but an Archdemon is still an Archdemon."

Hearing the familiar, yet tired voice of a young man, Sun Go Kong turned around and laughed, "Speak of the devil, you're here!"

In the direction that Sun Go Kong was facing, a young man with long blonde hair was trudging towards them while holding his injured arm.

"To think I'd see the day where you, the Sword Saint, is gravely injured like this! Were you able to drive Kenos back?"

Sigurd had a solemn look on his face as he shook his head, "Yes, but that snake-like witch escaped just before I could kill her."

"Only us Chosen can kill an Archdemon. Considering that you're not a Chosen and was able to defeat one of those guys just shows how powerful you are."

After exchanging words with Sun Go Kong, Sigurd turned towards Neo and asked him, "How are you, Neo? Can you still fight?"

There was a neutral look on Neo's face as he nodded his head in reply to his mentor and friend's words. Sigurd was the Sword Saint and he was the one who mentored Neo in the art of the sword.

Neo was about to say something to the group, but suddenly, he whipped his head towards the front as he felt an ominous energy rushing towards them.

"...He's coming," Neo said as he raised his sword and wrapped it with a golden-colored aura.

Feeling the ominous energy approach, Sun Go Kong roused his fighting aura and cursed, "Dammit, that impatient bastard!"

"Get ready!" Merlina exclaimed as she began casting support spells on Neo and Sun Go Kong.

"The three of you, go! I'll stay here and hold off the incoming monsters!"

"After this, let's go grab a drink!" Sun Go Kong said as he rushed forward with Neo and Merlina following right behind him.

Sigurd looked at the backs of his world's saviors and smiled. He was just about to turn around and face the numerous monsters that were approaching when he felt danger and quickly raised his sword.

The sound of steel clashing against steel rang through the air as Sigurd blocked his assailant's attack. The force from the attack caused the ground around him to break apart as he was forced down into the ground.

"Keuk!"

Sigurd grit his teeth and roused his fighting aura and retaliated by pushing away his assailant's weapon and knocking them back.

The assailant flipped in the air and landed stably on the ground a few meters away and growled at him while Sigurd cursed and said, "You damned demon. You just couldn't stay down, huh?!"

"Hahahaha!"

The demon's shrill laugh rang through the air as if to mock the Sword Saint's words, but just before Sigurd could do anything, a blinding explosion of light occurred in the distance.

It was coming from the location where his allies were fighting against the Demon King. The light explosion was caused by the Goddess's Champion and her Chosens summoning ritual. The summoning would call forth a mighty entity from the spirit realm to help them in their battle, so it indicated that the battle over there was starting in full force.

The sight was incredible as 3 large entities appeared from the void and began attacking the small silhouette that was flying in the air which Sigurd believed was the Demon King.

The sight was so grand that both he and his opponent stopped for a moment to observe the battle in the distance. However, as time passed, it was becoming more and more clear to Sigurd that the entities from the spirit realm were being pushed back by the Demon King.

It got to the point where even the Goddess's Champion and the 2 Chosen had to intervene in the fight despite still being severely injured.

"I told you before, Sigurd. The Goddess and her lackeys have no way of defeating us and our King," the Archdemon, Kenos, said as she chuckled in amusement.

Sigurd clenched his teeth and grasped his sword tightly, not wanting to believe the reality that was happening right before his eyes.

"How…How is this possible? By defeating you Archdemons, we should've weakened the Demon King!"

"You may have weakened him, but fundamentally, the power granted by your Goddess to her Champion and her Chosen is just that much weaker than what our Demon God has granted to our King! HAHAHA!"

"No…that's impossible!"

"With every regression, the Goddess's powers wane, and so does her Champion. How long do you think things will last if this goes on?"

Hearing her words, Sigurd frowned and questioned, "R-Regression? What are you talking about?!"

"Hah, I forgot. You poor fools don't even know. How pitiful. Though on our side it's only me and my King who knows about this," Kenos said with a grin before her eyes lit up and she gave Sigurd a smirk.

"Why didn't I think of this earlier? You're the Champion's teacher! I should've just revealed to you the truth about the gods from the start!"

"???"

Before Sigurd could question Kenos any further, his adversary suddenly disappeared from her spot and appeared behind him.

"!"

The speed she showed this time around was leagues ahead of what she displayed earlier and before he could even raise his sword to guard himself, Kenos's greatsword that was wrapped with an ominous black aura that was different from her usual demonic aura was already at his neck.

'Is this how things end?'

When the greatsword cleaved off his head, the black aura on it began gushing towards Sigurd's body and along with it, something unknown.

Sigurd's eyes brightened for a moment as if he saw something before immediately losing its light as his life slipped away.

"With this, the next regression will definitely be the last. Hahaha…"

Over at the other battlefield, the Goddess's Champion and his companions had already lost their battle against the Demon King. Martial King Sun Go Kong and Archmage Merlina had both been killed so all that remained was Neo.

"Again, you've lost. When will you give up?" The Demon King asked as he pointed his sword on Neo's neck.

Neo had an expressionless look on his face as he stared death in the face. Seeing his eyes that had no emotion at his own impending death, the Demon King glared at him before he raised his sword angrily into the air.

As the sword was descending onto his head, Neo only sighed in exhaustion as he thought.

'This is the eighth time…that I've lost. Oh Goddess, is it truly impossible?'