This Body Returns
‘Do you want to go back to Earth?’
The Goddess’s voice reached me one day out of nowhere.
‘I’ll tell you how to return to your original world, as if none of this ever happened.’
That detestable woman held my entire life hostage.
‘Kill the Demon King. Become this world’s Hero.’
Dozens of times? Maybe hundreds. The people of that other world gambled everything on extinction.
Tens of thousands—probably more—died because of her self-righteous decisions, and I dreamed of going home on the backs of their corpses.
So I killed the Demon King.
What came after was the usual story. They dragged up every person who had died under my command and hauled me onto the execution platform.
‘Otherworlder. You are no Hero.’
That was what the representative of humanity said to me—the one who had literally carried the entire war between the Demon King’s army and the Human Alliance on my back.
‘Hero. Can you truly say you fought for humanity?’
‘You could’ve just stopped by our village on the way!’
‘Why didn’t you grant our request?’
Was I the bastard for choosing the left-hand village instead of the right?
Or were the shameless humans who only bared their fangs once the Demon King was gone the real villains?
Or maybe the Demon King himself, dragged before me by the Goddess’s hand, was the one at fault?
“Say something, Goddess.”
After the noose had already closed around my neck, I finally met her again—and heard the answer: ‘The Earth you wanted to return to is already destroyed.’
That was when I finally got to crush her skull.
She could no longer send me back, so there was no reason left to humor the bitch.
“Ghk…!”
“Three thousand years of overwork, Goddess.”
-Crack!
“You could’ve at least paid me a proper salary.”
-Snap!
“Aaaagh!!”
“You did well. Good. Job. That’s. Just. Common. Sense!”
-Crunch! Crack! Snap! Snap!
“S-spare me—aaagh! Aah!”
“Haaack—ptooey! Useless bitch.”
Is a Hero allowed to do this?
Yes.
I had already been fooled and let it slide twice. A third repeat of the same mistake was beyond forgiveness.
Three thousand years. A lot had happened in that time. Power-hungry big shots had spun every conspiracy imaginable, and not once had any of them lifted a finger to help me.
Once she sent a revelation through a saintess: ‘Do not trust that Hero.’
Another time she stripped the power from the Holy Sword at the critical moment, only to give it back later. That trauma forced me to learn how to fight without divine power at all.
Believing a fool three times makes you the bigger fool.
-Shiiing.
“Let’s finish this.”
I looked down at the Goddess sprawled on the floor, white light spilling out instead of blood, and drew the Holy Sword now stained black.
Only then did the eyes of the Goddess—who had been half-playing along, half-serious—turn pure ice-blue with terror.
“Wait! Wait just a second! There’s a way! There is a way!”
“Go fuck yourself. You think I’m the kind of sucker who falls for it a third time?”
A sword the Goddess herself had poured her power into—and a divine force twisted by its wielder—made it a weapon that could deal her fatal harm.
“I’ll rewind Earth’s time to before the destruction! You’ll keep all your power! Every weapon you’ve collected, you can take them all! Miracles—I’ll rain down as many as you want! And that corrupted sword, I swear I’ll never—”
-Thud.
“Hiiik…”
The moment the warped black Holy Sword touched her throat, the shrieking cut off at once.
“So.”
“P-please, just spare me…”
That expression of someone who had just realized death was real.
The same look I had seen on the Demon King—another of the Goddess’s victims, just like me.
“Pull any more bullshit and you’re going to meet the Demon King. I’ll be right behind you. Got it?”
“I understand, so please… the sword…”
The Goddess fumbled at the black wound on her neck and pushed herself upright.
Then light burst from her hands, and dozens of orbs containing black cosmos floated into the air.
“Specifically, I’ll rewind a parallel Earth that hasn’t been destroyed yet—one that’s completely identical, just a version that managed to buy a little more time against the end. You follow?”
“That polite speech is grating. Talk normally.”
“Tch. Anyway. I’ll make it so you can return with everything you’ve built up. And I’ll help as much as I can to stop Earth’s destruction. But there are conditions.”
The Goddess dared to attach conditions. I glared at her with pure murder, and she flinched, waving her hands.
“Live a long, healthy life on Earth and never come looking for me again! Damn it, can’t a girl even joke?!”
“Looks like you’ve completely lost your sense of fear.”
“Hup.”
“You will cooperate with me completely. In return, I’ll work hard to save Earth and never run into you while carrying this. That’s the contract.”
I tapped the warped Holy Sword as I spoke. The Goddess nodded.
“Then open the door. I’m leaving right now.”
-Nod nod.
White radiance bloomed from the Goddess’s hands, and the Earth I had longed for appeared before my eyes.
The same planetary-descent style portal I had experienced when I was first summoned to the other world.
“….”
Back then I really thought I was going to die. A snort of laughter escaped me.
Was it just my imagination that a few games I used to play on Earth came to mind?
An entire dimensional warehouse stuffed full of otherworldly armaments.
Mana that surpassed even ancient dragons after three thousand years of accumulation. Swordsmanship that outstripped the heroes of myth.
…Maybe my situation was a little better than diving straight into hell in those games.
“I’m going.”
I threw myself toward the portal.
Feeling the weightlessness of space where no air existed, I was slowly drawn toward the blue mother earth.
Just so you know, I’m switching your gender this time. It’s more convenient for me to bestow miracles that way. Bleh~
…You fucking bitch!
The message slammed into my head right before the portal closed. Something inside me snapped, and I could no longer hold on to my fading consciousness.