Prologue: Second Death
Death.
A word I had seen far too many times — one that had long since grown familiar — now settled over my body like a shroud.
Yet there was no fear. No terror of any kind.
Only regret and a quiet bitterness remained.
The pain that had stabbed through my lungs was gone. So was every sensation from the arm that was no longer there. For someone who hated pain as much as I did, that was a small mercy.
"...Still a monster, I see."
Someone clicked their tongue, the sound thick with disgust.
With great effort, I lifted my gaze toward the voice.
There they stood, looking down on me with arrogant eyes — figures in robes filling what remained of my vision. The witches.
I took stock of my body. Already collapsed. One arm gone, one eye gone, my mana circuits shattered long ago. I was little more than a corpse at this point.
"Surrender now and hand over the child."
A flinch.
At her voice, I felt the small body cradled in my arms tremble.
"S-Sister..."
I poured what little mana I had left into the child. Forcing a smile onto my stiff face, I spoke.
"When you open your eyes, everything will already be over."
Even as the mana closed her eyes, I held her close, looking into a gaze still full of guilt and worry. Then I turned to the "kin" filling my vision and opened my mouth.
"...Too scared to come at me yourselves, so all you've got left is that mouth of yours. Still haven't kicked that old habit, have you?"
"Well, you never had any talent for magic, so you spent every waking day playing politics."
At my mockery, the surrounding witches bristled, and one of them shouted as if ready to charge.
"You bastard!! How dare you speak to Lady Aquila that way!"
Apparently watching me — already no better than a corpse — just sit there was enough to make them angry.
"You fool! Stop!!"
Aquila tried to restrain them, but it was already too late.
That's what you get for raising nothing but mindless followers.
Krrrk—!
With a mere flick of my finger, a grotesque sound tore through the air as a massive rift opened directly in the path of the charging witch.
Crunch—
From within that space came the wet sound of something being chewed, followed by a bone-chilling scream.
"...Still raising those disgusting things, I see."
Aquila stretched a hand toward the sky, her face twisted with revulsion. But that expression soon curled into a sneer.
"Though you never could use it more than a few times, could you?"
Dozens of magic circles filled the heavens, and at their center a massive pit of fire took shape.
Looking at it, I almost laughed.
Planning to wipe this whole place out?
I calculated quickly. Even in this wreck of a body, I could block that once. But a second time? The others?
—And the child sleeping in my arms?
The conclusion came fast.
Shlick—!
For an instant, the world went quiet as blood spilled from my mouth. Time slowed.
I reached into my chest, seized my own heart, and requested a contract.
I offer this.
...What do you desire?
An emotionless voice echoed through my mind.
Send this child to the World Tree.
The price...
My heart and my flesh.
Even a dying heart should be enough for this much.
Just as I fretted that it might not be enough, the voice returned.
...Price confirmed. The contract shall be fulfilled.
In that moment, the silence around me shattered, and I realized the warm sensation in my arms had vanished.
Then the massive pit of fire swallowed me whole.
That was my final moment of consciousness — and my second death.
Entity Designation: Yuria — Deceased.
...System error detected.
Correction applied: Status revised from Death to Return.
Dimensional coordinates unstable. Under System authority, destination adjusted to: Immediately after the creation of Babel.
As you are not an official Returnee, access to certain System functions will be restricted.
Congratulations on your return.
"......May you reach transcendence
at the end of the story."