Again, I Die?
The booming voice shook the entire forest.
“Is there nothing left here?”
Then it came.
A body of pure white. A height so immense it seemed to combine several towering ancient trees. Feet that could effortlessly crush multiple houses. The beings known as Giants began stomping through the forest without restraint.
Crack—
The sound of massive trees snapping like twigs echoed one after another.
“Feels like there’s something around here.”
Crack—
Another tree fell. This time much closer. The footsteps were drawing nearer.
“Come out instead of hiding. If you show yourselves now, I’ll spare your lives.”
A lie. Even if they survived, it would be a life no better than death.
Thud.
The sound came from not far away.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
They were coming.
Thud. Thud.
They had arrived.
Thud.
“Hmm? This is…”
Right in front of them.
“Over here! There are humans here! Rex!”
“On my way! …Tsk, guess it was just my imagination.”
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
The sounds gradually faded into the distance. Yohan let out a silent breath.
This was safe enough. Better than being discovered by them.
[Yohan, it seems they’ve all passed by.]
A voice rang out inside Yohan’s head. It was so low and emotionless that anyone else hearing it would have jumped in shock. But Yohan wasn’t startled. To him, it was a voice he had spent an unfathomably long time with.
“Then I’ll get up now.”
Yohan pushed aside the rock covering his body and rose from the cramped pit where he had been curled up.
“…Sigh. No matter how many times I do this, hiding is still such a chore.”
He brushed the dirt and dust from his clothes and let out a long sigh.
[Still, you weren’t caught this time. That’s quite the improvement.]
“You’re right about that. Though the danger was just as real.”
Yohan gave a small chuckle. It really was a tremendous improvement.
Compared to the meaningless deaths of the past, this was something worthy of applause.
“At this stage, this is all I can do anyway. It would be more troubling if I couldn’t even manage this much.”
With those words, Yohan stepped out of the pit.
Toward the battlefield where the expected outcome awaited.
There was still something he had to do before dying. His duty wasn’t over yet.
[It can’t be helped. They charge at you like madmen the moment they see you.]
“Indeed. No matter how many times I go through it, I still can’t figure out why.”
Yohan frowned as he spoke.
Why did the Giants rush at him the moment they saw him?
He had no idea.
Whenever they crossed paths, it was either death or a desperate escape. Those were the only two outcomes.
Even after facing them with the resolve to die several times, he couldn’t find the reason.
Even after wasting countless loops searching for answers, he still couldn’t find it.
…In the first place, there wasn’t a single record of Giants in any nation’s archives.
They simply appeared in the sky one day and destroyed everything in their path.
That cycle had repeated for countless ages.
After countless experiences, he had learned their purpose: to reign as the dominators of all things. To achieve that, they slaughtered every human who resisted and subjugated the rest like livestock.
In the end, after a long struggle, he had discovered when they would appear and how to kill them. But he still couldn’t understand the reason behind their hatred-filled, cruel behavior specifically toward him.
[We’ve arrived.]
“Yes, we’re here.”
Yohan stopped walking.
Two lands split apart by a deeply carved canyon.
One side, though damaged, still retained the form of a forest.
The other side was different.
There was nothing.
No people.
No nature.
No cities.
Only a land covered in ashes remained.
…Only the distant horizon where the sun was rising greeted him.
[It’s not even a canyon, really.]
He was right. This was closer to a scar left by a Giant cleaving the earth.
It was another moment that made their overwhelming power painfully clear.
“I’ll look for a place to cross first.”
He needed to reach the other side to confirm. After carefully scanning the area, Yohan found the narrowest point.
[Can you make it across?]
“Yes. I saved this mana specifically for this. It’ll be tight, but I only need to cross once, so it should be fine.”
He didn’t need a way back.
Yohan pulled a small wand from his pocket. Unlike other mages, he didn’t need a large staff. After all, he didn’t possess that much mana to begin with.
Whoosh.
His body slowly rose into the air.
“…Hoo.”
Cold sweat trickled down his skin. He only had one chance. A mistake would mean falling to his death. Death itself wasn’t much of a problem, but… he wanted to avoid breaking his routine.
Tap.
The tips of Yohan’s feet touched the ground. He barely managed to steady his swaying body.
“…Whew.”
[That was dangerous.]
“But I made it across. Now let’s check.”
Yohan began walking. The closer he drew to the horizon, the more clearly he could see the gray ash covering the ground swirling in the wind.
Stop.
Yohan halted.
“…Tsk.”
Clicking his tongue briefly, he turned his head to look around.
A desolate wasteland.
The place that should have held a beautiful city and the laughter of people had been completely destroyed, reduced to nothing but a handful of ashes.
“They’re all dead.”
The humans the Giant had chased earlier would soon either die or live on as their livestock.
He didn’t need to see it to know exactly how it would end.
Yohan lightly kicked at the pile of ash on the ground.
Crackle.
Remains that had once been someone’s body and the ruins of what had been symbols of a city.
As he stared blankly at the scattering ashes, Yohan spoke.
“…There’s no one left this time. I’m not sure if that’s fortunate or not.”
Thinking about it, maybe it was for the best.
Especially when he remembered the disgusting things the Giants sometimes did.
They would occasionally impale living humans on stakes made of stone or wood and leave them on display—an act of madness no human could understand, one that revealed their twisted desire for dominance.
Borrowing their own words, the act known as the ‘Human Exhibition’ was nowhere to be seen this time.
Of course, he wasn’t sure if that was truly a good thing, but at least there was no one left who would need their eyes closed. That might be a mercy.
“…This method failed too.”
[Even pretending to be a prophet wasn’t enough to win in the end.]
“Exactly. Still, this has to be a new record, at least.”
Prophet. And record holder.
It was something he had tried on a whim, even if it meant getting stoned to death.
The one who knew all things, the one betrayed by the gods—Prophet Yohan.
People had once treated him as a fraud, but after successive events, they began to blindly cling to his prophecies.
Follow Yohan’s words. Only then could they achieve victory.
That had become the prevailing belief in this world.
In the end, Yohan had managed to form a hero party capable of driving back countless Giants. They fought bravely against the Giants, but they couldn’t prevent the fall of humanity.
“What could be the problem?”
Yohan crossed his arms and tilted his head.
He had tried countless methods and prepared every countermeasure he could think of. Yet the result was always the same.
The fall of humanity.
There were slight differences in timing and circumstances, but in the end, humanity always walked the path to destruction. That fact never changed.
[Perhaps it’s time to go back to the very beginning and review everything once more.]
“Maybe you’re right.”
Yohan smiled bitterly.
How much more time would have to pass before he could prevent humanity’s destruction?
He couldn’t suppress the scornful laugh that rose in his throat.
[Yohan, will you rest?]
“No, I’m fine.”
Yohan firmly refused and pulled a small dagger from his pocket.
A blue sheath embroidered with gold thread.
A dagger crafted to resemble the color of Yohan’s eyes and hair.
A gift left behind by someone who had grown indifferent long ago.
…Someone whose face he could no longer even remember… Hm.
Yohan’s lips pressed into a tight line.
“I’m still alright for now. If I truly need rest, I’ll let you know, Zeno.”
[Understood.]
The being Yohan called Zeno spoke in an emotionless tone.
But Yohan could sense something different in his words this time. After all, this god had never been the type to speak like this before.
“When will we return to this time?”
Yohan changed the subject to ease the heavy atmosphere.
[You’ve experienced nearly everything by now. As long as it’s not when you were a newborn, anywhere is fine.]
“I agree. I never want to imagine that again.”
Times when he couldn’t move as he wished and couldn’t gather information—utterly boring hours.
As long as it wasn’t that period, anywhere else was acceptable.
Shing.
Yohan drew the dagger from its sheath.
[You’re going right away?]
“Yes. I don’t want to delay. I’ll clean up after I wake up.”
Yohan pressed the dagger against his throat. Then he drove it in with force.
“…Cough.”
After spitting out some blood, Yohan closed his eyes.
Thud.
His body collapsed to the ground.
“…Cough.”
Yohan opened his eyes with a cough. The ceiling wasn’t unfamiliar.
Of course it wasn’t. Since he always moved based on his own experiences, this was only natural.
Yohan slowly sat up. He tilted his head from side to side, loosening his stiff body, then looked around.
A lantern floating near the ceiling.
A messy desk covered with countless books and papers.
Yohan immediately knew where he had awakened.
[Hmm? This is a place I’ve never seen before. Was there still somewhere like this left?]
The voice echoed in his head. Yohan calmly answered Zeno’s question.
“Yes. It’s the academy dormitory.”
White Palace Academy.
The starting point of all this.
And to him, a place no different from a nightmare.
“…I asked not to be sent back to when I was a newborn, and yet here we are.”
Damn it all.
“Ah. Should I just die again?”