Everything Is Predestined
It was all predestined. I am a high-grade 3 magician—someone recognized everywhere as a “proper” mage, far beyond the human university level of high-grade 1. The fact that someone like me was being utterly overwhelmed by a primitive human who should have been bowing his head to our demon race, a creature who couldn’t survive without the Union’s mercy, was something I simply could not accept.
How the hell does he shatter a barrier with his bare fists?!
I had deployed a physical-resistance barrier capable of lightly deflecting most firearms, yet the bastard smashed it apart with nothing but punches and kicks. Stunned by the unbelievable sight, I panicked and immediately ordered an attack using my “Subjugation” skill—the one that turns animals and beasts into loyal servants. My mad dogs might have looked like ordinary puppies, but each one possessed enough stamina and offensive power to take on a human soldier. They should have torn the human to shreds in an instant and been tossed as food for the nearby monsters.
Instead, my mad dogs were annihilated in the blink of an eye.
The idea that a human who could only bow and scrape before our Union had defeated me was simply impossible to believe.
“This can’t be real!”
I didn’t want to admit it, but I finally realized I could never beat that monstrous human.
“Yohiko…”
She was the woman I had poured my heart into. The one who would become my first wife. The effort I had invested to make her mine… and now it was all ending so easily. The moment I thought that, the idiot got distracted fighting me when a monster suddenly attacked Yohiko. While he rushed over to battle the creature, I saw my chance. My eyes flashed. Now!
I squeezed out every drop of my mana and unleashed a third-tier spell—Vacuum Blade, sharp enough to slice through steel in a single stroke. The attack flew true, passing straight through the insane human’s neck and severing his head from his body.
I won.
Convinced I had killed the trash and that there was no way I could ever lose to something like him, I turned to look at Yohiko. In the meantime, she had fainted after witnessing the garbage human’s death. Since she was unconscious, she wouldn’t resist. I could make her my wife right away. That was what I thought.
At least until I saw what was in front of me.
“…How… is this… possible…”
His head had definitely been cut off. He should have died. Yet the head that had been rolling on the ground was now in the human boy’s hand, and the boy himself was standing there perfectly fine.
“Dullahan…?”
I didn’t know what it was, but my instincts screamed danger. I fired another wind blade. His body split apart effortlessly.
“Was that all just a bluff?”
Of course it was. There was no way he could survive an attack like that.
“Hahahahaha!! So that’s your limit!”
The moment I believed I had finally won, a surge of ecstasy rushed through me. I had overcome a massive wall. The thrill of victory kept laughter pouring out of me.
Then, at the spot where the trash human’s blood had spilled, something began to emerge.
“KROOOOOOAAAAAAR!”
Suddenly monsters roared from every direction.
“W-what the hell is this?!”
I stared in confusion and shouted.
“Who—who the hell are you?! Who are you?! How can you keep doing this even after you’re dead?!”
“Who?”
The head that had been rolling on the ground opened its mouth. At the same time, dozens of faces popped out from between the bushes and began to whisper all at once.
“Did someone ask who we are?”
“Did you ask who we are?”
“Who are we~? Who are we~?”
“Who are we, who are we, who exactly are we~?”
Countless voices.
“Ah… aaaaah.”
It was an unbelievable situation. For a second I wondered if I was hallucinating and rubbed my eyes, but it wasn’t an illusion.
“Do you want to know who I am?”
They all spoke toward me at once.
“Do you want to know?”
They asked again.
“Who are you?!”
In response to my question, every single head opened its eyes and stared straight at me.
“If that’s what you want…”
A whisper brushed against my ear.
“I’ll show you.”
The moment those words were spoken, the surroundings turned into a rainbow-colored cosmos.
“What kind of magic is this? Illusion-type? Mental attack…? Or…?”
I was floating in a rainbow-colored universe. In front of me stretched something that looked like a long grapevine.
“A monster wearing the skin of a worthless human… just what the hell are you?”
I stared at the vine as I spoke. Even if I mobilized every ounce of my expressive ability, I could never describe the sheer enormity of the being before me. I gazed at it in awe.
Then I sensed the human from just moments ago within that vine.
“Is this… your true form…?”
The vine felt like an immense universe. It was connected to the entire world. It contained every kind of mana that existed. Infinite possibility.
“Incredible… absolutely incredible!”
If this was what he truly was, then it made sense why the human could use magic and why he could still speak even after his head had been severed. I drew in a breath. My heart trembled. My mind was flooded with desire.
If I could obtain this vine that held infinite mana, I could do anything. I could become a Legend-rank mage! I could have dozens of wives, claim all the gold and treasure in the world as my own. I might even aim for the next Demon King!
“Hahahahahahahahahaha!”
I let out an exclamation of wonder and reached out to seize the vine’s power. But when I looked behind it, I realized my mistake. It wasn’t a vine at all. My retinas had forcibly compressed an existence of a higher dimension—one my mind could not endure—into the crude, low-dimensional concept of a “vine.” The instant I tried to witness the “real thing” beyond it—
“…..”
No words came out. No thoughts formed. The moment I realized that, I understood.
This wasn’t “everything.” It was only a part of him. A tiny, insignificant fragment. Like a single grain of sand on a beach. Yet from that sliver alone, I could vaguely guess what kind of being he was.
The instant I realized it, something began to bloom deep inside my heart. At first I didn’t know what it was, but I soon recognized it clearly.
It was terror.
The thing that had created that terror was looking at me. It saw everything—my memories, my dreams, my thoughts, every molecule of my body. Perhaps even further. It saw my very soul. And then, through me—through me—
“No…”
I finally understood its intention. The being of terror was trying to enter this world through me.
“No… no, something like this must never be allowed to enter this world.”
I could already picture what would happen if a being like that appeared. And I could imagine the kind of “pain” I would suffer. I would never be allowed to rest. Every day, every minute, every second, I would be tormented. Trapped in an endless hell of agony, I thrashed desperately, trying to break free.
That was when the vine lightly brushed against my foot.
No.
Someone whispered. When I looked around, my body was already inside the vine. Since when…? I wondered. Maybe I had been inside it from the very beginning and had only been seeing hallucinations. But now I could see them—thousands of eyes of different colors, shapes, and sizes, all staring at me.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, an immeasurable amount of information flooded into my head. It was so vast that every single one of my brain cells felt like it was screaming and about to burst.
“Stop stop stop stoooooooop!!”
The horrible pain of my flesh slowly tearing apart.
“Ah…”
A small gasp escaped me. I had to look up. I had to see the “true” form of that human—no, that being. But I didn’t want to. I hated it. Stop. Please stop.
You said you wanted to see.
You said you wanted to know.
So in the end, this is all you amount to?
I’m disappointed.
Oppa, you can do it.
You’re capable.
I’ll tell you everything you wanted to know.
For your sake.
You want dozens of wives, don’t you?
You can become the Demon King.
You’re the best.
Hide, hide, or they’ll see your hair~
“No… no!”
Even as I screamed, tens of thousands of memories began pouring into my mind. All my memories—my father from when I was young, my mother, the day I met Yohiko, my determination to make her my possession, every plan I had made, every experience I had lived through—were erased and overwritten by something else.
The being known as “me” was completely annihilated and reborn as an entirely new existence.
I tried to escape the situation, but I soon realized it was meaningless. I struggled and thrashed, trying to break free, but because I had approached, because I had chosen—
“It was all decided from the start.”
The moment I chose to see, my future had already been set in stone.
The instant I realized the truth, I felt hungry. So unbearably hungry I thought I would go insane. The moment I tried to eat something, I saw my “countless arms.” I ate. It was delicious. But it wasn’t enough. I was still starving. I saw my countless legs. I ate. It tasted good. I saw my countless eyes. I saw my flesh, which had swollen to the size of a truck. I ate. I ate. It was delicious, but I was still ravenous. The hunger hurt so much it felt like my stomach was tearing itself apart. I thought I would lose my mind. No—I had already lost it.
The moment I thought that, I heard a sound behind me. When I turned, there was a girl standing there.
I was hungry.
With my newly regrown arms, legs, and countless eyes, I stared at her and lunged forward—only for a pure-white spear coated in frost to pierce straight through my body.
“Ha…”
The instant I spoke, my body caught fire. It hurt. It hurt so much.
“It hurts it hurts it hurts it huuuuurts!!”
I prayed for regeneration, but my body was being erased so completely that even regeneration was impossible.
No—
But it was meaningless. I heard someone’s whisper and remembered once again. My future had already been decided.
As the vine slowly came closer to me—
“No… no no no—”
All I could do was scream at the future that had been laid out before me. But even this screaming, this despair, this eternal torment—
It was all predestined.