Prologue: The Hero Returns
After crawling through every kind of hell, I had finally saved the Other World. And now, at last, I was going home to Earth.
"Thank you, Hero. Truly. For everything."
"Hnngh... you're really leaving? Do you absolutely have to go?"
"It was so long. So terribly long. I will never, ever forget you."
"I-I'll come find you, I swear! Just wait for me!"
I left behind the companions who had shared every joy and hardship with me, the ache of parting still raw. The moment I had waited for was here at last—my return to a peaceful Earth, where my family waited.
"It's been fun, everyone."
The instant the last goodbye left my lips, the magic circle beneath my feet erupted in a blinding radiance.
Ear-splitting gunfire ripped the air apart.
"GRAAAAH! H-help me!!"
People in cutting-edge special-forces gear were being torn apart by monsters.
"Eeeek!"
Screams erupted from every direction as they scrambled over one another to flee.
"SKREEEEE!"
A monster I had never seen in my life came shrieking straight at me, jaws unhinged like a crocodile's. I'd returned to Earth. I was sure of it.
I spoke to the thing lightly.
"Answer my call, Nepos."
Flesh split. Bone shattered. Something burst with a wet, detonating crack—and a waterfall of blood cascaded down over my head.
Holy sword in hand, I crushed the monster's corpse beneath my heel and surveyed my surroundings.
"C-Code S! Code S occurring!!!! An unidentified Anomaly has breached the Management Bureau!"
"Th-that's impossible! This fortress is impenetrable even to Anomalies with spatial distortion abilities!"
"N-never mind that—didn't he just massacre those Code C Anomalies!? Wh-what rank even is that thing!?"
Apparently, the Earth I knew had changed a great deal.