Twisted Worldline
Something was wrong. This... this shouldn't be happening.
After barely pushing through the thick fog, every ray of light in the world before my eyes shone with a vivid, sickly violet hue. Amidst that glow, I discovered the corpses. The rotting stench that had been wafting from the direction I was facing came from bodies so horrifically mangled that their original shapes were unrecognizable. Why? How had things come to this? Even more unsettling, the buildings in my memory belonged to the human world, not the Demon Realm—yet the air here was as barren and desolate as the Demon Realm, blanketed in a violet wasteland. I couldn't accept the world unfolding before me. The world I remembered had never looked like this.
“····”
Unable to accept the sight, I dropped to my knees and began running my hands over the ground. Instead of crumbling like damp soil, the earth broke apart into fine, dry grains like sand and slipped through my fingers. This was unmistakably the Demon Realm. The ruins of human civilization, the city. The demon-realm sand of the wasteland scattered across those wide ruins—how long had it been there? It felt as though even this place was no longer truly human.
“We lost····”
Still reeling from the shock, I murmured the words and looked around. Then I noticed something.
“····”
A suspicious presence was stirring somewhere in the ruined city. A survivor, perhaps. I couldn't explain why I sensed it, but I knew I had to check. The shock was beginning to settle, and one thing was certain: this was not the world I knew. I needed to find out what had happened here, how everything had changed so drastically, and who—or what—had created that presence. If the being that sent me here had done so deliberately, there had to be a reason. No matter who sent me, a reason existed—even if that reason was my own destruction. Or perhaps they sought a new possibility. I wanted to know. Why had I been brought here? Why had this place been reduced to such a state?
I rose and took a step forward. The fog-shrouded forest where I had awakened sat atop a high ridge. Carefully descending the steep slope, I made my way toward the ruins of the city below. The unusual terrain told me exactly what this place had once been.
“····Caspia.”
The Caspia border region. Long ago it had simply been called the Caspia Gorge or the coast. After the demons rebuilt their invasion bridge here following their earlier defeat, it became the front line of the great war and earned its current name. Whether by intent or not, this was where the demon border met the human border. The Caspia border region was surrounded by steep hills, and towering cliffs sealed off its north and south. Even the relatively open eastern side faced the sea, which was why it had once been known as a gorge and a coast. In ancient times, people who settled here believed the three-sided natural barriers offered superior defense and chose this place as their home. In the modern era, however, that same geography had turned it into the front line against the demons. It might have been the greatest misfortune, or simply coincidence, yet they fought bravely to repel the demons—to protect their homes and families.
Whoosh————
“····”
At the edge of the city, where the shore met the sea, waves crashed violently against the sand. Standing on the beach, I stared blankly at the invasion bridge. The massive structure, built from monster corpses, was just as enormous as the one in my own world. Yet the human and demon corpses strewn across it told me something else.
“····Haah.”
I could roughly determine the current time period. At the earliest, five years after the world I knew; at the latest, within ten. For reasons unknown, the Tia of this world—the Demon King—had launched a swift invasion of humanity, gathering forces from somewhere and succeeding. The ten-year estimate also came from the state of the buildings. In my world, firearms had only recently been standardized and magi-tech weapons were just being developed for use against the Demon Realm. This place showed no sign of advanced magi-tech either; everything lay in ruins. The technological level matched my own era. That realization brought a flood of complicated emotions. Perhaps this world had become so wretched because of choices I had made here. Perhaps the Demon King had never loved me. Or perhaps... perhaps I had sided with the Demon King in this war as well. The thought that all of this might be my fault dragged me deeper into an endless mire of confusion.
Yet as I gazed across the vast shoreline at the enormous bridge, I noticed something else.
Sand, sand——
Wearing an expression of disbelief, I walked farther along the beach. By the time the waves began to lap at my legs, I could clearly see them.
“Why···· Why this much····”
Besides the bridge at the Caspia border region, three more massive bridges constructed from monsters stretched across the sea.
“Did you really have to go this far····?”
Had the demons truly poured everything they had into invading the human world? In my own world, Tia had always spoken of invading humanity as if it were a sacred duty, but had she truly been this desperate? A strange sense of betrayal mixed with growing bewilderment. I turned my head and looked back at the ruined city of the Caspia border region. Every collapsed building faced the Demon Realm. They had all fallen to attacks from the Demon Realm. Truly. Did Tia hate humanity that much here? What had happened in this world? What had I done here?
“····”
While I stood with my back to the sea, staring blankly at the city, I sensed it again.
“····Presence.”
Another presence. I focused on the ruins, scanning the area while trying to understand why I could feel it. Then I began walking slowly back into the ruined city.
But the moment I tried to enter—
Squelch————!
“Ugh——”
I stepped on a corpse buried in dust and sank up to my shin. The disgusting sensation nearly made me fall. The instant I pulled my leg free—
“····”
—I met the gaze of something that had been watching me.
“·····Haah, haah.”
Fortunately, it wasn't alive. It was a corpse standing upright, its form frozen in death. Whether human or demon, it had long arms and legs and was locked in a pose as if reaching for something. Its face was smooth and egg-like, with no mouth, eyes, nose, or ears.
“····What on earth happened here?”
I studied the being for a moment, then carefully picked my way deeper into the ruins. Though the creature was unsettling, it didn't seem alive—just frozen in death. Finding the source of the presence took priority.
Squish, squish——
The deeper I went, the more artificial the silence became. The presence I had felt outside had vanished completely, leaving only an eerie emptiness. The ruins and this world carried an atmosphere several times heavier and gloomier than the one I knew. A headache began to throb. I quickened my pace, desperate to find something.
Yet—
“····”
I found nothing. After searching the ruins for dozens of minutes, then hours, until the sun set and night fell, the only things I discovered were—
“What the hell are these····”
—clusters of those strange beings piled in pits, their limbs tangled together. They resembled mannequins used for clothing design, yet they were closer to living creatures. Their arms and legs were thin and long, while their hands and feet, though slender, were enormous. I stared down at the mass grave for a moment.
“What could have caused this····”
The sun had completely set. Darkness swallowed everything. Giving up on searching further, I looked for a place to rest, but even that became impossible. Unease rising, I felt along the walls, searching for somewhere to lie down.
And then—
“····”
Something cold and alien brushed my fingertips. I groped for it. Creak—— The cold thing moved away, avoiding my hand.
“Wh-what····”
Startled, I yanked my hand back and stepped away—only to bump into something behind me. Thud——
It had been there all along. But I had already passed through that spot. There should have been nothing.
“What is this!? What is this!?”
I shouted, spinning around. It could have been a wild animal; loud noises usually scared them off. But the thing I had collided with was far too cold, far too human-like, for that.
“····”
Too cold. The object I had touched was far too cold, and far too human.
“······What... what····”
Heart pounding wildly, I stood frozen in terror, desperately trying to peer into the darkness to discover what was moving around me. No light escaped the ruins of a civilization where the sun had set. I remained motionless, tense, for dozens of minutes.
Then, as I endured the impossible pressure and fear, moonlight finally rose high enough to illuminate the collapsed ruins where I stood.
That moment.
That exact moment.
“·······”
When the moonlight revealed my surroundings, my entire body turned as cold as ice. My hands and feet felt frozen solid. Because in the light I could now see—
“You···· You all····”
—those grotesque, mannequin-like beings standing all around me. On the high ruins, inside the building wreckage, at the windows, along the roads, behind me—everywhere. They stared at me without eyes, noses, mouths, or ears. Some clung to walls and ceilings, others stood directly in front of me looking down, and one behind me had lowered itself like a quadruped, its face thrust between my arm and torso. They looked as though they could see me. They pressed their faces toward me. They had seemed dead. They were supposed to be dead. This... this wasn't alive.
“·····”
I finally understood that these grotesque beings were the source of the presence. Surrounded by them under the moonlight, they no longer moved. My fingertips trembled. I couldn't do anything.
Creak——
One of them behind me began to move. Startled, I turned—
Thud——
“Ugh——!?”
The one in front grabbed my neck and head with its massive hand and yanked me forward. I panicked, clutching at its arm, when the one behind me seized my waist and shoulder with terrifying speed.
“Let go, you crazy things····!!”
I thrashed, trying to break free, but their grip strength far exceeded anything human. All I could do was struggle and strike at their wrists and arms.
As my resistance grew fiercer—
Crunch, thud——
“Ugh———!”
More of them swarmed in, seizing my arms and wrists. When I tried to resist with my legs and hips, another twisted grotesquely behind me and grabbed my thighs and ankles. Eventually they covered my entire body with their hands.
“What are you trying to do? Let go—aaaaah———!”
I screamed, squeezing my eyes shut against the overwhelming horror. Thud——
“Ugh——”
One of the hands clamped over my nose and mouth, cutting off my breath.
“Mmph, kgh———”
I fought until the end, but against their overwhelming numbers and strength, it was hopeless. My body was pinned, my head immobilized, my breathing sealed. Just like that—
“Ugh, hgh·····”
—I lost consciousness to suffocation.
Even after blacking out, I remained vaguely aware of my surroundings. I felt them lift my limp body and carry me somewhere. Not long after, they poured a thick, viscous liquid over my face. The sensation forced my eyes open.
“Ugh·····!”
I awoke in what resembled an underground prison inside a cave. The strange liquid splashed on my face gave off an indescribably foul stench, and I reflexively looked around. The liquid's identity was—
“····Ugh——”
A filthy sludge made from the corpses and blood of humans and demons.
“Uweeegh———”
What... what the hell were these beings?
Yet the only thing I could be certain of now that I was bound here was that nothing else existed.
“S-stop···· Stop——”
Creak, creak——
They held me with nothing but their own arms and hands—no chains—and for hours, for days, they continued pouring that vile sludge over me, trying to corrupt me.