Eldric's shadow loomed over me, blotting out the burning night sky.
He raised his arm.
Above his palm, a beam of blood-red energy began to condense—dense, unstable, vibrating with the same destructive force that had erased entire blocks of the slums.
That beam was now aimed at me.
Only me.
My body moved on instinct. I flipped over, crawled, scrambled—hands bleeding as I dragged myself away like an animal trying to escape slaughter.
"I don't want to die…!"
My voice was a rasp, barely audible.
"I can't die here!"
I had only just begun this second life.
I hadn't even lived yet.
They say that your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die.
Now I understood it.
Ariana's tear-streaked face.
My quiet evenings on Earth.
My pathetic stats.
My failures.
My dreams.
There was still too much I hadn't done.
"Damn it… damn it… damn it!"
I clawed at the ground.
My points were gone.
The system was silent.
And the protagonist—Kael—just stood there.
"…So that's it?"
