Chapter 117: the worlds coming to an end

The silence between them stretched paper-thin, heavy enough to drown out the distant thunder of marching boots echoing through the valley.

The Inquisitor stood over him, her sword lowered but her silver eyes burning into his face like heated iron. "Well? I’m waiting. Who are you, Yuki?"

Yuki stared up at her, taking in the sweat beaded on her forehead, the singed edges of her coat from the corrosive smoke, and the subtle tremble in her sword arm. She wasn’t just an obstacle or a quest-giver. She was real.

And he was thoroughly exhausted from hiding behind half-truths.

"Fine," Yuki muttered, leaning his head back against an oak tree. "You want the truth? You’re not going to like it, and you’re definitely not going to believe me."

"Try me."

"I don’t belong to this world," Yuki said, his voice dropping into a flat, deadly serious tone. "I’m what you would call an otherworldly traveler... a ’Player.’ And this entire kingdom, this forest, this war... it’s all part of an Ascension Trial created for people from my world to grow stronger."

The Inquisitor blinked, her brow knotting in sheer confusion. "A... what? What nonsense are you spouting—"

"And you," Yuki interrupted, looking her dead in the eye, "are an NPC. A Non-Playable Character. A scripted soul created by the world’s framework to act out a role in this trial."

Yuki flinched instinctively, bracing himself.

He waited for the sky to turn red. He waited for the deafening, static roar of the System’s anti-leak protocol to blast through his skull, or for a divine thunderbolt from the System Administrators to strike him down on the spot. Whenever a Player attempted to reveal the truth of the Trial to a native inhabitant, the World System always intervened with heavy penalties or memory wipes.

One second passed.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

Nothing happened.

The forest remained quiet. No glowing red warning windows popped up in his vision. No temporal freeze stopped time. The System UI simply flickered weakly in the corner of his eye, completely dormant.

Yuki’s breath hitched in his throat, a cold sweat breaking out across his back. Why didn’t it trigger? The System... it didn’t block it?!

The Inquisitor stared at him for a long, agonizing moment before letting out a sharp, incredulous laugh that carried zero humor.

"An ’NPC’?" she repeated, stepping closer and gripping her sword handle until her knuckles turned white. "A scripted soul? Is that what you think I am? Some fake puppet created for your little game?"

"I... I expected the System to wipe your memory just now," Yuki stammered, his mind racing as he stared at his glitched UI. "It always stops us. The fact that it didn’t means the Trial’s rules are breaking down..."

"Shut up," she growled, her voice dropping into pure, icy venom. She reached down, grabbed Yuki by his collar, and yanked him up until their faces were inches apart. "I have bled in this forest! I watched my comrades die at the Citadel! I have lived every single agonizing day of my life, and you sit there and tell me I’m just a phantom in your world’s sandbox?!"

"I’m not trying to insult you!" Yuki yelled back, struggling against her grip. "I’m telling you why those things are coming after me! The Order of the Black Cross isn’t just killing people—they’re stealing the physical bodies of ’NPCs’ like Raven and hijacking the Trial itself! The rules are gone!"

Before she could scream at him or slam him against the trunk, the ground beneath their feet gave a violent, shuddering jerk.

BOOM!

A massive plume of black fire erupted into the sky less than half a mile away, blowing a shockwave of hot wind and ash through the trees. The vanguard of the Mountain Kingdom had officially breached the forest perimeter—and they were burning everything in their path.

She snapped her head back toward Yuki, her grip tightening. "Are you saying that everything I know is fake?! The deaths of everyone I loved is just a script?! Do you even care if we live or die?! Is everything just for your amusement?! Just a game?!"

"No!" Yuki snapped back, his voice cracking with emotion. "I care if people live or die! How do you think I feel?! I’m a pawn! My entire life is a game for the gods and the administrators! I am a toy for their entertainment! But the world has rules, and this doesn’t make any sense! The gods should have stepped in to fix this mess—the war, the Black Cross invasion, everything! It’s not supposed to be possible!"

He took a sharp breath, staring wildly around the burning woods. "The fake Black Cross... they knew who I was. They knew Raven, they knew the Goddess... Everything is wrong! I need to get back to my people and get out of this place!"

"How are you planning to leave?" she asked, her voice tight.

"I have a pocket dimension. I’ll just stay in there until this trial ends."

"You have a pocket dimension?!" she repeated in disbelief. "How?!"

"By killing a living city."

"..."

Yuki rubbed his forehead, his mind racing. "Oh... also, when were you last at the Citadel?"

"Three years ago," she replied flatly. "The same time Raven vanished. Why?"

"Just curious. Do you know the person who blew up that entire region... or the person that stray mage helped?"

"There was no mage. I did it," Yuki said casually.

"Huh?"

"Man, the World System is really not stopping anything, huh?" Yuki muttered, shaking his head. "I’m not originally from the real world, either. I’m a reincarnator. I’m also a Demon Lord candidate, and I am the apostle of—"

][,]pkm[oihb;ouivlyuct.

The world around Yuki instantly froze.

The blue sky shattered like fragile glass, turning a deep, apocalyptic crimson as the fabric of reality itself began to fragment. Beside him, the Inquisitor was locked mid-breath, suspended in place like a statue. Yuki’s System panel burst into chaotic overdrive, hundreds of notifications scrolling past at blinding speed as missions completed and failed simultaneously before collapsing into static.

Everything was breaking. Yuki stood trapped in the frozen void, completely lost.

"Varisa... are you there?" Yuki called out into the dead quiet.

"Yes, I am," a divine voice echoed as Goddess Varisa materialized directly behind him, her golden light flickering erratically against the crimson sky.

"What is happening?!" Yuki demanded, spinning around.

"The gods are back," she said, her expression grave. "And they are furious at us."

"What?!"

"The hierarchy of this world operates as follows," Varisa explained, her voice carrying a heavy, ancient authority. "Rank 1–3 Low Administrators, Rank 1–3 Mid Administrators, Rank 1–3 High Administrators, and Rank 1–3 High Command Gods. I am a Rank 2 God. But Rank 1—the most powerful entities in existence—have returned. They have broken their self-imposed rule of non-interference because the other gods and administrators have meddled too far. Now, they are setting new rules... and executing anyone who has violated the laws."

Yuki looked at her, concern flashing across his pale face. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes. I will be reprimanded, but I will survive," Varisa reassured him, looking out at the fracturing horizon. "This world, however, will not. The Ascension Trial has been officially cancelled."

"...What does that mean?"

"It means you must survive three months of pure, unadulterated chaos before you can leave," Varisa declared flatly. "But anyone who manages to survive will automatically ascend."

She stepped closer, her eyes flashing with a stern warning. "And whatever you do, do not enter your pocket dimension. You will die instantly. Spatial transit is broken everywhere."

Yuki’s eyes widened in sheer horror at her words. "What about...?"

"They are fine," Varisa interrupted before he could finish. "Sky Terror is already on his way here to find you. Take your dragon and fly straight to the capital."