Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

The cyclops collapsed with the grace of a mountain losing its will to stand.

Its massive body pitched forward while I was still on its back.

The entire world under me tilted as gravity yanked us both toward the earth. I dug my fingers deeper into the burning cracks, bracing myself against the sudden freefall.

Then—

—THWOOOM!

The giant hit the ground like a falling god.

The impact sent a tremor ripping across the entire battlefield. Stone ruptured. Dust exploded. Cadets and Lesser Solbraiths nearby were flung off their feet by the sheer shockwave.

Even the Brawlers who’d caused the fall stumbled back, barely managing to keep themselves upright.

But I didn’t fall off.

Not yet.

I kept my grip on the crack in its back — because unfortunately, the giant still hadn’t hit the ground completely.

Before its chest could slam into the earth, the cyclops caught itself with one massive arm — slamming an elbow down to break its fall.

The ground trembled beneath the weight, but it held.

And so did the cyclops.

Half-sprawled. One eye blinking furiously. Streaming breath heaving from its throat like a dying forge — but still not down.

…Still not down.

Its fingers twitched against the stone, like it was trying to push itself back up.

I gritted my teeth, tore my gaze toward the giant’s skull, and pushed myself upright.

Before it could rise again, I broke into a sprint.

My leather boots sizzled against the heat, every step sending flares of pain up my legs.

I vaulted over the ridges of its spine, then dropped into a full slide as I reached the slope of its neck.

In my right hand, I still held Aurieth.

And I knew — I knew — that I couldn’t let it get back up. Because if it did, we were all indubitably screwed.

I had to keep it down. I had to force its face into the dirt.

And I had to do it fast.

Because the cyclops’ laser cooldown was nearly over.

So I climbed its neck — like scaling a collapsing, burning bridge — and reached the base of its skull.

Once there, I took a deep breath.

Then I raised my greatsword overhead — and its golden blade burst into radiance as I poured every last drop of Essence I’d managed to pull back into my core.

I felt the mystical energy drain from my body until Aurieth was burning like a newborn star against the pitch-black sky of the darkest night.

“Come on, now!” I screamed through clenched teeth and drove my sword down in a thrust. “Fall!”

Thwaaaam—!!

—KABOOOOM!!

The instant my blade struck the back of the cyclops’ skull, it sounded like a church bell being shattered by lightning.

The echo didn’t just thunder — it vibrated with so much force that even the air seemed to flinch.

Aurieth’s edge didn’t pierce the giant’s rocky hide clean through. Not quite.

But it sank into its flesh.

Just enough.

Golden light flared across the cyclops’ back as a destructive shockwave burst outward in a blazing ring.

The beast howled, not only in rage but also in something between agony and shock.

It began thrashing around violently.

The entire world beneath me felt like it was about to flip.

I lost my footing and fell back hard onto my butt while Aurieth was still buried in the giant’s skull.

But to my horror…

The giant still hadn’t fallen flat.

Its shoulder buckled, but its head was still in the air — not pressed against the ground.

“Wh–What the fuck?!” I choked out, voice shaking.

I had given everything I had left in that attack.

And it still wasn’t enough to bring the cyclops down completely?!

A sinking feeling welled up in my gut — something dangerously close to hopelessness.

I was out of tricks. Out of wits. Out of strength.

No cards left up my sleeve, no energy left to improvise a miracle.

And that sinking feeling only grew worse as the cyclops let out a loud growl.

And immediately after that, its eye started flickering and twitching erratically like it was about to unleash that death beam again.

No.

No no no no—

We were right there!

We had almost succeeded!

Despite feeling no strength left in my legs, I pushed myself forward and grabbed the hilt of Aurieth again, trying to wrench it loose — but it wouldn’t budge. It was stuck. Lodged deep. Too deep.

The molten cracks in the cyclops’ back were already starting to mend, closing in around my blade like living stone swallowing a splinter.

And I had no strength left to pull it out.

At least, not fast enough.

It felt like the universe was reminding me — I wasn’t the chosen one who’d pull the sword from the stone and save the world.

My breath quickened. My heartbeat roared in my ears. Sweat blurred my vision.

Everyone was about to be slaughtered — and I was too powerless to stop it.

…I could still save myself.

I was still on the giant’s back. I could drop behind it and run for the plaza’s exit.

But I’d fail to change this plot point in the story.

I’d fail to stop the massacre.

I bit my lower lip and kept yanking at the hilt, still struggling to break my sword free, even as the blazing glow returned to the cyclops’ eye, brighter than before.

It was about to blast half the plaza into ash.

When suddenly—

“ARGHHHH!!”

I heard a scream.

A loud, high-pitched scream that was constantly getting even louder…

…Wait. No.

It wasn’t getting louder.

It was literally drawing closer.

Half-confused, half-panicked, I looked up — and saw someone falling from the sky.

Orange hair. Petite frame. A scream so feral it sounded less like a noblewoman and more like a rabid animal…

Alexia.

I could only blink in stunned awe, unable to believe what I was witnessing.

Alexia Von Zynx was plummeting from the heavens like a meteor.

She spun mid-air to gain even more momentum, and just before impact — she whipped her arm forward and threw a punch.

Her fist struck the pommel of Aurieth’s hilt with perfect precision.

Yes.

She punched my stuck sword — right in front of me, might I add — like hammering a nail.

Only she was the hammer, and my Divine Sword was the nail.

Before I could gasp in protest and lecture her about what bad manners it is to punch someone’s stuck sword right before their eyes—

The blade sank deeper into the cyclops’ skull with a sickening crunch.

Not by much — just a few inches.

But it was enough.

Enough for the hilt to rattle violently in my grip.

Enough to make the monster scream in unimaginable pain.

Fissures split open across its rocky flesh from the point of impact — the exact spot where my sword had been hammered down — revealing glowing magma veins pulsing just beneath the surface.

And this time, the shockwave that erupted was just as brutal as the first — a concussive blast of heat and force that flung me backward before I even fully realized what had happened.

Alexia probably landed a few steps away from the lodged sword.

And the cyclops?

Oh, its elbow finally gave out.

The colossal brachium that had stubbornly kept the one-eyed giant propped up toppled sideways like a crumbling pillar of ancient stone — and the rest of its body followed.

THWAAAAM—!!

The earth shook.

No — the entire plaza shook as the cyclops’ face smashed fully into the dirt at last, carving a crater that swallowed rubble, corpses, and a few unlucky Lesser Solbraiths who hadn’t scrambled far enough.

Dust blasted skyward. Debris rained down from above.

…And like an omen of death, Michael was waiting there — standing just inches away from the cyclops’ fallen face.

He was calm.

He was composed.

And he was waiting for this very moment.

So when the giant lifted its head one last time, its eye blinking in pain and disbelief, the first thing it saw was a beam of pure darkness closing in.

It was also the last thing it saw.

Because in the next moment, the column of darkness shooting from the edge of Michael’s cursed sword pierced clean through its eye.

The cyclops didn’t even get the chance to scream.

It simply slumped.

Its head crashed back into the earth like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Its body went still.

Its mouth went silent.

I waited in anticipation, just in case something else had gone wrong and it still wasn’t dead.

A few seconds passed. It never moved.

And when nothing happened…

I knew.

…The cyclops was dead.