The wind whipped cold across the jagged mountain ridge, biting through my coat like the betrayal that had brought me here.
Below, the endless rows of soldiers stood like a steel tide, rifles gripped tight, their barrels gleaming with twisted enchantments. Magic circles hovered over each weapon, faint and humming
And beyond them all, looming like a grotesque sun, stood the crown prince, now crowned king, draped in crimson and crowned with hubris. looking at him makes me hurl.
i thought bitterly, before sighing, a small smile played on my lips, but that will no longer be the case now...
I raised my hand, steady despite the storm inside.
My index finger twitched, pulling down an invisible thread, thin as a spider's silk but stronger than fate.
It was as if time froze...
Then, like the very fabric of reality was shredded, a blazing sphere erupted. a shattered fireball, void-like and starborn, hotter than the sun's core, hungry enough to swallow worlds whole.
It engulfed them.
No one had the reflexes to blink, much less run. No one had the sight to predict it.
No sound could outrun the explosion as it consumed everything.
As the inferno swallowed the valley, I felt the cold fingers of finality curl around me.
I closed my eyes, letting the chaos wash over my last thoughts.
Finally…
A sense of calm, deep and welcoming, seeped through me.
It was over.
---
Something wet squelched nearby.
I frowned.
Hell... or heaven isn't supposed to be squelchy.
My eyes fluttered open slowly, the world swimming into focus one blurry piece at a time. Grass. A sky bluer than it had any right to be. A breeze, light and clean, carrying the faint scent of… flowers?
What the actual fuck.
I shifted, blinking away the light, only for something gelatinous and unnervingly cheerful-blue to fill my vision.
A slime.
A literal, bouncing, wiggling blue slime.
I stared at it.
It stared at me.
For one surreal second, neither of us moved.
Then the gelatonus thing let out a war cry? and flipping hurled itself at me.
"OH-!" I jerked to the side, narrowly avoiding being headbutted by what was essentially sentient jelly. The thing splatted into the grass where my head had just been.
Instantly, the fog in my head shattered. Instinct took over, and muscle memory snapped into place. I shot to my feet, every nerve alight with a familiar cocktail of sluggishness, pain, and that cold, gnawing hollowness I'd grown far too used to. Meaning It had happened again.
Damn it!
I cursed silently, but shelved the thought. Considering I had an imminent problem trying to slam itself into me.
I flicked my gaze down, assessing my gear. or lack thereof. No holsters, No, sheath And The prototype revolver? Gone. Just empty loops and straps on my outfit remained. great.
My gaze snapped back forward as i heard the slight shift of wind and swiftly dodged out of the way with as little movement as needed.
A faint shift in the wind snapped my attention back. I twisted aside with the smallest movement needed, letting the blob soar harmlessly past.
Taking a moment to analyse, I understood that it was mindless. With a Launch, pause. launch, pause. attack style with no tactics and no variation.
On its next lunge, I sidestepped with ease, and as it passed, I pivoted, planting my boot firmly against its squishy back and punting it like a football.
The slime let out a startled noise as it sailed through the air, slamming into a rocky outcrop with a wet splatter. Blue goo plastered the stone, quivering before slowly dissolving into nothing.
I exhaled, rolling my shoulders, the stiffness in my joints making itself known as I stretched. My gaze lingered on the spot where the blob had splattered, the annoyance of it sinking in.
wasn't dead.
That much was obvious.
Which meant…
"Damn it!"
I slammed both palms into the dirt, the earth beneath me shifting slightly from the force. It didn't fix anything, hell, i was in even more pain now. But it sure did make me feel better.
I made sure. I made sure. The blast should've eradicated all life within at least a five-kilometre radius. hell, the after effects alone should've sterilised the land and air for months. Nothing should've walked out of there. Nothing should've survived.
So then why did it activate?
I ground my teeth, voice sharp as I shouted at the empty field, or perhaps god, "Why did it activate!?"
Silence.
Of course.
The wind carried on like none of this mattered.
I clenched my fists, the urge to tear something apart bubbling under my skin. But after a long, tense moment, I sighed.
"Fuck… fine, fine. I guess I'm alive. Great."
I dragged a hand down my face. "Hopefully, the blast at least did its fucking job in wiping out every last person in that god-forsaken city. If nothing else, maybe I can finally start over somewhere without being dragged into some endless bullshit again."
A pause.
Then I snorted.
"Yeah. Right, as if. That never happens. Humanity's lone quality, no matter what events occur, is greed through and through."
...
"Ugh, why couldn't it have just done its damn job?"
Another long breath. I straightened up, brushing dirt from my gloves, and took my first proper look around.
Grassy plains. Vivid, impossibly colourful trees. A soft breeze that didn't reek of blood or decay. The air was... clean.
This wasn't Oneiros.
No way.
The greenery was too healthy. Too untouched.
Maybe Valmeris? No... no, I'd have sensed them. Their kind always left a stain on the air, always bitching the second I approached.
Actually, now that I focused, I couldn't sense anything.
I frowned.
"Where the hell am I?!"
I spun in place, scanning my surroundings again, this time properly, letting my eyes adjust. The grassy field stretched a good ways out, framed by patches of vividly colored trees and lazy hills. And off in the distance-
More slimes.
A cluster this time. Two smaller ones bobbing like excited balloons, and one larger blob wobbling behind them. All of them were the same watery, transparent blue.
And then it hit me.
"No way…" I muttered, squinting at them as something tugged at the back of my memory.
That shape. That shine. The slight cuteness to them. The eyes...
"But… how? There's no way I'm in a fucking game, right? But those… those are Hydro Slimes. From Genshin Impact of all fucking things!"
I stared harder, as if glaring would make them turn into something else. It didn't.
"seriously? So instead of letting me die, or reincarnate. You decide to isekai me?"
I paused.
"In Genshin Impact… actually…" I trailed off, rubbing a hand down my face, "That… that doesn't sound so bad."
I looked up at the clear sky again. No rotting clouds, toxic air, Eldrytch creatures or shrieking horrors on the horizon. just dumb slimes and other "monsters".
"This is actually a good thing."
I let out a dry laugh, the kind that probably sounded a little unhinged to anyone else, but right now it was honest.
"It's certainly a much, much better place than my last world, so…"
Another breath. A flicker of something close to relief flooded me.
Maybe, just maybe, I could finally catch a break.
I stared at the sky once more
I laid back down on the clean clean harmless grass.
And thought to myself, I'll just take a little rest for now. just n'till the pain goes away.
And with that, I closed my eyes.
A/N I hope you enjoyed. I've got a migraine, so shorter than i'd like it to be, but it does it's job done. please comment if you liked it. It makes me very happy if you do.