Sometimes I find myself remembering all the lives that were spilled by the edge of my blade. The sensationA of steel slicing through flesh and shattering bone was almost ecstatic; it filled my heart with uncontrollable euphoria.
I remember laughing among piles of corpses like a true murderous maniac, dancing and jumping through vast pools of crimson liquid like an innocent child playing in a muddy puddle.
I loved the feeling of my coat swaying with my movements, my comfortable boots soaking in blood, and the aberrant whistle of my sword cutting through the air.
I know. By that point, I had already gone insane.
After the misfortune my heart had to endure, I had no other way to deal with all my mental issues. Or maybe I did, but I was such a coward that I simply chose to sink into the pit of madness rather than continue enduring sanity in a world that had gone to hell.
Maybe that's why simply letting my life come to an end was the best decision I could make. I had already dragged this on long enough. Besides, it's not like I can escape my fate now.
At this very moment, the tearing edge of a blade pierced through my abdomen, opening a long, gruesome wound that stretched from my navel to my chest. When the greatsword was pulled out—wielded by a gigantic and beautiful creature with magnificent white wings and exposed white ribs as part of its aberrant composition—my organs spilled out of my mutilated torso like a disgusting mash of blood and flesh, staining the stone ground beneath my decaying body, forming a depressing pool of black liquid.
My lifeless eyes stared at the crimson sky, shining against the black clouds from which the most dangerous beasts of all had emerged—a place so distant for any human who had chosen to survive the calamity. Unconsciously, I stretched out my hand, trying to reach what I had hated so much.
It's already been a few years since it began; most of humanity has gone extinct.
Heh… only the crazy ones survived until now.
'What a bad joke,' I thought. A smile formed on my face. My soul smiled joyfully because it had finally come to an end.
Anyway, why did I choose to survive even though each passing day drove me more and more insane? It didn't make sense, but thinking about it carefully, there were some people who pushed me to keep going. Well, they're all dead now, and everything related to them has become blurry over time.
I think… I've completely forgotten.
"Jajaja…" My twisted, choked, broken laughter came out along with all the blood pooling in my lungs. "Fuck you, you damn monsters."
I'm one of those monsters too… one that can finally stop fighting…
Darkness filled my mind, all distant sounds faded as if I had sunk into a deep, completely black well. The pain was torn from my mortal body, my madness, my thoughts, my empty memories, my laughter… everything…
For the first time, I felt like I had disappeared forever.
Hahaha… I wish that had been the case.
Suddenly, I heard loud explosions in the sky—beautiful lights that covered the dark firmament with colorful flower-like shapes spreading alongside smoke. The voices of people around me were deafening, as was the generic party music blasting from the speakers, making the ground vibrate.
I opened my eyes, completely out of it—confused. I was standing on the rooftop of a tall building. As expected, the place was packed with people dancing happily while fireworks decorated the end of the year.
Date: December 31, 2025.
Time: 11:58 p.m.
"What… what the hell…?" I whispered. None of this was what I had seen until now.
As if it were a dream, I timidly scanned my surroundings. Then I looked at my hands, touched my face, felt my heartbeat, took a deep breath of the city's filthy air, and finally felt the smartphone in the pocket of my jeans. I pulled it out and opened the camera the moment my finger touched the screen.
I looked at my reflection.
"It's me… I'm young…"
I didn't feel "insane," either. It was as if everything I had lived through had only been a simple nightmare—a horrible, disastrous, tragic nightmare.
"That's not possible…"
With trembling hands, I dropped the smartphone to the ground, but it wasn't the only thing that fell. My legs gave out, and I collapsed to my knees, clutching my head with both hands, digging my nails into my scalp.
I laughed… I laughed nervously as a couple of tears spilled from the corners of my eyes. I didn't know if the others were watching me—surely they were—but I couldn't help but ignore them all as I drowned in my own despair.
I heard their voices, wondering what was wrong with me. I heard the fireworks growing louder, the powerful noise thundering across the sky, and in the next moment, I saw a beautiful white feather falling before my eyes.
That's when I understood. The moment I took that feather between my fingers, my despair faded. All the knowledge I had of this moment came rushing back at once.
I stood up—I felt all emotion in my heart shutting down—and looked at everyone. Right at that moment, dozens of white feathers began to fall like a gentle rain.
They looked up at the sky, confused. I brought them back to reality by saying, "Everyone… take a feather if you want to live and—"
I turned around, preparing to run.
"Jump."
I charged toward the rooftop railing and leaped onto the road from the thirtieth floor. For a fraction of a second, I saw the expressions of all those people, horrified by my sudden action.
I didn't care, to be honest—I never cared about what others thought.
In that brief instant, the fireworks intensified, making the sky—the entire world—tremble.
Date: January 1, 2026
Time: 12:01 a.m.
The year had come to an end, and I was the only one who knew what was happening, though I wasn't entirely sure myself. Still, everything was in my mind—everything that was going to happen, all the aberrant beings that would appear, all those who would die—because I had already lived through this in the past, which had now mysteriously become my present.
Two seconds before my head hit the hard concrete ground, surrounded by that rain of feathers above the building, a meteor wrapped in blue flames descended, immediately crashing into the rooftop.
Finally, I fell, disappearing into the darkness of the alley behind the building. The loud sound of my body smashing against the concrete was the last thing I heard.