The Lowest-Ranked Hero Has Returned
Chapter 302

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Chapter 302: Interlude – The End of Eternity

“What’s with that look you’re giving me?”

Maurice furrowed his brows, glaring at me like he truly didn’t understand.

“You…”

I moved my lips for a while but soon shook my head.

‘There’s no point in saying it.’

Yeah.

What’s the point of telling him now that the comrades he sees are just illusions?

He doesn’t want the truth.

He wants things that look like the truth.

“I don’t know what you’re blanking out about—”

Maurice twisted his lips into a crooked grin.

“—but do you really have the luxury to be spacing out like that?”

With a rough stomp, Maurice launched forward.

Thousands, tens of thousands of petals surged like a tidal wave.

A force clearly more powerful than when we first fought.

“Grrgh…!”

The petals devoured the cinders and came crashing in.

As they grazed my head, it felt like being mauled by a wild beast's fangs—ripped and torn, my body tumbled to the ground.

Scattered ashes.

I resurrected in the blink of an eye and swung my sword at the charging Maurice.

KWARRRRRRRR!

A roar too massive to be just a clash of swords.

The shockwave alone twisted the earth for hundreds of meters and sent a massive tremor through the entire academy.

KWAANG! KUGUGUGUNG! KWARRR!

The beautiful garden trees, once the pride of the Hero Academy, were uprooted and hurled across the ground, and the roads carved from solid marble shattered into fist-sized stones that flew into the air.

A battle worthy of gods—something out of myth.

In such fierce combat, neither Maurice nor I remained unscathed.

“Ka… khak!”

My head was crushed.

My arm was torn off.

My legs twisted at unnatural angles.

My abdomen ripped open, entrails spilling out, blood pouring from mangled flesh.

Death.

An unending cycle of death and rebirth.

Like a candle flickering in a violent storm, my sanity was being worn away.

But more than anything—

FWOOOOM!

With every death, the once-stabilized essence of the Primordial Flame grew fiercer.

“Guh… ah… ugh…”

“Hah… hah! How is it? Hitting your limit, aren’t you?”

Even Maurice, despite the hundreds of deaths he must’ve suffered too, was panting with a pale face.

But I was in worse shape.

FWOOOOOM!

The wild flames of the Primordial Fire engulfed my body.

A surging, violent impulse to destroy.

A maddening urge to reduce the world to ashes consumed my mind.

‘This is…’

The destructive impulse said to afflict those who accept the power of the Demon God.

If you multiplied that a few hundred times, maybe it’d feel like this.

A burning thirst like sharp hooks scraping down my throat gnawed at my sanity.

“Don’t resist the desire.”

Maurice curled his lips into a grin and continued.

“That impulse you’re feeling right now—that is your true nature.”

“My… nature?”

“Yeah!”

He spread his arms wide, shouting as if in a howl.

“You know it too, right?! Just how much pain death brings!”

Every time I die, I think about it.

At the moment my breath stops, I yearn for it.

Again and again, without end—

“This damn life—please, just let it end already!”

“……”

“You pretend it’s nothing! You act like you're fine!”

But deep down…

More desperately than anyone.

More fervently than anyone else.

“We both… we’ve been craving death all along, haven’t we?!”

“……”

I couldn’t deny it.

Just as Maurice said, somewhere deep in my heart… the desire for death still lingered.

WHOOOOOSH.

A snowstorm whipped before my eyes.

An endless snowy plain, cold enough to crush my lungs, snow piling up to my knees.

My life changed after the regressions.

The life that once chased only death gained a reason to live.

I no longer felt the cold.

And when I awoke, it wasn’t a frozen wasteland I saw—but the smiles of those I cherished.

Yeah.

Right now, I’m happy.

More than I’ve ever been.

‘But.’

How long can this happiness last?

What about in a hundred years?

A thousand years?

In several thousand—no, ten thousand years?

Will I still be alive then?

Will I still be able to say I’m happy?

Just like in my past life…

Will I be living a life shackled to an endless existence, struggling to die?

—That’s not true.

A voice rang out.

—Iris, Yurina, Berald, Sophia, Elisha, Lanez, Camellia… How many more years do they have? 100? 200? And after that?

It wasn’t Maurice’s voice.

—In the end, you’ll be left all alone.

It wasn’t the Demon God’s voice either.

—Now’s the time.

So familiar.

So unmistakably familiar.

—This is your last chance to finally greet the end of eternity you’ve wished for so badly!

It was…

My voice.

“……”

FWOOOOM!

The fierce flames wrapped around my body.

It would be simple.

All I had to do was not resist the fire—just quietly close my eyes.

And then, it would end.

This long life.

This endless eternity.

I could finally place a period at the end.

“…Ha.”

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A dry laugh slipped from between his lips.

“Goddamn it.”

One step forward, cutting through the fiercely blazing flames.

‘My life isn’t mine alone.’

Then how could I dare to put an end to it without permission?

‘Yurina.’

It was the courage I learned from you that brought me here.

‘Berald.’

It was the perseverance I learned from you that brought me here.

‘Senior Sophia.’

It was the wisdom I learned from you that brought me here.

‘Iris.’

It was the love I learned from you that brought me here.

‘Elisha.’

It was the insight I learned from you that brought me here.

‘Lanez.’

It was the warmth I learned from you that brought me here.

‘Camellia.’

It was the will I learned from you that brought me here.

Yes.

Because you existed, I was able to exist.

And that is why—

“I can’t die.”

Whooosh—!

The scarlet flames that wrapped around his body gradually turned a shade of gray.

“What the….”

Maurice’s eyes widened in horror.

He knew well the destructive impulses of the primordial flame.

Even with just a fragment of it within him, he had suffered unbearable thirst.

“You don’t want to die?”

Ha.

Maurice’s expression twisted with rage.

“That’s because you know nothing.”

Crack.

He bit his lip hard and glanced around.

Scattered petals.

None of the comrades who always stood beside him in support could be seen.

“You can say things like that because you haven’t lost everything!”

Yes.

I knew.

I just kept turning away from it.

That the ‘we’ no longer existed.

That the comrades who promised we’d return together had died hundreds of years ago.

“I know.”

“Ha! You know? You haven’t even lived a hundred years—what the hell could you possibly know?!”

Maurice shouted, nearly in a scream.

“It never ends!”

The shards of overflowing emotion slipped through his lips.

“The loneliness that makes you feel like you’re dying… and yet you can’t die… no matter how much you endure, and endure, and endure, and endure—it never ends…!”

All the pent-up emotion burst out.

“You know it’s a hallucination, but you laugh and chat like a fool… repeating the same stories hundreds, thousands of times over…!”

And still—

“But still… it doesn’t end! You smash your head, sever your neck, tear out your heart, burn your body—no matter what you do, you come back…!”

“So.”

With a deep sigh, I take another step forward.

“I said I know.”

More than you do.

“…What?”

“Five hundred years, was it? The time you’ve lived.”

“That’s right! For longer than your miserable little mind can imagine, I’ve endured!”

“Time so long it defies imagination, huh….”

Ha.

Though I knew full well how meaningless it is to compare who suffered more—

I couldn’t help but let out a bitter chuckle.

“That must’ve been tough.”

“You—”

Maybe he caught the sarcasm in my voice.

Maurice glared at me with a contorted face.

“Fine, let’s see just how long you can withstand the shock of death!”

Whooooosh—!

Petals flew fiercely as Maurice launched another assault.

Crunch!

Brain matter splattered from a shattered skull.

Snap!

Arms and legs bent in grotesque directions, followed by a chilling sound of bones breaking.

Shhhhk!

Intestines spilled out from torn abdominal flesh.

“……”

With each petal that touched me, death repeated.

And still—

I took a step forward.

“What… are you….”

Maurice stared at Dale in disbelief.

Even if the divine blessing brought his body back unharmed, the psychological damage would accumulate.

‘Normally, if someone dies more than 100 times in a short span, they’d be completely incapacitated…!’

Yet in less than 30 minutes, Dale had experienced over a thousand deaths—

And was still moving forward, one step at a time.

Step by step.

Slow but certain, closing in.

“What the hell are you…?!”

Maurice cried out in desperation at the approaching Dale.

Tap.

Dale’s sword touched Maurice’s left chest.

“I am… your end.”

Stab.

The flame-wreathed sword pierced through Maurice’s divine mark.

“Ah.”

Whoooosh—!

The essence of the primordial flame raged violently, devouring his divine blessing.

“…So this is the end.”

He instinctively knew.

A death by this fire meant no coming back.

“Ha.”

He let out a dry laugh and turned his head.

Beyond the blooming chrysanthemums, he saw the faces of those he longed for.

Why was it?

In this moment, they didn’t seem like illusions—

They felt… truly alive.

“…I’m sorry.”

As the petals turned to ash and vanished, a single transparent tear rolled down.

“I couldn’t… keep the promise….”

Let’s go back.

To where we once came from.

To our home.

Whoooosh.

The remaining ash, born from burned petals, scattered into the air.

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