The world didn't end with a bang, but with a predatory roar that didn't come from a throat, but from the air itself.
The black sword didn't just fall out of the case; it dissolved. The obsidian metal turned into a swirling vortex of shadows that swallowed the bullets, the sand, and the screams of the grave robbers. Arthur felt a cold, ancient consciousness press against his mind.
[SUCCESSOR FOUND. BLOODLINE MATCH: ANCESTRAL VORTEX.]
Who... what are you? Arthur thought, his consciousness fraying as the shadows wrapped around him like a cocoon.
[I AM THE WORLD BEAST. THE PROTECTOR OF THE NINE REALMS. MY MASTER HAS FALLEN, AND YOU ARE HIS ECHO. TO SAVE THE ECHO, WE MUST CROSS THE BOUNDARY.]
The blonde woman, Liora, fired again and again, but her bullets vanished into the black mist. Her face, for the first time, showed pure, unadulterated terror. "What is that thing?! It's eating the light!"
"It's... mine," Arthur whispered, though he didn't know why he said it.
A massive surge of energy erupted. The island vanished. The sea vanished. Arthur felt himself being pulled through a needle-eye of space and time. He felt the World Beast's power draining—the sword was sacrificing its physical form, its eons of accumulated strength, just to shield his fragile human soul from the friction of dimensions.
Thump.
Arthur hit a hard, polished floor.
The air was different here. It didn't smell like salt and blood; it smelled of old parchment, lavender, and... ozone.
He groaned, clutching his head. His fingers—the ones Liora had snapped—were whole. The pain was gone, replaced by a dull ache in the center of his forehead. He sat up, blinking against the sunlight streaming through high, arched windows.
He was in a room that looked like a cross between a medieval castle and a high-tech laboratory. Books floated in mid-air, tidying themselves onto shelves. Outside, he could hear the sound of laughter and the distinct crack-le of elemental sparks.
"Student Wells? Are you alright? You fell during the summoning circle practice."
Arthur looked up. A middle aged man in a navy-blue robe with silver embroidery was leaning over him. The man held a wooden staff that hummed with a faint blue light.
Wells? Arthur thought. That's my name. But this isn't my world?
Memory flooded back—not his own, but the memory of a book he had read months ago. A webnovel titled 'I am the Hero, Am I?' A story about a world where people were divided into Wizards and Beast Tamers. A story where the "Extra" character, a talentless student named Arthur Wells, died in the first chapter to provide "motivation" for the protagonist.
"I'm an extra," Arthur whispered, his heart hammering. "I'm the sacrifice."
He closed his eyes, searching for the sword, for the World Beast. But the sword was gone. Instead, in the vast, misty landscape of his "Mental Palace"—the space where Tamers kept their summons—he found something else.
Floating in the center of a dark void was a pitch-black egg. It was covered in ancient, glowing runes that pulsed with a faint, dying light.
[ENERGY DEPLETED,] a faint, echoing voice whispered in his mind. [THE WORLD BEAST HAS REVERTED TO ITS PRIMORDIAL STATE. FEED ME... STRENGTHEN THE SOUL... AND I SHALL AWAKEN TO DEVOUR THIS WORLD FOR YOU.]
Arthur opened his eyes. He wasn't the CEO of Empires anymore. He was a bottom-tier student in a world of magic and monsters, armed with a dormant beast that could eat reality itself.
He looked at the robed teacher and forced a smile—the same calm, calculated smile he used when closing a billion-dollar deal.
"I'm fine," Arthur said, standing up and dusting off his robes. "I just... thought I saw something incredible."