Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Rok Nardin & Garrett Weyenberg - Stranger (feat. Madalen Duke)
https://youtu.be/cHZNi1ltSAY
-----------------
Late Evening - Unknown Season : Year 0 | Month 0 : The Forgotten Altar
World: Dracoria | Rank: ERROR
Population: Error Code C.725
-----
"Uwaaah..." Letting out a carefree yawn, I stretched out on a bed of metallic grass, enjoying the gentle stimulation through my tight black gambeson—my thoughts calm as the warm, iron-rich breeze rolling over the top of the cliff behind me.
It was the scent of blood from a vast ocean down below—contaminated, littered with corpses the size of islands.
In the past, the scent alone would have been enough to make me vomit.. a scent so thick you could taste the grasp of death and the coming of rot.
But, I didn't even acknowledge it. After about five and a half centuries, I had actually grown accustomed to it—to hell. The longer I lived and jumped through worlds completing missions, the farther the line determining what a paradise was, sank into the abyss.
"Mhh..." Yet as I stared into the sky of saffron, watching pink and red clouds clash as if to mimic the dance of the two distant, hazy stars behind them.. I found enjoyment.
Even if it was bound to be interrupted. *Ding!-Ding!-Ding!-Di...* Hearing thousands of system pings, the sky was blotted out with panels, their vibrant blue hue slicing through the orange haze like nothing else could: 'You have killed a Level -1... Recieved...'
"Nnngh..." I groaned with a stretch. -I was wondering when the drones would find that last nest...- *fwip* -'Mute kill notifications'.- Waving away the panels with a casual swipe, my thought echoed like a command, yet with a responsive beep, the ringing of kill panels ceased, and blissful silence returned. *inhale* "Haah..."
Or so I thought.
*Thump-Splash...* *Thump-Splash...* Feeling the cliffside quake with a steady rhythm, I was dragged out of my illusory cradle, lethargically sitting up, dragging myself from the verge of sleep to look over my shoulder at a distant figure: a colossal, nearly two-hundred-meter-tall lizard barreling towards me, streaming enough drool from its maw to fill up entire lakes. -One slipped through the drones, huh...-
*Vwoop* Opening my notifications panel with my arm propped on my knee, I found that the last kill from my drones was almost half an hour ago. Meaning... -This must be the last one.-
"Uwaah..." Letting out another yawn, I finally started standing up, brushing off my white and gold leggings with my skin-tight black gloves meant to be tucked into gauntlets before straightening up. -I guess I'll stretch a bit before the next mission...- Looking down at a lump around the base of my finger, a momentary flash escaped before an axe as large as me appeared in my grasp. *Vwoop*
It was my axe, a living weapon named Klímaka Drákou—black, single-bladed axe with a long staff and a rather mesmerizing, pulsating purple glow, moving and flowing like a liquid with a mind of its own.
It was my baby.. my only companion to stick with me through the hell I had come to call home.
But just as it was a companion, it was a tool that had grown with me for centuries and become something I could consider an extension of myself.
And that was something truly frightening.
*Woom* Lifting it up with a gentle hum, I looked out at the slobbering lizard, unable to muster anything more than a yawn before activating dozens of skills through the system, and swinging.
*Shik-WOOOM* Hearing space itself warp, everything beyond the arc of my swing vanished—the ocean cavitated, the planets crust splintered, and the sky split all the way to the horizon, leaving the two halves of the charging monster to go limp, and fall separately. *SPLAAASH*
An instantaneous death. And an acceptable display.
"Uwaah..." -Good enough...- Letting one final yawn slip, Draco vanished back into the equipment ring, and my gaze settled on the panels populating before me:
'Excessive Planetary Damage Detected! Penalty will be...'
'All Hostile Life Exterminated... Recieved...'
*Fwip-Fwip-Fwip* Most of them I closed without a second thought.
However, as I shifted gears, mentally preparing to jump to a new world and start the next mission, I found myself staring into a message I had never seen before:
'Critical Error Occurred. No Further Missions Available.'
'Activating Failsafe.'
-H..Huh?- The panel gently flickered, faded, and glitched as I stared at it, almost appearing like an illusion.
Up until then, I had never not had a quest immediately granted to me. The moment I completed one, I would be granted another, dragged to a new world, and forced to follow the System's bidding, whether that meant I was to do something simple, or be forced to fight for my life against something I was never meant to face.
All just to stay alive.
But after a certain point, death was no longer a risk. I had so many skills that flicking a pebble could blow holes through mountains, so much gold it would fluctuate between positive and negative with every kill, and items like my axe that let me cleave entire planets in half.
My strength was my pride.. the culmination of my life's effort to survive...
...The culmination of my life's effort to reach this point...
*Beep* Finally mustering the courage to tap the panel, everything else vanished instantaneously:
'Override Enabled: User can now return to any world previously visited.'
My breath caught sharply, the words lingering, floating in the air as if weightless...
After supposedly five hundred years.. tens of thousands of different worlds.. millions of different quests...
I had finally reached the end.
In that moment, my heart thumped dully—uncertainty and worry threading through every thought, until my stomach itself churned.
Anxiety... It was a sensation I had almost forgotten.
By then, I knew nothing other than killing... After being dragged through worlds, forced to assassinate kings and researchers, told to cleave kingdoms and civilizations, and asked to level entire continents of creatures merely wishing to live peacefully.. all to survive.. I was reduced a mindless machine that knew nothing beyond following the orders of the System...
A mindless slave that had given up on the thought of freedom...
And yet, slowly reaching out once more, I found my eyes on the list of worlds I had traversed over the years. Tens of thousands of names, each stirring different memories, glowing, flickering as if they'd vanish if I breathed wrong.
I didn't believe it.. a part of me didn't want to...
But after scrolling through that endless list.. I reached the bottom:
'World #0 | Earth'
The sight of that name alone made my pulse quicken—a blend of emotions buried beneath centuries of numbness stirring for the first time in eons. I was afraid to touch it... Afraid the moment I extended my hand, the illusion would break.
This was what I did it all for... The result of my efforts to stay alive no matter how much I suffered...
It stirred a flicker of hope—a glimmer of an ember just bright enough to make me extend my hand...
...And touch that forgotten name.
*Tap* *Beep* Hearing the system beep as the panels disappeared, my heart twitched, but just a moment later, another appeared:
'Teleporting to World #0 | Earth'
And before I could react, my surroundings were swallowed by the void. *Vwoop*
My mind stuttered, descending into a fog from shock that took time to settle—time I didn't know could flow inside a gate...
Having jumped through hundreds of thousands of them in my travels through the System, I had never had one last more than the teeniest fraction of a second—a moment so brief it could truly be considered instantaneous, but this time, it couldn't have felt slower. -Is this.. really happening..?-
*Ding-Ding* Hearing the pinging of panels I couldn't see, I raised my arm to mute it like I normally would before my stomach twisting into a knot. -Maybe.. not this time...- "System," I started hesitantly. "Turn on audio-only mode." My voice was strained—my body locked in place by an unfathomable force.
But regardless, the System heard me. *Beep* "Setting Changed..." The voice spoke straight into my head, seemingly ignoring the medium of my eardrums. "Attempting Connection to Server 141-A81-B5, colloquial name, Earth."
-Huh? Did Earth become a server world?- It was a concept I remembered, albiet only distantly—worlds with intelligent life granted special System access to act akin to gathering hubs for System Users.
But even with that privilege, during my travels over the last two centuries, even those worlds were nothing but husks. Kingdoms that once spanned continents were left to rot, their streets filled with the decayed skeletons of families, royalty and peasants alike, all torn limb from limb and reclaimed by nature. -If Earth followed that fate...- My face darkened at the thought.
But I didn't even get that far.
*Beep* "Connection Attempt 49,999 Failed. System Versions Incompatible.
*Beep* "Attempting Connection to Main Server... Server out of reach... Reconnecting Via Closest Relay... Connected... Attempting Synchronization."
The silence that followed every word was excruciating. No matter how hard I tried to find it, peace never settled—even for a breath.
Until finally, the system rang my skull like it was a massive bell. *BEEP* "Outdated System detected. Beginning Update and Verification..."
-W..what?-
*BEEP* "SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED! Attempting Emergency REPAIR."
Wincing with every deafening beep, I could hardly keep up with the rapid cycling of messages—until...
*BEEP-BEEP* "System-Critical Error Occurred. Forcefully wiping System."
Those words reached me with clarity I could never explain. -S-SYSTEM WIPE?!- It made my heart stop. "S-SHIT! SYSTEM CANCEL!" Panic tore through me.
But the lifeless voice didn't care. "Force-Wipe Repair cannot be cancelled... System Overload detected. Reallocating System Resources." I couldn't stop it...
"I DESTROYED WORLDS FOR THAT SHIT! LIKE HELL I'LL LET YOU TAKE IT AWAY!" Knowing what was coming, I thrashed, forcing myself through the unfathomably crushing pressure locking me in place in hopes of breaking out and stopping it.
But it was futile.
All I could do was listen in horror as the trophies I gained from centuries of blood, pain, and grit were taken away from me...
*Beep* "49,729,125,437 items removed from Gear and Inventory..." As if everything I bled for was nothing more than a gift.. an investment.. it was taking everything. "Proceeding to Skills and Upgrades..."
And no matter how much I wanted to resist.. I was completely powerless. No matter where I reached—where I swatted—I couldn't find the walls of that trapped me.
...I couldn't find a place to tear myself out...
But that was when it happened.
*Beep* "Releasing User's Reserved Mana... Restrictions Undone."
*VWOOOOOOOM* Before I could blink, energy erupted from within me as if a balloon was popped, flooding my body, permeating my cells and skin before filling the surrounding space like a burst of water that extended my own perception.
For that moment, it felt as if my mind had ascended, seeing everything from the twitching of my own muscle fibers to the flow of individual molecules vibrating in the air around me—all at once.
It was so jarring it even quelled the rage that was ready to rip myself out of the gate.
But that anger was needless anyway.
*BEEP* "CRITICAL WARNING. Teleportation Gate Unstable. Searching for local non-obstructed space... Found."
*CRACK-VWOOOOM* The sphere shattered a moment later as if bursting from pressure before a cool, humid air kissed my face, and a ray of warm light graced my eyes.
*Wooosh* It was a cool, steady breeze that seemed to blow away the surrounding void as if it was made of nothing more than idle thoughts.
And before I knew it, I found myself looking out from atop a mountain, over an endless green forest with the chirp of song birds, the rustle of leaves, and the scent of oak overloading my mind.
Everything was heightened more than it ever had before... I could count feathers on birds kilometers away, pinpoint the crunch of leaves beneath a squirrel's paw hundreds of meters away, and smell the countless different flowers and trees blooming in the eve of spring, all while the ocean of energy erupting from me painted a blurry image of my surroundings in my mind.
It was overwhelming to the point it was suffocating.. but as if my mind had simply overloaded from it all, I was calm.
I was finally back...
Standing there from atop that rock outcrop, the long-forgotten memories of holding my father's hand, laying in a field to gaze at clouds with my mom, and waking to the chirp of dove every morning came back with a clarity I never knew them to have.
And for a moment.. my anger settled...
-Am I really.. home..?-
-----
Read up to 5 weeks ahead of schedule, and get early access to artwork on My Patreon!
(In case Embedded Link doesn't work: https://www.patreon.com/TDOD )
-------------
Also, please feel free to check out our Discord for all updates related to TSH releases! https://discord.gg/Dv7G5bQD4v
All are welcome!