After 999 Deaths, I Refuse to Save the World
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Kael stepped into the outskirts of Elyria, a town he had entered more than 200 times.
But this time, something was wrong.
Too wrong.
The air was too still. The cobblestones looked cracked in all the wrong places—like they'd been damaged by events that hadn't happened yet.
The town square fountain was shattered. The inn, normally bustling with drunken laughter this early in a loop, was silent. Cold torches hung unlit on the walls.
And on the center notice board… was his face.
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WANTED: KAEL ARDEN
> Reward: 300,000 Ecrin. Approach with extreme caution. Suspected of reality tampering.
His own name. His real name.
That was impossible.
Each loop reset the world to a blank template. He always had to reintroduce himself, even to lovers he once died for. Even to enemies who had killed him personally.
This world… it shouldn't know him.
And yet… they did.
> "This isn't a clean reset," he muttered under his breath. "The loop's memory purge failed."
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"Kael…?"
His heart stopped.
That voice.
He turned slowly.
Standing by the broken statue in the center of the plaza was a girl in a tattered red cloak, her face half-hidden behind wind-blown hair. A sword was strapped to her back. Her eyes were wide, shimmering with something between shock and longing.
And Kael's world tilted dangerously.
It was her.
Lyra.
The girl who died during Loop #482. The only person he ever failed to protect on purpose—because her survival had triggered the Great Collapse in Loop #483.
She wasn't supposed to exist anymore.
> "You… remember me?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
Lyra walked toward him slowly, trembling, tears forming in her eyes.
> "I— I don't know why," she said, "but I've been seeing you in dreams for years. I knew your name before I could speak. I knew the sound of your scream. And the pain in your eyes."
Kael felt the chill of something ancient pressing against his spine.
She was fragmented—a memory bleeding through corrupted timelines.
> "Lyra, you should be dead," he said, bluntly.
She smiled sadly. "Aren't we all, Kael?"
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Suddenly, bells rang through the ruined town.
A red flare lit up the sky—then another.
Kael's eyes widened.
> "They've found me."
He grabbed Lyra's hand. "Move."
> "Wait—what's happening?"
> "The System's agents. Enforcers. They're here to erase timeline anomalies. And you…" he glanced at her, "…you're not supposed to exist. They'll kill you first."
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They darted into the alleyways just as black-cloaked figures in masks descended from above, landing like shadows dropped from the heavens.
Each one radiated a cold, unnatural energy—System-made, not human.
One of them tilted their head and whispered, voice distorted:
> "Loop Subject 001-KAEL detected. Memory breach level: 7. Execution authorized."
Kael turned to face them, stepping in front of Lyra.
His blade hadn't materialized yet. But his mind—his greatest weapon—had returned the moment he saw her alive.
He smirked coldly.
> "Loop Enforcers, huh?" he muttered. "You know what happened to the last ones who tried to erase me during Loop #777?"
> "...They don't exist anymore."
He raised his hand, snapped his fingers—
And the world shattered behind him as a cascade of stored timelines crashed into the ground like thunder.
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Ten thousand Kaels—memories of his past selves—flashed through his mind in one perfect instant.
Swordmaster. Mage. Assassin. King. Monster.
Every version of him had died for this world.
Now, they all fed him.
Time slowed. The Enforcers lunged forward. Lyra gasped.
And Kael moved like a phantom—not of this loop, but of all the ones that came before.
His fist glowed with searing violet light—Timefract Flame—a magic he stole during Death #437.
He struck.
The first Enforcer exploded.
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The other two fell back.
> "Loop 001 has regained fragmentary omnipresence," one of them said in static.
"Requesting immediate reset—"
Kael was on them before they finished speaking.
This time, he didn't kill them.
He reached inside their heads—into their System-code minds—and planted a message.
A message meant for the architects of this hell.
> "I'm not saving your world anymore," he whispered.
"I'm ending your game."
He let the last one go—broken, shuddering, glitching—and turned back to Lyra.
She stared at him like he was no longer human.
> "What… are you?"
Kael didn't answer immediately.
He just walked toward the burning sky.
> "I was your hero."
"Now I'm your consequence."
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[End of Chapter 2]
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To be continued.....