[You have collected a Legendary-Ranked Story: Demon God's Whisper]
[You cannot level up past Level MAX!]
[Your Bard Class cannot level up past Level MAX!]
Kim Snow stood atop a mountain, wearing a cloak and a scarf, which he'd wrapped around his neck. Below him, underneath the jagged stone cliffs, was the corpse of the Demon God. Its disgusting ichor bled into the mountainous world of Laris, tainting it.
Tendrils of dark magic snaked through the ground, just underneath the surface. Kim sighed, raising his right hand, gripping his divine harp. He lifted the harp high in the air, collecting golden mana into it, like water filling a cup. The mana swirled around the instrument, thrumming and glowing.
Kim brought his hand down while chanting. A guttural, unnatural voice escaped his throat.
"[Radiance]."
A soft chorus set in, growing louder and louder as the seconds passed. Once it had reached a point where the sound was cracking the ground itself, the clouds in the sky split, to reveal a flaring mini-sun. Threads of light connected the harp and the sun.
BOOM!
The light of the sun exploded into glory, spilling over the wicked remains of the Demon God. Kim raced forward, quickly sprinting down the side of the cliff, rummaging through the pockets of his oversized robes while making sure not to damage them.
He pulled out a flute. Then, he took a deep breath and blew into it as hard as he could.
A glowing bullet shot from the end of the flute, along with a harmonious melody that reminded Kim of the previous world he'd visited—Ishakris. That world was full of beauty and grass and more beauty…
While this one only had death and hate.
The bullet punctured the ground, overpowering the darkness along with the mini-sun.
With a final explosion, the Demon God was completely eradicated.
I hope he doesn't wake up any time soon, Kim thought, stepping onto the pocket of snow and dirt where the Demon God had just been. Well, now that I have his story, there's no need to worry!
Two suns peeked from behind the now-parted clouds, signaling the birth of the new world. It wasn't anything new—stories that involved Demons were like parasites. Their reason for existence was to mooch off worlds and slowly consume them.
Kim, on the other hand, loved collecting stories. Well, of course he did. He was a [Bard]. He remembered when his home world, Earth, had ascended into the multiversal system. Even then, a thousand years ago, he'd preferred reading books over killing monsters.
Now, that habit had brought him to the position of one of the strongest in the universe, with thousands of stories to his name.
He might have been the strongest, really. Well, that was if he didn't include the Almighty. Apart from Him, he thought he was stronger than all the gods in the Pantheon. But well, he didn't really care.
[Status], Kim thought.
Name: Kim Snow
Race: Human
Rank: Divine - Lvl MAX
Class: Bard - Lvl MAX (Ready to Evolve!)
Stories: [Demon God's Whisper, Kraken of the Wilds, Angelic Teardrop…] (9999+ More)
Skills: [Warp, Thousand Tongues, Radiance, Heaven's Judgement…] (9999+ More)
Attributes:
[Strength: MAX]
[Speed: MAX]
[Magic: MAX]
[Vitality: MAX]
[Dexterity: MAX]
[Free Points: 0]
His eyes hovered over [Demon God's Whisper]. He opened it.
[Demon God's Whisper (Legendary) - The legacy of a Demon God. Contains within it the soul of a Demon God, and all the stories collected by that very soul. Not for the faint of heart.]
"Not for the faint of heart, eh?" Kim shook his head, hoping that was true. He rubbed his hands together, took a deep breath, and opened his mouth. His jaw snapped out of position, snapping and popping while expanding into a titanic gaping hole. Thousands of serrated teeth lay on the inner linings of his new mouth.
"[Devour]," he growled.
The story appeared in front of Kim, thousands of pages spinning endlessly in the middle of the sky. Slowly but surely, Kim siphoned the story's mana, turning the pages dry and brittle as he consumed them.
Instantly, the Demon God's story flashed through his mind, sequence by sequence. It was like a grainy film that had been stepped on and smashed, still retaining the will to live. Kim learned of how the Demon God had been born as an illegitimate child, tortured, and then imprisoned. He learned of the Demon God's hate, how he had risen to become the strongest in the world of Laris, how he had inflicted that hate upon the world.
A tear rolled down Kim's cheek. He sighed.
That was a good one, he thought. A good one indeed.
Ah, it would be better if I had someone I could tell my own story to, though.
Kim opened his mouth, chanting once more.
"[Warp]."
***
Kim rocked back and forth in a wooden rocking chair, staring at his crackling fireplace. He didn't have a grand palace to call home, or anything like that. Instead, he lived inside one of his stories.
This one was called [Endless Grass Plains with Cottage], and that's exactly what it was. It was an endless grass plains that was always beautiful, always dreamlike. And at the center of the plains was a small brick cottage, one fit for a villager.
Two beds, two baths. Wooden floors. Gas stove.
The dream, basically.
All that he would have wanted was someone else to share it with. But most humans crumbled in his presence… actually, it was most other races. And those who could withstand him had no care for him. They'd all evolved into their ascended forms, while Kim stayed as a simple [Bard]. Not a [Demonic Bard], an [Angelic Bard], or anything else.
Just a [Bard].
Getting up, Kim paced around the room, bored out of his mind. He'd already collected his story for today, saved another world from demise.
Maybe I'm due for a cup of coffee.
He stepped into his kitchen, sifting through his stories before he found the right one.
"[Robotic Coffee Maker]."
His mana blasted from his body, converging into pieces of metal. The pieces locked in with each other, creating a small, humanoid robot.
The robot saluted Kim, walking over to the cupboard. After collecting the coffee grounds and water, the robot's stomach opened to reveal an empty compartment. It swiftly shoved the things into the compartment, closing it shut.
"... Wait time, 5 minutes." The robot said steadily.
Kim nodded, walking over to the couch. There were books strewn across it.
He picked one up—The Adventures of Frogg, the King of Frogs—and began to read.
***
Kim couldn't read any longer.
He took a sip, to find that there was no more coffee left in his cup. The robot had disassembled itself as well, and he couldn't brew more—there was a one day wait time between uses of the story.
Of course, he had other stories that could do the job, but none quite as simple as [Robotic Coffee Maker].
Kim walked to the main door, opening it and meeting a chilly breeze. The sunset had been replaced with the blackness of night, without a star in sight. A smile grew on Kim's face as he trudged through the plains.
After a few minutes, he lay on the side of a hill, looking up at the stars.
His thoughts weren't poetic or mysterious.
Kim Snow, the greatest [Bard] the universe had ever seen, was lonely. He was lonely because he couldn't tell his stories to anyone else. Because nobody would listen. His mind had become numb, like someone had crushed his skull with a stone a billion times over.
It was a foolish dream, to want to share his stories. That dream made everything fall apart.
He didn't want to remember it, but everyone he knew had died. His sister and brother. His father and mother. Jace. Ellie. Aubrey, Jaxon, Nox, Zephyr… the names were plentiful.
Just when he was about to head off, he heard a small voice, like the chirp of a bird.
"... Are you Kim Snow?"
Kim's eyes widened as he immediately grabbed his flute, ripping it out of his pocket. He looked around for the source of the noise. His divine senses closed in on a spot to his right.
It's not hostile?
Kim lowered his instrument as the presence grew larger. It grew so large, in fact, that Kim was sure only those who were max level could withstand the pressure. He narrowed his eyes.
Before him, was a being he recognized to be Velea, God of Time. He looked like a walking paradox, a blank humanoid with twisted spirals curling around him, each containing the purest form of time itself.
What was Velea doing in his backyard?
"Velea, what are you doing here? You rejected me the last time I asked you to have some rum with me."
"Because I don't care to listen to your exploits," the God of Time responded. "Now, I'm not coming for no reason. I have something I believe you want."
"What?" Kim cocked his head. "Indulge me."
Velea chose not to say anything. Instead, he pulled something out of his pocket.
It was a small, broken clock. Not the digital kind, but the analog type.
A Regressors Clock? Kim began to realize what Velea was getting at. "I can't regress, Velea. The Almighty won't allow it. I'll die the second I step back in time."
"Do you take me to be a fool? I know that. However, take a look at this." Velea tossed the clock over to Kim, who inspected it.
[Clock of E. Valentine (???) - An absolute regressor's clock with the ability to rewind multiversal time.]
Kim's hands trembled.
"Where the hell did you find this? I've been looking for this for five hundred years! How did you…"
Velea gave Kim a wry smile. "You're stuck in a small subset of timelines, while I can traverse them all. This was hidden within the Almighty's safe."
Kim's eyes grew hollow, face turning dark with fury. He didn't bother to chant this time.
[Demon God's Whisper].
Chaotic demonic energy crackled around his body in the form of crimson-black lightning. Stepping through Velea's barriers and shattering the shields he'd placed around his body, Kim shot forward, blurring into nothingness before appearing behind the god.
Kim used his right hand to grab the god, crushing him against the ground. With the other hand, he swung his harp, lining one of the razor sharp strings up with the god's neck.
"You dare summon the Almighty?" Kim whispered, voice intermixing with that of the Demon God's story. "You're insane!"
The Almighty was already breaking through. Titanic, monstrous tentacles the size of galaxies were falling from above, carrying with it the power of the universe's strongest god.
Why the hell did this fool steal something from HIM?
Wait… don't tell me…
"It seems you've figured it out, Kim Snow."
"... What is the favor you want?" Kim shot back, glancing up at the tentacles nervously.
"I want only a single thing from you," Velea's voice grew heavy, as if he'd resigned himself already. "When you meet me in the old timeline, save me. Do not let me become what I am now… do not let me murder my own wife in cold blood. Do not let me sacrifice my children to the Blood Demon. Do not…"
Velea's voice was drowned out by the shattering of the story's barriers.
Kim opened his mouth hesitantly, before nodding firmly. He gripped the clock tightly as the tentacles began to close in, about to ravage him.
BOOM!
Kim crushed the clock in his hands, shattering it and releasing its energy.
Before the darkness took him, he had one final thought.
I understand.
[You have triggered an absolute timeline reset!]
[Regressing…]