The Will of Cadel Lytos. He knew that his soul had been with him ever since he was transmigrated. It was hard to forget how much pain he had gone through to accept that his every action and choice was under his influence.

But he hadn’t expected the soul to manifest itself in the form of a system buff.

“……del!”

“Com……!”

The voices sounded vaguely familiar. But he couldn’t make out anything. He was deafened, like he was underwater. The noise around him, the screams and shouts, the creepy laughter, the clashing of blades, the tearing of flesh, assaulted his senses.

A familiar enemy. The same demons and monsters he’d always faced. But their hideousness seemed so alien as if he had seen them for the first time today.

It was a grotesque thing. An evil that shouldn’t exist in this world, one that overwhelmed and immobilized you at the mere sight of it. It could not be defeated. He was a human being. How could a mere mortal deal with such monstrosities?

He felt such emotion as he looked at the enemy he had fought so many times before. His heart pounded in his chest. Its irregular beats rang in his clogged ears. He could hardly breathe. The knights rushing past him, the splattering blood and flesh, the sharp-toothed monsters and unreal wings. It was all terrifying.

He was frozen in place, barely breathing. He couldn’t think straight about how to deal with them. He didn’t even want to fight in the first place; he just wanted to run away, far away, out of sight.

He didn’t think he could survive even if he fought bravely, and the very idea of fighting seemed absurd. Everything was unfamiliar and frightening as if he were living a terrible nightmare that was far removed from reality.

The scene in front of him slowed down like a screen caught in slow motion. His breathing stretched, and his eyelids fluttered. This was war. It was a fight for life, a tense battle where the slightest slip of the guard could cost you your head in an instant.

How had he managed to keep fighting all this time? He had led a normal life, a life far removed from fighting. In a society where fighting was frowned upon, yet he had fought with his life at stake so naturally. And not against humans, but demons. They were much stronger and more vicious than humans, and yet he was not afraid of them. He was filled with a fighting spirit to win.

There was only one reason for that.

‘Without Cadel Lytos, I can’t fight…….’

The purpose and direction of the battle had long since been erased from his mind. He wanted to leave this place now, and that was all he could think about. And the next moment.

“Cadel!”

A javelin whizzed past him out of nowhere. Cadel’s eyes widened, unable to stifle a scream. The sharpened point of the javelin threatened to pierce his eyeball at any moment. If he had been another step ahead, his skull would have been smashed in without warning.

As soon as he realized that, his body slackened. As he stood still, as if his soul had been sucked out of him, he recognized the man who had blocked the javelin.

It was Yozen, his dark navy blue hair and white bandages peeking through it. He stared at the familiar figure behind him.

“Cadel, is something wrong? Your heart is pounding so loud.”

“Yozen…….”

Throwing the javelin he was holding to the ground, Yozen turned to Cadel. A flying blow here and there cut into his body, but instead of blood, dark energy spurted from the wounds. It was not Yozen before him, but his alter ego.

Cadel’s gaze shifted slightly. One by one, his subordinates came into view, through a field of vision that had held only the monstrous creatures. They were dealing with enemies coming from different directions. Each time he looked back at his subordinates, he had to meet their anxious gazes, worried about their suddenly panicked commander’s condition.

“It, it’s okay…… it’s okay.”

He clenched his fists as if digging into the floor. His stifled voice shook terribly, but Cadel insisted on repeating that he was fine.

He was afraid. Afraid of the creatures, afraid of the death that loomed overhead, afraid of the familiarity that had been stripped away in an instant, and yet some shallow part of him knew that he shouldn’t voice these feelings openly. His gut told him that if his subordinates realized he was afraid, they too would be in danger.

“You don’t look okay. Are you…… scared?”

“Don’t mind me.”

“Cadel.”

“Fight! I’m fine.”

He shouted, his eyes dropping to the ground. Yozen’s alter ego melted away as he stood up, facing Cadel wordlessly.

‘Why…….’

He realized that the ‘Will of Cadel Lytos’ was having a greater effect on him than he thought, and that his will was a kind of ‘buff’ granted by the system. All of this was shocking, but he was able to accept it for now.

But he needed to know what was wrong with the system, and why. He had to be sure that in time, if he did something about it, all this fear would go away, as it usually did, so he could pretend to be normal for a little while longer.

‘I haven’t forgotten how to use mana. I can defend myself, I can attack those monsters. I can do it.’

Cadel pounded the obvious into his head. He wasn’t weak enough to die here, and he had allies around him to protect him. So it was okay. As long as he took things in stride and tried to do what he could, one by one, like he had when he first fell into this world…….

“Magician spotted!”

A shadow loomed overhead. He squinted against the darkened vision and saw.

“Hehe, it’s been a while since I’ve been out, I feel so good, and even though you’re human, I’ll make sure to kill you with ease.”

Dark wings spread wide, blocking out the sun. Feathers and dust of demonic energy falling along their powerful flaps. In contrast to her sinister wings, her dazzling platinum hair defied gravity, and she spread her arms wide with a beaming smile.

“Look at the sky! Let’s make the last moments of our lives a tear-jerking spectacle!”

Her empty hands formed a javelin, demonic energy coalescing at the sharp tip. The same attack Cadel had barely escaped with Yozen’s help a moment ago.

It could be blocked. If he couldn’t react with speed, he’d have to give up on counterattacking and focus on defense. If he utilized his usual barrier, he should be able to hold out.

“……You can’t have that look on your face. A human’s frightened expression awakens the bad instincts inside me.”

And yet he couldn’t. Even if he tried to raise his mana, skillfully manipulating this unfamiliar flow of energy was a challenge for him now, especially with a giant winged demon threatening his life in front of him.

The tip of her javelin, stained with demonic energy, grew darker. The thought of being attacked soon made it impossible for Cadel to calmly manipulate the mana. Still, he managed to muster enough mana to create a barrier, but the result was a flimsy, crude barrier. The flame-mixed wind barrier fluttered precariously as if it might shatter at any moment. The next moment.

Boom!

She threw her javelin at Cadel, who stared at her uneasily.

“Knight Commander!”

“Leader!”

The panicked voices of his subordinates echoed across the battlefield. Through the corner of his eye, he saw their grim faces.

‘Holy, sh*t……!’

The impact was so tremendous that even his momentary fear vanished. The force of the javelin sent Cadel flying to the other side. The javelin embedded in his abdomen pushed him backward endlessly. The flimsy barrier shattered upon contact with the javelin. Ordinarily, the barrier would have shattered and the shockwave would have killed him.

However, Cadel survived. Alive, and able to take in at least some of the rough edges of the javelin as it flew past him. All thanks to the scale armor that covered his body.

“Cough! Ugh…….”

The javelin stopped its furious sprint only after slamming Cadel into a wooden pole far outside of the magic circle, far, far away. The javelin lost power as pain shot through his body. He slid to the ground, shards of his scale armor scattering around him as he fell.

As soon as his trembling hands touched the ground, blood rushed back as if it had been waiting. His guts twisted in spasms, and he felt an overwhelming pain as if his entire body were contracting with each breath and spit.

It was not an unfamiliar pain. In fact, it was nothing new, and it wasn’t even in the same league as what he’d experienced before. Still, the realization that he was feeling this pain, and the fact that he didn’t know when the next one would come, was utterly devastating.

“Stop…… Please stop……!”

He curled up into a ball with his head in his hands. Everything he should have felt, but hadn’t until now, washed over him like a tidal wave. If he kept going like this, he’d never find the cause of the system failure, and he’d never recover.

He couldn’t let that happen. He still had his subordinates on the battlefield. They were fighting for their lives. He couldn’t cower in front of them like that.

A sob escaped his distorted mouth. Cadel strained against his battered body. Even if he wanted to run, he couldn’t. The compulsion to get back to his subordinates at once consumed him. With that, Cadel pushed himself to his feet.

“I remember.”

Before him, the one who had never answered his call appeared.

“I remembered a part of my memory I’d forgotten, and it’s finally come back to me.”

“Kunra……?”

Cadel’s face went blank as he recognized Kunra’s form. Kunra looked just as bad as he did, no, maybe even worse. Sunken cheeks and bloodshot eyes, the weary look of one pushed to the limit. Pain and fatigue seemed to be weighing down his entire body in a way he hadn’t thought he’d see in Kunra until he died.

He lurched toward Cadel, who ducked reflexively, his back slamming into the wood. A short groan, a frown, and Kunra grabbed him by the shoulders and said.

“It’s been repeating itself.”

“What……?”

“You were not the only one who had been inside the body of Cadel Lytos. Countless Cadel Lytos, across countless stretches of worldline, have had their bodies taken, and died miserable deaths.”

Kunra’s face was colored with hysterical fury as he stepped closer. His eyes trembled unsteadily, and he looked as if he might explode at any moment. Cadel let out an uncontrolled breath, not quite comprehending Kunra’s words.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Kunra. I…… I’m ready to accept something now…….”

“It’s been 209 times. That’s 209 Cadel Lytos dead so far, and that’s a weight too much for a stranger from another world to bear.”

“Kunra…….”

“But you must do it. You are the only human to share my power. You are the only human I have chosen. You are the only one who can break this terrible cycle. Only your success can save this world.”

Tears welled up in his eyes for no reason, at a subject he understood nothing about. It was fear. But whether this fear was the aftermath of Cadel Lytos’s will being taken away, or the result of his subconscious understanding of Kunra’s words, he could not tell.

Kunra looked at Cadel, who had tears in his eyes without a sob. He stopped rambling on, and his breathing became ragged.

Slowly, his eyes swept over Cadel, calmly. After a long stare that seemed to imprint his presence, Kunra, who had tousled his unruly hair, spoke.

“So this is what you really look like.”

“I’m scared, I’m scared, I don’t want to fight, but if I don’t fight, my subordinates…….”

His whole body was trembling. The unexpected surge of emotion left Cadel helpless. He held himself together, convinced he couldn’t risk embarrassing his subordinates, but Kunra could tell. Cadel was not fit for battle now. At the very least, he needed time to accept and adjust to this world.

Cradling the helpless body in his arms, Kunra slowly closed his eyes. A battle was raging not far away. He could detect the signs of a battle, with large amounts of demonic energy and mana crackling and moving in a tumultuous fashion. He focused on a group of figures moving rapidly toward him and Cadel. Cadel’s subordinates.

Opening his eyes again, he stroked the back of Cadel’s head vigorously. Cadel flinched for a moment, startled, and then his body went limp and still.

“It’s not the war that matters, it’s you.”

He whispered in Cadel’s unconscious ear, and his body glowed red, transforming into his true form. He hoisted the fallen Cadel onto his back and soared through the air.

* * *

Everyone in the group noticed that Cadel’s condition was strange. But no one rushed to his aid. Cadel was the only man they loved, but he was also the commander of the Knight Order.

Up until now, Cadel had handled his trials with aplomb, demonstrating the authority of a commander. Their faith in him had allowed them to focus on their own battles.

However, their commander, who had always commanded the battlefield with confidence, had been blown away by an insignificant demon’s attack, and that was the greatest shock of all to them.

“Damn it! It’s the Scarlet Dragon, and it’s taken Commander!”

Dropping his greatsword, Van looked up at the sky and cursed, reflexively remembering the past. When they had first entered the Mountains of Silence, the Scarlet Dragon had taken Cadel away in an instant. So simply, so cruelly, that his vow to protect Cadel was worthless.

“Lord Kunra is not an enemy, and it is possible that he has taken Knight Commander out of harm’s way for a time to improve his condition.”

Garuel picked up the greatsword and handed it back to Van. He spoke soothing words, but his expression was hard. Cadel was not an irresponsible commander who would abandon his subordinates and retreat alone. He was the kind of man who would see the fight through to the end, even if he had to, and when he left the battlefield without a word, it meant that something important and serious had happened.

He had no idea what was going on. But this much was certain. Cadel was now at the side of a being more powerful than anyone here, and the rest of them would have to fight in his absence.

“Yozen, can you confirm Leader’s status?”

“Judging by his shadow alter ego, I think he’s already collapsed. …… Cadel has been strange today, maybe the Scarlet Dragon is the problem.”

“Hmph, I doubt it.”

Kunra was no longer visible in the sky. Lydon lowered his gaze from the Scarlet Dragon’s tail and clicked his tongue in frustration.

“That lizard is soft on my darling, and it’s a very annoying fact, but if Cadel has a problem, he’ll be able to fix it.”

If you were hurting, you could ask Garuel to heal you. If Cadel was feeling bad, he would vaguely shown it only after all the fighting was over. But Cadel ignored his condition, which was serious enough to cause him to collapse on the battlefield, because no one here could fix his problem.

Nodding slowly in agreement with Lydon’s words, Lumen sheathed his sword.

“We don’t know when Leader will return. I can’t afford to show him our loss when he returns. I’ll go back and fight.”

Without Cadel, the rest of them would have to carry on his will. They needed a sure victory that would make him smile with relief when he returned.

And so Lumen resolutely chose to return to the battlefield, but some of the others would not turn their backs so easily. For now, they knew that Kunra’s side was the safest place to be. But if something else went wrong, their desire to be by Cadel’s side in his time of need was not something to be dismissed so easily.