* * *

Cough!

Blood trickled down his chin as he coughed violently. His entire body throbbed as if an electric current was running through it, and he could feel the pain coursing through his veins. He had entered a state of mana depletion.

“Mamil! You can’t use any more magic than that!”

“Then let’s create a situation where I won’t have to use it!”

Cadel’s sudden disappearance and the absence of the members who had followed him. The battlefield was in chaos due to the absence of the main force. The enemy, led by three High Demons with enormous wings, was gaining momentum that was becoming too much to handle.

Reinforcements still hadn’t arrived. Even if they did, their priority would be to fight, not to destroy the magic circle. All Mamil could do, with his exhausted allies, was to strain himself and draw on his magic.

The flames he created scorched the ground where the enemy stood. The colorful flames, a mixture of greens, purples, and blues, kept the enemy from invading their territory. But it didn’t work against the enemy in the sky.

“This is why I didn’t want to advance with those wingless things. Tsk.”

A High Demon with a stern expression and a slender figure. Edward swung the jet-black chains wrapped around his arms. The chains snapped like whips, then stood straight as sharp spears, piercing the knights’ skulls. The impaled bodies were dragged into the fire, where they burned beyond repair.

Mamil was doing his best, but even an archmage could not be expected to protect so many enemies and allies at once, especially with his mana depleted.

‘Where the hell are you, Cadel?’

The Scarlet Scales Knight Order. Their assistance was desperately needed.

“Kahaha! There’s a magician here who’s dying. Is he exhausted from protecting the trash? Yes, yes. It’s easier for a magician to show off his skills when he has good allies. He was unlucky.”

From above Mamil came the voice of another High Demon, a man with a long tattoo of a snake running from the nape of his left neck. It was Dyphorek. A magic circle formed at his feet like a foothold as he flew. Mamil, instinctively sensing danger, tried to attack him.

“You’d be better off trying to protect yourself than trying to kill me, though you won’t succeed either way.”

An ally’s scream was faster than his attack. Reflexively, he shifted his gaze to see countless magic circles forming in the previously empty air, and beasts emerging from them.

The beasts were shaped like lions, wolves, bears, and other beasts, but their bodies were made of demonic energy instead of bone and flesh. With horns on their heads, the beasts let out a thunderous roar as they landed on the ground.

The number of enemies to face was constantly multiplying. Staring at the hopeless scene, Mamil realized something. If the Scarlet Scales Knight Order didn’t return in the next five minutes, the Mainue Kingdom would fall.

* * *

The crisp air, the warm sunshine, the birds chirping high above, the leaves fluttering in the breeze. All these whispers of the forest soothed Cadel’s mind. Sitting down on a flat rock, he gently closed his eyes and inhaled the air into his lungs.

“Are you calming down now?”

Kunra stood beside him, waiting for Cadel’s condition to improve. His shivering had calmed, as had the chills, and his incessant crying had stopped. He seemed to have regained some composure. Kunra looked up at Cadel, who nodded slowly, then smirked and glanced downward.

“Then why don’t you let go of this?”

Cadel was clutching the hem of Kunra’s robe. Ever since they’d arrived in the forest, he’d clutched it like a frightened child and refused to let go. Normally, Cadel would have let go of the hem in a fit of embarrassment and anger, but he was stubborn enough to refuse to let go. Kunra, finally giving up teasing him, offered his hand for Cadel to squeeze instead of the hem.

“……I have to get back. My subordinates are probably worried.”

Cadel mumbled in a tired voice and lifted his eyelids. The sense of reality that had faded in the quiet environment slowly returned, and the most important issue emerged from the jumble of thoughts.

His subordinates must be confused by his sudden absence. He had no confidence that they would give up their search for him and focus on the battle, and if they did, the burden would fall squarely on the shoulders of the Blue Blood Knight Order and Mamil, who were both on the verge of collapse.

If he returned to the battlefield, he would once again be reduced to a malfunctioning robot, but that didn’t mean he could sit back and cower in the safety of his own mind.

As if sensing Cadel’s thoughts, Kunra, who had been staring at him in silence, spoke up.

“Do you remember what I said to you before I brought you here?”

“What you said……?”

His memory was hazy. It seemed like Kunra had said something in an uncharacteristically gibberish way when he came to Cadel. Cadel shrugged, unable to recall, and Kunra walked over and sat down across from him.

“This is important. I want you to listen carefully this time.”

“Can we do this later? If I don’t go back right now…….”

“It has to be now. Because what I’m about to tell you will show you why you must win the war.”

Reasons to win the war. He didn’t need to be told, he knew it. As Cadel frowned, unable to focus on his words, Kunra squeezed their clasped hands together.

“A few days ago, I recovered a part of my memory that I had forgotten. And in those memories, I fought 209 Demon Wars, all of them the same. They were waged by Emilia Swell, the one and only Princess of the Demon Realm. And in those countless battles, Cadel Lytos was defeated 209 times over.”

“……What?”

The stupid response came out of his mouth. Bewildered eyes swept over Kunra’s unwavering gaze and stony expression. He wasn’t in the mood to lie, not at a time like this, not with a lame joke.

Blinking furiously as he tried to process Kunra’s words, one corner of his mouth tilted up awkwardly.

“I don’t remember fighting 209 wars. This is my first…….”

“It is. It is a first for you, and most of the humans with you now are new to you as well, though some of them have overlapped at times, and none of them have stood by Cadel Lytos for this long.”

“Wait a minute.”

Kunra didn’t rush Cadel’s understanding. He stood still, facing him, waiting for the human in front of him to fully process his words.

“So, Kunra, what you’re saying is that…….”

“…….”

“You’re telling me that there were humans who transmigrated into the body of ‘Cadel Lytos’ before me. Am I…… correct?”

“Yes.”

Cadel blew out a guttural breath at the affirmative answer. He wasn’t the first transmigrator? If Kunra was to be believed, he was the 210th transmigrator, let alone the first. That didn’t make sense, and the previous 209 had all been defeated in the war. So where did the defeated ones go?

‘The system has even offered returning to one’s original life as a perk of clearing, so where did the failed souls go……?

It was a question he hadn’t given much thought to until now. Imagining what would happen if he failed only demoralized him, and the presence of his subordinates kept him from dipping a toe into the pool of failure. All he cared about was the future of victory, when he could leave them behind and return to his original world.

Cadel stroked his cheek with a grave frown, then turned his trembling gaze to Kunra.

“Why are you only now recalling that memory?”

“No one in this world is allowed to touch my memories. So it must be some otherworldly force that has been suppressing the memories of this one.”

“The system erased your memories?”

“Not just memories. It has erased the entirety of this world’s timeline time and time again. Each time the transmigrator fails and faces death, the world goes no further and is wiped out. It is robbed of its future.”

“That’s ridiculous……. Why? Why would it go to such lengths?”

“A world without Cadel Lytos, a world that failed in the Demon War, is not worth keeping. I hadn’t realized the system was having such a profound effect on this world.”

Kunra let out a self-deprecating laugh and shook his head slowly. If he hadn’t remembered this by the end, if he hadn’t found Cadel, if he hadn’t reached out to him, if he hadn’t interfered with his soul, if he hadn’t tampered with the system, if he hadn’t recovered the memories he’d lost in the 210th fight, if he hadn’t assumed that this life would continue in its entirety.

The system was more powerful than he realized. Why something so powerful was so obsessed with ‘Cadel Lytos’ and why it kept spawning transmigrators was beyond him.

“So in this timeline, where I have remembered everything, you must win. Only if you win can this world have a future.”

This Cadel wasn’t supposed to die. If the 210th Cadel died and the 211th Cadel came along, he would lose all his memories again. The hope that the new Cadel would help him regain his memories was nothing short of delusional.

“None of the 209 transmigrators who have led the war so far wanted to do the ‘soul separation’ thing. They never even bothered with the Mountains of Silence in the first place. Only two humans, including you, have met me and heard the truth. But no human except you ever wondered what his true feelings were. He only wanted to win. He demanded my power, and I did not give it to him.”

“…….”

“You’re the only human I’ve ever been able to interfere with the system and make it possible for me to regain my memories, and the odds of the same opportunity presenting itself on another timeline are extremely low.”

Kunra squeezed their interlocked hands. Staring into Cadel’s face, contorted by a truth he hadn’t even considered, her words weighed heavier than ever.

“You are my last chance in this world.”

He was a human being with a fate large enough already. It was only a year ago that he had cried like a child under the weight of it, and yet Kunra had no choice but to hand over an even greater fate.

The reality of having to place the future of his supposedly omnipotent self on the shoulders of a tiny human being gave him a deep sense of helplessness he had never felt before.

“……So help me.”

* * *

「System recovery is complete.」

「System buff ‘Will of Cadel Lytos’ reactivated.」

Contrary to his fears, the damaged system was quickly repaired. The soul of Cadel Lytos returned safely, allowing him to think as usual, but his mind was as dizzy as ever.

‘The reason why the previous transmigrators didn’t visit the Mountains of Silence could be because they saw Kunra’s location as just an event NPC. No, if you played the main quest normally, you wouldn’t have crossed the Mountains of Silence in the first place, and the only reason I met Kunra was to travel a long way to find Yozen.’

There were tons of knights in ‘Hero of Knights’. It was not as simple as it was in the game to summon them, and you wouldn’t encounter the same knights throughout the vast world. Different transmigrators would have traveled different routes, different ways, and recruited different knights. He himself would never have crossed the Mountains of Silence if he hadn’t stumbled upon Yozen, and he would never have met Kunra.

‘Certainly, the odds are low that the next transmigrator will meet Kunra, and that he’ll offer himself up for Kunra to interfere with the system.

Kunra’s, this world’s, last chance. Cadel let out a long breath as the wind whipped through his body. He felt like he’d taken on too much without being prepared. He felt overwhelmed by the sudden increase in responsibility.

But the goal was still the same. The world he wanted to protect was his subordinates’ world. As long as they were fighting for a happy future, the outcome of victory was the same.

Even as he thought this, Cadel couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of dread.

‘I feel like I’m missing something.’

Something more essential. He wanted to find the source of this vague feeling, but right now, the battle he was about to lose was more important than the secrets of the world.

So Cadel put aside his thoughts and flattened himself against Kunra’s back. At the Scarlet Dragon’s speed, they would reach the battlefield before it was too late.

The Scarlet Dragon’s hot breath slashed through the air, striking the ground. The flames that hit the ground expanded as they mixed with the wind. The flames grew more powerful and swept through the monsters as if purging them of impurities, leaving them vulnerable to the flames’ passing.

With the sudden support of the Scarlet Dragon, the allies retreated out of the flames’ reach.

‘Where are my subordinates? Where is Mr. Mamil?’

He was too high up to see what was happening below. He could only recognize that there were far fewer humans than demons. He couldn’t even tell if the reduced numbers had died or retreated.

He hadn’t seen his subordinates on the way here. So they must still be fighting somewhere out there.

With Cadel on his back, scanning the ground with his eyes lit, Kunra rode freely in the sky. He leaned at an angle to avoid the fierce spears that flew by and said.

[All of your subordinates are fine, though the humans seem to be losing ground].