The World After the Bad Ending - Chapter 165

A surge of white electricity crackled and spread.

Beneath it, I lay sprawled on the ground in a battered mess.

The attack had pushed my body beyond its limits.

Naturally, the backlash weighed heavily on me as well.

But I couldn’t let my guard down.

This scenario had deviated significantly from the original canon.

Under normal circumstances, I would’ve been certain Vulcan was defeated—but this time, I couldn’t be sure.

Cough!

I spat out the blood rising in my throat and forced myself up.

My entire body trembled, wracked with bone-deep pain.

This was the price of wielding excessive power.

Struggling to my feet, I strained to keep my eyes open and fixed my gaze ahead.

As the lightning dissipated, the silhouette of a man gradually came into view.

There stood Vulcan, his body in tatters.

Even for someone like Vulcan, there was no way he could remain unscathed after being bombarded with the Ancient Dragon’s magic, the Holy Crest’s power, and even the Goddess’s declaration of victory.

Drip… drip…

Black blood trickled from Vulcan’s mouth.

Proof that the shockwaves had ravaged his insides.

Yet, Vulcan didn’t fall.

Instead, a dark, seething energy surged from his body.

The power he had gained through his contract with the Abyssal Sovereign.

Crack!

But even that didn’t last.

The energy spilling from his body scattered and vanished.

Vulcan’s eyelids twitched violently.

Centriole and Arkrede had pushed back the Abyssal Sovereign, and finally, Grantoni and Vinesha had reverse-summoned it back to the hidden world.

Vulcan had no more cards left to play.

He coughed up blood as he staggered upright.

“Me… me, falling in a place like this…”

“‘A place like this’?”

I spat out blood-tinged saliva.

Though my body wouldn’t stop shaking, I clenched my fists tightly, forcing myself to endure through sheer willpower.

“I’m giving everything I have to take you down. And in your eyes, that’s just ‘a place like this’?”

I reignited the Ancient Dragon’s magic.

The remnants of the dragon’s power resisted, as if protesting the strain, but I suppressed it and forcibly drew out its strength.

“If that’s how you see it, then of course you’ll lose here.”

A man who sees the distant future can’t even see the present clearly.

Blinded like that, it’s only natural he’d lose to someone like me, fighting tooth and nail in the here and now.

I made sure he understood that.

Vulcan let out a hollow laugh.

For him, nothing could be more absurd.

To think he’d meet his end not at the hands of fellow heroes, but some nobody he’d never even heard of.

Nothing could be more humiliating.

But reality couldn’t be ignored.

“What was your name again?”

“Hanon.”

“No, that name doesn’t matter.”

Vulcan seemed to have realized my appearance was a disguise.

Well, it wasn’t surprising—someone who wielded the arcane would naturally see through the bandages of the Veil.

In fact, Lucas had already judged it too risky to stay near Vulcan during infiltration and retreated.

My eyes flickered briefly behind me.

The lingering smoke still obscured Zenia’s view, so she couldn’t grasp the situation here.

So, keeping my gaze locked on Vulcan, I raised my hand.

“Vicmar.”

Since I’d been disowned by the Niflheim family, I didn’t bother with the surname.

Hearing the name, Vulcan lowered his head.

“I see. So, not just ‘some nobody’ after all.”

Corrupted flames erupted from his body once more.

Unlike before, there was no overwhelming heat—just a flickering, dying ember.

“You’re Jerion’s successor.”

Jerion’s successor?

I wasn’t sure about that.

There were rumors that the Niflheim bloodline descended from Jerion.

After all, Zenia, who wielded the Holy Crest’s magic, was proof of that.

And I’m even using the Ancient Dragon’s magic…

It wasn’t strange for Vulcan to think that way.

“Jerion… it seems your magic was right after all.”

Vulcan muttered to himself as he spread his arms wide.

The corrupted flames he had desperately gathered flared violently.

“But I have no intention of falling here either. Vicmar, was it?”

Vulcan’s lips curled into a smirk.

My eyes widened slowly as I realized—

This bastard, don’t tell me—

“See you later.”

With those final words, Vulcan clapped his hands together.

In that instant, his entire body was engulfed in a conflagration of corrupted flames.

Vulcan’s third phase.

Escape.

“Musica!”

The corrupted flames held a technique that burned souls.

He intended to incinerate his own soul and transfer its ashes to another body, possessing it.

Since he’s made contact with the hidden world through the Abyssal Sovereign, it’s possible.

When he fought Lucas, he battled to the end—so why was he running from me?

I called for Musica, but there was no response.

She must’ve been too preoccupied expelling the Abyssal Sovereign from the hidden world.

Gritting my teeth, I glared at Vulcan’s burning form.

Damn bastard.

After coming this far, you think I’ll let you twist the scenario?

I kicked off the ground and charged toward him.

“You—?!”

Isabel’s voice, belatedly realizing the situation, tore through the air like a scream.

For a fleeting moment, the promise I made to Sharin and Seron flashed through my mind.

But my arm was already reaching out toward Vulcan.

It’s fine.

I don’t plan on dying.

Right now, my only goal is stopping Vulcan.

As I wrapped my arms around his burning form, my body was swallowed whole by the corrupted flames.

---

My fading consciousness slowly returned.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a field.

A sunlit meadow.

I stared blankly for a moment before shaking my head and regaining my bearings.

Just moments ago, I had been fighting Vulcan.

So why was I here now?

I pressed a hand to my forehead before remembering—I had lunged at Vulcan.

I’d thrown myself at him, determined to seize his soul before he could escape.

Even I have to admit, that was reckless.

I knew I didn’t hold back when it came to my own body, but I hadn’t expected it to go this far.

I was surprised at myself.

Looking around, I realized this place was someone’s grave.

Two tombstones stood in the sunlit field, exuding an air of tranquility.

As I stared at them, footsteps echoed from afar.

I turned my head to see a man approaching.

A man with deep crimson eyes, the color of fading scarlet.

In his arms, he carried a bouquet of flowers.

I’d seen him before.

During the intro of Flame Butterfly’s fifth act.

One of the heroes who appeared there.

The Corrupted Flame—Rozly.

This was the first time I’d seen him in person, yet there he stood.

A gust of wind swept through.

Our hair fluttered in the breeze.

Instinctively, I raised my hand in a defensive stance.

Under normal circumstances, I might’ve been flustered—but I was here to finish Vulcan.

Rozly studied me silently before finally speaking.

“I didn’t expect you to chase me all the way here.”

“I’m just stubborn like that. Is this… your soul’s world or something?”

“No. Not just mine.”

Rozly’s gaze lingered on me.

“It’s yours and mine.”

Your and my soul’s world.

The moment I heard those words, my eyes widened slowly.

Because the hand I had raised felt eerily familiar.

This form…

The one I had introduced as Ryu.

Not my in-game avatar, but my real-world self.

“You introduced yourself as Vicmar, yet this is a completely different form. I can’t even see your face.”

Can’t see my face?

I raised a hand to touch it.

My nose, my eyes—they were all there, yet to him, my face seemed invisible.

Rozly paused mid-sentence, then corrected himself.

“No… perhaps not entirely.”

What did that mean?

I couldn’t tell, but Rozly stepped forward.

I sensed no hostility.

As I stepped back, he walked past me and laid the bouquet before the graves.

“I, too, once wanted to save the world.”

I knew.

That’s why he had struggled, eventually earning the title of hero.

“But the world… destroyed my world.”

Rozly’s family.

They had died because of the very kingdom he had sacrificed everything to protect—Zebra.

The Zebra Kingdom sought to control Rozly as they pleased.

So they took his family hostage and sent him to the battlefield as a mercenary.

Rozly’s former epithet was Mercenary King.

He was a man who had made his name as Zebra’s blade in the Great War.

But when the war ended and Rozly returned—

The royal family had long since killed his family.

They offered formal apologies, begging for his forgiveness.

The citizens held memorials for his family and pitied him.

But to Rozly, that only made it all the more despicable.

He had never forgiven them—yet the world forced him to.

In the end, Rozly snapped.

He raged, seeking to burn the world to ashes, only to be stopped by the other heroes.

The world couldn’t bear to admit a hero had fallen to corruption.

So they buried Rozly’s downfall in the annals of history.

That was how his hatred for the world had taken root.

“I can’t let go of this grudge.”

Rozly was broken.

All that remained was his hatred for the world.

And so, he passed that hatred to Vulcan.

The man before me was both Rozly and Vulcan.

“Why do you struggle so desperately for this world?”

Why do I struggle so desperately for this world?

“Because I’ve already given up once before.”

The day I abandoned everything due to my injuries.

The hollowness I felt then was like the world crumbling around me.

It’s not like I want anyone’s sympathy.

I just… felt that way.

So I didn’t want to experience it again.

The Flame Butterfly arc of Magung Academy Slayer was my second chance—a world that became everything to me.

“I see. Then it seems we’ll never see eye to eye.”

Corrupted flames erupted from Vulcan’s body once more.

“The moment you lunged at me—at the ashes of my soul—our soul worlds were forcibly merged.”

The field darkened, the light fading away.

The sky shifted into a starless night, an oppressive aura settling over us.

“That means only one of us can become the master of this world and seize control of the body.”

A third eye opened on Vulcan’s forehead, tears of inky black streaming from it.

“My reborn body must already be ashes. That leaves only yours. I’ll take good care of it.”

“You won’t like what you find.”

I smirked, keeping my hand raised.

“It’s not like there’s much to this body besides stamina.”

If he tried using it, he’d only despair.

Not that I’d let him.

“We’ll see about that.”

Rozly—no, Vulcan—grinned eerily.

The final battle in the soul’s world had begun.