I saw red.

Blood sprayed through the air before me the moment we stepped through the door.

A smoking forest, darkened with shadows. And then, like a twisted mirror, someone that looked like me, standing before Xinxin’s falling body, blood dripping from the sword in his left hand.

I screamed, blowing him away and ran towards Xinxin.

“Master Xinxin!” Titania called out in shock from behind me, but I ignored her.

A single instant. In that time, I grabbed Xinxin and pulled her close.

The sharp scent of iron, warm liquid running from her chest and her back.

She looked at me and coughed, a wry smile on her face. “Sifu… It took you… long enough.”

“You bastards!” Titania roared in the distance, sending out a blast of icy wind.

“Saphira?! What are you doing on their side?!” A voice that sounded all too similar to my own.

“I do not answer to you.” And Saphira’s cold response.

But I ignored them all, placing my hand over Xinxin’s wound.

I could heal it. Right, I could absolutely heal it. If I could bring Aria back from the dead then-

“It’s no use, Sifu.” Xinxin’s soft voice.

I shook my head. “No. It’s fine. Everything will be fine. I’m here.”

“I know. I know…” Xinxin muttered. “But this… is meant to be.”

I froze.

It wasn’t healing. The wound, her pierced heart… it wasn’t healing. But not only that, the bond I had with her, the karma connecting us-

It was severed.

Xinxin smiled, a sad and wry expression. “I knew it already. From the beginning, my karma was to-“

“Don’t.” I shook my head and said, “Conserve your strength.”

She shook her head and then stared at the sky. “A beautiful daughter and a polite, filial son. A small cottage by the bamboo forest.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Sifu.” She turned to look at me, her violet eyes glimmering. With a smile, she closed them and said, “Don’t you think… that would have been-?”

‘lovely?’

Her mouth moved but the word was left unsaid.

“Xinxin?”

She didn’t respond.

My eyes widened and I frantically poured my energy into her body, trying to help her heal herself, if I couldn’t do it.

But it didn’t work.

Like a sieve, what I put in instantly spilled out.

And the reason for that-

“It won’t work, you know?”

-Was because the wound was caused by ‘me’.

Footsteps approached.

I gently lowered Xinxin to the ground. Then, I stood up and turned around.

In the distance, I could see clashes of a fierce battle. A harsher Aria and a kinder Titania faced off against the ones I knew, along with Saphira, Nero, and Eve. Darkness, wind, ice, clashing steel…

I ignored it.

There was someone else that drew my full attention.

His black hair was slightly ruffled and his clothes, a plain black shirt and matching pants, wrapped in shadows, shifted with an invisible wind. The sword in his left hand shimmered with light, a fragment of divinity.

His average-looking face was set in a smile, but his dark eyes were as cold as ice. “What are you going to do now, ‘me’?”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I held out my right hand. Darkness coiled, forming my Faithful Companion-

‘Eh?’

It failed. The ‘memory’ I had of it didn’t connect, slipping away.

A sudden realization of what that meant. The one responsible for its presence, no the one who truly was-

I set the thought aside.

Since that didn’t work, I formed a different weapon. The dark sword that I used throughout the Xia Dynasty, the devouring blade of darkness that pulsed with crimson veins.

We stood in front of each other, mirrored images. Similar, but different.

Silence.

And then I spoke. “I am going to kill you.”

A cold declaration.

In response…

“Right back at you, Asshole.”

…That bastard growled, staring at me with cold eyes.

I stepped forward, swinging my sword.

He did the same.

Light surged to meet darkness.

When they clashed…

Time broke.

The forest clearing flickered, blurring out of existence and reforming back into the fog-shrouded Lost Woods.

That bastard locked blades with me and narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

I didn’t respond. Instead, I used the time with his wasted breath to attack, sending a blast of divine lightning at him.

He narrowed his eyes and blocked it with a light barrier.

But I was expecting that. I stepped forward and slashed with my sword, shattering the barrier and cleaving towards his neck.

He brought his sword up to parry, using his right hand to attack with a beam of light.

I met it with a blast of darkness.

Again, an explosion. With it, a ripple. The scenery changed again, this time the Northern Empire. Travelers were scattered all around, but they were frozen in time.

That bastard scowled and said, “Why are you like this? Killing innocent people, not caring whether people live or die, trying to take everything from me… Why can’t you just leave me alone!?”

He pounced forward, swinging his sword blindly- No, copying the motions from the imparted skill of Imperial Slash.

I swung my blade with the real thing that technique was derived from, Yù shān, drawing in the ambient energy to form the attack.

-Was it because his power shared a similar source?

For some reason, the attacks that I used, more than enough to cut a weakling like him down, were being nullified. Or rather, he was being empowered enough to stop the attacks that I was using.

Frowning, I feigned charging at him with a slash and then bent space to immediately close the gap.

It was impossible to react to. An instantaneous movement that wouldn’t have been evadeable even if he used Absolute Memory to wind back time.

But… he dodged it.

Time skipped and his sword was suddenly in the way of my own, locking blades again.

Scowling, he pushed me away and said, “Answer me!”

I stepped back and shook my head. “There’s nothing to say.”

“Nothing to say…? Nothing to say?!” He formed blades from light and dark behind them and sent them flying towards me. At the same time, he charged, swinging his sword.

I flicked my hand, instantly shattered the blades and then blocked his attack again.

He pushed forward, straining as if wanting to cut me down from sheer strength alone. “You killed Aria. You ripped her apart, limb from limb, and then took in her very existence! Her soul!” He growled and spun around, doing a horizontal slash.

I parried it and carefully analyzed the area.

Traces of divine power. Not Serena’s but a more sinister presence. That other Goddess.

Thin, silvery threads like moonlight lacing throughout everything. And pieces of those, stuck to the one in front of me, like a puppet dancing on strings.

That bastard let out a scream and blindly swung his sword again. As he did, fragments of memories popped into my head, experiences that weren’t my own. As a result, instead of seeing it firsthand, I received it in the form of information.

Spending time with Saphira, Titania, and Aria. Living it up as the Champion of Yggdrasil…

In short, a typical ‘Isekai’ lifestyle.

Seeing that, I narrowed my eyes and kicked him away.

“Kuh-!” He clutched his stomach but didn’t fall. Instead, he looked up at me, glaring.

I shook my head and said, “I don’t expect a weakling like you to understand.” I stepped forward, holding my sword to the side. “Relying on others, hoping that things will turn out well will only doing the bare minimum… but most of all, blindly trusting in powers that aren’t your own.”

Space shattered as I kicked off, slashing at that bastard’s neck.

He brought his sword up to parry, but it shattered beneath my attack, causing blood to spray as it bit into his flesh.

But he didn’t fall.

Quickly running backwards, he grit his teeth and copied me, forming a blade from pure light. The moment he did, the wound on his body began to heal, regenerating in an instant, mended together by those faint silver threads.

That done, he glared at me, an expression of someone that absolutely couldn’t accept the person he was looking at. “So what?! I’d rather trust in that power and protect the ones I love rather than throw those people away like you did!”

I scoffed. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand. After all, you’re content to dance along to that goddess’s tune without even knowing it.”

That bastard narrowed his eyes. “So what if I am? If playing along lets me keep the ones I love safe, who cares? It’s better than turning over the whole table and painting a target on me and everyone I love.” He paused and then smiled. “Oh wait. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Asshole.”

“Shut up.”

Nazin laughed. “It’s pathetic.” His eyes were cold as he said, “Did you know? That girl loved you. She loved you so much that she threw away everything to be with you. But you… You never gave her the time of day, did you?”

“I said, shut. Up.”

He smiled, tapping his head. “You felt it too, right? Memories transferring when we clashed. You saw mine, and I saw yours. You cold bastard, how did it feel to have her die in front of you? Do you regret it now, never telling Xinxin that you-”

I snapped.

Space and time ripped apart, Absolute Memory flaring into overdrive.

The Lost Woods. The Heart of Yggdrasil. The Xia Dynasty.

Countless memories flickered into existence around me, overlapping with each other.

That bastard’s eyes widened. “This is-“

-Erase him.

That was the only thing on my mind.

And so I used the technique I developed to kill even a god.

“You-!”

Paradoxum Memoriae. The Observer and the world that was observed. Inverting the two, replacing memory with the world’s record…

I didn’t even need to go that far.

The bastard in front of me was already a paradox.

My cultivation base surged. My mana flooded the surroundings. Absolute Memory painted over reality, locking it to my will. An absolute domain that denied existence itself.

Within that, I stepped forward and severed the existence of the bastard standing in front of me.

But I underestimated him.

“Like… I’d… Let you…!”

He pushed back with an attack of his own.

If Absolute Memory was a hallmark of ‘eternity’, allowing me to persist across time… That guy used something that was ‘infinity’, unbound.

‘Zero’ and ‘Infinity’ clashed.

And the result-

A black void. The area outside of time and space that I saw before.

But unlike before, there was an invisible platform where I could stand.

That bastard was standing as well. But since he hadn’t experienced the place, he seemed confused.

I ran towards him.

He flinched and reflexively swung his sword to parry.

I let go of my sword.

That bastard was surprised, showing a gap.

I took it.

-A flaw. The difference between relying on someone else’s strength and making it your own.

That bastard was nothing more than an accumulation of skills. As a result, he didn’t have any combat awareness.

So-

A punch towards his face.

He flinched and leaned back to dodge.

I slid forward, hooking my left leg under his right and then twisted.

He fell. But realizing that, he threw out his left hand, using Dragon’s Grasp- No, a skill slightly stronger than it.

But that was pointless.

I threw a hook at his face, sending him to the ground. At the same time, I straddled him and raised my fist again to throw another punch.

“You-!” He quickly grabbed me and spun to the side, throwing me to the invisible ground.

I landed, but pushed myself up, flipping into the air to land on my feet.

That bastard stood up, wiping blood from his mouth and glared.

I stared at him with cold eyes and said, “Give it up. I admit that you’re stubborn enough to persist this long, but we both know how this will end.”

Although he was drawing strength from that goddess and devised a fragment of infinity somehow, he was still just a part of me.

Right.

Despite everything, he was nothing more than a bundle of memories. Like the stubborn teenaged years from the distant past.

“Shut up!” That bastard shouted and raised his fists. “A heartless demon like yourself doesn’t deserve to exist! I don’t care how long we have to do this, but I’m not stopping until I take the rest of your powers to protect everyone!”

“Idiot.” I narrowed my eyes. “You talk big but aren’t ruthless enough. Even back in the forest, the one who made you kill the Braves was me… A naïve guy like you is only going to end up losing everything you care for.”

“Shut up! At least I care for people!”

“Tch. It’s pointless talking to you.”

I didn’t even know why I was wasting my breath.

Did he realize that trying to use powers was useless? Instead of magic, his sword, or anything else, that guy ran forward, winding up a fist.

But that was useless as well.

He stopped in front of me and threw the punch.

I stepped to the side, sliding in close to him.

His eyes widened and he twisted his waist, flinching away from a potential punch.

But I didn’t do that. Instead of lashing out, I grabbed his overextended arm and threw him onto the ground.

“Kuh!” He coughed and groaned, but quickly rolled over, pushing himself back up. “You… ba-“

I stepped forward and jabbed at his lower left ribs, shattering them.

“Gah!” He grabbed it, doubling over in pain.

I spun around and kicked him, sending him flying backwards like a ragdoll.

He collapsed on the floor, groaning.

But he wasn’t dead. Not yet.

“You…!” The bastard grit his teeth and pushed himself up again. Or he tried to.

Before he could, I placed my foot on his chest. “Give up.”

He glared at me. “Screw you! Even if you kill me, I’m not giving you my powers! I’d rather self-destruct so that they never return!”

I laughed.

He narrowed his eyes. “What’s so funny?”

I glared at him. “You still think this is about your damned powers and memories?”

“What?”

I stomped on his chest and then leaned over, staring into his eyes. “You killed my disciple- No. You killed Xinxin. You.” I stepped back and kicked him. “Killed the only person!” I spun around and kicked him again. “That I truly cared about in this godforsaken world!”

His chest was ruined. My blows shattered his ribs and caved in his chest. Even so, he stared at me with a smile on his face.

I narrowed my eyes. “What’s so funny?”

He shook his head, wheezing. “I… see. You bastard… if it was… like that…”

Lights started to shine around him. At the same time, I felt something flow towards me. Memories, as well as powers.

I growled and ran up to him, lifting him by his shirt. “You think this makes up for it?! You think I’ll forgive you like this?!” I slammed him back on the ground.

He shook his head. “You don’t have to. If it was flipped, I’d want to rip your head off too… So that’s why it’s fine.”

I let him go and leaned back, glaring at him.

He stared at me and then sighed. “I think I get it now.”

“What?”

“The reason I hate you so much. If I had that power… everything would have been resolved. Gods, demons… whatever came our way, I could take them out.” Saying that, his body began to fade out, turning transparent.

I scoffed. “Like hell it would. If a naïve bastard like you had my powers you would have turned into a Demon Lord that would plunge all of existence into ruin.”

He laughed. “Damned straight. So… it’s better like this. After all, you won’t let anything dangerous near those you love if you can’t help it… and you also won’t care about what you need to do to save them.”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. At the moment, I felt something settle inside of me. Pieces of memories ripped away that were returning. Not only that, but emotions.

Affection.

Realizing that, I glared at the guy on the ground and said, “You bastard.”

He laughed. “This is payback. Now you won’t leave them behind, right?”

“Tch.”

The void was being sketched in. The forest that we left behind was returning bit by bit.

Seeing that, I walked away from him, heading back towards Xinxin.

Before I took a few steps, his voice called out again.

“Hey. Serena… isn’t your enemy.”

I paused and then said, “Idiot. I already knew that.”

“Just reminding you.”

I took another step forward.

And then the sketched out world became reality once more.