Eerie green torches lit up throughout the room, revealing a gigantic snake with obsidian scales and cruel golden eyes. The Cursed Mark on my back responded by glowing with a wicked, black light.

A clear, metallic ring broke the silence as I drew Mistletain, the strongest weapon of a Cursed Valkyrie. In another time and another life, I would be a Magical Girl who fought for love and peace with seven strong companions and a powerful contract spirit, but this life held no comrades save the trusty steel in my hands.

There was no need for words in the depths of the Reverse Side of the World Tree. The Ouroboros of the End’s roar washed over me, fluttering my clothes. 

My health steadily deteriorated as the Cursed Mark eroded my body. At this point, no elixir could save me. I was destined to die today and all that was left was this one final struggle.

The Ouroboros charged me. The world shook. I drew on the power of my Cursed Mark and strength filled my body. Heat coursed through my veins and the world seemed to slow down.

I took a single step. The art embedded within my Cursed Mark, [Accel Step], allowed me to flash past the charging Ouroboros and appear behind it. Click. [One Slash] split the world into two, severing everything in Mistletain’s path.

Fresh blood danced to the accompaniment of an angry roar. My strongest attack barely made the Ouroboros of the End bleed. My lips curled into a fierce grin.

“Good. This wouldn’t be interesting any other way.”

Black laced with green magic power filled the room as the gigantic snake hurled a storm of spells capable of annihilating an entire army at a single individual. My heart leapt in joy at the sight.

I couldn’t care less about saving the world or figuring out the truth. At this moment, my one simple wish was to experience this heart pounding battle to the fullest.

— ❀❁✿ —

I stood up from my computer and walked over to the body length mirror to calm my racing heart. The words ‘Game Over’ on my computer screen mocked my best efforts to defeat the secret last boss in the game, Violent Evergarden.

A messy man with unkempt brown hair and a red hoodie stared back at me in the mirror. The reality of my situation came back to me and my joyous expression soon faded to an uneasy frown.

I wasn’t Camellia Maxwell, the hero who saved the world in Violent Evergarden. Instead, I was Alfonse Lockengard, a college graduate who failed to find a job. I had left my high school friends behind to go to a prestigious university with the promise of a bright future.

Somewhere during those four years, my bright, cheerful self faded into the shadows. I doubled down on studying and ended up spending the entire four years alone. My social skills rusted away and became the strongest obstacle to getting a job.

My future depended on selling my best qualities to potential employers, but my mind always went pure white whenever I found myself in an interview. I couldn’t remember what I said in any of those interviews. Only shame and defeat remained in my memories.

I put up a brave front and acted like the rejections didn’t bother me. I told myself that I lived with my parents because I preferred it that way. Not having a job meant that I could play games all day. Yet in the depths of my heart, I couldn’t help but feel like a worthless human being.

My high school friends had long since surpassed me. One had gotten a girlfriend and planned to marry her. Another joined a Fortune 500 company. A third started his own company. Everyone shined so brightly that it hurt my eyes.

I thought about reaching out to them, but there was no way they would be interested in reconnecting with someone like me. We lived in completely different worlds.

In the end, I was the one who was left behind. The world marched on at a steady pace while I remained shut in the house. Those unchanging, dreary days were my own personal hell.

I threw myself into video games to escape from the dead end my life had reached. One game in particular gained my attention. Violent Evergarden was a little known game that was a tangled web of genres. Science Fiction and Fantasy clashed as Magical Girls, Valkyries, and Giant Machines fought alongside each other against the invading demons on the battlefield.

A normal playthrough of the game was essentially a dating simulator with heavy role playing game elements. You played as the Magical Girl, Camellia Maxwell, who falls in love with seven potential love targets. As one might suspect from a game featuring a Magical Girl main character, all the love interests in the game were also girls.

Your strength during the battle portions of the game largely depended on the affection your companions held for you. The only way to reach the true ending of the game was to create a harem with all seven love targets and conquer the World Tree dungeon.

With an extremely low probability, one could enter an alternative section of the game that was an action game rather than a dating simulator. If Camellia Maxwell started the game bearing Maxwell’s Cursed Mark, then the world took a dark turn.

Girls who bear Cursed Marks are called Cursed Valkyries. Every use of their Cursed Marks shortens their lives and the stronger the Cursed Mark, the greater the strain it puts on their bodies. Maxwell’s Cursed Mark was the strongest Cursed Mark in the game and there was no known way to remove it.

Camellia Maxwell traveled from one battlefield to the next by her lonesome, burning her life to satiate her desire for vengeance against the demons that destroyed her world. I was attracted to the high difficulty, one man army playstyle. Every battle was seemingly impossible to beat, like a scripted defeat scene.

I died over and over again. I wanted to give up several times, but my real life seemed even more hopeless than the harsh obstacles in the game. Despite the difficulty, the accomplishment of defeating the impossible was an intoxicating sensation that I could never give up on. 

I desperately craved some sort of worth to attach to myself and I found that worth in Violent Evergarden. I was hopelessly addicted to the point that Violent Evergarden took over my life.

I found new friends and actively discussed strategies to beat the game on the forums. My life was seemingly turning around, if only in a video game. Thoughts of job searching grew distant and I became a full fledged, helpless NEET. My story should have ended there, but everything changed one day.

The video game, Violent Evergarden, was only a test of humanity’s worthiness. Apparently satisfied with our performance, the developer issued a statement to the world.

“Humans, I invite you to take part in my game. Should you fail to clear it, I will destroy your world.”

On what was later to be called the Witch’s Proclamation, a single individual challenged the entire world and won. 1000 people were marked with the Witch’s Crest as participants in the true version of her game, Violent Evergarden.

The world powers immediately responded by creating the Witch Hunt Organization(WHO) to organize their counterattack against the Witch. An uneasy month passed while everyone waited for the day of destiny.

…And soon, the official start day of the real Violent Evergarden arrived.