The Hero of Ashes
(The one who burned his own world… is now my first target.)
Flames devoured the broken citadel. The throne room—once a proud chamber where sun-forged banners shimmered and priests sang praises to the divine—now burned like a pyre. The stone arches had collapsed into rubble. The stained-glass windows, each depicting a tale of heroic triumph, lay shattered in molten shards. The scent of smoke, ash, and scorched metal choked the air.
Rein stood amid the ruin. Alone.
His right hand still gripped his sword, the hilt slick with blood—hers. His left arm hung uselessly, a jagged piece of plate armor fused to the burned flesh beneath. His lungs pulled in air like broken bellows, each breath rattling with effort. But he didn't notice the pain. Not yet.
Before him lay the Demon King.
No.
A queen.
A woman.
His wife.
Lysaria.
Her once-regal form was now crumpled and torn, her silver hair tangled with soot and blood. One horn had been snapped off during the final clash. The other was cracked and blackened. Her body still twitched faintly, as if refusing to understand that it had been pierced—betrayed—by the man who had once vowed to protect her.
The sword was still inside her. A divine relic, pulsing with fading light.
"Why…" Rein knelt beside her, voice hollow. "Why didn't you tell me?"
A weak laugh escaped her lips. It wasn't mocking—it was weary, like the sigh of someone who had long accepted the end. "Would it have changed anything?"
"I could've—" he began, but the words were ash in his mouth. Could he have? Could love have bridged that divide?
The war had been endless. Humans driven to desperation. Demons closing in. His calling as Hero had been clear. And now, the enemy lay dead by his hand—and he felt no peace. Only ruin.
"I was sent to kill you, Rein," she said, coughing blood. "A spy. A weapon. My loyalty was to my kind, to the bloodline that forged me in hatred and purpose. But I stayed because… I forgot my mission."
Her hand reached up, trembling, brushing against his face. Her skin was cold, but her touch was soft. Familiar. "I fell in love. With a fool. With the man who thought he could save the world… without breaking it."
He held her hand to his cheek as her eyes fluttered shut. No curse. No final plea. No forgiveness. Just… silence.
And then she was gone.
For a time, Rein didn't move.
The fires raged. The palace groaned as its ceiling gave way. Embers danced through the air like fireflies. The city beyond, once filled with cheers for their victorious Hero, now burned in grim reflection of the truth.
He had saved the world.
And in doing so, destroyed the only person who had truly seen him.
The flames began to fade—but not because they died out.
The world itself peeled away.
The stone floor dissolved beneath him. The sky above melted into blinding white. Sound, heat, gravity—everything vanished.
Rein didn't resist.
Let it end, he thought.
But it didn't.
He opened his eyes.
He was standing—or floating—in a place that was not a place. No ground, yet he did not fall. No sky, yet there was light. Stars hung suspended in an endless pale void, each one pulsing softly like a heartbeat. Around him, silence reigned—deep and unshakable.
Then came a presence. Not a voice. Not exactly. It was something that existed within his mind, his bones, even his breath.
"You refused your reward."
He turned.
The figure that appeared was not bound by shape. A body of light, robed in shifting starlight, faceless and infinite. But Rein knew that presence.
Arios.
The god who had chosen him long ago.
"I don't want a reward," Rein said, his voice hoarse. "Not after what I did."
"You want her," Arios replied. There was no emotion in the words, no condemnation. Just fact.
Rein lowered his gaze. "She was a spy. A demon. And still… I—"
"You loved her," the god finished for him.
He didn't respond. What was there to say?
Arios drifted closer—not with steps, but as if the space between them simply ceased to exist. "Her soul is unraveling. That is the fate of all Demon Kings. Upon death, they are consumed by the Void. Their essence scattered. No rebirth. No memory. No rest."
Rein stiffened.
"But," Arios continued, raising a glowing hand, "there is another path."
A heartbeat. Then another.
Rein's voice cracked. "Tell me."
"There are other worlds. Other heroes. And not all of them follow the path you did. Some have fallen to corruption. Others to madness. They betray their purpose. They defile the name of Hero."
Fragments spun into view around them—like glass pulled from a shattered mirror.
A man with a flaming sword standing atop a mountain of bodies, grinning.
A girl with butterfly wings, turning villages into crystal statues for sport.
A cloaked sorcerer twisting the minds of an entire kingdom to worship him.
"These are not isolated," Arios said. "They are spreading. And we, the gods, cannot interfere."
"But you can send someone like me."
"Yes," Arios said. "Someone who no longer belongs to any world. Someone whose name is already burned away by war. Someone with nothing left to lose—except a single hope."
"And what would you have me do?"
"Judge them. Kill them. One by one. Every false hero. Every corrupted savior. Purge the infection from the fabric of the multiverse."
"And if I do?"
"She will be preserved. Her soul, held in stasis. If you complete your task, I will grant you both rebirth. In a world untouched by war or gods. You may live again, free."
Rein stood still. The silence returned, heavy and absolute.
No kingdom. No people. No throne. No future.
Only her.
He looked up. "Then give me a name."
A symbol ignited in the void, drawn in fire and golden flame.
VALENThe Hero of Flame. Tyrant of Steel. Savior of the Iron Realm.
"Once a righteous warrior," Arios said. "Now a despot who rules through fire and fear. He believes himself divine. He has burned cities for doubt, and crowned himself emperor."
At Rein's side, his blade reformed. It pulsed—no longer holy, but sharp with finality.
Rein took it in hand. It felt familiar. Comforting. Heavy with meaning.
"When do I begin?"
The god's light rippled like water disturbed.
"Now."
The stars collapsed.
The sky shattered.
Rein fell.
And the hunt began.