[This chapter is a bit heavy...]
The second wall had crumbled. His mind filled with beautiful enlightenment, and yet he didn't like it. Anger, hatred or whatever.
The overwhelming emotion he could feel and the one which he painstakingly lived through because of unnecessary sacrifices vanished all the same.
In all three worlds. He experienced one emotion to the extreme. Even if it was a painful one, the fact that he understood it satisfied him.
But the moment he died, he lost them again. Stripped and taken away.
And so, in his third life, he lived in peace. He ignored his body that told him to find someone in the world who had been waiting for him all this time.
Instead, he hid in the darkest corners of the continent. At the sign of any kind of problem, he left to vanish.
The world's standard power system had a pretty low ceiling and the new era saw the creation of steam creations since 20 years ago.
Albeit at the peak in just a year. He never wavered and hid like a rat, living for just a moment more.
40 years passed.
In almost half a century, the world had changed many times, world shattering wars under the lead of martial artists brought suffering to all.
Thanks to ancient martial arts, the genetics research soon made a breakthrough. In 30 years, new species of humans had been born.
They dubbed themselves as the heavenly human race and deemed the others as mere mortal slaves and they had a good reason to do so.
After the breakthrough, the weakest heavenly human. Could survive in space and in favorable conditions even travel to the Moon and back.
A finger from them could destroy the most powerful martial artists.
When Magnus learned of this. His eyes gleamed in pleasure as he laughed and kept muttering to himself.
"I was right. I was right…" Like a fool.
Unbeknownst to the entire wide world. He long paved the martial arts of this world to a new degree, where heavenly humans could at most compete with him at their highest genetical perfection.
And then the fateful day came. Through coercion, they enslaved the non genetically advanced humans and drafted every single one of them.
With Magnus' past as a normal human. He had entered their radar as well.
When a martial artist came to pick him up. 3 days later, they found his body in an empty house.
Magnus used the most powerful hiding techniques he kept refining for the half century to evade any kind of threat.
Every advancement gave him more anxiety. Not to mention humans. A sound from an animal would startle him at this point.
All of his efforts were for naught. His most powerful methods, broken by the silliest of methods and the most random ones.
A random throw of a stone from a child got thrown into a space crack right above Magnus as it hits him.
Out of nowhere, a powerful heavenly human appeared to attack him. Every day like this drained Magnus.
All wanted to harm him. From the most random grain of sand to the most powerful heavenly human.
In his mind, the small grains turned into soldiers of hell. Random mortal citizens became the generals of the enemy army, who wished to hunt him down and end him.
Then, the leader of the mortal resistance army appeared before him.
"Magnus, you are a very powerful man, capable of saving humanity! Please, join us to save this dying planet." She said and bowed ninety degrees.
"Right Arish? Fool! Every single you are dogs for gods trying to kill me!" He said and unleashed his most powerful blow.
Then he activated all of his escape techniques, just in case. From that day on.
Each time he looked at a reflective surface, he would see her face and expression of disbelief when his attack engulfed her.
Soon, the reflections turned into real bodies. He couldn't sleep. He even reduced the number of times he blinked to the absolute minimum.
In that one blink. He would see an identical world plunged into flames, despair and devils hunting him.
Angels ripped their heads off as they fed the demons. Sometimes, he would live for days in a single blink.
Terrified. The power he honed for decades held no value in the hellscape he lived in.
Be it the main world or the otherworld. All were the same.
Then the whispers came.
'Go, run, the devil is near.'
'She is coming, coming, coming for your head~.'
'Sleep, imagine the bliss. Take it and sleep.'
'You don't want to sleep? Well, too bad.'
'SLEEP' 'SLEEP' 'SLEEP' ...
'Coming~' 'She is near~'...
'AAAH the devil. The devil!' ...
'Weakling~.' 'Weakling~.' 'Weakling just die~.'...
The voices multiplied, and at one point, he would mistake his own voice for the inner ones.
"WHY? AGHHH." He yelled into the vast skies.
As if alive. The skies morphed into a face with no features before a single eye appeared on its face.
Shudder. In an instant, he burned his own vitality to boost his escape techniques to an absolute peak.
He didn't care how many years it would take. For the first time, he broke the space and, with one sweep; he found himself on the other side of the planet.
Then he realised... The sky above him wouldn't leave any time soon.
To his horror. The face appeared yet again, but this time had two eyes and a faint outline of a mouth.
His brain worked overtime to figure out what to do. Then it clicked.
In a flash, he burrowed himself hundreds of meters underground and then felt a presence approaching him from behind.
He knew that stopping would mean death. The ground grew more and sturdier.
Heat began to rise at an incredible speed. His hands began to break down as the energy shielding them was long depleted, but he didn't stop.
The thing still followed. Blood flowed, then the skin peeled and before long, he could see his own bones.
Nevertheless, he didn't stop. His blood began to evaporate as steam escaped out of his body.
In his mind, he begged for it to go away. To leave him and let him be.
When he didn't have any of his hands left. He used his teeth to move another centimeter more.
In his state, he couldn't even cry.
...
Magnus' body shook as he looked around several times over. Then a familiar feeling engulfed his entire being.
The fear left his body. But something changed. When his emotions left, not a single trace of them remained.
Now, however, a strand floated deep inside his psyche. So small and yet so powerful.
He looked over and there the third wall had a crack. It didn't break, and he doubted that another 3 lives like that would break through to another wall.
In the end, he made his decision. With a trembling voice, he chose to continue.
In this life, he found himself in a magical girl world. Guys like him were supporters and cheerleaders while the girls fought against cartoonish demons invading the world.
A month. Or rather, 27 days after his rebirth, he saw a magical girl turn into such a demon when she fell.
This world didn't allow males to grow. An absolute rule he had to follow.
Thus, the gaze the newly formed demon broke his weak psyche and since then he couldn't sleep.
A year later. One of his childhood friends requested for his support. She lasted 3 weeks.
The cycle continued and like a magnet, more and more people fell right before his eyes and turned into silly looking demons.
No one blamed him, and most pitied him.
When he blamed himself for their deaths, another fool would try to prove him wrong and died a few days later.
He refused once. The girl then subsequently lost her head, and her blood splashed over his entire body.
Afterwards, he would have dreams. Her death wouldn't have happened if he accepted.
Sometimes those girls would confess. If he dared to refuse 9/10 times, they would turn into demons and the rest died at the spot.
And the times he accepted, they would shower him in so much warmth before they turned out like the rest.
Dead or demonized.
At one point, he could recognise those demons that would kill the magical girls.
They all accompanied him in the past, after all. They would raze any place he would hide himself in to the ground because of a random battle.
Each time, he survived without a scratch. To end it, he tried multiple times.
Futile.
But one of the demon generals granted him release. Her claws sliced through him like butter, and his vision grew a blur.
This time, the strand containing fear grew multiple times over.
Like a vicious cycle. The one emotion he could understand and feel brought him fear, and that fear grew.
After all, the terror of one emotion is too terrifying. Since some time had already passed, he knew that he could continue.
But would he? After all, 2 walls should be fine.
Memories of his friends and Earth held as much value at the moment as a pair of high heels in the deep space.
The vague memories of his current second life held even less value. His one thing fueling him. The seemingly invincible desire and ambition to become a king that stands and controls all.
Yet, the one conviction almost crumbled at this moment. He never knew why or how it existed, but he knew for sure that it could barely carry the burden of those past lives.
Anymore and it would break. An inspiration hit him and he began to think.
He dug deep within himself.
Who am I? Why am I here? Why do I keep going on?
No answer. No magical cure that would propel him further ahead. His skills and powers had no value here.
[The Human System skill: You have developed Mental Fortitude!]
'Huh?' He thought to himself in bewilderment. In fact, this wouldn't be the first time he had seen this print.
Although weak at first. The guidance enabled him to forge further ahead in paths which many explored for thousands of years in a year or two.
He subconsciously ignored it as its power ended there. A useful tool at the beginning, but useless at the end.
He tried to summon his other systems but...
[System during the trial is not available in order to ensure fair play.]
All of his system, some of which he didn't know, were gray except the Human System.
He went through the logs, and his eyes trembled with excitement. Each time he lived and experimented.
The system grew a bit more. Its growth always exploded when a wall broke and its potential grew.
Like a small, insignificant stick. The mental fortitude skill helped and he could now think, at least.
He could now choose to gamble.
Leave and ensure safety.
Stay, take the risk and develop the system to breakthrough...