Izuma awoke to a blaring siren.
A female voice rang out through the intercom system,
"Alert. Alert. The Demon King's forces are attacking. All high-level adventurers, report to the outer wall immediately."
He sat up too quickly, heart pounding in his chest. The voice repeated. The words barely registered.
"The Demon King's forces are attacking..."
Izuma whispered,
"What...? What the hell does that mean?"
The calm of the previous night shattered.
His breath caught in his throat. His thoughts spiraled again.
That word—Respawn—was still fresh, but now it was competing with panic.
He stumbled out of bed, still in yesterday's clothes, the blankets tangled around his legs.
"High-level adventurers only? I haven't even fought anything yet."
He staggered toward the small window of his room. The stone was cool beneath his feet, his body trembling with adrenaline and fear.
Outside—it was chaos.
Smoke coiled through the night like strangling hands. Flames licked the tops of buildings. Screams echoed in the distance. Magic spells lit up the sky with unnatural colors. The scent of ash and burning flesh seeped in through the cracks.
Izuma whispered,
"This isn't happening. This can't be happening..."
He pressed his hand against the windowpane.
Then—BOOM.
The window shattered.
A metallic shriek split the air.
Something slammed into his face.
A spear. Long. Black. Jagged.
It pierced through his right eye, drove itself into his skull, and pinned him halfway into the wall.
He didn't scream.
He couldn't.
His body convulsed.
The pain was indescribable.
Like hot oil pouring into his brain, boiling his thoughts alive.
His legs kicked.
His arms jerked.
His vision exploded in a flood of white and black stars.
His mouth gaped open.
Nothing came out.
Only the sound of his heartbeat.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Slower. Slower.
His thoughts tried to catch up.
What was that? Did something hit me? Why can't I see? Why does it burn? Why does it hurt so much?
His fingers twitched. Blood ran down his cheek, mixing with tears. His left eye wept normally.
His right eye...or whatever was left of it, bled.
Blood. Brain fluid. Nerve strands.
Everything came leaking out in a thick, warm stream.
Is this it?, He thought.
Is this how I die? Is this the end?
He gasped. Air refused to come.
He was dying.
This can't be it... It hurts... it burns... it PAINS—
He wanted to scream but his jaw wouldn't move.
His vision dimmed.
His limbs stopped moving.
His body twitched once.
Then twice.
And then nothing.
He saw his own blood soak into the floor. He saw nothing. And everything.
Darkness closed in.
Then, Silence...but–
he was still aware.
There was no body.
But he could still think.
Still blink.
Do I have a head? Am I just... a soul now?
What am I?
Where am I?
Then—the sound.
A disturbing, glitching noise.
Like corrupted data, scraping against the fabric of reality.
A HUD appeared, glowing red.
— - INITIATING PROTOCOL : RESPAWN-
Then it glitched and morped into unknown, unreadable letters.
Everything shattered.
Then—
he woke up again, now screaming without sound.
He was back.
But had been rewinded back to where rinji had carried him right outside the veilforge.
He was intact.
Whole.
But inside—he wasn't.
Rinji was standing over him.
Expression unreadable.
Eyes fixed on Izuma like he'd just seen something unholy crawl back from hell.
Izuma tried to speak.
But he couldn't.
His jaw hung. His breath was fast. Too fast. Hyperventilating.
He slapped his own chest like he was testing if he was real.
His hands. They trembled violently.
Too intact.
No blood. No wounds.
But his mind was screaming.
The pain was still there in memory. Burned into every neuron.
He looked at Rinji.
Then back at the floor.
He wanted to vomit.
He wanted to claw his own face off and check that his eye was still there.
That his head wasn't split open.
That he hadn't been nailed to a wall like meat.
He clenched his fists—then unclenched them.
Then again.
He whispered, almost inaudibly,
"This... this isn't gonna be the last time... is it?"
His voice cracked.
Tears welled in his eyes again, but this time they weren't from confusion.
They were from terror.
He knew.
Now he knew what his ability meant.
Not some cool power.
Not some bonus mechanic.
Not some divine favor.
It meant suffering.
Over. And over. And over again.
It meant his death would always come back to haunt him.
No skip. No reset.
Just raw, unfiltered torment, followed by forced revival.
Like being reborn into a horror movie every time.
Rinji didn't say a word.
And Izuma didn't expect him to.
What do you say to someone who just clawed their way out of the afterlife?
His skin crawled.
His body shook.
He curled up slightly, arms wrapped around his knees, back pressed to the stone.
His whole body was shivering.
He felt like a corpse wearing his own skin.
And somewhere deep in the back of his mind… a small voice whispered:
This is just the beginning.
it's tone sounding an awful lot like him.