Merchant M's fame quickly led to various theories surrounding his existence.
He was considered by some as part of the 'purgatory' while others thought he was the most powerful person on earth. Not a lot of people believed in it as aura items weren't replicable yet.
At least people couldn't figure out how to keep an item running without investing a mind-boggling amount of mana each second to keep it running.
M's merchandise required virtually no mana to operate. Some tried to give their aura items the ability to suck the surrounding mana passively, however that worked only with small scale one or two use items.
Even the mana gathering runes require at least a wisp of mana to operate.
This led to a creation of mana liquid and other such variations to use as a 'fuel'. Now, people seldom travel by foot as they could easily recreate vehicles beyond their own technology.
Some even tried to create huge few meter tall mechs, but they drained too much mana to be viable.
These discoveries enabled humans to fight quite evenly against invading monsters. When there were no fights, they simply charged the weapons and demonstrated hundreds of times greater prowess when there was a fight.
Magnus didn't like this and decided to sow some discord among The following days, sabotages and broken equipment that took too much mana to be made in an instant was destroyed right before a wave began.
To make things more difficult, mana resistant monsters began to appear and used their massive bodies to blast holes in the walls of the fortress.
Soon, people began to call them 'boss' monsters as they were always alone and at the helm of the hoard.
The mysterious man also made an appearance as his organisation gained an official name.
Gaia's will.
Through his mysterious appearance and the fact that he was now the head of a cult, he was called Myrkr by some as they couldn't see anything except his pure black silhouette.
In fact, what stunned Purgatory most was his ability to 'influence' the drakes, as he ordered them to destroy a fortress.
It was crazy that he could do such a thing, because no one could even mind control a goblin, as their heads would explode the moment they were under a spell.
The stronger ones would even shrug it off as nothing and continue on with their battle.
What followed next was panic as the Myrkr somehow found Magnus Fjall. The man who hid himself from the world and dragged him into a duel along with 3 drakes that he tamed.
The only witnesses were his apprentices as they found Magnus with missing 3 limbs barely breaking back into purgatory to save his life.
...
"Should we kill him? No, we have to kill him! Look how he hurt our master!" Aki said to the other four as Magnus had returned to purgatory barely alive and quickly 'respawned' himself.
This time Aki wasn't the shy girl, but was brimming with a weird determination to kill.
"Honestly, we are hopeless. Even with our greatest teamwork we could only startle our master before he realised what was going on." Oliver said as he denied it.
"So, all we can do is get stronger!" Sophia said as she resumed her training seemingly uninterested that Magnus had almost lost his life.
"Even if we can respawn, should she push herself so hard?" Caroline looked at Sophia with worry as her heart ached.
"Any ideas on how to get stronger? Maybe someone remembers ways to get more powerful?" Hans asked.
The others shook their heads. Their memories gave them an excellent starting point, however they couldn't use their knowledge of the future since everything was upside down.
They questioned whether they had actually lived through the 'previous' lives since Purgatory existed. It wasn't until they remembered some core memories that held deep feelings within them that they were able to let go of their worries.
In the end they could only try to get enough power to beat drakes one on one.
Maybe once they do, they would be able to quickly banish the drakes Myrkr brought with them to let Magnus deal with him alone without any interruptions.
In addition, they wanted to find weaknesses and potential leads on how to defeat him. However, every single person until Magnus was almost immediately killed off or was thrown around like a rag doll.
Their only lead was how Myrkr used corrosive elements that corroded everything.
Some people even wondered if purgatory would be able to protect them since it not only corroded the body but also the soul and life itself.
With the rumours travelling around it wasn't so far fetched to say that some considered Myrker as the only person who could kill in purgatory.
The five of them didn't believe such rumours, at least not until they saw a huge scar on Magnus's arm that kept eating through him.
"See kids, this is what you get for not preparing well enough." Magnus laughed as their faces became even more grim.
Not only was the wound impairing him from giving it his all, but it also drained a constant amount of Mana.
But Magnus soon took them to another more 'hidden' location as if he didn't care.
The group became fired up in their own ways.
The news had also 'leaked' on accident once Magnus began his meeting with higher ups of his organisation.
An eerie fear engulfed others as they thought of Myrkr as Magnus wasn't able to remove the corrosive effect even after banding up with over 100 people. They all used various spells or boosted Magnus' mana in some way.
It almost made it worse though as they soon had to call it 'Anti-mana corrosion'.
It fed on mana and through it, it created an almost self-sustaining battle against any kind of mana. Only the 'Holy' or 'Light' element was barely holding it back.
This gave rise to many ambitious people as Magnus' rock solid position began to tremble.
The newly-elected leader of MythicBlood and others began testing out his prowess in friendly spars.
And although they weren't able to beat him, the wound got agitated and that was enough for them. They knew that once they returned to Earth, the position of leader of humanity wouldn't be so clear anymore.
Especially with the threat of Gaia's will as more and more deranged people began to join it.
Their cultist members called Myrkr their apostle and the right hand of Gaia. Some people left Magnus' organisation once they had sensed the instability and only high tier personnel who trusted him didn't leave.
However not a single of the more powerful people left, leaving many people wondering if they had made the right choice.
Having weeded out the less talented and undecided, Magnus then created a branch that would be the only chance for future membership.
He had healed the corrosive wound a few hours before the end of purgatory. Though that information was only given to the higher ups and his dear porters.
Only a few moments were left before they all returned back to Earth.
Monsters reared their heads as they readied themselves.
Ambitious people and fools all waiting till the countdown ended to make a place for themselves in the new world.
...
[Oliver]
Oliver couldn't believe what was happening to him. One day he was living his life barely striving to actually live and the other he found himself in purgatory.
He felt as if his soul was cleansed. Everything became so light. No more was he required to hide his identity and no more was he forced to live in the shadows.
He was at least free for the remainder of purgatory's existence.
This freedom had finally helped him realise his dream, to control armies and to be a general that was written in the books.
Books read by every child as they imagined how they would be like him.
He wanted to be influential, and he wished to be a general.
And although he was not born in the great middle ages where wars filled the entire planet, he was born at the edge of stellar exploration.
His dream of conquering lands with steel in his hands and thousands of men willing to lay their lives for him and their cause couldn't be realised. However, conquering and exploring planets wasn't as bad he thought.
At least not until he was framed and cast into the shadows. His family threw him away, and he became Oliver Swift. He didn't resent them, but he resented himself.
If he was the great general that the world needed, surely he wouldn't be thrown away so easily. And so, he decided to create the greatest army by using mana.
Because he knew his own mana wouldn't hurt him or throw him away.
At least those were his thoughts until he met Magnus.
He just wanted to see the person he strived to be like, the most powerful man. What he got however was a dream a long long dream.
There, he was picked up by an ugly middle-aged man. He had to train day and night whilst slaying monsters he had never seen.
The pain was the most excruciating, but it was the most fulfilling time of his life.
Although he couldn't remember much, a few words had struck his heart.
"A real man should always have his heart open, even if it hurts." Those were the words the man in his dream spoke.
He gradually overcame his shell and from what he could recall, he met Han and others. This was his road to the peak. Even his father wasn't able to bring his own now newly 'reborn' Roman Empire to the same heights as he and the other disciples of Magnus could.
The WGO was their pride and Oliver's defiance that he did not need his father or the diamond spoon that he was born with.
As Magnus gave Oliver this gift, Oliver's heart probably ached the most when he saw that the man he strived to be was hurt to such an extent.
Even when Magnus told him to always compare himself to the him of yesterday. Even when he told him that he, Magnus Fjall, wasn't special and that he was just lucky and yet, when this reality seemed to be so much different Oliver wanted to compare himself to Magnus.
As he knew, the 'him' of right now, or even the 'him' of yesterday, was still encased in the shadow of his past.
He wished to be unfettered like Magnus and have the power to control his fate. Especially when he knew that Magnus wasn't invincible.
After all, he could clearly remember those nightmarish moments when he saw Magnus' head in the hand of some dark being. He died at that moment, as did everyone else attending an emergency meeting.
Including those 4.
People didn't seem to remember Magnus' final moments of despair or the head he showed at his death, and he didn't want to tell them either.
The memories of the past made them much more deranged than everyone realised and perhaps even more than he himself would know.
Even if their fondness or love for Magnus represented their true emotions of 'the past,' they were the emotions of a warrior who lived through battles and pools of blood.
Now the emotions that belonged to battle ready monsters were being stuffed into a bunch of kids and one barely considered an adult.
He knew it was purgatory because of the willpower it induced and the calming effect it had. It was the reason he didn't turn crazy or hated Magnus as he feared he would.
Oliver could not explain it, however he was certain that if he didn't keep the group of 5 sane, one of them would snap and become an enemy.
Even if Magnus managed to muster his strength to kill them after they turned rogue, he would have to live with the knowledge of who he killed.
After all Oliver knew for sure that Magnus had also travelled back in time.
And who knows what happened in those last moments for Magnus to actually show a face of despair that he didn't even when he was facing near imminent death so many times?