Ethan closed the book with a deep sigh, his fingers moving hesitantly over the torn cover of his favorite book "God's Final Requiem". His eyes returned to the last line once again, he was refusing to believe what he had just seen. Perhaps just perhaps his eyes were tricking him. Perhaps he had overlooked something
And so the hero fell, his body had shattered, and his will was broken. The world soon followed him, and the world met its end, devoured by the madness of the Outer Gods
A cynical snort escaped his lips, but it held no humor
"So that's it?" His voice came barely above a whisper, it was filled with raw disbelief. "That is how it ends? This is how this legendary story ends?"
A void started to form in his chest, it was like someone had punched him and left a howling space where his hopes had been. He would read every chapter, every plot twist, every downfall and comeback for years. He'd cheered victories, mourned losses, relished the terror of almost-defeat, and existed within the tale with its characters. It was not just a book to him it was a life experience for him
And yet, in the end, after all the sacrifices, the blood, the fighting, the world was still lost
He let out a harsh breath, holding the book so hard his knuckles whitened, it seemed that he was angry and disappointed at the same time "This is simply bad writing. There had to be another option. The protagonist should have triumphed and won the battle but he lost and the world ended just like that. The world shouldn't have been destroyed"
Ethan leaned back in his chair, his gaze started wandering up to the ceiling as he attempted to wrap his head around his frustration
He had been obsessed with 'God's Final Requiem' since the first time he held it in his hands. It was not some generic power fantasy where the hero somehow conquered every challenge through dumb luck or last-minute cheats. The game was brutal, merciless, and excruciatingly realistic. The hero earned every inch of progress and sweated for every win, and the price of his decisions never came cheap. Every victory was paid in blood, every fight which he faught required a sacrifice, and nobody not even the hero was safe from pain and suffering
It was brutally honest
And perhaps that's what made it so fucking great and a legend-tier novel
But this conclusion?
It made everything pointless and seamless
The hero died. The world was lost. The bad guys the Demi-Gods and the Outer Gods had emerged victorious and triumphed after defeating all races and the warriors of t
What was the point of it all, then?
What was the purpose of fighting, of struggling, of bleeding for something if, in the end, it all fell to dust?
Ethan ground his jaw. "If I were in that world, I would not allow it to end like this. At least i would have made it a bit better"
The words spilled from his lips before he knew he had uttered them
And the instant they did something shifted
Some kind of weird, unnatural pull encircled his body like intangible chains
His breath caught. The world around him trembled, the walls of his dark room bending and contorting like a heat haze. His eyes blurred, and a sickening, vertiginous dizziness enveloped him
"What the?"
The book in his hand dropped, its pages fluttering like the desperate wings of a caged bird before it crashed to the floor with a soft thud
Then
Darkness