The mountain screamed.

  Not with a voice, but with the crack of stones splitting apart and the roar of fire devouring what remained of the sacred temple. Flames rose like starving serpents, warping the cold moonlight and staining the sky red.

  The Temple of Velerithon — built centuries ago to praise forgotten gods — was now nothing but ruin.

  Among shattered columns and divine symbols reduced to dust, a young human girl knelt on the blackened ground. She could not have been more than fifteen. Her blonde hair clung to her face, matted with dried blood and tears. Her dress, once white, was now burned and torn, marked by violence and despair. In her arms, she held a baby whose weak cries echoed through the wreckage — life stubbornly insisting on existing where everything had been destroyed.

  She wept in silence. There was no strength left to scream.

  Beside her, a red-haired boy struggled to remain standing. He looked sixteen, but his hunched body betrayed someone carrying decades of pain. He coughed blood with every uneven breath. The bloodstained sword slipped in his grip, yet he kept it raised. Not to attack. To protect.

  “N-No…” he murmured. “Don’t… come any closer…”

  Ahead of them, isolated amid fire and debris, stood Alan. His body was a map of open wounds. Blood ran down his arms, evaporating as it touched the burning stone. Resting against the ground, his long scythe reflected the flames. Purple hair swayed in the hot wind. His face was smeared with soot and exhaustion, yet his eyes were empty of fear. There was only resolve.

  Before him, two figures blocked the path.

  The first was a woman with tightly bound pink hair. Her gaze was hard, unyielding. She wore a hybrid armor of metal and blue fabric, scarred by soot and blood. In her hands, Excalibur shone brightly, vibrating as if recognizing its enemy.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Beside her stood a black-haired young man, perfectly still. His cold, vacant stare matched the massive spear planted into the ground, radiating a suffocating pressure. Ash drifted between the three of them, as if the world itself were holding its breath.

  Alan inhaled deeply.

  “Stone.”

  The red-haired boy turned his head.

  “Y-Yes… Alan…”

  “Take Yelra,” Alan said, never taking his eyes off the two ahead. “Take her child… and run.”

  Stone’s eyes widened.

  “What? Alan, no… we can still—”

  “Run.”

  The command was harsh, leaving no room for argument.

  “As far away from here as possible.”

  Silence fell heavy. Stone clenched his teeth.

  “And you?” he asked. “What will you do?”

  For a moment, Alan turned his head. Their eyes met.

  There was no anger.

  No fear.

  Only farewell.

  “If you stay… everyone dies.”

  Stone froze. Then, slowly, he lowered his sword.

  “…I understand.”

  Carefully, he supported the blonde girl.

  “Come on, Yelra… I’ve got you.”

  She nodded silently, clutching the baby tightly. Without looking back, they began to run. The baby’s cries faded into the distance… until they were gone.

  Only three remained beneath the moon.

  The pink-haired woman stepped forward, pointing Excalibur.

  “Was all the evil you caused in Velerithon still not enough?”

  Alan planted his scythe against the ground.

  “You speak as if there were clean choices,” he replied. “As if the world worked that way.”

  “Cities fell. Lives were lost.”

  “I know. And I know you’d never understand my ideals, Julia. So I won’t try to explain them.”

  The black-haired young man stepped forward.

  “That’s why I never trusted you, Alan Vindgard.”

  A brief smile curved Alan’s lips.

  “Hearing that is a relief. Because I never liked you either, Kuto.”

  The pressure in the air intensified.

  Metallum.

  Kuto’s spear warped, groaning like living metal, until it reshaped into a broad sword, pulsing with energy. He assumed a battle stance.

  Julia did the same. Excalibur flared with blinding light.

  “It’s time to pay for your sins.”

  Alan closed his eyes for a brief moment.

  Stone. Yelra. The baby.

  When he opened them again, there was no regret.

  “If this is the price…” he murmured.

  Then he advanced.

  The clash of weapons tore through the air.

  The temple shook once more, steel, fire, and magic colliding beneath the moon.

  That night, among ruins and ash, the future was sealed —

  even if it was never meant to exist.

  Author’s Note

  This is a story where the main protagonist failed to reach the highest level of the evolutionary hierarchy and become a divine being — surrounded by a harem, kingdoms, and all the riches typical of the LitRPG genre.

  And perhaps… the ending was never meant to be a happy one.