The Elder Lich worked frantically, its bony fingers moving faster than the eye could follow—kneading, shaping, twisting the raw crystal like it were molten clay. But this wasn't slicing through fabric. No… it was something far worse.
It was restructuring the dungeon core.
Forging it into a blade.
Before the process could finish, I lunged forward, seizing the moment.
My hand clamped down on its skull.
"Damn you!" it growled, voice filled with venom.
"Goodbye, freak."
Mana surged through my fingers, concentrated and sharp like razors.
Its skull cracked, splintered—then shattered into dust.
But there was no time to breathe.
My eyes snapped to the half-morphed dungeon core—still glowing, still forming a blade within its center. I reached out—
—and suddenly everything went white.
A flash of blindness, then clarity.
The Elder Lich stood again—partially reformed, cobbled together with raw mana, its voice rasping in bitter laughter.
"So even curses can't cling to you?" it wheezed. "Well… I'm finished."
With barely half a body left, it made one final attempt to complete the forge—mana kneaded through trembling bones—then collapsed, breaking into pieces once more.
**Swish.**
From the crystal, a surge of light burst out.
The unfinished sword pulsed… as if trying to forge itself now.
"These guys just don't know when to quit," I muttered and ran for the core.
My palm landed on it.
I knew right away—I couldn't stop the transformation.
It was automatic now, guided by pure instinct from the mana itself.
"If that's how it is…"
I began to absorb it.
The entire core.
All of it. Into me.
**Crack.**
My body screamed. Mana beyond comprehension filled every corner, cracking bones, tearing skin. It was like drowning in light. The kind of light that eats you alive.
I knew I wouldn't survive this.
I had already accepted it.
"I guess I'm sorry, Mom… Dad… I won't be coming home."
The glow of the core faded.
The crystal fractured.
The sword inside, still incomplete, began to fall apart.
And then—
**Whsshhh!**
The broken sword shot forward, piercing straight through my chest.
I gasped.
My legs gave out.
**Pant… pant…**
I watched my hands fall apart—first fingers, then skin, then nothing but dust in the wind.
I looked up one last time.
In the distance—Miss Sera. Miss Kaelyn.
They were still watching me. Reaching out.
Trying to get to me.
"Goodbye," I whispered.
**Breeze.**
And I vanished.
My body, my mana, the remnants of the sword—
All turned to dust.
Gone with the wind.
---
And just like that… anyone would think that was the end.
That I died before the Hero Party reached the Demon Lord.
That I vanished before the Goddess could send me home.
But they'd be wrong.
Because the next thing I knew—
I was back.
In that same room.
The one from the beginning.
The place where it all started.
**Home back on earth.**