The sky burned crimson.
Not from the setting sun, but from the rivers of fire that poured through the shattered heavens.
Kael Ardyn stood atop the broken walls of the capital, his breathing ragged as blood dripped from dozens of wounds.
Around him lay the ruins of humanity’s final fortress.
Once-proud skyscrapers had collapsed into mountains of steel and stone.
The air was thick with ash, smoke, and the cries of the dying.
He tightened his grip on the chipped sword in his hand.
The weapon had once been known as the finest blade ever forged.
Now its edge was cracked, its hilt stained black, and its enchantments long exhausted.
Behind him, only a handful of survivors remained.
Children.
Old soldiers.
Exhausted healers with no mana left.
They looked at him with desperate hope.
“Will we win?” a young boy asked, clutching a wooden practice sword.
Kael forced a smile despite knowing the truth.
“We’ll keep fighting.”
A deafening roar split the battlefield.
The earth trembled as the Demon Sovereign descended from the sky, surrounded by monstrous generals whose presence alone crushed buildings into dust.
Thousands of abominations followed behind them like an endless tide.
Humanity had lost.
Not today.
Not yesterday.
Years ago.
This battle was merely the final page of a doomed history.
Kael charged anyway.
His body blurred across the ruined streets, cutting through monsters with impossible speed.
One slash became ten.
Ten became a hundred.
Severed claws, shattered armor, and black blood filled the air.
Yet for every enemy he defeated, hundreds more emerged.
The Demon Sovereign raised a single hand.
A beam of darkness erupted across the battlefield.
The fortress vanished.
Walls, towers, and soldiers disappeared in an instant.
Kael barely survived by throwing himself aside, but the blast tore through his left arm, leaving it hanging uselessly.
He staggered.
The broken sword slipped from his fingers.
“So this is the end,” he whispered.
The Sovereign approached with calm steps.
“You fought well, human.”
Kael laughed bitterly.
“If only I’d been stronger.”
His mind filled with regret.
The friends he failed to save.
The comrades betrayed by greed.
The innocent cities swallowed by monster gates.
The academy where everyone believed they had years to prepare.
If only someone had known the future.
If only someone had been given another chance.
The Demon Sovereign’s blade descended.
The world turned white.
…
A distant bell echoed.
Kael’s eyes snapped open.
Sunlight streamed through spotless classroom windows.
Students chatted lazily around him.
No smoke.
No monsters.
No blood.
He stared at his own hands.
Young.
Unscarred.
Complete.
His heartbeat quickened.
“This place…”
The polished desks.
The academy emblem on the wall.
The faint scent of chalk.
It was exactly as he remembered.
Ten years ago.
The day before the global awakening ceremony.
A voice beside him interrupted his thoughts.
“Kael, did you stay up all night again?
You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
He slowly turned.
His best friend.
Alive.
A friend who had died protecting him in the first timeline.
For several seconds, Kael couldn’t speak.
Then, quietly, almost afraid reality would shatter, he muttered,
“I came back.”
The classroom lights flickered.
No one else seemed to notice.
But in the deepest corner of his consciousness, an ancient metallic sound echoed like countless blades colliding.
[Regression Confirmed.]
[Unique Authority Detected.]
[Initializing: Infinite Sword Archive.]
A vast darkness unfolded before his mind.
One by one, countless swords appeared, suspended in an endless void.
Some radiated golden flames.
Some crackled with storms.
Some were wrapped in chains forged from starlight.
And at the center stood a pitch-black sword so terrifying that merely looking at it made reality itself seem to bend.
A final message appeared.
[Current Authority Restriction: 0.0001% Released.]
[Warning: The weapons contained within exceed the limits of the current world.]
Kael’s lips curled into a faint smile.
In his previous life, he had fought with an ordinary sword until his final breath.
This time…
He possessed an arsenal capable of rewriting destiny itself.
Outside the classroom, the awakening bell rang.
The second life of the future’s strongest Sword King had just begun.