[⚠️ Content Warning – Graphic Violence and Gore

This chapter contains intense scenes of blood, bodily trauma, dismemberment, and graphic combat. Reader discretion is advised.]

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Death had a weird way of finding trouble with me. Like a clingy ex that just couldn't take a hint.

Always showing up uninvited.

Always making a scene.

And Life, on the other hand, was the childhood crush I never got over.

Beautiful and warm.

But friendzoned me the second I opened my heart because apparently, I just wasn't her type.

And if that wasn't enough, there was this bitch called Fate, always trying to reunite me with my toxic ex, Death, like we were some star-crossed couple destined for a tragic reunion.

I mean, really, how else do you sum up my life?

Three cosmic women, each more chaotic than the last, treating the humble, benevolent, and undeniably handsome me like a chew toy for their divine whims.

This…

this was my life.

On one side, we had the Chosen One of the world—Noah Ashen Noctharion.

That bastard wanted to die…

and the universe wrapped him in embrace, even death had to file paperwork.

And then there was me.

Yours truly.

Just trying to survive.

And what did the world say to that?

"Fuck off."

I swear, the world's just a giant racist against ridiculously handsome humans like me.

Probably even jealous if it had some feelings in its cold heart.

I mean, seriously.

What the hell is an overgrown red dragon doing standing in front of me… right after I crawled out of a god-blessed healing pond, barely surviving a fleshy scream-monster from someone's sleep paralysis diary?

Why?

Was surviving not enough?

Did I forget to offer a blood sacrifice to Luck again?

Or maybe Fate got bored and said, "Screw this one over specifically."

Because just a few seconds ago, I crawled out of the Pond of Life.

My severed arm was as good as new.

The sword stuck in my thigh was removed and the wound closed.

I felt… whole. Like someone handed me a brand-new body.

And then I remembered why I came here in the first place:

The [Card of Arcana].

You know, the key to my Nexus Evolution?

Yeah, that one.

Which, for some reason, decided to float over the Pond of Life… instead of making me jump through a deadly trial like everyone else.

I didn't question it, of course.

I just assumed the card finally realized the truth,

That resisting my magnificence was futile.

Clearly, it decided to bless itself by coming to me.

Who was I to deny it that honor?

But just as my hand reached out to claim the card, fingers barely inches away, my body stopped.

Not like hesitation.

No.

I froze completely and then… I turned.

Not because I wanted to but because something else wanted me to.

Like I was a puppet and someone just pulled the strings.

And then I saw it…

A fucking gigantic red dragon. Fire curled around its body as if the fire wasn't obeying nature…

…but a king.

And those cold, piercing blue eyes were locked on me.

My mind raced.

And no, I definitely did not forget to curse Fate a million times while scrambling for a way out of this hellhole.

Why the hell was the world throwing one suffering arc after another at me like I was some chew toy for a sadistic god?

Couldn't it just once let me rest after a near-death experience?

Is that so much to ask?

Even those sadistic authors of webnovels let their MC's rest after a suffering arc…

But nope. Not me.

I should've known better than to trust those shitty novels for life advice.

Because in real life there were no fixed arcs. No guaranteed power-ups. No "after this chapter, things get better."

Just pain with sequels.

I swear,

If this world was a novel, and some psychotic author was out there writing my endless suffering for fun…

I will find them.

And,

I will kill the author.

But for now, I needed a way.

"Oh great dragon, to what do I owe the pleasure of basking in the presence of such a magnificent and radiant being?"

I said, with the politest smile I could muster.

Which was honestly impressive, considering I was speaking to a giant flying lizard—a species I hated more than all other reptilians combined.

Because when I was a kid, a lizard once tried to poison me.

It dropped itself straight into my soup back at the orphanage.

And more importantly it didn't even look guilty about it.

That was the day my lifelong enmity with their entire species began.

And now here I am.

Face to face with their final boss.

Still, when a lizard exudes an S-Rank aura, you learn to choose your words very carefully.

Because I was a mere F-Rank.

And this overgrown bastard could probably smoke me with a sneeze.

First of all,

What the actual hell was an S-Rank lizard doing in a forest where nothing above D-Rank was even supposed to enter?

This wasn't in the novel. Even Noah's files didn't mention it.

Which could only mean one thing…

This overgrown fire hazard was a guardian. The kind of hidden final boss put in charge of the [Card of Arcana].

Probably just chilling somewhere behind me until the damn card vanished from its altar and floated to save me.

So now Mr. Lizard Supreme was here…

To see what the hell I did.

That means, I have a chance to survive.

Or at least that's what I thought,

Right up until the bastard opened its mouth and said,

"I shall kill you in the most painful way imaginable for the trouble you've caused me."

…I'm sorry, what—?

Before I could even think, the world exploded into blur as my body crashed through the trees one after another.

There was no time to react or to scream.

The pain came late, like a cruel afterthought but when it did? It was too unbearable.

Both of my hands were gone—ripped apart like paper as blood trailed like rivers.

My stomach was a gaping wound.

Something was missing. I couldn't even tell what.

But it didn't stop there.

I hadn't even finished crashing when something grabbed my head.

A hand.

I barely saw the man with red hair and blue eyes as he smashed me into the ground.

CRACK.

The world flickered, losing my consciousness for the second time.

—

Ragnar stood above the broken boy, watching the pathetic creature twitch in the dirt.

This insect had dared…

… dared to touch the Card of Arcana.

A relic that had traces of divinity, the very thing Ragnar guarded for millennia.

Now… this child, not even past the bloom of youth, had the audacity to reach for it?

Death would be a mercy.

And Ragnar had no intention to give it to the boy.

This boy needed to understand what it meant to covet divinity without the strength to bear it.

He would not die quickly.

He would not die cleanly.

He would learn.

And then, when his screams had echoed through the veil of life and madness…

Only then would Ragnar allow him the peace of death.

"You reached for what was never yours, boy," Ragnar said, matter of factly.

The boy's mere existence had nearly cost what took him millennia of pain, silence and suffering to build.

Ragnar lifted the boy's broken, unconscious body like it weighed nothing.

Flesh torn.

Bones cracked.

One eye swollen shut, the other barely hanging onto light.

But still alive.

Good.

Because this… this was only the beginning.

With a snap of his clawed fingers, the space folded as he stood once more before the Pond of Life—its golden surface still shimmering with quiet divinity.

The sacred waters rippled gently, unaware of the blasphemy about to touch it.

He dipped the boy's body into the divine water, letting the golden water heal his wounds.

The gaping hole in his stomach sealed shut.

Shattered bones stitched themselves.

The boy's eyes fluttered.

And Ragnar smiled.

He let the healing finish before the symphony of pain began.

—

How much time passed?

Rael had no idea.

A day? A week? A month?

He had been stuck in an infinite cycle.

Being broken then healed and then being broken once again.

It continued again and again.

By now he didn't even feel pain anymore.

His body had grown numb to it and his mind?

That was worse.

Because the mind remembers everything.

Even when the body forgets.

And somewhere in that mess of memory and mangled flesh, a question repeated like a heartbeat.

"What did I do?"

What sin had he committed?

What mistake had led him here?

He didn't know.

And the dragon before him never answered.

In that silence, something burned brighter than anything.

Hatred.

Still, he didn't cry or scream.

He just watched as the one who claimed to be divine showed him what it meant to be nothing.

Once the pain stopped affecting him, his mind regained clarity beyond anything.

And throughout all of this, the smile on his face never faded.

His damn flaw made sure of it.

But this time… something shifted.

As the dragon stood above him, clawed hands stretching toward his skull, ready to end it all—

Rael looked up and smiled again.

But this time, it wasn't because of his flaw…

… it was because, finally, the smile was his.

A smile so twisted which made even the dragon before him shudder.

The dragon paused just for a moment.

Enough for Rael to whisper.

"Wish that I never come back alive…"

His one working eye shone in madness not even death could erase.

"Because if I do… I will make sure you beg for mercy even after death."

Ragnar's expression didn't flinch.

But something in his gaze burned colder.

Without a word, he extended one clawed hand and sliced open Rael's chest.

The boy didn't even scream.

And just kept smiling.

Ragnar pulled out the still-beating heart, watching it spasm in his grip, then crushed it to pulp between his fingers.

Rael's body dropped limp onto the cold ground.

The Pond of Life behind him rippled once, like it had just witnessed a crime against creation itself.

Ragnar looked at the corpse with a frown.

Because that smile…

That smile hadn't vanished.

"You should hope to never resurrect… because if you do, I'll make sure you beg me to die."

With those words, he turned toward the Card of Arcana which still floated above the Pond Of Life like a silent spectator without moving an inch.

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