I found myself standing in the middle of our empty field and aside from having dirt on my feet and my arms, there were no traces of blood or anything sinister on my clothes. I was completely clean but what was scarier was the fact that I was smack dab in the middle of our field in the middle of the night completely out of it.

What the fuck did I just see? I don’t know how to describe it the kind of brutality that I saw. Did I do that? Did that actually happen? As these questions filled my head with fear and uncertainty, I fell to my knees.

“Oh my God…Ali…”

I was kneeling on the grassy field and I held my head in my hands. Thoughts like ‘How did I get here?’ and ‘What the fuck happened?’ filled my head with more uncertainty and my heart with fear. Did I kill Ali? Did I do that to her?

I dreaded to find out what actually happened and yet I knew that if I was to retain my sanity, I would have to confirm that I didn’t do anything to harm my friends.

After convincing myself of this and repeating ‘Everything is fine’ repeatedly as a mantra, I decided to take responsibility for my actions. I stand up and walk towards the scene of the crime. I walk across the seemingly limitless field as I held myself for support.

I come across corpses in varying states of decay. It seems as though a large-scale battle happened here not so long ago.

“Who attacked the Anthedon Military Academy?” but the more fitting question seemed to be ‘What attacked the Academy’ and judging from the claw marks and the injuries inflicted on the dead Prentices, it seemed as though they were hacked and slashed to death.

As I passed the corpses while I was walking towards the Women’s dormitory, I notice a trend that appeared as I was ignoring the various dead bodies around me: All of them start to disappear as soon as I turn my back on them. Where do the bodies go and why do they go there?

From the distance, I see a thick fog consuming what little light was afforded to the grounds of the Military Academy and soon, it engulfed everything in a thick and inescapable wall that will definitely keep our sanity from leaking out.

I resumed walking towards the Dormitory and in front of it hanging from a tree was Lin. She was missing her clothes and various blades and other torture devices are seen amongst her possessions. Some were even stuck inside of her.

“What kind of sick fuck would do this?”

I take Lin down and settle her nicely somewhere. She’s no longer alive but I will at least save her some dignity.

I offer Lin’s corpse a silent prayer as I quickly hurried to return to the dormitory. Before me is a huge door that is distorted beyond all belief. It is blackened by burns, bloodstain and some signs of magic remain.

So this place really has transformed into a battlefield eh? But what could have happened to make it so?

I steel my nerves and I entered the place. I placed my hand on the door and tried pushing it in but, as expected it wouldn’t budge.

“Eh. As expected.”

I tried kicking it in and I tried bashing it with my martial arts techniques but nothing seems to be working. I walked a few paces away from the door and I prepared myself. Yup you guessed it. I’m going to ram it with my body. Before I could run in like an idiot, I felt a gentle presence behind me.

“Ara, you seem to be planning something stupid again, Ryner?”

That voice? I turned to look at the source and standing behind me with her crossbows at the ready was Ali in full combat gear.

This can’t be! Ali died! I mean she practically exploded right in front of me. There’s only one solution to this conundrum then.

“Imposter!” How dare she take on Ali’s form?!

I lunged at the fake Ali with Laser Beam but she casually pushes me aside. Martial arts?! This guy is good!

“What do you think you’re doing you idiot hero?!” The imposter shouts at me.

“You can’t trick me!” I prepared myself for another strike. I breathed in the mana around me but –

“Huh?!” Nothing’s happening! I don’t feel my senses or my abilities rising but it seems as though I got that wrong. It’s not that my abilities weren’t working.

“Ufufufu. Did you really think that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with you dear?” The imposter jumps into the night sky and she takes careful aim with her gas-propelled crossbow. “Give it up before I actually shoot you Ryner! The Princess wouldn’t want that happening and neither would you!”

How dare she use the Princess’ name against me!

I kick down on the floor and launch myself towards her with nothing but my fists.

“Tsk!” The imposter takes careful aim and launches 3 arrows against me.

I see them closing on in me and jumped to the left. The first one barely missed me. In mid-air, I realized that she shot in an arc in anticipation of my movements. I tuck myself and flipped myself over to the right side to evade the two arrows. I dodged the other one but the last arrow grazed me in the face.

“Shit!”

I see another arrow flying towards me and with no options left, I got hit in the shoulder and the impact pushes me back towards the ground. I fell a good 12 feet and hit the ground with a thud.

“Give it up Ryner. Why are you even attacking me in the first place?” The imposter appeals to me yet again. “We’ve finally reached Karthur’s stronghold after losing so many of our allies. Rafflesia is inside there and we need to get her out.”

“You can kill me if you want, it doesn’t matter.” I will simply be reborn into a new cycle anyway.

“Are you really that stupid? Why the hell would I kill my future husband, the Hero?”

“Eh. Husband? Hero? You seem to have me confused for someone else you fake Ali!”

“Again with this Ali person. Who is she?!”

I am officially confused.

“Eh? You are Ali..or at least pretending to be her aren’t you?”

“Huh? Did they cast a confusion spell on you or something? It’s me. Your girlfriend and companion Yui? Hero of the Beast Race?”

“Since when have I been in a relationship with you idiot?”

“How mean! I knew you were a womanizing dumbass but to think that you would forget me in the middle of the war!”

“Eh? War? Aren’t I in the Military Academy?”

Swish! 3 arrows land in front of me.

With a big bulging vein in her head, Ali(?) walks towards me and I can feel an immensely powerful aura surrounding her.

“Ryner. I guess you have to die too! You cheating scumbag!”

And then it hits me. She’s been calling me Ryner the entire time.

“Al..I mean Yui-san?” I put my hands out in front me signaling my intent to talk. “What year is it?”

“Year? No such concept exists. We have been fighting this war for over a few decades or so now though.” She holsters her crossbows. “Are you sure you’re okay Ryner?”

Before I could respond, time pauses around me and the surrounding is suddenly replaced by a huge white background of nothingness. I can feel another powerful aura coming from behind me.

“Hero. Try to remain calm.”

“Eh? Artemis? Why are you here?”

It was my servant from the end of the last cycle, Artemis. What the hell is going on here?

“You screwed up.”

Eh? Screwed up? What did I screw up again?

“What are you talking about?”

“Well it seems as though you screwed up your breathing exercises earlier today. You unsuccessfully tried to unconsciously integrate this one’s Battle Meditation into your own technique and inadvertently mixed up your own memories with Ryner’s.”

Eh? What? WHAT?

What are you talking about?!

“You are in a state of forced Psychosis and your real body is in the physical world being waited on hand on foot by Lin and Belle. The Princess was summoned by the Queen so Ali isn’t in the Academy.”

“But I saw her die!”

“No, you saw Beast Race Hero Yui die – or at least a fake version of her die. Demon Lord Mors used her as bait before to draw in Ryner and have him die with despair but that didn’t work. My memories are still hazy but I am sure of that.”

“But she called me Keith and I called her Ali.”

“No. You are unconsciously rebuilding Ryner’s life with some events from your own life.”

Eh?!

“So, technically speaking Hero, your stupidity paid off and you have officially screwed yourself over.”

“Are you saying I’m stuck here?”

“For the time being yes. Time is disjointed here in this realm. In the physical realm you only need to rest for about half a day to recover but half a day in here could very well be 50 years’ worth of time in the real world.”

“Eh?! EH?! Wouldn’t I have failed the cycle then?!” I fell on my knees and went to the best ORZ position you will ever see.

“Hahahahahaha!” Rafflesia, the usually calm and collected Chief Warlock started laughing. “I can’t believe you fell for that. You should be fine once you wake up. I am leaving you here for a couple of days so that you would have some time to think about what you have done.”

“A couple of days here wouldn’t faze me!”

A large imaginary vein popped out of her head.

“We shall see.”

She opens her robe to reveal a long, white leg that could only belong to top class supermodels – no, Goddesses, and throws something at me. It’s a majestic looking sword!

“That’s the Sword of Avalon, a Hero-class sword. Its abilities and bonuses are locked both here and in the physical world but it grows with its owner. Use it well.”

“Heh! I could survive in here even without this useless shit!”

Three veins popped out and they don’t seem to be imaginary this time around.

“Getting yourself stuck in this forced psychosis and getting my avatar worried, you piece of shit you need to smarten up!”

Thousands of light blue sigils surround her as the ground violently shakes and thunderclouds appear.

“Eh. What are you doing….M’am?”

I feel something extremely ominous. Is this the power of the most powerful magic user in history?! What the fuck?!

“Hehe. It seems I can use at least an eighth of my full abilities in this world. Prepare yourself and grit your teeth, idiot.”

She breathes in and upon exhaling, her breasts give a soft bounce. 11/10! Bravo! Encore!

“Chronos Manipulation – Time Rupture!” Time completely stops around me or rather, it completely slows down to 1/32nd of its original speed.

“I’m not done yet!”

A huge crater appears below her and this time, a hundred thousand or so creepy looking sigils appear around her.

My jaw dropped to the floor. This can’t be…

“Grand Resurrection – Tenebrae Aeternam!”

The ground starts shaking and from the distance, I can hear a rumbling. Over a billion skeleton soldiers are marching towards me! What the fuck!?

“These skeletons are slow but they still hurt. Try not to die Hero! This place will dispel once you kill every single one that I summoned! Toodles!”

Poof! Artemis suddenly disappeared into nothingness.

Rather than a Chief Warlock, she seems more like a Necromancer or a Devil to me!

With the horde of skeleton soldiers coming towards me, I steel my nerves and tightened my grip on the fancy looking sword that she gave me.

I then cast Laser Beam and rushed towards the skeleton army. I mowed down a good couple hundred or so of them. I dodged an attack from behind me and I countered with a swift bash, knocking away the skeleton soldier’s sword and apparently his skull. This is fucking troublesome!

Meanwhile, in the Infirmary in the real world.

“Eh! Senpai is mumbling something!”

“Ignore him Lin. He must be having a good dream with what two beauties worried sick for him.”

“You’re right Instructor! We’re lucky that the clingy pretender Princess Ali isn’t around to monopolize him again!”

“He…looks so peaceful in his sleep.”

The two beautiful women sigh and give him a kiss on his cheeks, ignorant of the troubles Keith is currently facing at the moment.

Author's Notes

First off, Alizoned here. I would like to apologize for the extremely shocking chapter from last night. As explained here in this chapter, Keith fucked up his training and accidentally got his consciousness stuck in the dream world where he accidentally mixed up his and Ryner's memories. Just to confirm things, Ali is safe. I never planned on killing her this early and this was deliberate. I wanted to give Yui the chance to appear since she was originally slated to appear in Volume 1 but having her appear here seems like a better idea.

I also wanted to give a sneak peak on Ryner's life. His life was one filled with tragedy and like Keith, he too was extremely stupid but only when it counted. Rest assured that the characters are safe - for now. Thank you for reading and keeping up with my work so far! :)