It was all his fault. This was not how it was supposed to go. Everything had begun to go awry the moment he had appeared in front of my eyes.

The first time I opened my eyes into the new world I was terrified. The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was that ominous sound of breaking glass. After that, I reopened my eyes as a child less than five years old, in a rural farm village under the shadows of a high mountain peak. On the horizon there rose gigantic black towers.

I swiftly got used to my new life as one of the orphans raised communally by the villagers. It was there I met for the first time a person I knew fairly well: Isaac, still devoid of his second name like the rest of us.

I finally understood I had ended up in the world of the last novel I had written, and I was exactly at the start of the story. The desperation I had previously felt immediately turned into joy: I was inside my own book! I could take advantage of my role as the author to live my life to the fullest. I could even become the protagonist.

For that reason, the first thing that I did from that day onwards was to attach myself to Isaac. We did everything together and we grew up like true siblings. From an early age Isaac had started to show signs of his martial prowess. Instead of playing with the other kids, he was more interested in learning the art of the sword, and I followed suit.

This made us outcasts, but we pressed on undeterred with our training, Isaac following his natural inclination and I clinging to my resolve and the knowledge that the Gamma Perimeter’s days were numbered.

Fortunately I had been reincarnated with a special ability. Not only was I an awakened, or “archuman”, like the people around me, who oddly were called superhumans. I was also reborn with a unique transparent aura capable of emulating that of those around me. Through it I was even capable of making their talent mine. Thanks to my unique skill I was able to keep up with Isaac and even overcome him. But one day, the expected disaster hit.

Hordes of monsters swept over the lands of the Gamma, destroying everything in sight. The true story had finally begun. In the original story, Isaac Isaac should have escaped alone, but this time I was also here and I tagged along. We left everything behind, running for our lives. Isaac followed me like an obedient child, as I was the “big brother”. After all, I was certainly the more mature one, thanks to my previous life memories.

On our way out of the Perimeter we had passed through a small village unknown even to me. It had a small orchard, surrounding an even smaller house, inhabited only by an old farmer and a young girl.

I remembered my eyes shining once I saw that scene. In front of my eyes there was Faye Deveraux, the person who would end up becoming one of the final bosses of the story. If I was able to remove her now, my life would become far easier in the future.

Her story was the typical tragedy of someone belonging to two worlds, accepted by neither of them. After the fall of the Perimeter she would go on to live a life of tragedy, ending up hating the world so much that she swore to destroy it. For both her sake and mine, I decided to take care of the matter before none of that could happen.

I had Isaac hide far away, and with great effort I guided some monsters near the farm. Without looking back, I fled from the scene, and the screams of pain followed by silence confirmed that my plan had been a success.

Only once I got far enough I turned around, just in time to see the two disfigured carcasses being gulped down by the monsters. That same image would end up haunting my dreams for the years to come, but I continuously reassured myself I had made the right choice. Had it not been for me, many would have ended up paying with their life in the future.

After that, Isaac and I left the Perimeter. We wandered for a few days without food or water. It was then that the second major arch of the story started, as we were rescued by the legendary nomad Amaan Grant, the last heir of the Hero of Light.

He took us in and raised us like we were his children. He trained us harshly, pushing us to the limit and even beyond that. During these long years, we became masters of many weapons and slowly but surely developed our auras. The gap between me and Isaac didn’t decrease and I maintained the upper hand.

Thanks to my commitment to improve my ability with the sword and to refine my righteousness and other virtues, I was chosen as the next and last Hero of Light in place of Isaac.

After the transfer ceremony Amaan left us in the care of Matriarch Sloan of the Beta Perimeter, where we continued our training. During the following years, as a student in the Academy of Delta, I met all the other members of the main cast, Jonah, Lily and Chloe, and we quickly became friends. Hopefully, with the last two, I would end up becoming something more.

Meeting the characters I had so carefully designed was a dream come true. I wasn’t anymore the eternally unfulfilled man of my past life, jumping from religion to religion and from story to story just to distract myself from boredom: I was the new protagonist of a whole world.

But everything began to change when Lily returned from her usual trip home, bringing with her the news of a new incredibly talented archuman. She continuously talked about him, in awe with his deranged way of fighting. She pictured the image of a brutal beast wielding a mace, which battled without an ounce of elegance or mastery, but only with strength and violence.

This news alarmed me, as I had never written about such a character. Someone capable of using “getting impaled by a sword” like a viable strategy, reminded me more of a monster than a man.

But it was only the next year, at the first great tournament involving the academy, that everything broke down. Just as I emerged as the final victor, a ghost appeared in front of my eyes.

Faye Deveraux, now a grown young woman, was there in the stands. I immediately recognized her, as she was a perfect replica of Lily. The person I had seen being devoured in front of my eyes, was there right in front of him. Panicking, I unsheathed my sword and ran towards her.

It was then that he appeared. The first true unknown I had encountered since being reborn. He appeared like lightning from the stands, blocking my sword by sacrificing his forearm. He didn’t even bat an eye, like pain was nothing to him.

I remained frozen in place, unable to move and with a stupid expression on my face. From an outsider point of view it probably looked like I was surprised, but the truth was that the only thing crossing my mind at that moment was an unexplainable sense of utter terror.

The “thing” in front of me showed me his teeth, like a predator preparing to slaughter its prey. He talked like a human being, but every single word of his carried only scorn and desire for violence. Something unnatural squirmed under his skin, while he puppeted around the corpse that was his body.

I fortunately managed to regain my bearings and tried to reason with him, but to no avail. His fists met my body, completely breaking it down. Although I hated to admit it, had it not been for Chloe patching me up, no doubt I would have ended up dying.

It was the first time in my new life I had felt such an humiliation. Such an overwhelming defeat. I couldn’t get over it. All the fear I felt immediately turned to anger. An unknown bastard had dared to make me feel like that. Me, the author of this story!

Fortunately, an occasion for my revenge had swiftly presented itself. The mana storm I had been expecting arrived, although a little bit earlier than my predictions. The monsters started to form and we fought them off. In the meantime, I looked for the bastard who had shamed me, planning my revenge.

I finally managed to locate him while he was watching me and my friends from a distance. Like it was whispered in my ear, a thought suddenly formed inside my head. I loudly stated his presence, attracting the attention of everyone around me towards him.

After that, pandemonium ensued. Every single monster in the area converged towards him, taken by a murderous frenzy directed only at him. I smiled satisfied: even monsters knew that he had no place in my world.

My satisfaction soon turned to astonishment. The man fought without a pause, using his own blood like a powerful toxin and letting beasts have a taste of him just to dispose of them more quickly.

I broke out in a cold sweat: I had crossed roads with an apparently impossible to kill mad-man. When it was announced he had the support of the Miller Patriarch, I understood things would become increasingly difficult in the future.

I could not understand how anything like that could have happened. His strength was certainly remarkable, but what really bothered me was his overall behaviour. He seemed to know too much.

There was only one explanation I could give myself: he had to be a reincarnated reader. But when I tried to ask him, he only replied with an insincere laugh, masking a homicidal intent. Angered but mostly shaken by all that had happened, I decided to withdraw.

I returned home and started to train harder than ever before. I tried to have someone look into his background, but nothing came up. One day he had suddenly appeared out of thin air, carrying a cart and accompanied by the Deveraux girl.

In the following weeks he limited himself to hunting monsters for ether gathering. But then, notice of his departure for a not well defined “forest” to the north of the Delta came. I panicked when I heard the news: the place he was headed for should have been explored well past the story’s half mark.

That was the location where, in the original story, Isaac ended up finding an ancient relic which would accompany him for the rest of the story: the Verdant Blade, the weapon used in an ancient past by one of the most powerful awakeners this world had ever seen.

I couldn’t let him have it. I gathered all my allies and all the necessary supplies and weapons and departed towards the Lost Forest of the North. I didn’t need to talk a lot to convince them to follow me towards an unknown destination: after all, I was the Hero of Light and the first of my class and of the entire academy. I was held in high regard by all my peers and they would follow me everywhere.

To be quicker in our movements I had Chloe use her special abilities so she could preserve the food and water without the need of using carts. This made it possible for us to move swiftly through the wastelands.

According to what I had managed to extract from Jonah, differently from me, the bastard didn’t know the exact way to go and he was wandering blindly. Thanks to that, when we arrived, there was no trace of him.

We explored the forest, looking for the weapon. Unfortunately, the forest was much more populated than I expected. Although this was an advanced stage of the original story, I was confident we would somehow manage: everyone was stronger than their novel version, so I saw no reason why we should not be able to tackle the monsters in the forest.

Unfortunately, the monsters there were much shrewder than they should have been, making our stay in the forest a real nightmare. We spent many days and nights cleaning up the territory we were in, to a great physical and mental burden.

Just as we thought we had succeeded in our enterprise, disaster struck. The biggest monster I had ever seen, a gargantuan spider, showed itself in front of us as soon as we entered its territory, a glade in the middle of the forest.

We fought tooth and nail, but many died. This was the first time I felt true despair. Just as I thought I had reached my lowest point, I was once again proven wrong.

He appeared once again.

And now, I was running away, terrified about what would happen if he took hold of me. I had gotten everything wrong. I thought he was a reader who was trying to take my place, but it was worse than that.

He had yet to grasp everything, but I couldn’t let it happen. He was going to ruin everything. He shouldn’t have been there. It should have been my new start inside the world of my novel, but that couldn’t happen with him hanging around. I couldn’t accept a memento of my mediocre past to live by my side. But I couldn’t do anything about it right then, so I did the only thing I could: I ran away.

Suddenly I heard the sound of something breaking and my right knee gave out. I fell to the ground and saw the abominable mace which had been shot with great strength against my leg, crippling me. I started to crawl, trying to leave this hateful place, but a foot on my back pressed me down on the ground.

“Gotcha!” his chilling laugh resounded in my ears.