"..."
It all hit Noah like the recoil of a memory he was never meant to recall.
Kim Hajun...that was his name in the previous life om earth.
Was it even the previous or first...there was no way of knowing.
He remembered clearly now...
He wasn't a salary worker.
He wasn't a mere man living a normal life in Seoul.
Kim Hajun was infact a member of the Recon Division...
The Recon Division was the last line of defense against reality-altering gates that poured out monsters and gods that rewrote logic itself.
The image returned to him vividly from the memory that had been haunting him since forever...gunfire echoing through red skies, his team shouting code names, their silhouettes against the blinding light of a collapsing gate.
All of them were gone.
He remembered the screams, the way his leader reached out with a bloodied hand...
"Hajun, live on..."
He did.
But he never truly lived.
The trauma fractured him.
He started believing he had always been a regular man, that the office desk and coffee cups and dull gray ties were his real world.
He convinced himself that his memories of battle were just fever dreams.
Until it became real.
Until he believed the lie completely.
And when humanity cleared the final gate—when the age of superhumans ended—Hajun remained cursed with memory.
He lived quietly, pretending, pretending, pretending and pretending...
He indeed did fake a life that with time became his reality without even realizing...
And one day, he bought a game...to further escape reality.
But even inside the game, even across lifetimes, his soul couldn't stop remembering.
Noah's hands trembled.
He whispered.
"So all this time… these have all been me?"
Maya stood in front of him, her white robes fluttering against the ashen wind. Her voice was soft, but every word struck like thunder.
"Yes.
You've been searching for yourself, Noah...no, Hajun.
Your soul was shattered across worlds. You lived countless lives to forget, but each life only carried another fragment of you."
Her eyes glowed faintly.
"Now, the fragments are finding their way back. And when they unite, you'll finally be free. No more regression. No more dying and returning. No more endless worlds."
Noah's eyes widened.
"You mean—"
"Yes," she said.
"If your soul fragments are brought together, you'll cut the fate threads that bind you to every world.
You'll finally rest."
For a moment, silence stretched between them. Only the faint sound of wind brushing through the ruined chapel they stood in remained.
Noah laughed faintly, bitterly.
"That would be really nice, wouldn't it? Breaking free.
Finally resting. No more pain. No more memories."
Then, his smile faltered.
"But… that also means if I die, I'm gone forever, right?"
Maya nodded. "Yes."
He closed his eyes. The weight of centuries pressed on his chest.
"Anyone would love that," he murmured.
But when he opened his eyes again, they burned with tears as he smiled with his teeth eyes forming crescent moons.
His hair swayed.
"But...the truth is...
"...I don't want to die."
Maya's breath hitched.
"I still have promises to keep," Noah said.
"I vowed to live for my team. For those who believed I could carry on. Even if they're gone now, I owe them that much."
His hands clenched into fists. "And I keep my promises..."
He turned toward the horizon—the faint light of a burning battlefield far away.
"That means giving this narrative the ending it deserves. The ending I always wanted from the very beginning...even if that was all a lie I was living"
Maya moved closer, her voice trembling.
"But if you don't let me unite your fragments, you'll continue living, reliving, suffering through endless cycles. You'll be trapped forever."
"Living is the best," Noah whispered.
"If you were really my lover in a past life… you'd know that about me."
Maya's eyes glistened.
"Even if I don't remember that life," he continued, his voice steady.
"I know this—
people give up too easily.
They think life ends when pain begins but that's wrong.
Life is supposed to hurt. That's what makes it real."
He looked at his hands
"Every scar, every regret, every breath...
...it all means you're still here. It's not about living perfectly, it's about living honestly.
Even if it's messy and hopeless.
Even if you fall again and again."
Noah smiled faintly.
"Because if you have even one reason to live...just one...
...you've already won against death."
His voice grew quieter, almost tender.
"So live..even if it's hard and even if it feels meaningless.
Live, until your time truly expires..."
---
That memory faded.
The battlefield was burning.
Ash rained from the skies like dying snowflakes. Screams of men and beasts merged into one endless dirge.
And amid the chaos, Noah was kneeling...his body pierced by Dravens blade, blood pooling beneath him like a crimson mirror.
His breath was shallow.
He felt cold.
The world dimmed, but his mind was clear.
"In this life…
…my reason for living… was you, Draven…"
He could hear footsteps of someone running, screaming his name.
Iris.
She fell beside him, armor cracked, face streaked with tears and soot. She grabbed his shoulders, shaking him desperately.
"Noah! Noah, stay with me!"
"You're not dying, you hear me? You can't— you can't leave me!"
Noah coughed, blood spilling from his lips. He looked up at the gray sky, then at her trembling face.
Her sobs grew louder as she hugged him tightly, pressing his head against her chest. "Please… please don't go… please…"
Her voice broke. It wasn't just sorrow but desperation.
Noah raised a trembling hand, placing it gently on her face.
His touch was cold, but his smile was warm...so warm it broke her completely.
"You were a great companion," he whispered. "And… the love of my life."
Iris' cries turned into wails, echoing across the blood-soaked field.
"Noah! Please, no! Don't leave me! Don't—!"
Noah's eyes softened.
"There isn't such a love like the one you had for me..."
"Not in any world.
Not in any life."
His hand fell limp.
The noise around him began to fade—the clash of steel, the screams, the thunder of cannons all drowned by the steady silence of his fading heartbeat.
He could feel his consciousness drifting away, threads of light unraveling around him like fragile ribbons.
"It was…" he murmured, the words barely escaping his lips.
"…a great life…"
Then his eyes closed.
The wind stilled.
Iris held him, shaking, whispering prayers and curses in the same breath.
The others began to gather around...their faces hollow, disbelieving.