The thousand-year empire of Lusclan had reached its end.
At the heart of the collapsed imperial palace, Lusclanium, a blood-soaked man lay collapsed before the throne of the great emperor. He appeared to be a middle-aged man in his mid-fifties.
“Ugh… How could someone as noble as I fall to such lowly scum…”
Seven men and women looked down at the middle-aged man. They, too, were covered in wounds and visibly exhausted.
A boy stepped forward toward the man.
“Noble, my ass. You’re just a mad bastard…”
The boy looked to be no older than eighteen, with traces of youth still clinging to his features. But only his face appeared young—his body was something else entirely.
His entire form was well-trained, not a trace of excess fat. His hands, gripping a sword, were rough, and the tight veins of his muscular arms resembled steel.
Despite being a teenager, an aura of a battle-hardened veteran radiated from his entire being.
Aiming his sword, the boy coldly declared:
“Your madness ends here, Mad Emperor Lustanard!”
The last emperor of the Lusclan Empire, Lustanard II, was a man of greed and cruelty.
“I am the Empire, and the Empire is the world. Therefore, the world belongs to me!”
Drunk on madness, the emperor ruled with brutal tyranny and exploitation, oppressing his people. He mobilized hundreds of thousands of citizens for construction projects, filled his palace with beautiful women gathered from across the empire—numbering as many as ten thousand.
He delighted in blood and death, torturing, killing, and feeding innocent people to beasts for amusement. People called him the Mad Emperor Lustanard, with terror and disgust in their voices.
The Lusclan Empire steadily declined. Countless loyal subjects offered counsel, but it was all in vain.
Anyone who expressed concern for the empire’s future was ruthlessly executed. True patriots disappeared, and only bootlickers remained by the emperor’s side. No one could stop his madness.
People died in hordes—of hunger, from forced labor, by the blades of bandits, or worked to death as slaves of corrupt nobles.
Eventually, the people could bear no more. Countless heroes rose up to fight the mad emperor.
But the emperor did not fall.
“How laughable! Lowly insects dare defy me?”
Lustanard was indeed greedy and cruel—but he was by no means weak.
The founder of the Lusclan Empire, the first emperor, had been the strongest MaGian in history. Within his blood flowed magic power unrivaled by any other.
This power was passed down through the generations, from emperor to emperor.
A unique bloodline magic inherited only by the direct line of the royal family—it had the power to summon beings from another world, ones that transcended this reality.
“Open, gate to the Otherworld! Come forth, beings beyond! Unleash the breath of sulfur upon this world and lift the lid of hell!”
Mad Emperor Lustanard summoned countless monsters from another world.
These were abominations from the deepest layers of the worst nightmares—creatures far beyond what humanity could contend with.
Even the SwordHighers, true warriors who had surpassed human limits through mastery of battle aura, were no match for these monsters.
Countless SwordHighers shed blood in their battles against the demons of the Otherworld.
And the laws of this world did not apply to those beings. They distorted reality and turned its rules into powers of their own. Even MaGians, wielders of magic, could do nothing and were defeated one by one.
Hero after hero fell to the Otherworldly monsters.
Yet, despite countless defeats, the flames of revolution never went out. The more blood was shed, the more fiercely they burned.
Time passed.
The war escalated with each passing day. The revolution grew stronger.
The emperor began to panic. He sought a way to end it all.
The magic power engraved in the blood of the Lusclan royalty granted him foresight.
When the heart of the king burns and vanishes, a being who transcends the fate of this world shall descend upon this land.
It was the legendary secret art of the first emperor—the ultimate and most terrible summoning magic that called forth a transcendent being from another world bearing divine power.
But the price for this spell was the emperor’s heart.
Of course, Mad Emperor Lustanard had no intention of dying. So he made a cruel decision.
To summon a god—or demon—from the Otherworld, he sacrificed his five sons, seven daughters, and nineteen direct members of the Lusclan royal family.
And upon a pile of still-warm hearts, he performed the forbidden ritual.
The ritual failed.
What responded to the summoning was not a god. It was a powerless teenage boy from another world.
“What kind of transcendent being is this? How could such a pitiful child be one who surpasses the fate of this world?”
The furious emperor discarded the boy from Earth like trash.
That boy’s name was Seong Sihan.
“…It’s been a long road.”
With a face full of emotion, Seong Sihan looked down at the dying Mad Emperor Lustanard.
It had taken him three years to reach this point. Three years for an ordinary high school student from Korea to become a warrior numb to blood and death.
Leaving behind sorrow, death, and despair, he had finally made it here.
“It really was long…”
It was an unfamiliar world. A cruel world.
Compared to modern civilization, this one was hopelessly backward. In this living hell, with no connections or support, the powerless boy could only crawl and writhe like an insect.
But he did not die.
Through luck and misfortune, he learned of the world and gained strength. He forged precious bonds, received guidance, and sometimes lost comrades—crying out in rage and grief—but he endured.
The abandoned wanderer of another world eventually became a true powerhouse. One of the seven leaders of the revolution, he now stood with sword in hand before the emperor, seeking revenge.
And there was a reason he could do all this.
“Your power still amazes me, no matter how many times I see it, Sihan.”
A thin man in his twenties with a hardened face—one of the Seven Heroes of the Revolution—MaGian Lilstein, looked around and clicked his tongue.
Corpses of monsters lay everywhere in the shattered hall of the palace. They were the beings summoned by the Mad Emperor—grotesque creatures, some several meters tall, some the size of dragons. Each one was strong enough to wipe out armies.
And yet now, all of them were dead. Slain by Seong Sihan’s hand.
“That’s for sure.”
A teenage girl about Sihan’s age nodded in agreement. She was Levina, another of the Seven Heroes, known as the Hidden Blade.
“If Sihan hadn’t been with us, we’d never have made it this far.”
Seong Sihan, the boy from Earth, was the natural enemy of the Otherworldly monsters. Thanks to him, the emperor’s monstrous forces had been continually defeated. With their greatest power weakened, Lustanard exposed his vulnerabilities.
Thanks to that, the seven leaders of the revolution were able to infiltrate the heart of the imperial palace, Lusclanium.
At last, they had won. All that remained was to end the Mad Emperor’s life.
Sihan stepped forward.
“Let’s finish this.”
The dying emperor sighed.
“Damn it… If not for that cursed prophecy…”
The sword split the emperor’s chest.
There was no miracle. The emperor died, just like all the countless ordinary people he had killed.
“Now, all that’s left…”
Sihan reached his fingers into the torn chest. As his battle aura surged, the still-faintly-beating heart floated into the air.
Only by burning this heart would all the summoning magic cast by the emperor be erased from the world.
Whoosh!
The heart began to burn. Watching it, SwordHigher Theorant, another of the Seven Heroes, nodded.
“The prophecy wasn’t wrong after all. The order was just reversed.”
When a being who transcends the fate of this world descends upon the land, the king’s heart shall burn and vanish.
The emperor’s heart was reduced to ash. All the monsters he had summoned were banished from the world.
Only one thing remained—the boy from Earth, Seong Sihan, summoned not by the emperor’s will, but by the hearts of the Lusclan royal bloodline.
Everything was over.
The thousand-year empire of Lusclan had truly come to an end.
Looking around at his comrades, Sihan asked:
“So, all that’s left is to return as victorious heroes?”
He smiled brightly, thinking of those who would celebrate with them.
They had won. In the end, they had saved the world!
“Congratulations, Sihan!”
With a radiant smile, Levina approached Sihan. He looked at her with loving eyes. It had already been half a year since she became his lover.
“Now all that’s left is a beautiful bride in the summer sun?”
Levina gave him an awkward smile at his half-joking, half-serious remark. Then, with a hint of concern, she asked:
“But Sihan, are you really not going back to your home?”
Sihan nodded firmly.
“Everything precious to me is here in this world.”
He had made that decision long ago.
“The comrades who fought by my side, the friends I shared bonds with, and the woman I’ll spend my life with—they’re all here.”
Looking back at his companions, the boy from another world declared firmly.
“It would be a lie to say I have no regrets about Earth—but I don’t regret choosing this world.”
As he scraped together the ashes of what had once been the emperor’s heart, Lilstein shrugged his shoulders.
“Looks like your mind’s made up for good this time.”
“Yeah, I’m certain now, Lilstein.”
Sihan turned to his companions with a bright smile. Levina nodded and wrapped her arm around his neck.
“Really?”
She gave him a light kiss on the lips and put on a sullen expression.
“…This is a problem.”
“Huh?”
Sihan blinked, confused. He didn’t understand what she meant. Her dejected voice continued.
“It would’ve been nice if it had ended beautifully…”
As if rehearsed, Sihan’s companions moved all at once.
The mage Lilstein scattered the ashes of the emperor’s heart across the ground, while the mage Safaran summoned a magical light into the air. Levina, still holding onto Sihan’s neck, suddenly jumped backward. At some point, she had taken hold of Sihan’s beloved sword.
“W-What is this!?”
Lilstein chanted a magical incantation.
“By reversing the laws of the heavens, we follow yet another form of providence!”
A great darkness opened. A hole tore through space, and a vast void exerted an immense pull. Sihan panicked.
“This…?”
He had seen this void once before. It was the darkness he had encountered when he traveled from Korea to Terranoir—a dimensional portal linking Earth and this world. And now, it was trying to swallow him whole!
“W-What are you doing!?”
At this rate, he would be forcibly sent back to Earth. Horrified, Sihan screamed.
“Lilstein! The magic—!”
He turned his head, calling out to his friend—but his voice stopped cold.
...Lilstein? Safaran? Theorant?
There were no longer familiar faces of friendship there. All of them stared at him with hardened, unreadable expressions. Sihan’s face turned pale.
“N-No way…”
Lilstein spoke bluntly.
“You’ve become too powerful, Sihan.”
Safaran continued coldly.
“Your fame is too great.”
Jexen guard muttered indifferently.
“You’re too loved.”
Theorant murmured with regret.
“At this rate, you’ll become our ruler. But we don’t need another emperor.”
“W-What are you saying!?”
The void continued to widen. The pull grew stronger. An invisible tongue of the dimension licked greedily at Sihan’s limbs, dragging him in.
His precious companions voices rang out.
“You are undoubtedly this world’s saviour.”
“We’re all grateful to you, Sihan.”
“That’s why—you must return to Earth.”
“The future of this world… must be shaped by us. We cannot entrust it to an outsider.”
His vision darkened. Every person he believed he was friends with now stared at him coldly, without a trace of warmth.
Sihan turned his head. He looked at the soulmate he had sworn to stay with until the moment of death—and shouted.
“Levina!”
The woman he had chosen to love for life… was laughing at him.
“That’s why, wouldn’t it have been nicer if it ended well?”
“…Levina?”
Despair crushed Sihan. Her expression held not a shred of affection. He even began to doubt whether this girl before him was really the Levina he had known.
No, this whole situation was unreal.
It felt like a terrible nightmare.
“Why…”
He had meant to love her forever. To treasure her always. To make her happy—no less than a queen.
“I’m sorry, Sihan. But I don’t want to be a queen.”
Levina gave him a gentle smile.
“I want to be a ruler. Not a woman owned by one man—but a woman who owns a man.”
She was more brutal than the others. She didn’t even show a flicker of guilt, unlike them.
“But you, Sihan… you’re not a man who can be owned.”
He wanted to reach out and grab her. But he couldn’t. The dimensional pull was far too strong. All he could do was struggle with all his might to resist.
“Kh… grgh!”
Caught on the edge of that balance, Sihan held on and held on. Levina stepped lightly toward him. The pull of the dimension only affected Sihan—she felt nothing, as if it were a mere breeze.
“We don’t need you anymore, Sihan. So…”
In the same sweet voice that once whispered love to him, Levina gently tapped her hand against his forehead.
“Go back, my love. To where you belong.”
The balance was broken. Sihan’s entire body was sucked into the void. His desperate scream echoed beyond the fabric of space.
“Aaaaaaaah—!”
Standing before the people, the six heroes made their proclamation.
“The world has been saved! The emperor is no more! The empire is no more!”
The people cheered. And they wondered—what had become of the boy from another world, the one most beloved among the heroes?
The heroes explained.
“The Savior from Another World has fulfilled his duty. Entrusting this land’s future to our hands, he returned to his homeland. And so, to carry on his will and build a new future—that is what the Savior Seong Sihan truly desired!”
It was a loss—but one to be celebrated. Thanking the hero who had returned to Earth, the people offered endless prayers for his future.
Afterward, the six heroes who had fought alongside Seong Sihan established a new nation. The age of the empire came to an end, and the era of the Six Kingdoms began.
The harsh taxes were abolished. The people were freed from forced labor. Deceptive cults vanished, and those wrongfully imprisoned were released. The Six Kingdoms remained closely linked, ruling the continent of Terranoir with wisdom and compassion.
It was an age of peace and prosperity.
And then…
Ten years passed.
TL : LOL, it had me hooked for a moment, but then hit me with the average novel plot.
Btw I am kinda conflicted on which cover to choose as the main cover. Like the cover that you like in the comment.
1st Cover
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