The light in the cavern flickered, dying down to a barely perceptible glow, and an eerie, supernatural chill flooded the entire space, seeming to suck the warmth from the very stones.

Then suddenly, a cocoon of viscous, hungry black flames began to erupt from the ground and swirl around Cedric's corpse, enveloping it completely in an opaque, writhing shroud of shadow and fire.

Everyone watched as the fire burned for a moment before dying out, revealing Cedric's body lying perfectly whole. The severed head was fused back onto the neck, and his skin looked even better than it was before he died.

A few seconds passed in tense silence, and then… his fingers twitched.

***

Cedric's POV

——

For a while, there was only darkness and silence.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, my eyes snapped open, like I'd been jerked awake from a deep sleep.

Upon waking up, the first thing I saw was Aika exhaling a large plume of smoke directly above my head.

The smoke was thick enough to choke me. I coughed as I sat upright, frantically waving the smoke from my face. "Jeez, Aika. I don't even smoke but I think I'm one day going to die of lung cancer."

Aika scoffed and forcefully expelled an even larger plume of gray smoke directly into my face.

"Aisssh… you…" I bit my lip, then reached out and poked her forehead. Her head lolled back slightly, and I could see the corner of her lips curl up into a smile.

Just then, a teary voice reached me: "Brother…?"

Snapping my gaze in front of me, I saw Celeste staring at me with utterly bewildered, wet eyes.

'Huh? She's alive? What happened?'

I instinctively looked to Aika questioningly, but before she could even shrug, Celeste suddenly launched herself forward, slamming into me with a desperate hug and immediately breaking down into fresh, agonizing sobs against my chest.

I was stunned for a moment as my mind immediately began to ponder. What happened after I died? How did Celeste survive those grade three strangers, and where were they right now?

I was still pondering when another surprised voice reached me from the side:

"What… what just happened, Ino? Did he… did he just come back to life?"

Turning my gaze, I saw both Dion and Ino looking at me as if they had seen a ghost.

Then Dion quickly walked over to me and tapped my back where I had been injured. "Goodness…"

A large smile formed on his lips, and then he slapped my shoulder hard. "Ha! I knew you couldn't go that easily. After all, you really are one hell of a magnificent bastard."

My jaw dropped. Even this bastard was alive?

'Aika… you have a lot to fill me in on.'~

Aika rolled her eyes and looked away.

Meanwhile, Dion clapped my shoulder again. "Though I do not understand anything when it comes to you, I'm glad to see that you're looking good, man."

I smiled and teased, "...Of course I look good. I always look good. You on the other hand look like you've got a concussion."

"Tell me about it." Dion dropped to the ground beside me, rubbing the back of his head. "Sucks that I'm the only one with injuries at the end."

I smiled and looked away from him to Celeste, who was still hugging me tightly, as if she feared I'd vanish if she let go. I began to gently pat her back.

Thank goodness...

I was profoundly glad that, against all odds, we had all survived.

***

Moments later, almost everyone had fallen asleep due to the exhaustion of the encounter. Dion lay sprawled on the bare stone floor, using a jagged rock as a makeshift pillow, with Ino curled up and asleep on his chest. Celeste rested slightly better, tucked safely into the sleeping bag I had pulled from my inventory.

As for me, I couldn't sleep as I was in peak condition due to Chrysalis, so I decided to keep watch until the early hours of the morning.

I spent the rest of the night running through quiet exercises and diligently drawing in ambient mana in an attempt to expand my mana core.

During this time, Aika lazily filled me in on everything that had happened while I was dead.

I have to admit I was shocked to hear that Celeste had killed a Grade Three. That was a feat that should have been really difficult, if not outright impossible for anyone else in our group.

However, I was not entirely surprised. Her abilities were terrifyingly unique, after all. To have an ability that could make you jump up a level every minute you remain angry? Yeah... I could see how she was able to pull off killing a Grade Three.

Aika, however, wasn't sure what had happened to the man who went by the name Tae-hyun, as he had suddenly vanished without a trace during the fight.

We both hoped that he would stay vanished, and that we wouldn't have to run into him again.

In the meantime, there were so many pressing matters I had to think about.

Though these two people who came up to attack us had not told us who they were, I strongly suspected that they were Koreans who had transmigrated into this game world, just like me.

If my suspicions were right, then the questions multiplied: Why are they here? And how did they get here? More importantly, how many of them are here?

I had a sinking feeling that there were many more.

Also, Tae-hyun said something about Kings' Paradise.

From what I knew, Kings' Paradise was home to only the strongest creatures of the First Ring. But now, I couldn't help but wonder: What exactly is going on there? Is that where these other Koreans are based?

And there was another, far more disturbing issue...

What the hell did the prophecy that girl Soo-min spoke about mean? She said something about two antagonists. What was that supposed to mean? Who were they?

Tae-hyun had immediately jumped to kill me because he thought I was one of them.

That was absurd!

The very notion was ludicrous.

I kept thinking about all these confusing facts, running them over and over in my head, so lost in the spiral of questions that I didn't even realize when morning came.

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