“This is the end.”
Countless missiles soared into the sky.
The contrails left behind by the rising projectiles filled the firmament.
A scientist, gazing up at the spectacle, turned away with a face surprisingly calm—even to himself.
“I always knew it would come to this.”
The estate’s limited resources.
And humanity’s boundless greed.
The outcome of these two forces colliding was as clear as day.
For centuries, numerous countermeasures, alternatives, and agreements had been proposed—only to fail.
The world had frozen over, turning into a barren wasteland where no new life could sprout.
Only the cramped estate remained habitable.
In the end, self-destruction through human conflict was inevitable.
“There’s no other way. We can only restart with the chosen few.”
Of course, there were those who had foreseen this catastrophe and prepared for what lay ahead.
They stored the seeds of every crop and the entirety of human knowledge within time capsules, safely encased within fortified walls.
Brilliant and capable individuals entered hibernation inside those capsules.
I, too, had planned to enter hibernation today.
But the war ignited sooner than expected, cutting off my path to the capsule.
I will die here today.
But for the survival of humanity, I must endure.
Someone must awaken the time capsules and restore civilization.
[Upload Progress: 100%]
[Neural Map Upload Complete.]
“That was fast.”
As soon as the notification sounded, the scientist grabbed the storage device and bolted.
A perfect copy of my brain, contained within this device.
I will connect it to the main computer in the bunker before going into hibernation.
Then, once the mana fallout dissipates and the world is cleansed, I will emerge to awaken the time capsules and rebuild civilization.
That is my mission.
“Damn it…!”
Boom! Boom!
The shockwaves of a mana-fission bomb reached me from afar.
The entire building trembled violently.
Could it be that I uploaded too late? That the building will collapse before I even reach the bunker?
Suppressing my ominous premonition, I pushed forward without pause.
“Huh?”
…Bang!
A deafening explosion ruptured my eardrums, leaving my ears ringing.
My body was hurled into the air.
For a brief moment, I lost consciousness.
When I came to, I found myself buried under rubble, covered in blood.
“Ugh!? Ghh… Huff… Huff…!”
The pain dulled my senses, and my strength drained away.
Blood pooled beneath me like a river.
Beyond the shattered walls, a mushroom cloud billowed, its scale dwarfing the previous explosions.
“Ah.”
I’m dead.
I shut my eyes, certain of my fate.
‘A mana-fusion bomb… So they actually made one…’
No one could withstand that blast.
That single bomb alone could obliterate the entire estate.
Barely able to move, I turned my head and spotted a fallen security android.
“Its durability is… unmatched…”
It was an outdated, nearly obsolete model with limited functionality.
But at this moment, it was my only option.
With great effort, I moved my fingers and plugged the storage device into the android.
A software update bar began to fill.
“Done…!”
Boom!
The shockwave arrived.
Everything was swept away.
[Battery Level: 5%]
[Exiting Emergency Power-Saving Mode.]
[…!?]
I tried to rise but felt completely immobile.
A security android’s interface materialized before me.
Relief washed over me—I had successfully uploaded my consciousness into the android.
But with it came a sense of urgency.
‘How much time… has passed?’
If the battery had naturally drained to just 5% while in emergency power-saving mode, then an unimaginable amount of time had elapsed.
Running calculations, I estimated approximately 40,000 years had passed.
Far too short for all mana fallout to vanish.
The world was still uninhabitable for humans or agriculture.
But small ecosystems of insects and reptiles could have formed.
That meant… there would be monsters nearby.
I completed my analysis and immediately activated the android’s built-in functions to attract monsters.
I had no idea how deep I was buried,
but I would summon as many creatures as possible to dig me out.
[Light… Is this the surface…?]
After what felt like an eternity, bright moonlight poured in.
My rusted, creaking joints groaned as I pulled myself out of the pit.
Outside, the world was nothing but a barren desert.
The radiant civilization and lush greenery… were long gone.
What remained here was nothing but an endless land of death.
[…A village?]
Suddenly, the scientist spotted flickering lights in the distance.
With awkward, creaking steps, he moved toward the source of the light.
There was no way humanity had survived that war.
Even if some had managed to endure inside bunkers, they would have perished from food shortages sooner or later.
For thousands of years, stepping outside the bunkers would have been a death sentence due to the toxic air.
Other than those in hibernation within the time capsules, no one should have survived.
[Ah…! The climate must have changed, melting all the ice, and turning the frozen wastelands beyond the estate into habitable land…!]
Standing atop a ridge, the scientist took in the vast expanse before him.
He was so overwhelmed that he froze in place for a moment.
The estate had been reduced to a hellish wasteland by the war, but the rest of the world had flourished, allowing humanity to persist.
Amazed, the scientist draped a tattered cloth over himself and infiltrated the village.
However, something about the place felt off.
The buildings looked like relics from a museum, standing in rows as if frozen in time.
He hurriedly stole a newspaper and skimmed through it, and soon, all his questions were answered.
[So that’s it… Civilization perished, and the primitive nomads who once lived in the frozen wastelands were the ones to carry on… These inferior beings survived and spread their pitiful excuse for a civilization…!]
Rage surged within him, making his rusted arm tremble.
Despite being born in an era blessed by nature, they had built nothing more than this crude, undeveloped world.
Of course, this disaster had to be the result of weak, foolish, inferior beings taking over.
[I will purify this world! I will revive the true civilization and cleanse this land of its ignorance! With such vast resources, imagine how much our people could progress…!]
His resolve hardened, and a distorted, crackling laughter escaped his metallic throat.
If he had awakened too soon, the world would still be buried in ice.
If he had woken up too late, even these inferior creatures might have developed technology rivaling his own.
But this timing—this was perfect.
Now, he would open the time capsules and resurrect the true civilization.
And this time, he would push progress to its absolute peak.
***
“Mister, is it something serious?”
“Very.”
“How serious are we talking about…?”
“It seems that dangerous humans from the distant past have awakened.”
I immediately boarded the carriage with Charlotte, Julia, and Sylvia, heading toward the Demonic Territory while continuing my explanation.
In the rush to depart, I hadn’t been able to bring Yuri, who was still in the capital.
Since I had sent Irene to contact Empress Sister, Yuri would probably follow later with her.
Right now, every second counted. There was no other choice.
‘This has to be the final boss. A ruin of those dangerous beings has been discovered, and it’s obvious they’ll resurrect and try to wipe out the current generation of humanity.’
The Old Generation—humans with far more advanced technology than ours.
At first glance, it might seem like an opportunity. If we could learn their technology and cooperate, wouldn’t we advance even further?
But that’s nothing more than naive optimism.
We can’t ever coexist with them.
‘A race consumed by endless greed and selfishness… They were more like the humans from my past life than the people of this world.’
I had always felt out of place here. Now I understood why.
The people of this world are different.
Here, greed and selfishness are almost… muted.
Priests genuinely devote themselves to helping the impoverished.
Scholars focus solely on academic pursuits.
Soldiers do everything in their power to protect the lives and property of the citizens.
Aside from the occasional aberration—like the original Aslan Vermont or Sephiroth—most people in this world are soft.
For example, even after discovering mana fission, no one has ever attempted to create a bomb.
They all understand, instinctively, that such a thing would only lead to destruction. So no one even tries.
A perfectly rational, logical decision.
But the Old Generation… they built those bombs without hesitation.
And in the end, they destroyed themselves.
‘We can never coexist. One of us has to disappear.’
They, the Old Generation, can’t comprehend why we haven’t advanced beyond the medieval era despite thousands of years passing.
And we, the current generation, could never accept their irrational, self-destructive nature.
The two worlds cannot exist together.
I was born in their world, yet now I live in this one.
An outsider to both.
But at this moment, I’ve finally made my choice.
“This is war. A war for survival—between the Old World and the Present.”
“W-Wait, what!?”
“For real…?”
The Old World must remain buried in history.
And I will be the one to hammer the final nail into its coffin.
I clenched my fist. My decision was made.
