My Instant Death Ability is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me! - Volume 14 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20 — Interlude: Like No More than Ephemeral Dreams

Kyuuzaburou was a child of disaster. Thanks to the careless words of some fortune teller, that label had been put on him.

A child with red hair born on a certain day would destroy the world. The prophecy had been no more than a thoughtless remark, but because the fortune teller was close to the royal family, his words were taken very seriously. Though there was no basis for his prophecy, most of the red-haired children born on that day were killed. Kyuuzaburou himself had been spared thanks to his family being one of significant standing. His parents couldn’t bring themselves to kill their newborn child due to the words of a vague prophecy. Instead, he had been confined to a corner of the family’s estate.

In order to spare his life, he needed to live where no one else would see him. That was only possible due to the plentiful resources his family had access to. Ordinary people would not have been able to accomplish such a thing.

That was how Kyuuzaburou spent his childhood. Though he had to live his life in hiding and was kept out of the family register, his family took pity on him and blessed him with as much luxury as they could afford. After all, it was just some prophecy. After a while, the excitement would all die down. Or at least, that was what they’d thought, but the fortune teller would not rest.

“The child of disaster is alive,” he declared. “He is living in hiding.” He continued to bring such prophecies to the world.

Further constraints were forced on Kyuuzaburou. A huge bounty was placed on the child of disaster’s head. Many other red-haired children were pulled out of hiding and executed. The search continued with fervor. Whole cities were turned upside down, each and every child of the right approximate age thoroughly examined. Only the richest families could protect their children.

At this point, Kyuuzaburou’s parents started to grow weary of their child. If things were going to be this difficult, they felt they should have just killed him when he was born. It was inevitable that they would start to feel that way, and that they would come to the conclusion they should kill him before he was found out. They hesitated, though, and before they could make a decision, Kyuuzaburou was discovered. The people who had taken care of him in hiding had reported his existence.

So he was to be executed. He was tied up, brought to the executioner, and the axe was dropped...but before it reached him, a miracle occurred. A sword appeared from nowhere. Its blade sliced apart the executioner, the gallows, and the crowd of spectators. The ropes binding him were cut, allowing him to stand and take the hilt in his hands.

Filled with rage, he used the sword to slice apart everything around him. The people, the buildings, the ground, the sun, the sea, the world itself were all cut to pieces. And so, the world was destroyed, just as the fortune teller had predicted. Their only hope had been to kill him while he was still a helpless baby. In order to save the world, any amount of sacrifice would have been acceptable.

The end of the world brought death to every creature that lived on it. Naturally, that included Kyuuzaburou himself, so the tragedy should have ended there. But Kyuuzaburou didn’t die—he suddenly found himself in a new wilderness. He had seen his world sliced in two and had never expected to survive. But since he was still alive, he needed to find a way to keep it that way.

Perhaps luckily, he found himself by a road leading to a nearby town. He didn’t know where he was, but at the very least it seemed to be an inhabited place. As he headed towards the city, a group of armed men appeared. Having lived his entire life cooped up in a single house, he had no way of knowing it, but these were likely bandits. With nothing but the clothes on his back, he had nothing worth stealing. He tried to explain that to the bandits, but it didn’t work.

They spoke an entirely different language, so they couldn’t understand a word he said. The bandits sidled up to him. It was clear at a glance that he carried nothing of value, so perhaps they intended to sell him as a slave.

As Kyuuzaburou was seized with fear, the sword appeared once again, the same one that had appeared at the time of his execution. Taking it in hand, he swung. Once again, a world was destroyed. That one slash had cut the world in two. And once again, Kyuuzaburou found himself somewhere new.

This time, he was on the beach, close to another town. He visited the town, but once again he found himself unable to understand the language. A quarrel broke out, and once again he swung his blade. Naturally, another world was destroyed.

After a few more instances of this happening, Kyuuzaburou started to understand it. The sword would appear when he called it or show up on its own if he was in danger. It would cut apart everything, destroying the entire world around him. After that, he would be sent to another world.

Every time he swung his blade, a world was destroyed, but that didn’t mean he would let himself be killed. He tried to hold back, but no matter what he did, a single slash always brought the world to an end. So he became defiant. He had nothing but this sword to defend himself with. If others attacked him, it was their own fault.

Kyuuzaburou continued destroying worlds. Over and over, over and over. As the years passed, he slowly learned more skills to defend himself. A number of the worlds he visited had those who could sense the threat he posed. These people were a convenient source of knowledge, teaching him martial arts enough to defend himself barehanded.

Though he had originally possessed no magical talent, he learned some magic as well. Each world was governed by its own laws, so perhaps finding himself in a world where everyone could use magic changed him, or the breadth of knowledge he had acquired allowed him access. Eventually, he learned how to use these powers in other worlds. While the powers he obtained in any individual world weren’t that impressive in their native lands, they could lead to incredible results in other worlds.

As he traveled between worlds, Kyuuzaburou learned how to live on his own. He became more tenacious, bolder, more brazen. He started to spend much more time in each world he visited. He had come across immortality in one of the worlds, so as long as no problems appeared, he could live in peace. However, when the many skills he had acquired were unable to handle a task, what would he do? There was nothing he could do but swing that sword again. Even if it meant the death of a world, he didn’t want to die.

He did everything in his power to avoid using the sword, but it was inevitable—no matter how peaceful his life became, disaster would eventually strike. There was no way around it since it was simply an issue of probability. If one lived long enough, they would eventually run into a problem they couldn’t solve.

At some point during his life, Kyuuzaburou lost all compassion for the worlds he visited. They felt like nothing more than ephemeral dreams. When one was gone, he would immediately appear in another. It got to the point where he would forget about each world shortly after leaving it. He felt guilty at first but soon grew used to it.

Eventually, he would start to grow tired of the world he was in and proactively leave. His destination was always up to chance. He loved finding strange new places and started seeing the whole thing as a pleasant adventure.

After destroying and crossing plenty of worlds, he ended up at the one ruled by the Sages. He had no intention of doing anything there for a while. Unless something appeared to force his hand, he had no plan to end this world. Rather, he was interested in growing close to its people and experiencing what it had to offer.

Luckily, if one picked a good spot in this world and didn’t stir up trouble, one could live in relative peace. If one lived in the territory of a reasonable Sage, one could live their life without difficulties. Occasionally, beings known as Aggressors would accost them, but the Sages dealt with those intruders.

However, Kyuuzaburou’s peaceful days here had come to an abrupt end. One day, time had rewound. The people around him seemed to believe they had all been dreaming. They soon forgot about the old world, but Kyuuzaburou remembered. Among the many powers he had obtained, one was to keep a perfect record of everything he had encountered.

What had happened? During this time of confusion, disaster had rained down from the sky. A mysterious life form had invaded the world, trying to infect everything it could touch. In order to escape the invaders, Kyuuzaburou had joined Cavern Quest. It sounded like a much more interesting solution than using his sword. There, he learned that this whole situation had been brought about by the Great Sage and was told that if Yogiri Takatou was killed, everything would go back to normal.

Kyuuzaburou was more interested in the Great Sage than he was in Yogiri, though. If this Sage was capable of resetting the world like nothing had ever happened, he must have been many times stronger and would be much more entertaining. So Kyuuzaburou decided to play with this Great Sage.