Burn The Heaven : The Dark Calamity

Ch.1 - Prologue

This world should have been destroyed. It should never have existed in the first place. It is far too cruel for humanity to call home.

I was the one everyone called the Hero—the man destined to save the world from the chaos brought by the demon invasion. I fought with everything I had to fulfill that duty, to live up to the destiny forced upon me.

I have lived in this world for twenty-five years... no, perhaps I should say fifty. After all, this is already my second life.

Yes, I was reincarnated into this world of magic and swords after dying in an accident in my previous life.

I was born into an ordinary family in a small village. When the Magic Affinity Test was held there, the crystal shone with a brilliant golden light, proving that my magical power far surpassed everyone else's. It was also the sign that I was the prophesied Hero destined to save the world.

Back then, I was overjoyed. I thought my dull life in that tiny village had finally come to an end. I believed I would have a better future. More importantly, I was going to become a Hero—something a man like me could only dream of in my previous life.

But in reality, that was only the beginning of my suffering.

Not long after I left my village for the royal capital to undergo training and grow stronger, a horde of demons attacked my home. Every single villager was slaughtered.

My parents were among the dead.

No one survived.

They took me back to witness the aftermath with my own eyes. Countless corpses were piled across the village. The earth had turned crimson with blood.

But the most horrifying sight of all...

My parents' severed heads had been impaled upon spears.

I screamed.

I cried until my voice broke, and in that moment, an explosion of magical power erupted from my body. The dormant strength hidden within me awakened through my rage.

But my own power was too much for me to bear.

I lost consciousness.

From that day onward, my hatred for demons consumed my heart. I swore that I would exterminate every last demon in this world.

Yet the older I grew and the more battlefields I stepped onto, the more I realized something terrifying.

The demons of this world were not only the monsters with horns and fangs.

There were demons who looked exactly like humans.

No...

Their appearance was human, but the evil festering within them was so vile that even real demons seemed like innocent children in comparison.

I realized this after returning from a battle where I had defeated one of the Demon Generals.

While exploring the royal palace, I discovered a hidden chamber filled with secret documents.

What I found there shattered everything I believed.

The Kingdom of Zarus, our neighboring nation, had once been accused of being possessed by demons. Because of that accusation, our kingdom invaded and annihilated them.

I had taken part in that massacre.

At the time, I truly believed I was protecting humanity by eliminating those corrupted by demons.

But it had all been a lie.

The accusations were fabricated by one of Zarus's own nobles, who conspired with our kingdom to destroy the royal family so he could seize the throne himself.

I knew that noble.

Every time we met, he smiled warmly and showered me with praise.

I continued reading through the documents, uncovering one atrocity after another committed by the kingdom.

But nothing compared to the final truth.

The village I believed had been destroyed by demons...

...had actually been massacred by the kingdom's own army.

They had done it on purpose.

They wanted to awaken my hidden power through overwhelming grief and rage. They wanted to fill me with an undying hatred for demons so I would devote my entire life to fighting them without ever needing to be ordered.

As I stood there, frozen in shock...

A magic circle suddenly appeared beneath my feet.

Before I could react, I was trapped inside a powerful sealing spell.

Then they revealed themselves.

The kingdom's highest officials...

And the followers of the Church of the Goddess of Light.

It had all been a trap.

They had intentionally left those documents there, waiting for me to discover the truth. The moment my guard was down, they captured me.

They confessed everything.

I had become far too powerful.

They feared that one day I would uncover the truth and turn my blade against them.

So they used forbidden magic to enslave me.

My mind remained my own.

I could still think.

I could still feel.

But my body no longer belonged to me.

I was incapable of disobeying the commands engraved into my very soul.

From that day forward, I became nothing more than their weapon.

To the people, I was still the glorious Hero they admired.

Behind the scenes, however...

I destroyed villages.

I slaughtered innocent people simply because some noble found them inconvenient.

In the end, I had killed more humans than demons.

I struggled with everything I had to resist from within.

But it was useless.

Eventually...

I gave up.

I prayed every single day.

If Heaven truly existed...

Please...

Just let me die.

Only death could free me from this endless nightmare.

Then, at long last...

The Demon King led his army in a full-scale invasion of the kingdom.

As the Hero, I stood at the very front of the battlefield.

I thought that if I fought the Demon King and died...

I would finally be free.

We battled without rest for days, our clash reducing everything around us to ruins.

In the end... I succeeded. I killed the Demon King. But I lost my own life as well.

Ah...

Finally... I'm dead.

Finally... I'm free.

That was what I believed.

Until I opened my eyes...

Inside the body of someone I had never seen before.

I'm...

Alive?

No...

I've been reincarnated again! What kind of cruel joke is this?

I spent my entire life praying to Heaven for death...

Yet now they have granted me another live.

You want to toy with me?

Fine.

Then I'll burn the Heaven!