When I opened my eyes again,
I found myself in an unfamiliar place.

"……?"

It was a peculiar space. An endlessly black shroud stretched out in every direction, facing me with vast emptiness.

What was even more strange was that I was walking. I looked down and saw the legs I once had. When I raised my hand, familiar fingers came into view.

Moving my body wasn’t difficult. It felt almost natural, as if I had remembered it all along. Despite having lived as a serpent for thousands of years, the sensation remained instinctive.

I moved my legs and continued walking through the endlessly vast space.

At first, I thought it was a dream. After all, I had dreamed of becoming human many times.

But something was different this time. The sensations that should not have been felt were vividly present.

The vibrations from the ground beneath me, the resonance with each step, the feeling of my weight being supported—all of it was too real.

"This is strange."

A human voice—my voice—came out of my throat.

This was too vivid to be a dream.

As I pondered the situation, a voice interrupted my thoughts.

[Greetings, Jörmungandr.]

Like a hologram, a woman bathed in white light appeared before me.

Her white hair illuminated the dark space, and her mysterious golden eyes shone with a calm radiance. A flickering sun, like a halo, rested above her head, casting a gentle glow.

A woman veiled in white. Somehow, I felt like I knew who she was.

[Or should I call you Lee Jihoon?]

"……Goddess."

The Goddess who had summoned me to this world. As I stared at her, she slowly began to speak.

[I wish I could speak to you directly, but it seems I’m only a hologram? That’s what they called it in your original world, right? A recorded message that can only say predetermined things.]

"……."

I had many things I wanted to say, but I decided to hold my tongue.

After all, she wouldn’t be able to hear my responses.

[You must have many questions, but before that.]

The Goddess paused for a moment.

[Let me apologize.]

She bowed her head to me respectfully.

[Summoning you here was purely my selfish desire.]

She continued to explain.

[This world, as you know, is in a precarious state. Despite running countless simulations, the world has already fallen to the Demon God multiple times.]

This wasn’t the first time for the Goddess. The first time she lost to the Demon God, she sacrificed all her power to fix the world’s timeline.

[The moment we lost to the Demon God, I used a power to return everything to the beginning. Of course, it wasn’t easy. Because of that, I lost all the power I could have used to directly oppose the Demon God.]

Originally, the power of the Goddess and the Demon God was equal. Naturally, since they were both primordial deities born at the same time.

No matter how different their domains were, the difference in their power wasn’t overwhelming.

[I suppose I was too soft….]

The Goddess hadn’t been prepared to sacrifice her children.

A creator god draws strength from their creations.

Initially, they gain power from the trust, reverence, prayers, and respect their creations offer. In crucial moments, they absorb all the potential of their creations, regaining full strength to fight.

The Demon God was exceptionally good at exploiting this.

[He saw his creations as mere tools.]

His creations, numbering in the billions. The Demon God crushed them with his own hands and wielded the overwhelming power he gained from them.

The Goddess had to choose: gain power by sacrificing her children to oppose the Demon God and lose everything, or place all her hope on a slim chance.

[How could a mother sacrifice her own children….]

The Goddess spoke, her expression filled with bitterness.

In the end, she chose not to sacrifice her children.

Instead, she used all her powers to oppose the Demon God and rewound the world’s timeline.

[It’s a shameful thing to admit… but my children alone weren’t enough to stand against the Demon God.]

"So you summoned me?"

[Yes. I needed someone who carried new potential to oppose the Demon God.]

"Why me?"

[Among all the beings I observed, you had the brightest potential.]

She continued speaking, as if she had anticipated my questions, staring into the void as she did.

[At first, I failed.]

The Goddess waved her hand.

A hologram appeared.

There, I saw myself—not the serpent I had become, but the Lee Jihoon I had been on Earth.

He wielded a sword, empowered by the Goddess’s blessing, endlessly cutting down enemies.

[You, Jihoon, had greater potential than any other being I had ever seen.]

In the hologram, I—Lee Jihoon—fought against increasingly stronger enemies.

With each swing of his sword, mountains were sliced apart, and the once-peaceful sky was cleaved in two.

He was powerful. Strong enough to defeat any being in the demon realm.

But…

The first attempt failed.

[Even the Demon King wasn’t an easy opponent.]

He had only trained for a few years. In contrast, the Demon King had ruled the demon realm for thousands of years, growing ever stronger.

Now, as a serpent, the Demon King was no longer a threat, but as a human with just a few years of training, I couldn’t defeat him.

[So I gave you more time.]

In the next world…

I spent thousands of years swinging my sword and training.

I cut down countless enemies.

 

 

Finally, I managed to slay the Demon King.

But then…

[But… the Demon God was impossible.]

Just as everyone was celebrating…

The world split in two, and an incomprehensibly massive being tore through the rift.

He was overwhelming.

Even as the human who had defeated the Demon King, I was nothing but a fleeting amusement to the Demon God.

Dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of holograms appeared.

And in every single world…

I ultimately lost to the Demon God.

"So that was why."

[That was why.]

"You turned me into Jörmungandr."

[Jörmungandr carried a similarly bright destiny and power.]

The Goddess had deliberated.

She had pondered endlessly in the loop of repetition, searching for a way to defeat the Demon God.

And in the end…

She found another god, a monster from Norse mythology.

A being that wrapped around the world.

A being so powerful it killed even a mighty god.

[But bringing Jörmungandr here was extremely difficult.]

Perhaps bringing a human from another world was easier.

Even though they were from a different world, their species wasn’t too far removed from the ones in the Goddess’s world.

But Jörmungandr was different.

Not only was he a god from another world, but he was also an evil god who killed other gods and wrapped around the world.

Bringing him into this world…

The Goddess had to bear an enormous risk.

[I’m probably already asleep by now, right?]

The price of that risk…

Was the sealing of all her power over fate.

No longer could she…

Twist fate with her power.

The immortal Goddess had been bound to mortality.

[I can no longer rewind time. This will likely be the last time.]

The risk was immense.

Bringing in a foreign god.

But the Goddess bet everything on it.

It wasn’t simply for her own future or preservation.

If that were her true desire…

She could have broken the powers bound to this world and killed her creations herself to fight against the Demon God.

As a creator god, she could have simply created new beings afterward.

But she couldn’t do it.

She bet everything on the future of her current creations, her children.

[After all, how could the children I create next… be like the ones I have now?]

So the Goddess…

Placed the mind of a foreigner into the body of a mythological god.

A combination of the brightest potential and the brightest form.

[I feel sorry… for doing this to you.]

The Goddess bowed her head.

Her face showed an unmistakable guilt that she couldn’t hide.

Of course, it was natural.

To summon someone unrelated to this world and demand they protect it, for the sake of her world’s safety.

[Whether you protect this world, or fail and die with me, feel free to do with me as you please.]

However, the Goddess had a hope.

[So…]

She hoped for the preservation of this world.

For the future of her children.

[……Will you protect them?]

The Goddess looked at me.

By then, my vision had already risen once again.

It was a familiar feeling.

I silently gazed down at the Goddess.

[So that’s it.]

So that was the reason.

As I considered all of this, a chuckle escaped from me.

It was absurd.

What was so special about that Demon God that he had failed countless times?

[That damned Demon God, I’ll kill him.]

It was a warrior’s spirit.

Although I was different now, the human I had been was still a part of me.

I didn’t like the idea of a being that had killed countless versions of me.

A desire for revenge surged within me.

At the same time…

Curiosity arose.

Just how strong was I as a human, who had lived through tens of thousands of worlds?

As if knowing my curiosity, a human figure appeared before me.

Clad in black armor, with cold, ruthless eyes honed from countless battles.

He silently looked up at me.

Then he raised his sword.

"Can you, kill the Demon God?"

[Yes.]

"Then surpass me."

As he swung his sword…

The space split in two.