John heard the voice of the world as he sat in an alleyway, putting his back against the dirty wall beside a heap of trash. His body was riddled with wounds, but he forced himself to take a cigarette from under his coat and lit it with a fire that appeared from the tip of his finger.
Putting the cigarette filled with an unknown substance in his mouth, he took a deep breath and puffed the smoke out as he let out a dry laugh.
"Haha, what a joke. Duty? If that was called duty, then I should've killed all of them at the start. This shitty novel of mine. Why did I write it like this? No, why did I work hard in the first place? I can just use my knowledge to live peacefully. Even this immortal life is useless if the world is destroyed."
Never in his life did he regret his decision to change the course of the world with his hand, not until today.
"I should have just let it be destroyed sooner." He scoffed.
His mind was already broken. His body was tattered and filled with blood. It was a wonder why he didn't drop dead at any moment.
"How long was it? 20 years? I woke up in this world as a foolish 10-year-old boy, even with my memories, so it must have been around that long. I was too naïve. But this is really good stuff, this potion cigarette."
He took another puff of his cigarette. It calmed his messed-up mind a little. The drug contained in the cigarette forcefully calmed his mind and stopped his trembling.
Looking up to the sky where the smoke flew up, he saw a destroyed sky and floating numbers. The numbers were big enough to be seen from anywhere and kept decreasing.
0:01:31
0:01:30
It was a countdown. The countdown to this world's destruction.
"I have done everything I could. But in the end, I can't change the ending. I guess I will sleep every day when I return to my world. My bad, Main Character. But I am not someone kind. I am just a depraved person, just like my title."
John laughed loudly. In the last 20 years, he did everything he could to stop the world's destruction. This world, within the novel, he wrote. Killing children and women became his everyday life. With an amazing power befitting a Hero, people called him the Depraved Hero.
"This Depraved Hero will soon return to his home world. I hope you don't mind, Adam." He looked to his left, beside the dumpster, at an unmoving man.
The man had blond hair and a handsome face. A big sword pierced his heart, blood still dripping from it. He was clearly dead, but John still talked to him as if he were his dear friend.
"I guess you can't hear me, huh? What a futile work." John kept the cigarette in his mouth as he tried to stand up. "Ouch, it hurts. Fuck! There are still a few seconds left. Now then… what should I do?"
He ruffled his long black hair, which was similar to a lion's mane, as he grumbled in an annoyed voice. Even so, he brought himself in front of Adam and crouched down, putting his hand inside his coat pocket and taking out another cigarette.
"This is my last one in my pocket. I will give it to you as a form of respect, you bastard. How dare you lose against the Valkyrie, huh? I even helped you a lot, staining my hands in blood in the process."
The cigarette was placed on top of Adam's open palm, and John stood up again. When he did that, he felt like hearing a voice saying 'Thank you' and reflexively turned around.
"You… Nevermind. I am going home."
The countdown in the sky had hit 00:00:10 as John said those words. He was prepared to be sent home, back to his normal daily life on Earth.
"This is hard. But at least I will write about my adventure. That will be easy money, huhuhu." He let out a self-deprecating laugh as he looked at the cracked countdown of this world's destruction.
Then he heard the voice of the world again.
When the voice had finished talking, a blind light engulfed John's body. No, it was better to call him Fujiwara Atsuku as it was his real name.
With a feral smile, he puffed the smoke and then smirked.
"Goodbye, Fantasia. I really won't miss you in the future. At least I will only see you in my novel, Miracle Hero's Adventure. That's if I don't have an impulse to burn my own book later and stop its production."
After saying that, the individual called John was gone from the world of Fantasia.
The world began to crack, and the sky fell like broken glass. The wind brought debris from destroyed houses and broken trees, hitting everything in their way.
The ground cracked, and lava slowly rose from Earth, filling the street. Adam's body fell into the crack, and the cigarette in his hand accompanied him to the depth of hell.
No human or creature would be able to survive this disaster. The world was already broken when the final countdown reached 0.
Apocalypse overwrote Fantasia. This was the end of the world called Fantasia and the ending of the novel called Miracle Hero's Adventure.
The next story John wrote started with the end of the world and waking up as his previous self, Fujiwara Atsuku. The only survivor of the world's end was the Depraved Hero, the one hated by everyone and loved by everyone simultaneously.
The broken Hero who had no one on his side. A lone wolf who would use every measure to get what he wanted.
No one knew what he thought. Everyone was waiting for his next story.
But what kind of new story would he bring to his own world? Would it be a Tragedy? Would it be a sweet romance story? Maybe a fun adventure? Or could it be another world-ending story like Miracle Hero's Adventure?
Once again, no one knew.
The age of man had ended with this.