Why?

...

What have I done to deserve this? Why can't I go to the afterlife? Does this happen to every living being?

No...?

That can't be... If my guess is correct, then this is my fifth life. In my fourth life, I lived on a different kind of earth where evil beings called demons and divine beings called heroes were at constant wars. I was not the Demon king but a 'Demon god' in that world.

When someone died, their souls reached the afterlife. I was able to witness it since I was a god. Even then I was restrained from entering the afterlife unless I die. I lived 200 millennia as a Demon god and met my end with the Divine gods who granted powers to the divine beings on earth.

Back then, I felt relieved thinking that my long dream to reach the afterlife would come to fruition. But no...!

I was reborn again on another earth. I felt despair like I felt in all of my previous lives. But the despair that I felt in this reincarnation was dull. Previously I cried and cried and cried miserably. But this time I smiled on the outside even though I felt despair on the inside.

Maybe living like a Demon god for 200 millennia must have made me crazy. This life was my fifth life, I never cared about studies or goals or anything since I inherited the memories from my past lives. Solving everything was a piece of cake with my memories.

Therefore, I decided to choose a path that was different from my previous lives. I walked the path of an adventurer, wandering in the vast horizons of nature. I made a record in mountain climbing, surfing, para-gliding and several other adventures. I even received an alias for myself

'Courageous wanderer'

and rose to the top celebrity position.

I never made any enemies. I never loathed anyone. I made sure that my destiny in this life would be a confirmed destination to the afterlife...

[But how...?

How did it all come to this? This doesn't make any sense...]

The despair that I felt always returned. I only lived for 25 years and I am yet to be married. Even in my past, I never died at a young age. It was my first time dying so young.

That morning, the weather report said that it would be cloudy, and even my assistants made sure of it. So, why...?

[Why am I hanging on death's door? Situations like this never occurred to me before. I either died in a fight or ended up being backstabbed, but my assistants are nothing more than adventure freaks. So, there is no chance of them backstabbing me.]

[Wait... Is this the work of someone who is beyond reach? Maybe like a god or deities?]

As more thoughts raised, I started to go crazy. Right then, l was in the middle of a cliff, 3000 meters above the ground. The last thing I remember was the change in the weather. It started raining all of a sudden and then,

---thud---

I was struck by a lightning.

Despite that, what happened was my equipment was shattering to bits and my clothes getting torn. The soaring thoughts in my mind went beyond crazy. I don't know why but I started yelling towards the sky.

"Hey you, whoever you are get down here right now! Or else, you will know my wrath. Do you hear me? I said come down, right now!!!!"

...

The rain came to a halt. But I kept yelling since my mind was already in a crazed phase.

"Hahaha...! That's how you should be. Know your place, you filth!"

Despite my life being on death's door, I was laughing. I was enjoying it without even realizing it.

The despair that I dread the most felt amusing.

And that's when the unexpected happened. The rock that I was clinging to crumbled and the next thing was...

---whoosh---

I was falling towards the ground. As my distance kept nearing death, the soaring thoughts still continued to soar.

[I kept dying, but never reached heaven. Nor did I reach hell. Who is tampering with my destiny?

Every time I die, I am reborn elsewhere. Even then, I remained second to none. Just who is reincarnating me?]

I felt something weird. When I looked around, I was left speechless. My fall slowed down and the wind rather felt numb. The sky began to disappear only for the space to be visible.

The whole view of the space was far too scary.

The horizons were red in colour followed by the black background . In between was a huge rift, no... I would rather say a black hole. My body was stuck in mid-air. As the turn of events was ongoing, goosebumps shook all over me. Slowly, my gaze turned to the centre of the black hole. Chill ran down my spine as I looked at the same spot continuously.

---flick---

At once, two darkened crimson eyes emanating visible light like flames glared at me. Fear soared through my whole body with that mysterious turn of events.

[This is what I call 'Misfortune'.]

Ever since the day I was born, I evaded several life-and-death situations and topped every time. But in the end, it was my misfortune that I had to die and leap across from the beginning. But one thing that crazed me even more, was the source of this misfortune. Perhaps, the thing I am watching right now could've been the source of that misfortune that I never got to know about nor had any idea about.

The 'Unknown Misfortune'...

The pressure those crimson eyes emanated cannot be compared to the pressure I held as a Demon god in my previous life.

[This 'Unknown Misfortune' is surely an entity that even surpasses the gods. I would rather call it an 'Origin entity' according to my Demon god knowledge. And now, that 'Origin entity' us looking me in the eyes.

When I was a Demon god, I was obsessed with origin entities, and I travelled to numerous worlds just to meet them. In fact, the lord of the afterlife was said to be an origin entity. He was the reason I tried to enter the afterlife.]

I didn't know whether to be happy that I was seeing someone I was obsessed with or to be afraid of the emanating pressure that's killing me a thousandfold.

I remained unfazed after getting used to the pressure that was being omitted. By then, I was already unconscious. I slowly opened my eyes only to find myself in a plane land with no sunlight but crimson flames soaring from the cracks on the ground. I took a look at my surroundings. It was quiet despite being chaotic.

---crash---

A sudden crashing sound scared me like hell. As I turned around, I saw a large foot that filled the ground with cracks. I turned my gaze above, "Gasp!!!"

A large entity, with a dragon's face and body covered by a black costume like that of a reaper, was looking at me with same eyes as before, emanating the same pressure.

"We finally meet, young lad!"

"!!!!"

It addressed me as if I was its student or shall I say...disciple.

[What kind of situation am I in?]