I Killed The Main Characters

Noah knelt there longer than time could count.

His head heavy with memories and the weight of too many roads walked.

The air was sharp, biting through the silence like the ice that curled along his fingers.

Around him, the world refused to move.

Not because it was frozen, but because he was.

His mind spiraled into thoughts so raw and unfiltered he couldn't breathe through them.

The resolve he had built brick by brick, stone by stone, since arriving in this world, it all felt like dust now.

Crumbling ideals.

Torn-up blueprints.

He had made so many choices, all for the sake of a game he hadn't even liked in the end.

A game with a bad ending, rushed and full of wasted potential.

A game he had cursed out loud, laughed at on forums, thrown aside after uninstalling.

And now, he had lived through it.

Changed it.

Stabbed into it, bent it into a different shape with his own hands.

Some things had gone according to plan.

Some resolves were carried out perfectly.

He had eliminated the main characters, taken them out one by one.

Not out of cruelty, but reason.

They had turned.

Each one. Into monsters.

Destroyers of order. Of reason.

They brought ruin. And he thought... If he could just remove them, maybe he could save this world.

But now.

Right now.

If he asked himself honestly...

What was he living for?

He didn't have an answer.

It was just like his past life.

He remembered the cold mornings on Earth.

Waking up in a one-room apartment filled with the dull yellow light from a flickering bulb.

He had worked a dead-end job, the kind that barely let you keep the lights on but kept you too tired to care.

A job where every day was a copy-paste of the last.

Emails, coffee, staring at a screen.

Lunch breaks that were never long enough.

A world of grey.

He'd come home, toss his jacket over the same chair, microwave the same food, and sit down to play games.

Hours of clicking and controlling pixels.

Laughing at dialogues.

Making fake decisions.

Then he'd sleep.

Wake up.

Repeat.

No clear direction. No burning dream. Just floating through.

And here, in this world, he'd been given something different.

Power. Influence. Magic.

He could wield ice with the flick of a finger.

He could silence rooms with a word.

He had power that stretched farther than his past self could imagine.

And for a time, he lived it to the fullest.

Learning magic. Pushing his limits.

Making relationships with characters who had once only existed as lines of code.

It was strange. Surreal. Mind-bending.

But there was warmth there too.

Genuine moments. Honest connections.

They didn't last.

They never stood the test of time. Or story.

And now, everything felt so far away.

Now, he only wanted it to end.

Would killing these two end it?

He looked at the Black Vassals standing before him. Their eyes cold. Their blades stained with the intention to kill.

No.

It wouldn't end.

If they killed him, it wouldn't end either.

What if he killed all the major characters as quick as possible? No it still wouldn't end.

He had killed all the major characters in the previous route, thinking that would end the bad ending.

It didn't.

Even if he killed Draven, right now, here, none of this would end.

He'd be arrested. Tried. Executed.

And even if he managed to escape, broke the system's chains, there was no guarantee it wouldn't restart him again.

Another route. Another loop. Another play.

All over again.

Even if it was an entirely different life, he didn't want that anymore.

The only end would be when he fulfilled the system's last prophecy.

When he, the final villain, faced off against the protagonist. Draven.

The very boy he had wanted to save.

The irony carved into his soul like an open wound.

His eyes shifted up.

"From this point on..."

Noah whispered, voice cracked and low.

"...I act for myself."

He stood, slowly.

Every movement a scream from his bloodied body.

"Killing won't be evil.

Saving won't be good."

The wind picked up, swirling around him, thick with mana.

"Ties with anyone in this story don't matter. Not anymore."

He clenched his fist.

The ice around him spiraled in a slow dance, as if responding to the voice of a god.

"Only the end matters."

His eyes rose, cold and determined.

"Anything that slows me down from the final act... will be destroyed."

The air twisted.

His ice spear rose again.

"Starting with you two."

The Vassals tensed.

A sound cracked the air.

His spear had stopped both their blades mid-swing.

Frost laced the edges.

Sparks flew as steel clashed.

Noah's eyes burned with an intense light red light.

Power thrummed in the air.

The system's voice rang out again, emotionless and unwavering.

[Warning: Overexertion of your body's capacity will trigger internal backlash from Sin Curse!]

「Excessive use of mana and body strain with hostile intent will activate the curse upon yourself!」

「 Result: Imminent death!」

I blinked.

The message didn't vanish.

"Makes sense..."

I whispered to myself.

My Sin Curse (Envy) was tied to one condition.

Whoever bore killing intent toward me would suffer its effects. Their bones would shatter. Their minds break. Their limbs would burst apart as if divine justice had intervened.

But that same curse, turned inward?

It didn't take a genius.

If I pushed myself to the brink, if I pushed past what my body could bear with the full intent of killing... it was like turning that wrath on myself.

My body was the target now.

It would die just the same.

And strangely...

"Next step is getting rid of this sin curse that's a hindrance and unnecessary illness the system bears to me..."

I didn't say anything.

I didn't need to.

I shattered my own spear across my knee.

Two jagged halves of divine ice now humming in my palms.

The moment they cracked, the blue energy flickering around me deepened into a misty shade of light red.

The cold wasn't natural anymore.

The two Black Vassals froze for a moment.

Their movements stopped.

For the first time, I saw it...true, unfiltered fear in their eyes.

Daemon Krasis tightened his stance with his estoc held low and one hand behind his back, his polished black shoes digging slightly into the earth.

His aging frame shook subtly.

Elira's poisoned daggers hovered around her like claws ready to dig into flesh, her teeth clenched and her pupils dilated.

But I could see it.

They were afraid.

I moved first.

Left leg forward. A pivot on the heel. Right spear half thrust outward like a lance.

Daemon parried, barely, but I spun with the momentum, the second spear in my left hand sweeping low to take out his ankles.

He jumped but just barely.

In that instant, I was already in Elira's space.

She cried out and flung her hands forward, a cluster of poisoned daggers launching at me, their green aura spiraling like comets.

I tilted my body backward in a half-moon arc, using the rear tip of my left spear to bat away three of the blades while the others grazed past me.

One lodged into my thigh, deep.

The pain was blinding.

[Warning: Mana channels compromised. Toxin is shutting down blood production inhibitors]

「Blood pressure rising exponentially」

「Organ stability at 67% and decreasing」

I didn't care.

I was already swinging.

Elira's guard was open, her eyes not fast enough.

The jagged end of my broken spear cut a diagonal slice across her chest and shoulder.

She screamed and tried to retreat.

Daemon came behind me, sword lunging.

I twisted, used the flat end of my right spear half to deflect it.

My movement was fluid now.

I had long stopped thinking.

Only instinct and hate remained.

Memories replayed in my mind like ghosts with unfinished business.

Memories of me killing the main characters from the game route. One by one.

I killed them all.

Each swing of my broken spears carried those memories with them.

I stepped forward, ducked under Daemon's horizontal sweep, and rammed my shoulder into his stomach, launching him back into a tree.

I didn't stop.

I pressed Elira, deflecting her poisoned daggers, taking two more hits to the side and one in my arm.

Blood poured freely now.

My body was convulsing.

[Warning: Liver shutdown in progress. Cardiac output falling!]

「...22%... 17%... 」

I caught her wrist.

Her eyes widened.

"No," she hissed.

I didn't speak.

I plunged the spearhead into her eye socket.

Screams. Horrific, raw, animalistic screams echoed through the trees.

I turned.

Daemon came for me with a thrust aimed at my neck.

I sidestepped just enough and rammed the other broken spear half into his eye, the jagged shard of ice piercing clean.

Both screamed. Flailing and writhing.

I backed away slowly.

Their cries filling the forest like a funeral dirge. Their faces ruined. Their eyes gouged.

Blood streamed in rivers.

Still, I advanced.

"You're not done yet," I whispered.

Their hands reached for something, a weapon, salvation, maybe mercy.

I gave none.

With a single clean motion, I sliced both their arms off at the elbow.

Red mist and splintering ice flared into the air.

The sound of severed flesh filled the air like thunder.

They were on the ground now.

I lifted both halves of my broken spear high.

And brought them down. Again.

And again.

Until their heads no longer resembled faces.

Until they were only lumps of flesh and shattered bone.

My chest rose and fell violently.

Each breath like a blade through my lungs. Blood streamed from my body.

My clothes were in shreds.

One of my eyes was swollen shut. My arms trembled.

Steam poured from my shoulders.

The ground under my knees cracked and froze.

『Sin Curse activated on host!』

『Self-inflicted conditions met!』

「Body will undergo progressive organ failure.」

「 Mana networks shutting down 」

「Estimated time remaining: 3 minutes 」

Ice crept along my back. Up my spine.

My fingertips turned blue.

The light red aura around me pulsed with each of my weakening heartbeats.

I stood there above their corpses.

Broken.

The light red glow intensified, covering my whole body as ice flowered across my skin.