[: 3rd POV :]

’’I never thought that one day, I would be watching my own death’’

Daniel’s voice came out softer than he expected, almost hesitant, as his eyes remained fixed on the scene before him, unable to look away despite knowing exactly what he was witnessing.

The sterile room, the lifeless body on the bed, the overwhelming grief that filled the air, it all felt too real, too vivid, as if he had been dragged back into a moment he was never meant to revisit.

[: That’s right. This was the moment after you had died, when your family came in... unable to accept it. :]

The system’s voice was calm, but it carried a weight that pressed against Daniel’s chest.

"...." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Daniel said nothing.

His teeth clenched slightly, his jaw tightening as he tried to suppress the surge of emotion rising within him, but it was pointless.

His eyes trembled as they followed the figures in the room, watching his parents collapse beside the bed, their cries breaking through the silence in a way that no battlefield ever could.

"They should have expected this..." he finally muttered, though his voice lacked conviction.

"It was already decided... I was never going to live past twenty."

He had known that and had accepted it, and he had lived that truth with it every single day.

And yet...a tear slipped down his cheek.

He didn’t stop it and he couldn’t.

No matter how much power he had gained, no matter how many worlds he had stood above, this moment stripped everything away, leaving him as nothing more than the person he once was.

"I thought..." he continued slowly, his voice shaking just slightly, "that I was nothing but a burden... a parasite that kept them tied down..."

His gaze softened as he watched his family cry, their hands gripping his lifeless body as if refusing to let go.

"But seeing this..."

He exhaled quietly.

"...I was wrong."

For so long, he had believed that his existence only brought suffering, that his absence would be a form of relief, but this moment shattered that belief completely.

"They cared more than I ever understood..."

His hand trembled slightly at his side before he wiped the tear away, forcing himself to regain composure, though the ache in his chest did not fade.

"I can’t help but wonder how they’re doing now..." he admitted, his voice quieter, almost distant.

[: They are doing well now. :]

Daniel paused.

[: Your parents managed to open a small restaurant, and your sister graduated from college. She found a good job... and even someone she loves. She has two daughters now. :]

For a moment...Daniel was silent.

Then, a small smile appeared.

"...That’s good," he said, his voice carrying genuine relief.

"I’m glad they moved on."

He let out a soft sigh, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly.

"My only regret..." he added, a faint chuckle escaping him, "is that I never got to see my nieces. If they take after my sister... that’s going to be trouble."

[: They do. :]

The system responded with something that almost resembled amusement.

Daniel shook his head lightly, the image forming in his mind despite never having seen it.

"I can already imagine it..."

For a brief moment, the heaviness lifted.

But it did not last.

Because the world began to change again.

The hospital room faded, dissolving into fragments of light as time accelerated, pulling him forward through moments he both remembered and wished to forget.

The scene shifted.

It was now full of darkness, cold and chains.

"...So we’re here now," Daniel said, his tone flattening slightly as the next memory unfolded before him.

The moment of his reincarnation.

The moment he was born into slavery.

"This is a memory I never wanted to revisit," he admitted, watching as his past self struggled, endured, and survived in a world that offered him nothing.

And yet...his gaze softened.

"But... it’s also the reason I met them."

Time moved rapidly as new faces appeared.

Moments passed in flashes where he met Manork, Rika, Kiel and Caelira.

Each of them entering his life in ways he had not expected, each of them becoming something far greater than their beginnings, Demon Lord, Princess, Prince, Queen.

People he could trust.

People he could rely on.

People who, in their own way, became something close to what he had once thought he would never have again.

"...I guess it wasn’t all bad," he murmured.

The years continued to pass in an instant, his journey unfolding before him until it reached the moment everything changed, the moment he awakened and stepped beyond the limits placed upon him.

And then...it ended.

The world shattered once more, not violently but completely.

And suddenly...there was nothing.

There was no ground, sky, sound or even time itself.

There was only an endless void.

Daniel floated in silence, surrounded by emptiness that stretched infinitely in every direction, yet for the first time, he did not feel lost.

He simply existed, waiting for something.

"System... I know for sure that you didn’t show my past without any reason... so what the hell is going on?"

Daniel’s voice carried a controlled edge, not anger, but a deep uncertainty that he rarely allowed to surface, especially not in front of something that had always been beside him since his rebirth.

His eyes remained fixed into the endless void around him, as though expecting an answer to emerge from the emptiness itself, yet all he received was silence that felt heavier than any battlefield he had ever stood upon.

The system did not respond immediately, and that absence of reply only deepened his unease, making him question not just the situation, but the very foundation of everything he had believed in until now.

[: Before the Host wishes to know the reason, has the Host found his purpose or a goal? :]

"...Goal?"

Daniel repeated the word slowly, as if tasting it for the first time, and for a brief moment, confusion replaced his usual composure.

His brow tightened slightly as he looked downward into the void beneath him, though there was nothing to actually see, only the reflection of his own thoughts staring back at him.

"Is that really important?"

He asked, not dismissing the idea, but genuinely unsure why it mattered now, at this moment, when everything else had already been set in motion.

The system’s voice responded without hesitation.

[: Yes. It is important. That would determine how the future unfolds. It is also... part of both of our evolution. A key to the next step. :]

The words lingered.

"Evolution..."

Daniel exhaled quietly, his expression unreadable as his mind processed what was being implied.

It wasn’t the first time he had heard such concepts from the system, but this time, it felt different.

He could sense that this was not guidance in the usual sense; it was direction.

And direction meant something was waiting ahead that even he had not accounted for.

He remained silent for a long moment.

The void around him did not change, yet it felt as though something within it was watching him more closely now, waiting for his answer, or perhaps his realisation.

Daniel lowered his gaze slightly, his voice quieter when he finally spoke again.

"...I trusted you," he said simply, not as an accusation, but as a statement of fact.

"Since the moment I was reborn, everything I had... everything I became... was because of you."

A faint pause followed.

"And everything I have could be taken away just as easily."

There was no fear in his tone, only acceptance of a truth he had long understood but rarely acknowledged aloud.

He had never been naïve about his position. If the system had chosen him, it could also discard him.

If it had given him power, it could just as easily strip it away.

The thought did not unsettle him as much as it once might have.

Because by now, Daniel understood something far more important.

Whether he was a pawn, a tool, or something else entirely, he did not currently possess the strength to oppose it.

And acknowledging that was not a weakness.

It was clarity.

He closed his eyes briefly, then reopened them with a quieter resolve.

"...Fine," he said at last, letting out a slow sigh that seemed to release more than just tension, but uncertainty itself.

"Let me think about it."

And for the first time since this conversation began, Daniel did not rush.

He did not fight.

He did not question further.

Instead, he poured his entire consciousness inward, not toward battle, not toward survival, but toward something he had avoided for far too long, himself.

And within the endless void, Daniel began to truly think.

From the past 2 lives, he had gone through hell without much of a choice, and that gives him insight into what he truly wanted.

It wasn’t strength and all of that, no, it’s part of it and the reason, and maybe his true goal had been simple, and maybe just perhaps he had been chasing all this time without realising his true purpose.