The Unwanted Existence

 
 This is the story of a man buried in the shadows of history
 

 
 A little further ahead, a large tower looms over its surroundings.
 This is Antarctica. A blizzard dyes one’s field of vision pure white.
 The air temperature has already fallen dozens of degrees below zero, and the body has already lost its senses.
 
 “… so this is, the magic tower everyone was talking about… tsk, ahh-”
 With my concentration focused on the top, I stumbled over something at my feet.
 Without bracing myself, I flopped conspicuously into the snow just like that. I felt warmer in the snow, and a self-deprecating smile managed to leak out.
 
 “I wonder, why did I even come all the way here…”
 I should have already resolved myself.
 Still, the warmth made me reluctant. While buried in the snow, I felt some sort of sense of security in my own body heat.
 Even though I was already frozen stiff all over, that’s exactly why I felt I was truly alive.
 
 In the first place, it was a mistake to come to this land of extreme cold lightly dressed with only a jacket. Although I was wearing thick pants underneath, they weren’t suitable for protecting me against the cold at all.
 I didn’t realise this until I had arrived in this land. At that point in time, I already couldn’t turn back.
 
 “Ange… sorry. I don’t, think it’s possible…”
 Slowly, I whip my creaking body to get up.
 Once again, I move my cold feet and advance forward, one step at a time.
 Eventually, the tower which had only been faintly visible in the distance a moment ago, stood in my way as a wall taking up my entire vision.
 
 I nearly sighed heavily, but hurriedly held my breath. I slowly breathe in, and then slowly breathe out again.
 I can’t die here, not yet.
 No, does it even matter if I do lose my life?
 
 I’ll just be revived anyways.
 
 By the time I got here, I’d already lost my life countless times over.
 Even so, I couldn’t die. Each time that happens, something gets sacrificed, and I’m revived like a phoenix. Well, I’ll just freeze in the cold soon after though.
 Even so, I’d finally gotten here.
 
 Trying to place my hand on the tower’s wall, I fell forward as I no longer had any strength at all. I knocked into the wall like that, and rolled into the snow surface again.
 But if I managed to get this far, it didn’t matter what kind of posture I was in. I frantically drag the rucksack carried on my back closer, and take out a square slab from within.
 
 “Are you sure, this can destroy it…?”
 While lying down, I look at the slab.
 
 Magic source annihilation bomb.
 
 This is a legacy of the past. Though it’s also a negative legacy?
 Should I say it was in my baggage when I noticed it?
 In the end, I never found out the truth about who it was that entrusted this weapon to me.
 But with this, we can reset everything on this planet.
 
 After that, a certain someone from somewhere should take care of the rest…
 
 As my fingertips wouldn’t move, I hold the slab between my palms and raise it up, somehow placing it on the wall. As soon as I’d done that, the slab reacted to something and stuck to the wall as if being sucked in.
 Characters float on the surface.
 I can’t read it at all. I’ve seen the characters themselves, though.
 If I’m not mistaken, I think they were magic characters.
 
 The only numeral I could read was the countdown, starting from 59.
 Even if I can’t particularly read the magic characters, it’ll blow up within a minute? Then, there’s nothing for me to worry about, huh.
 
 My strength drained out all at once.
 Just like that, I leisurely lay in the snow field facing upwards.
 Already, I had nothing left. I’ve lost Angelina too.
 
 The letter promised a reunion, but ten thousand years have already passed. Given the current circumstances, I don’t think there’s any possibility of a reunion with Angelina at all.
 You see, that day in the past, Angelina lost her life right before my eyes.
 There was no way I could ever hope to see her again.
 
 I pray, that in the next life, I’ll be able to spend it together with her.
 Not as a remodelled human with a magic stone embedded in my chest, but as an extremely ordinary human being.
 All thanks to this stone, my life has been nothing but preposterous.
 
 Seriously, I wonder who I should have taken revenge on…
 
 Before I know it, the blizzard stopped.
 My vision is filled with a wide, blue sky.
 At the same time that the corners of my eyes grew hot, they froze over, making it impossible to blink.
 
 I see, so it’s already over, huh.
 
 Even so, I’m sure I myself didn’t want to lose the world…
 My consciousness slowly fades into the distance.
 
 In my vision, the world was dyed pure white.
 
 
 
 
 
 When I opened my eyes, all I understood was that I was floating in liquid.
 I didn’t know when I’d gotten my own will, or when my consciousness became clear.
 
 Moving just my eyes, I looked around.
 There were many glass cylinders lined up. In each and every one of them, there was a still-to-be-born, small, really small baby floating within faintly red liquid.
 It seems that I too, am a baby yet-to-be-born.
 
 But, I wonder why I’m in a place like this.
 I don’t know.
 I shifted my gaze even more.
 
 A man and woman, dressed in white coats, entered the room.
 On the cart pulled by the woman were many transparent, pretty stones. The two proceeded to a large machine, and began some sort of work.
 
 Eventually, the pretty stones on the cart were thrown into the glass containers, one by one.
 When she came in front of my own glass container, she froze up in surprise once she noticed my eyes were open, staring at her. Even so, her male partner hurried her and threw a similar pretty stone in through the top of the glass container.
 
 With a plop, the pretty stone sunk down in front of me.
 The pretty stone came down to just a little bit in front of my chest, and stopped right there.
 
 It was a green, pretty stone.
 Looking at the cart passing by in front of me, I realised that there were stones of various colours as well.
 Other than the green one that came to me, there’s blue, red, and yellow. There were also white, cloudy stones, and similarly black, cloudy stones.
 Some are as big as the woman’s fingertip, while others are as big as a clenched fist.
 Amongst them, the stone in front of me might be an extra-large one.
 
 The woman and the man went back again to the large machine.
 Looking at it from a distance, I saw that the cart had been emptied. The woman turned her head back this way. Just as our eyes met, I noticed she looked away in a fluster.
 
 The work began.
 The man pressed a button, and the farthest glass container was dyed deep red. Midway as the red slowly weakened, the man shook his head. The woman also clearly dropped her shoulders.
 When the glass container eventually became visible, there was nothing inside.
 Neither the baby that was there from the beginning, nor the pretty stone that was put in later.
 Only a faintly red liquid filled the glass container.
 
 When they’d repeated the same thing with half of them, the man and woman panicked about something.
 Shortly after, a large number of men in black streamed into the room. After all of that, the black suits opened a path, and a woman in dazzling clothes came walking down that space.
 She had an opulent tiara upon her head.
 
 Casually, the woman turned her eyes this way.
 As a matter of course, her eyes met mine, who had been looking at the situation the whole time. Just like that, without removing her gaze, the dazzling woman began saying something.
 And then she leisurely came closer, leaned forward in front of me, and peered at my face.
 
 『Endure, you won’t die so easily.』
 That’s what it felt like she was saying.
 Although it really did feel like she said that, I didn’t know the words.
 They weren’t words I could understand.
 
 With a mechanical hum, something began moving.
 
 Right after, a strong foreign-body sensation spread in the pit of my stomach.
 When I hurriedly shifted my gaze, the green stone was slowly sinking into my own body.
 I unconsciously opened my eyes wide.
 When I shifted my gaze back before me, the dazzling woman was sneering.
 With her eyes open wide, she was watching me the whole time.
 
 Insane.
 
 With just this, I could clearly sense it from the woman.
 That woman was dangerous. She’s the type of person you should never get involved with.
 I instinctively felt an intense shudder.
 
 The green stone was still sinking into my body like before.
 I unconsciously shut my eyes. Intense nausea assaulted me.
 As though my whole body were being torn apart, my consciousness was nearly taken away by the intense, sharp pain.
 
 I don’t want to die.
 With that thought alone, I stretched my consciousness out to the stone entering my body.
 And then, I felt something connect right away.
 
 The sharp pain faded as though it were a lie.
 I also couldn’t feel the uncomfortable feeling in my chest anymore.
 
 I slowly opened my eyes. Taking my eyes off the dazzling woman who was still sneering, I moved my gaze to the pit of my stomach.
 The stone had stopped, buried halfway into my body.
 Somehow, I was still alive.
 
 The dazzling woman, satisfied for some reason, got up and headed over to the man and woman in white robes.
 Then, after saying something, she went and left the room while accompanied by the men in black suits.
 
 Drowsiness assailed me.
 My eyelids became heavy, and my vision blurred.
 
 The last thing I saw was the woman in a white robe, rushing over to me in a panic.