Death Comes First

I had no strength.

No weapons.

No plan.

But I wasn't afraid.

I was in my own manga now.

And whatever followed thereafter—I was going to make it through alive.

Even if it killed me.

Ignar tilted his head, the molten gold ring on his ear glinting under the red sun.

"Let's end this farce," he muttered.

I opened my mouth to say something—maybe defuse the situation, maybe crack a joke. Maybe stall for time.

Didn't matter.

He moved faster than thought.

A flash of flame. A sweep of his arm—

BOOM.

"Ember Swipe."

The words never reached my ears. Only the searing pain did.

The world became light. Then fire. Then—nothing.

My vision burned white-hot before collapsing into black.

My feet lifted off the stone platform.

And in that one surreal instant—midair, muscles limp, consciousness fading—I realized:

Oh.

I just died.

No tunnel. No light.Only silence.Only a deep, endless black wrapping around me like a weighted blanket.

Thoughts came slowly, like bubbles rising through tar.

Well… that was fast.All those workouts, and I got one-shot.Guess I wasn't the protagonist after all.This is how it ends, huh?...Damn.

DING.DING.

A soft chime echoed through the void.

Then a glowing blue window materialized in front of my fading awareness.

Trim. Sleek. Familiar.

[ System Override Detected ][ Trait ??? Triggered ][ Activating Auto-Revival ][ Cooldown: 2160 Hours (3 Months) ][ Reviving in: 00:00:10 ]

I blinked.Or at least—I think I did.

...Wait, what?

Another chime.

[ Preparing Soul Shell... 83% ]

No way—am I being revived?Like… actually revived?Budget-friendly Subaru??

I laughed—a wheeze really, somewhere between a gasp and a cough in the black.

I get murdered in one panel, and now I'm on cooldown? What kind of broken system is this?

FLASH.

Pain returned—not sharp, but distant. Like a memory.

Then air.

Hot, crackling air.

I gasped.

The smell of scorched stone, mana smoke, and iron hit me like a punch.

My eyes snapped open.

Same sky.Same glowing red sun.Same floating platform, etched in ancient glyphs.

But the dragons—were gone.

The world stood still. Quiet. Like it hadn't noticed my death.

I looked down.

No wounds. No blood.Body intact. Clothes shredded—hoodie cooked like I tried to hug a volcano.

"I… I'm back."

I took a step. No limp.Another. Still alive. Still me.

"Okay. Okay. So that happened."

"I died. And now I'm not."

"Good news: I've got a second chance."

"Bad news: I'm still the same level one nobody I was ten seconds ago."

Another window blinked into view.

[ WARNING: Revival cooldown in effect ][ Next available revival in: 2159:59:57 ][ Attempting to revive during cooldown will result in PERMANENT DEATH ]

"…Noted."

I exhaled slowly.

"Unlimited retries? Pfft. I get one. Every three months. On cooldown. Budget build, baby."

I turned—expecting the platform to collapse, or alarms to scream that I'd cheated death.

Instead, I saw something worse.

Ignar.

Same molten gaze. Same cracked gauntlet. But his expression was different now.

He looked at me like I was a glitch in the fabric of reality.

"You…" he growled, low and cautious. "You were dead."

"No argument there," I said, giving him a half-hearted grin. "But hey—plot armor's real."

He didn't move. His aura didn't flare.

He was confused. And maybe… a little afraid.

Then the sky cracked like broken glass.

A rift tore open—not a gate, but a seam stitched with pure mana.

Another dragon descended.

Larger than Ignar. More composed. Not old in age, but something older in presence.

He landed softly, weightless. No wings. He floated, as if the world itself bent to him.

His scales shimmered obsidian and violet. His cloak rippled with arcane runes. Eyes like shards of frozen stars.

Even Ignar bowed slightly.

"Elder Tharagon," he said, stiff.

Tharagon didn't look old—early thirties in human form. Elegant. Dangerous. Like someone who never needed to fight because the threat of him was enough.

He studied me for a long moment.

"…Hm."

Then he smiled, a smile that made my skin crawl and my heart race.

"Well now. What are you?"

He circled me once, hands behind his back like a scholar examining a rare, dangerous artifact.

I swallowed and activated Insight.

[ Skill: Insight triggered. ]

Two HUD panels flickered—then fizzled out in static.

[ Error: Target's information exceeds current skill tier. ][ Upgrade Insight to view higher-level entities. ]

"…Huh."

So even the system knew when to shut up.

I'm poking at a boss-tier dragon with a level 1 flashlight.

Perfect.

Tharagon's smile widened, as though he were amused by the failure. His eyes gleamed with something almost predatory.

"I felt the ripple," he murmured. "Auto-revival. But not draconic."

His eyes narrowed. "Curious."

He looked to Ignar. "You killed him?"

Ignar nodded once, his gaze never leaving me. "He trespassed the Trial Gate."

"And revived." Tharagon chuckled, low and dark. "Fascinating."

I stayed silent. Every instinct screamed to keep my mouth shut around someone this powerful.

Then Tharagon clapped once.

"Come," he said, his voice like the weight of ancient stone. "The Dragon City must see this anomaly."

A rift shimmered open behind him—arcs of violet lightning and silver flame weaving along its edges.

I blinked, then stepped toward the rift, rolling my shoulders.

"Well, this is going to be fun…"