First, the air. It was hot, thick with moisture, like a bathroom after a scorching shower. Nothing like the cool stillness of his apartment.
Then his body. It didn’t feel like his. It was heavier. Denser. Raw power surged through his muscles, as if he could crush stone with his bare hands.
And that weight on his forehead… something hard.
…horns?
Yeah. Horns. Just like the ones on the bloodied young man, right before he was pulled in.
Merlin shifted. His back pressed into uneven ground, dirt and gravel. Definitely not his floor.
“Please, not this…” he whispered.
But he didn’t dare open his eyes. He already knew what he’d see: a sky too vast, a sun too bright, massive white clouds. And if he opened them, he’d have to accept that he wasn’t home.
So he stayed still. Heart pounding. Gut clenched. Around him, the leaves whispered gently. Far off, waves broke against cliffs. The air smelled of salt and greenery.
Then a scream tore through the silence. High-pitched. Almost animal.
Merlin’s eyes flew open. He shot upright, scanning the area.
Ahead, dense jungle. Trees with strange foliage. A narrow dirt path snaked through the undergrowth. Rocks, large and small, lay scattered like they’d been hurled by some colossal force.
To the left, the ocean stretched endlessly. Deep blue. And on the horizon, a tree—gargantuan—rose straight from the earth, vanishing into the clouds. Its top was out of sight.
But no monsters. Nothing that explained that cry.
Merlin dropped to his knees, gasping. He buried his face in his hands, the horns grazing the ground with a soft scrape.
“No… this can’t be… Not an isekai… Not me…”
If that’s what this was, he wouldn’t be going home anytime soon.
Were they going to ask him to defeat a millennia-old demon? Battle gods? Lead a war against an evil empire?
A thin laugh escaped him. Shaky. Nervous. Then he curled in on himself.
It was absurd. Just thinking it, being stuck in a setup like that? Total nonsense. No, he was dreaming. That had to be it. He hadn’t slept in almost thirty hours. His brain must’ve checked out, slipping into some sleep-deprived delirium.
He chuckled again. In most isekai, the protagonist starts by thinking it’s all a dream.
Merlin drew a deep breath, then suddenly sat up and yelled:
“I don’t want this!”
The cry echoed off the cliff face, fading into the stillness around him. Only then did he notice his voice had changed. It was deeper. Rougher.
He shouted again :
“Send me back!”
This time, something answered. A scream. Horrible. Inhuman. A guttural sound, thick with hatred, vibrating in the air like a challenge.
Merlin locked his gaze on the jungle, alert. Heart racing. Muscles tense. But nothing moved.
He exhaled shakily and looked down at what he was wearing. A light tunic under a long, heavy coat, loosely tied at the waist. The fabric was worn, stained with red. Hard to say what the original color had been. Dull. Almost gray.
One sleeve was missing, on the same side as the arm that had been gone from the body he’d seen through the misty doorway, before it grew back. The pants, sturdy, held up despite the tears. One leg stopped abruptly. On his feet were black boots, soft but cracked and scuffed.
Then Merlin noticed… his hair.
Long, curly strands fell in front of his eyes, brushing his forehead. He reached up. Red hair. A dark red, almost bloody in the light.
His fingers slid down his cheeks. He expected his usual beard.
But found only smooth skin. He pulled his hands back, rattled. He closed his eyes and took a long breath. He had to calm down. No panic.
Suddenly, a flash ripped through his head. No pain, just a sharp jolt. For a split second, glowing lines appeared, shifting and etched in the air of his mind. Then they vanished, leaving no trace behind.
A strange feeling followed. Fragile calm. Tentative, but real. Like a flickering light in the night. He clung to it. Let it grow, spread through his chest, like a soft wave pushing back the fear. And slowly… the panic retreated.
A quiet, unreal tranquility took hold. His breathing slowed. Behind his closed eyelids, dark wisps formed, black mist swirling gently, threaded with a soft inner glow.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Nothing scary about the vision. On the contrary, it was oddly soothing. But the second he realized how absurd it all was, the state shattered.
It took a few seconds to come back to himself, to remember. He wasn’t home. Not in his bed. He was in some unknown, impossible world, where people had ram horns on their foreheads…
Was there anything familiar here?
Merlin swept the surroundings with his eyes, searching for a landmark. Anything. A known detail. Something he could name.
Then he spotted some scattered fruit. He squinted.
bunch of tiny bananas: vivid pink, too short, too thick. A little farther, a black cherry the size of a pineapple. And next to it sat a golden fruit, perfectly round and gleaming with the luster of polished metal. Some kind of apple… but far too shiny to be real.
Then, a few steps away, something else caught his eye.
Two daggers stuck in the dirt. The blades looked worn, ready to snap. Beside them lay a discarded belt with two empty sheaths still attached.
Did someone leave them here? Did they belong to this body he now occupied?
He stood slowly… and even that simple motion threw him off. Everything felt different. More fluid. More nimble. It felt as if he were moving inside a machine, more human than his real body had ever been.
He raised a hand and studied his fingers. The movements were quick, crisp, still unfamiliar. His muscles had a strange density to them, almost the weight of stone.
On impulse, he kicked the rocky ground. Another strange sensation: he felt like he weighed hundreds of kilos… yet moved effortlessly. As if the weight was just an illusion.
An idea crossed his mind. What if he jumped, full force…?
He crouched slightly, braced a fingertip against the ground—and launched.
He soared. In an instant, he cleared the treetops, shooting five meters into the air. The land spread beneath him, the horizon opened wide…
And a cold shock contorted his face.
A raw, instinctive cry burst from his throat.
“Oh my god!”
In the distance, a giant was watching him.
But “giant” didn’t cut it. Nor did “colossus.” Or “titan.” The being that sat there defied all concept of scale. It wasn’t just huge, it was beyond.
And it was seated. Casually settled at the foot of a mountain so absurdly tall it pierced the sky. The giant leaned against its slope like it was a regular chair.
Merlin crashed back to the ground. But no pain, no impact. His body took it without effort. His mind, though, raced.
He recognized it. The giant—it was the gold-eyed entity in a simple loincloth. The strange young man who had gestured to him through the portal.
Without thinking, Merlin jumped again. Then again. And again. He kept leaping until the sheer absurdity of it all caught up with him.
Flat on his back, covered in dust, he let out a long sigh.
“At least I know where the guy who threw me here ended up… That’s something.”
He lay there, staring at the sky, thoughts swirling.
How was he this calm? He wasn’t in his apartment. He’d just seen a giant perched on a mountain… and still, no panic.
A dull pain pulsed between his chest and stomach. Not sharp, but growing. Meanwhile, a tingling sensation crept through his limbs.
Probably the jumps. Too many, too fast.
Merlin sat up, absent-mindedly twirling a red curl around his finger.
“If I’m in an isekai with a superhero body… maybe I’ve got superpowers too?”
An isekai…
The obvious thought struck. He pointed at the forest and declared:
“Status!”
Instantly, a surge of heat swept through him, like a flame flaring and vanishing in a blink. A spark flashed in his mind. He sensed strange lines of light activating.
And even though he expected it… the sight still stunned him.
A hologram floated in front of him, suspended in the air like frozen light. It was a virtual window: thin and flickering, with lines of shifting data skimming its surface.
A notification popped up, sharp and rimmed with a blue halo:
[Skill Acquired: Analysis]
You now perceive flows of information and the nature of objects by decomposing light and mana waves.
→ Information limited to what is already known.
“Cool,” he muttered. “I mean… cool and useless at the same time.”
The info window still blinked in front of him.
[Analysis: #ERROR]
- Age: #ERROR
- #ERROR
The data was scrambled, unreadable. Squinting, he thought he saw his name—Merlin Curkis—behind a line of visual noise, but it was barely legible.
“That’s weird…” he mused. “I do know my own name. And my age, for crying out loud…”
On the left, two icons appeared: one active, showing a small humanoid figure; the other, a skull with a gear inside. Merlin focused on the latter, mentally opening the Skills tab.
Almost every entry was greyed out and corrupted. When he checked a random one, only a single word showed: #ERROR.
Only two skills were legible. The first was clear:
[Universal Language – Max ★]
- Fluid understanding and expression with all sentient species. Enables instant reading of any text, regardless of language or origin.
- Effect: automatic translation
- Activation: passive, constant
- Limits: ineffective on mana beasts
Handy. Standard.
Merlin lingered on the second skill.
[Analysis], with the same description as in the notification.
“But the other stuff… what is all this? There’s tons of it…”
He sighed, a bit frustrated. No one to ask. No guidance.
His gaze slid back to the holographic panel.
“I hope there’s an inventory… Like, a magical item box or something.”
Another wave of energy surged inside him. The same glowing lines returned, forming a complex network in his mind.
[Skill Acquired: Inventory]
Uses [Analysis] to record an object’s magical essence, allowing storage without needing a mental model.
→ Capacity limited by mana reserve.
A third tab appeared on the screen, with a chest-shaped icon. [Inventory].
Excitement sparked in him. He began grabbing everything he could: odd fruits, rusted daggers chained together, the belt, the sheaths. Each item vanished as he touched it.
And every single one appeared inside [Inventory].
Merlin clenched his fist and let out a triumphant cry:
“Hell yes! That’s awesome!”
But his excitement faded fast when he checked the inventory contents.
Every item showed #ERROR.
Weird… When the skill activated, he’d received basic mental prompts. Normally, the items should have appeared with temporary names, based on whatever he assigned mentally. Like “Big Yellow Apple,” “Mini Bananas,” “Rusty Daggers”…
But here? Nothing. Just #ERROR.
Something was off.
Then again… everything here defied logic.
“I did see a giant sitting on a mountain…”
Merlin stretched long and slow. Strangely, he felt no tension at all. Not just calm, but relaxed. Maybe too relaxed, given the situation.
Arms crossed, thoughtful.
“If all I have to do is ask… how about a busted, overpowered skill? Something totally broken?”
Immediately, a surge of energy crashed through him, stronger than ever. A tide that pulsed through his veins, climbed to his head, and lit up new patterns behind his eyes. This time, the effect lingered.
A fresh holographic notification appeared.
Merlin blinked.
Then stared.
He opened the Skills tab, hoping he’d imagined it.
But no.
A new power had appeared.
And next to it, a note: (3/3).
Three uses.
Three.
“This is insane… Completely insane…” he whispered, still dazed.
Impossible.
Ludicrous.
He looked down at the notification again.
[Skill Acquired: Apocalypse (3/3)]
An uncontrollable cataclysm of pure energy, combining all forces to ravage an entire planet.
→ Unstoppable once activated.