It didn’t take long for the palace’s ceiling to come crashing down.

The destruction was so intense that it shattered all the magical barriers surrounding the castle.

And it wasn’t just the palace. Every major city across the demon island was suffering the same fate. No barrier could hold up against the explosions.

The ground trembled violently, and massive craters tore through the landscape. People were scared.

Sarah, one of the summoned heroes, was with her troops inside a tent when the chaos began.

She had been leading the invasion, so when she realized something was wrong, she shouted,”All troops retreat through the portal! Get off the island!”

They rushed to the same portal they had used to enter.

But it didn’t work.

The device the king had activated had also disabled that portal.

Sarah tried again and again to go through the gate, but it refused to budge.

Just like everyone else, fear took hold of her.

“Let’s go to the water! Get off this island!”

But the device was far more powerful than they thought. It had created a barrier around the entire island, trapping them.

A few fishermen who’d already left before the device triggered were safe, at least for the time being.

But everyone else was doomed.

William had no clue what was going on. Lost in his feral state, he simply acted on instinct—evading craters, leaping over debris, and sprinting away from the crumbling palace as the forest itself began to collapse around him.

And then the real devastation started.

Meteors rained down from the sky.

One by one they struck the island, ripping it to pieces.

Within fifteen minutes, almost everyone was dead. What was left of the island was scattered across the ocean in chunks.

William was hit too.

A massive explosion from one of the meteors engulfed him. His skin was seared, chunks of flesh torn away, and his left arm was crushed.

He finally fell unconscious.

And even though he had a powerful healing factor, it had its limits.

Especially after suffering so much damage, even the mythical serpent bloodline could only do so much.

*

No one knew how many days had passed since the island was destroyed.

Of all the people who had been there, only a few survived—mostly those fishermen who had already been outside the barrier when it appeared.

And William.

The fishermen weren’t truly safe either.

Magical beasts prowled the ocean, and they were adrift in the middle of nowhere. Survival would require skill, luck, and time.

Meanwhile, William was the only one who had survived on the island itself.

Why?

Not because he was lucky.

But because of his healing factor and the mythical serpent’s bloodline keeping him alive.

When he finally woke up, he was floating in the middle of the ocean on a shattered plank of wood.

His entire body throbbed with pain.

His left arm was missing, and his healing couldn’t recover it.

“What happened…” he murmured.

It took him a while to come back to his senses.

The memories of his rampage were gone, but he remembered speaking to the serpent—and accepting its power.

“The king activated the demolition device,” he thought. “That means they went through the portal… At least they’re safe.”

He let out a long breath, his body wrecked and his strength spent.

Even though he was a complete mess, knowing Victoria and the farmers had survived was a relief.

If they hadn’t, then everything would have been for nothing.

And that would have been a much greater pain to bear.

But now that he was back to his senses, William had no idea what to do.

He was badly injured—so much that his system even gave him a warning to avoid any kind of fight. And on top of that, he only had one arm left.

He looked around.

There was nothing but ocean in every direction.

William was floating aimlessly, lost at sea.

The first thing he did was drink the salty water.

He could survive its harsh effects for a while thanks to his powerful body, but not forever.

He needed food, water, and shelter.

More importantly, he needed to know where to go.

But where was he, exactly?

The Demon Island had been a secret for a reason—it was tucked far away in the middle of nowhere. Finding another place would take more than luck.

That was a pipe dream.

A bitter mix of hopelessness and rage began to well up inside him.

He had survived a deadly explosion.

He had survived countless battles.

And now he was going to die of thirst and hunger in the middle of nowhere?

Really?

But to his surprise, his system answered him.

More precisely, his special SSS-Rank Portal skill, which had been deactivated until this very moment.

[Your SSS-Rank Portal skill is back.][Warning: it might transport you somewhere unknown. Coordinates cannot be guaranteed.]

William paused, then understood what that meant.

There was a good chance this portal would send him not just to a different location—but to a different era entirely.

And honestly, that was good.

“If it was the same time and place,” he thought, “I’d just end up back in the ocean again…”

He took a shaky breath.

“Let’s just hope this works.”

He activated the skill.

A small portal shimmered into existence in front of him, its energy stirring the air and lifting his hair like a breeze.

With apprehension in his heart and fear crawling up his spine, William stepped through the portal—praying it would lead him to a better place.

There were many places the portal could lead him to, but William hoped for one simple thing—a place where he could eat, drink water, and rest.

A place where he wouldn’t have to fight beasts or worry if he’d live to see the next day.

When the world on the other side of the portal finally came into view, William realized that things weren’t going to be that simple.

He appeared high in the air, far above the ground.

“No fucking way!”

The portal hadn’t put him on solid land—it had left him mid-sky, with nothing but empty space beneath him.

He hadn’t even known that was possible.

As he glanced around, all he could see was a dense forest and a stunning landscape stretched across the hills and valleys.

It looked remote.

And that was all he could tell. The view gave him no clue about what kingdom he was in—or what era.

But honestly, none of that mattered right now.

His only thought was surviving.

And with nowhere to go, all he could do was brace himself and hope the fall wouldn’t kill him.

He shut his eyes as his body plummeted toward the ground.

*

Far away, on one of the mountainsides near a beautiful waterfall, a small village rested in the dark.

There were eight wooden houses in total.

A young man sat outside his cabin, gazing up at the stars, when something caught his attention.

He narrowed his eyes and realized there was something tumbling through the sky.

“Father, look,” he called, pointing up. “There’s something in the sky!”

His father stepped outside and followed his son’s gaze.

Both of them stared at the strange shape descending toward the forest.

Curious, they grabbed their fur cloaks and set off down the mountain, intent on finding whatever it was.

The forest was dense and difficult to navigate at night.

They searched for twenty minutes before they finally stumbled upon William’s body lying on the ground.

“It’s a man!”

They hadn’t expected that.

The father knelt to check William’s pulse.

“He’s alive,” the man said, “but barely. Let’s take him home.”

With a grunt, he hoisted William onto his shoulders.

Despite the burden, the man was strong enough to make the climb back up.

As they trudged toward the village, the boy kept sneaking glances at William’s unconscious face.

Someone who fell from the skies had to be important.

Once they reached home again, the man placed William on one of their beds and gave him water.

“What can we do to help him?” his son asked.

“For now, we give him water, bandage him up, and let him rest,” the father replied. “There’s nothing else we can do.”

And all they could do was pray that William would survive.

*

Days passed.

One afternoon, William finally woke up.

He had no idea where he was, what day it was, what year it was—nothing.

The first thing he saw was the face of a young man leaning over him.

The kid’s eyes went wide, and he spoke quickly.

“Hello, are you alright?”

But to his surprise, William didn’t respond.

In fact, William just stared blankly at him.

He couldn’t understand a single word.

He gave a shrug, as it was the only way he could communicate.

Hearing voices from outside, a man came rushing into the room.

“Son, did he do something to you?” the man asked.

“No,” his son replied, still watching William carefully. “He’s awake, but I don’t think he can understand me.”

“What?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep