The maze was built starting with the mother skeleton replenishing its magic.

Before them stood a towering cliff. The burly man from the previous scene was now dressed in white and red armor, his expression serious and imposing.

It even has transition effects!

"General Rune, everyone is here."

The messenger whispered a message in the general's ear.

Rune glanced at Kru, the hunting dog with armor plates following beside him, and then walked towards the edge of the cliff.

The camera slowly pans forward with each sound of iron boots hitting the ground, until it sees the scene below the cliff from an over-the-shoulder perspective.

It was an army of tens of thousands of people, all of whom were looking up at the cliff.

General Rune took the flag from the guard and planted it in the ground.

"Fellow human beings!!"

"Take up your weapons! Fight your way out with me!"

That burly man later became a general, and Kru was the general's beloved dog.

Lance thought to himself.

A white light appeared, and the world rapidly collapsed.

......

The next scene is about to begin.

then.

Why is it switched to first-person perspective again?!

Chaos reigned before my eyes; houses and trees were ablaze, the flames turning half the sky red, and screams echoed all around.

Lance, on the other hand, was pinned to the ground and unable to move.

What happened? Where is General Rune?

Just then, the sounds of swords clashing during the battle grew closer, and Rune, who was fighting four masked men at the same time, came into view.

At this point, Rune's face was covered in wrinkles, his temples were gray, and he had long lost the radiance he had shown in the first two scenes.

Presumably, a long time has passed since the last time.

So, was it an attack by enemies? Or is the war not yet over?

After a dozen or so rounds, the elderly General Rune had no strength left to resist. He was pierced through the body by four longswords at the same time and died in front of Lance.

Then, one of the assassins made eye contact with Lance, slowly walked over, and ended his life with a single sword strike.

The screen started to go black.

This is the last image of the hunting dog, Kru, before its death.

If you put yourself in Kru's shoes, you would be watching helplessly as your elderly master dies before your eyes, and you can do nothing about it.

Honestly, it must be quite uncomfortable.

However, now that the flashback has finished, why not let him go back?

Could there be a twist?

As Lance was wondering, the surroundings brightened again.

Burning houses and trees, screams echoing through the air...

One more time?!

The familiar sound of clashing swords rang out as the elderly General Rune struggled against four fully armed assassins, fighting one against four.

Unlike last time, this time Lance seems to be able to control his body.

At that moment, he seemed to understand why he had to do it all over again.

If the previous scene was a memory of the hunting dog, Kru, it was its deepest regret.

Then there will be no regrets this time.

Because... Lance is number one!

Lance sprang up from the ground and bit down on the buttocks of one of the assassins.

I'll bite you to death!

"ah!!!"

The assassin let out a scream, clutched his buttocks, turned around, and slashed at Lance with his sword. Lance, unable to dodge in time, was left with a wound from which blood gushed out.

It doesn't hurt at all?

After all, it's a memory.

But since he can't feel pain, then these assassins are in trouble!

"Old man, run... Huh?" The elderly General Rune was about to shout anxiously when he was stunned by the scene before him.

Not only him, but also the four assassins were stunned.

Under the firelight, the hunting dog actually stood up on its two hind legs, while its two front legs made a gesture similar to a human "crossing arms".

The dog raised its head slightly, disdainfully sizing up the four assassins with its nostrils.

A bunch of country bumpkins.

This is called a "swordsmanship stance"!

After dozens of battles with the Bone Hounds, Lance had long since memorized those moves.

No one fights a boss without memorizing the map.

The more familiar Lance became with these moves, the more shocked he became.

It seems that, in order to make up for the regrets of his last moments, Kru continued to practice these moves even after his death.

The moves he practiced were taken back by Lance, who personally made up for his regrets.

It was as if everything had become a closed loop in the dark.

Lance walked up to the elderly Rune, snatched the sword from his hand, and ignored the man's bewilderment.

Watch closely, this is true swordsmanship.

[Imperial Swordsmanship LV5]!

"Am I seeing things? This dog can use a sword?" Assassin Number One was dumbfounded.

Assassin Number Two reacted the fastest: "No wonder he's a general of the human empire; even his dogs are so powerful."

Lance charged forward and, in the early stages of the battle, even managed to suppress them all by fighting four of them at once.

The situation only began to turn bad after the four assassins came to their senses.

Come to think of it, even General Rune had a hard time dealing with these four people, how could a dog possibly do it?

Lance instinctively wanted to use magic, but found that Kru was still an ordinary hunting dog with no magic power.

Why be so meticulous about unnecessary details?

With more and more wounds on his body, Lance couldn't feel the pain, but he gradually became weak due to excessive blood loss.

Damn it, the sword broke, and the swordsmanship stance was dispelled.

But thanks to the time he bought, the guards arrived in time. A large group of heavily armored guards, armed with swords and shields, surrounded General Rune, shouting:

"Protect the general!"

Seeing that all was lost, the four assassins glared hatefully at the dead dog, then swallowed poison and their bodies began to burn, leaving not even a speck of ash behind.

As for Lance, he was already lying on the ground, unable to stand up. His vision was getting darker and darker, and the last thing he saw was General Rune rushing towards him.

Then, the screen went completely black.

For a dog, this ending is certainly worthy of being called brilliant.

......

Another scene?

Lance was surprised to find that the memory was not over yet.

The scene then returns to the grassland from the very beginning, with only the elderly General Rune in the frame.

In front of him was a tombstone, and next to it was a broken sword.

General Rune sat beside the tombstone, leaning against it and looking up at the sky, muttering to himself:

"Thanks, old buddy."

Sunlight shone through the clouds onto the tombstone and onto Rune.

The general closed his eyes.

a long time.

He reopened his eyes, got up, and left.

Then white light engulfed the world.

......

"Mr. Lance... Mr. Lance!"

Angelica's voice gradually brought Lance back to his senses from his confusion.

He clutched his head, feeling as if he had been hit with a sledgehammer; the dizziness prevented him from even standing up.

The sky disappeared, replaced by a dark, damp labyrinth and Angelica's slightly panicked voice.

You're back.

Lance sat up and looked around. The most eye-catching thing was the big dog Kru, who was sitting obediently next to him and sticking out its tongue.

Has it already been resurrected?

Lance glanced at the exit of the room again. The large pieces of rubble had been moved away, indicating that a long time had passed since he entered the world of memories.

"What happened?" Lance asked Angelica.

The mother skeleton breathed a sigh of relief after Lance regained consciousness: "I thought Mr. Lance had disappeared."

"disappear?"

"It means losing consciousness and turning into one of those dumb skeletons that can't talk," Angelica explained. "You were just giving me a thumbs up and ignoring me."

"?"

He shook his head and turned to look at the big dog beside him.

After a while, he reached out and stroked his head, and the latter affectionately rubbed against Lance's hand, as if thanking him for everything he had done.

"By the way, Ange, I have something I want to ask you."

"what?"

"Is there a human general named 'Rune'?"

History was one of Lance's weak subjects.

But this did not stop Lance from being eager to know everything at this moment.

The last scene he saw in his memory was the elderly General Rune setting up a tombstone for his beloved dog and inserting the broken sword next to it.

This layout is exactly the same as the boss room.

It is an established fact.

But this "ending" was achieved by Lance Top. If Lance hadn't interfered, what would the real history have been like?

He was curious.

"Yes, there is." Angelica nodded. "That was at the end of the First Era, one of the first three generals to follow Peter the Great in the War for the Liberation of Mankind..."

"Wait, this is too much information." Lance covered his head. "For now, just tell me what happened to General Rune."

"ending?"

Angelica tilted her head and thought for a moment, as if flipping through a history textbook in her mind.

"In the Second Age, at the beginning of the Empire, the elderly General Rune was attacked in his courtyard by the remaining elven forces and died in the attack."

This ending... is the same as the beginning.

"but."

Angelica then changed the subject.

"Because there are many different races and cultures in this world, there will also be different histories and myths."

"Just like the goddess Frey, in the culture of the elves they do not recognize such a deity. The position of the sky god in the eight gods was replaced by a nature goddess named Kaina."

"So the Rune General that Mr. Lance mentioned actually has another version of the ending, which has been mentioned many times in the Elven literature."

"General Rune did not die in the attack; his guards arrived in time to save him, and he eventually died of old age... Mr. Lance?"

Angelica looked at Lance, who opened his jaw in surprise.

She waved her hand in front of him, but he didn't seem to react, which puzzled her.

Did I say something strange?