The hill that had once been green was now a landscape of pure destruction. Ash drifted through the air like dark, suffocating snow. The earth was cracked in grotesque patterns — like burnt skin peeling away. Heat radiated in waves, not the comfortable kind, but the heat of a world's fury at being forced to witness what was happening here.
CRACK-BOOM!
Lightning thundered from a sky turned red with storm clouds. Not one or two bolts, but hundreds — cascading down in relentless fury, hunting the figure that moved like a shadow: the Guardian of Time.
Han stood with a body covered in burn wounds. Skin had peeled away in places, and dried blood traced horrifying patterns across him. His breathing was heavy, ragged — but the look in his eyes blazed with a rage that had long since become something beyond rational thought.
"Why?!" The cry came out drenched in desperation. "Why won't you just break?!"
His hands rose — the Divine Mark symbols carved across his body blazed all at once. Fire, lightning, ice, water. Every element answered his call.
The shadow shot forward at a speed beyond human limits, evading lightning that came within a hair of catching it. A sword of darkness swung toward Han.
Clang!
Han deflected. The impact triggered a shockwave that split the earth around them.
"Do you still not understand… Han?"
The shadow's voice — a fractured reflection of his own, carrying a tone that was almost… sorrowful.
"SILENCE!"
With a burst of power born of desperation, Han drove the shadow back. The blow sent it tumbling across scorched, fire-ravaged ground.
"What are you talking about?!" Han's voice broke with emotion.
"You are the source of everything wrong here! If only you didn't exist — if only you'd let me save Rina… let me save…"
His voice shattered completely. "Everyone."
"YOU!" The cry was saturated with anguish and rage.
The shadow shook its head slowly — a gesture that somehow conveyed disappointment, or perhaps pity.
Han didn't wait for a response. His hand rose — fire erupted from the earth, building pillars of flame that encircled the shadow. Simultaneously, a lightning dragon took shape from the storm clouds above, descending with its jaws wide open.
The shadow raised a hand. A shield of ice formed — thick, layered, radiating cold energy. The fire slammed into it but couldn't break through. The lightning thundered and scattered harmlessly.
"Why?! Why?!"
Han moved so fast he became difficult to track. In an instant he was in front of the shadow, his blade swinging in a storm of furious strikes.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But the shadow matched every movement, deflecting and countering with perfect precision.
Then — a counterattack. The shadow summoned fire and a lightning dragon identical to Han's. Both fused into one devastating strike.
"Aghh!"
Han was hit. His body was hurled backward, slamming into the ground with brutal force. Parts of him were burning — new wounds layered over old ones.
The shadow stood towering above him, sword lowered — no intent to strike. It simply… waited.
"Han," the voice was quiet, almost gentle. "What is your dream?"
The words hit him like a blow, driving through every layer — reaching something Han had been forcing himself not to hear.
In an instant, a vision struck his mind.
An ordinary life. Sunlight, warm and real. Laughter shared with friends — Ensei throwing out a joke, Rudes laughing, Alice smiling.
And Rina. Rina's smile — genuine, innocent, alive.
Simple. Peaceful. Impossible.
"In truth… I only want…"
The sentence stopped in his throat.
Then — something broke free. Han's eyes blazed with a light that was nearly blinding. Every Divine Mark across his body activated at once.
A surge of power swept outward, nearly tearing reality itself.
Han rose slowly. His hand reached for the sword lying on the ground, and he lifted it.
Han attacked the shadow with everything he had. A massive wave of fire swept forward — enough to incinerate a continent. Lightning struck, splitting the sky open. Shards of ice launched in thousands of blades.
An all-out assault. No holding back. No strategy. Only power overflowing — desperate, flooding everything.
Strangely — the shadow didn't fully evade. It held its ground, but only halfheartedly. As if… it was allowing the attacks to land.
Han appeared at close range. Blades clashed. Sparks scattered through the air.
In one moment — an opening. A clear weakness in the shadow's defense, laid wide open.
Without hesitation, Han drove forward with every last drop of his strength.
Thunk.
The blade pierced the shadow's chest.
Han pushed harder, trying to drive it deeper, trying to end everything.
But the shadow's hand rose. And closed around Han's.
Not to stop him —
It pulled him.
Forcing the blade deeper into its own body.
Han recoiled. His eyes went wide with shock and confusion.
"Whatever comes next," the shadow whispered, its voice already fading, "it won't go the way you imagined."
Its form began to collapse — dissolving into particles of light that slowly dimmed.
"Remember… who you truly are."
Those final words hung in the air as the shadow disappeared entirely, reduced to dust carried away by the wind.
Silence.
Han stood with his sword outstretched, surrounded by a battlefield that had been reduced to ruin.
After hundreds of cycles. After countless moments of despair and repetition.
At last — at last, he had defeated the Guardian of Time.
But there was no victory. No relief. No joy.
Only… emptiness. A hollow ache in his chest that somehow hurt more than any pain he had ever felt before.
"698 cycles…" His voice was hoarse. "2,055 Divine Marks."
He looked down at his hands — covered in faintly glowing symbols, each one representing thousands of sacrifices.
"Collection is no longer necessary."
The words were spoken with cold, final certainty.
"Now, I am a bonfire in a long night. Gathering Divine Marks was never a peaceful journey through a field of flowers — it was a revolution. A total transformation."
He paused. He looked at the destruction around him — the ruin he had created, the world he had burned to reach this point.
"And if 'destruction' is the only road… then let me be the one who burns forever…"
His voice strengthened, filled with a conviction born from the deepest despair.
"Until the sun rises again on a distant horizon, bringing Echronia its first true dawn."
-
The Next Cycle
But the victory meant nothing.
In the next cycle, Han still failed to save Rina.
Even worse — something more terrible happened.
Monsters attacked. Not shadows. Not the Guardian of Time. Just… ordinary monsters of this world.
But their numbers were extraordinary. Far too many. Far too fast.
Han fought, cutting down dozens, then hundreds. But he could not be everywhere at once.
Rina was trapped. Claws tore into her. Blood sprayed.
"RINAAAA!"
Han reached — but too late. Always too late.
He caught Rina, pulling her into his arms. Her wounds were fatal. Her life was fading fast.
But then — something terrible happened.
Rina's body began to dissolve. Slowly becoming transparent — shifting into particles of light that drifted apart in the air.
"Rina! Why?!"
Desperation. Panic. This had never happened before. In every cycle before this, Rina always died — but her body had remained.
But now — she was truly vanishing. Erased completely.
Han's fist drove into the earth with devastating force, splitting it open.
"WHY?!"
Grief and rage that went beyond words. Beyond reason.
-
Several Cycles Later
A familiar cliff. A place Han often came to think, to process — to simply exist in the spaces between cycles.
He sat at the edge, legs dangling, watching the sky slowly change color as the sun set.
A presence appeared behind him. Familiar, yet somehow… different.
"What do you want?" Han's voice was flat. He didn't even turn.
"You're reflecting here," said the shadow — but its voice was different. Lighter. Warmer. Carrying a tone that was almost… full of hope.
"This place has witnessed your silence. You come here, as always."
Han turned slightly. The shadow stood there — but it was not dark and threatening like the Guardian of Time. This one… glowed, wrapped in a gentle light. The light of a hope that had been absent for a very long time.
"You're still inside me?" Han's voice was barely audible. "You haven't faded?"
The shadow laughed — lightly, genuinely.
"Haha. Because you still have hope, don't you? You're still waiting for a miracle. Still trying every way you can think of to save Rina."
"If there is still even a sliver of hope," Han said, resolve hardening beneath his faint voice, "I will find it."
"I know." The shadow stepped closer. "But look at yourself right now… you're walking on the thinnest of edges. Do you still remember… back then, when all of us gathered together and laughed?"
Han's body went rigid. "Why are you bringing that up?"
The shadow laughed warmly. "Hahaha, what are you talking about? We remember all of those things. Besides…"
It went quiet. A brief silence.
"We are the same person."
The words hung heavy in the air.
"Han… are you afraid to hear your own name?"
Han didn't answer. He couldn't.
Because answering would mean admitting something — something too painful to say out loud.
The shadow's voice softened. "Never forget why you chose this path."
Its form began to fade. Not collapsing like the Guardian of Time, but dissolving with a gentle grace. It left behind a trail of light particles drifting through the air — beautiful, almost unreal, and somehow… calming.
"Remember, Han," it said quietly. "Remember who you are."
Then it was gone.
Han remained sitting alone. The sun had fully set. Stars were beginning to appear in the sky.
-
The Next Cycle
Again.
And again.
And again.
Rina died. She always died.
In different ways, in different circumstances — but always the same ending.
This time — a monster attack. A fatal wound. Blood pooling.
Han held her. He watched the light in her eyes slowly dim.
"Big Brother…" Her voice was barely a whisper. "Don't… be sad. I'm glad… we got to go on adventures together… hehe…"
"Rina, hold on! Please!"
But the light kept fading. Her body went limp.
The world began to tremble, slowly.
But before it dissolved —
Han committed her face to memory. Her final smile. The words that had played out again and again.
He added it to the collection of hundreds of similar memories.
Each one different in how it broke him.
Yet all the same in how they ended.
"I will save you," he whispered into the empty air. "I swear it. No matter how long. No matter what must be sacrificed."
Light flashed.
The cycle continued.
An eternal repetition.
To be continued...