-(??? || ???; Location: ???)-
"I'm… alive?"
The figure took a moment to let the fact sink in, but suddenly a flash of sadness appeared in their eyes as they touched their abdomen.
Taking a moment to digest what happened before their death, they finally looked at their surroundings.
"Where is this? I don't recall a place like this existing."
Auroras.
All around the figure existed a void filled with different auroras. As they switched from one color to another, a deep voice came from the void.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Who!?"
The figure searched around, but they couldn't find anyone. They closed their eyes and attempted to sense the unknown presence from before.
"W-what…?" But that only brought more surprises. "This bloodline reaction… a dragon?"
"It's good that you can at least recognize your ancestor."
Nine pairs of eyes appeared from the void.
The figure couldn't find the rest of its body but they instinctively knew the identity of those eyes.
"Hydra, the nine-headed primordial dragon."
Biting their lips so hard that blood dripped from them, the figure questioned the entity.
"Why did you save me?"
There was no free lunch in this world especially if your savior was an infamous entity from Dark Ages, and supposedly dead.
"No need to be on your guard, my child. I will tell you what I want and I promise that it is something beneficial to you. But before that, I need you to watch a few things."
Before the figure could question the entity's intention, a screen appeared from them.
Inside the screen was a scene playing.
------
"W…what was the point of all this? In the end, we still lost."
Tears dribbled down the man's cheek. Standing in front of the graves of his comrades, he stared at the shattering sky. Behind him, a second man, who had golden eyes, spoke.
"It's not your fault, Ethaniel. No matter what, we succeeded in repelling the devil."
"And what of it!"
The man called Ethaniel smacked the hand of condolence away.
"We… won? Tell me, Leonidas, what was the point of winning!? We lost everything." He grabbed Leonidas' collar. "Everyone died! Our brothers and sister died! Millions of races perished! And, you are telling me we succeeded!?"
Pointing at the shattering sky, the green-eyed man roared.
"The Universe is on the verge of collapse because of us. How did we win!? Tell me…how…"
Ultimately, he fell to his knees and his tears wouldn't stop.
As Leonidas watched his brother's breaking visage, his eyes still held the determination they had when he fought against the Devil.
They had won.
But they couldn't save anything.
Even the Universe, the home they fought to protect, was about to be destroyed.
"This isn't the end."
[Lord of Lightning is using his Authority [???]]
Golden hue burst forth and expanded endlessly. It went outside their planet, their galaxy, and finally their universe.
"W…what are you doing?"
"If it isn't a happy ending, then it's not the end."
Watching the smirking face of Leonidas, an ominous premonition sunk its fangs into Ethaniel.
"Stop!"
The figure of Leonidas broke into millions of specks of lights. They flew into the sky towards the places where the cracks were appearing in their Universe.
The golden light touched the cracks, and astonishingly, the cracks began being mended.
As the Universe miraculously recovered, the lone man, the First King, couldn't do anything.
That day, he lost his last sibling.
------
"Was that the end of the Dark Ages?"
The figure asked incredulously. It was widely known that the strongest ancient hero sacrificed himself to save everything.
But shockingly, not everything known was the same as in the scene.
Unlike what was widely spread, an ancient hero did survive.
"It is, but it was also the beginning of a new age."
The hydra's deep voice echoed again, and another scene continued.
------
"The Council of Genna is dismissed."
The man sitting at the seat of the leader declared. Nodding to him, the Monarchs disappeared one by one.
Although they were leaders of their races, the man's presence was too much for them to handle. It was only because of the iron fist rule of the man that, despite their fears, they always accepted the man's summon.
"How is the project going?"
"My king, it's about 60% complete." A shadow appeared from thin air and bowed. "But is there any reason for such haste?"
The shadow was one of the few ones who had fought with the man in the dark ages. Though the impertinence of the question would've given anyone a heart attack, the shadow dared to ask such.
"Complete the task that has been given to you. No need to pry into other's trade."
"Understood, my king."
The shadow sighed and disappeared. Since the day that everything ended, his king had changed greatly. Losing everything dear to him in the war made him change his ways.
Ethaniel stood up from his throne and a fissure appeared in front of him. Stepping through the fissure, he found himself in an old cottage.
He walked around a bit, reminiscing, and stood in front of a picture.
In the image were 13 kids. The kids were playing around, jumping to catch a little fairy, while their caretaker, the old man as they often called him, was trying to bring them back to the house.
He smiled. A lonely and aching smile.
"Are you sure about it?"
A thin voice interrupted him.
Shaking his thoughts off, the man, who was also known as the First King, turned to look at the fairy who had disturbed him. She was the very same fairy the kids were playing with in the picture.
"I am and…" The First King frowned. "Are you okay with descending every time like this?"
"It takes a bit of toll on me, but nothing worth mentioning." Though the fairy disregarded his concern, her thoughts said otherwise. 'How could I not? This might be the last time we will meet after all.'
The First King, reading her like an open book, patted her head.
"Don't be sad. I'm not dying, I'll reincarnate in the future."
"Is it… is it necessary?"
"Both of us know the answer." The man smiled, something which he had never done since the end of the war, to reassure her. "We never won, not yet. The danger will return in the future, and it will be stronger than ever."
"But you can leave it to our future generations! You… you've already done enough. Why is it always you who has to sacrifice?"
After the end of the war, he was the only surviving ancient. He had rebuilt the foundation of civilizations alone. Most would call him a heartless and cruel king, but only those who were close to him knew about his sacrifices.
But the man was okay with it.
It was the responsibility he shouldered when he called himself the First King of the Universe.
"Pandora" He pinched her cheeks. "My siblings gave their lives to protect this world. It is my duty, no it is my selfishness that I want to protect what they loved."
The fairy blushed a bit at the man's touch, but she didn't pull back. Instead, she further dug into his embrace.
"If the prophecy is correct, Leonidas will also reincarnate. Can you help him if something happens to me?"
The method of reincarnation wasn't safe.
The longer the time passes, the more his soul would weaken. If it took too much time before the time of the prophecy came, the man's soul would be eroded from the passage of time and he would never rouse.
Yet, he was ready to brave those dangers.
"I'll be waiting for you."
------
"The first king stepped into the cycle of samsara, but a miscalculation occurred on his side. He started reincarnating endlessly, each time he would reincarnate his memories and his soul would weaken." The hydra spoke in melancholy. "He had already lost his powers and couldn't do anything to reverse that."
"Pandora also couldn't help him. But thankfully, no matter how little, he would remember his past in every life."
The figure turned towards the 9 pairs of eyes as their owner talked.
"It was a struggle on a thin line. Would the prophecy come true first or would Ethaniel lose his memories first?"
"What happened in the end?"
The figure knew that Ethaniel had reincarnated into the period of prophecy. But the way Hydra spoke bugged them.
"He failed. The period of prophecy came and Leonidas reincarnated, but he didn't awaken."
Hundreds of questions appeared in the figure's mind, but the Hydra wasn't finished.
"The tragedy struck, Leonidas lost, and an endless cycle began."
"The hero fought and continued to struggle. But he failed every single time.
No matter what he did or where he went, nothing changed.
In the end, defeat was what he always ended with."
The Hydra finally stepped into the light. As its scales shone, it looked the figure into their eyes.
"In the repetitive cycles of desperation and defeat, a variable was suddenly born. A variable that no one had accounted for."
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺