-Riureas-
Snow fell in silently as we pushed deeper into the taiga, Towering pines ,their branches heavy with frost, the wind whispering through them like an unspoken warning. The world felt distant here...hidden, untouched by kingdoms and wars.
Finally, lights spread between the trees.
We arrived at the entrance of a small hidden village, a small yet chill environment, this place wasn't known outside the larger civilizations.
The village elder greet us, blessing each one of us with divine magic. But the old man noticed, something he wouldn't expect to feel on someone.
The old man let us in his reserve cabin.
Yulleus broke the silence first.
"So… what's the plan?"
No one answered immediately.
Crystella folded her arms. "We're fighting an enemy we can't see. One that controls time itself. Without proof, without a weakness… we're blind."
Selvaria exhaled slowly. "Waiting for mistakes only works if the enemy can make mistakes."
Their words pressed heavily on me.
"…There's something I haven't told you," I said at last.
All eyes turned to me.
"Solana," I continued quietly. "The Witch of the Sun… she was the one who helped me rewrite the world. The very first time."
The room went still.
Elra's expression changed instantly ,not surprise, but recognition. Pain.
"…So it really was her," Elra murmured.
I looked at her. "You knew?"
Elra nodded slowly. "Before all this… before the rewrite… Solana and I weren't enemies. We were four ,four witches bound by purpose." She clenched her fists. "But that unity didn't last."
Selvaria's eyes narrowed. "The conflict."
Elra swallowed. "Yes. Whatever happened between us wasn't small. It wasn't personal. It was… devastating."
She stared into the fire, its reflection flickering in her eyes.
"The clash between the four witches spread across the world. Cities vanished. Lands fractured. Entire eras collapsed under the weight of our power."
Yulleus stiffened. "You're saying the world nearly ended… because of you?"
Elra didn't deny it.
"…More than once."
The fire crackled louder, as if reacting to her words.
Crystella spoke softly, almost reverently. "If that conflict happened before… then the loops might be an attempt to undo it."
"Or to trap us inside it forever," Selvaria countered.
I clenched my fist.
"If Solana helped me rewrite the world… and now she's silent… then she's either being controlled…"
"…or she is the mastermind," Selvaria finished.
Snow tapped gently against the windows.
Elra looked up at me, eyes heavy with guilt and resolve.
"If this loop exists because of us… then we may be the only ones who can end it."
I nodded slowly.
"Then we stop guessing," I said. "We find the truth. Whether it's Solana… the gods… or something even older."
Outside, the storm howled , but inside the lodge, something else ignited.
Not hope.
Not fear.
Resolve.
The wind outside howled through the taiga, cold and relentless. Snow tapped against the wooden walls of the lodge as night deepened, wrapping the village in uneasy silence. One by one, the others had fallen asleep in the same house, exhaustion finally claiming them.
I did too.
But not peacefully.
Light flooded my vision.
Warm. Blinding. Gentle.
I stood beneath a sky without clouds, the air glowing as if dawn itself had been frozen in place. And there she was.
Solana.
Golden hair flowed down her back, fading softly into orange at the tips, like a sunset caught mid-fall. She wore a dress woven from sunlight itself, radiant yet distant.
Riureas, "H-hey..... Tell me... Have you been lying this whole time?"
"Is this all just a....part of your some kind of plan??"
He said with a hint of untrust and suspensions.
Solana, "Soon....it will be all clear....the truth will be revealed....but not now...",she said with a gentle calming voice.
"wake up.", she said.
Riurea: "WAIT! , I have a few more questions-"
Light faded away.
I opened my eyes.
I saw the sealing of our cabin.
I was awake, but everyone was still deeply sleeping.
It was over.
No warmth.
No answers.
Only the echo of her voice lingering in my mind.
Soon…
I stared into the shadows, jaw clenched.
"…Damn it, Solana," I whispered.
Morning came quietly.
Pale light filtered through frost-covered windows as the storm outside finally eased.
No one spoke much.
Sleep hadn't truly reached any of us.
Halfway through the meal, Selvaria set her cup down, the soft clink breaking the silence.
"There is… one place," she said.
Everyone looked up.
"A place I avoided for a very long time," she continued. "Because once you step there, you can't pretend ignorance anymore."
Crystella frowned. "Where?"
Selvaria's eyes darkened slightly.
"Century Forest."
The name alone made the air feel heavier.
"They say it's where everything began," Selvaria said. "The first fracture. The conflict between the Four Witches. The argument about the Chosen Savior." She glanced at me. "About whether the world should be saved… or reset."
Elra stiffened. Her fingers tightened around her cup.
"…That forest," Elra murmured. "So the rumors were true."
Selvaria nodded. "Time behaves strangely there. Memories surface. Truths refuse to stay buried. If the loops, the rewrite, and the savior are connected…"
"…then the answers are waiting there," Yulleus finished.
I slowly set my food aside.
"Century Forest," I repeated. The name echoed uncomfortably in my mind,like I'd heard it before, long before this life.
Selvaria met my gaze.
"If we want the truth," she said quietly, "that's where we start."
The lodge fell silent again.
Outside, sunlight glinted off the snow. calm, innocent, almost mocking.
I exhaled.
"Then we go," I said.
"Whatever started there… ends with us."
After came fast.
We leaved the cabin two hours ago. Right now, we're crossing the zhallya rivers, where borders of every kingdoms meet. The river was clear and hardened with ice.
And then there's another dream.
A blinding light. Gentle.
Solana appeared on my visions again.
"H, hey!", I said, my voice trembled.
" I have a few more questions!"
Solana replied, "I'm listening."
This is my chance.
I have to ask her.
"Tell me everything.. About the witches's conflict, the reason of my existence in this world!", I finally asked her.
"2000 years ago..."
She started to talk.
She continues, "Elra, Crystella,Ciara, and I are bound in one purpose, to guide the world to the better future, we have no titles like you know, no witch of sun, no witch of time, no witch of darkness,an no witch of ice...it was all peaceful, quiet in the forest of Centuries... Until Ciara received the title."
"The witch of darkness", Solana continues.
"The title was compatible with her at her first weeks having that title..... Until one afternoon."
She remembered that day clearly.
The story itself projected all around us like a screen of a television. We see it clearly but we're not actually there, we're just watching.
Elra was cooking their lunches, the other three are drinking tea together like normal girls do.
The clear, blue sky turned into Cumulonimbus clouds , it started to rain.
A sudden burst of dark magic energy send us flying , including us and the tea table and the chairs. The energy was so powerful that Ciara can't controlled herself.
She screamed in pain and agony, the burst got even stronger each second, the energy was so powerful that it awakened all the three other witches, receiving a title of their own.
The witch of sun-solana.
The witch of time-Elra
And
The witch of ice-crystella.
All of their souls sucked in by the energy Ciara was releasing.
Solana survived.
She looked at Ciara, worried, she called her name if she's still there inside.
"Wake up!, fight it!", but there was no answer.
Solana tried to use her magic to stop Ciara but she failed, Ciara wasn't there anymore, and she was now facing a entirely new person.
Solana attack her again using a soul gathering magic just like Ciara used earlier.
It was as powerful as Ciara's magic.
Solana manage to gathered all three of her friends's souls.
But in return, Solana died after using that same power.
Ciara gathered their souls back silently.
But. Solana's soul wouldn't give up, her soul got out of its own and came back on her physical body.
She gathered back the three other souls and ran away from Ciara, Ciara surprised, but she didn't follow them.
Ciara on her own, sealed herself on a nearby cave. The dark Garve.
Solana scattered the three souls around the world, Solana learned how to reincarnate a person from another world and found him.
The screen faded, Solana was standing there facing the other way.
I was shocked to see all of this playing.
" Solana...so the one you reincarnated was...", my words cut off.
"You and Makoto, I choose both of you for a reason..", she continues.
" Both of you have the power to change the world together..."
"i managed to know Ciara's plan after that incident, she just wants to destroy."
Solana added, "and the abilities that you have.. It's mine, I want you to handle it so I have it to you... And the author's title?, that means you're my disciple, I lied to you back then, I just...want to confuse you for a bit."
"Well that sucks.", I replied.
" and the timeloop?", I added.
"It's to fix the history, I thought I can....", she said, sadly.
" I understand.", I said.
"Now, tell the other three when you wake up, and reminder..follow my plans for now on, I know how to stop her."
Solana said,she faced me.
The light faded, I was sleeping on Elra's lap.
I opened my eyes and see her chest.
I stood up and sit beside her.
She asked, "we've been waiting for you to wake up, it's been 30 minutes..."
"Really? That long...", that was a little short for what actually happened in my dreams.
Then after that, I call them all, to tell them want Solana showed him.
They keep listening, Elra started to cry.
she missed the old Ciara.
On the dream realm...
Solana was alone, there's no Riureas.
-Solana-
She said to herself, " Some part of it was true...the witch incident, the time loop, the reincarnation...something is still missing... I can't remember so I didn't tell him..", she was frustrated.
Then the realm turned to a dark void.
"What the-", then I saw her at the back.
" C-ciara?", my voice trembled in fear.
"Die!", Ciara shouted, a long dark sword stabbed Solana form the back.
" N-no!.... Why..?.. ",My voice trembled, slowly fading.
"you should have stayed quiet....", Ciara said with anger.
" h-how did you get in?...", My vision slowly blurring.
Blood dripped down the dark floor.
Solana was dead.
Ciara took over the dream realm.
-Riureas-
I felt Solana slowly fading.
"Whats going on?, I ask her in my thoughts, but no reply.
Something bad happened.
Now that we know the truth, they decided to go back to the Novelista federation kingdom, where we can tell Vellia about everything we know.
-Reports-
The end is near.
The sky turned dark for three while weeks straight.
Solana's presence was nowhere to be sensed.
Riureas prepared his kingdom for an unknown threat.
Nations around the world is in the middle of confusion and uncertainty. Somehow, the death of solana impact the world itself.
Before they feel safe. But now they don't.
What is going to happen?, uncertain.
Is there still a bright future to look forward to?, uncertain.
The innocent citizens are scared,hungry, Every kingdoms suspected each other, they think one of the kingdom leaders caused this somewhat discomfort happening around the world.
The war begun to rise, inflation started in every market, the resources starting to fade.
Agriculture was stopped, food started to lessen, people started to isolate and some evacuated high above the Hallya mountains.
-Novelista federation-
Vellia: "Riureas sir!, the nearby kingdom turned against us!",She reported.
Riureas: " is it the northern alliance?', he was uncertain.
At the left side of Riureas was Elra and crystella.
Vellia: "Yes, unfortunately.", she replied.
Riureas: "I thought they can be a potential Allie..alright, prepare the army, we're going to fight back.", He commanded.
Vellia: " Understood!", he saluted and leave.
150,000,000 soldiers stretching across the wide grass field.
Riureas stood above them all.
The declaration of war begins.