---
Chapter 19 — A Promise Before Time
Darkness swallowed the corridors, and the air dripped with the stench of blood.
Iris's footsteps quickened, her heartbeat thundered in her chest, yet her eyes knew no retreat.
She told no one. She asked for no permission.
She tore through the wall of shadows on her own and headed straight toward the heart of the organization… toward a place from which no one ever returned.
She knew she was betraying the promise she had made to her brother.
But she also knew… there were things that could not be left to Ethan alone.
---
The Fall into Time
As she prepared her threads, a woman materialized before her—late forties, carrying a crushing aura that felt like endless years.
Time flowed backward… coiling around her steps, erasing her traces before they could even be left behind.
Iris attacked without hesitation.
But the shadow blade was useless.
Every strike… every movement… every attempt was replayed and erased, as though it had never existed.
Then, suddenly, she felt a sharp cold against her neck.
Time spun, and she found herself thrown to the ground.
> "Who are you?"
The woman's voice was hoarse, heavy with suspicion.
"What did you do to me… in your previous life?"
Iris didn't understand the words. But before she could ask—violet light enveloped her, and her body was pulled away like a puppet yanked by its strings.
---
The Beast's Roar
At the shelter, where Ethan had been watching his sister's path from afar, he froze.
The blood in his veins turned to ice.
Iris… had vanished.
> "Impossible…"
He sprinted to the gate, tore it open with brute force, his eyes blazing like twin embers.
All he found was the echo of battle: blood smeared across the wall, a shattered barrier, and a temporal imprint no eye could mistake.
Then… his breathing turned into a growl.
The void around him trembled.
> "They took her…"
His voice was deep, closer to a death knell.
"You dared… to lay a hand on her."
The aura erupting from his body was not energy.
It was a curse.
A curse that burned everything around it.
---
Storming the Organization
When he opened a gate inside the main base, no one felt his arrival.
Not because he hid himself… but because he ignored them all.
His first step cracked the ground.
His second tore the air like a storm.
His third… turned the entire corridor into hell.
The soldiers who faced him had no time to scream.
Their bodies scattered like dust.
Then a double S-rank user appeared, wearing a confident smile:
> "Multiple cloning ability… let's see if you can kill an entire army!"
Hundreds of copies flooded the corridor.
But Ethan's eyes did not waver.
> "Pathetic."
He raised his hand, and in an instant, identified the original.
Before a second passed… everything vanished.
---
Freeing the Sister
He reached the holding chamber.
There, Iris lay on the ground, unconscious.
Beside her stood the deputy commander—the woman who wielded reversed time.
Ethan's voice exploded like lightning:
> "Step away from her."
The woman didn't hesitate. She had no time.
He gave her none.
With a single blow… her body evaporated.
Ethan knelt beside his sister, lifted her gently, wiped the blood from her face…
And then—everything froze.
---
The Lord of Time
The air stopped.
The tear that was about to fall from Iris's eye hung motionless midair.
Even the flames spilling from Ethan's body… froze in place.
From the stillness, a man emerged.
A regal robe flowing like the cosmos itself, a staff crowned with a violet gem resembling the heart of the universe.
A calm smile, brimming with confidence.
The Time King.
> "So you came in person, O Returner of Ruin… to my lair."
---
The Promise
Ethan did not move for a moment.
Then he set his sister down, rose slowly, shoulders taut, eyes burning.
> "Time King…"
He took a step forward, and the temporal barrier around him shattered like a brittle shell.
> "I will kill every calamity. I will slaughter every curse, every monster, every traitor… and I will leave no stone in this world without drowning it in blood."
He moved closer.
His voice became an irrevocable decree.
> "And after six months…"
He raised his hand, and the void ignited around him.
"I will break you. I will topple your throne, you false lord of time."
Silence fell.
The Time King did not rage, did not tense. He simply smiled, as though a child had dared to threaten his father.
> "Six months? … Very well. I will grant you that."
---
Departure
Time suddenly resumed its flow.
The world's breath moved once more.
Ethan lifted his sister, opened a gate, and left without looking back.
Only the Time King's laughter echoed through the hall:
> "Well done, boy… you've made the waiting entertaining."
---
Ending — A Promise Before Time
When Iris awoke in the shelter, she could not speak.
But she saw her brother's eyes.
Within them was not anger alone.
There was a promise.
A promise that would not be broken.
After six months…
Even time itself would be slaughtered.
---
🔥 End of Season One: Covenant of Blood and Time