Theron Ashford's body lay still, growing colder by the second. Blood soaked his once-pristine coat, and his lifeless eyes stared into a crimson sky cracked like broken glass.
Arya Selene knelt beneath him, her arms cradling his mangled form, shaking—no, trembling with the kind of grief that guts your soul and never leaves.
"Theron... no... please, come back..."
Her voice broke like shattered crystal, echoing into the silent, ruined world.
Around her, the remnants of the Final Trial stood as scorched monuments. Of the 7 billion who had once walked the earth, only fifteen had survived the cataclysm—and those fifteen had betrayed their last hope: the one man who stood at the frontlines every single time.
Theron Ashford.
The last Sword of Humanity.
The man who dared to challenge the divine.
DEAD.
A gust of wind carried ash like snowflakes across the broken stone. And then, time stopped.
The sky rippled.
The earth cracked.
And reality itself bent.
A single system message blazed across the air, burning itself into her vision like a holy fire:
> [SYSTEM AUTHORITY: CORE CREATOR DETECTED]
NAME: ??? (CLASSIFIED)
TITLE: ONE OF THE THREE WHO DESIGNED THE SYSTEM
ALIAS: THE GOD OF TIME
A figure stepped into the stillness.
White robes. No face.
Just the glint of infinite clocks ticking within the silhouette of a man.
Time.
A god who walked not with presence, but with purpose.
And he gazed at the carnage like it was just another failed experiment.
"Fifteen traitors," he said, voice devoid of malice—just... tired. "Humans always eat their own when the end comes."
He raised a finger. Reality cracked.
In the blink of an eye, the remaining fourteen survivors were erased—not killed, not even unmade—just removed, as though they'd never existed.
Only Arya remained.
"I was saving him!" she screamed, clutching Theron's body tighter. "He saved them—those bastards! And they killed him!"
Time tilted his head slightly. "You were the second strongest, Arya Selene. A heart forged in hellfire. You're the only one left."
He took a step closer.
"I'm offering you regression."
Arya looked up, eyes blazing with hate. "And why the fuck would I save a world that murdered the one person I loved?"
Time paused. He looked down at her like a child refusing to finish a puzzle.
"You misunderstand. It's not about saving the world. It's about completing the story."
Arya spat. "My world ended with him."
Time's gaze dimmed, like even the light inside him dimmed for a moment.
"You love him that much?"
She stood, trembling, blood still dripping down her fingers. "If I have to sacrifice this world to save him… I'll do it."
Time chuckled. "Careful. That sounds like something a god would say."
He reached toward her, and a soft blue glow began to bloom.
"You won't get a second chance, Arya Selene. But he will."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll go back. Only long enough to give him your memories. Then your soul… ends. There is no reincarnation, no heaven, no glitch."
She didn't flinch.
"He'll know everything?"
"Yes."
Her voice was barely a whisper. "Then do it."
But before he activated the regression, Time looked down at her one final time.
"Why what do you gain"
"You ask what I stand to gain... from the death of gods."
He gave no answer. Only a smile that stretched beyond sanity.
"Fate leads us to perfect ends. And sometimes, the system needs a reboot."
A final system message flared:
> [SYSTEM UPDATE: USER 'ARYA SELENE' HAS ACTIVATED A MEMORY TRANSFER PROTOCOL]
[TIMEFRAME: PRE-CALAMITY PHASE 001 – START OF THE FIRST TRIAL]
[SUBJECT: THERON ASHFORD]
[NOTE: MEMORY DUMP WILL OCCUR ON INITIAL DREAM STATE. USER WILL BE ERASED.]
A blue light burst from her chest, and her vision filled with light.
The last thing Arya Selene saw… was Theron smiling again in her mind.
And then—
Silence.