The world shattered into a blinding flash of white, reversing the flow of rain back toward the heavy clouds. The blood pooling on the black mud retreated, the severed limbs pulled backward, and time itself folded in on its own axis.
The Kairo clone stood over the gory spectacle, his crimson-stained lips curling into a wide, hysterical grin. "Woah... that is so good! Let me rewind time!"
In an instant, everything snapped back to the moment by the riverbank.
Daichi was young again. His snow-white hair turned back to obsidian, his withered frame smoothed into youth, and the memory of his own horrific death was completely wiped clean from his mind. He knelt in the mud, staring down at Kairo's severed head with fresh, unadulterated terror in his eyes, weeping just as he had done the first time.
"No..." Daichi choked out, his chest heaving with desperate resolve. "No, I'm not leaving you!"
He pressed his gloved palms against Kairo's raw, bleeding neck, the forbidden white light of Chronos Equinox bursting forth once more.
"STOP!" Kairo's severed head shrieked, his mind shattering under the realization of the endless nightmare. "STOP! Don't do this to me! PLEASE!"
To Daichi, whose mind was trapped in the fresh horror of the first loop, Kairo's desperate screams sounded only like the thrashing panic of a dying friend recognizing the forbidden magic. "Don't worry!" Daichi cried out through his tears, his youthful body rapidly aging into a twenty-year-old as the spell drained his life force. "I know this magic is taboo, but I'm healing your wounds! Hold on!"
"No! No! No!" Kairo wept, the agonizing threads of mana beginning to stitch his flesh back together only to pull against his severed neck.
Daichi aged into a forty-year-old, then an ancient, frail old man, his voice trembling with final, tragic devotion. "I'm sorry for being rude... my best friend, Kairo. This is my final—"
The clone stepped silently out of the mist behind him, plunging the black blade straight through Daichi's back.
The white light vanished. Daichi collapsed lifelessly onto the riverbank. The incomplete stitches holding Kairo's torso snapped violently, tearing the flesh open once more in a horrific explosion of pain.
Kairo screamed into the void, a sound so raw and guttural it drowned out the roaring river.
The clone stepped over Daichi's fresh corpse, crouching beside Kairo's severed head. He brought a slick, crimson blade down, cleanly slicing through Kairo's vocal cords.
"My, my," the clone whispered with a chilling, dark chuckle, tapping the flat of the blade against Kairo's cheek. "I don't want to ruin his noble sacrifice by telling him this is a loop... well then, see you around."
Kairo opened his mouth to scream, to plead, to curse the nightmare—but only a silent, choked gasp of air bubbled through his throat. He couldn't utter a single sound.
The clone raised his hand, a ripple of temporal magic distorting the rain once more.
SNAP.
The world reset again.
Young Daichi knelt in the black mud, weeping for his friend, reaching out with glowing, doomed hands—entirely unaware of the endless wheel of torment spinning around them.
The temporal loop shattered with the sound of cracking glass.
The rain froze mid-air, suspending thousands of glistening droplets above the muddy riverbank. The forbidden white light of Chronos Equinox vanished instantly, and young Daichi dropped to his knees, gasping for air, his mind cleared of the nightmare as his body remained untouched by the forbidden magic.
Before the Kairo clone could raise his blade to trigger another reset, a massive, scarred hand clamped down on his neck like a vise of solid steel.
The clone's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated terror as he was lifted completely off the ground. He turned his head with a sickening pop, staring at the towering, single-eyed figure holding him.
Max stood there, his simple leather coat dripping with rain, his dark hat tilted forward. He looked past the clone, his single eye resting on Kairo's trembling, whole form on the grass.
"Yes..." Max rumbled, his deep voice vibrating through the frozen raindrops. "You were right, Ariston. It really was Kairo."
The clone thrashing in his grip gasped, his voice cracking into a panicked, frantic pitch. "You...?! How are you still not insane?! How are you so strong?! I tortured you for hundreds of years! I made sure only your arm was cut off so that even if you survived, you would suffer in agony forever! How dare you... HOW DARE YOU BE STANDING HERE?!"
Max let out a low, gravelly laugh that echoed across the river. "Sorry... but I won't kill you."
The clone blinked in confusion—just before a massive, bare fist smashed straight through his back, ripping his pulsing, shadowy heart directly out of his chest from behind.
King Ariston stood behind the clone, his broad chest rising and falling as he crushed the dark heart into a burst of black mist in his bare palm.
Max's dark grin broadened. "I lied."
Without losing a second, Max raised his remaining hand, drawing a glowing, golden seal in the air. A sudden surge of sealing magic erupted from his palm, wrapping around the clone's disintegrating form, compressing the dark entity down into a tiny, harmless mud doll. The doll tumbled onto the wet grass, completely dormant.
Max stepped forward, his wooden peg leg grinding into the mud as he crouched down beside Kairo, offering his massive hand to help the young prince up.
"Sorry for being late," Max said softly, his rough voice carrying a rare, gentle warmth. "My brave prince, Kairo."
The rain had finally tapered off into a light, misting drizzle, leaving the forest drenched in a cold, silent humidity. The heavy smell of crushed ferns, damp earth, and lingering ozone hung thick over the muddy riverbank.
The severed head of the Kairo clone lay half-buried in the black mud, its dark eyes still gleaming with malicious triumph as it let out a wet, rattling laugh.
"You may have killed me..." the clone spat, blood trickling from its lips into the puddles below. "But I have already spread rumors about this prince throughout the realm. The people will abandon this so-called Land of Harmony! They will flee to the four corners of the world! And they will all see your son as a hidden demon... for everybody knows this kid signed a contract with the devil!"
King Ariston's massive frame went completely rigid. Slowly, the King turned his gaze toward the real Kairo, his dark eyes wide with visceral shock. His gaze landed directly on the center of Kairo's torn linen tunic, where a faint, jagged crimson crest burned dimly against his chest.
"Kairo..." Ariston breathed, his voice cracking with a rare, painful vulnerability. "Don't tell me... Now it all makes sense. That strange mark on your chest... it was really you? You signed it?"
Kairo stood shivering in the cold mountain air, tears cutting clear tracks through the dirt and blood smeared across his face. He looked at his father, his chest heaving with choked, broken breaths.
"I am so sorry, Father..." Kairo wept, his voice barely audible over the rush of the river. "I'm so sorry... I didn't know anything about this damn world!"
The clone's head let out one final, hysterical cackle from the grass. "And before you finish me... my pets from the Forbidden Forest are going to arrive right now—"
CLANG.
Before the threat could fully leave the clone's lips, Max didn't even draw a weapon. Utilizing the pure, explosive strength of his lower body, Max pivoted on his wooden peg leg and slammed his heavy heel straight down onto the clone's skull, crushing it instantly into the mud and severing the dark mana link forever.
Silence descended upon the riverbank, broken only by Kairo's uncontrollable, heart-wrenching sobs. The prince collapsed onto his hands and knees, his tears dripping into the crimson-stained mud.
Daichi stepped forward, his boots squelching through the wet earth. Without a moment's hesitation, he dropped to his knees in the mud beside Kairo and pulled his best friend into a tight, firm hug.
"I am so sorry, Kairo..." Daichi whispered into Kairo's shoulder, his own voice thick with emotion. "I am so sorry for treating you like that earlier. Don't worry... even if the whole world turns against you, I will stand with you forever as long as you stay on the right path. No matter what they say—that you're a demon, or whatever the hell it is—I will always be with you until my last breath."
Kairo gripped the back of Daichi's coat, burying his face in his shoulder as he hugged him back with all his remaining strength. "I'm sorry, Daichi... I'm so sorry for being rude to you earlier..."
Standing nearby, Max rested his hand on his cutlass hilt, a soft, approving smile touching his scarred lips as he looked at the King. "Well... gotta say, Ariston... your son really has good friends. I can smell pure loyalty in that boy."
King Ariston offered a faint, proud smile, looking down at Daichi. "Yeah. His whole family has been loyal to this kingdom and to my lineage for generations. It is in their very blood."
A squad of royal medics clad in white leather coats emerged silently from the forest path, bearing glowing azure talismans. They knelt beside Kairo, gently placing their hands on his temples to cast high-tier memory suppression arts—soothing the overwhelming trauma and agonizing phantom loops he had just endured.
Max watched the medics work, letting out a low chuckle as he adjusted his dark hat. "Well... can you remove my trauma as well?"
King Ariston turned to him with a quiet grin. "Oh yeah... you are our guest now. Why not?"
Max took a deep breath of the damp pine air, looking out toward the dark, jagged peaks on the horizon. "Well... maybe I shouldn't. If I did, I wouldn't be a brave man anymore. This pain... it shaped me into who I am." Max's single eye softened as he looked back at the unconscious prince. "But giving this kind of unbearable pain to a young child... may God give him the patience and power to endure what comes next."
Ariston raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. "When did you start believing in God, Max?"
Max smirked, leaning heavily on his peg leg. "When I came to your land."
Ariston let out a low, respectful chuckle. "Well then... if it's like that, as a religious brother of our faith, call me whenever you need help."
Max's expression hardened, his single eye sharpening as he looked toward the perimeter wall where the sky was turning a bruised indigo. "Yeah... but for now, let's get ready for the upcoming battle."
BUT THAT BATTLE WILL COST THEM SOMETHING FAR GREATER THAN THEY ANTICIPATED