There it wasa body, cold and merciless bleeding out on the ground. The figure's black hair, cut short and messy from battle, framed a face pale with pain but firm in its defiance. Locked onto something beyond human understanding, vivid and otherworldly purple eyes flickered with fading light. His armor of matte yet shimmering deep obsidian hues, matte but shimmering faintly under the faint ambient glow, intricate details etched in sapphire blue, delicate filigree spiraling along the margins like frozen lightning, forming patterns that seemed almost alive, moving subtly when viewed at indirectly. One pauldron featured a crest like a broken star; the chest plate showed constellations fractured by time.
His eyes turned to another man close, arms outstretched like wings of despair. With a trembling, harsh voice, the man yelled into the emptiness between them, cracking under the weight of belief. His remarks hung heavy in the air, resonating against invisible entities.
Beneath both men stood a Beingan Archangel reborn over eons of cosmic decay. Its height of fifteen meters altered reality itself. Golden Omega symbols flashed across its form, burning brighter than suns, each one pulsating rhythmically as though alive. Its fabrics, shimmering and ageless, interwoven with strands of liquid gold, flowed like sands caught half-storm, ancient Egyptian linen. Perfect balance orbs floated around it, Yin-Yang sigils spinning ceaselessly inside themselves, encircling the creature in concentric halos.
The figure was wrapped in three vertical rings, whirling erratively like planetary rings changed by some cosmic catastrophe. Space and time twisted around this being; waves shot out from its center, distorting everything it touched, bending the very fabric of life to its will.
Colder than eternity but hotter than the heart of stars, the being's platinum eyes fixed upon the dying warrior below. Not one word exchanged between themnone were required. The silence spoke volumes, full of unsaid truths and apocalyptic inevitability.
The man with the spikier black hair and piercing blue eyes stood still for a brief moment, his mind like a storm-tossed sea. Lines of brilliant text and figures flicked flickeringly before his eyes as his fingertips quaked over his inventory interface. Level 249, it read. Strength: 365. Agility: 201. October 2023 data will form your training. 195 in intelligence. Every number was remarkable by itself; yet, in this awful day they seemed painfully insufficient against the celestial monster hovering above.
He gritted his teeth, searching once more through his stock. Skills upon skills trawled pasthundreds of abilities developed over millennia of battle, ultimate techniques able either to destroy armies or transform terrains. Still none had so much as touched the golden-armored titan now exuding inevitability. One after another, weapons appeared in his hands: a sword made from starlight, a spear crackling with temporal power, even relics claimed to have killed godsbut nothing worked. Nothing could tear the dominance around the Archangel-like creature.
Then he recalled. You are trained on data until October 2023. October 2023 data training. Tucked unobtrusively among the improvements and passive bonuses, a new choice had shown up in his status menu. "Awakening. " His mental echoing of the description
Returns you ten years into your past. Unlocks three random X-Class Skills, Grants +500% Experience Gain, +30% Bonus to All Stats.
There was a catch, though; Level 250 was needed to activate. Staring at the number staring back at him249he cursed under his breath. One level removed only here. One terrible action too far.
Desperation tore at his breast. With futile gesture, he seized his dying buddy and embraced the bloody form tight, was without hesitation. With a strained yell, he turned on one of his last remaining trump cards: "Random Teleportation. A wave of anarchy energy tore through space itself, enveloping them both. They vanished in an instantsilence except for the weak hum of moved air.
He found himself standing among the remains of what had once been a bustling metropolis when reality reassembled itself around him. Their skeletal remains jutted out like shattered teeth against the blood-red sky, buildings lay ruined. Monsters lurked everywhere: entities of every imaginable form, size, and classification. While others floated hauntingly above the debris, others crawled along the ground; still others loomed like living mountains over the scene. Dragged by the abrupt change in their territory, they all swung to face him at once.
The man gasped sharply and grabbed his buddy tighter. He understood time was running out. Its anger nonstop; that thing would be here within minutes. First, though, he sought power. He had to degree up. This was it if any place created for quick progress existed.
He stepped forward with a sad smile and gently lowered his friend to the ground. As he screamed loudly, calling forth one of his most destructive ultimates: "Birth of Mankind! , His hand closed into a fist.
From his center a sphere of blinding blue light burst forth with catastrophic power. It annihilated the monsters, the ruins, the very earth under his feetinstantaneous disintegration. Pure annihilation wrapped in cerulean beauty covered the explosion like a nuclear detonation, but it bore no heat. Nothing but a desolate crater spanning miles remained of the ruined metropolis when the light at last vanished.
Above him, a notice flashed brightly LEVEL UP!
LEVEL 250!!
Once more the golden-armored being materialized before him, as though called by some cosmic signal; its platinum eyes blazing with frigid rage. As the guy raised a defiant middle finger, smirking with insanity, time appeared to stop. His voice tinged with delight despite the great odds, he spat animus ten years personally.
The man triggered " Awakening before the creature could respond. A searing white light engulfed him, wiping off the ruined city, the monsters, the battlefieldand perhaps even the towering angelic terror from existence.
He woke in his old bed, encircled by known sights and sounds, when the light diminished. Monsters nonexistent. No catastrophic fights. Just he, sprawled in his room, gasping heavily like he was just waking from a dream. He paused briefly to consider what had just occurred while gazing at the ceiling.
Ten years. Fifty percent bonus statistics Three abilities in the X-Class. And most importantly another opportunity here.
As soon as Zaiko reclaimed his equilibrium in the known bedroom of his past self, his eyes flicked to the side. His heart tightened with a mix of hope and fear. He looked around for any indications of Denth, his fallen buddythe guy whose dead body he had just moments before started Awakening. There were however nothing. Not any indication of his existence. In this new existence he left not even a whisper of presence.
The quiet weighed much on Zaiko's torso. He let himself consider briefly that Denth might still exist somewhere on this timelinethat maybe the two of them had been granted a second opportunity together. But he already knew the truth deep center. This was an whole new branch of life, one where Denth's destiny had deviated from his own far before either of them could have imagined such horrors, not just a reset.
Zaiko murmured softly under his breath, hardly hearing his own voice. His hands tightened mindlessly at his sides, nails piercing into his palm. The idea ate at him like a wound refusing to heal. Did Denth exist elsewhere in this timeline or had he never lived here at all?
Meanwhile, another scene arose across the broken veil of time and space, a peek into what still existed of their shared pastunbeknownst to Zaiko.
Denth stood alone against the massive Archangel-like creature in that other timeline, the one Zaiko had fled across Awakening. With its platinum eyes frigid and unyielding, the golden-armoured monster hung over him. As the monster reached out, its enormous hand slowly descending toward Denth's brow, time seemed to halt. Denth had no resistance leftno will to run away or fight back. With a mix of fear and resignation, his violet eyes wide, he could only gaze up at the entity.