The world had changed.
Not in fire.Not in war.But in design.
No gods. No curses. No heavens.
Just a quiet world ruled by logic, science, and time.
It was Earth—but not the Earth Caelum remembered.This version had no magic. No myths.Only machines, theories, and questions.
And on this Earth… the universe gave them something it never had before:
A beginning together.
Rebirth
Caelum was born again.
Not summoned. Not forged.
Born.
He cried like every infant.His lungs were fragile.His eyes blurry.
But inside his tiny, soft form, behind every heartbeat and every blink—
Lay the full memory of an immortal.
He was still Caelum Verrian.
Still the cursed swordsman.Still the genius scientist.Still the godkiller.
But now…
He was just a baby boy in a small town, in a quiet country, with two gentle parents who would never know what he had once done to save this world.
Next door, in the house with yellow walls and a silver wind chime—
She was born, too.
Lysia.
Reborn.
A girl with pale silver hair, soft skin, and eyes that looked like morning frost melting into dawn.
She didn't remember. Not yet.
But she smiled at him the first time their strollers passed each other on the sidewalk.
And that smile—small, toothless, innocent—
Was more powerful than any sword he'd ever held.
Growing Together
They were neighbors.
From the beginning.
They went to the same daycare.Shared the same park swings.Learned to crawl, then walk, then run side by side.
Caelum, reborn into a child's body, never left her side.
Not once.
If she scraped her knee, he held her hand.If she was sad, he made her laugh—by building little robots from scraps.If she dreamed of stars, he whispered names of constellations from his old world.
He knew everything that would happen in this world.
But this time—
He didn't care.
This time, he had her.
And he would protect that joy, second by second, day by day.
Their Parents Smiled
To the adults, they were just adorable children.
Lysia's parents laughed when she clung to Caelum and called him "my favorite person."
Caelum's parents joked that he was "born wise," especially when he solved puzzles made for ten-year-olds at age three.
They were brilliant. Both of them.The teachers often whispered: "Prodigies."
But only Caelum knew the truth.
This was not genius.It was return.
It was what had been stolen finally given back.
Caelum's Thoughts at Age Five
By the time he was five, Caelum could already run complex simulations in his head.
He had rebuilt blueprints of KAIROS, his AI, using Earth's primitive tech.
He'd even located a few critical minerals nearby to begin constructing a base—just in case the multiverse ever came knocking again.
But whenever he saw Lysia chasing butterflies…
Or sitting beside him on the porch, scribbling stars with a crayon—
He paused everything.
And reminded himself:
"This world has no gods. No curses. No blades in her body."
"I will live every second. Every heartbeat. Not missing a moment."
Because this was no longer about revenge.
This was about life.
System Notification — Quiet Guardian Mode
[GENESIS CORE — ACTIVE]— System Status: Dormant Observer Mode— Mission: Preserve the Peace— Security: Global Manipulation Disabled— Personal AI: KAIROS Reconnected
"Creator, the world is stable. Zero threats detected. Would you like to engage legacy defenses?"
Caelum stared at the virtual HUD floating before his childlike vision, visible only to him.
"No," he whispered. "Not unless she's ever in danger again."
And the system dimmed.
The Promise of a Life Lived
That night, Lysia knocked on the backyard fence separating their homes.
"Cael," she said through the wooden slats, "do you believe people meet in more than one life?"
Caelum blinked.
At five years old, she shouldn't be asking things like that.
But he smiled softly.
"…Yes," he said.
She leaned her head against the fence, sleepy and small.
"I'm glad I met you again."
And something in his immortal soul—cracked, scarred, burned by war and godblood—healed just a little.
"I'm glad too," he whispered.
Final Scene
That night, under a sky without divine light or holy judgment, two children lay on their backs in the grass between their houses.
Looking up.
Quiet.
Peaceful.
And in that moment, Caelum did not think of timelines or wars or curses.
He thought only of her.
And how in this life—this gentle, quiet, science-bound world—
He would never leave her side.