✦ Chapter 16: The One Who Returned from Ruin ✦
Ethan… the man who carried the memory of ruin upon his shoulders,
The one who saw corpses of men scattered across the roads like autumn leaves crushed beneath the storms,
The one who faced death countless times—until death itself trembled to meet his eyes.
He raised his hand and charged at the mountain standing before him—an eternal monument of stone.
He struck without mercy. The rock shattered, and the bones of the earth cracked beneath his fist,
As if the land itself were nothing but fragile glass within his grasp.
But… oh, what cruel irony!
Time itself shuddered!
The universe bowed like a broken slave,
And everything stopped—the birds froze mid-flight, the dust in the air turned to statues,
Even Ethan's breath echoed like a scream through the void.
Then… as if nothing had happened, the mountain returned to its original state.
As if Ethan had done nothing but strike at a mirage.
From the heart of that silence, a golden aura burst forth—not light as men know it,
But a sun resurrected from death, cursing everything around it.
And from that divine blaze… he emerged.
The King of Time.
He who weaves the ages with the threads of his fingers,
He who has imprisoned the eras within a single moment,
He who was never defeated—save in dead legends.
He walked slowly, each step a measure of the cosmos.
He smiled… no, it was not mercy.
It was the smile of a savage father staring at a son who dared defy him.
And in a voice heard by the planets before mankind, he said:
"Welcome, Ethan… you who returned from a ruin none survived."
Ethan's eyes widened.
How…? How did he know?
He had never told anyone—about the curse of ruin, about the return that tore through the laws of existence.
Yet the King of Time spoke his secret aloud.
Rage and confusion mingled within him.
He attacked.
His wings unfurled—his energy surged like a blade from hell—and he struck with all his might.
But… nothing.
Everything froze.
The attack vanished.
His wings were locked in place.
Ethan found himself fighting emptiness.
The fortress… gone.
The soldiers, the guards, the beasts—all vanished.
Even Iris looked around, trembling, her voice breaking:
"...What's happening…?"
Ethan's hands froze midair.
His memories ignited like sparks in a barrel of fuel.
He remembered that day…
The day he nearly died—if not for that man.
His master… the King of the Five Realms.
One of the three greatest humans in history.
The one they called the King of Kings,
Because he alone stood against the King of Time—when all others failed.
Ethan remembered the battle.
He remembered how every monarch fell before a power that could not be resisted.
Yet his master stood—unbowed, a mountain against the storm—
Roaring as he tried to bind time itself!
Ethan exhaled.
His mind returned to the present.
He understood—
The King of Time had frozen the flow of reality itself, upon him… and upon his sister as well.
He looked toward Iris.
There was no time.
Without hesitation, he seized her hand, tore open a dimensional gate with a single motion,
And hurled her through—
Then leapt in after her, leaving behind the golden stillness.
When they emerged, sound hit them like thunder.
The organization's arena.
A blood-soaked ground.
Soldiers, beasts, nightmare-born shadows—all waiting for them.
Ethan didn't hesitate.
The moment his wings spread, he became a sword of flesh and fury.
He moved like a black hurricane, cleaving through dozens of soldiers in one strike.
Their bodies scattered through the air before they even realized they had died.
It was no battle.
It was slaughter.
But amid the massacre… she appeared.
The Fighter 0.
A mysterious woman, face hidden behind a mask, calm as the eye of a storm ready to devour everything.
She walked forward, her footsteps indifferent to the blood that soaked the ground.
Ethan didn't look at her.
He pushed Iris ahead and said coldly:
"She's yours."
Iris froze.
Her heart pounded violently.
Something—dark, strange—connected her to that woman.
Her sword trembled in her hand.
The battle began.
Fighter 0 moved first, without hesitation.
Her blows were inhuman—machine-like precision, relentless, pushing Iris back step after step.
Each block made her bones scream.
"What… why do I feel… like I know her?!" she cried within herself.
Her legs faltered. Her stance broke. She nearly fell.
But before she could hit the ground—
A shadow appeared behind her.
Ethan.
Without a moment's pause,
He raised his wing like a dark blade,
And in a single motion…
He severed Fighter 0's head.
The body dropped heavily to the ground.
The mask rolled across the dirt… and stopped.
When her face was revealed—
Time froze once more.
Not by the King of Time's power—
But by the shock that seized their hearts.
Iris gasped.
Ethan's eyes widened in disbelief.
The face beneath the mask…
Was not a stranger's.
It was a thunderbolt.
It was the impossible itself.