[Searching... User Endel Astralius is dead... All conditions have been met... Initiating Arcana distribution system...
Searching for suitable Arcana... Arcana found! Arcana "Resurrection" granted to user...
System failure! Error!
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Error corrected! Arcana "Resurrection" deleted!
User Endel Astralius is granted the Dark Arcana "Return to the Beginning." Integration process starts! 0% >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 100% Integration complete!
Selecting time of return... searching... choice found! 72 hours before the day of the "New Era." User returns to the beginning! Process has begun!
And may fortune follow you.....]
Endel opened his eyes, feeling everything around him settle back into place. He couldn't quite grasp what had happened, but the sensation was… strange. In his head lingered a buzzing noise, as if his mind was trying to process information that simply didn't fit reality.
He was sitting on the floor of his room. The walls seemed bare to him, and the world outside the window wasn't the one he remembered leaving behind. For several seconds he couldn't tell where he was, or what this place even was. His gaze fell to his trembling hands. Yet he felt no pain, no fear—only a formless ache that filled him to the brim.
How did I end up here? the thought spun in his mind.
He staggered to his feet, swaying as if his body wasn't used to its own weight. His unfocused eyes slid over the room until they caught familiar details. It was his home. His room. But something was wrong. Everything felt… too familiar. His fingers were still trembling when he tried to reach for his interface screen.
His fingertips brushed across the display, and immediately a menu appeared—but it wasn't the same as "that time." His profile scrolled slowly upward, and there was a new line that caught his attention.
[Name: Endel Astralius
Dark Arcana: Return to the Beginning]
"How am I supposed to understand this?" His own voice sounded foreign, like a stranger's. He stared at the screen again, trying to make sense of what was happening. Even a whole day after he had returned from that time, he still couldn't comprehend it.
There was no information about the previous stage, about what had happened. No record of death or any event he had gone through. All of it existed only in his memory. His fingers shook as he tried scrolling the menu again, but nothing new appeared. Everything was empty. Only the Dark Arcana remained, hanging there as an undeniable fact.
Endel's eyes fell on the illustration that appeared with the Dark Arcana.
It depicted a figure kneeling, consumed by torment. The identity of the being was hidden, its face shrouded in eternal darkness like a formless shadow. Its body looked twisted and misshapen, as though it had gone far beyond the bounds of humanity. The silhouette dissolved into the gloom, giving no hint of its expression, and yet the pain was palpable in every curve of its posture.
Around it spread a black void that devoured light, refusing to let a single ray through. The background itself seemed alive—the darkness was constantly shifting, pulling deeper inward, as though it was trying to devour everything, swallowing light and life alike. This was not mere absence of light. It was something far more dreadful, far more malevolent.
Amorphous shapes writhed in that void, like shadowy souls ready to consume anything that dared disturb its stillness. Every glance at this Arcana felt agonizing, because it embodied an endless cycle of fear, pain, and helplessness—where every backward step, every stolen glance was another descent into the abyss.
The martyr's arms hung limp, as if surrendering to endless tyranny. Yet even in his collapse, his posture suggested resistance. Perhaps he could not die, could not escape, yet still he endured, shackled to this shadow that would not let him go. No sound came from him, but the very air seemed steeped in unspoken torment, a crushing pressure that could be felt though never heard.
It was as though this being's soul had been bound to that place, trapped in a cycle without end.
Return to the Beginning.
"Return… to the beginning?" The words echoed in his mind, and his teeth clenched. Endel tried to take a step, but his legs buckled. Leaning heavily against the desk, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. His face was lifeless, exhausted, eyes faded and bloodshot. He could not yet understand what exactly had happened to him. But what had occurred—and this Arcana, which had appeared out of nowhere to drag him back in time—felt like a nightmare, or a cruel joke.
"Endel, are you all right?" His mother's voice cut the silence like a knife. Lyra, his mother, opened the door, peering inside with concern. She froze when she saw his face.
Endel said nothing. He didn't know what to say. He felt as though he had returned, but was no longer himself. He saw her eyes, full of worry and fear, and it only deepened the weight in his chest.
Lyra stepped into the room, her hands trembling as she tried to grasp his shoulder. "You… you look like a ghost again. What happened this time, son?"
"I… I…" Endel couldn't find a starting point. How could he explain this invisible weight crushing his chest? How could he tell her about dying, about the grotesque resurrection that now felt like a sinister omen? Or that in less than a day, the world would likely face its end?
He glanced back at the screen, the room around him blurring at the edges. Everything felt so unreal. He was alive, but… truthfully, he wasn't sure he was alive. He didn't feel like the same person anymore.
His mother followed his gaze but saw nothing. Endel, however, was swallowed again by the glowing screen.
"Endel?" Her voice quavered as she realized he was drifting away inside himself. She pulled him into an embrace. "Son, what's wrong with you? You need some air. Your father and I are worried—yesterday you were acting strange, and today at breakfast you were completely out of it. Now you look… lost."
Endel tried to hug her back, but he had no strength left.
All he could do was lift his head and look at her. Her expression shifted from worry to confusion. He could not answer. Inside him was only emptiness, words that refused to form.
"I…" he stammered, but his thoughts refused to settle into anything coherent. He knew he had to say something. But even he didn't know what was happening.
Lyra, seeing his condition, reached out to check his forehead. "You're burning up… like you have a fever," she whispered, her voice trembling harder.
Endel felt her warm palm against his skin, and through the fading echoes of shock, realized he still hadn't fully grasped what he had endured. His mind was still overflowing—with the memory of what happened in class, of his life being reset, as if he had become part of something much greater than his own existence.
Without thinking, he reopened the status screen that had appeared after his return to the beginning.
[System Status]
Name: Endel Astralius
Dark Arcana: Return to the Beginning
Status: Inactive
Warning: System launch incomplete. Instabilities possible.
Endel had no idea what the words meant. He closed the menu and stood silently for several seconds. Then, cursing his own helplessness, he opened it again.
"I have to figure this out," he muttered aloud, as though speaking could give him control.
Lyra didn't understand what he meant, but she didn't press him for answers after seeing his condition. She realized what he needed now was rest and time. Yet in her heart she sighed, unable to grasp what was happening to her son.
"We'll be here with you, son, don't worry," she said softly, hugging him once more.
But Endel already felt it—that this Arcana, Return to the Beginning, would never allow
him to go back to his old life. Whatever happened from now on, his world had changed forever.