Pieter Smit stumbled through the bushes that were flying into the air, leaves and earth heaving aimlessly as if the world had lost its footing, until he finally found Kyne lying among the uprooted branches.
The old man's breath was ragged, his chest heaving heavily, but in his eyes was a hard-to-describe relief as he realized the young man was still alive. He stared at Kyne in disbelief—amid the destruction that had engulfed the entire world, amidst a sky cracked by a terrifying red light, he had managed to save humanity's last hope.
But that relief was short-lived, for above, the giant red eye continued to grow, slicing through the horizon like a gaping wound, emanating an invisible pressure that made the air feel both heavy and empty at the same time.
The gravity that had held everything in place was slowly disappearing, not like a switch being suddenly turned off, but like the world's last gasp fading away bit by bit. The ground cracked and heaved, mountains crumbled into floating boulders, oceans split into waves of frozen water, and city buildings crumbled into rubble that swirled aimlessly against the reddening sky.
The world seemed to transform into a chaotic painting devoid of the laws of physics, and amidst the chaos, Kyne slowly opened his eyes, sensing how all this was the result of a power he had touched—a power he should never have awakened.
He clenched his fists, fighting back a trembling that stemmed not from fear alone, but from the realization that the root of all this disaster was himself. He refused to remain a victim of circumstance; he refused to be a silent witness to the destruction he had triggered.
His gaze hardened, piercing the weightless void of air, and in a voice that strove to sound resolute even as the world around him crumbled, he declared that he would finish it all. Because if this mistake had originated with him, then the responsibility for ending it must also lie with him.
"Young man…" Pieter Smit's voice was weak, almost drowned out by the silent roar of destruction, yet it still held the warmth of an old man who had seen too much suffering in his life.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of this," Kyne replied in a tone far calmer than he felt deep inside, as if he were reassuring not only Pieter but also himself that he was capable of the impossible.
Suddenly, Pieter Smit's chest felt tight and painful, as if something were squeezing his heart from within; the red energy Kyne had previously released had spread, poisoning the air and infiltrating the bodies of anyone nearby.
The old man's face paled drastically, his skin losing its color like paper in the light, and his body began to appear indistinct among the floating debris. Kyne, realizing the change, immediately turned around in panic, his eyes wide with the fear he had been suppressing.
"Pieter… could it be you…" his voice trembled, his sentence hanging as he couldn't finish the worst possibility that was forming in his mind.
"No, I'm fine... I'll just be gone for a moment," Pieter Smit replied with a forced, thin smile, trying to reassure Kyne, even though he knew his body was on the verge of collapse. His words sounded light, but beneath them lay an unspoken farewell.
Pieter Smit's entire body was fading, like a shadow swallowed by light, fine particles beginning to detach from his skin and shimmer before disappearing into the directionless air. But before his body completely dissolved, he grasped Kyne's hand with the last of his strength. The grip was warm and tangible, a final affirmation that he was still in this world.
"You must stay alive and save us all," he said slowly but firmly, each word spoken with a conviction heavier than his fading body. "Because you alone are the hope for all of us to survive."
He paused for a moment, his breathing becoming shallow, but his eyes remained fixed on Kyne with a look of trust.
"Remember, young man... even if you're left alone, that doesn't mean you can't do it. Because you still have the confidence as a friend that will make you succeed in stopping this chaos."
And in the next instant, Pieter Smit's body completely disintegrated into pale fragments of light that scattered like dust in the wind, vanishing without a trace, leaving Kyne alone in the midst of a world turned upside down.
Kyne stared at his hands in long silence, feeling the lingering warmth of that last grip, then slowly raised his head and stared directly into the giant red eye hanging in the sky, the source of all the destruction. His gaze was no longer filled with doubt, but with controlled anger and burning determination.
"Lucifer… have you forgotten?" his voice echoed through the floating debris, small yet filled with unwavering courage. "I possess a drop of your power and your blood. And don't you know? That the one who has you chained to hell… is me!"
He then raised his hands into the fractured air, and before him a giant circle of energy formed—a slowly rotating time domain, emitting a light that contrasted with the red aura in the sky. The space around him trembled, reality seeming to fold and split, signaling that something beyond the laws of the world was being activated.
'Time domain activated: Time rewinded to twenty years ago.'
As soon as the time domain fully opened, the shattered, skyward world seemed to be sucked into a swirling vortex of light before Kyne, and in a split second that felt like an eternity, his body shot through folded space and inverted reality, landing on the same ground—but in a very different state.
The air felt heavy again, gravity intact, and the world had yet to recognize the devastation he had just witnessed. Wasting no time, Kyne ran as fast as he could to the ancient church that stood proudly at the edge of town, the place where it all began.
The church door swung open with a loud clink as he pushed it inside, his footsteps echoing among the neatly arranged wooden pews and the stained-glass windows reflecting the nightlight.
He paid no attention to any of the details around him; his entire focus was on the old bookshelf in the corner, where a black, untitled volume sat silently, as if waiting to be touched by the hand destined to take it. His hand reached out without hesitation, and as his fingers touched the book's cover, he felt the same pulse of energy that would consume the sky twenty years later.
Without stopping, Kyne carried the book up to the top floor of the church, his steps quick but measured, until he finally reached the roof, where he could see the vast, unobstructed sky. There, just above the horizon, the giant red eye was already beginning to take shape, a thin crack in the sky that was slowly widening like a gaping wound, signaling that the awakening was in progress. The wind blew fiercely, making his clothes flutter, but he remained upright, staring directly into the center of that terrifying red light.
Suddenly, a voice echoed from within the red eye, deep and heavy, as if coming from the depths of hell itself. "If you dare seal me, I will have you reincarnated as a commoner child, constantly oppressed by the nobles."
The threat was not uttered in a shout, but with a terrifying calm, as if the promised future were certain.
But Kyne did not answer, nor did he show any hesitation. He simply stepped forward and leaped into the air, his body rising as if he himself were following the laws of the world that was about to be destroyed, approaching the source of destruction with unwavering determination.
With a firm voice and full awareness of the consequences, he said, "I brought you into this world, and now, I will also erase your existence."
He opened the untitled black book, and immediately its pages glowed with a light that contrasted with the red aura in the sky. From within the book emerged an incredibly powerful suction force, drawing in the red energy emanating from the giant eye, sucking it away slowly but surely.
The crack in the sky trembled violently, and from within emerged a giant hand—followed by the massive figure of Lucifer, struggling to resist being absorbed. But the power of the book was too great, too absolute, and all the energy, the hand, and even Lucifer's half-formed form were finally sucked into the dark pages.
The once-red sky slowly returned to normal, the giant eye vanished without a trace, and the moon began to appear, its soft light replacing the aura of destruction.
The air felt stable again, signs of life slowly reappeared, and the previously absent gravity was now fully restored. The apocalypse that was supposed to destroy civilization was officially over before it even began.
But amidst the newly established tranquility, Kyne's body suddenly lost its strength. He fell from the air, and before hitting the ground, his body began to disintegrate into particles of golden light that shimmered softly in the moonlight. The light did not scatter haphazardly, but rather gathered and formed a tiny entity resembling the seed of life, then transformed into a gently pulsating embryo, as if time and its very existence were being reorganized.
The luminous embryo floated slowly, piercing the night and moving in a direction predetermined by fate, until it finally landed in the womb of the woman who would become his future mother.
'The domain of time has stopped: Time has returned to twenty years later.'
...
Kyne opened his eyes with a gasp, finding himself lying on a familiar bed, with Pieter Smit sleeping beside him, peaceful as if nothing had ever happened.
The room was silent, the world outside the window seemed normal, and there was no sign of the apocalypse he had just experienced. Whether it was a dream, an illusion, or simply a hallucination caused by mental stress, it all felt so real that it was hard to believe it was just a fantasy.
But the real truth lurked deeper than a mere dream. What he had previously seen in that strange book—the faces of himself and six summoners performing a demon-summoning ritual to resurrect Lucifer—was a true reality, an event that nearly wiped out human civilization.
And only because of Kyne's faith in himself could the world, teetering on the brink of destruction, be saved from complete collapse.