Blood.
Fire.
Death.
Alice...
I wish you were here.
These are the memories that flashed through Ryan's mind as he stared at the beautiful golden-haired woman that now stood before him.
"I will send you back to before the awakening happened," she said.
Ryan's dull— lifeless eyes stared down at her.
"You will return with every memory from this life."
Ryan flinched at these words.
He turned his back to the woman and strolled onto the balcony.
They were thirty floors above the capital, in the highest chamber of the royal palace.
A chamber that might as well have been built on a mountain of corpses.
Whether they be friends—
Or foes.
A cold wind brushed Ryan's cloak as it drifted through the towering windows. The long black curtains that hung beside them billowed. The heavy, dense fabric shifted slowly, lazily, as if the room itself had grown tired of movement.
Just as the owner had.
The golden-haired woman followed him out onto the balcony.
"Do you not wish for an opportunity to start over?" Her voice was soft, gentle, like she was afraid he might fall apart.
Ryan didn't answer her immediately, he only continued to look out onto the largest city left in the world.
Not even a sound reached them from the city below.
The silence that hung felt unnatural.
Especially for a city this large.
Especially in a world that had survived a hundred years of war, and had finally reached a semblance of peace.
Something about it—
Felt final.
"Has it really been a hundred years…?" Ryan asked, seemingly ignoring the question, even the offer the woman made.
His voice barely carried over the wind.
It seemed stripped of weight.
Stripped of meaning.
"I had to fight through storms of blood and ruin," he said, finally turning to face the woman again.
Her face was veiled from him by a soft golden light, but her eyes could still be seen.
A flicker of grief flittered through them, unnoticed to Ryan.
"I crushed beasts that towered over mountains."
"I had to slay kings, tyrants, and things that no longer resembled anything human."
He gestured out to the city below them again.
"And finally, I united what remained of the world beneath a single banner."
He turned his gaze up to the roof of the palace, where a beautiful flag was billowing in the wind.
"My banner."
Now—
There were no enemies left.
No monsters.
No wars.
No one left who could challenge him.
The final piece that kept him moving.
Ryan Hale stood alone at the peak of the world.
The strongest being alive.
And yet—
"For a hundred years… I fought everything this world could throw at me."
His gaze drifted across the endless sea of lights below.
"I gained power… authority… dominion over the entire planet."
His fingers tightened slightly against the stone.
"But I lost everything that actually mattered."
The wind passed through the chamber again.
Colder this time.
"Before the real war even began."
Silence swallowed the space around him.
No guards.
No attendants.
No sound beyond the distant world below.
A king—
The wind stopped.
Abruptly.
The curtains stilled.
The entire chamber—
Fell into complete silence.
"Do you truly believe you have reached the end?"
The voice was soft.
Gentle.
Feminine.
He turned back to the woman who had stepped back into the room.
For the first time since she had appeared out of nowhere, he actually looked at her.
Ryan wondered if the moon itself had taken human form.
Golden hair flowed down her shoulders like liquid light, shifting gently as though stirred by a breeze that did not exist.
Her white dress shimmered faintly, threads catching the light as if woven from something beyond this world.
A soft radiance veiled her features.
Not enough to hide them.
But enough to make them feel…
Unreal.
Even so—
Ryan knew.
Without question.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
"So… do you?" She asked again.
Ryan studied her.
Carefully.
Silently.
His senses spread outward.
Across the city.
Across the land.
Across the ocean.
He felt the distant mountain.
The tides shifting against the cliffs.
The layered barriers protecting the capital.
Everything.
Everything—
Except her.
Not a trace.
Not a fluctuation.
Not even absence.
It was as if she didn't exist within the world at all.
Ryan's eyes sharpened.
"…What does that mean?"
"You've achieved a great deal," she said softly.
"But you've only scratched the surface of your true potential."
Ryan frowned.
"That seems unlikely."
He gestured toward the world beyond the balcony.
"I rule everything you see."
Her gaze followed his.
Calm.
Unimpressed.
"That may be true."
Her golden eyes lifted slightly.
"But do you truly believe this planet…"
The air around her shimmered faintly.
"…or even this realm…"
The space itself seemed to ripple.
"…is the only one that exists?"
Ryan stilled.
Something stirred.
Faint.
Unfamiliar.
Curiosity.
It flickered—
Then faded.
Ryan turned away.
"I don't care."
The words came easily.
Too easily.
His voice was quiet.
Flat.
"What reason would I have to pursue more power?"
His gaze dropped.
"The people I cared about…"
A pause.
"They were gone before the real war even began."
The words lingered.
Heavy.
The woman watched him in silence.
For a few seconds—
She said nothing.
Then—
"You have suffered."
Her voice softened.
Carrying something deeper now.
"Which is why I want to give you a chance to erase that suffering."
Ryan turned back slowly.
"I know you said you wanted to send me back," he said. "But would I really be the person they knew anymore."
Ryan knew that his memories would never let him have peace.
"Maybe not… " Iris whispered. "But I do know that no matter what, they would always be happy to see you."
A single tear dropped from the corner of Ryan's eyes.
But in his heart, he felt relief at the thought of having another chance.
A chance to save the people he loved.
A chance to get revenge on those who took them away from him.
The corner of his lips lifted.
And the first to die would be the man who killed the woman he loved.
Charl.
For the first time ever laughter echoed through the chamber.
"You mean you can actually do it?" He asked.
The air changed.
Light erupted.
Golden brilliance flooded the room, swallowing shadows, bending space itself.
Her hair lifted as if caught in a celestial current.
The glow around her intensified until the chamber itself seemed to tremble under its weight.
Ryan felt it.
For the first time in a hundred years—
Pressure.
Power that dwarfed his own.
"I will send you back."
Her voice rang through the chamber like distant bells.
"To the moment before the Awakening."
Ryan's breath stilled.
"You will return with every memory from this life."
The world began to distort.
The palace walls trembled.
Reality fractured at the edges.
Ryan stared at her.
"Who… are you?"
The light grew blinding.
"You may call me Iris."
Her voice lingered—
Even as everything collapsed into darkness.
A thought flashed through Ryan's mind.
This time I won't grow stronger to survive...
I'll grow stronger to protect the people I love.
***
The chamber stood empty.
No throne.
No king.
Only light.
Iris remained.
She stood at the edge of nothingness, gazing out at a world that was unraveling piece by piece.
The city dimmed.
Lights flickered out.
The ocean dissolved into fragments of shimmering blue.
The mountain cracked—
Then scattered into dust.
Reality itself broke apart like glass.
"This timeline will now be reset," she whispered.
Her voice carried quiet sorrow.
"I could no longer watch you endure it alone."
Her gaze lingered where the horizon had once been.
"I waited so long to see you again…"
The world continued to fade.
Piece by piece.
Memory by memory.
Space fractured.
Time unraveled.
Iris closed her eyes.
"I don't want our reunion…"
Her voice trembled.
"…to be with a broken man."
The final remnants of existence dissolved into golden light.
Silence followed.
Endless.
And within that silence—
Her whisper remained.
Soft.
Fragile.
"Please come back to me…"
A faint smile touched her lips.
"My love."