[Timeline Alpha: The Final Hour]
The universe did not scream when it died. It simply held its breath.
In the center of the Celestial Domain, Mael, the Lord of Celestial Winged, sat upon a throne woven from the light of a thousand extinguished stars. He was beautiful—terribly, blindingly beautiful. His wings spanned the horizon, feathers dripping with a golden substance that was not blood, but the distilled essence of trillions of souls.
"It is done," Mael whispered. His voice was the sound of a closing casket.
Below him, the universe was grey. The color had been drained. The humans, the elves, the dwarves—they were gone. Their struggles, their wars, their loves—all converted into glowing runes of unknown origin flowing like a reverse waterfall into Mael's chest.
He closed his eyes, savoring the influx. For millennia, he had cultivated this garden. He had pruned the chaotic branches of free will and watered the roots with systemic control. Now, the fruit was finally ripe. The dream that had haunted him since the first star ignited—the dream of absolute, singular order—was finally solidifying beneath his fingertips.
He lifted a hand to grasp the final strand of destiny. The threshold of True Godhood was not just a step away; it was already embracing him.
Crack.
It wasn't a sound of breaking bone. It was the sound of reality cracking.
The river of glowing runes flowing into him stuttered. Then, violently, it reversed. Mael's eyes, usually cold and indifferent, widened in genuine shock. The essence he had spent eons harvesting was being vomited back out by the universe, dissolving into mist before it could fuse with his core.
"Time?" Mael hissed, his perfect face twisting into a snarl. "Who dares touch the River of Time?"
He looked down, searching for the culprit, but the timeline was already unraveling. He saw the golden gears of his Apotheosis rusting in reverse, the runes fading back into the void.
"Aerion..." Mael spat the name like a curse, the vibration shattering the glass floor beneath him. "You dead fool. You think rewinding the clock will save them? You have only delayed the inevitable."
His eyes burned with a cold, tyrannical light.
"I will not just harvest them this time. I will break them so thoroughly that even time itself will refuse to hold their memory."
[The Edge of the Known Universe]
While the Angels panicked, the dark held still.
Deep within a shattered planet floating in the void, a being sat upon a throne of obsidian and bone. He did not emit holy light. He was a mass of shifting shadows and ancient, terrifying biological potential—Val-Kuros, the First Devil.
He felt the tremor before the Angels did. The universe was shuddering, rebooting itself.
Val-Kuros opened his eyes. They were not eyes of malice, but of an intelligence so old it made mountains look young.
"The Prophecy," Val-Kuros rumbled. His voice shook the dead rock of his world. "The Elf spoke true. The False God has tripped."
He stood up, his true form obscured by the shifting darkness around him, a silhouette of nightmare that refused to be defined by a single shape. In the previous timeline, he had waited. He had been patient, content to let the pawns move across the board.
"Not this time," he growled. "Prepare the legions. The cage is open."
[Earth: The Present Day]
"And so, Mael ascended, bringing eternal order to the chaos. The End."
Ren stared at the glowing screen of his tablet, the light reflecting in his tired eyes. He sat in his penthouse apartment, the city lights of Tokyo glimmering below. As the heir to the Kusanagi conglomerate, he had everything money could buy—fast cars, meaningless status, and an emptiness that no amount of luxury could fill.
The only thing that made him feel alive was this story. Celestial Ascension.
"That's it?" Ren whispered. "That's the ending?"
He scrolled down to the comments section. It was flooded with praise, but Ren felt a migraine throbbing behind his eyes. It was a phantom pain, accompanied by flashes of a violet sky he had never seen, and the sensation of a life he had never lived.
He started typing.
User: Ren_Archive
"This isn't right. @GodHand, you skipped the Era of Silence. What about the glitch in the System? What about the creature the Elven Lord hid? The logic falls apart in the Epilogue. It feels... missing."
He hit send. Almost immediately, a reply pinged.
GodHand: "You again? Look, rich kid, I know you donated a lot, but stop acting like you own the story. I created this world. It's perfect."
Ren stared at the words. It's perfect.
"No," Ren murmured. He walked to the window, looking at his reflection. For a moment, he didn't see Ren, the bored CEO's son. He saw someone else—a ragged figure standing on a mountain of corpses, looking at the stars with defiance.
"It's a lie," Ren whispered. "I don't know how I know, but you're lying."
He typed one last message.
"If it's perfect, why does it feel like a cage?"
Zzzzt.
Ren's tablet sparked. The text on the screen didn't scroll; it melted. The liquid crystals dripped down, turning into a swirling vortex of gold and black runes.
[The Story requires Correction.]
[Initiating Transport.]
Ren didn't have time to scream. The floor fell out from under him, and the world dissolved into code.
[The Celestial Domain]
The Author—a man named Arthur—gasped, his lungs filling with air that was too pure, too rich.
He fell to his knees, vomiting instant noodles onto a floor made of solid light. He scrambled backward, his eyes darting frantically. The messy studio apartment was gone. The bills, the rejection letters, the loneliness—gone.
In their place was a cathedral of clouds and starlight.
"Arthur."
The voice didn't come from a direction; it vibrated in his very atoms. Arthur looked up, his jaw trembling.
Towering above him was Mael. But he wasn't just a giant; he was a concept made flesh. The light radiating from him felt like the unconditional love Arthur had always craved.
"My... my God," Arthur whimpered. "You... I wrote you."
"You did," Mael said softly, lowering himself to eye level. He didn't look angry. He looked at Arthur like a proud father looking at a son who had finally come home. "You crafted a masterpiece, Arthur. A world of perfect order. But tell me... do you feel the tremors?"
Arthur blinked. "Tremors?"
"The story is bleeding," Mael lied, his voice laced with sorrow. "A foreign entity—a virus not of my making—has entered the narrative. It seeks to twist your ending. It wants the villains to win. It wants your hard work to mean nothing."
Mael extended a hand, and a golden interface manifested in the air. Unlike the standard blue screens, this one was framed in ornate, gothic gold filigree, pulsating with divine light.
[ ✠ CELESTIAL INTERFACE ✠ ]
Name: Arthur (The Creator)
Class: Saint of Order
Rank: Tier 4 (Saint)
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
• STR: 50
• AGI: 50
• VIT: 80
• INT: 350 (Tier 4 Breakthrough)
[ DIVINE GIFT ]
• [Narrative Authority]
You are the Voice of God. Your commands bend reality to the Canon.
Arthur stared at the stats. Tier 4. In the lore, this was the rank of a High Bishop or a General. He was starting higher than millions of souls.
"The story..." Arthur whispered, his eyes hardening with fanatic purpose. "Someone is trying to ruin my story?"
"Guide them, Arthur," Mael smiled, an expression of terrifying warmth. "Make them follow the script. Only you can save your world."
[The kingdom of Valdoria: St. Petersburg city]
Ren gasped, inhaling the scent of lavender and expensive silk.
He lay still on a soft bed, his heart hammering a frantic rhythm. He didn't open his eyes immediately. He focused on the air. It felt... heavy. Charged. It wasn't the smog of Tokyo. It was like the air was buzzing with invisible static that prickled against his skin.
Mana, his mind supplied the word before he even understood it. The density is high.
He opened his eyes. He saw gold fixtures, velvet curtains, and a window overlooking a medieval city bathed in morning light. He wasn't in his penthouse.
"What..." Ren whispered.
[ INTEGRATION COMPLETE ]
The blue notification window appeared in his vision, hovering innocently.
And then, the screaming started.
It wasn't a sound. It was a physical tearing of his psyche.
"ARGH!"
Ren rolled off the bed, crashing onto the marble floor. He clawed at his temples, his fingernails drawing blood. It felt like someone was pouring molten lead into his skull.
Three souls. One vessel.
Ren's modern cynicism.
Caelus's merchant cunning.
And the Ancient Soul's silent, crushing weight.
They collided, fracturing his mind. His vision swam—one eye seeing the luxurious room, the other seeing a battlefield of ash and bone.
The blue interface shattered, glitching violently into jagged lines of crimson and black code.
[ S̴Y̵S̷T̵E̵M̴ ̶E̴R̶R̴O̴R̶ ]
[ Soul Density Critical. Vessel Integrity: 15% ]
[ Stabilizing... Failed. ]
[ ⚠ CELESTIAL INTERFACE ⚠ ]
Name: Caelus (Ren)
Class: Civilian
Rank: Tier 0 (Anomaly)
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
• STR: 8 (+???)
• AGI: 9 (+???)
• VIT: 7 (CRITICAL)
• INT: 14 (+???)
[ ANOMALIES ]
• [System Parasite] (Active)
Status: Soul density critical!!!
"Young Master!" The door burst open. Maids and guards rushed in, freezing when they saw the third son of the Guildmaster convulsing on the floor.
Ren—Caelus—gasped for air. Every breath was agony. He realized with terrifying clarity that he wasn't dying from a disease. He was dying because his soul was too heavy for this weak, pampered body.
I need... I need a stabilizer, his instincts roared. Mana stones won't work... the filter is too slow... Liquid... I need liquid essence!
He grabbed the leg of a terrified maid.
"Potion," he wheezed, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "Get me... a High-Grade Mana Potion. Now! Or I die!"
[The Northern Duchy: The Iron Fortress]
Three thousand miles away, Kaelen, the heir to the Dragon-Iron Duchy, woke up with a gasp, his hand instantly reaching for a phantom sword.
He rolled, expecting an attack, and crashed into a wooden table.
"Shields!" he barked, his voice hoarse.
"Sir?" Old Thomas looked at him, bewildered. "The shields are down. We are in the safe zone."
Kaelen froze. He looked at his hands—young, unscarred. He looked at Thomas—alive. The realization hit him like a physical blow. He was back.
[ SYSTEM OVERRIDE ]
The world turned grey. Time froze.
A figure appeared in Kaelen's mind. It was an Elf, old beyond reckoning, standing amidst the ruins of a burning library.
"Do not rejoice, Time-Walker," the Elf's voice echoed, sounding like dry leaves. "I am Aerion."
Kaelen tried to speak, but his voice was silenced by the pressure of the vision.
"If you are hearing this, the Failsafe has activated. You have your memories, but you do not have the truth. Look at the map in your mind, Kaelen."
The vision shifted. Kaelen saw the map of the world burning—not by Demons, but by Golden Fire raining from the Angels' own cities.
"The enemy you fight is a distraction. The God you pray to is the butcher. The war you remember was a staged play, and you were merely an actor."
Kaelen's heart stopped. Staged? The millions dead... staged?
"Do not trust the Church. Do not trust the Interface. Seek the Silver Woods of the Elven Kingdom. Find the library that does not exist. The answer lies in the silence."
Snap.
Time resumed.
A window appeared. It was unlike the standard interface; it looked like chiseled, cracked grey stone, devoid of any ornamentation.
[ ⧋ CELESTIAL INTERFACE ⧋ ]
Name: Kaelen (The Regressor)
Class: Initiate (Knight Captain)
Rank: Tier 1 (Initiate)
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
• STR: 45
• AGI: 40
• VIT: 50
• INT: 20
[ SKILLS ]
• [Iron Will] (Passive)
"Sir?" Thomas asked. "You look pale."
Kaelen stood up, his mind racing. He checked his stats. Tier 1. He was weak again, but his foundations were perfect. He looked at Thomas.
"Thomas," Kaelen said, his voice trembling with suppressed rage. "Prepare the—"
BOOOOM.
A massive explosion rocked the ground, throwing Kaelen back. The sky outside turned a sickly shade of violet.
"Sir!" A scout burst into the tent. "The sky! A Dimensional Gate has opened directly above the Capital! It's... it's a Tier 4 breach!"
Kaelen's blood ran cold. A breach? Now? This never happened in the first timeline. The first breach wasn't for another three years.
He gripped his sword. The Elven Kingdom would have to wait. The timeline was already broken, and the war had started early.