The valley had fallen into a silence so unnatural that even the sound of the river seemed to have vanished from the world.
Luca stood firmly before the Saintess, his black saber held diagonally across his body as he stared into the enormous fissure that had torn through the road. Dust continued drifting downward into the darkness, while fragments of broken earth rolled along the edges before disappearing into the abyss below. The crimson glow that had risen from beneath Raven’s Crossing painted everything in an eerie light, turning the peaceful afternoon into something that felt almost detached from reality.
Behind Luca, the mercenaries had formed a defensive circle around the carriage.
None of them spoke.
They were staring into the abyss.
The creature below had not revealed itself completely, yet the pressure radiating from its presence alone was enough to make several experienced mercenaries instinctively circulate their mana.
Luca noticed.
"Don’t."
His voice was low but firm.
"Keep your mana restrained."
One of the mercenaries looked at him incredulously.
"Are you serious? There’s something beneath us that can make the entire valley tremble!"
"I know."
Luca’s eyes remained fixed below.
"That’s exactly why."
He could feel it.
The thing beneath them wasn’t simply powerful.
It was ancient.
Its presence carried a strange quality that Luca couldn’t properly describe, as though the creature wasn’t merely releasing pressure but allowing a tiny fragment of its existence to seep into the world.
And then there was the voice.
Welcome back, Saintess.
Luca’s thoughts raced.
The Saintess had gone completely still behind him.
He could feel her presence without looking.
She knew that voice.
That much was obvious.
Luca slowly turned his head.
"Who was that?"
The Saintess didn’t answer.
Her violet eyes remained fixed upon the abyss.
There was something within them that Luca had never seen before.
Fear.
Not ordinary fear.
Recognition.
The kind that came from hearing the voice of something you desperately wished had remained buried in the past.
"Your Holiness."
Luca’s voice softened.
"Who was that?"
The Saintess finally lowered her gaze.
"I don’t know."
Luca stared at her.
She slowly shook her head.
"I truly don’t."
Before Luca could question her further, another rumbling sound emerged from beneath the earth.
The creature moved.
A massive hand slowly emerged from the darkness.
Stone shattered beneath its fingers as something enormous began pulling itself upward. The surrounding earth collapsed under its weight, while the crimson light intensified until the entire valley seemed to be drenched in blood.
The mercenaries immediately raised their weapons.
Luca stepped forward.
"Stay behind me."
The Saintess looked at his back.
"You don’t know what you’re facing."
"I know."
His grip tightened around the saber.
"That’s why I’m standing here."
The creature continued rising.
First came its shoulders.
Then its head.
Yet strangely...
There was no monstrous roar.
No wild scream.
Instead, the enormous figure simply looked toward the Saintess.
Its crimson eyes were ancient and emotionless.
Then...
It smiled.
The sight made Luca’s skin crawl.
Not because of the creature itself.
Because its expression looked almost human.
"You have changed."
Its voice echoed through the valley.
The Saintess remained silent.
The creature’s gaze shifted toward Luca.
"And you..."
Its eyes narrowed.
"...are the one who stands before her now."
Luca’s expression became colder.
"You’re remarkably talkative for something that just tried to bury us alive."
A strange amusement appeared in the creature’s eyes.
"Still arrogant."
Luca’s pupils contracted.
Still?
He hadn’t met this thing before.
At least...
Not in this life.
The creature slowly tilted its head.
"You truly don’t remember."
Luca’s expression changed.
"What are you talking about?"
The creature didn’t answer.
Instead, its gaze returned to the Saintess.
"You brought him with you."
The Saintess finally stepped forward.
"Luca has nothing to do with this."
Her voice remained calm despite the tension surrounding her.
The creature laughed softly.
"Nothing to do with this?"
It slowly looked toward Luca again.
"Then perhaps you should ask him."
Luca’s brows furrowed.
"Ask me what?"
The creature’s smile widened.
"Why the world seems to bend around him."
The words struck Luca harder than any physical attack could have.
His expression remained controlled.
But inside...
His thoughts had already become chaotic.
The Vice Dean’s words resurfaced.
Is this a journey of a fairytale hero...
...or the bringer of destruction?
The strange woman by the lake.
The Saintess.
The countless playthroughs he remembered.
The events that should not have happened.
The Vice Dean who seemed to know far too much.
And now...
This ancient creature claiming that Luca didn’t remember something.
The creature slowly raised one enormous hand.
The mercenaries prepared themselves.
Luca’s muscles tightened.
But instead of attacking...
The creature pointed toward him.
"You have walked this path countless times."
Luca froze.
His heartbeat seemed to stop.
For the first time...
The creature’s voice lost its amusement.
"You have watched this world burn."
The Saintess’s eyes widened.
"You have watched it prosper."
Luca’s grip on his saber tightened until his knuckles turned pale.
"You have died."
His breathing stopped.
"You have returned."
The valley became utterly silent.
The creature stared directly into Luca’s crimson eyes.
"And every time..."
Its smile slowly disappeared.
"...you chose a different path."
Luca couldn’t move.
The world around him seemed to disappear.
The mercenaries.
The carriage.
The Saintess.
The river.
Everything became distant.
Only those words remained.
Every time.
The creature leaned closer.
"And yet..."
Its crimson eyes glowed.
"...you still haven’t found the path that saves everyone."
Luca’s pupils trembled.
The Saintess immediately stepped toward him.
"Luca!"
Her voice pulled him back.
He blinked.
His breathing returned.
His saber was still in his hand.
The creature was still there.
But something had changed.
Luca’s expression hardened.
He looked at the ancient being before him.
"Who are you?"
For several moments, the creature said nothing.
Then it slowly smiled again.
"I am..."
The crimson light beneath the valley suddenly erupted.
The entire landscape shook violently.
"...the one who remembers your first ending."
And beneath Luca’s feet...
A strange golden symbol suddenly appeared.
Then it began to grow.
What had initially been no larger than the palm of his hand rapidly expanded across the ground, its intricate patterns spreading outward in countless interlocking circles and lines. Golden light poured through the cracks between the symbols, illuminating the road beneath Luca’s feet with a brilliance that seemed completely out of place beneath the crimson glow surrounding Raven’s Crossing.
Luca’s eyes widened.
"What..."
He instinctively stepped backward.
The moment his foot moved, the golden formation responded.
The symbols beneath him brightened violently.
A tremendous force erupted from the ground.
Luca’s body was lifted from the earth before he could react, and the world around him suddenly distorted as though reality itself had been thrown into turbulent water. The distant voices of the mercenaries disappeared first, followed by the sound of the Saintess calling his name.
"Luca!"
Her voice reached him from somewhere impossibly far away.
He tried to answer.
Nothing came out.
The golden light swallowed everything.
For a fleeting moment, Luca saw the Saintess reaching toward him.
Her silver eyes were wide with alarm.
He saw the mercenaries rushing forward.
He saw the enormous creature beneath the bridge raising its hand.
And then...
Everything disappeared.
---
Pain.
That was the first thing Luca felt.
A splitting pain that seemed to tear directly through his skull.
His eyes remained shut as his body trembled violently, his fingers digging into something beneath him while countless unfamiliar sensations flooded through his mind.
There was heat.
Cold.
The smell of blood.
Smoke.
Burning earth.
The metallic scent of weapons.
And voices.
So many voices.
They came from every direction.
Some were screaming.
Some were crying.
Others were shouting commands that Luca couldn’t understand.
His breathing became increasingly ragged as he tried to force his eyes open.
Where am I?
The thought barely formed before another wave of pain crashed through his head.
Luca groaned.
His hand instinctively rose toward his forehead.
Something warm touched his fingers.
Blood.
His own blood.
He slowly opened his eyes.
The sight before him made his entire body freeze.
He wasn’t standing on the forest road anymore.
There was no carriage.
No mercenaries.
No Raven’s Crossing.
No Saintess.
Instead...
A battlefield stretched endlessly before him.
The sky had been swallowed by enormous black clouds, turning the world beneath them into a landscape of darkness and crimson. Great pillars of smoke rose toward the heavens from distant ruins, while countless fires burned across the horizon, illuminating broken fortifications and shattered siege weapons.
The earth beneath Luca’s feet was no longer green grass or packed dirt.
It was mud.
Blood-soaked mud.
Everywhere he looked...
There were bodies.
Knights lay scattered across the battlefield, their armour broken and their weapons buried in the earth beside them. Some still clung desperately to their swords even in death, while others had been crushed beneath enormous pieces of shattered stone.
Broken banners fluttered weakly in the distance.
Luca recognised some of them.
Holy Kingdom.
Astravia.
Valdros.
And several others belonging to kingdoms he had only ever seen in the histories of this world.
His breathing stopped.
This...
A massive explosion erupted somewhere in the distance.
The shockwave swept across the battlefield, forcing Luca to stagger backward.
He instinctively reached for his weapons.
His hands found nothing.
His storage ring was still there.
Yet something felt wrong.
Everything felt wrong.
The air itself seemed heavier.
Mana filled the atmosphere so densely that every breath felt like inhaling burning metal.
Luca slowly turned.
Behind him stood the remnants of a massive army.
Thousands upon thousands of soldiers.
Or what remained of them.
Their faces were exhausted.
Their armour was shattered.
Their eyes carried the hollow expression of people who had already accepted that they were going to die.
And beyond them...
Something enormous moved through the smoke.
A creature so large that its silhouette seemed to merge with the horizon.
Its body was covered in black armour-like scales.
Two enormous crimson eyes glowed within the darkness.
Luca’s heart hammered against his chest.
He knew that presence.
Not from his memories.
Not exactly.
But from somewhere deeper.
Something inside him recognised it.
Run.
The thought appeared instinctively.
Run now.
His body refused to move.
Another wave of pain struck his head.
Luca grabbed his forehead and dropped to one knee.
"Ah..."
His vision blurred.
The battlefield around him began shifting.
The dead soldiers suddenly seemed to move.
Not physically.
Memories.
Fragments.
Images.
They flashed through his mind so rapidly that he couldn’t understand them.
A burning city.
A broken throne.
The Saintess standing beneath a blood-red sky.
Aurelia covered in blood, desperately reaching toward someone.
Kyle screaming.
Aiden kneeling beside a fallen body.
Seraphina crying.
Astra...
Luca’s eyes widened.
A tiny blonde girl stood alone within a burning mansion.
Her small wings were covered in blood.
Her crimson eyes were filled with tears.
"Papa..."
The image vanished.
Luca’s breathing became frantic.
"No..."
Another image appeared.
Arcadia Academy.
Destroyed.
Its towers broken.
Its grounds covered in flames.
Students fleeing through the ruins.
Another image.
The Vice Dean.
Standing alone.
Watching Luca.
Smiling.
Another.
The Saintess.
Falling.
Another.
Luca himself.
Standing beneath a crimson moon.
His hands covered in blood.
His expression...
Empty.
The images continued.
Faster.
Faster.
Faster.
Luca screamed and clutched his head.
"Stop!"
The voices grew louder.
Some were familiar.
Others belonged to people he had never met.
Some called his name with hatred.
Others called it with desperation.
Some begged him to save them.
Others begged him to kill them.
His vision began collapsing beneath the weight of everything flooding into his mind.
He fell forward.
His hands struck the blood-soaked earth.
This isn’t real.
He tried desperately to convince himself.
This can’t be real.
But somewhere deep within him...
A terrifying certainty whispered otherwise.
Because these weren’t merely visions.
They felt like memories.
Memories of something that had already happened.
Memories of endings.
Countless endings.
His body trembled.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
Then...
Through the overwhelming storm of voices...
He heard something.
A voice.
Familiar.
Desperate.
Calling for him.
"Luca!"
His eyes widened.
The battlefield seemed to freeze.
The fires stopped moving.
The soldiers stopped fighting.
Even the enormous creature in the distance became completely still.
Then the voice came again.
Closer this time.
"Luca!"
His vision began turning white.
"LUCaaa!"
The voice cracked with panic.
And then...
"LUCaaa!"
Everything went dark.