“You’re me from the future?!” In front of the Lost Realm, the hero who had suddenly stepped in to save Aedes Elysiae a few days ago removed his mask, revealing a face that shocked everyone.
The Phainon from the previous cycle, or more accurately, Khaslana…
Khaslana looked at himself from this cycle and could not help feeling some disdain.
Always making a fuss, without a bit of the steadiness a warrior should have.
Khaslana could not be bothered to look at himself any longer.
He turned toward Cyrene and Amos, and his gaze softened somewhat.
“I came to find you for one reason only, and that is to take you to Okhema.” Cyrene looked at the two identical faces with completely different temperaments.
Unable to make up her mind, she looked toward Amos.
Amos roughly knew what Khaslana was thinking, because it had been written in the story.
During the first eternal cycle, Khaslana formed an alliance with Cerydra and planned to bear all the Coreflames by himself, hoping to break the calculation cycle.
But in the end, the Chrysos Heirs who did not obtain the Coreflames could not resist the Black Tide.
Okhema fell, and the two Phainons fought each other.
One of them entered the cycle.
But Amos could not say these things, so he still asked, “Why?” “Because you are indispensable talents.
In the previous cycle, you made irreplaceable contributions to the Flame Chasing journey.” With his future self standing in front of him, those words were naturally convincing.
But Phainon still hesitated.
Not because he could not bear to leave his homeland, but because he had always felt responsible for protecting the village.
Khaslana frowned, dissatisfied with his past self.
So weak, without even a trace of the spirit expected of a Chrysos Heirs.
Amos saw through Phainon’s thoughts.
Seeing the dark expression on Khaslana’s face, he voiced Phainon’s concerns.
“We can go to Okhema, but what about everyone else in the village?” Khaslana froze for a moment, and his expression gradually relaxed.
“I…
will arrange for them to go somewhere safe.” From his tone, it was obvious that Khaslana had not considered this before.
That was understandable.
——— It was already Light Calendar Year 4911, while Khaslana had awakened in Light Calendar Year 3870 after restarting the world.
He was no longer the teenage Phainon, but a demigod who had borne multiple Coreflames and lived for over a thousand years.
After learning that the people of Aedes Elysiae would also be saved, Phainon let out a sigh of relief and agreed to go to Okhema.
After agreeing on a departure date, the three returned home separately to pack and deal with the remaining matters.
Khaslana looked at the small field that had always remained in the depths of his memory.
He suddenly remembered that the entrance to the Lost Realm was not far from it.
And back then, the village chief of the Lost Realm had told him that staying in the village could avoid the Black Tide.
Even the World-Bearing Titan would be swallowed by the Black Tide, so why could the Lost Realm avoid it?
Khaslana could not help wanting to investigate.
But strangely, though in his memories he could see the entrance to the Lost Realm at a glance from the field, his sharp eyes, capable of seeing things thousands of miles away, could not discover the tree hole only half a person’s height and right in front of him.
If Amos or Teacher Anaxa were here, they would definitely be able to study the principles behind the Lost Realm.
If the power of the Lost Realm could be applied to the entire world, then…
Khaslana’s thoughts were interrupted by the deliberate sound of footsteps.
Turning around, he found that Amos, who had gone back to pack, had returned.
Seeing Amos empty-handed, Khaslana asked in confusion, “Don’t you have anything you need to bring?” But Amos did not answer.
He simply stretched out a hand and gently clenched it.
The surrounding air screamed as it gathered together, and in an instant condensed into a hollow dueling sword shining with cold light.
In Khaslana’s eyes, Amos was extremely intelligent, one of the few wise men who could rival the Chrysos Heirs despite being mortal.
But no matter how smart Amos was, someone his age should not possess such power.
Thinking of Lygus, who had revealed the truth of the Flame Chasing journey and yet revived no matter how many times he was killed, Khaslana’s heart sank.
Could this be another “Audience” beyond the cycle?
‘Daring to disguise himself as a companion, unforgivable…’ Dawnmaker quietly left its sheath, and the Flame of Conflict pulsed in his chest.
War, slaughter, duels.
Countless memories from warriors of the past flooded his mind, then faded away on their own.
In the end, only pure combat skill remained.
Khaslana had already prepared for battle, just as he had done countless times before.
Cut off the head of “Earth.” Tear open the chest of “Sky.” Break the spear of “Strife.” Over uncountable years unknown to anyone, he had obtained every flame that could be acquired through force.
Unfortunately…
His opponents had never cared about force.
“Long time no see, Phainon.
I still have only those three questions.” “What exactly happened inside the Genesis Vortex?
Why was the ritual sword in your hand?” “Where is my Cyrene?” Amos casually spun the sword.
In Khaslana’s eyes, the movement was crude and flashy, useful for nothing except looking good.
But Amos’s words pierced through his defenses as easily as the spear of Conflict.
“You…” Khaslana’s lips trembled slightly.
No one knew how lost he had felt when he woke up and found himself thrown a thousand years into the past.
No one knew how it felt after enduring a thousand years and finally meeting the companions from his memories again, only for all of them to tell him they barely knew him.
The memories from the previous cycle were like a beautiful dream, one he could not forget long after waking.
So even words of questioning, as long as they carried even a trace of the cycle, felt so familiar.
But no matter how moved he was, Khaslana would not easily trust others.
The Flame Chasing journey was too heavy.
The savior had to carry it all.
“Who exactly are you?
Amos…
shouldn’t remember things from the previous cycle…” Amos thought to himself, ‘Previous cycle?
I remember the one before that too.’ Understanding Khaslana’s confusion, Amos raised his hand and swung out a “wind blade.” Such a poor attack naturally posed no threat to a demigod.
Khaslana simply tilted his body and avoided it.
But he paid no attention to Amos suddenly attacking him.
Because halfway through its flight, the wind blade suddenly turned into a carrot.
After passing by him, the carrot became blurry, then transparent, and finally disappeared completely into what seemed to be an ordinary patch of ground.
Khaslana looked at Amos again.
In the reflection in Amos’s eyes, he found the answer to this strange scene.
‘The entrance to the Lost Realm…’ Thinking back to the previous cycle, when Amos always carried Anaxa’s soul notebook and studied no matter where he went, Khaslana seemed to understand something.
After a long silence, Khaslana decided to break the promise he had made to Cyrene and reveal everything that had happened inside the Genesis Vortex.
Just as it had been described in the game’s story, under Lygus’s deliberate guidance, Phainon and Cyrene discovered the truth behind the Flame Chasing journey.
Afterward, Cyrene chose sacrifice without hesitation.
People only knew that Cyrene possessed the Sacred Body of the Priest of Time, that she could hear the whispers of Oronyx, and that she could learn any prayer immediately.
But no one knew that Cyrene’s uniqueness went far beyond the name “Oronyx.” During a dream in her childhood, Cyrene had seen that behind the great Titan of Time, Oronyx, stood an unknowable, immeasurable, and indescribable god.
That was a true god.
The one Lygus spoke of, capable of easily shaking the entire galaxy…
An Aeon.
Their gaze was a gift from the gods, and also the only thing in all of Amphoreus capable of resisting the Scepter’s calculations.
Originally, the people of Amphoreus had no choice.
Gather all the Coreflames and carry out Re-Creation, and the Iron Tomb would obtain its sacrifice.
Refuse Re-Creation and not gather the Coreflames, and the Black Tide would swallow everything anyway.
But after Cyrene used self-sacrifice to infuse the ritual sword with the gift of the god, Phainon, who held the ritual sword, gained another choice.
That was to keep all the Coreflames for himself, and then use the power of the ritual sword to twist the rules of Re-Creation.
Instead of creating a new world, it would reverse the time of all Amphoreus.
The Scepter would not stop this action.
Perhaps because the original calculation had failed to obtain its result, the Coreflames, and therefore needed to begin again.
Or perhaps…
In the Scepter’s judgment, the calculations of this cycle had never truly ended.
In any case, Amphoreus gained the ability to stand against the Scepter indefinitely.
And the price was that in every cycle, the ritual sword had to absorb Cyrene’s concept of existence again in order to activate the divine power of Time.