Chapter Text
Sung Jin-Woo looked up at the jeweled Cup. His face covered in blood and his body numbing to the pain of the sword that sticks out of him. Mana overflows it like water falling out of its sides. The essence, to those sensible enough to see it, flows like cristal water, evaporating into clouds before it can reach the ground. It is only when The Brightest Fragment of Brilliant Light puts away the spear at hand, that Jin-Woo snaps out of its beauty. Ruler among Rulers greets him, and Jin-Woo, still feeling a human sensation overcome him, endows the presence of such a gorgeous armored being.
"I assure you, Shadow Monarch, that I wish to keep my word with you." Jin-Woo can feel his insides being healed by another Ruler, its skills able to even revive beings from death if it uses enough mana to hold the soul in place. However, it is of no use to him as he can feel it . He can feel his body start to disintegrate, in small amounts maybe but it is obvious to everyone around him. As such, The Brightest Fragment picks up its pace. "–But the wish you are asking for is too much."
It does not know how to confront Jin-Woo's narrowed gaze and scorching anger rising with the man's mana. It is not only terrifying to watch, but hopelessly bitter as he sees the eyes of Ashborn, the one it long wanted to apologize to, the one it can't bear to disappoint again, reflected in his heir. Words are tied up in his throat until another Ruler steps up. "Monarch, you must understand that we cannot lose– He raises his hand to the sea of Korea– this . You have defeated our greatest enemies by yourself, and we thank you for that, but we cannot lose our best outcome for a simple bet."
"It isn't… a bet." Jin-Woo can hardly say. "I will kill it again, and all the other mona... I just... bring them back..." His breaths falter, this is the only hope he has, the only reason why he still kept fighting for so long, why he chose to go against the Dragon Emperor instead of simply going at its defense. He knew Ashborn could have taken care of the real thing, and maybe even done a better job at it if Jin-Woo let him take control over his body. He could have had it all in the Eternal Domain, become God and all live in a better version of his life all over again. He could ignore reality, they both would have had a better choice.
And here is the outcome of their desicion.
The rulers looked at each other, then the brightest turned to look at him. It's hands held the cup, almost levitating around it, soon the mana would overflow to its brim, they needed to be quick.
After what seemed like ages of silence, the leader sighed. "Do you, Shadow Monarch, accept the repercussions of doing this? We are to preserve this world as best as we can, and if it wasn't for you, every single life could have gone extinct... If you are to use this..." The Monarch felt his mind slipping in and out of his subconsciousness. " The whole world might die."
I won't let that happen.
Whatever it takes.
I can't let that happen.
I must protect everything in this world dear to me .
So please.
Jin-Woo couldn't feel his mouth anymore. He reached for the cup, weak fingers grasping at the air filled-mana, the healing stopped, his blood fell out again.
Please .
Weak!
Weak!
Weak!
The Fragment of Transparency kept shouting back at the Brightest. Their whole work is useless, their whole lives are meaningless, they have tried time and time again to protect such worlds, to keep moving on despite the many soldiers that die from both sides. Though they don't know how the Monarchs feel about their losses, Transparency has made it quite clear that those beings of darkness would never feel the same loss and grief as they do. So it was all the more reason for Transparency to get mad, to be filled with rage as the cup stopped flowing with mana and instead came to absorb all the mana around them.
The Fragment of Life gave no thought in this as it lay there, looking at the last remnants of the Shadow Monarch disintegrating with the wind. And the other Rulers... well they had no sway in the matter before the Cup filled everything up in a big void of clarity. The sensation of intense light was strong as a bomb that could destroy the whole universe.
That's when the unexpected happened.
Instead of the usual blinding light, all the 7 dimensions shook by its power. The World Tree glowed for the first time, its branches appeared among the darkness of space like a chameleon as big as the milky way. Every dark spot in the universe was now filled with lights made of rainbows and darkness that could not be the simple darkness seen with the naked eye.
Khaos.
In what seemed like a second, a whole year has passed, then in ten, a decade.
Something suddenly took a turn. The lights started to shatter, the past could be heard and listened, the subconsciousness of more than just the Rulers and the Monarchs began to slip in, to flow in the river only reserved for those powerful enough. It started as a small spark first, then a crack, until finally, a sudden break between reality.
The Tree disappeared again. The lights dimmed. The colors that were never known faded out of existence. The darkness became much more bearable to look at.
Mana was no longer anywhere on Earth.
Supposedly.
The Brightest Fragment opened up its eyes and found itself sitting upon the former throne of the Absolute Being. Next to it were The Fragment of Life and The Fragment of Magic. Their armor had been off at that time, revealing Life to be an androgynous angel, while Magic held off its identity behind a large cloak.
The Brightest sat up, its senses keen as it looked around to discern where that wave of mana running towards the castle came from. Regaining the last set of memories, The Ruler among Rulers felt as though they could deal with Transparency's anger later. Right now, the Brightest turned to Life and Magic instead as it asked:
"Did any of you feel the sudden cracks between the travels?"
"Cracks!?" Magic went first. "You call that cracks?! I can already sense The World Tree's branches falling out and disintegrating! Aura, you know what that means right?"
It knows, it very well knows and can feel the consequences coming to them. It also knows how to act all composed despite most of the World Tree's pain being transferred through the mana waves. It can be dealt with, Brightest reassures itself.
The reason why the Cup of Reincarnation is used so sparingly is because of things like this.
The Absolute Being created the Cup of Reincarnation with a limit, not a limit to be used, but a limit to be handled. The Rulers would have to give the cup a lot of mana in turn of traveling back in time for only a decade. For minimum it would take a Solar System's worth of Mana, if said system had more than 50 planets all with high abundance of Mana that is. A hundred suns could also be a good trade, but the magic worked mostly separate to physical matter so it wouldn't be of much use unless they were desperate.
However, due to the quick actions of the Brightest Fragment, the World Tree had to sacrifice its own mana to restore the balance, and even then, it wasn't enough, cracks still appeared.
They can feel it. It can feel it.
Some memories lingered.
Other memories were closed off.
Some still held their powers.
Others lost it all.
None of this made sense.
All the separations were so random.
More than a dozen people all around the world, at night, suddenly woke up in a world without monsters, without their skills or power or gates. They tried to calm their migraines down, some began to cry and wail out. Others thought it was a bad dream. A few even went back to sleep again in hopes to learn more or to ease the pain.
Some saw 10 years of their life go by, others saw only a glimpse of a day close to a man whose shadows fought against huge dragons. A few even had a small month worth of knowledge.
Dreams of all kinds.
In the middle of it all was a little boy who just woken up, not due to the sudden noises of his father screaming, or his sister crying due to a bad dream, or even his mother trying to soothe their worries.
Instead he felt something in his chest beating loudly, so loudly it just had to wake him up in the middle of the night, his dream covered in darkness, only pure darkness until he was back in his tiny bedroom.
And for a moment, Jin-Woo could swear he saw a pair of blue eyes staring back at him through the mirror in his room.