---
Kael Arden gasped for air as if emerging from a long, suffocating nightmare.
The cold wind slapped his skin, and the scent of ash lingered on the breeze. He lay sprawled in the middle of a ruined temple—columns cracked, moonlight piercing through shattered ceilings, and faded blood smears on the marble beneath him. Again.
He blinked.
Alive.
> No flames. No collapsing skies. No screaming gods. Not this time...
Slowly, he sat up. His joints cracked like old stone gates being forced open. His shirt was torn, and the skin beneath his ribcage still burned with a faint, circular sigil glowing red—like it always did after he died.
But he already knew what this meant.
This was the start of a new loop.
The 1000th, if his count was right.
---
Kael stared into the cracked mirror lying next to a broken altar. Same face. Same silver hair. Same tired, haunted eyes.
He looked like a young man in his early twenties, but his soul... had been stretched across centuries, deaths, wars, betrayals, and worlds no one else even remembered.
> "999 deaths… and the world still spins like none of them happened."
He rose slowly, dust falling from his shoulders like the memories of those who forgot him.
This temple. This location. He knew it.
This was where Loop #231 ended, when he sacrificed his own heart to prevent the collapse of the Skyveil Rift.
And now he was back.
Back again.
Always back again.
---
Suddenly, a small voice pierced the silence.
> "You came late this time, didn't you?"
Kael froze.
A little boy stood at the entrance of the ruined temple, barefoot, eyes glowing faint gold. His clothes were worn, and he held a cracked pocket watch in his hand.
Kael narrowed his eyes. He didn't remember this boy. And he never encountered anyone this early into a loop.
> "You shouldn't be here," Kael said coldly. "This place is locked out of the new cycle until Year 2."
The boy just smiled. "They tried to erase me. Like they erased you."
Kael's expression darkened.
> "Who sent you?" he asked. His hand twitched toward the hilt of a blade that hadn't materialized yet. His powers were always slow to return after a reset.
The boy stepped closer, holding up the broken watch.
> "It cracked during your 812th death. Remember when you failed to save the Time Weaver? That was my sister."
Kael's breath caught.
> No one should remember that timeline.
Not unless…
> "...You're slipping through the loops too," Kael muttered. "Like me."
The boy nodded.
> "You aren't the only fracture in the system anymore."
---
A deep tremor echoed beneath the temple. The moonlight flickered. The Loop was unstable.
Kael looked up at the sky—clouds spiraling like reversed whirlpools. The wind howled unnaturally, like a dying machine trying to reboot.
And for the first time in 999 cycles, Kael felt it—
The loop didn't reset cleanly.
There were cracks in the world.
People might remember.
The system was breaking.
And that meant one thing:
> "I don't have to play the hero anymore," he whispered. "I can end this."
---
The boy's eyes widened. "You're going to kill it, aren't you? The Loop System?"
Kael didn't answer. He didn't need to.
He turned toward the temple steps, walking into the pale moonlight with steady resolve.
> "After 999 deaths… I finally understand," he said.
"This world never wanted to be saved. It just wanted a savior to feed on."
He paused, then glanced at the boy.
> "Tell your sister: I'm done being the puppet."
And with that, Kael disappeared into the cracked reality of a world that once forgot him—now trembling at the memory of who he used to be.
---
[End of Chapter 1]
---To be continued....