Prologue – The Final Stand of the Inner Star
> "And the heavens... split open."
The sky was no longer the sky.
It was torn, cracked like shattered glass, bleeding with streaks of crimson lightning. Dimensional fractures spiraled through the atmosphere, pouring forth nightmarish beasts from beyond the stars. They descended upon the land like locusts, screaming in tongues no man should understand.
From the broken rift of the Tower, the great gateway between dimensions, an army of chaos surged forth. Not just monsters—entities, things that should not exist, not in this realm. They were known as the Outer Star, beings born from void and betrayal.
And in the middle of this collapsing world, seven figures stood—bloodied, battered, barely breathing.
They were the last lights in the dark.
They were called the Inner Star.
Cyrus, Mjolnir, Gaia, Chrono, Alexander, Kim Sunghoo, and Ronova. Each of them legends. Each of them strong enough to cleave worlds or bend reality. And yet now, bruised and on their knees, they stood side by side like brothers and sisters facing the end.
All around them, the war raged.
Above them, the Tower cracked with divine thunder.
In front of them, Spatial Wen—the devourer of time—floated effortlessly, surrounded by the Outer Star who mocked them with crooked smiles and apocalyptic laughter.
Cyrus spit blood and barked a laugh. "We look like shit."
Alexander smirked, his greatsword broken in half. "We've always looked like shit. That's our style."
Gaia giggled softly, wiping blood from her lip. "We should've taken that vacation to Andaris 7."
Mjolnir grunted. "That resort was bombed last week."
Their laughter cut through the tension like a knife. For a brief moment, they were just friends. Human. Mortal. Holding on.
But then Chrono spoke, and the air froze.
"We lost."
His voice wasn't loud. But it silenced all things.
"We didn't just lose… We were crushed."
No one argued. The silence was heavy with truth.
Then Chrono, his face pale and gaunt from channeling forbidden time energy, reached into the space between realities and pulled something out. A fragment of light, shaped like a broken wing.
"I built this," he said. "Over a hundred years of my life. This is the Eclipse Wing, an artifact capable of sending a soul back… one hundred years. To before all of this."
The others turned toward him, eyes wide.
"Time regression?" Gaia whispered.
"More than that," Chrono said. "A chance to rewrite everything."
Hope bloomed for a breath. But then Chrono's eyes darkened.
"There's a problem."
He held up the wing. The right side… was missing.
"It's incomplete. The right wing was destroyed in the final battle against Wen's Annihilation Core. Without it, the soul won't be protected during time travel. The memories, the ego, even the identity—it will erode. They may forget everything. Or worse… be lost in the void of space and time."
The flame of hope flickered.
But Gaia stepped forward, her green aura pulsing with life. "Then… let me help."
She raised a delicate orb from her chest—her Life Seed. It glowed weakly.
"I'll create an auxiliary artifact. It won't restore the lost memories, but I can imprint partial guidance—visions, hints, coordinates. At the very least, they'll know when, where, and what to seek. Dungeons. Bosses. Items. And… the path to the Tower."
Chrono's eyes widened. "That's… that's enough."
"But there's a cost," Gaia whispered, smiling faintly. "My life force is nearly spent. This will be my last."
Everyone fell silent again.
Kim Sunghoo, the youngest among them, trembled. "Who… who will go back?"
One by one, they turned toward him.
He backed away. "No… not me. I'm the weakest—!"
"Exactly," Ronova said softly. "You're the one who must survive."
Cyrus nodded. "The rest of us are too well-known. The Outer Star will sense us. But you… you're overlooked. Invisible. Perfect."
"But I—"
"Sunghoo," Gaia interrupted, voice gentle. "We trust you. That's why we chose you."
Tears welled in his eyes. "I don't want to forget you…"
Chrono suddenly froze.
"They're watching."
Everyone turned. From the fractured void, Spatial Wen hovered—smirking, cruel, and amused.
Beside him, the Outer Star clapped slowly.
"You think you can reset this timeline?" Wen sneered. "Do it. Let us see you crawl back into the past and fail again."
Chrono clenched his fist. "Now, Sunghoo! Turn the wheel!"
With trembling hands and tears falling freely, Kim Sunghoo touched the core of the broken Eclipse Wing. The world exploded with light. Time cracked. Space warped. The battlefield disintegrated.
He looked one last time at his friends—smiling, proud, fading.
And then—
Darkness.
> "Regression… initiated."
"Memory system: Partial Integration – Gaia Protocol 01."
"Anchor set: Year 3440."
"Searching for body… soul transfer commencing…