Akrivos awoke in a strange place. Dust covered the ground, the air scorched with heat, and his chest throbbed with unbearable pain. Naked, he clutched his chest, searching for any clue to what was happening.
Suddenly, a shadowed figure approached. His lower half visible, clad in black, while his upper body was swallowed in darkness. His voice thundered, harsh and commanding:
"How many times must you learn that everything I restored served one purpose: to create the promised one… and forge his darkest past.
I am the one who controls the trilogy."
The man stopped abruptly, pressed a seal into Akrivos's chest, and agony like an explosion tore through him. Then, in an instant, his body dissolved—he woke from the nightmare.
Blinking in confusion, Akrivos looked around.
"Where am I?" he muttered.
The commander sat beside him, while Kain lingered nearby. Akrivos glanced at the commander's hand. Nothing.
"Where's the mark on your hand?" he demanded.
The commander frowned. "What mark?"
"The one I asked you about days ago… how long has it been, Kain?"
"Three days," Kain replied.
The commander drew a sharp breath. "I haven't been in the city for a month. I was training villagers to defend themselves."
Akrivos froze. "What? But I saw you here. Right, Kain?"
Kain hesitated, staring at the floor. "Yes, you were here. You even sent me out so you could speak with—" He stopped, shocked.
"Why did you stop?" Akrivos asked.
Kain pointed at the commander, who was drenched in sweat, trembling in fear. Slowly, the commander pulled a folded paper from his pocket.
"Was this the mark you saw?"
"Yes," Akrivos whispered.
The commander's expression twisted with rage. He drew a pistol, his voice cracking with fury:
"You're working with him, aren't you? Who are you working with?!"
He pulled the trigger—yet his hand was suddenly severed. Out of nothingness emerged a man with the same strange mark Akrivos had seen before. The intruder seized the commander, strangled him, then tore his head away before the body erupted in flame.
Turning to Akrivos, the man slammed a fist into his chest, and the world collapsed.
---
A new realm unfolded. The marked stranger stood before Akrivos.
"This is the last time you'll see me. Not again for many years. But first…"
"Where am I?" Akrivos asked, shaken.
"Silence," the figure hissed. "The end doesn't wait for its time. It can strike before the beginning. The end is the beginning. Everything repeats. No brighter tomorrow—only tomorrow's yesterday. No yesterday's tomorrow. Don't try to understand. Just listen."
Then everything vanished.
Akrivos awoke once more, naked, on a bed in the Fifth Division's compound. Beside him stood someone familiar yet strange.
"Who are you?" Akrivos asked.
The man smiled faintly, exhausted.
"I thought you were dead… Finally, you woke up. Damn it… I'm Kain, your cousin. We're here because Vice Commander Fiorger insisted, after the commander gave him orders the day before he died. I don't know why. But it doesn't matter now."
Akrivos's eyes widened. "How long since I collapsed during the attack—when the marked one killed the commander?"
Kain's reply was heavy, almost reluctant.
"Nine years."