The skies of H'Trae, once painted in brilliant golds and soft blues, had turned black.
No stars remained. No sun rose. No birds sang. No winds moved.
Only silence.
Then came the fire.
Flames that had no color, but burned hotter than anything that could ever exist in the realm of reality and imagination.
They swept across the lands like an inferno born of damnation, devouring forests, mountains, cities, and oceans alike. Nothing resisted. Not the fortified temples of the Eastern Continent, nor the sacred archives within the Fairy Kingdom.
All fell.
Everything burned.
The screams of the world faded into smoke.
The corpses of deities, legends, warriors, leaders, commoners, and beasts littered the ashen ground, bones disintegrating into powder under the weight of cosmic fire.
Everything alive was already gone.
Now the world followed.
At the center of the dead world knelt Rey.
The wind did not touch him. The flames passed around him.
Yet, he could not move.
Chains—invincible and unseen—bound him to the last surviving platform of land in the midst of the crumbling world. Above him, the dark sky cracked with red lightning, and high above it all, two figures stood watching.
The first was pale and slender, with skin like bleached bone, and eyes that devoured the light around them. The other was taller and more muscular, cloaked in shadows that moved like serpents around his limbs.
Their presence didn't just distort the air—it corrupted it.
Rey clenched his fists.
"Who are you?"
He got no response, and the scene quickly changed to a much smaller confine.
His home… or rather, what was left of it.
Inside this place which once burst with laughter and warmth, his wife and the children lay still. They were drenched in black blood, drowned in what felt like corrupt, mucky thick liquid that resembled dirty oil more than blood.
Their eyes empty. Their chests unmoving.
They were no longer of this world.
Dead.
"No…"
Rey's voice cracked.
The world trembled as he tried to rise, tears slipping from his eyes.
"No, please! Lucielle… Aris… Myra… Elias… don't—!"
Seated in a wooden chair, reclined like a king on a throne, was the one who had done it. Black horns curved from his skull. His eyes were bottomless pits of eerie darkness, and the aura around him was more than divine.
It was ancient—more ancient than anything Rey had ever witnessed.
"I am Zagan," the figure said, smiling. "One of the Twelve Archdukes who serve the Ancient Chaos God."
Ater, despite his pain, groaned in sheer defiance.
Rey stared, broken. "Why…?"
"You made a mistake," Zagan said, voice smooth as silk and sharp as razors. "When those incompetent Angels failed to track your little pocket reality, we hunted. We found it. And now, because of what you've done, you've become a threat."
Rey tried to speak, but coughed blood.
"We'll burn this world to ash. And you—" The one called Zagan pointed at Rey.
"—will watch. Powerless."
Rey clenched his fists.
Rage and grief fused into something unholy.
He tried to rise.
He tried to speak—to do something!
But he couldn't.
He had never felt so broken.
So weak.
"I'll let you ask one question," Zagan offered mockingly. "A gift… before annihilation."
Rey lifted his head, his voice quiet but cold.
"Do you think… you'll live… after doing this… to my family?"
Zagan smiled.
"The world of H'Trae is nothing but a speck," he said. "And you, pathetic worm, are even less."
He stood, towering over them both, shadows stretching behind him like claws.
"This is the end of the line," he declared. "Everything about your story ends… here."
And Rey could only watch the shadows close in as Zagan's overpowering voice echoed throughout the entire world—everything he had ever known and loved.
"Now watch as we destroy it all."
******
Rey's eyes slowly slipped open once the dream, or rather nightmare, ended
The place he found himself in wasn't H'Trae, but instead the Desgarron Estate: more specifically, the room he had been given as the Young Master's slave.
Looking around him, he was silent.
His tired gaze rested on the recently added mirror in his room and he looked upon his reflection.
All he saw was a stranger.
The memories of his past life continued to stir in him as he remembered everything about that world which he came to love and cherish.
And how it was taken away from him by those two—
Zagan and Bal'aam.
Even now, Rey hadn't forgotten them; their names, and what they looked like.
Zagan was pale, slim and composed, garbed in black ceremonial robes woven with blood-thread that perfectly matched the black horns protruding out of his head. His body was draped in a shroud of immense energy, and six red rings floated behind him like fragmented halos. His face was cruelly handsome, carved in the perfect image of a god, and twisted by something ancient and unfeeling.
His partner, Bal'aam, was quieter—taller, larger, and far more inhuman. Eyes that spun like spirals of void, with a mouth that seemed far too wide and moved without sound.
Together, they were the end incarnate.
They had won.
'They destroyed my world without mercy, and all of a sudden I found myself here.' Rey thought in silence.
'It's unthinkable that those two made a mistake, considering how thorough they were with the destruction. So how did I survive?'
He still had no clue.
'Then, if I was reincarnated, is there a chance that—?' Rey paused in his thoughts before shaking his head.
Due to the mysteries surrounding his death and reincarnation, he was nearly tempted to consider the possibility of his wife and children being reincarnated alongside him.
But how could that be possible?
Unlike him, they didn't possess all the Skills and Titles of H'Trae.
It was due to this power that he was able to protect his world and hide from those Ancient Gods for so long.
But it was all for naught in the end.
'My reincarnation likely had to do with my possession of the Six Primeval Skills and that Title.' He had to admit to himself. 'No one else had all of them, which means…'
Everyone was gone.
He had to accept that fact.
The sooner he did, the faster he could acclimate to his current reality and focus on his revenge.
'It turns out I fell unconscious after being struck by Amara's move…' Rey stretched his limbs, finding everything to be in perfect condition.
It seemed Amara had used that Potion on him again.
'If that's the case, let's see just how much my Ether Core has grown…' Rey closed his eyes and sent his consciousness to the pool of universal energy hidden within him.
The next thing he witnessed shocked him to the bone.
[A/N: Those from An Extra's POV will surely notice a few things, but for the new readers… I actually think it's better that you are reading this with fresh eyes. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.]