Location: The Southern Border – The Ash-Fall Jungle
Time: 08:00 Hours (Cycle Count: Unknown)
The journey South was a descent into hell, but not a hell of fire. It was a hell of grey.
Aris and Nox stood at the edge of the Ash-Fall Jungle. It was a massive rainforest that encircled the base of the Volcano of Eternal Ash. But the trees here were not green. They were petrified charcoal, standing like twisted, blackened skeletons against a sky that was choked with thick, grey clouds.
Ash fell from the sky like snow. It was soft, silent, and relentless. It coated the ground in a layer of soot three feet deep.
[Environmental Analysis: Zone of Temporal Instability]
[Atmospheric Hazard: Volcanic Particulates.]
[Temperature: 45°C (Sweltering).]
[Anomaly Detected: Local Time Flow is... circular.]
Aris reached out and caught a snowflake of ash. It didn't melt on his glove. It crumbled into dust, then—right before his eyes—the dust swirled backward, reforming into a flake, and floated up a few inches before falling again.
"Glitching," Aris whispered. "The server creates the ash, deletes it, then reloads the save file before it hits the ground."
Nox sneezed. The ash was clogging his shadowy nose. The Eclipse Hound looked miserable; the humidity here was thick enough to swim in, making his fur damp and heavy.
"Let's move," Aris commanded, activating the Void-Walker's Mantle to filter the air. "General Thorne should be at the base of the volcano."
The Jungle of Echoes
They moved deeper into the jungle. The silence was unnerving. There were no birds. No insects. Only the soft hiss of ash landing on ash.
Suddenly, Aris stopped.
"Movement."
A Fire-Scale Panther emerged from the blackened brush. It was a Level 30 beast, its skin glowing with internal magma veins.
It didn't attack. It walked with a strange, jerky gait.
As Aris watched, the panther stepped on a hidden vent of steam.
BOOM.
The vent exploded, scalding the panther. The beast screamed, collapsed, and died. Its body began to burn, turning to ash.
Aris watched, expecting to harvest the core.
But ten seconds later, the ash pile swirled. A red light flashed.
The Fire-Scale Panther materialized again, perfectly healthy, standing in the exact same spot it had emerged from. It took a step. It stepped on the steam vent.
BOOM.
It screamed. It died.
Aris watched it happen three times. The exact same scream. The exact same death animation.
"It's not just a loop," Aris noted, his skin crawling. "It's a localized reset. The environment is trapping souls in their final moments."
He looked up at the massive Volcano looming in the distance. The peak was shrouded in red lightning.
"The Vermilion Bird governs Rebirth. But if that power goes haywire... Rebirth becomes a prison."
The Immaculate Camp
Two hours later, they reached the Imperial Blockade.
Aris expected to see a war camp. He expected trenches, mud, wounded soldiers, and the chaos of a siege.
Instead, he found a parade ground.
The tents of the Imperial Navy were set up in perfect, geometric lines. The banners of the Great Qin Empire were crisp and clean, fluttering in the hot wind without a single tear or scorch mark.
The soldiers patrolling the perimeter were wearing Black Jade Armor that looked like it had just been polished. There was no soot on their faces. No dents in their shields.
"They've been here for weeks," Aris murmured to Nox. "Why do they look like they just marched out of the capital this morning?"
He rode Nox toward the main gate.
"Halt!" A guard shouted, lowering his spear. "State your business... wait. That mask."
The guard's eyes went wide. He dropped to one knee instantly.
"The Pale Alchemist! Forgive me, my Lord! We... we were not expecting you until next month!"
"Next month?" Aris frowned behind his mask. "I sent a transmission yesterday saying I was coming."
The guard looked confused. "Yesterday? But... the comms array hasn't been set up yet, my Lord. We only arrived this morning."
Aris froze.
We only arrived this morning.
"Take me to General Thorne," Aris ordered, his voice cold.
The Father Who Forgot
The Command Tent was a masterpiece of organization. Maps were laid out perfectly flat. Tea was steaming on the table.
General Thorne stood in the center, reviewing a scroll.
[Character Analysis: General Thorne]
[Level: 56 (Nascent Soul - Early Stage)]
[Status: Healthy / energetic.]
[Hidden Status: Temporal Degradation (Memory Fragmenting).]
General Thorne looked younger than the last time Aris saw him. The stress lines around his eyes were gone. His posture was upright, filled with the vigor of a man starting a new campaign.
He looked up as Aris entered.
"Aris?" The General blinked, a smile breaking across his stern face. "My son! What are you doing here? I thought you were in the Capital managing the Emperor."
"I came to help with the Bird," Aris said slowly, walking closer. "Father, how long have you been here?"
"We just made camp," Thorne laughed, gesturing to the map. "Made excellent time. The fleet docked at sunrise. We are preparing to send the first scout team up the volcano in..." he checked his pocket watch, "...one hour."
Aris looked at the map. It was blank. No enemy positions marked. No hazards identified.
"Father," Aris said softly. "You sent a scout team yesterday. They didn't come back."
Thorne frowned. He looked genuinely puzzled. "Yesterday? Aris, you must be tired from the journey. We haven't sent anyone yet. Look, the roster is full."
He pointed to a list of names on the table.
Aris scanned the list.
[Captain Li]
[Lieutenant Wang]
[Sergeant Zhou]
Aris remembered these names. He had received a casualty report three days ago stating these men had been incinerated by a Fire-Cloud ambush.
Yet here they were, standing outside the tent, laughing and cleaning their spears.
"I see," Aris said, realizing the horror of the situation.
The entire army was dead. Or rather, they died every day, and at sunrise, the Vermilion Bird resurrected them, wiped their memories, and set them back to 'Start'.
They were ghosts who didn't know they were haunting the jungle.
The Trigger Event
"Well!" Thorne clapped his hands. "You are just in time for the war council. But first, let's have lunch. The cooks have prepared a fresh roast."
Aris sat down. He watched his father eat. He watched the soldiers outside drill with enthusiasm.
It was a tragedy playing out in real-time.
Suddenly, a bell rang across the camp.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
"Alert!" A sentry shouted. "Movement at the tree line! It's the Fire-Cloud Tribe!"
Thorne stood up, his eyes flashing with battle-lust. "Ambush? On the first day? Bold! Men, to arms! Repel them!"
The soldiers cheered. They drew their weapons and charged out of the camp, formation perfect, morale high.
Aris didn't move. He sat in the tent, sipping his tea.
"System," Aris checked the time. 12:00 PM.
"This is the scripted encounter," Aris deduced. "The 'Mid-Day Battle'."
He walked out of the tent.
He saw the Fire-Cloud Tribe. They were barbarians with skin like volcanic rock, wielding obsidian axes. They charged the Imperial line.
The battle was fierce. General Thorne led the charge, his spear glowing with Qi. He struck down three tribesmen.
"For the Empire!" Thorne roared.
Then, the mountain spoke.
The Reset
A low hum vibrated from the Volcano of Eternal Ash.
The ash falling from the sky stopped.
Then, it turned Red.
[Warning: Massive Energy Surge Detected.]
[Source: The Vermilion Bird.]
[Event: Solar Purge.]
A wave of fire—pure, blinding, white fire—erupted from the volcano's peak. It didn't flow like lava. It expanded like a bubble, washing over the jungle, the blockade, and the battlefield.
"What is—" General Thorne looked up.
The fire hit him.
It didn't burn him. It erased him.
Aris watched as his father, the soldiers, and the barbarians were instantly vaporized. The tents disintegrated. The jungle turned to light.
The fire wave hit Aris.
[Skill Activated: Void-Walker Phase-Shift.]
[Skill Activated: The Seal of the North.]
Aris layered his defenses. He stepped outside of reality, becoming a ghost in the timeline.
The fire passed through him. It felt like standing inside a nuclear explosion.
When the light faded, Aris was standing alone in a barren wasteland of grey glass.
No camp. No jungle. No father.
Just silence.
And then... time moved backward.
The glass ground cracked and turned back into dirt. The ash swirled up into the sky. The tents materialized from nothingness.
And finally, the people returned.
General Thorne flickered into existence, standing in the exact spot he had been before the battle started, holding his map.
He blinked.
"Aris?" Thorne smiled, looking at his son. "My son! What are you doing here? I thought you were in the Capital."
Aris stood there, the only person who remembered the fire.
He looked at his father—this tragic, looping construct—and felt a cold rage building in his heart.
"I am here to fix this," Aris whispered, though his father couldn't understand the context.
Aris turned to the Volcano.
The Bird wasn't just insane. It was screaming for help, and every time it screamed, it burned the world down.
[Quest Updated: The Broken Cycle]
[Objective: Break the Time Loop.]
[Clue: The loop resets at 12:00 PM (Solar Purge). You have 4 hours until the next wipe.]
Aris drew his Shadow Sword.
"Four hours," Aris calculated. "That's enough time to kill a god."