Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

He ran with all his might while using his power in the meantime to skip the time and reach the temple as soon as possible. After closing the distance a little bit, he suddenly heard a voice in his ears.

-Don’t go!

-It’s already late!

-Don’t!

-It’ll cost you a lot. Stop there!

“Shut up!”

Alan yelled at the unknown voice and ran even faster. He had to go there no matter what. Even if he lost his life, he didn’t care.

“Please...”

.....

Please be alive.

He didn’t mutter the last two words, he didn’t dare to even think about the possibility.

‘I survived that purple light, so they must be alive as well!’

With that in mind, Alan pushed away all the thoughts about his friends being dead and rushed to the temple. After a few seconds, he could finally see the white pillars from the distance.

But then, he gradually slowed down until he stopped in his tracks.

What he saw before his eyes was blood. Blood and more blood everywhere. The ground was wet and the white walls of the temple were dyed red. The crimson light from the moon was illuminating the scene, making the red seem redder.

“Ah!”

At that moment, a faint gasp was heard from somewhere. Alan took one step forward and stepped into the bloodied ground. Inside the temple, he could see his friends sprawled on the ground in different locations.

A device was rotating in the center of the altar, but there seemed to be something wrong with it as the device was making weird noises and a black liquid was dripping down from it.

Elin was sitting down, leaning his back on one of the pillars, his eyes closed. Blood was oozing out of his mouth, nose, and from the deep wound on his chest. In front of him, one of the marks engraved on the ground had a few missing parts.

Tap

Alan took another step forward.

Laying down on the cold ground, Ella’s eyes were wide open. Her right hand was chopped off and was nowhere to be seen, and her stomach had a huge hole in it. Her eyes were open, but blank and lifeless.

Tap

Alan took one more step forward.

“A-ah...”

A man with long white hair was standing beside the device with a grim and angry expression. Holding two pieces of artifacts in one hand and a woman was dangling by her neck from the man’s other hand. Blood was dripping down from the wounds on the woman’s body and her body was trembling slightly.

Upon noticing him, the man as well as the woman turned their gazes on Alan. He locked eyes with the woman the man was suffocating. His fiance opened and closed her mouth, but no voice left his lips. Seeing that it was useless, Matilda raised the edges of his lips, forming a faint, pained smile. Her eyes closed in that instant and her body became limp.

“AAAAHHH!!”

A loud yell came from behind the holy saint, and another man jumped out from behind the door. He moved his sword and sliced down and sent blazing balls of fire towards the holy saint. The crown on Stefan’s head was glowing abnormally and his attacks were unusually powerful.

However, he didn’t manage to leave a scratch on their enemy. With a flip of his hand, the holy saint slapped Stefan with a wave of thunderbolts, sending the man back to the wall as if he was a fly. The holy saint tossed the corpse of the woman down to the ground and turned back, walking towards Stefan who was barely standing up on his feet.

“Those artifacts... They are amazing... huh...”

He mumbled in a way that looked as if he was thinking while talking. His voice had mixed feelings of disappointment and rage in it, as well as a little bit of confusion.

“To think that they could inflict such damage...” He walked, and almost stumbled toward Stefan. His face looked like a man who had lost everything he had.

“Hah!” Stefan scoffed as he leaned on the wall. “Seeing your face makes me think that we were successful, huh? Were we, Mr. Strange Voice?” He raised the edges of his lips, grinning at the holy saint as if he was the victor despite knowing that he was about to die. “Who would’ve thought the great plan of the holy saint would be ruined by a small crack on that shitty device! Pfft!”

ZAAAAAPPPP

A huge thunderbolt was sent toward Stefan. The emperor didn’t even have the time to raise his sword or cast a shield. The red thunderbolt hit his body and burned almost half of it in an instant. Stefan’s body fell down, his hand was torn and his entire body was burnt, but he still didn’t beg for mercy or try to run away. He was still giving the holy saint the same happy look, although his expression was stained with pain.

Without thinking or even hesitating a little, the holy saint raised his hand up and formed another thunderbolt. He was about to lower his hand when he stopped his actions after hearing a voice.

“No...” It was the voice of the golden-haired youth who was staggering towards them with a lost face. “This... stop it...”

He glanced at the lifeless body of her loved future wife, and then at the bodies of his friends. He glanced at the broken device and then at the half-dead emperor.

‘This can’t happen.’

He repeated in his mind.

‘This can’t happen. This can’t happen.’

Almost instantly, Alan grabbed the ring that was on his finger.

-You shouldn’t do it

-It’ll only make things worse!

-You’ll be wasting their efforts. They’ve already succeeded!

Alan didn’t listen to the voice. He closed his eyes and absorbed all the power he could take out of the bracelet. He activated his power at the same time and the scenes before him started to rapidly change. They changed more and more. His body became transparent and he could see ‘Himself’ taking steps backward as the time was moving back. He walked back until he couldn’t be seen. The blood on the ground went back to the bodies and the bodies moved up. The torn limps were restored and moved to their right spots.

However, the time was once again stopped right before anyone could be brought to life. Alan, however, didn’t let go of the time this time. His head was buzzing and blood was dripping down his nose, but he kept on using his power. He resisted and held on to the ring.

Crack

He heard a cracking sound from the ring on his finger. Once he looked at it, he could see a small crack on the artifact’s surface and at the same time, the ‘stop’ he had reached in time suddenly vanished, letting the time move further back at once.

‘I... I did it...’

Alan looked in a daze at how his friends got restored one by one, regained their consciousness, and came back to life. He watched as all the things moved back and back until he reached the point right after the blast of the purple light.

Alan let go of his power at that point. His transparent body faded and his vision went back to where he was standing just after the purple light slaughtered the whole army.

‘How did I succeed this time...’

Although he could bring his friends back to life, reviewing the soldiers was still impossible.

‘Is it because they also have the power of the artifacts that let them do things that normally can’t be done?’

That was the only thing Alan could think of, and he didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he hurriedly started to head back to the Temple of Dawn once again.

He ran even faster than before without wasting time trying to review the soldiers. His heart was racing with fear and anxiety and his eyes were bloodshot. He had turned back the time, but he still couldn’t take the picture of his fiance’s last smile off of his mind.

“That fucking beast!”

Alan cursed the holy saint as he increased his speed. The only thing in his mind was saving his friend, nothing more than that.

Probably that was why he didn’t notice how the strange patterns on the ring were glowing differently than usual or how his body had slightly changed.