# CHAPTER 1: THE KINDEST SMILE
The rain fell like tears from a grieving sky, each drop carrying the weight of unspoken sorrow. In the ruins of what was once the prosperous merchant city of Valdris, a young man stood alone among the corpses.
His name was Mastrion.
"Is anyone alive?" His voice carried a warmth that seemed impossible in such devastation. "Please, if youcan hear me, make a sound. Any sound.
"Crimson hair plastered against his forehead, golden eyes scanning the rubble with desperate hope. Hemoved through the destruction with practiced grace, lifting fallen beams, checking beneath collapsedbuildings. His hands were gentle, even knowing he would likely find only death.
"I'm here to help," he whispered to the silence. "I promise.
"Three days ago, a horde of demons had swept through Valdris like a plague. The city guard had fallen inminutes. The adventurers' guild had been overwhelmed. Fifteen thousand people had lived here. Now, theonly sound was rain hitting stone and the occasional creak of unstable structures.
Mastrion had arrived too late.
Or had he?
His foot caught on something—not rubble, but fabric. A small hand clutched the hem of a torn dress.Mastrion's heart clenched. A child. He dropped to his knees, ignoring the sharp stones cutting through his pants.
"Hey," he said softly, clearing debris with desperate efficiency. "Hey, I've got you. You're safe now.
"The little girl couldn't have been more than seven. Blonde hair matted with blood and dust, her face pale asdeath itself. But her chest moved. Shallow, weak, but it moved.
"Stay with me," Mastrion pleaded, pulling her free from the rubble. He cradled her against his chest, his handglowing with soft golden light—healing magic, raw and untrained but fueled by pure determination. "Pleasestay with me. I won't let you die. Not you too.
"The girl's eyes fluttered open. Blue, like a summer sky he'd almost forgotten existed.
"Am... am I dreaming?" she whispered.
"No," Mastrion smiled, and it was the most genuine expression of relief the world had ever seen. Tearsmixed with rain on his cheeks. "You're alive. You survived. You're so strong.
""Everyone else...
""Shhh. Don't think about that now. Just breathe. Just keep breathing for me, okay?
"The healing magic flowed from his hands, knitting broken bones, sealing torn flesh. It would exhaust himcompletely, but he didn't care. One life. If he could save just one life from this nightmare, then perhaps—
"You're glowing," the girl said, wonder creeping into her weak voice.
"Am I?" Mastrion looked at his hands as if seeing them for the first time. The golden light had intensified,warm and pure. "I guess I am.
""Like an angel.
"Mastrion's smile faltered for just a fraction of a second—so brief that even the most observant wouldn'tcatch it. Then it returned, brighter than before.
"No," he said gently. "Just a traveler who got here as fast as he could. My name is Mastrion. What's yours?
""Lily.
""That's a beautiful name. Lily, I need you to do something for me. Can you hold on while I check for othersurvivors? I'll keep my magic connected to you—you'll feel warm the whole time. But I need to search.Others might need help too.
"Lily nodded weakly. Mastrion carefully set her down on a relatively stable piece of wall, maintaining thehealing connection through a thread of golden light. He moved through the ruins with renewed urgency.
Two hours later, he'd found sixteen survivors. Sixteen people pulled from the jaws of death through sheerstubborn refusal to accept their fate. Men, women, children—Mastrion treated them all with the samedesperate care, the same gentle words, the same reassuring smile
.By the time the sun broke through the clouds, painting the ruins in shades of gold and crimson, Mastrionhad collapsed from magical exhaustion. The survivors gathered around him, this stranger who had giveneverything to save them.
"Who is he?" one of them whispered.
"I don't know," said another. "But he's a hero.
"Mastrion, barely conscious, heard these words. Something flickered in his golden eyes—too complex toname, too quick to catch. Then he smiled that warm, kind smile and passed out.
What none of them saw was the truth hidden behind his closed eyelids. In that darkness, Mastrion's minddrifted not to dreams, but to memories that stretched back further than any human lifespan should allow.
*Cycle 47,832,419,* he thought distantly. *Valdris falls right on schedule. Save 15-20 survivors. Establishreputation as wandering hero. Begin recruitment phase.
**Everything proceeds as calculated.
**Everything always does.
*But even as these cold, clinical thoughts echoed through the vast emptiness of his consciousness, a singleanomaly persisted. One variable that had appeared in the last seven million cycles and refused disappear.
A presence. Watching him. Always watching.
Mastrion's unconscious smile widened ever so slightly.
*She's close. She's always close when it begins.
*My eternal witness. My beautiful constant.*
*Soon, Seraphine. Soon we'll meet again, and you'll look at me with those sad, knowing eyes, and we'lldance this dance one more time.
*The rain had stopped. Sunlight warmed his face. The survivors called him a miracle.
And in the shadows of a half-collapsed building a hundred meters away, a young woman with silver-whitehair and violet eyes watched the scene with an expression of infinite sorrow.
She had seen this exact moment seven million, four hundred and thirty-two thousand, six hundred and nineteen times.
She knew what came next.
She knew how it would end.
And still, her heart ached at the sight of his smile.
"Hello again, Mastrion," Seraphine whispered to the wind, her voice carrying a weight of eons. "Let's see ifthis time is different.
"She knew it wouldn't be.She always stayed anyway.
...