The Tower cracked.
Not shook.
Not trembled.
It cracked — like the sky itself had split open.
Arav Sen felt the fracture before he heard it. A violent pulse tore through the 97th floor, shattering stone pillars and ripping the battlefield apart. The air compressed, then exploded outward in a storm of debris and burning mana.
Someone screamed.
Then the screaming stopped.
"Back! Everyone back!" Dante's voice roared through the chaos, flames erupting around him in a blinding spiral.
Too late.
The Shadow Sovereign moved.
It didn't run. It didn't leap.
It simply shifted.
One moment it stood fifty meters away — a towering silhouette of black armor and writhing mist — the next it was inside their formation.
Raghav didn't even raise his shield.
A blade of condensed darkness passed through his chest.
Clean.
Effortless.
Raghav looked down at the hole in his armor as if confused. Then his body collapsed in two separate pieces.
Arav didn't flinch.
He couldn't afford to.
[HP: 18%]
[Warning: Severe Mana Depletion]
He rolled under a sweep of black energy that carved through the wall behind him like paper. The impact detonated the chamber, chunks of enchanted stone flying like shrapnel.
Ninety-seven floors climbed.
Ninety-seven battles survived.
And this was where humanity's strongest raid team was about to die.
Dante launched forward, Solar Core blazing. White-hot fire wrapped around his body as he punched straight into the Sovereign's chest.
The explosion lit the chamber like a second sun.
For one heartbeat, hope returned.
Then the fire went out.
The Sovereign's hand closed around Dante's throat.
Flames flickered weakly.
"Arav!" Dante gasped.
That name.
In the first timeline, this was the moment Arav hesitated.
Not this time.
He activated everything.
[Skill: Chrono Mark – Triggered]
[Time Dilation: 3 seconds]
The world slowed.
Sound distorted.
Dust hung in the air like frozen stars.
Arav lunged.
He drove his blade toward the Sovereign's exposed neck — the only weak point they had discovered after months of bloodshed.
One perfect strike.
One chance.
The blade connected.
And shattered.
The Sovereign's armor didn't crack.
It absorbed.
Time snapped back into place.
The backlash hit Arav like a freight train.
He flew across the chamber, spine slamming into a pillar so hard the stone split on impact. Something inside his chest collapsed.
[HP: 3%]
[Internal Damage: Critical]
Dante's neck snapped.
The Solar Core extinguished.
Silence spread across the battlefield.
Only Arav remained alive.
The Sovereign turned.
Its faceless helm tilted slightly, as if studying him.
Arav tried to stand.
His legs failed.
Blood filled his mouth.
So this was it.
The last human raid attempt.
The final floor.
The end.
The Sovereign raised its blade.
And for the first time in his life, Arav felt something worse than fear.
He felt regret.
Not because he was dying.
But because he knew exactly when this could have been prevented.
Three years ago.
At the academy.
At the entrance ceremony.
When the Tower first appeared in the sky and everyone thought it was a miracle.
If only he had known.
If only—
The blade fell.
Darkness swallowed him.
Silence.
No pain.
No impact.
Just… stillness.
Then a voice.
Not loud.
Not soft.
Not male.
Not female.
Just present.
[Host terminated.]
Arav opened his eyes.
He wasn't dead.
He wasn't alive either.
He floated in a black void filled with faint, drifting lights.
System windows flickered around him — broken, corrupted.
[Analyzing Timeline Deviation…]
[Extinction Event Confirmed.]
[Regression Candidate: Compatible.]
His heart pounded.
Regression?
No.
That was impossible.
He had never unlocked such a function.
He had barely survived mid-tier floors until Dante recruited him.
This wasn't real.
[Would you like to reset?]
A single word hovered before him.
YES
NO
His mind raced.
Reset to when?
At what cost?
Who was offering this?
Was this the Sovereign's final illusion?
The void trembled.
Fragments of Earth flashed around him.
Burning cities.
Falling Towers.
Monsters flooding oceans.
Humanity erased.
[Extinction Probability: 100%]
If he chose no… everything ended.
If he chose yes…
He didn't know.
But he did know one thing.
He remembered the deaths.
He remembered the betrayals.
He remembered every single mistake.
His hand moved before doubt could stop it.
He pressed YES.
The void shattered.
Arav inhaled sharply.
Air.
Warm.
Clean.
His body jolted upright.
Noise surrounded him.
Crowds.
Voices.
Excitement.
He wasn't on the 97th floor.
He was sitting in a massive auditorium.
Banners hung from the ceiling.
"Welcome to the National Awakener Academy."
His breath stopped.
No.
No, no, no.
This was—
Three years ago.
The day the Tower appeared in the sky.
His hands trembled.
He looked down.
No scars.
No fractures.
No internal damage.
He checked instinctively.
No system windows.
No Chrono Mark cooldown.
Nothing.
Did it fail?
Did he hallucinate everything?
Then—
[Regression Successful.]
The translucent window materialized before his eyes.
[Current Date: March 3rd — Year 0]
[Time Remaining Until First Tower Descent: 72 Days]
His heart slammed against his ribs.
Seventy-two days.
Seventy-two days before the world changed.
Before monsters began descending.
Before guild wars.
Before Dante rose as humanity's hero.
Before Arav died as a forgotten support fighter.
His breathing slowed.
Think.
If this was real…
Then the timeline could be changed.
But how much did he remember?
He closed his eyes.
Fragments surfaced.
Key events.
Major deaths.
Critical turning points.
Not everything.
Only the moments tied to massive loss.
Like the system preserved trauma, not details.
His gaze lifted to the stage.
And froze.
Dante Virel stood there.
Alive.
Smiling.
Confident.
Unbroken.
The future "Solar King."
The man who would lead humanity's final charge.
The man who—
In the original timeline—
Had made the decision to abandon Floor 97.
A tactical retreat.
One that left half the team to die.
Including Arav.
Their eyes met.
Dante nodded casually.
Like strangers.
Which they were.
For now.
Arav felt something cold settle in his chest.
This time…
He wouldn't be abandoned.
The lights in the auditorium flickered.
A tremor passed through the building.
Gasps erupted.
Students rushed toward windows.
Outside—
The sky darkened.
And in the distance…
A single black structure pierced through the clouds.
The Tower.
Appearing seventy-two days early.
Arav's blood ran cold.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
A system alert exploded in front of his eyes.
[Timeline Deviation Detected.]
[Warning: Event Acceleration.]
The Tower wasn't meant to fall.
Not yet.
Someone changed something.
Or—
It changed because of him.
The ground shook violently.
Screams filled the academy.
Glass shattered.
And from the base of the newly formed Tower…
A gate opened.
Not in seventy-two days.
Now.
Monsters poured out.
Inside the academy walls.
Arav stood slowly.
Around him, students panicked.
Instructors shouted orders.
But he already knew.
This was one of the early extinction branches.
A rare catastrophic scenario.
And it wasn't supposed to happen in this timeline.
Unless—
His reset triggered it.
The system flickered again.
[Emergency Quest Activated.]
[Survive Initial Collapse.]
[Reward: Skill Unlock.]
[Failure: Permanent Death.]
Permanent.
No more resets.
So this wasn't unlimited.
Good to know.
The first creature burst through the main entrance.
Four meters tall.
Bone-plated limbs.
Multiple eyes rotating independently.
Exactly the same as the beasts from Floor 10.
But appearing at ground zero.
Too early.
Way too early.
An instructor charged forward with a spear.
He lasted three seconds.
The monster ripped him apart.
Blood painted the marble floor.
Students screamed.
Some awakened on the spot in shock.
Others froze.
Arav moved.
Not toward the exit.
Toward the monster.
If he let panic spread, the death count would spike.
He needed control.
He needed power.
Now.
He clenched his fist.
"Activate."
For one terrifying second—
Nothing happened.
Then—
[Chrono Mark System Initialized.]
A burning symbol etched itself across his palm.
Pain shot through his nerves.
Memories sharpened.
The monster lunged.
Arav stepped forward.
And whispered—
"Three seconds."
[Time Dilation Activated.]
The world slowed.
The monster's claw crawled toward him like thick smoke.
Arav ducked.
Grabbed a fallen spear.
And drove it straight into the creature's lowest eye.
Time snapped back.
The beast shrieked.
Students stared in disbelief.
Arav twisted the spear, jumping backward as the creature thrashed wildly.
It wasn't enough.
He wasn't strong enough yet.
But he didn't need to kill it.
He needed to stall.
Another tremor hit.
More gates opened outside.
Too many.
This wasn't a minor deviation.
This was a full collapse scenario.
The system window glitched.
[Unknown Observer Detected.]
Arav's heart skipped.
Observer?
From where?
His gaze lifted instinctively toward the distant Tower.
For a split second—
He thought he saw something.
A silhouette standing at the highest visible edge.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then it vanished.
The monster charged again.
Arav prepared to trigger dilation—
But the system flashed red.
[Cooldown: 9 minutes remaining.]
Too slow.
The claw descended.
He braced—
And gravity suddenly multiplied.
The monster slammed into the ground like it had been crushed by an invisible mountain.
Stone cracked beneath it.
A girl stood nearby, hand extended.
Mira Kael.
Gravity Domain.
She shouldn't awaken until next month.
Another deviation.
She glanced at Arav.
Recognition flickered in her eyes.
Not familiarity.
Not memory.
But awareness.
Like she felt something off about him.
The monster roared, resisting the pressure.
Mira's knees trembled.
She couldn't hold it long.
Arav didn't hesitate.
He leapt forward and drove the spear deep into the cracked eye socket.
This time—
It pierced through.
The creature convulsed.
Then collapsed.
Silence fell over the shattered academy hall.
Students stared.
Mira slowly lowered her hand.
Their eyes met.
In the original timeline, this was the first time they fought together.
But it happened months later.
On a controlled training mission.
Not during a catastrophic early invasion.
Everything was wrong.
And far away—
Inside the Tower—
Something shifted.
A voice echoed faintly through Arav's system.
Not mechanical.
Not emotionless.
Amused.
"Interesting."
The system screen glitched violently.
[Warning: Higher Authority Awareness Confirmed.]
Arav's stomach tightened.
This wasn't just regression.
This was interference.
And if the Tower wasn't meant to fall—
Then why did it feel like it was accelerating toward something far worse?
Outside, another explosion shook the city.
More monsters.
More chaos.
More deaths incoming.
Arav tightened his grip on the blood-covered spear.
This time, he wouldn't die helpless.
This time, he would reach the top.
And when he did—
He would find out who was watching.
Because one thing was clear.
This was never supposed to be his first reset.
And someone inside the Tower knew it.