Chương 53: EPILOGUE

10, 000 Years Later into the Future (Time Travel) I tore through the ash-choked sky of Celestia, neon cannons humming beneath my armor like a caged animal begging to be unleashed. Every beat of my heart sent a pulse through the suit, too fast, too strong. Below me, the city was dead. The Enchanted Kingdom—once light, once wonder—was nothing but a burned-out shell. Streets cracked open like broken bones. Towers collapsed into themselves.

Smoke spiraled upward, swallowing the stars, while flickers of fire chewed through what little history remained. A screech tore through the sky. I snapped my head up just in time to see it— a grotesque bird, massive and twisted, feathers jagged like shattered glass, eyes glowing red with something that should not exist. It dove straight at me, talons spread wide, a living missile fueled by hate. My cannon roared. Neon green light split the sky, ripping straight through its body.

The creature screamed, then shattered—sparks, smoke, and broken mass raining downward as it hit the ruins below. Gone. I slowed, hovering over the destruction. The circuits in my armor pulsed, synced to my heart, my real heart, the one buried beneath metal. The same heart that dragged me through time. I could feel it again. That pull. That pressure in my chest. Every time my heart surged, reality bent. Timelines cracked. Futures overlapped. My heart wasn't normal. It never was.

It could tear me through alternate timelines—through futures that shouldn't exist yet, through worlds already doomed. I didn't choose to be here. My heart chose for me, I'm Duke. Fifteen years old. A fallen Celestianite. I looked down at the ruins, Now stranded ten thousand years into the future. I scanned the land, searching for signs of life, anything, but all I found were scars. Not a great sight, b ut I'm here… helping the Pre-Heroes. Because if I don't—Avangard falls.

The memory of the Power Gems burned behind my eyes. If I could just get those Gems… if I could hold them again—this future wouldn't exist. I clenched my fists, I've had a rough start. I know that. I've done damage. Real damage. I was destructive. Reckless. Images flashed through my mind, Kingdom of Hearts in ruins. The words I'd spoken back then, sharp and wrong. The future will die in my hands. That wasn't me, I thought. Not fully. I felt it now, the truth I'd been avoiding. I was under his spell.

Forced to drop the Gems. Forced to leave. Forced to destroy an innocent world. My jaw tightened, Even my own words weren't mine. A puppet. Used. And discarded. The glow from my suit intensified as anger ignited beneath the guilt.

"This world is broken," I said, staring at the shattered horizon.

"But it's not over." My heart surged, reality shuddered around me for just a moment, like time itself flinched. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Not while I'm still breathing. I looked up. The stars were barely visible through the smoke, but they were there. And as long as my heart kept pulling me through timelines… as long as I could still fight fate instead of running from it…

"For the future," I said, voice hardening, "I will fight." In the Sacred Dimension"Is this place supposed to keep me contained for a while?" said Dironyx, who was chained up against an invisible wall with chains bound around both his wrists and ankles. His white eyes of fake divinity flashed, his body hanging down as he held his head low.

"It's been billions of years…" Zeni both stood around him, observing Dironyx as they held their staffs. Their bodies were a searing cosmic light of tremendous heat, pulsating with more glow as they gazed at Dironyx. They were lofty and lean, clocking fifteen feet over Dironyx, who was only eight feet tall.

"What is this supposed to do to me?" Dironyx raised his head up—one of his eyes being large and round—with a few black cracks forming around it.

"It's not changing anything…. It's only fueling my excitement to get out of here and murder you guys in the process…" The camera barely shuddered as it was all concentrated on him. The black Xenith figure with the beaming white contours around his body, pulsing narrowly with every tiny bit of movement.

"You've been standing here for a long time, right?" he raised an eyebrow.

"How are you guys not tired then… this is a pretty boring job."

"We're Zeni," spoke the first one, turning to Dironyx while pointing the staff at him.

"We don't get tired from watching something—" his eyes narrowed, "even if we have to stand in the same area for a billion years…"

"In the Sacred Dimension, there is no noise, no sound," the other Zeni displayed, gazing up at the swirling galaxy with a variety of multicolored lights.

"This place's job is to drive you crazy." He turned to Dironyx, who was beaming even though blood was soaking from his wrists and ankles. He sighed, "For some reason, you do not seem to be affected…. I don't know how—but I think it has something to do with you being a maniac…"

"Maniac and me don't mix," corrected Dironyx.

"They don't sound right, they sound stupid. The last time I've ever seen the light of day was during the end of the war…" He grasped his fists, hard enough for dark energy to bend around his arms, but quickly dissolved into the void due to the binds.

"Power… ejected every single Xenith and me from that kingdom. Scattering all of us toward different planets from across the universe. While I get the 'worst' punishment—" He keeps his eyes hooked onto the two Zeni, the rounded one quickly blinking back to its original state. His thin eyes appeared through the darkness, light spilled from the two like twin dwarf stars. The rays went through both of the Zeni.

"…. the Sacred Dimension…"

"Am I supposed to be scared? Am I supposed to— heh, feel something?" Dark energy burst to life around his wrists and into his ankles, charging with blackjack light and a visible aura spilling from his eyes and body. The two Zeni readied themselves, scowling at Dironyx as they watched the dark energy begin to form around him and start charging with enough energy and force.

Dironyx tensed his fists and tightened them, harder, looking into the eyes of the two Zeni while the vibrancy quickly overloaded around the restraints. He grinned, a smile shining from the radiance of his two eyes. BOOM! Metals shattered. Splinters fled into the air. Both feet slammed into the ground. Shaking the dimension. Energy snapped and coiled around his legs toward his upper body like black lightning as he beamed and faced the two Zeni, who quickly stood their guard as they watched DIronyx.

"I've haven't done that in such a while," he chuckled softly.

"It's a shame that instead of me really just being stuck…. I could've had a way to escape this entire time…" The force of darkness charged around his fists. His eyes flashed his power to life. Shockwaves rolled across the dimension. He took a step and chuckled harder, slowly curling his deadly black claws into a fist, "Would've been a shame if I just decided not to…" The first Zeni lunged. Dironyx stood a step back. FWISH!

In a bolt, he flashed near the first Zeni, fists cocked back as he moved mid-air in slow motion—eyes streaking in a scalding white while having a wide smile shimmering across his face as his fists filled with immense dark energy were inches from the Zeni's shocked and fearful expression. It blurred. BASHK! Tore through the Zeni's head. FWOOSH! He hurled it across the dimension. The head hit the ground, rolling as black blood slowly poured from the Zeni's body.

The other Zeni turned to stare at the head of his dead friend, constantly showing on his own breath without even moving due to how shaken he was at the situation. He looked around, suddenly Dironyx was gone—and there was nothing but a glowing white and black splatter across the floor. FWISH!! Dironyx was behind him, feet off the ground—eyes glowing while still somehow holding off that grin. Dironyx twisted. The Zeni spun. BASHK!

Immediate backhand to head contact, smashing it off the body and hurling it, only for it to hit the ground for the void—black blood splattering against the gronunce as it did. Dironyx flickered in front of it, grinning as he lifted his foot up to slam it into a detonation of blood, splattering his legs and foot. He gradually turned around. The two lying bodies of the guards that were watching him, and one of their heads sat still, while the other head was long gone and also a mess.

His claws twitched, his grin shuddered, his eyes jolted.

"RAHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" He slammed his foot against the ground, hard enough for the dimension to form a crack in the sky.

"Power…. I'll find you… and once I bring the Xenith Empire back…." His eyes twitched again, "Becoming limitless… will be your own fault…" He slowly turned to face the swirling galaxy in the sky above him. Then a flashback occurred. The separation of the five ancient artifacts, but one came to mind…

"The Lost Gem…" TO BE CONTINUED…