I can expand my MAGIC ENDLESSLY?!-Chapter 1: The Collapse

"Phuwak.

Blood splattered everywhere as the man’s gaze darted at the surroundings.Scattered around him were mangled, half-eaten corpses, broken-down debris of paragons and golems of all kinds crumbling slowly with the passing wind of red.

Corpses gradually began to lose their vitality and cluster in this cursed land of red that seemed to stretch endlessly to the far fetched big horizon.

The man lay down gazing towards the red drifting clouds.His eyes have long lost their moisture.

His head slowly fell down, "Look at them, killed in every imaginable way." he uttered slowly causing his dried up lips to crack.

The corpses were his subjects, his soldiers, the people he ruled. Who he had promised glory, freedom and safety from the dome that enclosed them.

His gaze fell on his hand. They already have lost their cluster, latching onto his bones.

He was the Emperor, ruler of the continent and bearer of the crest of Owsris lineage.

But now, a gruesome hole gaped in his stomach, and death loomed over him.

"We were foolish. The forcefield wasn’t there to enclose us but to protect us."

A deep regret, enough to impale his torn-apart heart, hit him again.

If they had known, if they hadn’t been so reckless, they wouldn’t have broken the barrier and come here into these wretched lands.

He exhaled slowly, accepting that there was nothing left to be done.

His gaze slowly scattered and fell onto his chest.

There was a pendant warped around his neck, its purple luster slowly faded with the passage of time. Still, despite that, if one looked closely, one would realize how intricately the patterns were carved onto something so delicate.

The pendant’s origin was unknown. Neither historians nor scholars could trace it.

Yet, from the start of Owsri’s rise, it passed from ruler to ruler, bound by one command.

Protect it with your life until it chooses.

"I couldn’t fulfill the command either..."

It ends with him. Along with the fall of the continent. They should’ve never come here.

His vision started to darken. The hour of his death was upon him.

"Ughh... Majesty..."

A coarse, strained voice came from somewhere.He opened his eyes, gazing at the pile of debris at the side.

The next second a bloodied figure surfaced from the debris, pushing them away.

It was a middle-aged man, standing up on his own feet despite three bloody spikes impaling his body.

As he moved,the blood continued to gush out, painting the red ground even redder.

It took him a moment to recognize who it was.

"Ah, of course. Who else but the Mercenary King Kairos would survive such a thing?"

The Majesty tried moving... ’Yeah, if it’s him, the continent still has some hope., if he could survive.’

But before he could crawl and reach him, a roar split the sky reverting throughout the battlefield.

ROOOAAARRR—!

Both of their faces sank in horror. They knew very well who it belonged to

.

The red clouds up in the sky parted, revealing the majestic body. Its feathers were dark with a hint of silver.

Each beat of its wings made the clouds part away, sending forth strong gusts of wind below,making it hard to breathe.

The ruler of this cursed, crimson lord has returned.

The Primordial Blood Phoenix.

It has come back. Shattering the last thread of hope he’d clung to.

The Phoenix’s dark eyes locked onto the lone figure still standing in the ruins.

Kairos, The Mercenary King.

Rooooar...

(Human, leave this land immediately!)

The phoenix’s roar was more intense this time. It was clearly not happy seeing a human looking at it without any shards of fear within those red eyes.

Within his bloody red eyes, the majestic shadow of the phoenix cast on him.He knew what would happen next, yet despite the predicament, he couldn’t help but gaze at the majestic figure, especially at those eyes, deeper than the stars beyond the blue moon.

Its majestic, His death looming up in the sky is beautiful. But he couldn’t accept his death like that, No the things he has gone through!

His Aura started to pulse from his body. The lifeless nodes within his veins, one by one, started to spin for the very last time. His complexion started to return, and his body started to heal rapidly.

But His Majesty knew all too well this was the man’s final stand. Even without a shred of mana, This man had once ranked tenth on the continent. Some had even said that, had he been able to wield mana, he might have rivaled him.

At that moment, the Emperor realized the rumors were true. The man before him could have really defeated him.

He hadn’t believed it. Helping a mere fragile girl to be a ruler of a nation was impressive, for sure. But he’d thought it ended there.

Now, seeing it with his own eyes, he realized just how wrong he’d been.

With a sudden outburst, Aura came out from Kairos’ body, making a small dome surrounding him. It was a domain. Not particularly, without mana, a domain loses its main function of surpassion.

Up in the sky, the phoenix had enough. It screeched in fury, beating its wings toward the ground, sending forth black feathers at frightening speed.

Kairos steeled his eyes, and began to move. He swung his sword again and again.

Strange things started to happen. Slashes of Aura soared upward, nearly reaching the sky.

But the moment they passed through the dome, each slash grew more violent, tearing through the air, causing huge noise as if the air itself was being cut down from each slash.

Every time a slash met a feather, an explosion roared, scattering fierce winds, causing debris and paragons to explode here and there.

At first, His Majesty couldn’t grasp what was happening. But as the dome flickered under each blow, understanding dawned upon him.

This man was insane, far more than he had ever expected. He wasn’t just fighting to the death. He was burning his own Aura to empower his slashes. At first, His Majesty thought it was desperation, the madness of someone about to die.

But that wasn’t it. What made the Mercenary King stand out was his mana-less domain. Meaning this wasn’t the first time he used this technique.

This person willingly depleted his own Aura again and again, training it in an endless, brutal cycle of pain and will.

The swings started to slow down, along with the number of feathers from the phoenix. It would end soon. In the next few seconds, the winner would be decided.

The explosive Aura intensified. Kairos swung down the sword with all his might, causing it to burst apart the moment the slash escaped the blade.

[Domain Slash]

His body also lost its luster in that split second.

But that wasn’t the most frightening thing. It was the slash that seemed to carve through the air itself.

Instantly,it reached the phoenix, passing through its body, smoothly leaving behind a line of light.

For a moment, it seemed nothing happened. But then, right up in the sky, the phoenix’s body split in two. Blood poured out of it like a fountain, raining down on the red soil.

His Majesty’s eyes widened

’He... he did it.’

The phoenix’s broken body crashed down nearby with a deafening thud. It was far larger than they’d ever estimated, but that was no longer what mattered, what mattered would be the one who did it.

Kairos wasn’t standing anymore. His remaining hand was bloodied, a chunk of his hand was missing, white bone of his shoulder was peeking out of his armor.

He was kneeling down, still holding the hilt of his broken sword.

Cough... a mouthful of black blood escaped from his mouth, sealing his fate. He will die, He will die here. But to him it felt like relief rather than despair.

His sufferings will end today and perhaps he will meet them, And meet her. Strangely remembering that a smile plastered on his face.

Meanwhile, intense regret washed over His Majesty. If only he had recognized this talent... perhaps... the outcome would have been different... Slowly, his own thoughts slowed down.

And that was also the last thought before the regal ruler collapsed onto the ground. His body weathered away rapidly, leaving only bones behind enclosed within the majestic clothes.

Kairos turned his head. He could only gaze at His Majesty, the pillar of the continent, lying lifelessly on the cold red soil.

Cracks appeared on his sword. The fragile blade couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. It broke apart, making him fall on his knees, causing some of his wounds to open up even more.

His gaze fell onto the surroundings at the corpses. "You fools. I told you... you all will die."

Kairos scoffed softly to himself.

"’A new era of advancement’? How high and mighty they said that five years ago."

With the collapse of the forcefield that surrounded the continent, humans rejoiced, thinking they were finally free from the confinement that enclosed them from the ancient time after the great cataclysm. The land beyond the forcefield was once again reachable to them. If only they had known what horrors awaited them...

The first few years after they began the expedition, humans started discovering rare artifacts,ores and traces of old civilization scattered throughout the unknown sea. Human magic started to expand boundless, while the cure for many diseases were found.

Everyone had only seen a bright future for the continent ahead, with yet to be discovered advancements.

But that’s when everything went wrong.

Nobody had expected this cursed land with its powerful denizens..

Then Kairos heard multiple roars from above.

He looked up to the sky. Thousands upon thousands of monsters were heading north,casting shadows as they passed the sun..

Their goal was obvious. He could only imagine what would happen the moment those monsters reached the continent.

Humanity might really go extinct this time around.

"Yeah, this is the end... " he said, slowly closing his withering eyes.

But fate had other plans for him.

The silent pendant hanging around the Emperor’s neck, a relic that had remained dormant through countless battles, finally stirred.

Its chains snapped on their own, and the pendant floated through the air, drawn toward him casting purple light.Resonating voice echoed from within.

"Asfer, Authority over Infinity, chooses you. You have been given a new opportunity."

’Asfer?...’

That was the last thought before everything went pitch black for him. Unknowing that the moment he collapsed, the monsters, the wind, the world...

That time itself froze in place.

And strange letters started to appear within the sky, The letters were unknown to the world. But if it was seen by an Earthling it would have read as:

[Game Of Arcon Starting]

The letters continued to glitch. Before defying the very law of time. Instead of time flowing forward, it started going backwards.

________________________________

An unknown amount of time later.

"Is this how it feels to die?"

"What was that?... Asfer?"

"I will go to hell, won’t I?"

He couldn’t help but feel that really would be the case. He was an orphan, and his life wasn’t something that could’ve been said to be good. Nor was he a good person. He ignored those that needed help... and when he realized that, it was all too late.

"I won’t be able to see her, right...? If I’m in hell."

A white light slowly started to appear before within the darkness, before it consumed him whole.

_____________________________________

"Ughh."

Pain assaulted him. His eyelids fluttered, slowly opening to the world. The first thing he saw was a ceiling. Ornate carvings lined its edges, golden light flickering from an elegant chandelier. It was unfamiliar.

His breath came slow, disoriented. A gust of cold wind washed over, causing his thick red hair to flutter, making him more aware.

He turned toward the big window, gazing up at the blue moon hanging in the sky, illuminating the land below.

Wait... the moon?!

He gasped, jumping up from the bed. His body felt heavy, but he didn’t care. He moved closer to the window and gazed up at the bright blue moon, his eyes sweeping over to the vast land stretched out before him.

His hand trembled... grabbing onto the wooden frame of the window. This all felt real, the moon felt real.

A thought struck him like a boulder as he slowly turned towards the side where a big mirror was placed.

In the reflection, a kid could be seen with thick red hair and red crimson eyes, staring back at him in horror. No, it wasn’t someone else.

It was him. And the moon that was supposed to be destroyed was still present, shining brightly in the sky. Only hinting at one thing that he didn’t dare to think further...

"I... regressed in time?"