BOOM!
The timeline split apart once more.
Chronos no longer cared about the exhaustion gnawing at his soul as he crossed the currents of the past. Every beat of his wings inside the dimensional corridor this time was driven by a single resolve engraved deep within his chest: “Rea must be happy.”
The blinding light faded, welcoming him back to the starting point.
The dragon did not sleep. He chose to remain awake in the silence of the ancient forest. He stood behind the lush trees, watching the moment Rea emerged from her mother’s womb in a human village, watching the little girl grow into a lively child, until one day... those small footsteps he knew so well came crashing through the undergrowth of the remote forest once more.
Nine-year-old Rea stood there.
Just like in the previous timeline, the little girl was lost. Her dirt-streaked face lit up when she discovered the colossal dragon, as large as a house, standing rigidly behind the trees.
TAP. TAP. TAP.
The little girl ran forward and hugged Chronos’s golden-scaled snout without the slightest fear. A soft blush colored her tiny cheeks, and the widest smile bloomed sweetly across her lips.
(‘That’s right...’) Chronos thought, his chest aching as though it had been carved open. (‘This really is love at first sight.’)
All the proof was right before his eyes. The girl’s fearlessness, the way she gazed into the dragon’s golden pupils, even the rapid pounding of her little heart. Her love was real, pure, and untouched by any lie.
“Hey! What are you, anyway? Why are you in this forest?” the little girl asked with a bright laugh, repeating the exact same question for what felt like the umpteenth time.
Chronos silently looked at the little girl. His experience of thousands of years seemed to become useless before the innocence of his most precious little friend.
‘I am a dragon... and my name is Chronos,’ Chronos replied telepathically, repeating the same fate.
Yet within his heart, a bitter decision had fully taken shape.
He loved Rea. Rea was the only being in the universe who had managed to teach him the meaning of happiness amid hundreds of thousands of years of emptiness. But precisely because of that, Chronos could no longer bear to watch this girl throw away her youth, live single without a family, and grow old in loneliness all for her unrequited love for an immortal dragon.
(‘I’m already happy enough just to have the memories I share with you, Rea,’) Chronos thought in resignation. ‘Now... it’s your turn to find your own happiness.’
Eleven years passed in that timeline.
Rea was now twenty years old—the most beautiful peak of her youth. But unlike the previous timeline, when Chronos would always sit and listen to her troubles, the dragon was no longer waiting behind the tree roots today.
While Rea was away from the forest, Chronos spread his wings.
WHOOSH!
Without saying a single word. Without leaving a message. Without offering a farewell.
Chronos released his disguised form. His golden body grew massively, shooting upward through the edge of the forest until it expanded to nearly the size of a small island. The beat of his enormous wings created a windstorm that sent millions of trees flying below, shook the entire continent, and plunged human civilization into extraordinary panic.
The world trembled as it watched the ancient dragon fly across the horizon.
But Chronos did not care about the screams of the humans below. His golden pupils stared only straight ahead as he crossed the vast ocean for an entire week without stopping, searching for the place farthest from Rea’s presence.
At last, on the exact opposite side of the planet from the continent where Rea lived, Chronos found a gigantic empty island. An uninhabited island surrounded by deep ocean trenches and eternal thunderstorms.
BOOM!
Chronos landed in the middle of the island, collapsing the surrounding crags to form a gigantic lair.
He coiled his massive body, nearly the size of a small island, and hid his head behind the thick spread of his golden wings. For the first time in the history of the cycle of fate, Chronos decided to sleep deeply and never wake again.
(‘You’ll never find me here again, Rea,’) Chronos whispered inwardly, slowly letting his consciousness sink into darkness. (‘Live as a normal human. Marry a man who loves you. Have some adorable children... and forget this foolish dragon.’)
The dragon’s sleep was deep and peaceful, severing all his ties to the outside world.
One year... ten years... twenty years...
Thirty years passed like a single breath within his sleep.
Chronos did not realize how quickly time turned in the mortal world. He had no idea what was happening on the continent across the sea, and he felt at peace, convinced that Rea must have been living happily with her little family.
But then...
CRACKLE! KABOOM!
A violent tremor struck the dragon’s soul. An overpowering, acrid, and poisonous smell of burning suddenly pierced through the layers of his sleep.
Chronos awoke from his long slumber.
His golden eyelids flew wide. And what greeted his vision made the ancient dragon’s heart abruptly stop beating.
Flames blazed across every corner of the island.
This was no ordinary fire, but a sea of scorching red flames that had brought down the stone mountains on the island where he had hidden. Even the distant islands across the vast ocean appeared to be burning fiercely, spewing thick black smoke that covered the night sky.
‘What... happened?’ Chronos thought in utter shock.
Amid the turmoil of the sea of flames and the collapsing island rocks, the rumbling of approaching footsteps drew nearer to his lair.
SCRAPE... SCRAPE... SCRAPE...
The sound of a sword being dragged across the burning stone ground.
Chronos focused his vision through the roaring flames. From behind a curtain of black smoke, a human figure staggered toward his lair. Her body was frail, yet every step radiated an utterly grim aura of determination.
A woman.
Her long golden hair was now wet with dried blood and black soot. The familiar shape of her body suddenly made Chronos’s chest thunder with panic.
‘No... it can’t be...’
SLASH!
When the woman emerged from the rolling smoke and stared straight at the dragon’s lair, Chronos froze, his breath caught in his throat.
REA!
The woman was Rea!
Yet her current appearance completely shattered the dragon’s mind. The fifty-year-old woman’s body was covered in horrific slash wounds. Her battle clothes were ripped to shreds, and worst of all... four enormous swords had been driven deep into her back, piercing her frail body until their blades jutted out from her chest!
Fresh blood continued to gush violently, soaking the sword blades and dripping onto the burning ground.
Even so... the woman kept walking toward the dragon. She dragged her greatsword forward with the last remnants of a life force that was almost completely extinguished.
Their eyes met in the middle of the sea of flames.
Chronos’s golden eyes trembled violently with a fear he had never felt in his entire life. Rea’s eyes, meanwhile... were flooded with tears that streamed down through the soot on her cheeks.
Then, with what little voice remained in her smoke-ravaged throat, Rea lifted her head and screamed toward the colossal dragon with all her strength:
“THERE YOU ARE, YOU BASTARD DRAGON!!”