“Wait, what do you mean—”
Before Daniel could question him, Kronos activated the World-Time Spell.
A blinding light erupted.
The once deafening sounds of monsters faded.
The world around Daniel went dark.
Silence engulfed him.
Suddenly, a powerful current smashed into him.
The waves surged stronger with time.
Daniel tried to stay afloat desperately.
The current twisted and turned, dragging him along.
Days, weeks, months—he lost track of time as he swam against the river of time.
His body ached, his mind screamed, but he refused to give up.
Just when Daniel thought he could not continue any longer, he heard a voice.
“I’m sorry. There is no one named Selene in the rescued people list—”
“Amanda! What are you saying to a patient who just woke up!?”
The smell of antiseptic filled his nostrils.
The beeping of medical monitors echoed softly.
Blinding white light burned his vision as he blinked awake.
The sharp scent of a sterile medical room was unmistakable.
He looked around, noticing the doctor and nurse staring down at him.
The nurse, Amanda, had a panicked expression, while the doctor maintained a professional calm.
“Patient Daniel, are you okay? How are you feeling?” the doctor asked.
Daniel looked at his arms.
He pinched his cheek.
Pain returned instantly.
It was proof.
This wasn’t a dream.
He had returned to the past.
“Hahaha.”
Daniel’s laughter echoed hollowly.
He covered his face with his hands.
His shoulders trembled.
“What the hell?”
He couldn’t stop his tears as he laughed bitterly.
Everyone he cared about had died.
They died because of the mistakes he made.
He returned to the past to fix those mistakes.
But…
“Hahaha, is this a sick joke?”
He woke up three days after his sister had been kidnapped by Charybdis, the Sovereign of Typhaon.
He couldn’t save her.
A few minutes later, Daniel exhausted his tears.
The doctor left after giving him a check-up, leaving to look at other patients.
The sterile scent lingered as the machines beeped steadily beside him.
Daniel lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a blank gaze.
“Use healing slip,” he muttered few seconds later.
[Healing Slip is being used.]
A faint, golden glow surrounded his body.
Daniel’s injuries began to heal.
The physical pain in his limbs eased as the magic worked through him.
The ball of Intent within Daniel, Neo, had returned in time with Daniel.
Daniel had grown emotionally.
‘This is good.’
Neo felt a sense of relief.
Daniel’s emotional growth was important, or else Daniel would break before he could save the world.
However…
‘Something is wrong.’
‘We should’ve returned one month before Daniel’s sister was kidnapped.’
‘Did the spell fail at the last moment?’
‘Is it because Kronos didn’t have time to run proper checks?’
An error of a month was acceptable in a Spell that could send the user eight years back into the past.
Neo and Daniel had been just unlucky.
They couldn’t been sent to the exact date they had planned, a few days later, or a few days earlier.
‘Was it really luck?’
Fate commanded cause and effect and luck.
‘Fate might be trying to stop us from changing the past too many times.’
‘Or maybe it was just simple bad luck.’
Neo hoped it wasn’t Fate.
Daniel stood up after having his injuries healed.
The white hospital bed crinkled as he shifted.
The nurse nearby was about to stop him until she noticed his wounds had completely closed, leaving only faint scars where the injuries once were.
“Thank you,” he said to the nurse, his voice steady yet distant, before leaving the room. The hallway outside was brightly lit, the polished floors reflecting his determined stride.
Daniel’s plan was simple.
He would meet up with Kronos and reveal what had happened in the past.
Just then, a screen materialized before Daniel’s eyes.
[It has been detected that Host has undergone regression.]
[Adjusting Divine System…]
[Please pick one of the rewards:]
[1. 10% of pre-regression stats.]
[2. Any one skill from your previous life (the skill level will be reset).]
[3. Any one System Item.]
Daniel’s Seed of Existence had grown stronger after the ordeals of previous attempt.
It allowed Neo to pass down his techniques and stats more generously than he normally could.
Daniel was surprised to see the rewards.
He hadn’t expected it.
“I guess I’ll choose a skill.”
He could get stats from leveling up, and items were expendable.
Skills, on the other hand, were powerful, non-expendable, and harder to acquire than stats or system items.
[Which skill would you like to choose?]
“Time Stop,” Daniel said.
[Time Stop Lv1 unlocked.]
After choosing the skill, Daniel moved toward the west.
The dense forest was shrouded in mist.
Monsters and beasts hid in its undergrowth.
He killed the monsters he encountered on his path and leveled up.
It took him months to reach the headquarters of the Titans.
The fortress-like structure looked otherworldly.
Daniel could’ve reached the place quicker, but taking his time was better—he had used it to grow stronger.
He walked up to the receptionist sitting at the guest floor of the Titans’ headquarters.
The marble floor gleamed under the golden chandeliers, and the massive hall was filled with the quiet murmur of conversations.
“I want to meet Kronos,” he said.
“Sir, you can’t meet—”
The receptionist stopped speaking when Daniel suddenly let out his aura.
The atmosphere shifted.
A crushing pressure filled the hall, causing glass ornaments on the nearby tables to tremble.
The guards sprang into motion.
They surrounded Daniel and pointed their weapons at him.
“Get down on your knees! Raise your hands!” the guard leader shouted.
“Hahaha, calm down.” Daniel chuckled.
“I said! On your knees! We will shoot you if we detect any mana—”
“Shoot with what? Your weapon is missing.”
The guard leader froze.
His hands, once holding a bow, were now empty.
His eyes widened as he looked at Daniel, who was now twirling the same bow between his fingers with a smirk.
‘When did he take it?’ the guard leader was shocked.
The other guards moved, but suddenly their weapons vanished.
The sound of steel clattering echoed as the weapons reappeared at Daniel’s feet in a neat pile.
“How about we talk like civil people instead of fighting?” Daniel grinned.
He had used Time Stop to steal the weapons.
“You damned brat!”
Suddenly, one of the guards pounced toward Daniel. Continue your journey on empire
His face contorted with rage.
Daniel reacted instantly, using Time Stop once more.
Silence engulfed the hall as the guard halted mid-air, frozen in place.
Daniel was about to shift his position when a voice echoed from behind him.
“I never expected to see a child able to control Time so finely.”
Daniel spun around when he heard the familiar voice.
Kronos stood there.
With a snap of his fingers, Kronos shattered Daniel’s hold over Time.
The frozen moment dissolved like glass, and the flow of reality resumed.
The guard, now freed, lunged forward, his attack just inches from Daniel’s face.
Before it could connect, Kronos intervened, raising a hand.
Time seemed to ripple as the guard’s movements ceased abruptly.
“Sir!” The guards saluted, their stances stiffening with respect.
Kronos gave a curt nod, his gaze never leaving Daniel.
“Follow me.”
“…Huh?” Daniel blinked. “You know me?”
“I don’t. But you are here to meet me, aren’t you? Let’s talk in my office.”
Kronos’s expression remained unreadable.
Daniel forced a rueful smile, suppressing the disappointment.
He had hoped Kronos would remember him.
But it seemed his expectations had been too high.
The two walked through the corridors and entered Kronos’s office.