Episode 1: The Cause of the Apocalypse
<The planet, [Earth] has entered the abnormal state, [Apocalypse].>
<You have failed in saving Earth. The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] rewinds the world’s time.>
Everything in existence turned into ashes as lava filled the earth. It slowly flowed in bulks, steadily erasing the stain it created in its flow and returned to the place it came from.
The world’s clock started to slowly rewind itself. This is the sixth time. Humans, as well as the Earth faced the Apocalypse, yet again, by the hands of dragons.
A man, Yu Jitae stared at the crimson-tinted sky. As the end approached him, he decided to carefully think back to the previous Apocalypses, just as he had always done.
It all happened when the hatchlings, the baby dragons left their homes to go through their ‘Amusement’ phase. While they were off on their adventure, the dimensions were disjointed by accident, becoming the source of troubles to come.
The world they were living in was different from the Earth, but the young dragons did not know that. Thus, they naturally did not know what kind of consequences their actions would bring. They lived freely, just like how any other dragon in alternate worlds would have enjoyed their Amusement, but the following results were close to the worst case scenario.
“…”
All adult dragons bear the duty of protecting their hatchlings and were they to fail, they would resort to vengeance. If a hatchling died in someone’s hands, the dragons, even if it was not a direct kin, would gather and force the perpetrator to pay the price of blood.
That was why Yu Jitae’s clock had been rewound six times.
He was not in any way weak. With his lifetime extending to nearly hundreds of years, he had gone through countless battles for dozens of years. He had all the Authorities and Blessings that an existence could have. And now, he could even stand against the entire world as an individual.
However, even such a Yu Jitae could not protect the entirety of the Earth against tens of dragons.
That was beyond his control.
“…”
There was once a time where he found the repetitive regression tiresome. It would be great if he could die alongside everyone else but the Authorities and Blessings that made him the strongest in the world held a firm grip on his life, never letting go.
In the end, the only thing he could do was to sever the reason for this repetition, by stopping the Apocalypse.
Then what were the causes of the Apocalypse?
There was one hatchling that lost control of itself in the madness of war and bled to death, all the while drowning in insanity.
Another stopped its own heartbeat after realising that it could not accomplish the one task given to its life.
There was also one that was buried in overflowing malice and unable to withstand the pressure, it crumbled.
Such three results were then slightly intertwined or disjointed, and eventually led the world to an Apocalypse. On average, it took somewhere between 15 to 20 years, which was also the allocated time of Amusement that was forced onto the dragons.
<The world’s time will soon begin.>
The Republic of Korea that had been completely rewound appeared before his eyes.
His indifferent, sunken gaze glanced across the roads covered in asphalt, the buildings rising high up above them and the people carrying umbrellas, walking in quick steps. Black and white cars dashed across the street as sounds of horns reached his ears and perhaps, due to the recent rainfall, the sky was coloured in a dull, gray light.
Within the world filled with achromatic colours, a man dyed in an even darker shade of ash gray remained standing. His lips were bent into a faint arc. Perhaps, it won’t be an easy journey. But this time, it would be different.
He finally got the gist of it.
