When that earth-shattering strike descended, its power nearly impossible to describe, it tore open the sky like a falling star.

The instant it landed, Night Frost and her companions knew they had lost.

Facing this being hailed as a “god,” they felt an unprecedented helplessness and despair.

“Time Re—”

Moon Owl seized Illusory Glass’s hand and shook her head.

The god before them could not be affected by time reversal. They had confirmed it countless times.

Time could not solve everything perfectly. Returning to the past meant dragging the calamity back with them, allowing death to descend even sooner upon their once-weak selves.

Unless Illusory Glass could find a way to return to the past without bringing the god along.

Moon Owl was right. The god before them could not be reversed by time.

Even if they all returned to the past, the god that had already emerged would still remain here.

“I’ve prepared for this. I have a way to return to the past, but… no matter which path I take, I can’t see any hope of victory.”

Ever since advancing to Chapter Three, Illusory Glass had been able to project herself into the past and future.

She could walk along the river of time, yet she could no longer find even the slightest chance of defeating the god.

A god.

It gazed down upon all mortals without emotion, an eternal existence looking coldly upon everything in the world.

Its power and wisdom transcended the shackles of time and space.

With the slightest movement of its hand, it could shatter the sky and earth, sending stars tumbling from above.

In the eyes of a god, the efforts, wisdom, and strength of mortals were all pitifully insignificant.

“Relying on myself alone, I can’t find even a trace of victory. I have only one chance.”

“Using that Magic Spell, only someone who can truly defeat it can bring it down. But who, exactly, is that variable?”

Moon Owl?

Though she had already reached the Ultimate Realm, she remained just as powerless before the god.

The god would not be affected even if space itself were annihilated. Its strength seemed boundless, far beyond anything they could hope to reach.

Crimson?

She possessed something resembling a protagonist’s aura. Whenever she faced absolute despair, she could unleash explosive power and gain the strength to overcome impossible obstacles.

But now, she seemed unwilling to join the battle.

Even if she did participate, that unstoppable power no longer protected her.

She had become nothing more than an Ultimate Realm fighter with slightly greater strength.

Night Frost?

Perhaps she had once possessed the power to change everything.

But after the other half of the Order Gemstone was taken, her current strength made her nothing more than a special Chapter Three.

Even so, Illusory Glass could still see a trace of hope within her.

If Night Frost could step into the Ultimate Realm at some point in the past, she would surely become an extremely troublesome thorn in the god’s side.

If it were Night Frost, perhaps…

Illusory Glass quietly walked up to her.

Her former battle companion lay covered in wounds, mercilessly slammed into the ground by the god. Her breathing was so faint that it was almost impossible to detect.

Sending the Night Frost of the present back into the past to replace her younger self would require the smallest price.

It seemed fate had chosen this path.

Illusory Glass turned the page in her hands to the very end.

It was the core page of her book, pressed tightly against the Magic Stone.

If she used Azure’s method to shatter her own Magic Stone, the Time Temple within would erupt with an extremely powerful temporal turbulence.

Following the anchor Illusory Glass had set, it would drag Night Frost back into the past.

But to return everything to the past, Illusory Glass still had one final thing to do.

The Night Frost who remained here could not disappear.

Otherwise, the course of history would change, bringing consequences no one could predict.

“Let this run end here. We’ll start a new one. Let’s accept this defeat.”

Illusory Glass found the Eye Orb.

By then, it had already fused with the god’s Eye of Creation and had begun to grasp the authority of creation.

Following Illusory Glass’s instructions, the Eye Orb seized a nearby tree and molded it into Night Frost’s shape.

Illusory Glass then crushed her own Magic Stone and sank Night Frost into the depths of time.

“If you can find another way, then save everyone in my place…”

“To save Moon Owl, to achieve victory… too many people have died because of me.”

Before them, the god had already prepared the flames of judgment.

The blazing fire roared as though it intended to devour the entire world.

It was no ordinary flame.

It came from the power of a god.

Illusory Glass stood before the inferno, her gaze firm and deep.

She drew in a breath, gathered all her strength, and prepared to face the final judgment.

“Time… sus—”

In an instant, the flames surged forward like an angry tide and swallowed Illusory Glass without mercy.

It was as if even her existence had been erased by the scorching blaze.

The fire, infused with divine power, not only burned through Illusory Glass’s defenses.

It devoured her courage, her hope, and her very existence.

Under the god’s flames of judgment, the entire world seemed shrouded in the apocalypse.

It lost all its former color and vitality.

The sky was dyed crimson.

The earth was scorched black.

Even the air reeked of burning.

The once-prosperous cities, lush forests, and clear rivers all turned to ash in that instant.

The god’s power descended like a world-ending disaster, leaving no strength to resist.

It took the god less than five minutes to travel from the Fourth District to the Twelfth District and burn away most of the life within it.

…

In the chaotic flow of time, a shattered Magic Stone drifted through the void.

The Time Temple rested against Night Frost’s chest.

The heart of the Calamity Dragon still clung to her life. Under the Time Temple’s acceleration, her injuries miraculously began to heal.

Night Frost slowly opened her eyes and examined the unfamiliar surroundings.

“Did we lose?”

A bitter smile appeared on her face.

Although she did not recognize this place, she knew they had lost.

The power of a god was not something Chapter Three could withstand.

“Is this… the Time Temple?”

Night Frost sensed the fluctuations of time coming from it.

She had never seen the Time Temple before, but there was no doubt that this was it.

The Time Temple hovered directly above her chest, as if it wanted to take her somewhere.

Night Frost wanted to move as well, but she soon discovered that her body was nothing more than a puddle of sludge.

Aside from being able to think and remain alive, she could do nothing else.

The Time Temple seemed somewhat angry.

It tugged Night Frost toward the depths of chaotic time.

Before she could react, she was dragged inside.

Scene after scene flashed before Night Frost’s eyes.

They were everything she had experienced throughout her life.

Past, present, and future.

In her past, she had been separated from her family because of Azure’s selfish desires.

In her future, she would be devoured by the god’s flames and die amid mournful screams.

“This feels like a deathbed montage…”

“What a pathetic way to go. Still, it’s a satisfying ending. I found my parents and avenged them. This journey wasn’t in vain.”

Night Frost seemed rather content with her life.

The Time Temple, however, did not seem pleased.

It struck Night Frost right in the head.

The pain squeezed two tears from the corners of her eyes.

“But that bastard destroyed Aklatia, which I worked so hard to build. It killed Qianchun, Chen Xiaoyin, and so many others…”

“The children at the orphanage couldn’t escape its cruelty either.”

“If you have the power to change all that, then send me back to the very beginning!”

As Night Frost’s words fell, a gentle radiance poured down from above.

Like moonlight spilling through the clouds, it enveloped both Night Frost and the Time Temple.

A hazy phantom slowly appeared.

It looked like a door, standing quietly not far from Night Frost.

The door was not made of any material visible to the naked eye.

Instead, it consisted of countless streams of light and tiny motes of dust.

They danced through the air, weaving themselves into a door filled with magic.

Countless runes and patterns were carved across its surface.

Every one of them contained profound mysteries far beyond Night Frost’s understanding.

“Entering that door will let everything begin again?”

The Time Temple trembled gently, as if agreeing with Night Frost.

She wanted to head toward the door.

Unfortunately, her injuries left her unable to move.

In the end, the Time Temple had to drag her through the doorway.

At night, the city center looked like a dazzling gem set within the bustling metropolis.

The windows of the skyscrapers glittered with multicolored lights, like the Milky Way pouring down from the heavens.

Traffic flowed endlessly through the streets.

Headlights streaked through the darkness like falling stars, leaving behind trails of gold.

But the protagonist of this story did not live in the noisy heart of the city.

He lived in an old rented house on the outskirts, at the very edge of town.

“Knock, knock, knock—”

The old wooden door rattled.

A young man put on his thin pajamas and opened it.

A petite girl in dark green clothing stood outside.

She gently placed a package the same size as herself into his hands.

The Magic Stone at her waist flashed.

She transformed into a cloud of blue smoke and vanished, leaving only a final line behind.

“Flash delivery~ Don’t forget to give us five stars, sweetheart~”

“Even the delivery workers are Magic Maidens now…”

The young man sighed.

He set the box on a nearby chair and was just about to close the door when a slender hand passed straight through his arm.

A chill ran through his entire body.

“Whoa! Don’t tell me I’m seeing a ghost in the middle of the night!”

The young man slammed the door shut with a bang.

His voice and the closing door seemed to wake the landlady sleeping downstairs.

Her rather rough voice pierced through the poorly insulated ceiling and reached his ears.

“Can’t you keep it down this late at night? Are you trying to stop people from sleeping?!”

“You do this every time. Keep it up, and I’ll kick you out with nothing but the clothes on your back!”

“Y-yes, I know.”

The young man answered meekly and shrank his neck.

“Now this takes me back…”

The girl’s voice echoed through the room.

The young man fumbled around in a corner and pulled out a wooden stick, gripping it tightly as he warily scanned his surroundings.

“What the hell are you?!”

His voice carried a trace of nervousness.

The hand holding the stick trembled slightly.

The girl’s figure appeared before him.

Though the young man was frightened by her appearance, he did not take even one step back.

“Oh~ Hello there~ Lingchen Yao. I’m you from the future.”

“My name is Ling Shuang, though you can call me Night Frost.”

“I’ve returned from the future to save your pathetic life. I’m your chosen savior—”

Lingchen Yao clearly did not believe a word of it.

Night Frost glanced at her arm, which was growing increasingly translucent.

She did not have much time left.

Night Frost also understood her own personality.

At this point, taking action directly was the best option.

“Forget it. You won’t believe me no matter what I say.”

“So I’ll let you see it with your own eyes.”

“The past, the future, and the present!”