Chapter 393: Guardian of the World (2)

The city was in chaos. The undead, now without control, fought one another. They did not kill, for they were already dead.

They only destroyed, only shattered. Amidst the massive confusion, the once-mighty and wise martial kings and archmages could be seen.

"Ah..."

"O my lord..."

"Why have you forsaken us...?"

It was heartbreaking. Those who had once been so noble had now fallen so hideously low. Of course, Grateria was no different. He too had long since become an undead. Had it not been for the resilient dragon soul that had endured for thousands of years, he too would have crumbled completely like them.

He kept flying, heading toward the center of Necropolis. There, he saw a majestic, ornate palace. It was Karnak's imperial palace, adorned with all manner of gold and jewels.

At its heart, a rift in space-time had opened. Grateria changed form. His five-hundred-meter-long true body was far too massive to explore the palace interior. He became a draconic humanoid of human-like size and stepped into the palace. Slowly, memories from his days as the death dragon returned.

Tracing them, he moved toward the heart of the palace. There were endless golden columns, floors of marble, elegant paintings, intricate ornaments and statues, and more. He passed through a long corridor veiled in black shadow and entered a vast hall. At its center stood a massive golden throne, its master long gone. And beyond that throne, something ominous.

"By the heavens..." Grateria trembled as he approached behind the throne. And there he saw it.

It was a towering blood-red monolith pulsing with a strange, flickering light. And in that moment, he understood what had happened.

Someone had abandoned the present and escaped the bounds of space and time. Because of that, reality itself—denied and disrupted—was collapsing. There was no need to wonder whose doing this was. The overwhelming darkness lingering in the monolith said it all.

A curse burst from the dragon emperor's mouth. "Karnak! You wretched Monarch of Death!"

Could the regression of a single man through time and space truly bring about the end of the world? The answer was simple: yes. Even a small hole could collapse the mightiest dam.

The problem wasn't the result of Karnak returning to the past. It was the act of tearing open a hole in time and space to do so. The flow of time had been severed, and this world's future no longer existed.

And the result was this collapsing reality before his eyes. Grateria fell into contemplation. At this rate, the world would fall. Though the resilience of time and space was still holding things together, it wouldn't last.

What should I do...?

He was the guardian of the world. He had sworn on his very soul to protect it. Even as a death dragon, that vow still glowed within him.

I must protect this world.

With renewed resolve, Grateria stepped toward the blood-red monolith. There was no way to plug a hole already torn in the fabric of space-time. But there was another way to amend things. He reached out and placed his hand upon the monolith. Through his Dragon Eye of Insight, he pierced its essence. The ritual to transcend time and return to the past embedded itself into his mind.

"If there is no cause, then there can be no effect."

The monolith began to emit a vast, rising darkness. And he, too, began to return, to a time when he had still been the dragon emperor, guardian of the world.

***

The dragon emperor of the past accepted the soul of the regressed Grateria without resistance.

What has happened, my future self?

You will know when you peer into it, my past self.

I see. It is something that must be done.

So catastrophic was the fate to come that the two guardians of the world easily became one. Once the world was protected, the future Grateria would return to his own time. To lend his body for a while was no great burden for his past self.

Becoming the dragon emperor once more, Grateria soared into the sky. He tore through space and flew to where Karnak's soul now lingered. The territory of Zestrad fell into utter chaos at the sudden appearance of a dragon hundreds of meters long.

"It's a m-monster!"

"It's a dragon!"

"It's a dragon monster!"

Amid the panicking humans, he found them. Karnak and his loyal servant Varos, now just ordinary men.

"What's that, young master? Why's the dragon emperor here for us?"

"Beats me. We didn't do anything wrong this time, did we?"

These were truly absurd men. They acted as though the countless sins they had once committed no longer existed, as if merely defying the flow of time had washed it all away. They were evil, unchanged and undiminished.

Grateria opened his mouth. "Human Monarch of Death."

Their reflexes were still sharp. They grasped the situation in an instant.

"Shit! It's Grateria from the future?"

"Wait, why the hell is he here?"

Not that understanding helped them. The two regressors were no longer the Monarch of Death and Death Knight Lord. They were just young men in their twenties. They were weak, even by human standards.

"I shall erase you and restore the balance of the world."

With that declaration, he unleashed his breath. That alone was enough. Karnak and Varos were reduced to ash and vanished. But the true nightmare began immediately after.

Suddenly, the sky collapsed, and the void yawned wide. An immense darkness began to take root in the world. It was the power of death, Astra Shunaph, abandoned and cast off by that wretched Monarch of Death.

Now, like a great tree, it descended into the world. Its master had forsaken death, and so Astra Shunaph had wandered the void. But now its rightful owner had once again embraced death. How could it not greet him with joy?

The master of death reunited with the power of death, and a skull wreathed in blue spirit energy stood before Grateria, now a god of death. "Grateria!"

Even the first time he had become Astra Shunaph, Karnak had wielded power exceeding that of the dragon emperor. And now, after a hundred years of further growth, he possessed power that far surpassed Grateria. "You really went and smashed my living body, huh?"

Grateria was utterly defeated. Once again, he was reduced to a death dragon, bound as the Monarch of Death's thrall. The last thing he remembered was Karnak's grumbling voice. "Damn guy... I'd just erase him for good if he were easier to kill."

***

When Grateria came to his senses, he found himself once again trapped within the body of the death dragon. What happened...?

He was briefly puzzled, but quickly realized the cause. The time-reversal spell he had seized from Karnak, powered by his draconic magic, had resulted in a different outcome.

He hadn't been freed from death. Instead, he had become anchored to a fixed point in time and space. Specifically, to the very moment when the world teetered on the brink of its end.

Yet something had changed. The future seemed different, likely due to alterations in the past.

This time, he hadn't awakened inside the volcanic crater. He was frozen solid in the middle of a vast ice field.

That means...

Grateria shot into the sky in alarm. It carried grave implications. The altered future still pointed toward the world's destruction. He flew through the skies and surveyed the land. This world differed slightly from the last.

Undead still roamed in droves across the earth, but the Necropia Empire, the undead martial kings, and the great archmages were nowhere to be seen.

What happened?

He used his Dragon Eye of Insight and scanned the entire world. And then he found the answer. It was one so infuriating it made him curse aloud. "Karnak! You wretched fiend!"

Karnak, as Astra Shunaph, had once again drowned the world in darkness. He had slaughtered all living beings, turned them into undead, and amassed unfathomable power through death and shadow.

And then, he had wielded that very power to abandon this reality again and returned to the past, all for his own twisted pleasure. Grateria made his way toward the rift torn in time and space. And once more, he attempted to reverse time.

He had learned from his previous mistake. I must not kill him.

Karnak was the master of death. His one and only weakness was his desire for life. If that desire were to vanish, he would become a demon beyond salvation. For Grateria, the solution came easily. I must seal him away while he still lives.

***

Once again, the dragon emperor of the past welcomed his future self without hesitation. This time, he carried his living body and leapt straight through space to the territory of Zestrad.

And once again, the young Karnak, barely in his twenties, greeted him. But there was a difference this time. This version of Karnak remembered him. "Grateria... why's that guy here again?"

This was the Karnak who had once been slain by Grateria and returned as Astra Shunaph. And that was the problem. The moment Karnak saw Grateria, he took his own life. Grateria had no chance to seal him.

"Gods, this is infuriating." With those final words, Karnak once again entered the realm of death. And the nightmare repeated itself.

As Astra Shunaph, Karnak easily subdued Grateria. The last thing he remembered was a conversation between Karnak, now a god of death, and Varos, now a death knight.

"So, what now, young master?"

"We gather our power and go back again. I've done it twice already. Who's to say I can't do it a third time?"

***

Grateria opened his eyes once more in the Age of Destruction. This time, he saw a glimmer of hope. I see. If I adjust the point of return, there's still a chance.

He had to avoid any version of Karnak who already knew about the dragon emperor's time regression. Otherwise, he would immediately cast aside life and revert to his death god form. That would leave him no room to act.

But if he returned to the point in time when Karnak first regressed, then there might still be a chance. So Grateria flew across the death-choked land, hurled himself into the time rift once again, and returned to the past.

After fusing once more with his past self, he sought out Karnak. Panic erupted among the people of Zestrad.

"A m-monster!"

"It's a dragon!"

"A dragon monster!"

And once again, the ordinary human Karnak and his loyal Varos repeated the same lines.

"What is that, young master? Why is Grateria coming after us?"

"Beats me. We haven't done anything wrong this time either, right?"

It was a satisfying result. Grateria had dealt with them with the utmost care, ensuring not to kill them, nor even inflict wounds that could bring them close to death. He thoroughly subdued both their bodies and souls.

Success.

Pleased, the dragon emperor intended to entrust the sealing to his present self. That was when it happened. Within the seal, Karnak had a single stray thought. If it's come to this... I'd rather just die.

That alone, merely choosing death, merely relinquishing the pleasures of life, was enough.

The moment he truly abandoned life, the Void opened its maw.

Darkness poured in, and the overwhelming power of death found its way to its master. Before that vast power, the dragon emperor's seal was no sturdier than a sheet of paper.

"Grateria!" The god of death had returned once more. "So you managed to destroy my living body again?"

***

Grateria opened his eyes. The world still marched toward destruction. Time and space were still collapsing. And he had no way to stop it.

Karnak was someone he could neither kill nor save. No matter what he tried, he couldn't protect the world from him. In despair, the world's guardian let out a scream.