End Of The Line

A barren field littered with corpses could be seen from afar.

 In many places, burned tents and destroyed tombs could be seen too.

 A figure was slowly walking away from the war-ravaged field.

 He was alone.

 After slowly limping for some time, he arrived at his destination.

 A small thatched hut was still standing before him.

 He entered the hut walking in slow motion.

 Five figures could be seen inside the hut. Three of them were sitting on the floor; while the other two were sleeping on makeshift beds.

 Seeing him enter, one person raised his head and asked, "So, how did it go?"

 "We were able to hold their army off, though temporarily. They will come back with much greater force than this time and our defeat will be set on the stone then", the man answered slowly while sitting next to them.

 All of them slowly nodded their heads. They understood the situation very well. Their defeat was certain.

 "What about Eirvys?" another man in the room asked him.

 The man in the question didn't answer after hearing the question. He dropped his head down, forced himself not to cry in front of everyone, and then answered in a choked voice, "She died."

 Although the other persons in the room already expected it when they saw him returning alone, it was still hard to believe.

 "She was your last Draconian follower. I hope she fought with you well till the end."

 The man nodded slowly.

 "Yeah, she fought furiously. Those bastard Demi-Gods were no match for her", a single drop of tear rained down from his eyes.

 He sighed.

 "I will miss her."

 Others nodded silently.

 Although she was a follower, they knew their relationship was not that simple. Eirvys was much more loyal to him than a mere follower; she was his partner for all those years. Though they didn't go deeper into their relationship, everyone knew Eirvys was fiercely loyal to him and would die for him without a single thought.

 "What about Hyperion?" the man asked the others.

 "He died in the southern battlefields; we received the news sometime before, a System notification. You had probably missed it in the heats of battle."

 "And Isabella?"

 "She is missing. Hyperion and she were together leading the charge against those Demi-Gods, but after Hyperion died we have lost track of her."

 "What about you Nehar? I don't think you are feeling good too, right?"

 Nehar nodded his head slowly.

 Then he raised his right hand to show the others, "See, it's almost destroyed. My whole body is on the verge of collapse, I am not going to come out alive this time."

 The other three people watched Nehar cautiously.

 Their conditions were also not good, but Nehar's condition was far worse than theirs.

 "How much time do you think you have?"

 "Probably two hours, or less, I don't know", Nehar answered.

 Then he looked over others, and asked, "So, do you want to proceed in your plan Chronos?"

 Chronos, the bearded and over-sized man, who was sitting in a corner of the hut, nodded his head slowly.

 "If Aellion has no problem with this, we should proceed."

 Nehar nodded his head and looked over to the man named Aellion.

 A blonde-haired man, with golden sapphire-like eyes, looked at him and nodded his head, "There is no problem with the plan. Eirvys already gave me her condensed mana required for the process before she went with you. And Chronos is set with his devices, and for me, I have checked all the predictions till now and there is no problem with any of them."

 Nehar nodded his head in affirmation, "Then we can proceed. I don't think there will be a problem. Even if a problem occurs, we will take care of it later."

 Nehar emphasized the word, "later".

 Both Chronos and Aellion smiled lightly.

 "You are optimistic Nehar", a man who was lying on the bed, commented.

 Nehar looked over him and asked, "So, how are you feeling Orpheus?"

 "It fucking hurts, asshole."

 Nehar chuckled lightly.

 Orpheus was always like this, even in mortal danger.

 "I think our plan was flawed. We should've waited before launching a full-scale war against those Outer Gods", another person from the other bed commented in a deep but regretful voice.

 "No", both Aellion and Orpheus yelled at the same time.

 Aellion started speaking again, "Our plan was not flawed, nor our timing of launching the war against them. If we had waited for more time, those bastards would have slowly spread their faith in our lands more and more, converted and enslaved our people with the help of their faith and divinity, and would have thrust them into another war for themselves. I watched those people while establishing my rule and kingdom, and the same goes for all of you. If we had waited for more time, everyone would have died."

 "So, what did we achieve from all of these?" the man asked again.

 This time Chronos spoke, "Nothing. Our armies were obliterated, several of our Kings and Emperors died in this war and we practically achieved nothing. However, we got a clear understanding of their powers and forces, and we also completed the device which will become instrumental in our future battle."

 "You mean, in a different timeline, right?"

 Chronos nodded his head silently. He too knew that the war in this timeline had ended for them. There was no way for them to win this time. All they could do was to have faith in the next time, for which they had prepared for the last seven years.

 "Umbra, don't be so pessimistic. Without facing them, we would have no idea about their forces. And even if we had not faced them, they would've declared war against us after a certain time, to take over this world, just as they did with so many other worlds", Nehar answered him.

 "You are right, I'm sorry", Umbra answered in a depressed voice.

 No one spoke anything else on this matter anymore.

 Orpheus asked again, "So, only five are alive out of twenty-five of the core members. And out of them, Nehar's condition is getting worse with each passing minute. So decide fast what are going to do next."

Nehar asked, "Are we going to vote for a final time? Or should we follow the previous suggestions?"

Aellion chuckled, "The end result will be same. You are the one who's going back Nehar."

 Chronos nodded and spoke, "Aellion, I vote for Nehar. He is the one who should go back."

 Aellion nodded too.

 The other two person in the room, Orpheus and Umbra also nodded their heads in affirmation.

 "It's confirmed then", Aellion spoke, "Are you up for the task Nehar?"

 Nehar looked over the ring on his left hand, a system prompt was generated and a bluish screen appeared in front of him.

-------*****-------

[Equipment: Soul-Binding Ring]

[Equipment Description] : Unavailable.

[Equipment Status] : Partially destroyed (Semi-Sealed).

[Equipment Specifications] 

- Equipment Grade : Mythical.

- Equipment Level : Unknown.

- Equipment Properties : Used to bind destroyed or fallen souls.

- Equipment Effects : Soul Transfer, ?? (Unknown), ?? (Unknown).

- User Requirement Level : 1000 and Above.

- User Restriction : Soul-Bound to Nehar Reinhardt. 

- Bounded Souls : 2/3

-------*****-------

Nehar let out a sigh.

 He looked over others and then firmly said, "Yeah, I'm ready for the task."

 "Remember Nehar, if you are the one to go back then you have to fight for all of us. We've lost this time because we're not prepared to face them and also, we were too weak to put up a decent fight. Even several of our Emperors were not able to defeat a single Outer God properly. If you go back, you have to carry all of our burdens."

 Nehar knew it too.

 Going back alone to face those bastards again will be a challenge.

 "Moreover, we fought between ourselves for too long for so many petty reasons. And many of them were because we were manipulated into becoming each other's enemies by those bastards and their lackeys. Infighting weakened our strength greatly, and it also reduced the faith and divinities of our forces. You have to stop it from happening at any cost Nehar", Chronos stated with a grave tone.

 Nehar nodded his head silently.

 He knew he had to stop those infighting and wars as much as possible when he went back.

 Without a united and powerful front, facing those Outer-Gods and their lackeys and Demi-Gods will be nothing but a failure again.

 "Alright, we should star– ", Before Aellion could have finished, another System-generated notification appeared in front of them.

 [Isabella Roche, The Lightning Mage God has fallen.]

 Everyone became silent.

 They had expected this to happen when Isabella went missing after Hyperion's death.

 Still, it hurt.

 They fought together for more than fifteen years.

 Isabella was one of the most powerful mages in this world and as a person, she was cheerful as wind.

 And today, she died.

 "Another one of our core members has fallen. We pay respect to the Fallen, The Great Lightning Mage God, Isabella Roche. Hope we will fight again together in another lifetime."

 With Aellion saying those lines, everyone silently paid their respects to the fallen.

 "We should start. I don't think I have much time left before my body completely disintegrates..."

 Nehar spoke.

 Aellion nodded, "Yes, we should start. I hope you remember everything that I had told you before. Remember to become an indescribable powerhouse when you emerge from the Tutorial period. Because after that, many people will try to interfere or even hinder your growth."

 Nehar nodded his head solemnly.

 Chronos looked at him and asked, "Your work with that ring, is it done?"

 Nehar nodded his head again.

 "Then we should start. After the process, we will detonate ourselves and destroy our remaining divinities and shatter our souls completely, thus erasing ourselves from this timeline forever."

 Everyone nodded their heads affirmatively.

 Soon, Chronos started his work.

 The device in his hand, 'The Clock' has started to move its hands slowly through the ancient enchantments. Within some time, an ancient, freezing black portal suddenly formed and pulled Nehar inside it, as he was the only one present within the enchantment circle around the device.

 Others looked at the portal with shock and awe.

 Soon, the portal faded away from existence.

 And they started working to fulfill their last promise, to detonate themselves to remove their existence completely from this timeline.

 Once their remaining divinities get shattered and dispersed along with their soul fragments, no one in the world, not even those powerful and omniscient Outer-Gods will be able to turn back time and kill them.

 Orpheus started laughing madly while detonating himself, "To hell with you bastards...Outer-Gods, we will kill you in the afterlife, hahahaha…ahahaha…hahaha…."

 The mad rambling of those people started to fade away, as they faded away from existence.

 Meanwhile, Nehar was still getting pulled into the black portal.

 He felt like swimming in the endless ocean.

 Soon he stopped his struggles to experience the endless ocean of time as many thoughts came to his mind.

 "Aellion, The Wise ; Chronos, The Time Titan ; Orpheus, The Serpent King ; Umbra, The Sword King….I will see all of you later."

 Soon, his consciousness faded away.