Fated Beyond Chrono

After their shopping trip, the two were on their way home. As they approached their house, Cheonwoong asked Aria, "Do you need anything else?"

Aria shook her head. However, when they arrived in front of the house, she saw Cheonwoong's school uniform through the window. It reminded her that school was starting next week.

Upon hearing this, Cheonwoong looked at Aria with a strange expression and asked, "You don't have a school uniform, do you?"

Aria hesitated and nodded. Cheonwoong's blood pressure rose for a moment. He sighed and walked toward the school.

"Follow me," he said, sensing something was wrong.

They walked to the school, which was about five minutes away from the house, when Aria heard whispers. This time, not only familiar voices but also several other whispers filled the air. Aria, overwhelmed by the tension, looked at Cheonwoong, but his expression was frozen as well. The two of them remained silent. Eventually, they entered the school with deep breaths.

Aria looked up at the notice on the wall and realized she didn't have an admission certificate or a resident registration number.

At that moment, the whispers grew louder again. She wandered, seemingly lost in a trance, toward a warehouse that distributed school uniforms. Cheonwoong followed her quietly. Aria stood expressionless, as if possessed, without saying a word.

When Aria reached the front of the line, the teacher asked for her name. Suddenly, she came to her senses, feeling embarrassed. The whispers in her head grew even louder. Cheonwoong spoke up, giving her name instead of her. The teacher looked confused and said that there was no "Aria" on the student list. Cheonwoong asked again, surprised. Aria, embarrassed, pulled Cheonwoong's arm and suggested they come back later. But just as she spoke, the teacher's typing on the computer stopped. Aria's whispers became even more intense. Then, the teacher stood up and handed Aria a school uniform, moving stiffly like a cold robot. It was the perfect size—usually, they give slightly larger uniforms to students because they are supposed to last for three years.

Aria stood there for a moment, dazed after receiving the uniform. The teacher then turned back with a cheerful tone and said, "If you've got it, can you step out of the line?"

Aria and Cheonwoong quickly left. They exchanged glances but didn't speak, both of them feeling out of breath. When they exited the school gate, the whispers stopped. However, what surprised Aria more was seeing her name clearly written at the bottom of the freshman list in front of the gate. Cheonwoong urged Aria to hurry, sweating heavily.

They didn't speak about what happened at school that day, almost as if they had agreed not to. In the evening, they had a light supper, and Aria fell asleep on the sofa again. It was 8:57 p.m. Cheonwoong looked at Aria for a moment, then put on a hoodie and went out. As he left, Lia's mana stone rang, and another half of the remaining mana disappeared.

When Cheonwoong returned from buying drinks at the grocery store, he heard a dog barking behind him. He turned around and took something out of a plastic bag. Suddenly, something transparent hit him from behind. Cheonwoong pulled out the mini knife he had purchased, but before he could react, he was struck again.

As Cheonwoong nearly fainted, he managed to stand up. The transparent object tried to strike him again, but Cheonwoong naturally dodged it and tripped it. Dust flew into the air, and Cheonwoong stared at it with an expressionless face. He looked at the transparent object, unfazed. The cold night breeze intensified, and the dust swirled around. Cheonwoong's hair scattered in the wind, and the streetlamp illuminated his right eye. His gaze wasn't menacing, but unsettling, as if he could see the transparent object clearly.

Cheonwoong walked toward it. The object crawled back, and the distance between them shrank. As the two clouds of dust converged, Cheonwoong's hair settled, his eyes returned to their usual calm state, and the two clouds of dust drifted apart.

In that moment, Cheonwoong felt a strange fatigue, his leg growing weak as sweat poured down like a fountain. He walked back home, groaning in pain as he opened the door. The moment he entered, he felt a strange energy in the house. When he saw Aria, the mana stone in her possession stopped ringing. Cheonwoong felt a deep sadness for her. He turned off the living room light, closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Tap!"

Cheonwoong opened his eyes again in the darkness. He took a shower in the dim light, his mind drifting as the water fell like heavy rain. He didn't know what he was thinking. The more he tried to focus, the more trapped he felt, as if he were lost in a jungle. Despite his efforts to cut through the branches and trees, he kept running into bigger obstacles and walls.

He sighed, stopping the shower. He tried to silence his mind, but thoughts continued to demand his attention. He looked at his reflection in the mirror after changing clothes. His wounds, though numerous, seemed to have melded with his body. Cheonwoong stared at his reflection, feeling pathetic, more so than Aria had seemed a day or two ago.

He lay on the bed with his phone in hand, staring at the lock screen's light. The moonlight shining through the small window caught his attention. He felt as if he could reach it if he just stretched out his arm. But no matter how much he tried, nothing touched the light. It was as though he were struggling in a dream.

Cheonwoong gently got up from the bed and went over to Aria. He ran his fingers through his bluish hair a few times and sat down under the sofa where she was lying. He came to her, but didn't know what to say or do, so he just watched her. The outside grew darker, and the night deepened. He blanked out in the darkness, then lay down beside the sofa. Raindrops began falling heavily outside. Eventually, Cheonwoong drifted off to sleep to the sound of the rain.

In a distant parallel universe, the Urban Army began wiping out planets. They were determined to find and kill Aria, as she was an essential ally to the Galaxy Coalition. Both armies were relentlessly searching for her.

One day, two Urban soldiers returned to base, and the Urban Commander approached them, sensing something was wrong.

The two soldiers hesitated before speaking. "We're sorry, Commander. We could've handled it, but suddenly..."

The Commander glared at them, raising his hand. His frightening presence made the soldiers stop mid-sentence. The Commander was about to reprimand them when something strange happened—his eyes and hair turned red. The soldiers backed away in surprise. The people around them quickly calmed the Commander down. After a moment, he spoke in a quieter tone.

"Go back. Don't come back until you've completed your mission... and don't even think about returning."

The soldiers stood at attention and saluted, shouting, "Yes, sir!"

An officer standing next to the Commander said, "These two... I think it's going to be hard for them."

The Commander smiled grimly. "It's fine. I've already handled it for now. They won't be returning."

The officer, confused, watched the Commander, who patted him on the shoulder and whispered in his ear, "I trust you. I have no doubt."

Then, the Commander pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed the officer's bulletproof vest, piercing through the fabric and grazing his skin. It stopped just before hitting a blood vessel.

The officer staggered, overwhelmed, but barely managed to stand up still with his tiptoe