The sky above Maya was clearer than ever, yet the darkness tonight felt heavier than usual, as if everyone's lungs were being pressed down by lead weights.
The arena's ruins still smouldered behind them, their broken steel bars echoing mournfully in the wind. Aaryan carried the exhausted Balthazar, taking each step through the damp, sticky acid rain. Dahlia walked beside him; the 'Twin Wind-Up Hearts' around her neck still emitted a faint, rhythmic white light — the only source of solace in the darkness.
'It's not over yet, is it?' Aaryan stopped and looked up at the towering 'Holy Blood Tower', a symbol of the end of order in Maya.
'This is just the beginning.' Dahlia's voice carried a hint of world-weariness beyond her years. Her golden pupils gleamed in the darkness — a lingering effect of the intense resonance that had just occurred. 'We just disrupted the entire etheric flow of the Maya district. Griffin may have lost, but those behind him will never allow 'fuel' to develop self-awareness.'
Just then, the ground began to tremble.
At first, it was only a slight, heartbeat-like rhythm, but within three seconds, the tremors had intensified to the point that puddles were leaping into the air. A deep, heavy metallic rumble echoed from beyond the high walls at the end of the street. Accompanied by the piercing shriek of steam vents, this sound was like a steel behemoth awakening.
'It's "Doomsday Pilgrimage",' Balthazar coughed weakly into Aaryan's shoulder, his eyes filled with primal fear. 'The nightmare of Volume One... Overseer Vane's steam-powered tower patrol vehicle.'
Aaryan whirled around. A massive cloud of fog, torn apart by countless searchlights, was slowly bearing down on them. It was a mobile fortress that combined the ferocity of the Industrial Revolution with the eeriness of black magic.
The patrol vehicle stood fifty metres high and spanned two main roads. With each rotation of its massive tracks, it could easily crush the buildings in the Maya district slums. Rusted brass pipes covered its surface, and dark red etheric solution flowed rapidly through transparent conduits like pulsating veins.
On a command platform covered by a glass dome at the top of this steel behemoth stood a gaunt figure. Wearing a long trench coat made of high-level demonic leather, he rhythmically tapped a ruby-inlaid baton with his pale fingers. A pair of sophisticated mechanical monocles covered his eyes, through which he could clearly see the ethereal wavelengths of every speck of dust on the street.
"What a vulgar resonance," Vane's voice echoed through the entire Maya district via loudspeaker, carrying an arrogant magnetism. 'Royal blood, the essence of the White Witch, attempting to forge a contract in a garbage dump — it's like lighting the sun in a gutter; it's meaningless except for attracting flies.'
A massive shadow instantly enveloped Aaryan and Dahlia.
The spotlights atop the tower, like spears of judgement, instantly homed in on them. Under the intense light, Aaryan felt the purple-gold divine light within him shrink back — not from fear, but from the absolute, domineering pressure emanating from the other party. Vane's patrol vehicle was not only a war machine, but also a massive 'ethereal stripping field', designed specifically to suppress any supernatural power not belonging to the Council. "Aaryan, hold on tight to the pendant!" Dahlia screamed.
The side panels of the patrol vehicle slowly opened and hundreds of 'capture forks' surrounded by high-voltage arcs locked onto their positions. Black smoke billowed from the giant steam tower, obscuring the last glimmer of light and trapping them in a dead end of steel and shadow. "Kneel or become this machine's lubricant."
Vane waved his baton and the base of the giant patrol vehicle towered above them, emitting a deafening hydraulic roar. Two enormous mechanical claws came crashing down from the sky with overwhelming force.
Aaryan pushed Dahlia aside and braced himself with one hand. Due to the suppressive field, the power within him had become extremely unstable. He tried to summon the power of the ancient royal family, but against Vane's 'dragon-slaying weapon', which had been specifically developed for royalty, his power was like a dragon trapped in mud — the more he struggled, the faster it was depleted.
Gritting his teeth, Aaryan watched the approaching steel claws, an unprecedented sense of crisis shooting from his tailbone to the top of his head. He could sense that Vane didn't intend to kill him, but rather to dissect him like a work of art here, before taking him back to the Blood Tower. Just as the mechanical claw was about to touch Aaryan's scalp, the 'Twin Clockwork Heart' suddenly stopped spinning.
It hadn't run out of energy; it had entered a bizarre 'countdown' mode. A cold, mechanical voice, neither male nor female, emanated from within the pendant:
'Highest privilege conflict detected, coordinates 1969, triggering defensive warp. Warp cost: sacrifice of the White Witch's vision or the royal family's past.'
Dahlia's body trembled violently and the golden markings in her eyes began to swirl wildly. At the same time, Vane in the tower seemed to sense something: his eye behind his monocle widened sharply and he emitted a greedy, twisted laugh.
'Finally... Guardian of the Coordinates, have you finally revealed your true form?'
He leapt from the top of the Colossus, his trench coat transforming into enormous black wings as he hurtled towards the pendant that was counting down. At the same time, Aaryan's memories were fading like a receding tide. Memories of 'before the transmigration' were becoming blurred. If he didn't make a choice immediately, he would become the most perfect, soulless shell in this timeline.
The mechanical countdown echoed endlessly in Aaryan's mind; with each tick, fragments of memory were stripped away. He began to forget how he had arrived in the ruined city known as 'Maya District', and the very concept of 'time travel' seemed strange and absurd.
'Sacrifice... my past?' Aaryan gritted his teeth as he knelt on the trembling ground. The terrifying 'ethereal stripping field' of Supervisor Vane had nearly crushed his body, making him feel as if a thousand needles were piercing his bone marrow through his pores and forcibly tearing away his pride and divine power as an ancient royal.
In the sky, Vane swooped down like a black hawk. His wings, formed of black magic, sliced through the air with a piercing sonic boom.
"Hesitation is the epitaph of mediocrity, Majesty." Vane's voice was close at hand, carrying a nauseating elegance. 'In the logic of the Holy Blood Council, nothing is untradeable. Since you are unwilling to part with your memories, let this White Witch exchange her sight for your chance of escape."
Suddenly, Vane's slender fingers opened and five jet-black ethereal chains shot out from his fingertips, bypassing Aaryan and heading straight for Dahlia's eyes.
"No!"
Aaryan roared, making his choice.
Rather than accepting the bizarre 'leap' proposal, he pressed his palm against the violently trembling 'Twin Clockwork Heart', not to sacrifice his memories, but to forcefully infuse his not-yet-fully-suppressed royal blood into the forbidden system known as '1969'.
"Devour... devour this shadow!"
As Aaryan's will erupted, the silver whip marks on his back lit up again. No longer in its previous slow-healing state, they transformed into countless tiny 'mouths'. The oppressive dark magic energy emanating from Vane was instantly torn apart and swallowed whole by Aaryan.
It was an excruciating sensation, like swallowing a lump of burning molten iron; Vane's power was highly corrosive.
The sensation was excruciating, like swallowing a lump of molten iron that was burning hot. Vane's power was highly corrosive. However, in the presence of Aaryan's powerful royal bloodline, this power was transformed into the primal energy required to restart the pendant.
'Click!'
The previously stagnant gears within the clockwork heart began to spin wildly in reverse with a crisp sound, defying the laws of physics.
A semi-transparent blue-white light curtain opened instantly, forcing Vane back several steps.
'What?' Vane flipped gracefully through the air and landed, the red light behind his monocle flashing violently. 'You actually managed to forcibly convert my "Nether Aether"? In this era, no one can transcend such a level of power..."
'That's because your understanding of power is too superficial.' Aaryan stood up; his pupils now displayed an eerie colour: his left eye was a purplish gold, representing royalty, while his right eye had become a deep, dark black due to the forced absorption.
Despite her extreme weakness, Dahlia, supporting herself on the edge of the hibernation pod, could sense that Aaryan was undergoing a qualitative change — a change that was no longer simply 'becoming stronger', but rather tearing open a gap in this mechanically locked spacetime that didn't belong here.
However, the steam-powered giant patrol vehicle wouldn't stop because of one person's breakthrough.
'Activate the "Purification Array".' Vane returned to the command platform and coldly waved his baton.
A cloud of white smoke billowed from the exhaust vents at the top of the colossal tower — not ordinary steam, but a highly concentrated 'holy water atomising agent' with brainwashing and flesh-dissolving effects. Once this mist covered the alleyway, the nerves of all the demi-humans would instantly collapse.
Even more terrifyingly, the tower's tracks, which weighed tens of tons, had already crushed a three-storey building less than ten metres from Aaryan. The building crumbled like building blocks, scattering bricks and stones everywhere.
'Balthazar, protect Dahlia!' Aaryan felt his consciousness beginning to blur — a side effect of forcibly absorbing Vane's energy.
'My lord, we have nowhere to retreat!' Balthazar raised the newly repaired hydraulic arm, attempting to prop up a fallen floorboard.
At this critical moment, the unscrupulous merchant Pau, who had been hiding in the distance, suddenly screamed. Pointing behind the giant patrol car, his voice trembling and incoherent, he asked, "What... what is that? Is that the guardian of '1969'?"
Behind the enormous shadow covering the entire block, at the boundary between thick fog and acid rain, another shadow slowly rose, even larger than the first, but ancient and dilapidated.
It wasn't a machine, but a colossal bronze Buddha statue constructed from an unknown stone. Perched on the Buddha's shoulder was the taciturn mechanical monk, Cyrus.
He slammed his bronze staff into the floor, forcibly correcting the ethereal frequency of the entire Maya district.
'Vane, your clock is running too fast.' His voice boomed like an ancient bell and, under his control, the colossal bronze statue of the Buddha extended a thousand hands pieced together from countless scrapped parts. These hands gripped the edge of Vane's steam-powered tower. The collision of the two colossal objects sent a tremor of despair through the entire city. Amidst the sparks of energy from the impact, Aaryan discovered that the emblem had reappeared on the back of Dahlia's neck. This time, however, a series of fluctuating geographical coordinates appeared on the emblem — the cursed 'Zero Zone', a place that no one in the Maya District had ever set foot in.
In that forbidden land, Aaryan saw a man dressed in a 1969-style suit and carrying a black umbrella give him an eerie smile through the layers of ruins.
The massive bronze Buddha hand collided with the brass shell of the steam tower. The resulting roar was not just a physical collision, but a "computational conflict" between dimensions.
Cyrus stood on top of the thousand-armed Buddha statue. His mechanical arm was covered in countless jumpers and was frantically importing the 'Zen data' that had been accumulated by the temple's great bell over centuries into the battle. The bronze statue's body, pieced together from scrap metal, was continuously disintegrating within the 'etheric stripping field', only to reassemble rapidly under Cyrus's powerful control.
'Aaryan! Take the coordinates and move!' Cyrus's voice pierced through the thick atomising vapour. 'The 1969 system's counterattack can only last three minutes! After three minutes, the causality here will completely collapse!'
Aaryan abruptly wiped away the black blood spilling from the corner of his mouth; the aftereffects of forcibly absorbing Vane's Nether Aether were kicking in. His retina flashed with jumbled gibberish — fragments of the truth about this world and his repressed memories engaged in a final tug-of-war.
"Sector Zero…" Aaryan stared at the coordinates appearing behind Dahlia's neck, the numbers burning into his retinas.
"Go!" Balthazar unleashed the berserk instincts of the demon race. He pushed off with his legs, creating a deep crater in the ground with the immense hydraulic force. Grabbing the still-dazed Pau with one hand and shielding Dahlia with the other, he smashed through the brick wall at the end of the alley and ran into the shadows.
Aaryan followed closely behind. He could sense that the terrifying being known as Vane wouldn't be held back by Cyrus for long. "Since you're so fond of ancient relics, let this entire district pay for your deaths."
Vane's cold, emotionless voice descended from the clouds.
The exhaust valves at the top of the steam-powered patrol vehicle suddenly shut off completely. The entire tower began to collapse and deform inwards, accompanied by a sickening metallic creak. It transformed from a mobile fortress into an 'etheric sniper cannon', radiating a dark red glow.
The cannon was locked onto the route that Aaryan and his companions had to take to escape: the 'Rusty Bridge' connecting the Maya District and the Forbidden Zero District.
'High energy detected!' Dahlia's voice shattered in the wind as the pendant around her neck emitted a piercing alarm. 'Aaryan, he's going to completely obliterate the bridge's physical existence!'
Aaryan turned around. A dark red beam, powerful enough to pierce the entire city, was gathering at the cannon's muzzle — the Holy Blood Council's most advanced technology: an annihilation ray created by forcibly accelerating normally docile crystal energy to its extreme through black magic.
At that moment, Aaryan felt the arrogance of his ancient royal family, which had been suppressed deep within his soul, ignite completely.
He stopped, no longer fleeing.
'Your Majesty, have you gone mad?' Balthazar stopped and looked at Aaryan alone on the bridge in horror.
'You go,' Aaryan whispered. Bathed in the crimson light, his silhouette appeared utterly lonely yet indomitable. 'If this bridge collapses, no one can reach Sector Zero. Since he seeks destruction, I'll show him what true 'devouring' really is.'
Aaryan closed his eyes and formed an incredibly complex, ancient hand seal. His memory fragments were ripped away, but his final move was locked deep within his consciousness: 'All Things Return to Silence.'
His feet sank deeply into the asphalt of the rusty bridge. The royal blood within him began to boil in reverse. The previously glowing silver whip wounds cracked open, each one radiating a dark, black hole-like light.
'Come on, Vane! Let's see if your machine is tougher or if I am!' Boom!
The crimson annihilation ray transcended distance, instantly engulfing Aaryan's emaciated body.
In that instant, all the light in the Maya Sector seemed to be sucked away, and even the onlookers, the 'minor fry', felt a sense of weightlessness. At the centre of the bridge, a colossal energy sphere with a diameter of ten metres was expanding wildly, red and purple-gold rays fiercely tearing at its surface.
Aaryan felt his body shatter inch by inch. Vane's power surpassed his current abilities, forming a vicious curse from the combined life energy of tens of thousands of demi-humans.
"Not enough... more!" Aaryan frantically squeezed every last drop of potential from his cells. He even began deliberately tearing apart his memories, feeding precious images of his homeland and loved ones into the furnace within his body that was churning frantically.
Just as he was about to be completely consumed by the energy storm, he felt a warm hand gently rest on his back.
It was Dahlia.
Instead of fleeing, she stood at the edge of the storm. The White Witch's primal power forcefully pierced through the annihilation rays like a thread as thin as a hair yet incredibly resilient, protecting Aaryan's last vestige of clarity.
'Aaryan, don't sacrifice your past,' Dahlia whispered in his ear, her voice piercing the deafening explosion. 'Gamble with our future...'
The pendant spun wildly between them as the forces of life and death merged completely. The previously raging energy sphere began to contract, eventually shrinking into a tiny point.
Then it collapsed.
A silent tremor swept through the entire tower patrol vehicle and a piercing alarm sounded from Vane's control console. The once indestructible ethereal sniper cannon began to crumble from the inside out. When the light faded, the rusty bridge was still standing, but Aaryan noticed that Dahlia beside him had changed.
Her once snow-white hair had turned a sinister shade of dark purple. Her tightly closed eyes finally opened, revealing not golden markings, but two empty voids pulsating with base code from 1969.
'Host has completed initial jump.' A cold, emotionless voice echoed from the pendant. 'Welcome to... Sector Zero. Warning: The current timeline is not 1969, but 'the first second after the destruction of 1969'."
Sector Zero, which should have been a desolate, forbidden zone, now presented itself as a bizarre metropolis, bustling with activity yet littered with bones and clockwork components. At the main gate of the metropolis, an 'Aaryan' dressed in miners' clothes identical to Aaryan's, but with a full head of white hair, coldly raised a crystal-forged longsword and pointed it at them.
'You're too late, my dear... past,' rasped the white-haired Aaryan.
The rusty bridge creaked painfully in the aftershocks of the collapsing energy, threatening to plunge into the abyss below at any moment. But then, on the other side of the bridge, a scene unfolded that caused Aaryan to forget about her pursuers.
It wasn't desolate, nor was it deathly silent.
Before them lay 'Sector Zero', a vast labyrinth shrouded in neon lights and steam. Countless suspended gears crisscrossed and rotated in the air, supporting skyscraper-like mechanical towers. The tops of each tower shimmered with an ethereal bluish-purple glow. Most chillingly of all, there were countless pedestrians and demi-humans dressed in 1969-style clothing walking the streets. Their movements were mechanical and precise, as if they were being controlled by some invisible thread.
At the centre of it all, Aaryan, with her white hair, leaned on her crystal longsword. Her piercing gaze fixed intently on them through the thick fog.
"You're too late, my dear… past."
Aaryan's voice, white-haired and echoing with the weariness and coldness of countless centuries of reincarnation, carried across the bridge. His left hand was no longer flesh, but a nearly transparent crystal skeleton within which flowed dark golden light. "Who are you?" Aaryan struggled to maintain his balance. He could feel the 'Twin Clockwork Hearts' in his hand beating wildly. The resonance was more intense than ever before, as if pulling him towards the other heart.
'I am you, or rather, one of countless failed versions of you.' Aaryan slowly walked towards the centre of the bridge, each step causing dense base-1969 code to appear in the air beneath his feet.
'Here, time isn't linear; it's a vicious cycle, a never-ending gear.' You thought you'd travelled through time to the Maya District? No, you've just fallen into a prison called '1969', and I'm both the sole survivor and the sole guard."
Dahlia had changed beyond recognition. Her long, dark purple hair danced wildly in the wind and her empty eyes flashed with data streams. Suddenly, she let out a painful growl and detached herself from Balthazar's protection, floating into the air.
"Coordinates… alignment… system permissions… transferring… detected… coexistence of 'Unit 1' and 'Unit 2'…" Dahlia's voice sounded synthesised.
"Shut up!" Aaryan lunged at Dahlia, trying to pull her back to the ground.
However, the white-haired Aaryan swung her crystal longsword and an invisible sword aura instantly slashed a bottomless crack in the bridge, forcing Aaryan back.
'Don't touch her. She's not your White Witch anymore. She's the 'heart' of this city." A hint of madness flashed in Aaryan's eyes. 'I've waited three hundred years for you to activate this coordinate. For three hundred years, I've watched Griffin reshape this world time and time again; I've watched Vane drive you 'vessels' to the brink of destruction time and time again. Now, the last fragment is finally in my hands. To hell with the vessels!"
Balthazar finally erupted. He couldn't comprehend the time paradox; he only knew that his 'King' was in danger and that the girl was turning into a monster.
The giant roared and the steam ducts on his back emitted a dark red glow. He hurtled towards Aaryan like a heavy cannonball.
"The loyalty of the Demon Clan is still so cheap." Aaryan didn't even turn around, merely flicking his finger.
A terrifying gravitational force erupted instantly at the centre of the bridge. Balthazar's massive body froze in mid-air for a moment before slamming into the reinforced concrete of the bridge.
Meanwhile, in the mist behind the bridge, the remains of Superintendent Vane's steam tower began to move again. Vane hadn't died in the explosion. His tattered black wings dragged on the ground and his mechanical monocle was shattered, revealing a burning red core within.
'Griffin was right... you are the key to unlocking the "Eternal Core",' Vane said, his voice twisted and fanatical. 'Whoever it is, as long as they leave behind that clockwork core...'
'Ahead lies the unpredictable "future self"; behind lies the mad Executor.' Aaryan was plunged into an unprecedented predicament. 'Aaryan... listen...'
Dahlia's broken voice suddenly emerged from the data stream. Though her vision had vanished, her soul seemed to have touched the very essence of this 'Sector Zero' city.
'That white-haired guy... he's a fake; he's not your future. He is Griffin's most perfect 'Mirror Logic Program'! He's trying to steal your royal blood authorisation!"
Aaryan's pupils contracted sharply.
He looked down at the 'Twin Clockwork Heart' in his hand. The 1969 photograph spontaneously combusted in a tiny crack and a new line of text appeared in the embers.
'Do not listen to the words of the return journey; do not look at the mirror image. When you see 'yourself', it means you have stepped into the womb of lies.'
'I almost got fooled.' Aaryan sneered, his aura instantly intensifying after being weakened by the memory stripping. The purple-gold divine light within him stopped leaking outwards, gathering entirely at his fingertips instead.
If this world is 'calculated', then he would shatter it with the most illogical power!
He didn't attack the white-haired Aaryan, nor did he attack Vane. Instead, he abruptly turned and struck the core pillar of the rusty bridge beneath his feet with a blow imbued with all his royal blood.
'Since this is a prison, then tear down the foundation!' The bridge collapsed completely under the blow, but the expected fall did not occur.
As the bridge crumbled, the dazzling neon illusion of 'Sector Zero' began to peel away like shredded paper, revealing a massive crater filled with bones stretching to the bottom of the abyss.
At the bottom of the crater, a digital clock shimmering with an eerie green light floated silently.
The clock was frozen at 19:69:69.
Beyond the laws of physics, an unnaturally aged voice emerged from Aaryan's shadow at this point in time:
"Child, welcome to the true 'Stomach of Maya'. Now, tell me... To stop this world from turning, are you willing to give me your heart?"
Aaryan was horrified to find that the bright red, beating heart in his chest was slowly turning transparent and being replaced by a cold, mesh-like brass spring.