The world around Angel and the royal guards was nothing but white.
A perfect, absolute white, without up, without down, without horizon.
Angel, the old bearded man, Emrite, and the royal guards floated in that emptiness, disoriented. Angel's scream had died, replaced by a heavy, crushing silence.
"Where are we…?" a guard muttered, his voice muffled by the absence of echo.
Angel pushed himself up with difficulty, rubbing his temples. None of this made sense. The book… the word TIME… and suddenly, this.
CRACK.
A sound like shattering glass tore through the void.
The white universe fissured, and like a mirror bursting apart, reality fragmented into drifting shards.
Behind those fragments, another world emerged. A forest.
But they were not there. Not physically. They were invisible spectators, floating like ghosts above a long-lost era.
"Look!" the old man exclaimed, pointing downward. "This is… Montotoputou! The architecture is ancient. This must be centuries ago!"
Below them stretched a lush forest. The houses, built of dark wood, had the distinctive inverted-teardrop shape characteristic of Europe's architecture.
Among the trees, a young boy walked.
Angel choked on his breath. The boy… had his face. His blond hair. His posture.
Only the eyes were different.
Suddenly, a young girl dashed out of nowhere, grabbed the boy, and pulled him into the bushes. She wore the traditional Igme outfit—light fabric covered with intricate patterns. Her skin was an unreal shade of white, almost dusted with chalk, contrasting with her long white hair and bright emerald eyes.
"Shh!" she whispered.
Moments later, heavily armored guards ran past, sweeping the area before disappearing deeper into the woods.
When the danger passed, the girl released a long breath and turned toward the stranger with a bright smile.
"Hi! I'm Maria."
The boy studied her, a smirk rising on his lips.
"Hi. I'm Angel Tiger."
In the void, the real Angel froze, blood turning to ice.
"Tiger…?" he whispered. "That monster… carried my name?"
In the memory, Maria tilted her head.
"You must be a foreigner. Look at your skin it's dark, not white like ours."
"Yeah, something like that," Tiger said casually. "Why were those people chasing you?"
"Oh, them? That's just the Emperor's personal guard. My father."
She sat on a tree root, twirling a twig between her fingers.
"In five days, it'll be the Festival of the Ifrits. The whole planet ignites to produce the Pure and Eternal Flames. And it's also the day all the leaders gather at the King's palace. I have to go with my father… again."
"You sound thrilled," Tiger teased. "Why don't you want to go?"
Maria's snowy cheeks flushed crimson.
"It's… complicated. Last time didn't go well."
"You knocked over the buffet? Tripped in front of everyone? Why are you blushing this hard?"
"Well… um…"
Tiger burst into laughter, loud and genuine.
"That smells like a girl in love! The princess and her Prince Charming, adorable!"
"No!! I mean… yes?" she admitted miserably. "It was five years ago. The son of the Eastern leader, IGU's heir. His name was Ben. He was… really handsome. Very reserved. Not sociable at all. But we got close that day."
She sighed, eyes drifting back into the past.
"As the flames approached the capital, we were sitting by a window. We were close… too close. I thought it was the moment. I tried to kiss him."
"And?" Tiger asked, thoroughly entertained.
"And he jumped up! He turned around and went to kiss another girl who had just arrived. His girlfriend he'd been waiting for. I lost my balance and fell onto the terrace below. Since that day, I swore never to go back!"
"HA HA HA HA HA!"
Tiger doubled over laughing. Maria swatted his shoulder repeatedly, furious but smiling despite herself.
Their connection was instant. Effortless.
That was when the guards found them.
…
Scenes then flickered past like an accelerated montage. Tiger was introduced to the King as a "tourist"—a concept that delighted the monarch.
Angel, Emrite, and the guards watched the memories unfold. Tiger and Maria became inseparable.
They played, ate, watched holographic films. Their friendship was pure, light, beautiful.
Then the scene shifted.
They walked together through a garden of glowing blue roses.
"Maria, what do you think of Europe?" Tiger asked suddenly.
"Huh? Why do you ask?"
"To be honest, I've visited a lot of places. Everywhere I went, there were legends, myths, incredible artifacts. But here… except for your appearance, I don't see anything 'special.'"
Maria's expression darkened. Offended.
"You're provoking me on purpose? Europe is full of history! Come with me!"
She dragged him through the palace halls to a guarded chamber with an enormous painting. It showed a majestic woman wearing a necklace shaped like a white flame.
"They say she fought a Lord who wanted to enslave the Igmes," Maria explained passionately. "She won, and became a legend."
"So? What's special about her?"
"Did you know that before the Igmes, the people who lived on Europe were called the Lunains? That clan vanished long ago. They left behind a treasure: the necklace worn by this woman."
She pointed at the flame-shaped gem. "Legend says it produces an energy capable of destroying the END itself. She mastered it and sacrificed herself to kill the enemy."
"Wow…" Tiger breathed.
"Since then, the ground is infused with her energy. That's what creates the Festival of the Ifrits. Her sacrifice imprinted her DNA into the flames born from the necklace."
"That's amazing. She must've been incredibly strong."
"I want to become a woman as strong as her," Maria said, eyes shining.
"I hope you do. What's the necklace called?"
"The Stone of Eternal Flames."
Something flickered in Tiger's gaze. A faint greed.
Maria didn't notice.
…
Days passed. Tiger helped Maria craft a plan to win Ben's heart again. Angel, floating nearby, watched them—disturbed by how charming and gentle Tiger appeared. Nothing like the villain he'd been told about.
Then came the Festival of the Ifrits.
The southern horizon glowed red. Flames devoured the planet, a wave of purifying fire sweeping northward toward the capital.
In the ballroom, Tiger and Maria strolled amid nobles and royalty. Ben stood alone in a corner, devastated.
"Go on," Tiger whispered, nudging her forward.
Maria approached, trembling. To her surprise, Ben didn't reject her. He confessed that his mother had died that very morning, and his girlfriend had left him. Maria stayed with him, comforting him with genuine kindness.
Everything seemed perfect.
Until the alarm rang.
A wail of magical sirens split the air.
"THE NECKLACE! THE NECKLACE OF ETERNAL FLAMES IS MISSING!"
Panic surged through the hall. Maria scanned the room for Tiger.
He was gone.
"Tiger?"
With Ben, she sprinted toward the royal quarters.
There, in a hallway, they found him.
Tiger stood calmly, the necklace pulsing white in his hand.
"Tiger… what are you doing?" Maria whispered, heart fracturing.
Tiger lifted his eyes. The warm smile he always wore was gone.
His face was cold as ice.
"Maria… this is how things are meant to be."
The fight erupted instantly. But it wasn't a fight—it was annihilation. Tiger swatted aside guards, kings, and princes with terrifying ease.
Then he charged Maria.
Before Ben could react, Tiger seized her by the throat and lifted her off the ground.
"TIGER, DON'T DO THIS!" Maria screamed, sobbing. "I trusted you! Why?!"
"Don't move or she dies!" Tiger ordered the surrounding armies.
He leaned close to her face and touched her head.
Maria's eyes widened. Tears streamed down her cheeks, but something in her expression shifted. Sadness melted into a tragic acceptance.
Tiger whispered something to her.
She gave the world one last smile fragile and beautiful.
He placed his hand on her forehead.
Maria's body began to glow.
Her form dissolved.
She became thousands of golden lights drifting upward toward the heavens.
"NO!!" Ben roared.
Maria's mother collapsed, screaming in unbearable grief.
In the void, Angel fell to his knees, mouth open in a soundless scream as tears poured down his face. He hurled himself at Tiger, but his fists passed straight through the villain's memory form.
Ben leapt at Tiger, consumed by rage.
Tiger didn't move. His face was carved from stone.
He raised his hand.
A meteor—made not of rock, but of pure ice—tore through the clouds and crashed onto the capital.
In a single second, the entire city—its people, the kings, the queens, Ben frozen mid-leap—was imprisoned in eternal ice.
"You will be freed when the flames of the Ifrits reach the capital," Tiger declared.
He turned away, the necklace now around his neck.
He looked one last time at the drifting particles that had been Maria.
"Maria…" he murmured.
And then he vanished.
The vision accelerated.
After that day, desperate and broken, the Igmes used an ANCIENT POWER—magic forbidden and forgotten—to seal their moon, turning it invisible, cutting themselves from the universe to survive.
…
CRACK.
The shards of glass reassembled.
The forest, the palace, the ice vanished.
The white void returned.
Angel was on all fours on the invisible ground, his tears falling into nothingness.
The royal guards and the old man bowed their heads, crushed beneath the weight of this truth.
Their goddess, their princess, had been betrayed by the very face standing among them.
…
Far away.
Very far away.
On Saturn.
In a colossal white castle drifting among the rings, surrounded by pillars that pierced the stratosphere…
On a massive, immaculate throne…
Tiger sat, one leg crossed over the other.
He seemed to sense something across space and time.
A smile slowly stretched his lips.
A smile of absolute predation...