PROLOGUE—The battlefield was collapsing.
Screams split the air, metal clashed in waves, and the ground shook under exploding mana pressure. The sky itself looked wounded—scarred by smoke, ash, and the blazing trails of spells cutting through the ruins. Buildings that once stood proud were now broken teeth in the jaw of a dying city.
In the center of that chaos, Eshan Vale stumbled forward, limbs numb, blood soaking through torn armor that used to belong to someone stronger. His breaths came in ragged bursts, each one a reminder that he was still alive—barely.
This wasn't glory.This wasn't destiny.This wasn't even revenge anymore.
This was simply survival… and he was losing that too.
A chunk of concrete exploded near him, forcing him to collapse behind a shattered pillar. His hand trembled against the ground, fingers digging into dust and broken tiles. The world rang with booms and shrieks, but everything felt distant, muted, like he was hearing it all underwater.
He tried to stand.The body didn't respond.
Eshan Vale.D-rank.A nobody.
That was all he was, and all he had ever been.
It didn't matter that he'd finally awakened.It didn't matter that he'd finally gained a skill.It didn't matter that he had finally, painfully, tried to change something.
He awakened too late.He fought too late.He understood everything too late.
He looked around the battlefield—at the hunters slicing through monsters, at the explosions shaking the horizon, at warriors who seemed like gods. He was not one of them. He never had been.
He choked back a bitter laugh that felt more like a sob.
Why did I even come here…?
He knew the answer.
Sara.
Her name was the only thing that didn't disappear in the noise. The only thing that stayed warm while everything else froze. He had never gotten to say anything real to her. He had never understood what she went through. He had never even learned how she died.
Just regret.Only regret.His entire existence was regret wrapped in flesh.
A shadow shifted in the smoke ahead.
Eshan's eyes snapped upward—and locked onto a figure walking toward him through the dust. Calm. Purposeful. Unbothered by destruction.
A high-rank hunter.Someone far above him.Someone who belonged in this battlefield.
The moment their eyes met, Eshan's body went cold.
Just a glance.
A single, careless glance.
And then—
One slash.A blur of light.A whisper of steel.
Eshan didn't even feel the cut.He just felt the warmth leave his body.
He looked down and saw that half his torso wasn't there anymore—just torn flesh and bone spilling into rubble. His legs gave in before he understood he was falling.
He hit the ground on his back, staring at the cracked sky.
He couldn't move.He couldn't breathe.He couldn't even lift a finger.
So this is it…?
He came here to avenge the pain of his life—to remake what was broken inside him.
Instead, he didn't even last a second.
Not a villain.Not a hero.Not a survivor.Just another body lost in the noise.
Just Eshan Vale—the useless heir, the late awakener, the D-rank nobody.
His heartbeat slowed.His vision blurred.Everything began to fade into the same gray that swallowed Sara, swallowed his chances, and swallowed every moment he had wasted.
He felt something inside him crack—not a bone, but something deeper.
In the darkest corner of his fading consciousness, a whisper surfaced.A memory.A voice.A skill.
"Past Echo"
He had awakened it late.He had never used it.He didn't even know its true purpose.
But the instinct—one final instinct—told him it wasn't meant to save him now.
It was meant to save… something else.Someone else.Some other version of him.
His lips moved, barely forming sound.
"…maybe… it'll change something…"
He forced the last of his strength into that skill.Into that wish.Into that regret.
A soft click echoed inside his chest—like a key turning in a lock.
And then the world broke into white.
His life flickered once.Twice.
Then ended.
In the void between one heartbeat and the next, a faint message formed in the darkness:
[Past Echo – Activation Initiated][Memory Transfer: 1%][Searching Temporal Path…]
Silence.Blackness.
Time unraveled.
Life rewound.
Eshan Vale died.
And somewhere far earlier in his own life—
Eshan Vale opened his eyes.