Part one hundred seventy three — Millions of Years

　Even with Eris saved, Kai still eventually died fighting Sophia in a later timeline.

　Her Prophecy Blade's future-piercing strikes proved nearly impossible to properly counter.

　Enzo went berserk in the aftermath.

　Nyxara killed him to stop the rampage.

　And Horizoncrest fell anyway.

　Himari tried again.

　And again.

　Countless failures.

　Each one taught her something new about her own growing mastery, until she finally awakened Parallel Timeline—the ability to briefly glimpse multiple possible outcomes and choose the most favorable one.

　But one particular branch remained completely sealed to her.

　No matter how many times she tried, she couldn't reach it.

　So she forced her way in anyway.

　The cost was severe.

　Still more of what little memory she had left disappeared.

　Eventually, she found a version where Kai survived Sophia properly.

　Where Nyxara arrived in time.

　Where the truth about Doran and Fenrik finally surfaced as it should have.

　But even there, his Null mana still detonated.

　Worse than Roshan ever had.

　Then came Belial.

　In one timeline, his absorption plan actually succeeded.

　Himari intervened, desperate to prevent another failure.

　Eventually, she guided events toward Kai's evolution into a proper Demon Lord instead.

　But she was changing too.

　With every loop, she gained more combat experience.

　More instinct.

　More understanding.

　And always—always—another piece of herself was paid as the price.

　Then came the Demon Lord meeting.

　And Aeon killed him.

　Himari returned to her save point.

　Tried again.

　Failed again.

　Every single timeline, regardless of what she changed, eventually led back to the same conclusion.

Aeon.

Always Aeon.

　She finally realized there was only one option left.

　Fight the Time Dragon herself.

　Their battle took place somewhere outside conventional reality entirely—a gap between timelines where a single day in the real world stretched into what felt, to Himari, like millions of years.

　She died.

　Returned.

　Fought again.

　Lost again.

　Over and over.

　An eternity compressed into a battle neither of them could properly end.

　Eventually, Aeon understood that simply killing her accomplished nothing.

　She would only return to her save point.

　So he changed his strategy.

　He stopped attacking her body.

　He attacked the thing that allowed her to keep returning.

　Her memories.

　One by one, he began erasing everything she had accumulated.

　Every battle.

　Every failure.

　Every moment she had endured.

　Every piece of herself she had sacrificed.

　Before he could finish, Himari killed herself.

　And that activated something entirely different.

　Death by My Own Hand.

　Instead of returning her to the save point, the ability carried her somewhere beyond time itself.

　The Chronicle of the Eternal Hour.

　There, she met three versions of herself.

　Past Himari, carrying everything she had experienced and endured.

　Present Himari, shaped by every battle since.

　Future Himari, holding everything she might yet become.

They weren't separate people, she told Kai.

They were all me.

I finally understood that.

So I reached for them.

And I merged.

　Her Ultimate Skill evolved.

Chronos: Queen of Eternity.

　Its authority expanded far beyond what Chronos had once been capable of.

　Temporal Dominion.

　Past and Future Convergence.

　Self-Temporal Multiplication.

　Causality Reversal.

　Time Severance.

　Eternal Present.

　Chrono Absorption.

　Future Sight across infinite branches.

　Temporal Resurrection.

　Absolute Time Stop.

　And then there was her most dangerous new ability.

　Infinite Tomorrow.

　It allowed Himari to draw the power of her own possible future selves directly into the present.

　The longer the battle continued, the stronger she became.

　But excessive use threatened to destabilize her own timeline entirely.

　She received a new blade as well.

　Aion.

　The Blade of the Eternal Hour.

　Its ultimate technique synchronized her past, present, and future selves into a single, simultaneous strike.

I am not the Himari of yesterday.

I am not merely the Himari of today.

I am every moment that made me, and every moment I have yet to become.

Chronos—awaken.

　She returned to the battlefield.

　And this time, Himari defeated Aeon properly.

　"Don't lay a finger on Kai," she told him.

　Aeon agreed.

　But before leaving, he offered one final warning.

　"Be careful of the choices you make."

　Himari narrowed her eyes.

　Then Aeon told her the truth.

　Someone had been interfering with her temporal abilities the entire time.

　She had already felt it.

　Countless times.

　She simply hadn't understood where it was coming from.

　"Who?" she asked.

　Aeon looked at her.

　"My elder brother."

　Himari froze.

　"The God of Creation."

　Aeon explained that his elder brother despised anyone tampering with the proper flow of time.

　That was why he had sent Aeon specifically to stop her.

　Himari had spent countless timelines fighting dragons, Demon Lords, armies, and even time itself.

　But now she finally understood.

　There had been someone watching from beyond all of them.

　Someone who had been interfering with her every attempt to change the future.

　Someone powerful enough to manipulate the very laws she had spent her entire existence learning to control.

　Himari's enemy was no longer simply Aeon.

　It was the God of Creation himself.