A blinding explosion escaping the comprehensible spectrum. The core burst right before his eyes, deafening and blinding him before his brain could even make sense of anything. The radiance bit like swords into his skull before the onslaught of temperature even made itself known. The sound was so loud that it rendered the world itself silent.

The LIFENG-3 reactor, a revolutionary product meant to leave nuclear energy in the dust — exploded. Its creator, renowned physicist and engineer Muchen Feng, was mere meters from the core of the reactor.

Normally, this would have spelled the certain death of everyone within miles. Yet, this world is not normal — It is a world of mystery and magic.

A veil of lies shrouds the world. Under the cracks of this normal civilization linger creatures of insurmountable power. Vampires, beast shapeshifters, demons of all sorts, and monsters from bygone eras — all linger beneath the surface of our banal reality.

Donning white collars in corporate offices, they hide the vicissitudes of centuries behind fake forlorn smiles. Their histories of bloodshed are hidden in legends, and a fragile balance has been reached at last. As humanity rose and prospered, their technology unveiled the power to destroy entire cities. The supernatural dwellers of night had no choice but to hide and scramble for safety.

The best hideout — plain sight. Only the youngest and weakest could hide, however. The eldest among them could not adapt, or simply had too much arrogance to wallow among pitiful mortals. They were once the rulers of an epoch, and refused to degrade themselves by living amongst men.

Crownless kings thus sunk into slumber, awaiting better times as their vicious schemes tangled in an unseen quagmire of chaos. It was the awakening of one such forgotten monarch in India that resulted in catastrophe.

A vampire clan sovereign of unforeseen power, his equals numbering less than twenty. Twenty too many, for each one of their direct actions could spell disaster for the world. Fortunately, for each action they took, they had ten more enemies to resist them. It is this feeble net of enmity that kept the mortal world ‘safe’.

What the mortals perceived as truth was not necessarily real. Just as it was the case with the impeding meltdown. The outburst of dazzling pearly white flames, and the deafening catastrophe — was yet to ensue.

“I made it...” Muchen plunked down with a tense sigh. As the reactor exploded, he took a gamble and turned back time!

It was merely by a few dozen seconds, but even that was a major endeavor. His consciousness was pulled back from the future, giving him a perfect understanding of what is about to occur. Within seconds, the reactor would explode again unless he did something.

Time was short, and despite being a powerful mage, there were limits to what he could do. It was in times like these that his regret bared its fangs again. Alas, a few seconds is all he could accomplish. As time ticked by, he stared in a daze at the rupturing pipes.

“I shouldn’t have missed dinner. Li’er will nag again,” he lamented bitterly, and then it dawned on him that it wasn’t just his life that’s at stake.

His wife was home. There was no way she could evacuate in time, not in a wheelchair. His children were likely to perish as well, and he would lose everything. Alas, he had no time to brood for too long.

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He’d run out of time, and the core exploded again. White flames washed over — set out to purge everything. Yet, unwilling to resign a city to its bleak fate, the magus focused his will and pushed it against reality.

The wheel of time ground to a halt once more, its sheer pressure forcing Muchen to put everything on the line for a brief chance at guiding its vector. An opening was seized as soon as it appeared, and time was reversed by another minute.

He’d bought himself another minute, but the cost was heavy. He could just barely afford to pay it this time. The price of rebelling against fate was by no means cheap. Muchen collapsed to his knees and violently coughed blood, just as his innards almost imploded from the karmic judgement.

“Damn you, Karma!” he cried out in desperation, but received no leniency.

There was no time to dwell on his internal injuries. Death’s approach seemed unstoppable, and the unavoidable reality was all but set in stone. He needed to make the best of his time, because with each repetition, the wheel’s pressure increased. Not even his archmentors would be able to undo this catastrophe without significant cost if he failed again.

Spitting out the remainder of blood and phlegm from his lungs, he sat wearily on the ground and drew runes of blood against the reactor core. His finger trailed nimbly across the surface components as his will penetrated deeper within.

The scraggly runes struggled to move alongside the metal as if alive. Akin to termites, they wormed their way in and surrounded the reaction that was already on brink of collapse. Time drew shorter again, but Muchen evoked his powerful will and finally scribbled out the end of the ritual.

A splitting headache assailed him, and he collapsed on his back just as a massive surge of energy burst out from the core. This time, a shield of spatial energy pushed gently against it, dampening the effects. Even so, the energy blast sent out an electromagnetic pulse that wiped most electronics within miles.

“Haaa. I’ve done it now...” Muchen lamented after a tired exhalation. Despite ‘saving’ everyone, he couldn’t enjoy any sense of accomplishment as the karmic judgement continued to tear tissues apart throughout his body. Reckless usage of magic always came at a cost.

Setting himself with some difficulty in a cross-legged position, he steadied his breath and focused inwardly. Drawing chi from his bone marrow, he first calmed the turbulent energies that didn’t belong to him. Once he rid himself of the karmic trouble, he used whatever energy remained to nourish his organs back to full health.

In layman’s term, he cast a spell to heal his body using the internal quintessence that lay dormant within every human’s body. Though, as an accomplished martial artist, his control over this primordial energy / Chi was much more smooth compared to the average magi.

After a dozen minutes or so, he tidied his clothes and stood up unsteadily from the pool of sweat. His electronics having been fried, he could only wobble his way up to the surface by himself, though he really wished he could call for help. With strenuous footsteps, he finally made his way to the exit, being the last person to evacuate the facility.

“Director Muchen! Thank goodness, you’re finally out! The helicopter will arrive shortly, you must evacuate at once!”

Before he’d even made it out, his assistant already managed to aggravate his headache. Even so, Muchen smiled somewhat warmly at the caring rant, then dispelled their worries with an update.

“The reactor is fine. It shut down successfully, and the reaction collapsed in on itself. We’re safe, everyone.”

Unlike the burst of cheers you would have expected from his colleagues, they instead balked at him for a good minute, full of disbelief.

Such is the nature of humanity. As their education levels rose, they no longer allowed themselves to believe in miracles. Their doubt created a new subconscious consensus, a faux Kismet that left no room for wonder, magic or belief in anything other than “The science”.

As the weary mage contemplated what lead to the dusk of the supernatural era, a helicopter finally arrived to take him home. Once he was aboard, Muchen stopped battling the fatigue assailing his body and fell asleep. His body had all but shut down, reminding him that he was no longer young.