The bloody gate

In 1367, disasters of all kinds began to appear randomly around the world. Deserts got hotter, mountains colder and fertile areas were hit by drought. Agricultural production has deteriorated, affecting the entire population, leaving the world in despair due to famine.

Three years did not pass until the second disaster broke out. Like a raging flood from abandoned rubble and forbidden forests around the world, monsters rushed with the sole aim of eradicating all forms of intelligent life on the continent without exception.

As soon as another year passed, intelligent creatures began to appear out of nowhere: death knights, Litch and mythical creatures... In this despair, a group of heroes from several parts of the continent emerged; with a force capable of fighting the mighty kings of monsters, things began to return to normal life to some extent until the Black Phoenix appeared.

An unparalleled monster, ten meters long, with smooth black feathers covering its body and a rough one covering its wings and head, a blue halo burning the body of this body of the bird like an emerging fire in dry grass.

It wreaked havoc on the earth for nearly a week until the seven world heroes joined forces to eradicate it. The two sides met in their fateful encounter at the foot of the Indora volcano.

Before the final battle, the heroes agreed on a contingency plan that required the return of Maximus the wizard in time if the operation to subdue the ferocious monster failed.

Orion stepped forward with a green halo of a strange nature around his sword to attack the Phoenix, Eric prepared a huge golden arrow nearly two meters long that it was more like a spear than an arrow and prepared to launch with the perfect opportunity.

Aliana summoned a high-ranking fire spirit and blessed Orion to resist the black flames, while Mira was in the midst of preparing for the 'Living Cage' spell: a spell that creates living roots that bind the opponent and tighten him like a living octopus.

After a quarter of an hour of attempts to get the beast’s attention, Orion managed to bring it close enough to the surface of the earth, at which moment Dante appeared out of nowhere behind it and tore part of her left wing.

After she was injured, her speed slowed down and she could not rise much, Eric took advantage of the opportunity and fired the arrow like a cannon shot, hitting her right shoulder at a point close to where the nerve passes. She could not flutter her wing anymore and fell like a collapsing building. The moment she met the ground, red roots sprang up around her and tied her up in a flash.

As she tried her best to break free from the roots, Tae-min and Yun Hua rushed in and banged her back and head respectively and the phoenix fell into place, unable to move.

'Did it work? Finally this damn monster perished.'

The phoenix stopped moving for a minute, whoever sees it believes that she is dead. A loud shout interrupted the silence; the phoenix did not die and shouted with everything she had. A terrible feeling stifled the atmosphere and turned the joy of the alleged victory into despair.

'What is it? It is a bad omen. Let everyone prepare for the worst.'

Maximus, standing in the distance, shouted at his comrades in anticipation of a change in situation.

'I will start preparing the spell as agreed.'

Fear flooded everyone, and the phoenix, which did not a bit of sound throughout the fighting, issued a terrifying cry. Her body shrank and curled like a piece of paper and within moments, its size was the size of an orange. All sounds stopped and the turbulence in the air currents disappeared, it was that calmness before the explosion. The mass soon expanded and turned very quickly around itself, leaving sparks behind in a circular shape. What came to light was a huge amount of sparks like those emitted by an electric saw cutting a metal plate. The speed increased as the seconds passed until a strange sound became audible. A ringing from another world lasted for seconds until a black gate formed.

Shouts rolled and dozens of phoenixes emerged from the Black Gate. None of them reached the size even close to the first phoenix, but their huge number made up for it.

Despair penetrated the hearts of the heroes; the bird that the seven of them cooperated and took half an hour to eradicate was nothing more than a reconnaissance.

"It was a losing battle from the beginning, if we knew this was going to happen, we would have brought the entire corps to prepare for it."

The heroes knelt down and none of them uttered a word until Orion interrupted this silence by shouting at Maximus, Maximus understood it and it took him no more than thirty seconds until the opening of the time gate that he had previously begun to prepare was completed and then he entered in a hurry.

He felt sad for his comrades who stayed to fight desperately to give him a chance to change history.

"Is that what time travel feels like? It's really annoying..."

Maximus then felt his mind drift away as he lost sense of his surroundings. Is it in space or underwater? He could not distinguish until he felt his fall to the ground. He felt heavy and could not move his body at first. It took him a minute to catch up, opened his eyes and sat quietly examining his surroundings.

'It's a green plateau covered with grass, this green!'

He has not seen that color for years. His feelings overflowed and his eyes teared with joy.

"The plan worked, we did not fail, and the sacrifices of our comrades were not in vain. I traveled back in time.'

In the midst of this joy, Maximus thought of only two things: How long did he return? Moreover, what are his comrades doing now?

Maximus turned his head left and right, looking for distinctive landmarks to know where he was. He easily realized that in the Golden Plains in the south, seconds later he had set up an instantaneous teleportation formation towards the Marquis of Drake no more than a few tens of miles away.

It was evening and the city was overflowing with people, Maximus went down the street and asked a passerby about the date, and the man was a little surprised and then answered.

'Hmmm, we're in the last days of second month of spring 1354. I am not sure about the exact date, sorry.'

'... Thank you, that's good enough.'

Maximus gathered his thoughts and realized that he had returned thirteen years before disaster or nineteen years before the battle with the Phoenix. He thanked the man and then went through his thoughts after breathing a sigh of relief.

"We have enough time and more to prepare for disaster, that dark future will never happen again."

Shortly thereafter, he stepped away from the public eye and made another move towards his old home. He moved directly to his office and then examined his surroundings, a wooden room that may seem obsolete in design but clean, well-organized, and contained typical scholar items: a black wood desk with research papers on several subjects under a wide glass window decorated with copper wires, a bookshelf holding tens of books of many sizes and colors.

Maximus sat in his chair and began to organize his thoughts to implement the plan they had previously agreed upon before their last battle in case of any circumstance. He decided that delaying it a little bit would not hurt and then went out of the room and started walking around the house until he was shocked by what he saw. He saw his clothes and his staff thrown on the floor, the objects were not randomly thrown on the wooden floor, it was like someone who fell to the ground and then his body evaporated.

It was not long before he realized that his younger self had disappeared the moment he traveled back in time.

'One chance is all I need, we won't fail this time.'

He felt a little sad for his young self that disappeared from existence, but he overcame sadness as the fate of the world was on his shoulders, he did not want to add another concern to the worries he carried on his back.

He picked up his belongings that were on the floor and went up to his office again, then fetched several blank papers and proceeded to draw diagrams and write a plan. The first, second, third and many papers were filled over the next three hours until night fell and he began to feel tired.

He did not rest since his comrades began their fight against the Black Phoenix, fell quietly on the bed and fell asleep directly. The magic of time travel has exhausted most of its mana – symptoms are now starting to appear hours later.

After morning, he woke up energetically as if he were in his twenties.

'When did you come back as a child, Maxie? You are closer to sixty now. You don't have the right to sleep well; you have to suffer from insomnia.'

He mocked himself a little nit and then went to the kitchen; prepared a snack with the ingredients he found in the kitchen, ate it and then returned to his office. Maximus took out of the drawer a map of the entire continent, it was not easy to find or buy one. He took out a pen and placed a mark at every city where his former comrades lived.

He did not stay long and then brought a bag and gathered the essentials he needed. He then set a spatial transfer formation to the nearest destination.

He repeated the process, headed to the various destinations successively, and easily found his companions. He briefly explained the situation to each of them separately.

'...'

At first, each of them thought he was just an old man suffering from some mental illnesses, but as the conversation continued, each of them began to have serious features. This man does not talk nonsense.

He knew their full names, their parents' names, what they liked, what they hated and many more.

With so much information, it was not just a passing joke and it was not long before he succeeded in convincing them.

He then gave each of them an oval-shaped green jewel similar to that used to make necklaces and amulets and briefly explained what they were:

'This is a green gem made of magic jade and imbued with a spatial transfer spell. When it glows later click on it and it will break easily, then it will take you to my location. Explain the situation vaguely to your parents. If they are not convinced, give them this letter. It will definitely work.'

This is how Maximus persuaded his comrades individually. In the evening, he returned to his home and sat resting on his sofa in the basement, this sense of comfort and peace that the world lost in the future seemed trivial but precious, more precious than one imagines.

He returned to his kitchen and prepared vegetable soup. After it was cooked, he filled a plate and enjoyed eating the food; each sip had a sense of nostalgia.

.........

He did not realize the passage of time, and after he finished he cleaned the table. Took out a package of red tealeaves from the closet, heat the water, and carefully placed the tealeaves in boiling water.

He stared at the leaves as they released their bloody-red color towards the water as he agitated it from time to time until the fragrant smell of the kitchen declared that the tea was ready.

He filled two cups of it and carried them having the balcony as a destination, placed the cups on the small table next to him and sat on his rocking chair and enjoyed watching the stars and having tea.

The worries of years have disappeared in minutes. His mind has become empty and comfortable for the first time in years.

.........

After enjoying this quiet, he returned the cups to the kitchen and headed towards the bedroom to rest, as tomorrow a heavy work awaits him, work that will change the future of this world.

----------------------------

By morning, after organizing his affairs and preparations, he headed to the middle of his office where there were no obstacles. With great concentration for several minutes, an orange magic circle with a diameter of four meters was created containing a number of strange symbols and geometric shapes.

The moment it was completed, the green jewel of each of the future heroes glowed. They broke the jewel as they were asked to, it emitted by a strong light that forced them to close their eyes. The moment it opened, they found themselves in Maximus' office.

All of them were surprised, as this is the first time they have had the opportunity to try this kind of magic, the sensations mixed between enthusiasm and tension, but firmness prevailed over all this.

Silence fell as soon as Maximus began to talk; everyone's faces were frozen and serious. None of them ever expected to hear something like this...