The gate of Babylon shined like somebody threw a stone into a still lake. The ripples formed a very beautiful scene at the battleground. The ripples eventually got so bright that everyone had to squint.
Wu Yan tried to shield his eyes from the light with his arm. He's too surprised to continue fighting. When he thought about making sure Kotori and the others got away, he heard a loud sound but the noise seemed like it came from inside his head.
Suddenly, there is nothing but silence around him, his mind also went blank.
The light expanded its reach and it covered the entire area. Light suffused the area and it became very hard to find one's direction.
Wu Yan felt like he's landing in a similar way he landed in this world. It's like he's enveloped by spacequake. Like a leave at the mercy of a hurricane, his mind and body felt like it's being blown around. He had no control over his own body until…
The dizzying sensation faded and he opened his eyes even if his control hadn't fully returned yet. The sight that entered his eyes caused him to cry out in shock.
"What's going on?!"
Wu Yan hovered above a city, it's a familiar city, Tengu city.
The familiar scene of the town is replaced with one that is on fire. Everything's engulfed in flames.
"A burning Tengu city?"
The buildings, the infrastructure, nothing got spared from the fiery hell. Humans ran out of buildings and a lot of them are too busy evacuating. Shrieks and wails of anguish could be heard throughout the city.
"Did the malfunctioning of Gate of Babylon have something to do with this?"
Wu Yan turned pale at the thought that his Gate of Babylon caused this. This would be too much blood on his hand and he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he caused this.
"Kurumi? Kotori? Where's everyone?"
He panicked like a boy who got lost in the departmental store. The scene really caused him to freak out.
A familiar and strange voice entered his ears. Returning to the situation at hand, he tried to locate the person by following the sound.
"This voice…"
When he located the direction where the sound came from, he frowned.
"I should hurry!"
He flew towards the source of the sound.
As he got closer, the fire also got more intense, the scene of buildings being surrounded by a sea of fire is like a scene out of hell. He had an idea where he had seen this before.
This is something that happened in the original work.
Like an arrow shot from a bow, he flew towards the source at a high speed. He stopped when he got within a close enough distance. He looked around and he spotted something he can't believe.
A petite figure is currently crying while squatting in the center where buildings collapsed from the sheer heat of the fires around the figure. The figure is in a white kimono, her ribbons are adorned with golden flowers. She also had a sash that levitated in defiance of gravity, she looked like an elegant phoenix given human form.
Her hair is as red and vibrant as the fires around her. A pair of horns were also sticking out of her ribbons. The ribbons looked very familiar.
"Kotori!"
Wu Yan cried out as he instantly recognized her. That's Kotori in her spirit form.
She also looked smaller than her present self.
"Th-this…"
His brain is still not working properly. He didn't think the malfunction would cause such a huge change.
Tengu city in flames, a juvenile Kotori in her spirit form. This scenario is familiar enough that he confirmed his suspicion.
This scene is just like the one set 5 years before the events of the original work. Kotori got transformed into a spirit and she lost control of her power which caused a great fire in Tengu city.
I traveled back in time…
"This must have happened due to the collision between the rain of Seventh Bullet and his Gate of Babylon."
His gate of Babylon is more like a spatial treasure while Kurumi's power are mostly concerned with time manipulation…"
When Kurumi tried to stop Wu Yan with the Seventh bullets, Wu Yan chose to use his Gate of Babylon's fortified iron sand to protect Kotori and the other girls from harm.
Then the attacks forced their way into the Gate of Babylon when he's still trying to form Iron sand shields. The collision led to an anomaly that spawned the ripple that caused him to travel back in time.
Without the space orbs that are crystallized spacequakes to catalyze the reaction he probably won't be sent back in time. The curious interaction of time and spatial powers catalyzed by the space orbs affected the closest individual to the anomaly and sent Wu Yan 5 years back into the past.