Forum Thread

Sure.

Of course the suspicious blood-thirsty interloper was laughing. But Alaire couldn't exactly argue with his logic, not when he seemingly knew so much more about this world than she did. But The world had only ended... today. How did he know how the system worked? He could only know if he had experienced it before. Something wasn't right. The briefest mention of an idea was at the edge of Alaire's consciousness.

"You would know better than me, Percy~" Alaire laughed as well, smacking another mole head out of the air. "These skill points seem like they're useful for now!"

---

"I wonder how long it'll take them to realize..."

Perceval muttered that quietly.

Elias looked back at Perceval.

"What, that time warped around us?"

---

"You warped time?" Alaire yelped, losing her concentration to glance over at Elias and Perceval. "Percy, how could you? It would have been nice to know that when we were dealing with the serpent... But of course, since you won't show us your status window, we wouldn't know~" Even a momentary lapse of concentration like what she had just experienced could be fatal. Alaire reinforced the belief in her mind that alertness meant survival.

---

"Oh, you mistake me. I didn't warp time. That whole march through the tunnel that led us here... That was two days. But you didn't even realize that."

Perceval laughed quietly.

Elias stabbed his pen into another mole.

"...I knew."

---

Her mind had just been... blown. How had they not realized? Alaire was suddenly extremely aware of the two days, twin waves of hunger and exhaustion crashing into her. Still, she kept fighting. "Percy, I wish you would tell us things like this. We need to have good communication if we're going to work as a team." She pouted, her childish expression hiding her deeper concern.

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Chizu Hiroto

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"You're just going to leave us here?" Chizu shouldn't have felt as betrayed as she did, but the terror rising up in her made her tone sharp. "With a stranger? A guy we don't even know with a bat?" Her voice broke. "Why are you leaving us-"

"Chizu," her partner said softly.

Chizu turned to face her ready to yell at her, and realised that Toshiko wasn't paying attention to her at all. Her heart caught in her throat.

Toshiko's head was tilted, a smile on her face, even as the man approached. The expression unnerved Chizu. She'd never seen a smile that didn't have a sparkle in the eyes to match.

The fear grew in her heart, even as the stranger stopped in front of them, making no move for the baseball bat by his side. Now that he was up close, she could examine him. Even in her petrified, frozen state she had to admit that in an odd way, he was handsome.

Tall, young, strong in the rugged kind of way that television shows liked to portray the gritty love interest with. Rough build, confident stride. A fascinating pair of mismatched eyes that stared right through you, as if the person behind it was far smarter, far stronger than you could ever be. The kind of person you couldn't comprehend, even if you tried. Exactly the cast for a guardian at the end of the world.

But no! She was loyal. She wouldn't be caught up in this man's handsomeness.

And then he spoke. "...Toshiko Aden and Chizu Hiroto. You're right on time."

Fear prickled her palms. She couldn't speak. Couldn't move. She fancied he could bring that bat down on her head this very instant, and she'd still find herself frozen to the spot. Incapable of moving from where her feet compressed into the icy ground.

But that wasn't who Toshi was.

"Are you Batman?" Toshiko asked curiously. Her eyes gleamed. "I like your weapon. It's gritty and awesome! I guess apocalypse gear is universally sold to weird loner characters. I can't imagine you in the Little League!"

She laughed delightedly.

The man pointed at Toshiko. Somehow, that made her fall silent. Toshiko gave a few more chuckles, but there was a flicker of something in her eyes that Chizu had never seen before.

"...Toshiko Aden... I know who you're looking for. The girl known as Kaya, right?"

Toshiko went as still as stone. Her mouth worked for a second, then, in a voice as cold as the ice that crunched beneath Chizu's feet, she said, "Who told you that name?"

"She's alive," he answered her, which wasn't really an answer at all.

Then his eyes met Chizu's and she forgot how to breathe.

"Chizu Hiroto... I also know who you're looking for. But I don't like the guy you're looking for, much." He murmured something under his breath that she didn't catch.

Her whole body was as light as a feather. The winds threatened to carry her aloft. She'd never told anyone who she was looking for. Nobody could've ever known.

"Tell us how you know those names," Toshiko ordered. Though her voice was pleasant, it was laced with darkness. Sugar and cyanide, as Toshiko always had been, though the most genuine flavour Chizu had ever tasted. "And we'll let you go." She gave him a sweet smile. "I don't think you want to see how your little toy there will fare against our magic."

---

"I know you better than you know yourselves. Of course, I know who you're looking for. You, Toshiko Aden, are looking for your girlfriend, someone you hold dear, probably one of the only people you genuinely care about."

His soulless eyes rested on Chizu.

"And you're looking for a man you saw once, as a child. You had a crush on him when you were young, and you're trying to cling onto that memory, because it reminds you of your past."

Miyasaki's eyes were dead. Cold. He didn't seem to show any semblance of emotion, like a man who'd been broken. But he was only a teenager. He couldn't have been through that much.

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Toshiko Aden

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Toshiko smiled coldly at him.

He was wrong. On all accounts. A fool down to his soon-to-be scorched bones.

But fear was creeping up on her. Some sense, some tingling that told her something was wrong. That nobody would think that, would know that-

"Is that all you can do? Make puppy eyes and bring up something you know jack sh*t about?" She scoffed. "This facade is ridiculous. We're leaving. Let's go, Chizu."

---

"...Running away... yes, Toshiko Aden... I do remember that. You always run. In every single one of my lives, there hasn't been a time where you haven't run away from me, just like now."

His voice was quiet.

"Do you want to know what happened the first time around? You were late, Toshiko Aden. You were late, and she died. And yet, every time I try to help you, you always seem to run."

His expression was calm, completely emotionless.

"Are you really going to let that happen again?"

He sounded like a madman.

---

"See, it's more efficient if you don't realize. The hunger doesn't catch up to you until your brain does."

Perceval's smile was thin.

---

"It makes sense, I suppose. But Percy, dear, I don't like being manipulated." She paused, staring into his soulless eyes. She wasn't simply referring to the timeskip. "Are we done here? The mole men are getting ridiculoussss..." she whined, defusing the situation effortlessly. Charisma saving her life. Again.

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"I'm not manipulating you. I'm simply increasing your efficiency. Don't you want to get stronger?"

His smile was thin.

"It's almost over."

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Chizu Hiroto

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Chizu saw the look on Toshiko's face as she slowly released her arm. "Toshi, no-"

And then Toshiko was lunging for him, screaming as she plunged a black scythe into his face.

---

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Luther Waters

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The gunshots stopped. Slowly Luther sat up and took stock of his surroundings. His little hovel was still safe. Who knew when the idiots would try something else again.

Anger blazed in his chest, hotter than anything around him. He got to his feet and with a grunt, kicked his bag. It hit the wall with a thump, and dropped down to the ground.

He stared at it for a moment. His legs weakened, the strength sapping from them, and he fell along with it, his cheek colliding with the cold stone floor.

---

"You're always late. Every single time, you're late."

He swung his bat, and the scythe snapped in half.

He didn't even flinch.

"Not once, have you ever been on time. because every single time, she dies. Just because, what, you're scared?"

He was calmly taunting her.

"Do you want to find her or not, Toshiko Aden?"

His expression was calm, neutral.

"Your indecision leads to her death. That's the future I've witnessed. The fourth scenario is what kills her. The Knight of Annihilation wipes out half the city with a stroke of his sword, killing your beloved and thousands more with it."

He laughed quietly.

"You let her die, every time."

---

The oddly-dressed man hummed quietly, heading toward the direction in which he had heard gunshots from. He hummed quietly, swinging his cane cheerfully.

---

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Toshiko Aden

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Toshiko stared at him, uncomprehendingly. Slowly, it dawned on her, and the ember in her blazed to a raging inferno.

"Shut up!" She screamed, slashing wildly at his face, shadows exploding everywhere. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD! SHUT UP AND DIE!"

---

"It'll happen this time again. The moment I die, she does too. Because that's how fate wishes it to be. You'll never find her in time without me."

His expression was neutral.

He blocked every attack, casually.

He dropped his baseball bat, spreading his arms open, as if inviting her to hit him.

"Every single time, she dies, because you're a damned coward."

He watched her carefully.

"You remind me of myself on my first regression. Weak, useless and stupid. Always thinking that i could get through things with bluffing and a mask of insanity."

---

"Fiiiiinnneeee," Alaire flounced back over to her station, and resumed the bashing of mole men. She didn't mind appearing like a little whiny imbecile in this situation. As long as the prophet didn't know her true thoughts, she was fine.

He had lived it before.

It hit her suddenly. Time travel.

No, not just time travel, living multiple lives from the future. In a single word, regression. That was why her constellation had said that it wasn't quite incarnation. But this also meant that Elias was a regressor too.

The Knight of Annihilation just didn't remember.

---

[Constellation [Fleet Footed Messenger] laughs.]
[Constellation [Fleet Footed Messenger] says that Elias Winter is not a regressor.]

[Constellation [Tea is at Noon] calls Elias Winter a calamity.]

---

Another pop-up from the status window, another annoyance. Her constellation could hardly provide any advice. Perhaps she was asking all the wrong questions. But Perceval was a regressor. She smacked the mole heads mindlessly, lost in thought; 101, 102, 103, 104...

"What the [fxxx] is a calamity?" She wondered aloud, quietly enough that even Yohan would have trouble hearing her. [Tea at Noon] seemed more helpful than [Fleet-footed Messenger] at the moment, but perhaps that was just because Twilight hadn't threatened him yet.

---

[Constellation [Tea is at Noon] says that he and Twilight are friends.].
[Constellation [Tea is at Noon] states that a calamity is a being capable of destroying a large portion of the world, and typeically includes those who have reached the 30th scenario or higher in their home world, but failed.]

[Twilight asks about the probability cost.]
[Constellation [Tea is at Noon] laughs.]

---

These pop-ups were majorly distracting. Alaire stifled a gasp. Twighlight had said something again. And was [Tea at Noon]... another enemy?

"Homeworld..." she mused, testing the word out for herself. Where was Elias from? A new million-dollar question she needed an answer to. Her spidey senses were warning her to stay well away from whatever this was. She didn't need to know these answers. But her journalistic perspective tuned them out. She wanted to know these answers.

"[Tea at Noon], do you or your friend wish me ill will?"

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