Time seemed to have almost completely stopped existing. Even the floating debris hung motionless, suspended in air like glass dust frozen mid-fall.
Toho looked at me—and I at her. Then, suddenly, everything fractured. Corruption spread like wildfire. Every living being twisted into monstrosity, their skin darkening into gray and black, their eyes spiraling into madness. I watched, powerless, tears falling from my blank eyes.
The only thing I can't change…
Even Kiso and Piercebox were no longer themselves—mutating, expanding, becoming grotesque behemoths.
Toho ran to me, clutching my face in both trembling hands, her eyes brimming with tears and fury. "Adam!" she cried. "Save Piercebox! Just him… please."
"Toho…" I whispered, barely able to speak.
Kiso collapsed to the floor, his body splitting into writhing limbs. His voice, rough and strained, reached me. "Adam… please forgive me—for the things I've done."
"You still think of that!?" I shouted, shaking. "I already forgot it!"
"But I didn't…" he said weakly. "Because I was the one who did it."
I clenched my fists. I couldn't miss a single millisecond now.
Rehan!? Help me. Please.
[Calculating Millions of Scenarios to Save Everyone…
Causes: Unknown
Hypothesis: 1 [Failed]
Hypothesis: 2 [Failed]
Hypothesis: 3 [Failed]
…
Hypothesis: 145 [Failed]
Hypothesis: 1325 [Failed]
Hypothesis: 1333 [Failed]
Hypothesis: 1388 [Failed]
Analyzing: Not Possible
Forming Side Conclusionary Plan…
Analyzing Powers…
Failed: No Powers Complementary to This Ability
Failed: No Time to Analyze This Power
Forming Side Counterintuitive Conclusion… ACCEPTED]
My body moved on its own. My eyes flared orange—bright as a twin sun. Piercebox, already half-corrupted, laughed beneath his mask as the flesh of monsters enveloped him.
I raised my hand. Countless tetrapolygonians of indestructible, indivisible matter erupted into existence, sealing every surface, every inch of the ships—yet the corruption still seeped through.
Then, through the hull, a shadow descended—a creature the size of a mountain. Its face was crow-like and blank, its wings spanning beyond sight, its humanoid body crowned with claws like spears. And beside it, a devil stood, smiling faintly, its tears black as oil, its body lithe and ancient—standing like a streetlamp in the dark.
Everything happened in frames—each one slower than the last. I surrounded the monster in geometries of pure matter and willed the heat to rise—beyond the beginning of the universe.
Hell itself bloomed.
The flames surpassed creation; the creature never even had time to scream. A thousand nukes would've been no more than raindrops to this inferno.
[Analyzing: Power of Time…]
I walked toward Piercebox through the frozen storm. Time slowed to near infinity. Toho was mid-transformation—her form a catlike humanoid, horned, bleeding red—but I halted it all.
Even though the cause has died, the effect remains…
[Analyzing Possible Solutions…]
[Copy and Replace!?]
Rehan's voice echoed softly through me. "No… that isn't what Adam wants."
He sighed, looking at Piercebox. "Eifer…"
Rehan had no choice but to trust his friend. He released time. The world resumed. The corruption surged once more.
Adam using his dark miasma and the heal piercebox again and again, to renew him ot his originality...
Piercebox screamed as his body burned and healed in an endless cycle. I reached out, burning his own essence to decay the monster and restore him.
It was agony—for both of us.
All around, the monsters watched, writhing, waiting to pounce.
Piercebox's mask fell away. Beneath it, a tired but peaceful smile. "Alright…" he whispered.
He raised his nightcatcher. The air shimmered blue—surreal, dreamlike—and the world rewound.
Four hours earlier.
Toho and I stood on the ship's deck, the breeze soft, the sky calm. She poked my cheek playfully.
"Hey… why so blank? You look like a jester planning his next trick."
I caught her hand gently, holding it still... As Toho realise and just remained quite.
"I guess…" I said quietly. "I have to do this."