"I would have thought you'd be trying to hide your immunity to his powers a little longer." I jeered. Undisturbed by the ruinous sight of a man that should be dead by every logical conclusion and the mound of destruction he was on.
"Unlike in the original timeline or the first regression. He's still stuck on Laegii after Astaroth added the continent to his archipelago." Scoffing Strife trailed off into a chuckle. "Its almost like you predicted I'd go on a slaughter spree in the second regression for stress relief. How quaint of you, Sathuna."
"All this for stress relief?" Anika asked quietly. Putting her hand over her mouth to avoid throwing up as the blood leaking from the pile of corpses and weapons reached our shoes.
Disgusted by the blood touching my heels i asked, "would you care to clean up your mess? Its beneath me to talk in such an ugly atmosphere.
"Beneath you. Above me." Strife said in an unhinged tone like it was supposed to be a joke.
[skill: conceptualisation - matter shift]
With a snap of his fingers Strife pulsed a golden energy. Disintegrating the corpses beneath his throne along with even the slightest race of dirt. Turning the part of the world we were in a pure white before golden roots broke through the ground turning into a table with multiple seats around it.
"Would you like tea, Sathuna, Anika?" Strife asked politely. Pulling out a machete embedded in his elbow like it was nothing while the rest melted off onto the floor.
"Something to ease the mind please." Anika quickly accepted as she struggled to her seat.
"You know the kind i like." While Strife imagined two cups of tea from the air and pushed them across the golden table for us, i quickly said, "the ritual's equation is complete. But there has been a snag with one of the materials required."
"You need a postman capable of going backwards in time. Who can deliver the paradoxical energy to you indirectly that will then independently work like a backup server for your memories capable of bypassing the universal regression's effects. Issue is they need to be someone whose existence goes against natural law."
Staring at Strife i made a face full of confusion. There's no way Strife should have been able to find that out without hearing it from me directly.
"I'm sorry." Clutching the side of his head Strife covered his ears with his hands. "Your thoughts have been loud in my head ever since you entered the solar system." Looking backup with a pained face begging for mercy Strife forced a smile. "It wasn't my intention to read your mind. They are just so loud."
"Ah..."
At that moment it became dreadfully obvious to me just how close Strife was to slipping into madness. If he couldn't control his hearing anymore then time is extremely precious.
Just as much for him as it is Thorn.
Wasting not a second i pushed aside the tea before i even had a sip. Quickly strutting around the table to place the memo-recorder in his bandaged right hand.
"Listen to me very carefully, Traveler. In two minutes the regressor will die and the third regression will begin. You need to find a 'being who goes against fate' and inform me immediately when you do in the next timeline. Just place the memo-recorder at the centre of my desk before doing that. From then on you must do your best to keep your mind as focused as possible."
"I hear you, Doctor Sathuna." Strife said, his hysteria beginning to blanket atop of his perception of reality with another one while he himself didn't even notice.
"Doctor..?" Shaking my head i ignored the nonsense. "Once you find them tell me immediately. I can handle it all from there. I'll be able to ensure some clarity of mind for you for a brief respite when needed the most. Do you think you can hold on for a few more years at least?"
"Agh!" Having a migraine Strife struggled with his words before managing a nod. "I... can managed that long. Actually... i know a kid like that already. On the regressor's very own world. Cayde Barbaten, a demon. He dies in a forest on Laegii as a three year old. You can turn him into a fateless from there."
Relieved by this stroke of luck relaxed. "Perfect that saves us time. Just remember. This—my desk—as soon as you can." Putting Strife's hands around the orb tightly i worried for my plans stability. "You can manage that long, can't you?"
"I can travel that far at least." Strife managed to say with some regained wits. "I'll be safe... and leave now. The apocalyi can cover... where we fail."
Getting up from his seat suddenly Strife managed two steps before collapsing on the white floor and beginning to laugh to himself hysterically.
"Hehehe~. Oh how the hangman's ropes bind. What a plight to be of no sound mind. If only there was one who can shadow me, to be a friend. Such a shame he and I will soon never meet, to be never written and penned."
The poem Strife spoke made no sense until Anika and i saw several ribbons fly in from the air to wrap around and turn into a straight jacket around him. Along with various scribbles of writing that gradually faded. Even then it still made no sense.
Forcing himself up from the floor without using his hands. Strife struggled in his straight jacket before his [mach void] spell managed to forcefully create itself and he shot out into deep space in a flash of amber light.
"His madness is getting worse each time." Anika muttered after taking a sip of the peach tea Strife had given her. "He called you doctor. You seemed as confused about that as he was?"
"Ordinarily Traveler's bout of madness are accompanied by more... domineering personalities. They referred to everyone the same before as 'pukka' in the extinct language Latenish. It means 'true one' according to texts." Having a moment of contemplation i thought aloud, "perhaps... this lapse in Thorn's tethering existence to him has opened up new madness within Strife. Or unveiled something within him he had forgotten about unwilling or unknowingly."
Irked Anika couldn't ascertain which was better. "Which is the less terrifying option?"
Shrugging i showed i had zero idea. "Its all theory. A strange theory." The timing struck its destined point and a wave washed across the universe that Anika and i both sensed, bringing everything to a still. "Ah, the regressor is dead."
Observing my hand i watched it liquify, the same as Anika and all material's in existence as times clock began to unwind on a universal scale.
"See you yesterday, Anika." I waved right before time held me and the past years immediately began being undone.
The decades of experimental work done in the secret alcove. Tasking several of the
When my eyes opened my thinly gloved hand was holding the memo-recorder in my office in Felcrii University. Dim light shot from its surface into my head reminding me of the information from two erased timelines.
Relaxing i placed the small orb down. "Looks like you managed to keep yourself together long enough, Traveler. Just wait twenty more years and you can have your shadow back in your arms."
Stretching my arms out i found it miraculous how the physical exhaustion from the past timeline was all gone. Not even my healing magic spells could help my weak body recover that well even with amplifiers. I can't remember the last time i was able to use my body so care-freely.
"Thats enough wallowing in joy." I said before lifting from my office chair. "There's a child who needs to be taught. Cayde Barbaten of Laegii was it? I wonder how Traveler came across you when sating his curiosity about the regressor. Just what is it about you that could make him notice you?"
A light condensed at the end of my finger and with a flick like it was a booger it shot into a magical diagram hidden in my offices wallpaper. Rotating and clicking the diagram turned into a drawing of myself before the drawing walked out the wall turning into a scale replica puppet of myself.
"Sweet dreams to you, Traveler."
Shutting my eyes i fell. But instead of the hard floor of my office it was onto the fluffy blankets of my bed as reality changed around me turning into my bedroom. Being embraced by the comfortable chill of the fabrics with a strawberry scent i wistfully slumbered as my consciousness drifted into the puppet.
As i slept my dreams turned into life and i awoke inside the puppets body. Tapping the puppets hand onto its face the blindfold meant to cover its eyes was missing.
"Pfft. Just couldn't help yourself could you, Traveler?" Grabbing a spare ribbon from a drawer i wrapped it around the puppets head and hid her upper face from sight.
Strutting out the office i headed out to my destination.
Leaving Felcrii on a spaceship and making my way to Laegii across several galaxies it was simple work finding the child.
A young red haired infant no older than three-years-old.
I observed him for a month personally. His soul was a reincarnated one but all memories were gone. Both his parents were thieves, and demons pretending to be humans. His demonic lineage had quite the auspicious forbearer, making him a prime talent to turn into a honed tool.
Then, like Strife already witnessed, the boys family had to flee the city after being caught mid-heist in a nobleman's manor. Where they fled the kingdom being ambushed by soldiers and knights at the border.
Cayde's father had his subordinate take Cayde and his mother away before abandoning the mother in a marsh and running deep into a forest before hiding the infant inside a tree's hollow.
Without any intervention that small child was set to die. Alone and forgotten in the forest. That's probably what happened in the timeline Strife first discovered them.
This child's fated end was here. This was where they disappeared. By my hand it will be where a singularity capable of ignoring universal time will be crafted.
"Come here, child." Lifting the infant up before he could grab the poisonous berries he was reaching for. Holding him against my chest the child instantly latched onto me, knowing i was the one way it would survive this forest. "Smart... the instincts of your past life are still sharp. If you were a perfect reincarnation you would be even more useful. But you'll have to do as you are for now."
Wrapping part of my cardigan over the infant i began walking through the forest. "Cayde Barbaten... perhaps just Cayden would be a better name for you. I'll have to apologise. The path i have set for you is mired in anguish and solitude. Your act in this story will the first true cruelty i show to the characters in this story."
Grumbling slightly the baby moved about in my arms as if discontent.
"Hmm~. Thats right. Thats so right. There's always time for a few joyful dreams between painful lives. I'll have to wait till you are a little older before turning you into the weapon of my desire."
[causal error detected. Administering causality fix]
Stars of causality shined around me in the magical forest, and the young baby i carried moaned in distressed. Sensing the tiny stars surrounding us were wanting to burn away his existence.
"Shhh. Sleep, Cayden. You need to grow up strong for my plans."
[aspect: event collapse — shroud]
Weaving up from the floor, white ribbons and scores of butterfly-moths flew up to hinder the blue lights before they were completely snuffed out by the mass of butterfly's.
Carrying on with even strides i exited the forest with the infant in my arms. Now fast asleep. Observing them in the sunlight the question of whether or not i could kill this child when the time came occurred.
Could i really kill this tiny thing?
Yes. Absolutely. I've already sent friends to their deaths knowingly, even told them they would die and gave no genuine tears. One more stricken name on that list won't change anything. Not when my goal has been so long in the making.
All this sin and cruelty for my own wish. Its so very worth it.