Chapter 98: Son of Time

“What?!”

Memories. Questions. Memories and questions. Questions and memories.

Zayn barely managed to cover his tattoo in time before it began to glow and shed another leaf from its snaking vine.

The others around him barely questioned his sudden screech, perhaps chalking his odd shout up to PTSD.

As for the question that surfaced through the memories…

‘Who? How?’

What had happened to Cynthia…

Well, it was quite apparent she’d died.

But how? Had she died in battle, or was she murdered…?

Zayn’s suspicion immediately fell upon Maks and Amaya.

Amaya seemed the likely suspect. From what he had revealed to them about his Task, she’d be able to know remotely when one had perished due to having their names listed, alongside a tracker for how many disasters remained.

‘Though she seemed quite adamant about not trusting my Task fully.’

Maks, on the other hand, seemed to trust the Task more, but Zayn still doubted whether the kind-hearted man could truly do something so horrific to Cynthia — to someone who possessed such a genuinely kind heart.

As for the second question…

[Twist of Fate].

Whose death was destined?

‘Surely it wasn’t Cynthia’s…’

But what if it was hers? What if her death was actually bad for Zayn?

‘For better or worse… I’ll find out.’

As for what he remembered…

Just like the first Memory Fragment, he’d gained a boatload of knowledge alongside a particularly vivid scene.

The main scene this time seemed to be the prelude to the first.

He’d witnessed what had caused Adsagsona’s destruction.

It wasn’t this Trial or another, as he had thought might have been possible, but a single man. Another Summoned who’d traveled from a different town on a quest to find strong opponents.

‘Arashi Abiko…’

The name the man had revealed out of respect for Zayn’s ‘vast battle intuition.’

Zayn flinched as he thought of his past-life self’s power to transcend time. The sickle weapon he wielded, along with the contract with Chronos that had ultimately led to his regression.

Lifting his gaze to the carnage all around, Zayn suddenly felt… disturbed.

The blood, guts, dismembered limbs…

Only moments ago, the sight had weighed on him. The guilt. The sadness. The remorse.

Now, the battle already felt like something that had happened months ago.

Not because he’d accepted it. Not because he’d worked through any of it. His memories had simply buried it beneath something worse.

Beneath a bloodier battle and greater atrocities. Death on a scale that made the carnage around him feel almost… mundane.

And that realization frightened him far more than the memories themselves.

Worst of all was one battle that countlessly repeated. The one sided peril Zayn had failed to save innumerable lives in.

‘And that… was just one fight.’

Zayn swallowed harshly.

‘Two fragments.’

He’d only absorbed two fragments, yet his memories were already changing how he felt about the things happening right in front of him.

And as that realization settled in…

‘I think Cynthia’s death really was the catalyst for the black joker.’

For the first time, Zayn didn’t want the answers.

Until now, the Memory Fragments had seemed like pieces of a puzzle; knowledge he needed to understand his regression, his Task, and whatever future awaited him.

But knowledge wasn’t all they gave him.

They gave him horrific experiences. They gave him the weight of another lifetime he wasn’t ready to carry.

Zayn suddenly had a desire… not to know what the other him had gone through.

Because if two fragments could make fresh corpses feel distant…

What would twelve do?

And by the time he remembered everything, would the person looking through his eyes still be the same Zayn who had resolved to complete this Task in the first place?

Or would he be replaced by the him of his past life…

The version of Zayn who’d undoubtedly suffered from the double-edged ability of Chronos’ contract.

After all, Zayn’s greatest ability in that life was to survive. To do over and do over until the outcome he wanted finally became possible.

Yet…

‘Loss to him… to me, must have been so much worse.’

Zayn knew himself well. He knew he’d tried to use that power to save as many as he could.

And because he’d tried so hard, because he’d forced himself to suffer through failure after failure, those whom he’d inevitably failed to save would ultimately have worn down his spirit.

Considering what he knew now…

‘It… makes sense.’

Not to mention another side of regaining memories he wasn’t prepared for…

Seeing Ryon, Connor, and many others from his initial Trial alive…

Many more than the ‘fifteen’ who’d survived. In fact, that number was over thirty-five. It suggested that somehow, someway, a butterfly effect caused by his mental unrest over his unique Task had altered fate to a drastic, terrifying degree.

There was then the other side of the coin…

Those who were alive now who’d been dead in his past life. Their number was far smaller, but one person in particular consumed his thoughts.

‘Jade…’

Back in his past life, she’d died within the first Trial.

Zayn bit his lip, then said in a cold voice:

“Let’s return.”

Paul winced.

“You’re asking… a lot.”

Yet, in spite of his complaint, Paul struggled and managed to stand on his own. Eventually, the rest who were able forced their bodies into motion. They regrouped and checked one another’s condition.

Zayn and Jordan, the least injured of them all, scouted the forest ahead, searching for those who had fled and checking for any rogue monsters. In the end, they found nobody, but they confirmed it was safe.

Potentially returning as heroes, the group began their solemn march out of the graveyard of death and back toward Adsagsona.

As they stepped down into the forest, a message rang in all of their heads.

[Defend the Town of Adsagsona From the Incoming Monster Invasion] – (completed)

Zayn didn’t have a single celebratory bone in his body.

‘Zayn Gatlin, Son of Time… I do not envy you.’