I blinked.
And the hallway was gone.
Instead, I was standing in my room.
Not just any room. My room.
What is going on?
A Dream?
I blinked again.
Ugh what is this bright light?
Now I was standing in a burning field. Bodies. Screams.
I was standing on a hill, wearing an armor I did not recognize.
Something that did not belong to this era, nor the past.
The people below me were cheering my name as if I was their savior.
Chanting my name. It echoed in my ears. Burning flags I did not recognize.
No… It's not my name.
"All Hail the GD, All Hail The Nexus"
"All Hail the GD, All Hail The Nexus"
I shouldn't be here…
Where is Seren and Arlie?
I blinked again.
Now I was ten.
Crying near a car crash.
The police surrounded the area. Unknown people looking and whispering.
"Is that his child?"
"Poor family. But he shouldn't have been so recklessly driving"
My mom, trying her best to not cry. Wiping my tears.
I don't want to relive these memories…
Make it stop.
I blinked again.
Now I was in an open field, breeze on my face. Calm.
Sitting under the tree, sketchbook in hand.
Oh yeah…I used to draw.
I don't even remember why I quit.
Maybe I got too busy…
Maybe I convinced myself there were more "important" things to do.
Maybe I just stopped believing I had time to enjoy anything.
For a second, I wanted to stay here.
Just sit in the grass and listen to nothing.
Forget finding a job. Forget trying to earn money.
Forget the Nexus. Forget the GD.
Forget that I was supposed to save anything.
Just… be a kid once again.
But I blinked again…
And it was all gone.
This time, I was hiding.
A dim basement. Cracked metal walls. Dust hanging in the air like fog. Suffocating.
My hands covered my mouth as I crouched in the corner, trying to stay still. Ignoring the roars outside.
footsteps pounded across the floor.
Were people searching for someone? For me?
I didn't want to know.
I didn't want to move.
I felt like a ghost in my own body.
Not knowing what's going on…
Are these temporal bleeds? Or just a dream…
I blinked again.
Now I stood before a grave.
The sky was pale, the air sharp and the world quiet.
There was no one else around.
Just a stone slab in the middle of an empty field.
K.A.
The One Who Broke the Cycle of Fate
No date. No flowers. Just a gust of wind that made my skin crawl.
I didn't feel grief. I didn't feel relieved.
I felt... nothing.
Like whatever version of me was buried here had been erased from more than just life.
He had sacrificed everything.
And no one remembered him.
Only that he had "broken the cycle."
I crouched, reached out, and placed my hand on the stone.
I blinked.
And I was back.
The corridor lights hummed above me, steady and quiet. No screams. No ashes. No gravestones.
Everything looked the same… but didn't feel like it
I reached for the wall, just to check if it was solid.
It was.
A sound echoed behind me. Familiar boots. Arlie.
"Kiran?" she called.
I turned around slowly. She was walking toward me with her usual annoyed look, but there was something else this time.
Worry.
"I've been looking for you," she said. "You just vanished mid-test."
"I... blinked,"
Didn't even mean to say that… it just kinda slipped.
"I don't get that joke…" she replied, folding her arms.
I blinked— and I watched different versions of myself live and die.
And one of them had a grave.
I didn't say any of that.
Not yet. Not now…
Instead, I looked her in the eye and asked, "Have you ever seen too many possibilities at once?"
Arlie didn't answer immediately.
She stared at me for a moment, her usual sarcasm replaced by something quieter. More focused.
"Overthinking can cause that," she finally said. "But…what happened?"
I looked past her, toward the hallway. My hands were still shaking. I clenched them into fists just to feel something real.
"I don't know," I said. "But I think... something's changing."
"Changing how?"
"I saw timelines. Different versions of me. Places I've never been. Lives I never lived. Some of them felt like memories. Others like... warnings."
She stepped closer. "Are you okay?"
"No," I said. "But I will be."
That was a lie. But it was easier to say.
She hesitated for a second longer, then nodded. "Come on. Seren's probably about to send a drone to drag you back."
We walked toward the lab in silence. Not awkward — just heavy.
And in my mind, that gravestone still burned.
K.A. – The One Who Broke the Cycle of Fate
What does it even mean?
Did I die?
Did I finally do something good?
We reached the lab. The door slid open with a hiss, and the glow of the consoles washed over us like a wave of cold light.
Seren didn't even look up from her station. "You've returned," she said,
Seren turned her screen toward me. Charts. Graphs. Readings that didn't look good — or maybe they looked too good. Hard to say.
"You were bleeding." Seren said flatly. "A lot."
"…Bleeding?"
"Through timelines," she clarified. "Your temporal energy signal disappeared then re-appeared. That shouldn't be possible without outside interference or a catalyst."
I swallowed hard. "Like what?"
She didn't answer immediately.
"Like reaching 100% temporal energy."
I blinked again, but this time it was normal.
"…That's bad, right?"
Seren shook her head. "It means you're on the verge of becoming something… Irreversible."
Arlie leaned against the nearest wall, arms folded, but her eyes weren't joking.
"You're still you," she said. "But for how long?"
I wasn't sure how to answer.
"What do I become?" I replied, clenching my fists.
"Remember what I told you about atoms? How there's supposed to be 99% empty space in everyone, how normal people have all those little atomic gaps?"
I managed to nod, throat still dry. "Yeah?"
"Your temporal energy levels increased to 99.1%, which means your body no longer has any of those empty spaces…"
"And that's not good right?"
"Let me finish…" Arlie replied hesitantly.
"It was all fine until" She continued "you hit 99.1%, which means your body has probably started deteriorating. That .1% is harmful…"
"What happens when I reach 100% temporal energy…" I asked, worried.
My heart picked up its pace, ringing started in my ears.
Seren's voice came from the corner, low and sharp.
"You disappear from existence."
I stared at Seren.
"Disappear," I repeated. "As in… die?"
She finally looked up. "No. Worse."
There was a pause.
"You become 100% temporal energy," she said. "You stop being a person. You just become… energy."
"So I become nothing."
"We are not sur— We don't know." She replied changing her words mid sentence.
I pulled a chair from near me and sat there.
The weight of everything pressing down on my chest.
Arlie's words still echo in my mind, "You're still you. But for how long?"
I don't know what to say.
I want to believe her, but how can I?
When every part of me feels like it's slipping through my fingers, turning into something else,
something… not me?
Arlie breaks the silence in the room.
She didn't have her usual smirk, instead there's something softer in her eyes today.
"You were chosen, Kiran. It wasn't an accident."
I want to argue, to reject this 'chosen one' crap, but the truth sticks in my throat.
I hate the responsibility.
I hate the fact that…I'm supposed to be some kind of weapon against a future version of myself.
But sitting here doing nothing feels like waiting to die…
We sit around the cluttered table, the air buzzing with static and dread.
Seren continued speaking this time.
Her voice is filled with certainty, "Control," she says quietly,
"is an illusion people cling to. Even you, Kiran, with your 'gift'… It's just riding the current instead of being swept away. Time doesn't care about your intentions. It wants balance. And when you tip the scales, reality starts to push back—in ways you can't always prepare for."
"Thats life."
I glance at my hands, flexing my fingers just to make sure I'm still solid.
"But if time wants balance, why give me so much power? Why let the Great Dictator exist at all?"
Seren shrugs. "Power is a test as much as a tool. Every decision you make unravels into futures you'll never see. Each choice—each hesitation."
I swallow, throat dry. "What if I make one wrong move? What if… I become him?"
Arlie offers a little half-smile.
"Then you fight harder...You keep moving. Doesn't matter if you're running or barely crawling. As long as you're moving, you wont lose. Standing still—that's when fate wins."
I stare at my hands for a while, trying to remember what it felt like to be just a guy, not a variable in some grand equation.
There's a faint tremor in my left hand.
Not sure if it's fear, exhaustion, or whatever is happening to my atoms. Maybe all three mixed together.
Who knows.
Nobody says anything for a bit.
The silence is almost too comfortable, or at least familiar.
Static from the old display hisses gently in the background…
I can hear Seren tapping on the table.
Arlie's sitting across from me, arms folded.
Finally, I break the quiet. "You ever think about how fate's just…another trap? Like maybe there's no point in fighting it. But it's worse to just... stop?"
Seren replies, her voice softer than a whisper.
"Then don't stop. Just follow your heart"
For someone who is usually so systematic, those words didn't fit her well. But it felt honest.
I close my eyes, just for a second. Maybe I just want to disappear for a minute, or maybe I didn't want to…
But when I open my eyes, it's still me. Still here.
Am I losing control over my powers or gaining it?
Is it good that I'm gaining control? Or does that mean I'm falling deeper.
Following a path I can't turn back from.
Arlie speaks. trying to be gentle. "You should rest. Temporal spikes like this... your mind needs time to stabilize, so does your body."
"Yeah," I mumble, pushing myself to get up. My legs feel like metal rods barely balancing on sand.
Arlie tosses me a weird look, like she wants to say something meaningful, then just settles for, "Don't dream too hard, alright?"
I give her a half-smile, because trying to laugh would probably break the mood. "No promises."
I walk out, down the cold corridor. Every echo of my footsteps comes back lonely.
For a second, I imagine I'm back home, that same warmth in the air, that quietness.
But this isn't home…
I lay down. The stiff mattress, the dust digging into my back just enough to remind me I'm real. I'm here.
Still Kiran.
It's so tempting to close my eyes and just stop thinking.
Just let things continue, without me.
But Arlie's words drift through my mind again. Even crawling is movement.
So I'll keep breathing, keep moving forward.
[Updated: Temporal Energy Level: 99.4%]
Not because I want to, but because it's the only choice I have left.
If I can't push myself to continue…maybe this burden can push me.
[Error: Multiple Timelines deleted]
Because the moment I stop, I'm no longer fighting him.
I'm becoming him.
-End of Chapter 9-