Mystic floated through the strange void, his body suspended where there was nothing to stand on and nothing to touch. He slowly turned in place, staring into the endless darkness. There was no ground, no walls, no direction to follow. He drifted onward anyway, with nowhere else to go.
"Where am I, this place looks worse than Hina's memories." He muttered to himself while looking deep into the endless void.
The silence suddenly shattered. A large female voice crashed through the emptiness, echoing through Mystic's ears hard enough to make them bleed. He felt no pain from it, however, not in this world. Sound itself seemed to function differently here.
"You are in my realm, the realm I put you after your second loop had ended. You need to learn what happens when you use your life like its endless. it is not and you don't know the cost of the Death Loop. You can call me the goddess of time."
The voice lingered around him even after the words ended.
An elegant woman appeared before him. Her very long, flowing golden-blonde hair curled around her, decorated with ornate pale-gold floral ornaments, while delicate earrings hung beside her face.
Her ivory and champagne-gold gown moved gently in the emptiness, its translucent layers and voluminous sleeves drifting around her. Flowing ribbons and panels swept around her body as though caught in a breeze that Mystic could not feel.
Mystic barely reacted to her appearance. His eyes remained fixed on her as the meaning of her words settled in. His expression changed only when he finally understood what she had called his deaths.
"Death Loop? What do you mean death loop. Do you mean you gave me a power to return hours in the past before my death. What the hell." He muttered, looking straight up at the goddess.
Her lips curled into a small smile. She watched him with an almost playful amusement, her gaze following every movement he made. When Mystic started floating toward her, her expression shifted.
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and the smile remained.
"Don't act so sour child, I only did it to protect you but the other gods saw it happen and needed to put rules in place. So that's why I brought you here, to tell you the rules that have been created." She muttered with a little giggle.
Mystic stopped as something about the way she looked at him made him freeze. Her expression was almost too affectionate, the kind of look a yandere would give their obsession while enjoying their company.
Her attention never left him, and even the slightest movement he made seemed to hold her interest. Mystic slowly leaned back despite there being nothing behind him.
"Last thing I remember before my second loop was that I had some sort of cancer from all the radiation for the new device I was making that allows people to live without a heart. I died, why couldn't I stay that way." He explained, not knowing why there was rules in place or why he got the power to begin with.
The goddess laughed softly. Her shoulders moved with it as she looked down at him, amused by the state he was in. The sound carried through the void.
She seemed almost pleased to have him there in front of her, yet beneath that amusement was something far more possessive.
Her eyes stayed fixed on him as though letting him leave her sight was not an option.
"You returned back from death because you change what was going to happen in time, it has consequences. It broke the balance and the form of nature itself so of course the others would step in and try to stop it."
Mystic stared at her, his body still drifting backward. He tried to understand what she meant, but every answer seemed to create another question. His eyes remained locked on hers.
The goddess continued watching him with that same possessive expression, her amusement slowly fading as the thought of Mystic's actions returned to her. He was not simply her child in that moment.
He was something that could damage the timeline.
"I am confused what did I do that broke the balance of nature I am just a normal dude. Seriously what could I have done that could make you, the goddess of time mad." He asked, raising his voice a little now.
The goddess's smile disappeared, her eyes widened as her patience snapped before leaning towards him, her expression twisting between affection and anger.
"YOU SERIOUSLY ASKED ME THAT, WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE. YOU REVIVED A HUMAN THAT SHOULD HAVE DIED. IF YOU STAYED LIVING LONGER YOU COULD HAVE LEARNED HOW TO BREATH IN SPACE." Her voice thundered through the void, shaking Mystic as the words struck him.
"You are the threat to the timeline but after a few more deaths you will be dead for good." She continued to explain, not even sorry from the way she sounds.
The shock wave from her shout caught Mystic before he could react. His body was thrown through the void, spinning helplessly through the darkness. For once, the sound hurt his ears.
He twisted as he tried to regain control, but there was nothing to grab onto and nothing to push against. The goddess remained where she was, watching him disappear into the distance with an expression that carried both concern and irritation.
Mystic slowly stopped spinning. The darkness around him seemed heavier now. His vision began to blur at the edges, and the void started disappearing beneath the darkness filling his eyes.
"I guess I got a draw back for it, I experienced memory loss and now a missing spleen. it's a gamble but I got about 398 deaths left." He explained, his voice becoming weaker as his eyes continued closing.
The goddess remained motionless in the distance, watching him fade. Her gaze stayed fixed on him even as his form became harder to see. The irritation in her expression remained, but so did that strange possessiveness.
Mystic was a threat to the timeline, and she knew it.
Yet she had still brought him into her realm herself. Her fingers slowly curled against the fabric of her gown as she watched him slip away.
Mystic's body continued floating through the emptiness as his vision narrowed to almost nothing. The last thing he could see was the goddess staring at him. Her expression was no longer openly amused.
She looked as though she were watching something precious that she refused to let go of, even while knowing that the thing in front of her could destroy what she was meant to protect.
The darkness finally covered his vision, the void disappeared and Mystic was about to wake up.
After waking up in the hospital room, Mystic found himself no longer in the dark void with the goddess of time, but back where he had been before passing out. Luna was asleep beside his hospital bed, her head resting on his lap as though it belonged there.
One sudden movement from him made her stir, and her eyes snapped open.
"Mysti is awake, everyone he is awake." Luna shouted, shooting upright before nearly everyone arrived.
Visual and Mark had to go home because of the new curfew caused by the yandere killer, but Harold and Joe remained. Mystic looked down at Luna, noticing how tightly she had been holding onto him and how she had stayed there instead of leaving.
"You been sleeping here this entire time, waiting for me to wake up. How did you get in here, I thought people of family was only allowed to be in this room." He asked.
Luna immediately wrapped her arms around his waist carefully, holding him closer as her eyes shifted toward Harold and Joe. Her grip tightened when either of them moved closer.
"Well because of me I changed that because I need to ask you a few questions on how you lost your spleen because it wasn't normal about it." Harold explained.
A loud growl came from Luna as she pulled Mystic closer, her arms refusing to let go while her eyes narrowed at Harold.
"Back off, he needs rest." she growled not letting them get closer.
"Actually, I am fine. I just lost some energy. now let's leave this place."