"No, no… I need to stop them," thought Tyel as he started to sweat. 'If the fight begins again…' With this thought, Tyel realized that if the fight started, everything would be the same as last time, and everyone would die without any chance of living.
Orechin created a small green crystal in his hands and threw it toward Ashikunz, who destroyed it without any problem.
'It's the same scene… I need to stop it…' thought Tyel as he realized that everything going on was the same as last time. 'If I could use my power… it means that I could go back… and prevent us from entering here!' Suddenly, Tyel took some steps forward. Everyone looked confused at this sight, as they had never seen Tyel taking the lead in a fight.
"Hey, Tyel? You'd better go away," whispered Liro the moment Tyel passed next to him. "You don't have a power, remain behind," he added, but Tyel didn't listen to him. He just kept going.
"Don't worry, everyone!" shouted Tyel. Lily had just created the roots that rushed toward Ashikunz, but they stopped right before hitting him.
"What?" murmured Orechin, confused. His eyes were full of anger, and he could barely remain still.
"Déjà Veil!!!" shouted Tyel as he pointed his arm forward. The moment he finished speaking, nothing changed, and there was just a weird silence in the room.
"Thanks for the distraction, Tyel!" shouted Darian as he shot a really powerful shard directly toward Ashikunz, who, even though he was distracted, was able to shatter the attack in half without any problem.
'Eh? Why didn't it work?' thought Tyel. The moment he shouted his magic, nothing happened, and while behind him the fight was playing out again, he remained still, not knowing what to do.
Ashikunz just slashed the double buffalo illusion made by Liro, and Vane was diving toward him. But now, Ashikunz didn't miss the timing. While Tyel shouted those words, Ashikunz noticed the blue crystal shot by Orechin before; as he was able to destroy it, Ashikunz created a huge scratch over Vane's wing, who fell right next to the Krukin.
"No, wait… this isn't how it was supposed to go…" whispered Tyel as he felt scared. As he looked over his hands, he noticed that he was shaking. "Why didn't it work!!" His shouting immediately stopped the battlefield for a moment, even halting Ashikunz, who was about to cut Vane's head off.
"What do you mean?" shouted Orechin as he walked toward Tyel, both annoyed and angry.
"My power… it awoke—" Tyel couldn't even finish speaking before Orechin gave him a strong slap across the cheek.
"MY SISTER JUST FUCKING DIED! WOULD YOU MIND NOT ACTING STUPID?!!!" shouted Orechin, breathing heavily. Everyone on the battlefield remained quiet as they looked over the scene.
"We... we should have never arrived here…" said Tyel as he removed his mask and revealed his crying face. Hearing these words, Orechin remained confused. "We've all died… and we will die again… coming here is the end for us," added Tyel as he could no longer remain on his feet and fell to his knees.
"It was all a trap… they actually knew about our arrival…" said Tyel as he broke into tears, looking at the floor with his hands in his hair.
"Get a hold of yourself, Tyel! What are you even saying?" shouted Orechin as he tried to calm himself down, realizing that he might have gone too far.
"That man isn't totally wrong," said Ashikunz as he removed his spear from Vane's neck, leaving him on the ground breathing heavily. "If you wouldn't have come here, neither you nor that girl would have died," said Ashikunz as he pointed toward Catripple's head.
Tyel, hearing these words, slowly moved his head toward Ashikunz, and tears stopped flowing down his cheeks. "What did you just say?" asked Tyel, unable to believe what he had just heard. Along with him, the others were equally confused.
"It's simple: because we knew that you were coming, I killed the bait," said Ashikunz as he walked toward Catripple's head, passing between Lily and Liro, who could do absolutely nothing and just remained still, shaking. "It's just because of you that this girl died, and because of that, you will die too," said Ashikunz as he grabbed Catripple's head and analyzed it.
"What? You killed her because we arrived here?" shouted Orechin, unable to believe what had just happened. While Orechin fell to his knees, Tyel stopped crying and returned to his feet.
"Obviously. We needed her, she's the one who helped us bait you here. If you had known that she was dead, you would have never arrived here," said Ashikunz.
"Then you wouldn't have killed her?" asked Liro as he started to shake uncontrollably, realizing that Ashikunz had planned this, too. The Krukin nodded.
"That's right. Without her, you would have never arrived here… and I would have never been able to kill you all." The moment Ashikunz finished speaking, a weird laugh could be heard coming from Tyel's mouth.
"Heh… heh…" Everyone moved their heads toward Tyel, who had started to laugh in a strange way.
"It was that simple, then? We just didn't need to come here for us all to live? Even Catripple?" Tyel kept laughing uncontrollably, making everyone shake in fear.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING, TYEL?" shouted Darian angrily as he slammed his fist on the ground.
"You haven't understood it yet?" whispered Tyel as he started to walk directly toward Ashikunz and faced him. "It's over. Kill me," said Tyel without any fear. Ashikunz grabbed the spear, but rather than slashing it toward Tyel, he used it on Vane, who was about to ambush him from behind in his polar bear form.
Vane's front paws were cut off, and blood started to drip. "ARGHH!!" he shouted in pain. The moment he fell to the ground, he turned back to normal, missing both his hands where they had been cut off.
"You can either be like him and keep fighting uselessly…" Ashikunz moved his spear and pointed it directly at Tyel's neck, "Or be like this other one and accept your defeat." Ashikunz slowly positioned his spear right next to Tyel's neck and created a small cut.
"Tyel…" said Orechin in tears as he started to crawl toward his friend. He was still on his knees and could barely stand. Behind Ashikunz, Lily had rushed to help Vane, trying to close the injury with her roots.
"Please tell me you have a plan…" Orechin couldn't believe what was happening. They had fallen exactly into Ashikunz's trap, and now they were all about to be killed by the Krukin.
"Don't worry, Orechin… I'll save you all," said Tyel as he turned his head back to Ashikunz and nodded, giving him the signal that it was time to kill him.
"I wonder how you'll even be able to save everyone else… after you're dead, you can't do anything else. You know that, right?" asked Ashikunz, slightly annoyed at the sight.
Tyel looked at the Krukin directly in the eyes with a challenging look. 'If I'm correct, time will revert once I'm dead… it will hurt, but if it is the only solution to save Catripple, too…'
"Go ahead. Or are you scared to kill m—" Tyel couldn't even finish his sentence before Ashikunz cut off his head.
"Déjà Veil."
Tyel immediately opened his eyes, breathing heavily, and found himself in his room lying on his bed. "I'm alive…" whispered Tyel. His hands moved immediately to his neck, and he realized that his head was still attached to his body.
"I heard that voice… that Déjà Veil power… I'm alive… once again," murmured Tyel, unable to believe what had just happened. He was completely fine, and he had discovered the final part of Ashikunz's plan.
Tyel noticed that, unlike the last time he woke up, he was bleeding more. 'I guess my soul gets cracked more every time I use my power like any other people who casts magic…' thought Tyel as he slowly got out of bed and walked toward the kitchen.
Tyel sat down on the sofa and looked at the ceiling while laughing. "It actually worked… HAHAHAHA!" Tyel suddenly broke into an incredible laugh that lasted for over 30 seconds. "I'm basically immortal… and he can't stop me anymore." Tyel looked at the kitchen counter and noticed a knife he had left from the night before.
"If everything goes according to my plan…" said Tyel as he walked toward the knife. The moment he grabbed it, he positioned it right next to his neck. "Killing myself will make me respawn again, right?"
As Tyel created a small cut over his neck, he was sweating hard. 'It's my first time killing myself… I'm kinda nervous…' Tyel took a deep breath and didn't even look at the knife anymore. "It will work… and I need to try it again…"
Tyel tried to move the knife through his neck, but he couldn't do it. The more he tried, the more scared he felt. "I know it will be alright… but I'm scared of killing myself…" Tyel suddenly positioned the knife in front of his right eye instead.
"Cutting my neck will be hard… but piercing my eye will be easier." Tyel took another deep breath and started to pierce the knife slowly into his eye. The pain immediately hit hard, soon he couldn't see out of that eye anymore, and tons of blood was dripping from it.
"ARGHH, IT HURTS SO MUCH!!" he shouted as he fell to the ground. The moment the knife left his hands, it pierced deeply into his head, creating permanent damage that no one else would have been able to recover from.
"Just let me die… Déjà Veil or something…" Tyel, realizing that the power hadn't worked yet and lacking the strength to take another knife to stab himself, simply remained on the ground, crying in pain. "Dammit… why didn't I go for the neck or my stomach? This hurts too much…" Tyel wanted to end this pain as fast as he could, so with the last strength remaining in his hands, he slowly removed the knife from his eye. The sight of his eyeball on the knife made him pass out.
Tyel remained on the ground unconscious for over an hour until he died once again.
"Déjà Veil."
"Ahh!!" Tyel looked around and realized that he was alive once again. As he passed his hand over his eye, he realized that it was still there. "I'm alive… once again…" Tyel really couldn't believe what power he had just been gifted. "It's absurd…" Tyel stopped for a moment and realized how many possibilities he had thanks to this power.
"I can gather as much information as we need… and simply return like nothing happened." Tyel slowly got off the bed and sat on the sofa, thinking. 'Going to Ashikunz right now is out of the question… especially passing through that entrance…' thought Tyel. He realized that Ashikunz knew they were arriving, so it was impossible to catch him by surprise.
"Then going now is not the right moment…" Tyel realized that this was the path Ashikunz had created for them, not the one he had discovered thanks to his power. "But soon it will be… I'll be able to create my own way of entering the Secret Laboratories… thanks to this power I've been gifted…" said Tyel as he looked over his hands and smiled. "Like Timehors… I'll be able to save everyone…"
With this thought in mind, Tyel returned to his bed to fall asleep. The following day, he arrived in front of the rebels' base earlier than usual. 'I'll tell them that the mission is over… and that we will go there another day.' With this thought in mind, Tyel slowly moved the boxes covering the entrance and entered the base.