The iron door was still trembling, but the entity's voice slowly faded like someone being dragged away from a microphone.
But Elara knew: that wasn't a sign of safety. It was a sign the entity was waiting.
Aiden stood before the door, sweat sliding down his temple. Not because he feared himself… but because he feared Elara had heard too much, too soon.
Elara sat slowly, her body still trembling. But her gaze for the first time since the loop began was no longer resigned. No longer clouded. Something inside her hardened, like metal heated to white.
"Aiden," she said softly, "I want answers. Now."
Aiden closed his eyes for a moment.
"Elara… please let me think first. This"
"You've been thinking for years," Elara cut in, her voice cracking but clear.
"Now it's my turn."
Aiden turned to her, and his face showed something he hadn't revealed in any previous chapter:
fear of losing Elara.
"…okay."
He pulled a chair and sat across from her, his large frame looking small under the weight of guilt.
The room was narrow, yet the air felt dense like the walls might collapse if either of them spoke the wrong sentence.
"Start from the beginning," Elara said.
"Before the loop. Why you're here. Why I died."
Aiden swallowed.
"Alright."
He laced his fingers together a sign he was searching for the most human way to explain something that wasn't supposed to be human at all.
"Elara… I used to be a time-system scientist. More precisely… a temporal-pattern analyst. My team's job was to develop a technology to stabilize experimental time travel."
Elara frowned. "Experimental? So this wasn't an accident?"
Aiden shook his head slowly. "No."
Elara felt nausea rising.
"And me…?"
Aiden lifted his gaze to her.
"You… were a variable."
Elara almost stood up.
"I thought I was a human being."
"You are human," Aiden said quickly.
"But in the system… you're recorded as a variable. A test subject. A determining element. You were chosen because your neurological pattern was the most stable among thousands of candidates."
Elara stared at him, lips trembling.
"I was a candidate? Aiden… I never signed up for anything."
Aiden closed his eyes.
"…I know."
Silence seeped into the room.
Silence that forced Elara to think about things she didn't want to think about.
"So I… was kidnapped?" she asked quietly.
Aiden stared at the floor.
"No. You… were dragged."
"Dragged?"
"Elara, the first loop happened because of an error. A massive malfunction. An explosion. A rupture in space-time. And you happened to be within the radius that triggered the system to activate automatically."
"So I was collateral damage?"
Aiden nodded.
Elara felt hollow.
"But… the entity talked like I was 'made' into an experiment."
Aiden exhaled one long breath that sounded like an apology he hadn't spoken yet.
"Elara… you weren't entered as a test subject."
He looked at her again, his dark eyes heavy with guilt.
"You became a test subject because you died."
Elara froze.
"…what?"
"When the first rupture happened… everyone in the zone died. Including you."
Aiden's voice cracked at the end, even though he tried to hold it back.
Elara stared, her lips dry.
"So I… was already dead? Before the loop began?"
"…yes."
Elara lowered her head, wiping her face with shaking hands.
Aiden continued softly, afraid a louder voice would shatter her.
"When the system detected your death pattern, it created a loop to analyze the cause. A loop is… a recorded time repetition. It replays the moments before death to find the exact trigger point of the rupture."
Elara closed her eyes.
"So I'm living inside a recording?"
Aiden shook his head quickly.
"No. You're alive. You exist. The loop only repeats the external timeline. You stay conscious. You feel. You're not data, Elara. You're human."
"Then why do I die over and over?"
Elara's voice broke slowly, but sharp like a blade.
Aiden rubbed his face.
"Because the system still hasn't mapped the triggering variable. Every time the pattern doesn't match… the loop resets."
Elara glared.
"And you?"
Aiden fell silent.
"Do you die too?"
"…no."
That one word hit like a stone thrown at glass.
Elara straightened.
"Why not?"
Aiden lowered his head.
"…the system bound me as the anchor. The reference point. I can't die inside the loop unless the system shuts down."
Elara let out a short, cold laugh Aiden had never heard before.
"So you get to stay alive. I keep dying. Must be nice."
Aiden shook his head quickly. "Elara, that's not"
"Then how did the entity appear?"
Elara cut him sharply.
Aiden inhaled like pulling a boulder from his chest.
"The day you died for the fourth time… the system recorded your emotional pattern. Your fear. Your will to survive. Your sense of injustice."
Elara narrowed her eyes.
"And that turned into… it?"
Aiden bowed his head.
"…yes."
"And why does it take my shape?"
"Because you in all your versions are the dominant pattern. You are the center of the loop. You are everything the system cannot understand."
Elara took a breath, steady but heavy.
"Now… the part you've been hiding."
Aiden tensed.
"The other Elara," she said softly. "She told me you loved another version of me."
Aiden shut his eyes.
Too late.
Elara had read the truth in his face chapters ago.
"Elara… I didn't"
"Don't lie."
Her voice wasn't loud. Not emotional.
Which made Aiden crumble even more.
"Answer."
Elara stared straight at him.
"Did you ever love another version of me?"
Aiden stared at the floor.
Then nodded.
Slowly.
Elara shut her eyes, tears falling.
"…how many times?"
Aiden opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Finally he whispered:
"Once."
Elara wiped her cheeks quickly.
"And that version… died?"
Aiden nodded.
Elara's voice cracked.
"So I'm… a replacement?"
Aiden shook his head immediately.
"Elara, no. You're different. You're not a reconstruction. You're not her shadow. You"
"But you fell in love with her, not me."
Aiden reached toward her hand but stopped halfway.
"Elara… I fell in love with who you are in this loop. I love you. Now. Not her."
Elara looked at him through red eyes.
"I can't believe anything you say."
Aiden opened his mouth—
but the entire room suddenly shook violently.
Lights exploded one by one crack, crack, crack—
and the entity's voice appeared, not from the door…
but from the walls that were supposed to be soundproof.
"Elaraaa… do you want to know who Aiden really is?"
Aiden stood up fast.
"No. No. It can't enter this room this room is sterile this shouldn't be possible"
The wall throbbed.
Like there was a heartbeat behind it.
"Elaraaa… he didn't tell you the end of the first loop…"
Elara turned to Aiden.
"What is it?"
"Aiden what are you hiding?"
Aiden panicked.
"Elara, don't listen to it. It's just unstable emotional residue. It"
The wall cracked.
"The first day of the loop… Elara didn't die because of the rupture."
Aiden froze.
"She died…
because someone pushed her."
Elara turned slowly.
"…Aiden?"
Her voice was a thin blade.
Aiden tried to speak, but his body trembled.
"Elara… I… I didn't mean to…"
Tears fell silently from her eyes.
The entity whispered one last hook soft, but ruinous:
"Accidental—
but he still pushed you."
The final light died.
And the room drowned in darkness.