[595] The Cube of Time (2)
Yolga's face went white as she stared at the small life that had died in her arms.
"What…!"
Where everyone turned in shock, Rukang stood propped against the wall with one arm crushed.
"Who are you?"
Yolga recognized Rukang, but his demeanor was so altered she couldn't believe he was the same person she'd seen moments ago.
His bloodshot eyes were unfocused, and his whole body was soaked in blood.
"Hu, hu-huhuhu."
He vomited a gush of blood, smeared the wall with it, and collapsed.
"Now… I can go home."
"Hexaaah!"
Miro screamed as she ran forward to retrieve the child's body, but the chain-scythe had struck true and it was already beyond revival.
When she turned, Shirone was standing there, ashen and pale.
Hexa was dead.
Then what about me?
When he looked at his palm, the skin that had been natural-toned was already paling to gray.
Death.
The desaturated color made it certain, and Shirone staggered, dizzy.
"I'm dying. Dying…"
"Snap out of it!"
Miro dashed over and gripped Shirone's shoulder.
"It's not over yet!"
"But I died. I—"
"Listen carefully. A closed loop can't separate cause and effect. For the incident to conclude, the timeline has to make a full circuit."
At that, Shirone suddenly came to his senses.
I can change the incident.
"Go move Istas. You can't let Yolga and me meet. Do you understand?"
Shirone nodded immediately and launched himself away.
Miro glared at Yolga as Shirone disappeared.
"Are you satisfied now?"
If she were to answer whether she was satisfied, the result wasn't entirely disappointing.
Still, what puzzled her was Rukang's appearance.
"Why was he alive?"
"The incidents are overlapping."
Mustang said.
"A new incident is rushing in before the current one completes its loop. It's proof the space is collapsing."
If the case where Rukang didn't die is rushing in faster than before, then Hexa's case could do the same.
"Nothing is over yet."
Only then did Yolga look at Miro with a sharp glare.
* * *
"Damn it! What the hell is going on?"
Lycan hurried down the stairs to avoid the incoming Hwaseong troops.
Still, Hwaseong was everywhere in the rooms.
'This is nothing like what Fermi said.'
Istas kept restructuring itself and Lycan's path had become tangled.
"What the hell is that guy?"
When Hwaseong's squad blocked the front, Lycan dove into the adjacent corridor.
'I'd love to take him on, but…'
It was pointless.
Above all, was attached to him.
A single-use artifact.
If it were ever threatened, the object's power would trigger and Lycan would lose ten billion gold before he could even duplicate it.
'This thing's a liability.'
Originally a noble item that would save its bearer's life, it was now more of a hindrance to Lycan.
'Almost there!'
Lycan sprinted at top speed toward the far end of the corridor—the warehouse with the safe Fermi had designated.
* * *
Failure. Failure again.
Inside Istas' labyrinthine warehouses, Shirone encountered countless incidents but couldn't reach the space he wanted.
"There—grab him!"
"Be careful! He's strong!"
Hwaseong captain Nickel gripped the shared Tormia longsword and charged.
His skill was top-tier; each slash came like a noose for Shirone's neck.
'Berserk!'
A veil of light detonated, forcing the Hwaseong troops back in unison.
Photon cannons fired, and the flashes of the Santan Movement streaked across the corridor.
"Got him!"
Just as Nickel, doggedly pursuing Shirone, swung his sword, two tentacles clamped onto the blade.
"Guhk!"
Then two more tentacles slammed into his abdomen squarely.
Nickel's eyes widened and blood spurted from his mouth; the soldiers' faces went pale.
"Captain!"
'Can't waste time…'
Shirone frantically drew on his willpower.
"No, we don't have it!"
Elysion tore down the Spirit Zone's boundary and the corridor was laced like a net with photon cannon flashes.
"Aaahhh!"
Dodging the soldiers' cries, Shirone turned and cast Sibulsangpokmae again.
As the time band shifted, Hwaseong's forces vanished.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
Shirone had already bypassed the space seven times, but the timeline was too tangled and no method could stop Hexa's death.
'The problem is the man with the chain-scythe. Miro definitely succeeded in her mission. It's tangled in an incident I didn't perceive.'
As that thought finished, the engine room came into view.
Time: 1 hour 57 minutes.
Space: Istas Warehouse No. 9.
That was it.
He opened the warehouse door and Anchal suddenly popped out.
"Shirone?"
"Anchal!"
Shirone scanned the area and ran toward her.
"You've been waiting here all this time?"
"No, I just arrived. What's going on?"
Shirone bit his lip and walked to the control device.
"I failed. The incident keeps changing. I can't stop it."
"What do you mean?"
As time passed, Shirone's anxiety grew.
If the closed loop completed a full circuit, the incident of Hexa's death would conclude—and then everything would end.
"Damn it! What do we do? How the hell—"
He'd already activated the device seven times but couldn't bypass the incident of Hexa's death.
'I have to attach the Paranormal Psychoscience Research Group to Room 36. Then loop around Room 11…'
Failure.
Hwaseong was already waiting there.
'Right, attach Room 55 above instead. If we detour the time there a lot, it'll feel like starting over…'
Anchal stepped forward and grabbed Shirone's shoulder.
"What are you doing? I told you it's dangerous to twist the incident."
"They'll all die anyway!"
Shirone was exasperated.
"We have to reverse it. I—"
"Tell me what happened. I haven't encountered any incident yet."
"It's my fault. From the start, Yolga wasn't supposed to meet Miro."
"What?"
"Hexa. I died. I'm going to disappear soon. You have to save me inside that."
When Istas stopped operating, Shirone turned and said,
"Help me! This way!"
Anchal still didn't fully understand, but she had no choice but to follow.
"Tch! What the hell is happening?"
This was the eighth attempt.
He couldn't pinpoint the exact time, but an instinct told Shirone this had to be the last chance.
Time: 0 hours 58 minutes.
Space: Istas Warehouse No. 65.
Space had been scrambled and the closed-loop incidents kept overlapping, and Rukang was shocked to see himself dying with his lower body crushed.
"W-what is this?"
Rukang, leaning against the wall, was equally astonished.
"Am I dreaming? Guhk!"
Blood poured from beneath Rukang's entrails.
It was unquestionably his own figure, but in that destroyed form there was no sense of kinship left.
'This is hell.'
Rukang realized only one thing.
"I have to get out."
"Huh? A survivor…?"
The warehouse door opened and Yolga and her companions entered.
"No, he's not a survivor."
Mustang stopped Yolga.
A Rukang with his lower body crushed and another Rukang with his right arm crushed faced each other.
"How did this happen?"
"The incidents are overlapping. It's probably related to Istas' changes."
"Detestable Yolga!"
The fallen Rukang spat curses.
"It's all your fault! You did this to us!"
Yolga, as ever, bowed her head.
"I'm sorry. I have nothing to say."
Then Rukang died, and the Rukang with the crushed right arm approached Yolga.
"What is this? Why am I dead!"
"...."
"Answer me! What did you do to bring us to this horrible place!"
You couldn't call her Yolga by the look of it.
But her insight, tracing through countless times and variables, reached a blind conclusion.
"Do you want to get out of here?"
"Don't be ridiculous! I know you can't leave once you enter!"
"There is a way."
Rukang, ready to charge in a desperate last stand, froze.
"There's a way…?"
Yolga paused in thought, then nodded as if sure.
"Due to some variable, you've been detached from the incident of your death. So from now on, follow me. And…"
Yolga squeezed her eyes shut.
Banya-Pa Maria.
"If you get the chance, do what you must."
It was the natural course.
Time: 1 hour 32 minutes.
Space: Istas Warehouse No. 13.
Finally—he'd arrived.
Opening the warehouse door, Shirone found Miro panting as she held Hexa, having wiped out the Hwaseong troops.
"Who are you?"
Miro's guard was up, but Shirone had no time to explain.
"It's a long story! We have to go now!"
"What are you talking about?"
"The Goffin Gate! If we don't arrive faster than any other incident, Hexa will die!"
She'd already been wondering why Hexa's presence had been fading.
"So it was you! Why did you come into Istas? Don't you know where this place is?"
Anchal asked.
"We came in because we knew. The situation is serious. We're from a world that's already experienced three resets. We need intelligence from the upper levels."
Miro understood immediately.
"Fine! Lead the way! There's no time!"
Shirone spun around and, taking Miro and Anchal with him, ran toward the Paranormal Psychoscience Research Group.
Since he'd manipulated the warehouse, the route was clear to him.
Also, because he'd encountered so many incidents, he could avoid where the Hwaseong units were stationed.
'This action will warp the incident again.'
According to the previous incident, Miro would have had to fight more battles before reaching the research group, but Shirone's guidance let them bypass those fights, causing the incident itself to change again.
"We've arrived!"
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes.
Space: Paranormal Psychoscience Research Group.
Arriving eight minutes earlier than the previous incident, Shirone looked around.
He couldn't undo the incident where Yolga had been met, so Yolga would reach this place one way or another.
Only now, because time had been pulled forward, he could prevent contact with Miro.
"Good. We succeeded!"
Miro entered the research group and stared at the activated Goffin Gate.
"From now on we'll go to another space through the dimensional gate."
Miro hugged Hexa tighter.
"What's in the other space?"
"A sacrifice. You might call it a victim."
There was no attempt to sugarcoat it.
It was Goffin's will.
"To save the world, someone has to be sacrificed. And beyond this gate is the cosmic reset's sacrificial lamb."
That was why Miro hadn't told Yolga the truth.
"Yolga could never do it. I have to."
Only an individual could be sacrificed for the whole.
If the mission succeeded, today's events would be forgotten, but her life would still unfold as a price to be paid.
Miro looked back at Shirone from the gate.
"You're Hexa, right?"
Shirone's body becoming more transparent by the minute was proof enough.
"Yes."
"Want to see for yourself? You have the right."
"I'll go too."
When Anchal said that, Miro nodded as if it didn't matter and headed for the Goffin Gate.
As Miro passed through the barrier of light and vanished, Shirone glanced at Anchal once and then pushed himself into the Goffin Gate.
A white light flooded his retinas, nightscapes unfolded… and from far away came the cry of mountain birds.
Time: Deviation.
Space: Shirone's house, the stable.