Kairo stood still.
The disturbance was gone.
The two figures were gone.
Safsan.
And the man he had been trying to kill.
Kairo still didn't know who that man was.
He didn't know why they had been fighting across universes.
He didn't know why Safsan had looked at him as if killing him was absolutely necessary.
And he didn't know what had happened to the Safsan he knew for him to become that.
But there was nothing Kairo could do about it now.
Their battle had interfered with his control over time.
And somehow...
it had thrown him here.
Kairo slowly looked around.
Mountains stretched across the horizon.
Rivers moved through enormous green valleys.
Forests covered lands that should not have existed together.
The wind carried something familiar.
Odania.
But not the Odania Kairo knew.
He looked farther.
Then he understood.
There was no missing half.
No division.
No wound separating one part of the continent from the other.
Odania was whole.
Kairo had arrived before the continent was divided.
Long before the Odania Safsan knew.
...
Far in the future...
Ayla closed a book.
And smiled.
It wasn't the first time she had smiled while reading it.
There was nothing mysterious about that smile.
Ayla loved books.
She loved stories.
And sometimes, without realizing it, she became emotionally attached to the people inside them.
Safsan had become one of those people.
From Ayla's perspective, she was reading history.
A story about someone who had lived long before her.
She had read about his dreams.
His father.
The road.
The other version of himself.
The black snake.
Safuu.
The war.
And everything that followed.
Somewhere along the way...
Safsan had stopped feeling like just another historical name on a page.
Ayla looked at the closed book.
"Safsan..."
She smiled again.
Then placed it down.
There were many other books around her.
And something had begun bothering her.
Odania.
The more she read about Safsan, the more often that name appeared.
But every book seemed to contain another piece.
Another version.
Another period.
Another truth.
Ayla became curious.
She walked toward one of the shelves.
Her fingers passed over several books before stopping.
She pulled one out.
It was much older than the book she had just finished reading.
The cover was worn.
She sat down.
Opened it.
And began to read.
"In the ancient lawless ages...
long before maps were drawn...
there existed a continental kingdom known as:
THE LAND OF FREEDOM."
Ayla turned the page.
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"The heart of this land was Odaa."
"The sacred sycamore tree."
"Its enormous crown was said to stretch so high that its leaves touched the stars."
An old illustration covered the next page.
A colossal tree stood at the center of a vast land.
People gathered beneath it.
Princes.
Princesses.
Ministers.
Families.
And at the center...
a King.
Ayla continued reading.
"For generations, the entire continent was ruled by the wise Odaa Kings."
"Unlike other continents, where rulers were chosen through politics, inheritance, conquest or the will of men..."
"...the Kings of Odania were chosen by Odaa itself."
Ayla's eyes slowed.
"It was said that the roots of the Odaa Tree drank from an underground spring of pure light."
"When the King gathered his princes and princesses beneath its gigantic crown to establish laws..."
"...the tree whispered truths into their ears."
"And if a King..."
"...a prince..."
"...a princess..."
"...or a minister..."
"...lied during the council..."
Ayla turned the page.
"The leaves of Odaa turned black."
"And fell to the ground."
She stared at the illustration.
Black leaves surrounded a man kneeling beneath the tree.
The text continued.
"For this reason, the ancient Land of Freedom had no prisons."
"Judgment did not belong to walls."
"It belonged beneath Odaa."
"The Kings judged through what the people believed to be the absolute justice of the tree."
"Truth could be hidden from another person."
"But beneath Odaa..."
"...truth could not hide."
Ayla leaned slightly closer.
Now she understood the name.
The Land of Freedom did not simply mean a place where people could do whatever they wanted.
Its freedom was tied to truth.
To justice.
To the belief that power itself should never be allowed to hide from either.
Generation after generation...
the continental kingdom flourished.
Until—
Ayla reached the next sentence.
"Until the worlds beyond became increasingly greedy."
...
Kairo moved.
He had already seen thirteen-year-old Lalise.
He had already left her behind.
She had been too young.
Whatever he needed to tell Safuu...
whatever warnings he needed to give the woman she would eventually become...
he couldn't give them all to a thirteen-year-old girl.
So Kairo did what he knew best.
He entered time.
This time, however, he wasn't searching for Safsan.
He wanted to know what happened to Odania.
He wanted to see what came after the world he had accidentally been thrown into.
Years moved around him.
Thirteen-year-old Lalise disappeared into history.
She grew.
Odania changed.
People were born.
People died.
Children became adults.
Adults became elders.
Buildings rose.
Families disappeared.
New ones took their place.
Kairo continued.
Twenty years.
Thirty.
Forty.
Fifty.
Then—
Kairo stopped.
Lalise.
He had found her again.
She was no longer the thirteen-year-old girl he had left behind.
She was fifty-five.
Kairo watched her from within time.
And then...
he felt it.
Something was approaching.
Something enormous.
The flow of history itself seemed to tighten.
Kairo looked toward the continent.
His face changed.
He knew what came next.
The event that divided Odania.
The event that transformed one whole continent into the wounded land Safsan would eventually be born into.
Kairo looked back at Lalise.
Then he saw her future.
There wasn't one.
His eyes widened.
"No."
He looked again.
Same result.
Lalise would not survive what was about to happen.
Safuu was going to die.
Again.
For several seconds, Kairo couldn't move.
Then another memory replaced the world around him.
Safsan.
Older.
Broken.
Dying.
His head resting against Kairo.
Blood.
A weakening heartbeat.
And one final request.
Save Safuu.
Kairo returned to the present moment.
"No."
He had already watched his best friend die.
He had traveled into the past because of that final wish.
He had interfered.
He had warned Safuu.
He had changed things he believed needed changing.
He had done things he once would never have considered.
All for one reason.
Safuu had to survive.
And yet...
death had found her again.
Kairo searched for another possibility.
Change the event?
He didn't understand it enough.
Stop Odania from dividing?
He didn't know what that would do to everything that came afterward.
Move Lalise somewhere else?
The destruction was too great.
Then Kairo thought of something.
An idea he had considered before.
And rejected.
Not because he knew it was impossible.
But because he didn't know if it was possible.
Kairo could travel through time.
He could move himself.
But what happened if he took someone else with him?
Not for a second.
Not across a room.
Across years.
Across generations.
What happened if he removed someone from the moment history had decided they would die?
Kairo looked at Lalise.
He didn't know.
And that was the problem.
For someone who lived through time...
not knowing the result of a temporal action could be worse than knowing it would kill him.
The continent trembled.
Kairo looked up.
It was beginning.
The event.
The moment that would divide Odania.
Kairo had seconds.
Maybe less.
He looked at Lalise.
Then remembered Safsan.
Save Safuu.
Kairo disappeared.
Lalise turned.
Her eyes widened.
"Kairo?"
She recognized him.
The man she had met when she was thirteen stood before her again.
He had disappeared from her life decades ago.
Yet to him...
it hadn't been decades.
Kairo reached for her.
There was no time to explain.
"Lalise."
She stared at him.
"Kairo...?"
"Trust me."
The world changed.
Odania screamed.
The land beneath them began to break.
And Kairo grabbed her.
Then he ran.
Not across the continent.
Through time.
The first step almost tore Lalise from his hand.
The second nearly destroyed Kairo's control.
The third—
Kairo screamed.
Time opened around them.
Past.
Present.
Future.
None of them remained separate.
Lalise saw things she couldn't understand.
Cities that did not exist yet.
People who had not been born.
Buildings rising where forests once stood.
Wars.
Peace.
Deaths.
Births.
The world changed every time Kairo moved.
But behind them...
Odania was breaking.
One continent.
Two.
The Land of Freedom was being divided.
Kairo kept running.
He didn't look back.
Save Safuu.
Another step.
His body changed.
Lalise saw it.
Kairo's face suddenly became older.
Then younger.
Then older again.
His hands changed.
Wrinkles appeared.
Disappeared.
His body shifted into an adult version of himself—
then a younger one—
then an older one—
then back again.
"Kairo!"
He didn't answer.
He couldn't.
His body was losing its position in time.
Every step forced another version of him toward the surface.
Young.
Adult.
Old.
Young.
Old.
Adult.
Again.
Again.
Again.
His muscles tore.
Time restored them.
Then another version of his body replaced them.
His bones aged decades in an instant.
Then became young again.
His heartbeat lost its rhythm.
Still...
Kairo ran.
He had promised him.
Save Safuu.
The future opened ahead.
Kairo pushed Lalise farther.
His body began failing faster.
Then—
something changed.
Kairo felt it.
Not around him.
Inside him.
His Origin.
He had used it for so long.
He thought he understood it.
Time.
Movement through it.
The ability to exist where others could not.
He had built his understanding around what his Origin allowed him to do.
But now...
as his body shifted endlessly between different versions of himself...
Kairo felt something beneath all of that.
Something that had always been there.
His eyes widened.
"What...?"
Another step.
Young.
Old.
Adult.
His Origin responded differently.
Kairo suddenly understood something.
Not everything.
Far from it.
But enough.
There had always been something about his Origin that he didn't know.
Something that had been there from the beginning.
And there was a reason he had never known.
Kairo laughed.
It hurt.
Blood left his mouth.
"So..."
His body changed again.
"...that's what you were."
Lalise couldn't understand him.
"Kairo!"
He looked at her.
Then ahead.
He had found the point.
Far into the future.
A very specific period.
Shortly before Safsan...
the Safsan who was currently lying unconscious...
would meet Nafsan.
Kairo used everything he had left.
He pushed Lalise forward.
"No!"
Her fingers slipped from his.
For a fraction of a second, their hands remained inches apart.
Then—
Lalise disappeared into the future.
Kairo stopped.
Silence.
He looked forward.
He couldn't see her anymore.
But he knew.
She had made it.
Safuu had survived.
Kairo smiled.
"I did it..."
His leg collapsed.
He fell.
He tried to stand.
His body became young.
Then old.
Then adult.
Then young again.
He fell.
Kairo placed one hand against something that existed between moments.
He pushed himself upward.
His arm failed.
He fell again.
Still...
he tried.
There was nobody beside him now.
No Safsan.
No Lalise.
No one to carry him.
So Kairo moved alone.
One hand forward.
Then the other.
He crawled.
His body continued changing.
Childhood threatened to pull him backward.
Old age dragged him forward.
His adult body appeared between them for fractions of a second.
He couldn't remain any of them.
But now...
he understood something about his Origin that he had never understood while he was healthy.
Something that had always been there.
Something he had been unable to know before.
Kairo smiled again.
"So that's why..."
He stopped.
For a moment...
he thought about Safsan.
Not the Safsan he had seen fighting that unknown man across universes.
Not the Safsan who had pulled him out of time.
His Safsan.
His best friend.
The man who had died in his arms.
Save Safuu.
Kairo closed his eyes.
"I kept my promise."
His body changed again.
Young.
Adult.
Old.
Then—
nothing.
Kairo stopped moving.
...
THUMP.
Safsan was still unconscious.
The battlefield had become almost silent.
Bodies covered what remained of it.
The earth was broken.
The two royal knights were dead.
NAREZEN was dead.
The destruction caused within that single second had ended.
And Safsan...
lay at its center.
His eyes were closed.
The absolute black chains that had moved around him were still.
The green and red lightning was gone.
Whatever had taken control...
whatever had allowed Safsan to see Kairo standing within time itself...
whatever had allowed him to reach into time and pull Kairo out...
was silent.
Safsan looked ordinary again.
Almost.
SEENEE watched him.
There were too many things that no longer made sense.
Safsan had been supposed to die.
Kairo had changed that.
Then Kairo had traveled into the past because another Safsan had died in his arms.
Safuu had been supposed to survive according to one future.
Die according to another.
Kairo had saved her from the division of Odania...
only to send her toward a future where Safsan would eventually meet Nafsan.
Past.
Future.
Choice.
Destiny.
They were beginning to look less like separate things.
And more like pieces of something SEENEE could not yet see.
But Safsan knew none of this.
He didn't know what Kairo had sacrificed.
He didn't know where Lalise had been sent.
He didn't know who Nafsan was.
He didn't know that somewhere in his own future...
an older version of himself had already fought Nafsan across universes.
Right now...
Safsan knew nothing.
He was simply unconscious.
THUMP.
His heart continued beating.
SEENEE looked closer.
Safsan's finger moved.
Once.
Then stopped.
And deep inside him...
something that should have disappeared when he lost consciousness...
was still there.
Waiting.