“Axure, are you okay?”
I stared into her eyes.
Purple.
Gleaming.
“Monster,” the words crept out of my mouth.
“What?”
“AAAAHHH! AAAAAAAAAH!!! GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM ME!” I slapped her hand as the coins darted across the rooms and made a run for it.
“Auxre! Axure!” Nora exclaimed, chasing me down.
“GET AWAY FROM ME! GET! AWAY!” I spun around, pulling out my gun and fired shots to which she stopped her running, guarding her body. I didn’t even give myself time to process her expressions.
No. I didn’t want to.
“What? What?! I don’t understand. I don’t get it. I just don't get it!”
I burst out of the doors, overcome by fear, tears streaming out my eyes, watered from the air battering my face. But a shout roared from one of the windows behind me, “AXURE!”
Nora. It was Nora.
No.
Monster.
Monster.
Monster.
That woman. She didn’t want me to go. She didn’t want me to leave.
Monster.
The ground before me ripped apart like a ravine opened up, with a booming sound as a cloud of dust followed.
“Axure. Stay where you are. Do not walk any further.”
“ZIIIIDDDAAAAAANEEEEE!!!!” I screamed with eyes of fury, “IF I’M GOING TO DIE, I’M TAKING YOU WITH ME! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOUR PRINCESS ANYMORE!”
I pulled out my gun, ignoring how mighty the man standing before me was, and fired a number of shots. One of them pierced his shoulder, one of them took his leg, one of them missed and by then, he had figured out how to move fast enough to not get caught.
The man just kept moving forward.
Pain.
It pulsated throughout my body, opening up my stomach from behind when I slowly looked down at the bloodied mess. A huge sword impaling me with the tip painted in red. I desperately moved my dying arm to hold the blade until I heard the chilling voice of Zidane speak from behind.
“You really are the devil's messenger.”
And once again.
I died.
Part Two
Another wasted life.
Another one, I had wasted time doing absolutely nothing but running pathetically.
Not again. This wasn’t going to happen again, I cried about it like a baby but now it was time to man up.
I had enough. I had enough of this world treating me like a pawn. I had enough. My ego couldn't take it, my soul and essence couldn’t live with it. Constantly in the strings pulled by the universe's hands. It wasn’t just Nora that shackled me down, but the world itself. It locked me down, keeping me in one place.
I’m going to break free. I’m going to be free. If the universe comes at me I’ll come back ten times harder.
“Axure, are you okay?”
I looked into her eyes, and maintained my composure. I threw away my last life. Purple eyes were just purple eyes after all and in this world, people had all sorts of odd eye colours, and in a sense, Nora’s eyes didn’t look like that. It was as if someone used a spoon to pick the eye out, and stuck it back on the face.
I was a fool. How could I just have jumped to a conclusion so fast? With no facts, test or evidence but merely based on one coincidental finding. For if that thing had blue eyes, would I have thought it was Zidane?
How foolish of me.
“Yes, I am fine. Thank you Nora, for the money.” If I was going to maintain my good person act, I had to do the same with her from now on.
“Is it okay if I can go to retrieve my weapon from the carpenter's workshop?” I asked.
“Yes, you may but preferably when Laura or Zidane have completed their tasks.”
“Saying that… how come you do not give me any tasks or obligations? Since I’m now on board with your…mm…what is it, campaign?”
“Because, you are already doing everything you need to do without me asking.”
That sentence had just made me reinforce the idea that Nora was particularly interested in my technology and she did not want to let me go. Today, I decided I would have no ulterior motive and just retrieve my weapon because that was just withering away in Lorenzo’s hands. Furthermore, I had to retrieve the blueprint I had left with him, since I did not want anyone else to start engineering weapons that made me actually have fighting power in this world. So in all truthfulness, today was just going to be a laid back day and to be honest, I wanted Laura to accompany me to retrieve everything.
Not Zidane.
A few hours had passed and I had taken Laura with me again to get back the RPG, with Zidane having finished training and possibly going on patrol. Whether he was watching me, or not, I did not care. I truly had no ulterior motive today.
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“Laura, say… What's the devil?” I asked as we walked side by side.
“Why do you always ask the weirdest of questions? You’re so smart but you always have these dumb questions.”
Realising the seriousness in my face, she gave up on her light hearted banter and spoke, “Well, in our religion, the shadow Queen is the devil… so, I mean that’s about it. But she was killed by three angels sent down by God. So yeah.”
Devil's messenger.
The phrase did not leave my head.
“So does that mean you’re a follower of the religion?” I asked.
“Yes, yes I am.”
“But I’m sure you know of Nora’s goal?” I said in a questioning tone.
“Yes, I do. But the princess is the princess, she believes in what she believes, and I believe in what I believe.”
A small silence followed but Laura clapped her hands, changing the subject to the matter at hand. “Anyway, Axure. What are we doing today?!”
“Hmmm… something quite simple. We’re just bringing back the RPG I made and all the other stuff I had Lorenzo construct.”
“Other things?”
“You’ll see.”
Although I seemed to be conversing pretty normally, my mind was currently piecing together as many pieces as I could, only to find out I had three out of a thousand anyway. This was getting problematic.
And something else that was odd.
The respawn point of my life, for the past few lives, had not changed, clearly showing that it didn't depend on time. And furthermore, something else stuck out, because before the time was more randomised, but this time, I was stuck to one exact moment in time. It was as if a checkpoint had been permanently set and that was what made it odd. Because initially, there were three hypotheses: I was sent back a certain increment of time, I was sent back to a certain event, or I was sent back to a certain location regardless of the time. And initially, I had written off the first option, leaving me with the other two but it seemed that these past few deaths had suddenly shattered all of them. Now it seemed that there were randomised checkpoints set at an exact interval in time.
But that just made it worse but also better at the same time. The issue was, on any first loop where my “checkpoint” had been changed, I would have no idea. But if I were to keep that checkpoint over a number of loops, then I would easily adapt to any situation knowing the exact time I had, where I’d be and where everyone else would be too.
Interesting.
The more I died and came back, the more the probability that the universe did not want me dead, increased.
“Hey! Axure! How you been!” Lorenzo’s innocent smile warmed the room and after a few moments, I had gathered all of my things. The strap, the warheads, and the RPG. And I couldn’t forget all the blueprints. I shook the man's hand firmly and gave him a genuine smile. “Thank you for everything you’ve done. You have helped me out a lot.”
The man, flattered by my words, looked to the corner of the room with a growing smile as he scratched his head. “Well, it’s in an engineer's heart to want to make something so ridiculous.” He looked at me with a glow in his eyes and a soft smile, “Thank you. Really. For the new experience.”
For once in a very long time, ever since I was under the moonlit, starry sky with Jay, I felt a genuine warmth in my heart. For I felt it was as if only people like them could ever understand my mind.
“But Lorenzo, as a parting gift, I need to work on one last thing with you. I got the full design with me. Let’s get to work.”
Long hours had passed, and the night consumed the skies as the two of us headed back to the mansion, with me still being wary that things were lurking. One being the human who seemed to want me dead and the other being… well… that.
I left the energetic Laura to go to her room and headed over to mine. What a long week. Sometimes, just having no ulterior motive feels amazing. It was a pathetic thought but at the same time, it made me think maybe I had to change my approach and attack the problem more slowly. I had to maximise my understanding of these unknown variables and pull them onto the table.
I lay back, pulling off my coat and fell back onto the bed, falling into deep thought. There was too much I didn’t know. And the pile was getting bigger. But the longer I stayed, the longer I held myself captive.
Zidane was suspicious of me for a reason I could not solve, and it seemed those actually had roots to them. Zidane had been watching me far longer than I expected, most possibly the moment I stepped into Nora’s circle. And moreover, he has suspicions to do with me about something I did not have knowledge about.
“Devil's messenger…” I muttered as I stared at the ceiling, “I can’t just ask him about it…he’ll just think I’m more suspicious.”
My thoughts faded, and so did my voice. And there I fell into a deep slumber.
Or not.
For that slumber was not deep at all. It seemed my body didn’t want to rest long as if my limbs itself were screaming out. It made some sense, because how could I be sleeping like a baby when there were literal killers out there, one possibly hunting me personally.
I rubbed my head and slowly sat upward, wiping my eyes as I fell into thought again. “I got my weapons now, I guess I’m ready. But what next?”
I sunk my face into my palms, dragging my skin down along with it, “I need to learn mo-”
Monster.
Monster.
Monster.
It’s there.
It’s thereitsthereitstherstandingrightthererightthereplease God God. no getawaygetaway.
My mind felt like it imploded on itself, my head felt heavy, but my heart hammered onto my rib cage as I felt the pits of fear open up within me.
The room was dark, but I could make it out.
I could make it out.
Tall, arching, distorted, void. Black. Nothingness. Fear. Standing. Still.
Watching me. Staring at me. Watching me.
My hairs shot up across my body with my face unable to make any other expression but pure dread.
And there was something different too this time. This time, there were no eyes. But there was something else.
A smile.
And not just any smile, no. An overly long one, a bent one, an evil one, stretched across its face inhumanely. No lips, but a thin, pale edge curving outward, with a triangular smile, one side longer than the other.
And it WATCHED ME.
“AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!” I screamed in fear, not knowing what to even do. My gun wasn’t next to me, nothing was next to me. All I had were these blankets and pillows that my body couldn’t even make use of due to each of my limbs trying to escape on their own.
My screech echoed down the halls, slipping through the small gap in my door as I watched the figure continuously.
Smile.
“Hello! Is everyone okay!?” I heard a woman's voice, shouting through the corridor as my mind begged for that voice to draw near.
“Princess! Stay back!”
Zidane sprung through the door in spectacular fashion, pulling out his sword aiming it at nothing but.
Air.
It was gone.
Gone once again.
And not gone as in only I could see it. No, it was gone.
And all that was left was me sitting in my bed staring at the wall where it once was. Nora walked into the room, her hair messy, her eyes tired but she looked over at me and spoke. “Axure? What happened? Did anything-”
I rubbed my head, realising I couldn’t tell them anything, for it would make me seem like a madman and I still didn’t know what that thing wanted. For it killed Sylvia, Rhyno and that man. It too could butcher everyone in here. So I decided to keep it quiet.
“Sorry, just… just a nightmare.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Get some rest, I’ll be off now.”
And so the two left me alone in the room once again with me still sitting upwards, sweating and unable to get an ounce of sleep.
I stayed awake till the next morning.