CHAPTER 67: SLAY THE STRANGER II

***

Aspen defaulted to violence.

Arc turned bitter and jealous, revealing his insecurity.

Deianira lashed out with hidden ego and scorn.

Ariadne became confrontational and self-righteous.

Gaia snapped, the timid one finally breaking under ridicule.

And lastly, Xenos... stayed eerily calm, a most different man.

Those who watched outside saw all of that clearly.

Had they just lost the top six performers in the Colosseum game?

Just like that?

...what?

How was that at all fair?

It made zero sense.

Those were the thoughts that plagued many in the Colosseum.

And yes, that was ’many’ but not all—oh, far from it.

"THE FIRST ROUND IS OVER!"

Lothar was the loudest of them.

"REMEMBER THIS FEELING BEFORE YOU FORGET IT!"

Those who heard of this trial knew that they were in for a treat.

"WE WILL SEE THE FINAL ONE BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!"

He looked up and raised both his hands.

"MY GODS! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

Yes, no doubt, They were.

***

Much like that time with Nikolas, the world rewound.

The first thing heard by the realm was the wet, awful squelch of blood crawling backward, dragging itself from the walls, the ground, and the bodies.

Xenos returned to his feet, his hands unclenched from around his own neck, as he then stepped, uncrushed, and lifted his foot from Aspen’s chest.

After that, the sword that had stabbed through Dei’s throat flew back into his hand.

Meanwhile, the rest did the same, Aspen’s broken body popping upright with a sickening crack, his head twisting back into place, as did Arc’s, Dei’s, Gaia’s, and Ari’s, their limbs sliding back into sockets while their bones realigned with crisp, reversed clicks.

Flames inhaled themselves, shrinking into nothing, making the air go cold again.

Their corpses were fully straight, and they walked backward.

Six puppets on invisible strings called time.

’Time’ was unmaking itself here.

"Hhh—mmh—rrhhh—!"

"Xen—no—"

"...riA—!"

Even speech went backward, their words sucking back into their throats.

Every motion snapped in reverse, with them being none the wiser.

Or rather, only five of them didn’t know.

One saw everything clearly.

Yet he couldn’t stop it.

He couldn’t do anything.

But then—

Thud.

Everything resumed.

They stood again before the start of the corridor.

Massive black roots surrounded them, the same as before.

Nothing looked different; rather, nothing should’ve been different.

And yet—

"...so, are we sure this way leads to the Runes?"

Aspen scratched his head, asking a question he hadn’t asked before.

"Of course."

Xenos replied automatically while walking forward.

"This place feels really... wrong."

Behind him, Gaia hummed nervously.

"Everything feels wrong to you."

Dei muttered with a lazy stretch.

"I-It’s not my fault; it’s creepy!"

"You say that every ten minutes."

Ari sighed, brushing past them.

"Let’s just move."

It was a familiar conversation, but not quite.

Still, it made sense, word for word, something that they’d say.

Even the order they walked in was similar.

This wasn’t déjà vu.

It wasn’t at all.

Arc stopped mid-step.

His eyes darted left and right while slowly widening.

He looked at them all like they were ghosts.

"...no."

His voice came out small.

"No, no, no... this—we—"

He swallowed hard.

"We’ve already done this."

Indeed, Arc was the boy who saw.

The only one who remembered.

Everyone turned to him.

"Hm?"

Aspen blinked.

"Are you okay, my Lord?"

"No—yes, I mean what I said!"

Arc quickly shouted.

"We’ve been through here already! This corridor—we walked it, we—we fought each other! We died!"

They all stared at him, confused.

Dei sighed, the first of them to move.

"You’re not funny, Arc."

"I’m not joking!"

He stepped closer to them.

"Gaia, you were burned to ash—Xenos, you killed me—"

"Alright, Lord, that’s enough."

Aspen held up both hands.

He was more than willing to entertain his Lord, but...

Xenos killing them? Killing Arc? Yeah, no way that’d happen.

They didn’t give him his money yet!

"Did you hit your head or something? Should we go for a break while you—"

"I remember!"

Arc’s voice shook now.

"We killed each other! All of us—!"

Xenos tilted his head slightly with an unreadable expression.

"You guys keep asking if it’s a joke, but... What’s the punchline supposed to be?"

Arc turned to him, hope returning to color his face.

"You—you know something, don’t you?"

"No."

Xenos shook his head, turned around, and resumed walking.

"I just think that if you were hallucinating, I’d hope you’d at least hallucinate something more interesting than that."

Aspen barked a laugh.

"See? He thinks so too. Maybe the tree truly made you hallucinate."

"I’m not crazy!"

Arc’s voice cracked again.

"We died!"

Dei rolled her eyes.

"Well, we’re alive now. So stop whining."

Ari shook her head.

"It’s normal; he’s just stressed."

"Yeah..."

Gaia agreed.

"Maybe we should rest?"

Arc clutched his fluff.

"You don’t get it..."

Xenos heard him but remained silent.

He looked down the corridor, his eyes narrowing slightly.

’Rewinded world, huh? Not the first time that’s happened around me.’

Despite the seriousness of the situation, his thoughts were unbothered.

’But why him? Why only Arc?’

He folded his arms, thinking.

’A puzzle...’

Indeed, there had to be a pattern...

Maybe the tree was testing them...

His brows furrowed.

’Wait... what was I just thinking about?’

He frowned harder, trying hard to remember.

But it slipped away, like mist through his fingers.

No matter how many times he tried to recall, nothing.

"...ah, shit."

Entirely blank.

"That’s new."

Xenos didn’t know what this ’new’ was, but he knew that it was ’new.’

It was very confusing, enough that by the time he blinked, shaking himself out of those endless thoughts, the tension had returned, and more than that, the rage did as well.

"We can’t fight, we can’t—YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!"

"What are you babbling about now?"

Dei groaned.

"Don’t you feel it?! It’s happening again!"

"My Lord, I beg of you, please relax, you’re being too..."

Aspen revealed an irritated face.

"Paranoid. I won’t eat the chicken just because she’s annoying."

"Paranoid?! Last time you split her in half!"

The group froze, and Ari’s expression hardened.

"You’re getting on my nerves, control your Lord, Guard Aspen."

"That’s not—"

"I mean, he would say that..."

She coldly cut him off.

"After you lost our duel last week."

Arc grabbed at his own face.

"Ugh, not this again—"

"It wasn’t even close!"

Aspen snapped.

"You only tied because of luck!"

Dei clicked her tongue.

"Oh, here we go."

"Stay out of it, Bastet!"

Ari barked, but Dei didn’t listen:

"I wish you were always this delusional."

"You—!"

"You idiots, stop!"

Arc yelled, stepping between them.

"That’s it; that’s what happened before! This is how it starts!"

Aspen scoffed, and for the first time since Xenos met them...

"You’re acting like some kind of oracle. Shut up already."

He spoke badly to his Lord.

"Ugh, you buffoon!"

Arc turned to him.

"I’m trying to save you!"

"Save me? Please. You should save yourself from whatever you’re doing now."

Arc’s fists clenched.

"You dumb—"

But Xenos suddenly spoke:

"He’s right."

Everyone turned to him.

Arc froze while the others stared.

"...what?"

Aspen asked, and Xenos shrugged.

"Something is missing."

The man was so sharp that he realized the existence of a non-existence.

He only needed Arc’s constant begging to remind him of that.

Truly, Xenos was a Wise Fool.

"That’s really not funny... you should be serious for once."

Xenos looked Gaia’s way.

"I didn’t say it was."

Arc breathed out and smiled weakly, relieved for a moment.

"T-Thank you—see? He gets it!"

"Yeah..."

Xenos scratched his chin.

"But the others don’t, so we need to reset."

Arc’s upper body suddenly fell, splattering blood all over.

It had begun.

A single slash from Xenos.

Aspen, who walked backwards from his Lord’s corpse, bumped into Ari.

"Watch it, mutt!"

Ari shoved him, and he growled.

"Say that again."

"Gladly, dog-boy."

Dei smirked faintly.

"This is getting fun."

"Shut up."

Gaia snapped once more.

"All you do is pretend that you don’t care!"

"Oh, look who finally talks."

Dei sneered.

"Didn’t think you had it in you."

If Arc were here, he’d scream for them to stop while stumbling between them, trying to get them to understand that they were being controlled by the tree, that they weren’t themselves, but unfortunately, he was Xenos’s first casualty.

And he wasn’t going to be the last.

Ari attacked Aspen with her whip, but just as he blocked it with his great sword, both his and her heads fell from their heads, dropping to the ground, where an earth wall was conjured.

Gaia had managed to react this time, protecting herself from being burnt alive, but once Dei snapped her fingers...

Her flames roared brighter, swallowing the wall and Gaia whole.

Dei then turned, or at least tried to, before Xenos slammed her into the wall.

She tried to shoot out her flames, but she was too late.

A sword had found its way into her heart.

Pulling the sword out, Xenos stared down at her, with no emotion at all, and crushed her skull underfoot.

Only when they were all dead did he smile once more.

Without admiring the carnage around him, which just minutes ago had been his companions, his hands rose, wrapping tight around his own throat.

The light in his eyes dimmed, and the world...

Blinked... "again."

It reversed.