Did You Miss Me?

The party penetrated the ancient elven woods under the watchful eyes of hidden elf guards. Amber cast a forest spell, scattering a shimmering haze of stardust that forced the sentinels to retreat.

With the path cleared, they reached her rustic cabin at the base of a colossal elder tree without much trouble.

"You stay outside," Amber commanded, roughly shoving Suzuki away from the door.

Stripped of his time-loop powers, the former prince had transformed into an incredibly curious cat, constantly trying to touch glowing runes and drink dangerous, random potions.

Suzuki accepted his banishment with a helpless smile and sat upon a giant red mushroom near the roots.

Surprisingly, it was the bard who came to check up on him first.  

Zale tossed him a wooden bowl of wild forest berries before heading inside.

Suzuki stared at the fruit, still carrying the crushing, silent guilt of having calculated the death of the bard's parents.

Inside the cabin, the atmosphere turned heavy.

"Only Stacy will remain here to anchor my mana points," Amber ordered. "The rest of you, leave."

Outside, Luck and Lily stayed close to the heavy wooden door while Kara stood vigilant guard at the perimeter.

Suzuki shifted slightly further from the tree, his body instinctively trembling in fear at the mere sight of the towering female knight.

Within seconds of the party leaving, the cabin's soft glass windows began to pulse with a vibrant, blinding white light.

Amber placed her palms inches from Toshio’s forehead, diving deep into his consciousness to root out the devastating curse. Stacy held the witch's shoulders from behind, anchoring her body against the magical backlash.

Memories materialized around Amber like a kaleidoscope of fractured mirrors.

The psychic mindscape was awash in brilliant hues of orange and yellow. She saw a young Toshio, and beside him, his fiercely protective older brother, Nero Tanaka. The memories radiated a profound, comforting warmth.

Toshio had loved his brother above all else.

Yet, as the grand mage pushed deeper into the soul, the warmth vanished. A sad memory manifested from the depths.

In a rural courtyard, a young Nero stood over a fallen, weeping Toshio. Nero’s hand gripping a toy sword. It seemed as if Nero had bullied Toshio into crying.

Amber felt an strange pressure on her spirit, but she forced herself to float further down.

The scenes shifted violently. The orange slowly becoming bright red and pink.

She saw a youthful Nero thrashing neighborhood bullies, proudly calling himself the ultimate hero.

Yet, confusion gripped the witch.

The magic was designed to reveal the host's true soul, but the deeper she went, she saw endless visions of Nero slowly growing up, Nero in his school days, Nero as a working adult. Each memory depicted him fighting injustice.

This is fascinating, the grand mage thought, thoroughly amazed and intrigued by the anomalies in the memories.

She finally reached the core. It was pitch black, the darkest corner of the soul.

It was the same rural courtyard from the first memory, but the roles were completely inverted. It wasn't Nero holding the toy. It was Toshio holding a bloody brick instead!

What is happening?!

Nero lay shattered on the ground, his head bleeding slowly. Unlike the first memory, this version of the kid lay entirely motionless.

He was dead, his lifeless eyes staring wide open. Toshio stood over him with a completely blanked-out look, staring down at his dead brother.

Goddess Freya?! Amber trembled. Even as a great mage who had lived for centuries, she had never seen a soul this distorted. Her mage's curiosity rapidly curdled into genuine, primal fear.

Suddenly, the bleeding child on the ground, Nero, stood up.

His fractured neck snapped violently into place as his hollow eyes locked directly onto Amber’s floating spirit. He could see her!

In that tiny moment, a catastrophic rewrite triggered.

Every memory of Nero within the soul began to shift. Every image of the older brother turned into Toshio.

This cannot be possible! Amber panicked as the dead child continued to stare through her soul.

No, this is just a memory! It's in the past!

Before the witch could form another thought, the child with the bloody head stepped forward, his voice echoing with terrifying, absolute force :

"DON'T HURT MY BROTHER!"

*BOOM*

The impact was violent. The soft glass windows shattered into glittering shards as a massive shockwave of raw mana blew outward.

Outside, the party jumped to their feet and sprinted through the ruined doorway into the thick smoke.

Amber and Stacy lay groaning on the floorboards, hurled backward by the sheer force of the soul rejection.

In the center of the room stood a single shape.

The corporate shirt was ripped away, tossed into the dust.

The short, dark hair was gone, replaced by a wild, snow-white hair. The eyes gleaming through the mist were pair of blood red eyes.

"Did you miss me?" a chilling voice resonated.

The suffocating mana pressure slammed into the room like a hammer, pinning Luck and Zale flat to the floorboards.

Kara was struggling to stay standing as she covered Lily with her body.

The white-haired man stretched his neck, glancing down at his bare, branded chest. "What? The forest is too hot."

*WOOSH*

Before anyone could react, Nero vanished with a violent crack of displaced air.

He moved with such an inhuman speed that the veteran warriors couldn't manage follow him.

Outside in the open, Suzuki didn't even have time to blink before a powerful, pale hand clamped violently around his throat.

Nero held the powerless high schooler high in the air with a single arm. Suzuki’s legs kicked frantically in the empty space, his lungs starving for oxygen as the savage crimson eyes stared straight into his soul.

A terrifying grin split the white-haired man's face as he tilted his head noticing the uniform.

"Oh no! Are you skipping classes? You need to be grounded!" Nero joked.