I have to write something so someone will know I'm here

Miri hurried down a winding path along with Timey and Yoko. The path eventually led to a white flat among dust and debris, whose decoration reminded Timey of the bungalows in rural areas. The entrance was a brown wooden door with two short lanes of yellow tulips, surprisingly clean and organized.Miri knocked three times on the door. After a short moment, an orange-haired female opened it. She had a similar age to that of Miri and Yoko, whereas a bit sedater than the other two.“Hello, Miri and Yoko, what’s the matter?” asked the female.“Hi, Sakura, we’ve run into some hard news recently. But, we’d like to introduce a new face before that,” explained Miri. “Here, Timey, say hello to Sakura!”Sakura spun her head down, and finally found Timey at the lower side of the doorframe.“Eh... hello, Miss Sakura...?” murmured Timey, and her voice was as though forcefully hauled deep within her throat.“Oh—hi dear, I didn’t notice you at first glance,” said Sakura. “How old are you?”“Uhhh...” paused Timey, processing at rapid pace with her brain attempting to figure out how long she actually lived. “I’m roughly...”“Ah, in fact, Timey is far from a normal human,” added Miri. “She’s a powerful yet benign creature with immortal age. Meanwhile, she’s not very used to greeting others, like us. Oh, also, she speaks English.”“Oh dear, that’s feasibly hard news. Welcome to the Outpost, Timey! Please come in and take a seat.”Timey followed Sakura into the living room. It was comprised of white and black tiles, a patched sofa, and an old-fashioned TV that was definitely out of power. Sakura and Timey both sat down on the sofa, while Miri and Yoko idled aside, leaning against the wall.“Why don’t you two sit down with us? The couch is large enough,” asked Sakura.“No thanks, we’re fine by standing here. Yoko and I need a brief discussion on the strange things we encountered just now,” returned Miri.“Okay, hopefully we won’t interrupt you two,” answered Sakura.Sakura slightly bent down, with her hands crossing between her thighs.“What kind of affair did you get yourself into?” asked Sakura.“It’s not me, it’s Jason Parstenach. He’s my companion,” returned Timey, slouching. “We are the holders of the power of time, capable of traversing among different dimensions and timelines through projection. Let me break the affairs down quickly. Jason and I got to this place in order to investigate a mysterious voice. In the process, Jason and I came across a photo of Setsuki’s family in Miri’s room, and somehow Jason... he... ascended along with that photo, to a higher dimension.”“Alright, I think I get it,” replied Sakura. “We observers have indeed looked into the concept of The Fourth Dimension, where an extra layer is placed above our current layer. Whereas it never got implemented due to technological restrictions, Jason seemed to have proven it right for us.”“The Fourth Dimension...” whispered Timey, curiously. “Ay, how will you describe The Fourth Dimension?”“In our belief, The Fourth Dimension is a place of miracle,” answered Sakura. “There are residents in The Fourth Dimension—they communicate with us through the transmission on Miri’s computer. The residents, if Yoko is to describe them, she’d acclaim them as omniscient and omnipotent beings.”“Oh, then, deities, they are!” returned Timey. “In my dimension, the God does truly exist. It won’t be a surprise if some upper minds are observing the dimension we’re in!”“Well then, they are in fact lazy to some extent. They haven’t intervened The Outpost for decades, and they haven’t sent any message over the last year. They are seemingly indifferent to our current situation.”“Fine, we can’t always depend on others to do the works, right?” answered Timey. “Gods aren’t unreal, but they can be unrealistic—”“OH MY—OH MY!”Timey and Sakura heard Yoko screaming at the other end of the living room.“What’s the matter, Yoko?” asked Sakura, standing up.“IT’S IVY—she sent us a message through the answering machine!” returned Yoko. “I am about to play it!”“Wait a second.”Sakura and Timey rushed to the corner of the living room, where the black answering machine was placed over a delicate round wooden table.“Are you guys ready? I am about to play the message,” said Yoko.“Yes, do it,” returned Sakura.Yoko picked up the phone and gripped it at the middle of the group.“Hello, my former companions. It may be hard for me to convince you of the things going around recently in our layer, but it’s undoubtedly crucial and you all must lay trust on me for this one.”The female on the other side sounded apparently colder than the others. However, with her tone quivering uncontrollably, something had definitely got on her nerves.Ivy cleared her throat.“I just came across a figure of dreadful power—Jason Parstenach. He’s evidently an alien, and he seems to have gone for The Outpost. I managed to track his route and located the huge hole on the boundary. I’ve always been a tough woman of big balls, but the parallel layer he came from... it terrifies me. When I was about to blockade that hole, a man addressing himself as the brother of Cyan Grove alluded me the entire layer would soon be flipped... I have no choice but to trust him. I’ve reached out to Tori for a provisional coalition. I’ll stay connected until everything is over... Be wary of your own security. We have to work together.”“Connection terminated,” added Yoko, uneasily. “Timey... as far as I am concerned, you’re up to elaborate this one.”“Who’s Cyan Grove though?” asked Miri.“Ahh, I can’t be more than familiar with that name,” explained Timey. “Cyan Grove is... qualified as Jason’s pupil. He is also from another dimension and he’s still a trainee. His brother, unlike Grove, is a mysterious sage of tremendous power and knowledge, in charge of the primary diplomat of his dimension, settling inter-dimensional affairs with Jason from time to time.”“Okay... sounds like a trusty teammate,” murmured Sakura.“I’ve got a feeling that every figure on your side can be titular Ares literally worthy of that name,” added Miri. “Even though, I feel like that I still have to put forward my necessary concern towards unwanted danger that may befall our layer.”“That’s out of question. Grove’s brother stands no chance against Jason in a fight,” explained Timey, confidently.“So, we are totally safe as long as Jason’s alive, are we?” returned Yoko.“Well yes, so basically we only have to wait patiently and steadily here until he’s back,” said Timey. “Anyway, what are you all going to do next?”“Yoko and I will send a request to The Fourth Dimension, to see if they can detect Jason’s presence through some way,” explained Miri.“Is Timey coming with you two?” asked Sakura.“Not quite necessarily,” returned Yoko. “Better ask herself.”“I’m okay of not going with them, what’s the problem?” answered Timey.“I’d like a private chat with her,” stated Sakura.Sakura invited Timey into the lounge, a dark and damp room with a window at the north side. They settled on two not-so comfortable chairs. On their right side placed a table with plates of wax, and numerous blueprints. Meanwhile, on their left side stalled numerous shelves with books. Timey could see the titles of a few, including Moral Disengagement and After The Incidents of Auschwitz.“Get easy, dear, it’s no academic seminar,” stated Sakura. “Though we need to talk quietly, my daughter Kanshi is reading books in the basement. I don’t want her get interrupted.”Timey gave a few slight nods.“Thanks... I’d appreciate it. Pardon, what is your name again?”“Sakura Nichibotsu, the fifth observer,” returned Sakura.“Oh, that’s a cool name.” Timey complied, casting her eyes upon the books curiously. “I have a question. You are all scientists, aren’t you? But these books don’t seem to be relevant with your project.”“Yes, they indeed are,” replied Sakura. “People used to say that books can fall to your head. It’s pretty much nonsense. Nevertheless, in the past decades, I stumbled across many books in fine condition searching in the abandoned houses. They won’t be out of date however long they stay in these places as though they just luckily appeared right there when I was looking for them. I took them and stored them in this room. My life feels more alive since then.”“But life of only reading books is boring, really,” returned Timey.“I’m not reading to kill time. I’m in fact broadening my horizon reading them,” answered Sakura. “That way I become a more experienced person who is able to comfort others in a more proper way.”Timey frowned at the answer.“Aren’t you a scientist? Why do you think you’re still not smart enough when you single-handedly developed a state-of-art mining tool?”“A man can be experienced in one respect but not others,” returned Sakura. “The day after I submitted my invention, I was going to head to the lab again, but my husband called me and said, ‘Your daughter has been missing you since the last month. She wants you to be with her more.’ Thus I asked for a long term leave to accompany little Kanshi.”“Ah, people sure need to be in company.”“People can always hear loud rumbles instead of buzzes. I was enlightened by this event that many people often pay too much attention to big things such as politics, but they ignore that small things also matter a lot on someone’s mental well-being. I’m trying to keep this little observation group tight-knit as it used to be, especially Yoko... I know what she did to me, but she’s the most emotional one and she evidently wants to make up for it. I hope she won’t be too sad after Miri’s gone— What an uneasy life.”“Yes, life can be uneasy, particularly in valley.”Sakura sounded remarkably calm.“Yeah... life can be a dream. To me, it is a boring dream, and it can be a lucid nightmare while as to others,” answered Timey. “I’ve observed humanity and many other civilizations as well. This entire world feels absurd. There are too many things we cannot comprehend, the complexity of human brain or the essence of the universe for instance.”“But we can still live an ordinary life, can’t we?”Timey paused, or was stunned, to be more accurate. Sakura stood up, grabbed a lighter, and lit up a formless candle, then falling back to her seat.“Dear, do you think the world we are living in is exactly as it is?” asked Sakura.Timey returned a puzzled expression, the first one to ever reveal in her most recent decade.“I can answer countless questions easily, but I cannot figure out this one,” remarked Timey, shaking her head. “So do my sisters.”“This question doesn’t have a definite answer. After all, we have yet generated any empirical evidence,” explained Sakura. “I’d like to share my answer with you, dear.”Sakura took out a pencil from her pocket, and then leaned it against the wall. Under the light of candle, an upright shadow appeared on the wall.“Let’s take an example. What have you seen, a pencil, or the shadow of it?” asked Sakura.“I see both,” answered Timey.“Yes, but most of the time, human acknowledges the world imperfectly—To describe nature, human firstly created words, and then phrased them into descriptive sentences. However, a word cannot include everything. Would the very person who created the word ‘candle’ be able to know what molecules or atoms comprise a candle?”“Oh my... I have never approached this question in this way,” gasped Timey. “In reality—no, we’re living in a reality made up by human’s symbols. History is symbols. Societies are also symbols.”“So that concludes the question of this world,” stated Sakura. “Whether this world is a simulation or a dream—it no longer matters. Our current world is already unreal, far from what it really is.”Sakura looked up. Timey seemed to be panicking.“Oh... well... then... why are we still making use of words of human? Aren’t we supposed to use a much more accurate language? If I am the master of time, then I am supposed to know about this world, but...” stammered Timey, panting, flipping her palms again and again. “This... this is not correct!”“What’s wrong, dear?” returned Sakura, this time vigilantly.“The God—everyone tells us that we’re supposed to be omnipotent. Inhabiting the very center of universe, with our rights disseminating to every corner of our dimension, why are we still distant from the very truth of the universe?!”Timey wrapped her head with her arms tightly, completely lost in spirit. After that, she gradually lost balance, uncontrollably twitching as though spasm struck her.“Why?! Why?! We’re supposed to rule the world, yet it turns out we’re the ones with no knowledge towards it—but aren’t we supposed to be omnipotent? We’re supposed to know it! This is so incorrect! Everything is incorrect!”“Calm down, dear, please!”Neglecting Sakura’s words, Timey suddenly crashed into the door, and fell over with the door panel in a bang. The door panel was shattered into pieces, yet Timey couldn’t feel pain. She wasn’t supposed to feel pain. She was immortal, yet she suspected the validity of that perception. She suspected herself to be unreal, and then she suspected her world to be unreal, and then she suspected Jason to be unreal, and then she thought of Jason—she calmed down.“No... I’m the incorrect one here,” muttered Timey. “I need to stay calm. It’s useless to pore over these problems all the time.”“Frankly speaking, dear, you psych me out,” said Sakura, reaching out her hand to help Timey get up. “It’s getting late. You can go to sleep with Yoko or Miri. I don’t have vacant bed to spare.”“Ah, okay... thank you again for talking with me.”Timey brushed off the dust on her clothes, and then waved goodbye to Sakura. She talked to herself silently not to misbehave again, but the seed of doubt was planted within her, as she asked herself.“What if we are all living in a story?”Timey was too tired to find an answer. So, she simply walked back to the building at the very start.The girls wouldn’t have known that the calamity had been suspended over them, somewhere they couldn’t spot with their own eyes. The malice of an upper was leaking. The painful cries and howls of agony lost the place to contain themselves, shrieking for a being of absolute power to decimate their misery. However, only those who tore down the scar of the world would reach it, the flaws from a world, full of glitches, in an ongoing conflict.“Got to get the grip—”Jason roared to keep his sanity on line within the complex of kaleidoscopic geometries. He caught something with his eyes, yet everything he could catch kept on changing and left coated in heavy shadowing.“Something’s in my way... what the hell is that?”He rapidly blinked, but the world only got more chaotic. He gripped onto something hard, attempting to move his body to it. Then, he blinked his eyes rapidly again, and he found it... to be a steer?Suddenly, he found himself driving a red car alone on a highway. The way ahead stretched forward endlessly. The sky was clear, while the end of the way remained unseen.“Hey, a nice car you got, buddy!” said someone, on the backseat. “Where are you heading to?”“...Future?” murmured Jason. He fixed his eyes on the road so attentively that he forgot to turn back, or he was so focused on the road that his consciousness assumed that he had known the guy behind.“What? Frankly speaking, I don’t see anywhere this road winds up into. It’s not pretty sensible to look after you leap.”The way ahead gradually turned desolate, and the sunshine gradually diminished.“You’re driving to a dead end. Remaining on this path, your physical body or your mental self shall perish... Or... is it that you’ve already gained knowledge of what lies in front of you?”“I don’t understand.”“You will, but sadly, you won’t have any time to prepare for it.”Scenes began flashing back before his eyes.“Do you know that? The laws from different worlds may not be in line with each other, despite the fact they may look pretty much the same. In most cases, the conflict of laws won’t be triggered as long as the dimension stays what it is, yet that’s a different story the moment you chose to step upon this blood-stained land.”Jason headed to a dimension where everything looked extremely similar to his. He hoped to establish a new connection, and thus he stopped before the headquarters of the organization that reigned the world, run by the blood of Apocalypse, a family that lasted for over 500 years.The organization originated in Germany, with its name being ‘fate’ written in German. It was led by the archbishop, a gentle man in a refined manner, looking young in appearance, yet diplomatic in behavior.“Greetings, Mr. Jason,” said the yellow-haired archbishop, the head of the organization. “I’ve heard about your heroic deed from other bubbles of world. But, before we get to the main business, I’d like to go over some other topics you may find interested in.”“Okay... go on,” answered Jason.“Let’s be honest with each other’s background,” said the archbishop. “You may have judged me to be given birth around twenty or thirty years ago. In fact, I was born in the age of medieval, in a poor family. Afterwards, I became a great scientist. I tailored a new body made by a specific material, and I was granted eternal life.”Jason did not react to his boast.“I just glimpsed the calendar. Well, I guess I am a bit younger than you. I’ve lived my life for around 300 years,” answered Jason.“Hmm, that’s why I invite you to a conversation,” replied the archbishop. Crossing his hands together and widening his jade eyes, he conversed graciously in a demonstrative way. “There’s too few people who get to share the blessing of living forever. As the old saying goes, it’s very difficult to find someone who truly understands you.”“Indeed, so... how do you want to make use of such blessing?”“You’ve got the point. For years, I’ve been convinced that every different creature perceives the flow of time in a different way. A bug that dies after a day won’t be able to tell morning and evening. A venerable giant tree treats a season as a second. A normal person will go over daily trifles and be annoyed—I thought I’d be different.”“I can’t see how these trifles bother you from your expression.”“I heard about a quote. The gold isn’t like the soul—it doesn’t go tarnished. If one day, the softness within ourselves corrupts, to live forever shall no longer be a blessing. Now I understand, that the trifles ordinary people go over every day is a reminder of their own desires. And I am delighted to find my desire lasting me for over 500 years.”The archbishop sounded particularly emotional mentioning his own desire. Jason replied in a few nods.“So, what is yours?”“Her.” The archbishop reached into his deep pocket, and took out a folded photo. Unfolding it, it displayed a white-haired female, whose face was delicate, and whose eyes were shiny.“We loved each other at the very beginning of our lives. Now, I live on forever, and she died young. If time can be unwound like a clock, it’ll be the most precious blessing out of every blessing in this world... Such vibrant vibration for an unfulfilled ideal, I can feel something similar deep within your soul.”“My homeland was destroyed. It was gone in the eternal flow of time, so did my attachment to it.”“There has to be something attached, Mr. Jason,” said the archbishop, vigorously looking into Jason’s eyes, as though he was expecting him to agree. “Hmm, I see... with great power comes great responsibilities. You want to make yourself perfectly reasonable, so you’ll be able to fulfill your duties. But... no matter how many times you repeat that phrase, ‘I have literally no attachment’. Your body will still stay loyal to your very instinct.”“I must contain my power to prevent it from infecting other creatures. I have to control it until I find a proper way to translate them into the ones compatible.”The archbishop paused for a while.“Ah, no wonder why. A nice conversation you’ve brought, Mr. Jason. Now, let’s get to some more important businesses.”The archbishop cleared his throat.“Would you please share your experience on how to beat the Demise to us?”“Of course...”Jason explained all the details to the archbishop.“I see...” pondered the archbishop. “That way, I’d like to share a little bit of my humble contribution. Follow me.”Jason followed the archbishop into a room labeled ‘top secret’. A giant portal appeared right before him. It was radiating in orange gleam, magnificent, a great work that wasn’t supposed to appear in his era.“From the Quantum Sea to Imaginary Tree, I’ve attempted to break down the obscure notions championed by the dimensions above and make use of them in the greatest machine to ever exist in human history,” stated the archbishop. “Behold—the Time-Exec, the hub that freely connects every world, every time to humanity’s own will. With the accumulation of infinite power, the Demise will be eventually brought down!”“But this is the first time you activate it, isn’t it?” returned Jason.“Yes, it’s for the courtesy of you. Now, press the button, the people of the past will be brought back,” stated the archbishop. “What are you waiting for?”Jason walked up to the button. Albeit being skeptical, he still pressed down the button. The machine began rumbling. The arches on the portal twisted and crossed each other, eventually overlaying at the center. Finally, a figure walked out from there.Jason froze upon seeing her face.He let his guard down. A wire having been outcast since centuries ago was somehow instantly fixed. His rational world crumbled, and his all the functions of brain were paralyzed except the ones controlling breath and heartbeat. He was dazzled, so dazzled that the sly figure beside him slipped off his mind. He saw it, and he failed to react to it.“Ugh!”Jason fell to his knees as a stinging ray penetrated his entire body. A strong, looming power resembling electricity hopped all over his skins and body.“I know that will do...” the archbishop said as he revealed an evil smile. “You cannot forget about her, as much as I cannot forget about ‘her’. But seeing you surviving from this hit actually surprises me.”Suddenly, Jason was awake. He instantly recalled everything that had happened, the huge mistake he claimed not to fall into again, and now he was experiencing it for another round. He remembered that the huge thing before him was no time machine, but a projector of perfectly rendered images. Chill crept down his spine, and he shouted.“You’re brewing a huge mistake!” yelled Jason, in spite of sharp pain that warped within his body. “Stop it now!”“With such tremendous power, you won’t go unnoticed traveling between different worlds. Is it you being too naïve, or your power being simply way too attractive? But, to bring her back to life, I need the thing within your body.”The archbishop snapped his finger. Thirteen fully-armored combatants were summoned, walking out from the hidden doors, carrying deadly weapons architected to hunt down the Demise, and now pointing them directly at Jason.“Execute him, and extract his core.”“Crack—”Something attached to Jason’s left arm was broken into pieces. Then, the world was turned over. The archbishop witnessed, and suffered an explosion that he would have never seen, and would destruct everything.A huge shockwave blasted every combatant to the ground, including the archbishop.“YOU FOOL!” shrieked Jason. It was the first time his pure fury erupting within his throat. “My power is incompatible with yours! With my suppressor broken, you’ll be crushed by my leaking energy!”“Impossible—stand up! Kill him!” persisted the archbishop. “Don’t let him—”Before he finished his command, the first combatant had stopped breathing. The second, the third, and the fourth met their demises with a brutal slash. The fifth’s heart was crushed in a stomp. The sixth and the seventh were kicked in stomach the moment they stood up, sent to death instantly as their corpses ground up the eighth and the ninth. The tenth was seized in a grab, and was crushed into pieces along with the eleventh and the twelfth. And, finally, the thirteenth was brutally severed. In a flash, there were only two people left.“Turn off the machine! You are getting everyone KILLED!” shouted Jason.“But... button...”Archbishop was switched from dismay to fear, and then to despair. He was struggling to let out a single word, and then, his body swelled and exploded, no blood, no flesh, an entire living creature decimated into nothingness.Jason clicked the button rapidly, yet nothing happened.“Hurry up, Herrscher! Tell me how the hell do I turn off this machine?!” shouted Jason.“JUST DESTROY IT!” yelled Timey.Jason mustered all of his power to his fist, and crushed the ground. The entire room, along with the portal, was gone in ashes. Then, he heard screams of people. They were disappearing one by one, exploding like the archbishop did, and within a second, the scream ceased. The serial death continued to spread.Jason instantly levitated up from the ground. The cities were collapsing. The cries of adults, children, and elders converged at the center of the world.The dimension was done.“Human... this dimension is doomed,” whispered Timey. “There... there’s no way to stop it now. We need to exit as soon as possible, and... wipe out the entire dimension from existence.”“No... so, everyone here...”“They will all die... No time for remorse, human. Do it.”A dimension was gone, like a bubble exploding upon interaction.“...What have I done?” murmured Jason, trembling, blurring in eyes. “A universe... gone, 7 billions of human, all died...”“Human... get up quickly...”“What... what could be worse?”“Some humans in that civilization attempted to escape to other dimensions... they succeeded,” explained Timey, pointing the other three dimensions bordering the destroyed one. “They have to be brought down as well.”The recollection broke off.Coming out of trance, Jason pulled over the car, and now he was standing right beside it, staring into the massive grey space in front of him. He shot a glance backwards to the car, and there was no one in the backseat at all.“I can keep myself alive, but I can never guarantee whether those people from other worlds want to take me down or not. If that happens again—just thinking off every innocent people dying to my power compels me to live in guilt.”Numbness, numbness took over the suppositious sorrow and agony that was supposed to fill up his mind. He could tell himself it was time to get a move on, but he felt seized by something within the numbness, something he vowed not to give up, something that evoked why he chose this path from the very beginning. He couldn’t change everything happened in the past. His only path was to move forward.“Well, it’s been a deep-rooted knowledge implanted in my bones. Everyone’s been telling me that, but...” whispered Jason, with his face turning gloom. “I won’t be able to make up for it regardless how hard I can keep fooling myself. I will never forgive myself for doing that.”He moved another few steps into the unknown area, with his vision uneasily hovering to vicinities, in the hope of seeking someone to at least talk about something. Absolute loneliness surrounded him.“Well well well, it does hurt with all the memories flooding back, doesn’t it?”It was the same voice from the one who settled on the backseat, a sharp and sarcastic tone of a goon, tickling and giggling over the helpless man who made a grave mistake.“It’s a rare scene to see you losing yourself, eh? You should have known in your bones—you’ll be dead if not for the destiny’s offering, since hundreds of years ago.”“Tease me as hard as you want, I won’t care,” returned Jason.“You are always acting as though you owe someone... in fact you do, but that shall be the unavoidable sacrifices that have to be made for your heroic deeds. Don’t you agree?”“What do you mean of that?”“All in all, you’ve breached the boundary of life and death. You’ve lived up to the legend itself... you’ve chosen this path and traversed to a milestone no one has yet reached in the entire history. It is a shame to give it up here.”“You’re wrong about this one,” retorted Jason. “I am not giving up, but the world taught me a lesson of blood, which is never to be forgotten. It has been instructing me to take heed in later operations.”“Ha! You sure have a clear self-awareness!” laughed the voice, in a rather ironic way. “Do you know what they say about justice? Look up to the sky. The god has never forgiven any sinner. You should lift up your head right now.”Jason lifted up his head and looked forward. He saw countless black dots approaching. They were everywhere in the sky, everywhere on the land, drifting like a huge haze of smog, and they surrounded him, converging and compressing the blankness in the middle. Those dark things were shimmering in appearance. Their bodies were shapeless. Their weapons were phantasms. They were like devils with livid faces and sharp teeth, blooming sarcastic, mocking smiles, fearlessly marching towards the man in the middle.“Murderer! Traitor!” shouted the entities, before Jason got to ask them a question, and their laughter rose and fell one after another tacitly, filling up every vacuum of no mock.“Die! Maybe your sin will be absolved of after you do it!” shouted another group of entities. To Jason’s puzzlement, they rather teased him all the time than swarming him with deadly weapons.“I am not in the prospect of seeing your disappearance. They’ve been eagerly anticipating your breakdown. Perhaps you’ve adapted to your manner of turning a deaf ear at them, but... how about looking forward? I mean... someone you might be looking forward to seeing again?”Then, from the looming darkness, they emerged.“What...?”Jason was thrown into a complete dismay. It was some huge vibration imploding within him. He was informed by rationality that he had to shun, yet he couldn’t move an inch away from them.There were thirteen of them, tarnished, as though ripped down from an old photo and pasted together, including her, whose delicacy should never be forgotten. He had never anticipated through any means that they would stand before him vividly, despite from the past of stasis. The good and bad old days returned, reforged into a colorless stream of tears running down his cheeks.“You... you...” Jason clenched his teeth tightly. “How is this possible?”“It’s okay not to continue, Jason. Here, we all know that you’ve lived a tough life out there.” She said, in the soft, affectionate tone, a blatant, perfect copy of her of the deceased. “It must be hard to shoulder the tremendous guilt. Please put away them. We can accept you.”Her voice was so penetrating that his sadness accumulated rapidly in his mind, causing his limbs to fall weak. He missed them. It was such an incurable disease being forcefully neglected and repressed by his will. However, to paralyze it with an illusion, it would do.He spoke that name out aloud.“Pardo, I... I’ll be brutally honest that I miss you, in fact, all of you,” stated Jason, as calm as still water. “The adorable time from the past strangles me from behind, entangling me with the winding and never-ending train of thoughts. If liberation is what I seek, it lies right in front of me, in your hug. Free me from every worldly desire that stings me and clings to me from behind making death difficult.”“So, you chose this path.”Jason responded with the same numbness on his face.“Huh, that doesn’t seem like what you’ll likely do,” added the voice. “Will this memorable deed hurt you or save you? Only time will tell. Or... is it that you know what shall happen from the start?”They approached each other. He looked into her clean eyes, and she unfolded her arms. He knew from his bones that no words mattered in this occasion. He also knew deep within his heart that such illusion seemed so intoxicating to him. He was about to fold his eyes, but in the end he left two gaps between his eyelids. In silence, he informed himself once more that he wouldn’t regret about what had to be done.“Splash—”“Ahh...”She emitted a sob extremely low in volume. An iridescent blade went through from her chest, with dark blood oozing from the wound. Tears streamed down her cheeks, on a face that was perfectly dismal and perfectly anguished.“I am sorry, Pardo... but... you are NOT her!”A powerful kick was sent to the wound, causing it to splatter in glinting sparkles. The entire ground moved in intense vibration, and the black entities engulfed by the blinding iridescence were vaporized instantly into ashes.“What a blasphemy to everything I’ve loved. Sadly, you contemptible maggots shall never taint the Elysium deep in my heart,” spat Jason. “It’s so fragile and illusionary that I have to keep it away from the stains of reality, especially... you disgusting entities emitting weird voices, a bunch of blatant, sinister cheaters.”“Hmm, you really are a person not to be underestimated. Well, looks like you’ve behaved yourself for what’s about to come. I won’t disturb your battle then.”The blade in Jason’s hand shuffled rapidly, from a bow to pistol, from a dagger to a pair of claws. He ripped the black entities apart, with every attack arriving in pair of great explosion and ferocious gusts. The white sparkles of his power ricocheted among the entities, causing them to splatter upon interaction. A head after another, the pure slaughter excited him. The vast horde of entities was broken apart instantly, dissipating into dark particles that faded in thin air. And from the darkness, a few persisted to rise.Jason glared at them indifferently, clicking his tongue.“You’re against the many, yet we are the many!” yelled one of leading entities. “The many can only be right! And you’re the wrong one! The right ones will defeat the wrong ones!”An army of dark figures cheered with the leaders as they charged.“Yes! The side of justice will win!”“He can do nothing against us—”The blade was turned into a turret the moment it touched the ground. The roars of gunfire chopped the crowd. The ones at the front were suddenly left with half of their bodies, and the ones at the back screamed in an attempt to turn back, while none of them survived in the rain of bullets.“You betrayed humanity and started a merciless homicide on our brethren!” yelled another figure, arrogantly wrapped in a uniform of general, with a menacing, fleshy, revolting face.“Back in my world, the ignorant masses are executed by turrets,” answered Jason. “Given that world is already gone, what’s the point of appearing before me just to spit at me?”“I am not spitting! I am judging your sin!” retorted the man, taking out a saber at the same time. “I will end your life with my treasured blade! I will make you pay for—”Jason flashed before him in a dash. Thrusting his sword with both hands upwards, two muscular hands were detached from his arms.He was disarmed before he got to draw his blade. He cried in pain as both of his arms got severed, falling down to the ground. However, desperately clenching his teeth, he still managed to squeeze an entire sentence out of his throat.“This... is your sin as a human...” the man compelled himself to lift up his head.“What? Go on. Say it out aloud before you die!” commanded Jason.“You are eventually like every other human...”“Wrong, I was a human.”Jason stomped upon the man’s face, crushing the skull inside into fragments. Then, it dissipated in white flame.“Who’s next?”A bunch of sticky figures sprung. They quickly deformed and reshaped in a huge giant goo, and dozens of black figures of a long-haired female crawled out, each seizing a pistol in their hands, with ominous smiles.“You’ve made a right choice on that girl. You aren’t supposed to meddle around with other’s fate!” yelled the creatures.“...Who the hell are even you?” returned Jason.“Oh, if you get into there, you’ll be shot by Dawn—”The creatures were instantly vaporized as countless bullets penetrated their heads in rumbles. The white energy converged at the center of the dark goo, utterly destroying it in a great explosion.“I am not familiar with that name,” spat Jason, spinning his pistols in the process. Then, the weapon transformed back to his own blade. He whirled with it ferociously, wiping out the remains of entities, until there was one last man standing.“What kind of trick is it?” murmured Jason, staring upon an identical figure at the other side, who appeared to be himself.“You really are ignorant about the truth of this world, aren’t you?”“Well, I am,” returned Jason, retracting his blade. “What do you think it is, then?”“The truth of this world has only one word—selfishness,” proclaimed the figure, standing upright in pride. “It’s disingenuous to cheat oneself that the world may be a simulation or anything. For no time in our lives are we not making up our own imaginary worlds and treating the imaginary people rather than real ones.”“Oh well, no one is absolutely real, I assume?” answered Jason. “For centuries we have only maintained a false solidarity through guessing others—caring for mere oneself in reality?”“That’s the point, and who is to blame? Solidarity needs a ruler, and a ruler needs power. I am deeply ashamed that you’ve been abusing your power just to make everyone shut up in order to win every debate.”Jason turned a speechless expression at the figure.“Huh, quite f—”“Nah, you cannot stop up my mouth because I’m of the lower class. A pheasant can stand for his own point and it doesn’t matter if you’re a king. Do you know what we have for people like you? You taste the marrow and you crave more. Thinking you’re strong? Going crazy, how typical.”Jason tilted up his head, evidently irritated.“Psst—do you even know what a marrow is?”“A marrow is a spine! What now?”“How about I pull out your spine then?!”A fist heavily bolted upon the figure, knocking him down to the ground. Before the figure got to resist, Jason pinned down him with his right foot, grasping the figure’s neck, and brutally hauled backwards.“AAAAAAUUUUUGUGGGGGGHHHHHHH—”The figure cried, until the savaging force broke his vocal cords. A giant, bloody maw was torn open at the front of his neck. Closely after that, the bone was pulled out, joint by joint. Dark blood spurted nonstop from the gap, spraying across the peripheral ground. The figure’s head was taken down, along with the long spine, and they were dropped to the ground at the same time.“What’s the reason behind all of this?” muttered Jason, forcing himself to calm down. “Lure me with those mysterious voices, only to condemn me and get killed? Huh?! What is going on here? Am I insane?”“No, in fact, that’s what he wants to show you.”The voice appeared beside him again.“What do you mean? Who is he?” remarked Jason.“He’s been around you all the time, and he talked to you. Moreover, I believe there’re also some people watching you except him,” said the voice.“Damn it, I can’t even understand a single word in your sentence!” retorted Jason. “Everything’s messed up!”“Don’t listen to me then, but, watch out!”“Oh hell—”Jason activated the barrier without any hesitation. In an instant, he caught it with his glimpse. He had been overshadowed by a monster since the very beginning.Suddenly, a huge black claw slammed upon the barrier, making it flickering rapidly. The huge shockwave moved the ground beneath him, and the entities surrounding him faded into black smoke. Before him, a gigantic feral monster unveiled itself.“How annoying that observer is, unable to stay docile at anytime, anywhere,” snapped another voice, deep and hoarse, echoing from the heaven. The monster in pitch black cast down its visions. Blinding rays were shot from its eyes like two sets of searchlights, directly landing upon Jason, in the middle of stage.“What the hell are you?” shouted Jason.“How insolent you are, to call me in that way,” responded the voice. “I am the dominator of the world, the usurper of the world’s mind. I’m everything that makes up your world. I am ALL.”The monster roared. The void began to shake in pieces of geometries, flipping its spatial structure over and over. Everything rapidly shifted in images. In the shimmering illusions, Jason saw something, the archbishop, the thirteen fighters, the girl who had been with him, the two new faces he encountered in this world, and himself.The monster angrily pounded the ground with its massive claws, provoking surges of dark waves from it. Jason hopped up and down, dodging the attacks constantly.“What makes you think you can escape the seizure of your past? You’ve committed crimes. You’re a SINNER! You will always be caught by your own guilt and watch the impending doom befalling you as you accept the decided outcome. You have been dead inside since a long time ago.”“Well then, why are you still talking to me now?!” returned Jason. In a sudden, the stripes on his face distorted in anger. “Other than pissing me off with those mumbo-jumbo gibberishes, why won’t you kill me instead?!”Howling and laughing in a lunatic manner, the monster raised up its muscular arm. It fell like a great pillar, brutally slamming upon the ground.“Pow—”It did crash onto something, however, it didn’t crush it into pieces. Then, an even more monstrous power was sent back to its fist, causing it to stumble backwards in painful roars.“Get on with the time, you outdated, obsolete old hat,” responded Jason, with his tone growing sharper. “Attempting to swallow me with my own guilt? Why won’t you ask yourself who you are beforehand?”“YOU!” shrieked the monster. “You’re declaring a battle against the misery itself. You thought you could escape with simply being confident and ignorant, and we will be here judging you and torturing you, with every voice at everywhere of every time. You don’t deserve to live when you see your actual self!”“Ordinary people always tend to compromise. To surrender is always easy, and I’m a hard person to deal with. You’re forcing me to pick up some extreme method. I shall not make your death quick and painless.”Jason tore down the left sleeve of his windbreaker, revealing the suppressor within. He tapped on it. In a clear beep, it was turned off.“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” howled the monster. “YOU ARE KILLING EVERYONE! TURN IT BACK ON! TURN IT BACK ON!”“I finally get to know the secret behind these voices. All in all, they’re the containers of misery. I can hear everyone in it, the struggles of an ordinary person, the last wish of a soldier before death, the guilt of someone making a mistake. You’re of the lower tiers. You manipulated those poor souls into the endless craving for hurting others, stirring up chaos just to enjoy people suffering from pointless conflicts.”“No... Impossible! Not to mention being judged by everything of your life, how can you behave yourself in the potential consequence of killing everyone below your dimension?!”“My power only disseminates within a dimension. You pathetic thing, you are unable to reach and corrupt the layer beneath you on yourself, and so you lured me here. Now, you’ve trapped yourself here,” answered Jason. “I haven’t got to unleash my true power for years, and you shall do as an appetizer.”A huge, illusory clock appeared behind Jason, sounding the toll of death. The torn part of his windbreaker was instantly fixed, and white fabrics adorned his clothing. He unfolded his palm. Several weapons were weaved into physical being, shuffling its form within Jason’s hand, and at last, it became Jason’s blade again.“Behold! The power of Herrscher!” yelled Jason. In a kick to the ground, he boosted himself to midair, levitating as the clock behind him ticked steadily. He pointed the tip of his blade at the monster, and roared, “FEEL THE RAGE OF A CRUMBLED WORLD!”Jason fired himself into the stomach of the giant monster in an immeasurable amount of time. With every swipe of blade, the ground violently vibrated. He was so fast that his form was distorted, and was performing attacks in a manner beyond reason.“I... NO! RRRAAAAHHHHH!”The gigantic monster went maniac, mindlessly swinging its arms and praying at least one attack would hit Jason. Giant blades were inserted into its torso. Arrows penetrated its back. Bullets and orbs pierced through its fur and flesh again and again. Soon, scorching wounds illuminating in pure whiteness captured its entire body. With its energy drained, the monster collapsed.“I’m not done with you yet.”The single-handed blade in his hand turned into a great, blazing sword. In swift slashes, the monster was ignited. It mindlessly flung its limbs, crying to a point that it could no longer form a complete sentence. Then, Jason eviscerated it. The monster’s arms were dismembered. Its great torso was chopped into blocks. Its fractured body was burning to death. Seizing in both hands, Jason drew the sword overhead.“Go back to hell with your vicious monsters!”Jason performed a great vertical slash, separating the monster into two equal pieces. Then, blinding light devoured the monster, dissipating every molecule of its existence, and then, the darkness was purged, along with every dark entity. The voice was no more.“You lost, monster. The reason of your loss is simple—you irritate me with all the lies,” whispered Jason, shutting his eyes in contemplation. “Is this finally over?”Jason landed on the ground, letting a sigh of relief, and turned on the suppressor again. He unfolded his eyes. A phantom of a middle-aged man appeared before him, and slowly approached him. He had a messy hair, a glasses and sparse beard, looking dispirited.