Elissa stirred and blinked. "Where… where am I?" she asked, her voice soft and confused. "Ugh—my head hurts."
I leaned closer. "Are you alright?"
She looked at me, her eyes narrowing. "Who are you? And where is this place?"
"I could ask you the same," I replied cautiously. "You don't remember anything?"
She sat up, wincing. "I'm Elissa. I'm fourteen years old… guess that's enough for an introduction, isn't it?"
She pointed at me. "Kael, right? It's literally written above your head. I assume you can see my name too, so why even ask?"
"I was just… double-checking," I muttered.
She scanned her surroundings, confused. "So why am I here?"
"I'm not a walking answer box," I replied. "How would I know?"
Then I noticed it—my chest faintly glowing green.
I looked down. My suit had changed color. From pale white… to a solid, subtle green. The symbol: ENVY.
I turned to her.
Her suit had turned dull white—lifeless. No mark, no mission.
"She doesn't have a mission anymore," I muttered. "But I have hers…?"
I felt the heaviness of that realization.
Why me? Why now?
Elissa sat quietly, still catching her breath. I stared at her—fragile, broken, younger than the Elissa from my visions. Fourteen. Just fourteen.
Do I leave her? Take her with me?
I imagined flipping a coin.
If it landed on heads—Elari's face—I'd leave her behind. If it landed on tails—the number 1—I'd take her with me.
I imagined the coin rising, spinning, falling. Clink.Clank.
It rolled on the stone floor in my mind.
And then stilled.
The coin landed on heads.
Elari's face, smiling gently, stared back at me in my mind.
A part of me felt… sad.
I didn't know why, exactly. I had imagined this coin. I had made the rules. But even in this imagined outcome, my heart sank.
Was I really going to leave her alone?
I sighed and turned away, choosing not to say anything. I began walking silently, letting the weight of the moment drag behind me.
"Hey, mister!" she called from behind. "Where are you going? Are you seriously going to leave me alone?"
I didn't turn. Just kept walking.
But I heard her footsteps—fast, clumsy, chasing after me. She caught up quickly, breathing hard, face flushed.
"You were thinking of leaving me behind, weren't you?" she accused.
I stopped.
"I… left the choice to you," I said quietly.
That was a lie, and we both knew it.
When the coin landed heads, I told myself it meant I should leave her behind. That taking her along would only burden me—slow me down, distract me, maybe even get her hurt.
But Elari's face—that smile etched on the coin—had made my imagined rules fall apart.
I couldn't ignore it.
That smile felt like a message: Help her. Protect her. Don't let another be left behind.
So even though I hadn't said anything, my feet had already slowed.
She looked up at me. "So… can I come with you?"
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
We walked forward together, two shadows against the fractured stone.
We reached the end of the narrow passage and stepped into a smaller chamber—low ceiling, sharp walls, and the thick stench of metal and something… chemical. Not blood. Not quite death. But close.
Elissa paused beside me, her eyes darting around.
And that's when we saw it.
A figure slumped against the wall, body half-melted into the stone. Its skin was the same sickly green I remembered from earlier—the same type as the ones we'd seen in the arena. One of the alien teams. But this one was very, very dead.
Above its head flickered dim words in fading green text:
KEPLER Z-893
Favorable Mission: None
Elissa covered her nose, stepping back. "What… is that?"
"Dead," I muttered. "Alien. Part of one of the five groups from earlier. But this one didn't make it far."
The corpse's torso was cracked open, and some sort of black ooze had hardened where its heart should be. The body looked burned, like something inside had exploded.
I felt my wrist throb—the new device still attached like a claw. I looked down at it. A soft light blinked inside it, and a message appeared on my watch:
Target Detected: KEPLER Z-893
Memory State: Severed
Time Available: 1 minute 27 seconds
Steal time and memories? [Y/N]
I hesitated. Then clicked Yes.
The claw glowed red. A searing heat rushed up my arm as it dug deeper into my skin. It felt like time itself was being sucked through my bones.
Then—
Darkness.
But not unconsciousness. Just a new perspective.
I was floating. Not through space—through thought. Through flickers of vision.
I saw the world through Kepler Z-893's eyes.
It could see wide around till the back but couldn't see in length much.
I was running. The corridors were a blur. I said in a weird voice, "Why are you doing this? I thought we were friends. How did you become so ominous?"
Alarms blared. A holographic display showed symbols that twisted the more I looked at them.
And then—a presence. An immense one. Something that shattered light just by moving.
All I saw was its shadow. Huge. Distorted. Like the silhouette of an impossible machine made of bones and equations.
I turned. Ran. Kepler ran, but didn't make it.
His legs became weak and soft and started breaking like tofu being squished.
Not out of fear.
But out of lost time.
My bones lost their strength. It was like having the bones of a newborn baby.
My speed fell but I crawled in desperation to live.
Until the shadow caught me, and—
I gasped awake.
Elissa was shaking me. "Solin?! What was that? You just stood still like your soul got ripped out!"
I clutched my chest, breathing hard.
"I saw it," I whispered. "Something killed Kepler. Not with strength. With… time. Like it stole the seconds from its life."
Elissa's face went pale.
"Like your device?"
I looked at the claw on my arm. It was humming softly, almost satisfied.
"No," I said. "Much worse. Whatever killed it—it didn't use a machine. It was the time."
I turned to the corridor beyond the corpse.
Whatever did this to Kepler was still ahead of us.
And maybe… it was the Executioner.