The first thing I saw was a haze of swirling blues and grays, spotted with the occasional smudge of black or gold. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what the hell was going on, but I definitely wasn't on The Seal anymore. Either something went horribly, terribly wrong, or something went horribly, terribly right.
Both options were less than ideal.
I coughed and gasped for air. Was this what breathing felt like? It was worse than I remember. I've had a body made of solid cosmic door material, for lack of a better term, for an unknown amount of time. Bodily functions are foreign to me now.
...And then a familiar voice cut my thoughts short.
"Welcome back, young man! It's been quite a while since I last saw you. The night of January 31st, the Gregorian year of 2009, to be specific, was the date of our last meeting."
It was Igor, thank god. Of all the swirling blue vortexes I could have fallen into, I got lucky enough to get chucked into the Velvet Room.
"I wasn't sure if his physical form would even re-manifest itself, and it did so perfectly! I worried he would come back as a deformed monstrosity, but you managed to come back perfectly! My, even your hair is dyed the correct shade of blue!" Elizabeth chirped. I should have expected she'd be here too.
"It's quite a feat you managed to pull off, Elizabeth, even if it is just the beginning of your plan." Igor replied.
I heard the creak of what I assumed to be a metal door. A sudden gust of unnatural wind slid me off of whatever I was laying on before to a cold, stone floor. I groaned, pulling myself onto my feet. My vision was still blurry, but I could see the vague shape of Igor waiting at his desk.
"If your vision is currently impaired, try doing that funny thing humans do with their eyelids! 'Blinking', I believe they call it?" Elizabeth shouted. I strained my eyes to blink, and they did so easier than I thought it would. Once my vision came into focus, I was slightly disturbed by my surroundings. Instead of the elevator-like Velvet Room I remember, I was in a round, stone-walled prison with cells dotted around the perimeter.
"I like what you've done with the place." I croaked, cautiously walking towards the desk in the center of the room.
"It wasn't I who did this – it was our most recent guest. The Velvet Room reforms itself based on the current guest's psyche." Igor replied. "But enough about that, Elizabeth has business with you."
I gave a non-committal grunt and slumped into the chair facing Igor. He nodded to Elizabeth, who smiled and took a step forward, clearing her throat.
"I apologize in advance for the bombardment of information I'm going to subject you to." She said, summoning a retractable display banner out of thin air. "...But this is of the utmost importance, I believe I have found a way to permanently destroy Erebus."
Destroy Erebus? If I remembered correctly, that was impossible. I had to become the Great Seal so that there was a vague chance that Nyx wouldn't keep coming back every single year. If I hadn't done that, it wouldn't stop until it could succeed in bringing about The Fall. I cocked my head, giving Elizabeth a "what the hell are you on?" look. Elizabeth pulled down the banner, revealing a poorly-drawn diagram. It consisted of what appeared to be myself, Nyx, Erebus, and four other people.
"...Did you draw this?" I asked. I really hoped she didn't, it looked like crap.
"No, I didn't. I had Lavenza draw this for me, she's quite the budding artist!" Elizabeth replied. I nodded, albeit confused. Who the hell was "Lavenza"?
Elizabeth turned back to the display, pointing to the drawing of me.
"This is you. Your will was strong enough to form the Great Seal, which acted as a barricade between Erebus and Nyx." She explained, shifting over to another figure.
"This is Erebus. He is the personification of humanity's negativity. Unfortunately, your will wasn't strong enough to permanently hold him back. I had to go on curb-stomp duty once a year to prevent him from breaking the Seal." She continued. None of this was news to me. I wasn't 100% conscious while acting as the Seal, but I knew that someone was beating back Erebus.
"This is our most recent guest. Despite the fact that his journey had no connection to yours, he did manage to pull off an incredible feat. He destroyed Yaldabaoth. This led to a progressive weakening of humanity's desire for death. If my predictions are correct, if Erebus tries to call for Nyx again, she might not respond in the first place!" She said.
That...that was a stretch. A massive stretch. I was pretty sure that was impossible. If Erebus still existed, there wasn't a reason that Nyx wouldn't respond to his call.
"Are you sure this would actually...y'know...work?" I asked, monotone.
"If we don't intervene, no. Erebus may regain the power he lost if we wait too long." Elizabeth answered.
"Then what are we supposed to do now?" I asked.
"That's where my plan to finish Erebus off for good comes in!" She chirped. "I did some research, and I believe if we give him one last beat-down, then instate a new Seal, he may stay dead!"
I gave another non-committal grunt. Where were we going to find a new seal? Were we going to sacrifice the guy who killed Yaldabaoth?
"I see you doubt me, but I've already found the way to pull this off." Elizabeth said, pointing to the three other people on the diagram. "There are three people with a will almost as strong as yours. If we carve off a fourth of their will, then carve off a fourth of yours, we should be able to form a new Seal."
Alright, this isn't as crazy as I thought it was. It's still pretty ridiculous, but she has a point…
"The downside is that all three of them died long ago." Elizabeth sighed.
Nope, I'm wrong, it's a crazy pipe dream.
"...But there is yet a way to save them all. It will be hard, but it will pay off in the end." Elizabeth added.
"How?" I asked, sitting up a bit straighter. Elizabeth sighed. I could tell the answer she had wasn't going to be a pretty one.
"The only way to save them, and to banish Erebus, is to relive your journey." She replied, her voice tinged with an air of reluctance.
"Actually, that doesn't sound too bad. Maybe I could redo more...maybe I could save more people than the ones you want me to." I said.
I had too many regrets to count. For one thing, I had a bad feeling about Ikutsuki from the beginning. Maybe I could expose him before November, maybe I could save Mitsuru's father. Maybe I could stand up for Fuuka when the other girls were bullying her. Maybe I could help reconcile things between Ken and Shinjiro…
There were too many maybes. Too many people who suffered. Too many people I couldn't help. I was a pathetic excuse for a leader, but this was my chance to right my wrongs.
"I want to redo it. All of it." I said.
"I was hoping you'd agree. My Master and I will still be here to help you, and so will my siblings." Elizabeth said, looking back up. "Are you ready for the rest of the plan?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." I replied.
Elizabeth's briefing went on for what felt like hours. I'll spare you the wall of dialogue that would produce.
Number one; Elizabeth could revive the first two people. I had the responsibility of holding together the illusion that they had been alive the whole time. Elizabeth would give them false memories to hide the gaps between the date of their death and April of 2009.
Number two; the third person died during my year with SEES. I would have to find a way to prevent their death, but Elizabeth would call me to the Velvet Room for another briefing before the date of their death. All I know is that they were in the same class as Fuuka, and that their death was a murder.
Number three; I was to have my Wild Card ability stripped as "payment" for my redo. It's putting another metaphorical coin in the metaphorical claw game because you didn't get the metaphorical Jack Frost doll.
Number four; There are five other people that know about my original "journey". I won't know who they are unless they confront me. I cannot try to find them, and I cannot tell anyone about my original journey until January. That's when the timeline will be stable enough for them to face the truth.
Number five, we're not going to fight Nyx on January 31st. We're going to fight Erebus. Yaldabaoth's death weakened Erebus so much that Nyx may not even hear his call. The most we're going to get is a sickly, dying Ryoji.
This is going to be a huge ordeal, but it's going to be worth it. I'm in this for the long haul, and I hope whoever's out there, reading this, is too.
It's time to save the world all over again.