'The world can fall apart for all I care.'
Scratch that, he wished that the world would fall apart already.
He was sick of this.
Continuosly living an eternal timeloop.
Everything he did, everything he had done, it was all but for naught once the world reset its course.
He had lived far more than he should have, achieved far greater than he should have in his original time. The only thing an old soul like him needed was one thing and one thing only.
He wanted to rest.
However, the world would once again restarted everytime he met his demise.
He woke up in a familar body.
His body was that of a small child.
He grimaced.
'Will this torture ever end?'
He woke up in a familar body.
His body was that of a scrawny teenager in his highschool years.
He grimaced.
'An eternal prison for him alone.'
He woke up again and again.
The cycle continues.
It never breaks.
It never let him his long deserved rest.
He woke up once again, however this time he stood alone inside his apartment. Apparently, his 'life' told him that he was just having celebrated his fifteenth birthday, indicated by the small birthday cake in front of him.
'Ah, I see...'
The world decided to mock him right in the face with a cruel respond. It had given him the finger by stating that he hold no control over how he would live. That he was only a puppet made for entertainment purposes, that fate itself decided to toy with him.
"Hu-hu-hu...Hahaha...!!"
He suddenly laughed, his body shook violently with repressed anger.
"Rarrrrgh!", with a rough swoop he cleaned the entire table, plates cracked as it touched the marble ground, cutlery and the like clanked as it bounced and scattered all over.
Finally, he had enough.
'You want entertainment? Fine, I'll give you one!'
He ran straight to the window.
—the world glittered with beautiful gleaming lights under the darkness of night. For an average person, the view of a lit city at nighttime could be a sight of wonder, as it had shown how much humanity had come through and endured to finally reached the point where even they could shone brighter than the stars at the sky.
Soon, he would join those scuffed stars as well, forever lost under the proof of civil progression made by the representatives of humanity.
One foot stepped on the window's edge as soon as its hatch was pulled to the side, followed by a strong grip as his support.
With heart full of twisted conviction, he—
Stopped.
His ear twitched.
'Something was not right', his mind told him.
He glanced back toward the aftermath of his most recent rampage.
He was alone.
He knew he wasn't supposed to be alone.
Where was his family? His parents?
He knew they were supposed to be alive at this current time.
Now that he mentioned it, it was supposed to be his birthday, yet there was no one else but him.
...
His mind calmed down as he scanned his home, no longer had he threaded the line between (false) life and death. His foot had long since touched the floor once again, his thoughts occupied with the sudden change in his loop.
'Strange...', he walked over to find anything for him that could tell his current date, his timeline.
He knew it was his birthday, he knew it was the fifteenth, but what made the change?
Was there something different with at present that it decided to steer away from the usual course he knew and hold knowledge of?
He thought of looking for his phone, unfortunately he couldn't find it.
Next he went for the television, yet there was none that he could find helpful with the channels only being full of useless nighttime news and some prerecorded shows.
Eventually he found himself in front of his computer.
His laptop to be precise, as he remembered that originally – as in his first ever life – he couldn't even be bothered to buy a good PC at the time, with most of his spending went toward comic books and stuffs, as well as going out with friends.
Friends he knew he will no longer wanted to associate himself with.
...
'No use lamenting about it, I've already made the choice after all.'
He reasoned - which he also knew was such a weak excuse over not wanting to get hurt once again - knowing that those relation would reset too.
His eyes found what he was looking for,
A small mail inside his inbox.
In fact, it was the only mail there, with the rest being cleared apart. Something which hit him as weird given his inbox at the time should be filled with either subscriptions, advertisements, and maybe even some mails from friends and family.
Yet it was eerily clean bar that one single email.
Heck, there wasn't even any spam in sight!
Having no more lead beside such suspiciously looking email, he finally relented and opened said mail.
Sender : MITHRA
Have you ever wanted to visit a place that's world apart?
"...What?"
Even the header already made no sense, more so when you consider the fact that the name itself would've turned many heads to its side.
"Mithra, as in the persian god? What does that have to do with anything?", he asked to no one, confused as he was he had not expected this scenario of an unknown mail.
Yet a part of him felt intrigued.
He read the rest of the mail which only foretold about stuff like, [Truth], [Oath], and [Faith].
Basically the rest of the mail itself was bonkers.
What the hell?! He thought it was supposed to be somekind of hint for him to escape his eternal prison, not somekind of religious mumbo-jumbo!
Then he reached the end of it, a small blue tagged hyperlink with the a highly suspicious word written,
[I AGREE]
Now when there was somekind of suspicious mail, sent by an unknown suspicious sendee, as well having a suspiciously looking link placed into it, one must always remember to not trust such link.
Ever.
That was why he decided to not click them, and only hovered over it with the idea of finding its source code safely without even visiting its site.
Then the laptop went dark, its battery dead.
Just as soon as he tapped the sensory device.
...
"Fuck it, I'm sleeping."
He decided to store away the incident for a later date, peeved at the imaginary being known as 'fate' for screwing him over again, he decided to went straight toward his bed. He couldn't careless about any info of him that might've got leaked, its not like he'll need them in the long run. He had many alternatives available to survive even if he couldn't use his original identity in case someone stole it. If they scammed his money, well, wealth was something that was easy to accumulate with his limited'future'knowledge. He could always track and maybe even blackmail those poor sod of their life when he find them, so yeah, he wasn't afraid.
Its not the first time someone stole his 'existence' nor do anything heinous with his internet personality anyway.
And even if they did did some bad things with it and frame him with something he couldn't escape from...
Well, there's always the kitchen knife.
With that monologue done, he shut his eyes.
He woke up the next day feeling absolutely worn out, like the life being drained out of him.
Actually, no.
Not just exhausted.
It felt like he just went for the tenth times at a super speed rollercoaster, a rollercoaster that was made with the sole intent to tore your stomach open after the first ride. Then he was also made to swallow an entire truckload of cheese pizza and a hotdog twice the size of his head, paired with a full canister of roasted milk tea with no sugar that needed to be finished in one sitting.
Well, by that he meant that he was about to vomit his entire innards.
He went straight for the toilet and emptied his inside out,
'Ding dong!'
The sound of bell came from his front door.
"Urp-...W-who?", the question was asked genuinely, as he had no idea who would be visiting him this early in the day.
Maybe it was his parents?
'Ding dong!'
The bell rang once again, this time much more longer than the previous one.
"Urk- geh! C-coming!!"
He cleaned the rest of the 'unmentionable' from his mouth, before he then went straight to answer the door.
When he opened them, a single figure entered his vision.
White hairs flowed downward all the way to her legs, yet somehow still hovered and left untouched by the ground. White blouse accompanied by pure white leggings, as well as a pair of white tinted wedges.
Everything about her was white, minus her eyes which was more of a crimson ruby that gleamed with a myriad of different colors.
Still, even for him those attire had too many white in them. Not even he could comprehend why there was so many white on her.
Like if you could pick only one word to best describe it would be–
...Well, maybe aside from the strange triangular halo-like object that seemingly just hovered over lazily above her head.
'—What is that?'
"Sagami Ichiei, correct?", the figure questioned him with a feminine but cold voice, its sheer coldness flinched him back too reality.
Apparently even with how attention grabbing and weirdly looking as she was, she didn't really appreciated being gazed on for too long, who knew?
She was really unamused, he could tell.
"Sagami Ichiei, Correct?", she repeated the question for a second time, this time with a little pressure on the end.
"...And if I am?", Sagami Ichiei cautiously confirmed his name.
The unknown female nodded her head seemingly satisfied with his answer, yet he couldn't tell why.
She opened her mouth,
"Identity Confirmed, Sagami Ichiei, I have arrived here to make you an offer."
"-an offer?", while he knew he wasn't supposed to, somehow he felt compelled enough to answer.
"Do not be afraid, I have no intention to inflict pain to you."
A peculiar feeling entered his gut at the sudden reassurance to his doubt.
She sounded so... honest.
Impossibly so.
However, without any hint of clear motive yet from her, he decided to prod her by playing along.
The female fixed an almost unnoticeable smile, "Indeed, you shall be granted a gift; a special, unique power unequal in its nature, but in exchange you must use those boon to complete the task I gave you."
"...And what will you give me as the prize?", he challenged, "Assuming what you just said to me was all real, then surely there must be something in it for me, right?"
"...", the female went silent for a while, her eyes stood half-lidded yet unblinking as she stared right ahead. Strangely enough, it wasn't directed at him but like it was further ahead and more than a distance away from his spot.
Yet somehow he could also tell that he was being viewed...
It was an undescribable feeling.
For a few long while, the two stood unmoving from their spot until the female once again opened her mouth,
"You who sought no wealth nor fame, you who seek no more knowledge nor connection, you who have chosen the path with an end reserved for the damned...", she closed her eyes, the message of those gesture lost to him.
Was it pity? Disgust? Sorrow?
"I've seen the path you have walked, Sagami Ichiei, yet even to an Observer such as I, your end was never there."
"..."
"You sought death, an eternal rest away from the purgatory you found yourself stuck on.", she moved forward and placed the surface of her hand on his chest, directly right on top of where his heart shoud be, "You sought for inner peace throught the blessing of ignorance."
"If you decided to complete the task I had given, I promise I shall sever you away from the [Cycle].", She ended with no hint of malice nor lies inside her voice, "Forcefully if I have to."
Will you take my hand, O' Remainer?