The Zero Countdown

Chapter 20: Overcome

Bending the very will of time for as long as she can remember, Madela declared she will win the game despite the fact a g*n points on her forehead.

"I quite at least get the iceberg of complexity you just said... But even someone who isn't knowledgeable in the topic of time gets that your death will end this madness. Surrender now, or meet a fatal end."

He clenches the handle of his g*n harder than before, assuring that if Madela changes positions or try anything funny, he can pull the trigger no hesitation knowing she is no longer a child; she's become the embodiment of humanity, the gazer of the stars, an immortal being devoid of the reason to live, only existing for the purpose she can't leave on her own.

Since Elyon's ability doesn't work caused by the distortion in time, everyone else dies on the exact same day since the reversal of time reverts the spatial realm back to its former state, meaning; Prediction Class Fantasm are heavily affected by the Time Keeper's External capabilities, hence the explanation why Brina can't see beyond the future for that specific day.

"What can you do? I, who aged through the neverending ephemeral moment had ascended far beyond the realm you call heaven. So you aren't gonna catch me!" Madela proclaimed. She hugs Dionsy and kept her doll under her protection before making a run out of her life.

In order to prevent her from escaping, Elyon aims with his guilt no longer tempting his hesitation, except, this time, before he could even pull the trigger, Brina came out wherever she's hiding and held the barrel of Elyon's g*n, keeping him from shooting his target while she's still in proximity.

"What the hell are you doing Brina?! You shouldn't feel pity for that uncanny little girl. She's older than anyone else on this planet. We won't get any other chance than this moment!" Elyon reasoned out. He had enough of the loop he couldn't escape thrice, determined to end the source of the distortion once and for all.

However, the great overseer of the future had seen the resolution ahead, far forward than the Time Keeper's thousand-year wisdom.

"That is the reason why we shouldn't mess this up on our own. Remember, this timeline has one over a million chances of happening. It miraculously occurred despite how absurd things already are." Brina pragmatically accesses things outside the box. She already know what to do and what will ensue, all she needed is cooperation and she can gaze at the tomorrow she couldn't overcome.

"Then are we letting her go now?" Elyon mentioned. They watch little Madela together as she efficiently utilizes her small body parkouring over the metallic fences leading to the exit in the park.

"Yes." She answered.

"Then you have a good idea then." He guesses.

"Right. I don't need my future-prediction power on this, but I can tell there are only two things that will transpire; either we kill her, or the repeating loop in time never ends." Brina's thinking hard, coiling her fingers on her sideburns.

"She said that she toppled the balance of reality, altering the arrow of time towards an infinite moment only she can experience. Except, when I become conscious I am in a circling moment, I became part of her world that she holds dominion over." Elyon unveiled the secrets he wanted to know so far.

The elimination of Madela now became their priority, overcoming her means they can move forward once more.

"What a horrible way to live. She's all alone in a sandbox of creation, paving towards that she sees which she sees no value nor merit. Her mind and soul ages along the way, yet her physical manifestation stays the same, unbound below what she cannot comprehend." Brina looked at the grasses below, pitying at how a little girl was forced to bear the suffering of solitude all herself.

"Still, she also mentioned that she's planning to win the game. How can that be possible?" Elyon doubted the keeper of time.

"That little girl planned to kill all of the Fantasms in one day. I mean, she has all the time in the world and she has nothing to lose except her sanity. But I do have a short guess why she finally deviated from her timeline..." Brina struts in a circle, putting what she knows so far into a reliable conclusion she can counter and overcome.

The breeze of the wind slightly became warm, the setting sun marks the beginning of the scarlet night illuminating their cityscape. Whatever the future may bring, Brina knew their destiny could break the shackles of time.

"What do you think she's planning?" Elyon needed answers.

"Remember the entanglement thing I told you? In the grand scale of the internal workings of nature, it states in Schrödinger's cat experiment that the future's dynamic system can be predicted. If, for example, the material did not decay, the cat lives, otherwise it will die and get to see no other day." Brina summarises a rather complex problem that Elyon barely understands.

"What?" Elyon scratches his scalp.

Schrödinger's cat experiment suggests the cat can be dead and alive at the same time inside the concealed box by checking the state of atomic material. Its two states are decay and not decay, and if the material became decayed, a series of internal workings could poison the cat, and if not decay, nothing happens inside except the can still live.

However, when put in the perspective of looping time, things change and every matter in the world becomes static just like how the cat experiment was done, whether the cat lives or not. There are only two things that will happen, aside from it are the external effects outside the box itself.

"In simpler words, out of the million reiterations of this timeline, there is only one way for her to win. She kept repeating this day for no end so she can find the perfect timeline where she won this rigid game."

Brina deduced bases upon what she knows so far that if the world became static, everything that is the possibility of transpiration becomes predictable in a sense. The timeline or world they inhabit now becomes the box, and inside of it are them, they embody the feline who is helpless between the authority of life and death.

"The cat did not know when his demise will fall... For Madela, that specific timeline where she won is today." Elyon finally understand all of what Brina meant.

"However, there is one thing the cat does not have that caused him to choose between the two distinct... That is we have our Fantasm Ability. The power we possess can tap beyond and outside this sandbox which we couldn't escape." Brina connected the pieces all together, the rest became stepping stones towards the same goal she planned to accomplish.

"And for her to win the game, she should kill us first is what you are implying?" Elyon's conclusion was confirmed correct as soon as Brina nodded silently.

"The only way she can kill us is when she corners us into following her. My ability might be useless against her, but my predictions are never wrong. So follow me and we can overcome this together."

They looked deeply into each other, their determination keeping them forward by sheer will found a way towards a fitting end to the eternal cycle of time.

Brina guided Elyon as they track down Madela's trail. Despite how agile and nimble she can get, the endurance of her small petite body has had its limitations. Therefore, the things she can perform are heavily restrained no matter how knowledgeable or smart she got by swimming within the flow of time.

And for the last time they expected, both of them stood at the opposite sidewalk of the Hestia Flower Shop. She came back home to make use of her mother, after all, she's a great asset for combat than anyone else she knows.

"You said her mother is the one who murdered you thrice? Now you can legally kill her as an act of self-defense because once we're inside, things would go south—a clash between the Time Keeper and us prediction class wielder would ensue." Brina warned Elyon ahead that hesitation wouldn't be him good.

"I know. But I'll come back and awkwardly face her again not to bring malice and breed hate, instead, I'll take her on myself so I can free her from mortal suffering. Saya and Madela are victims too, I know because I can see the reflection of their action in my own image."

Elyon clenches his fists. He took the g*n out to snuff the light out of the Time Keeper's remaining hours.

"Good. Brace yourself Elyon!" There was no heal nor resurrection. Once they made up their mind, there is no turning back.

Both of them barged into the flower shop, the chimes fell on the floor clanking out loud—informing the owner of the place that he came back.

But what greeted them wasn't the sweet fragrance of the flowers, what stung their noses is the stench of blood and dead bodies. The door leading to the 'secret garden' Saya owns is open, beckoning them of passing the gates of hell once and for all.

"Brina, that room is filled with horrors you have never seen. Want me to take it from here?" Elyon can't imagine anyone sane not to throw up from what he saw hanging on the walls to that very chamber.

It's a place where Saya's atrocity is hidden, a den she keeps away from anyone else except her daughter. She embodies the madness of a gardener who lost it all, but to defeat madness means greater chaos, and Brina fully understands what she's getting at even before it has come to pass.

"What do you take me for? I had watched a far dreadful, unnerving scene than a pile of flesh and blood. We'll storm than a room, kill whoever is still alive there, and come out alive and move on."

Easier said than done, Elyon and Brina knew they had to face the Time Keeper soon. They gradually walked towards the said chamber reeking of rotting flesh, for the first ordeal they should resist had come.