How It All Started (2)

The scenery blurred again, but my focus on Alexander was still the same. “You planned… all this?” I asked in disbelief.

He nodded.

“You planned to summon the Grim Reaper, turn back time, and then kill the Dark Lord?”

He nodded again. His eyes showed reluctance.

“When the hell did you plan all that?" I asked.

“Uh… when I stared like a moron at Kira’s grave.”

I was baffled. Did he plan all that in a day? “How did you get the heaven’s light then?”

“I had it from the start, it’s something I acquire in my immortal life.”

“Th–then, what happened?” I found myself being nervous about asking that.

“Well, Kira lived,” he said, “But the world did not survive.” Just then, the blurred scenery focused again. We were not in the alley anymore, rather, we were on the street. I didn’t recognize where we were, but I know enough that we were still in the eighteenth century and a giant crack had just appeared on the street. It divided the street into two, revealing a dark void below. People’s screams filled the air, their shrills making my hairs stood up even more. I saw horses and dogs running on a rampage, and the people too were crying while running. Fire started on one spot, out of the blue. Then it spread to the entire city. Before long, all I could see was a sea of fire with the wails of people drowning in them.

I gulped. The fire reached the spot we were standing, but I didn’t feel any heat or pain. Yet the screams made me winced. It looked like I was in hell.

“I changed something in the timeline,” Lex said beside me, “It was not just something… it was a life. I changed the life of one person. And it made the world collapse. We figured out that time actually holds a lot of power in maintaining the world. Time is like a thin veil of our existence that protects us from damnation. Once there is a rip, it spreads to other eras slowly, until all creatures in every designated time stops experience the world end.”

Amidst the fire, I saw the young Alexander and Kira running in the opposite direction of me.

“Come on!” Kira shouted, “We need to time travel to the earliest time stop that hasn’t experienced the crack and stop the spreading from there before the entire world is reduced to cinder.”

“Amazing, isn’t she?” Lex asked beside me, “She took it into her hand to save the world as soon as possible. She helped me find a way to utilize my power to do time-travel.”

Just then, the young Alexander grabbed Kira’s arm and their bodies swirled into nothingness. When they disappeared, I was transported back to another place.

This time, it was more ancient than the eighteenth century. “When is this?” I asked Alexander.

“Just ten years before Christ,” he answered.

The cobbled street turned to the dirty ground. There were no longer iron buildings, everything was from brick and wood. They entered a dark cave full of ancient inscriptions that I couldn’t read. Once they entered, each inscription lit up. The light filled the large cave, revealing a path that led them to an even larger clearing. A huge stone was in the middle of the space and on top of it were two figures.

One was white from head to toe, and laurel leaf crowned his head. The other was black from head to toe and had fire dancing on his hair and tail. It didn’t take a genius to know that one was an angel, and the other was a demon.

“So, you are the ones who killed Grim?” the angel said.

“And caused the world destruction,” the demon added.

“We’ve come to fix things,” Kira said. Her voice was solid and firm. “Tell us how to fix things.”

The angel and the demon looked at each other before returning their stern gazes to Alexander and Kira. “Well,” the angel said, “The Dark Lord must be replaced. Without a leader, the underworlders will riot. It’s not just that. The existence of a Dark Lord is one the pillars to balance this world, to maintain the timeline from ripping.”

“But to fix the world entirely,” the demon continued, “A time lost must be repaid in time.”

Something about how they said it made my skin crawls.

“What do you mean?” the young Alexander asked.

But it was Kira who answered, “I have to repay the time lost with the time of my life, which should not have existed if you didn’t change the timeline.” She caught the young Alexander’s eyes. Her face was a mixture of emotions.

“No,” the young Alexander refused, “No. No. I’m not losing you again!”

“We have no choice, Lex,” Kira said in a firm voice. She had decided. “We have to return the world to what it was.”

She turned to the two figures on top of the large stone. “But who can replace the Dark Lord?”

“It’s not a simple process. A Dark Lord is chosen after series of trials from four candidates by a maiden. Since you are willing to give your life to restore the world, you will have to be that maiden, The Lady,” the demon explained.

“No!” Alexander protested again. But Kira didn’t even look at him. Even when he was shaking her body, telling her not to accept it.

“And who chooses these candidates?” Kira asked. It was impressive to see her voice not shaking despite she must have felt so devastated. Alexander was right. Kira was brave and amazing. She didn’t mind sacrificing her life for the world.

“One of them will be him,” the angel said, pointing at the young Alexander. “This is his punishment from the One Above for tearing apart His world in a whim.”

“The rest will be attracted to The Lady,” the demon added, “So with time, your friend here would encounter them.”

“But then I could just crown Alexander the Dark Lord right now,” Kira said.

“That is not how this works,” the demon explained, “Your life will be put on a loop. You will be born and live for a certain period of time, then die, and reborn again. Starting from today. In that time, the candidates must woe you for you to crown one of them. But you will remember nothing.”

“Kira, no!” Alexander cried out again. “There must be another way! Don’t do this!”

Yet Kira grabbed Alexander’s arms, looked at him straight in the eye, and said, “It’s fine. We have to save the world. And, you heard what they said, my life will be put on a loop. We can meet again.” She tried to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“But you won’t be you…,” Alexander’s voice broke.

Kira kept her smile. She didn’t answer Alexander. “I have to do my part. Do your part too. I bet you can be a great Dark Lord.”

And just like that, the scene went into a blur. But different from previously, it blurred so much the colors turned to fog, which dissipated into a room. I blinked. I was back in my own room in the mansion. When I turned to my left, I saw Alexander in his suit.

But the cold and hard face of his had fallen, just like on rare moments when we were together when I was still his sugar baby. His gaze returned to that young Alexander. “I stayed in that era, trying to find you. The first Lady,” he said in his husky voice, “It took me two decades to find you again. My magic grew, and I was more determined to be stronger, to protect you.”

He rubbed his face and sat on the edge of the bed. His face looked tired. “But I kept losing you. Over and over again. Because on each cycle your life is limited. And you never remembered me. You even…” He sighed, harshly, then looked at me with a face of hurt, “You even had a baby with that demon.”

I understood then why the sorcerer in front of me had turned so bitter. Imagine waiting for decades for the woman you love only for her to not remember anything and even have relationships with the other candidates.

But… come on, is that valid enough reason to justify his treatment of me? He was really an asshole!

‘You’re still a douchebag,” I said.

“I know,” he sighed. His eyes found me again. “I just can’t deal with more heartbreaks. Ari, I thought I could have you for myself in this cycle. But when you found your way out of my contract, I got angry.”

“I assumed that in this cycle you’d be leaning towards the other princes since you didn’t want to stay with me. And knowing that, I wanted to save myself from the heartbreak.”

“By being an asshole to me?” I raised my voice. This man needed to be put in his place for treating a woman like shit.

He sighed again. “You are leaning towards the other, right?” he asked, “It was never me in most cycles. You were only mine before all this began. I don’t… want to see you falling to another man anymore. I don’t even care who you crown as the Dark Lord.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I just go crazy every time I see you.”

For the first time, I saw who Alexander truly was. Beneath that cold and harsh demeanor, he was a man afraid of feeling hurt.

I know, I should have been a good girl and forgive him, right?

But I didn’t want to yet. I wanted to slap him without really slapping him. I wanted him to grovel.

So I pushed him to the bed with all my strength and sat on his stomach.