If given a second chance to go back and fix our faults, anyone would say yes—but what would it change? Free will ensures that no matter where we restart, new challenges will always rise, because the world is moved by countless choices, not just one. Even turning back a single cog can't alter the whole machine. And in that same darkness where such depressing question was bore, countless people we're abducted. Greeted by a monster who see them as nothing more
than sacrifices to birth a god
"For your hurdle my dear candidates, what will you do if you're stuck in a maze of traps? Better think quickly or else you'll lose your life,"
"Yawn... this part always gives me sweat. There's nothing like an obstacle run to start your day. On your marks, get set, in three... two... one!"
One particular individual was oddly the least bit terrorized by his reality and even joked at the mere sight of a deadly maze as no more than a mere activity to pump a few sweats in. As arrogant sounding as he may be, the lad displayed a keen sense of timing, a movement in sync with the shifting walls, the swaying axes, the rising spikes, and the collapsing floor hardly made him break a sweat. Even as dozens of javelins were hurled to claim his life, his only response was to sway his body and gamble that each turn from both of his sides would grant his life's continuation.
"Going up!!!" He deflects the last javelin by kicking its shaft which alters the trajectory of the tip to point upwards and catches it before he leaps off of the collapsing floor launching him near the edge of the exit
"Now here's the fun part,"
Although he could not build enough momentum to reach the exit in time, the floors collapsed; with the javelin in his possession, he lodged its sharpened tip at the wall's ruinous cracks. It turns the javelin into his makeshift stepping stone allowing him to reach the end of that long and gruesome maze, and what lies in front of him is the gateway leading to his secondary challenge. The moment the gate opened, he swung his right hand at the shadowy corner, landing a clean blow to someone's throat. The figure lost the strength in its grip, and a cutlass slipped from its grasp only to fall into the hands of the young man.
"Goodbye!" This lad spared no second and in a swift execution his oppressor's head fell to the ground
"Hah! That never gets old. Now where was I?"
A mystery lingered in this man; even when faced with death dozens of times, he never once flinched and remained calm; even if he was accustomed to such threats, he shouldn't be this overly carefree. Even if he was a genius, there was no explanation for his degree of battle knowledge, nor was he built like a hardened soldier, and his attire depicts his past as nothing more than a scholar with a thick cloak paired with a monocle. He showed no fear, as he easily navigated through a deadly maze, showed no remorse for taking a life, and even went as far as laughing at their swift end.
"Bloody hell! You out to have a death wish for busting through that door-" The same time as the door burst open, the guard's sentence cut short as a cleanly swunged blade relinquished its head from its vessel
"Sorry for the intrusion. I've been knocking at the door for so long, so I let myself in. I'm here to give y'all a little something. Dinner's serve!!!" He tosses the head of the fat, greasy slob who tried to ambush him right at their dinner table, where they feast upon their freshly hunted people. "What's wrong? You cannibals are supposed to be happy, Is it because he used to be your friend?"
"Kill him-" The leader was then cut off by the young lad.
"Okay, I get why you're mad, but I recommend you lot to surrender. One against all of you, isn't that a little unfair, for your side? Tell you what, give me all your gear and we can call it quits, and nobody has to die,"
The crowd laughs at his arrogant declaration as if it was the funniest joke they've ever heard, as they knew it was nigh impossible. "Ahahahahaha... I never laughed this well in ages. He's right don't kill him,"
"Now that's more like it-"
"Cut off his limbs. I'll slowly eat him alive; I'll make his last moment a living hell. I love the mouthful curs who likes to bark," Upon hearing the leader of the rogue's final choice he remaik standing in place with a deep sigh pertaining to his disapointment
Dozens of armed cannibals leap, toe in toe they synchronizingly swung their blades in a way to claim all four limbs in one fell swoop. Their actions had no room for error, yet to reach the lad's flesh was impossible, he daringly shuts his eyes in response. No fear, no distress, calm and scheming, he dons a wide grin, as if to say their fates were sealed.
"Still haughty as ever. You know, I would've thought persuading you lot would be possible if I grew up to be more charismatic and eloquent. Guess I'm the only one changing in this nonstop loop,"
Once he opened his eyes the movement of his would-be killers was at the pace of a snail at their highest speed, a ticking rattled at his pocket, a broken pocket watch that swaying to the opposite. Everything slowed down in his perception; in this state of accelerated time, his movement came to be fluid in the eyes of his foe, and if he skipped, he'd leave an afterimage in place. The cut he executed was precise. For a single swing, it tore through the thickness of flesh and hardened bones, yet an attack has masterfully done swift, deadly, and painless, an attack both powerful yet merciful.
"There's still a lot of them. I need to make this quick. Or else I wouldn't beat my record. I almost forgot I was doing a speed run. It's been fun, but I'll end it quick, I have no time to brutally murder every one of you,"
He kneels to the ground, retracting his legs inward to crouch, his left hand holds the ground stedyinhg his form. The cutlass at his right limb spreads to his back, once he straightened his arm, and with a single breath, he sprung up. He launched himself to the ceiling and thus began the culling of the rogues; on his way up, he slashed two men suspended in the air, and as he reached the ceiling, gravity seemingly slowed its effects on him, and he used the very ceiling to leap once more. He vaulted across the room dozens of times but in the eyes of the leader, all of it occurred in a flash, and with each leap, he created a streak of blood till he appeared at the back of this group's biggest dog.
"R.I.P,"
The leader stood daze at the massacre that ensued at a second's notice and later realized the man's puzzling words before he departed to the path that led to both the exit and their vault. A series of cuts suddenly appeared one by one, and each arrival caused him unimaginable suffering as he suffered death by a thousand cuts, whereas his minions suffered a less painful end. Later, he was put to rest right after he was left deformed in minsucule chunks of meat, befitting the death of someone who caused unspeakable atrocities to face an end of countless suffering.
"Oh, heavens I forgot! I never once introduced myself, how rude of me. The name's Zayn Houren, your friendly neighborhood regressor- And you're dead, well isn't this quite awkward,"
In light of his embarrassment, he grabs the torch and tosses it to the ground, setting the whole room on fire whilst he retreats to the vault, but the craziest thing he does is his declaration as a regressor. But everything came to place, his familiarity with the place, his calm demeanor, and even his weird perception of time, all the while coming into possession of a useless watch that doesn't tell time.
'So where should I start? It's been a long time since I talked to myself in the third person, my name is Zayn Houren. A once-known scholar turned regressor, and for the last, I don't know how long it's been, but I think I spent millions of years regressing. I can't die until I save the world, and every time I regress, the world and its people, including the concept of power changes, due to free will,'
Suddenly a figure unbeknownst to him lunges from the shadows. He foils its attempts as the cutlass he wields pushes it aside and there he notices a peculiar monster. His calm demeanor shaken, as he felt threatened by an event that unmistakably never occured
"You look a little familiar? But how? In this timeline? How could there be a monster that shouldn't have existed here of all places?"
Once the creature was finally unveiled, he noticed it glitching, as if the more it closed in on him, the less it occurred. A monster that should've been a thing of the past had arrived in the present. And its stability being tied to his presence meant he was the cause of such temporal stress. But such a thing never once occurred in his previous regression, so why now did everything change?
"Veron what the hell is happening!?" He calls for someone but never did he hear a reply, this regression was different, even his guide was nowhere to be heard of
"Graaaagh!!!" As the monster squeals a flicker in its mouth begins to grow till it expands and bursts forth a fiery breath