You have died. Returning to last
checkpoint...
Ethan Vale's eyes snapped open.
The world hadn't changed.
The sky still bled red. The asphalt still cracked underfoot like eggshells laced with veins of fire. The tower skeletons still loomed in the distance, jagged and broken, as though reality itself had been shattered and never stitched back together.
But something was different.
He remembered.
Everything.
The screaming. The faceless monster. The blade of light. The agony. The emptiness. The void.
And the return.
His chest still burned. The spiraling mark over his heart—the Echobrand—throbbed like a living wound.
Chrono Wound.
He didn't know what it meant yet. But it was his. His curse. His anchor. His only advantage.
He climbed to his feet slower this time, more cautious. More aware.
He wasn't dreaming. This was real.
Somehow.
The buildings weren't just broken—they were glitching. Data bled from streetlamps. Doors flickered between open and closed. Shadows didn't move with the sun—they moved on their own.
He stepped carefully, retracing his first steps.
Same alley. Same sound.
Footsteps.
The same man with the bloodied leg came sprinting around the corner.
"Run! RUN! It's coming!"
But Ethan didn't freeze this time. His mind was burning with possibility.
He drew the rusted knife he'd picked up during his last loop. It shimmered faintly—familiar. It came back with me.
He stepped forward instead of backward.
"Wait!" Ethan shouted.
The man looked at him, startled—but didn't slow.
The creature came next. Too fast. Crawling on knife-limbs. Its featureless face tilting, almost curious.
Ethan lunged forward, trying to pull the man out of the way.
Too late.
One of the spider-thing's limbs pierced Ethan through the ribs.
He screamed.
It wasn't just pain—it was unraveling.
You have died. Returning to last checkpoint...
---
Ethan jolted awake again. Chest heaving.
He could change the outcome.
Not just live. Alter the script. That man had died every loop, but he had drawn the creature's attention. That meant variables existed.
He tested it.
In one loop, he avoided the man entirely.
In another, he tried leading the creature through collapsed rubble. It got stuck. He escaped.
In another, he tried hiding—only for a new prompt to appear:
4-digit code required to enter.
No idea what it was. He brute-forced it.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Death.
---
Loop 9 — he found a chalk message behind a broken vending machine: 7319
Loop 10 — he input the code. It worked.
The door opened.
A small maintenance shelter. Inside, crouched behind an overturned desk, was a teenage girl with short, jagged black hair and a pipe in her hand.
Her stance tightened the moment she saw him.
"Who the hell are you?" she snapped.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Ethan said, hands raised.
"How did you get in?"
"I… got lucky. Found a code scrawled near the vending machine."
Her eyes narrowed. "That wasn't meant for you."
"I just need a place to breathe."
She didn't lower the pipe, but didn't swing either. "Name?"
"Ethan."
"I'm Mira."
She glanced toward the sealed door.
"Was it chasing you?"
"Yeah. That spider-thing."
"It's called a Code Widow," she muttered. "Kills anything it sees. I was about to bolt. Guess you bought me thirty seconds."
"Sorry about that."
Mira finally lowered her pipe and sat cross-legged on the floor.
"You from the last cycle?" she asked.
"What?"
"Never mind. Doesn't matter."
Ethan studied her for a moment. She was younger than she sounded—maybe seventeen—but something in her expression was older. Hardened.
"Do you… know what this place is?"
"I know it's not a dream," she replied. "And if you're breathing, you've got a Brand. Some power. Even if you don't know what it is yet."
He nodded but said nothing more. He didn't trust her with the truth. Not yet.
Chrono Wound stayed secret.
---
Suddenly, the door behind them trembled. A screech echoed through the pipes.
Mira jumped up. "It followed you here?!"
Ethan rushed to help barricade the entrance with broken metal beams.
The creature burst through anyway.
It killed them both.
You have died. Returning to last checkpoint...
---
Ethan opened his eyes.
Loop 12.
Now he knew Mira. He knew where she'd be.
So he went again.
And again.
Over multiple deaths, he began to understand the city's pattern. He led the creature away. Set traps. Timed its appearance.
Loop 15 — He saved Mira successfully. Got her out of the shelter. Led her through the city's collapsed infrastructure into an underground passage.
They found a dry place near a broken tunnel gate. Rested.
---
"Your Brand hasn't show up yet?" Mira asked.
"Not yet," Ethan lied.
"Lucky. Once it does, others will come for you. Brands are currency here."
Ethan said nothing.
She studied him. "You don't talk much."
"I've… had a long day."
"Haven't we all?"
She cracked a weak smile.
They sat in silence for a while. The city above buzzed with static wind and glitching air.
"I've seen people like you," she said at last. "Ones who act like they've seen this place before."
He tensed. "I just have good instincts."
Mira didn't push. "Fine. Keep your secrets. Just remember—this place doesn't play fair."
---
Suddenly, a message blinked to life above them:
Erebus Event: HUNTING PHASE INITIATED
Zone Collapse in 15 minutes
"What the hell is that?" Ethan asked.
"Bad news," Mira said. "We need to move—now!"
They scrambled up the tunnels as the world behind them began to collapse.
Walls melted like wax. Code unraveled in the air. Creatures screamed from collapsing corridors.
They didn't make it.
You have died. Returning to last checkpoint...
---
Loop 17. Ethan knew what to do.
This time, he reached Mira earlier. Gave her a warning.
Together, they escaped.
New zone. Quieter. But more dangerous in its silence.
He carved something into a stone wall:
"Remember me, Mira."
He died again.
Returned.
The carving was still there.
Checkpoint updated.
The first real one.
Mira didn't understand. She blinked at the message like déjà vu. "Did… I write this?"
"No," Ethan whispered, smiling. "You just never forgot."
---