The world around me was a blur, a tangled mess of fractured memories and distorted reality. I could barely breathe, the air thick with the weight of what had just happened. The figure—the other Elias—had disappeared into the shadows, and I was left standing there, alone. I shook my head, trying to clear the fog, but it wasn’t enough. The reality of what was happening kept crashing into me, one revelation after another, too fast, too overwhelming to process.
But then, I heard his voice.
“Liora.”
I froze. It wasn’t a whisper this time. It was his voice—Elias’s voice—urgent and full of regret. I turned toward it, my breath catching in my throat. And there he was, standing in the midst of the chaos, looking every bit as lost as I felt.
But his expression was different now. It wasn’t the calm, collected Elias I had grown to trust—it was something darker, something more broken.
“I thought…” He hesitated, his eyes flickering between me and the destruction around us. “I thought I could stop it.”
I narrowed my eyes, my heart pounding. “Stop what? What’s happening?”
Elias took a deep breath, his hand running through his hair in frustration. “This… all of this. The rift, the Faded—it wasn’t an accident, Liora.”
I stared at him, disbelief written across my face. “What do you mean? You told me the experiment caused it.”
“I lied,” he confessed, his voice barely above a whisper. “The experiment didn’t cause it. It was sabotaged. There were people inside Chronos who believed humanity was doomed—people who thought the world was beyond saving.” He paused, glancing around as if checking for someone. “They wanted to cleanse the world. Erase everything. And I... I was a part of it.”
His words hit me like a freight train, knocking the breath out of me. “You... you were part of the sabotage?”
Elias nodded slowly, guilt and pain etched into every line of his face. “I didn’t know what they were planning at first. I thought it was just a routine experiment, something to advance human progress. But then... they started talking about the rift. About the possibility of wiping everything out. I tried to stop it, Liora. I swear I did.”
I felt my knees weaken, and I had to steady myself against a crumbling wall. My head was spinning. “But why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
He stepped closer, his voice soft but intense. “Because you were part of it too. You activated the rift. You were the one who unknowingly triggered it, right when they were trying to sabotage the entire project.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. “What do you mean? I didn’t... I didn’t do anything!”
“You did,” Elias said quietly, his eyes dark with a mix of anger and sadness. “You were the key to activating the rift. The moment you interfered, it… it all went wrong. I didn’t want to tell you. I didn’t want you to feel responsible for all of this.”
I stumbled backward, my mind racing to make sense of everything. “I— I don’t understand. How could I have—”
“You were a part of the team, Liora,” he cut in, his voice rising. “You were one of the lead scientists. You knew exactly what was happening, and you tried to stop them. But it was too late. The rift was already opening.”
Everything in my body went numb. The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, but they didn’t make sense. I had been a part of the experiment. I had been there, in that very facility. I had tried to stop them. But I couldn’t remember—any of it.
“I don’t remember,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “I don’t remember anything.”
Elias reached out, his hands hovering in the air as if unsure whether to touch me. “That’s because they erased your memories. They didn’t just sabotage the experiment—they erased you from it. They wiped your mind, Liora. You were the one who should have been the key to stopping all of this, and they knew that.”
A sharp pang of betrayal tore through me. “They did this to me? They made me forget everything?”
Elias looked down, unable to meet my gaze. “It wasn’t just you. They did it to everyone involved. To protect themselves. To cover their tracks.”
I staggered back, my mind reeling from the weight of his words. The world—the collapse, the Faded, the loop—was all because of us. Because of me. I had been the one to activate the rift, to set everything in motion, and now... I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
I didn’t know what was real.
“You’re not alone in this,” Elias said softly, his voice barely audible over the growing noise of the Faded. “But you need to understand something—what’s happening now, the Faded, the world tearing apart, it’s all connected to you. And if we don’t stop it—”
But I couldn’t hear him anymore. The ground beneath us rumbled again, more violently this time, as if the entire earth was about to tear itself apart. And then the noise—the noise—the Faded, their screeches louder than ever, filled the air, drowning out everything else.
I turned just in time to see the figures emerging from the darkness again. The Faded were everywhere, swarming toward us, their hollow eyes fixed on us, their movements jerking and unnatural.
But this time, something was different. They weren’t just wandering aimlessly. They were… organized.
“No…” Elias whispered, his voice trembling as he grabbed my arm. “We don’t have much time.”
I barely heard him. The Faded were getting closer, their grotesque figures blocking every exit, filling the space around us.
And that’s when I saw it.
A figure in the distance, standing tall among the Faded. The same dark eyes. The same cruel smirk.
The other Elias.
He was watching us.
And he was no longer just an observer.
The Faded surged forward with renewed ferocity, and I realized then that they were no longer just victims—they were commanded. And the one leading them… was someone I knew.
“Run!” Elias shouted, shaking me from my thoughts.
But it was too late.
The Faded were closing in, their grotesque forms surrounding us, their hollow eyes locking onto mine with a predatory gleam. My pulse raced, every second feeling like an eternity. The air felt thick with tension, the ground vibrating under my feet as they shuffled closer, their groans deafening.
“Move!” Elias shouted, pulling me back as a Faded lunged toward us. We barely dodged in time, the stench of decay hitting my nostrils.
I could hear the sound of its claws scraping against the concrete as it stumbled past, its movements jerky, unnatural. But then, another sound reached my ears. A voice. Familiar. Cold. It sent a chill down my spine.
“Don’t bother running, Liora.”
I froze.
It was him.
The other Elias.
He was standing in the distance, his figure barely visible in the dim light, but the coldness in his voice was unmistakable. He wasn’t just observing anymore. He was leading them. His eyes locked onto mine, a smirk playing on his lips as he took a step forward.
“No!” Elias hissed, his hand gripping mine tighter. “Don’t look at him. Don’t—”
But it was too late. I couldn’t look away. The pull, the connection, was there. His presence was like a magnet, drawing me in, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was my own memories surfacing or something deeper.
“What have you done?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “What is this? Why are you doing this?”
The other Elias’ smirk only deepened. “Why? Because you opened the door, Liora. You triggered the rift. And now, it’s time to finish what we started.”
I shook my head, struggling to process the madness of his words. The rift. The Faded. The collapse. I had activated it. I had been the one to set all of this in motion, and now, the consequences were here. And he knew it. He was using it. Using me.
“Don’t listen to him!” Elias shouted, his grip on my arm tightening. “You’re not the one who caused this! You didn’t know—”
“I did know,” I cut him off, my voice cracking with the weight of the truth. “I didn’t remember, but I knew.” I turned to face him, my heart pounding as I stepped away from Elias, my gaze never leaving the other Elias. “I was part of this. I was part of the sabotage. And I—I was too late. It’s all my fault.”
“No,” Elias said, his voice pleading, but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t run anymore. The truth was like a chain around my neck, pulling me toward the inevitable. Toward him.
“You still don’t get it, do you?” the other Elias said, his voice dark and filled with contempt. “You can’t escape this, Liora. This isn’t just about the rift. This is about you—about everything you’ve forgotten. The experiment. The purpose. The reason you were chosen.”
I shook my head, my breath shallow as I tried to push the overwhelming surge of memories back. “No... No, I wasn’t—”
“You were, Liora,” he interrupted, stepping closer, his figure growing clearer. “You were the key. The moment you intervened, everything changed. The rift wouldn’t have opened if you hadn’t tried to stop it. You made this happen. And now, it’s time for you to accept it.”
I felt my knees give way, my mind spinning with the weight of his words. The truth was suffocating. The rift, the Faded, the collapse—it was me. My fault.
“Liora, listen to me,” Elias said urgently, pulling me back toward him. “This isn’t who you are. This isn’t what you wanted. We can still stop it—we can still fix this. We just need to—”
But his words were drowned out by the shrill sound of the Faded’s wails. They were closing in. Fast. Too fast.
And the other Elias was still standing there, watching us, waiting. He didn’t seem to care about the Faded anymore. They weren’t just mindless creatures. They were his army.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, my heart pounding in my chest. “What do you want from me?”
The other Elias’s smirk only widened. “What do I want? I want you to embrace your place in all of this, Liora. You were never meant to be just a bystander. You were meant to lead. To finish what we started.”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut, and for the first time, I could feel the weight of the past pressing down on me. The past I had forgotten, the truth I had been running from.
Suddenly, the ground shook violently beneath us. The Faded were getting closer, and I could feel their presence pressing in on all sides. My chest tightened, and panic began to rise.
“We need to go,” Elias urged, grabbing my arm again and pulling me toward the far side of the building.
But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t run. The pull of the other Elias’s gaze was like a rope pulling me toward him, and I couldn’t break free.
“You’ll never get away from this,” he said, his voice cutting through the chaos. “The rift is just the beginning, Liora. You’ve opened the door to something much worse.”
Suddenly, a blinding light erupted from the center of the rift, and the ground beneath us cracked open. A roar, deafening and primal, reverberated through the air.
The Faded surged forward, and I felt my body jerk as the air shifted.
Everything was falling apart. The world was crumbling. And in the distance, the figure of the other Elias stood tall, watching as the rift tore everything apart.
“I won’t let you destroy everything,” I said, my voice shaking with fury. But even as I said the words, I could feel the rift opening wider, pulling us all closer to its edge.
The ground cracked beneath our feet.
And then—darkness.