CHAPTER 70: SLAY THE STRANGER V

***

"JUST WHAT WAS THAT?!"

Lothar, of course, was as surprised as the cohort.

"HOW IS A LUCK ELEMENT WIELDING WATER?!"

And he wasn’t the only one.

"He has to be using a Divine Relic, right?"

"No way he can afford something that strong!"

"House Kharon abandoned him, remember?!"

The crowd was the same.

"Actually... I think he—"

"Either way, there’s no way it’s a Relic!"

"The boy must’ve found some insane Rune."

Worse than them was Xenos’s family.

More than doubting how he did it, they couldn’t believe that he did it in the first place.

Their thoughts leaned more toward the projection being fabricated than him actually doing such things; yes, their disbelief was that bad.

And Veynar’s, unsurprisingly, was the worst.

He knew more than most about a Runebearer’s Root Rune.

It couldn’t be stated enough that once a mortal bore one, they’d be stuck with its Element for the rest of their lives, and there was no way they could ever change that.

So, like the Disciples in the projection, he too couldn’t help but wonder...

’How?’

How did Xenos’s Third Rune bypass that?

He saw it, a Fortune’s Wheel ticking in his left eye.

Though he didn’t know exactly what it was...

Veynar was sure that it was what gave him the extra Element.

But what was the correlation? And did it only give him Water?

Well, he and the rest were sure to find out.

***

Even after everything...

After every ’after,’ tens and tens of ’times’ later...

They still hadn’t stopped Xenos from killing them.

No matter what strategy they built, what formation they tried, what crazy plan they made, it always ended the same way... with him standing over their corpses, completely unbothered.

His Rune reveal reinforced just how little they knew of the one who led them thus far.

Each time they thought they had adapted to his Element, he changed it.

Ice, Lightning, Metal, Wood, Stone, Magma, Steam, Sand, Ash, and even Blood.

It didn’t matter; he seemed to use any Element other than the Primary ones.

Every time they said, "Okay, this time we know what he’ll use," he’d pull something entirely different.

They didn’t understand his abilities.

No, they didn’t understand him.

The painted blade was wrong.

It didn’t matter if they restrained him right at the start.

It didn’t matter that he allowed them to force him down, encase him in ice, surround him in fire, and bury him in earth. When the infection hit, it didn’t hit slow, but rather like a blade through the neck.

Everything would change in a flash.

It had gotten that bad, where he’d heal up in an instant.

His restriction would shatter no matter their density.

Xenos was already strong before the infection.

These loops only made him unstoppable.

And so, they failed...

Again, and again, and again.

Yet, ’again,’ they didn’t give up.

Every time they died, they woke ’again’ in the same corridor, kneeling by the same puddle of hallucinated blood where they saw their reflections, exhausted and shaking from madness, only for them to swear they’d do better next time.

They did, learning more each time, even if it was barely anything.

And it was not just about Xenos anymore, but also about themselves.

Whoever they were before this, they’d fail to recognize themselves now.

Gaia, Arc, and Dei, especially, were being taught a very hard lesson.

They wanted to win.

They wanted to save Xenos.

Because that was what they wanted to do.

Some for friendship, some for obligation, one for a cute little crush...

Either way, for whatever reason, they all wanted to save him.

In the end, all that mattered was the same:

So they would slay the Stranger.

With the best plan they’d ever managed to build, they began their next ’time.’

The world blinked, and it folded back, sending them to the beginning.

Again, they stood at the start of the corridor.

Immediately, Arc stepped up and shouted:

"Xenos! Listen carefully!"

Xenos blinked at him, surprised.

"Are you alright?"

"This corridor infects the mind. We’re immune now, but you’re not. When it takes you, you’ll kill us; you always do. And every time you do, we get sent back here to the beginning to do it all over again!"

Everyone stayed quiet, holding their breath.

Would it work again? Or was this finally the moment he’d break?

Slightly confused, Xenos stared back for a long moment, the same as every time.

His eyes were narrow, and his mind was working.

He didn’t mock them like most would but only thought.

Probably running through the same questions he always did.

How far ahead in the future were they?

How much of this puzzle did they know?

Was he really the "final obstacle" in some ’time’ loop?

Until eventually, he sighed, brushing hair from his face.

"Alright. All of you answer at once..."

He pointed at them.

"What are my abilities?"

Xenos had yet to break.

Indeed, every ’time’ they rewound, he found the answer quickly, and every ’time’ he asked this one question, a question that they had gotten better at answering with each ’time.’

"You can teleport your sword to your hand, and it’s most likely not using a Dimensional Item; most times, you can destroy anything we throw at you with a single strike and control one random Element except the Primaries alongside your Luck Element."

They didn’t at all hesitate, answering in complete tandem.

Xenos looked at them for a few seconds longer.

"And the objective?"

Aspen gestures towards the distance.

"To reach the end of this corridor."

Xenos nodded once.

"Then lock me up."

Before any of them could say anything, he stabbed both of his own legs.

The sword punched through muscle, easily disabling them, letting out lots of blood.

Falling to the ground, he hissed from the pain but didn’t flinch and just yanked the weapon out, tossing it towards them.

"T-Thank you."

Arc, still not used to how fast Xenos’s mind worked, caught it mid-air.

"Now do what you do. Make this the last one."

Again, they didn’t hesitate.

A thick layer of ice crawled around his body, freezing him from ankles to shoulders. Then a vortex of compressed air sealed the cracks, while Dei flicked her hand, conjuring incomplete fireball spells to line the inside, waiting for her signal to explode.

Finally, Gaia raised her bladed staff, summoning earth, sealing the entire mass shut like a cocoon.

When they were done, Xenos was essentially gone, no more than a giant rock of ice, air, and fire, and so...

They turned and ran.

Aspen dropped to one knee, slamming his great sword through the ground.

"Path’s yours!"

The wood beneath them instantly froze, turning the corridor into a slick river of ice.

They leapt on it, sliding forward at an incredible speed as Aspen quickly joined them and led the cohort, continuously creating more of the same ice path before him.

Meanwhile, Ari thickened the air behind them, and Dei kept igniting small bursts of flame to explode against it, propelling them faster, a living rocket ride down a death tunnel.

Each explosion pushed them forward, closer and closer to the door.

Their speed was insanely fast.

As was Xenos’s infection.

They were halfway through when they heard it.

"GHRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

A single inhuman scream.

"...that’s the trigger."

Their final boss had awakened.