CHAPTER 86: STOPPED TIME

The security guard stood upright, tension in his jaw. "It’s real, ma’am. There’s a woman on the rooftop."

Suddenly, the lobby burst into motion. Staff who overheard began to panic. One called the hotel manager. Another rushed to the elevator. Someone else rang the housekeeping team stationed on the 14th and 15th floors.

"Emergency on the rooftop! Someone’s about to jump! Stop them now!" one of the staff yelled into the phone.

Meanwhile, Alaric continued his climb. He knew time was slipping away. Every second was critical. Every step could decide whether a life was saved or lost.

Now he was at the tenth floor. Then the eleventh. Then the twelfth. His breath remained steady, but the tension in his mind was far heavier than the burn in his legs.

"Hang on. Just hold on. Wait for me."

At last, the staircase ended at a thick steel door labeled ROOFTOP – EMERGENCY EXIT. Sweat dotted his brow. He pushed the door open hard, and the screech of metal on metal pierced the silence of the upper floor.

As the door swung wide, a strong wind hit him in the face. His eyes immediately locked onto a lone figure standing at the far edge.

It was a woman in a flowing dress. Her hair whipped around violently in the wind.

She stood at the edge of the concrete ledge, arms limp at her sides, shoulders shaking slightly.

"Hey," Alaric called out, his voice steady but careful. He didn’t rush forward. He stayed a few steps inside the door, making sure she could hear him clearly. "Please... step away from the edge. It’s dangerous."

The woman turned slightly. Her face was pale. Her eyes swollen. Her expression hollow, like someone who had already let go of everything.

"No. This is my only option," she said softly but firmly. "Don’t interfere. Let me finish this in my own way."

Alaric raised both hands slowly, showing he meant no harm.

"I’m not trying to interfere. But please, believe me—this isn’t the answer."

She gave a faint, bitter smile. It wasn’t kind, it was the kind of smile people wear when they’ve stopped expecting anything good.

"You don’t know what I’ve been through. You don’t know how broken everything is. It’s over. So just let me go."

Her body shifted, one foot inching closer to the ledge. There was now only a few centimeters between her heel and empty air. Alaric’s heart pounded. He could hear it in his ears.

"Please don’t..." he said again, more urgent now. He tried to step forward, but each move he made made her move closer to the edge.

The air turned heavy. Time itself seemed to stretch. Alaric knew one of them had to make a decision soon.

"Miss, please listen to me. There’s another way. I promise you, there’s always another way. Don’t—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the woman closed her eyes. One small step forward, and she threw herself over the edge.

"No!!!" Alaric shouted.

Instinct took over. He ran at full speed, arms reaching out, even though he knew it was too late. The distance between them was too great. She was already falling.

In a panic, without even thinking, Alaric pulled out a strange rod, something he had recently received from the System. He didn’t have time to understand it. He just swung it wildly toward the space she had fallen into, as if slashing at the air.

And then—

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

A strange vibration pulsed from the rod into the air, spreading out in a shockwave that enveloped the entire rooftop.

The world stopped.

The wind that had been howling seconds ago froze mid-blow. The woman’s hair, caught in motion, hovered in place. Her body, already in free fall, now hung motionless in midair. Suspended just meters below the edge of the rooftop.

Alaric staggered, his eyes wide. His breath caught in his chest.

"What... is this?" he whispered.

Everything around him was silent. There was no ticking clock, no sound of wind, no movement of any kind. The world had frozen.

And he was the only one still breathing. Still moving. Still aware.

His gaze dropped to the rod in his hand, staring at it as if seeing it for the first time. The object that had once seemed ordinary now pulsed with a strange, unfamiliar energy. It glowed softly, vibrating in his grip like it was alive.

"Time... has stopped?" Alaric looked down at the woman, still suspended in midair.

She was frozen, mid-fall, like a statue hovering over death.

For a few long seconds, he stood there, stunned. Trying to grasp what had just happened.

Whatever this rod was, whatever the System had given him. He had just used it to stop time. He didn’t know how. He didn’t know why. But none of that mattered right now.

All that mattered... was that she was still alive.

She hadn’t hit the ground.

Yet.

His mind shifted into motion again.

"Huff..." Alaric took a deep breath, his eyes staring downward at the woman’s body, frozen in mid-air. The scene unfolding before him made no sense. His throat felt dry, and for a moment, he even forgot to breathe.

But he knew he didn’t have much time.

Moving quickly, Alaric descended from the rooftop’s edge and crouched near the rim. He reached out and grabbed the woman’s arm, stiff like a statue. With effort, he pulled her fragile body back up.

Now, she lay motionless on the rooftop floor, her eyes still shut, messy hair covering part of her face. Alaric glanced at his staff again.

"I didn’t expect the first time I’d use this staff would be for something like this."

He gently lifted her body into his arms, then made his way toward the emergency exit. He moved swiftly down the stairwell, stopping at the twelfth floor. Aevel he figured was far enough from the rooftop to keep her from returning, yet quiet enough compared to the busy lobby.

In the corner of the hallway was a long bench near a wide window. An old magazine had been left there, probably by a previous hotel guest.

Quickly, Alaric sat the woman down on the bench. He leaned her against the backrest and slipped the magazine into her hands, adjusting her posture so it looked like she was simply reading.

Everything about it was absurd, but Alaric tried to make the scene look natural. He gently brushed a few strands of hair from her face, tidied them, then stepped back to take in the little arrangement he had created.

"Let’s hope... that when you wake up, you’ll think twice."

And just as he stood up straight again—

Click.

A soft sound, like a button being pressed, echoed in the air.

Alaric froze for a split second, and the world began to move again. The wind flowed back through the open window, hurried footsteps echoed once more in the stairwell, and the ticking of the wall clock resumed its normal rhythm. Everything returned to its natural pace.

The woman stirred slightly, her eyelids fluttering open. She looked down, then stared at her own hand, now holding a magazine. Confusion spread across her face.

"I... wasn’t I just—" Her voice caught in her throat. Her eyes darted from the magazine to her surroundings, then down to her own body. She touched her legs, her torso, checking that she was still alive.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop of the fifteenth floor, several hotel staff and security guards burst through the emergency door. Their breathing was labored, eyes scanning every corner.

"Where is she?!" one guard shouted.

"She was right here! I saw her on the CCTV!" a staff member responded, panic rising in their voice.

"Check downstairs, quick! She might have jumped already!"

They scattered across the rooftop, some pressing their bodies against the railing to look down, scanning for any sign of someone who had fallen. But there was nothing.

No body on the street. No gathering crowd. Just the usual traffic moving along like nothing had happened.

"That’s impossible... I saw her standing right at the edge," murmured a receptionist.

Back on the twelfth floor, the woman was still sitting motionless on the bench. But something in her expression had shifted. The confusion and fear gradually began to replace the desperation that had just moments ago driven her to end her life. It was as if the universe itself had intervened, refusing to let her go, forcing her to stay alive.

She no longer stood, no longer sought a way back to the rooftop. She just sat there, staring blankly out the window, her mind swarmed with questions she couldn’t answer.

Maybe, this time... God had saved her. Given her one more chance to live, after she had tried to throw it away so foolishly.

Not far from her, Alaric sat calmly at a small table near the vending machine. He had poured himself some instant coffee into a paper cup and was now blowing on the surface before taking a sip.

His eyes flicked briefly in her direction. He didn’t try to speak, didn’t want to make her more confused. He let the moment settle naturally, hoping it would plant something deeper inside her heart.

"Good," Alaric thought to himself, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

Outside, the sounds of hotel staff still echoed through the building, their voices laced with confusion as they searched for the girl who had vanished.

Alaric eventually decided to approach the bench where she sat, after spending a few moments in silence.