Inside the room, specifically within an apartment. Zavi's jaw tightened as the unbelievable events once again flooded his mind the moment his consciousness fully returned to his body.
"I swear, this isn't a dream. I don't understand how I could come back again. Could it be that wolf dragged me into this watch?"
Zavi's gaze fixed on the transparent wolf figure wrapped in a pale grayish-white aura, with a dark purplish-black forming its body within, before shifting to the pocket watch on his wrist that felt cold against his skin.
After watching the wolf dissipate, the creature vanished on its own, as if it had never been by his side from the very beginning.
A chilling cold spread across his skin, piercing down to the bone. He clutched his shirt, his chest rising and falling sharply. Every breath that left his lips formed white vapor.
'Don't waste this chance, damn it. I have to survive in this world… and where are those two now?'
After realizing his ears couldn't catch even the faintest sound, Zavi stood up, one hand bracing against the wall beside him.
He stepped out of the room, slightly surprised that he was walking on both legs. The leg that had once been lost due to Chalog had now regenerated on its own, the result of the clash between the herbal concoction and his body.
"Are you still here? Answer me if you can hear my voice!" Zavi shouted with a tense expression, the bad memories still lingering in his mind.
As his voice echoed through the corridor and the entire apartment, his ears caught the sound of hurried footsteps from below, followed by the scraping of shoes against the creaking wooden stairs.
From the dim corridor, two familiar figures appeared. Moreira and Celvira. Relief and happiness were clearly reflected on their faces after seeing Zavi safe following such a long period of uncertainty.
"I thought you wouldn't keep that promise, Sir," Moreira said, the corner of his lips lifting into a relieved smile.
'Yeah, I've been waiting two months for you to wake up,' Moreira added inwardly.
Zavi's expression froze instantly when he saw a grinning black shadow hovering above Celvira's head.
"Ah…" Zavi couldn't hide his shock. His body stiffened, as if bound by something invisible. His breath halted until his face began to turn pale.
Seeing Zavi's increasingly strange behavior, they exchanged confused glances. Celvira then stepped forward, no longer able to hold back the question in her mind.
"You can see it, can't you? You can see that," she asked with a faint smile, her gaze lifting upward.
"Yes," Zavi answered hesitantly. A moment later, the pressure restraining his body disappeared along with the vanishing shadow, and his breathing gradually returned to normal.
Celvira moved closer until her lips were nearly touching Zavi's ear, then spoke softly yet firmly:
"I met it yesterday. I don't know why it could be with you, and… it left a short message. 'Soon, you will meet me.' That's what it said."
"I don't even know why a level five evil spirit can speak like that," Celvira continued in confusion, realizing that a level five evil spirit could exist anywhere, even within a human body without that person being aware of it.
Moreira cleared his throat once, breaking the tension in the corridor and drawing their attention.
"So, what are we going to do now?" he muttered. "Ah, right. Sir… I heard that Moran's condition is no longer what it used to be." His sharp gaze fixed on Zavi, assessing what decision he would make.
Zavi fell silent for a moment to think.
'Does that mean a terrorist attack? Or something worse… Chalog destroying the city? What about Chapena? Are the three of them safe?'
The thought made his heart uneasy. Yet on the other hand, he believed that Ren would instinctively protect his mother and younger sibling.
Zavi took a slow breath, then exhaled before asking, "What exactly happened?"
Moreira shifted, leaning against the wooden railing of the second floor that reflected sunlight through the gap between the buildings on the left side where Zavi stood. His gaze remained fixed on them as he answered in a slightly raised voice;
"Yes. The northern outskirts, the northeast, and the east were destroyed overnight. All that's left are ruins and rivers of lava."
"Overnight?" Zavi murmured, his brows furrowing, unable to hide his shock.
When he heard the word east, his ears suddenly rang, and his hands began to tremble violently. He didn't know whether the destruction was related to that sect, or if there was another party behind it all.
Moreira merely gave a small shrug, as if not entirely certain of the report's accuracy since he had heard it through word of mouth while gathering information. But one thing was certain, half of Chapena was no longer habitable, and many residents had been forced to evacuate.
His thoughts suddenly returned to the streets in southern Greysia. He realized that the rumors he had heard back then were true. What unsettled him was how they could have known, as if he himself had seen that future. And what weighed on his mind even more was the possibility that they were the cause of all this.
"I suppose Sir Lamena and Miss Celvira will suggest checking that place as well, right?" Moreira said while adjusting his posture and slipping his hand into his coat pocket.
He then stepped closer without waiting for an answer, pulling his hand out and revealing a pair of black gloves in his palm.
"Please take these, Sir. Consider them… a gift, as an apology."
'It's because the weather outside is very cold, maybe it's already the end of the year and winter,' Moreira added.
Zavi frowned slightly upon hearing that strange remark.
'What is he talking about? What happened while I was trapped in that state over and over again.'
As he thought about it, a strange nausea rose in his stomach, climbing up to his throat, lingering in his mouth for a few seconds as if he was about to vomit.
Zavi quickly covered his mouth with his hand, holding it back.
"Umm…" He tried to speak, but instead immediately walked past them, hurried down the stairs, then ran to the bathroom on the right side of the apartment, beside the living room.
From the upper floor, their footsteps stopped. The air in the corridor felt heavier, colder, as their gazes met for a few seconds that felt far too long.
Before parting, they spoke in voices barely audible. Short sentences broke between pauses, as if the corridor itself pressed their words to remain restrained.
After that, the corridor fell silent again. No one moved immediately. Jaws tightened, breaths held, and whoever turned away first left behind something they were not ready to face.
A few minutes later, they gathered in front of the apartment's main door, which was still open as if letting the air inside escape.
Zavi and Moreira wore knee-length black coats complete with matching black gloves, while Celvira remained in her previous appearance, a neat black dress and a boater hat on her head, adorned with black feather accents along its edge.
Zavi's gaze briefly shifted as Celvira turned the apartment key. The metallic sound was short and dry. He watched as Celvira placed the key into a small metal box beside the door, then closed it with a calm motion, as if it were a habitual act.
Zavi took a breath, then slowly exhaled. His shoulders dropped slightly, but his fingers clenched tightly beneath the gloves.
"About earlier…" he finally said. His voice was lower than he expected. He didn't look at anyone. "How long was I like that?"
Moreira adjusted his gloves, pulling the black fabric snug around his wrist before answering carefully.
"More than one and a half months, perhaps. And… Miss Celvira was the one who covered the additional costs until you fully woke up."
Zavi raised his head. His eyes widened for a moment, as if something struck him from within. His breath hitched briefly before stabilizing again, yet his gaze turned empty.
'So she remained loyal, waiting and doing nothing else.' Zavi gave a faint smile at the thought.
He let out a short breath. "What date is it now?" he asked quickly, as if afraid the answer would disappear if delayed.
"December twentieth. Saturday," Moreira replied calmly.
Zavi fell silent.
That mysterious world resurfaced in his mind. Fragments of repeating events. The same faces. Deaths that never truly ended.
'Could it be that place doesn't have a fixed flow of time? Maybe I lived there for two hundred years. Or more. Long enough to witness the same events repeating endlessly. Long enough to feel my mind slowly erode, second by second, never truly shattering, only cracking, and cracking again.'
Celvira stepped closer. Her expression remained flat, as if everything that had happened before left no trace.
"So," she said softly, "you two want to go back there?"
She slightly adjusted her hat. Not to hide her face, but because she didn't want to see their expressions.
Zavi swallowed.
There was something off in his mind. A dull, formless pressure that kept settling deeper. He wanted to say something, an apology, perhaps not. For the two of them? For Aurora. For his family. For someone who had once stood before him, wanting to speak, yet was ignored.
Zavi lifted his head. The daytime wind brushed against his face, cold and fresh. He let it pass, as if that wind could carry away everything suffocating him, including the moisture at the corner of his eyes.
"Yes… I don't know if they're still safe there," Moreira replied. His voice was calm, but his eyes still held the shadows of the past month, the shadow of a friend he had left behind.
He didn't know what to say after truly meeting them again. Lying about business matters, promising rewards after the job was done. Yet what continued to haunt his thoughts was whether they were still alive… and whether he would still be given the chance to apologize after all of it.