Aron's legs kept moving before his mind could catch up. Still dying. Still remembering every time.
'This isn't stopping… it's repeating.'
The same outcome repeated every time. And not just that—
'Every time I died, the world reset, but I remembered everything.'
His breath was uneven, but he didn't stop. The same thing kept happening.
'Damn it…'
Aron kept running.
'You can do this. We have to escape from here.'
Zekai was still standing there… just like before. Completely unresponsive—like he wasn't even here.
Aron clenched his teeth.
"Come on… wake up, Mr. Zekai!"
'Think, Aron. There has to be a way.'
[ …CONDITION… ]
…Loop…Bound…
…Error…
[ WARNING ]
Outcome Fixation Detected
Suddenly, he heard a strange sound, and a blue, transparent screen flickered in front of his eyes like a glitch.
After that, he vision couldn't see anything clearly.
"What's wrong with my eyes?"
With each loop, he started noticing new things. No matter how strange this place was, something felt different this time.
"It won't be me who runs. This time… the King Knight will be the one forced to move."
Aron observed. A short distance ahead, dozens of swords were scattered across the ground.
"What is this…? So many swords. Did people like us come here before?"
There was no other choice. His fingers closed around one of the fallen swords.
It felt heavy. Unfamiliar. He didn't know how to use a sword.
But he held it anyway. Somehow—Aron felt like he could fight with it.
Even if it was only until the end, he held it tighter.
"If it's a fight… then I'll fight."
The sound came again. That same sharp distortion.
The King Knight appeared behind him.
The air grew heavier with its arrival. Not pressure—something heavier. Like even the ground acknowledged its presence first.
Blue-white armor. Silent. Waiting. But this time, it came a fraction later than before.
His body moved straight toward Zekai before fear could stop it.
Even now, the King Knight remained motionless.
The same sound returned, along with that glitching vision in his eyes.
[ RESPONSE SUGGESTED ]
— Escape (Failure Probability: High)
— Resistance (Outcome: Termination)
— FREEZE (Unknown)
Aron rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his vision. But now—there was no screen. Nothing. It was gone completely. For a moment, For a moment, he wondered if the loops had finally started breaking his mind.
Maybe all these loops… all these repeated deaths… had finally started to mess with his head. His thoughts felt scattered, unstable. But none of that mattered right now.
'My only real problem was the next fight.'
Aron didn't even know how to fight properly, but he clung to blind determination and forced himself forward anyway.
"Fine…"
Aron's foot pushed forward against the ground.
"This time… I won't run."
"Let's fight."
His hands trembled, but he forced them steady.
"Come."
The King Knight stood still. Each step it took carried weight—slow, deliberate.
Not speed. Certainty. Like every movement had already decided where it would land. It remained completely still. Calm. Certain.
He raised the sword, trying to act fearless.
"At least I can resist"
He tried to build himself up, tried to show no fear and stand his ground—but it didn't react at all, as if none of it mattered.
It stood right in front of him, utterly unmoved—as if none of this mattered, like something frozen in place.
Anyways Aron charged forward.
The space around it felt wrong. Like stepping closer meant stepping into something already decided.
But if he stepped back now—nothing changes. So he stepped forward anyway.
Aron never saw the King Knight move. One moment it stood still. Before Aron could even understand what happened—
The next—the blade had already passed, as if Aron had been too late to react to something that had already happened.
The air split before Aron even saw the movement. The blade passed—and his arm was already gone. Removed completely.
Before Aron could even react, it closed the distance in an instant—like a flash—and appeared right behind Aron. Its leg moved without warning, driving a brutal side kick straight into his back with overwhelming force.
The impact shattered through his spine and slammed into his lungs all at once. His breath was ripped out completely—he couldn't inhale, couldn't even make a sound properly. His body folded under the force, nerves screaming as everything inside him felt crushed.
"—Ahhhhhh!"
The world flipped.
"—!"
It swung Aron like he weighed nothing—and threw him straight toward Zekai.
Aron slammed into Zekai, and at that exact moment—
Something followed. Cold.
The blade pierced from Aron back—driving straight through his body—and continued forward into Zekai's chest.
For a second—Everything stopped. Aron breath caught.
"…Is there really no end to this…?"
No matter what he did—No matter how hard he tried—It always ended the same way.
Darkness crept in again.
—
Aron was snapped back again.
"This thing is crushing me so easily…" Aron gritted his teeth, barely able to keep himself standing.
'I can't even match it.'
Even though Aron returned every time, the exhaustion didn't. The pain stayed. The fatigue stayed. Each death stacked on top of the last. Slowly breaking him apart.
From the very beginning, he had been watching it carefully. Normally, everything had a pattern. Every attack, every movement—there's always something you can read.
But not this.
Nothing matched. Every time it killed him, it did it differently. No rhythm. No repetition. No predictable flow.
"…So I can't rely on patterns."
That realization settled in.
"If I try to match something that didn't exist—I'll just keep dying."
Aron exhaled slowly, forcing his thoughts to stabilize.
"Then I fight without one."
Aron was just a normal human. Something far beyond his understanding stood in front of him.
'No matter what I did, I couldn't affect it.'
"Damn it… what am I supposed to do like this?"
The frustration built inside him.
"Do I not even deserve a single chance?"
The King Knight slowly raised its sword.
But this time— it was different. The moment it moved. Aron's body reacted. Not fully, not fast enough—but different.
Aron tightened his grip on the sword and moved forward, trying to anticipate its attack. At the last second, he shifted slightly. The blade passed closer than ever—so close it felt like it sliced the air off his face.
He didn't expect to dodge it… but somehow, Aron moved. For the first time—the outcome slipped.
"...I changed something."
His breath caught. It wasn't enough to survive. But it wasn't the same anymore.
End of Chapter 14 - The Kind One II