Reality didn't return with a gentle grace.
It snapped violently back into place, acting as if it had never left the timeline to begin with.
The next second, Zekai was back.
Cold pavement pressed against his boots.
Sirens echoed somewhere in the distance.
Greyhaven.
Reality had returned.
Zzzzsup!
[ TRANSITION COMPLETE ]
Location: Valenreach — Greyhaven Intersection
Layer Status: Reintegrated
Displacement: Resolved
Residual Distortion: Present
---
The city intersection looked normal.
Too normal. Like something had been removed… and the world kept going anyway.
[ PERCEPTION WARNING ]
Reality Sync: 87%
Temporal Offset: Minor
Cause: Post-Distortion Recoil
---
Zekai stood motionless on the sky middle of the intersection.
Alone.
The cracked black stone cube remained clenched tightly in his shaking hand, its jagged edges threatening to slice open his skin.
His vision was unfocused. His body had returned.
His mind hadn't.
Because Aron was still there.
His arms felt heavy.
Heavy enough to hurt. Heavy enough that he couldn't let go.
Zekai looked down.
Aron rested peacefully in his arms.
The boy looked far too peaceful.
The blood was gone. The wounds were gone.
Only silence remained.
Zekai tightened his hold instinctively.
"...I got you."
Carried carefully in both of his arms.
His chest tightened.
"...Aron."
No response.
The familiar weight remained.
His voice barely existed.
"...You're safe now."
No response.
Of course there wasn't.
Yet, his fracturing mind stubbornly supplied one anyway.
The weight in his arms felt real.
Warm.
Human.
He could feel Aron's shoulder against his chest.
Could feel the familiar weight. Could feel a warmth that should no longer exist.
For a brief second, Aron's outline flickered at the edge of his vision.
Then it returned.
Zekai immediately looked away.
Yet—
A dead body.
A brother.
His fingers tightened instinctively.
"Just hold on."
His voice came out hollow.
"I'm taking you home."
People were everywhere. Around below him, the crowd began reacting.
Their voices blurred together—too many at once, none of them making sense.
"Who is that?"
"He just appeared out of nowhere!"
"Was he floating?"
Zekai descended, his feet touched the ground as if he had fallen from somewhere that no longer existed.
Then—
A woman nearby screamed.
"Why is he holding his arms like that?!"
Another person blinked.
"Talking to who?"
Zekai froze.
Another voice followed.
"Is he carrying something?"
"No..."
The man frowned.
"There's nothing there."
Zekai looked down instinctively.
Aron was still there.
Resting quietly in his arms.
...
Then why was nobody looking at him?
He took a step forward.
Careful.
Gentle.
The way someone carries a person they don't want to wake.
The crowd parted around him.
Uneasy. Confused.
Because from their perspective—His arms were empty.
Silence.
But it no longer felt like he was carrying a person. Like something essential was missing.
No one stepped closer.
It wasn't because they had been told to stay back. Something inside them simply refused to approach.
Zekai kept walking.
Aron's head rested against his shoulder.
Just like before. Just like it should have been.
"...Sorry."
His voice cracked.
"I was late."
The apology escaped before he realized he had spoken aloud.
Several civilians exchanged nervous looks.
One person slowly lowered their phone.
Another took a step backward.
The man wasn't carrying anyone.
Yet he walked through the intersection as though protecting something precious from the world.
Zekai slowly turned his head.
The crowd wasn't looking at Aron.
They were looking at him.
Their expressions shifted from confusion into deep unease.
Fear.
"Is that… blood on his clothes…?"
They weren't looking at a man anymore.
They were looking at something they couldn't understand.
But Zekai kept walking forward slowly.
His face had no expression.
He wasn't empty. He just had nothing left to show.
Zzzzsup!
[ SUBJECT STATUS — ZEKAI KRYSTAN ]
Physical Condition: Stable
Internal Damage: High
Mental State: Suppressed Collapse
Primary Emotion: Grief
Secondary: Null Response
Voices overlapped. None of them mattered.
Phones were already raised, recording everything.
But Zekai didn't react. He just stood there.
"Move."
No… No…
Zekai didn't walk. He moved.
Or maybe he didn't. The distance simply… wasn't there anymore.
One moment he stood in front of them—
the next, he wasn't.
From where they stood, he simply appeared ten feet ahead—vanishing from sight and reappearing instantly.
He chose where he already was.
The crowd reacted a second too late.
"He was just here—where did he go?"
"Look—he's behind us!"
"How did he move there…?"
"…Is he even human?"
They weren't looking at him. Their eyes weren't really on him.
They were seeing something they couldn't understand.
Zekai's grip tightened around nothing.
The black stone cube dug into his palm.
His vision trembled.
The crowd's voices became distant.
"...No."
Aron was here.
He knew he was.
He could feel the weight. He could feel the blood.
He could feel the warmth that was no longer there.
"No..."
The word came out weaker this time.
His body had returned. His mind was still trapped inside the palace.
✦ End of Chapter 25 - Return ✦