Chapter 78 – The King of Oblivion
"...The King of Oblivion."
The words barely left the child's mouth before the entire Memory Field changed.
The flowers stopped moving.
The white sky darkened.
Even the countless forgotten memories standing across the field lowered their heads.
The seven Eaters of Memory remained on their knees.
Evetyl stared at the enormous golden eye above them.
It was impossible to tell how large the creature behind it really was. Only its eye was visible through the black crack in the sky, yet even that single eye was larger than the great Memory Tree.
Evetyl swallowed.
"That's the King?"
The child nodded.
"Don't look into its eye."
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't just see you."
"It remembers you."
Evetyl frowned.
"What's the difference?"
The child looked frightened.
"If it remembers you..."
"...it can decide what you were."
A cold feeling went through Evetyl.
"What does that mean?"
Before the child could answer, the giant eye slowly moved.
It looked directly at her.
Evetyl immediately felt something pulling at the back of her mind.
A memory surfaced.
She was standing in a small room.
She was younger.
Someone was holding her hand.
She couldn't see their face.
Then the memory changed.
She was older.
Standing beneath the Memory Tree.
Crying.
Then another memory.
Kai.
Standing beside her.
Smiling.
Then another.
Kai lying motionless on the ground.
Evetyl's breathing stopped.
"No..."
The King of Oblivion was showing her possible memories.
Not memories that had happened.
Memories that could happen.
The child grabbed her hand.
"Don't believe them!"
Evetyl closed her eyes.
The images disappeared.
She opened them again.
The golden eye remained.
But now...
She understood.
"It wants me to choose a memory."
The child nodded.
"It wants you to believe one."
"Why?"
"Because once you believe it..."
"...it becomes real."
---
Outside the Memory Field, Crosshaven shook violently.
Kai nearly lost his balance.
The white doorway flickered.
The mysterious traveler immediately raised his sword.
"Everyone move away from the gate."
Kai looked toward him.
"What happened?"
"The King has looked through."
"The Memory Field?"
"Yes."
"And?"
The traveler stared at the doorway.
"It's looking for someone."
Kai's expression hardened.
"Evetyl."
The traveler nodded.
---
The First Thought suddenly cried out.
Its books flew open.
Thousands of pages turned at once.
"The history is changing!"
The Curator rushed toward it.
"Where?"
"Everywhere!"
The First Thought pointed toward the sky.
"Entire possibilities are being created and erased."
The Eye looked upward.
"Can you stop it?"
"No."
"Can you predict it?"
"No."
The First Thought closed its eyes.
"For the first time..."
"...I can't even tell which future we're standing in."
The former Outer King looked toward the black crack.
"Then we need to buy time."
The Warden stepped forward.
Its chains stretched across the plaza.
"I will hold the gate."
The traveler shook his head.
"You cannot."
The Warden looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because the King doesn't attack bodies."
He lifted his sword.
"It attacks what you remember."
---
The Warden looked down at its chains.
Then at the yellow flower still attached to one of them.
The little girl's gift.
Its expression changed.
"If I forget..."
It paused.
"...I will lose this."
The traveler nodded.
"Yes."
The Warden tightened its grip.
"Then I will remember."
The chains suddenly erupted with silver light.
"I was given this flower."
"I remember the child."
"I remember her smile."
"I remember my promise."
The light spread across the chains.
The King of Oblivion's influence was pushed back.
For a moment...
The black crack above Crosshaven stopped growing.
Cr-Hook stared.
"That actually worked."
The First Anomaly smiled.
"Apparently remembering things is useful."
Cr-Hook nodded.
"I've been doing it wrong my entire life."
---
Inside the Memory Field...
The King finally spoke.
Its voice was not loud.
Yet every flower shook when it heard it.
"Evetyl Clarke."
She looked up.
"You have carried a promise for longer than you remember."
Evetyl didn't answer.
"You promised to return."
"I know."
"You promised to remember."
Evetyl frowned.
"Then why don't I?"
The golden eye became still.
"Because you asked me to make you forget."
The child's expression changed.
"No..."
Evetyl looked at it.
"You knew?"
The child shook its head.
"I didn't know everything."
The King continued.
"You wanted to live."
"You wanted your friends to live."
"You knew what would happen if you remembered."
Evetyl felt her chest tighten.
"What would happen?"
The King answered simply.
"You would become the First Memory."
Silence.
The child started crying.
Evetyl stared at it.
"What does that mean?"
The child wiped its tears.
"It means..."
"...you would remember everything."
"Every world."
"Every death."
"Every beginning."
"Every ending."
Evetyl looked at the endless field.
"And you?"
The child smiled sadly.
"I would finally disappear."
---
Evetyl stepped closer.
"No."
The child looked surprised.
"No?"
"I don't accept that."
"You don't understand."
"Maybe I don't."
Evetyl knelt in front of it.
"But I know one thing."
The child waited.
"I don't make promises just to break them."
The child's eyes widened.
Evetyl gently placed a hand on its head.
"If I promised I'd come back..."
"...then I came back."
Tears filled the child's eyes.
"But you don't remember."
"I don't need to remember everything."
Evetyl smiled.
"I just need to choose what I do now."
The King of Oblivion became silent.
For the first time...
Its enormous eye seemed uncertain.
---
The seven Eaters slowly stood.
The leader looked toward Evetyl.
"That is why it fears you."
Evetyl looked at it.
"The King?"
The Eater nodded.
"Oblivion cannot defeat someone who chooses to remember."
Evetyl looked up.
The golden eye had begun to close.
But before it disappeared behind the black crack...
It spoke one final sentence.
"Then remember."
The crack vanished.
The Memory Field became silent.
The child stared at Evetyl.
"What did it mean?"
Evetyl looked toward the great tree.
"I don't know."
Then the tree began shaking.
A single leaf fell.
It landed in Evetyl's hand.
This time, there was no vision.
Instead...
A voice.
Kai's voice.
Not from the present.
Not from the future.
From somewhere between them.
"Evetyl..."
She froze.
The child looked at her.
"What is it?"
Evetyl whispered,
"Kai."
The voice came again.
"Don't trust the woman from the future."
Evetyl's eyes widened.
The mysterious traveler.
The hooded woman.
The future.
Something was wrong.
The voice continued.
"She isn't the one who remembers you."
A pause.
Then Kai's voice became frightened.
"She is the one who made you forget."
The leaf suddenly turned black.
Evetyl dropped it.
The child stared at the darkness spreading across the ground.
Then...
The Memory Tree began losing its leaves.
One after another.
The child looked up in horror.
"No..."
"What happened?"
"I don't know!"
The tree shook violently.
Every golden leaf began falling.
Then a new crack opened in the white sky.
But this time...
It wasn't black.
It was red.
And from the other side came a voice Evetyl recognized immediately.
The hooded woman.
"Don't listen to him."
Evetyl slowly looked up.
The woman's silhouette appeared inside the red crack.
Her voice trembled.
"If you remember everything..."
"...you'll remember why I had to betray you."
Evetyl's heart stopped.
The child grabbed her hand.
The woman looked directly at her.
And for the first time...
Evetyl saw tears in the mysterious woman's eyes.
"Please..."
"Don't make me lose you twice."
The red crack began to close.
Evetyl took a step forward.
"Wait!"
But the woman disappeared.
The field fell silent again.
Evetyl stood completely still.
The child looked up at her.
"Who was she?"
Evetyl didn't answer.
Because deep inside her mind...
A memory had finally begun to return.
A memory of herself...
Standing beside that woman.
Both of them covered in blood.
And Evetyl saying:
"If I ever forget what you did..."
"...promise me you'll make me hate you."
The memory ended.
Evetyl's face went pale.
She whispered one word.
"...Why?"
And somewhere beyond the Memory Field...
Someone laughed.
Not the King of Oblivion.
Not the Eaters.
Someone who had been waiting for Evetyl to remember.
To Be Continued...