Chapter 135: Repeat
Chapter 135: Repeat
Towering over Ash, Jin held a timestone in his hand, smirking. He had waited for this day to come.
Ash crawled away; struggling himself through the slew of egregious corpses. “What are you doing? What is that thing in your hand?”
Jin walked forward. “O, it’s nothing. It’s simply something that will cause me and you to relive a year in the past.”
Ash condemned him. “No! I’m not doing that!”
Jin glared at him. “I’ve failed. You’ve failed. So there is no choice in this anymore, Ash. You don’t get to have a say. Neither do I. Now, I’m forced to go back to how weak I was. And you’re forced to go back to nothing. Fair play, if you ask me.”
Ash shook his head. “No I don’t want to do that. Will we even have our memories.”
“They come back in certain circumstances. You might feel a slight Deja Vu. So yes,” Jin stopped, “you’ll be remembering things.”
“That still doesn’t make things any better!”
“It does,” Jin said, “when you’ve failed an objective. Nothing is wasting here. Everytime we go back, the world is changed slightly. The future, that is. That’s the only downside to all of this. And what’s more, we can keep searching for the timestone. Because when it’s used in the future, it isn’t in the past,” Jin grinned widely, “can’t you see how perfect this is?”
“Now I’m wishing you were dead again,” Ash said.
“Well,” Jin peered into his eyes, “that’s unfortunate, really. Because I’m not dying anytime soon. In the years to come, I will be evolved by the system. I won’t be a mortal. I’ll be immortal. And then, I’ll rise above all.”
“When did you,” Ash frowned, “become this man?” He stood. “This narcissistic, autocratic, stoic, evil man?”
Jin retained his smirk. “It was a change for the better, for which I feel no shame.”
“Do you even have shame?” Ash walked forward, stepping on of one the dead bodies. “I doubt that as well. Do you have any idea how much I’ve suffered in the mind, thinking all my friends were dead because of my cowardice?”
“No,” said Jin, “unfortunately, I don’t. That’s simply because I’m alive. Can’t say the same for poor Dobby.”
Ash felt his heart sink. “What? Dobby’s dead?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know. You just told me you thought we were all dead.”
Ash qailed. “You say that without the slightest bit of pity.”
“Precisely,” Jin said, smirking.
Ash’s hair fell over his eyes as he peered down at the floor, head downcast. He squeezed his fingers into his palms. “You’re not Jin. You cannot be Jin. You’re not even human anymore. You don’t care about us anymore. You’re a … a … monster. Just like everyone else.
“But don’t worry. I, one of the weakest man in the world, will fix you. I will fix everything.”
Jin looked his down at Ash. “And how are you going to go about doing that. That seems like a short nurtured, nearly impossible feat. But you’re a try hard — might I say. But how exactly do you plan to ‘fix’ me?”
“The healstones. I’ll enhance them, making their effects last up to ten times longer. Then, I’ll overdose you with thousands of them. That should bring back the old you.” He kept his head down.
Jin cackled. ” I suppose that can possibly work. But the effects, despite being enhanced, aren’t going to last forever. You don’t plan to repeatedly force me to take healstones like my grandmother when she was on her meds, do you?”
Ash clenched his fists tighter. “You killed your grandma. Pearl Pierce is dead because you. And now, you can just say her name without feeling anything.
“And yes. I do plan to repeatedly use healstones on you. I’ll have many people with SSS Rank Perfect Replication Abilities, given that they’re the only rank that can replicate the healstones. I’ll make them seemingly clone the healstones so that you have an almost infinite supply. So yes,” Ash raised his head, glaring, “I’ll own you. I’ll have you on meds just like Miss Pierce for the rest of your immortal life.”
Jin tried to keep a serious face. But then, he started to titter, seemingly laughing through his nose. Then, he finally erupted into laughter. “Ahahahah! What a great plan, that is! How are you going to even use those on me? You’re so slow and weak? You honestly think I’ll just let you use them on me?
“Friendship is dead in my mind. Whatever remains of it, which is mostly likely a bit of care, is what I use as motivation to make my ‘friends’ become monsters like me. People who will serve me, and not bring me down. How am I supposed to have weak people I can one shot around me, huh?
“That is why, we must both go back. One year Into the past. I’m not even that much more powerful than I was back then; provided that I was incarcerated for five whole months. So what’s the sense in not going back!?”
“We’ll start over again! You and I, Ashton!” Jin squeezed the timestone.
Ash lunged at him. “Ashton is dead!”
“And so is this timeline,” Jin crushed the green timestone. There was a blinding light that went up in what seemed like a warping explosion.
Ash knocked Jin to the floor as green light escaped the timestone. He clenched his teeth, furrowing his brows. He crashed his knuckles into Jin’s face, relentlessly. Over and over again.
Jin’s face was bloody and in my pain; but he kept his hysterical grin as Ash punched the hell out of him. “WHY DON’T YOU COME BACK TO ME! BE THE JIN I ADMIRED!?”
“Because,” Jin said, “That me is dead. See you in a year, Ash.”
Ash broke down. He started to cry. Why did it have to be this way?
Slowly, their bodies disintegrated, and then there was nothing but a void in front of them.