Chapter 6
Hoku stood motionless, as his mind struggled to keep up.
A weight pressed against his knee and he flinched, glancing down.
Cheshire stretched lazily, his sleek limbs sprawled over Hoku's leg.
The sunlight sharpened the contrast of his dark fur, lighting the fine silver whiskers fanning around his glistening black nose.
His fangs, long and keen, jutted slightly over his lower lip.
"So… you're my guide?"
The words felt absurd the moment they left his mouth.
He understood he would've gotten nowhere on his own. Yet Polaris only left him with a cat?
Hoku pressed his fingers against his temple, rubbing the vein that pulsed in irritation.
Cheshire, unbothered, flicked his tail and began walking, his small frame moving beyond the sandy path that split the endless field of tulips.
Hoku pondered for a few seconds before concluding that any path was better than standing still, then caught up to the cat.
Time stretched as they walked. And walked. And walked.
The abiding scenery and unwavering silence intensified the isolated atmosphere.
The sun remained high, as the tulips subtly swayed from their movements. There was no breeze, no birds, no sound but their steps.
Hoku's legs remained unburdened, untouched by fatigue or the dampness of sweat.
After a while more, his coat grew suffocating, and he shrugged it off, draping it over his arm.
He was expecting relief, however, it made no difference.
The silence crept in, and the world closed in, its monotony bearing down on him.
A tight unease coiled in his chest, and he halted in his tracks.
Cheshire's ears twitched. He sniffed the air, before glancing back, his slitted pupils narrowing.
Hoku's voice was quieter than he intended.
"Why am I not tired…? What is this place?"
Cheshire stared a moment then turned and continued walking.
Hoku exhaled sharply and kept moving.
He eventually found himself standing before the same rusted gate, with worn, rough edges.
Beyond it, the manor loomed, mostly unchanged. The path leading to it had vanished and was swallowed by the field.
Hoku's breath hitched. It was exactly as it had been when he first arrived, no sign of time passing, and something in the space beyond the gate felt off.
He huffed and ran a hand through his hair.
'You've got to be kidding.'
At the base of the gate, there were withered tulips twisted around the metal posts.
Their petals curled inward, and their stems blackened with decay appearing much different from the white flower across the rest of the field.
Hoku crouched, running his fingers along a brittle stem.
'This isn't nearly the same as I thought.'
His thoughts started to scatter, and he suddenly remembered something else he had read from Polaris' notes in the study.
'The regency epoch would be acquitted beyond this frail barrier of dead tulips.
An infinite path exists between every parallel time period, the first of which he encounters is described as a frail barrier of dead tulips.
This proclaimed barrier is a space of interconnected past and present. Without a future, the present can only exist as the same 'sequence' over and over again. What is left of the past will gradually evolve into the development of the timelines cavity.
Humans will fall into the earlier epochs of evolution until they reach the beginning—which becomes the end of the original world.
I've gathered that the 'timestream' is a sequel to that ending. It is the future that was revoked from the order of succession.
Whoever tampered with the future for the sake of altering their past is ultimately at fault for the destruction of mankind.
I believe it began in the Manor built in 1812. A researcher who had no means of getting close to the sequel of our universe was robbed.
The outcome led to a much greater threat that a mysterious transmigrator has yet to discover who is responsible for.
His companions have left behind various poorly printed letters deeming him the Navigator [perhaps the term indicating a 'transmigrator' with infinite sequences]
Many were involved, but there is one person who began the creation of a method for extracting the future.
They've managed to procure the past… but at what costs?'
"The world would regress, cycling backward until it reached the beginning. The end of the original world," Hoku muttered back to himself frowning in puzzlement.
Suddenly, a figure moved in the distance.
Hoku's head darted up and he found Cheshire perched there atop the porch, staring back.
"What are you doing over there?" He asked tilting his chin to the side.
Shoving aside his hesitation, Hoku gripped the rusted bars and pulled them open.
The gate groaned, and roots were torn free from the soil, as the more tulips crumpled "Don't run off so suddenly—"
Hoku's body shuddered as his foot snagged on something invisible.
His knees hit the grass, and a crushing weakness sank into his limbs.
The exhaustion his mind had been suppressing surged all at once as if waiting for the moment he let his guard down.
Before he could recover, his upper body gave way.
He caught himself with both hands, and his palms pressed into the damp soil, leaving shallow dents in the earth.
His vision darkened as he dragged himself forward, his motions gradually slowing as the cat remained still, just out of reach.
A shrill ring filled his ears, as his heart pounded, and his chest was seized under the strain of exhaustion.
He tried pulling himself forward, but before he could lift his head above the grass, the rest of his strength gave out.
The blades of grass prickled his cheeks as his face was pressed into the ground.
The last time he lost consciousness, he had woken in a room thick with an overpowering fragrance, the kind that burrowed into his skull.
Both the cause of the amnesia and knowledge of who he was, dwelt as mysteries to even himself.
He was capable of recalling moments before he awakened in the presence of several strangers.
However, what he remembered in that hazy state failed to align with the present reality.
Nothing felt real.
Psychedelic hues bled into the darkness behind his eyes, forming into fleeting, illusory fragments.
'They almost look like stars.'
His own voice echoed in his mind, eerily distinct, as though spoken by someone else.
Hoku clenched his jaw.
What unsettled Hoku most was the way his subconscious bled into his awareness, distorting the boundary between thought and reality.
Behind his closed eyes, stars and colors blurred, which could only mean he was resisting the unconsciousness.
He struggled to wake, but daylight continued to fade, swallowed by the depths of his mind.
'I think I'll just... sleep for a while.'
Then, his voice became smothered as if trapped beneath heavy fabric.
It wasn't just his thoughts being drawn away. A cold weight coiled around his chest, and squeezed the breath from his lungs.
Only then did he realize his voice wasn't muffled; rather, his hearing was receding, as if he were being dragged underwater, drawing closer to the brink of death.
The Memoir Chapter 4
Objective 3
The barrier has infinite forms. Each time you interact without caution, the barrier will try to kill you. Follow your guide to the manor from the only sequel, and do not reveal your doubt in him. Otherwise, he won't bother saving you. That green-eyed monster is especially smug.