"Atun?" Jake repeated. He knew well who this person was. She was the most mysterious student in this academy and also the student council president. If people called Ayla the greatest genius, they called Atun the most capable student in the academy. After all, she became the president in her first year.
"Yes, Atun can help. Let's bring her out." Ayla grabbed his hand and activated her time stop ability. After that, she pulled him away from the crowd and entered an alley.
After entering the narrow alley, time ticked again. Ayla released his hand and looked at the surroundings. "I guess this is a safe place. You are lucky, junior. You are the only person to witness our greatest secret."
Hearing her confident tone, Jake started to believe that Atun could really save the deceased Reina and Marilyn. He dropped to his knees and begged, "Please convince the president to save them, senior. I will do anything."
Even though his request was sincere, he still felt weird because he really didn't feel sad toward their death. There was really something wrong with him. Something unnatural and magical. However, he couldn't grasp when this curse started to affect him.
"You look confused, junior. Relax. I assure you Atun is more willing to help you. After all, we have repeated this event three times."
"Three times?"
Ayla nodded innocently. "You were always stubborn to keep them both, but her highness never accepted it and went crazy because of you. We were confused about how to solve this problem, but in the end, we agreed to reveal our secret to you. Listen, junior, Atun is inside me."
After saying that, her body emitted a golden aura. Her pink hair turned blonde, and her blue eyes turned golden. Aside from those, her face was the same as Ayla, but her status window told him she wasn't her.
[Name: Atun Harvey
Species: Human
Level: 31
Talent: Time Manipulation (B), Guardian's Vessel (S), Enhanced Agility (A), Consecutive Slashes (A)
Strength: (C) || Endurance: (C)
Agility: (B) || Perception: (B)
Intelligent: (S) || Wisdom: (S)]
Jake was bewildered because Ayla just changed into another person, but he immediately knew the cause. It was because of one of her talents, [Guardian's Vessel (S)]. He already knew she had this ability, but he hadn't read the description before. As he read it, he learned about her greatest secret. It turned out her importance for this world was heavy.
[Name: Guardian's Vessel
Rank: S
Description: This vessel contains two souls. The first soul is the original vessel's soul, and the second soul is the soul of the World Guardian.]
Jake knew well what the World Guardians were. They were the entities who were born as the ascendants. From the moment they were born, they already reached level 100. As the name suggested, their job was to protect this world from total annihilation. However, they couldn't intervene with this world's affairs directly and could only appoint people as their disciples to spread their teaching and belief. These people were called the priest or priestess.
These priests were powerful figures with high status, and they existed in every continent. In this continent, they existed too, but Jake was sure Ayla/Harvey wasn't one of them.
Atun looked at him annoyingly. "I don't remember how many times I will have to introduce myself to you. My name is Atun Harvey, the Second Seat of the World Guardian, or rather I am a Fallen Guardian, the only one...." She sighed. "I hate these repeated actions. Anyway...."
Atun leaned closer to him and grabbed his shoulders. "Please don't make Marilyn sad. In many timelines in the future, she will destroy the world."
Jake immediately understood what she was talking about after looking at her [Time Manipulation] ability. Her ability was different from Ayla. Atun couldn't stop and slow time, but he could time travel to the past and the future. Of course, this heaven-defying ability came with many costs. One of them was that her soul would be annihilated by the void if she told people directly about her time travel ability. However, there were exceptions to this rule. The first was Ayla, and the second was surprisingly himself.
Jake was the exception of this rule too because he was the possessor of the [Akashic Eyes]. In front of his eyes, no secret could be hidden.
"Marilyn is a villain who will destroy the world?"
"Yes. In many timelines! She is one of the biggest headaches Ayla and I have to face in the future. She will command many powerful chaos creatures. Moreover, she will become stronger than your father. Nobody, even Guardians, can't stop her."
"How far is this in the future?" Jake asked.
"Around ten years from now."
After hearing that, Jake smiled. It turned out she could get rid of her death stigma curse, but he still couldn't believe his childhood friend would become a villain. He really didn't know anything about his childhood friend.
"What happened to her?"
"In all timelines where she became a villain, the cause was always you, Jake. She suffered a heartbreak because of you, and it changed her."
"I—I see." Jake was lost for words. He could guess it was because of his choice to have another woman.
As if reading his mind, Atun said, "Your relationship with other women isn't the problem. There was a timeline when you were two-timing her, and she was fine with it. In every timeline where she became a villain, the cause was you... Your death to be precise."
"I will die? How?"
Atun averted her eyes. "It's complicated. Anyway, this is the first timeline where I am revealing my secret. We honestly can't prevent future disasters in the future by ourselves. That's why we decided to include you in our mission. That's if you agree. You can also refuse."
Jake understood why she didn't want to reveal his death to him. The rules of time travel were complicated. She couldn't reveal anything to people who hadn't experienced time travel, or she could mess up the future. He knew these rules after reading her [Time Manipulation] ability.
"If I agree, can you tell me about the cause of my death?"
"We will, but are you sure? Honestly, this was all Ayla's idea. I am still hesitating to include you in our mission."
"If Marilyn is one of the causes of the world's destruction, it's my duty to prevent her from becoming a villain, especially when the cause is me."
"Alright." Atun extended her hand. "Shake my hand, and then we will travel to the past."
Jake didn't hesitate and received her hand.
"Jake Butler. You only have two missions. Prevent her from becoming a villain, and keep yourself safe. The first time is a trial. If you fail to keep her happy within one month, I will travel to the past and won't include you in our mission to save the world anymore. You probably know my time travel has one month to cool down. If you fail, don't bother to search for me. You won't be able to find me. If you fail, I will do everything to prevent your relationship with other women. This is the contract. Are we clear?"
Jake nodded. "No issue from me."
"Alright, then...." Atun formed a hand sign with one hand and said, "[Domain Marble: Tower of Lost Time]!"
Jake widened his eyes in surprise when she used an ability that could only be achieved by world rankers, but he guessed she could do it because she was a World Guardian.
As she finished calling the name of her domain, mist appeared in the surroundings, and the ground shook. After that, the buildings and the ground around them disappeared. However, they didn't fall as they found themselves inside a spacious room.
There was a giant window in front of him, and she pulled him toward it. They looked outside together and saw clouds spreading below them. It turned out they were inside a tall tower that pierced the sky.
"Remember, Jake Butler. This is your first and last trial. I won't encourage you and to be honest, I would rather not include you in our mission, but... Nevermind. I don't know anymore."
When Jake looked at her, he saw a tired expression on her pretty face. He bet she had dealt with many things that were left because of his death. She was tired of facing things alone and failing. It was probably hard to ask for someone else's help too.
Helping her would be tiring, but he wouldn't call himself a man if he didn't help her clean his own mess. Even though he was lazy, he wasn't a heartless monster. "One month to keep Marilyn happy, right? I will do my best. Now, you can send me to the past."
"Keeping Marilyn happy for one month is just the beginning."
"I know. I probably will not have time to relax again, right? But I will do it."
"We will see whether your resolve can be trusted or not after one month. Now, I will send you to the past. Don't resist."
Atun pushed him, and the window behind him suddenly disappeared, making her fall.
Jake knew this was the process of sending him away, so he didn't panic as he was falling down. He kept looking at her, who was crying when looking down at him. He wondered what her reason was to look at him like that. Were he and her close in another timeline? The answer would be shroud in mystery for the time being. However, should they end the disasters, maybe he had the right to ask about her past.
"For now, I will focus on Marilyn and Reina," Jake muttered as he entered the sea of clouds.
Inside the sea of clouds, Jake saw the surroundings playing in reverse. From ten to zero. The time was really going in reverse.
Everything settled when he reached a certain timeline. The time stopped going in reverse and ticked again as normal.
At this time, Jake was holding Reina's hand as they were standing in front of Marilyn and her friends, who were enjoying their tea time.
Marilyn looked at Reina and put on a worried expression. "Is Miss Rowe okay? Do you need me to cure her with a healing spell?"