"What's next, Quinto? Is this all you had for me?" Held by the shadows, Yuki asked with a smile.
"Hehehe, Onii-chan, it's true, I lost... But there are more surprises. Why don't you take a closer look at that fragment?" Reisuke, who had been silent until now, spoke with a smile on his face. Keeping the Key in this Time castle wasn't easy, not to mention he was cheating.
Despite losing, Reisuke had prepared a special surprise. He was summoned for this purpose—to stop the Key. There was no doubt he was stronger than the 'Reisuke' of this world, which is why this task was assigned to him.
They underestimated Yuki, though. As someone not dependent on Deus, his power wasn't bound by the rules of the game. Perhaps if both Reisukes had joined forces, the odds of defeating Yuki would have increased, but it's a pity they went separate ways.
Of course, everything has a weakness. Yuki, like Reisuke, was tired. Much of his energy had been consumed, and he was on the verge of collapse. If it weren't for Est stabilizing his spiritual world, he would have long been consumed by the Demon King.
"Huh? Fine, I'll do it. You're finished after all." Despite all this, Yuki raised an eyebrow and decided to take a look at the fragment in his hand. After all, he went through the trouble of collecting the pieces.
(Fool, no matter how strong you are, your main priority is Yuno Onee-chan... Let's see what you do when you see this.)
Watching Yuki so focused on the Time fragment, Reisuke smiled cruelly.
On the other hand, Yuki couldn't help but furrow his brow intensely. The fragment in his hand showed him various images, along with a completely different future.
A future where he doesn't exist...
"What's wrong, Onii-chan? Don't you think it's unfair? Snatching away others' futures..."
"..."
With Yuki frowning, Reisuke couldn't help but mock him. After all, his words held truth.
Yuki took away the futures of other people. His mere presence drastically changed the future, altering Yuno's future as well.
Yuki, on the other hand, remained silent and continued to watch.
"You're a villain, Onii-chan! You're an anomaly! You shouldn't exist!"
"..."
"I wonder what Yuno Onee-chan will say when she sees this? Isn't this the same as stealing the future from her?"
"...."
"You played with her destiny, Onii-chan! All those memories! You denied them to her!"
"..."
"You're selfish... You're scum, Yuno Onee-chan's happiness... Even to the most important person in your world..."
"...."
"Why, Onii-chan? Is this a game to you? Are we people in this world just your toys? It's easy for you to play with destiny..."
Reisuke's lips were trembling as he finished speaking these words. There were many things he wanted to say. After all, there was a future among them where he was happy, but it's a pity that future was taken away from him.
(That's right... Just like Yuno Onee-chan, she took away my future, and Onii-chan stole the future from everyone.)
Adding these words to his heart, Reisuke continued.
"You're not a hero, Onii-chan. Even if you save the world, no one will remember you in the end. Your future is to be lonely, just a shadow that exists in the world. You'll disappear, and that will be your end. Yuno Onee-chan deserves to be happy. You are her downfall. If you have a bit of love in you, give her up..."
"....."
"Give up the future and return what you denied us..."
"...."
"If only you hadn't appeared, the future would be bright... If only you didn't exist..."
"...."
Closing his eyes slightly, Yuki sighed and opened them abruptly, looking at Reisuke.
There was hatred, pain, uncertainty in the child's eyes, as if what he saw had caused him immense damage.
But it's not like Yuki didn't understand. This child is too intelligent for his age and too young for what he saw and experienced.
There's a rule for Yuki, one he doesn't dare to break...
Don't look too much into the future...
As someone who manipulates time, he knows how painful the future can be.
The temptation to have that power is immense, and many succumb to it.
Reisuke is a clear example of that...
The future is a path of illusion, one can only walk step by step.
Live in the present, let an illusion not hurt you...
This was Yuki's code, but it's something Reisuke didn't understand...
In that fragment, Reisuke got lost in a dream, a future that could have happened once, a future full of doom...
A future where he sacrificed two worlds, and only one survived...
The Time fragment split into three parts, just like three timelines.
And in the three timelines, Yuki doesn't exist...
In the first timeline, Deus, the god of Time, created this game. However, because Yuki doesn't exist, this game never entered the second stage. There was no one to bear the burden of the world.
In that timeline, Yuno fell in love with a boy, Yukiteru Amano, First...
Together, they faced all the difficulties, killed everyone, and when the day of the world's end arrived, they decided to commit suicide and move on to a better life together...
However, Yuno refused her fate, so she deceived her boyfriend and didn't commit suicide, becoming a Goddess.
With a new God as support, the world was not destroyed. But that's when Yuno's Nightmare began. After all, she couldn't revive Yukiteru.
She didn't have that power...
Unable to accept reality, she destroyed the world and resigned from the throne, just before chaos consumed her and she became an Overlord. She went back in time, creating a parallel timeline, avoiding a catastrophic ending.
In this second timeline, Yuno killed her 'self' from that timeline and took her place in the world.
Again, she joined Yukiteru and faced all the trials. However, this time, Yuno wanted to die at the hands of her love.
Unfortunately, Yukiteru couldn't bring himself to kill her, causing another catastrophe, where Yuno decided to create another timeline.
Seeing that he didn't have the courage to kill her, she decided to trap him in an illusion of a perfect world where Yukiteru goes with his parents to see the stars. But Yukiteru manages to escape and prevents Yuno from killing her own 'self' from the third world. Yuno ends up committing suicide, and this is how Yukiteru becomes the God of the second world.
In the third timeline, the so-called 'Perfect' timeline by Reisuke, because in that timeline, everyone is happy.
There's no survival game, and the catastrophes and tragic pasts of all the participants are different. In this timeline, both Tsubaki, Reisuke, and Yuno lead a happy life—a life of love, a normal life.
A future they will never have...
And Yuki understood this. Because of him, that future will never exist—it's just an illusion. That's why Reisuke blamed everything on the one who wore the crown, the one who wasn't a hero, the one whose existence meant the absence of the desired future.
"You're right, I'm not a hero. My future is certain—I'll end up alone in the shadows and disappear into them."
Indeed, from the moment he wore this Crown, he became the last defense of the world, a person who lives in Order and destroys Chaos.
Sometimes poets have said, "Heroes don't die; they are reborn as legends."
But he is a Champion, unlike Heroes, he will fall in the end, and no one will remember him. He will die for the glory of the world...
He is both the end and the beginning of a new era...
However...
"But I already know that. That's why... I will live, pursue my desires. I won't let anyone judge the way I live. I am selfish, for my desires, I will play with the destinies of people."
Yes, even with the burden of the world, Yuki won't stop pursuing his desires. He did it in his first life, and he will continue in this one until his time is up...
"That's why you're wrong. I'm not Yuno's downfall; she has suffered too much in her first and second timelines. I'll give her the happiness she deserves because from the moment I came to this world, I became her future."
*Creakkk...
Crushing the fragment in his hand, Yuki smiled...
---