Chereads / How I became a Catalyst / Chapter 20 - Creation

Chapter 20 - Creation

Demian found himself floating in a void, an endless expanse of nothingness. Only his mind remained, adrift in this formless space. He replayed his decisions, haunted by the thought that everything was his fault. The deaths, the destruction—he repeated endlessly, "It's my fault. It's my fault. It's my fault."

After what felt like an eternity, Demian suddenly woke up in his bed. Confused, he sprang up and checked the date—it was the day he discovered he was a Catalyst. He thought to himself, "Is this God's doing? Did I reverse time?" But then he realized it wasn't time reversal; it was his power of creation. He had recreated the exact world he used to live in, and his consciousness chose this date.

Rushing outside, he encountered the moment when mercenaries first attacked. In a blink of an eye, he appeared behind them and killed them. Desperate to find Anahit, he ran through the city until he found her on a rooftop, gazing into the distance.

"Anahit," he called.

She turned around, startled, and slashed at him with her powers. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Demian. You saved me."

"I don't know anyone named Demian," she replied, suspicious. "Who are you, and how did you find me?"

"Anahit, please. You saved me," he pleaded, and in a desperate move, he appeared in front of her and touched her head, making her fall asleep. He took her to the hideout where she had first taken him.

When Anahit woke up, she was tied up. "Let me go!" she demanded.

"Please, listen to me. Just give me a chance," Demian implored. "Do you know this place? This is your hideout."

Anahit looked around, recognizing it. "This is my hideout. How do you know this?"

"This is the place you took me when you saved me," Demian explained. "In the other universe, you saved me from the mercenaries and brought me here. You trained me, and we were on the run for days. Then they captured you, and for three years, I trained to rescue you. I did rescue you, and introduced you to my master. But then the mercenaries captured me, did experiments on me, and told me about my true power: creation. After that, you saved me again, but they... they killed you, Anahit. I lost control and destroyed everything. The whole universe. But then, somehow, I used my power of creation to recreate the world we are in now."

Anahit stared at him, incredulous. "So you're telling me all of this happened, and you want me to believe you?"

"I didn't want to do this, but this will hurt a bit," Demian said, touching her head and transferring his past memories to her.

Anahit groaned in pain as the memories flooded in. She saw herself saving Demian, the training, the rescue, and finally, her own death. She realized Demian was telling the truth. "So this will repeat again and again?"

"No, it will not," Demian insisted, slowly uncuffing her.

But Anahit ran. "If I'm with you, I'll die," she said.

"No, Anahit, I'll protect you with my life," Demian pleaded.

"Like you did before?" she retorted, her voice filled with pain.

Demian groaned in anger at himself. "Please, Anahit, trust me."

But Anahit ran away, leaving Demian standing there. "It's her choice," he said to himself. "I can't force her to trust me after I got her killed."

Demian's path was clear: he would save every Catalyst held hostage and kill every mercenary. We see Anahit running, jumping from building to building, holding her head as she got flashbacks from the other universe. She saw herself saving Demian, but the memory faded away. She kept running to her next hideout.

After that, Demian stood at the highest place, looking over the city, determined to change the course of events and save everyone.