While Max went on his Sex trip and gave a Task to his AS100 squad to seekout the culprit here, Nakul.
Nakul's heart pounded as he slipped through the underbrush, the dense forest swallowing him whole as he crossed the boundary of his laboratory.
The AS100 Squad could be anywhere, and the only chance he had was to lose them in the forest's labyrinth. His smartphone, clutched tightly in his hand, buzzed intermittently with messages from Ozwel, a lifeline in the chaos.
As he wove through the trees, his breath heavy, Nakul could barely process what had happened in the past few hours.
Ozwel was gone, or at least, his physical form had disintegrated. But now, impossibly, he was communicating with Nakul through a device that shouldn't even be functioning. None of it made sense, but he didn't have the luxury of questioning it. Not now.
He pushed through the underbrush, the forest growing denser as he ascended the hillside. The smell of pine filled his senses, grounding him as his thoughts spun.
Fifteen minutes later…
Nakul finally reached the top of the hill, panting from the exertion. He turned to look back at the direction he had come from, his eyes searching the horizon for any sign of pursuit. But what he saw made his blood run cold.
The building where his Laboratory and he had spent years of his life, where every experiment, every breakthrough had been realized was vanishing before his eyes. It was as though the building was being erased from existence, its structure dissolving into particles of light that shimmered and faded into nothingness.
The scene was surreal, like watching a mirage dissipate into thin air.
"My life's work..."
Nakul's voice trembled as he sank to his knees, tears streaming down his face.
It was all gone. Everything he had sacrificed for, every moment he had dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, wiped away in an instant.
His sobs echoed in the silence of the forest, the world around him growing colder with each passing second.
It was as if the whole building was dematerialized just a light particle fades away.
As he wept, his phone buzzed in his hand. Wiping his tears, he squinted at the screen, where a new message from Ozwel had appeared.
*"It is time, Nakul,"* the message read.
Another text appeared before Nakul could fully grasp the first:
*"I'm going to tell you everything that happened to me up until now, but first find a place to hide and sit."*
Nakul's mind raced, but he forced himself to stand, his legs shaky as he moved deeper into the forest.
He found a secluded spot beneath a large oak tree, its thick branches casting a shadow that seemed to cocoon him from the world outside. Leaning against the tree, he took a deep breath, his fingers trembling as he held his phone, waiting for Ozwel's next message.
*"I broke through the wall of all realities,"* Ozwel's text began, the words appearing slowly as though typed by unseen hands. *"I spent hundreds of years traversing dimensions, each one different, each one with its own rules. Time isn't linear in these realms, Nakul. In the Fourth Dimension, time can be manipulated, treated as a physical object, just like space. I am inside a Tesseract now, a place where I can interact with every moment in time simultaneously."*
Nakul's eyes widened as he read, struggling to comprehend the magnitude of what Ozwel was saying.
He had always known Ozwel was brilliant, but this…this was something else entirely. Ozwel had transcended beyond the boundaries of what was humanly possible. He had become something greater something that defied explanation.
*"I can interact with you in every timepiece,"* Ozwel continued. *"Just as I did when you lost your parents. It was I who guided you to seek me out, to pursue this experiment."*
Nakul's breath caught in his throat as the realization dawned on him. The mysterious guidance he had felt after his parents' death the inexplicable urge to seek answers in quantum mechanics and consciousness, it had all been Ozwel. He had been there all along, steering Nakul toward this moment.
"Ozwel…you've become something beyond human, haven't you?" Nakul whispered, his voice trembling with awe. He stared at the phone, waiting for Ozwel's response.
*"I have transcended, Nakul,"* Ozwel replied. *"But I am still bound by certain rules of reality. I can't change everything. I can't bring back those we lost."*
Nakul's hope, which had been slowly rekindling, shattered once more.
"But you can, can't you? You can bring everyone back, right?" Nakul's voice cracked, desperation seeping into every word.
There was a pause before Ozwel's next message appeared. *"I'm sorry, Nakul. I've tried everything. I've altered the course of reality more times than you can imagine, in countless Realities I created where we can be with our family forever . But each time, the outcome is the same. Our loved ones…their deaths are a fixed point in every timeline."*
Nakul's heart sank. He had heard of fixed points in time a concept where certain events were so significant, so crucial, that they couldn't be changed, no matter what. "A…a CONNON EVENT," Nakul whispered, his eyes filling with tears once more.
*"Exactly,"* Ozwel's text confirmed. *"No matter what I do, their deaths are inevitable. One way or another, the universe always finds a way to course-correct. I've seen it happen countless times."*
Nakul's chest tightened with grief and frustration. He had hoped that Ozwel, with all his newfound power, could change the past, could undo the pain that had driven him to this point. But the reality was far more cruel. The universe had rules, and even someone like Ozwel couldn't break them.
*"But there is still hope, Nakul,"* Ozwel continued. *"We can still make a difference, here and now. We can ensure that their deaths were not in vain, that the knowledge we've gained can be used to protect others, to prevent further tragedy."*
Nakul wiped his eyes, trying to find strength in Ozwel's words. He had lost so much, but perhaps there was still something left to fight for. Something worth preserving.
*"I need you to stay strong, Nakul,"* Ozwel urged. *"There are forces at play that we barely understand.THE SYNDICATES, TREQUETRA, But together, we can navigate this. We can survive. But you have to trust me."*
Nakul nodded, even though Ozwel couldn't see him. "I trust you, Ozwel. I always have."
"Good. Now, find a place to hide for the night. Tomorrow, we begin the next phase of our plan."
"What is Trequetra? How do they have so much power, to think a whole building can be obliterated without a trace?"
No massage appeared while Nakul looked at his phone screen.