The rain fell heavily on Kyan, but he seemed unaffected, his face impassive and empty of emotion. He was back in the alley near his home, the same one where he had already died.
The bald assailant, lying on the ground, groaned in pain, his arm clearly broken. The woman, in her early twenties, kept her distance, her face pale with fear.
"Go." Kyan said with a cutting voice, and the woman, without hesitation, fled, disappearing into the darkness of the rain.
Kyan took slow steps toward the criminal. The man tried to crawl, still dominated by pain, but fear was evident in his eyes.
Kyan knelt beside him and, silently, picked up the knife that lay near his body. His expression was distant, as if his mind were somewhere far beyond the present.
"Do you know what it's like to feel death? You don't... It's not easy to explain." Kyan murmured, his voice devoid of emotion.
The assailant, terrified, tried to speak, but his broken teeth only allowed him to produce incomprehensible sounds. He was weak, unable to react, while Kyan watched, with a vacant gaze.
"You... you're not going to die now." Kyan continued, more to himself. "You've already killed me 437 times. 437." He spoke as if he were talking about something that no longer affected his own reality.
The man, who had been trying to escape, now seemed resigned. He looked at Kyan with a pleading gaze, but Kyan didn't seem to care. He was just there, in no rush, as if time didn't matter.
"This day has happened more than 15,000 times. I always die, no matter what I do. I try to save people, I try to change the course, but in the end... I die. And it all starts again." Kyan looked at the gray sky, as if searching for an answer that would never come.
"I've tried everything. Save others, do something that makes sense. But it's always the same, and the pain... The pain never ends. I've reached my limit." Kyan seemed to speak to himself, his words dragged by the rain. "Today... maybe this will end. Maybe I'll finally put an end to it, once and for all."
He leaned down again, the knife in his hand, and looked at it for a moment. The assailant, weak and desperate, seemed to want to beg for his life, but Kyan, indifferent, simply stood up.
He took a step forward, getting even closer to the fallen criminal, and with a quick motion, made the final gesture, without expression, without emotion, as if performing a necessary task.
Before the sound of the act faded, a voice resonated in Kyan's mind, strong and intense.
"Finally... You've shown what you're made of."
Suddenly, the raindrops stopped in mid-air, frozen, and time seemed to stagnate. Kyan couldn't move, his body frozen, but his mind kept racing.
A figure cloaked in white light appeared before him, its form shapeless, but with an undeniable presence. Kyan felt a mix of curiosity and... something else. Something he couldn't quite identify.
"You surprised me, human. I expected it to be more difficult." The voice resonated in his mind, calm and unshaken, yet with a hint of pleasure. "I thought it would take longer for you to make that decision. But you... you did what was necessary."
The figure moved around Kyan, observing him attentively, almost as if analyzing him. "I didn't expect you to resist for so long. I almost enjoyed watching your attempts to change the course, to save others. But the resistance you showed... was impressive."
The figure, somehow, seemed pleased. As if this was exactly what it wanted. "I created this experiment to understand how much a person could endure. What happens when someone is pushed to their limit, with no rules, no boundaries. And you... you've been the most interesting so far."
Kyan couldn't move anymore, his body still trapped in that state, but he felt an increasing sensation of cold that had nothing to do with the rain. Something was different, and he knew he was no longer alone.
"Now, you've fulfilled your role." The figure made one last turn around him before stopping, facing Kyan. "Let's talk somewhere else. I have much to explain."
With a gesture, the figure extended its hand toward Kyan, and he was enveloped in an intense light, disappearing from the alley.
When the glow finally dissipated, the rain returned, falling heavily, as if nothing had happened. The alley was empty, and the sound of the raindrops hitting the ground was the only thing left, a silent reminder that time, once again, had reset itself.