"You were erased. History has been altered to make you appear to have never happened. In order for time to pass without you, they took away your identity, your name, and your power and sent you into the vacuum.
Her words were like a crushing weight that settled on Icarus. His breathing was laboured as he staggered back. "Then… who am I now?"
Kaia's face became softer. "That's what you must discover. Prior to them doing so.
Icarus looked up just in time to see the sky split apart, revealing something enormous and ancient that was watching them from the vacuum as a shadow descended over them. The whispers became a thunderous roar.
They had been noticed.
Kaia took hold of his wrist. "Run. Now."
Icarus made a snap decision. The emptiness itself started to crumble around them as he turned and ran, the sounds of his lost past shouting after him.
As Icarus and Kaia ran, the echoes of the past yelling after them, the vacuum shuddered. Above them the sky twisted, fragmenting like brittle glass, exposing something beyond—a blackness so absolute that the very emptiness appeared to shudder before it. The weight of invisible forces changing, clashing, and reorganising caused the air to burn. It seemed as though reality was attempting to rid itself of them.
Then it occurred.
Before them exploded a surge of energy, a wave that was quick than Icarus could understand. For a time, the way forward was evident. Then, as if it had always been there, waiting for the proper time to appear, a figure appeared between them and the crumbling remains of the destroyed city.
The person was wearing armour that changed between states of reality and shimmered with the reflection of all timelines simultaneously. As though he were caught between endless moments, his shape seemed both absolutely still and a blur. His face was hidden behind a smooth mask that was expressionless but exuded a certain familiarity.
There was a painful weight to his very presence, as if time itself twisted and bent beneath the weight of his existence, recoiling in his wake.
With desperate gasps of breath, Icarus slid to a stop. This presence, this creature, something about it chilled him. Fear wasn't the reason. It was something far worse.
Familiarity.
Taking a hesitant step back was Kaia, who had stayed eerily calm despite the atrocities they had seen. There was a rare touch of hesitancy in her quiet voice. "That's him. The person who lives outside of time. The Velocity Phantom."The hands of Icarus balled into fists. "Who is he?"
The Phantom arched his head, seemingly to study Icarus. Then he said something.
"You're already familiar with me. Or you did, anyway. before I was taken away by time. prior to their stealing everything from us both."
Both young and old, serene yet bearing the weight of barely restrained rage, the voice was layered and twisted. Icarus's thoughts whirled with fragmentary memories of wars waged in long-forgotten realms and murmurs of a name that was just out of reach.
A name that was no longer in his mind.
Icarus stepped forward cautiously. "Tell me. Who are you? What was stolen from me?
The Phantom made what could have been a laugh—or a sigh of remorse. "Never ready for the truth, but always so anxious for answers. Excellent, Icarus. Pay close attention.
Then he disappeared.
He was standing in front of them one minute. The next he was behind Icarus, his voice like a whisper in the wind, grazing his ear.
"You weren't the only one who fell. They also took me. They were afraid of what we might turn into. But I managed to get back, unlike you. I transcended time and even the boundaries of causality itself. I was forced into this by them. They destroyed me, and in their selfishness, they made something that even they were powerless to stop."
Icarus turned, but the Phantom had already vanished once more. He flitted into being next to Kaia, examining her with an interest that chilled Icarus to his bone.
"And you…" The Phantom's head cocked. "Your existence was never intended. But here you are. A contradiction embedded throughout time itself. Fascinating. Very intriguing.
Without flinching, Kaia looked him in the eye. "But you're scared of me nonetheless. I see it.
The Phantom was quiet for a while. Then he chuckled, a thunderclap piercing the air. "Are you scared? No. However, I exercise caution. You are an exception. Additionally, abnormalities are frequently erratic.
Icarus was fed up. "Enough of the games. Tell me the truth if you know it. Who were we? "Why did they erase us?"
For a long time, the Phantom remained still. And then, suddenly, he moved.
The gap between them was ripped up by a burst of wind—no, something much stronger than wind—and before Icarus could react, the Phantom's hand was on his chest.
It only took one touch, yet it was like the whole weight of time itself was bearing down on him.
Then—
Recollections.
A battlefield spanning the infinite passageways of time. the conflict between the gods who controlled life itself. And in the middle of it all—two figures standing next to each other. One has the ability to control time itself. As simply as one breathes, the other is breaking the laws of physics by travelling faster than illumination.
Phantom and Icarus.
Together, they had fought. Not as adversaries. Not as competitors.
like brothers in arms.
As the vision dwindled, Icarus gasped and staggered back. The fragments of his past were slipping through his fingers like grains of sand as his mind reeled from the impact. His throat was dry as he gazed up at the Phantom.
"You… you were my brother."
The Phantom's head cocked slightly. "Yes, in all respects that were relevant. But Icarus, time is harsh. We were wiped out, reduced to echoes. I struggled back. However, you were abandoned to decay in the abyss. You have to ask yourself, "What is it?" now.
Kaia interrupted, her voice piercing with insight. "Entities like him become more prevalent the more we travel. Time is unravelling, that's why. We draw echoes of the past and future closer to us every time we navigate this fractured world. He discovered us today for that reason. It wasn't a coincidence. It was bound to transpire.
The Phantom took a step back, his body starting to twitch as though he didn't naturally stand motionless. "After that, you have an option. You can continue fleeing in quest of answers that you might not be prepared to confront. Alternatively, you might accept who you were destined to be.
Kaia's eyes narrowed. "And what would that be?"
The Phantom's eyes darted back and forth between them. "A resurrected god. Or a lost phantom forever. He makes the choice. But Icarus, make a good decision. What about the people who stole everything from us?
There was a hint of battle in his voice as it grew darker.
"They're observing. And they're scared."
And with that, the Phantom was gone—this time not just gone, but speeding faster than anyone could imagine, leaving behind nothing but a ripple of emptiness.
Icarus stood there with a flurry of new information and doubt racing through his head. His past was now a spectre that hung over him, rather than a mystery. And now he realised, for the first time—
He wasn't by himself.
The opponent wasn't either.