Chapter 122: Crashing Wave

“Your sister saved the girl right behind me!”

“Wouldn’t it be a waste of her efforts if you—”

“I’m not my sister.”

Shelly heard the sound of a dull impact, followed by the sound of an urgent gasp for air that sorely got stuck in the attempt.

The pillar of safety she hid behind fell, and her unknown protector knelt towards the ground, thwacked and totally pounded out of air.

Shelly froze at the rapid turn of events, and not a moment later, a foot placed itself on her chest and gave her a push.

Suddenly her vision whirled dramatically— from looking straight ahead, to suddenly finding her head swung back to face the gray skies.

The stranger watched as Zan casually stepped over his kneeling body, and placed his feet right at the edge of the river.

The ground that he stood on, was the same spot where she was supposed to be.

It…hurt.

…And fully reveling in his pettiness, Zan actually made sure that his feet were placed in the exact spots of ground that Shelly’s feet used to be.

He peered down, making sure to look her in the eyes as she fell. Everything felt surreal in her falling vision, but in that slow-motion fall, she saw in the corner of her eye as he swaggered his way over to the edge just to look down on her.

Maybe she would have reacted with venom and anger as she did with Elea, but Shelly was too out of it to react in any sort of way except despair.

Shock, horror, helplessness, and regret were all present on her dismayed face. Zan reveled in it all, and the cold expression he held finally transformed. There, a smile of spiteful hatred crept up on his face.

The flooding waves flowed faster, rushing in so fast that everyone present thought they heard a high-pitched cry of excitement.

And just before Shelly actually landed into the water, a rift in the roaring waves opened up like the maws of a monster unfolding its jaws.

No one else noticed but the moon deity, but a bed of numerous water tentacles emerged from out of the portal-slit in the water. The scene looked similar to maggots swarming an open wound, except they slithered out of their gross gash to welcome, and embrace her falling figure.

…Unfortunately, it seemed like drowning was actually the most merciful of fates for the little girl.

‘How odd…’

The way the actors within the memory reacted to all the supernatural events thus far…

The way the light and darkness unnaturally behaved in the memory…

It was as if the two opposing forces really were affecting the past.

‘...Could they be?’

‘That would be mad…”

‘Then…perhaps…a chrono-break?’

‘...That would not be rational either.’

‘The memory is just an anomaly then, rather than the alteration of time itself…’

The dark deity made her conclusions on the matter, although the energetic friction of her thoughts indicated a dissatisfaction with her judgment, and an underlying restless curiosity.

Disgruntled, her focus concentrated back on the unfolding events. Only a tenth of a second actually passed, and Shelly had just sunk into the embrace of the corrupted water. Although the river was loud, not a sound was made when she splashed into the waves.

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Over the elevated dirt that overlooked the river, Zan stood reveling in the feeling of satisfied enmity, and gratifying cruelty. Even as Shelly sank and all he could see was the shadow of her submerged body, he was intent on watching her until she was washed away out of his sight.

He fantasized over her struggling desperately and pointlessly just to keep her head above water; the waves entering her lungs and the sounds of her choking would be succulently sweet.

He waited and waited…but her head never peeked out from the water.

‘Too tired? Don't know how to swim?’

A few seconds had passed since she fell and…it was a little odd how her body was not immediately swept away by the flooding current. The shadow of her body was in the exact same place that she sank in a few seconds ago.

‘Did she get stuck on seaweed or something?’

…Eventually though, the shadow under the water did move, and it started to speed towards the direction of the flooding current.

Zan didn't get to witness what he desired, but he chuckled anyway as if he had done a job well done. It was almost funny how he watched the shadow of her sunken body float down the river, like he was enjoying the beautiful sunset.

…Almost.

Zan felt that he had worked hard to get this, “happily-ever-after.” From the previous altercation, he had suffered terrible head trauma, a broken left hand and arm, a few fractured ribs, and bruises everywhere on his face and body. Luckily the few hits the one-eyed mercenary got on him were exhausted and tired blows, else Zan would be dead, if not crippled or brain-damaged for life.

Instead, now his sister was safe, a sharp stick was stabbed into the one-eyed man’s only other eye, and soon, the girl who aimed to hurt his sister would drown to death. A happy ending indeed. All that was left, was to head home…

Upon that thought and desire, space and time started to warp.

Content and completed, reality itself started to waver and blur. The very world of Zan’s memory started to deconstruct.

…Instead of a quick shift of his consciousness to another memory however, the colors, the sounds, the tastes and smells of the forest and flooding river…started to swirl into a single inconceivable point.

The fabric of reality seemingly turned liquid, and like water going down a drain, space and time was collapsing into a singularity.

What was left beneath the absorption of reality— of the forest and sky, of the air and water, of space and time, was an endless harrowing darkness.

In a sink, the swirling water drained to reveal stone or metal. Whatever was beneath the swirling of reality however, evoked a cosmic and existential sense, of abhorrent dread and suicide. It was terrible from the depths of one's soul.

Zan however did not notice, and it was better that he didn't.

He acted like normal, and casually started to turn away from the flooding river. For some reason, all that was currently left of his memory-world, was a thin stream of flowing water, the small area of ground near himself, and the three remaining actors of the memory. Everything else…did not exist. Replaced by a terrible and disturbing oblivion.

Once Zan fully turned away from the river, the whole of reality would be devoured, including whatever remnants there currently were. Then, his consciousness would transfer elsewhere.

Perhaps it would transfer to another memory, but the moon deity had a feeling he would return to his physical body in the present instead.

In the present, his body had revealed its eldritch make, and had totally transformed itself into an obscene horror of disturbing and alien form.

The flayed human skin flapping out of his intensely stretched and horrifically elastic mouth cavity, would not feel so unnatural to him now…

In the memory-world, only a small sphere of space was all that existed. The thin stream of water that was supposed to be the river, and Shelly's sunken body had disappeared. The spacetime around his own body was quickly being consumed, and it seemed as if he was next.

And just as the ground and his body started to fade…a flash of light and an unstoppable wave of warmth crashed into his back.

His eyes went wide, and quickly he turned even faster behind him to determine what the hell that was.

Zan’s head did not even fully rotate when in the process, his eyes caught in them a passing, luminescent figure, who quickly shot past him and splashed into the water.

The trees, the sky, and the raging river returned. Zan neither noticed the devouring of the world, nor the solidification of its reality by the power of the light.

Instead he was preoccupied with another matter: Were his eyes deceiving him, or was that stranger glowing in the brief moment before he jumped into the river?

Zan looked at his bobbing figure as he fought against the violent current. At the very least, the stranger was not glowing now…

…At the sudden turn of events, an incomprehensible feeling welled up in Zan’s chest. It was too abstract to put into words, but he felt strangely inspired and silently compelled to witness the stranger’s actions.

Zan watched as he handled himself within the waves. With how fearless and stalwart he dove into the river, Zan half expected him to be as graceful as a fish in water.

Unfortunately…he was in fact not an excellent swimmer. To be fair his movements were not horrible, maybe even a bit adept, but they were not optimized nor powerful enough to challenge the flooding currents.

The raging waters pushed his meager frame around, and he had little influence in his own movements. At the sight, Zan was once again reminded of his philosophy, that the weak were incapable of deciding even their own fate.

Yet…nevertheless the boy fought, and he used what little control he had to push him towards the drowning girl. In his own way, he was chasing what he believed to be right.

But the stranger gasped mouthfuls of air every time his head reared above water, and Zan wondered if there was enough energy in that thin and malnourished frame of his to even save himself now.

Seconds and moments passed that Zan did not seem to feel. Swept here and there, he simply continued to watch as the boy continued to struggle. Despite everything, there was neither mockery nor contempt in his eyes…which was odd in of itself. Zan was vengeful to say the least, but he felt not a single speck of hatred for the individual who wanted to save someone he wanted dead.

Zan watched intently, and it was only until there was a bend in the river and the two started to disappear from his sight, did Zan snap out of his reverie.

…

A sunken shadow and a young boy floated down the river. The drowning shadow seemed oddly unaffected by the force of the tide, and instead floated down at its own pace. For the stranger however, the waters wantonly pushed and shoved him around.

Sometimes they would push him closer, and then farther from his goal, but no matter what happened he made his way to her.

Heaving and huffing, he was getting closer to her. Yet the closer he came, the more he felt his body giving up. His will had taken him far, but unless he unlocked a supernatural authority for it, his energy reserves would soon deplete and they would both drown.

Luckily, fortune favored the bold, and miracles often manifested for those insane enough to believe in them…or wise enough to know how powerful their own intention was.

The current started to calm around the river bend, and another ray of white light struck, landing through the water and into the stranger's heart.

Suddenly, he felt revitalized. He was not granted energy by an outside source, but instead he felt as if something within him had awakened. For a brief moment, his heart flashed with a subtle glow, and a strength he had never ever felt before rushed through his whole body.

Using his newfound strength the stranger burst forth, and at the same time, the roaring current momentarily calmed. The waters of the river ceased to obstruct him, and instead seemingly opened a path for him.

Seizing all opportunity he quickly found himself near the shadow of the drowning girl.

“Haaa…!”

He inhaled as much air as he could for what he was about to do, and then dove headfirst under-water to retrieve her.