The chandelier lights turned off when the sun rose from the mountainous horizon past the clerestory windows.
"Is that why Pueblo is the way it is... why Bastian is a memory now?" Iker asked, the whites in his eyes getting a little red. "We're in a story trying to predict the future?"
"Once upon a time... yes," Spiderland replied. "However, in times of peace science fiction is supposed to warn readers of incoming perils... and in times of peril..."
"So what's the point of warning in times of peace if people are just going to call you an alarmist? Pessimistic?" Iker asked. "More like people that want utopias like to sweep shit under the rug, and let problems get worse. They are more concerned with shutting you up then actually making the world a better place."
"Well, Iker... it is ironic that's coming from you," Spiderland replied.
Iker's heart sank as more sunlight poured over the shadows cast by the bookshelves and ladders. During these exchanges Spiderland stared forward the whole time, but ve turned vis head to meet his gaze with vis own hollow eyeholes inside the smooth tooth helmet. As a testament to how much the eldritch artefact smoothened to enmesh into the god's biology and technology, a twinkle flashed across vis forehead as sunlight hit it.
"Why... why is it ironic? My English teacher said I don't understand irony... when I was in school a long time ago."
"There have been more than forty resets that have toyed with all our recollections and all our memories, however, when it comes to you Iker, it's one of four reasons you are the way you are. I told you one of the other reasons earlier," Spiderland explained. "However, we should get to the reason why I brought you all the way here."
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
"What is the reason you brought me here?" Iker mumbled.
"In certain timelines you chose to forget parts of your past. Not through flux but through products you purchased," Spiderland explained. "Mixing it with all the esper and time shenanigans across timelines had lasting consequences."
"Products..." Iker whispered.
"Before I move on Iker," Spiderland interrupted.
"You do realize in that timeline you came from, the one in Pueblo, Camilo killed you right?"
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
JULY 5, 2080
RESETS: 0
Alice. Iker. Get out of there! NOW!
On the second floor of the Flamingo Hotel, what appeared to be a tenebrous crucifixion at first was actually the silhouette of an interdimensional shadow man.
Get out! Get out!
Enough of you predicting the future! No one cares. Look at how much the people around you cared. When you told everyone of Project 2025, you were called a conspiracy theorist. Live your life and let them sleepwalk to extinction.
Alice! Sober up and get out! I am not predicting my own future!
Iker you stay! I've had enough of being in this guy's mind.
"They are here sir," the man in the hallway said. What at first appeared to be the arms of a corpse on a cross was actually the overlong brims of a sinister hat. When he had tilted his head to reveal their locations, the drop of the hat's brim revealed the summoner he was escorting to the location of Iker and Alice. "Ernest Comsa, over here."
Ernest Comsa, the godhead of the Ember Conglomerate. Fully masked with anti-recognition layers and wearing gear under his soles and atop his masked head to misinform cameras about his height.
"Thank you Hat Man," he replied distortedly, pulling out a laser revolver with a sophisticated silver silencer.
After kicking down the door with his cybernetic leg, Ernest Comsa emptied his clip into the hotel room.
The pair of screams that echoed were short lived.
