I stepped out of the helicopter, and the icy wind immediately burned my face. Around me were only snow-covered forests and the blank, concrete walls of the Sector "Beta" complex. My task was absurd: to interview a creature that sees you even before you open your mouth.

  "Why me, specifically?" I grumbled under my breath, adjusting my collar. "I'm just a normal human. Ordinary plankton."

  But in Sector "Zero", everything was different. Some demons, for unknown reasons, agreed to cooperate with Mira. Whether out of fear, boredom, or due to the terms of a contract that only she knew.

  I opened the heavy office door. Inside, it was unnaturally quiet. A man sat behind the desk. At first glance—an ordinary human, but his eyes... One burned with a toxic green light, and the second was flooded with absolute, impenetrable blackness. The moment I walked in, he blinked, and his eyes took on a normal human appearance.

  "Hello," I began, pulling out a voice recorder.

  "I know," he interrupted me with a dry, creaky voice. "Sit down. Begin. We have exactly twelve minutes before one of the probabilities makes you sneeze."

  I swallowed hard and turned on the recording.

  "Tell me about yourself and your powers for the archive."

  "I am the Demon of Time," he leaned back in his chair. "The embodiment of the fear of the past, present, and future. My power is rated at eighty points out of a hundred. Not much when compared to the 'firsts,' but enough to control this world."

  He touched the edge of the desk with a long, pale finger.

  "By touching objects, I see their history. It's no problem for me to look into a creature's past a week or a year back. But it all depends on entropy. If there was little activity around the object—I see everything clearly. But if the history was turbulent, chaotic... the picture blurs."

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "And what about the future?" I asked, trying not to look into his eyes.

  "The future is not a road, it's a forest," he smirked. "I don't see one path, but millions of probabilities. If the probability is simple—for example, the weather—I can predict it a week in advance with accuracy down to the second. But the moment certain creatures... intervene, everything changes. Chaos breaks it."

  I glanced at my notes.

  "It says here that you hold a personal animosity toward Aurora. Is this true?"

  His jaw clenched so hard that I heard the grinding of teeth. His pupils flared green and black again for a moment.

  "I will not say why," he cut me off.

  "What are your strengths and weaknesses in combat?"

  "In battle, I see the opponent's attacks before their muscles even have time to contract," the Demon's voice became cold. "I can slow myself down relative to the world, or speed up. But affecting another's flesh is difficult for me. And if the opponent is too strong and chaotic..."

  "Like Subject Zero?" I interjected.

  The Demon of Time fell silent. He looked at his hand, and it seemed to me that it was trembling slightly.

  "With Subject Zero, everything is different. I cannot predict his next step at all. You know, once I touched him. I wanted to see the past—and saw only a hopeless blackness, devouring the light. I wanted to see the future—and the same blackness was there. The void. No probabilities."

  He shifted his gaze to the folder with Mira's documents.

  "It is difficult with Mira, too. One movement of hers—and thousands of new branches of the future flare up before me. She is too complex. Therefore, I try to stay away from them. And I advise you to do the same."

  He suddenly leaned forward and extended his palm to me.

  "Listen, Mira's assistant... You want to know how your day will end today, don't you? Or when you will meet your death? Just touch my hand."

  I looked at his fingers and hastily hid my hands behind my back.

  "No, thank you. I prefer not to know."

  I knew what the catch was. The Demon of Time was the greatest illusionist. He could show you a future that will never happen, make you believe a lie, and drive you insane from expectations.

  "The interview is over," I said, turning off the voice recorder.

  "Twelve minutes and three seconds," the Demon said, looking at my back. "You didn't sneeze. It seems I made a mistake. How interesting..."

  I practically ran out of the office.