Regressed With A Copy System: Breaking the Loop-Chapter 55: Glimpse

"Who are you really, Nolan?"

"Um… you just… called my name," Nolan replied, blinking.

Liana palmed her face, knowing he was just messing with her. "No, no, stop it. I don't mean that. What are you?"

Nolan chuckled lightly and turned around, walking forward.

"Are you," she said, following him, "a… Regressor?"

Nolan's smile disappeared and he stopped.

"Have you really lived a thousand times?" she added, stopping behind him. "Say something."

Nolan glanced over his shoulder, but said nothing, then he looked away again.

It wasn't like he didn't try explaining to others that he had been regressing before, but they either thought he was crazy, spawning tales or the ones who almost did said he was just a foreseer.

Something about Liana finding out even without him telling her directly, didn't sit well with him. She did not exist outside his loop, so what was the cause? Everyone besides him, had a script set by the Architects, right?

Unless if, 'She is going off script, because she never had one to begin with,' Nolan thought to himself. That had to be it.

Liana never really lived in any regression. She had a fated death, but she survived this time around. She never had a script, so she wasn't really influenced by the Architects like everyone else.

"You are, aren't you?" she spoke again. "Every action, every nonsensical statement, every suspicion, every sarcastic comment that we could not understand. It was —It was you being literal and cautious."

Nolan slowly turned around to face her once again.

"You know all that's going to happen. You know when—" Liana paused, swallowing hard as she felt a lump in her throat. "D-do I… die soon?" 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Nolan gave small, almost imperceptible smile. "Do you really want to know?"

She hesitated, thinking it through. It was a question she needed to ask herself. Did she really want to know? "Y-yes," she whispered, enough for him to hear.

"I don't know," he said, walking past her, but she suddenly held his hand.

Just as he felt her touch, Nolan's world collapsed, shattering like glass. He was now standing in a dark space, brows furrowed.

'What just happened? Where am I?' he thought, trying to use one of his abilities to light up the place, but it was futile. His system did not even respond.

Nolan gritted, turning around. "Anyone here?" he asked no one in particular, his voice echoing. "Liana, what is this about? What did you—"

"Where are you looking, Nolan?" Liana's voice came in, cutting him off.

He spun around, and there she was standing beside him with a puzzled expression. He looked at himself and he was now in his uniform, only this time it was black, same as Liana's.

The world had changed, the darkness gone. He was now standing in a field too familiar to mistake. The trees were without leaves, the smell of decay strong in the air, the ground begging for water.

In front of them was the one thing that made Nolan scared over his previous lives: The Seraph Spire. Though it was blurry, he still knew what was in front of him.

"Hellooo? Are you listening?" Liana asked, waving at him.

Nolan's heart started to beat faster. "Huh? Just the two of us?"

"The two of you? Are you cutting us out of the party?" another voice came in.

'What's happening? I thought we were alone,' Nolan thought. He turned around to find a bunch of other people, but their faces were unclear. He couldn't tell who they were, no matter how hard he tried to look.

"N-Nolan… go!" Someone barely voiced, behind him.

When he turned around, the place had changed again and he was inside the Spire. Someone was on the ground, bleeding profusely. "GO! They need your help!" they yelled.

Nolan was confused. He didn't even know what was happening and who needed his help.

The world suddenly kept on changing, showing each of his supposed teammates all dying.

Then it finally stopped.

Here Liana stood alone, surrounded by corpses of the great demons that were in the tower, the Demon King struggling to get up. Then it glitched and Liana was now walking towards him, staggering and bleeding badly, just a single demon behind her—One Nolan also believed was the final boss, not knowing there were a lot more.

Then it glitched again to the first scene and back.

She stopped in front of him and asked, "D-did we… d-do it? You can now rest, right?"

A silhouette suddenly stood, towering behind Liana, its hand raised, ready to strike.

Nolan tried drawing his sword, but it seemed stuck. His abilities were also not working. He started to run towards her, shouting her name, "LIANA! BEHIND YOU!" but his voice seemed to die down in his mouth, the distance between him and here suddenly stretching more and more.

A blade pierced through her and she spat out blood.

Nolan's eyes widened in horror and he fell to his knees, breathing heavily. Though the distance was long, he still heard her voice like she was whispering to him.

She tilted her head, smiling. "What's with the face?" she asked, "This all doesn't matter. What matters is you finally getting your peace, right? Nothing and no one else matters to you."

His brows slowly went up and everything turned black again.

There he saw a brilliant white light in front of him. "You never change a bit," it said.

"What are you?" Nolan asked, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.

"You wouldn't know even if I told you… yet," It replied. "See, you don't understand what you are facing at all. The greatest drawback right now is, you have eyes, yet blind; ears, yet deaf; a mind, yet clueless."

"W-what are you talking about?" Nolan asked.

The light suddenly started to fade away, and what it said before completely disappearing, left him puzzled: "Sometimes, the greatest of demons may be yours."

Before Nolan could understand what was happening, the world had returned to how it was. His breaths were even, though he was sweating. From the looks of things, he wasn't gone for more than ten seconds.

"Why are you not answering me?" Liana pressured, releasing his hand and walking to his front. "Do I die soon?" she asked again, voice cracking.

"Like I said earlier. I don't know," he said, "because you never lived."

Liana didn't know how to feel at the moment. What he said only fed her curiosity, rather than being an answer. "What do you mean?