Chapter 65: Breaking Point
’Okay. It’s definitely the food.’
The conclusion settled into place with certainty and when he thought about it, it all began to make sense...
[Player has returned to designated checkpoint.]
[Checkpoint has been restored to the last stable moment prior to death.]
Why did other people bring their food but Ryker brought his himself?
Why did he care whether or not he was eating slowly?
’Come to think of it, aren’t there cooks who are responsible for serving food?’
He might have been wrong but this was two deaths’ worth of evidence and nothing else seemed to fall into place.
’There’s no way this is a coincidence.’
"Lucas?" Iris called for him, brow furrowed, concerned and expecting a reply to a conversation he’d already lived through twice now. "You’ve been awfully quiet. Were you even listening to me at all?"
"I’m fine," he said, already walking away before she could press further, leaving her standing there with the same confused, worried expression he’d left her with twice before.
In truth, he wasn’t fine. Every version of this evening ended with him dying a death that potentially came from poisoning.
He clenched his jaw. The mere thought of having to sit through another meal, knowing that he was going to die if he ate it made his hands shake despite the composure he tried to force out.
’Nope. I am not doing that again.’
As he walked, he bumped into one of Ryker’s men.
"Oh, sorry."
However, the man stayed silent as he stood in place, a hollow expression on his face.
"Uhhh dude?"
He waved his hand in front of the man’s face before he staggered, blinking as he seemed to regain a bit of composure.
"Oh. Apologies."
Lucas looked at him for a while. "Yeah, no problem..."
The man asked again after a brief pause. "Are you heading somewhere? You seem to be in a rush."
"Oh I’m just thinking of how to get my people out of here."
"You want to leave?"
Lucas raised an eyebrow. "Yeah...?’
"Why would you want to do that?"
Lucas’ eyes widened and he involuntarily stepped back.
That’s when it dawned on him. Whatever was happening seemed to be affecting Ryker’s people as well.
Without saying a word, he walked past him rushing towards the dining hall as a very uncomfortable feeling sat in his chest...
***
Soon, dinner came. And this time he did something totally unexpected.
"No, thank you," Lucas said when Ryker approached with his usual easy smile and the same food balanced in his hands.
Ryker blinked, genuine surprise flickering across his face before he asked. "Not hungry?"
"Nope, not tonight."
The nearby tables looked on in confusion, at the sight of someone actually declining Ryker’s personal hospitality, and Lucas felt every one of those stares focused on him as if drilling into him.
"You should eat something," Ryker pressed, tone still light, though something close to frustration was laced within it. "You’ve barely touched a meal in days. It’s not healthy."
Lucas shrugged. "I’ll manage."
"Lucas." Ryker set the plate down, insistent. "I went through the trouble myself. The least you could do—"
"I said I’m not hungry." The words came out harsh and he walked towards the exist in a hurried pace.
Mark glanced up from his own plate,"Dude. You okay?"
"I’m fine." Lucas said without looking back as he kept walking...
Across the table, Eleanor’s eyes finally lifted from her own plate and she looked at him with worry plainly on her face.
She studied him for a long moment and something in her expression softened as genuine worry bled through it.
"Lucas," she started, quiet.
"I’m fine," he said again, his voice flat as he continued walking without looking back.
***
He made it almost all the way to his room when relief finally began settling in, his breathing finally evened and his hands no longer shaking.
’Okay. Okay... I avoided it. I’m not sure but if it was the food, I have one thing crossed off.’
**CHING**
However, by the time he reached his door, a silver line swung towards him and a sound echoed across the hall and something cut through the back of his neck with impossible speed, and the last thing Lucas registered was the world tilting sideways and his own vision spinning as his head separated from his body...
[You have died.]
[Activating Regression...]
[Failed.]
***
His vision snapped open, and he realised that he was back in the void.
[Player has failed to Regress.]
[Rebooting...]
Lucas crossed his arms, or rather, whatever passed for it.
"Back here again...."
He looked forward expecting to see the Sovereign like that other time but this time, there was no throne. No scythe. No ancient, almost angered voice waiting to meet him.
Instead, the dark around him shifted, and thin lines of light appeared around him.
He looked closely and within each one, a memory played out: The Makara’s horn tearing through him at the lake. The Avalion’s talons at the first camp. Five Bora attacking in a sealed cave. A horde crashing through a wall that didn’t hold, sand filling his lungs in the desert and countless smaller memories kept replaying one by one, over and over in an endless loop.
"What—" Lucas placed a hand over his mouth, feeling the urge to vomit.
He watched each scene play. Every timeline, every failure repeating over and over in the space around him.
"Why—"
It kept playing, and Lucas felt something in his mind buckle under the accumulated weight of it. Dozens of deaths, dozens of endings, all of them his, all of them happening at once, over and over, no one knew about this. He had no one to tell about it. Just him, carrying the accumulated weight of dozens of failures all on his own.
He tried to close his eyes, but it was of no use.
At a point, it seemed like the memories weren’t playing in front of him, but were playing inside him, every death came with a kind of detail that was so gruesome, he couldn’t bare it...
"I’ve died so many times. So, so many times... with no one to tell, no one to talk to..."
"I can’t... I can’t—"
[Ding!]
[Rebooting System...]
[Complete.]
[Regression Activated.]
***
"You’ve barely touched a meal in days. It’s not healthy."
Ryker’s voice came again, exactly as before, and Lucas stood there in front of the same plate, seeing the same insistent smile and his whole body shuddered from what he had been forced to experience moments ago.
[Player has returned to designated checkpoint.]
[Checkpoint has been restored to the last stable moment prior to death.]
"Lucas?" Ryker called, his eyebrows knitting in genuine confusion. "You look unwell."
"Ah—" Lucas opened his mouth, something close to a reply fragment forming, and then his vision blurred as his legs gave out, his knees buckling as if some kind of weight was forced upon him.
He hit the floor before anyone could catch him, and the last thing he heard was the sound of alarmed voices rising around him, and then nothing at all....