Defiance of the Fall

CH 487

Default Dyslexic Roboto Lora

u wouldn’t have yet another excuse to avoid doing the right thing.
We bled for you.
Why won’t you do the same?” she said just as her eyes grew blank, her final breath leaving her lungs.

Panic made Zac ’s heart beat like a drum, but he suddenly calmed down as he looked at the unmoving body of Thea Marshall.

’

”You ’re alive, and I will save you all, ” Zac growled as the world crumbled.

He had dreaded this moment, but Zac was finally here, his fingers fidgeted with nervousness as he walked across the field toward the man sitting on a rock.
His steps were unsteady from the mounting pain in his head, but this thing couldn ’t be held off any longer.

The man looked upon hearing Zac ’s approach, his disfigured face scrunching up in anger upon seeing who it was.
David slowly stood up with the assistance of a cane, and he spat at the ground the moment Zac arrived.

“I was captured, tortured, left for dead.
All because I used to know you,” David said before Zac had a chance to greet him, his face contorting in anger and pain.
“I wake up screaming every night, drenched in sweat, because of what that lunatic put me through.
But you didn’t even come to visit me.
You threw me out of your mind as you stowed me away on this desolate island, where I wouldn’t be able to remind you of what you’ve become.”

“Hannah,” Zac said, but he was interrupted by David, whose fury was quickly mounting.

“Hannah was traumatized, manipulated, and abused.
First by The Lord of Eyes, then by the infiltrators, and finally by your little demon lover.
You couldn’t even wait for a second to cast her away the moment she finally regained a sense of stability.
All because she didn’t fit with your ‘new self’, the great lone-wolf warrior who consorted with Demons,” David spat.

“But perhaps it’s for the best, no?” the mutilated man said as he swung his cane at Zac.
“Better to be a cast-away than turned into a cursed piece of jewelry.”

Zac tried to catch the cane, but another wave of pain made him space out, and he found himself on the ground as David desperately tried to pummel him.

”It ’s all your fault! ” he screamed, but he was forced to stop as he spat out a mouthful of blood from the exertion.

”I ’m sorry, ” Zac said through grit teeth as he woke up from his stupor, once again realizing he was inside an illusion.
”The way I treated you isn ’t right.
I will visit the real you when this is all over. ”

The world dissipated in a haze, and he was surprised to find himself in a very familiar place, this time completely aware he was still undergoing the Heart Tribulation.
It was his childhood room where he had lived until he moved out at 21.
However, it looked vastly different from how it did before the Integration.
It was rather decorated exactly the same as when he was a child.

That wasn’t all, as he could actually see himself lying asleep in his bed.
Why was the System showing him this? It was no doubt another trick of the Heart Tribulation, but why was it so different compared to the other ones that preyed on his emotions? Why had he come here like some sort of Ghost of Christmas Future?

’

A wave of agony suddenly burst through the illusion, and Zac found himself soundlessly screaming into the room.
The waves of pain were getting worse, and Zac was getting worried that the other Tribulation was running amok with him stuck in these visions.

Becoming aware that this was all an illusion obviously wasn ’t the key to getting out, so he started to look around for any clues on how to break the illusion.
But there was no clearly identifiable clue to help him escape, and he could only turn to the sleeping form in the bed.

It was a surreal feeling to see himself as a ten-year-old.
Things he had completely forgotten were reproduced with perfect crispness as well.
There were his posters and the orange lava lamp that always were turned on when he went to bed but inexplicably turned off when he awoke.
Of course, it was his parents who turned it off as they checked in on him, but today it was still turned on in the middle of the night.

However, that small detail wasn’t the only thing that was a bit off.

There was a note of discordance in the memory, the sounds of agitated voices seeping through the door.
The two voices grew gradually louder, but Zac still couldn’t make out any distinct words.
The fact that it felt like his head was splitting apart didn’t make things easier either.
He tried to move closer to the source of the commotion, but he found himself stuck next to the bed, or perhaps rather stuck to his younger self.

However, the argument taking place outside his room was soon enough to wake up the ten-year-old version of himself, and Zac couldn’t help but feel some trepidation as he saw himself getting out of bed.
He looked just as confused as Zac felt, but he still silently moved over toward his door.
Zac thankfully moved in accord, and they got closer to the source of the sounds.

“… Doctor,” Zac heard as they inched closer, and he could finally confirm that it was his father’s voice, though the voice sounded frantic in a way that he had never heard before.

Young Zac seemed to come to the same realization as he slowly turned the doorknob and created a small crack in his door without making a sound.
It was just enough for some light from the corridor to bleed inside, along with the voices.
The voices of his parents.