Chapter 134

The Ghost of Apocalypse Future (1)

You know, back before the turn of the Millennium there was a movie about a guy who lived the same day over and over and over again. The movie was of course about a gopher, a badger? Some type of small creature that was only made relevant on that one day a year. Of course, that animal is now extinct, as many former species of my home world have a tendency to do, but the story still has a resonating tone with me.

NO, not the part about losing the fight against extinction, that outcome is ultimately inevitable for any species. Rather, I am talking about, the idea of finding yourself stuck in a rut, forced to do the same thing over and over again, even when you could literally care less about the outcome.

That is me, currently I am in a rut. I have been given a task to save three more universes and I will be given a chance to save my Jess. Of course, there is a catch, isn’t there always a catch. First, I need to go through three different universes to kill three behemoths, all so I can do a halfway decent thing of saving the person, well persons to be correct, there were two Jesses after all. I will then be able to save the persons who risked their souls to save the universes.

Why do I need to do more to save people who did nothing but martyr themselves for the greater good? I don’t know, maybe the gods are vindictive. Maybe they secretly want us all to bow to their reverence. I honestly don’t know. All I know for sure is that I am now being Isekai'd into a Time Loop. I don’t know if this is a first, or a repeat. Oh, see what I did there…No? Yeah, going to admit, not really looking forward to these three universes.

Woosh.

I momentarily feel elastic, as my body literally feels like it has been stretched through space and time and snapped back into place in under a second. One moment I am in my universe, well the 14th universe. Then the next moment I am here.

As I look it is muscular Jess, though she doesn’t have wings. Either she was never chosen to be a guardian, this universe doesn’t have the sacred Endarian Trees, or many thousands of other variables happened.

“Kyle?” Muscular Jess asks.

“Hey bro!” Chet my sociopathic brother states.

Wham!

My fist flies to his face even before I know what came over me.

“Ah Fuck!” Chet, my brother from this universe states as he clutches his nose in clear pain.

“Sorry, wait, please stop!” Jess says.

Mentally I scan her mind with Mind Heal and find that she is completely normal. I do a quick scan of this universe’s Chet and see that his mind is completely healed as well.

Well fuck. There goes my assumption that Chet is a douche in every universe. I guess it is as they say, give a monkey a typewriter and eventually they won’t try to roofie the waitress… or something like that.

“Ah sorry about that. Here, let me fix that.”

Healing-X.

I heal his nose and a few other injuries he might also have. I think I should analyze this guy to see what class he has, I have the analyze skill after all, I might want to use it eventually.

Analyze.

Name: Chet Goldman Race: Human

Yeah, I still need to level that skill apparently, especially if those are all the details I can gain from a cursory scan.

“Ah, ohh…” Chet says, as the pain in his nose slowly fades away. “Wow, that feels much better. Thank you. Also, I completely understand. You go get summoned from your universe and end up here. Only to come here and see…” Chet trails off as he looks at me. I mean really looks at me and gets past the silver hair.

“Are you an older version of my little brother?” Chet asks.

“What! I am 18!” I shout. Well actually closer to 19 in this lifetime, and don’t even get me started on the memories that I managed to retain from those twelve previous time loops. But this, this takes the cake getting called old by someone who is clearly an aged version of my older brother.

“What? Seriously? But what about the hair?” He asks.

“Wait, you are only 18?” Jess says, putting a hand on Chet’s arm in an oddly intimate gesture. Seeing the move, I almost feel a pang of pain in my heart. “I’m so sorry, we were trying to summon a warrior.”

“Yeah, yeah someone who can kill your Behemoths. I got it. I can do that.” I admit.

“You can?” Jess asks.

“Look, I’m not here standing around asking for your credentials on Hero Summoning, am I?” I state a little annoyed.

They look a confused at that response.

“Look, the answer is simple. The Behemoth is likely out, I am assuming you didn’t kill all the heralds.” I begin.

At the word Heralds, they look at me like I am speaking gibberish.

“So you didn’t kill any of the Heralds? The Sentient Prolaxian generals who can infiltrate anyone at any level of government?” I ask.

Still nothing.

“They wouldn’t just be here, but in every major space faring race to include the Endarians, Dwenvarians, the Beastkin, and likely the Orcarians too if those are still relevant in this universe…”

Nothing but blank stares.

I shake my head at the situation.

“Listen to him.” The voice of General Sharma says.

I instantly flinch, remembering one of my greatest battles was against her in her home where her Herald form was conducting biological experimentations on Mel’s friends.

“He knows what he is talking about. You used the Summoning Circle that I provided to you correctly.” The General says, as she comes up next to me to stare me in the eyes.

“Ah, so you are going to do the big reveal?” I ask her, figuring that since she isn’t appearing directly to my Revelation Sight, that she might in fact be the leader of the Celestials.

Again, still not a fan of the Celestials, but you know what they say, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Of course, in this analogy those eggs are me and the other Jesses, and the omelet is a metaphor for the universe that is likely to be eaten by a Behemoth if I am not careful. You know, I can’t tell if this is a good analogy or a terrible one for this whole situation. All I know at the moment is that I suddenly am hungry for an omelet.

“You okay?” Sharma asks, a not of concern in her voice.

“Yeah, just thinking.” I reply.

“First time for everything, right?” Chet says in a semi-playful tone that I assume is how he would have talked to the me from this universe.

“I’m sorry. How many universes have you saved?” I respond.

“None, why?”

“Okay then, shut up.” I say, then turning back to the General. “Let’s get this thing started. Let me make sure I have things right here. You are about to do your thing. Thus the Heralds will get revealed. Then forces swoop in to kill them. Afterwards I will go take out the Behemoth when it arrives?”

“Slight correction. The Behemoth is already here, unfortunately they have a layer of protection coating them making them immune to most all attacks.”

“Ah, so that’s what happens when you fail to take out the Heralds first.”

Sharma nods at this.

“Okay, let’s get started.”

“Oh, sorry, you misunderstood. It has already begun.”

“After I was summoned?”

Sharma nods, “after you were summoned.”

“Are they speaking in some type of code?” Jess asks.

“Clearly, we can’t say or else we would break the rules. Well, I would be fine, it is just your universe that I have a personal interest in protecting for the moment would be lost.”

“So, you actually know what you are doing?” Chet asks a bit incredulously.

“Why did I heal him?” I ask Sharma.

“Because deep down you are a good person.”

“No, that can’t be it.” I say dismissively at that flawed bit of logic.

“Because you know deep down you are better than him?”

“There we go, that one sounds more like me.” I state.

At that, Sharma just shakes her head.

I cast a quick Healing-X, on everyone around me. Not that anyone needs to be healed. Oh wait, Jess did.

“You had ruptured disk in your back?” I ask.

“Oh yeah, thank you for that.”

There was also something else in the scan that caused me a hint of alarm.

“Jess, you are pregnant?” I ask.

Jess pauses, for a moment, then placing a protective hand over her stomach she pauses.

“Wait what?” Chet always late to the party asks. And here it comes, the moment when he shows his true colors. “That is fantastic!” Chet shouts as he all but tackles Jess in his arms.

At that I am a bit confused, as Chets normally never react like this at all.

Is this some weird Bizaro universe, one where logic is flipped on its head? I wonder to myself as I watch the events unfolding before me, and cringe slightly at what is transpiring.

“Yes, it was just with everything going on, and well your brother, I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for certain.” Jess said, a bit awkwardly as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes all but glowing with love and affection for Chet.

I instantly want to vomit.

The sight of the scene unfolding before me is almost too much to take.

So instead, I focus on the moment and try to piece together everything that I can truly understand from this moment.

“So am I dead in this universe? Or what?” I ask.

At that Chet turned to me and then let a grim expression cloud his features. “Yeah, a training accident. You died during your first training flight.” Chet said.

Oh wow, I try to think back to that moment and realize that in my first timeline that was roughly around the time when Jess and I started getting pretty serious.

That’s when a few things start connecting in my mind.

“Ah, I get it. You two met at my funeral. One thing led to another, and now you two are here, with a child?” I ask, trying to keep my emotions from spewing forth.

“Yeah, at first I thought he was a bit too full of himself, but he was there for me when I needed him the most.” Jess said, as she stared at me.

I can only nod my head at this random string of events.

“Wow, to think you had to settle for second best in this universe. Are you sure you are ready to make the sacrifice?” I ask her, then look down at her stomach where she is still holding her hand protectively.

“Sacrifice?” Jess and Chet ask almost in perfect unison, a sign of how close they have grown together. It is so close to one of those moments, that I nearly vomit a little in my throat.

At that, I turn to the General.

“So, you summoned me here to do Kyle’s part, but you didn’t explain to Jess what her part would be in this all?” I ask, suddenly feeling like I have been the ultimate patsy in this.

I am tempted to leave right now. I have no stake in this, only emotional and spiritual pain await me if I continue down this road. Still, I can’t help but feel repulsed by this whole turn of events.

The general at least looks a little flustered from my accusation, but ultimately, I know this will fall upon me to fix. Or at least for me to explain.

“You are going to make me tell them, aren’t you?” I ask.

Sharma looks a little flustered, and rightly so. It is not everyday you tell a pregnant lady that she needs to sacrifice not only herself but her unborn child for a chance at saving the world. That is just not something that anyone likes to hear. Of course, this means that I will likely need to stop by here as well when I am doing my Soul Healing tour. Of course, people will have forgotten me by that point, and all of this will just be a sword hanging over my conscience but still, this is a dick move.

Seeing that this is all on me, I take in a deeply annoyed breath and begin. “Well, I should probably first explain…”