The Shadow of Eudaimonia

Chapter 36: Back to the Future

Lazzi returned to the day of the Transference Ceremony. On his arms is a corpse no one knew. His face was bloodied and expressionless. To the people, the four Obelisks had disappeared only a few seconds ago, completely unaware what Lazzi had just gone through.

Keplerian soldiers, those who survived, hurried to his side. They were asking him questions but none of it registered to him. Everything was muffled. His vision was slowly thinning out until, to the surprise of many, he lost consciousness.

"Lazzi. Are you awake?" asked by a familiar voice.

"Calvin. Is that you?" He opened his eyes expecting him lying at his side. But there was no one. He looked around and realized he was in a hospital bed. Outside, he could see two soldiers guarding him.

"Hey!" he called out to them. "Where's Calvin?"

When the soldiers heard him, one of them called for a doctor. While the other one went inside and checked on him.

"Where's Calvin?" he asked again

The soldier only gave him a look of confusion. "Calvin sir? Is that the dead boy you were hol—"

"Our Obelisk, you're finally awake!" a woman, presumably the doctor, entered the room and greeted him. "Everyone is waiting for you to wake up."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Just two whole days, don't worry. What you should worry about was the press waiting for you outside." The doctor rolled her eyes. "Trust me, they'd been a pain. They're asking a lot of questions. So be prepared."

"Where's Calvin? Have you treated him?" Lazzi asked again.

The doctor looked at the soldier. "The one he was carrying when got back." the soldier filled in.

"Ah, unfortunately...Calvin had no vital signs when you brought him here. We couldn't save him, I apologize."

Lazzi looked away and shut his eyes. He still couldn't believe it. He knew in his mind what happened but his heart kept clinging on some hope.

"Who's he anyway? Your friend?"

"My other half." he replied quickly. "He's...he's our hero, too. Where's his body?"

"It's still in our morgue. What do you want to do with his body?"

Lazzi opened his eyes for a moment. "Burn his body. Place his ashes on the best urn you can get, please."

The doctor and the soldier looked at each once again and nodded. "Okay, we'll do that. Sorry for your loss, Shijian."

He almost scoffed from hearing that title. Shijian. It almost felt like it was a word from another world. It felt unreal that something he had chased his whole life suddenly lost its meaning.

"Should I let in the press now?" the soldier asked.

"Excuse me?"

"The press. They're waiting for you."

Lazzi's eyebrows furrowed. "Can I have some time for myself first? I...I need to grieve."

"I-we respect that, but the whole cluster is waiting for you..."

Lazzi shut his eyes again and sighed. He can freeze time indeterminately so he could be alone but deep down, he wasn't sure if forever was enough time to grieve for Calvin. He should face them, he thought, the people he promised to serve. They need him now. Especially that everyone is confused and probably scared.

"Alright, let them in."

When he agreed to be interviewed, he was expecting five to ten people asking him. But when he got to the conference room, all dressed up for it, he was stunned to see almost a hundred people inside. He wondered if all of them were journalists. As he stood in front of them, he noticed a bunch of them were wearing IZs, recording everything into their memories. He cleared his throat and pointed randomly for the first question.

"What happened to the others? Where are they?" one interviewer had asked. Before he could answer, someone interjected. "Is it true that you have all the Obelisks?"

"Who is the boy you were carrying?" asked by another.

Lazzi looked at them, then the hovering cameras all around him. He remembered his deceased mentor's words: tell them anything they want to hear. A good advice, he thought. "Um—" was the only thing he uttered, yet the room instantly got quiet. "After Ortus's rampage, the old Veross, Vide, and I went back to Earth 2018."

The press murmured to each other. Some of them, forming additional questions. But before they could ask those, Lazzi continued. "There, the old Veross, passed on his Obelisk to an Earth human.He's the man I was carrying." Lazzi clenched the hem of his shirt as tightly as he can as if the moment he let go of it, his body would unravel into strings of oblivion. "His name is..." an image of Calvin flashed in his mind, the gentle face he got so used to seeing every day at the first glimmer of light to the last flicker of campfire back in their own little island. "His name is Calvin. Remember that name. Because he's the reason I'm...." Lazzi couldn't continue. His vision became blurry. His face was warming up. He bit his cheeks trying not to shed any tears in front of the people. More murmurs from the others who have not a single clue what he had gone through. Any sign of instability, any sign of trauma, would lead to more questioning. And more questioning would mean more distrust.

"What happened to Vide? And Ortus?"

"Dead. Both dead," his voice almost a whisper.

"Did the timeline change since the inheritor of Veross was from the past?"

"No." his head hurt. "I clipped it out and isolated it away from history. In that way, that part of history will not affect any timeline."

"What is Ortus's intention? Why did they..."

The storm of words from the people slowly washed out. He shook his head in confusion. His mind was nothing but the memory of Calvin now; mental images he took back when they were on the island, unaware that these memories, he thought he would look back adoringly with his partner, would cause so much pain. Calvin's mischievous smile, now gone. His sentences filled with foul words, now silent. His little "castle" he built during training, now probably washed away by the ocean. But these poignant memories were all he had left of him. And so, Lazzi was terrified that for every second that passes by, his skin would slowly forget how Calvin's fingertips caressed it with the perfect amount of gentleness and yearning; that his ears would soon forget how he sounds, not just his voice but also every small things he does like the rhythm of his breath while asleep or the sound of his footstep on the beach. He knew that no matter how much he held on to these, it would inevitably be distorted by time until these faded memories would spark no feelings any longer.

Back on Earth, he had to decide. It was an easy pick at first, turn back time and resurrect Calvin and just be merry. Besides the fact that he couldn't risk battling Wren once again, giving Ortus a chance to win, there's a reason why Calvin removed himself from the equation. Calvin might have realized long before that in order for Lazzi to move forward, in order for Lazzi to achieve his dreams of changing the future, he shouldn't be holding him back. He wasn't part of that future after all. And so Lazzi half-heartedly defied his emotions and went with logic. Calvin's sacrifice served more reason for him to uphold his responsibilities and fulfill his dreams.

"Shijian! Shijian!" Lazzi snapped out from his stupor. "Shijian, about the second question? Are you holding all four Obelisks?"

"Yes," he answered. And the people gasped. They got more aggravated, evident with the volume of their voice.

"Why did you do that?" asked one journalist. "What is your plan?"

"Did you plan all of this so you could get all the Obelisks?"

"Are you going to redistribute the Obelisks?"

"Humanity from all over the cluster is questioning you right now, what are you going to do now?"

Lazzi, firmed his posture and said what the people wanted to hear, a phrase so used and old it's almost a curse now. It's the same phrase that left his mouth before he became an Obelisk. And behind those bold words, his selfish desire was tucked hidden all to himself. "I will change things for the better."