"Why did you pick that particur moment in time to rewind to? It's like choosing the worst time to save the game," Burn quipped as he plopped himself at the edge of the bed, right beside a visibly distressed Man.

  "I'm sorry…" Man mumbled, her face hidden behind her hands. “It wasn’t me, it was Future-Me…”

  "It's still you," Burn pointed out.

  “Yeah…”

  Burn uood the plexity of time travel. Man couldn't just pinpoint any old moment like pig a random page from a book to return to. But the moment she did pick was, well... inve.

  “There might be two reasons why I chose this point…” Man began, “First, because this moment might be so important and crucial to the timeline, or…”

  "Even if that's true, why not pick a less embarrassing moment? Like yesterday, when it was just us?" Burn sighed, interrupting her.

  “...or, maybe, because I didn’t have enough soul energy to pick a better moment—like I said, I’m sorry!”

  Their words overpped, yet they uood each other.

  “So, you’re saying,” Burn took a deep breath, “that my public humiliation is some sort of pivotal moment?”

  “What if it’s because we o rewind this loop so much, and I was just trying to serve soul energy? Uuuuggh whyy…” Man groaned, smag Burn's forearm repeatedly, a mix ret and embarrassment punctuating each hit.

  Cute.

  Fug cute.

  Burn actually didn’t mind.

  He didn’t mind at all, but he didn’t wao catch him smiling remembering it. He made sure to keep his amusement hidden. o fuel Man's guilty sce with his smirk.

  "I 't ge it," Man forced herself to sit up, her eyes brimming with worry as she faced Burn. "Each time, yoing to feel the pain—"

  Burn's frown cut her off, causio falter. She didn’t actually care about the embarrassment, but she was mretful for the pain he would have to eh each cycle of the loop.

  "Fet that," Burn said, his tone oddly calm and pletely out of character for him. "We have bigger fish to fry, right?"

  "That's why, Caliburn," Man's eyes welled up again with tears. "It's about you…"

  They were going to die together.

  Something big was ing. It was big enough to be able to kill them together, and it was impossible to know what it was at this point in time. But they could guess.

  "What do you think will happen?" Maioned, her tone heavy with .

  "Nothing in the previous loops could kill me, Man," Burn said with an air of nonce. "All we have are the endless 'What ifs?' that e with messing around with timelines."

  Upon seeing Man's expression shift, Burn was quick to cat. "What's up? You got a theory?"

  Looking up at him, her eyes glistening and shes damp, she admitted, "The timeline you know is gone, Caliburn. Now that I'm here..."

  Burn propped his left hand on the bed an's right thigh, his posture directly face-to-face with her as he leaned in closer. "What are you hinting at? That you’re bound to betray me?"

  The nature of their curse was a bit like a forced, bad marriage—betrayal was off the table. That's why Caliburn couldn't gue, and Man had no choice but to stick with him.

  Despite being stu this cursed spell, they were two separate entities with their distinct ideologies. Man was on a mission to save as many souls as possible from him, while Caliburn was busy pying 'I want it all' o.

  Caliburn had picked up a thing or two from the st loop. For instance, Man would jump to her death if it meant saving someone—anyone. He wasn’t special.

  She had saved him, sure, but it made more seo her to bite the bullet herself than to let him bear the burden of the loops. Plus, she probably wao avoid the White Dwarf going on a rampage in the heart of bustling Elysian capital.

  Yvain and the rest of the popuce were still there. Better to hit the rewind button than to let things py out and risk more casualties.

  After all, she could.

  So, ces were, in some future sario, if she saw the body t climbing too high, she'd betray him and caused them to die—f the loop to reset.

  But all his mental gymnastics came to an abrupt halt wheiced the woman in front of him. Her gaze was fixed on him—a look of hurt etched across her features.

  Caliburn figured she would've grown aced to his iature by now. He was a suspicious and pragmatic guy. It was sed nature for him to assume the worst of those around him. Hell, he even had a knack for btantly voig his suspis in a joking ‘manner’.

  He was mostly joking.

  "Sure."

  "If you interpret my shoving you out of harm's way as betrayal i loop," Ma out a soft sigh. She leaned against the bed and turned away. In a whisper, she added, "I might do it again."

  Bur bad.

  He couldn’t even speak for a solid five sed, his mind bnk.

  Her golden blonde hair spyed across the pillow, her face turned away just enough to make it hard to read her fully. But he could. Even in profile, he could see the refle in her eyes—glossy and vulnerable. Her lips were set in a firm line and her nose had a telltale reddish hue.

  His cruel joke, born out of harsh life lessons, had hurt her—yet again. First, because he couldn't stand her weakness—her refusal to kill him. Then, because she'd fiven him so easily, ready to py by his rules.

  And now…

  He couldn't lie to himself, couldn't pretend he didn't see the hurt that his words had etched into her.

  "Then, what are you implying?" Burn queried.

  "There's things in this world that could kill you," she replied, "Killing you doesn't necessarily meaing you. I’m sure it’s harder than that."

  "You're one of those things that kill me, aren't you?" Burn reminded her.

  "But what if it wasn't about killing you, but we simply perished along with 'it'?" Man posed.

  "By 'it', are you referring to the world?" he asked, because frankly, there was nothing else colossal enough that, upon its destru, could also kill him.

  "The White Dwarf," Man crified. "It was officially stolen from the Alliance, wasn't it?"

  The Alliance robably already on its tail, aware that it was still somewhere on the ground. And the most likely suspeoher than Burn himself.

  "I've thought of the possibilities," Burn stated.

  Man shook her head. "There are still too many to t. You haven't faced this specific situation before."

  What she was implying was that all they could do was to observe and wait. They would o die and loop ba order to know the future, after all.

  Man gave his arm a light tap. "Now that you uand, move aside."

  Her lying there beh him, waiting patiently for him to move—this was something he loathed. The vulnerability, the weakness, the agreeability. Yet, in this moment, he was tempted to be bad and simply refuse to move.

  He moved.

  Rising to his feet, he fully expected for her immi departure from his room. Much to his surprise, instead of getting up, she rolled to the other side of the bed. His gaze dropped at the sight of this ical geous being rolling amidst his sheets.

  With the clear iion of settling down for the night, Man tugged at his b and slipped underh. She then shot him a sharp, angry gnd said, “You ripped my dress apart. Fetch me a new one.”

  Suddenly, his throat felt dry.