Saying Goodbye

Cold.

Darkness.

Blood.

And, last but not least, the consequent cessation of an individual's consciousness — the so much-talked-about 'Death'.

Death was certainly a delicate subject to deal with in a discussion, since not even the greatest sages of humanity could explain it logically or prove important facts about it.

Therefore, for most people in the world, the pain caused by death was something irremediable and inexplicable.

Some even used to go about their lives with an agonizing dread of the concept of death, and frankly, Ezra Trawlhaban had been no different in that regard.

''Phew! I did it almost at the last second!'' He stated to himself, in the middle of the familiar black abyss. ''If I hadn't done that, it would have been very difficult to find a way to get here.''

However, over the many years he'd used his powers repeatedly in pursuit of his purpose, dying had become as trivial as riding a bicycle for Ezra.

It had, in fact, become a mere thing of everyday life, especially with how dangerous the planet he lived on was now.

Perhaps it was due to this and some other unknown external factors that he was able to easily recover from his previous state of confusion.

''That was a stroke of luck, but I don't care!'' Said the little boy, his reddened lips arched upwards. ''So, the part of the timeline related to my power will not be changed! — after all, it's better not to risk it…''

Sighing in relief, his countenance looked much more animated than ever in many regressions so far.

He could easily have sworn that he had never been so excited to be greeted by that black landscape, far from welcoming to an individual's eyes and mind.

''For a second, I completely forgot about the limitation of my powers.'' Ezra began, as he patiently waited for something. ''My copied skills, soul advancement stage, and weapons don't follow me with my saves, so it makes sense.''

Shaking his head up and down, he closed his eyes for a moment of deep thought.

Picking up where he'd left off, the boy put his finger under his chin, rubbing it as if he were a detective from some kind of cheap cop show on television.

''Also, I didn't assign a trigger word before my first save. I only managed to do it after dying for the second time.''

The young man, whose mental age was nowhere near as young as his body and appearance indicated, remembered the belated realization he had had of an important event concerning his power.

'I need to run, I'm too late!'

Realizing the atrocious mistake he'd made, having wasted much more time than he should've in that stinking alley, he ran as fast as he could towards the entrance of the place.

Rushing toward the monstrosity nearly triple the size of his dwarf figure, he vividly recalled his last moments — only minutes ago, his neck and head had even been ripped from their original positions.

Nevertheless, the little boy didn't look the least bit shaken.

He knew that if he hadn't done that, without a doubt, he would have to do something much more painful and complicated later on.

So it was better to leave things untouched/unaltered, according to his own memories.

At least up to that point.

[You've died]

Breaking from his reverie, a string of half-transparent blue-green windows greeted him, floating before his crimson eyes as usual.

[World Memoir: Mnemosyne has been forcefully activated]

[Khaar Dhaam's Save Log has been activated]

[Would the heir like to activate a trigger word?]

[Yes/No]

Raising his small hands excitedly, he pressed the [Yes] option button.

[Confirmation received]

[Please assign a trigger word]

[Trigger Word(s): _____________]

His red eyes narrowed as he remembered the first time he assigned a trigger word as a child. So, without hesitating for a moment, the lad threw out the first word he thought of.

Back then he was just a naive child, and with the way the skill's original names were so flashy and similar to his favorite game, he could only think of the word "Mnemosyne".

However, as he grew older, he was quickly left feeling like an idiot with the trigger word, as he had literally just repeated the unique skill's name again.

That was why he had told himself that if there was a chance to change it in the future, he would. And who would know that it would be changing everything from the beginning, in the past?

''Assign the trigger word for saving the files as 'Remembrance' and assign the trigger word for loading the files as 'Return'.'' Decided, he instructed the program.

If he had just discovered earlier that it was possible to assign different terms to serve as trigger words for the two uses of the main skill, Ezra would have saved himself of the embarrassment and many other things.

To begin with, the boy could barely count on his hands the number of times he accidentally saved a wrong file over an important save-point, during the transfer process.

To make matters worse, those occasions only made him have to restart a large part of his life all over again.

''Although, I think that amount of wasted time is nothing compared to what I just did...''

Nodding automatically, he had already made up his mind.

And as if he was just waiting for the young man to finish thinking about the countless mistakes he had made along his long journey there, the program once again penetrated his field of vision.

Blinking a ghostly blue glow, the window popped with a pop.

[Trigger words were successfully assigned.]

[Would you like to save these assigned words for your next save, onwards?]

[Yes/No]

'Of course I'd say yes for this. If not, what would be the point of having done all this?'' Saying that, he pressed the [Yes] option without batting an eye.

Another window exploded. A variety of colors that came and went, like an RGB keyboard, shaped the texture and elegant edges of the tab.

[User has unlocked the ability to save their life points outside the Hall of Yggdrasil — however, keep in mind that it is only possible to load files through their death in a round attempt!]

Ezra didn't seem to mind the system's notice.

This was something he was already used to; something he'd read several times during his first few times using the power, in the first timeline.

''.....''

Reproducing the process of opening and selecting the save point he wanted to transfer, he asked 'World Memoir' to take him to the starting point of the first file.

Blinking his eyes as he loaded the first save file, he felt a sensation similar to a tug taking him far away from the black abyss that had long since become his home.

''Let's go then.''

When the lad finished uttering those words, he opened his eyes only to be faced with the exact same scene from a few minutes ago — just before he'd purposely killed himself for the beast.

Parallel to his return, as if the universe said 'Hello, welcome back!' to him, the same events of before, happened in the same order of succession.

''N-no! Please let us live! I beg you!" Desperate, a man in a suit shouted. ''AAAARGH!''

''Father!''

The screams of people, whether men, women, elderly or children, filled his ears. Sadistically, he smiled slightly.

The little brown-haired boy already knew what he had to do after he finished his work there: first of all, he needed to save a new file, so that he wouldn't lose his initial progress.

Second, he needed to save 'her' and get the poor little thing to a safe place: some kind of safezone or whatever.

He had to pay for his sins, and for being unable to save her when he was still young and weak.

''Remembrance...''

As he uttered, the five usual screens, which had appeared in the hall earlier, opened like scrolls in front of him.

At first, skimming his eyes without much analysis, he quickly pondered which one he should replace. His pupils soon fixed themselves in the direction of the second saved file, entitled 'Golden Moments'.

The second save file…

Honestly, it was a file he hadn't dared touch in a long time — that file had been sitting still for so long, but still Ezra's memories of that period were still fresh.

That savepoint carried with it a moment in time that he wanted to be able to relive. It contained the last, eccentrically happy memories he'd shared with that 'annoying asshole', which had annoyed him a lot on his other attempts.

He wanted to be able to remember the moment the man called him 'friend'.

He wanted to hug him and feel his warm grip before the man never returned from his mission.

He wanted to smell his perfume; he wanted to laugh at the old man's jokes; he didn't want to forget him at all.

That old guy was probably one of the few he could ever call a 'companion'.

That was why Ezra hadn't altered that file.

That was why he kept a promise to keep it untouched.

Remembering that was one of the few things that brought genuine happiness to his shitty life, made up of misfortunes and an awful lot of bad luck piled on top of each other.

Nonetheless...

All that he quoted to himself was but a past now forgotten. Everything that happened before was no longer the same.

All of them will be just fragments of a distant memory of an erased future.

''I hope you can forgive me...''

Looking straight ahead without any evident fear, into the orange hellish wolf's ravenous eyes direction, he was finally ready to let the memories flow across his mind; across his soul.

He was ready to let that file go.

In that new life, he will be able to relive each moment all over again and create new ones.

[File 2 will be rewritten to contain a new savepoint!]

Selecting the second file, Ezra Trawlhaban was finally saying goodbye to the last shreds of his previous life.

From then on, the world would have to prepare for a storm that would never give up on its goals. It was the boy's new beginning after the end.

His last hope to appeal to.

But on top of all that, it surely was his ultimate chance.