Chapter 6: Need Mythos.

I remained seated in the chair, but my surroundings transformed into nothingness. Everything turned dark, leaving only the figure perched on the table in front of me.

[Nice, Just as bold as your mother... maybe not that smart, but not too stupid.]

The voice was oddly low, and its echoes filled the space.

The entity before me had a pale complexion, ashen fur, and an otherworldly, misty appearance. Fiery orbs served as its eyes, burning with a menacing light that pierced through the darkness. Its angular face was covered with skeletal remnants.

Long, razor-sharp claws glistened ominously, ready to seize anything deemed an enemy. Jagged, needle-like teeth protruded from its snarling mouth, adding to its terrifying visage. Its body resembled that of a demonic chimp.

"Are you the Seraph?" I asked.

Seraphs were the creatures responsible for granting us powers through the seraphic bonds.

[Me? A seraph? Do I look that measly to you?]

The response felt like an offense to the entity.

"You aren't?" I inquired, hesitatingly.

[Hmm... you humans never cease to surprise me with your ignorance. But what can I expect from such a dead-brained race?]

The talking demonic chimp raised a hand and pointed it outwards, although there was nothing above that I could call a ceiling. A small portal formed above my head, providing the only source of illumination in this nightmarish place.

[This... is a seraph.]

The entity extended its hand into the formed portal and pulled something out. It didn't move, but as it emerged from the portal, it took my breath away.

[It's just a child, but look.]

Gazing at the small, fairy-like creature on its outstretched palm, I was a bit shocked. These were the seraphs.

The creature had a diminutive stature, green goblin-like skin, small wings on its back, and a feminine face.

"These things give us powers? They seem weak..." I began to say but stopped as I watched the chimp close its palm, crushing the seraph.

[Like I said, it was just a child.]

The entity turned its palm upside down, and the portal above our heads closed, plunging the place into darkness once more. The only visible thing was the illuminated dust slowly falling to the ground. Under my chair, there seemed to be no ground; the dust just kept falling, down and down until it became impossible for me to see.

This was a very strange realm.

[I am Middos. I am a God]

Midoss chuckled, the sound echoing through the darkness that surrounded us. The sinister grin on the demonic, chimp-like being only added to the unnerving atmosphere.

I have never heard of a god named Middos before -

[Of course, you wouldn't know of me. I am not one of the deities your kind worships. I exist beyond the understanding of humans.]

"You are the one who was in the mirror and in that nightmare."

[Yeah, I am.]

He answered calmly.

"And why?" I asked.

[To get you out of it, to solve your problem. I tried to end it, the curse your mother put on both you and me.]

"My mother!" I was shocked when the topic of my mother was brought up like this... Midoss.

[Yeah, Calista... was the one who put you in the time loop.]

"Huh?" I was flabbergasted. What did he mean by that?

[It must be difficult to accept, but yes, everything you went through was because of your mother.]

His claws grasped my face from both sides.

"My mother wouldn't do something like that!" I growled at him.

It's true; she would never -

[I never said it was a bad thing. She was trying to save you, but she never realized what kind of danger she was putting you in.]

I saw a dangerous glint in Midoss's eyes.

[She never thought that chaining me with you would be something that even enemies wouldn't do to each other, but she did it for you, her own son.]

Each of his words made me rethink again and again.

[But she was shrewd. She played a long game to save you.]

My mother, Calista Vaishè, who gave birth to me, was a kind woman. Born in a viscounty, the only child, and married to a Marquis, she brought her seraphic bond to the Vaishè Family when the Vaishè Family had none traditionally. The block of metal they used to form the contract was something she brought with her when she joined my father's family. This was the only reason my father was considered equal in society. These contracts didn't just determine a person's future; they dictated the destiny of everyone around them.

It's like this.

My mother, Calista Vaishè, gave her heart to me because...

Might sound absurd but it's the truth. Even after going back so many times, I was never able to stop her from doing that for me.

But I still remember when I wasn't aware of this loop. It was all good.

I knew that nobody besides my mother liked me in the manor, but I was still happy enough to not care about it.

One day, I fell down and never woke up, as they say, and the next time I woke up, they were telling me how my mother gave her heart to me to save me from dying.

The disease was "Nectophes," in which one loses the link between the brain and the heart, causing one to fall into a deep slumber, only to die in a few days. The reasons are that the brain is stronger than the heart and it rejects the heart.

So when I woke up, I was faced with my mother's funeral.

I cried a lot and was never able to look into anyone's eyes because I felt that everything was my fault.

My father never liked me, so he brought his wedlock children into the manor, and from there, it all went downhill. Whatever I did was always met with something that clearly made me the bad guy in the situation.

I joined the academy alongside my fiancée, Aurora. She was a sweet girl who never let the opinions of others affect our relationship. She was chosen by my mother, but after her death, I was truly and solely reliant on her for my mental support.

But, as if fated, she fell out of love that we shared for a commoner boy in the academy and at the academy ball. She insulted me, and in a fit of rage, I slapped her and cursed her. It was quite immature of me, but I was broken. Getting kicked and bruised by her friends, I was kicked out of the ball, and everyone knew that my family wouldn't take any action, even if they were violent toward me.

The next day, I woke up, and I was back in time seven years ago. I thought it was a miracle, and I was overjoyed by it. I tried changing everything from there, trying to form good relations with my father, which failed miserably. But in hindsight, I was thinking of a way to save my mother.

But, unlike the first time, I wasn't hit with the disease at the same time; it was delayed a whole year until I once slept and never woke up until my mother once again sacrificed herself for me.

I lived another long, miserable life until I did nothing at the ball but was accused of sexually harassing Aurora when all I did was stand behind her.

The next morning, back to seven years back in time...

I was happy, and I tried to explain all of this to my mother, but she just looked at me and smiled, saying not to worry, that it was just a nightmare.

I knew these things aren't nightmares; they're happening over and over. I tried changing, but then...

My mother killed herself. She did suicide, and I wasn't able to do anything. The Nectophes didn't happen to me in that loop, which was odd but infuriating.

The ball came, and I... killed Alex. I stabbed him to death, then Aurora, and then anyone who was in the way until one of the students hit me with a sword on my neck and finished me off.

And then the last loop began. I lived like a lifeless doll, saw my mother save me from the disease that hit this time, and then at the ball... just cut off Aurora.

Why? I just wanted to get away from her. She constantly reminded me of my mother. She was the only physical thing she gave me before leaving, and the next time, the loop didn't happen at all.

***

After that, here we are.

After all those bewildering loops and inexplicable experiences, I found myself in a surreal realm, standing before Midoss, a being who claimed to be a god.

"And what does my mother have to do with an actual god?" I couldn't fathom how everything that had transpired could be connected to a self-proclaimed deity.

[It was her. She somehow found a way to connect me with you in an attempt to save you. It was an ancient ritual.....Ha!Do you know about her seraph?]

Midoss responded.

"Yeah," I replied, recalling how my mother had spoken of it. The bond with a seraph was a mysterious connection. We couldn't see the seraphs after the bond was formed, but the powers they granted remained with us. My mother's seraph, Emerë, had the ability to predict the future, or so she had claimed. Her predictions were usually accurate, though sometimes they missed the mark.

[In the first two loops, when you were infected with Nectophes, which is not as simple as you humans might think, it meant your soul was lost in this realm.] Midoss explained, alluding to the enigmatic realm I had found myself in.

"This realm? My soul was lost here?"

[So every time, she used this ritual, trading her soul to bring yours back to the physical world at the price of losing hers in the darkness,]Midoss continued.

[But in the third loop, she actually heard you disclose this secret about the loops before she knew anything of it. So she used her seraph and predicted that she should sacrifice herself to save you from being lost here.]

I was taken aback. My mother's sacrifices had always been significant, but this revelation was mind-boggling.

[Surprised? That's not the best part,] Midoss continued, [When she performed the ritual, she unknowingly recited something that bound me to her soul. But when she made the trade, I became connected to yours.]

[The biggest problem with these rituals is this: Your fate is my fate.]

"That's how you kept pulling me back into the timeline again and again, because my fate was so grim," I realized.

Midoss chuckled, [You've restored my faith in the intelligence of humanity.]

It was becoming evident that my future was far from bright after that fateful ball night.

[You died every time, taking a piece of me with you. Again and again, I pulled you back. Do you have any idea how much I suffered to bend the rules of reality to meet you in your world?] Midoss questioned, his existence now known to me for only a few days.

"So you mean,my mother saw something so bad in my future that she practically found a way to trick a god into being my caretaker....at cost of sticking me into a endless loop? At the confidence that you'd do all this like bringing me here?" I asked.

[Like I said..... Calista was shrewd.]

He shrugged...[-but she was human at the end so she never met me and she thought I'd be like the Lark Or any other gods y'all have in those story books of yours-]

"You ain't going to kill me,stop trying to be tough." I  cut him off.

He paused a bit, eyeing me from top to bottom.

[True, you'll work for me and-]

"Nah, I won't, just kill me-" I am not going to be his puppets, I'd rather end it all.

[You'll be back in the loop.]

He had that dead pan expression and flat voice.

"Deal, what do you want?" I am sure I answered too fast.

Anything but loop.

He raised his claws, tracing something in the air the red eyes lost their colour to pure white and the ashen fur began to change the colour to pure white as he said.

[I need- Mythos.]