24 Hearts

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Chapter 3-1. ‘Black Tree’ Tribe

“What did you do?! Stop it from happening!” Even when faced with Gabriel’s threats, Xian spoke nonchalantly. The knight she turned into powder suddenly returned into shape in the hands of Xian. The sound of horses that neighed on the chessboard was so cheerful, disrupting the heavy atmosphere.

“Keep playing chess. If you beat me, I will let you go. But of course, I don’t have any mind to return time and change the past.”

Still, he could stop the boy from going crazy. At Xian’s words, Gabriel sighed. Hooh. She was forced to play chess. She opened her eyes sharply and glared at him.

“Okay, let’s begin.”

She answered confidently, but the results were revealed in no time. It was terrible. Her experience and skill were insufficient for her to beat his proposal. She was surrounded, each of her moves was countered. Like a butterfly stuck on a spider web, her situation was hopeless. Plus, it didn’t work out because she grew impatient. 17 matches. 0 wins. 2 draws. 15 losses.

Even though she did her best to focus, she couldn’t win the bout. Xian, who was laughing at her, made a mistake, and she had an opportunity to win, but it ended in a draw. “Huh…”

Gabriel glanced at Xian as he laughed at her. Annoyed, she caressed her forehead.

“Sigh.”

Her head felt stiff. A considerable amount of time had passed. They only had seventeen chess pieces, but Xian took a break for an hour or two, saying that he was tired every time the game was over.

Meanwhile, she tried to call another holy monarch, but she couldn’t do anything with Xian’s power holding her down. She was helpless. She wanted the others to see her, but of course, they were so calm that they wouldn’t even notice her. Even if an angel came by, they might turn away after seeing the temple’s iron gate closed firmly.

Even though the first lord of the demon world was in the celestial world’s deepest layers, no one could feel it. She felt a headache coming, which she only felt a few times in her life. “Oh no. Are you sick? If Gabriel is sick, all the holy monarchs would be worried.”

The magical power covering her body brought her to her best condition. Gabriel took a deep breath as the fatigue in her body disappeared, starting with the headache in her head. It was like medicine. She felt sick because of Xian, who patronized her by pretending to be concerned. She didn’t say anything because his power was too strong. All she could do was just exhale a long sigh. She sought the figures of the middle world again. Quake became her servant and took care of Kain. Still, the boy was eaten by the power of the fragment. He needed to face those battles to defeat the fragment’s control.

Sooner or later, he would have gotten used to the power of the fragment, and he could control the madness on his own. It only needed time. “!” But at the moment, she gasped. She was faced with a boy who shouldn’t be there in the first place. How?

No. As far as she knew, that dark-haired boy, Judah, owned two fragments. She didn’t know his abilities, but a question came to her mind when she saw him.

With her arms folded, she turned to Xian, who seemed to be meditating. Gabriel opened her eyes. Xian’s fierce eyes squinted in laughter.

“Should we play again?” “Did you make up all of this?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” As she confronted him, he tilted his head, seeing the place in her vision. And his lips, which were tightly shut, gently smirked. “Hmm…” “…” “Oh, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t do anything to Him. Unlike you, I’m a mere bystander. I’ve been observing them all this time.” At Xian’s blunt words, Gabriel laughed. She had nothing to say. That’s what he said, but what would’ve been different if he was lying?

Gabriel whistled as he watched Kain and Judah fighting. Kain was stained with the madness of the fragment and was unable to use the power of being an apostle at all, but he was seen cutting down the orcs that flocked around him with tremendous power and drawing the great sword against Judah. The fragments obtained by Judah and the fragment obtained by Kain collided, sending sparks up into the air. But the fight ended with Kain defeated. Gabriel sighed as he watched Quake appear and push Judah away to evacuate Kain somewhere. However, something felt wrong. No, there was something she couldn’t understand exactly. What was it? She questioned herself, but no answer came. Then they returned to playing chess with Xian putting back the pawn to the board. This time she was black. She began to ask him questions about how long they were to play chess. She studied the board to her best before her eyes fell on Xian. She felt disturbed with a problem in her mind. ‘What is it with that boy? Who is Judah Arche?’

It was certainly not something she had heard wrong. Nor was her memory mistaken. He certainly said so.

Why did Xian call the boy ‘Him’?

Judah Arche… He was special. At least this time, -Judah Arche- was like a different person and not the original Judah she knew.

What Kain had to go through, he worked it out himself, and everything in the future that she knew around the boy was changing. It changed before her very eyes. She couldn’t say exactly what happened, but she could see the flow changed. If she asked Xian, who must know something, will he be honest with her? Gabriel narrowed her eyes.

“Why are you staring so much?” He seemed to be focusing on the chessboard, but he raised his head. He was one to notice things quickly. “Judah Arch. Who is that boy?” “…Why are you interested?” “Tell me. This Judah Arche, and the Judah Arche that I’ve known for a million times, are different.”

“That is true. Are you saying that you know him well, even though you were indifferent to him all this time?”

At Xian’s words, Gabriel flinched. If she asked what was different, she didn’t know exactly how to phrase it. -Judah Arche- was outside her interest. She was a little interested in him after Xian told him to watch him, but she had no idea before that.

She thought that he was just one of the humans around Kain. However, his mood, values, personality, and behavior all seemed different from the Judah Arche in her memory, unlike anyone else.

He wasn’t like that before, so why did he become like that this time?

What does Xian know?

Gabriel did not take her eyes off Xian, waiting for his answer. “Who do you think it is?”

“If I knew that, would I ask you? I don’t know.” Her straightforward answer made Xian smile wickedly.

“Please tell me your guess, at least once. It’s okay if it’s not the correct answer. I’ll tell you the right answer, whether you get it or not. Even if you know, it doesn’t change.” “Is it another person who repeats fate like us?” “Of course. If he weren’t like that, I wouldn’t even tell you to watch him.” “…You can’t do that to anyone. Is there anyone in this world that is worth your courtesy? To you, who look at the rest of the world as nothing but ants?” “There is. Believe it or not.”

“…” Seeing the silent Gabriel, Xian got up from his seat. Then, magical power flowed out of his body and forcibly took Gabriel and moved somewhere. Taken aback by the sudden change of their surroundings, Gabriel unfurled her folded wings. They found themselves in Regen, a land full of lush jungles. ‘Oh, my God.’ To pass from Heaven to Middle Earth or from the Demon world to Middle Earth, they must cross a dimensional barrier. Crossing that barrier would constrain their powers, yet when Xian moved her, her vessel remained intact. She spread her wings. Xian wore a suit that fitted his body, looking down at her with his hands in his pockets. When she looked up at him with her eyes wide open, he smiled. “It’s not fun to keep winning in chess. Ah, but don’t get me wrong, I can’t help Kain. Now then, let’s watch it together. What’s going on? I’ll tell you the answer after that.” The moment Xian flicked his hand, a gray curtain spread and wrapped around them. As soon as she was trapped inside the spherical curtain, time outside went by fast. Darkness overcame the blue sky, the full moon set, and the sun rose. In a moment, days passed. Xian’s eyes moved rapidly as if watching and confirming something without a word. “Ah. I think it’s done now.”

The curtain dispersed with a dull sound. For them, only a few minutes passed, but she didn’t know how much time had passed in real-time. Confused as to what was going on, Xian looked back at her. l “The things you’ll see from now… That is why I honor and watch him. Don’t be disturbed. You’ll know everything.”

And once again, the surrounding environment changed. She came to her senses, and there was the fallen Kain, with Judah Arche and his third fragment. Kain, chosen by the sword, had died. There stood Judah, looking down at the boy he had defeated. After a while, he talked to his companions and ran into the battlefield that felt like a natural disaster. Judah Arche appeared in various angles in the air, perhaps through the power of Xian.

Soon afterward, he died as his body is split into two. This was a natural result. Judah Arche, who lacked both skill and experience in all aspects, had no choice but to beat the Wielder of the Sword. As she played chess against Xian, it was difficult for the results to change unless they played the match repeatedly. “Maybe this will be your first time seeing this.” “!” It happened before she even understood what Xian said. The world turned gray. Everything stopped. Quake’s fierce stance as he spurred the ground after killing Judah Arche. The arrows that pierced the air. The fallen trees. And the whirlwind of dust and the rage of wind. Everything. There was no single exception. The gray color passed Gabriel’s, but she was fine. To be precise, Xian’s magic and its power protected them from it. “Is this your job?” “No way. If that were the case, it would have been better.” “Then, what is this?”

“The wheel of destiny. It’s the absolute power that keeps a person in the same plane.”

Ah.

She opened her mouth like an idiot and stared at what was happening around her. The world stopped as Xian muttered bitterly. And then, time began to turn backward. It happened instantly. In a blink, she realized that they had come back to the scene she watched before. Judah Arche was looking down at Kain’s body.

What he said was different than before when he ran back to the battlefield. A recurring phenomenon, but he died differently each time. He avoided the face of death against the Wielder of the Sword by performing differently each time. Xian spoke up as she watched him continue without being broken down by death, over and over again.

“You can see it change, right? We can’t change our fate, even if we have our old memories, but he can.” “…”

“For us, destiny is a wheel. It’s like a wagon that we have to repeat over and over again. But for him, destiny is a river. We have a will that allows us to live however we want, not just along the road, compared to him.” Gabriel felt her heart beating. “No matter how many times we repeat, we can only stay in the same place, but the fate he repeated becomes another option and creates a new branch. As we face each other, it also creates a branch. This is the aftermath. This is all possible because he exists.”

“…Who the hell is he to make this possible?” Xian laughed at Gabriel’s trembling eyes.

“Our Creator, our one God, whom you so longed for and eagerly sought.”