Before Chrono could finish the thought, a sharp impact slammed into his face again. March had punched him once more.
Chrono's body went limp as March let go of him, his unconscious form collapsing onto the grass.
March shook his blood-stained hand and grimaced. "Punching him is like punching metal!"
He looked down at his knuckles. The skin across them had partially peeled back, exposing raw flesh.
He laughed. "Now then!"
March turned his head toward the direction Talia had run earlier, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "It's time for me to hunt my prey…"
He began walking that way but suddenly stopped. He placed a hand on his chin. "She must've gotten pretty far by now. Mmm, that's not good."
"I put a veil around the city about a mile away from here. Even though I know she's in this area, tracking her down will be pretty difficult."
"How am I going to find her?" March sighed. "Mistress May could find her in an instant. And Zeph Chrono could probably figure out where she is, but I'm not even half as smart as he is."
His eyes widened as if he had just remembered something. "Right! Mistress May! I can have her help me locate Talia."
Before March could call out to her, he felt something grab his leg. The grip was firm—too firm. If it tightened any further, his leg would surely snap.
March gritted his teeth and looked down. His eyes widened in shock. It was Chrono, face pressed against the ground, clutching his leg with inhuman strength. Blood began running down March's leg into Chrono's grip, dripping onto the pavement.
Despite the agonizing pain, March's smile widened. He tried to free himself but failed. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.
"Zeph! I'm surprised. I thought I'd knocked you out cold, but here you are grabbing my leg. You're a beast!" March said, laughing.
Chrono didn't answer. He simply squeezed harder. The sickening sound of bones cracking echoed through the air.
"Zeph! That… that REALLY hurts!" March hissed through gritted teeth, struggling to hold back a scream. He thrashed, trying to break free from Chrono's iron grip, but found no success.
Chrono's Stasis Veil couldn't help him here. It only slowed things approaching him, but Chrono had already grabbed his leg before the veil activated. This rendered the ability effectively useless. A time-slowing effect couldn't loosen an already firm grip. It was a complete deadlock. March wasn't strong enough to break free, and his main ability was useless in this situation.
His biggest mistake had been deactivating the veil.
But suddenly—
He broke free.
All the damage his leg had suffered was instantly reversed. He hopped back, creating distance between himself and Chrono.
March had used time reversal. The moment he felt Chrono grab his leg, he had activated a veil and reversed both their bodies to the exact point where Chrono's grip was significantly weaker. In that split second when Chrono's hold faltered, March managed to wrench himself free.
March began laughing hysterically, covering his face with one hand as he tilted his head toward the night sky. He lowered his head and looked down at Chrono.
"You faked getting knocked out so I'd deactivate my veil? But your plan failed! You failed to stop me, Zeph! You can't defeat me—I'm unstoppable!" March declared proudly, placing a hand on his chest.
"Such a half-assed plan won't work, Zeph." He waved his index finger. "Especially when you put yourself on the line for it. You really need to step your game up!"
Suddenly, Chrono rose to his feet, brushing the dirt off his clothes and out of his hair.
Man… I'm really dizzy.
Chrono tilted his head to the side and tapped the side of his head with his palm. March watched, confused, raising an eyebrow.
Chrono stopped, spat blood onto the pavement, and let out a heavy sigh. "I was wrong. Wrong about your ability."
"Really?" March asked, tilting his head.
"I assumed that no matter how fast you were, your veil would just slow it down by thirty seconds. That's how it works, yes, but here's where I got it wrong. I thought that no matter how fast the attack was, it would take thirty seconds to reach you. But instead, it simply gets slowed down by a factor of thirty. Then you add the one-to-three-second stutter afterward if something does past the veil. That's why you have to dodge the attacks—they're slow enough for you to react to, but still fast enough that dodging is your only real option. It's so obvious now! It was dumb of me to assume otherwise. Why did I even think that?"
March clapped. "Yes, Zeph! Put that brain of yours to work."
Chrono ignored him and continued. "So it's simple. All I have to do is attack so fast that you can't dodge, no matter how much the veil slows it down."
The plan is simple.
One. When he was overpowering me, I realized something: I could fake being knocked out. March lets his guard down easily—like when I made the hole and he deactivated the veil. He's also overconfident. Not only would he believe he'd already won, but he wouldn't suspect I'd get up again, so he'd turn off his veil to conserve stamina. That leads into my second point.
Two. When he went on the offensive, I realized something else. Every time he expands his veil to slow me down or uses reversal when I dodge, he burns through a lot of stamina. I could use that against him. Instead of attacking, I chose to evade, forcing him to constantly use his veil and drain his stamina until he wore himself out.
And three. I figured out how to counter his veil. The goal is to go on the offensive and force him to use reversals repeatedly. After attacking, I'll create distance, forcing him to expand his veil again. From what he's said, reversals seem to burn more stamina, and he can't keep expanding the veil forever—the thicker it gets, the more it drains him. Not to mention he already has one covering a one-mile radius.
He's a ticking time bomb.
I can win!
March laughed, shaking his head. "There's no way you can move that fast! You should've stayed on the ground, Zeph. There's no way you ca—"
Before March could finish his obnoxious gloating, Chrono was suddenly directly in front of him, charging a punch toward his face. March hadn't even seen him move.
Chrono threw the punch. March dodged narrowly. Chrono swiftly hopped back before the veil could slow him. March charged forward, throwing a punch. Chrono felt a sharp pain across his face before March drove a foot into his stomach, sending him stumbling backward. He was unable to react properly, slowed by the veil.
"Impressive, Zeph. But you still aren't fast enough to hit me!"
Chrono said nothing. His expression remained calm as he slowly stood up and wiped the blood from his face. Suddenly, his eyes widened—he had realized something.
His veil…
When I was hopping back, I noticed it. His veil didn't instantly slow me down—it was gradual.
It takes time to fully activate over an area. It's fast, but it's entirely possible for me to move out of range.
And the further I get from it, the worse it is for him.
It'll still slow me down eventually, but at least I'll be far enough away that the veil gives him no real advantage.
Let's test it again.
Chrono dashed forward, but his eyes widened—his movements were already slow. March hadn't lowered the veil.
What!?
March started walking toward him, chuckling with every step. "Your speed is improving, but it's still dodgeable. Eventually you'll get fast enough to almost hit me. That'd be bad. So to prevent that, I'll just keep the veil up. After all, it's impossible for you to hit me right now. I win, Zeph!"
Chrono's expression darkened. A bead of sweat ran down his cheek. Every movement he made was extremely slow. It wasn't like before, where a fast punch would gradually slow down. His body was already inside the veil, so every motion felt like moving through thick mud. It was effectively impossible for him to attack or dodge.
Damn it… I can hardly move!
March threw a punch. Chrono tried to raise his arm to block, but his hand barely moved. The punch connected with his face, followed by another, then a knee to the stomach, and yet another punch.
It was a brutal onslaught—an unrelenting barrage of attacks that Chrono simply couldn't defend against. In this state, he had no choice but to endure the hits.
Chrono's eyes widened, slowly but surely.
This is actually good…
He has to constantly maintain the veil to keep me nearly frozen.
He's burning through his stamina the longer he holds it, especially with how large it is.
Not to mention he isn't physically strong enough to finish me with a single attack. He has to hit me multiple times.
The more he attacks, the weaker he becomes. Look at his knuckles—the skin is peeling off! Every hit damages him more than it damages me.
You can't punch a wall forever.
March continued his assault. Chrono's hand slowly began to rise in an attempt to block, but it was far too slow. Punch after punch rained down—face, stomach, face again. March threw another punch but suddenly stopped.
A line of blood dripped from his nose onto the pavement. The heavy "weight" lifted from Chrono's body. He wasted no time and threw a powerful punch straight into March's face, sending him flying backward.
The veil had been dropped. March's body had finally reached its limit.
Chrono dashed toward March, who was now sprawled on the ground. He grabbed him by the hair and drove a fist into his stomach. March spat out blood.
Chrono followed up with another brutal punch to the face, sending March crashing backward into a tree. March screamed in pain. One more solid hit would surely end the fight.
Chrono slowly walked toward him, each step heavy with purpose. March looked up, his smile faltering. Terror filled his eyes as his body trembled with every step Chrono took.
"S-STAY AWAY FROM ME! DON'T GET ANY CLOSER!" March shouted desperately, crawling backward until he leaned against the tree, frantically waving his hand at Chrono.
Chrono felt his body slowing down again, then returning to normal speed. March kept desperately activating his veil in an attempt to stop him, but kept deactivating it for unknown reasons.
Chrono stopped right in front of him and slid his hands into his pockets. He wasn't angry or disappointed. His expression was completely deadpan and unreadable. He was simply studying March.
So that's how it is…
"Quite the act you're putting on," Chrono said calmly.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about…"
Chrono kicked him hard in the face, eliciting a scream of pain. "Cut the crap. You have something planned."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about…" March repeated.
Chrono sighed and crouched down. "This is still pretty nonsensical to me. I can't quite wrap my head around it. Your plan just doesn't go anywhere."
"Making the slowing veil bigger just doesn't make sense. It seems irrational and unnecessary."
March looked up, smiling through the pain. "It was so I could slow you down! You were moving too fast, so I had to! I said i—"
Chrono cut him off with a sharp slap across the face. "That's a lie. I already knew I couldn't move fast enough to completely ignore your veil. It's annoying, sure, but what I was really trying to do was wear you out…"
"So then why make the veil so big? You're always going to dodge my attacks anyway, so expanding it is pointless. But I'll admit, it was a pretty smart move disguising a reversal veil underneath the time-slowing one."
March's eyes widened. "What… What are you talking about?"
"That veil you put up earlier wasn't just a time-slowing veil—it was a reversal veil as well. From what I've seen, they've always been two separate veils, yet this time you stacked them. You placed a slowing veil over an existing reversal veil. Doing that took a heavy toll on you, which is how I managed to attack you. You took a gamble."
"It's likely you created the veil to reverse the damage to your knuckles… but why make it so big? That doesn't make sense. If you only wanted to heal your knuckles, there'd be no reason to expand it so much—especially since you can only rewind thirty seconds."
March looked up, gritting his teeth. "What are you saying…?"
"There's something you didn't tell me when explaining your abilities. Maybe you aren't as much of a dumbass as you pretend to be."
"Oh really!? Then what? What am I hiding!?"
"You can reverse time for more than thirty seconds. The goal was far beyond just reversing damage. That explains the size of the veil."
"That brings me back to the one-mile radius veil. I believe it serves two purposes."
Chrono raised a finger. "One. To keep Talia inside the one-mile radius. But that's a lie. That was never a time-slowing veil. Talia could escape right now if she wanted to. You disguised a reversal veil as a slowing one. Actually… you never once said the one-mile veil was a time-slowing veil."
He raised a second finger. "Two. You expanded... no, contracted that veil. In fact, you've been contracting it from the start. You were going to keep contracting it until it reached this point. That could also explain why you weren't moving around much. You did this so you could perform a mass reversal. Chasing after Talia would be meaningless if you could simply reverse time. That's why you were so confident. It all makes sense now. The one-mile radius doesn't matter in the sense that it was never meant to trap Talia. It was simply the starting point for your reversal. Once you trigger the mass reversal, everything that was inside the veil will be reset to a specific point in time, even if it's now outside the veil."
"But then why go through all this? There are so many simpler ways to get the job done. Your plan just doesn't add up."
March looked up at Chrono, a shaky smirk tugging at his lips. "How can you be so sure you're right? Nothing you just said matches what I was saying to myself while you were on the ground!"
Chrono nodded. "That's true. You were planning to call May to track her down. It doesn't match at all."
"Yes! So—"
Chrono slapped him across the face again. "It was far easier to simply call on May than to go through with your complicated mass reversal plan."
"How can you be so sure that's even my plan!?"
Chrono sighed. "You want to know why?"
March nodded slowly.
"For starters, you never planned to tell me about time reversal, let alone use it in front of me. It was only because of the pit I made that you were forced to use it. But why hide one of your abilities after willingly telling me about Chrono Stasis Veil earlier? It's contradictory."
March screamed in frustration and slammed his fist into the ground. "How!? How do you know!? I spent so much time putting this plan together, and you figured it out just because I fell into your stupid pit!?"
March sounded genuinely furious—a stark contrast to his usual cheerful attitude. It even caught Chrono off guard.
There was a brief pause after his outburst. Then March started laughing. "But… what are you even going to do about it? You can't stop the reversal, Zeph! So what if you know? I'll still win."
"I can stop it."
March raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? How?"
"Like this."
Suddenly, Chrono threw a punch at March. If it landed, the fight would be over.
But Chrono's fist slowed mid-air. His eyes widened. March had used the last of his stamina to create another veil.
He screamed at the top of his lungs. "M-Mistress May! Help me!"
What!?
Chrono's eyes widened in shock.
Suddenly, a gust of wind spun violently beside him, forming the silhouette of a woman. The wind dispersed, revealing none other than May.
She was crouched beside Chrono, gripping his wrist tightly. March's face lit up with a wide, relieved smile. Chrono slowly turned his head, eyes wide with disbelief.
May looked at Chrono with that signature manic grin, one eye wider than the other. "You weren't about to kill another innocent person, were you, Chronoooo?"
Chrono's breath became unsteady. Sweat poured down his face. His hand trembled in May's iron grip. His mouth hung slightly open, eyes extremely wide.
"I love that face of yours, Zeph. I can't help but feel happy when I see you like this," May said in a falsely sweet tone.
"T-Thank you, Mistress…" March said, his eyes wide with awe, cheeks flushed red.
"I'm a bit disappointed in you, March. I never thought you'd need to call on me to defeat him of all people. I guess you're still inexperienced." May's tone shifted eerily when addressing March—like a mother gently scolding a child rather than her usual sadistic drawl.
She turned back to Chrono, her manic smile returning. "How pathetic can you be, Zeph? Look at youuuu—you're trembling! What are you, a vibrator?" She cackled loudly.
"You can't even beat my subordinate, and you expect to defeat me? It's truly amusing how delusional you are!"
"Shut up…" Chrono mumbled. He swung his arm back, breaking free from her grip, and hopped backward to his feet.
May's eyes widened in amusement as she stood up as well. "Well, I guess you aren't that pathetic. I'm surprised you managed to break free. It pains me to have to praise someone like you."
Chrono trembled, his breathing ragged. He struggled to stay upright as his vision blurred. May's presence alone caused him immense distress.
He took several slow, deep breaths, calming himself just enough to speak. "So that's your game, March… using cheap tricks like this," Chrono said, his voice shaking.
March laughed, shaking his head. "Cheap tricks? No way! My plan was to summon Mistress May from the very beginning. The reversal was only a countermeasure in case I took too long to defeat you."
"That doesn't make it any less cheap…"
"Haha! Perhaps. But this is checkmate, Zeph Chrono. I win! I'm better than you!"
Chrono didn't respond. His expression hardened.
"You have no stamina left. How are you going to rewind time? Are you just going to send May after Talia? Is that your plan!?" Chrono asked, his voice rising.
May shook her head. "Oh no, I won't be going after Talia."
"Then… it isn't checkmate. There's no way you can reverse time in your current condition."
March chuckled as May helped him to his feet, wrapping an arm around him supportively. "Yeah, you're right!"
"Then—"
May snapped her fingers, summoning a knife in her hand and cutting Chrono off. "It granted me an ability. I am able to replicate, summon, and restore things I own."
Chrono gritted his teeth. "So he summoned you to restore his body to a point where he wasn't injured. Is that it!?"
"Yes, yes! Spot on," March jeered.
Chrono clenched his fist, staring at the ground. "How can you claim you're better than me if you need someone else's help to beat me?"
"I'm better simply because you failed to defeat me."
"That's not how it works…"
March chuckled. "I don't care! In the end, it's the winner that matters. Who cares how they win?"
"What a load of crap! You're just a fraud who depends on your master. You're nothing on your own!" Chrono spat in rage.
"That's rich, Zeph. Isn't it the same with you and Talia? You're depending on her help with this challenge too, nooo~?" May chimed in.
Chrono gritted his teeth. "No! It isn't…"
"You just don't want to accept it, Zeph. You and I are the same," March said.
"We're NOTHING alike!" Chrono swiped his hand through the air angrily.
"If you say so," March shrugged.
This cheap bastard…
I won't let him kill Talia… I can't let that happen.
I can't let this opportunity slip. He's vulnerable.
I have to get rid of him now!
Without warning, Chrono dashed at March, surprising them both. Their eyes widened in unison.
May reacted instantly, thrusting her knife at Chrono, but he effortlessly dodged and countered with a powerful fist to her face, sending her flying nearly a hundred meters away.
March's eyes widened in terror. "M-Mistress!"
Chrono wasted no time and threw a devastating punch at March's face.
His fist moved closer…
And closer…
And closer…
Until it suddenly stopped.
What!?
Chrono looked down, eyes widening in horror.
His hand…
Was gone.
What… the hell…?
Chrono screamed in pain, clutching the stump of his arm. May walked back casually, laughing as she twirled the bloody knife on her fingers.
"That was a good one, Zeph. You've improved since our last fight. However," May licked the blood off the blade, "you're still miles below me."
When Chrono had punched her, May had simultaneously sliced off his hand. She moved so fast it couldn't be perceived by the naked eye—so fast it didn't even look like she had moved.
Chrono collapsed to the ground, rolling side to side while clutching his arm and screaming in agony.
May let out a sickening laugh, pointing at him with the tip of her knife. "You look so pathetic right now. Rolling on the floor in pain. 'ARGH! ARGH!'" She mimicked his screams mockingly.
"You sound so stupid right now. I love it!" She wiped a tear from her eye from laughing so hard.
Her smile faded slightly as she turned to March. "I'm going to recover your body now. I'm running out of time."
"Y-yes, Mistress. Please do."
May snapped her fingers. All of March's injuries instantly vanished. "There. I've restored you to peak condition. I even threw in a little extra."
March smiled widely and embraced May in a tight hug. "Thank you, Mistress. I love you!"
May's eyes widened slightly before she gently brushed his hair, a soft smile appearing on her lips as her body began to fade. "Try to restore his hand. I said I wouldn't kill him. You can do whatever you want after that."
March nodded.
A gust of wind swirled around May before vanishing completely. She was gone.
March turned to Chrono, who was still writhing on the ground, bleeding profusely.
His smile widened."Mistress May's time in the loop has expired. I can no longer call on her help. It truly is the last dance, Zeph."
He outstretched his arms dramatically. "Let's end this once and for all!"
Chrono looked up at him, wincing in pain. "I won't let you… kill Talia…" he forced out through gritted teeth.
March giggled. "I like your spirit, Zeph, but you simply cannot stop me from killing Talia."
"It's entirely possible…"
March waved his finger. "Not a chance, Zeph. I'm at peak condition, and you've lost a hand. Quite the mismatch, if I do say so myself."
"I'll find a way…"
March scoffed, clearly amused. "There's no way you can win against me, Zeph! It's suicide. But don't worry—I'll make it quick."
"Reversal!"
Suddenly, the space around them warped and twisted. The air bent inward as if being pulled by an unseen force. It felt as though time itself was reversing, dragging everything back with it. Chrono's eyes widened in shock, his breath catching.
He instinctively looked down—his missing hand was whole again, completely untouched, as if it had never been severed.
Then he heard a familiar voice.
"What is it, Zeph?"
The voice belonged to a slightly irritated Iris, her arms folded. March stood beside her.
This is when…
Time had been rewound to the exact moment when Chrono had first called out to Iris and March as they were about to leave. Chrono stared, wide-eyed, his mouth slightly agape.
Iris raised an eyebrow. "What is the matter, Zeph? Did you stop us just to stare in silence?"
Talia nudged him. "Hey… is everything alright?" she whispered.
He slowly turned his head toward her, his expression unchanged.
"Talia…" he said suddenly.
Talia smiled awkwardly, tilting her head. "Zeph… what's gotten into you?"
He… he really reversed time. No way…
We're back at this point… March hasn't attacked Iris yet, and Talia is right next to me.
Chrono continued staring at Talia with the same dumbfounded expression. Her face reddened slightly with embarrassment.
"Talia…" he repeated.
"Z-Zeph? What's wrong with you?" Talia stammered.
Iris sighed, uncrossing her arms. "Have you stopped me just to waste my time? I have matters to attend to. If you want to act like lovers, please refrain from doing it in my presence."
"I-I don't know what's happened to him either. It's just as strange to me." Talia stammered out.
March chimed in with a chuckle. "Quite powerful, isn't it, Zeph? You're still in disbelief. Your reaction is honestly surprising, considering you can loop."
Talia's eyes widened. "What…? How does he know that…?"
Iris raised a brow and turned toward him. "March…?"
Chrono slowly turned his head toward March, still wide-eyed.
Then suddenly—
A gust of wind brushed across Talia's face as Chrono dashed toward March and threw a punch.
March dodged effortlessly.
"Damn it…"
"I've learned from my mistakes, Zeph. You're not catching me off guard again."
"H-Hey! What's going on? Why did Zeph—?" Iris's voice trembled as she stepped back in confusion.
Her retreat was cut short. March's hand shot forward and clamped around her skull with crushing force, fingers digging deep into her scalp.
His smile stretched unnaturally wide. "So this is the 'extra' Mistress May was talking about…"
Iris shrieked, clawing desperately at his wrist as her body convulsed. "March… what are you doing—?"
A sickening crack split the air.
Her words were severed along with her spine. With a brutal, twisting jerk, March tore her head free from her body. Flesh ripped apart in wet strands, vertebrae snapping as a violent spray of blood erupted outward, splattering across his face and soaking into his clothes. The headless body stood for a fraction of a second—then collapsed, pumping thick, pulsing streams onto the pavement.
The metallic stench flooded the air.
Chrono and Talia froze, their eyes shot wide, horror rooting them in place.
March didn't even look at the corpse. Through the crimson mist still hanging in the air, he turned his gaze to Talia—his grin widening further, teeth stained red, as blood continued to drip from his fingers.