Since leaving the classroom, Alven could no longer see the campus as the same place.
The corridors of Nexara Institute of Technology were still filled with laughing students, holographic screens floating above information desks, and the sound of footsteps blending with the hum of the building's cooling system. Everything looked normal. Too normal. That was exactly what made Alven's chest feel tighter.
He had already seen how all of this would end.
An explosion. Smoke. Shattered glass. Lica's motionless body.
And now he stood in the middle of the same day, with eyes that knew too much.
"I'm starting to regret saying I'd go with you if you keep that face."
Lica's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. She walked beside him, hugging her tablet to her chest, occasionally glancing at his tense expression.
"I'm serious, Alven. You look like someone who just saw the apocalypse."
Alven stopped near a large window overlooking the central plaza. From there, the energy tower stood tall at the center of the open field, reflecting daylight from its metal panels. Students passed by around it, some sitting casually on circular benches, others lining up at automated drink kiosks.
There was no sign of danger.
No smoke.
No alarm.
Lica followed his gaze. "You've been staring at that tower. What's going on?"
Alven clenched his jaw. He could lie. Say he was just dizzy, or overwhelmed with assignments, or thinking about the presentation. But all those excuses felt small, fragile, nothing compared to the truth pounding in his head.
"If I say something strange," he said quietly, "will you believe me?"
Lica looked at him for a few seconds. "Depends on how strange."
"I'm serious."
"So am I."
Alven looked back out the window. "I… feel like something is going to happen at the plaza today."
Lica didn't answer immediately. "Feel, or know?"
That question made Alven turn quickly.
Lica gave a small shrug. "You're not someone who panics easily. So if you're this shaken, it's not just a normal feeling."
For a moment, Alven stayed silent. Something inside him wanted to tell everything at once—about the explosion, about the blood, about the Chronolocket that brought him back. But another part held him back. His mother's message echoed again: trust no one.
But what if the only way to save someone was to trust them?
"I don't know how to explain it," Alven finally said. "But you have to stay away from the plaza today. No matter what happens, don't go there."
Lica's expression softened, though her brow was still furrowed in confusion. "Okay. I can do that. But you have to promise me one thing."
"What?"
"Don't disappear on your own."
Alven looked at her for a moment before nodding.
They headed toward the north-side cafeteria, far from the main plaza. Alven deliberately chose a place that, from what he remembered, wouldn't be crowded at lunchtime. Along the way, he paid attention to every detail with painful tension—the student who dropped a stylus, a lecturer walking by while speaking through an earpiece, the indicator lights on the walls, even the movement of campus drones in the sky. He was like someone forced to solve a massive puzzle with a single incomplete clue: how did the explosion begin?
At the cafeteria, Lica ordered two drinks without asking, as usual. That simple habit made something in Alven's chest tighten strangely. It was hard to accept that in just a few hours, this girl was supposed to die in front of him.
"Here," Lica said, placing one glass in front of him. "You need something to drink before you actually collapse."
"Thanks."
"Don't sound so formal. It's creepy."
Alven held the glass but didn't drink. His gaze fixed on the digital clock on the cafeteria wall. Time was moving too fast. Every minute felt like sand slipping away, impossible to stop.
Lica sat across from him, resting her chin on her hand. "Now explain. At least part of it. Because I can't just sit here watching you like this."
Alven exhaled slowly. "What if I told you I've seen something happen before it actually happens?"
"Like a premonition?"
"Clearer than that."
Lica fell silent for a moment, then said softly, "This might sound wrong, but I don't think you're lying."
Alven lifted his head.
Lica looked straight at him. "You're scared. And not for yourself."
The words struck deeper than he expected. His fingers tightened around the glass.
"I don't want anything to happen to you."
For the first time since morning, Alven's voice cracked.
Lica didn't respond with a joke like usual. She only looked at him more gently than before. "Hey," she said softly, "I'm here."
Those simple words nearly broke down Alven's defenses. But before he could say anything else, the large screen in the corner of the cafeteria flickered. The campus information broadcast was briefly interrupted by static lines. Other students only glanced at it before returning to their conversations, assuming it was a normal glitch.
But Alven's body tensed immediately.
The same disturbance.
Just like before the alarm.
He stood up so fast that his chair scraped loudly backward.
"Alven?"
"We have to go. Now."
"Where?"
"Anywhere. As long as it's not here, not near the plaza, not—"
The cafeteria lights dimmed for one second.
One second that was enough to drain the color from Alven's face.
Some students began murmuring in confusion. The cooling system suddenly stopped. The information screens flickered again, then went dark. In the distance, a faint echoing sound like metal being violently pulled could be heard.
"This isn't a coincidence," Alven whispered.
He grabbed Lica's wrist. "Let's go."
They ran out of the cafeteria toward the north wing of the building. Alven chose a route away from the plaza, heading down a quieter service corridor. Some other students also began moving out of rooms, asking what was happening, but panic had not fully spread yet. There was no alarm yet. No explosion.
There was still time.
At least, Alven wanted to believe that.
They reached the connecting corridor toward the library building, one of the areas farthest from the energy tower. Alven stopped to make sure Lica was still beside him. She was slightly out of breath, but still standing firm.
"You know something," she said quietly. "You really know."
Alven opened his mouth, but a small explosion from the distance cut him off.
Not a massive explosion. More like a surge of giant electricity.
Then the campus alarm blared.
Students who had been confused now started screaming. Footsteps filled the corridor. Automatic doors opened simultaneously for evacuation. From the side windows, blue light flickered wildly against the walls.
"Stay behind me," Alven said firmly.
They moved again with the flow of panicking people. But after only a few meters, the floor shook violently. A ceiling panel broke loose and crashed down into the corridor ahead, forcing everyone to stop abruptly. Screams erupted everywhere.
Alven instinctively pulled Lica to the side wall.
"Is this what you saw?" Lica asked, her breath uneven.
"No." Alven's eyes scanned the chaotic corridor. "What I saw was worse."
And in that moment, he understood something that made his blood run cold.
This was different.
In the first timeline, the explosion happened at the plaza while Lica was waiting there. But now Lica was with him, far from the center of the incident—and reality had found another way to collapse. Maybe he had managed to change one detail, but that change didn't stop the disaster. It only moved it. Twisted it into another form.
As if time didn't care who had to be sacrificed, as long as something was taken.
"Alven!" someone shouted from the end of the corridor.
A student had fallen near the collapsed panel, his leg trapped. Others were too panicked to help. Small flames began to spark from broken cables. Thin smoke quickly crept toward the ceiling.
Lica stepped forward without thinking.
"I'll help him."
Alven grabbed her arm. "Don't!"
Lica looked shocked. "He's hurt!"
"I know, but—"
Before he could finish, a sharp cracking sound came from the glass structure on the side of the building. Everyone turned at once. One of the large panels facing the plaza began to shatter from the top corner, its cracks spreading rapidly like black lightning.
Alven's face turned pale.
He had failed once.
And now time was preparing to repeat its cruelty in a different way.
If he saved the trapped student, would Lica become the victim?
If he kept Lica by his side, how many others would he have to let get hurt?
As those choices crushed his chest all at once, Alven could only stare at the girl in front of him and wonder—
if saving you means losing parts of myself little by little, how many times can I still choose you?