Evalyn approached the emperor nervously. "Thanks for letting them off easy."
"Letting them off easy?" Kaze scoff-laughed, vexed with the assertion, "Are you blind?"
"What do you mean?" She asked with a trembling voice as she looked at the men. When she did, her eyes filled with horror.
Despite being sober only minutes before, the men had become sluggish, looking like drunkards.
She looked closer, using the technique he gave her.
Evalyn cupped her hands over her mouth. "Their meridians…."
"They're closed." Kaze said coldly, "What little was forced open is now gone. They'll go mad with Qi sickness by morning."
She turned to him with a wincing expression. "How are you so cold?"
"Cold?" He laugh-scoffed while gently grabbing her hand.
Kaze guided her behind the DJ stage and led her through a warp gate to a short building's rooftop. It was close enough to hear the music but far enough to avoid issues.
She looked around in confusion, trying to comprehend what he just did. However, he continued, and she snapped back into focus.
"I'm doing them and the world a favor." He said.
"It's a painless death for them and better for everyone knowing those animals won't pillage women once society breaks down.
It's a small respite of relief for those unlucky enough to avoid sickness and must face such barbarity instead."
Evalyn's lungs froze for a moment, having difficulty processing his words. "You're serious…."
"What do you think the word apocalypse means?" Kaze scoffed mockingly, "A time where humanity bands together to fight a joint enemy?"
She gave him a wry smile and averted her gaze.
"You can't save these people, Evalyn." He said apathetically, "If they're not on my list, they'll be dead by next month at the latest. You can only save the women with techniques from defilement and pray the remainder will get the sickness sooner than later."
Evalyn stared at him in horror. "Why are you just now helping me understand all of this? You've been telling me about this apocalypse, but you've downplayed the cruelness and obscuring the timeline. You're so relaxed all the time, why?"
Kaze checked his watch to check the time in annoyance and then looked at her.
"You're not going to change anything." He said in a frigid voice, "So it was better to let you enjoy a fleeting moment of happiness before reality hits your idealism like gravity and sends it crashing down to a bloody death."
The blonde dry swallowed, and her breaths became sharp.
"Kaze, how long is there before everything goes to hell?" She asked nervously.
Kaze looked at his watch again. "Twenty-eight minutes."
"Twenty-eight!? Kaze, why didn't you let me secure my family first?" Evalyn cried.
"They took a spur-of-the-moment vacation, and I barely convinced them to come back early on Monday!
They're not home, and I haven't heard back from my mom today, Kaze!"
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and shook his head, trying to find the words to say.
"Listen, Evalyn. I'll reiterate. The best case scenario is if they get the sickness now." He said solemnly.
"You can't be serious!" She cried with tears in her eyes, "How are you this deranged? You're running around trying to get my friends in the faction, yet you won't help my family!?"
"Deranged?" Kaze scoffed bitterly, "Do you think me an orphan, Evalyn?"
Evalyn cupped her hand over her mouth to stop her vitriolic rant and took a deep breath.
"What about your parents?" She asked hesitantly.
"I spent all of yesterday with them. " Kaze explained bitterly, "We had a great day. I told them about my life, proved them proud, treated them to the most lavish treats the world can offer…."
He took a deep breath. "And then I sealed their meridians just like you just saw."
Evalyn's eyes screamed in horror. "W-What did you just say?"
"Don't make me repeat something so loathsome." Kaze snapped contemptuously, "You heard me well enough, yes? I sealed their meridians. Even with my power, I cannot save my parents."
She began hyperventilating in disbelief, and her motions became twitchy as she tried to gasp for air. "Y-You? You can't?"
The emperor closed his eyes and swallowed to prevent himself from snapping. He didn't like that reality either.
"Wait an hour." Kaze instructed coldly, "You'll see the nature of desperation for the first time. When you do, you'll understand that the military, the faction members, and everyone else will try holding my parents hostage, trying to force my hand in helping them."
Evalyn took deep breaths, trying to process his words with a sane mind. She hadn't seen it, so it felt like a surreal nightmare, delusions of a man drunk with power.
"I cannot protect my parents 24/7 and refuse to let a man defile my mother or watch them die again." He said coldly.
Her eyes trembled, and tears welled in her eyes, unwilling to accept the horror he went through. It was an abstract concept yesterday, an impending dream, and she didn't bear the reality.
"They'll do the same to your parents." Kaze warned, "They'll hold them hostage to get you to let their parents in, to save their children, to protect them from the sick."
Evalyn winced, and tears fell from her eyes. "N-No. That's not—"
"It's true, Evalyn. Right now, you're thinking through hundreds of simulations, desperately looking for a way to leverage your relationship with me to save your family and protect them." He remarked, "Now imagine that same behavior transposed on billions."
She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. Not at Kaze; at everything.
"Kaze… please." Evalyn pleaded after swallowing back tears.
Kaze took a deep breath. "I've already proven feeble for providing an arbitrary ticket to Immortal Skye for all your friends and extended family."
Evalyn looked at him with a conflicted expression. She wanted to tell him she was grateful, but she was in too much pain, desperate to the point of begging.
"You could've at least given me the technique a week—"
"Are you deaf? Or are you just unwilling to listen to me?" He scoffed in irritation.
She turned away with a contorted expression, unwilling to bite the man who held the cards to her family's life.
"If I let you bring your whole family, you'd be wrought with tragedy regularly." Kaze said bitterly, "I gave you a ticket to save only a select few you're capable of protecting."
Evalyn took deep breaths, desperately trying to regain hold of her emotions. She knew he was helping her, but it was impossible to feel that way.
"Then can you help me with the select few? My family's away, and I couldn't teach them."
"I'm trying to protect you from what's to come." Kaze replied after a deep breath, "If you knew what was coming, you'd find my concession reprehensible. Must you ask me to aid you further in your desperate quest for misfortune?"
"Are you saying I'll thank you later?" Evalyn asked bitterly.
"Whether I help you or not, your family will die; such an event will never inspire gratitude." He scoffed in vexation, "The only thing that will change is whether you blame me or yourself. Stop begging for the latter."
"You'd go so far as to have me hate you to shelter me?" She whispered, "Please, tell me. I need to know. What was I—"
"What do you want to hear me say?" Kaze asked sarcastically, "We fought a war together, fell in love, and then lived a happy life?"
Evalyn fell silent at his words and bit her lip. "I'm not asking for much. I just want something to latch onto. Something to help me believe in you."
He laughed in disbelief. "Is that a joke? You'll hear a love story that will somehow justify what you interpret as murder?"
She turned away in shame; it was what she wished for.
"Here's a synopsis of what you seek." Kaze scoffed.
"Two people watched billions die in an apocalypse, lived through horrors, and grew callus.
Then they were summoned to the Sky Plane, where they were forced into war and watched millions more die, many at their hands."
Evalyn's movements became shaky, and her desire to flee took over.
"A clever man survived through wit, and a ruthless woman survived through mass killing." He laugh-scoffed in contempt.
"He pursued her, and she tried to kill him half-heartedly for the better part of a century.
They finally developed feelings for each other and left their lives behind."
She looked up with hope in her eyes.
"The people she helped and saved didn't like that, so they sent waves and waves of people to kill her." Kaze explained mockingly.
"So the two murdered their way through life and never enjoyed the feelings they shared.
Eventually, she died after countless years of bitter struggle because we were both too weak to prevent it."
Evalyn's breathing became ragged, and her mind clouded from lack of oxygen.
"The end." The emperor concluded mockingly.
Tears fell from her eyes as she heard the story. It was horrifying and sad, and she felt terrible for pressing him constantly for answers.
"I-I didn't understand. I'm sorry." Evalyn whispered.
"Save your pity." Kaze replied coldly.
"I'm not here from the future to save you. I returned by accident and vowed to enjoy life and make the world better for you this time.
That doesn't mean I'm here to marry you and bring you a happy life in the apocalypse.
Such a goal would sprout from the depths of lunacy and be treasonous to the laws of common sense.
My relationship with the old Evalyn Skye won't change the hell that awaits us ten minutes from now.
So stop looking to a future you don't understand to shelter yourself from the realities of the present.
If you need an emotion that justifies your faith in me, cling to mindless gratitude for the power I've bestowed upon you. Only that and nothing more.
Now I need to go. If I don't, this place will devolve into a riot, and bodies will start piling up.
Stay here so your cultivation won't kill people in the area.
Don't leave; I've set things up this way to give you a "soft" introduction to what will happen tomorrow. So watch the show."
Kaze waved his arm, creating another wall of warping space that led him behind the DJ stand again, leaving her with a beating heart as she looked over the rooftop.
The emperor got on the stage, asked the DJ to cut the music, and then picked up the microphone.
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