"Jeffrey, you know what we'll probably have to do, right?"
"Yeah."
I'm glad Aion mentioned that we'll have a clue to follow, otherwise I'd have no idea where to start.
"Viktor?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm scared of something in particular Aion said."
"Let me guess, 'there are certain things that will only happen once'?"
"Yeah. Do you know what that entails?"
"Yup, this first try will probably be impossible."
"I came to the same conclusion, I'm most scared of this resulting in death."
"It's okay, Jeffrey. I know what to do. We'll have to find the clues Aion left for us."
The village before us seemed frozen in time. It felt as though we were the last people alive in this world—a world that had once been bustling, full of life. But now? Nothing. Just the wind rustling the moss-covered rooftops.
Viktor was the first to speak, his voice cautious. "We need to figure out the rules of this world. Aion said there would be clues, but they won't be obvious." He looked around, his brow furrowing as he analyzed every detail. "Everything here is decaying—moss, rotting wood, dry wells. It's like all the life has been drained from this place. This is our first challenge, Jeffrey. We need to restore life to the village, but we don't know how yet."
I nodded, taking in the scene. Looking around, I saw a town crowded with houses. However, these houses clearly hadn't been thought of in a while. They were buckling under the weight of neglect, and I could see moss seeping out from the splintered support beams. The sky was a distant purple color, and I could see an unmoving light that could only be the sun. I almost felt that we were in a forgotten memory, and we would have to bring it back to the present.
The roads weren't much better. Everywhere I walked there was rough gravel scraping against the soles of my feet, bringing my attention to my shoes somehow being lost in the teleportation– if it was even that. It was quiet, eerily quiet. I couldn't hear a thing, even when straining my ears for more. Viktor looked like he was noticing the same thing, since he was cupping his hands to his ears, probably trying to hear even a sound. I couldn't smell anything either, further confirming my deduction that time was stopped, or that this was some kind of memory, or maybe both.
I began walking toward the center of the village, feeling an inexplicable pull toward it. I turned to Viktor, who was still scanning the surroundings. He looked pale, and his hands trembled slightly.
"Hey, Viktor. You good?" I called out, concerned.
He looked up at me, his eyes wide. "This place… It's not just an alternate reality, Jeffrey. It's a memory. A decayed one, but still a memory." His voice was shaking. "We're not just restoring a village. We're restoring the past. The questions we ask, the decisions we make, they'll affect what happened here. We have to fix it somehow."
I shook my head, trying to think. I had thought of that, but hearing it from Viktor's mouth felt different. "You mean… this place is some kind of… failed memory? And we have to fix it?"
Viktor didn't answer, his eyes distant. It was clear he was lost in his thoughts, trying to piece together what we were up against. I couldn't blame him. We had no idea what rules governed this alternate reality. But there was one thing I knew for sure—if we didn't figure it out fast, Aion would start rewinding time, and that wouldn't be good for either of us.
After some thinking, I felt like there was something we needed to do.
"Hey, Viktor." I called out.
He didn't respond.
"Viktor?" I said, a little louder.
Still no response. I started working my way back towards him. I peered at the house we had appeared next to, but no sign of Viktor.
"Hey, Viktor!" I called out, now frantic. "This isn't funny anymore! Where did you go?"
All of a sudden, a hand appeared over my mouth, shushing me.
"Shut the fuck up, Jeffrey!" I heard Viktor's voice whisper angrily from behind me, "You're going to get us both killed."
I removed Viktor's hand from my mouth before responding.
"What do you mean?" I whispered back. "What's going on?"
"I think I've figured out what's going on here. There is something causing this memory to decay. We have to stop it, and then we have to fix it."
"What could that even be?"
"I saw something."
"What?"
"I saw something. Towards the east end of the village, near what appeared to be the church, there was… something."
"Like a person?"
"Almost, more like… a shadow, I guess. But when I was trying to get a closer look at it, it turned its gaze towards me, then disappeared. So, that's why I hid here."
"That's so strange. What now?"
"I don't kn-"
All of a sudden, Viktor fell down next to me.
He was dead.
I turned around just to see Aion swinging a bat right at my face.
…
"Wrong choice. Also, I'll let you keep something, remember now, I am also in these memories, you have to escape me as well."
…
I awoke to a bright sun shining in my face. Above me looked to be the top of a bunk bed, and I was on the bottom. To my right was Viktor, but I had no clue why we were here.
"Jeffrey, Jeffrey. Can you hear me?" He asked, grasping my hand, his face full of concern.
"Yeah… What's up Viktor?"
"Jeffrey, what is your latest memory?"
I sat up from the bed, wiping the grogginess from my eyes.
"Ugh… I remember you telling me about the temple, saying it would lead to the maze. I also had some dream, it was about this really tall buff dude in a toga telling me I have to escape him. It was super weird, where are we?"
Viktor's hand started shaking, and I saw his face go pale.
"Oh, God…" He muttered under his breath. "It's worse than I thought."
"What's going on?" I asked, concern starting to leak from my voice. I had no clue where I was, or what was happening.
The room we were in was very small and cramped, it was made entirely out of wood.
Viktor took a deep breath before speaking again.
"Jeffrey, we're playing a game called 'The Paradox Game' against Aion. He is the guy you saw in that dream and is the owner of the Maze of Archon. We just got killed in the last round, and it seems that it has resulted in you losing some memories. Aion said this would happen, now we have to try to make sure we don't die again, otherwise it could be me who forgets the rules. Ideally we have someone who remembers Aion explaining the rules, but as long as you understand it, then it's fine."
"I see… that's kind of scary, what happened last round?"
Viktor took his time explaining what had happened before I woke up here. I genuinely had no recollection of this happening. He then started telling me about what happened when we arrived here. Apparently, we were in an old town that was rumored to exist in ancient Roman history. Luckily, Viktor had knowledge of this city and knew how it was supposed to work. He had already gotten in contact with the townspeople he had seen running around, and got us this house.
Apparently, they were preparing for a great famine that an oracle told them would be happening. Viktor and I both concluded that we had to try to stop this famine.
We set to work, helping the townspeople the best we could. Several grueling days passed of hard, intense labor under the harsh, unrelenting sunlight. Viktor and I lasted about 2 weeks before something bad began to happen.
The air started to change, thick with an ominous tension. The once warm, dry sunlight felt harsh and suffocating, like it was pushing down on us. The villagers had begun to grow more erratic. Some of them started whispering about bad omens, while others just… shut down. They worked less and less, as if the thought of the famine had become too much to bear. There was a palpable fear in the air, a fear that clung to everything– the dust, the broken houses, even the water in the wells seemed to have turned stagnant.
Viktor and I were doing our best to hold it together, but something felt off.
"Viktor," I said one evening, my voice heavy with exhaustion, "why do I feel like we're not helping here? I know we're doing everything we can, but it just feels… wrong. Like we're fighting against the inevitable."
Viktor paused, looking out over the village from the small window of the house we'd taken shelter in. His eyes were distant, and for a moment, I wondered if he was trying to figure out the same thing.
"We're playing Aion's game, Jeffrey," he said quietly. "And I'm starting to think that stopping the famine—fixing this memory—might not be the right answer."
I frowned, turning to him. "What are you talking about? You're the one who said we had to stop it. We can't let these people starve to death."
Viktor gave a grim smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I know. But what if that's what Aion wants us to do? What if we're not supposed to stop it? What if—"
Suddenly, there was a loud crash from outside. We both jumped to our feet, instantly alert.
I grabbed a small knife from the table, not sure how much good it would do, but I didn't have time to think. Viktor motioned for me to follow him as we rushed toward the door.
Outside, the village was chaotic. People were screaming, running in all directions. I saw a few villagers clutching their heads, as if they were in pain. A small group of them had gathered around the well in the center of town, their faces pale and frantic, as though something horrible was about to happen.
Viktor's hand gripped my arm tightly. "This wasn't supposed to happen. The famine hasn't even hit yet. But something else… something triggered it early."
Before I could ask him what he meant, I saw it: the shadow from before, the one Viktor had mentioned. It wasn't just an odd flicker this time. It was real. The figure appeared in the middle of the square, dark and tall, like a mass of shifting smoke, but with a definite human shape. Its eyes, if you could call them eyes, glowed a faint, unnerving green, and it locked its gaze onto me.
"Viktor," I whispered, panic rising in my chest. "It's back. It's real."
Viktor's grip tightened on my arm, pulling me back toward the door. "We need to leave. Now."
But it was too late. The shadow figure turned its head slowly, and its body began to stretch unnaturally, expanding across the square. The villagers screamed again, some falling to their knees, others running in terror, but the shadow didn't follow them. It followed us.
The moment we turned and fled, it was as if the world itself warped. The ground beneath our feet felt unstable, like the very fabric of reality was coming undone. I could hear Viktor shouting at me to run faster, but the surrounding air grew thick with a cold, choking fog.
I could feel my heart hammering in my chest, but no matter how fast I ran, the shadow seemed to grow closer, its glowing eyes fixed on me with a malevolent hunger.
We stumbled into a narrow alley, gasping for air. Viktor leaned against the crumbling stone wall, breathing heavily.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked, trembling from more than just the cold.
Viktor wiped his forehead, clearly trying to calm himself. "I think we've made a mistake. I think we've been playing into Aion's hands. This place—the village, the people, the famine—it's all a memory Aion has constructed. But it's not the whole truth. The famine, the shadow… they're part of the game, part of Aion's way of testing us. The memory is decaying faster than we realized. And if we keep pushing in the wrong direction… we could end up breaking the entire timeline."
I swallowed hard. "So what do we do? What if we can't stop it?"
"Maybe we don't stop it," Viktor said, his voice low. "Maybe we need to let it happen. But we have to figure out why. Why this timeline? Why this memory? There's something we're missing, something we're not seeing."
I looked down at the crumbling street beneath our feet. The stones were cracked, worn down by centuries of time. "What if… what if we're not supposed to change anything? What if we're just supposed to survive long enough to remember the truth?"
Viktor looked at me sharply. "You're not suggesting we let the famine happen, are you?"
"I don't know," I said, my voice uncertain. "But I'm starting to think that the more we try to fix things, the worse it gets. Maybe we need to see what happens if we just… let things unfold. Maybe the village has to fall apart for something else to happen. Maybe that's the key."
Viktor seemed to mull this over, his eyes flickering with the realization that we might not have all the answers. "We can't just sit back and wait for everything to collapse. Aion is watching. He might even be manipulating things, pushing us toward a specific outcome."
Just then, a loud crack echoed from the square behind us. The shadow was getting closer, its form solidifying, and I could hear the faintest sound of laughter, distorted and echoing through the fog.
Aion's voice rang out through the mist, deep and mocking. "You think you can outsmart me, Jeffrey? Viktor? You've barely scratched the surface. But don't worry, there's always room for one more mistake."
Viktor's eyes narrowed. "We're running out of time. We need to make a choice, and we need to make it fast."
I stood there, caught in the tension of the moment. The shadow was now close enough that I could feel the temperature drop, the air pressing down on me. Every instinct screamed at me to run. But I couldn't. Not yet. Not until I understood.
"Viktor, what if we're looking at this all wrong?" I asked, the words slipping out before I could stop them. "What if we need to stop fighting against the memory, stop trying to change things... and just try to find a way to escape before everything resets again?"
For a moment, Viktor didn't answer. His face was a mixture of exhaustion, frustration, and something else—something close to acceptance.
"Maybe you're right," he said quietly. "Maybe we've been trying to control the wrong thing. Maybe the only thing we can do is survive. And hope we remember enough to make the next round count."
Suddenly, there was another loud crack very close to where we were hiding.
"Viktor," I started, urgency dripping from my voice. "We need to go. Now."
Viktor nodded and led us out of the alleyway. But, that was the wrong move. Aion had already found us.
…
"Tsk, tsk tsk."
…
I woke up to a new place, no recollection of who I am, or where I was. I seemed to be in some kind of void. To my left, I saw someone who looked familiar, but I could quite put my finger on. In front of me, stood another man I didn't remember. He was rather tall and wore a toga.
"Jeffrey. You have two choices, since you and Viktor lost. You can go out from that door and gain all your memories. Or, you can sacrifice yourself for a chance to save him."
I looked at the man that was supposed to be Viktor. There was a part of me that felt like I should know him, and that he was a friend. However, another part of me told me that I didn't remember him for a reason. I turned towards where the guy in the toga was pointing, a white door appeared there. Without turning back, I swiftly made my way over to the door, and I opened it. Suddenly, all my memories rushed back into my brain.
I fell to my knees, the weight of what I had just done crashing down on me. I left Viktor to die, a man who saved me time and time again. He was abandoned. I cried, I let all of my tears flow, hating myself, hating fate, hating Aion. I turned my back on him when he needed me most. You really couldn't place blame on me, since I had no memories, but I still was mad. I'm supposed to be someone smart, yet I abandoned intuition and left him to die. He could've been my one true friend.
"Jeffrey?" Viktor elbowed me out of my flashback. "Are you ready? We're going to settle what was supposed to be finished a long time ago."
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat.
"Yes, Viktor. I'm ready."
We stepped into the temple and immediately got warped back into the Maze of Archon.