"Wait wait wait wait, when you say you took the future of the island into that amulet, do you mean that literally or metaphorically?"
"Both really." She shrugged. "Even if the future contained within my amulet is only half a month, it's still half a month where the Malaise had existed without a cure."
She let out a long sigh.
"...I noticed that the Boss Stem Cell that you had was... incomplete."
The Messenger snapped her head towards me... before slumping against the ground powerlessly
"You noticed that huh? As expected of the Claimed."
Her head lay against the cool stone as the numerous squiggles returned to the rooms hidden in the a hallway as the golden sunlight streamed through the windows in the chapel.
"Well... The Boss stem cell I have is only half of the real thing." Her hands pointed to a place behind me.
"The other half is with the Timekeeper in the Clock tower"
'I knew that place was important.'
"She's also the one that the King had summoned in the first place to seal the entirety of the island in a domain of time, cutting off the entire island from the world."
'She definitely failed at that'
Recalling the image of the world instantly superimposing its entire millenia in a single moment, I turned my attention back to the slumped over messenger in front of me.
"...Have you ever wondered why this island has so little people?"
"I have never once wondered that."
Ignoring my answer, the messenger seemed content with just answering her own question "It's because people went mad."
"Did you know that the fully intact form of the malsie existed not only as a physical disease that parasitized corpses but as a magical disease?"
"Not until now."
A half demented chuckle left her mouth. "It not only infected people through madness, it instilled them with further madness so that it could infect even more."
"The Malaise at its full potential caused madness that crossed timelines making it easier for the disease to reinfect the survivors"
"It's funny how the very concept of Madness itself is a contagious disease." She tucked the amulet back into her heavy bosom
"And you can imagine people went mad the moment that they realized that they were in a time loop that they could never escape until a cure is made, further increasing the amount of damage caused by the malaise."
"Even if the cure was miraculously found at that point, the damage had already been done, people had gone mad and things couldn't return to how they were before."
"So they were sealed?"
"So they were sealed, Only those with the best mentalities remained to guard the first, second and even third seal."
"Those who couldn't withstand the thought of forever looping are frozen alongside the fully mutated corpses in the world of the keys"
She clasped her hands together and emanated an aura of solemnity
"May their souls rest well with the blessings of the Mother."
'...Bloody hell.'
Rubbing my forehead with the palm of my head, I felt it heat up as the brain contained in the skull continued to try and absorb the information granted to it.
'So to summarise, this isn't even the full form of the disease that has evolved for... six months? Yeah, six months.'
If every half boss stem cell contained half a months time of continuous evolution, then if all nine were gathered and put together, then the total length of the time loop would extend to six months
This definitely raised the amount of time left before the entire world superimposed in on itself, but it also had the obvious downside of releasing possibly tens of thousands of people.
People who were no different from the common man and could be infected by the malaise just as easily.
It didn't help that this disease I was dealing with wasn't even at its full form.
'Gods... I knew this would be hard, but isn't this just a living hell?'
Rubbing my head, the Messenger suddenly spoke while directing their blind gaze to the side.
"Ah... It's time."
"Time for what?"
Confusedly reacting, my gaze was turned to the numerous snakes suddenly rearing their heads and hissing crazily.
Writhing their coiled bodies around each other, there was no little amount of self harm as the snakes attacked each other for the sudden movements, drawing blood from their own bodies.
Fangs gleaming underneath the sunlight, I noticed that all of their slitted golden eyes were directed the same way that the Messenger was looking.
Stiffly turning my head, I stared out the frescoed window bearing the shape of a snake coiled around a sword.
And despite the colorful tint hindering my vision, I was perfectly able to see the literal fibres of the world unravelling itself.
By now, the sound of snakes hissing barely reached my ears as every single part of the world, no matter if it made sense or not slowly unravelled like a coil of yarn.
Twisting and turning, the very world itself slowly disappeared into nothing but an uncountable number of threads snaking through the air.
Reaching the edges of the Chapel, I turned to the Messenger who calmly looked on at the sight.
"So what happens now?"
"The same old" The edges of her cloth slowly unravelled alongside the ground beneath her tail.
"We turn into little fragments of our former selves, and later get pieced back together as our one month past selves in the places we were initially at."
She gleefully tapped her head even as her tail slowly disappeared into nothingness.
"Thankfully, the Timekeeper borrowed the blessing of the Hourglass and made it so that we remember everything that's going to happen now."
"Isn't it... uncomfortable?" Remembering the time when Fun had playfully stuffed three blessings into my body without a care in the world, the messenger shrugged her shoulders.
"It's one of the reasons why only so little people remain here, we're used to it."
She slowly patted the head of a snake that was slowly turning into several thousands of squiggles.
"I see."
Hearing that answer that was just as good as not answering, I inferred from her tone of voice that it was at the least not painful.
It was definitely definitely uncomfortable.
The squiggles now reaching me, I stared at the black void that revealed itself in the world bereft of squiggles.
Starting from my legs, it slowly reached my waist, then my arms, then my torso.
And finally my head.
'Can this count as death?'
Without a mouth to even speak, I was only met with silence as the Messenger had long disappeared.
'And she wasn't lying when it was uncomfortable.'
That was the last thought I had before darkness came.
---
"HAAAA!" Taking in a deep gulp of air, my eyes snapped open to the sunlight streaming through the prison bars.
Feeling a burn on my chest, my eyes twitched as I tore at the blue robe covering my body.
Pulling down the collar, it revealed the glasses wearing skull was now glowing brightly.
And before my eyes, said glasses wearing skull suddenly snaked out of the tattoo and into reality as an actual skull wearing sunglasses.
[Greetings.]
"Death!?"
Shouting in surprise, the skull nodded their head.
[In the bone.]
"How did you come here? I tried to contact you by calling your name, but besides feeling a bit of heat on my chest, you didn't respond."
[I have noticed you calling my name several times once I left, but I'm afraid that I was unable to answer your call for the time being.]
"And why is that?"
[The nature of Time's Apostle, the one you call the timekeeper has made it nigh impossible to interfere with your actions, so unless it's in a time when your time hasn't settled yet I cannot interfere until the promised time.]
"...What does that mean?"
[Hmm... To put it simply, until you go through a near death scenario, I am unable to talk to you as much as I want.]
"That... actually makes sense."
My eyes darted around the room. "Just to be sure, pardon my blasphemy, but is that bastard Fun here?"
[He is listening, but-]
Pausing when I raised a middle finger in mid air, Death gave me a strange look causing me to shrug
"What can I tell you, I hold grudges."
[You did not seem like the type of man to hold grudges.]
"Well now you know."
*BZT
The sound of someone laughing seemed to come from the skull as its shades pointed towards my face
'Well now I know what that weird sound was.'
[Stop laughing Fun]
Letting out a long sigh, Death, or, the Undertaker, as the Messenger had called him stared at me.
[After talking to my wife's little child, you should now know the true nature of the malaise correct?]
"Yes, it's a hyper advanced magical disease that not only resurrects the dead with superpowers, it also mutates them while simultaneously infecting through madness and causing it at the same time."
[To think you found this all out in the span of one month, I'm impressed.]
"Yes." I scratched the back of my head. "The thing is, I don't know where to proceed from here, sure I've discovered what this disease does, but I don't know where and when it came from besides the fact that it just suddenly appeared one month ago."
[You're saying you want me to tell you where and when it appeared?]
"If that's what it takes to find a cure, then yes."
The skull clacked its jaw and shook its head. [As much as I want to help you, soul that has died before its time, I can't]
"Why? Why did you come to talk to me if you weren't going to help me? If it's just to talk then I've got living breathing people and you got other Gods."
[You can thank Fun for that, he thinks its more entertaining to watch you muddle through the mysteries by yourself.]
"Well you can tell that god to go fuck himself."
[I'm sure he heard you.]
[But I can give you a hint] Nodding his head, the Undertaker gestured to the wooden door. [There's more to this island besides the bright and shiny surface.]
"What does that even mean?"
[Hohoho] Chuckling deeply, Death explained. [I can't tell you, besides, it wouldn't be fun if I just told you the solution would it... Fun, if you do that again I will-]
Skull trailing off, the shade wearing skull stared at me before darting straight into my chest, sinking straight back into the tattoo once more leaving behind one last message.
[If you want to meet again, make sure to be near death when you call me.]
+++
Tree