Once upon a time, Rya

and Jasi

E sits in a studio and plans to make a way that will destroy Dy

Armor at the AMIS headquarters.

That promise has now been fulfilled.

"You have two hidden switchblades under your arms and a laser turret in your gauntlet," Vulcan explained, helping Ryan put on power armor. Shadows crawl in the background, waiting for the experiment to begin. "Since you want to force your way into the headquarters, I've added a nuclear-powered chest blaster."

"What about Chernobyl?" Ryan asked enthusiastically, his genius assistant reinforcing the joints of the armor with a screwdriver.

"Yes. If the explosion doesn't kill them, so will the cancer," Vulcan replied with a smile, while grabbing the helmet of the armor. "What?"

He'd heard it all before. "I also want rocket launchers."

"No," she said immediately.

"Ah, don't ...... that"

"You sound like a kid, and there's not enough room for more weapons. Also, if you're not pinned to the ground, the explosion may throw you backwards. ”

"I'll remember," Rya

He replied that he was already thinking about how to abuse the feature. "Vulcan?"

"Yes, that's my name."

"Why rabbit ears?" Ryan asked, pointing at the helmet with his armor-clad fingers.

Vulcan's Power Armor, with an improved design across multiple cycles, is a technological marvel. Its exoskeleton is made of lightweight, flexible alloy, just like Ryan's second skin. Its vivid purple color is impossible to ignore, just as couriers love it. Its servo system enhances the wearer's strength, but the armor is still light enough not to affect his mobility. A ruggedized backpack contains a miniature version of the space-time radio, including an artificial brain, which is supposed to allow messengers to move thoughts across time. Unfortunately, even when working with the alchemist, the dwarf has yet to find a way to bring multiple people.

However, the strangest part of the armor is undoubtedly the helmet. Two long tentacles protrude from above, which, combined with orange lenses, make the helmet look like the head of a robot rabbit. Ryan knew his subject was rabbits, but it was too much. Too much.

"The antenna simplifies your connection to which dimension your energy attracts the violet flux from," Vulcan said with a shrug, placing her helmet on Ryan's head. "The artificial brain of the armor will collect data to help you better understand your own strength."

Ryan glanced at the room around them, which was the miniature particle collider in the bunker. A cold frost filled this cone-shaped room, the walls covered with netted biomechanical threads. Silver liquid flowed through them, and they buzzed like the veins of a living creature; Only one blast door allows access to the facility.

Mekron's technology has transcended flesh and metal to become something greater than both.

This is where the AI in the bunker used to summon Duckling. Perhaps the alchemist had one such room in Antarctica and used it to bring the elixir to the kingdom of men. Ryan really needed to design a loop specifically to locate and inspect that snowy base.

He had a feeling that he would find a lot of answers there.

After the courier puts on his helmet, data appears on the camera, a scene that reminds him of the deadly cycle he had in his purple world. However, his armor is now a little better than the prototype. It contains all sorts of genius technologies, as well as parts that cannot be replicated without the Maykrona's Substance Replicator.

Ryan must conquer the bunker again in order to craft a new suit. Easier said than done.

"Now we have to give it a name," the courier said. Ryan would be tempted to rename himself "Master of Stuffing", but that might anger their old ear overlord. “Rabbi

ato

?”

"That name sucks."

"White Rabbit?"

"It's not white, you remember your name badly," Vulcan said, with her hands on her waist, and she found her name. "That'...... How's Saturn armor?"

"I thought Augustus had a monopoly on the names of the Roman gods?"

"I'm an Olympian, you idiot, I say Saturn. Maybe you can even kick Augustus in the ass with it. Wouldn't that be great?"

"You know Jupiter defeated Saturn, right?" But then again, Ryan kept repeating losing battles until he won the battle. "How about a Kronos?"

"This armor is my treasure, so I named it. I named it Saturn. She tapped him on the back of the head. So, you're going to try the particle accelerator, and then it's raid time?"

"Yes." Livia returned to her father, partly to make sure he wouldn't get involved, but mainly because she could record a map of her brain in a safe place. Ryan can't let her go to the front because he needs her alive to travel through time to shift her mind.

Le

Take care of the kids and send them away with bubble balls before things get really messy. The alchemist copied his daughter's thoughts, but he didn't tell her why, and at the moment he is trying to do the same with Sharin. The "genius" theory is that her memories are encoded in her molecular structure, not in neurons, so she records them; Ryan needed to come up with a specialized solution for sarin's unique physiology.

"Do you want to go?" Ryan asked Vulcan, almost eagerly.

"Of course I do," she said with a laugh. "Even if the slut leaves them behind, I'll have to settle accounts with the corpses"

"It's time...... Duckling's strange voice made Vulcan's head snap in his direction. Open it...... The gate ......"

"Damn, I can't get used to it." The genius said as he examined the black elixir. "I'd love to delve into you."

"I was ...... Studied ...... Much longer than you think......" replied the general, with a hint of frustration in his voice. If it remembers all of Ryan's cycles, then he could have been stuck in the bottle for years. Maybe decades. "I've waited...... Long enough. ”

"Okay, then I'll keep the data." Vulcan said with a shrug, then exited the room through the blast door, leaving the General and the Courier alone.

"You...... Are you ready?" The Black Elixir asked Ryan.

"Of course, but I don't understand why you need me in the room," said the messenger. "The portal would have worked without me, when Mekron's machine trapped you in our dimension."

"I need ...... Your help...... The alien entity ...... "Stable " seems to have a hard time finding the right words in human language. "You're connected to ...... Purple World...... Crossroads of all spaces and times...... And even other worlds ......"

Ryan looked at his heavily armed hands. "All the space and time, huh?"

"Distance...... Past and Future...... It's all hallucinations. "Everything is connected."

So mysteriously useful. Vulcan's voice echoed through the particle accelerator. "Ready to break the laws of physics?" She asked.

"Let's make them cry," Ryan replied.

Vulcan activates the particle accelerator, and the silvery fluid pulsates with the current. The walls swirled around Ryan and Ducklin, faster and faster, until they began to blur. Gravity lightened, and the Courier's feet slowly lifted off the ground.

Colored lightning surged through the silvery liquid throughout the room. Cannonballs bounce off Ryan's armor or hit Ducklin's sticky surface. The electric current changes color in a strange pattern, from red to orange, from yellow to green, and from blue to purple.

Flux.

The lightning turned a dazzling white for a split second, and then into pitch black night. Instead of rushing in all directions, these bolts of lightning are concentrated at a point in the center of the room, forming a sphere. A black dot no bigger than a thumb, a black hole in the fabric of reality.

"It's too small...... "Ducklin's eyes stared at the orb with hope and fear." Open it ......"

"What should I do?" Ryan asked, he had a hard time hearing the loud sound of slime in the thunder.

"You're the key...... Open the door. ”

Ryan glanced at the orb, and out of curiosity about science, he held it in the palm of his hand. His fingers trembled, and an unseen force flowed through his flesh and bones.

His whole body trembled when his heavily armed hands touched the ball, and the elixir in his veins reacted to the power of the sorcery. His thumb sticks into the black hole, and its surface moves like water. Ryan felt a strong, primordial chill in the miniature portal.

The messenger activated his power, and time slowed as crawling. His armor has been providing data, even as the universe turns purple and purple particles float around him. Even during freezing time, black lightning passes through the particle accelerator and collides with purple flux particles.

The fabric of the universe is torn apart under the weight of Ryan's power, and his grip on the portal becomes stronger. The messenger stretched out his arms, and the gate widened. The sphere slowly changed from the size of a tennis ball to the size of a football.

Ryan noticed a figure appear at the edge of his line of sight, and Violet Flex turned into a humanoid ghost and rushed towards him. While the ghost appears to be running towards the messenger, it is slow, only a few centimeters per second. The closer it gets, the clearer its characteristics become; The messenger noticed the shape of a magician's hat, jacket.

That's me, Ryan realized. His alter ego in the purple world, moving closer to his timeline. Always trying to catch up with the present. The armor boosted his strength, allowing him to observe in detail how it worked.

If the Phantom catches up with Rya

, which creates a new savepoint.

"Now is the time...... Duckling said, his voice filled with a mortal emotion: hope. Do it...... Do it now. ”

With one last push, Ryan opens the door to the black world.

The portal turned into a disc two meters in diameter, and spacetime itself was a crack. Colored pillars of light form a halo at its edge, like the horizon of a black hole; A gateway to an infinite world of darkness.

Ryan stared at the abyss for a few seconds, seemingly never seeing an end. The energy of the portal interfered with his power, preventing his alter ego from catching up. Time itself became unstable, which frightened the messenger. The existence of the black world transcends time itself, beyond reason.

However, it attracted him like a moth to a fire.

Ryan remembers how Geist and Bacchus glimpsed the higher dimensions and longs to connect with them again; According to the bunker's documents, just when McLaren was obsessed with creating a portal to the source of his energy. The messenger has not known why, until now.

A divine power resides within every dimension of color and beckons humanity to approach.

"Follow me."

Ryan glanced at Darklin, who crawled impatiently towards the portal. The temporal anomaly had no effect on it. "Where?"

"Go to the other side." The form of the sentient elixir changed, and its liquid floated in midair, leaving behind a pile of corroded human bones. "The ultimate dark devil will liberate your soul...... From this fleshy shell. Your mind will no longer be bound...... through gravity and molecules. I'll take you to places you can't imagine. You will become free...... Free from the torment of cause and effect. ”

Ryan glanced at the purple apparition, second after second. "If I do, I'll leave everybody behind."

"But in the dark world...... Nothing is forbidden. You can see her again. ”

Jasmine?

A person who could have existed but never existed. This is impossible and violates all the laws of time and space. A woman who can only live in impossible places.

"No," Ryan told himself. For the first time in centuries, he had hope, and he needed to save New Rome from destruction. He made too many promises that he couldn't keep. "No, I can't ......"

Her voice came through the portal.

"I used to be a hero."

Ryan's head jerked back into the abyss, and the impenetrable darkness behind it. It spoke in another voice, an echo of a man long gone.

"God put us on earth for a reason," a man beckoned from the other side. "One day, you'll realize that the boulder isn't your enemy. It's your friend. ”

"Simon?" Ryan asked, remembering a major conversation centuries ago......

No, not Simon. It was nothing more than an echo stirred up by the dark world, a decoy to lure him.

However, this dimension exists outside of time and space. Is there anything left on the other side besides the echo? Remnants of canceled iterations?

"Everything you erased......" Duckling whispered. You can make it exist again...... This is a paradox. ”

"Can't you bring me in too?" Felix's voice. "When you turn back the clock, Ryan, I'll forget. I'm going to be angry and hateful about her, and I'll do it again. Her death was meaningless. ”

Ryan could bring them all back, as long as he crossed the threshold. Maybe find someone who gets along well with him, or find some from the countless men and women he left behind. He loved and hated, knew and remembered people. Friends and loved ones that now exist only in his memories.

The abyss so sweetly tempts the Messenger. Something on the other side was calling to him, begging him to leave the painful reality and embrace a better one. There he will never suffer again, and his curse can end.

But...

The Messenger's gaze swept over the apparition of his past and caught up with him. He remembered all the promises he had made, of all the people who trusted him. Although not as many as the billions of people he erased, they are still alive. He can't abandon them, even for the sake of a chance at happiness.

Both black and purple pulled him in different directions, and Ryan couldn't decide.

Then the abyss spoke again, and put its claws into the courier's head.

"Even if I'm gone...... Promise me that you will not forget me. ”

The Courier followed Dacrin into the Dark World.

The warmth of the earth is gone, replaced by absolute cold. However, this gives me strange comfort.

The black world was darker than the darkest abyss, but Ryan could see something moving inside. These living equations have a life of their own; An Ouroboros swallows its own tail and never runs out; The reality of stillbirth, time and depth cannot be influenced.

This mysterious kingdom has a beating heart, a great unfathomable darkness. This black hole makes the black hole at the center of the Milky Way look like a speck of dust. If it weren't for conscious restraint, the entity's attention would have been able to make Ryan disappear.

Black Ultimate Edition.

The sounds it makes are meant to communicate with Ryan, much like humans trying to imitate the language of ants. This entity hears the Messenger's wish and will fulfill it in its own way.

Dacring's form changed, from slime to ...... Something else. Something that gives Ryan a headache at first sight. A sphere with triangular ends and recursive eyes, prismatic wings, and impossible geometric shapes. An entity that could not exist in Earth's reality can now revert to its true form.

This place also changed Ryan. His hand seemed to flicker, one moment dark, the next back to normal.

Messengers are the product of the laws of physics, molecules, and organs. There is no logic in this place, no rules to bind him. Saturn's armor temporarily maintains his form, a shell that protects his essence, but darkness will consume it. Ryan would lose his physical form, forget the concept of shape, and ascend to something beyond human.

Free stuff.

"Don't go, Ryan."

The voice was the courier's own.

Ryan looked back and saw that the portal was nothing more than a lone star surrounded by a dark void. A purple figure stopped running, instead waiting on the other side like an abandoned child.

"I can't follow this door." The purple ghost pleaded in Ryan's own voice. "If you close the door...... We will be apart forever. ”

"You are my elixir." Ryan realized, his voice echoing around him. "My save point."

"I'm your significant other. The power that sleeps within you. The Phantom held out a hand to Ryan, but couldn't get through the portal. If you ascend, you will no longer be human. You will become a resident of this dark country and will never return. ”

"I don't want to come back." Ryan made a brief pause, his armor covered with ice from the cold. Ducklin waited beside him, silent as a tombstone. "I've been back too many times."

"I know," the ghost said apologetically. "I'm sorry for that. When we were together, I looked inside you. I try to understand what you want and to achieve your greatest desires. ”

"Then why did you give me this ability? I am dead of old age, why do you raise me up?"

"Because I thought this ability would make you happy, Ryan. This is what all elixirs expect from humanity. Help. Even sometimes, we're not very good at it. You're so different from us......"

"If you want me to be happy, then don't bring me back again and again!" Ryan roared, unloading centuries of painful despair. "Let me take a break!"

The ghost paused, his voice filled with genuine sadness. "I can't, Ryan. I can't stop you from coming back. I can't undo the wish you made when we were united, and I can't change its parameters. ”

"Then you know why I have to go." Ryan's breath turned to ice, and the darkness drained him of his warmth. The Black Ultimate motioned for him to close the portal and leave Earth forever. "That's it...... It just hurts. Even now, even now, I would leave someone else. Even with this technique and all this help, I would have killed countless lives. ”

Even if Ryan had godlike powers, he wouldn't be able to save everyone.

"Death...... Death doesn't exist in the purple world, which is why it fascinates rabbits. It was as innocent as a child, just like I used to be. The Phantom continued to reach out, still hoping that its companion would return to it. Back to the immortality of suffering. "Humans will die, but they will continue to live, even without your strength. You want to go back in time and change the present. This is your wish. ”

The portal seems to have faltered, and the connection has weakened.

"But you can go on now." The ghost argued. "You can look to the future instead of looking to the past. Create new memories and create happier moments. You can grow old and have children. Find peace. ”

Ryan sighed. "I feel like I'm getting old."

"But you won't grow old alone anymore." "You've never been alone, Ryan. I've always been there for you, though you can't hear me. Every time you fall, I lift you up. When you entered the purple world, it was I who asked the Ultimate One to help you. Because I care about you. ”

Nursing.

Others cared about him. Ryan had fought alongside him countless times, even if Ryan had cost her so much. Livia trusts him as much as he bets on her. He was friends with Felix, Fortuna, Jamie, and many others. Shalin and the other lunatics pinned their hopes on him.

If Ryan left Earth, he condemned it. He would leave it to the stuffed animals, to the bloodstream, to Augustus to ravage. He will abandon Lenn to suffer, Livia to accompany her father, Felix to face doom, and New Rome to burn.

But if he came back......

"If I go back, I'll never see them again," Ryan said with a heavy heart. "All the people I left. If I can recreate their essence here, maybe I can get them out of the portal......"

"If you use dark magic to resurrect the dead, they will suffer. Just like your friends, they will become a paradox in a universe that doesn't fit them. A purely painful existence. The ghost shook its head, and the portal slowly shrank. Rest the dead in peace, Ryan. You should be with living people. ”

Ryan glanced at Ducklin, then at the massive black hole. No one stepped forward to stop the messenger, and the echoes of the past did not tempt him again.

It was his own decision.

He......

．..

He couldn't stay.

His elixir is right, he does not belong to the dead. He should be with Ryan, Livia, and everyone who trusts him. Even if it hurts, even if it hurts, Ryan has to let go of the past.

"I'm sorry, Ducklin." Ryan said he turned to the friendly general Goths. "I can't stay here."

"I understand." The entity replied, in a strange and intelligible voice.

"You're not crazy, are you?"

"Black is a paradox...... Not subject to any legal constraints...... The ability to say no to anything. "Even to itself." The eerie horror marks a brief pause. "When you're happy with what you've achieved and want to end it all...... I will be waiting for you here. ”

"Thanks," Ryan said, nodding at the creature. "Goodbye, in the dark."

"Goodbye...... My friend. ”

Ryan took a step, and although there was no ground to walk, he instantly crossed the distance of the portal. The dark world also succumbed to his wishes and fulfilled his wishes.

The Courier walks through the gate before it closes, returning to the particle accelerator. "Welcome home," his alter ego said.

The Messenger canceled his power before he made contact with his alter self, before a new point of preservation was formed. Time immediately returned, and the portal collapsed into nothingness. The purple particles vanished, and the Courier stood alone in the particle accelerator; He is the only eyewitness who has contact with the afterlife.

"Does it work?" Vulcan's voice echoed through the room.

In response, Ryan activated his abilities and froze time. The world turned purple, and purple ghosts reappeared at the edge of his vision.

"Can you speak?" The messenger asked.

Don't answer. The ghost continued to move in the direction of his doppelganger, but made no sound. Perhaps direct communication was made possible by the interference of the dark world. Ryan held out an armoured hand, as if to reach for it, but immediately froze.

Black particles floated out of his body along with purple particles.