Chapter 789 - 791
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The air was crisp, clean, untouched by time. When he opened his eyes again, the city had settled slightly, as if waiting. He didn’t need to have all the answers right away. He just needed to take the next step. He kept walking, letting the world shape itself naturally around him. He had to trust that things would fall into place. He passed through streets that had never existed before, past towers that seemed to hum with an energy he couldn’t quite define. He noticed small details beginning to emerge ,signs on buildings, streetlights that flickered with a golden glow, the faint sound of wind rushing through empty alleys. The city was becoming real.
A sound broke the silence. Footsteps. Not his own. He turned sharply, his pulse quickening. Until now, the only presence he had felt was the vague, shifting shadows at the edge of his vision. But this was different. This was someone solid, someone real. A woman stood at the intersection ahead of him, watching him with sharp, knowing eyes. She didn’t flicker like the others. She wasn’t an echo. She was real. He could feel it. She tilted her head slightly, studying him as if measuring something unseen. "You took your time," she said.
Jude frowned. "Do I know you?"
She smiled, but it wasn’t a friendly smile. "Not yet. But I know you."
He studied her carefully. She looked human, but there was something just slightly off about her ,something in the way she held herself, the way her eyes seemed to pierce through him like she could see every thought passing through his mind. "Who are you?" he asked.
She stepped closer, her boots clicking against the pavement. "You could call me a traveler. Or maybe just someone who’s been waiting for you to finally wake up."
Jude’s stomach tightened. "Wake up?"
She gestured around them. "This place ,it’s new, but it’s not yours alone. You may have shaped it, but it’s still connected to everything that came before. You didn’t erase the cycle, Jude. You just rewrote it. And that means there are... consequences."
He felt a chill run through him. "What kind of consequences?"