" How can I believe that you arenât tricking me?" Itsuki asked Ryder, frowning. He still didnât fully trust him, even though he felt like that story made sense.
" If you still donât trust me, thereâs nothing I can do. You donât want to show your real self? Fine. Iâll just leave," Ryder told Itsuki as he turned to leave.
"Wait! Tell me more about it. I trust you," Itsuki said as all the other versions of him disappeared. Only one Itsuki was left there.
"How can I be sure that youâre the real Itsuki?" Ryder inquired.
"Didnât you say that it was about trust? You trusted me and told me your story. Itâs now my time to trust you and show you my real self. Thatâs the cycle of trust. If you want to break it at this moment, go ahead," Itsuki answered in the same tone as Ryder.
"Fine. Iâll believe you. Just let me touch you once. If youâre not an illusion, Iâll tell you everything," Ryder answered.
"Sure. Iâm right before you. Iâm standing right here. Touch me and satisfy yourself," Itsuki said as he spread his arms.
"You should be careful about your words. Your last line sounds so... Ah, whatever. Let me test."
Ryder started stepping towards Itsuki.
"Wait a minute. Donât you think that Scythe is too much? Unless youâre coming to kill me, keep it back," Itsuki told Ryder, stopping him midway.
Ryder kept the Scythe back since he needed to show his sincerity. To kill Itsuki first, he needed to know the real one. If he couldnât even know who he was, it was all going to be useless.
As Ryder reached Itsuki, he reached out his hand to touch Itsuki. The touch felt real, unlike the illusions. Also, Ryder was sure that he wasnât in a dream. He had taken precautions to strengthen his mind to make sure Itsuki couldnât control it to show him dreams. The best Itsuki could do was show Ryder the illusions.
Ryder made sure that it was actually Itsuki. Without waiting for even a second, he once again called forth the Moon Scythe. Now that he had the proximity, he wanted to utilize it.
It didnât matter if he had Divine Protection. Even though he couldnât be killed right away, he could still be injured with a weapon like Moon Scythe. And that initial moment was enough for Ryder to take other precautions to take Itsuki away.
As the Moon Scythe came swinging towards Itsuki, he couldnât move. Everything happened so fast that before he knew it, the Scythe came swinging. It sliced Itsuki in half.
As Itsukiâs head was sliced, his body dropped to the ground, lifeless.
"This canât be. It was too easy. Heâs not Itsuki," Ryder muttered, frowning.
"Heâs a real human, though. Heâs not even an illusion? Could it be that Itsuki had a person go through plastic surgery to take care of things here?" He wondered.
As Ryder was curious, tens of Itsuki again appeared around him, out of thin air.
"Aww? You killed that innocent human. How cruel can you be, Ryder? After making up all those stories, this is what you had to do? You know, Iâm disappointed. For a moment, I thought you were serious. In fact, if you hadnât attacked him, I would have personally met you," All the Itsukiâs said at the same time.
"None of you are real. And the one I killed, isnât you right. Where are you hiding? Are you not going to come before me? What happened to your bragging about killing me? Are you going to kill me with boredom?" Ryder asked, frowning.
"Nope. Instead, I know everything now. You came here because you found out that I knew about you. I think Aluren told you about it. But for you to come here because of that, one thing is obvious. You donât want anyone knowing about your existence," Itsuki said again.
"This became more clear since even when you talked about leaving, thinking I wonât show up, you made up a story to make sure that I wonât tell others about you. So Iâm going to do what youâre most scared about. Iâm going to tell everyone. And then Iâll show you my real self, with everyone else. Donât worry; the wait wonât be long," he continued as he started laughing.
Seeing tens of Itsukiâs laughing, Ryder felt like his head had started aching.
"You know what, Itsuki? Youâre an idiot. Thank you for telling me that you would have shown yourself if I hadnât attacked," Ryder retorted as a grin started forming on his face.
"Iâll see you later," Ryder said as he used his time reversal.
He didnât go much back in time. He only went back by a few minutes to the moment when Itsuki had invited him to touch.
"Sure. Iâm right before you. Iâm standing right here. Touch me and satisfy yourself," Itsuki said as he spread his arms.
Ryder started stepping towards Itsuki, but he stopped.
This time, he didnât let Itsuki tell him to keep the Scythe back.
"Oh right, I should keep the Scythe back now," Ryder said before Itsuki could even speak.
He soon reached Itsuki and touched him to make sure he was real.
"Alright. Youâre real. Iâll trust you now," Ryder said as he took a sigh of relief, acting as if he didnât know this one was fake too.
He started leaving.
"Youâre going?" Itsuki asked Ryder, watching him leave. Ryder didnât attack him even when he was defenseless. It seemed like he really didnât want to kill him.
"I need to kill the ones who are going to destroy the future. I just came to tell you not to tell anyone about me. Now that Iâm done, of course, Iâll leave," Ryder replied, glancing back.
"Oh, one thing before I leave. Let me prove that Iâm actually the Son of the Lord of Time. As thanks for your trust," he further said as he kicked a flowerpot that was on the roof.
The flowerpot fell down, shattering to pieces.
After breaking the flowerpot, Ryder reversed the time of the pot. The broken flower pot started going back in time as its pieces went back to their original places.
Soon, the flowerpot was lying new like nothing had happened.
"Oh right, your shirt has gotten dull too. Let me help you with that," he further said as he pointed his finger towards Itsukiâs shirt.
His shirt that seemed to be a few months old, also started going back in time as it returned to the time when it was new. There was no dust around him. Even the button that had started to get loose was back to how it was when the shirt was new.
"Goodbye, Itsuki. Make sure you keep this secret if you donât want the future to be destroyed," Ryder said for one last time as he stood at the edge of the building, looking like he was going to jump.
Standing behind Itsuki took a deep breath as he wondered what he needed to do. Ultimately he raised his hand as he tried to stop Ryder from leaving.
"Wait! Donât leave! I want to show you something, and I also want to know more about that event which will happen in the future! Also, I want to show you the real me! Let me apologize and really trust you now!"
"What do you mean? What real self?" Ryder asked, frowning.
"Follow after me," Itsuki told Ryder. "Youâll know everything."
Ryder looked confused on the outside but on the inside; he was grinning. He had a better idea now. Instead of killing Itsuki, he was going to use him to kill the other god-sons.
Even Janus hadnât imagined that it was how things were going to go when he sent Ryder to kill Itsuki.
But Ryder really believed that he had a chance to get Itsuki on his side.
â Iâll kill the others with Itsuki. He knows much more. Itâs going to be so much easier as I collect the bodies of other god-sons and absorb them. By the time Itsuki will know the truth, it will be too late. Iâll already be too strong for him,â Ryder thought as he followed after Itsuki.
Standing in a faraway country, even Janus was amazed at what Ryder was planning.
"Even when he is asleep, his plan will always be one step ahead of me," Janus muttered as he laughed heartily.
Ryder followed after Itsuki, who brought him to the office where Ryder was previously sitting.
Only the female assistant could be sitting in the office.
"Greetings to the Son of the Lord of Time. Iâm Itsuki," the woman told Ryder as she stood up.
"Youâre Itsuki? Then this?" Ryder asked, glancing at the male Itsuki.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Thatâs actually the person who pretends to be me so I can be safe in some unforeseen circumstances. You have no idea how worried I was when you stepped in this office suddenly this morning," the woman said, laughing.
"I thought I was caught, and youâll kill me right here," she further said.