Blake remained silent, there truly wasn’t anything he could say.
Every sentence that came to mind fell apart before it reached his lips.
He simply stared at Myles, at the man standing quietly in front of him.
The man who had just basically admitted that everything he was, everything he had ever been was tied to a purpose he hadn’t even chosen for himself.
"..."
Who was Blake to tell him to stop?
This thought has been on his mind for some time. He had already asked himself even before discovering any of the horrible things AL-TECH did.
Of course, if anyone were to be asked this question, then the answer would seem obvious obvious.
Because destroying the world is wrong.
He thought about that at the start, so it’s not as if he could deny that answer so readily.
But now, it wasn’t nearly as simple.
He understood Myles a little more now, after all the discoveries.
It wasn’t a complete understanding, not even close.
Myles was disturbed.
There was no denying that.
Someone who could calmly wipe out hundreds of people without the slightest hesitation.
Someone who spoke about the end of the world without feeling a slightly bit of doubt.
Someone who seemingly had never questioned the path laid before him.
Yet, Blake couldn’t ignore what he’d just heard.
If I reject the purpose I was created for, then who am I?
The words repeated in his head over and over.
For someone like Blake, purpose wasn’t something he had been born with.
He had stumbled into one in his past life. Then, he was free to change it, to abandon it and find another one.
’Clearly, he wasn’t allowed that kind of freedom. But I didn’t want to think that his entire existence always belonged to someone else...:
How could Blake simply tell him...
"Stop."
"Live differently."
"Choose another path."
When Myles didn’t even know who he was without that path.
Blake slowly lowered his head, his lips pressing together.
He couldn’t answer, not because he agreed, but because he genuinely didn’t know what the right answer was anymore.
’Besides, I fell for this nutjob, I can’t exactly give him any moral lesson either.’
Eventually, Myles walked toward the small counter in the corner of the room.
He filled a glass with water.
Then he returned, holding it out.
"...Ah."
Blake accepted it with both hands.
"...Thanks."
His throat was still raw.
He drank, perhaps a little too quickly.
The cold water made him cough once before he managed to swallow it properly.
For the first time in what felt like forever, his breathing steadied.
Knock knock.
A voice came from outside. More specifically, it belonged to Alexis.
"Are you done yet?"
Blake instinctively stiffened.
’Right, I’m not at my apartment or at the hospital. I am inside one of his bases, surrounded by the very people who want the same future as him...’
The sole thought made him flinch.
People who had followed him for years, who almost certainly viewed Blake as an obstacle.
His fingers unconsciously tightened around the glass.
Myles looked at him.
"Stay put."
Blake opened his mouth, but before he could answer, Myles walked to the door.
The handle turned.
The door opened.
Click.
Another sound followed almost immediately.
He was locked from the outside.
Blake stared at the closed door.
’Uh, why? Is he planning on keeping me inside, or... keeping everyone else out because they wanna beat me?!’
The thought lingered.
Blake slowly walked back toward the bed.
His body suddenly felt much heavier than before.
He pulled the blanket over himself almost instinctively.
Not because he was cold.
Because it made him feel slightly safer.
He curled onto one side, staring blankly at the opposite wall.
He didn’t want to be alone after everything that had happened.
Even more now after that conversation.
Still, this wasn’t unfamiliar. He had endured the aftermath of countless terrifying situations before.
Eventually, he’d calm down.
Eventually.
His eyes slowly drifted toward the ceiling.
"..."
He had always known.
Myles was supposed to become the final obstacle, the one destined to destroy the world within months.
He had accepted that fact intellectually.
Reading something.
Knowing something.
Actually witnessing it, those were completely different things.
Seeing Myles erase dozens of people in seconds.
Watching him calmly crush Nar’s head beneath his foot.
Hearing him speak so naturally about ending humanity.
It had shaken Blake far more deeply than he wanted to admit.
"If I reject the purpose I was created for..."
Blake slowly closed his eyes.
’Honestly, I already have one, or maybe two people in mind.’
They who could have shaped someone like Myles into what he had become.
If that guess was right, then the problem had never been just Myles.
***
Outside the room, the atmosphere had become almost suffocating.
Alexis leaned against the wall with folded arms.
The moment Myles stepped out, he spoke.
"So?"
His voice carried none of the hesitation filling the others.
"What’s it going to be?"
He tilted his head.
"Life, or death?"
The hallway fell silent.
Myles looked at him, then slowly shifted his gaze toward the others.
Every one of them waited.
"Who we are is determined by what we want to achieve."
No one interrupted.
Myles walked forward, until he stood directly in front of Alexis.
Neither looked away or flinched.
The distance between them was barely enough to separate their breaths.
Alexis stared straight into Myles’ eyes.
Those pitch-black irises.
Normally empty, normally unreadable.
Today, something had changed, and Alexis noticed it immediately.
He narrowed his eyes.
"We’re all the same, unless you betray us and change."
Myles didn’t reply immediately, instead, he looked at every single person standing there.
"I’m the one who brought all of you here."
Years ago, every person in that room had followed him by choice.
Or perhaps, because they had nowhere else to go.
Myles continued.
"And I’ll end things accordingly."
No one moved.
The pressure filling the hallway became almost tangible.
Breathing itself felt heavier.
Even Alexis unconsciously slowed his breathing.
Not out of fear, but out of instinct.
Something was different.
Myles didn’t understand doubt, not truly. He had never questioned his destination or his role.
Never questioned the reason he existed.
Yet, the unfamiliar feeling inside his chest was frighteningly close to what humans called doubt.
He looked down slightly, his reflection stared back from the polished floor.
For years, his eyes had looked lifeless, like empty glass.
Now, there was another reflection inside them.
Another person.
Blake.
The image refused to disappear.
Myles frowned almost imperceptibly.
He didn’t know what to do anymore.
The ambition driving him had never really belonged to him.
It had always existed and pushed him forward.
Without it, who remained? Without that purpose what exactly was left of Myles?
A memory surfaced.
It was cold and familiar. Someone reached out, grabbing his head, covering his vision.
"Myles, you have to do this."
His eyes trembled almost invisibly.
He had to.
He had to.
That was why he had been born.
That was why he had survived.
That was why everyone had gathered around him.
His purpose.
His duty.
Yet, something refused to fit.
His chest tightened.
Everyone, including himself, was meant to die when everything ended.
He had accepted that long ago, without regret, fear or hesitation.
’Not Blake.’
The thought came so naturally that it startled even him.
It couldn’t be that way, fould it?
He pictured Blake crying, curled against him while calling his name.
Reaching for him.
Every image pulled painfully at something deep inside him.
If Blake cried, Myles didn’t know what to do, ye didn’t know how to make it stop.
And somehow, that simple fact disturbed him far more than the collapse of everything he had spent his entire life trying to accomplish.
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