Hearing the man's name made chills run down my spine. This was the guy I was meant to face? He seemed like someone who wouldn't go down easily. The way he just floated there, so calm and reserved, made him look even more terrifying than anyone I've met so far.

"Proposal? And because of that, you broke into my home?" Jack took a step back from the man.

"This is the only way you'll listen. I need people like you."

"Yeah? For what?"

"For saving this world. You've seen the thing in the sky, right? The flame that burned down a major part of the city? Where do you think it came from?"

"You, I assume. And I bet you want to blackmail me into joining you by holding the entire city hostage?"

"Really? That is what you think? Do not misunderstand me, you sure are important, but not someone worth all the lives in this town."

"Then what is it? What do you want?"

"That flame in the sky is there because our God is dead."

Jack's grip on the knife visibly loosened.

"God? You're telling me he exists? Is this the apocalypse or something like that?"

"Yes, pretty much. Our creator decided to kill himself and us along with him. Because of his selfishness, we now have to suffer. He couldn't bear the idea of dying and leaving his children alive."

Jack stared at Ifrit with eyes wide open, not even blinking.

"I'm sorry, this all sounds far too crazy. You're telling me that God died, and now we'll all die? This is just... insanity!"

"Indeed. But a man is floating in your living room, and a massive fireball is burning down your home. Does it really seem so unbelievable?"

A short moment of silence followed. Judging by the fact that Jack's previously tense posture suddenly disappeared, he was starting to believe the story.

"So, what is your proposal? And be quick, before I call security."

"You can't scare me. But very well then. The God of this world will soon walk the earth he created. Along with him, his powers will come. Half will stay with him, and the other will be shattered and thrown among other people. Even now, some individuals are finding those scattered shards of divinity, gaining immense powers. I could grant you such power. Together, we could collect them all, and then, I'll use them to fix this world. Your home wouldn't have to burn."

Jack smiled and let out a short, ironic laugh.

"Heh, that sounds nice. So all you need is a pawn that would help you become the new God? No, thank you. Find yourself someone else to be your loyal dog." He then touched a little panel situated on the wall, right next to the kitchen door.

"Intruder alert!" The moment he said those words, all the lights in the apartment turned red. Ifrit closed his eyes and sighed.

"Shame. But you will change your mind once you lose something you hold dear. This God doesn't care about you. I would."

In the next moment, all the windows opened and security drones flew in, aiming their guns at the self-proclaimed future God.

"Until next time then, Jack." The man snapped his fingers, and out of nowhere, a book appeared floating next to him. It had a hard leather cover with a golden symbol of fire in the middle. In a flash, it opened on one of the pages. A second later, flames started dancing around Ifrit, cutting the drones to pieces like little blades.

In the meantime, Jack hugged his daughter and used his own body to shield her from any incoming shrapnel. Fortunately, nothing in the apartment itself got damaged. It seemed that Ifrit didn't only have immense power, but also perfect control over it.

After the dust settled, I could see him floating off into the hallway, calm and reserved as if nothing happened. There was something about the man that made me feel extremely uneasy.

And then it hit me: I could follow him. Perhaps I was dead, but my curiosity wasn't satisfied yet. I wanted to know everything there is about this enemy of mine. I ran up after him and walked close by to make sure he wouldn't escape my sight.

Suddenly, he stopped in front of the stairs, and stood there for a while, just looking at the ground, before finally saying something.

"It's rude to stalk someone, don't you know?"

My heart skipped a beat. With a sharp movement, I turned around, just to see if there was perhaps someone else following him. But by the time I turned my sight back toward him, he was staring right into my eyes.

"Y-You can see me?" I mumbled, hoping that he wouldn't respond.

"Indeed." His eyes seemed to dance around me.

"A lack of a physical body? Interesting. Time travel is a fascinating concept."

I didn't know what to say. This right here was my enemy. And since I didn't have a body he could harm, I decided to use this opportunity to vent my frustration.

"All those people in Sunwalley... Why did you kill them?! Because of you and your minions, they are now dead! What are you..."

"A necessary sacrifice."

I couldn't believe my own ears.

"Necessary? What is necessary about this?!" I waved my arm around the room.

"Everything. You see, if my plan works out, many will die. But if it doesn't, everyone will die."

"That's not true! I'm here! I'll fix this!"

"Yes? Perhaps. But how long will it last? How long until your mental illness wins again, and you will decide to kill us all a second time?"

I couldn't bring myself to say anything. His words were like daggers, stabbing my heart.

"You are unstable. Your emotions are affecting the people of this world. Those who are innocent die because of you. But I will fix it. Unlike you, I will be the perfect God. One that is not bound by morality, mood, or emotions. I will save this world forever."

A short pause of silence followed as he looked over my body again.

"Sunwalley, huh? Well, thank you for the tip, Edward."

And with that, he walked down the stairs and out of my sight. My knees automatically gave in, and I fell to the ground. He used me. The reason he came to Sunwalley in the first place... was it because I told him? Did my actions in this past affect what happened with Jack and Gunslinger? I was reckless and foolish. This was time travel 101. All the deaths in that city were on my head. Their blood covered MY hands. If it wasn't for me, none of them would have died.

With my mind once again shattered by the reality that was this world, I returned to Jack's apartment. He kept on holding his daughter up until the moment when the police arrived. And although there was no way he would forget about Ifrit's appearance, he purposefully gave the officers a description of a different man. No wonder. This world didn't know magic. If someone was to say that a desert prince invaded his home and took down top-notch security drones with some fire spell, nobody would believe it.

When Jack's wife came home, explaining it to her was far more complicated than when it came to the law enforcers. She seemed to believe anything he said to her, even if it sounded crazy. Perhaps that was the reason why he chose to tell her the whole truth about what happened. She was shocked and immediately asked her husband if he could find a safer place for them to stay, but Jack didn't want to hear it. With his status as a noble, disappearing off the grid was pretty much impossible, and these drone guardians were the best protectors they could ask for. And so their conversation ended with a stalemate.

For the next several days, I've been following Jack and his family around, like a stalking ghost. I wasn't capable of haunting anyone, but at least I got to see what the world was like before I came here. Up there in the sky, where all the rich people lived, it was like heaven. The technology of the highest tiers, fancy outfits, and happy people. However, it looked a lot different down there.

At the ground level, the people were beginning to starve. The fire that my death had caused created a flaming wall at the border of its reach. Getting through it was impossible unless you were someone already dead, like me.

Oftentimes, I ventured back to that scorched land. Buildings were falling to the ground, crumbling. The bodies were nothing more than a few charred bones. And what once looked like a glorious city, now resembled a wasteland.

But not only the residential area got destroyed. Things like factories and greenhouses also fell, which meant that food was starting to become a commodity only a few could afford. Not only that, but the number of survivors was increasing. The fire always grew at regular intervals. Every day, it reached about one meter further. Because of that, it was easy to predict who will have to move out of their home and when, but that was when things got complicated.

Entering Everstar was easy. All you really needed was a clean criminal record. But leaving, that was something much more difficult. The artificial intelligence that fought crime around this place also had a particular malfunction. Leaving the city was marked as: "Trying to avoid the law." Because of that, those who left always disappeared and never came back. The citizens didn't know about it. Only the nobles did. And so they created a rule that nobody may leave the city, in order to protect the citizens. It worked rather well. The town grew into a metropolis and became very prosperous and self-sufficient. But with this new apocalypse hanging over everyone's head, the ability to simply run away would've been very welcomed.

And so buildings crumbled, people survived, and desperation filled the streets. It didn't take long for thieves to start roaming around, snatching any food they could get their hands on. But then it all changed. The criminals were no longer disappearing. Their actions were sometimes punished in ways none of them wanted to talk about, but those cases were getting rarer and rarer. It seemed that there was so much violence and unease in the streets that the AI's security system could no longer keep up. And even when it did, it wasn't punishing as hard as before. The fire damaged it. The system that once protected the citizens was now no better than the police.

Riots began spreading all across the city. The poor demanded help from the rich, who kept sitting in their metal palaces in the sky. I was disgusted by their ignorance, but there wasn't anything I could do.

One day, the fire got too close to the local private school for rich kids. Because of that, the parents were forced to send their offspring to any other available school. And so the social classes got mixed up. The wealthy studied among the poor.

I followed Jack's daughter every day. It kind of made me feel like a guardian spirit, even though I couldn't really do anything. I was a witness to the bullying she had to endure. No matter how many times Jack interfered, there was always someone who wasn't too fond of her origin. My blood boiled as I saw it, but there was nothing I could do. This world of mine was falling into a dark pit, and I could only watch. That was my punishment.

However, the darkest day was yet to come. I knew what Jack told me about his life before Sunwalley. It meant that eventually, I'd be a witness to the day when he lost everything.