Chapter 130: Schrödinger’s Eirwyn
Hermes sat with his head in his hands.
The sterile lights above him hummed faintly, their glow bouncing against the polished tiles of the research facility.
His elbows rested on his knees, his fingers pressing against his temples as if he wanted to squeeze the thoughts out before they tore him apart.
Ymir and Magni sat with him. Not beside him exactly, but close enough to share the same waiting bench. They weren’t speaking. They weren’t even breathing too loud.
Every now and then, Ymir would glance at Magni as if silently telling him to say something. Magni would return the look, equally hesitant, equally unsure. Neither moved.
The silence stretched like a thread about to snap.
Then footsteps echoed. Light ones. Quick, eager.
Somner appeared, or rather... Cael in this timeline. The blond, green-eyed boy who now walked in that borrowed skin.
He spotted Hermes and immediately rushed forward, tackling him into a hug!
"Master!" His voice was bright as always, but there was genuine concern there too. "You’re back! You’ve been in the Void for a whole week, you know! How are you feeling?"
Hermes did not look up right away. He let the boy cling to him, only slowly raising his face.
His eyes were hollow. His lips pressed into a thin line.
Somner pulled back slightly, frowning. He took Hermes’ hands and froze. "Your hands... Master, they’re ice cold. Is the Void really that freezing?"
Hermes shook his head. His voice was quiet. "No. This is from the cryogenic tank. I carried it myself."
Somner blinked at him, then gave a small, nervous laugh. "You... carried it? All the way out of the Void? These two idiots didn’t help you out?"
Ymir snapped. "Hey, we did try to—"
"He wouldn’t let us. A good father is naturally protective of his child, after all." Magni finished his sentence.
Another set of footsteps followed behind. Aphrodite entered.
Not the goddess the world thought of, but the silent, ethereal man with soft pink hair, delicate features, and eyes that seemed perpetually lost in thought. He stopped near Hermes, tilting his head.
"You carried it from the depths of the Void," Aphrodite said softly. "All the way through the Rift at Point Nemo, then here, to Haven City? How did you manage such a feat?"
Hermes leaned back against the bench, rubbing the corner of his eye with his thumb. "Well, we were on the back of a dragon most of the time. And then we had a helicopter... But it’s not that heavy anyway. It barely has anything inside besides the....."
Ymir folded his arms. Magni nodded gravely, urging Hermes to continue.
Hermes’ voice carried on. "So many things happened. We fought Skadi. We barely survived her. We came across her beast... a wolf-dragon. It became our ally. Without it, we would have never made it through the frozen woods. Then..."
He exhaled through his nose. "Then we met a strange girl. She claimed to be my daughter."
Both Cael and Aphrodite glanced at each other in surprise.
Hermes shook his head quickly, as if dismissing the thought before it could sink in. "But that wasn’t the worst of it. No. The worst was when we found him. When we found Eirwyn."
Cael’s hands tightened on Hermes’. "Hold on. Master, what do you mean? What happened to Eirwyn? Also..."
His brows furrowed. "How did that guy even get the tank into the Void in the first place?"
Ymir snorted. "Maybe he had a trolley."
Magni tilted his head, more serious. "It could have been strength alone. I have heard stories of parents lifting carriages, breaking walls, accomplishing feats beyond their limits for the safety of their children. Perhaps he was the same."
"Children?" Ymir cut him off sharply. "We don’t even know if he was pregnant at all."
His arms uncrossed, his voice hardening. "All we know is that he..."
He trailed off, his lips twitching as if the words were bitter ash. "...He de-aged. He turned into a fetus."
The words dropped heavy into the air. Somner’s mouth hung wide open in shock. Aphrodite’s soft eyes narrowed, unsettled.
Hermes clenched his fist, recalling his system’s explanation for this most bizarre phenomena.
***
"System." Hermes’ voice had been low, steady. "Tell me what this is. Tell me how Eirwyn could be right in front of me."
The reply shimmered across his vision.
[The fetus in the tank is the original user of Rewind. Eirwyn.]
Hermes’ breath had caught. "Explain."
[The child within Eirwyn bore three powers: Rewind, Cryoshift, and Magnarok. A child cannot control its powers. It is simply the embodiment of them. While developing, its powers affected its parent.]
It continued. [Rewind regressed Eirwyn’s age. Cryoshift froze his body in stasis. Magnarok infused fire into the tank. The parent could not sustain the child’s growth, and thus became its pump twin instead.]
Hermes’ chest had tightened. "He’s the pump twin... and the child is..."
[The malformed being beside the fetus is your undeveloped child. It lacked a heart. Eirwyn’s body became its substitute, maintaining both through sheer instinct.]
Hermes asked. "What about the monsters in the ice? And the lava..."
[Both developed survival instincts. The tank froze or burned any undead who approached. Their Magnarok powers controlled corpses by pushing lava through their veins. This was not a conscious choice. It was a survival reflex.]
Hermes pressed his hands to the tank. His reflection stared back at him, warped by frost.
"System... Why did you keep giving me an Error 404? Why couldn’t you just tell me?"
The words formed again.
[Because there was no answer. The Schrödinger’s cat principle was applied. Only the dead exist in Limbo. If Eirwyn entered alive, he should have died. If Rewind regressed him, he should have died. Both outcomes were unverifiable until the tank was opened. Until then, he was both alive and dead.]
***
Back in the present, Hermes lowered his hands and stared at the clean floor tiles. "That’s what happened. That’s what the system told me. That fetus inside... is Eirwyn. He regressed. He became what we saw."
Silence pressed against them.
"We’re waiting for confirmation," Hermes added quietly. "The researchers will run his DNA. They’ll test the malformed twin as well. But... I already know. The system does not lie."
Aphrodite spoke after a long pause. "But one thing does not add up. How did Eirwyn even reach Limbo? Only gods and god-beasts can travel there. How could he pass?"
No one answered him.
The sterile lights hummed again.
Minutes dragged like hours. Then, finally, the sliding door hissed open. A doctor in a white coat stepped out, holding a clipboard.
Everyone rose to their feet. Hermes, Ymir, Magni, Cael, Aphrodite. All eyes locked on the doctor.
"Well?" Hermes asked, his voice tight.
The doctor looked between them, his throat bobbing. "We... we ran the tests. We tried to run them, I mean. But..."
"But what?" Ymir snapped.
The doctor’s eyes lowered.
"I’m sorry. The samples were... stolen."