Times of Peace: Volume 1 of the side adventures to The Mercenary's Salvation
Page 68
Epilogue
January 11, 2026
9:15 P. M.
Anthony Johnson’s private office, Icy Sherries Publishing Division, Oregon
As it turned out, time was exactly the same. Nothing had changed at all.
Sherry herself had never been told of the guest appearance. She knew that Seth died by his own hand; Molly and Richard had told her as much, in the end. When I asked if he died playing chess, she shook her head; to her, he never had the chance to play, Death apparently so bored with events that he simply gave them guns and told the Sears family to work it out.
Which makes me wonder… did Sherry say that because the timelines were altered, or because our so called Enigma was always destined to alter the events of that day. Would have been nice to ask her that before.
Otherwise, everything was normal. I was still stuck in a closet as an office, starring out a rainy window like I always did when it was time to think. Books, movies, even computer screens shone with information of character after character, all of it beyond us as Flow sighed and nearly fell over with defeat.
“I can’t understand. I can’t understand it!”
“Neither can I.” I grumbled, rubbing my eyes after what must have been four hours of simply Wikipedia searches.
“There are three and only three answers. Everything else is impossible by our standards!”
Hadn’t thought about it like that yet. “Explain.”
Flow, pulling his face from a sticky, drool filled page, was more than ready to do so.
“Enigma. A man. Someone of some intelligence, with a soul, if Richard is right.
“That means he has to be one of these three things, which still doesn’t work if you think about it long enough.
“One: Enigma is a persona. That would be all well and good, except Richard and Pierre would probably know about it. Even if someone did become a persona without their notice, which is next to impossible since personas need an inspiration to guide their lives, there is no representation in fiction of a man who can change time in such significant ways. Time wars may be a thing, but never the story of a man who can control time and shift it yet stay anonymous to a near complete god.”
“So we can rule out personas. What then?” I asked.
“Two: Enigma is an original player, someone who came to realize just what kind of universe man lives in. That would be astounding, but those that have received that same revelation were always found by Jack or one of his associates first. Besides, it would be out of character for our realm anyway; Metal Gear Solid, Undertale and Hellsing are the three backbones of this Earth. Except maybe, maybe Schrodinger, there’s no one in those stories or ours that acquired this kind of power.”
“So it can’t be someone from here. What’s the third possibility?”
“That Enigma is someone we do know that’s freaking bamboozling us! That someone grew so powerful that he figured out how to deceive Richard!”
The most likely option, if weak in one regard. “Power builds slowly. How would someone become so fluent in the timelines without Jack or the others noticing?”
“Because maybe he was a Seth? Maybe he lived such an insignificant life that he wasn’t worth mentioning until he went and did something like this? Nothing more than filler for Jack to entertain himself with while all the other pieces moved to the right position.”
Liking this more. Still, even I had my doubts as I went over to the window, scratching my chin and yawning before I said
“Well, whatever the case, we aren’t going to figure it out tonight. We still have our vacation to enjoy; let everyone else do their part. We’re just the scribes, after all.”
“Yeah… whatever. Still bugs me that we can’t figure it out.”
“We will. Just not today.”
This wasn’t the ending you were expecting now, was it? You must have wanted some more fanfare, some more resolution to this tale. Would you have liked the ending where Seth simply played his game and moved on? Should life have ended his story with a kiss at the pearly gates?
Maybe… but even now, I’m not in control of fate. Seth, Alucard, Sherry, Death, and all of their friends are beyond my control, even if I do get to control a little bit in how their stories are told.
That was never the intent of this story, though. This was never an ending; this was an epilogue. This was a resolution of a season of murder and mayhem, of the war started by Adrian, Kara, Paz and their ilk. In fact, we were never supposed to get an ending at all; none of those three are close to finishing their work.
No, we’re just getting started. So I bid you farewell, as I took my flower friend and walked out of my office. I bid each and every one of you a farewell… and invite you to rest, rest well until we meet again.
Because I’m too cheap a bastard to release a book for free again!