Waking Up As The Guild's Favorite: Space and Time Charmer

CHAPTER 1 - DEATH AND A PROMISE "Boss says you know too much, Zhia." I didn't turn around. I knew that voice so well, it's Jax. I taught him everything I've known, I was once his trainer. "How much is too much?" I asked. I couldn't move at all, my knees were on cold concrete and my Achilles were cut. They cut there first so i won't be able to escape. The warehouse we're in smelled like rust and old blood of the people they'd killed before. "Everything," Jax said behind me, his g*n steady and pointed at me. "You know where the money goes, you know who we killed, you know the clients and more. You know everything Zhia, everything." He said the last part is pertaining to something deep. "I killed them for you," I said. "And that's the problem, you were the best. But it's not all about that, you know the secret zhia that's why they wanted to erase your existence." “Ha, ha, hahahaha.” I laughed, not because of happiness but on how ironic this job and life of mine. I am 22 years old, the top assassin of our organization. People call me Zhia without any surname, I don't have a family. They took me from an alley when I was six and said if I want to eat, learn to hold a knife. So I learned. Better than anyone I've met. "How long did you plan this?" I asked. My eyes are void of emotions while my lips are arched with a sarcastic smile. "Three months." Three months? It was the time I was on multiple missions they assigned to me. They're using me while planning my death, how laughable. "Do it then," I said. I was never afraid of dying, from the time I joined this assassin world. I was ready. Silence. "Zhia—" "Do it now, Jax." I didn't close my eyes. I just waited for the multiple bullets that penetrated my brain, heart and organs. The cold spread through my entire body. From back to chest, I fell forward. The concrete hit my cheek and warm blood gushed out from my mouth. I thought death would be loud but It wasn't, It was quiet. Too quiet. Then I felt and saw nothing. No, not nothingness. I'm in a dark void with no end. I don't have a body, I can't feel any pain. I was just floating or maybe falling. It's too hard to tell what's happening to me right now. And in the dark, two lights tangled. One silver. Cold, like a void that can store and tear. While the other is gold. Warm, like a river that can rewind and stop. And between them, a girl silhouette can be seen, hugging her knees while crying. I follow the lights so i could be near it and see what's happening. When I got near the lights, I flinched and was surprised with what I saw. She's also floating in this dark void. She had a white-silver long hair, and both of her eyes were gold. She's beautiful like a doll, but her cloak was made of thorns and it was dead, all withered. But the surprising part is, we have the same face. She saw me and flinched. "Who are you?" she whispered, voice breaking. "Why are you also here?" "I died." I said. My voice in this void sounded like two combined voices. She wiped her tears with her sleeve. Her hands were small and frail. "You! you have a silver colored charm in your soul?!" she said in a surprise tone while widely staring at me. "I have gold, the Time Charm. You... you have the Space?" "I don't know what that means." "You will," she said softly. "My name is Zhianeiah Morfinley. But everyone calls me Zhia. What is your name?" "Surprisingly, we have the same name. I’m Zhia." I said. Marveling at our destiny. She laughed. Wet laugh, with tears running down her face while laughing so sadly. "Two Zhias. In one void. That's fate, right?" She floated closer and now I could see her better. She has a frail constitution. The kind of girl that breaks if you hug her too tightly. Exactly the opposite of me. "Can I tell you something?" she asked. "Tell." "My guild... Moonlight Thorn. They are my family in a world called Fleioirux, Where Charmers exist. I'm an orphan and I was found in a burning village when I was five, I'm the only survivor. Mr. Shrolm found me, he is moonlight thorn guild master. He raised me and treated me like his real daughter. I'm weak and had a frail constitution but they didn't abandon me. They give me love and care even though I'm only the D-rank Charmer in our guild." She smiled while crying. "But I saw them die one by one, all of them. I can't save even one of them because I was too weak. Too weak to protect them. So I went to Withered Garden, because time has a special affinity in that place. I lost everything, I lost the family who guided and loved me so I decided to cast the f*******n time spell. The Chrono World Reversal. I wanted to rewind everything, to save them but I failed. I only have a Time Charm and Time alone can't rewind a living world, having a time charm is not enough. So I died there, I died without saving a single person. That was my ending." She looked at me sadly but her eyes had a hint of hope. "Your soul, it's strong. I saw a glimpse of your life.” she quietly said “Do you want to feel loved?” she asked while expecting a hopeful answer from me I didn't answer. No one ever asked me that, and I don't know if I'm deserving of that kind of feeling. "I can give you my body." she whispered. “With your strong soul and the hidden space charm within you, including my time charm. We can make you go back to the past, the time where everything was still alright. This is the last wisp of my soul so I wouldn't be able to go back in that body again but you can, you can still live again and use my body, you can feel the love that you're longing for.” she explained “ I can give you everything, my body and a new life in exchange for a promise.” "What promise?" I asked. "Promise me you will make everyone safe, please, please save everyone." she said. "Not just because I force you because you will also feel what I felt. Being loved without having to earn it by killing. Promise me you will protect them. That's all." she added with tears strimming down her golden eyes. Promises are chains and in my world, it's a shackle that gets you killed. But I never had someone tasked me to protect, I was only tasked to kill. "What happens to you if I take your body?" I asked, looking at her with a questioning gaze "I will disappear in this void and I don't know where this soul will go, but it's okay. I already saw them die once. I don't want to see it again so if you can save them, I can disappear happily." She held out her small pale hand. I looked at her hand. In this void, my hands were silver, transparent and cold. While hers was gold, it's warm and slowly cracked like glass. For so many years I was treated like a weapon. No one ever held my hand to ask for help, just always giving me a g*n to kill. She's holding my hands and this is the first time I felt warm feelings. I never learned nor felt love. I was just taught to kill and enemies must be removed. She was asking me to become the opposite of something I've been used to. To become someone who ties knots, not cutting them out. "Why me?" I asked. Wondering why someone who faced a life and death situation could be so decisive in entrusting people she loved into someone dangerous like me. "Because you have a Space Charm and I have a Time Charm." she whispered. “Dual Charmer of Space and Time never existed before because it needs a strong soul that experiences something catastrophic like death. And because you know how to survive and I don't. You are strong enough to keep promises and I know deep inside you was a person who craves for love." I floated there for a long time but Void had no time. Then I reached out. My silver light touched her gold hand. Then, All of her memories flooded my mind and envelopes me. It's so warm and it's slowly engulfing me from within. The feeling of being loved without having to kill for it, sounds new and exciting for me. "I promise," I said. My voice cracked for the first time in so many years. "I will make everyone safe. I will stop the world and tear the enemies apart. I'll never let them die." She smiled a real smile while both of her gold eyes glowed like suns. "Thank you... Zhia…” The gold and silver lights exploded when our hands fully touched. "AHHH!" It hurts so much, it's worse than a gunshot. The Space Charm and Time Charm are colliding, they're fighting each other at first, pushing, pulling and then they slowly fused to be one. That's when a powerful being was born, a person powerful enough to protect her very own promise. One soul. Two charms. A Dual Charmer. I screamed without a mouth, the pain that is eroding everything in me right now is the worst thing ever. "Live... for me... love them for me..." Light swallowed everything and the last thing I heard before light took me, was her soft whisper that sounded like hope. "Welcome to your new life, Zhia."