"Little Mane, what you experienced was as a result of a curse." The anguished voice of the 3rd was filled with tiredness.
"A curse? By who?" Mane's immature voice that was filled with shock and surprise caused the 3rd to sigh in remorse.
*Sigh*
"Yes, little one, a curse. As for who cast it, we do not know. We'll have to find out. Try and remember. How long did you stay in that dark space?"
Mane tried to recall how long he spent in that space. Although it seemed as like a few seconds in the outside world, in his mind space it wasn't. Mane was not a weak willed brat. If it was only a few seconds he would have been able to hold on.
Hell he would have been fine even if it was just an hour. Initially he thought it was his imagination but the 2nd's words caused him to think. He knew he was in that space for several hours. With each second, minute and hour being more difficult to endure than the former.
"I was there for several hours. I am not sure"
Mane sensed a change in the atmosphere. A depressive silence had dominated his inner psyche. For the mountains to be so quiet, it wasn't because they were thinking. Mane was positive that they had some suspicions and that his words had helped them to reach a conclusion. Mane waited patiently, anticipating their next words.
"Kid, for you it may have been several hours for you. But for us it was just a few seconds."
Mane was startled. He had assumed that since the mountains were in his inner psyche, they would also experience the same time flow. It seems he was not as strong willed as he thought. It may indeed have been a few seconds but due to the torture he had to endure, he may have unconsciously perceived these few seconds as a few hours.
The mountains seemed to understand what he was thinking because the 1st did not let him have this thought for long.
"You are not wrong kid. You were indeed trapped for several hours. You were isolated in another space. A time barrier had surrounded you. Without the 3rd and the 8th, you'd be dead."
Mane shuddered, his lips quivering in fear. No one was unafraid of death, and Mane a six year old child who had barely explored the mystery of the world, let alone the universe was no exception. He was extremely grateful to the mountains. He really did owe them a debt he would never be able to repay.
"I am proficient with time laws, after all, I have a time based bloodline. But even I will not be able to isolate someone with a time barrier in their own mind space. Whomever, did this is more powerful than I am." The mountain at the far right spoke this time.
Mane was surprised. He never knew that the 9th had a time based bloodline! Well, come to think of it, he didn't know about the others either. Except the 3rd who was a spiritualist, and now the 9th, Mane did not know about the bloodlines of the others.
"Time laws are difficult to grasp. Even with a time based bloodline, understanding time is exhaustive and requires one to have extremely high talent and compatibility with time." Ignoring Mane's expression of surprise, the 9th continued speaking.
"This is because time has a lot of rules. Breaking any one of them would lead to failure. In other words, when you try to use a time law, don't break any of the time rules. If you do, the law would not work for you. In the best case scenario, it will not obey you. Worst case, you may receive a time backlash, getting stuck in a time loop."
"Entering a person's consciousness, now that goes against the all the time laws! This is because when you use a time law against someone, you don't actually attack the person but the space around the person…"
Mane had a blank look on his face as he listened to the 9th.
"What a high level talent! The boy seems to have gained some insights. This is the true meaning of the phrase, 'benefitting from disaster'."
The 1st was impressed. The boy had received only a single lecture, a brief one at that, yet he had gained some insights!
The 9th was just as impressed as the 1st. He was a time practitioner. No one in this space understood the difficulty of cultivating time laws except him. For Mane to not have awakened a time based bloodline and yet grasp the concept of time, it was impressive. Of course he did not expect the little blonde haired boy to discover something extreme. But even the simple laws of time were anything far from simple.
____________
Mane had no idea what was happening. At some point during the 9th's speech, he felt some resonance with the 9th's words. Outside Mane's consciousness, there was something bizarre going on.
In Mane's room, time seemed to have stopped. The up and down movements of the twins' chests had ceased, the wind seemed to have lost its force as it remained stagnant. However, the strangest thing was Mane himself. His chest heaved up and down to signify that he was breathing, a polar opposite of what was happening to the twins.
This state did not last for long though, returning everything to its original state in just about five seconds. The twins were breathing again and the winds seemed to have regained their vigour as they lightly raised Mane's quilt.
******************
"What just happened?" Mane looked confused as he looked at the mountains.
"What was the last thing you remember boy?" The 1st asked, answering Mane's question with a question.
"I remember the 9th talking about using time to attack the space around a person. Everything else is blurry" Mane spoke, still a little groggy from his experience.
"You have a high affinity with time laws Mane. What you just experienced was a law called 'Self- Time Acceleration'. As its name indicates this law accelerates your time flow. This makes all other things look slow or stagnant, depending on how much you can comprehend. From what I observed, you can increase your self- time by 50 times! That is at the level of an average heaven realm time practitioner!"
The 9th's praise made Mane feel proud of himself. He had done something that only a heaven realm practitioner could do and he hadn't even stepped into the world of cultivation! He began to look forward to his future.
"Don't look so smug brat. You cannot use this technique. Your cultivation cannot support it. Only when you reach the profound realm would you be able to freely use this technique."
The 9th was quick to squash Mane's pride, leaving the poor boy grimacing at the harshness of his words. With his mind clear, he recalled what they had been talking about and asked for the 9th to continue with what he was saying.
"As I was saying, entering a person's consciousness goes against the all the time laws. When you use a time law against someone, you don't actually attack the person but the space around the person. To enter a person's consciousness will lead to a time backlash, sending you into the infinite time loop and trapping you for all eternity."
Mane was terrified. Time laws had such stringent requirements and yet someone was able to ignore the laws and invade his consciousness!
"What happened to you is a little different though. What happened to you is more difficult than just invading a person's consciousness. The third said she felt the aura of death when she peered into the darkness. As a spiritualist, she has very astute senses. There's no way she was wrong! Which means whoever invaded your consciousness died a long time ago!"
"For a person to be able to breach the supreme time rule, and use the time laws of the past and the future, this person must be a supreme figure. This person should be famous in the higher worlds but, I have never heard of such a monstrous time user."
A murderous aura filled the mind space when the 9th was done talking. This killing intent was piercing, an accumulation of years of slaughter and bloodlust. Mane was finding it difficult to breath under this chaotic aura.
"Calm yourself 1st! The boy is struggling to breathe."
Only after hearing what the 2nd said did the killing intent subside. The bloodthirst came from the 1st mountain. His voice that was filled with hatred, filled the mind space. His rolling voice declared in a confident manner.
"You may not know of such a person but I do!"
"He is the keeper of time and bearer of the clock of eternity, CRONUS!!!"