"Tick says the clock. Tick, tick."
Large dust clouds and smoke rose up, covering the sky.
"What you gotta do, do quick."
An abandoned ruin of a city long fallen.
A boy dressed in a black suit, black vest over black tie and a white shirt, black belt with a silver buckle, black trousers, white socks , black padded shoes and a black top hat.
He had pitch black hair that swayed calmly in the dusty wind, revealing his glossy purple eyes that had a white circle inscribed in it.
He swung his legs, front and back, as he sat on the edge of a high building, watching the war taking place below.
The blue sky, completely gone. Soot rained down heavily from the sky.
Consistent earthquakes. The endless cries of soldiers. The roars of explosions all round."
Yeah, that's probably how he'd do it. God, he sucks at writing.
I sighed and looked down directly below me. The ground was far, but it seemed so close.
I kicked both my heels hard against the edge of the building, leaning forward, launching myself off the building.
I felt the ferocious push of the wind against me. My body tensed up as I fell head first.
Slowly, I closed my eyes. Stretching my hands outwards. Moving my head upwards. I was now falling with my body upright.
So this is what it feels like to go skydiving.
The ground was getting closer to me. I kept my hands in my pocket and left my body to its instincts.
I was afraid, but I was calm; the ground drew closer. I could feel it.
I took a deep breath and then...I opened my eyes, and everything froze.
The birds stopped mid-air, the soldiers were silent, and the explosions looked like glowing stars.
I stopped falling.
I was one inch away from death.
I gently placed my foot on the ground and moved forward. Wallking calmly past soldiers who were giving away their lives as they took their last stand against the monsters who had cornered them.
The whole world, frozen in a purple shade.
I passed over the corpse of a child, a child who was obviously not fit for war. He held tight to a knife that was deeply driven into a monsters neck as the monster's arm was still stuck in the boy's stomach. His eyes were filled with rage as tears ran down his cheeks.
He fought for a cause, but nobody will remember. Time goes on.
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
In this world without time. I alone am the king; and I alone shall see what others cannot. I alone will do what others couldn't.
I can fly over the largest of beasts. Kill faster than any weapon, monster, or soldier. Create and destroy at will and on a whim restore what was known to be lost and make the impossible possible.
But... time goes on.
I looked at the stopwatch around my neck; it was around 30 seconds till the hand reached 12. I stood at the battle front where the monsters rushed in hoards.
The preparations were complete.
Images of frozen time left all over. My revolver, ready in my hand as the watch made its final counts.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick!
Colour came back to the world. The noise resumed. Time was restored.
"This pointless war will never end."
Purple explosions sounded from behind me. The large beast that had taken the lives of many soldiers had lost half of its face, and the monsters that rushed towards me were gunned down by an endless array of bullets from multiple purple transparent revolvers that floated and glittered in the air, their bullets peirced like grenades.
The cries of soldiers didn't stop, but for all the soldiers who stood behind me, they didn't dare to come past me or try to get in my way.
They were getting damaged badly, one by one they were killed but they didn't care. After all, these 'monsters' weren't even alive.
Nevertheless, they were relentless, so they had to be put to rest.
I rushed at them. The ground shaking and weaker buildings started to collapse. I jumped over the rubble, climbed them, and manoeuvred through them till I was face to face with the monsters.
Before they could move, I had already shot my gun, spitting out a cannon of flames from the muzzle. Monsters that came after me were killed with one shot.
The buildings kept crashing down, and the monsters came from all around. An endless swarm of bees.
I fought and fought. For every kill, there were ten more to come, and for every broken limb, there were more ferocious attacks.
They wouldn't let up, and I refused to die. Whether it was by their long claws or their razor teeth or by their lightning blast or their deafening roars. I did everything I could to stay alive.
I ignored the bodies of fallen soldiers and trampled them, and those that the monsters threw at me, I cut them down even more. I refused to die.
They scream as they rush and they scream as they die. And yet, as I stand here fighting, these are the words that ring in my head.
The fighting continued, the skies darkened, the ground was giving away, the monsters grew larger in size, and their numbers had increased. The birds that once flew the sky were now short winged beasts with destroyed faces.
I leapt up just before the ground gave away. Immediately large centipede type monsters came from beneath. So long that you'd never see their other end.
Their face was a skull. And their widened mouth that was stretched open to eat me were filled with the corpses of soldiers.
I kept gun in its holster and quickly grabbed unto the base of it's razor sharp teeth. My hands dug into its teeth as it pushed me higher into the air. I pushed my feet against its teeth. Behind me was a collapsing, tall building.
The centipede monster tried to ram me through it, but when we got closer. I pulled out one of my arms, and I rammed my fist into it's face destroying it, the force pushing me through a gap in the building.
Another centipede type monster came crashing in from the side of the building. Like the other, I grabbed unto it as it pushed me upward.
I pulled its head against the ceiling that easily came crashing down as the monster kept going higher.
When we had broken out of the building. The sky was raining down fire balls. A storm was brewing. Layers of dust and smoke had coagulated.
I used the centipede as a shield from the flames. Raising its body to the sky as the flames swiftly ran holes through its skin. Yet it tanked it all.
I pulled out my revolver and shot continuously into its mouth until smoke started coming out of its eyes.
I jumped off, and another one came with winged beasts shooting blasts from afar. I kicked the centipede and shot down three of the winged beasts. Their bodies, covered in flames.
More centipede monsters came above me, trying to drive me down. Other monsters using their sharp claws are attached to its body. The fire balls still rained down.
I climbed the first one, kicking one of the monsters attached to it. Shooting a few. Dodging the fire that rained down as well as the second centipede monster that came crashing into it. I leapt off the second one, bringing out two daggers with a rope attached to it, sending them straight into the head of the third centipede monster that was rushing down from further back.
At the same time, I tugged at both ropes with all my might, leaping off the centipede and launching myself into the air. Dodging the few monsters that swung at me and the fire balls that endlessly rained down.
I flew up, eventually floating softly in the sky above the battlefield, above the raining fire balls, close to the clouds. I looked back, and the fire was actually being launched from the soldiers. A glowing orange orb that looked like a star was emitting most of them in abundance.
So they're still fighting, huh...
I looked in front of me as I was about to begin my descent, and I saw a man like figure tall and muscular his entire body concealed within a cloak, his face covered by a thick shadow.
He stood on a golden translucent circular platform, large wings like that of a dove, equally divided at its edge, moving in a circular motion.
The cloaked figure stretched forth its gloved hand and brought forth a magic circle and congested it into his fist as he closed it.
Ah, shit.
I turned back to the ground and put my hands to my sides as I dove down. I didn't need to look back to tell what happened.
The sounds of rapid explosions and crackling of lightning, most of them coming down and destroying the ground.
The ground began to cave in. Further down, a blackish blue orb fell to the ground sucking everything in like a black hole. Debris and earth flew all around.
I jumped from on floating debris to another. Leaving the area of the rain of flames. Thunderbolts still struck the ground. And the dust increased the spread. I was running out of options, and the safest way to go was towards the black hole.
Most of the flying monsters had disappeared, and the rest kept chasing after me. The centipedes were roaring as they were getting sucked in.
When I reached too close the suction, I activated my ability. It only took a second and time froze.
But that didn't last. So, I instead decided to reverse the time of the environment around me. I brought back broken structures and used it to gain more ground, and even though they shun in a bright translucent purple, they were still solid.
The structures tumbled down just like they were before, and the black hole still sucked them in, but those few seconds I made were enough.
That's what I thought.
But out of nowhere, a spirit of a man came before me. Its large hollow eyes gave a feel of despair as it stared at me. "Fall."
And with one word, everything came tumbling down. I was falling so I couldn't move. I'd fallen for the curse. My body couldn't move, and I was getting sucked in by the black hole.
I lost my hat and broken pieces of stone, and earth flew along with me. And just before I could get sucked in a hand grabbed me and dragged me away at a high speed. I could move again.
"Hahaha! You were really gonna go like that?! Hahaha, c'mon, it can't be called training if you die!"
Without having to look, I could already tell who saved me. I looked up at him. A boy with a small face, black hair, and an unforgettable smile that came along with glittering eyes. Riding on a giant bird as I dangled along in the air. "Remi." I said.
"C'mon, let's get you back in the game." Remi said as we soared away from the black hole.
"Take me to the sorcerer," I said.
"No need. It seems him and his friends have come to greet us."
I looked forward, and from a distance, I spotted the cloaked man and 2 others just like him were there on those platforms. A large enchantment of magical circles in different colours, moving behind them. Their hands each make different signs.
I could hear Remi laughing. "Need assistance?" He asked.
"Piss off."
"Hehe."
The 3 sorcerers clasped their hands together, and the enchantment became one whole orange coloured magic circle, making it even bigger than before.
"LET'S GO!" Remi yelled; his arm mutating and becoming bigger. Its colour turned grey as it became a bulk of muscles as he used it to throw me into the sorcerers.
As I flew in the air. I pulled off my gloves and my pouch, pouring all the remaining magic stones I had in it into my mouth. I crunched them all at once, and my body began radiating brightly in flames like the sun and tattoos of an even brighter light showed on my palm.
The tips of flaming swords appeared out of the circle.
With the flames that couldn't contain themselves over my body, I was able to move in the air as I wished. It didn't feel any different from moving on the ground.
As multiple large swords came shooting at me, I was able to maneuver through them one by one.
5 seconds had passed. Then the tattoos on my body changed. My flames had gone, and half of my body turned pale and was covered with frost. Half of my hair had turned white. My breath brought out a chilling breeze. The tattoos on my right side were a pale white colour. The tattoos on my left were brown. With them, I brought up the earth and used them as a shield as well as a way of movement to get closer to the sorcerers who still had their hands clasped as they stood still, I charged up all the ice magic that I could.
When I drew nearest to the sorcerers, I was down to my last second; and I roared with all my might, bringing a devastating winter to the entire world around me.
Everywhere was filled with layers of frost. Even the flaming swords had lost their flames to the forest they came crashing down against the now frozen earth that I had left behind.
I stood on a pinnacle of ice, and my eyes had begun to blur as I felt sharp lines draw across them, made by the tattoos that had reached up to my face. I quickly brought out my revolver and shot all three sorcerers, blowing up their heads.
"Good job!" Remi's voice spoke in my head. "Why don't we end this short before the black hole explodes."
The faint rumbling sound was rapidly becoming more audible.
"Yeah." I agreed.
I fisted my hands and placed them together vertically, stretching them forward. A blue portal opened up a heavy radiation swarming around it as runes surrounded it. I drawed one of my hands back. The force pulling against me was mighty, but the more I pulled, the more the radiation swallowed me up, and as I released my hands. It shot me right through the portal.
My vision faded, and everything became white for a second as I slid across the floor; my head throbbed, but it immediately calmed down as I released the magic from the tattoos.
Before me was a door made of stone. As I forced it open, I was greeted with... confetti?
Confetti, decorations, a large dining table, a banner reading 'GOAL!', and a man dressed in a black coloured hooded robe and a white masquerade mask that blocked out his eyes with black nets, holding a confetti popper. "Congratulations!" He said.
I stood straight, staring at him. Honestly, I was dumbfounded.
"Ah, that didn't work." He said nervously. "Well, let's just have lunch for now." He took off his mask and set it on the table as he took his seat.
His face had a nasty scar around his forehead and on his right eye that looked like a burn mark. He was blind in his right eye.
"Why the grim face?" He asked." Come on, take a seat. We aren't like other people. After all, we are necromancers.
I hesitated, but I reversed time and brought back my hat, placing it on the table as I took a seat.
"Huhu," he laughed. "Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Mizvic. It's a pleasure to have you at my table 'Father *pfft* Time'.
"Haha, very funny." I said, annoyed.
"Ahahahaha! Sorry, sorry, but really, what possessed you to go with a name like that!"
"It-it was a phase."
"Ahahaha! A phase, a phase, he said. Honestly, you must be the clown of the dining table; but it's alright, you are a child, after all."
For some reason, I couldn't argue with that.
"Claire." He called, and the spirit of a woman came from nothing placing tea cups on the table, filled with hot tea, and after that, she returned to nothing. Both of us stirred and sipped them immediately after she was done, savouring the taste.
The room was cold and quiet. The walls were firm but felt hollow. I went back to stirring my tea, looking into my teacup
"So, what do you think?" He asked.
"Of what?"
"My face."
I looked up and stared at it for a moment. "It's neat."
"Aw, thanks. I thought it was going to be all over for my beauty when I almost failed my ritual, but it seems that some people have appreciation for real beauty."
"..." I sipped my tea again. It tasted warm.
"So, do you have any hobbies?" He asked another question.
"Well, I write everything in a journal, but it's basically just a diary at this point."
"Oh really? Well, how would you write about the events of this battle."
"Hm? You want me to say everything? "
"Yeah, it's actually a joy of mine to listen to other people's hobbies."
I sipped my tea again. "Alright then...where do I start?"
"I watched most of the battle safely from afar, that is, from the beginning of the war till the point where I stopped time and intervened. I killed the first great monster you sent during that time. I reverse time on my gun immediately after every shot, so I shot its head so many times until I felt it couldn't move anymore. I'm not sure if it's really dead or not, but either way, the soldiers should've been able to take care of it with how much damage I did.
During the period of frozen time, I shot at different places on the battlefield that I had memorised. Places that I felt the monsters will cause the most harm to the remaining soldiers. I fast forwarded the time it took my gun to shoot that the bullets flew instantly. I kept the gun in a repetitive time, making it endless. Then I reversed time again to when I had my gun before that, and then I repeated the process in each of the locations.
The sorcerers you sent were dressed in a cloak that prevented them from being damaged by their own magic. I noticed that when they crushed their own magic circle as a form of attack, which no sane person would think of and something only a sorcerer would be able to do professionally. So, I decided to exercise caution and make a tactical retreat."
"You mean run away?"Mizvic said with a smirk on his face.
"Same thing." We both sipped our tea again. "Anyway, did you send any wandering spirits?"
"Hm? Wandering spirits? No, of course not, that would just make things more troublesome."
"Ah, thought as much. Well, it makes sense that you almost failed your ritual. The sorcerers you sent weren't fully taken over. A part of their souls resisted, so they didn't finish their enchantment on time. I guess that's why you sent those flaming swords to slow me down. Unfortunately, for you I still made it."
"Hehe, that you did. I'm guessing you used the direction of the swords to guess my location for your portal transmission." Mizvic said.
"Yup." I finished my tea. It seems he had to.
His face straightened up with a grim look, and he looked down at his empty tea cup, moving his spoon around within it. "Time. Won't you join me?" He asked, in a sad tone.
"A bit late for that, don't you think?" My purple eyes glowing with a white circle within it as I stared at him.
"Hehe. Yeah, you're right." His eye did the same.
Immediately, a large hand broke through the entrance. Grey and mutilated. It stretched forth its open palm that could hold up to 20 people and gripped tightly upon me, bringing out splodges of black blood.
It was overwhelming; it took all I had to prevent it from crushing me. I managed to look at Mizvick; he smiled as I got pulled away from him back outside.
The first thing I made out was an exposed cage of large bones coming down to cover the room Mizvick was in.
I couldn't move.
"Hahaha! You messed up!" Remi said enthusiastically, his voice only speaking in my head.
There were large fumes of black smoke. Larger and larger, they grew the higher I looked up, blocking out the sun, the clouds, and the sky.
As I looked up, I saw something I couldn't recognize. A face made out from gaps between the fumes, like that of a human with bones piercing out of the opposite ends of its jaw.
The face led down to its tattered body like that of a warrior giant, but it was far too big to be called a giant, and its scars far too terrifying.
The smoke seemed to be emitting from its body, and its purple eyes illuminated brightly as rushing water began to rise all around like I was being enveloped at the centre of a whirlpool moments away from engulfing me.
My heart pounded. Fear.
I clenched my teeth, managing to speak. "W-what is t-that?" Its grip on me got stronger, or maybe my fear weakened me a bit. I couldn't tell.
"That's the Great Titan King of the Sea. Well, it's corpse, at least." Remi replied, appearing out of nowhere and standing before me on the Titan, his body, a purple transparent image.
I looked at its face again. My eyes were getting dizzy, and my body fatigued. "It doesn't look like a Titan. I thought to myself.
Giant heads started forming numerously from every side of the water that had now reached the equal height of the Titan King; then faces were formed, then the half bodies of the giants themselves.
Roaring and screaming enraged, they tried to reach out to me, but the water was still a bit too far.
"The sea of the fallen...so this is how it looks like." Remi said, a sort of enlightenment sounding in his voice. He took a few steps, looking around him, smiling with his eyes brimming with delight.
He then turned around and sat facing me.
"So what will you do now?" He asked.
I stayed there pondering, even though I knew what the result was going to be; I still wanted another way.
And yet...
"Remi." I called out to him.
"Good choice, young master."
"..." I couldn't look him in the eye, but I could tell he was smiling, as always. "Goodbye."
"Fare well; till we meet again."
My vision went black and it was silent.
Faint words slip into my ears. It took a moment. Then, like flipping a switch, my vision suddenly returned.
I was at the dining table, a teacup in my hand, I blinked twice. That was my mistake.
Mizvick slashed at me, vertically, from below the table, cleanly cutting it in half.
I evaded to the left, shooting 3 bullets straight to his head. He deflected all three as he evaded away from me to the right.
His arm had become a long metal blade.
"Remi!" I yelled; and he appeared out of thin air. A wild expression on his face, his eyes blazing with excitement.
Immediately as the Titan King's hand came into the room, he pushed back against it. The hand immediately came to a halt.
Remi's skin started ripping apart, layers of purple light shrouded in black vines, black smoke seeped out, burning off his clothes.
Mizvick instantly swipped his arm across the air, and daggers came flying, 2 at me 3 at Remi, who had his back turned.
I shot a flaming bullet at the daggers that flew at me as I ran to Remi; I caught one of the daggers and used my revolver to deflect the others.
The dagger I caught had a bright reddish-orange gem embedded on the cross-guard and a liquid almost transparent on the blade.
"Keep the Titan occupied. It can see through Mizvick's eyes." I took the chance to tell Remi, throwing the dagger back at Mizvick, then shot at him twice.
Mizvick stood still, his eyes focused. A moment before they could touch him, he evaded. A hole opened up behind him; he was untouched, smiling at me as he put on his mask. His expression looked like he was laughing.
Immediately, a large amount of black mass started bulging Remi's body. Whatever human features he once had were long gone.
The mass forced both of us out of the room and back outside, where the water raged below us and smoke clouded my vision.
A few moments later, I could feel a heat rising in my body, and I regained my consciousness. The ice on me melted and weakened, so I was able to break through it pretty easily.
I looked around, and everywhere was narrowly filled with large shards of ice. There was a heavy amount of steam for every breath I took. A misty air swarmed around.
I crept around, still keeping my grip on my gun.
"The second time you reversed, you looked confused and attacked me purely on reflex." He laughed. "So here's a theory. The first time you rewinded time, you felt sharper, and your timing against the Titans arm attack was on point as if you already knew it was coming.
I'll presume you saw the future, but that wasn't possible, when we sat at the dinner table I didn't see you show any signs of using your magic, no suspicious movements either until you blinked twice.
So you probably didn't use any magic, but your future self did. Hehehe, the ability of time is really interesting."
As he kept spouting, I continued to creep around. Is he trying to use this as an opportunity to find me , or is he trying to launch another full-scale attack.
"How does it work? Does the soul of your future self immediately come back in time and possess your body fusing with your current soul. Doubt it, I would've noticed. Hmmm, let's see."
Something's off. I looked around again. Nothing changed. I changed the shard I hid under every few seconds. I can't find him.
"Oh! This seems more possible. For you to go back in time, it's not all of you that goes back, only your brain, carrying information from the future and sending it back to the past, what a unique skill, a very good one for skilled tacticians. Sending your brain back to the past will have at least a little drawback. That's probably the reason for your double blink. A single moment of confusion."
...
"Now, for the second time, you reversed. I physically watched you disappear and appear in a place you were standing once before, but you seemed confused. Which leads me to my second theory-no, I'm confident it's a fact, when you reverse time on your body alone, it's only for survival. Therefore, when you reverse time on your body, you cannot reverse time on your brain. In other words, you cannot reverse time on both your brain and mind at the same time. Right now, I bet you can't even remember my name. Well? Am I right."
It felt like he was smiling as he watched over me.
I can't remember the expression I made.