Sitting at a round white table in a rather empty location full of nothing, we're Nivril and the so-called Mad Hatter, the two of them looking at each other with tea cups right in front of them on the table as part of the white and pink tea set.
"…" Nivril still didn't answer looking at the Mad Hatter with pure confusion on his face.
"Oh please, don't be so dramatic. I know of the things you've done and the lives, you've lived. This is your third, well, technically fourth life, but that's not the problem, the problem's the various troubles caused by your so-called regression." The Mad Hatter rolled its eyes looking at Nivril's reluctance to respond.
(Once again here I am tryingto hide my true thoughts on the matter because I don't want too much trouble, and while it's a fair worry, I should not allow it to dominate my life, as I decided earlier, I'll live true to myself, and plus if this being knows so much, it's unlikely I can successfully lie to it.) Nivril concluded looking at the Mad Hatter and sighed before taking in a deep breath and focusing.
"My regression has been worth it for me. I regret nothing." Nivril answered his eyes relaxed and his face resting on his right hand with a bit of smug expression.
"Would you look at that, so this is your choice this time, huh? Oh well, infinity truly is a curious thing. Tell me, do you have any idea of what you did to this universe… then again I guess the destruction of a 3-D finite universe is not much of a loss in the scale of the infinite Earthion Plane." The Mad Hatter smiled as they spoke calmly.
"Destruction of the universe?!… What are you talking about?" Nivril narrowed his eyes and his attention was grasped.
"You see, time is usually like a river so it streams in a singular direction, but just like rivers or better a tree, it has branches that lead off the stem or main path, however, it always keeps streaming in the same direction. But what happens when you try to go against a river's current dear Nivril?" The Mad Hatter asked their eyes narrowed and a big smile on their face as if they were enjoying the moment.
"That's... The current resists and it creates ripples?" Nivril replied a bit unsure of where it was going but the hunch he had about it was not good.
"Yup, however unlike a river, time is more of a tree in the sense that it works as one entity even if it has different branches, so all the tree is affected by those ripples, and they keep spreading worsening the tear in time caused by inconsequential time travelers like you.
"Congratulations mortal child, you broke a cosmic law of your universe. Your unauthorized act of time travel in the way of regression could destroy your universe and all versions of it throughout its time. How nice, right?" The Mad Hatter sipped on its tea and smiled looking at him.
"I see… so these are the consequences the Gods alluded to… I wish they had been more specific. What happens now?" Nivril frowned hearing all that, then asked.
"Don't worry, the celestial beings who helped you achieve this feat will also have their fair share of punishment. As for you, you'll be judged under the trial of survival for your temporal crimes, so the ones sent to judge you will be the Time Chasers, a unit specialized in time-related affairs.
"There are 9 of them and they will each judge you in a two-phase trial, in the first phase each will judge you individually, and in the second all of them will do it together. All you have to do is pass and survive their judgment and you'll be pardoned. It was my idea to judge you this way, I hope you like it." The Mad Hatter expressed a smirk on its face.
"Is that it? What happens if I fail? I just die? And what about the universe does it still explode?" Nivril asked worried about the outcome.
"You don't seem to understand how big of a deal this should be for you, but that's fine. What happens after depends on your results, if you do well in the trial the universe gets another to move on, if don't you'll get revived in case you die during the trial and put the a temporal prison adequate for your crimes.
"Inside the temporal prison, you won't age until you have served however much time you end up sentenced to serve." The Mad Hatter responded taking another sip of the tea.
"That…" Nivril just drinks the tea as if it were a shot to take in this information, the fate of his whole universe is in his hands, and there's nothing he can do about it, worse of all, it's his fault things became like this.
(Oh my, oh my…. This is too much… how… this isn't even funny… Damnit! Why didn't the Mibran Gods just tell me this was the reason I shouldn't time travel?!
(If I had known I would have found another way to do this… F*ck, F*ck, F*ck!!! Calm… Calm down and get the full picture… you can't change what you have done, so face it head-on!) Nivril clenched his fists and breathed heavily for a while.
"You seem a bit stressed. How cute, but worry not, you can just give up now, confess to your crimes, and admit you are guilty. No trial or universe destruction will be necessary, you just have to hand yourself over." The Mad Hatter's smile opened the widest as it said these words.
"That… I… Hum… How long would my sentence be? Also, will the others age as I stay in prison?" Nivril asked unsure of what to do, part of him felt this was his burden to carry alive as it was his fault to begin with, but another didn't want to lose the life he had just started building, what should he do?
(What do I... Choose? I… can't involve others, but this is my life now… if I can't keep it... Even more, I don't know if I'll lose the system if I end up in time prison forever or something like that… Damnit! What now?!) Nivril hit his own a deep frown could be found on his face, and groans left his mouth.
"Your sentence will be decided in court after you have confessed and been properly prosecuted. As for time, it will continue as normal without you, so yes, everyone you know will continue to age like nothing happened.
"Don't worry about them however as they will all forget you after you get sentenced, and will be able to live on without a hitch." The Mad Hatter added a little smirk still present on its face.
"I see…" Nivril grabbed his temple as he began to think further about the situation.
(So in the end... It's a choice between myself or everything else… Do I put them all in danger for the chance to live the life I want or do I give that all up to repent for my mistake and let them go on with their lives as it would have been without my mistake?) Nivril could only cover his face with both hands.
"Take your time, after all, the choice is yours." The Mad Hatter said calmly drinking more tea.
(… I… Let's see…) Nivril focused on it and thought then something came to mind.
"If I were to go to trial instead of giving myself up, how long would I have before the trial?" Nivril asked curious about it.
"Somewhere in between 7 months and 7 years of mortal time. It depends on how the proceedings and processes go. After all, you are far from being the only temporal criminal or the priority for the cosmic council of time." The Mad Hatter explained.
To that piece of information, Nivril nodded and went into deep thought again.
(Is it me or the universe? Why am I taking this long to decide? This should be an easy choice! I claimed I would be amoral and live for myself, so what now? Why am I hesitating?!…
(It's because it's my fault!… Had it been some random event of cosmic nature or some wanna-be villain or some other individual who caused this, I would easily choose myself every time, but can I do it when I am the reason everyone even those I care for would die?) Nivril found himself reflecting on his judgment and how to make this heavy decision.
For most individuals, the answer to this question would not be easy even if they considered themselves good people, after all, to lose the life they built and all their loved ones to stay in prison unaging for unknown periods of time, would be the personal hell of many.
On the other side of this coin, there are those who would see such a moment as an opportunity to become greater than now, after all, to be put in such a place as an immortal for unknown periods of time, it could be enough time to learn things that would give them an amazing edge even if it came with horrific experiences attached.
However, the reality was that this was not a simple matter, after all, the universe was at stake so many would likely take such a deal and become the sacrifice so that everyone else could go on or even because they are afraid of what taking the trial might mean for them.
Whatever the case, Nivril had to make a decision.
"I'm going to do it… I'll.. $@&&@#%€£¥" Nivril replied making his decision right there.
"I see, so that's your choice. Hehehehe, well… then make sure to enjoy the time you still have left with those you love. It seems we will meet again in the future, so until then. Don't let the nightmares eat you." The Mad Hatter took one last sip of tea and everything around Nivril began melting back into being darkness.
From this darkness, loud roars could be heard and caused everything to tremble in the middle of nothing where Nivril stood.
"That doesn't sound good…." Nivril commented and as he did so a massive two rows of teeth came crashing down on him.
(Oh f-) Just as he thought it was over…
____________________________________________
-EARTH-
-Week 5, Day 30/Monday, Mayort City-
-Time: 11:45 P.M.-
In a simple and rather standard dorm room, there was a young man lying in bed fully unconscious, and around him, there were two women and a man, one with reddish hair and voluptuous, another small and blue, while the other man just stood there with his arms crossed. Finally, behind them, there was another unconscious person with the figure of a woman with the staff still restraining her.
"Whoever did this has to go. Once he wakes up we're dealing with this." Dramil looked at Nivril's unconscious body with a frown before he turned around and crouched before saying. "You are going to tell us everything you know once you wake up."
"…" There was no response as the masked woman was still asleep.
"Don't mind her, I'll break everything in that twig if a thing she calls the body once she's awake." Sasha added as she spoke to Dramil, however, her hands were directly on Nivril's chest.
"Can you two quiet down, you'll get distracted, muscle head, so stop with the talk." Ishmaya said her arms crossed as she oversaw the work Sasha was doing.
"I'm completely focu-" Sasha was about to refute the fairy's claim when she was interrupted.
"Aaaahjh!" Nivril sat up in agitation as he let out a scream, before taking in his surroundings and breathing heavily.
As soon as that happened, Sasha hugged him and said. "You're awake! Please stop doing this, I don't think I'll be ok if this happens again."
On the side, Dramil smiled and just watched the two letting them have that moment.
"Calm down, you'll hurt him just like last time." Ishmaya on the other hand warning seeing as Sasha did not seem to learn from that time.
"Like I said before, you can go buzz somewhere else. My love does not hurt h-" Just as Sasha was responding to Ishmaya, she was punished away by Nivril.
*Eeewwwrrrggh!*
Nivril vomited blood and could feel his whole body heat up in pain, so he immediately got into position and began meditating.
Sasha was on the floor eyes wide open upon seeing that. "What's going on with him, blue mosquito?!"
"Call me that again and I'll actually curse you. I'll turn you into the muscle-brained hippo you deserve to be. As for the young master over here, he's poisoned and has been holding back the poison even before I met him.
"It probably got spread faster while he was in a weakened state. The nightmare realm is no joke after all. I'm surprised he survived, really." Ishmaya extended her hand to Sasha and a dark aura surrounded it as she threatened to curse.
Before Sasha could say anything in response the one to speak was Dramil. "Enough of you two's argument. How can we help, Niv?"
"Both of you aren't strong or proficient enough to remove this level of poison, might kill him if you try. The only solution is to hope he handles it." Ishmaya crossed her arms as she explained with an air of disinterest.
"In other words, you would be able to do something, right?" Dramil pointed out.
"That's outside the rules, my hands are tied." Ishmaya did not budge.
"You're a useless blue mosquito who only knows how to complain! If you're not gonna help then shush it! I knew this dumb inherence was not worth it at all…" Sasha yelled at Ishmaya clearly quite furious at her words and most importantly behavior.
"I'll say what-" Ishmaya was about to respond.
"That's true, you can say whatever, but right now, Nivril needs focus, so let us give him some silence." Dramil interjected.
This led to silence as they all watched as a dark greenish liquid started pouring out of Nivril's skin, the poison, and together with that some blood dripped from his nose and drooled off his mouth.
(Man… this is bad… I almost just died from that poison. I took it too lightly, luckily I was able to push some of it out, but I feel that if I stop meditating now, I might just die.) Nivril thought to himself as the situation was rather unfavorable to him.
On that day things were complicated for him, and right after making a universe-threatening decision he woke up to a nigh-death experience, was this punishment for his selfishness, the so-called karma, cause if it was?
(I'll bend and break this stupid cycle. I'm not giving up my ways, and I'll finally indulge in being unabashedly myself.) Nivril decided in complete protest to the idea of having to change for the world since it was the world that would soon have to learn how to exist with him in it.