No matter how much Aqua flew upwards, it seemed like the upside-down city was close yet always out of reach. Flying so fast that not even light could reach her proved insufficient, as the city was seemingly at the same distance.
'The fragment must be wrecking chaos in Sheira's mind for it to be this chaotic...' Aqua sighed as she stopped flying upwards.
Storms around Aqua kept forming and dissipating moments later, the entire mindscape was stuck in a time loop and space was distorted to an almost impossible degree.
Such mindscape was unheard of before, they always had oddities depending on the person, and yet this one was a mess in every sense of the word.
Just as Aqua began trying to find a solution mindscape changed again, what once was a city sky was now underneath her, and the blue sky-like ground was now above her, finally giving normalcy to this world.
And yet storms that kept forming and disappearing never ceased, time was still a mess in this place.
If a weaker entity had dared enter this place they would have been torn asunder by raw Temporal storms that appeared for mere moments.
Fortunately for Aqua, she wasn't defenseless against temporal storms, her authority was certainly enough to offset the effects of a large fragment of time, not only were the storms harmless breezes to her but she was able to easily track the source.
Aqua landed gently onto the ground of what looked like an ancient elven city, buildings in a constant state of crumbling before repairing themselves and a castle in the distance covered by a storm that unlike others did not dissipate.
"Bingo!" Aqua shouted as her eyes locked onto the castle, she did not know how long she had before the world would flip again, and with great speed, she rushed towards the shrouded castle.
The closer she got to the shrouded castle the storm grew more powerful, thicker, and more chaotic.
What's more, creatures started to appear, beings made of storms themselves, they looked like tornadoes, and yet Aqua could see their malice seeping through their very being, they were a result of this storm, and they kept coming, in mere moments Aqua was surrounded by Temporal Storm Elementals.
Their forms were unstable and yet the time loop that gripped this mindscape kept them from fizzling out.
Flames gathered around her, and yet each spark would destroy countless elementals, they would still return a mere moments later, not even black fire was enough.
She had no choice, these elementals could only be defeated by using the authority of the time.
With a deep breath, she focused, her hands closing together as a bronze clock appeared behind her, its ticking speeding up with each move of the hand.
While her normal flames would not work, the time-based attack would certainly do the trick against Temporal Storm Elementals.
As the clock made its final revolution it stopped at Noon, with a shout Aqua cast [Altered Time- Reversal].
A spell with a variety of uses, she would be able to make it so that the elementals never formed, as long as her authority was higher than the shard that caused the storm itself.
A bronze Shimmer washed over the entire city, temporarily breaking the loop as her authority of time caused all temporal elementals to dissipate.
"Thank goodness that worked, time elementals are always tricky to deal with even if they are merely an annoyance" Aqua let out a pleased sigh as she continued dashing towards the shrouded castle.
With the use of her time authority, she was able to gain a moment outside the time loop, causing storms that until now dissipated to fully form, shrouding the entire mindscape in a great temporal storm.
Aqua regretted using time authority as the entire mindscape was shrouded"That is not good at all...".
She needed to deal with the source as fast as possible, while the loop was broken at the moment the shard would most certainly cause it once again.
Elementals that she made disappear would not return, but it did not fix the issue of the storm, no matter how many times she would clear the skies they would darken.
With a heavy heart, she cast another time spell. [Altered Time-Stop].
These Storms might not pose any threat to Aqua, but a raging storm would wreak havoc on Sheira's mind.
While Fang's fragment was easy to extract it wasn't as imbedded as this one, Aqua had to enter the mindscape of Sheira to even have a chance of precise extraction.
"How did Rolan even manage this...?" Aqua muttered to herself, it would be impossible to do something like this in her old world, Supreme Deity was far too paranoid of Time Authority.
The only thing that made sense was that it was another part of this world's superior Mystic Engineering.
Supreme Deity despite his overwhelming pride was smart to not dabble with time, and any meddling would have been punished severely.
And yet these mortals not only researched it, they made tools to control people using it. Aqua was not sure if she should be impressed or appalled at their hubris.
Even she avoided using [Altered Time] unless necessary, and these people used fragments of time to merely make slaves and vessels.
Perhaps the only saving grace is that the only instance she found was inside the mindscape, time would still be dangerous and yet it would be isolated inside that mindscape.
She unfurled her wings as she rushed towards the castle once again, with her authority forcing time to stop the storms were a nonissue for the mind, and the castle was in sight.
Buildings were suspended in their state of crumbling, storms quieted down and the mindscape wouldn't flip.
It pleased her that her Authority was enough to wrestle control from the shard, she was worried and yet it seemed the shard wasn't strong enough to resist her.
It took her a mere moment to reach the castle, its thick storm suspended in time as the rest of the mindscape was.
With a gentle step, Aqua landed in front of the entrance of the castle, while the city seemed to be in a constant state of crumbling castle seemed to be in top condition, the storm not damaging it at all.
"So this is the Eye of the Storm, I reckon Sheira's mind is trapped together with the fragment itself." Aqua looked around as she reached a great gate, with a gentle push the wood shattered, letting her access the inner halls.