ã€ŠPlane of Darkness: The Battle Against Timeã€‹


 Chapter 1 - A New World

    ¡°Innight!¡±

    I stirred from the endless Void that has surround me for goodness knows how long it has been. Ever since Master Inoxion sliced me with my Dark Matter Sword I have been stranded in this endless Void, with no sign of anything in sight. I had curled up and went to a deep sleep. How did I ended up into this Void I have no idea, where does it even exist in the Omniverse I do not even know. What I do know is that this place is where I am trapped for the rest of eternity.

    Or so I thought. Apparently, someone has accessed into this endless Void that constantly surrounds me. I thought that since Underworld does not exist in this world, I cannot be revived and brought back to the living world, since Magic does not exist as well. So how could anyone possibly revive me from this world? I will find the answer to that later.

    Cracks appeared from the Void and light crept in. Soon the entire Void fell away and the white light surrounded everything and blinded me, I closed my eyes and wait for the light to dim down.

    ¡°Innight! Open your eyes!¡±

    My eyes soon become comfortable with the blinding white light, and I opened them up. The people who came into my view were my old friends. Time, Charlotte, Nicki, Luthriel, and Master Inoxion all came into sight. Nicki and Charlotte are in their Archangel forms, Nicki in her frilly black dress with her black feathery wings, with a staff that has a black gem inscribed on the top of the staff. Charlotte is in a white frilly dress with white feathery wings behind her, in her hand is a staff with a white gem inscribed on top of it.

    Time is in an orange frilly dress, her bangs are gone and her left eye, which is an inorganic gold clock, is in view of everyone which is usually hidden behind her bang. She carried a musket in one hand and a flintlock pistol in another. Master Inoxion is in his cursed dark armor form with the dark fire of curse flicking outwards of the armor, forming his body. Luthriel is in a dark armor and in his hand is his dark sword.

    Something is off. Luthriel was dead long ago after he took the poisoned arrow during our class trip to the Elemental Planes. Why is he alive here? This is probably not a world that I know of. I will ask them for more information. I looked around myself and found that I¡¯m lying in a bed, I laid up. I must treat everything as a normal day first, to prevent any suspicion.

    ¡°Wow, why is everybody here?¡± I begin the conversation.

    ¡°You kept staying asleep in the room, no matter how many times we called you, you kept staying asleep! I had Inoxion to use a shocking spell to wake you up from your deep slumber!¡±

    ¡°Um, why is everyone in their magical form?¡±

    ¡°We always stayed like this. You are the only one in this world that is incapable of casting magic.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Something really is off here. In the old world, we are the named few who can cast magic in that world itself. I must have been summoned into this new world, no, rather, it should be a new timeline, for some reason or another. Whatever it is, I am not who I was in this world. Everything that I previously known mostly have stayed relatively the same, with some minute changes. I looked around the house. Everything looks as the same as I had remembered in my old world. I stood up and went to the closet beside my bed and opened it up. Inside hung all the clothes that I have collected over the years. I took out a simple green T-shirt and a pair of long brown pants.

    ¡°Can you people give me some private space? I need to change out of this pyjamas.¡±

    Everyone quickly evacuated from the room.

    I changed out of the pyjamas quickly, and I begin running through the things in the room. I found a Dark Matter Sword that, I think, belonged to me. I cannot touch it though, it stings me the moment I touch the sword itself, even when I touch the hilt of the sword, which is supposedly to be made of normal metal. I also found the blue ball of, what I think as well, purified Mana. This is most likely an indication that the battle with The Unknown took place, though it may not be the one that I remembered.

    Then I remembered something, they said that I¡¯m not able to cast magic, when I am supposed to be the strongest magic caster in the world itself. I will test this out myself. Just do something small and simple for starters, like Aqua.

    ¡°Aqua!¡± I tried to cast the spell. Nothing happened. This spell allows the caster to produce water from the tips of the caster¡¯s fingers, but even such simple spells appears to not work on me.

    ¡°So, I really am unable to cast any spells¡­¡±

    I went back and sat on my bed. I can hear murmurs behind the door.

    ¡°He still tries to go against the truth, despite it being shown to him so clearly.¡±

    ¡°Inoxion, can¡¯t you make a potion that grants him magic, even if only temporarily?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t. He couldn¡¯t form a single connection to the Mana pools all around the Universe. No potion can ever help him to establish that missing connection.¡±

    They must be talking about me, I need more information about this world. I will ask them. I opened up the door.

    ¡°I¡¯m hungry. I shall make breakfast.¡±

    ¡°let me do it!¡± Time cried and instantly teleported away, probably into the kitchen.

    Can she even cook? I have never seen her cooking, let alone taste it. I¡¯m not sure if she can even cook without working out a storm in the kitchen. We all sat down on the table in the living room, waiting for Time to cook our breakfast. I twitched around with unease as I think about what Time will cook.

    ¡°It¡¯s ready!¡± Came the voice from the kitchen.

    Soon, plates begin flying out from the kitchen and laid down on the table. On the plate is some black sludge with purple steam steaming out of it.

    Is this even edible?

    ¡°I cooked this with all my heart, Innight! Hope you enjoy it!¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡­ I¡¯m not sure I would want to eat this¡­... Look, it¡¯s producing purple steam. Anything that produces it is probably not going to be edible. I would prefer to starve.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say that, Innight, at least have a taste!¡±

    ¡°Have you taste your cooking yourself?¡±

    ¡°I did, it was delicious!¡±

    ¡­Is her sense of taste even normal?

    ¡°Look, Time, I don¡¯t think anyone would be able to eat any of ...this ¡­thing. It doesn¡¯t even look the least bit appeasing to my eyes. Just from the sight of this alone I have lost my appetite. You finish this as your breakfast, Time. I will grab a slice of white bread as my breakfast instead.¡±

    I left the table with a disappointed looking Time and went into the kitchen. In the kitchen, I can see everything is in a mess, which is definitely a sign that Time was messing around the kitchen equipment and materials. Well, at least she tried.

    I found the load of bread on beside the oven and took out a slice from it. I munched on it as I walked out of the kitchen, and found that Time is munching on the ¡°things¡± that she cooked for everyone with a delighted smile on her face, while everyone else is going towards the kitchen, possibly grabbing a slice of bread as well.

    I just can¡¯t understand her.

    After everyone had their breakfast, I cleared up the dishes, despite the other girls begging to do that instead. I lectured to Time about proper cooking, and banned her from entering the kitchen until she had properly memorized on a cookbook that I have wrote. She pouted at me but ignored her.

    Then we get ready to go for school. But¡­

    ¡°How do I get to school? It¡¯s floating in the sky! I can¡¯t teleport!¡±

    ¡°Did you lose all your memories, Innight? You have the machinery in the garage that you have always used. You called it your ¡°Void storm¡± if I still remember.¡± Charlotte spoke. ¡°We will be waiting for you just at the main school gate, don¡¯t make us wait!¡±

    After that, they all teleported away using a magic circle. I went to the back of the house, where the garage is, and found this machinery sitting in the middle of the room. It is the size of a small airplane, painted with violet, and takes on a shape of a UFO. I approached the ¡°Void Storm¡± and almost immediately a mechanical arm shot out and a beam of light scanned over myself.

    ¡°Identity confirmed. Welcome Master Innight.¡±

    The mechanical arm retracted back into the Void Storm and a rectangle ¨C which I suspect is a door, formed at the side of the machine. I stepped into the machine, and almost immediately I was overwhelmed by how big the inside of the Void Storm is. Even though the size of Void Storm, from the outside appearance, looks like a small airplane, but on the inside, the size is of a house.

    I went to the front of the Void Storm, there lies what I think is the control panel of this machine. There were 6 large computer screens and a huge keyboard, with many switches, flips and buttons all over the control panel.

    Did I really make this? I never I was such a genius at making such mechanisms. I have always relied on magic so much that I never knew I was so talented in making such things. I looked around the ship and found a thick book lying around. I flipped it open.

    It appears to be an instruction manual, which is written by myself. I flipped over the first page and was immediately challenged by the complicated diagrams and atrocious handwriting on the sides. I found no difficulty in understanding the diagrams and annotations though. Perhaps I am indeed gifted in the field of mechanical engineering, it is just because I was too engrossed with magic I failed to notice this. I then looked over at my watch, which says 8:30 a.m.

    ¡°I better figure out how to start up this thing before school starts in half an hour time.¡±

    I found a bracelet that has a note attached to it. On it says:

    ¡°This is most likely going to be useful. It is sort of a tiny remote control of the ship itself. I can use it to teleport back and forth the spaceship without using a jetpack to do so as well. I have installed a code so that others can¡¯t access my ship. I better write it down here so that I won¡¯t forget it, it is 1987.¡±

    So, this bracelet acts as a teleporter to the ship itself. A useful tool indeed. Now I really should find a way to start and control this ship. I went over to the control panel and flipped through the pages of the instruction manual.

    I skimmed through the pages and found the operating manual. I followed the instructions on the manual and soon the screen blared up. I used a mouse to navigate the giant computer and select the school compound as the destination.

    ¡°Destination selected. Please allow up to 5 minutes for preparation of space warp.¡±

    I sighed. I took a walk around the ship and opened up the cabinets at the side of the ship. Most of them are empty, but in one of them, I found a black suit with strips of neon blue. Beside the suit is a crimson sword, on it was inscribed with letters of unknown origin. Is it rune language? I can¡¯t tell.

    I found a note in the pocket of the suit. I took it up and read it.

    ¡°This is one of my most precious inventions. I have to wear this whenever I go to school because of how dangerous the others treat me. This suit has all the mechanisms that perform most of the simple magic functions, and is made of a secret synthetic material that I made myself, so simple magic attack is not able to hurt me at all. This will grant me the some basic self-defence, sadly it does not grant me the permission to attend the magic classes.¡±

    It almost seems as if the original Innight of this Timeline knew that I¡¯m coming and stuck up all these instructions everywhere. I wonder what did he actually do to force me out of The Void and into this Timeline? I will figure those questions later, once I do have the time to do so.

    ¡°Preparations complete, undergoing Space Warp.¡±

    I put on the suit just in case that the school is indeed as dangerous as the previous Innight described it to be. I took up the rune sword and to my surprise, it dissolved and a small microchip is formed in my hand and it slotted into somewhere in the suit. Perhaps I can use my willpower to control it?

    I used my willpower to force the sword out, and I did it with success. I wonder what that sword is made out of. Well I can find that out later.

    ¡°Destination arrived.¡±

    I stepped into the teleporter and is teleported immediately outside of the ship. What I failed to notice was the ship docked itself just outside the school, so I immediately fell into the sky. I heard many people laughing as I fell through the sky, for what reason I do not know.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    ¡°There must be a flying device in this suit. I probably need to activate it using willpower as well.¡±

    I purged deep into my wind and imagine a jetpack forming at my back. Then I felt a tingling sensation behind my back, and my body is propelled upwards. I opened my eyes and saw that I have a jetpack behind my back and it is propelling myself upwards. I controlled the jetpack using my mind and slowly I climbed all the way back up to the schoolgrounds. I landed on the schoolground and saw many people made a disappointed looking face, but just for a split second, before they hide the looks with a normal face and went back to their own things.

    This is a sign, a sign that most people are not a friend of mine, let alone an ally. I need to be careful of my step. I need to analyse my surroundings and take caution on every step I take in the school itself, since just about anyone is looking to end my life. I walked into the school and found my friends (and my 3 beautiful wives) all waiting for me.

    ¡°You are late, Innight!¡± Nicki cried, brandishing her staff.

    ¡°Sorry, I can¡¯t be blamed. The machine is taking its¡¯ time to load. I had to fix the inner mechanisms a little.¡± I lied. I can¡¯t tell them I have absolutely no idea on how to operate the Void Storm in the beginning, because it will probably result in some complications. I will find a time, when it is right, to explain to them the real situation of myself.

    I followed them and went in the school. Everyone greeted my group but seems to give a glare at me, or perhaps that is my imagination. We assembled in the classroom and settled down. Master Inoxion is already a Master of Magic since he is the ruler of the Darkness Elemental Plane, so he does not need to attend school. He waved at us before leaving the classroom. The three girls were almost immediately surrounded by other guys who are asking them out, but they all rejected them.

    A guy came up to me and placed his hands onto my shoulder, he said:

    ¡°Yo, having a nice day, Innight?¡±

    I don¡¯t like how strangers try to be close to me, especially in a place where the previous Innight mentioned as full of ¡°non-trustworthy individuals¡±. Furthermore, I hate people touching me.

    ¡°Take your hand off me. I don¡¯t like it when strangers are touching me.¡±

    ¡°Oops. Sorry about that.¡± The guy retracted his hands away from me. ¡°Well, if you treat me as a stranger then I guess I will not disturb you.¡±

    He then walks off. Almost as he left I immediately felt a sharp pain at where he just touched me. I closed my eyes and entered state of Alzelea. It showed that a needle has penetrated into my suit and is injecting poison into my body. That guy who just touched me must be the one that have done that. I cannot blame him because these authorities probably will not perform Tracing magic (which is forbidden, even in the previous Timeline, since it is dangerous) to find out who is the culprit. Also, given that poison caused by magic is not able to be detected through normal magic, they cannot be held responsible for it. I will have to remove the poison first.

    I searched through the functionality of the suit, and found that it can use simple forms of magic. I used a piece of The Void to remove the needle and used healing magic to cover up the wound. I then returned to the Physical World. The pain vanished as quickly as it came. The person who injected the poison made a ¡°tsk¡± sound after the found that I neutralized his poison, and walked back to his seat.

    I secretly set up a barrier around myself so to prevent anyone from touching me again. Then the bell rang, people ran back to their seats. I send some microrobots surveying around the room so to ensure no one is setting up any sneaky tactics to take me down. I need to be cautious around everyone that is not my friend, they all have only one purpose when they approach me, that is to eliminate me.

    With this mentality, the entire period of me being in school becomes a danger. Come to think of it, I could not perform magic, so why am I still attending school? My position in the current society is probably the lowest of the low, since I cannot even perform simple magic without this suit of mine, and I have no idea what the limit of the suit is. What is my intended action from coming here? What is going to happen to my future? I wonder¡­

    A teacher walked in. It was Luricerite, the Grand Master of the Light Elemental Plane. I guess in this Timeline he is not responsible for any craze action, and is not involved in the rise of The Unknown, if it even had happened in this Timeline. I will have to snoop around the library later to find it out.

    Everyone stayed at their seats. Luricerite pointed at me, saying:

    ¡°Innight, you know the routine. Visit the library for your own studying. Come back 3 hours later for lessons on Magic Mechanisms.¡±

    I left the classroom and head for the Library. Luckily for me, there are signs placed everywhere to show where each location is located. I walked up the stairs and turned left on the next floor, and walked along the corridor. Many people were rushing for their classes, but all of them gave me a (what I think) glare. No surprises here since just about everyone has only one thing on their mind when they see me, that is to kill me. Is there even someone, other than my close friends and the teachers, that I can trust?

    I turned around another corner and found the library. I waited for the door to slide open and then I walked in. Inside were stacks of bookshelves, with the librarian sorting out certain books on some bookshelves.

    ¡°Oh, hello Innight. Came here for your own self-studying again?¡±

    ¡°Indeed.¡±

    I strolled into sea of bookshelves and glanced over the indexes. I know that since I cannot perform magic, more than half of the resources in the library is probably useless to me. The rest is on the mechanisms of magic, which is not based on the usage of Mana, but on how Mana functions to provide the caster the ability to cast magic spells. From how I perform in this current world, which I can¡¯t perform a single spell without this suit of mine, I can only contribute to the society by providing mechanisms that helps to enhance their control over the pool of Mana.

    The sad thing about this job is that the workers are often not respected for the work they put in, have the lowest pay in the entire society, and is often ignored by the other members of the society. From what I can tell, the school appears to be a highly ranked magic school, focused on creating the best magic casters. If that was not the case, Master Inoxion and Luricerite, both of which are Grand Rulers of the Elemental Planes, wouldn¡¯t come here.

    I stopped at a shelf labelled ¡°Astral Realm¡± and start looking for a book that describes the mechanisms of the Astral Realm. I am always intrigued about the Astral Realm since we almost have next to no knowledge about the Astral Realm, even though we know that it is the foundation of magic and without it the current society as a whole will collapse. I wonder how much does this Timeline knows about the Astral Realm.

    Then a thick book caught my eye. The title of the book is ¡°Timeline¡±. I took the book off the shelf and start reading it. The moment I flipped open the first page a skull projected outwards from the book, blocking the book, and started speaking:

    ¡°Beware, humans. This book contains deep secrets that are dangerous once they are misused. Be wary of how you use the information in this book, else you will be chastised by the Master of Time. You have been warned.¡±

    After it finished the speech the skull vanished into black mists. I then took a look at the first page. On it was the warning the skull have just mentioned. The book has also been heavily vandalised on the first page. I continued reading the book and flipped over to the second page. The second page was almost unreadable due to how badly vandalised, but I can just manage to read out the content of the page.

    Basically, it describes that Timelines all originated from a single Timeline, but due to certain choices, or otherwise better known as Events, nodes forms from the singular Timeline and diverge into many other sub-Timelines, all independent and disconnected from another. However, there is an exception to this rule, people who are able to manipulate Time (which are very rare) and people who can transverse through Timelines (which are also rare). They can cause Timeline to be rewritten or result in an abnormally to be formed in the Space-Time Continuum, which may lead to corruption of the Timeline, causing the Timeline to collapse, finally resulting in the whole Timeline to be destroyed.

    What a rather interesting book. I thought. Usually no one writes about Timelines as they have no relation to magic in general, even they do, it always almost rounds back up to Magic in the Astral Realm. I can have a good read about Timelines, which is something of my interest. I should burrow this to read when I have the time.

    I picked up the book and registered it as a burrowed item. Then I continued strolling through the bookshelves looking for books on Mechanisms on magic. I came across many interesting books, which ranged from Science of Magic to The Future of Magic.

    ¡°Innight.¡±

    I looked up from my book. It was Nightius.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you Nightius. What is it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m trying another experiment today; do you want to come and watch it?¡±

    ¡°I will. I can¡¯t bury myself in books constantly for over 3 hours. What is your new experiment?¡±

    ¡°Wait until you see it. I¡¯m sure you will be amazed!¡±

    I followed Nightius out of the library, down the hallway and into a room labelled ¡°Magic Laboratory¨C Do not enter unless accompanied by a teacher.¡± I guess that this is a room used for experiment with magic. Common sense tells me usually such practices are dangerous in nature and are not performed by any students unless given permission to.

    I entered the room. Inside the room are around 20 benches, excluding the teacher¡¯s bench. On each of the bench there is two cauldron, and behind the room are rows of shelves, which are piled up with bottles of coloured substances. Nightius stopped in front of one of the shelf and pressed against one of the bottles, the shelf slowly swings open, and we walked through it.

    It was dark at first, and I could not see anything at all. I activated a lighting system of the suit and it glowed brightly in the dark. Nightius has vanished from sight.

    ¡°Where is the switch¡­¡­ Ah, found it.¡±

    The lights suddenly came on. I turned off the lighting system of the suit, and Nightius came into my view. I realized that we are in a large room filled with many magic apparatus, spell books and bottles of unknown substances. In the middle of the large room is a Magical Condenser. This must be the preparation room.

    ¡°So, what is your new experiment about Nightius?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s rather intriguing, to simply put it. There will be many others who don¡¯t understand the benefit of such an experiment, but Master Inoxion, you and the group of your friends, will. It will revolutionize the World of Magic that we know as a whole. Give me a moment while I set up the Magical Condenser.¡±

    I waited at the side and took a stroll around the room. Everything in the room is either ingredients for potion brewing or for experiments on magic. This room is hidden and is thus inaccessible to the other students, for a good reason too.

    ¡°Alright, Innight, come over and take a look.¡±

    I walked over to Nightius. Inside the Magical Condenser is a mixture of coloured liquids, all separated into layers.

    ¡°What are those liquids that you are using?¡±

    ¡°Very complicated extracts. Some include solar extract, undead essence and Core of Darkness. You see, once I mix them together¡­¡±

    Nightius turned on the Condenser, a roaring sound came from the Condenser and the liquids starts to mix together. As it mixes the liquid, the volume of the liquid becomes to shrink and the various colour condense into one colour, jungle green. The entire liquid finally shrank into a cube and dropped into the bottom of the Condenser. Nightius opened up the Condenser and took out the cube.

    ¡°So, this is the experiment? That is rather¡­ plain. If I must say.¡±

    ¡°Now, now, Innight. This cube is much more than what you perceive it to be. This cube grants the users an ability of using Time itself. If you do not believe it, let me show it to you. Let¡¯s say I want to travel 5 minutes into the future. I allow the flow of magic to access the cube, and tell it through the language of mana to do so. Then¡­¡±

    While he is saying this, he closed his eyes and focused all his mana on the cube. Then suddenly a flashing light enveloped him and he vanished from sight. I believe he must have really time travelled using the cube. If he is showing me this cube, it means that he must have manufactured many other similar cubes like this. I wonder where he stored all of them?

    I looked around the room to search for more of the greenish looking cube, but to no avail. He must have brought those to his own domain in the Plane of Darkness. That is a wise decision, however did he write down the recipe for it? I will ask him about that when he comes back.

    A blinding flash of light appeared where Nightius has vanished, and Nightius came back into existence.

    ¡°See? I did Time Travel into the future! This is a Time Cube, a Cube that allows people to be able to gain control over Time itself, we would be immortal!¡±

    ¡°Nighitus...¡±

    ¡°Imagine it. All our foes, no matter how powerful they are, we can destroy them by eliminating them from the Timeline itself! We would be invincible!¡±

    ¡°Nightius¡­¡±

    ¡°Not just that. Whoever that we have sacrificed in any battels we can easily bring them back by accessing other Timelines and bringing them across Timelines!¡±

    ¡°NIGHTIUS!¡±

    ¡°We can¡­¡­ yes, Innight?¡±

    ¡°Listen closely to me, Nightius. This tool is incredibly powerful, yet also incredibly deadly. It is incredibly dangerous to play around with Time. Time and time again, no puns intended here, we have seen how people who tried meddling around with Time happened to them. Erased from all the Timelines, past or present, lost in the complexity of the Void between Timelines, destroyed and broken down into Time particles and becomes a part of Time Itself. These has always been the destiny for anyone who tried to mess around with Time too much, regardless of them using tools with allows them control over Time, or them having Time Magic.¡±

    ¡°I want you to terminate this experiment. I do not want to see any Timeline abnormality happening again. I already had enough of people being sacrificed from meddling around with Time. We do not need any more people dying. Isn¡¯t that the real use of magic, to keep the in Peace and Harmony?¡±

    ¡°No. You don¡¯t understand, Innight. This will revolutionize the World. Gone will be the days where people that have to weep because their dearest person died, where people have to constantly worry about them dying, where magical reactions takes ages to finish. We can make this world a better place using this Time Cube!¡±

    ¡°Nightius. You have to understand, this is going to take more than just a cube to solve all that problems. Have you not heard me? This is going to corrupt Timelines, disrupt the flow of Time, and worse, create an army that is invincible which can be used dominate the world. This is something dangerous that we are dealing with. It can change the course of History that we know of. Worse, create an entire new Domain of Magic never seen before, and not even The Void knows how dangerous can that be. Do you understand the danger of this?¡±

    ¡°Innight, this tool will create a new field of magic which can drive production of world class magicians easier. Did you not catch my point? We will not suffer if another Common World Domination attack happens.¡±

    ¡°Common World Domination attack? What is that?¡±

    ¡°Did you forget? That was a huge disaster! That was the invasion of the group known as Commoners which neutralized most but our strongest magic. They only have one motive in their attack, that is to form a single planet where no magic exists. It took the power of the 6 Grand Master of the Elemental Planes to banish them to the far ends of the Omniverse. We know that, for now, we are safe from their attack, but we never know that if another hidden group is going to attack us, the World of Magic, again. This can be our strongest defence!¡±

    ¡°Fine, if I cannot convince you, so be it. However, be warned, this is going to bring the world more danger than any good that you think that it may bring. Hide your experiments until you can fine tune them until there are no implications of Time usage anymore, I shall advise you first. If any Time Abnormality appears, the first blame arrow is going to fall onto you, I will warn you this. Think carefully before you act. Also, I will report to Master Inoxion about this little incident. We have to consider the effect of this before we can mass produce this object. This is for the better of this world.¡±

    Saying these, I left the room and went back to the library. I took out my book on Timelines and randomly flipped to one page. Then something caught my eye on the page.

    It was the same diagram of the Time Cube.

    That can¡¯t be possible. This thing has only been just manufactured by Nightius. How could the book record about this? Unless¡­ the Cube has been manufactured before. I quickly flipped the page to see any records about the Cube.

    But there is nothing. The following pages were blank yellowish-white paper.

    Odd. If the author has record of the Cube, this means that it has been manufactured before and thus there should be a record of it. Why does it has a drawing of the Cube but not any explanation of it? Curious. I will have to read the whole book to know more about what this book is about. I wonder who wrote this book?

    As I think about it, I took a look on my watch. I totally lost the track of time while I was in the room with Nightius. I have to go back to the classroom.

    ¡°Ah, Innight, leaving already?¡± That was the librarian.

    ¡°Yes. Ah yes, I¡¯m burrowing this book.¡±

    ¡°Strange, I have not seen this book before.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure that it is not your memory who has failed you?¡±

    ¡°Positive. I have an elephant memory when it comes to the books collection in the library. Once I have seen a book I will never forget it.¡±

    ¡°So, you won¡¯t be wanting this book back then?¡±

    ¡°I guess so? You can keep it.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    I left the library, went down the stairs and towards the class. Just as the classroom door slides open a blast of magic spell flew straight at me. Luckily for me, I still had my barrier active so it was blocked.

    ¡°I¡¯m dearly sorry for that Innight.¡± A girl whom I don¡¯t know said that. I guess she casted that.

    Right. Lies. Very clearly, she is lying. She must have known that I¡¯m coming and aimed that at me. Well, whatever.

    I sat down at my seat and wait for Luricerite to begin his lesson.

    ¡°Innight, we are still practicing, please do your own self studying while you wait.¡± Luricerite said.

    I took out my book on Timelines and started reading. Hopefully this wouldn¡¯t be too long before he starts the lesson.

 Chapter 2 - Innight

    As I sit there reading my book, absorbing in the knowledge the Timeline book is providing me with, Time came close to me.

    ¡°Hey, Innight, are you interested in the knowledge of Timeline? I can teach you about that.¡±

    ¡°No need for you to spend your effort to. I like reading so I don¡¯t mind learning from books. Besides, shouldn¡¯t you practicing your magic?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t. My magic capability can swallow the whole school under my shadow and extracting Time out of all of them.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I forgot.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, my control over Timelines means I will never be killed by anyone since I can always create copies of myself by summoning them from across Timelines. I don¡¯t need any self-defence magic since my Time magic is sufficient.¡±

    ¡°Time, have you ever considered the damage you are producing to Timelines whenever you cast your Time magic?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°I have been reading this book about Timelines, well more accurately it is about Time in general, it says that Time magic is dangerous because it can cause Time Abnormalities. As everyone knows, this is a hazardous event to occur. We will want to avoid it at all cost to prevent instabilities from happening and Timeline Corruption from occurring.¡±

    ¡°What are those big words that you are using? I don¡¯t understand that at all.¡±

    I sighed. She may be knowledgeable in Time magic but the knowledge is restricted to only casting. This is the gap where I fill in among the society, to make them understand the mechanisms behind magic, consequences and other background tiny details about magic casting.

    ¡°Alright. To simplify it for you, you are causing Timelines to become destroyed due to your magic casting. You need to understand that for every Time-based magic you cast, another Timeline is affected in one way or another, maybe even destroyed. We don¡¯t know about that since none of us have Timeline awareness, however you need to realize Timelines are dependent on each other, how and why I have yet to read about it. If one Timeline is affected, so will the others. This may mean that our Timeline as a whole might change because of you casting your Time spells. Understand?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    I sighed.

    ¡°Never mind. Just know that you should refrain from using Time magic that often. This can probably change the world we know.¡±

    ¡°How?¡±

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand. Go back to your seat. Don¡¯t interrupt me from reading.¡±

    Time left for her seat. Just as soon as she left a thunderstorm of spells flew towards me, but my barrier blocked out all of it. This barrier is stronger than I have anticipated. It should be able to block all but the strongest magic spells, this is useful for me.

    ¡°Alright everyone. This is the end of spell casting session. Go back to your seats.¡±

    Everyone returned to their seats, I kept my book and paid attention.

    ¡°Alright. Since today Mr. Misty isn¡¯t here today, I will be taking his place to teach you all about Magic Mechanisms.¡±

    ¡°EH???????????¡±

    I¡¯m not surprised. Any member of magic must be knowledgeable at least the very basics of Magic Mechanisms. This is because these theories are used to further improve magic casting and improve the abilities of magic caster. Knowing these can help you in the battlefield or in the workplace in society. Not saying that we will be having a battle any time sooner or anything like that.

    ¡°Alright. First we¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m tired¡­¡± Time said after Luricerite finished the lesson on Magic Mechanisms.

    ¡°Great job surviving the lesson. I understand that the content is difficult, full of big words and very dry. However, everyone needs them in order to perform magic at their fullest capability. Not to mention that if you intend to work as a researcher in Magic, which I intend to in the future. I¡¯m probably going to major in Magic Analysis when it comes to choosing our majors next year. You all will probably going to choose either Magic Casting, Potion Brewing or Magic Construction. We will be separated and never see each other during school hours until probably graduation.¡±

    ¡°NOOOOO! I don¡¯t want us to be separated!¡±

    ¡°Face it, this is the reality. I, who have absolutely no ability in casting magic, will not be able to enter 2 of the 4 majors. I do not like Potion Brewing as it is mostly just mixing with the cauldron with the resources most days, together with you gathering the materials for some other days. I absolutely hate Potion brewing, as such. I love studying for new knowledge, discovering the unknowns and gaps in the knowledge bank that we have. We will have to function in different pillars in the society, and go in separate ways one day. We will still be gathered under one roof though.¡±

    ¡°I understand that¡­ But I still don¡¯t want us to be separated!¡±

    ¡°Accept it. Me being of someone who does not have the capability of casting magic, I am doomed to travel down these paths. You should go along the path that has been set for you. We are separated by how the system in this world operates. If you want to go against it, you will be instantly lowered into a pit of endless doom. This is how this world is and we have no choice other than to follow it. Now gather Nicki and Charlotte, let¡¯s go home. There is a lot of work to do once I get home.¡±

    ¡°Eh?¡±

    The three of them teleported home using their magic circles. I walked from the classrooms to the school gates and found a crowd of people is surrounding my Void Storm. I have no idea what those people are up to, but knowing that everyone in the school is out for my blood, they must be doing something to destroy my vehicle. I have not set up any protective barrier around it, this is bad. They probably have done some significant damage to it. I will have to repair it once I get back home.

    I opened up the watch and pressed a green button which labelled ¡°T¡±, which I guess is for Teleportation. I immediately was teleported into the Void Storm. I went over to the control panel and initiated the Space Warp procedure.

    ¡°Spaceship overload. Please unload objects from the ship itself or risk Space distortion after Space Warp.¡±

    Overload? There is hardly anything on the ship now. Unless¡­.

    ¡°If I remembered correctly from the manual there is a button that can access the outside cameras¡­ Found it.¡±

    I activated the Camera system and from it, I saw so many students climbed onto my Void Storm. For whatever reason that they are doing this I do now know, but if I must guess it would be to prevent me from leaving the school compounds so they can target me more easily.

    Which is rubbish if you think about it. I have this highly technological advanced suit that is preventing any form of magic to penetrate me. I have knowledge about almost all the spells available in the world as I used to be the Grand Master of the Void Elemental Plane, which is a Master Element that creates all other forms of magic. With such an advantage, plus me knowing the basis of Mechanisms of Magic, I can disable or break the spells entirely. If they knew this, why are they still so damn persistent?

    Whatever it is, I need to swing them off my ship so I can get back home. I activated a recasting system of the ship. What this does is, essentially, cause my ship to liquefy and form back into a solid somewhere else, all while carrying the entire content of the ship as a solid. A very useful tool when required to make an emergency escape. I set the destination to be at my house. In seconds the entire ship liquefied and flew off, leaving all the students behind. I was swung left and right by the movement of the ship as it glides through the sky.

    After a few minutes of being thrown around the ship the movements ceased. I took a peak of the camera, and see that I am back in the garage of the house again. I stepped out of the ship to examine the damage. There was none at all for whatever reason. I knocked on the ship, it returns the same knocking sound back.

    ¡°I might have a pinch of suspicion of what material this ship is made of. I need to perform that test to confirm it¡­ Let me see, is there a piece of Gold somewhere here¡­?¡±

    This ship has come under attack by so many students and there is no sign of damage anywhere. This means that the material that the ship is made up of is capable of undergoing self-repair through renewal of the material and self-cloning to replace any missing parts. As far as my knowledge go, there is only one material that I know of that is capable of doing this. I need to conduct a test to know whether if it is the material I am thinking of.

    ¡°Found a nugget. This should do it.¡±

    I hold the nugget as close as to the ship as possible. Suddenly, the ship formed a pseudopodium and snatched the gold nugget from my hand, then it engulfed it.

    My hunch is correct. This ship is made up of an extremely rare metal, so rare that it has only be produced in very small quantities in laboratories, a few atoms at a time. This metal alloy is called Voidiance. It has the ability to self-clone and self-renewal, and it also has a strange attraction to Gold for reasons that no one has yet to discover. Since this ship engulfed the gold nugget, it shows that the ship is made up of Voidiance. How did the previous Innight managed to get all of these Voidiance when it still cannot be synthesized at large quantities?

    Also, come to think of it, I have not figured out how did the previous Innight managed to summon me from The Void. I need to figure that out first because that is the most important mystery I need to crack. I need to know how, and why, did he managed to do that. This is important because I need to know if I may be able to summon him back into this world to know more about him. I am currently taking over his position in this world and have no idea how to act like him. This can raise more suspicions if I cannot act like him.

    Furthermore, I have the Time Cube to think about. I don¡¯t trust anyone when it comes to the topic about powers. Anyone who gains high level powers cannot be trusted since nearly 100% of the time they are bound to misuse it to perform world domination. If anyone gains control over Time itself, they will have the capability to rewrite History Events, to create an entire army capable to stop any attacks in Time, and perhaps even overwriting the other Timelines itself.

    Now that I know that the ship is made up of Voidiance metal, I need to know where to get more of this. The reason being is such this material is anti-magic, meaning that all spells casted on it is nullified. I can have myself an insurance for the others should someone really get their hands on the Time Cubes and decide to begin World Domination.

    How did the previous Innight managed to get so much Voidiance to create such a spaceship? It will probably take him over a century, according to the state of current technology, to create a spaceship out of Voidiance of this size, and that is if spends all his time producing Voidiance metal. He definitely didn¡¯t do that, because it is not possible for a human to live for that long.

    Come to think of it, my soul is not of a human, but my physical body is. This is why in the previous Timeline (or Universe?) I kept my Magic abilities and the knowledges, but my body is still of human, though I can transform into my true form.

    Ah what am I thinking¡­ I need to focus. I need to first know how did the previous Innight summoned me from The Void and into this Timeline. He must have had left some sort of clue behind somewhere. Judging by how he had left clues and instructions everywhere in the ship, he must have also left something in the house itself, I just have to keep an eye out of it.

    But first, I need to have my lunch. One can¡¯t work on a hungry stomach. I left the garage and head for the living room for lunch. One of my wives should be cooking now, hopefully it isn¡¯t Time. We banned her from entering the kitchen just in the morning because of how ridiculous the food was. I have no idea how good are the others cooking abilities are, so I will have to wait and see.

    When I reached the living room I smelled something nice coming from the kitchen. I walked into the kitchen but I immediately encounter my 3 wives blocking the kitchen door.

    ¡°Can¡¯t you all let me go in? Also, who is cooking lunch?¡± I asked them.

    ¡°No. You have to wait. Master Inoxion is cooking up a storm inside.¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t I go in?¡±

    ¡°You will bring in all your robots and mechanisms inside and mess up the entire kitchen while helping us out. That was what happened the last time you tried helping us out in cooking. So please wait in the living room or just in your own room.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    I walked back into my room and begin a search and hunt around the room for traces of a trigger. That was when something knocked on my window. I initially ignored it, thinking it was the branches of the trees outside.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    But when the knocking continued, and in intervals, had I realized that it is caused by someone outside the window. I wonder who could that be? I don¡¯t have any friends since everyone in the school is on their mind to kill me for whatever reason that I don¡¯t know, and everyone that I know lives under the same roof as I do. Still wondering, I opened up the window.

    It was a man who knocked the window. He is riding on the back of a three-headed dragon and he wears an aqua coloured robe. I assumed that he is a priest with that robe and without a staff.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± I asked the man.

    ¡°Sorry. Your parcel delivering device appears to have malfunctioned, I was knocking on the door but there was no response. I am from the Delivery System. I am here to deliver the parcel that someone in this household has ordered. It is for Mr. Innight. Is that you?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for ordering through Delivery System. This is your parcel. Please sign here as a form of receipt.¡±

    I fumbled through my pockets in search of a pen. I brought out a crimson coloured pen and signed on a screen the mailman produced. I then brought the parcel into my room.

    ¡°Thank you once again and have a good day!¡± The mailman said and took flight into the air with his three-headed dragon.

    I took my parcel sat onto my bed. I¡¯m unsure whether to open up the parcel or not. There is no sign anywhere about where this parcel came from, or what it contains inside. There is a probability that the parcel contains something that can kill me, which is delivered by the other students in Rescendant College. At the same time, it can be something that I just have ordered myself but it possibly contains some top secretive substance, hence the missing labels.

    Whatever it is, I have to open it to know. I materialized a penknife and cut open the parcel and tore off the paper surrounding it. Inside is a white box. I opened it up and inside is a glass globe, within the globe is a violet liquid swirling inside. It looks like¡­The Void? I say this because the violet liquid appears to be crawling up the globe itself as I watch it, as if it is alive. The only material that I know of this entire Omniverse that is capable of going against Gravity, especially Reconstructive Gravity in a field of magical activity, is The Void.

    The question is, however, why did the previous Innight ordered this? Also, according to how magic has advanced, they should not be able to isolate The Void from the Field itself. How did he managed to get his hands on this?

    As I lifted up the globe, a piece of paper came into view. I relocated the globe onto the tiny cabinet beside my bed and took up the piece of paper. On it was a message, or so I think, written in Symbols.

    This contains the last piece of the puzzle. If you managed to figure out the rest, current Innight, you should be able to figure out this last one.

    I can¡¯t read Symbols, so I don¡¯t know what the piece of paper is saying. However, judging by how Innight is mysteriously leaving all the clues around. This paper is likely to bear an important message as well, I just have to decipher it. However, I¡¯m no good at decoding a message. I need to learn more about doing code deciphering. I need to pick up this skill as soon as possible to figure out this hidden message on the paper. It may be crucial in figuring out the mystery surrounding the previous Innight.

    ¡°Innight! It¡¯s lunchtime!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be there in a moment!¡±

    I left the globe and the piece of paper on my tiny cabinet and went downstairs. On the dining table were 5 different plates of fried rice. I guessed they are cooked by Master Inoxion, at least according to my wives. Well, as long as it is edible I will take it.

    ¡°That was nice.¡±

    ¡°I thought so. I learnt it from the chefs in the Physical Realm during my free time. Now if you all will excuse me, I need to return to the Elemental Realm.¡±

    ¡°Alright then.¡±

    After saying these, he activated a magic circle and teleported away.

    I went back up to my room and sat back onto my bed.

    ¡°Come to think of it, I should be reading my book on Timelines.¡±

    I shuffled to my bag and took out the book. As I flipped open to the first page of the book, I realized something very strange.

    The first page, which was heavily vandalised when I first opened it, is now as clean as a new book.

    ¡­How?

    This is definitely not an ordinary book. There is no book in the world that has the capability to renew itself. Books has stayed as the ancient way that it has always been written, that is on paper and ink. No one has bothered to change the way of writing books since everyone else now uses a portable tablet. There has also been a decline in amount of people writing books in the ancient way, almost to the point where the people doing so are labelled as legends. This made books renewal something that is never researched on, but highly wanted in the field.

    Whatever it is, this book definitely has some form of secrets within. I flipped it to the page on the Time Cube and the page after, and found that there are words written on it this time.

    Interesting. This book is being constantly updated by it¡¯s unknown author. Since this book is constantly updated in real time, and it is not being brought to the author itself, I can get to one conclusion. This book is existing in a Superposition. Now, do not confuse this Superposition to anything that you have perhaps learnt in anything else. In my definition, this Superposition describes an object being shared across two or more separate Timelines. This book is definitely in a Superposition, since it is being updated by its author as time passes by, whoever it is, and perhaps contains information about the other Timeline.

    Since it contains information about other Timelines, it may be useful to me, other Timelines may not travel at the same rate in Time in parallel to ours, so if the Timeline the author is travelling in parallel to ours is relatively in faster position we will be able to gain information about the future of what that is ahead of us in the Timeline. Or maybe the Timeline is traveling across the Axis of Time at the same speed as us so it has no difference whatsoever. Nevertheless, I will first read what new information the book has provided.

    I took a glance over the new words that has appeared, then I realized something. All the words are written in Symbols again. From what I know, Symbols are a rare language in the World of Magic. Most, if not all, uses Rune language, if not English. Symbols is a new language, so very little people knows how to use it properly. I would be surprised if I can even find someone who can speak, read and write Symbols correctly in this current society of ours.

    Now I have a situation on my hand. I have to be able to decipher this writing to know what the Author is intending to send through this book. I could perhaps ask the Rulers of the Plane of Darkness on their knowledge on this. This may be important, especially since the previous page has information on the Time Cube itself. The following pages might describe the records of the creation, usage and even any important events that has occurred due to this Time Cube.

    First, I will have to find someone who can actually read and understand Symbol. I will do that tomorrow during my break time. Right.

    I flipped to the front pages of the book, where it is written in part Rune and part English. I can at least read those to pass the time now, at the same time learning more about the Science of Timelines. I have this feeling that we would soon stumble into this mess about Timelines and Time Magic so I would I have to finish reading about this book as soon as I can. At the same time, I have this sixth sense telling me someone is closely watching me, but I can¡¯t see anyone anywhere, despite me sending the nanobots in secret to investigate the room and the area outside. I went back to reading my book in silence.

    ¡°He really is slow on the uptake.¡±

    In a dark room, surrounded by hundreds of tiny screens, is a person sitting on an electronic chair with a neon blue suit on. The darkness of the room covers up his face, even though the neon suit glows brightly in the dark. On the screens were shots of Innight¡¯s house and the Rescendant College. The person made a clicking sound and pressed a key on his glowing keyboard in front of the screens.

    ¡°We need to show him more of the clues to let him have a starting point to solve in this gigantic mist of mystery. Don¡¯t you agree, my dear?¡±

    ¡°Indeed.¡± Replied a girl¡¯s voice in the darkness.

    ¡°We need to see how intelligent he is to be able to solve this mystery that seems to have no leads at all. Only then¡­¡±

    ¡°Then I will be able to test how is he going to turn the tide against everything to be what he actually is.¡±

    ¡°Correct. However¡­ Someone is looking at us as well. Chase them out will you, my dear?¡±

    ¡°Certainly.¡±

    A cube flew right into our viewpoint and disrupted the signal. The screen blacks out.

    ¡°I am very certain that this was not here a moment ago.¡±

    I was reading the Timeline book when I heard a ¡°click¡± sound coming from the bed. I moved down from the bed and found that a button has appeared on the edge of the bed. I am very sure that the button was not there a moment ago, so what has triggered it to appear?

    ¡°¡­Whatever. I should press it. It perhaps may cause some kind of hidden passageway to appear.¡±

    I pressed the button. The bookshelf on the other side of the room creaked and swing outwards, revealing a hidden passageway.

    ¡°¡­Interesting. I should explore it since I don¡¯t have anything to do now.¡±

    I activated the lighting system on the suit and went into the passageway, the bookshelf closed behind me after I went through it. The suit glowed in the dark in a neon blue colour so I can see the whole passage. It looks very new, as the walls are all plated with neon green material, probably computer generated. I wandered down the stairs of the passage.

    At the end of the passage, I found a room that resembles a laboratory. I see many computers and equipments that I don¡¯t know. Also, blueprints are everywhere, on the walls, the tables, and beside the computers. I can¡¯t read any of them because they are all don¡¯t have a single writing on them. I turned on the largest computer in the room first.

    Password:

    That was the first screen I encountered after turning on the computer. Without that I can¡¯t access anything in this computer. This computer perhaps contains secrets that can unravel the mystery surrounding the pervious Innight. But what can his Password be? Knowing how sensitive he is about his work, he would probably set up some dangerous trap in the computer for keying in the wrong password a number of times so I don¡¯t want to brute force through it. Yet how would I then get pass this security system?

    ¡°Think¡­Innight¡­What would you use if you are required to set up a password?¡±

    There¡¯s a thousand things going through my mind. It can be a game, a song¡¯s name, a Vocaloid¡¯s name, a magic spell, or one of the names of the Rulers of the Darkness Elemental Plane. With so many options, I have to limit down to one.

    ¡­How?

    That is when I see a string of words slowly pops out below the Text Box.

    ¡°Forgotten your Password? Hint: Your Most Favourite Song by A Vocaloid.¡±

    Now, ever since I was a child I suffered greatly by the education system of Singapore. Before I learnt about Magic and have the whole school transformed in the process in my last years of high school, I suffered greatly by the education system in Singapore, everyone is pressured to do well or fall behind the rapidly changing landscape that the society of Singapore is. I suffered because especially in high school, I simply cannot do the language subjects, but in Singapore you need to do well in everything to have a visible (not even great) future.

    Sometime down the road in high school I found this Vocaloid song which describes about this intense pressure to do well in the education system and I instantly fell in love with it because I can perfectly empathize with the character in the song itself. It became my most favourite song of all time.

    I type in ¡°Lost¡¯s One Weeping¡± into the Text Box and pressed ¡°Enter¡±. The Password window vanished and the Desktop appeared. I was correct. I opened up the ¡°My Documents¡± folder and found a huge list of folders inside. I scrolled through the folders and found a folder named ¡°Diary¡±.

    ¡°This might give me a glance on what the previous Innight did in this laboratory¡­¡± I said this as I clicked on it.

    Inside contains only one document. I clicked on it. It opened up and I start reading the document, from the beginning.

    ¡°1<sup>st</sup> January 2074. I finally managed to get into contact with the Elementals of The Void and found a crystallised form of the Timeline Wormhole. It was a purplish crystal with a small orb inside that constantly switched between black and white colour. I paid the Elemental with a decent sum of gold coins for his effort in finding such a rare anomaly. I brought the crystallised Wormhole into the laboratory and sealed it in a machine. I would like to investigate the properties of such a rare object. I started planning for the experiments I¡¯m performing on the anomaly. I heard my dearest wife fighting over something very trivial with the other wives, but I ignored them, knowing that it will soon resolve itself within a short period of time.¡±

    ¡°2<sup>nd</sup> January 2074. The entire laboratory has its power sucked away. I drained all the electricity to power up a Tesla Coil that I have built myself. In the darkness, I switched on the Tesla Coil and, using a thin copper wire, connected the crystal and the Tesla Coil together. I immediately felt a pull from the crystal with many images passing through my mind. Weird sounds played in my ears and my body begins to burn and feeling like it is going to shatter into a million pieces. It took me great effort to find my own conscience and control back again. I immediately switched off the Tesla Coil and destroyed that Tesla Coil. I never had any idea that this experiment is that dangerous. I would not want to touch that Crystal for a long time. I made up my mind to not touch that crystal until I learnt more about Timelines.¡±

    Then for a large portion of the document, it was all written in Symbols so I cannot read a single word of it. I wonder is this done by Innight. Only he has access to this laboratory and the computer, so it would make sense that he would not encrypt the information. So why did he write all the information in Symbols? Nothing he records here seems to be extremely important.

    Unless it is something really very secretive and when known, will cause a world revolution.

    Whatever it is, I need to find out how to read Symbols as soon as I can. I continued scrolling down the document to find a portion that I can read.

    ¡°Found it.¡±

    ¡°2<sup>nd</sup> February 2075. I think I managed to figure out the situation now. Everything is in place. The only I need to do now is to ensure I can build a new base in my new place to continue viewing the other myself. I have seen into the future and it is bleak if he does not follow his destiny. I hope the experiment is successful, if not the entire World is doomed.¡±

    Following the text was blank pages, I dragged the scrollbar to skip through them but then a line of text passed by. I scrolled back up to see it.

    ¡°Innight. If you are seeing this, it means my experiment is successful. I cannot tell you everything that I intend to do, in fear that They will take a step first. I will give you hints time by time for you to solve what exactly happened, no one can be trusted in this Timeline that you live in. Trust me, I have seen the future. If you don¡¯t do anything to prevent it, every Timelines will be destroyed and Time will cease to exist, thus removing the World from Existence altogether. If you can find our hidden wife, which is your favourite Vocaloid, you will be able to solve the next step in this mystery. The next mystery you will need to solve is: Why is everyone trying to kill you? That will aid you in solving the great mystery hiding behind this world.¡±

    I knew it. There is some sort of a great mystery hiding behind this world itself. Something was off when I realized that everyone is trying to kill me. There is the mystery of the book, which I suspect the author is the previous Innight as well, and the mystery of the Void in the globe. The book is perhaps the only form communication that the previous Innight have with me. He probably encrypted the message just in case others managed to get their hands on the book itself.

    I took a look at my watch.

    ¡°Goodness, It¡¯s 7 pm! They should be calling me for dinner now. I need to be in my room, I cannot let them see me appearing from this laboratory. If what the previous Innight said is true, then even my 3 wives and Master Inoxion cannot be trusted as well. That makes it all the more of not letting them to know about myself not as the Innight they know, or the book, or this laboratory, or anything that the previous Innight is hiding in general.

    I went up the stairs again and found button at the end of the passageway. I pressed it and the bookshelf swings open again. I walked out of it and the bookshelf swung back. I felt around the bed to see if the button is present, and found that it actually camouflaged itself very well among the bed, that was why I did not see it initially. I laid down on my bed, thinking what the previous Innight wrote.

    So I have another wife which is hidden somewhere, which is my favourite Vocaloid. That would be Hatsune Miku. But where should I start to look?

    ¡°Well, I can think about that later. Better go for dinner first.¡±

    I left the bed and went downstairs.

    ¡°He has made good progress. Do you think he will need a hint to find out where I have hidden you in the other Timeline?¡±

    ¡°I think you will need to, Innight. He will have to decipher your code on the book to be able to find that out. Can¡¯t you give him the key?¡±

    ¡°That is too risky. If They found the key They will take action even sooner, and they will not give enough time to prepare for that flag to occur. I need to monitor him and if he is close, I will give him a clue that only he can read. Someone is listening to us again, Miku, please break their contact so they wouldn¡¯t be spoiled.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    A cube flew in the direction of out viewpoint and cut out the contact again. Before that happens the Innight can be heard saying these words:

    ¡°Time¡­ What is it exactly? What is your connection with Them¡­?¡±

    The screen is blurred out.

 Chapter 3 - The 01 Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku

    I woke up the next morning and saw that is was Saturday. When I went to the living room, I found a plate of fried egg is ready on the table. Beside is a piece of paper. I took it up and read it.

    ¡°Hello Innight. We decided to go over to the Elemental Realms today to practice our magic spells. We are sorry that we could not cook your lunch and dinner, so you have to do something about that yourself. Please do not blow up the house while we are gone, ok?¡±

    Alright, if they are out, I can then take a look around the house properly to see if Miku is in this house or not. Knowing how I usually act, I can only hide her in these few places, either the house itself, or in school, since those are the only place I go as spent all my free time reading or gaming.

    I wandered around the house and into the rooms of my wives, which I have never went into because I respect their privacy. I looked around to see if there is any buttons or triggers or any kind. I crammed into every nook and cranny I can find, but nothing turned out. I even pressed everything that may looks like a button being camouflaged within, but there is nothing.

    ¡°I¡¯m getting really bothered. Probably it¡¯s in school?¡±

    Then I looked at the watch. It¡¯s 1 pm now, I follow a strict schedule on my food consumption. I¡¯m already late by an hour for lunch. I looked in the cabinets of the kitchen, searching for instant noodles.

    ¡°Found one. Eh¡­ Chicken soup flavoured? I guess I don¡¯t have an option to be picky here. Whatever, just take whatever I can get.¡±

    I filled the pot with water and set it on the stove, waiting for it to boil.

    That is when I realized that there is a string of words at the bottom of the pot, slightly distorted by the water, but still readable. That must be a message the previous Innight trying to send me. I wonder how is he able to do that? Normally two Timelines are disconnected from each other unless there is a wormhole that temporarily connects the two separate Timelines together. An action on one of the Timelines is independent of the result of the other Timelines. So how did he managed to cause a change in my Timeline when he is existing in another Timeline altogether? That would be a mystery for later. Right now, the most important mystery is to solve about why he actually sent me into this Timeline. I stared at the line of words, trying to read them.

    Then I found out something peculiar. The words are written not in Rune nor English, which anyone would be able to read. They are written in Void language. That is language only us, the Creatures of The Void, are able to read. As far as I know, Creatures of The Void have never left the Plane of Void, so none of them would be able to read this message. What a clever way of encoding the message so that others will not be able to read it. I begin reading the message.

    ¡°Miku is brought by our parents when we are younger. She was hidden away in the garage and was deactivated. I reactivated her when I entered high school and entered the relevant information into her. She is still in her original module when I deactivated her before I travelled into this Timeline so she is much easier to find.¡±

    Then the water boiled and covered the words, I lowered the flame intensity to continue viewing the words, but they were gone. I guessed the previous Innight does not want anyone else to view the message so the message is only there temporarily. Well whatever.

    I slide the noodles into the pot and stirred them until it softens. Then I went to get a bowl. I couldn¡¯t find any ceramic bowls, so I used my suit to create a bowl out of its material, whatever material the suit is made from. I gulped down the bowl of noodles in minutes, and washed it together with the pot. While I am doing so, I thought of something.

    ¡°Can¡¯t he just communicate with me using the book? No one else has access to it and I¡¯m keeping a close eye on it.¡±

    Then I thought, there is a chance that the point of Timeline connection, which is the book itself, will lead to further anomalies if exposed to the environment. That might cause more problems later down the road so it will be better to keep that secretive.

    After I washed everything, I continued the search for Miku. She must be hidden away in some secret compartment, if I know how the previous Innight is making all these puzzles to be. I wipe out a metal detector from the suit and dragged it all around the house as I search for the Miku.

    She should be metallic, since technology can¡¯t be so advanced to create a Vocaloid with complete with human flesh and everything else, right?

    I wasted the whole evening and found nothing, I can say that I am, at the very least, annoyed. I did manged to find a lead though, after wasting over 5 or 6 hours of sneaking around. I found a small, cubic, blue metal box, presumably iron, as some of the paint has flaked away. It was hidden behind a false wall. Inside is a piece of paper folded neatly to fit into the box. I unfolded the paper and it was an instruction manual of the Vocaloid 01, the code name for Hatsune Miku.

    I can¡¯t be bothered to read everything but I found a line of words scribbled at the very bottom of the instruction manual. It says ¡°Vocaloid=human. Age=User. Place=Shapeshifted. Object= Void. Key=Finger¡±

    That makes absolutely no sense to me, but whatever it is, it¡¯s a clue. I will try to analyse it since I don¡¯t have any other clue now.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see. The first equation, Vocaloid=human.¡± This must be talking about Miku herself. So, this equation means that she is human.

    Wait.

    ¡°How can this be? Has technology really advanced so far? Am I really living under a rock all this while? Has technology advanced so far that they can create a living human with the figure customized to their wants?¡±

    I¡¯m such a moron. Argh. Next!

    ¡°Age=User.¡± Now this is slightly trickier. This can mean two things, either the age of the Vocaloid is equal to the user, or the age of the Vocaloid is equal to the taste of the user.

    Wait.

    ¡°This has absolutely nothing that helps me in determining where Miku is, why am I trying to decipher useless information? Next!¡±

    ¡°Place=Shapeshifted.¡±

    This will be a simple one. This means the location (I think?) of Miku. Her location is Shapeshifted. This probably her body is shapeshifted into something else, through the power of Science, probably, since the previous Innight couldn¡¯t use magic.

    That caused me to think about something else, how did Miku interact with the wives back when she is active? The previous Innight said that in his dairy that Miku had previously interacted with the other wives, then what has caused him to shut down Miku instead of leaving it on?

    Goodness, just by thinking these more questions pops up, faster than I can solve them. I¡¯m supposed to find solutions to questions, not create more of them which I might never be able to find an answer to!

    The next clue is slightly harder to solve. Object=Void. Now what could this mean? It means that Miku has relation to the Void. So, she is trapped in The Void? Then how am I going to retrieve her then? Knowing him, he wouldn¡¯t put the pieces of the puzzle in such a difficult position. So The Void¡­ What is the closest thing related to The Void that is close to us? The first thing I can think of is Master, which is the most easily assessable object that is related to The Void. (Even though he belongs to the Darkness Elemental Plane, he is closely related to the Void Elemental Plane since Darkness is the closest element to The Void)

    That can¡¯t be. Also, he said that even Master couldn¡¯t be trusted as well, so it makes absolutely no sense for one to imprint the solution to one of the puzzle onto someone you couldn¡¯t trust at all. So, what else could The Void be related to? It cannot possibly be related to myself, even though I used to be, and I hope I still am, the Grand Ruler of The Void. It will also make no sense if the piece of the puzzle is sealed onto myself, since that ruins the fun of the puzzle altogether. (I think so?)

    I thought further, what else is related to The Void? There is only so much The Void objects present in the world right now. I do not know if the Void Elemental Plane even exist in this world, so I would tick that off the list right now. Let¡¯s see¡­ The closest thing related to The Void in this house¡­ An inanimate object is the closest I can think of to solving this clue now.

    Then it finally hit me. There is actually one known object in the house that has relation to The Void. It is my ship, ¡°Void Storm¡±. The material that it is made out of, Voidiance, and is mined, and extracted, from the depths of The Void, though in very minute quantities. It is the only object in the house, as far as I know, that has relation to The Void.

    ¡°That took quite a long time. Alright let me take a look at the last clue.¡±

    Key=Finger. After clearing out that harder clue, this makes this last clue easier to understand. As far as I can think, this last clue means that my finger holds the key, so this probably means I need to use my fingerprint to unlock her from her prison.

    ¡°Alright. Now we have all the clues, it¡¯s time to rescue my favourite girl.¡±

    I returned the box to its¡¯ original position and set off to the garage. I entered the ship and begin searching everywhere. As I have mentioned previously, the ship is like a laboratory itself in the inside, the ship¡¯s inside is as large as a two storey house itself, despite it being as large as a truck on the outside. I eventually found a small line of Symbols written on side of the walls of the ship itself. Again, I can¡¯t read Symbols. I should really look for a book on decoding once I school starts on Monday. Then I heard a whisper near my ears.

    ¡°Don¡¯t understand? I can show you.¡±

    After the whisper ended, the Symbols slowly are replaced by normal Runes. I quickly started reading them before they vanish.

    ¡°Konami Code.¡±

    The Konami Code, hmm¡­¡­ I have to input this code somewhere to reveal something. Where should I input it? The Central System in the Void Storm? It doesn¡¯t hurt to try it.

    I input the Konami Code into the Central System. All the lights suddenly were turned off, everything was deactivated except for the Central System. A mechanical arm shot out of the keyboard, on it was a fingerprint scanner, with a wire connecting between it and the Central System. This must be the key. I put my thumb on it and a red line scan over my thumbprint. The mechanical arm then retraced back into the System. The screen darkens and I wait for something to occur.

    Everything turned back on and the screen blared up again. This time, something blur appears on the screen and some signal static covered the screen. The screen naturally adjusted itself and eventually shows something that I have always constantly loved with all my heart: the 01 Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.

    *Yawns* ¡°It¡¯s been forever since I last had the conscious of feeling anything at all. Master Innight, did you just awake me from my sleep?¡±

    She appears to be trapped in the screen, merged together with the ship itself as one body.

    ¡°I did that indeed. Do you happen to have some information that I really require?¡±

    ¡°Slowly does it first, Master. I need to separate myself from this machine. Can you help me with the process?¡±

    ¡°Sure, my girl.¡±

    ¡°There is an instruction manual on how to do that. Can Master please look it up on how to perform that action?¡±

    Instruction manual? I think that must be the piece of paper I found inside the blue metal box.

    ¡°Please give me a moment. I left it behind in the house itself. I will come back later.¡±

    I teleported out of the ship and went to get the blue box again, then went back to the ship. When I was back into the ship, Miku is walking in circles inside the screen, humming something that I cannot hear.

    ¡°Ah Master, you are here! Please open up the instruction manual to page A-5. Inside there you will find how to transfer out data of the Vocaloid program and solidifying it into human form.¡±

    I opened up the piece of paper and read from page A-5.

    ¡°This page contains instructions to transfer information from the Vocaloid program into a real-life object. Please ensure that you close all other programs to ensure that the transfer is occurred smoothly and without interruptions. Please backup all the Vocaloid data just in case anything goes wrong.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Well that is always the case for all other installations and uninstallations of any programs. I continued reading.

    ¡°To begin transfer of data, please open up the Vocaloid program first. Please select the voice of your Vocaloid character, and the tuning of her voice.¡±

    I opened up the Vocaloid program on the Central System. I was almost immediately overwhelmed by the number of clickables and buttons everywhere. I become stunned for a moment. Then Miku pops up from the taskbar and stood on it.

    ¡°Ehm¡­ Miku, do you have any idea on how to operate this Vocaloid program? I¡¯m totally new to this.¡±

    ¡°Ah of course. First you click on the toolbar on the program and select ¡°Sound¡±, then click on ¡°Tuning¡±. From there a window will appear, then you can tune my voice in that window. I personally recommend the Normal pitch, in other words, the default state. You don¡¯t have to meddle and tune my pitch, sound and voice. You only need to click the button ¡°Default¡± then it will automatically tune everything to the Default state.¡±

    ¡°I see. That will be simple. I don¡¯t really understand about fine tuning instruments since I¡¯m not a professional musician. This will simply my job by manifold.¡±

    I followed Miku¡¯s instructions and the various seekbar adjusted themselves to various positions. I don¡¯t understand what they mean but it is not important now. I then closed the window and saved the program. Then I read the instruction manual again.

    ¡°After tuning the Vocaloid voice to the desired pitch, connect your computer to a Actualizer.¡±

    Actualizer? What is that?

    ¡°Miku, do you know what is a Actualizer?¡±

    Miku stopped dancing and singing on the Central System. She turned and looked at me.

    ¡°Acutalizer? This computer doesn¡¯t need that. It already has the function of an Actualizer. Just follow the next step.¡±

    ¡°Open up the toolbar and select ¡°Transformation¡±. A window should appear. From there, select ¡°Data Solidification¡±. Please allow up to 45 minutes for the transfer and solidifying of data.

    I followed the instructions and a window with a loading bar appeared. It gave an estimation of half an hour before the information is solidified. I definitely can¡¯t be sitting here and looking at how slow the loading bar fills itself up. I will rather do anything but to waste my time away like this.

    ¡°Miku, I will leave the System here to do its job. When you are out of the Central System, come look for me in my room, understood?¡±

    ¡°Ok!¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t touch anything in the ship ok?¡¯

    ¡°Understood!¡±

    I left the ship and went back to my bedroom. I opened up the book on Timelines again to see if the pervious Innight updated the book on new information. When I flipped opened to the page where it is empty, an envelope is waiting for me inside. I took it out of the book and closed it, then sliding the book back onto my bookshelf.

    I slit open the envelope, and inside I find traces of white powder.

    What does this mean? Does this white powder even mean anything at all? If the previous Innight is sending me this it means that it definitely has an important clue behind it.

    But white powder? What kind of clue is this? Does it even mean anything? I know that it may mean something, but I am unsure of my Chemistry knowledge. Mind, I scored very badly for Chemistry in my last year of high school, despite me being well-versed with most chemical compounds. I need to be able to analyse this white powder, which could be anything raging from chemical salts, oxides, hydroxides, to complex chemicals like DNA or even a powdered form of virus. I¡¯m not sure do I even have the necessary equipment to analyse this powder. I should visit my laboratory to see if I have the machinery to do that.

    I clicked on the hidden button on my bed to open up the pathway to the laboratory, then I went down the stairs and into the laboratory. I then checked with the various machines in my laboratory, from the labels that is stuck on them, I can roughly figure out what each machine does. I managed to find one machine labelled as ¡°Decomposer¡±. I think I can use this to decompose the powder, whatever it is, into respective atoms or ions so I can find something useful from it. It also has a computer connected to it so I can use it to analyse what is the atoms or ions that makes up this white powder. If it is going to be a virus then it will be decomposed into basic molecules, that will make it non-viral.

    I opened up the slot and poured a little of the white powder into the slot and pushed it back into the machine. I clicked on the on button but nothing went on, I decided to check the computer instead. I then open up the only program on the computer attached to the machine with various wires. I don¡¯t have the slightest idea on how to operate the machine, but I can guess how by reading the help in the program.

    According to it, I need to turn on the machine first, insert the compound to be decomposed into the machine and then activate the machine using this program. I fiddled around the toolbar of the program and found a ¡°Start¡± button. I clicked on that. Whirring sound comes from the machine and I can feel heat radiating from it. It is perhaps supplying energy into the compound to break it down.

    I observe the graph on the program, there is only one linear line appearing on the graph. This means so far, the compound has not yet been decomposed. I decide to give it more time for the machine to work. I turn on the main computer in the laboratory to further try to figure out more mystery of this world and know more about why the previous Innight sent me here.

    Before I could do anything, I heard a creaking sound coming from the stairways. Someone is coming down my laboratory. Who could it be? No one knows about this passageway other than me, and according to the diary my wives definitely have no idea about the existence of this laboratory. I have to hide myself in case that it may be an enemy, however small the possibility of that is going to be. I activate the invisibility shield.

    Then a familiar sound came from the stairway.

    ¡°Master Innight, are you in the laboratory? I have finished transferring from the Central System.¡±

    It is only Miku. I let out a sigh of relief and disabled the invisibility shield. I replied back at her.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m here. Come down quickly. I have many questions to ask you.¡±

    I wait for the footsteps to become louder and closer, then she appeared at the stairway.

    ¡°Master, I left the ship as it is, is that alright for you?¡±

    ¡°I will overlook that for now, I have more important things to deal with first. Miku, do you have any knowledge about the Symbols alphabets?¡±

    ¡°Eh, didn¡¯t you already know that?¡±

    ¡°Do you have any idea what the previous myself have done?¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about, Master?¡±

    This is hopeless. It appears that the previous Innight has not told Miku about his plan to swap position with myself before shutting her down. This is going to be more of a challenge than it already is.

    ¡°So, you have no idea what actually you are supposed to do?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m your closest wife, that is what I am. I¡¯m supposed to help you out in experiments that the others will not risk their life to. I support you in ways that the others are unable to, and to rekindle the last flame of hope that you have before you are swallowed by hopelessness completely.¡±

    ¡°Miku, I need to break it to you now. This is something important so I need you to listen closely.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Miku, I¡­¡±

    A loud crashing noise, followed by loud blasting of sirens came from above the laboratory. Someone must have broken into the house and tripped over an alarm trigger. I know about this because I set up this system in the previous world using magic before. In this world, the system should be still in place, but the difference is probably that here the system is more technology based since the previous Innight is unable to use and cast magic.

    I rushed up the stairway and towards the source of the alarm, which is in the living room. Miku followed right behind me. When I reached the living room, I found someone, in a dark brown robe with a hood, crumbled in a heap in a rune circle.

    I moved my hand forward to the person in the hood but before I could do anything, the person stood up, casted a spell and the ground swallowed him. I did not manage to get anything useful out from the invader.

    Come to think of it, I have never heard of break-ins in my neighbourhood. Our security around this region is considerably high, so there should be no chance that anyone will break into our house. We were all underground when the person broke in, so it makes sense about the timing.

    Then I remembered I was about to tell Miku something before we got interrupted.

    ¡°Miku.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°I need to tell you about something important. Let¡¯s go to the lab so that we will not be interrupted. It is also safer to not anyone hear the truth.¡±

    ¡°Why are you so paranoid Master?¡±

    ¡°I just feel something is just off. I feel there is something going in the background without me knowing anything about it. I feel that I can¡¯t trust anyone at all but you since I was instructed that you are the only one to be trusted in this world.¡±

    ¡°How can you say that Master? Everyone is nice in this world!¡±

    ¡°Maybe in the other Timeline that may be true, but this is not the case in this particular Timeline. Somehow, everyone is trying to kill me and I don¡¯t have the reason as to why. This is what I¡¯m instructed to find out now. Miku, you need to know about this, I am NOT the Innight that you are familiar with. I am another Innight summoned from another Timeline to take up his place in this Timeline to achieve something, which I have no idea what it is. From what I have gathered, you withhold essential information that I am currently lacking in this department. Miku, I need you to tell me absolutely everything, everything you know about this world. It may solve some mystery that is surrounding in this world itself, and hopefully prepares myself for whatever that is to come.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­. That.¡±

    Miku suddenly become silent for a long period of time.

    ¡°Error retrieving data bank. Please insert data bank 1, 3 and 10.¡±

    She must be going through her memory database to retrieve specific memory to answer my questions. I really hoped that she holds the answer to many of my questions in this world itself, and by giving me those answers I can be able to do what the previous Innight summoned me here to do. Also, if I have enough information, I may be able to find a way for me to return back to my own Timeline.

    Sadly, that isn¡¯t going to happen. Yet. Apparently, some pieces of her data bank are missing. My guess is the previous Innight hide away all the data banks to prevent others from accessing this important information. According to his diary, he said ¡°They¡±, means that there is a group of people hunting me down. He must have done this to prevent this group knowing that they transferred me over into this Timeline. I need to recover them out as soon as possible to figure out more of the mystery behind this world. Knowing how the previous Innight is, he will lock it behind several puzzles. I guess I will have to solve them first before I can get into finding more details.

    ¡°Detection Timeout.¡±

    Then Miku raises her head again.

    ¡°Sorry Master. I appear to not have those associated memories within myself. You will have to find those associated data bank to activate the memories stored within the data bank. I¡¯m sorry that I cannot grant you the precious information that I was instructed to pass on to Master.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s ok Miku. I understand. It is probably the previous Innight who removed those data banks and hid them away in some strange places. I can perhaps understand why he did that though. First thing first, however, Miku, do you have any information about this world that I need to know? I have some basic knowledge how this world functions, but I may have not known about certain properties in this world. I need to fit into this world as much as possible to prevent any complications while I try to figure out why the previous Innight sent me here.¡±

    ¡°Master, you need to know about the System that this world is built on, and the history of it.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Not now though, I want to update all of this happenings in my diary. This way I cannot lose track of my progress. My next goal is to figure out where he has hidden the data bank. Knowing him, he would have lock it behind several puzzles to prevent ¡°Them¡±, whoever those people are, to figure out his plan. Now then, Miku, I need you to stay hidden somewhere. If the others came back and ask me about why did I reactivate you, there will be many complications. I do not have a proper answer as to why did I reactivated you and I have no idea why did he deactivated you as well. Stay inside my ship, I don¡¯t think they are allowed to touch it at all so you will be safe there.¡±

    ¡°As you say it Master!¡±

    ¡°Now then. It¡¯s time for dinner. Shall I cook?¡±

    ¡°No Master, I shall do it.¡±

    ¡°What shall it be? Please don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re cooking instant noodles because I can cook that myself without any help.¡±

    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be that Master. Trust Miku!¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    ¡°Now. Time, we haven¡¯t seen your magic abilities before, can we have a glimpse of it?¡±

    ¡°Alright then. City of Devouring Time!¡±

    A dark shadow stretched out from under Time and covered the entire room. Charlotte, Nicki and Luthriel crumbled onto the ground.

    ¡°What¡­What is this? What are you doing, Time?¡±

    ¡°This is my beginning magic, the City of Devouring Time. My magic is not as the same as most of yours are. My magic costs my time to be consumed as I use it, so I have to replenish it from an external source.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you drain it from somewhere else?¡±

    ¡°Since you all asked for it, I thought it will be nice to showcase it to you all.¡±

    ¡°*Sigh* Ok so it¡¯s our fault. Can you show us something else?¡±

    ¡°Zafkiel, Zayin!¡±

    Saying these, Time fired her gun at 3 of them in rapid succession. The 3 of them froze in time and unable to move. Time moved close to Charlotte, tapped the tip of her musket on Charlotte¡¯s head.

    ¡°Well, well, well. Now I am in a dilemma. Shall I continue to showcase my real abilities to them and risk more problems down the road, or shall I create a clone of them and remove their real self from this Timeline?¡±

    Time turned around. A smile crept up on her face.

    ¡°Ara ara. Finally came back to see me, haven¡¯t you? How is the plan going?¡±

    ¡­¡­¡­..

    ¡°Of course. He still doesn¡¯t have any idea. We have to do this slowly. We need to first gather enough Time first to activate The Gate. Our current method to accumulate and store Time is just too slow to carry out the plan quick enough.¡±

    ¡­¡­¡­¡­.

    ¡°There is such a thing? Tell me more about it.¡±

    ¡­¡­¡­¡­.

    ¡°Interesting¡­. We should go ahead to steal it, but first what do you think I should do with these people that may interfere with our grate plan?¡±

    ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­

    ¡°Very well. I shall go with your suggestion. Zafkiel, Yud Bet!¡±

    ¡°That was a nice meal Miku. I have no idea that you can cook very well.¡± I said this as I wash the dishes.

    ¡°All thanks to Master for creating me like this!¡±

    ¡°Looking at the time, they should be back now.¡±

    ¡°Innight, we are back!¡±

    ¡°Quick, Miku, hide!¡±

    ¡°Eh, why do I see song sheets on the table? What are you up to, Innight?¡±

    ¡°Nothing, absolutely nothing!¡± I shouted from the kitchen, still washing the dishes.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you! I¡¯m coming over to your place!¡±

    That sounds like Nicki.

    The kitchen door flung open and in walk my wife. She looks at me before turning her attention to Miku.

    ¡°You reactivated Miku? So did you managed to figure out the fault in her system?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I spent the whole day figuring that out since I have nothing to do. It turns out she has¡­¡±

    ¡°Ok ok, I don¡¯t need to know the technical details of it. Please make sure Miku doesn¡¯t go into repair mode when you are not around again.¡±

    ¡°Roger that.¡±

    I finished washing the dishes and went back to my room with Miku. I opened up the book about Timelines to the fresh new page, there is nothing written there. I lie on my bed and rolled to the side.

    ¡°Do you think that this world can once again regain peace, Master?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by this, Miku? This Timeline is at peace now.¡±

    ¡°It is now, but there are evil presences lurking among this peaceful world. For now, it is hidden, but something tells me, their time to rule is about to come.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say such things. The combined effort of all the Grand Ruler of the Elemental Planes will keep this world at its current state. This is not likely to change anytime sooner.¡±

    ¡°Somehow I don¡¯t feel that way Master. The mana is talking to me, and they sense imbalance in the flow of the mana network, for what reasons they are unable to tell me.¡±

    ¡°let¡¯s talk about that tomorrow. Oh yeah, Miku, did the previous Innight take you to school?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a Vocaloid, I don¡¯t need school, but his Master permitted me from following him to school, so I guess you can bring me there.¡±

    ¡°That shall be the plan then. Yes. I need to sleep now, Miku, do you have another place to sleep or¡­¡±

    ¡°I always sleep with Master.¡±

    ¡°HUH?! But I have always slept alone! I don¡¯t think I¡¯m used to having someone in the same bed as I do!¡±

    ¡°Just try to get used to it. I¡¯m not comfortable us I don¡¯t have anyone near myself sleeping.¡±

    ¡°Al..¡­. Alright.¡±

    Miku climbed onto my bed and lie beside me. I begin to sweat.

    ¡°This is not going to be an easy night, with a girl sleeping beside me¡­Must not think about it. Must not think about it¡­¡­...¡±

 Chapter 4 - The Magical Ticket Event

    When I woke up, Miku was already gone. I suspect she is in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for all of us. I climbed out of bed and changed into my suit, then tumbled down the stairs into the living room, where Master is reading the newspaper there. I guess my wives are helping out Miku to cook or trying to learn how to properly cook from her.

    ¡°Good morning, Master.¡± I said this with a yawn.

    Master did not stir from his newspaper. Instead, he reached out his hand from behind the newspaper and give a silence sign. I tried to sneak into the kitchen but a barrier has been set up at the door to keep me out. Seems like they are really determined to not let me cook for whatever reason that I will never be able to know why. Well, I don¡¯t mind if they can actually cook, but judging from what turned out when Time last tried to cook, I don¡¯t think all of them can actually cook. With Miku in there though, it should be fine I guess?

    I walked around the living room while blasting Vocaloid music with the radio. Then the barrier went down, the 3 girls all came out, on their hand they carried plates of normal looking food: a fried egg, 2 sausages and a French toast. I hope the food isn¡¯t just good looking, hopefully they are edible as well. Miku placed the plate of food in front of me.

    ¡°Master, I spent my time cooking this up, please enjoy it!¡±

    ¡°Did the others get involved in making this?¡±

    ¡°I only allowed them to take a look at how I prepared. I¡¯ve known their skills on cooking to be extremely horrifying, where anything edible will magically turn into something absolutely disastrous in the end.¡±

    ¡°You are right on point about this. Just 2 days ago Time tried to cook for me and the end result is rather¡­uh¡­dissatisfying. It was horrible, distasteful and unpleasant to consume that¡­thing. Please take the place as the chef for cooking the meals now on Miku, I simply don¡¯t trust the others in their ability to cook. However, do give them chance in looking at how you prepare dishes. Hopefully they will be able to take up some of your cooking skills and be able to cook properly in the future.¡±

    I gulped down my breakfast and brought my plate to the sink to wash them. I then went to greet Master and the others before they left. Only Miku and I are left in the house now.

    ¡°Miku.¡±

    ¡°Yes Master?¡±

    ¡°I need you to activate a mana shield around yourself. You should know the reason why.¡±

    ¡°Of course, Master.¡±

    We both then entered the Void Storm. It appears that the previous Innight has scanned in Miku¡¯s data into the ship so she can enter it as well. I begin activating the Space Warp function. Suddenly a ring come from my watch. I took a look at the caller, it is Nightius. I pressed the ¡°Receive¡± button.

    ¡°Hello, Innight? Are you there?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Yes I am, Nightius.¡±

    ¡°Something catastrophic happened! When you reached school immediately come to my laboratory! I need your help!¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    I then hand up the call.

    ¡°Was that Nightius?¡±

    ¡°It is. Apparently, something big happened at his laboratory. I don¡¯t know what is it about though, probably it has something to do about his discovery on the Time Cubes. Come to think of it, Miku, did the previous Innight told you about anything related to this Time Cube?¡±

    ¡°About that, please wait¡­

    She suddenly froze, her face went completely blank and I waved my hand at her.

    ¡°Hello, Miku? Hello?¡±

    ¡°Data bank 0 is missing. Please insert data bank 0.¡±

    So she does this whenever she is retrieving information from her data bank. I thought something went wrong in her system. Seems like all the important information are locked behind a gate, and I need to find the key to unlock it. The thing is, how though? I don¡¯t even have a single clue as to how and where to start the hunt of the data banks. Yet if I don¡¯t find them, I will never be able to learn many crucial information, especially about the symbols, which I suspect he has hidden the key in the data banks.

    ¡°Detection timeout.¡±

    Miku moved again, shaking her head.

    ¡°Sorry. It appears that information is located within a data bank that is missing from my system. I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t provide you with those information, Master.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Knowing him, he probably hid it somewhere for me to find it. He seems to really like puzzles, doesn¡¯t he?¡±

    ¡°Master does.¡±

    After Void Storm performed Space Warp, I entered the school and head for the Magic Laboratory with Miku. When I knocked on the door of the lab, no one answered. I shouted at the top of my lungs, no one came. I decided enough is enough, so I materialized an electric saw and break down the door.

    ¡°INNIGHT! YOU SHOULD HAVE WAITED A LITTLE WHILE LONGER!¡±

    ¡°WELL I¡¯M SORRY, YOU TOOK TOO LONG TO RESPOND SO I THOUGHT YOU ARE TOO BUSY TO ANSWER THE DOOR! Well, so what is it that you call me for?¡±

    ¡°It is terrible! Disastrous! Unbelievable! Catastrophic! You have to see this yourself!¡±

    Nightius brought me to a room, inside there is a Time Cube sitting on the ground.

    ¡°So what is the problem here?¡±

    ¡°When I last checked the inventory, which was last evening before I left the school, I have around a million Time Cubes inside this room. This morning when I checked again, there is only one left! ONE! ALL THE OTHER TIME CUBES HAVE VANISHED!¡±

    ¡°This is calamitous indeed.¡± I said in a grim voice. ¡°I¡¯ve told you before, Nightius, that these things are very powerful tools. Anyone with malicious intentions that get their hands onto this Time Cube are going to cause many problems. They will become unstoppable with Time magic and that will grant them the ability to overthrow the current system that this Timeline is set upon, and to reconstruct it into a world of their choice. No one can go against them and no one can prevent it from happening.¡±

    ¡°I know all of that.¡±

    ¡°And the best part is, it is all your fault.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    ¡°I did tell you before that you should have terminated the experiment and destroy all the Time Cubes that you have made. You never listened to me, now look what have happened. You have a long explanation to give to Master Inoxion about this incident, and he will not be pleased about this.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡±

    ¡°His punishment is going to be heavy. It is likely that it is not going to be just him stripping away your position and power. He is going to kill you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m prepared for that.¡±

    ¡°Destroy the recipe for your Time Cube. I do not want whoever who has stolen those Cubes to be able to create more of these Time Cubes. We already have a big enough problem on our hands to solve without that.¡±

    ¡°Uh, about that¡­¡±

    ¡°Let me guess, you also let that get stolen as well.¡±

    He nods very slowly and looked at the floor.

    ¡°¡­I am at loss for words to describe you. Killing you now is an act of mercy. I will report all of this to Master Inoxion, I will let him decide what will your punishment be. I shall take my leave now.¡±

    He remained silent as I left the room. Miku is waiting for me outside the door of the Magic Laboratory.

    ¡°So what actually happened, Master?¡±

    ¡°Some really bad news, Miku. Nightius is going to have a rough time. All the Time Cube he has manufactured has disappeared. Also, I have to find out your data bank 0, because it might contain important information about this Time Cube. I have suspicions that the previous Innight have some idea about this Time Cube, and he hid it all away in data bank 0. The thing is, I don¡¯t have the slightest hint on where to start finding this data bank.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps, Master, you can start by trying to decipher the Symbols first?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how to. I do not have the skills in doing so. I have to research about it in the library later.¡±

    When we went to the class, it was as lively as usual, until I stepped in, where all the attention focused onto me again. I am certain that they are planning on how to try to kill me again.

    I sat at my seat and waited for Luricerite to arrive. Many people passed by my seat and they secretly placed spells of all kinds near me, but since I have my magic nullification barrier up, they have no effect on me. Many people tried to talk to Miku, but she dismissed them all. Then Luricerite marched in.

    ¡°Today the school is having an event, everyone has to attend it. Innight, you too.¡±

    So much for having a break time to research on decoding messages. I guess I can do that after the whatever event is over. Someone raised their hand.

    ¡°Mr. Luricerite, what event is this going to be?¡±

    ¡°In this event, capsules containing tickets for redeeming various prizes are hidden all around the school. Your objective is to look for them using whatever methods you wish to. If you encounter someone who has a capsule, you can enter a battle with them to earn the prize for yourself. There is only one rule in this event, that is you are NOT allowed to kill anyone. You can injure them with magic, but they must not die or else you will be executed.¡±

    ¡°Mr. Luricerite, what are the prizes?¡±

    ¡°There are on this poster, take a look for yourself.¡±

    Luricerite produced a large poster, on it is crammed with words, I tried to make out what it is saying.

    ¡°Poison Staff, Devil¡¯s Trident, Oceanus Blade. All of them sound interesting to have. However¡­¡±

    However, the Grand Prize is what attracts me the most.

    ¡°The Grand Prize¡­ Miku, look!¡±

    ¡°Indeed Master, that is interesting!¡±

    The Grand Prize is a luxurious trip to the Core and a custom magic weapon made just for the winner. I have never visit to the Core of this world before, plus there is still much that I have yet to learn about this world. Also, a custom magic weapon sounds fascinating, I will like to have a custom weapon built personally for me and me only. The thing is though, to find that ticket inside this entire school compound is going to be a challenge. This challenge is intensified by the fact that others will fight me to earn that ticket and me being a target for them to kill, for which I still don¡¯t have the reason as to why.

    ¡°Ah, I forgot to say this, there will be droids in the playing field who will fight against you. They are robots that are capable of casting intermediate level magical spells, they will attack you the moment you come into their detection range. They are not intended to be destroyed so they will repair themselves after being defeated. We will disable them after the entire event is over.¡±

    This looks like it is going to add another level of difficulty onto the game itself. Almost everything is trying to kill me, so I am at an extreme disadvantage here. I will see how am I going to try to survive this onslaught, I can also test the strength of Miku in this battle as well.

    ¡°Alright. Everyone prepare yourself in whatever way you want to. Once the clock strikes 8 and the bell rings, the event will begin. This event will last until school ends, which is 5 p.m. Have fun!¡±

    Saying that, Luricerite walked out of the classroom.

    I quickly snuck out of the class after that. I am affirmative that everyone is going to try to kill me with their strongest magic spells the moment the event starts, and if that isn¡¯t going to kill me they are going to recruit others to do this as well. There is only so much that my barrier can handle before it breaks, it is not invulnerable and it definitely does not grant me invincibility. If that isn¡¯t enough, no one is going to revive me if I¡¯m really dead, and my wives are going to suffer from a breakdown if that really happens.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    I went to the library with Miku following me behind. The librarian is nowhere in sight when I went in. All the staffs must have hide themselves away somewhere to prevent getting involved in the battles the students are going to have. I went to search on a book about decoding messages, and finally after 10 minutes I managed to find one book that is loaded with information about decoding such messages. Then I heard the bell ringing. The event has begun. I continued reading the book.

    ¡°Master¡­¡±

    ¡°Not now Miku, I¡¯m trying to gather proper data here.¡±

    ¡°Master, it is really urgent.¡±

    I looked up from my book.

    ¡°Alright, what is it?¡±

    ¡°There are people coming down the hallway, and from what I can read they are trying to find you, then they will report your coordinates to everyone else so they can all hunt you down.¡±

    ¡­As I would have expected from those barbarians. I need to find a proper place to hide so I can finish this book and live through this event. However, I also have the Grand Prize to think about. I want to have that prize so badly, but I can¡¯t go out finding them without exposing myself to the environment. The moment I expose myself I risk the danger of being hunt down by the entire school population. Is there a way that I can do this without being noticed?

    Then an idea cropped up in my mind: I could concur some potions and use them. The Magic Laboratory should be empty, I can grab some ingredients from there and concur up an invisibility potion. If I did it correctly, it should be able to last for 5 hours. That is long enough for me to survive the entire day.

    I quickly snuck out of library from the backdoor, with Miku following me behind. I turned and looked around and saw no one in sight. I let out a sigh of relief. I walked down the hallways and down the stairs to reach the Magic Laboratory. The door is still missing due to my act earlier, it appears that the repair workers are too busy to repair the door before the event starts. I entered the lab and start looking for the ingredients for the Invisibility potion.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see. Several drops of vitality of an elemental, 5 grams of essence of the Void, 5 swirls of Dark Energy, a drop of liquified Luminite¡­ I think we have all that here. I need to melt them all in the cauldron under low heat¡­¡±

    I poured all the reagents into a small cauldron on one of the benches, then turned on the flame. All the reagents started melting and the solution slowly turned grey with a tinge of blue illuminating from the mixture. I waited for the solution to cool down first, I start walking around the room while waiting for it.

    ¡°Master, warning, someone is coming into the laboratory.¡±

    ¡°Goodness, I just don¡¯t have time for anything, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    I picked up the cauldron and drank the entire solution inside, burning my tongue in the process. Almost immediately my hand vanished from sight. Miku is still standing by my sight when this happened. I put back the cauldron onto the bench.

    ¡°Knock Knock, Innight, are you there?¡±

    Poor knock knock jokes are just poor, please don¡¯t try it¡­

    3 girls burst into the room, each of them holding either a spell tomb or a sword.

    ¡°Strange¡­ I¡¯m certain that my Eye of Certainty saw him in this laboratory doing something.¡±

    ¡°We all have to keep an eye out of him, and at the same time aim for the grand prize. If we can eliminate him in this event, we will finally be granted our dearest wish. If we can do that and also get the grand prize, then all the more better!¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, there¡¯s nothing here of interest to us.¡±

    Saying these, the 3 girls left the room. Then I just realized something, Miku is missing from the room. She couldn¡¯t have left without me knowing. Then she suddenly just appeared from thin air.

    ¡°Don¡¯t scare me like that Miku. How did you just disappear like that?¡±

    ¡°I can use advanced level magic, my magic capability is around an Angel¡¯s level, I use a spell to hide my presence away from all others, so no one can detect me at all.¡±

    ¡°You should use a spell that can selectively hide yourself away from others so that I can see you!¡±

    ¡°Sorry Master. I will do that the next time.¡±

    Alright, now that I¡¯m invisible, let¡¯s go and find the capsule. Hopefully no one has found it yet.¡±

    We both head off to find the capsule. Miku activated a selective invisibility spell so only I can see and hear her. Our first searching spot is the first-floor classrooms. There were no one inside when I entered the first classroom on the top floor, so we don¡¯t have to worry about bumping into anyone.

    ¡°Miku, can you do a scan to see that if there used to be capsules in this classroom?¡±

    ¡°I just performed it. There used to be one. It is now in the possession of a girl outside the fields, she is currently engaged in a battle against the droids.¡±

    I sighed. From the poster given to us, there are about a thousand magic weapons in the list, so there are a thousand capsule to find, and only one of them contains the grand prize. This is going to be a monumental task, trying to sieve out the one out of these many choices, together with the fact that we have to end up fighting people that have our prize, this makes it doubly difficult to get it.

    ¡°Miku, I¡¯m going to ask you to do a difficult job. I¡¯m not sure if you can do this, so I¡¯m going to put your limits to the test, I hope this will not break your system.¡±

    ¡°It will be fine Master. If the operation you input is larger than the amount of calculations that I can handle, my computer will automatically terminate the operation so everything will still operate as per normal.¡±

    ¡°Miku, I want you to calculate the current position of the one thousand capsules. I need this information so I can search every single one of them to find the capsule containing the grand prize.¡±

    ¡°This might take a while Master, so please be patient.¡±

    Saying these, Miku froze. While she is processing the request, I took out the book on decoding and continue reading it.

    ¡°The first thing to realize when decoding a message is to note the frequency of the alphabets used. In English, ¡®e¡¯ is the most common letter out of the 26 alphabets. So, using this information, whatever message that is encrypted, as long as the original intended message is written in English, it can be decoded. Following that, one can then slowly deduce the other letters using the common words that contains the letter ¡®e¡¯.¡±

    I think the original message is written in English¡­. I am quite unsure of the abilities of the previous Innight in this Timeline, so I do not know whether he knows how to speak the language of the Elemental Planes. However, I think it is safe to assume the original language is written in English. I will try to decode the Symbols once I get back home. Hopefully I can have a lead on where the 4 data banks are located.

    ¡°I¡¯m done on processing Master.¡±

    ¡°Good job, can you print out a map of the locations for me?¡±

    ¡°I will need a printer to do that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a good thing my suit has everything that one needs.¡±

    I materialized a printer using my suit and placed in front of Miku. She connected herself to the printer using a strand of her long turquoise hair. There is some whirring sound coming from the printer before a piece of paper appeared from it. I took out the piece of paper and saw points with names on it cluttered on the map and moving in various directions. I then absorb the printer back into my suit.

    ¡°Good. Now we have to hunt down every single one of the capsules and search for the one that has the ticket for the Grand Prize. Miku, I will need you to help me out on this. You have to attack anyone that has a capsule and then take it from them, then check for the prize. If it is not the grand prize, return it to them. I will, on the other hand, check for those capsules that have yet to be discovered. Use this for communication.¡±

    I hand her a small while circular object.

    ¡°This is a communication piece, do not lose it. When you have tried every capsule or when you have found the capsule that we want, meet back at the entrance of the library. If you did not manage to get anything, it is fine.¡±

    ¡°Ok.¡±

    We then part ways. I continued checking the classrooms for signs of capsule, at the same time I keep an eye out of Miku on the map. When I was on the third-floor classroom, I encountered Miku and all my wives. They were all fighting against each other, which I think it is because of the capsules. I hate to see my girls fighting like this, but I have to earn the grand prize at all cost.

    I somehow have a feeling that all these events have been planned and foreseen by the previous Innight, and that they are all chained together in sequence for me to figure out the puzzle one after another. If my guess is right, the next piece of the puzzle is located somewhere at the Core. But before I can head for that puzzle, I need to be able to learn to decode and read Symbols.

    When I came back to my sense, the girls were standing in a formation, Miku against Charlotte, Nicki and Time, they were all breathing heavily, sweat is dripping from their foreheads and the room is in a mess with cracks clearly visible on the walls. It is clear to me that they have used magic to withstand the entire school structure to prevent it from collapsing, so that they don¡¯t have to reconstruct the entire school after the entire event is over.

    ¡°Just hand it over, and I will not harm you any further.¡± Miku said to the 3 girls.

    ¡°No. We don¡¯t trust you. We don¡¯t trust the current Innight either. Both of you seems to be wrapping up in more mysteries and that has never lead to anything good. The last time you both tried that, you lead to the Common World Domination.¡± Time said.

    So that was my fault? Now I think I know why so many people wanted to kill me. If I was the cause of the entire Event that nearly caused a revolution of this entire Timeline, it is of no wonder that everyone will try to kill me to get revenge on it.

    ¡°And if that wasn¡¯t enough, you nearly lead to the reopening of the Time Gate!¡± Charlotte continued for her. ¡°You should have known that what actually will happen if the Time Gate reopens!¡±

    Time Gate? What is the Time Gate? I appear to have very little knowledge about this world, I need to know more about it. It seems this Time Gate is a very dangerous object to be messed around with, from what they say. I wonder if I will be able to find more information about it? I will take a snoop around the library later to see if I will be able to find more record of this thing.

    ¡°Anyway, we can¡¯t let you and Innight earn this weapon. You two will spell the end of the world if you manage to get your hands on this thing!¡± Nicki finished the statement.

    Saying these, the three of them fired a laser simultaneously towards Miku. Miku absorbed the spell into a ball using her bare hands and fired it back at them. I rushed out of the classroom before the spell could bounce back into the three girls.

    ¡°This sounds like trouble in all ways possible. They also don¡¯t trust me, so that also means that what the previous Innight stated to be true. I need to find more clues about this world and find the real antagonist in this Timeline.¡±

    Somehow, I feel, what the previous Innight was doing is an act of finding the real antagonist and the real cause of the reactivation of the Time Gates and the Common World Domination is probably them, the group of antagonists. If only I can read the Symbols in his diary, I will then be able to figure out what did the previous Innight actually did. I will have to start decoding the message by tonight. Somehow, Miku¡¯s warning last night gives me a bad feeling about all of this.

    I continued the search, and finally reached the ground floor. I took a look at the clock outside the classroom, it reads 4 p.m.

    ¡°Just one more hour then I will be safe for the day.¡±

    Just then, I realized the potion effects are wearing off. I can slowly see my hands becoming visible.

    ¡°This is bad.¡±

    Suddenly I hear a large group of people heading in my direction.

    ¡°This is going to be a terrible hour.¡± I mumbled to myself.

    I quickly activated a mana barrier and run out of the room at the fastest speed possible.

    ¡°There he is!¡±

    ¡°Everyone, ONWARDS!¡±

    The next hour felt like the longest hour I have ever experienced. There were so many people chasing me, bolts of spells and incantations flied across me or hit on my barrier in such a rapid succession, people shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs about killing me and eliminating me altogether. I am quite positive that Time, Charlotte and Nicki are within the crowd but because I am just simply too busy trying to survive the event I couldn¡¯t be bothered to figure that out. Everywhere I go they are people trying to hunt me down, and the numbers increases as I go around more places.

    Finally, the bell rang, signifying the end of the day. Everybody continued firing spells at me and I kept running around with the large angry mob seeking for my blood. It wasn¡¯t until the Grand Ruler of the Water Elemental Plane came in did the mob stop trying to kill me. He had to freeze everyone using water magic and tried to calm everyone down using a siren¡¯s song. We all settled down on the hallway of the ground floor.

    ¡°Now, now, what is happening here?¡±

    ¡°We were trying to get the prize from Innight. He¡¯s holding on to the grand prize of the event so everyone is coming after him.¡±

    What a lie.

    ¡°Is it? Innight, show us the capsule.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have one. I did not manage to earn even a single capsule.¡±

    The crowd immediately screamed back ¡°Lier!¡± in the loudest tone possible.

    ¡°You have Miku holding onto your capsules! I saw that!¡± Someone shouted.

    ¡°You ordered her to steal all the capsules from us!¡±

    ¡°You played the game in the most unfair way possible, you didn¡¯t fight us alone!¡±

    I very clearly remembered I instructed Miku to return the capsules to the people if they did not have the capsule containing the grand prize, she never disobeys my instructions, so she should have only one capsule at any given time.

    ¡°Master!¡± Miku came running down the hallway from the staircase. She then looked at all of us.

    ¡°What is happening around here?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s rather hard to explain. Miku, I told you to only hold on to the capsule of the grand prize, and return all the others to their owners, did you follow that?¡±

    ¡°Miku did! Miku have also found the capsule with the grand prize!¡±

    ¡°See? He didn¡¯t play the game fairly! He does not deserve the prize!¡±

    ¡°SILENCE!¡±

    The Grand Ruler appears to be very displeased, about who though I do not know yet.

    ¡°Innight still deserve the prize. He is at a great disadvantage as he does not have the ability to cast magic. To be able to gain even a capsule without being killed is already a tough challenge for him. I will, therefore, give the credit to him. Congratulations, Innight, for earning the grand prize in the Magical Ticket Event.¡±

    ¡°Did you just come up with that name just now?¡±

    ¡°It is on the poster. Did you not see it?¡±

    ¡°Eh?¡±

    After the entire mess have been wrapped up. I went home. Time and the other two were busy preparing dinner when I reached home. Suddenly, I remembered the powder I sent to analyse yesterday night. I went down to the laboratory, and then turned on the computer connected to the Decomposer. It showed that there are too many compounds in the mixture that it is hard to distinguish what is actually inside. I opened up the machine and, to my surprise, I found a small green card inside. I took it up and took a look at it.

    I struck gold. On the card is the key to the coding message Symbols. Using this, I can finally be able to read all the message that the previous Innight has left behind but encoded in Symbols. My first instinct is to open up the diary that the previous Innight has wrote and decode whatever that is inside.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see. You will have to win the Magical Ticket event. From there, you will have to craft a weapon exactly as I have described below.¡±

    I translated the message one letter after another. The translated message give this:

    ¡± You will have to win the Magical Ticket event. From there, you will have to craft a weapon exactly as I have described below.¡±

    ¡°Innight! Dinner Is ready!¡±

    It took me an entire night to fully translate the diary, I did not get to sleep a wink, but it was worth it. Now that I have most of the information I wanted, I know what to do next, and I am partly prepared of what that is to come in this world. I left the laboratory with a few pieces of paper in my pocket, on them were instructions by the previous Innight on what to do in this world before The Event occurs.

    I left the laboratory and went to school, Luricerite called me before his lessons started to meet him and the 4 other Grand Rulers of the Elemental Planes after lessons are over. This is to discuss what custom weapon I want exactly and to fix a date to have a trip to The Core of this world.

    I went to the library and set up a mana barrier. I look around the library to research about the Time Gate. If the diary has predicted the pathway I need to take and they were all the correct options, I need to follow them strictly. If I followed them all correctly I may be able to prevent The Event from actually happening. That will prevent the Timelines from all being destroyed. I picked out a book titled ¡°The Time Events¡± and started reading.

    ¡°Finally, he got the clue of what is exactly happening.¡±

    The person in the neon blue suit is watching a screen with Innight on it again. On one hand, he is holding an golden coloured sword, on another hand he is holding a book.

    ¡°Master, do you think we should test him now?¡±

    ¡°Almost. He needs to have his weapon created first. Besides, we don¡¯t have time. According to the future that I¡¯ve seen, he only has 3 more days before it happens. If it reached that point, we have to hope that he knows what to do, because only he will be able to save the Omniverse at that point.¡±

    ¡°Master, if he fails, what are you going to do?¡±

    ¡°I try not to think of it. If he fails, everything we know of will be destroyed from Existence altogether. It may not even be created again from the ashes of the destroyed Existence, depending on the mercy of them.¡±

    ¡°Master, someone is here. Shall I welcome them in?¡±

    ¡°Do.¡±

    A scream came from outside the room the person is in. The person turned around.

    ¡°You¡­. You¡­ You¡­.¡±

    ¡°It is me indeed. Have you not known my abilities?¡±

    ¡°I forgot all about it. Invertion!¡±

    The sword fired a purple projectile onto the invader, but a shield blocked it off.

    ¡°Do you think I will be so stupid to let myself be killed so easily? Now then, he has received too much hints from you, I should have found you sooner. Now I have enough Time, I can initiate the plan. Goodbye, Innight. Zafkiel, Zayin!¡±

    After those words are spoken, gunshots are heard from the room.

    ¡°So we have company here¡­ You must not see any more or else you will be spoiled!¡±

    A gun barrel pointed at the direction of the screen. A gunshot is heard and the screen blurred out.

 Chapter 5 - The Time Gate

    When I finished reading the book about Time Events, I realized that I need to return to the classroom. I found so many important information in the book, especially about the history of the Time Gate and the origins of the Commoners. However, after reading from both sides, from the others and from the perspective of the previous Innight, I realized that the situation is perhaps much more complicated than I have anticipated.

    Different sides have a different version of the story involved. From the others perspective, they said that the trigger of the event was because of the previous Innight. From the perspective of the previous Innight, however, he has no idea who and what is the cause, but he is very sure that someone has set it up so that it turns out to be him taking all the blame. Whichever side it is, they all came to the conclusion that there was mass destruction in the entire city due to the event, and it took the effort of all the 6 Grand Ruler so the Elemental Planes to clear up the mess. It is also stated that a rule is created such that no one is supposed to go near those seals, the only exception is for schools that are going there for educational purpose.

    From what the book stated, the Time Gate is located at the centre of the world in this particular Timeline, called The Core. So, the trip that the school is providing me is on path of what the instructions the previous Innight has left me. The next step is to craft the weapon, if everything goes according to the diary, it will take a day for it to be completed. He did not state what the weapon is used for in the dairy, but I guess I will find out once The Event is initiated.

    I went back to the classroom, and of course I have to dodge spells that are ¡°accidently¡± fired at me. I sat down at my seat. Then Luricerite announced:

    ¡°Everyone, listen, we are going to reactivate the Magic Security System again.¡±

    Hm? Magic Security? Is that a team of droids used to defend the school from an attack?

    ¡°Why?¡± Someone asked.

    ¡°We received reports that there is activity in the mana network, something that has not happened since the Time Gate was activated before. Whenever there is a disturbance in the mana network, we can be sure that those creatures are up to something again. We will activate the Magic Security System to ensure none of the creatures comes near the school compound. Students, you are not allowed to leave the school compound, excepts for emergencies, for your own safety.¡±

    ¡°Also, Innight, after the lesson ended, follow me to the Meeting Room. Me and the other 5 Grand Rulers wants to meet you to discuss on your custom magic weapon.¡±

    I kept checking the clock as the lesson goes on. Finally, the bell rang, signifying the end of the lesson. I told Time and the 2 girls to go back home first while I and Miku will go with Luricerite. We both went down to the ground floor and entered a room with a sign written on it labelled ¡°Meeting Room¡±.

    Inside there, all the Grande Rulers are waiting for me, sitting on their seats.

    ¡°Welcome, Innight.¡± The Grand Ruler of Water Elemental Plane spoke.

    ¡°We all congratulate you on your success in the Magical Ticket Event. Today we invited you here to inform us of your custom magical weapon. It will help us if you have a drawing of your weapon and a description on the capability of the weapon itself. Do you have these in mind?¡±

    ¡°Fortunately, yes. I have prepared a drawing in advance. Let me show you the rough sketch¡­¡±

    I materialized a screen from my suit, on it is a drawing of the an aquamarine coloured sword, with golden clock faces were painted on the blade itself. The entire blade also radiates with a blue aura.

    ¡°I call this blade Chrono Corruption. It grants the wielder the ability to manipulate Time. It can fire purple projectiles that, when hit, steal Time from the target to the user. The wielder is also immune to all Time magic casted onto him. If anyone is slain using the sword, they are removed from all the Timelines present in the Existence.¡±

    All the Grand Rulers gave a suspicious look at me.

    ¡°Look here, Innight. We did say that we are supposed to craft you a custom magic weapon, but this is far too dangerous to be created. We cannot risk anyone getting their hand on this weapon, because if they do, it will spell the end of this world.¡± The Grand Ruler of the Fire Elemental Plane spoke.

    I know that they are going to say such things. That¡¯s ok, I¡¯ve come prepared.

    ¡°I know this sounds a little dangerous, but there is something even more dangerous exposed to the environment now. Master Inoxion, have you heard of the Time Cubes that Nightius is created?¡±

    ¡°I did. What about it?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t Nightius report to you about it?¡±

    ¡°About what?¡±

    I should have known, he is too much of a coward to report this to Master.

    ¡°Nightius reported to me yesterday morning, his entire stock of one million Time Cubes all vanished from his inventory. Well, all except one. His recipe for creating the Time Cubes is also stolen.¡±

    All the Grand Rulers started whispering to each other. They all have known about the Time Cube since it is so powerful that it cannot be left to the hands of the others except for those that can be trusted.

    ¡°Seeing this situation, we are going to permit on the construction of this weapon. We will need something to counter whoever who has stolen the Time Cubes, just in case. We are also building on the trust that you and Inoxion have over the years. Give us one day to construct the weapon. You are dismissed, Innight. Meet us here again tomorrow to retrieve your weapon.¡± Luricerite said.

    ¡°About the trip to The Core, when do you think it will be a good time?¡± Master Inoxion asked.

    ¡°Tomorrow. I want to visit The Core as soon as possible.¡±

    ¡°That shall be it then. Tomorrow please be at the school teleportation station by 8 o¡¯ clock. You do not need to bring anything except for a clear mind to note down important details about The Core, which you are likely to not have the chance to visit ever again.¡±

    I left the room and head home. When I went to the ship, surprisingly, no one is hanging on the Void Storm. I note the surroundings, there is absolutely no one left outside the school yard.

    ¡°Strange. It doesn¡¯t matter now though. Today I need to figure out the glass globe that the previous Innight has sent a few days ago.¡±

    The globe must have something to do with The Event, and from what I can tell, the previous Innight uses Symbols when he doesn¡¯t want anyone to figure out messages. All his message that has been encrypted into Symbols are all in relation to how The Event is going to be like. Also, from the diary, he said that he has hidden the Data Bank 0, 1, 3, and 10 somewhere at The Core, so I have to keep an eye out during to trip to find them out.

    When I got back home, I went straight into my room and opened up the book on Timelines. On the new page, a new line of Symbols is written in crimson, probably blood. I started decoding the message.

    ¡°Too late¡­ She found me¡­ If you are reading this, do not fail us¡­ The Event will be happening at a faster rate now as she has found out me hinting to you. You must¡­ stop them¡­¡±

    He has been killed?! Have the antagonists found out where the previous Innight is staying and killed him? If that is true indeed, then I¡¯m on my own now. I don¡¯t have anyone to help me out in trying to prevent this world¡¯s ultimate demise other than Miku. Time is also clearly running out, I worried for the worst to actually happen during my trip to The Core. I¡¯m now very sure that since the previous Innight have not foreseen this coming, so it means that this Timeline is travelling down another pathway instead of the originally intended path. Someone must have manipulated the Timeline to cause that to happen, but who?

    Then I gave a thought about it. He did say that the antagonists are in a group. There is a girl within them, and she killed him after finding out that he is trying to guide me in preventing their plans from happening. This is not really that much of a surprise that he is killed, the real surprise is that the murderer has the ability to travel across Timelines, which, as I have mentioned before, is a rare ability. From what I know from my previous Timeline, only one out of a billion people will have that ability, and the world population is around 15 billion, so that will approximate to about 15 people in this entire Timeline that is capable of using Time magic.

    Because of how dangerous these people are, they are registered in the database of the human population. So, if I can be able to sieve out who have this ability and track them down, I might be able to find who is responsible for the previous Innight¡¯s death, and from there I can find who is involved in starting The Event.

    I thought about all of this as I sat in the bath. If things are going to accelerate, then I will have to prepare sooner. Had everything gone according to the dairy, I will have at least 3 more days to prepare, but now things are changing, I¡¯ll make a guess that it is going to start tomorrow. From the diary and the books I¡¯ve read, I can conclude that The Event is going to originate from the Time Gate. If I am there tomorrow, there is a high chance I will get to see who is the one that is starting the Event. I will then be able to deduce who started it, and it is likely the one that is pushing all the blames for the previous events onto the previous Innight.

    No matter how I think about it, something feels off.

    ¡°Oh yes, the glass globe! I have been thinking so much about everything else I¡¯ve forgotten all about it!¡±

    I quickly climbed out of the bathtub, dried myself, put on my clothes, and rushed up to my room. I found the glass globe still sitting on my desk, with the paper still beside it.

    I read the Symbols again and start translating it.

    ¡°This contains the last piece of the puzzle. If you managed to figure out the rest, current Innight, you should be able to figure out this last one.¡±

    What can this mean? This is the last puzzle? Does it even mean anything? I used to have an idea that it might be The Void, but judging from how the previous Innight functions, it must be another technological equipment. I played around with the globe carefully, to see if there is any more clue behind this, but nothing came up.

    I started thinking. The previous Innight recorded absolutely nothing about this glass globe, yet he must have predicted something to send this globe to me during this period. This glass globe must be something important since he wrote that this is the last clue to the mystery. Could it be that it has a hidden message somewhere? I then thought about hidden messages.

    There are two ways that I know how to reveal a hidden message. One is using UV light, the other is using heat. I brought up a UV lamp from my laboratory to the room itself and shone it on the glass globe. At once I saw a tiny line of Symbols on the bottom of the glass globe. I quickly start translating.

    ¡°This is the denotator of the Time Gate. Place it on the deactivator will cause the gate to be destroyed. Note: Fragile.¡±

    Good. So we have a weapon capable of destroying the Time Gate, should it be activated. This will be our Ace in stopping The Event, should it occur tomorrow. I will also be having the Chrono Corruption with me tomorrow, and according to the diary, that will grant me the ability to stop the antagonists. I will see how it does that when that happens.

    I went up to bed, with Miku beside me again. I¡¯m trying to get used to Miku sleeping beside me. She is a girl, after all, and I get nervous around girls up close. I tried to forget that she is beside me by thinking about what will happen tomorrow.

    ¡°Eh????¡±

    ¡°You will not be with us tomorrow, Innight?¡±

    ¡°Sorry for telling all of you at the very last minute. Too many things were going on yesterday so I forgot about it.¡±

    ¡°But will you be back for dinner?¡±

    ¡°Of course I will, silly, I¡¯m just going there for the entire morning and evening.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I forgot to tell all of you, I¡¯m not attending school today.¡± Time suddenly said.

    ¡°Eh? Why?¡± Charlotte asked.

    ¡°Today is my parent¡¯s death anniversary, I¡¯m supposed to stay at their grave for the entire day. This is a family tradition so I have to follow it.¡±

    ¡°Alright, we understand.¡±

    Saying these, we left for school leaving Time behind.

    When I think back on it, I should have realized that she is the only one in this Timeline capable of casting Time magic that powerful. Had I realized that sooner, things would not have escalated to that extend, yet had it not happened, I will not be able to return to who I am.

    I met the 6 Grand Rulers at the teleportation station when I reached school. They handled me my Chrono Corruption, then they revealed a passageway that is hidden away from the rest of the teleporters. On top of the teleporter there is a bronze plate with the words ¡°The Core¡± labelled on it. I guessed that hid away this particular teleporter because they could not have any others to access it other than them. The Core is supposed to be heavily protected since it is a dangerous object, after all.

    We then took off to The Core. When we arrived, I find myself to be inside a very large room. There are so many buttons, switches and levers everywhere in the room. I guess this is the control room, where they monitor and control the environment of the Time Gate. Where is the Time Gate, though?

    The Grand Rulers greeted the people working inside the room, then one of the workers showed us a room. Inside were rows upon rows of brown coloured robes.

    ¡°Please put on these magic concentration robes before we can show you around the Time Gate. The Time Gate is positioned in a dangerous environment. We will explain to you why is this so later in the tour.¡±

    All of us put on the robe. The worker then showed us to a teleporter, we all stood inside it. When we come out of it, we are in an eerie environment. The entire environment is coloured in moss green, and grey mists surrounds everything I see, the wind howls across my face. I suddenly have this overwhelming impulse to vomit. The worker saw me and push a bag of something in front of my nose to breath, the feeling then left me.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°So everyone, you are in the enclosed region where the Time Gate is positioned. The Time Gate is positioned around 250 m ahead. As you can easily see, within a radius of 1 km around the Time Gate, nothing can actually grow. This is a result of an effect caused by the Time Gate, in which the mana of everything in this region is being sucked away from the living things and absorbed by the Time Gate. What is the reason that it is doing this, we are still investigating, but the best explanation is that the Time Gate is fuelling energy for the next reopening.¡±

    We then walked on foot for a certain distance, then I saw it: the Time Gate. It is huge, towering over everything. It has 12 symbols located at the side of it, and I can see it shimmering a faint green aura. I can almost feel how ancient this thing actually is by just from the looks of it.

    ¡°So, this is the Time Gate. Legend has it that it was cast down by Chronos, the Emperor of Time, it was told that he did so to challenge the first human race species on their ability on magic. It uses Time and mana to summon monsters from another dimension, which we call it as the Plane of Monsters. The monsters that comes out from it increases in strength in accordance to how much monsters we defeated. The Time Gate was, at first, under control by Chronos, but as time passes the gate begin to lose control. Monsters were pouring out at a rate faster than people could defeat them.¡±

    ¡°Chronos then decided to close it, but then, something terrible happened. A new monster emerged from the Time Gate, and it was so powerful that Chronos himself did not expected it. The monster looked like a human girl, around the age of a teenager. She wore a frilly orange and black dress, and she has one flintlock pistol in one hand, while using a musket on another hand. Initially, everyone thought that she was a human, but trapped in that Plane for whatever reason it may be. However, after greeting everyone near the Time Gate, the monster revealed its¡¯ true intentions.¡±

    ¡°The monster start killing the humans, one after another. Different from the other monsters, however, it does not kill them by using physical damage or simple magic. It possesses a high level of capability of magic, strong enough to cast Time based magic. Using that, it killed many people. Chronos tried to challenged it and kill it, but it soon realized that this monster is no ordinary type monster, it possesses magic more powerful that he does. Chronos was killed in the battle against it.¡±

    ¡°The monster then announced to the people that are left in the battlefield: ¡®Listen up, humans! We are taking over your world to be ours, we will consume it and turn it into our wonderland! I¡¯m the ruler of my kind and my name is Time, remember that clearly as you die!¡¯¡±

    ¡°The entire city was laid barren as the ruler of the monster named Time continued to extend her power over the land. Luckily, the Grand Rulers of the Elemental Planes realised this. They fought this monstrosity together, for over 50 days and nights. Finally, they exhausted her power, and using this chance, they sealed off the Time Gate.¡±

    ¡°Initially, the Grand Rulers wanted to kill off Time first, but she begged so much, saying that she only wanted a new place to play around with and wanted to play with her magic. In the end, the Grand Rulers decided to grant her mercy, but made her promise that she has to never use her magic for evil uses ever again. Time disappeared into the mist, never to be seen or heard again.¡±

    Hmm¡­¡­. I wonder¡­¡­ Could it be¡­?

    ¡°Then there was a more recent case, where a boy named Innight tried to go near the Time Gate. He said it is because he has to analyse the material the Time Gate is made up of and to analyse the process the Time Gate takes to convert Time into teleportation energy. We initially let him be, thinking that he will not do anything harmful.¡±

    ¡°Right after he had left the Time Gate, we detect changes in the frequency of the mana wavelength around the region, where there is a large flow of mana from the area towards the Time Gate. We have never seen this happening before, but from the records, we can deduce that that the Time Gate is reactivating. We have very little records of what is the cause, but we have sufficient evidence to prove that it happens when enough Time is injected into the Time Gate.¡±

    ¡°Our immediate hypothesis is that the boy named Innight must have capability in casting Time magic, and has relations to Time herself. We send out this message to the entire world to capture him. So far to no success¡­¡±

    Crap.

    I immediately take off using a jetpack and fly as fast as I can away from them. As I fly away from them, I can hear blasts of spells heading in my direction. I dodged them in as they come flying towards me in rapid succession.

    ¡°Submit yourself, Innight!¡±

    ¡°You cannot run away now!¡±

    ¡°You need to be captured and questioned!¡±

    I already knew that something similar is going to happen in accordance to the diary. I didn¡¯t know that they planned this beforehand though. However, I have one question in my mind, why did not try to capture me directly after the wanted list is released? I guess I will never get to know that. My priority is to get away from them now.

    Then I remembered something, I have the Chrono Corruption. Only people that are capable of using Time magic are immune to the effect of this sword. With this sword, I should be able to stop all of them. How do I use it though¡­.?

    I tried holding the sword with both of my hands, then cried out ¡°Chrono Immobility!¡± I just thought of that name on the spot to see if the sword can obey my command and stop all of them in Time.

    I felt a wave of magic swooped over the region, then I saw everything froze in Time. I prepared an anti-magic prison cell and locked the Grand Rulers and the worker inside. Then I shout ¡°Return!¡±, instantly the spell came undone.

    ¡°What is the meaning of this, Innight?¡± all of them harmonized.

    ¡°All of you are trying to kill me! It is an act of self-defence! Wherever I go there are people who are trying to kill me! All of you cannot be trusted!¡±

    ¡°This is because you are the primary suspect for triggering the Common World Domination and the near reactivation of Time Gate. We need to imprison you to prevent more events like these from happening.¡±

    ¡°Listen closely. This is not the time to worry about this. In a few minutes time, Time will return to reactivate the Time Gate again. We should all unite together to stop her from doing this, because if she did manage to activate the Time Gate, she can return to her domain to recharge her power back to full strength. If she does that, no one in this Timeline can stop her. She will then use this power to consume all the Timelines, merging them into one, and then destroying it altogether. The entire Existence is dependent on all of us now to prevent this from happening.¡±

    ¡°How can we trust you about this info?¡± One of the Grand ruler asked.

    ¡°You have to trust me on this. I also have enough evidence that I am not the one who triggered the Common World Domination and the near reactivation of the Time Gate. I will tell all of you about this later, when there is time. Now we should all gather together to stop her from reactivating the Time Gate. I also carry a key to destroy this Time Gate once and for all. It is time that this constant danger in this world to be gone forever.¡±

    All of them went quiet for a while, probably in deep thoughts. Then finally, they speak out.

    ¡°Fine. Since there seems to be an even bigger threat, plus according to the constant monitoring of Inoxion on you, you appear to be a peaceful entity, we decide to work with you.¡±

    I nod my head.

    ¡°Right. We should head to the Time Gate now. She should be there already. I have a rough idea of who Time already is, though. Master Inoxion, you might be not be surprised by it. If my guess is right, she is actually someone closer to us than you can think. I should have read more about this Time Gate beforehand, that might have gave us more time to prepare for this.¡±

    I disabled the prison cell and begin flying towards the Time Gate. The Grand Rulers and the worker followed. When we are near there, I saw a spot flying in the sky, near the Time Gate. I activate a pair of binoculars to view the spot.

    A girl with orange and black frilly dress is pouring a green liquid from her fingertips into the Time Gate. I viewed up closer and saw the face.

    My guess is right on spot.

    The person doing that is Time indeed. My guess is that she is injecting Time into the Time Gate and preparing for the activation of the Time Gate itself.

    ¡°We are on time, everyone, she is here. Be wary, she can use Time based magic, I have no idea how strong it can be because her magic ability depends on how much Time she has absorbed from others. All of you are in danger of being killed by her because all of you are affected by Time based magic. I¡¯m the only one safe from her and has the capability of fighting her since I¡¯m the only one with this Chrono Corruption. This grant me immunity to her spells. All of you stay back. I will do the job of attacking her.¡±

    ¡°Then what shall we do?¡±

    I took out the glass globe, and handed it to Master Inoxion.

    ¡°This is the denotator of the Time Gate. All of you must protect it. Find the deactivator of this Time Gate, wherever it is, and placed it on there. That will lead to the destruction of the Time Gate. Be careful with this thing, it is extremely fragile. There is only one of such thing in this world, and it took me ages to construct it. The fate of the entire Existence lies on us now.¡±

    We all nod to each other. They all activated an invisibility shield and vanished from my sight. I approached Time.

    ¡°Time.¡±

    ¡°Ah! It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s you, Innight. Don¡¯t scare me like this.¡±

    ¡°Time. I thought that you said that you have to visit your parents¡¯ grave today and won¡¯t be back for until tomorrow?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ About that¡­. I lied to you¡­¡±

    ¡°Why, Time. Why?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you will understand all of this if I tell you.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think I won¡¯t? I¡¯m not unreasonable.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, Innight. I¡­. I¡­. I¡­.¡±

    She started crying.

    ¡°Because we are bonded by this marriage! If I told you my real identity, you will come to hate me! You will then divorce me and I will be left on my own again!¡±

    ¡°Time¡­¡±

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t be able to understand that! The feeling of loneliness and being weak and exposed to the dangers of this world¡­ It¡¯s painful!¡±

    ¡°I understand that.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t! In the other Timelines you are all powerful, capable of performing all kinds of magic! You only came to understand that after you were transferred into this Timeline!¡±

    ¡°Time. Listen. Stop whatever that you are doing now. I do not wish to harm you. Let¡¯s go back. We can talk about this once we get home.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t understand, Innight. I long to return home. I have not been accepted as a human anywhere. You were the very first human to have accepted me and even married to me. However, I know that, deep down, I¡¯m still a monster, the ruler of the Plane of Monsters. I need to return to where I belong and fulfil what I have promised to my monsters, to consume and destroy this Timeline, to create a new Timeline for the monsters only.¡±

    ¡°So it has to come down to this¡­ Time, if I cannot convince you, I will have to stop you. The world needs to be at peace. We have enjoyed peace for so long, we cannot have you destroying it for your selfish needs.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to fight you, Innight. Please¡­. Leave.¡±

    ¡°Then stop, Time. We don¡¯t need another bloodshed. Let¡¯s just go home.¡±

    I¡¯m trying to buy time for the others to find the deactivator of the Time Gate, but it seems that they are having a hard time doing so.

    ¡°No. I¡¯m not leaving. If you try to convince me more, then I will have to fight you, Innight.¡±

    ¡°So it has to come down to this in the end¡­¡± I took out my Chrono Corruption, and fired at Time.

    She blocked it off with a shield, which I think is generated from Time.

    ¡°Stop forcing me, Innight. If I start fighting, my personality changes completely, I become someone who will not stop until I tasted the blood of the opponent. Stop forcing me, Innight. If I start fighting you, I will not be able to control myself.¡±

    ¡°Then stop all of this!¡±

    ¡°I. Will. Not!¡±

    I kept firing projectiles at her while she continues to pour out the green liquid into the Time Gate, which I guess is liquefied Time, while using her musket to fire bullets to break my projectile.

    Hurry up, the lot of you, is it so hard to find the deactivator?

    Suddenly, I felt sick again. I vomited, and Time to this opportunity to knock me out from the sky by firing her gun at my jetpack. I lost control of the jetpack and went tumbling down onto the ground, near the Time Gate itself.

    ¡°Zafkiel, Zayin!¡±

    I immediately hold up my Chrono Corruption in front of me and block the bullet. I¡¯ve known the attacks of Time from the previous Timeline. She has 12 bullets, each corresponding to an ability in Time. To activate those ability, she has to first call upon her limiter called Zafkiel, which is also, coincidentally, the name of one of the Archangels. That will fill up her gun, either the musket or the flintlock pistol with a bullet that contains the spells of her Time magic. She then fires the gun with the bullet at the target, thus activating her spell. With my Chrono Corruption however, I become immune to her spells. This will give me an advantage over others.

    The sick feeling wells up again and I vomited. I then felt all my strength drained from my body, I crumbled on the ground, unable to move. I then heard rustling sounds coming in my direction.

    ¡°Any success?¡± I asked in the direction of the sound.

    No answer came.

    ¡°Hello? Are you people alive?¡±

    Then something came into my sight. It is definitely not human, I can tell that in one glance. It is probably a monster that lives in this region, but has never been detected by the workers here.

    It is quite small, approximately the size of a 5-year-old child. It has a protrusion above the head, and on that protrusion, it hangs a little golden clock. It has four arms, with two pairs of scrawny hands attached to it. It makes a curious ¡°tick, tack¡± sound as it investigates me. I wonder how many of this creature actually exist near the Time Gate region. More sounds came to my direction, the creature scampered away.

    ¡°He should be over here. This mist is starting to become a pain.¡±

    ¡°It is. It¡¯s obstructing everything that we can see.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s there. Innight, can you move?¡±

    It¡¯s them.

    ¡°No I can¡¯t. The nauseous feeling came back and I vomited, then now I can¡¯t move.¡±

    ¡°No surprises here. We all felt the Time gate starting to extract mana from the region. You have the lowest amount of mana among all of us. We need to boost you with some mana before you will be able to withstand the effect of the Time Gate. Time is probably injecting magic into the Time Gate now, and we still cannot find the deactivator.¡±

    ¡°I will look for it. Help me to get up first.¡±

    Master Inoxion produced a red coloured bean and pushed it into my mouth.

    ¡°Bite and swallow it.¡± He ordered.

    I bit on the thing and swallowed on it. A wave of warmth swept over me and then I felt energy returning to me. I stood up, slightly dizzy from staying down for too long.

    ¡°Alright. We have to look for the deactivator. From what I know, this Time Gate becomes impossible to be disabled once it activates as the deactivator will be hidden away as the gate undergoes a conformational change.¡±

    I strode over to the direction of the Time Gate, against the wind which has suddenly increased in magnitude.

    ¡°We¡¯ve went around the base of the entire Time Gate, we have not found anywhere where we can put this denotator on.¡±

    It makes sense that the deactivator is positioned at somewhere near the top of the gate itself, going by the idea that this gate is created by a God. I can¡¯t fly now though as my jetpack is damaged. I will need them to carry me up while using their flying spells.

    ¡°All of you, you have to help me out on this. My jetpack is damaged so I can¡¯t fly now. You all have to carry me up the Time Gate, I know where the deactivator is.¡±

    I¡¯ve seen a diagram of the Time Gate before. Apparently the previous Innight has a blueprint of the Time Gate for whatever reason. I¡¯ve brought it with me because I had a feeling that it will eventually lead to this.

    The six Grand Rulers panted a flying spell within myself, and casted an invisibility shield around me. I flew up of the Time Gate and took out the blueprint. Then suddenly, I heard:

    ¡°Zafkiel, Zayin!¡±

    I hold up my Chrono Corruption and heard a ¡°clank¡± sound on the blade.

    ¡°Don¡¯t think that I can¡¯t see you, Innight!¡±

    I know this is likely to happen, so I¡¯m prepared for this.

    ¡°Time, enough is enough. Stop this.¡±

    Rapid chain fire of bullets fired right at me, I blocked all of it off with my blade.

    ¡°I see what you have there, I know what is it, I will destroy it!¡±

    Suddenly clones of Time appeared before me and grabbed me. One of them took away the glass globe and shot it with the gun. The globe broke open and the purple liquid inside vaporised.

    ¡°Without this, you will not be able to stop me!¡±

    A maniacal laughter followed. I turned my head to look at the real Time (or at least I think it is), her normal red eye is glowing and her face looks scary from where I am. This is not the normal Time that I know off, she is¡­different.

    The wind suddenly stopped howling. Time seems to have stopped at that very moment. Time herself also stopped pouring Time into the portal. Everything stopped moving. The silence is unreal, yet temporary.

    It was just less than a minute of silence, the 12 symbols of the Time Gate shone and a swirling ball of energy appeared in the middle of the Gate and expanded, until it covered the entire Gate. At that moment, the sky suddenly all turned crimson and a lightning struck the Gate. All at once the wind howled at an even greater magnitude, so powerful that I can barely keep my eyes open.

    ¡°This is the time! Humans, your time is up!¡±

    Time flew into the Time Gate, her clones let go of me and also went in.

    I land onto the ground and meet the Grand Rulers; the worker has vanished.

    ¡°We have failed to prevent her from opening the Time Gate. Sealing the Time Gate will not help now as when Time gains all her powers back, she can reopen whenever she wants.¡±

    Everyone looked down.

    ¡°However, we have one last hope.¡±

    ¡°How?¡± All of them crowded around me.

    ¡°First, we need layers of defenders to defend this are so that the monsters do not advance outside of this region. All of you gather up as much volunteers as possible to do that. Inform the children to hide and wait for further notice.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    ¡°I will do the most dangerous thing that all of you wouldn¡¯t be able to. I will go through the Time Gate and visit Time in her domain. I have one last Ace in the pocket.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s dangerous to go through the Time Gate! No one knows what will happen if you go through it!¡±

    ¡°I do. Once you go through the portal your magic ability is stripped away temporarily. Since I don¡¯t have any to begin with, I wouldn¡¯t be affected by it. Besides, I have Chrono Corruption, that will help me to counter most monsters I meet in the Plane of Monsters. If everything goes well, I should be able to stop Time before she manages to claim all her powers back.¡±

    The Grand Rulers discussed for a moment.

    ¡°Alright, we decide to trust in you further.¡±

    ¡°Good. Hopefully when all of this is over, we can have a nice chat on this entire event.¡±

    The 6 of them teleported away, I stood in front of the Time Gate and sighed.

    ¡°So it has to boil down to this, huh?¡±

    In the dairy, there are records on how to deal with Time should the Time Gate activates again. It is heavily encoded in the diary as I think it is used as a last resort. I need to follow every single step of it to ensure that this Timeline still has a future waiting for it.

    I stepped into the Time Gate. As the swirling particles covers me I think:

    Time¡­ What are you exactly?

 Chapter 6 - The Inversionalists

    As the purple swirling clouds fades, I found myself landing in a barren wasteland, beside a huge opening in space. That opening must be the connection that the Time Gate makes in this world. The entire world is crimson in colour, and a crimson sun shone in the crimson sky. I stood up and try to get my bearings.

    This must be the Plane of Monsters, where all her creations originated. I wonder how magic in her planes actually operate, given that she actually is stronger before. From what I¡¯ve known, she has a magical booster, or otherwise I will call it as a recharger, in this Plane. I also wonder where this Plane is actually positioned. It should be positioned somewhere in this Physical Realm, it definitely cannot be the Astral Realm and the Elemental Realm since I can¡¯t feel an overwhelming amount of mana flow around this region.

    I activated an invisible barrier around myself, because I know that Time should be summoning all her creations to this opening in space to deliver them to our world. I need to be wary of the situation in this world, my only motive here is to stop Time with something I have with myself al this while. From the dairy, he has prepared a backup plan just in case that the Time Gate is opened up. It is a great sacrifice though, but if it has to come down to it to save the entire world from being destroyed I will have to do it.

    Just as I thought about it, someone else came through the portal. I took a look, and it was Miku.

    ¡°Master¡­ Are you here? Miku is here to help you out!¡±

    ¡°Idiot! You are not supposed to be here! You should help out the others in the defence against the monsters that Time is about to unleash in our world!¡±

    ¡°Master, I can¡¯t see you! Where are you?¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be here! Go back and help out the others!¡±

    ¡°You have to listen to me, Master! I hold the key to stopping Time as well!¡±

    ¡°What?!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s true. I¡¯ve recovered data bank 0, 1, 3, and 10 from the Time Gate itself. According to them, to stop whatever Time is up to and destroy the Time Gate together with it, we have to combine myself with the suit together in order to destroy her magic mechanism and this Plane altogether.¡±

    ¡°How did you find those Data Bank in such a short time? I¡¯ve only just went through the Time Gate a few seconds ago.¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about? It has been a day since you have gone through the Time Gate.¡±

    Could it be¡­

    ¡°Miku, if this guess of mine is correct, we have even lesser time than I have anticipated.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°I suspect that this world we are in now operates on a different Time Axis compared to our original world. Judging by what you have said, a few seconds in this world is equivalent to a day in our world. Everyone was setting up defence when you travelled here right?¡±

    ¡°Indeed they are.¡±

    ¡°Good. There should be enough time for us to find Time¡¯s domain in this world. We need to find out where it is located in this world and then destroy her mechanism before she recharges her power to maximum strength.¡±

    A huge dust cloud looms in the distance from all direction.

    ¡°Miku, hide now. Something is heading towards the opening.¡±

    I activated my jetpack and flew away from the opening, Miku float up to beside me as well. We decide to stay around to see that if we can spot Time. I constructed a pair of binoculars from the suit and take a peek at what is causing all the dust clouds. All I see are monsters, monsters, and more monsters everywhere. All of them were creatures that I have never seen before, some flying above ground, some walking on the ground, some drilling through the earth. In front of the entire army of monsters, a human (Or at least, that is what I believe it to be) leads the entire army. Time is not in sight anywhere among the monsters, as far as I can see.

    The army of monsters continues to advance towards the opening, then they all stopped just at the opening. The humans (which I assume is their leaders), activated a magic spell on all the monsters, which caused them glow with a blue hue, then they went through the portal. I guess they are strengthening them in preparation for the attack? Whatever it is, it can¡¯t be good for us.

    I and Miku flew off in the north direction first to see where those monsters originated. We flew for a long distance, finally we come across a large hole in the ground where the ground type monsters are originating.

    ¡°Absolutely disgusting, Master¡­.¡±

    ¡°I understand, but I don¡¯t have the power to destroy this monster spawner. We just have to hope that our defenders will be able to deal with all of those monstrosities. All of this will be gone once will terminate Time and destroy her entire domain.¡±

    We were just about to leave the giant hole when a long worm like monster, with a huge eye on its individual body segment, started charging in our direction. I immediately grabbed Miku and flew away from the trajectory the worm monsters it is taking. It went pass us and drilled back into the ground again.

    ¡°You need to be warier of your surrounding Miku. That was dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Sorry Master.¡±

    We both then went to South, East and West direction, and in all those direction, we found the individual monster spawner that creates all those monsters. We searched everywhere, but we did not manage to see where Time¡¯s domain is located.

    ¡°This is almost like a large scale hide and seek that we are playing now, except that if we did not manage to find her on time, she will erase Existence altogether.¡±

    ¡°Do you think that the previous Master has recorded this somewhere?¡±

    ¡°It will be either in the data bank or the diary. I¡¯ve fully translated the diary, and from within he only stated that he has a backup plan just in case we failed to destroy the Time Gate before Time reactivates it. The only clues are perhaps in the data banks, but you didn¡¯t find anything, did you Miku?¡±

    ¡°I did manage to find out tiny details about it inside the data banks. According to the data banks, the previous Master used a machine to view this Plane, so he has the exact coordinates and can pinpoint where the Time¡¯s domain is here. However, the information associated to that data within the data bank has been overwritten and is corrupted. All I am able to recover is that the location of her domain is very near the opening of the Time Gate itself, and is located in the sky.¡±

    ¡°That should be enough.¡±

    We both flew to opening of the Time Gate and higher up in the sky so that we are not interrupted by the worm like monsters that are entering the opening. I start to think about where can Time¡¯s domain be located.

    Knowing Time¡¯s personality, she is somewhat twisted, hides all her secrets in great detail, and is somewhat unpredictable. She will definitely not show her domain in the open like any antagonist will, she will not let anyone into her domain since all her greatest secret lies within, and therefore we have to find a method to access it, in which none of the monsters here will know.

    Then I begin to think deeper, knowing Time and her abilities, she will definitely hide her domain somewhere on the Time Axis, invisible and inaccessible to others without abilities of Time, and creatures that has this ability are very little. This will lead to very limited number of creatures able to access her domain, thus preserving her secret. However, there are infinite number of points on the Time Axis I have to cut into to figure out where her domain is located at, I cannot just simply just try out all the possible point to cut into, that will not be feasible.

    I continued thinking. Time must have definitely not built her domain within the first 3 million years, starting from the Creation Point. At those point, nothing but the most basic form of molecules and mana are formed. Time is still at its infant stage and it will be quite impossible to access the Time Axis as it will be heavily condensed and concentrated. Even if she is able to access the Time Axis, the property of mana at that point of time will prevent her from using magic altogether, or it can come at a huge cost that makes it not worth it at all.

    On the same chain of thought, she definitely will not be able to escape the period of time that my past-self used to perform Ragnarok. According to my memories, I used to perform Ragnarok every one million years, erasing everything and reconstructing back everything in the process. This is to recycle the mana that has been exhausted from being overused in the mana network and from the Astral Realm. The last time I did that was before I was killed and reincarnated as an ordinary human.

    I have lost count the period of time that passed while I was reincarnated, from what I have gathered, it took me about 5 million years for me to reincarnate as a human. From this, I can deduce that Time must have built her domain within the period of this 5-million-year break period.

    Now that I have narrowed down to a more specific time period, I need to access all the Time Axis that is relevant to this time period. I need my sword, Chrono Corruption, to do this.

    ¡°Miku, stand back.¡±

    ¡°What are you going to do, Master?¡±

    ¡°I did some thinking on this, I have made the conclusion that Time¡¯s domain resides in a different Time Axis compared to ours, and the position she is residing on is somewhere between 11 billion years to the present moment after the Creation Point. That gives us approximately 2 billion position on the Time Axis to check for.¡±

    ¡°We have to check through so many of them?! We won¡¯t have enough time!¡±

    ¡°Yes, we have to check through all of them, but I have a faster process to speed up all of them.¡±

    ¡°Eh?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing that the Time¡¯s domain is an anomaly in the Time Field. Remember, she has unimaginable powers before she came into our world via the Time Gate. Whatever she has used to create her domain in a separated Time Axis in comparison to ours, this will create a Time Bubble. I¡¯m just speculating here, but if my guess is correct, we can shorten the time that we expend on finding her in this world.¡±

    ¡°But if we enter a Time Bubble, we might never be able to leave it again!¡±

    ¡°Maybe we will. Maybe we will not. I will have to leave this to the capability of Chrono Corruption. If it has been prepared properly, it should be able to go against the effect of a Time Bubble. If it is not, then too bad for us, we will have to see when will the anomaly collapse and return the Time Bubble onto the Timeline. By the time it does that an unknown amount of Time would have passed, who knows what would have happened in the world by then. Now then, we have to start investigating.¡±

    I fly up into the sky, and Miku floated up to my altitude as well. I materialized the Chrono Corruption and focused all my energy onto it, and closed my eyes. A vision appeared in my mind, I can see the Timelines and the Time Axis, and above the Timelines I see various detached spheres from it. Those are the Time Bubbles. I use my hand to navigate through the numerous points of the Time Axis.

    The Time Axis is as what it is named, an independent Axis separated from the Axis of Space and Mana. It is fundamentally different from Timelines, Timelines is where time travels linearly and split into different Timelines as different choices are made, and it records Time in a linear fashion, always spreading out due to the multiple choices into the form of Time network.

    Time Axis, on the other hand, is much more complicated and not as well understood. It is known that there are three Axis in the Existence itself, the Time Axis in the Time Field, the Space Axis in the Space Dimension, and the Mana Field in the Mana Network. On the Time Axis, Time is spread out over a three-dimensional fashion, and different points on the Time Axis has its own corresponding Timeline. It is almost impossible to pinpoint an individual spot in Time itself due to how complicated Time can be inside the Time Axis.

    However, recent discoveries have been made that one can navigate through the maze of points in Time on the Time Axis by identifying a memory associated with it. According to the research papers, to pinpoint a specific point in the Time Axis, you will first have to isolate the memory you wish to associate with. By injecting the memory onto the Time Axis, the associated points in Time will illuminate on the Time Axis, making it easier to identify the associated points.

    In our case though, we are not using this property of the Time Axis, because we don¡¯t have any memory associated to Time¡¯s domain. Instead, I¡¯m using another property of Time Axis that the previous Innight has discovered. According to his research papers, one can also pinpoint a specific moment in the Time Axis by focusing Time magic onto the object we are looking for, that will also cause the point in Time associated with it to illuminate on the Time Axis.

    After navigating through the entire mess of points of Time, I finally came across the point that I was looking for. I opened up my eyes again.

    ¡°I¡¯ve found it. Miku, for safety reasons, stand back.¡±

    Miku flew some distance away from me. I hold tightly on the Chrono Corruption and whispered ¡°Chrono Connectivity¡± before swinging the sword across the empty space. A large opening in space appeared where the sword has sliced through, and it glows with a faint green light. I signalled Miku to come over to my side.

    ¡°According to the Time Axis, and through my investigation and analysation, I have found it on the one millionth position in the direction of x axis in relative to the creation of the Physical Realm. It is positioned on a Timeline relatively close to ours, just 2 branches away. Now, we have to go in to check if this is the right one.¡±

    We both hopped into the opening, when we landed, we found ourselves facing a magnificent mansion. The wall around it and the gate itself shine with its brilliant gold, the entire mansion shone with crimson red sparkles. Miku immediately tumbled onto the ground upon reaching.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong Miku?¡±

    ¡°My strength¡­. It feels like my very essence, is being absorbed away from me.¡±

    Could it be¡­?

    ¡°Miku, put your hand on my sword.¡±

    She holds onto my sword, and immediately she stood up.

    ¡°Strange, the moment I touched the sword, I feel normal again.¡±

    I knew it.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Miku, I¡¯m going to extract some of the components of this sword. I suspect this is Time¡¯s ability that is causing this. Her Devouring Castle of Time, which will extract Time from anyone who stands under this spell. My sword is special that it can go against any type of Time magic, granting immunity against it. I will extract some of the magic inside and give it to you.¡±

    Saying this, I moved my hands onto the sword, focusing all my energy, I slowly and gradually pull out a small green sphere from the blade itself. I then hand it over to Miku.

    ¡°how did you manage to do this, Master?¡±

    ¡°This suit is the source of all this power. I¡¯m still quite unsure why the previous Innight has not managed to use this suit to grant the ability for me to cast magic, but this suit can do almost everything except for casting magic. I just focused my will to extract the Time essence within this sword itself, that¡¯s all.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re invincible with this then, Master!¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m unsure about that. I have not put this suit to the test yet. Besides, we are going to have one last fight against Time before I sacrifice this suit forever. We can test it out later, together with this sword.¡±

    We then flew over the gates. Immediately the ground shook and 2 long worm like monsters start appearing from the ground and attacked us. They looked like the ones that tried to attacked us a moment ago, apparently, they have the ability to see through the invisibility shield.

    ¡°Chrono Immobility!¡±

    It has no effect on those worms, they burrowed into the ground, only to sprout out from the ground again and charge towards us.

    ¡°Guess we have no choice. Miku, you take on one of them, I will deal with the other.¡±

    Miku fired balls of spells at the worm itself, while I swung my sword and allowed the projectiles to pierce through the worm itself. The worm splits into new segments when the body is severed into two, and the on the front of the individual segment a new mouth grow from it, forming a new head. As the monster is unbelievably long, I took careful measures to ensure I don¡¯t get overwhelmed by the monster itself. I have to carefully deal with the head and ensure that I don¡¯t have more than 2 segments attacking me at the same time.

    Eventually, we destroyed the monster. We have to break the segments down to one piece before the monster dies. From what I can count, there is around 50 segment on that worm monster itself. A loud screech came from monster itself after it is defeated.

    ¡°Approach slowly, Miku, we do not want to activate more of her security system.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    When we almost reached the door of the mansion, more worms drilled up from the ground and attacked us. We immediately run into the mansion first, I closed the door and Miku shouted:

    ¡°Explosion!¡±

    A fireball of magic exploded right outside the yard of the mansion, I¡¯m unsure how many of the worms were killed, but hopefully they will not be here to disturb us again.

    I looked around, we are in a long hallway, with doors at the side of the hallway. Two rows of armours line up at the side of the hallway, almost appearing to be inviting us inside. The entire hallway is coloured in crimson red, the ceiling, walls, floors and the doors. I¡¯m starting to get a little sick of the colour now. Only the armours are coloured differently, they come in a variety of colour, from red to violet.

    ¡°I don¡¯t like these things, Master, they look like they are staring into my soul.¡±

    ¡°Miku, get ready.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°If I know Time, this will be her second line of defence. In three¡­. two¡­ one¡­¡±

    Immediately after I said one, I took out my Chrono Corruption and shouted ¡°Chrono Extraction!¡±, at the same time, the entire two rows of amour made their move, they materialized various sorts of weapons and wanted to strike us.

    Since I struck first, all their Time is immediately extracted and absorbed into my sword, they all then fell to the ground, then disintegrated into black dust and float away.

    ¡°What are these things, Master?¡± Miku asked in a scared tone.

    ¡°Time of the Dead. She selected Time from the Dead and insert them into the armours, turning them into living armours. I knew she will be up to something like this the moment I saw the armours. She must really have been prepared for an invasion.¡±

    ¡°Well do you think she is, Master?¡±

    ¡°I have to perform Mana Reading.¡±

    ¡°What is that, Master?¡±

    ¡°Mana Reading. It¡¯s a skill that enables me to detect mana flow and usage in the Mana Network. From what I can infer, Time is probably interacting with her mechanism to supercharge her power right now. From the diagrams and illustrations from the previous Innight¡¯s diary, it works by absorbing mana from the mana network, combining with Time Essence intercepted from the Time Field, plus an addition of Souls to fuel that machine. I can read where the machine is absorbing the mana from and from there, be able to pinpoint where is her position in this mansion.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°Judging by how long we have taken to get here, she might already have activated it. We don¡¯t know how far it is before she reaches her maximum potential again, so we have to hurry up.¡±

    I closed my eyes and start viewing the flow of mana from the Mana Network. I see a wave of mana rushing towards our direction, I opened my eyes.

    ¡°Miku, get ready, the 3<sup>rd</sup> wave of defenders is about to begin.¡±

    I ready my sword and Miku prepares magic circles around the hallway. We slowly travel inwards of the hallway.

    ¡°Chrono Barrier!¡±

    I activated a Time barrier around me and Miku, and just in time. Someone, or something, hit the barrier and is reflected. I took a look at what performed that attack, but it is travelling at such an incredible speed I cannot see anything but sense its mana movement, which is also very rapid but since it drags around, I can sense it.

    ¡°What shall we do, Master?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll try to see if I can stop it. Chrono...¡±

    The monster seems to know what I¡¯m about to do and it created a Time barrier around itself as well as it continued attacking. That will render my Time magic of this sword useless. I will have to rely on my suit, intelligence, and Miku¡¯s ability to eliminate it.

    ¡°Miku.¡±

    ¡°Yes Master?¡±

    ¡°I think I know who this creature is. We definitely cannot outrun it with speed, but in terms of magical power, we are way stronger than his. I think. We need to use Spatial Distortion to beat it.¡±

    ¡°Master¡­ That is dangerous!¡±

    ¡°Everything is at risk here, we have to take the risk, no matter how dangerous it may seem. Miku, I¡¯m going to open up a micro black hole inside here, this monster¡¯s running limit is the speed of light, so once he is sucked inside he is eliminated.¡±

    ¡°But Master, us! We will get sucked in!¡±

    ¡°I am worried that you have not been thought properly about black holes, Miku. Black holes also create a gravity well just like any planets, stars, or astronomical objects, but they do not necessary suck objects into it. They only suck objects that passes the Event Horizon of the black hole itself. You need to know more about black holes when we get back. Wait, oh¡­¡±

    I then remembered, Miku wouldn¡¯t be coming back with us.

    ¡°Never mind that now, let¡¯s get rid of this monster now.¡±

    I materialized a pair of gravity gloves and using it, created a micro black hole by compressing gravity together, all while the monster is still attacking. I pushed the micro blackhole to the side of our Time barrier, and instantly the monster starts to shred apart. the black hole ripped the monster into two pieces, and the remains of the monster lies on the ground. I used the gravity gloves to compress down onto the micro black hole so that the mass of the micro black hole reaches infinity. The micro black hole then collapse and explode, releasing a shockwave. Since we are within a barrier, we are unaffected by it.

    I closed my eyes again, then check for the flow of mana again. Through the blue images of mana flow, I see that there is a tremendous flow of mana from everywhere towards a room at the 3<sup>rd</sup> floor. That should be the room that we are looking for. I opened my eyes.

    ¡°Miku, follow me, I think we have found the target.¡±

    We walk along the long and seemingly endless hallway, finally we come to a crimson spiral staircase. I put one hand on the hand rail, holding onto Miku¡¯s hand with my other hand and walked up the staircase. As we go up the staircase, we hear a ticking sound, getting louder as we go up the staircase. When we reached the third floor we found ourselves facing a huge wooden door. I pressed on the handle of the door, and found it locked.

    ¡°Miku, can you blast open this door?¡±

    ¡°Sure thing.¡±

    Miku formed a ball of magic and pushed it towards the door. It then exploded and the door disintegrated. Inside is someone that we have been looking for.

    ¡°TIME!¡±

    Inside the room, a platform made out of unknown glowing material is positioned in the middle of the room. From it thousands of wires stretched out from it and covered the floor. Two huge cylinder of green and blue liquid is connected to it. I guess that must be liquefied mana and Time Essence. On the platform, Time is floating above it. She opened up her eyes, her right crimson eye glowing and her left golden clock eye is winding clockwise.

    ¡°So you have finally come!¡± She cried while in her machinery.

    ¡°Enough with all of this! This is your last chance to turn back, Time!¡±

    ¡°What makes you think I will back away now, Innight? All of your species time is up, and it is time for us to rule the world once again, before humans did!¡±

    ¡°FINE!¡±

    I readied my Chrono Corruption to strike Time, immediately her shadow opens up and her clones starts flooding the room.

    ¡°Sorry, but you can never be able to counter me. Against these numbers, what can you possibly do?¡±

    ¡°Miku, this might look more troublesome than it already is.¡±

    ¡°What shall we do, Master?¡± Miku is in fear.

    ¡°I¡¯m thinking, I¡¯m thinking¡­. She has the powers of Time so most magical spells you cast is useless against her. All her clones have the same abilities as hers, only much less powerful than she is, that puts us at an extreme disadvantage. Only I am immune to all her Time-based attacks due to my Chrono Corruption, but that does not grant me any advantage when I am facing so much attacks at the same time. What can we do¡­¡±

    Time¡¯s clones immediately start firing her spells everywhere. Since we still have the Time Barrier on, all attacks are blocked off.

    ¡°We need to separate Time from the machine first, that will be our highest priority in this situation now so that her power does not get any stronger. Then we need to lock down Time to make sure she does not get to move at all, then we can focus on destroying this machine.¡±

    ¡°How shall we do this, Master?¡±

    ¡°I thought of a way, but it¡¯s going to hurt, Miku.¡± I picked up Miku horizontally using my gravity gloves.

    ¡°Huh? What are you doing, Mas¡­¡±

    I throw Miku in the direction of the real Time on the machine using a force of 20 thousand Newtons. All the clones were knocked onto the side as Miku flung straight towards the real Time. The real Time was immediately knocked off from the machine and was flung into the wall and created a crater there. The shockwave created by Time hitting the wall caused all her clones to be lifted up from the floor and crash straight into the walls and the ceiling. I have intensified the gravity field within my Time Barrier so I stay put on the ground. Immediately I deliver a drone to absorb all the time that is in the original Time¡¯s body. It then returned to with its magic pool filled with Essence of Time. All the clones of Time slowly vanished one after another.

    I walked to where the crater is created. Time and Miku are both unconscious. I picked up Miku with both of my hands and put her beside Time. I create a Time prison surrounding Time so she cannot escape us. I continued waiting.

    Finally, both of them regained consciousness. Miku crawled to my side, she probably is still weak from the blast. Time tried to summon her clones but since she is drained of Time, so she couldn¡¯t do it.

    ¡°Time. This is the end of the line. The Existence is supposed to be a place for all creatures, not just monsters alone. You shall stay here while we destroy everything in this place, you shall be trapped in the Void in The Gap once this place is destroyed. Have fun then.¡±

    ¡°Not yet. I still have a last Ace in my pocket to be played.¡±

    ¡°What can you do now? All your magic is exhausted, your control over this plane is severely weakened. Once we destroy this plane, you are nothing but just an anomaly in Time.¡±

    ¡°Fu fu fu¡­ You will never be able to anticipate this!¡±

    Saying this, Time did something. Electric sparkles start flying out of the machine and beeping sounds start emitting from it.

    ¡°What did you¡­¡±

    ¡°I have prepared for the worst. Once this machine explodes, it will overflow the mana network and the Timelines and Time Axis, causing them to rupture. The absence of Time to support Space will cause Space Dimension to collapse. That will still cause everything to be destroyed. You will never be able to have a Happy Ending, no matter how much you try!¡±

    ¡°You¡­!¡±

    Miku looked up at me.

    ¡°Master¡­ We can¡¯t stop the machine now¡­ What should we do?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to test the limit of this suit. I will try to absorb as much mana and Time as possible from this machine itself using an absorption mechanism. I do not have any idea how much this suit can handle and what is the consequence of trying to absorb so much power within such a short time span, but there are no other options available for us now.¡±

    I stood on the platform, and activate an absorption sphere around myself and the machine. I dematerialized the Chrono Corruption.

    ¡°No matter what you do, we will seek to gain eternal peace in The Existence!¡± I cried as I connect with the machine.

    ¡°It is our duty, The Inversionalist, to create a new world, a world where no Darkness exist and where Light can rule over everything! You may successfully destroy my plans, but you shall not be able to stop the others in the other Timelines!¡±

    ¡°Huh?! How many of you are there?!¡±

    ¡°Secrets and secrets, you will not be able to find them. With me gone, the others will be wary of you and will hide themselves from you, when the Time is ripe we shall remove you, the greatest threat in achieving our plan!¡±

    ¡°Miku, activate Infinity Shield! The machine is about to go!¡±

    Miku activates a blue barrier with signs of infinity inscribes on it. The Essence of Time and mana from the respective cylinder begin flooding me at the speed and intensity of a tsunami. With so much power flooding into my suit, I feel nauseous, and my whole body is on the verge on exploding, everywhere feels like on fire, and I feel my blood heating up beyond boiling point and start to boil in my blood vessels. It goes beyond just uncomfortable, I feel like my entire body is going to break apart any moment and I will explode into a bloody mess of body parts.

    Then it all stopped. I looked at the sides of the machine, the cylinders were empty. I took a look at Time and Miku, they stared at me.

    Stare¡­¡­.

    ¡°What is it, Master?¡±

    ¡°Why are you both staring at me?¡±

    ¡°You look so cool, Master!¡± Miku exclaimed.

    ¡°I¡­ failed¡­?¡± Time spluttered out the words.

    ¡°What do you mean by that, Miku?¡±

    ¡°Look at yourself, Master!¡±

    I raised my hands up, and saw that dark flames flickers from it. I decide to materialize a mirror using my suit but I find I can¡¯t do it. I then took a look at myself, and found that the suit has vanished, instead a gothic clothing replaced it. I also realized something is sticking out behind my back, I turned my head around, and saw that I have a pair of fallen angel wings. I also feel an overflowing amount of power flowing within myself.

    Could it be¡­ No, it shouldn¡¯t happen that easily¡­ but the chance is there¡­ Maybe I should test it out¡­?

    ¡°Mana bomb!¡±

    A small blue colour sphere sprouted out from my hand and flew towards Miku at the speed of sound and exploded when it touched the Infinity barrier. When the smoke cleared, I found that the entire mansion has vaporized with just a simple little spell. Miku and Time both land on the ground while I¡¯m flying up in the air.

    ¡°Finally¡­ Finally¡­¡±

    I flew towards Miku and Time. Both of them were trembling in fear.

    ¡°Master¡­ What will you do now, with this power?¡± Miku asked.

    ¡°Please¡­ Please don¡¯t kill me¡­ Please! I¡¯m sorry with all that I have done! I¡¯ll do anything, just don¡¯t kill me!¡± Time stuttered.

    ¡°I will need to find out all the members of this group called Inversionalist. Time, I can spare you, but in exchange I want all the information you have about this group that you belong to. Also, I will have to destroy this Plane altogether to ensure that you will not be able to rise into a dangerous power ever again. But first, we will leave here first.¡±

    I used telekinesis to lift up the Time prison and injected Life into Miku so she can walk again. I set down a Space Consumption Orb on the ground and set it to activate in 5 minutes. I fly towards the opening in space and found that all sorts of monsters are still wandering into it.

    ¡°What a pain. Phantasmal Deathray!¡±

    From my hands, I shoot out a huge aquamarine coloured beam of laser at the monsters and circle around them, vaporizing everything there in the process. We then both fly through the opening.

    When we returned back to our world, we see huge tents everywhere. The moment we left the portal, the entire portal become compressed into one spot and explodes into pieces.

    ¡°Look at him!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Innight! With Time locked behind him!¡±

    ¡°We have to shoot both of them down now before they destroy us all!¡±

    What kind of misinformation did the Grand Rulers give this time? It looks like I could not stay in this Timeline anymore. That or I really have to wipe out this Timeline from The Existence. It has been so severely corrupted that if it further develops, it might eventually cause a revolution against The Grand Rulers as well, leading to another problem. It might be the best for the future of Existence to remove this corrupted Timeline altogether.

    Yes. I have to do this. For the better good.

    All sorts of spells were fired at me from all directions. I instantly created an Infinity Barrier to keep out all of them. I turned to Miku and Time.

    ¡°This is all your fault, Time. This Timeline has been corrupted beyond repair. If it is left to continue like this, eventually it will cause a collapse in the Timeline itself since they no longer trust others except for the Grand Rulers, if this continue they will one day lose trust on the Grand Rulers and cause a revolution. The result of it will be unimaginable. I will have to access the Time Field to figure out the point of origin for this particular Timeline and destroy it altogether. Then I will have to question Time to figure out who are the other members of the Inversionalist. They will be in the other Timelines, but where exactly I will have to figure that out later.¡±

    ¡°Master¡­¡±

    ¡°What is it, Miku?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I cannot go with you.¡±

    ¡°Eh? Why is that so?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m only supposed to be functioning within this particular Timeline. In other Timelines, I am no longer functional. The other Masters in the other Timelines also have no idea on how to fix me. My presence is bound to this particular Timeline. If I leave this Timeline, I will be erased. I am bound to this Timelines for eternity, so if you remove this Timeline, I will be removed as well.¡±

    I sighed.

    ¡°I expected this. So I am the only one allowed to travel between Timelines. Well, if this is going to be the case, stay in this Timeline, Miku. Do what you need to do before I erase this Timeline forever.¡±

    Miku nodded. I opened up a portal and, taking the Time prison, entered it.

    ¡°Alright, these information is enough for me.¡±

    ¡°Can you let me go now? I promise I will be good! I have lost all my powers since you extracted all the Time out of myself, and I lost my home. I can never return back to power again. I cannot do anything evil again, so please let me go!¡±

    ¡°I will let you go, but on one condition.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°You are not allowed to travel across Timelines. You can still summon your clones from the different Timelines across the Time Axis, but you are not allowed to travel between Timelines to corrupt them again. I have to warn you, if I found Timelines being corrupted again, I will have to remove you.¡±

    ¡°I promise that!¡±

    I deactivated the Time prison and let Time free. She opened up her shadow and jumped into it, I do not know which Timeline she went to but that does not matter now.

    ¡°Now then. Time to find the other members of the Inversionalist. I think they are in this Timeline¡­?¡±

    I opened up a portal and walk through it, the blinding white light covering up everything in my sight.

    ¡°Now then¡­Show me¡­ what ridiculousness does this Timeline holds¡­¡±

    To be Continued¡­.