In a room of opalescent light and a chair so comfortable that it defied the laws of craftsmanship, William Riggs listened intently to the Overseer’s… Kess’s story, if his guess was right, and compared it to what he knew.

In all honesty, what the entity said filled in just enough of the minor curiosities that it made things all too obvious he was still hiding more than one secret.

Still, being removed from the grand dungeon, having his class unlocked, and now being part of a wider force of exclusively temporal mages gave him more than enough pause to let him keep those secrets.

“So,” Will began after Overseer finished, “My job is to keep the time bubble stable and not meddle in the timeline?”

“Among other things,” the Overseer replied.

Will and the man, at least he thought it was a man, had long discussions prior to this moment. It had taken a few days in Somniums time before he’d agreed to take up the duty to protect those he loved from the nameless Starfallen entity that had invaded the planet’s world core.

The entities that were still invading, he corrected himself, and that were still moving fractionally towards the edge of the bubble with each passing year.

With great power comes an assload of responsibility, Will joked to himself.

Though he wanted to spend the rest of his life with his family, that would come in time. He had all of that now, all the time in the world.

“As part of our agreement, a tunnel screen. They work just like the ones developed from the Heaven’s Shards network, but they have an upgrade to skip to current relative time.”

As Overseer handed him a screen, Will let a little of his mana flow into it to power it and watched the events of Sominus unfold. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me until we’re done,” Overseer said simply.

The feed began where the outside connection was catching up to, but Will skipped ahead past the battle with Shardking. There was no need to relive that night.

Then, he went further.

He didn’t need to see Squishy and Ashra challenging Minerva the region boss, a fight they were cheated out of in his opinion.

What he needed to see was what was happening to his friends and family in team Rising Star.

And saw he did.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

As Overseer left, Will stifled a laugh as Lyna set fire to her own nightmare. He watched as she somehow called the Outsider to her, and how she challenged him to a game of chess.

Fear shot through him moments later as Morpheus murdered everyone as an example to Myles, resurrecting them moments later after he’d made his point with no one else the wiser.

But wiser he was.

A pride welled up in the elder as he watched Myles continue to lead as the young man should and challenged the Outsider to a game that should have been an equal playing field.

He nearly dropped the screen when Myles ate the cinnamon roll the Outsider became.

The following victory was bittersweet as Myles faced the consequences of his actions.

He looked away as his stomach distended and burst like a bad waterskin, but he couldn’t keep that up as his granddaughter entered the scene and began triage with the help of Myles’s monsters.

For longer than he thought possible, the man fought for his life in the presence of those he loved as the one Will loved most held it together with twine.

His heart ached as he switched between the healer and Kendra. His granddaughter was strong but even she had her limits, and her stress tells were showing.

Would his departure hurt her more than it helped?

He hadn’t died, so they had to know he was alive somewhere, didn’t they?

Watching her hold back and do her best not to look at the closed door made him rethink that decision.

He could save the world here, and that included her. She’d understand when this was all over.

Will didn’t want to think about the large if hanging over the entire run. Would it be wiped from the world as well?

Eventually, with the help of healers and no small part of luck, Myles recovered. According to the readout on the side of the screen, however, it was by the skin of his teeth.

Runner: Myles Chase

Current Condition: Medically Induced Coma

Estimated time until revival: 7 days

The relief Will felt was mirrored by the members of Rising Star as the prognosis reached them.

Myles would survive another day.

With that trama put to the side for the moment, Will watched Kendra hold herself back and process her emotions as the team prepared food for the next day in hopes of an early recovery by their team leader.

Putting the scene into his inventory as he caught up with the current dungeon time, Will let out a long, pained sigh. He knew what was coming, and he dearly wished he could be there to direct her anger in a more positive direction. The same thing had happened between her and her father, and the Mists had no fury like a woman scorned.

He slumped back into the chair.

A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts of impending violence as a woman clad in the oranges of autumn appeared in its frame. She was young, then again, most people were young compared to him, but it seemed emphasized by the fact she wore her orange hair in a long braid threaded with daises.

The higher nature of her voice made him place her as a teenager younger than Kendra, but her bearing was that of authority with all the hard-won experience that came with it.

“William Riggs?”

Hands on the arms of the chair, he pushed himself up, deciding to just play it by ear. “Just Will please. Only my wife called me William.”

“Will then.” The woman’s smile was like a bonfire on a winter evening, warm and inviting as she evaluated him. “You’re part of my team. I’m Siris of Electrum and lead of Chronomancer Team Seven.”

“Here to show me the ropes, then?”

“We don’t show people the ropes here,” Siris replied. “Since it’s a [Chronomancer] division, we prefer to get you into the swing of things. It’ll keep you in tick-toc shape.”

Will paused for a moment then groaned as Siris’s smile bloomed.

He’d made a terrible mistake.