Kaden wasn't planning on staying in, whatever the place was, any longer than needed. The potential exit, the light in front of them, seemed like a good option, but there was no telling what it was.

While it had been only unsettling to stay in the place where wave after wave something generated illusory copies of themselves in some, perhaps, potential future, there had been no actual immediate danger. At least none that he could tell.

Yet, it was a dead end. Kaden wanted out. He'd rather not spend rest of his days in there. So exit was needed.

The light also seemed more... natural. It didn't flutter about in his vision nor was the ever-present vortex of mist visible through it like it was with everything else. It seemed stable.

As the two approached it, it became clear it was like a tear in space. Seeing through, it seemed to lead into entirely normal looking part resembling rest of the remnant. Other than that, it seemed to be located in some more open area. A room with doorway behind them and another on the opposite side.

"None of this makes any sense", Emina decided to say around at that time. "This place for example. Our mana, our existence, should have been torn apart the moment we fell in. Nothing should be able to exist here. Yet here we are inside quite distorted corridors and rooms, but generally safe. Why are we alive. Why is there a stable area inside the core? Someone would have already gone in and come out long ago."

"I don't question it right now", Kaden told her in reply. "It seems safe. I'd rather go through than stay here. Who knows, perhaps the core only covers some areas, but there are entirely untouched portions next to it. This could be such a thing."

"Remnants and mana usually don't act that way", Emina pointed out. "If there was an area for it to spread, it would go there eventually. Not leave empty areas."

Kaden shrugged and started to walk towards the tear. It was relatively large. Even if he had been several times larger, he would still fit through it with ease.

Then he jumped through it. The tear shuddered quite a bit and shifted about, but then stabilized again. Noticing the effects, Emina decided to quickly follow in case the tear was to disapear and leave her trapped in.

Perhaps a correct decision as immediately after Emina passed through, the tear shuddered again and turned completely opaque. The mist, that had been everywhere inside, seemed to fill the distorted area they had just been to. It did not pass through the tear, though.

"Whatever just happened, I don't think we are going back that way", Kaden told Emina. He wasn't sure what the mist was, but he assumed it would be a suicide to go back.

"Did I just happen to jump here at the right time simply due to a coincidence or was our presence keeping the place stable?" Emina said as she stared at the tear for a moment. Then she looked around. "This still seems to be the remnant, but mana isn't as dense as it was before."

"Its not stale", Kaden added. "The mana feels slightly different, but it isn't stale. It is just not dense nor stale, this place is not a remnant."

Emina frowned and then surprise and concern filled her expression.

"How can this be?" Emina muttered. "This place isn't a remnant. Has this place been cut off from rest of the great remnant and remained unaffected by everything that has been going on in there for thousands of years?"

"We should search this place", Kaden said and pointed a closed door at the far end of the place.

Now that their immediate concerns regarding where they had just been and where they had entered, Kaden looked around. It was like some storage area considering there were some boxes and shelves on the sides. They had not seemed to exist in the distorted area previously. To Kaden it seemed most of it had also been emptied just recently, but from what was left, it was tools and other small things made by ancients. Not that they looked ancient. Something was off.

"I hear something", Emina said quietly. "Speaking, through the door."

Kaden frowned and prepared to fight. Perhaps they had been spit out on some strange area and either saints or Sacronan's troops were waiting. That is until Emina added the next part with even more confusion.

"It seems they are speaking in language of the ancients?" Emina said. "Perhaps ... perhaps whoever it is is merely reading something aloud."

By now Kaden had already noticed it too. While his understanding of the language was not very good, he could at least on some level figure out the content. He disagreed with Emina's suggestion.

"That sounds like someone is giving orders", Kaden said and started to walk towards the door. "I believe we have been noticed already. There is no point with these questions. We can determine everything easily simply by opening the door and seeing for ourselves."

Emina seemed to agree with such direct method, but she still seemed far more concerned than Kaden.

The door was locked. From what Kaden could tell, it wasn't very strong. He could probably tear through the metal door easily or simply melt a hole to it. Indeed, it wasn't part of the great remnant and therefore it had not been bathed in enormous amount of mana for thousands of years and become practically indestructible. This was just some ordinary metal. Not even really affected by mana. With proper tools, even someone not at Channel Opening could probably get through it with time.

Just before Kaden was going to tear the door off, Emina stopped him.

"There is an interface next to it", she pointed out. "Lets try it first."

Emina entered their codes again and indeed, some red lights on it turned to green. At this time some shouts were heard from behind the door. It seemed whoever was there, had noticed the door being unlocked.

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Kaden opened the door and saw some people in odd clothes behind some barricades pointing some ancient weapons at them. As they saw Kaden, they opened fire. Emina had been right next to Kaden and projected a shield around them. Kaden observed some metal pieces bounce off from the shield. They resembled ammunition that Kaden had read about ancients having used.

"Don't bother with the shield", Kaden told Emina. "These bullets don't have much of mana in them at all. I don't think these are able to hurt us."

Emina didn't care. She kept the shield up.

In fact, Kaden expected to be able to block accurately each bullet. These were not mana enhanced weapons. Someone at Channel Opening, might get bleeding scratches from them at worst. Condensation stage expert could probably pick the bullets from air, if they wanted to, crush them into a metal ball and send it back with a force enough to turn all of the people shooting into blood mist.

The shooting stopped, though. The people brought some sort of larger weapon. It had interesting lights on it and all. Kaden did not know what it was. The only reason why he hadn't put an end to all this was because he was somewhat baffled and felt like observing a bit more. As for why Emina wasn't doing so was probably for very similar reasons.

That changed quickly when the strange people fired the more advanced looking, larger weapon.

*ZZOoork*

A boom blasted through the corridor and, something Kaden could only barely see, slammed against Emina's shield, punched hole through it like it was made from paper. It's trajectory was altered only little while doing so and passed by Kaden by only a short distance before hitting a wall at the back of the storage area, causing a small explosion, but the wall cracked due to the force.

"That does it", Kaden said after understanding what had just happened. It was some weapon, with no mana at all, and it was entirely capable of, had it hit him, shooting a hole through him. These weaklings had weapons that even he should be concerned about.

"Wait! Let me speak to them first!" Emina said hurriedly also having woken up from the confusion.

"I will kill them all before they get the chance to fire whatever that was again", Kaden told Emina. "You have until then."

Emina started shouting at them in the language of the ancients. As far as Kaden could undestand, she was telling them, they didn't know what was happening or where they were and that there was no need to fight.

There was some confusion with the odd people, but a person at the back, that wore green oddly spotted clothes said something and rest of the people seemed to listen. A leader. He would die first, if it came to it, Kaden decided calmly.

"It seems the things they see appearing like this are dangerous unknown creatures", Emina told to Kaden after a moment. "We are apperently first things that speak and by your appearance they thought you were such a monster. Not I don't agree with the monster part, but I explained you are just a bit... different."

"How nice of you", Kaden replied. He had only partially understood. He wanted to learn this language completely by now. It was annoying to rely on someone to translate. "Who are they?"

"That... doesn't make much sense to me, but ...", Emina started. She didn't seem sure how to respond. "As far as I can tell... these are the people who we call 'ancients'. Actual living ancients."

Kaden frowned. They were supposed to have mostly been wiped out during the cataclysm. What remained of them became the humans of current date.

"How can that be", Kaden though to himself. Then. "Unless." Then he, rather than ask Emina to translate, he formed a sentence with his own knowledge. "What year is it?"

It seemed to be slightly off, but understandable. Emina at least had been intending to talk to them again, but with shock she turned to face Kaden after he asked such a question, revealing the likely situation that she had not immediately though of.

The so called 'ancients' responded. Kaden could partially understand it, but to make sure, he asked Emina. "Translate that to me."

"The current date is... it is", Emina started to mumble in shock as the situation crashed down on her. "The date is in their calendar 15.6.2113. This is during the cataclysm. We have gone back in time thousands of years."

Time travel. Technically it was possible. True Magus could possibly control only slight bit of it to cause some minor time related effects, but not actual time travel. Archmagus could perhaps, if they wanted to waste their hard collected mana that was related to time, turn back time a bit. These were rare trumpcards.

To alter the state of existence, the more you were going to affect it, the more mana you needed. This applied to time as well. How much mana were you going to offset, move from its future state to another future state, if you went back and changed something? Likely for the situations you were going to use it, a lot.

Now it seems, Kaden and Emina hand somehow managed to bumble backwards thousands of years. How was this possible? Even the great remnant shouldn't have that amount of mana. In fact, Kaden expected if any Archmagus knew of their situation, they would throw all caution to the winds and enter the great remnant's core in attempt to gather some of that mana. He wasn't sure if any had ever been curious enough to do so anyway. At least none had been known to return.

"This shouldn't be possible", Kaden said.

Emina didn't reply. Luckily the people, the ancients, had stopped too. They had noticed the confusion of the two intruders. Instead they were asking questions. Emina eventually started to answer them.

"Stop!" Kaden suddenly told to Emina. "What have you told them. You cannot reveal them too much of the future!"

"I... I merely told them what we believe has happened to us, that we have come far from the future", Emina replied. "After that I only replied to their questions that I don't know how it happened."

"Tell them nothing!" Kaden repeated.

"Do you think it even matters?" Emina questioned Kaden. "If this is the past, hasn't it already happened. What we do here changes nothing."

"Can you be certain of that?" Kaden pressed on. "Are you perhaps an expert of time mana?"

"No", Emina shook her head. "But we are already here. We have already changed things by appearing here. I can agree we should keep secrets, but I also want to see if this situation is possible to salvage and return back to our time. If that requires me to speak with these ancients, who had extremely high understanding of rules of physics and reality, I will do so."

Kaden had to agree with that. If churches were to be trusted, the entire cataclysm might be their fault. They had to have been able to mess with something fundamental. Some of their understanding could also be applied to understanding time. They wouldn't be able to use magic on the level Emina and Kaden could, likely at all, so perhaps by mixing knowledge of both sides something could be done.

"But perhaps I shouldn't?" Kaden then thought. "If I stayed here and watched as the gods came. Watch as cataclysm passes. I will be here to collect all resources. No enemies. I will become the most powerful Archmagus in history. I will reach the limit of what is possible to to humans and beasts."

Kaden felt extreme greed at that moment. Then he thought further.

"But my enemies...", he thought. "I will never get to kill them. They might not even be ever born. Will I disapear if I accidentally cause my parents to not be born? Will time split into two separate roads allowing my existence or will I disapear the moment the single road no longer will have me exist in it?"

It wasn't such simple question to answer. The more Kaden thought about it, the more he leaned to returning if possible. There were people to kill. To have his enemies to not even exist was not satisfying.

"Kaden, the ancients are asking us to come in", Emina interrupted Kaden. "They wish to speak with us about all this. Regardless of what our presence here means, I say we do it. Whether we are stuck here or not, we likely need their aid."

Kaden frowned. He still wasn't sure how to deal with the 'time problems', but likely no one could answer to that.

"Fine", Kaden agreed with Emina. "Ask them to bring me some learning material. I want to break this language barrier."