Kahli looked at the huge dragon eye of G'athoong in nervous wonder at the tale she'd just told of her long lost, lesbian dragon lover B'raahsiet and her kidnapper, Basstardio of the now-defunct land of Basstardia. And Kahli had absolutely no idea how to respond. She could see now why Sahdi had waited for her to speak with the water dragon herself first before explaining what it was they potentially might end up doing on her behalf.

However, learning this just gave Kahli so many questions buzzing around in her head. How did G'athoong know that B'raahsiet was still alive? How did she know that, if B'raahsiet were still alive, that she was still in the crypt and not, well, anywhere else? Why hadn't G'athoong done anything to try and save B'raahsiet herself before apparently just sleeping it off for five centuries? Why would she even be helpful? Was G'athoong worried that Basstardio would somehow catch her in his net himself or something? The whole thing just seemed, honestly, ridiculous to ask of anyone!

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And so it was that Kahli was floating in the void, and so was the giant jellyfish, looking as smug as ever - which is not to say that the jellyfish actually looked smug, considering its complete lack of countenance, however still the jellyfish seemed smug to Kahli, perhaps because it seemed to always wax poetic about time and reality whenever it mind spoke to her.

Hello there, Kahli.

Hello, big jellyfish.

Miss me?

Kahli did not miss the jellyfish, not at all. However, she was more than a bit relieved that she got the chance to breath and check out her different timelines before answering G'athoong's question for real. It was hard for her to say whether or not agreeing to this quest was a good idea, but regardless, it had red flags all over it. That said, since her [Seismic Sense] [skill] had activated and allowed Kahli this respite, she was very thankful. She did, however, find it curious that her overall sensation based on [Seismic Sense] seemed to have vanished while atop the dragon.

Ah, best to let your system explain that one, Kahli.

And before Kahli could balk at the jellyfish for invading her mental privacy once again, she saw the system messages appear before her vision in that familiar fashion.

[Clarification: It is a function of the currently activated verbosity of your system that I am able to explain to you that the reason you are unable to interact with the sense part of your Seismic Sense skill is tied to the fact that you are not on solid ground and are instead currently riding a large dragon. There are no seismic waves or other comparable sensory information from a dragon, so your skill does not function for this feature. However, the ability for your big left foot to sense time itself is still present, therefore you are still able to interact with checkpoints in time such as this one.]

Kahli didn't rightly know what to say to that, regardless, she was glad at least that she'd been able to visit a time checkpoint. She had no idea how she would've responded to G'athoong if she didn't have this distance between herself and the decision.

Yea, checkpoints in time generally work like that - they kind of come at either the best or the worst time, and even when they're there at the worst time, it's not big deal, because you can always pick the best timeline.

Kahli had to agree with that sentiment from the jellyfish.

That said, I see you've upgraded this skill since the last time we spoke. Want to talk about that for a bit before you hop in?

Kahli figured that she did want to talk to the jellyfish about her skill's new ability - the option to twist timelines. It seemed strange and alien to her, and she had no real idea what all it could do.

Well, there's only so much I can really go into myself here. I'm not directly linked in to your system or anything, I'm just more experienced with my system by a wide margin than you are with yours, and that allows me the ability to peek into your skills and analyze them to the best of my ability. By the way, you really ought to consider working on that - really, I figured you'd be up to masking aspects of your character sheet by this point. I know that you've only had your system for a few days or so, but considering how many times you've leveled up, and how well you've done with your fighting, I would think that-

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Hey, can you please just lay off me? thought Kahli in retaliation. I've had a lot going on, you've got to admit. I'll figure all this out in my own time. If you're going to tell me some extra information about my [skill], then great, otherwise stop wasting my infinite time and let me check out my timelines already.

Gods, okay, sorry, didn't mean to hit a nerve there... Whew... Anyways, from what I can see, twisting a timeline allows you to replay any chosen timeline that you select, and reconfigure some aspects of it - whether these aspects be your own responses, or certain quirks of that timeline indirectly related to you and your conscious experience. In short, it lets you tweak a timeline intentionally as an aspect of your [skill]. With the right amount of focus, Kahli, I could see this ability being very powerful.

Okay, great, so-

But Kahli didn't even have a second, even though supposedly seconds were meaningless and empty in the infinite void, before even her eyes found themselves frozen in time and affixed to the big jellyfish - which, inexplicably, seemed to be getting even bigger every moment.

So very wonderfully powerful, Kahli. So powerful that I think it is finally time - heh - for me to enact what I've been plotting since we met.

Plotting? Kahli was confused, but she didn't like the sound of this.

Yes, plotting... See, time may be immaterial, especially in this infinite void... Immaterial to you, Kahli, because of your oh-so-powerful [skill]. But, you are foolish, and you are inexperienced, and while you are unable to see for yourself the potential power of your [skill], I can and do, and I want it for my own! And now, heh, now I've got you just where I want you. This is the final thing, the final moment for you, Kahli. Now that this [skill] has the ability to alter timelines, even though it may be minor, it is enough for me to use it how I see fit, to shape time itself as I want!

But, mister jellyfish, you said time is immaterial!

Pfft. That was all a crock of bullshit, Kahli. Time, immaterial? Kahli, your [skill] allows you to sense and control time itself with your foot. How in the fuck would that work if time was truly immaterial and irrelevant? No, Kahli, time is the most important thing you or anyone else in this or any other world. So many things are limitless... Your potential for growth and leveling, for example, thanks to the implementation of your system. There is only one thing that is in essence limited, and that is the thing called time itself. Time lost, is time that you will never get back. You lose a physical object, well, then it can always be transmuted back to you in a more powerful form. Someone dies, well, they just end up in the spirit realm as a skeleton of some sort. But time? Time-

Kahli was over this already. She wanted to smack the jellyfish across its lack of face - here it was monologuing about time and the importance of not wasting it, when all she could think about was how horribly he had wasted her own time in making her think that his thoughts were genuine! What's more, is that Kahli had even found some of their conversations, though somewhat banal, also quite intriguing, and had herself considered some of them worthy of remembering. Maybe this big jellyfish had been a big faker, but Kahli thought that it didn't matter - some of the talks she'd had with it had informed her personal opinion of time, and she wasn't going to let the jellyfish's malignance change that. However, she had to find out how to make herself move - and fast!

Regardless, I don't care what you think, Kahli. I know what I said to you, and I know that I think it was all bullshit, all a ploy and a trick to get you to let your guard down long enough to let me seep enough energy from you in order to absorb and consume you... HAH! Your [skills] will be mine, as will your consciousness, and you'll never see another timeline from anything other than the passengers' seat as I drive my way to world domination!

And that's when Kahli noticed something that she hadn't noticed before while here in the void. It was a fact that she'd always had the purse she carried Froufrou in slung over her shoulder since she bought it, but what she hadn't realized, for whatever reason, was that Froufrou herself had truly been along for the ride here in her [checkpoints]!

Or had she?

The more Kahli thought about it, the more she realized that no, Froufrou had not been here, conscious and moving, as she was now. This must've been a consequence of that other [skill] she'd picked up in her recent leveling session - Kahli now had Froufrou with her in her [checkpoint] due to sharing their systems and their [skills] between one another! But Kahli couldn't move!

Froufrou, decidedly enough, let loose a terribly stinky squelch. This much was clear: Kahli's scary little creature wasn't going to take all this sitting down. Better yet, Froufrou wasn't frozen - which meant she had the ability to act.