Axln was locked in a frame of pure white, a scene that faded quickly after. To her surprise, she fell off her bed and collapsed to the floor.

Axln was muddled in her consideration of the whole scene, as if she might have awakened from a bad dream. Checking her timepiece, she found the time was 24:73e. She then pulled out her cell, noticing that a call from Xwyhr had just recently ended. She very obviously had not just fallen asleep. Getting up again, she stumbled a bit, her leg not responding as well as it should have. Checking it out, she noticed that her leg was slightly pale. Adjusting her circlet, she found that there were trace elements of void.. right around where she had taken that injury. Rushing over to Lyun, she found the girl in a fairly deep sleep, also with a lot of internalized void, but herself gradually recovering in her current circumstances. It was as if everything had both actually happened and .. had yet to happen at all. Clearly, she needed to talk to someone, especially considering how much her ignorance of the elements was haunting her. It may have really been foolish to ignore such principles, something as foolish as if she was Kori and ignoring principles of science in everyday life. Considering this critically, she made her way to the observatory, finding her sister there relaxing as she watched the stars.

“Oh, hey Axln, didn’t expect you would come to a place like this. What brings you here anyway.” “Oh, I.. just thought you might be here.” “Weird, I came here on a whim, no idea how you might have predicted that.” “I guess you could have just called it a feeling of my own. Sorry, I was feeling pretty bad for harping on you about your studying, especially considering how my own have been going. Pretty sure, if I had to deal with a sudden test of my own knowledge of the elements, it would be a disaster. I mean, I’ve been getting some pretty good lessons about it.. but I probably haven’t been putting as much into that sort of thing as maybe I should have.” “Ha! You know.. Yhzia didn’t like to study things like instrumentation or elements either. It's a wonder she somehow became friends with someone like Lyun, who was like all about instruments. Once though, I heard Yhzia had apologies to Lyun about it, some sort of scene where she pretty much had to throw Lyun in for her cause she didn’t know enough about it. Yhzia told me she felt horrible for using Lyun like that. Something about sort of following along with all the work Lyun was doing, but that she probably wasn’t putting enough into that sort of thing as she should have.” Xwyhr was probably trying to help Axln feel better, but honestly it reminded Axln about what her decisions were actually doing. Of course, in much the same way, neglecting such things simply made for more work for Lyun to do. Such was why Lyun had to try and save her.. and then failed.

The two opened a bit of conversation on the elements, though it wasn’t exactly a practical conversation, and it was rather long winded. Xwyhr had some minor fascination with the elements, but most in some of what had inspired her current studies. One day, after an evaluation of their gift, they had discovered that the whole family had a neat devotion to the same element, in matters of stone. She herself happened to be good with rocks, and it so happened that rocks even fascinated her. However, the stones of the world were mostly ashen, so she turned her attention to other worlds that might have stones she had never seen. She had hoped to grow up to be a cosmic explorer, so that she might get to witness other worlds. Yhzia herself had a gift that focused strongly on metals, which had then built her infatuation with the mythos and all of the indepth usage of metals that were promoted there. Their parents were already both explorers, having gone quite the distance in the process to different corners of the world. Actually, her mother was supposedly currently on one of the two moons while her father was off in a crystal factory. He himself had a gift for crystals, but his wife was actually more attuned to wind. As a family, they had always considered their mother an honorary member of the stone, her heart was in the right place. The saying was, they got their element from their father and their desire to travel from their mother. It made Xwyhr really proud to learn that it appeared Axln herself was attuned to sand, there was an instrument handy there which identified things like that. To her, it made Axln yet another complete member of the family.

Suddenly there was the sound of a loud crash that echoed across the entire academy. Xwyhr ran over to the observation instrument and used it to get a good look, a process which seemed to take a lot of effort. After a gasp, Axln took her own turn getting to see what there was to see. Off in the distance, at the edge of the academy, there was a giant swirling mass of white which had just finished smashing into the academy’s protection against the void, the thing having then failed spectacularly. Streaks of white streamlined into the academy from the breach as the thing pressed forward, obliterating everything in its path without reservation. It.. it was the same monstrosity from before.. or last time. She looked at what time it was, noticing it was now 35:94e. She instantly bolted from the observatory, her mind racing. That thing had then shown up regardless of her being out there or not, it was completely inevitable. By sticking here, she had only ran away from the problem, with things panning out just as she had assumed they would have if she had actually ran away there too. This was her second try, and she had already messed up. Would she even be allowed a third? Was doing so even safe? Wouldn’t it be better to find another way, such as forcing it back through a tear into the chaos.

Axln shook her head sharply, diffusing such impulses. No chaos.. not unless it was her own. Entrapping her expectations within herself, she crouched to the floor, her eyes firmly shut as to block out anything else. However, in such a precarious position, she eventually stumbled forward, landing onto her pillow. Taking account of her surroundings, she went immediately to her timepiece, feeling a bit weak and dizzy in the process as she confirmed the time as being 24:73e once again. It felt like she was feeling especially drained, even though she had been a lot better an instant or two ago. Very obviously, reversing the flow of time was taking her own resources, it was something she was doing for herself. Such was the good news, it was not only a capability of her own chaos finally revealed, it was something she could use without inviting more temporal chaos. The bad news in turn was that as such her resources weren't infinite, she couldn’t afford to keep reversing time. If she had to go back again, it was all too possible that she might be too weak to get the job done. She had to make everything work this time.

In consideration of such, she knew she wasn’t all that prepared, she had very little to work with. What she had learned in the process was that her opponent couldn’t endure a saturation of the elements. Lyun had demonstrated that with the thing she had brought. That was it! Lyun had been working on such a project, with it then being workably complete. Axln rushed over to where such a project would have been stored, finding it quickly stashed away. The thing was honestly just a scatter of the big pieces she had seen previously, but putting everything on in the correct positions resulted in a mesh of crystals that she felt covering her skin all over her body. The crystals then integrated with her cybernetics, connecting firmly in response. Axln was stunned, such was basically this world’s version of an exo suit using cybernetic technology. More than even feeling like another layer of clothes, it felt as intuitive as another layer of skin. It even had a built-in ashen protector, a touch Lyun had personally added. Knowing she wouldn’t have time for more, Axln took the opportunity to leave.

She arrived at the same ashen dune by 34:09e, leaving her with a bit of time to try and prepare. She turned her attention to the entire gear, realizing she had no idea how anything worked. It wasn’t as if she had anything handy like at the observatory where they had something which could just see her own aspect of the gift. Actually, she did, didn’t she? Turning to her circlet, she revised it to a detailed scan mode, something which could provide information on the capacity of things, especially related to the elements. She was still a fair novice to the elements, but she still remembered them all. Light and Dark, Sky and Stone, Fire and Frost, Water and Wood. Brought to balance, life resulted, and when drained away, only the void remained. Her gear was a combination of a series of instruments, all working simply by the complete connection in unity. The first thing her sight was able to grasp about it was that whatever elements were provided, those elements would be greater as a result. An amplifier? Then wouldn’t she still actually need an element to offer in the first place?

The sudden shift of white in her environment revealed to her that she was out of time. Dashing back reflexively, she witnessed the white fracture fade away as the mass of void resolved in place of it. Once again, the thing looked at her inquisitively, and once again she was compelled in the same way. Such was not the answer she was looking for, she needed something that was more of her own abilities, a gift she gave to herself. A gift.. of course! Xwyhr said that she had her own natural talent with an element too, that she was strongly attributed to dust. If she could harness her own inner power, she could wield that amplified to her own offense. Actually.. hadn’t she already done that before? She could faintly recall commanding dust at the citadel to quite a magnificent effect. Of course, something there was keeping her at an excessive performance, but she could still trust in her own natural ability. Leaping into the air, remaining focused, she unfurled her crystalline hand as a shower of dust descended with her, slashing down upon the fiend. The thing enraged as a result, lashing out at her retreating frame as portions of the void faded away. Realizing she was too fast, the thing got smart and slashed upwards with the ground, a rain of boulders wailing towards her after having been separated from the ground.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It was like a return of her own attack, stone for stone, but this one was much bigger. Her focus shifted at that, seeking anything that might protect her.. as a barrier came to life around her. Such a barrier looked all too familiar, similar in design to the barrier used by the colossal, the stone bounding off it harmlessly. The elements as a whole were on her side. Returning for another dust claw strike, she managed to slice the thing another four times. Before the fifth try, the thing instead uppercut her with a geyser of the void. Such a strike connected with her shield, which rapidly started to fail. Wait, her shield wasn’t designed to deal with the void? That really did suck, she needed protection for the void right now. Wait.. didn’t she already have one? Turning to her ashen protector, she interweaved it’s functionality into her shield, extending the same concept into that as well. However, the next time she was struck, such a shield still flickered, just not as much. It was an improvement, but she was dealing with something that was far greater in design, it was made with pure chaos.

Technically, to a degree, so was she. Pressing upon herself, she drove her very being into the weave of the shield, her own chaos fitting into the design. The shield around her then went a solid pure white, while she herself felt a sting of some form of pain. She felt a sudden impulse, that if it was chaos she needed, there was a far greater source she could use, it would then easily be provided. No, this was something she had to do for herself, it was her own trial, this was something she knew. What she did not know was that the one element that was effectively the flow of power for all instrumentation was fire, the element that shaped the energy wielded from the core of every instrument. The power source meanwhile was a kyuemu shard, a fragment made from pure void. Fire was the best element for forging destruction, it flowed easily with the void in the presence of the elements. So once she unleashed her next dust claw strike on the beast, the sand flowed with the void of her own design, and the flame of her instrumentation erupted in an augmented state. Such a flame fused with her sand, reshaping it into a glass volley. Such a flame though was trained, it was to work with the other elements, to build and build and build. The glass swirled in mid flight, growing into outright lances that struck down in force. Such a flame, having been blessed by void already, fused into a glass form, felt the taste of another void in much the same nature as it had been blessed by. The glass spread in full around the abomination, weaving through it as an infinitely designed augmentation, consuming all of the void in the process. Once the glass weave was too much for its own design, it shattered, the ground below gaining a brown color in a response to the saturation of elements. For a moment, life had been brought to the void.

Lyun stopped in her approach, staring at the sight. What had Axln done, should it have even been possible? It was like a burst of raw elements, small traces that had grown way beyond control into a burst of life. She was wearing ashen protective gear, but as she approached she didn’t even feel the need for it. However, even being so impressive, such was not enough, the colors very slightly shifting to white within the ashen wasteland. This sanctuary would not last for very long, but it did exist for now. Axln however had fallen over into the brown dirt, having worn herself out. Lyun at least noticed now where that suit had gone, its partner having still been under construction. At the same time, she found Axln’s cell with an incoming call, which Lyun took for Axln.

“Hello.” “Oh, hey, you’re not Axln. What happened to my sister, Lyun?” “Your sister is fine, she just wore herself out. She really pushed herself hard there.” “That was her, wasn’t it? I saw it at the observatory. By the divine, what in the hells happened?” “That’s what I’m hoping to learn, I missed most of it. I only showed up in time to see that rush of elements.” “Oh, really? That’s all I caught too. Is the ground there really brown, not white, or is my stuff dirty?” “No, this is brown.” “Wait right there, I have got to see this for myself.” “Sure, I don’t think we’re going anywhere anyway.” Lyun ended the call with Xwyhr with a sigh. She really wasn’t sure she could endure a confrontation with Xwyhr right now, she was still feeling a bit tired. Even so, maybe it would be a good opportunity to at least return the girl’s house key, something which had still gone all too forgotten. Also, it wasn’t as if that freaky lizard was with her either, she shouldn’t worry so much. She probably also shouldn’t blame the girl for concern too, she had only just learned about losing a sister, this concern over another sister was probably pretty reasonable.

Axln woke up to find herself with company who were both being very uncharacteristic. Lyun looked like she was researching a dirt sample, while Xwyhr was staring at something in her hands in a still silence. Axln however found herself in a sudden hug as Xwyhr took notice that Axln was finally awake, still not saying a word. Okay then. Axln took an opportunity to at least check the time, noticing that it was now 40:16e. Maybe it might be best for them all to just get back to the academy, things were definitely far more comfortable there. At least everyone was finally alright, it had taken so much out of Axln, but everything was going to be fine now. Even so, there was a chance they could end up seeing more things like that, she would need to take what she learned in the confrontation and maybe work out some kind of defensive plan. It did appear that concentrating a burst of amplified elements did a lot to take care of things. It just didn’t help that she didn’t understand much about such elemental principles. Both were things she should probably take an opportunity to discuss with Luna.

“Now that I think about it, where is Luna anyway? Would have expected her to be here too, considering how driven she’s been to look after me?” “What? Don’t you remember? She’s still down after that accident yesterday, you were telling me all about it while you had me go over some of that elemental stuff with you. I hope you at least didn’t forget that lesson, I gave up some study time to help you out with that, you know. You were even telling me just earlier this dawn that you got confirmation that at least an expert was going to show up to look after her health and get her back on her feet. You even seemed so excited about it, even though you said that Lyun was the one who pulled it off.” Axln was completely baffled by this exchange with Xwyhr, none of that making sense to her at all. She turned to Lyun, who looked equally confused. However, after making the long trek back, they found the room where Luna was being kept in recovery, some of the local staff doing what they could so that she was properly looked after. Xwyhr meanwhile went back to her own stuff, though even she probably had no idea what that might be yet. Axln and Lyun then together went back to their underground suite, still with a lot on their mind.

“So.. just checking.. but when I went out to go check on you out in the ashen wild, I could swear I had just done that before. I can still sort of remember going out there to fight.. a thing.. and then I think I got hurt...” “That sort of happened, though I guess then only the two of us are able to witness when we go back in time. I mean, that was when I had discovered I could do it.. and I guess we went back together. It does seem to take a lot out of me, though, which was a weird feeling. Spending your own chaos is.. weird.” “Wait, so that was a chaos thing? That was your chaos thing?” “That was actually my third try, though you probably slept through the second one. You had a pretty nasty injury there, which fortunately went away.” “Yeah, but now Luna got injured somehow. You don’t seem to remember anything about it either. An expert, Ezhyrae? Did I call Ezhyrae? Wait, my cell says I did! When? I would have certainly remembered that call. It says I called just last dawn, but I distinctly remember realizing that I had left my cell in this room when I had rushed off, leaving me to work on stuff without having it handy. How would I have done a call if I didn’t even have it?” “The butterfly effect? Sorry, not sure if that’s a phrase you would know. I mean consider the chances that, having gone back in time, a few other bits of history would then end up being rewritten in the process. Messing with time is pretty big stuff, it would have some rather hefty consequences.” Lyun was rather troubled by the weight of Axln’s theory. Would that mean that the chaos they each possessed, even if it wasn’t the version that would try to eat worlds, it was still a power that came with considerable responsibility. Time.. that really was no light thing, there was absolutely nothing that could rewrite it as far as she knew. It might be possible to have time go faster or slower, but never simply jump back in time. If Axln’s chaotic power was in something so significant, what sort of impossible power might Lyun have that defies all reason?

Soon after, the two of them found each other exactly where they had begun. Lyun had fallen asleep as her worries washed over her, while Axln’s worries were successfully keeping her wide awake in all of her exhaustion.