A wave of grey tinted the sky and the land and a blanket of stillness put the world to sleep. An eerie silence descended. Air turned to an unbreakable crystal and even the infinitely slow but unstoppable movement of the plates came to an end.

Only my internal clock remained untouched by the sudden disappearance of time. The unmovable atmosphere blocked my every movement, even my eyelids impeded. The air in my lungs continued to flow but when I tried to exhale it met an immovable.

“Ok, now we should be able to talk,” the unfamiliar voice spoke.

It didn’t emit any sound, nor originated from anywhere. The words appeared from pure nothing, imprinted themselves on the structure of reality and reached my ears traversing the still environment, even if no sound should have been able to propagate. More than my ears, it was my brain that received those words and more than my brain, it was something even deeper.

I tried to open my mouth. The effort I put into that seemingly banal action was incomparable to that of my previous battle. Every millimetre I took was a victory against the laws of the world, which was forcibly put into motion when I tried to speak.

“Who-are-you,” I said mechanically, unable to express my curiosity with my voice.

“Oh, yes yes, I forgot to introduce myself. Well, I don’t actually have a name, but you may consider me as a sort of administrator. The true question is: who are you?”

“Call-me John,” I said, gaining more freedom in my movements as my internal clock began to affect my surroundings. I stretched myself a bit, verifying the status of my body.

A brief silence followed.

“WTF?! How can you move?! I stopped time! I understand you are an anomaly, but this is too much! Anyway, John, you said. Nice to meet you, John! You are one hell of a wrecker, but you already know that much, right? You know…”

“If you wish to converse, you should first show yourself,” I interrupted the voice.

“The hell I’m gonna show myself! I am fine where I am, so let’s just stay as we are, you on the ground, and I somewhere else, capisce?”

For the moment, I could only go along with what the voice wanted to do, so I let it continue as I looked for its origin. Even if I forced my senses, I couldn’t locate it.

“By the way, do you have any idea how surprised I was when I found you? You made a mess of everything! First, you stop an important event, then, you kill a bunch of important characters, after that you go into hiding and then you reappear and almost kill the villain! The entire plot is in disarray! The worst part is, I can’t even re-organize things! Somehow, I can’t touch what you changed. Who or what the hell are you?”

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“I am an archuman,” I went along with the voice’s verbosity.

“An archuman? Wait, I already heard of it somewhere… Was it that only neighbour? Maybe. Wait, I am almost there… Almost there… Yesss! Now I remember! Just kidding, I don’t, ahahahaha! Well, I’ll call you a Fiend, after all you are not a demon!”

“Fiend?” I raised an eyebrow.

“YOU COME IN MY HOUSE AND BREAK S**T UP! I CAN CALL YOU AS I WISH, OKAY?! Anyway, jokes aside, archuman sucks as a name, so we should find something better if you really…”

“Off-topic,” I reminded the voice to stay on track.

“Yes, yes, sorry sorry. How boring… Listen, I came here just to ask you to return to your home and stop destroying mine. Pretty please?”

“In due time”

“What do you mean in due time!”

“I made a promise”

“Oh yeah yeah. The little contract of yours. I found it while rummaging through your little friend’s head. You were quite the a*****e, you know that, right? But listen, I’ll change the story up, so that your dear Violet doesn’t get sacrificed, ok? So, just go home and let me take the demon king away. I need to understand how to salvage this situation, damned me!”

“Found you,” I finally spoke out.

“Wait, what?!”

I ignored the voice and stretched out my hand. My blood burned up and my lymph rose. My skin emitted a purplish glow and my fingers dug through the paralyzed atmosphere, aiming for the sheet of reality behind which the voice hid itself.

“What are you doing?! DO NOT TOUCH THAT!”

“Come and face me, I do not appreciate being looked down upon or from beyond”

“Why are you stuck up on that?!”

“It reminds me of an annoying stare”

My hand carried on and grazed the hiding veil. I tapped around the air, trying to find a point to grasp or a crack where I could dig my fingers. The purple glow became stronger and stronger and as I was about to reach my aim…

The sky turned to the same hue and crashed down on me. The weight of reality pressed down on me and made me sink into the grey ground. I tried to fight against the force and straighten myself up, but I couldn’t move an inch. I was completely overpowered by the voice.

I tried once again and this time I succeeded. The world had returned to its previous motionless state. The hiding veil had disappeared, but I still felt the presence of the voice.

“... What the hell…” a whisper reached my ears.

“Go away. This is not your place,” the playfulness had completely disappeared.

“In due time,” I reiterated.

“NOW!” the voice thundered and the sky turned black. Crimson circles appeared in the canvas of space and an ominous light shined down on me. My body tensed up, perceiving a crisis.

“You won’t get involved with my world anymore, you rogue demiurge. You don’t dare, DON’T DARE, to invade my domain and try to force your authority over me! Take your shell and bring it back from where you came from, or else ichor will be spilt!”

“... Ichor…” I repeated what the voice had said almost in a trance.

I knew what ichor was. I knew what it entailed. Slowly but surely, several disorganised thoughts in my head started to click together and find their place. Things were finally clear.

“I’ll go away if you answer two questions of mine,” I said.

“You violate the accords and yet impose conditions? Very well. I’ll answer your question”

“Are we alike?”

Silence.

“You really don’t know? You even made yourself a shell and you don’t know? Yes, we are alike. Next?”

“Is there someone else like me from where I come from?”

“How should I kn…”

I felt the voice freeze. A thump travelled through reality. It was the equivalent of cold sweat. The voice knew something it didn’t want to say, but the answer was clear.

“Time’s up,” I spoke lively.

I traced my steps back, broke the head of the demon king under my foot and saw reality unravel in front of my eyes, as the last cry of the voice fractured the world.