"Okay, so you talked to time, and instead of asking him to rewind time and get your girlfriend back, you asked for revenge?" Alex asked. "Seems kinda poorly thought out, don't you think?"

"Now listen here you little shit, I knew that it would go against everything Time is to rewind Time. Time can't do that. That is the realm of Chaos, or maybe Madness. I couldn't ask for what I wanted, but I knew that I could ask for revenge. I knew how Time worked, so I got what I wanted." He said, clearly annoyed that this child had dared ask such a stupid question. It should be obvious!

"Okay fine. What about elves? Do you enslave a race of elves or something?" Alex asked instead.

"No, elves are fiction. Use your head. Those are just more false rumors." he said flippantly.

"What was the rumor?" Alex asked reproachfully.

"That I enslaved the children of everyone I killed in battle and cursed their bloodlines so that they would all be forced to work for me, doing back-breaking work until the day they die. Really, stupid rumors, but they got the job done," he said.

"And you said train. I thought that this happened before the crucifixion of Christ?" Alex said, barreling through his horror at the previous statement to distract himself.

"You have to understand, we had just as much knowledge of science as you did, granted to us by our icons. I ruined humanity so greatly that there wasn't enough left to remember." Lanetli said.

"Okay. So let me guess, you get your revenge, and decide to make things right by being nice to everyone and delivering toys for the rest of your life?" Alex guesses.

"There is still much more before we get to that."

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I wake the next morning and hear that I am needed at the command tent. People have accustomed themselves to my presence at this point and are thinking that I really was just facing a scout force that was previously weakened. That combined with Vengeance and my new icon, was why I won, no other reason, they thought.

I walk into the command tent and talk to the commander. "So your team lost its leader. I hear that your contribution was not small. From what I hear you work best alone though. Almost no one had a chance to help you and I don't think you would make a good leader, am I right so far?" he said without preamble.

"I would say so," I respond hesitantly.

"Great. So I've decided to disband your team. The others will join other teams, and you will go it alone, how do you like the sound of that?" he said quickly.

"Fine by me. When can I finish them off?" I say, still hungry for revenge.

"Hold your horses! I like the spunk kid, but you can't go out on your own without a promotion, and the paperwork is still going through. I'll tell you what, we can spread some rumors around the enemy camp of your exploits, and really strike fear into their hearts, eh?"

"Fine. Whatever you deem necessary." I told the man and left. "Tell me when the promotion goes through."

It was a week of me studying what time does to affect the basic rituals. Turns out, roughly nothing. I can summon time-bending chickens instead of regular chickens, but that doesn't amount to the combat potential I was looking for.

I practiced with my eternal moment and found that not everyone is affected by it. Some magi have enough inherent magic to be able to penetrate blanket abilities like that, but it affects enough that it is still helpful in battle. Even the people it doesn't entirely freeze get slowed considerably down.

When the promotion finally came through I was ready to destroy the nation, and as soon as the promotion went through I left, not wanting to wait for ceremonies or congratulations and just waiting for more payment for what I lost. I needed retribution, as hollow as that night I lost her felt, I figured that if I killed more, then eventually everyone responsible would be accounted for and I could kill myself, knowing full well that I was the last person alive to be responsible for the death of a rare disciple of knowledge.

I set out, not to teach the value of Time, though I surely would in my ventures, and maybe even get another power out of it.

I was wandering through the mountains close to the encampment when I came across an outpost of enemy soldiers. They were shockingly close to our base of operations in the region. I decided they would be the first to die. I burst out of the tree line and as soon as I was seen by all thirty men, I activated my eternal moment. I had two minutes, and there were four men not frozen. I targeted them first, summoning my blade with one hand as I pulled a throwing knife from my blood-red robes and threw it at one of the men. They slowly brought up their hand to block with a power they had but were too slow, the knife hitting them in the eye and blood spraying all over their comrades.

I pulled my blade from the floating ritual circle and slammed it into the man, who was not well suited to fighting in an aggressive fighting style. He fell quickly and I moved on, pulling his intestines off of my blade and wrapping them around my head with my free hand as a fear tactic. I smiled and killed each man one by one and left a piece of each body on my person as I did so. I killed ten men before my time was up, and I was already drenched in blood, and wearing parts of the human body like jewelry and face paint. I fell back, fighting all the way, pulling my blade in and out of flesh in no time flat, spraying blood and spinal fluid in huge arcs throughout the air until I had another eternal moment. I activated it and finished off each man. I stole one of their hats because it was cold in the mountains all coated in blood, and for whatever reason, the fur wouldn't stain with the blood and it matched the color of my robe set. I vowed to get the inside of my robes fur-lined when I got back. I set off back, wanting the new robes and needing to mark on the battle maps where the encampment I destroyed was.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I went back, to report the outpost and to get new robes. I set up a simple cleaning ritual and cleaned off on the way back. When I got back I put in the order for new robes and put in the paperwork for the outpost and the men I killed. I would go back out in the morning.

When I woke up I saw the new robes set at the foot of my bed. I geared up and set out.

I continued walking until I saw the enemy encampment. Through raw luck, I must have walked around every other outpost and scout. I crouched low, trying to be stealthy as I walked around to the back of the encampment. The bright red wasn't overly helpful in the white hell that was the mountains but somehow, I managed to get past the sleeping, or gossiping encampment guards.

I got to the center of the encampment and climbed as high as I could. Then I started screaming.

"You have no idea the value of the Time you have left! I can teach you! I will show you!" I waited until I had more attention, then I summoned my blade with one hand, and Time chickens with the other. I jumped down as the chaos that the chickens raised caused people to gore each other. The sporadic, and unpredictable slowing of enemies was much more useful than I had anticipated, and for some reason, it didn't affect me. I killed and dodged, only getting minor scratches and nicks.

I activated my eternal moment as I started getting separated from the chaos of the chickens, who were killing their fair share with their sharp claws and beaks and eating the corpses. To my surprise, the chickens froze as well, and the Time that they slowed was frozen too. Those that were only slowed were almost frozen by the chickens' proximity. I focused on those that were too far from the chickens to be slowed further but weren't frozen.

I dueled each person in turn, with a major advantage of speed and being fully aware of their fighting styles and the counters to each one. I killed twelve of them before my eternal moment was expended. I danced back around battles, killing as I could without being wounded too badly, praying for a power that could help me at the moment. No such luck.

I managed to get back to the chaos of the chickens, where I was relatively safe until my chickens could no longer sustain themselves. I lost myself in the flinging gore the chickens created as they fed and killed. I ambushed man after man that was too close to killing one of my precious chickens. As I was killing my eternal moment became available again. I got out of the mass of chickens and activated my eternal moment again.

The dance continued for hours, I had to stop and re-summon my chickens multiple times and use the chaos to get away from imminent danger.

I heard a sound off in the distance, the calls of horns. These horns, however, have the unique sound of a bird call. These were the sounds of Rajek. I had backup. We fought for several more hours, me not afraid to use gorilla war tactics and Carthigian soldiers too dumb to see a killer in the red snow. I saw no sleep, only vengeance. I had learned the value of Time and was not about to waste it on something as trivial as sleep when my oath could be getting fulfilled.

As I ripped the insides from a man, I looked up and saw two men remaining. The Rajek soldiers had backed off, seeing the one man, the Magi General of the Carthigian military. He motioned for the other man to run and he did. I didn't bother to stop him, and my chickens were disassembling into magic again.

I didn't rush to fight, I simply stood there and tried not to breathe heavily, acting as though the hours of battle had meant nothing to my endurance when really, my magic was starting to run dry. I didn't know how much more I could summon or even just keep my conjured blade whole. I took this moment to build power and prepare.

"Who are you? I heard your bit about Time. Strange really. Do you think you are some teacher? Because you certainly don't fight like one. What about teaching everyone the value of Time means you can kill everyone? Doesn't that negate the point of the lesson if there is no one left to listen? I think you are simply trying to cheat your icon. I know that never goes well." said the Magi General.

"They learn. In the last moments of life, they wish for more Time. Or to have Time back. Or to not have wasted so much Time. They find value, and in that, enlightenment." I say simply. "I also teach that nothing is eternal, and that time destroys everything eventually. Time will leave you all to dust when it is your Time." I tell him.

"Not so fast," he said. He had the Bulwark icon and with it the immortality power. It didn't truly make you immortal, but it did make you one tough son of a bitch to put down. So much so, that people tend to just let the people with the power do whatever the hell they want. But I knew differently. Time was created to destroy the immortal.

I activate my eternal moment. It slows him down, but not much. I keep my grip on my blade, even as it tries to fall to magic, I swing, and I dodge every attack he makes but his powers as a shield are strong. I wasn't getting much damage done with such a simple blade, and my eternal moment was anything but eternal. I started getting reckless as my strength ran out, taking small hits to hit him in his weakest points but he was designed to take a beating, and he wouldn't stop fighting at full strength until he was down.

My eternal moment ended and I did what I could but the magic wasn't flowing cleanly anymore, my blade glowing with green cracks all down it. I take bigger hits and sustain more damage. He wasn't looking good but I was worse. I did a number on him but he could come back. I had to finish him, make some lasting mark on the Carthigians at least.

I threw away all sense of reason, throwing everything I had into each strike, doing my best to avoid getting hit, but prioritizing the hit over everything else. I lunge forward and up, aiming for his eye. It made contact and I felt my blade give way. The Magi General still briefly had metal inside of his skull, however, and could not survive long enough to finish me off.

Then I was back in the infinitesimal void that time called home.

"My student has learned another great lesson. TIME must destroy all in the end of all things. We are the arbiters of their doom that they spend so long running from. We end all of their scurrying, and we cannot be fooled. Any student of TIME must be able to overcome the immortal, and you have. As such, I give you my personal blade, Sonsuz Kiyamet, The Final Moment. I wish you nothing but luck, brave disciple. As a final gift, I shall speed up your recovery. Just this one TIME." said the god.

"Thank you," I said as my wounds closed themselves and I felt the pattern I had to move the magic around me in to be able to instantaneously summon Sonsuz Kiyamet, The Final Moment to my hand, with no magical upkeep at all.

I was ready to fight a god. Then I felt the weariness seep into my bones from the long hours spent in, admittedly joyful, battle. Though I had no wounds, my exhaustion would take much more than Time to heal.