A shining silver dagger that seemed unadorned, simple, and straightforward sent sparks flying as it glided across an odd red-colored steel longsword, the sparks were more of a reddish color with specks of white, creating a glorious valiant fighting scene.
The dagger swept down the side of the longsword at a terrifying speed, its motion similar to that of a snake, slithering across, controlling the sword’s potential force.
Another silver dagger, slightly bigger in length came from another side, striking the long sword with tremendous force, sending a blasting force launching the red-colored long sword from the hands of its wielder in sudden surprise.
The speed of the fight far exceeded that of the mortal eye, if a normal mortal stood there watching, they would only feel whipping winds shearing anything in its path at devastating speeds, likely to rend them into a mist of blood before they could even realize the advent of their death.
The two entities who fought?
The Gods. Titles of grandeur separating the weak existences from the strongest rulers who forged their own paths through blood and tears.
An assassin-looking figure was shrouded in black cloth, only wearing a white mask with no obvious features except for a single black eye that was vertical on the forehead area. The assassin wielded his silver daggers with masterful grace, like an elegant snake performing a dance of death.
His foe?
A monster of terror, an abomination that one could immediately tell that it didn’t belong in the plane of reality. The enemy of the thief was an eldritch horror of a knight, its head was like that of a deformed abomination of a fish, with razor-sharp teeth counting into the hundreds. Its scaled-fish-like head was of red color similar to its twisted metallic armor, also similar to its red long sword.
The creature was roaring in fury as its longsword was sent flying from its grasp. The assassin, after sending the sword flying, launched himself into the air twisting like a side-ways spin top, sending hundreds of silver slashes into the monstrosity. Which was quickly bisected by the chainsaw-like attack.
The abomination of a creature fell apart with red matter splattering with purple-ish blood flowing quietly from the bisected parts of the eldritch knight.
In the area, countless of similar red-knight abominations had their swords fell on the ground with a *clang* bouncing off the grey stone floor as they were killed in mass. The assassin-like figure released a breath that was held, an audible sigh escaped his mouth as he looked up, behind the mask was a middle-aged figure who held a sad smile.
Looking up, the assassin-like figure saw an endless plane of grey stone, a landscape with hills and mountains made of similarly colored stone could be seen in the far distance of the massive battleground.
Here… countless heroic gods who’ve mastered various abilities from the elements, to dazzling psychic powers, to pure martial prowess harnessing the famous Qi. Flashy abilities obliterated the already devastated stone landscape as warriors of legends fought these demons.
There is no rest for the wicked. The middle-aged figure wrapped in black clothes said inwardly as he walked like a shadow through the intense battlefield.
The man went into a pose like that of an Olympic sprinter, one ready to launch at high speed from any signal.
3.
The man started a countdown inwardly, and the world which was already bleak started to slow down in the man’s eyes, so much so, that it was almost to the point of frozen time.
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2.
In the man’s view a large spatial crack suddenly appeared, it was growing quickly in front of him.
He knew that this was where the abominations came from, a place where only three before him, had made it back from. The legendary God-Kings, those who sit on their lofty thrones looking down on the infinite universe playing people like dolls, these were the True Gods.
1.
An audible terrifying roar broke through the frozen time, reaching the man, it was deep in tone, yet felt like metal on metal, a screeching that made one cringe and shiver from its terrible evil-borne nature.
With a push not seen by many, the assassin-like figure darted past countless heroic figures battling red-colored knights, the battlefield suddenly lost its meaning. Flashing by the assassin saw other demonic creatures who had black twisted armor and stood easily four times larger than the already behemoth-like eldritch horror red-armored knights.
Into the abyss. May fate carry me ever onwards, may my destiny never find its truth, may I have the power to steal time.
The assassin disappeared into the spatial crack, the spatial crack the next moment revealed a black-metallic eldritch knight captain. Its body as it left the spatial crack separated into two, just like that of the red-knight eldritch creature from moments before.
Instantly the spatial crack closed at that moment, at the same time, every presence at that moment looked at the spot where the assassin just was, astonishment, confusion, and intrigue could be seen on the face of all the heroic humanoid figures.
The red-colored and black-colored metallic eldritch knights all looked at the spot before continuing their assault on the very gods themselves, the endless battle continued.
In a spatial tunnel that seemed both instant and infinitely long hid an assassin, he seemed to tear through the tunnel with his pure will as he appeared in an endless limbo. Yellow deserts full of sand and lifeless tree forests in clusters appeared, the assassin quickly taking in the view and registering it with his own information.
The assassin at some unknown point hid his silver daggers and in his hands was an onyx-like gem, in the heart of the gem lay a cyan glow. With a powerful force, the man crushed the gem in his hands. A new spatial portal that was much different from the one before appeared.
This one had a ring of cyan glow, the portal itself had a solid black color, unlike the twisting darkness the abominations came from.
The assassin jumped into the portal.
At that moment, the area where the assassin had just stood was devastated as a gigantic purple veiny hand crashed upwards from the ground from below. The purple hand tried to grasp the location where the assassin was previously, yet it only grabbed the void itself, space collapsing in on itself, eviscerating the surroundings in hundreds of desert-filled miles.
*RAAAAAAAAAGH*
An angry roar shattered the space in thousands of miles, breaking the earlier record easily, its voice muffled from the desert barren floor. Various colored abominations on the surface ground hidden in the clusters of lifeless trees surfaced from the clearing and searched the surroundings, yet nothing was found.
…
In another location in the very Abyss itself was an isolated space made completely of the pure dark void. There was a collapsed skeleton holding a lit lantern on a stone circle, outside of the circle was an endless twisting ocean of shadows seemingly wanting only to devour exsitance itself.
On the stone circular platform floating on the twisting shadowy ocean, the assassin appeared from a cyan-ringed spatial gate. The assassin walked towards the corpse.
“A god who almost stole time, yet they faced the consequences for trespassing the rules of existence itself. Horus, a god of, oddly enough, healing and protection. He wanted to sacrifice himself to save the top one-hundred gods who adventured in the abyss to end the war.” A deep but oddly clear voice appeared from the masked assassin, his voice seemed alluring and gentle, one would almost be mesmerized from hearing his voice.
The shrouded man walked over to the bare skeleton which held a golden glass lantern, inside of its locked cage was an illusionary hourglass that hovered without touching the lantern itself.
“The greed of gods had caused many to die from merely touching the Hourglass of Time. Yet, only I will succeed in controlling time, because I have what others don’t.” The assassin smiled beneath his white mask, a shit-eating grin appeared on his face.
“Fucking brains.”
The assassin didn’t touch the lantern at all, instead, he seemed to grasp at the air, and an odd wood glove suddenly appeared, to which he put on his right hand.
“The glove made from the eternal tree…” The assassin looked down as he smiled.
At that moment, one would realize that the deadly assassin was in fact no assassin at all, but a thief.
He opened the case hiding the floating hourglass, the glove seemed to turn from a dark brown color to grey instantly then reverted back to its dark brown color almost instantly.
The smile beneath the mask grew ever wider. A screen appeared in front of the middle-aged thief.
System
You’ve gained the Unique trait: The Thief Who Stole Time
* As the first to accomplish this task, you’ve been awarded by helping Akashic Records complete a major milestone in its possible records.
Reward: Travel back in time to 1/1000 of the user’s lifespan
The thief was stunned before pointing at the sky and then started to monologue.
“Wait you fucking bastard, it may have been my goal from the start to travel back but I wanted to do it by myse-”
The thief vanished from his spot before he could finish his words. The lantern and skeletal corpse still stood in their exact spot, yet the lantern’s hatch was open, the hourglass gone.