The door opened into a small room with a table at the center. There was a woman sitting on the other side. “So, Eternity. You’re here.”

Jay nodded. “Yes, I’m here. Now let me through.”

The woman stood up. “I don’t think you know truly who Eternity is, or remember your past. Just remember us five, and come to save us. This is a recorded message.”

The woman faded.

Jay was in front of a door.

Nightingale sat in a cell in her own mind. She sipped some tea which she’d created, watching the events that were currently happening. She was staring at the Emperor, who, in fact, had a superior, so he wasn’t quite any emperor. He was ordering her to use the Sight to call Eternity here and kill him. She watched herself turn to it. As she turned to the Sight, her gaze ran over a book. “The Elements of Eternity. Hmph. As if he knew Eternity.”

This was a book written by the Emperor himself on the exploits of Eternity. The Emperor’s name was not Eternity. Therefore, he was obviously an expert on what Eternity had done. Enough of an expert to write a book from Eternity’s own perspective on his life, without ever even meeting him.

The Emperor was actually a lower rank than her, and yet he could order her around for she was currently a slave. The only ranking in the Monsters was power, though, so she outranked him. And his superior. And their superior. And the one after that. And ten more, actually.

Nightingale humphed as her body posted itself in front of the door. Then she watched him walk in and knew it was worth it. The Sight, a glass candle, burned down. Their time was limited.

She watched Eternity stare at her through the eyes of someone else. A new body. He recognized her. Had he found her message? The one she’d left a… couple billion years ago? Or was it a trillion? Never mind. She’d left it in Memory, ready to show itself to him whenever necessary. Her body raised a hand, ready to strike, but she stopped it. To others, it would simply look like she was convulsing in place.

It was actually an incredible effort that she could only manage because of her examination of the binding mechanism. She couldn’t break it from inside, but she could throw a wrench in it.

Until it adapted.

Eternity spoke. “You said something about… saving you?”

Nightingale smiled in her mind. Her body simply kept convulsing as she saw him examine her with Thought. Then Amon pulled itself out of his body. “Erin?,” She asked, weaker than before. A side effect of reincarnation, she supposed. “We need to break the binding mechanism on her,” Amon continued. “But we can’t do that right now. Grab the treasure she brought for us and leave. We’ll get her later.”

If Amon thought they couldn’t save her, that was definitely true. Nightingale stayed there, vibrating in place, until they stole the Vision she’d left for them. A rip appeared, the Sight’s powers, half depleted, unable to stop Eternity from dragging himself out of the dream. Then she released her hold on the body, noting that the binding mechanism had adapted. She wouldn’t be able to do this again. Her body teleported to the Emperor. “Liege, they have taken the Vision.”

The Emperor snorted. “How?”

“My mind bound me for almost half a minute. Enough for them to get it and leave. It also brought it to them.”

“Who was this?”

A smile emerged in full force on Nightingale’s face as she watched the Emperor’s expression. “Eternity.”

The Emperor got right up in Nightingale’s face, staring through her eyes. “I know you can hear me, Nightingale. So you saved him once. But twice? That will not happen. You’ll rot as a slave-king until you accept your destiny.”

Hope had rekindled in Nightingale, seeing Eternity back in the world of the living, and she wasn’t giving it up now.

The Monsters were oh-so-screwed when Eternity remembered who he was.

Jay pulled out the Vision as he talked to Onyx.

“There was this girl who called me Eternity. Amon seemed to know her.”

Onyx shrugged. “Describe her.”

“Raven-black hair, deep blue eyes, pale skin, though not too pale, a pin of a bird on her chest, a single rune carved on the back of her left hand.”

Onyx paled. “That’s Nightingale. Why’d she let you live?”

Jay shrugged. “She just vibrated constantly while we were there and didn’t do anything else until we teleported out.”

Onyx shook his head. “You should be dead. You have no idea how lucky you are-”

Amon created a head on the side of his arm. “Believe me, I am, at least.”

Onyx pointed at her. “You are far smarter than any of them, gal.”

Amon nodded knowingly. “I know.”

Onyx grabbed the Vision. “Now. First order of business. Do any of you want to read it?,” he asked the group. Jay startled, finally noticing that his friends had entered the room at some point.

They all raised their hands. “All right. You get first reads. I’ll have people watch to make sure you don’t combust, but you should be fine. Why can’t all my students be like you?”

Drake grabbed the book, and they all sat down. He dropped it, falling onto his back as his eyes closed. “Don’t worry. He’s just seeing the memory. No one else can read the book until he’s done with it, though.”

Jay shrugged. “So, what’s happening with the Metallics?”

A frown appeared on Onyx’s face. “They’re conscripting random kings’ soldiers and forcing them to fight. We’re just killing all the soldiers except the ones who surrender and join us.”

Jay looked around at his team, who looked wiped from the constant running. “Well, we’ll join the war effort in… a week, you think?”

Crystal nodded. “That sounds good.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Jay nodded. “Give us a week.”

Onyx sighed, rubbing his head. “You’ll have it. This war is a massive headache.”

“I can’t agree more.”

Chapter 15

Jay picked up the book after Drake did. As he did, he felt the book shift-something intrinsic had changed in it. Jay turned it over, to look at the title. “The name changed. It’s called ‘What Eternity Once Saw’ now.”

Onyx snatched the book, looking at it for a split second before handing it back. “Well, don’t dwell on it. You’re next, and I have to babysit all of you to make sure you don’t die.”

Jay opened the book, and was instantly out, sucked into the Vision.

He watched a man, standing with an army, somehow highlighted among them to his mind. He stood in a battlefield, covered with enough blood to be unrecognizable. The scene suddenly paused. “I was fighting a war I never should have been in,” a voice sounded behind him. Jay turned, stepping back in shock as he saw a clone of himself standing behind him, speaking. “I was ten years old, part of an army against the rest of the corrupted world. Even as a child, I knew this-our country was kind, and nice, and gave its people all that it could. The rest of the world was jealous-they wanted our prosperity.”

“So they attacked?”

The Jay behind him nodded, smiling slightly. “They did. Our country, forever benevolent, allowed people to choose whether or not to fight instead of simply making every able person do so. And so, this war occurred.”

His clone waved a hand at the scene they were watching. “This is my first battle. Our army is clashing with theirs to hold our western flank-if we lost this, the war was over. We were done.”

He pointed at their side of the army. “We carefully calculated to make sure our side would win handily. What we didn’t calculate was an archmagus deciding to go with the other side.”

The scene started moving again, and the armies crashed into each other. Jay could see from here that the child was fighting masterfully, defending his friends while fighting his enemies, though he was far smaller than any of the soldiers on the battlefield. Then a figure came into view in midair, a lightning bolt crackling in their hand. Lightning descended, and the army the child was fighting for was suddenly gone. Only a few stragglers were left, including the child. The army descended with spears, ripping through the remaining soldiers, who ran for their lives, but the child was different. He stood, gripping the broken shaft of his spear, and screamed defiance in the face of death.

Then the scene paused again, and Jay turned back to his clone, who was staring at the scene expectantly. Then Jay turned back, and realized it wasn’t truly paused, the child moving through the frozen world. He walked through the army and to the archmagus, and tried to stab his spear through the archmagus’ brain. Nothing happened, the shaft breaking on the archmagus’ face.

“This wasn’t me who had actually stopped time this first time. It was Chronos, one god of this world, and it was simply to torment me he did it.”

A glowing figure appeared on the battlefield. “Hello, child. Have you lost your parents?”

It started guffawing, looking at the child. “I can imagine you won’t have a good time when I let this army move again. Kid, you want to take your chances fighting me instead?”

The child gazed at him with calm eyes. “You’re next. My first target is this army,” he said in his childish voice.

Chronos let out another laugh, and the army moved again, the archmagus staring at the kid, surprised to find him in their midst. Uncaring, he pulled out a lightning bolt, prepared to smite him and half his army. Soldiers near him pulled out spears and stabbed at the kid, who seemed to have no way out. The scene paused, for real this time.

“I was angry. I wasn’t just going to die. So I reached outside myself and found my Will and wove it into Thought. This is when I discovered Force, and Momentum, and all the things that go along with it.”

The spears all missed the child, striking their own comrades, as the child stared at the archmagus. “I’m coming for you,” the child said, somehow flying straight up, in front of the archmagus in an instant. The archmagus threw their lightning bolt, but the child was no longer there, but behind the archmagus instead, taking the archmagus’ own dagger and putting it through his skull.

The archmagus’ body fell to the ground, and the child fell as well, but didn’t hit the ground quite in the way the archmagus did. The archmagus exploded, falling from such a height his body simply broke apart. Eternity hit the ground with no impact, simply walking towards the enemy army, only a dagger held in his hand. His enemies encircled him with a good amount of fear, but the child simply moved and cut his way through the army, leaving a path of blood behind him. Nothing hit him, the child simply walking between all the attacks as his dagger flashed through helmets and into skulls. Eventually, he came upon a brute, a hulking giant of a man wearing giant plates of metal on his body.

The child had no reaction but to smile and tap the man, who exploded from the instant force the child had generated. “That’s the force from falling. I absorbed it and held it until now,” his clone said.

The battle ended as you might expect, with the child sitting among the bloody corpses and eventually going to sleep. Jay turned to his clone. “Who are you?”

“That is your introduction to Force. And I’m Eternity.”

His clone’s words carried a pressure behind them, whispers sounding in his ear that he should run from anyone who bore this name. “We’re Eternity now.”

“So I suppose you are. Bear the title with pride, for you are the new Eternity, and forever shall be so. Sweet dreams.”

Jay woke up, finding Onyx staring directly down at him. Instinctively, he shot a shockwave upward, sending Onyx flying a short distance before he reappeared next to Jay. “What was that for?”

“You surprised me!”

“I see you’ve gained the element of Force,” Onyx said, his expression disapproving from the earlier flight. “Quite a useful one to have.”

Jay shrugged as Catherine eagerly grabbed the book, ripping it open violently enough he worried she would damage it then falling over, eyes glazed.

Onyx glanced at her, turning back and nodding to him. “Well, go practice a little bit with your new toy. I’ll just watch Catherine here.”

Jay nodded, going to the training hall. Amon, I met Eternity.

Good. Show me what you’ve learned.

Blasts of force hit the training dummies as Jay wove between them, shadow fighting a group of enemies. He stopped his dashes at odd timings, absorbing his own force, building it up as he kept moving, and exploding it through vicious attacks that destroyed the dummies, leaving nothing behind. When Jay was done, nothing was left of his section of the room, all the dummies smashed into the straw they were made from. Impressive. I suppose it would be, since you learned from him directly.

Jay shrugged. I still don’t really know who he is, but alright.

You’ll learn.

Jay walked out of the training hall, and to the tower where their dorms were. I wonder.

It’s a bad idea.

I’m doing it anyway.

Crystal stared at Jay, teetering on her windowsill. He was tapping on the window, presumably asking her to open it and let him in. Rolling her eyes, she went back to reading. Jay tapped the window again and her eyes narrowed at him. A final tap sent her over the line.

Jay stared at the expanding fireball in his face. I should probably jump now, right?

You should have jumped ten minutes ago.

Jay jumped, feeling his back burn from being so close to the now exploding fireball. He hit the ground, absorbing the force and releasing it into the air and ground in short, harmless bursts, watching the tower. That didn’t go as planned.

It’s Crystal. Did you think she’d let you in? Seriously?

True, that.

Then Jay saw another fireball appear in front of him. This is bad.

I disagree. This is funny.