When I woke up, Miku was already gone. I suspect she is in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for all of us. I climbed out of bed and changed into my suit, then tumbled down the stairs into the living room, where Master is reading the newspaper there. I guess my wives are helping out Miku to cook or trying to learn how to properly cook from her.
“Good morning, Master.” I said this with a yawn.
Master did not stir from his newspaper. Instead, he reached out his hand from behind the newspaper and give a silence sign. I tried to sneak into the kitchen but a barrier has been set up at the door to keep me out. Seems like they are really determined to not let me cook for whatever reason that I will never be able to know why. Well, I don’t mind if they can actually cook, but judging from what turned out when Time last tried to cook, I don’t think all of them can actually cook. With Miku in there though, it should be fine I guess?
I walked around the living room while blasting Vocaloid music with the radio. Then the barrier went down, the 3 girls all came out, on their hand they carried plates of normal looking food: a fried egg, 2 sausages and a French toast. I hope the food isn’t just good looking, hopefully they are edible as well. Miku placed the plate of food in front of me.
“Master, I spent my time cooking this up, please enjoy it!”
“Did the others get involved in making this?”
“I only allowed them to take a look at how I prepared. I’ve known their skills on cooking to be extremely horrifying, where anything edible will magically turn into something absolutely disastrous in the end.”
“You are right on point about this. Just 2 days ago Time tried to cook for me and the end result is rather…uh…dissatisfying. It was horrible, distasteful and unpleasant to consume that…thing. Please take the place as the chef for cooking the meals now on Miku, I simply don’t trust the others in their ability to cook. However, do give them chance in looking at how you prepare dishes. Hopefully they will be able to take up some of your cooking skills and be able to cook properly in the future.”
I gulped down my breakfast and brought my plate to the sink to wash them. I then went to greet Master and the others before they left. Only Miku and I are left in the house now.
“Miku.”
“Yes Master?”
“I need you to activate a mana shield around yourself. You should know the reason why.”
“Of course, Master.”
We both then entered the Void Storm. It appears that the previous Innight has scanned in Miku’s data into the ship so she can enter it as well. I begin activating the Space Warp function. Suddenly a ring come from my watch. I took a look at the caller, it is Nightius. I pressed the “Receive” button.
“Hello, Innight? Are you there?”
“Yes. Yes I am, Nightius.”
“Something catastrophic happened! When you reached school immediately come to my laboratory! I need your help!”
“Understood.”
I then hand up the call.
“Was that Nightius?”
“It is. Apparently, something big happened at his laboratory. I don’t know what is it about though, probably it has something to do about his discovery on the Time Cubes. Come to think of it, Miku, did the previous Innight told you about anything related to this Time Cube?”
“About that, please wait…
She suddenly froze, her face went completely blank and I waved my hand at her.
“Hello, Miku? Hello?”
“Data bank 0 is missing. Please insert data bank 0.”
So she does this whenever she is retrieving information from her data bank. I thought something went wrong in her system. Seems like all the important information are locked behind a gate, and I need to find the key to unlock it. The thing is, how though? I don’t even have a single clue as to how and where to start the hunt of the data banks. Yet if I don’t find them, I will never be able to learn many crucial information, especially about the symbols, which I suspect he has hidden the key in the data banks.
“Detection timeout.”
Miku moved again, shaking her head.
“Sorry. It appears that information is located within a data bank that is missing from my system. I’m sorry I can’t provide you with those information, Master.”
“It’s fine. Knowing him, he probably hid it somewhere for me to find it. He seems to really like puzzles, doesn’t he?”
“Master does.”
After Void Storm performed Space Warp, I entered the school and head for the Magic Laboratory with Miku. When I knocked on the door of the lab, no one answered. I shouted at the top of my lungs, no one came. I decided enough is enough, so I materialized an electric saw and break down the door.
“INNIGHT! YOU SHOULD HAVE WAITED A LITTLE WHILE LONGER!”
“WELL I’M SORRY, YOU TOOK TOO LONG TO RESPOND SO I THOUGHT YOU ARE TOO BUSY TO ANSWER THE DOOR! Well, so what is it that you call me for?”
“It is terrible! Disastrous! Unbelievable! Catastrophic! You have to see this yourself!”
Nightius brought me to a room, inside there is a Time Cube sitting on the ground.
“So what is the problem here?”
“When I last checked the inventory, which was last evening before I left the school, I have around a million Time Cubes inside this room. This morning when I checked again, there is only one left! ONE! ALL THE OTHER TIME CUBES HAVE VANISHED!”
“This is calamitous indeed.” I said in a grim voice. “I’ve told you before, Nightius, that these things are very powerful tools. Anyone with malicious intentions that get their hands onto this Time Cube are going to cause many problems. They will become unstoppable with Time magic and that will grant them the ability to overthrow the current system that this Timeline is set upon, and to reconstruct it into a world of their choice. No one can go against them and no one can prevent it from happening.”
“I know all of that.”
“And the best part is, it is all your fault.”
“I know.”
“I did tell you before that you should have terminated the experiment and destroy all the Time Cubes that you have made. You never listened to me, now look what have happened. You have a long explanation to give to Master Inoxion about this incident, and he will not be pleased about this.”
“I know,”
“His punishment is going to be heavy. It is likely that it is not going to be just him stripping away your position and power. He is going to kill you.”
“I’m prepared for that.”
“Destroy the recipe for your Time Cube. I do not want whoever who has stolen those Cubes to be able to create more of these Time Cubes. We already have a big enough problem on our hands to solve without that.”
“Uh, about that…”
“Let me guess, you also let that get stolen as well.”
He nods very slowly and looked at the floor.
“…I am at loss for words to describe you. Killing you now is an act of mercy. I will report all of this to Master Inoxion, I will let him decide what will your punishment be. I shall take my leave now.”
He remained silent as I left the room. Miku is waiting for me outside the door of the Magic Laboratory.
“So what actually happened, Master?”
“Some really bad news, Miku. Nightius is going to have a rough time. All the Time Cube he has manufactured has disappeared. Also, I have to find out your data bank 0, because it might contain important information about this Time Cube. I have suspicions that the previous Innight have some idea about this Time Cube, and he hid it all away in data bank 0. The thing is, I don’t have the slightest hint on where to start finding this data bank.”
“Perhaps, Master, you can start by trying to decipher the Symbols first?”
“I’m not sure how to. I do not have the skills in doing so. I have to research about it in the library later.”
When we went to the class, it was as lively as usual, until I stepped in, where all the attention focused onto me again. I am certain that they are planning on how to try to kill me again.
I sat at my seat and waited for Luricerite to arrive. Many people passed by my seat and they secretly placed spells of all kinds near me, but since I have my magic nullification barrier up, they have no effect on me. Many people tried to talk to Miku, but she dismissed them all. Then Luricerite marched in.
“Today the school is having an event, everyone has to attend it. Innight, you too.”
So much for having a break time to research on decoding messages. I guess I can do that after the whatever event is over. Someone raised their hand.
“Mr. Luricerite, what event is this going to be?”
“In this event, capsules containing tickets for redeeming various prizes are hidden all around the school. Your objective is to look for them using whatever methods you wish to. If you encounter someone who has a capsule, you can enter a battle with them to earn the prize for yourself. There is only one rule in this event, that is you are NOT allowed to kill anyone. You can injure them with magic, but they must not die or else you will be executed.”
“Mr. Luricerite, what are the prizes?”
“There are on this poster, take a look for yourself.”
Luricerite produced a large poster, on it is crammed with words, I tried to make out what it is saying.
“Poison Staff, Devil’s Trident, Oceanus Blade. All of them sound interesting to have. However…”
However, the Grand Prize is what attracts me the most.
“The Grand Prize… Miku, look!”
“Indeed Master, that is interesting!”
The Grand Prize is a luxurious trip to the Core and a custom magic weapon made just for the winner. I have never visit to the Core of this world before, plus there is still much that I have yet to learn about this world. Also, a custom magic weapon sounds fascinating, I will like to have a custom weapon built personally for me and me only. The thing is though, to find that ticket inside this entire school compound is going to be a challenge. This challenge is intensified by the fact that others will fight me to earn that ticket and me being a target for them to kill, for which I still don’t have the reason as to why.
“Ah, I forgot to say this, there will be droids in the playing field who will fight against you. They are robots that are capable of casting intermediate level magical spells, they will attack you the moment you come into their detection range. They are not intended to be destroyed so they will repair themselves after being defeated. We will disable them after the entire event is over.”
This looks like it is going to add another level of difficulty onto the game itself. Almost everything is trying to kill me, so I am at an extreme disadvantage here. I will see how am I going to try to survive this onslaught, I can also test the strength of Miku in this battle as well.
“Alright. Everyone prepare yourself in whatever way you want to. Once the clock strikes 8 and the bell rings, the event will begin. This event will last until school ends, which is 5 p.m. Have fun!”
Saying that, Luricerite walked out of the classroom.
I quickly snuck out of the class after that. I am affirmative that everyone is going to try to kill me with their strongest magic spells the moment the event starts, and if that isn’t going to kill me they are going to recruit others to do this as well. There is only so much that my barrier can handle before it breaks, it is not invulnerable and it definitely does not grant me invincibility. If that isn’t enough, no one is going to revive me if I’m really dead, and my wives are going to suffer from a breakdown if that really happens.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I went to the library with Miku following me behind. The librarian is nowhere in sight when I went in. All the staffs must have hide themselves away somewhere to prevent getting involved in the battles the students are going to have. I went to search on a book about decoding messages, and finally after 10 minutes I managed to find one book that is loaded with information about decoding such messages. Then I heard the bell ringing. The event has begun. I continued reading the book.
“Master…”
“Not now Miku, I’m trying to gather proper data here.”
“Master, it is really urgent.”
I looked up from my book.
“Alright, what is it?”
“There are people coming down the hallway, and from what I can read they are trying to find you, then they will report your coordinates to everyone else so they can all hunt you down.”
…As I would have expected from those barbarians. I need to find a proper place to hide so I can finish this book and live through this event. However, I also have the Grand Prize to think about. I want to have that prize so badly, but I can’t go out finding them without exposing myself to the environment. The moment I expose myself I risk the danger of being hunt down by the entire school population. Is there a way that I can do this without being noticed?
Then an idea cropped up in my mind: I could concur some potions and use them. The Magic Laboratory should be empty, I can grab some ingredients from there and concur up an invisibility potion. If I did it correctly, it should be able to last for 5 hours. That is long enough for me to survive the entire day.
I quickly snuck out of library from the backdoor, with Miku following me behind. I turned and looked around and saw no one in sight. I let out a sigh of relief. I walked down the hallways and down the stairs to reach the Magic Laboratory. The door is still missing due to my act earlier, it appears that the repair workers are too busy to repair the door before the event starts. I entered the lab and start looking for the ingredients for the Invisibility potion.
“Let’s see. Several drops of vitality of an elemental, 5 grams of essence of the Void, 5 swirls of Dark Energy, a drop of liquified Luminite… I think we have all that here. I need to melt them all in the cauldron under low heat…”
I poured all the reagents into a small cauldron on one of the benches, then turned on the flame. All the reagents started melting and the solution slowly turned grey with a tinge of blue illuminating from the mixture. I waited for the solution to cool down first, I start walking around the room while waiting for it.
“Master, warning, someone is coming into the laboratory.”
“Goodness, I just don’t have time for anything, isn’t it?”
I picked up the cauldron and drank the entire solution inside, burning my tongue in the process. Almost immediately my hand vanished from sight. Miku is still standing by my sight when this happened. I put back the cauldron onto the bench.
“Knock Knock, Innight, are you there?”
Poor knock knock jokes are just poor, please don’t try it…
3 girls burst into the room, each of them holding either a spell tomb or a sword.
“Strange… I’m certain that my Eye of Certainty saw him in this laboratory doing something.”
“We all have to keep an eye out of him, and at the same time aim for the grand prize. If we can eliminate him in this event, we will finally be granted our dearest wish. If we can do that and also get the grand prize, then all the more better!”
“Let’s go, there’s nothing here of interest to us.”
Saying these, the 3 girls left the room. Then I just realized something, Miku is missing from the room. She couldn’t have left without me knowing. Then she suddenly just appeared from thin air.
“Don’t scare me like that Miku. How did you just disappear like that?”
“I can use advanced level magic, my magic capability is around an Angel’s level, I use a spell to hide my presence away from all others, so no one can detect me at all.”
“You should use a spell that can selectively hide yourself away from others so that I can see you!”
“Sorry Master. I will do that the next time.”
Alright, now that I’m invisible, let’s go and find the capsule. Hopefully no one has found it yet.”
We both head off to find the capsule. Miku activated a selective invisibility spell so only I can see and hear her. Our first searching spot is the first-floor classrooms. There were no one inside when I entered the first classroom on the top floor, so we don’t have to worry about bumping into anyone.
“Miku, can you do a scan to see that if there used to be capsules in this classroom?”
“I just performed it. There used to be one. It is now in the possession of a girl outside the fields, she is currently engaged in a battle against the droids.”
I sighed. From the poster given to us, there are about a thousand magic weapons in the list, so there are a thousand capsule to find, and only one of them contains the grand prize. This is going to be a monumental task, trying to sieve out the one out of these many choices, together with the fact that we have to end up fighting people that have our prize, this makes it doubly difficult to get it.
“Miku, I’m going to ask you to do a difficult job. I’m not sure if you can do this, so I’m going to put your limits to the test, I hope this will not break your system.”
“It will be fine Master. If the operation you input is larger than the amount of calculations that I can handle, my computer will automatically terminate the operation so everything will still operate as per normal.”
“Miku, I want you to calculate the current position of the one thousand capsules. I need this information so I can search every single one of them to find the capsule containing the grand prize.”
“This might take a while Master, so please be patient.”
Saying these, Miku froze. While she is processing the request, I took out the book on decoding and continue reading it.
“The first thing to realize when decoding a message is to note the frequency of the alphabets used. In English, ‘e’ is the most common letter out of the 26 alphabets. So, using this information, whatever message that is encrypted, as long as the original intended message is written in English, it can be decoded. Following that, one can then slowly deduce the other letters using the common words that contains the letter ‘e’.”
I think the original message is written in English…. I am quite unsure of the abilities of the previous Innight in this Timeline, so I do not know whether he knows how to speak the language of the Elemental Planes. However, I think it is safe to assume the original language is written in English. I will try to decode the Symbols once I get back home. Hopefully I can have a lead on where the 4 data banks are located.
“I’m done on processing Master.”
“Good job, can you print out a map of the locations for me?”
“I will need a printer to do that.”
“It’s a good thing my suit has everything that one needs.”
I materialized a printer using my suit and placed in front of Miku. She connected herself to the printer using a strand of her long turquoise hair. There is some whirring sound coming from the printer before a piece of paper appeared from it. I took out the piece of paper and saw points with names on it cluttered on the map and moving in various directions. I then absorb the printer back into my suit.
“Good. Now we have to hunt down every single one of the capsules and search for the one that has the ticket for the Grand Prize. Miku, I will need you to help me out on this. You have to attack anyone that has a capsule and then take it from them, then check for the prize. If it is not the grand prize, return it to them. I will, on the other hand, check for those capsules that have yet to be discovered. Use this for communication.”
I hand her a small while circular object.
“This is a communication piece, do not lose it. When you have tried every capsule or when you have found the capsule that we want, meet back at the entrance of the library. If you did not manage to get anything, it is fine.”
“Ok.”
We then part ways. I continued checking the classrooms for signs of capsule, at the same time I keep an eye out of Miku on the map. When I was on the third-floor classroom, I encountered Miku and all my wives. They were all fighting against each other, which I think it is because of the capsules. I hate to see my girls fighting like this, but I have to earn the grand prize at all cost.
I somehow have a feeling that all these events have been planned and foreseen by the previous Innight, and that they are all chained together in sequence for me to figure out the puzzle one after another. If my guess is right, the next piece of the puzzle is located somewhere at the Core. But before I can head for that puzzle, I need to be able to learn to decode and read Symbols.
When I came back to my sense, the girls were standing in a formation, Miku against Charlotte, Nicki and Time, they were all breathing heavily, sweat is dripping from their foreheads and the room is in a mess with cracks clearly visible on the walls. It is clear to me that they have used magic to withstand the entire school structure to prevent it from collapsing, so that they don’t have to reconstruct the entire school after the entire event is over.
“Just hand it over, and I will not harm you any further.” Miku said to the 3 girls.
“No. We don’t trust you. We don’t trust the current Innight either. Both of you seems to be wrapping up in more mysteries and that has never lead to anything good. The last time you both tried that, you lead to the Common World Domination.” Time said.
So that was my fault? Now I think I know why so many people wanted to kill me. If I was the cause of the entire Event that nearly caused a revolution of this entire Timeline, it is of no wonder that everyone will try to kill me to get revenge on it.
“And if that wasn’t enough, you nearly lead to the reopening of the Time Gate!” Charlotte continued for her. “You should have known that what actually will happen if the Time Gate reopens!”
Time Gate? What is the Time Gate? I appear to have very little knowledge about this world, I need to know more about it. It seems this Time Gate is a very dangerous object to be messed around with, from what they say. I wonder if I will be able to find more information about it? I will take a snoop around the library later to see if I will be able to find more record of this thing.
“Anyway, we can’t let you and Innight earn this weapon. You two will spell the end of the world if you manage to get your hands on this thing!” Nicki finished the statement.
Saying these, the three of them fired a laser simultaneously towards Miku. Miku absorbed the spell into a ball using her bare hands and fired it back at them. I rushed out of the classroom before the spell could bounce back into the three girls.
“This sounds like trouble in all ways possible. They also don’t trust me, so that also means that what the previous Innight stated to be true. I need to find more clues about this world and find the real antagonist in this Timeline.”
Somehow, I feel, what the previous Innight was doing is an act of finding the real antagonist and the real cause of the reactivation of the Time Gates and the Common World Domination is probably them, the group of antagonists. If only I can read the Symbols in his diary, I will then be able to figure out what did the previous Innight actually did. I will have to start decoding the message by tonight. Somehow, Miku’s warning last night gives me a bad feeling about all of this.
I continued the search, and finally reached the ground floor. I took a look at the clock outside the classroom, it reads 4 p.m.
“Just one more hour then I will be safe for the day.”
Just then, I realized the potion effects are wearing off. I can slowly see my hands becoming visible.
“This is bad.”
Suddenly I hear a large group of people heading in my direction.
“This is going to be a terrible hour.” I mumbled to myself.
I quickly activated a mana barrier and run out of the room at the fastest speed possible.
“There he is!”
“Everyone, ONWARDS!”
The next hour felt like the longest hour I have ever experienced. There were so many people chasing me, bolts of spells and incantations flied across me or hit on my barrier in such a rapid succession, people shouting and screaming at the top of their lungs about killing me and eliminating me altogether. I am quite positive that Time, Charlotte and Nicki are within the crowd but because I am just simply too busy trying to survive the event I couldn’t be bothered to figure that out. Everywhere I go they are people trying to hunt me down, and the numbers increases as I go around more places.
Finally, the bell rang, signifying the end of the day. Everybody continued firing spells at me and I kept running around with the large angry mob seeking for my blood. It wasn’t until the Grand Ruler of the Water Elemental Plane came in did the mob stop trying to kill me. He had to freeze everyone using water magic and tried to calm everyone down using a siren’s song. We all settled down on the hallway of the ground floor.
“Now, now, what is happening here?”
“We were trying to get the prize from Innight. He’s holding on to the grand prize of the event so everyone is coming after him.”
What a lie.
“Is it? Innight, show us the capsule.”
“I don’t have one. I did not manage to earn even a single capsule.”
The crowd immediately screamed back “Lier!” in the loudest tone possible.
“You have Miku holding onto your capsules! I saw that!” Someone shouted.
“You ordered her to steal all the capsules from us!”
“You played the game in the most unfair way possible, you didn’t fight us alone!”
I very clearly remembered I instructed Miku to return the capsules to the people if they did not have the capsule containing the grand prize, she never disobeys my instructions, so she should have only one capsule at any given time.
“Master!” Miku came running down the hallway from the staircase. She then looked at all of us.
“What is happening around here?”
“It’s rather hard to explain. Miku, I told you to only hold on to the capsule of the grand prize, and return all the others to their owners, did you follow that?”
“Miku did! Miku have also found the capsule with the grand prize!”
“See? He didn’t play the game fairly! He does not deserve the prize!”
“SILENCE!”
The Grand Ruler appears to be very displeased, about who though I do not know yet.
“Innight still deserve the prize. He is at a great disadvantage as he does not have the ability to cast magic. To be able to gain even a capsule without being killed is already a tough challenge for him. I will, therefore, give the credit to him. Congratulations, Innight, for earning the grand prize in the Magical Ticket Event.”
“Did you just come up with that name just now?”
“It is on the poster. Did you not see it?”
“Eh?”
After the entire mess have been wrapped up. I went home. Time and the other two were busy preparing dinner when I reached home. Suddenly, I remembered the powder I sent to analyse yesterday night. I went down to the laboratory, and then turned on the computer connected to the Decomposer. It showed that there are too many compounds in the mixture that it is hard to distinguish what is actually inside. I opened up the machine and, to my surprise, I found a small green card inside. I took it up and took a look at it.
I struck gold. On the card is the key to the coding message Symbols. Using this, I can finally be able to read all the message that the previous Innight has left behind but encoded in Symbols. My first instinct is to open up the diary that the previous Innight has wrote and decode whatever that is inside.
“Let’s see. You will have to win the Magical Ticket event. From there, you will have to craft a weapon exactly as I have described below.”
I translated the message one letter after another. The translated message give this:
” You will have to win the Magical Ticket event. From there, you will have to craft a weapon exactly as I have described below.”
“Innight! Dinner Is ready!”
It took me an entire night to fully translate the diary, I did not get to sleep a wink, but it was worth it. Now that I have most of the information I wanted, I know what to do next, and I am partly prepared of what that is to come in this world. I left the laboratory with a few pieces of paper in my pocket, on them were instructions by the previous Innight on what to do in this world before The Event occurs.
I left the laboratory and went to school, Luricerite called me before his lessons started to meet him and the 4 other Grand Rulers of the Elemental Planes after lessons are over. This is to discuss what custom weapon I want exactly and to fix a date to have a trip to The Core of this world.
I went to the library and set up a mana barrier. I look around the library to research about the Time Gate. If the diary has predicted the pathway I need to take and they were all the correct options, I need to follow them strictly. If I followed them all correctly I may be able to prevent The Event from actually happening. That will prevent the Timelines from all being destroyed. I picked out a book titled “The Time Events” and started reading.
“Finally, he got the clue of what is exactly happening.”
The person in the neon blue suit is watching a screen with Innight on it again. On one hand, he is holding an golden coloured sword, on another hand he is holding a book.
“Master, do you think we should test him now?”
“Almost. He needs to have his weapon created first. Besides, we don’t have time. According to the future that I’ve seen, he only has 3 more days before it happens. If it reached that point, we have to hope that he knows what to do, because only he will be able to save the Omniverse at that point.”
“Master, if he fails, what are you going to do?”
“I try not to think of it. If he fails, everything we know of will be destroyed from Existence altogether. It may not even be created again from the ashes of the destroyed Existence, depending on the mercy of them.”
“Master, someone is here. Shall I welcome them in?”
“Do.”
A scream came from outside the room the person is in. The person turned around.
“You…. You… You….”
“It is me indeed. Have you not known my abilities?”
“I forgot all about it. Invertion!”
The sword fired a purple projectile onto the invader, but a shield blocked it off.
“Do you think I will be so stupid to let myself be killed so easily? Now then, he has received too much hints from you, I should have found you sooner. Now I have enough Time, I can initiate the plan. Goodbye, Innight. Zafkiel, Zayin!”
After those words are spoken, gunshots are heard from the room.
“So we have company here… You must not see any more or else you will be spoiled!”
A gun barrel pointed at the direction of the screen. A gunshot is heard and the screen blurred out.