As if time had gone still, the explosion stopped and perfectly contained itself right at the periphery of tabe where it's height reached over me but a little below the old man's height. Looking like those holograms from some of sci-fi movies I used to watch.

Inside it I could see many dots of light moving at different pace while going through a murky dark but a translucent backdrop in a circle like manner until they disappear from the image from the edge while from the other more different one starts to come. This entire arrangement made me look up at the sky and then at the image back again.

"Like you might have guessed, what you are seeing is the image sky that is directly above us and now I am about to change it"

Saying so he stretched his arm making an open palm forward through the image of black sky and causing a reaction from some light dots as soon as he touched one of the moving lights that was either some comet or meteor, I could not see properly that once but then he touched a few more and some of it passed while others removed both from the image and in the sky as well.

After seeing this happen few more times I realised the distinction between what got erased or not, as the lights inside the image soon began to move faster and was repeated the same at the sky by the various comets and meteors.

"The only ones being erased are the comets and not meteors. 'Why?' you may ask, that is because all those comets are made from energy just to be made a part of this spell which I arranged according to a truly ancient precognition spells that I've made into much more than what it was invented for. Fully replicating the effects of a time-loop while under a single constraint of not being able to change things in it any way I could not affect in the reality either and be affected in a similar manner. I was forcefully made exit from it each time when I died"

Some of the comets that were either far away or slightly out of reach came by to the palm by themselves.

"To keep the loop going I have spent energy from all these comets where before each of them contained the invaluable essence of beings even whose names were directly erased by the [Proof of Existence], an extremely important Divine who foresees when we get our names and you will certainly meet. The condition to enter and go through the loops was to compress my mass by the force no less than what is exerted by an Intermediate-mass black hole. In total I had created 29,209 all of which I spread in the planet's orbit as I made the larger ones with expanding energy farther away and the smaller ones with more concentrated essence closer to the planet, the comets are mostly just decorations. Also, I see you have a question"

"You have repeated this word many times with some implications but what actually is a Divine?"

"Divine are like the deities you worshiped but different as we were mortals once ourselves. All of us are tied to some concept under which we hold complete dominion. All Divines are different and in my case I hold a dominion over shadows while having the seat of the Divine of wisdom who easily peers through secrets. This is common knowledge in the worlds where we are known to be present. As a Divine myself I can tell you this, we are the answer to what power at it's highest form means while still present inside the confines of the universe"

"The reason why you have not heard about any of this is because you world is among the neutral grounds without anything supernatural going on and with nothing to gain by disrupting the current order. In neutral worlds like yours if any Divine chooses to exert their influence then even they still have to be discreet and never directly reveal their identity unless they are ready to take responsibility over them"

He paused and gave me the chance to question him once again.

"How much time did a comet give you in a loop?"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"One loop for each comet and except the first ones all of them lasted the full day"

'So number of comets are equivalent to the number of days in simulation meaning he's been in this loop for nearly if divided thirty turning into months and then subtract by leap year days and finally again divided by 12 roughly equal...to 80 years or so.

"That is a lengthy passage of time", I spoke astonished.

"Our views towards the passage of time holds basis on the time-span we have lived. To you eighty years is a long time because it four times your own lifetime, while to me when compared to how long I have lived it becomes a number so small that to you it might be like infinity or just infinitesimally small. As a Divine you start thinking of time as an inexhaustible resource and just one of so many. With such powers and great benefits of course I would do everything to hold it as much as possible"

"So you were trying to go through a problem fast and now face a new problem. Well, if it isn't the consequences of one's actions"

"Just because you are correct doesn't-"

"'Mean I am right', this. Before I had doubts but now I'm sure that you have been using my speech mannerisms that I can understand. But for your face and body shape to so eerily resembles my dad's or grandfather. Is it psychological tactic from you?"

"Oh this form. Well I've never seen or interacted directly with a 'human' before and your species is really new in this universe, though quite wide spread but not even a million years old. So basing all my interaction from you I copied more and more of your mannerisms with each passing loop. While this appearance is also copied from you Auden, or rather from your shadow that started from your youth and has aged with every loop"

Clicking noises started to come out of the typewriter with the alien symbols on it started to appear on the page at every click. The old man meanwhile had pulled back his finger as the holographic image was bereft of all the comets, except for the red one.

"Wait, I think you missed one"

"Oh, that. That is not a comet but just a Divine who is here to protect you from any harm and end my existence"

"So the reason why you are negotiating at all"

"Indeed. The barrier of energy from comets might have slowed him before but now it is gone so we don't have much time. I will now commence"

The swaying of the grass suddenly stopped as every shadow in the vicinity began to darken significantly.

"Under the guidance of Fate and in the name of the Divine [Determiner of Fate] I present you a contract of valid and truthful information, barred of any secret. Will you still accept this?"

The foreign symbols on the page rearranged changing their shape into characters that I could read and recognize despite never having read them before as I memorized everything instantly. Even without looking at it I could recall all of its content and it gave me a cold sweat at the severity of what is about to happen.

Not more than a minute later I got the page, a bright flash of red started to cover everything around the grassy plains in it's color.

After giving the contract some more thought and knowing that I would lose this information upon rejecting it that I bit the skin near the nail of my thumb and touched the bottom of the parchment with a drop of my blood then said.

"I accept"

The dark shadows all around me enlarged and stood up covering the red light thus making everything around fade to black. After that eight pillars of red light cut through that darkness from the boundary and suppressed it further containing into a small orb like shape finally piercing it from eight directions and shattering it.

Those red pillars then retreated, folding into themselves and disappearing completely, leaving behind for me only a white void where I slowly felt my body losing it's consciousness.

I said to myself knowing what was about to happen and that many things would be different.

"Goodby-"

Auden's parting word ended in between before he could say it fully.