Many Years into the Future!
The 7th Dimension!
A lone figure walked across a massive landscape dotted with gargantuan mountain ranges that reached high for the vaults of heaven. They were covered in heavy snowfall and thick ice with dark stormy clouds overhead and snowy white trees covering their terrain.
A severe blizzard had come down with such ferocity that it blocked nearly all sight except for only a few inches up ahead. The temperature had plummeted to near absolute zero, and the biting cold gripped the solitary man in its icy grasp.
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Lucian Arcades or better known as Paradox, the Time Lord, one of the great… and last remaining Champions of Humanity wade through the deep heavy snow. His cloaked figure was only a tiny speck in the vast sweeping snowy-white environment.
He was all alone now, the last remaining human on this floor!
Everyone he had ever known or held dear was gone, lost to the sands of time.
He continued trodding along, heedless of the direction he was going in as he had long resigned himself to his fate.
Images of the brutal massacre kept replaying in his head. As soon as they stepped foot into this floor, their enemies were ready for them… almost as if they had word beforehand.
Despite being warned that the topmost Dimensions would be on a whole nother level of difficulty. Still they could never have imagined that they would face such overwhelming and terrifying might. Nothing could have prepared them for the sheer terrors they faced.
They numbered 10,000 souls! The greatest and most powerful warriors and heroes that humanity had to offer… or at least all that was left to give.
In truth, their numbers were a poultry amount compared to the grandeur of humanity's past. Due to infighting, scheming, wars, and many great disasters - humanity had become a shadow of its former self. There were so few great powerhouses and amazing minds left, that they couldn’t even achieve an inkling of their once glorious power.
But still, they were all that was left and they were humanity's last beacon! Millions of people were counting on them to clear the path ahead or else all of mankind as they knew it would be doomed forever, trapped in this nightmarish death game for all of eternity.
And they couldn’t let that happen. They had already seen the outcome of that, and it wasn’t pleasant at all!
Thus they had arrived here in all their might and glory, presenting a unified front for the first time in a very long time.
For too long the varying leaders of humanity have gotten used to ruling by themselves, breeding great arrogance and pretentious self-importance. Even he wasn’t exempt from such ego and cult of personality that made him clash heads with others!
Still they had set aside their past differences and had come together for this momentous occasion as one!
For once everything seemed to have lined up perfectly for them even their foes only numbered in the hundred or so, a force 100 times smaller than theirs. Yet despite it all, they were the ones who had lost in the end!
They had given it their all and used all the tricks and abilities they had up their sleeves. But in the end, their valiant efforts proved to be in vain as it didn’t matter one bit since their enemies were leagues ahead of them.
One by one, the Time Lord recalled all his fallen comrades and allies that died in the field of battle.
The British Sword Saintess Artoria Pendragon!
The Chinese Fairy Goddess Xi Shi!
The Swedish Valkyrie Queen Freyja Brynhildr!
The Syrian Golden Lion Hamza Al-Ayubi!
The Indian Great Sage Gautama Gandhi!
The South African Storm Father Noah Mandela!
The Russian Ice Tsarina Catherine Yurievichi!
The Native American Shaman Chieftess Nokia Momoa!
The Indonesian Sea Master Joey Salim!
The Brazilian King of Beasts Lucas Santos!
And so many more! Countless more that he didn’t even recognize or know their names, but their faces still haunted his waking mind.
But most of all, the blow that struck closest to home... was her death.
Suddenly from far off into the distance, there was the deep rumble of something very ginormous and ponderous coming his way.
Looking up, Lucian saw gargantuan shadows in the distance that vastly eclipsed him and blotted out the sky.
“Hehehe,” a thin rasping chuckle tinged with madness escaped his lips. It seemed like they found him! Finally, at long last, he could put an end to this pretense!
Standing there and waiting for his foes to come to him, their shapes grew clearer from a distance. Meanwhile, the blizzard which had been raging this whole time suddenly settled down as if under the command of someone.
Lucian took in the colossal monstrosity in all their glory; they were humanoid in shape except for the fact that they stood as tall as the mountains, with massive horns of varying shapes, pale icy blue skin, and snowy white hair and beards.
They were beings straight out of legends and tales told throughout antiquity, Giants or Jötunn as they might be called!
image [https://img.goodfon.com/wallpaper/big/0/1c/badfon-giganty-titany-art-armiya.webp]
In the center of the group was one giant that stood out. In its hand was a massive pale white-blue spear as long as a skyscraper back on earth, a jagged white crown made of ice rested on its brows, its long flowing white-blue hair fell behind its back and its beard was braided in an intricate manner.
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The giant was decked out in fine armor with runes engraved on them, a white fur-lined mantle from some unknown creature rested on his shoulders, and its eyes were so pure white that they looked irisless.
image [https://64.media.tumblr.com/0553f84ef1b91b052153685110604b68/tumblr_n2nauc92Jj1t0nojao1_1280.jpg]
With a flick of his hand, Lucian held his weapon in his hand; it had seen him through countless fights up these 7 floors that made up this hellhole and helped him cut down innumerable foes.
He pointed his weapon at the King of the Frost Giants and addressed him while trying his best to keep hold of his rage… For it had been the one who struck her down right before his eyes.
“It is so good of you all to finally make it,” Lucian said in a frosty tone as cold as the frozen tundra. He stared at the forces arrayed against him. They were here in all their number, with thousands upon thousands of giants circling him from all sides.
Truly humanity stood no chance to begin with!
Still, this will make what he is about to do so much easier and satisfying.
"You should feel honored," the Giant King boomed, confident in his victory. "You've caused us more trouble than any of the others and even managed to escape, but it ends here today."
“Hahaha, is that what you think?” Lucian asked as the madness in his eyes grew. If there were any of his friends left, they would know right away that he was about to do something very dangerous and crazy.
“Come, accept your fate,” the Giant King uttered with complete finality. “Don’t blame us for the faith that has befallen you! We are all trapped in this never-ending cycle at their hands.”
“Tsk!” A sneer spread across Lucian's face, but he bit back whatever retort he was about to say. What was even the point since it would all end now?
Gazing up at the perfectly clear blue sky, Lucian made peace with himself and found solace in his final moments. “Finally I can join you all!” he whispered as images of people he once held dear and knew well flashed through his mind as he took it all in for one last time.
Facing the horde of giants with a serene smile on his face, Lucian called out. “I must thank you for letting me wipe you all out together at once!”
For some reason, the Frost Giant King didn’t like that look on his face and reached out uselessly with his arm as he shouted. “STOP HIM!”
But it was too late.
Holding out his right hand up in the air, in a blur of motion his hand reached into his chest… literally.
The sound of crunching bone and the splatter of blood echoed through the vast landscape. With steady movements, Lucian ever so slowly extracted his hand inch by inch from his chest, revealing his still-beating heart clutched within his grip.
As blood dripped from the corner of his lips, Lucian, the Time Lord, Master of Time, one of the Great Leaders of Humanity, gazed upon his own heart with an unreadable expression.
"Who knew I'd have to use this," he said, with a hint of humor. “But hey, better prepared than sorry, huh?!”
Despite his lighthearted tone, his audience stood frozen like statues, their eyes wide with shock and horror at what they had just witnessed.
Nevertheless, Lucian still continued monologuing as if he was all too happy to spill the beans on his grand master plan.
“You all might be wondering what the hell did I just do. But don’t worry, there is a perfectly good reason for all this. You see, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill heart over here. No siree! I have specifically prepared it in case of emergencies just like this one right now!”
Complete and utter silence gripped everyone as they held their bated breath, waiting for him to drop the hammer.
“Don’t you get it,” Lucian gleefully said like a schoolchild showing off his prized possession to everyone. “This is a weapon of mass destruction, a ticking time bomb, if you will. I trapped a big old Paradox within it.”
Immediately he broke out into laughter, and the King of the Frost Giant stared at him as if he had lost his mind. “You are mad! Y-you know you will also be killing yourself too, right?!”
“So?” Lucian asked as his features quickly changed on the drop of the hat and went completely blank. “You have seen to the death and destruction of everyone I loved or held dear. What’s the point in even living anymore?”
“We c-can come to some sort of accord,” the Giant King uselessly pleaded as the tables turned on him. No being, whether great or small, wanted to risk their own death! But the Giant King seemed to forget one simple rule; never corner an injured beast or else you will get more than you bargained for!
Lucian paused as if almost considering it, then turned to face the Giant King and decisively said with a hint of finality. “NO!”
As if that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the Giant King let out a loud roar of anger and desperation as he and his fellow warriors charged heedlessly at the small, lone human figure.
Lucian simply grinned at the massive onrushing horde of giants. He felt cold more so than ever before as his very life ebbed and flowed out of him. He was only standing by pure will alone.
Letting out a long sigh that seemed to encompass all his burdens and sorrow, Lucian Arcades crushed his very own heart into a bloody pulp!
All the energy and power built up in that one organ was let loose in a big violent explosion that rippled out everywhere. And this wasn’t your mundane fiery eruption, but one far greater from it.
Like a black hole, everything was sucked in and was spewed out in a distorted volatile pulse. Reality seemed to break into countless broken mirror shards as time literally collapsed in on itself.
At the very last moment, Lucian entered a state he was all too familiar with at this point. Everything all around him seemed to come to a crawling halt while his mind ran at abnormal speed.
But in fact, that was just a trick of his mind. Time was still moving at regular speed all around him as his body, which was at the epicenter of the explosion, was being disintegrated right before his very eyes.
Yet his mind was in a state where it was perceiving time at a fraction of a fraction of a millisecond. It was a simple application of his power that he had long mastered.
“Ahhh,” Lucian thought. “So this is it, huh? The end of my story!”
Lucian watched as inch by inch his body crumbled into small particles and motes of light. He felt no pain at all since this was only happening in a matter of seconds. Nor did he feel any sadness for his imminent death.
He felt at peace with himself for the first time in a long time as he had finally let go of all his earthly desires and concerns. Yet there was still this nagging insistent feeling that wouldn’t leave him alone.
Humanity was utterly and completely doomed now that all its last few remaining powerhouses were dead. The last few vestiges of mankind would become nothing more than tools for the Tower as they eked out a miserable existence.
Looking back at the past, there had been so many deaths and catastrophes that could have been avoided. From the Great Supremacy Wars that were akin to the World Wars back on Earth, to the losses of some floors that humanity suffered, to the countless Villains, Psychopaths, and Warlords that rouse up and caused many heartaches to humanity, and so many more grievous wounds and suffering dealt to all of mankind.
If only he had a chance to go back in time, and fix it all!
It was hopeful thinking… but wasn’t his power the command over Time itself.
Like lightning striking him all at once, his thoughts raced through and fro as Lucian ran through countless scenarios until he knew only one option was left for him. Sighing, Lucian figured there was rest for the wicked.
In the end, it seemed like he wouldn’t be getting his long desired rest after all.
Rewinding time completely all the way to the beginning of it all was something theoretical that he never dared to ever think about fully. Now that he was on his last leg, what was even the point in denying himself the satisfaction of trying.
The damage to his body now had reached up to his waist as his bottom portion was completely gone. Time for all it was worth wasn’t on his side anymore. The clock was ticking fast and if he wanted to do anything at all to save all of mankind, he had to act right now.
Throughout his years in the Tower, Lucian slowly began to get a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of time. Time was like a river. All beings only went straight down the stream.
His powers however let him interact with this so-called river and dip his toes within it. But until now he never dared to go up against the stream!
His body at this point was all but gone as it was disintegrated up to his neck now. All that was letting him continue on at this point with the final firing of his neurons.
So that meant physically going back was out of the option. Thus he only had one avenue available to him, and he hoped beyond all hope that it would work out. If not… then it would be truly game over.
Focusing all his will and power, Lucian conjured up a clock in his mind and imagined himself slowly turning back the hand of time. He went faster and faster until it was only a kaleidoscope of spinning motion.
He didn’t know if he would break reality itself with his action or create an unforeseen paradox. But at this point, who really cared!
With reckless abandonment, he shouted. “TURN BACK THE WHEEL OF TIME TO THE BEGINNING OF IT ALL!”
image [https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/clock-of-universe-stoyanka-ivanova.jpg]
With a great final bang, time seemed to catch up to itself as the explosion swallowed everyone up including him and all the giants, and continued spreading all across the whole floor, laying waste to everything and everyone!
The whole floor was gone, lost to the endless void of time and space, leaving nothing but a dark and endless emptiness behind.
And Lucian Arcades knew no more!