Constricting, endlessly the air around bounds my soul to what seems to be a mental maze. There doesn’t seem to be a way in nor out – none the less I am here – and only me. Alone.
I couldn’t imagine such a place existing anywhere except in my dreams – the place felt cold but there is not a trace of air. It feels like my lungs do work for no reason at all.
The floor gapes into a horror scene as the simple absence of any visibility spikes an extra beat in my heart. ‘But, why am I here? I don’t know.’
Even as I think to myself the sound echoes back towards me, louder this time. And each wave goes through my body as if reminding me I’m alive or even replacing my heartbeat for a moment.
For a moment all I can see is deep blue crystals in the distance, glowing mysteriously. It grows stronger as it seems to move closer – but I’m not sure.
All of a sudden everything goes back to being dark, I hear nothing, smell nothing and can’t feel anything around me – ‘am I truly dead?’
I don’t like the position I’m in, nor whatever dream this is. And as I even think again this time something strangely terrifying happens.
A face – not human enough appears momentarily. It has no true eyes, nor skin that looks real – but rather what looks like a consistency of leather and metal mechanics. The face seems to also have red hair flowing down.
I dash my eyes around, poking into dark corners of the abyss. Not screaming or acting irrational, as that can’t get me anywhere – at least I learn that now.
I notice another thing happening but I feel like whatever is out there is much more than a simple flickering of neurons and signals from my brain.
Tick, tick, tick. The pocket watch across my neck grows in sound and attention as it vibrates with every turn of its hand – very slightly.
Then again, the face appears with no expression it almost feels like a ghost harbouring some sort of anger or dark resentment towards me – but this time I can see more.
It appears to be an older looking woman and I can see more clearly every intricate detail on her face – every metal plate, and every twist and turn of tiny metallic disks are visible.
And all her clothing is appearing to be some sort of alternating shades of red within one dress or perhaps even a large cloth.
This is no human. Nor any creature. This is not even a dream.
“What do you want?”
I speak cautiously but after I stop speaking a flashing memory spring right into the focus of my mind. And as the memory dances in the spotlight of my head – I feel fear rising slightly. I look deeper into the memory as I see the beasts once more.
“There’s something about you, Ed.”
She speaks in a high-pitched voice that sounds weird, and recreates itself in my head.
“How do you know my name!?”
“Now Ed or Leonidas do not fear. I am only here to observe – for now, at least until I decide to act.”
“Why do you call me that? And who are you?! And, and-”
“Now, stop with the questions you’ll have time to do so later. But to begin with. You’re dead so I’m not sure you knew that – respective of your irrational behaviour.”
“I am dead...?”
“Yes.”
“But – that’s impossible I can’t be dead there’s so much left to do!”
“You died of internal bleeding that was opened when you awoke and got up from some sort of nap for all I know.”
“But I’m telling you! I can’t die.”
“Your clearly not the brightest of my subjects if you intend to say that.”
‘If this truly is not a dream and for some reason in the world I am actually talking to a goddess, then why is this one or maybe all of them this stupid?’
“What even is this process!?”
“I’m getting on to that?”
“But… Then who are you and why are you so un-human?”
“To you, I’m probably known as The Time Goddess.”
My heart sinks, this was the thing responsible for the resets – a gift and a curse?
“Then. Why did you suddenly remove my power if you gave it to me in the first place!?”
“What power, human?”
I take my wrist and turn it facing upwards, showing the emblem of time to her.
“Yes, I assume you heard what I said earlier… Right because I do not intend to repeat myself? And since your dead, if you even managed to get that emblem to absolute power which has never been done – you wouldn’t be able to use it anymore – your dead.”
She speaks again – impatiently.
“But you don’t understand, do you?! And you’re supposed to be a Goddess!”
“Are you insulting me?”
She speaks very bluntly.
“Yes!”
And as I finish my very uncertain statement, I feel a sharp pain growing in my abdomen, it burns more and more and more.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Not stopping even as I look towards her. I cover my entire body around the soul point and crouch onto the ground.
Then it all goes away – the feeling of being put on a grill then splashed with water.
“Do you understand now? That’s how you died – and, as much as I know you can’t even use my powers correctly even if you do so happen to be one of the last remaining – disappointing.”
She speaks in a very arrogant tone insulting me more – but I appear weak compared to her.
“I keep resetting over and over – watching everyone die over and over, and when I get close enough to some sort of solution that appears to be an ultimatum between the village and the central area – this happens!? But it doesn’t matter anyways – it’s all gone now.”
She proceeds to tut in frustration and then when she lifts her hand some sort or orb appears and then all I can see is me and her in the dark speaking – presumably just a few seconds or even minutes earlier.
She touches it again and instead of watching mouths move pointlessly – I can hear a sound. My own voice speaks.
“I keep resetting over and over-“
That’s all I hear then the orb disappears and she gives me and blank look.
“Your Ed. Vela. Well, that’s your human name.”
“I have no other name!”
“Don’t worry just yet.”
She comes closer and I can see every square inch of her body seeming more real now and somewhat more human, although the moment I look into her eyes I forget they are literal crystals reflecting back.
All of a sudden, she lifts my shirt as I stand, not sure what to do – as any wrong move might get me killed for real this time.
But a second later my natural instincts react and I try to push her away but instead I get pushed back a meter or two.
“I suggest you don’t try that again.”
I couldn’t stand the humility anymore and if I am going to be sent off eternally to some sort of heaven or hell I am going to do it with my dignity intact.
I get up rather quickly.
“Versterken!”
And charge at her.
But my faith runs short quickly as I realise the severity of what I am about to do but my body already strengths like a rock.
“Vertragen.”
She calmly counters and I find myself running at the pace of an injured snail, and every movement takes me ten seconds to do. Then as I look back towards her, I fully expect another death to send me away.
But rather I see something I would have never expected – she seems to be laughing. For a moment I almost mistake her for a regular person – until I remember. This is a goddess I’m dealing with so that laugh could be really good. Or really bad.
Then she looks at me and a tear drops from her face, and by the time it falls on the ground she comes closer towards me.
“You know Ed. No one has ever tried that on me. But…”
Then she stops – probably unsure what to say. After all I just did attempt to physically attack a Goddess.
“-But Ed your body seems to know much more about what’s going on than your mind – oh and, I’m sure.”
Her tone completely backs off from a serious one and I don’t dare to question the positive change to her domineer. ‘Thank the Gods-‘ I think to myself than realise this is a Goddess.
And I wouldn’t want to thank her.
She flicks her hand in a strange way and all of a sudden, the dark abyss we are in suddenly vanishes revealing a quiet little grassy area – with two chairs and a table guarded from sunlight from above that blinds my eye by a red umbrella. And even though I didn’t move nor did she we are both seated.
And all around us seems to be the natural world again but I know for a fact it isn’t.
“How do you even do all of this!?”
She stares at me blankly.
“You seem to be the dumbest idiot I have ever seen before, maybe I ought to send you back to Earth a little longer.”
“You will?”
“I’ll see...”
“But to answer your question it’s a combination of I can do what I want and I can summon anything that has every happened in the past and will happen in the future.”
“So that’s the ability I can reach with the time emblem!?”
“No – of course not. Even if you do manage mastery the power you achieve is – time portal. But that’s not important right now.”
I keep quiet and wait for her to speak again.
“So, to not confuse your tiny mind capacity anymore. What you have been experiencing is a phenonium known as ‘the endless reset’ and from your experience I can tell its self-explanatory what it is.”
“But- “
“Hold on – I’m not finished! There’re two factors causing this – Your stopwatch across your neck right now. And me. You see, this stopwatch of yours is not what you think it truly is. What do you think it is?”
“Well… All I know it is some sort of family arolium I was handed to when my real parents… died.”
“Wrong. It’s an ancient artefact, and to keep this short and simple long ago there was a threat to all life on your Earth – one big meteor heading directing to the core of your planet probably the size of your moon or something like that.”
I nod along every stop trying to really understand everything she is saying, and so far, nothing seems to be that complicated although I have many other questions – but I keep quiet.
“So, in exchange for protecting Earth from meteors, planets and outer life- “
“Outer life...?”
‘Shit I just interrupted a Goddess.”
“Unless you intend to attempt to speak to literal monsters who devour entire planets – I’m not sure if you would want that – there’s only so much we gods and goddesses can do.”
She speaks in a calm tone whereas I fully expected an arrogant tone to kick in again.
“But as I was saying, this sort of agreement between the gods meant in return you get our power and we silently govern parts of your world. And to commemorate this treaty every God and Goddess of every emblem left an extremely powerful artefact – for me it was the stopwatch.”
“But why even give your powers away, doesn’t that just seem like a loss – loss situation for you?”
“No, not at all – humans are by far the most interesting subjects, by doing this we can watch how your kind slowly self-destruct or somehow, if possible, grow. Think of it as an observational study.”
“Alright?”
“Why don’t you know all of this stuff, this is classical ancient legends?”
She says, even more arrogantly.
“In our world of discomfort, we sometimes don’t really have time to sit in luxury and talk about these things.”
I also respond rather blunt.
“But continuing on…”
She resumes and instantly drops the mood which made me think how random the other gods and goddesses are.
“This sort of thing doesn’t happen to anyone neither does it happen to time emblem users randomly who do have the stopwatch although it is indeed powerful. It only happens when fate chooses you. You have something the others don’t.”
She speaks and narrows her eyes in sharp thought...
“So, you got me into this?”
“Yes.”
“And so can you get me out of this?”
“No.”
“B-but what do you mean!?”
“Fate itself has attached itself to you – a force stronger than me currently in my resting state after all I control time always – it takes its toll. And as long as you have this power, things will always happen to you. Bad things you have already experienced.”
“So, can’t I take the stopwatch off?”
“It’s not as simple as that either – If it goes too far away from you, I doubt you’ll even process your death – it’ll be quick and painful.”
“But why are these two emblems involved!?”
“Because how can time and fate not collide within time, and fate itself works without anyone knowing, it’s an ancient long-gone emblem. You’ll eventually find out how certain emblems work well together and some don’t.”
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Just breathe, although you might find that a bit weird since your dead.”
“I just have too many questions… But hold on! So, are you saying there isn’t a way to save the village or the market or everyone?!”
“I can see the future, but I don’t know if a human like you could handle the burden of knowing who and how someone will die.”
“Is there a way!?”
She looks at me silently, then glances across the ground.
“How far are you willing to go?”
“As far as it takes me to do it twice, and then another time backwards! So how do I do it!?”
“I can’t tell you which possibility will occur.”
“Why not!? You got me into this and you just want me to suffer!”
“Yes, I do want you to suffer – that’s the only way you can get out of this alive and with your emblem powers.”
“But how can a goddess be… so cruel!?”
I shout and get out of my chair pushing it back and crashing it onto the floor.
“Do you not care about the thousands of lives that die over and over and over because of this – how do you call yourself a goddess when you are the antithesis of virtue!?”
“Now Ed or Leonidas do not fear. I am only here to observe – for now, at least until I decide to act.”
She speaks again, reiterating that name that doesn’t have any link to me, and it strikes me with some sort of anger.
“I am going to destroy the watch so you can reset once more, goodbye.”
“How dare you do this, I swear I’ll – I’ll -”