Krahinn

Luna clearly had finally figured out my hint as she was hugging Nil. Part of me wanted to interrogate her over what memory she got the joy of reliving. By her initial face, I knew it was something she’d rather not remember. It didn’t matter what happened as that would recreate it down to the finest details no matter how much she didn't want it to. Nil looked confused as his girlfriend ran off to put what she realized to use. I was struggling not to laugh at him as he retraced the events mentally trying to figure out how he was helpful. As entertaining as it would be to see him try and figure this out, we were on my time.

“You being dense and instinctual is helpful once in a while.” I taunted Nil. He needed to focus as the enemy camp needed to be brought to their knees; that stupid rat would be no match for us even with two people assisting her.

“I have no idea what I did though.” Nil mumbled to himself.

“Focus. Worry about your girlfriend on your time not mine.” I snapped at him. Nil gave me an unamused stare.

“What else do you want me to practice?” Nil inquired while his focus was clearly still on Luna.

“You have the buffering and erasing down fairly well. You can never practice enough however.” I replied. I realized Nil was spacing out still.

“I am sure your eventual children will hopefully take your talent and everything else from her for their sakes, but you need to focus.” I snapped at him. Nil was still in thought after that. Maybe I should slap him or fold him back into a ball.

“I heard from Luna I had a called that makes a miniature sun.” Nil stated. Does his brain just connect random events back to ?

“Help me understand your continuing inability understand women to one of the few of yours that you came up with that is not only impressive, but one I actually would congratulate you over.” I demanded. Nil was still thinking.

“You called me dense.” Nil replied like it answered everything. He was nodding his head like it clarified everything. I stared at him. He stared back. I stared back. Nil nodded again. I kept glaring at him.

“Oh, the irony is not lost on me.” Nil added with a shiza eating grin. That’s it, ball time.

“I’ll give you a ten second time out.” I snipped as he suddenly was in a much less comfortable space.

“You are such a baby.” Nil gasped from within the ball.

“Seven. Six. Five. What comes after five?” I taunted him. Nil was clearly not enjoying ball time.

“I’m not going to explain if you keep me in ball shape.” Nil threatened. I made the ball smaller.

“There, new shape.” I told him with a saccharine smile.

“I had an idea but not now.” Nil spat. I undid the ball, dropping him to the ground. Nil glared at me.

“If it’s , we are not going to barbecue your . Ipnerslei, maybe. The rodent, no.” I informed Nil.

“You can rapidly condense space to force atoms together and fuse them and generate a massive amount of heat; it’s how suns work.” Nil explained. I understood that much, there was nothing new here.

“Yes, those marvelous little dots that make up everything. Either break new ground or prepare to get dodging.” I snapped. Nil was clearly trying to formulate something in his mind.

“Can you condense time? I can slow it down, stretch moments, freeze it if I’m desperate, and erase small blips from people. But I don’t know if it can be condensed or compressed like space can.” Nil continued. Huh. That was an interesting idea; it would likely be immensely destructive given what was capable of.

“I don’t know actually. We are not testing that anywhere remotely close to civilizations we care about, nor will that be today.” I told him. It would be so fun to test though. How devastating would that be?

“Fair. I guess there’s no rest for the wicked.” Nil sighed as he began stretching. That’s a fun phrase; I might borrow it.

“No rest for the wicked? Is that from Earth?” I checked as I yawned.

“I think it was a proverb that originally meant the evil rot forever, but the more modern meaning I was using is that work never ends.” Nil explained. Interesting. Fun phrase I would slip into my lexicon.

“ have a similar phrase, rest comes when nothing’s left. It’s not as fun, because always have more to do so basically it means we can rest when we die.” I told him. When you were free of time, it was difficult to not have something to do.

“How does something unanchored from time die? Someone has to kill you, as you don’t age from what I can tell.” Nil inquired. I let out a small sigh.

“Correct. are difficult to kill, not impossible. We don’t age, we don’t get sick, and we are generally fairly strong. Add in we’re isolated to Ygdazi unless we choose to leave most don’t die until they choose to simply move on.” I explained. It was a fact several learned the hard way.

“You can choose to just die. Just, end your life with a thought?” Nil probed, sounding incredulous.

“Not exactly. can choose to feed their and life into the central tree of Ygdazi, Arelzka, to continue our growth forward. There is a ceremony when the goes from being there, to fading into the movement forward. That moment is a solemn, sacred time.” I clarified. Nil made a funny face in response.

“That sounds like a revered time.” Nil said. It was. One Hugminn was robbed from.

“What’s your face.” I checked, wanting to move the topic along.

“It reminded me of the concept of dead time, but that was an inappropriate thought and not on subject for something so revered.” Nil confessed, looking a bit ashamed.

“What’s dead time?” I probed. Just move passed it.

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“It’s the lag between when a system experiences a stimulation and when the system responds. Kind of like when an chooses to move on and the time before they do the ceremony that does.” Nil explained as he shifted nervously.

Nil does have some weird, interesting knowledge. I guess it was important for what were they called, machines? The delay between when they could sense and do something made sense. Nil in theory could probably make a that could influence it, probably dilate time a bit. How would that work? If you hit someone but wanted to delay them knowing when you actually connected. Wait, that wouldn’t be a ; it would be a . Hit them, delay their response to the attack, and then catch them off guard when the attack’s damage finally connected with them. Create a lag between hitting someone and the attack actually connecting. Kill the response until you needed it. Combine it with the ability to shift things through time as desired, you could hide your attacks and make them virtually untraceable.

“Nil, we are testing something other than that combination.” I informed him. Nil looked at me a bit confused.

“What? Why do you look excited?” Nil probed. I made him a ball not even five minutes ago, so I’d let it slide.

“I think I know the to go with your . Your concept, dead time might be it. Hitting someone and creating a delay from contact to the effect of the attack. At least at a basic level.” I explained. Nil looked confused.

“Isn’t that a ?” Nil checked. Let’s see if he could figure this out.

“What exactly is a ? What is the major difference between a and a ?” I asked Nil. He might just not know.

“Um. turn your into effects; turn your into structures. makes a solid platform for you to run on. moves an object once. structures your body to match what is around you. makes a sun. You use to reinforce your body or weapon.” Nil rambled, trying to figure out my point.

“Keep going.” I prodded. He was almost there. I’ll give Nez credit; he has a solid understanding of and is able to teach it well.

“I don’t understand what you are trying to say by major difference. They are fundamentally different. There are that blur the line a bit, but I don’t know what you want me to realize.” Nil conceded after thinking about it for a solid five minutes.

“Is a or ?” I asked him. Nil looked confused at me.

“It’s a . I cast it, and it produced the effect of making an isolated space.” Nil answered, not grasping my point.

“But is that space not a structure?” I inquired. Nil went to retort but stopped.

“Is it how the starts that classifies the difference?” Nil guessed. And some thought he was hopeless.

“Correct.” I confirmed. Nil jumped into the air, using to walk a bit. I saw him use as he was trying to see the difference.

“Can you please explain more?” Nil requested while his eyes were in pure begging mode. I sighed. I won’t get to see the answer if I don’t.

“Your original effect versus structure statement wasn’t entirely off. Think of . It is a , but you can launch the out to extend the attack. Similarly, creates a structure as specified by the you are casting. Both are examples of why that definition doesn’t exactly work well but is a good conceptual starting point because each can blur into the other. However, if you think of it from how the begins as an effect or structure it does actually hold true. You classify based upon the formation and initial form of the , not the final result.” I lectured. Nil was nodding along.

“So, they’re basically the same thing just the initial operation is different?” Nil checked as he clearly began running through the list of what he knew how to do.

“Mostly, yes. The reason the distinction exists is the skills needed to do each are different. How you control and form them is different as well. Really skilled individuals can blur the line to such a degree that the definition becomes more of a suggestion. Additionally, usually people are much better at one than the other. People better at are referred to as a Magus; people better at are referred to as a Practitioner. You will find beings in both that are highly skilled at both halves, they’re just better at one than the other. Someone equally skilled in both is astronomically rare.” I answered. Nil was clearly processing what I was telling him.

“So, if the formation of is the distinction between a and , how is the dead time idea a ? I’m creating an effect of delaying a hit.” Nil inquired as his hands animated his thoughts a bit.

“Think, very carefully. The idea is you have an attack, in this case, your sword. You swing said sword and connect, but nothing happens. A certain time later, the object is actually slashed. It’s a not so clean inverse of . is lessening the time between cause and effect; it moves the target forward by erasing the time they should take to complete an action. This idea is kind of the opposite. You are delaying the effect from the cause. You are almost entirely severing them actually.” I instructed as Nil looked like he was struggling to conceptualize what I was saying.

“I still don’t see how it’s a .” Nil sighed, looking a bit deflated.

“Let me rephrase this a little, in the slightly more abstract terms of the forces that allow this as turns abstract thought into reality. Your comes from Utol, Lord of Death. kills the time it takes for an action to fully happen. I bet with enough practice, you can start the cast of a and immediately have the final result at the person, or even passed it connecting before they have the chance to process that they need to protect against it. Enough on that for now. The idea is you are creating an attack, and killing the effect of said attack, or at least temporarily killing it until the effect is fully realized off of a delay. You have a cause and kill the effect for a couple seconds. Figure out why it’s a yet?” I tried as it clearly clicked in Nil’s head.

“Because I need to form structured to make the initial attack, I’m just imbuing the with a delaying effect.” Nil stated excitedly.

“Close. You are making it as if the attack never happened, and then making it happen. It’s not a delay.” I corrected him. Nil made a pouting face.

“But, I can throw objects through time without my . See?” Nil pointed out, manifesting a few . He threw two, one he made slip through time by delaying it several seconds. Now that is that blurs the line between and . Also, he had something close to the , no wonder he could never figure it out.

“Now was that a or ?” I inquired before teaching him what the difference would be. Nil narrowed his eyes at me as he thought about it.

“I thought of it as a because I’m making that I throw through time. Most of my body is reinforced so the throw is quite strong. It relied more on that, so I classified it as one. I do kind of wonder if the making it slip through time portion was more of a .” Nil answered. I gave him a small round of applause.

“It is indeed a , and close to what I’m proposing. Believe it or not, that is just a delayed you are doing, just making the ends formation stagger a bit. I’m assuming you’ve used to instantly end it before.” I informed him. Nil looked a bit defeated.

“So, you could do it?” Nil asked, as his shoulders slumped a bit. I began chuckling. He has no forling clue how difficult that would be to recreate.

“No, I don’t have your . I can make each half of a , but I couldn’t have the same divided in time like that. You can probably do it to a few other you have. Not important for now. For now, is using that to do a similar, albeit much stronger idea.” I lectured. Nil lit up. His obsession is nice sometimes.

“So, what exactly is the difference between them then?” Nil probed.

“You are delaying the parts of a there. What I want to do is have you slap me and then, based off , two seconds later I experience the slap. As far as you’re concerned, you would have slapped me two seconds ago. As far as I’m concerned, nothing originally happened, and then two seconds later I got hit.” I told him. Nil was bouncing up and down, he was so enthusiastic.

“I got it! Let’s try it!” Nil said excitedly as he engaged his . Let’s see if this works.