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Stories are like bright lights. They can illuminate new information, make you see and learn new things and ideas you’ve never known before, but they will blind you as well when it comes to Time, as they will not let you know how long you have been listening to the stories.

- Alessio Amaryllis

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"Once upon a time, I found myself in a burning village with only corpses left behind. I didn't find anything interesting until I found the corpse of a little girl that was slightly warm. Out of curiosity, I took her to my old abandoned abode. I started trying to do what seemed to be impossible at first. But— With enough sweat, blood, and one certain Soul Stone that I found in the Emerald Forest, I was able to make it successful..." He began flipping the page of the small notebook a couple of times, back and forth, making me think that whatever he was saying wasn’t even written there in the first place.

  And upon hearing the first parts of his story reminds me of what happened before; the fact that I failed to save her and abandoned her, which made me regret it for a very long time. However, upon hearing the rest of what he said, those feelings of regret suddenly turned to a mix of disgust and anger.

  Do you think she’s just a guinea pig for you to use for your scrutiny? These are the words I would have asked him right now, but remembering that I should be careful with my words when talking to this man. I kept my composure as much as I could, clenching my fists tightly, and left it all as a thought for now as I took a deep sigh. Not seeing sooner that he was staring at me with a devious smile on his face before he continued.

  "And as years passed, the little girl then started to grow up as any normal human would. But! There was a teensy-weensy problem... And that was the fact that her mind could not store that many memories. She ended up forgetting most of the things from time to time, and if she put it all into her soul, then it would start breaking, and all that hard work and time would have been in vain. Fortunately, a certain someone owed me a favor from before, and coincidentally, she had the Mind Stone, one of the six stones of the realm… And despite how much I cared for her, I did what I had to do for her sake…"

  His smile slowly faded to a thin line before he continued in a melancholic tone and stopped flipping the notebook. "I had no choice but to give her away to that certain person with the Mind Stone. She promised me that she would bring her memories back and look after her in my place. I still do visit her often in the kingdom, but there's always that lingering feeling that..." He paused for a brief moment before waving his hand away, his smile quickly returning. "Hmm… Never mind that last part. I’ve always had trust issues with those kinds of noble people anyway."

  He sounded upset when he mentioned that he'd be giving her away to someone. It sounded so sincere, but it could just have been an act. I thought to myself before noticing his smile turned to a suspicious grin, which made me feel a lot more uneasy.

  "Now that the story part is done, you would probably be thinking that I treated your dear younger sister as nothing more than an object throughout those years she was with me. But to be much more sincere with you, I never— not even once— had I thought of Endellion as an object. It’s the exact opposite actually…" He paused as he quickly opened his other hand, revealing the silver locket that hung from his fingertips.

  W-What the— H-How did he— Seeing the silver locket was with him now, I immediately looked at my hands and the silver locket was no longer there. That’s impossible! How did he immediately get the locket from me without any of us noticing it?!

  "I’d always treated her with special care and love every time we were together, which one day made me feel something… something I never imagined feeling while no longer being human, but I did— and it was all because of her…" he said as he grabbed both of his arms and yearned. "Aaahh~ My heart skips beating just by being by her side…"

  "What— W-What do you mean by that?!" I asked him in a bit of an urgent tone.

   He doesn’t mean what I think he means, right? He doesn’t have that kind of relationship with her, right?! I've continuously become more worried the more I think about this, and the more seconds he’s not answering my question.

  "Hmm?... Well, I’ll leave that to your imagination~" he responded cheerfully, as I started to lose my patience with him even more and my fists were clenched tighter than ever. I truly wanted to punch him in the face right now, but of course... I need to remain calm, I need to remember our objectives of why we went here... And still remain patient.

  "I'm… I’m letting that slide for now," I said before I cleared my throat. "Anyways, about that certain person who you gave her to... Could you tell us more about her?"

  "Oh? I thought it was already obvious. Did you not tell him?... Your Highness?" he asked, his smirk back, noticing his visible eye was fixed on Taro. And when I looked at him, I quickly noticed how his serious expression turned to a more concerned look, sweat began to drip on his face, his fists were tightly closed and placed on top of his lap.

  Ordell then let out a short chuckle. "How truly unfortunate... And here I thought that you said before that you were already comfortable telling your dear— your one and only trusted friend, Alessio, everything! But it seems that even until now you still—"

  "Shut up. Just..." Taro snapped as he looked at him with such a threatening look before soon taking a deep breath. "It’s true that Alessio is my friend, and it’s true that there are certain things I couldn’t tell him. But those certain things are some problems that I have are mine to deal with— especially when it comes to Minerva. She’s my own problem to deal with in the future. But…" he paused as he finally looked at me. "If he truly insists on knowing, then I wouldn’t refuse to tell him and let him help me. Despite the fact that I am aware of how much he has already done for me and that he may have more unresolved issues than I do. I just wish and hope I could do more to help him too."

  Placing my hand on his shoulder, I smiled at him and said, "Thank you, Taro…"

  He then smiled back at me before we both turned to look back at Ordell.

  "Ah…Is that all?" he asked himself as he turned his head, looking everywhere while touching himself. He then chuckled once again before looking back at Taro as he slowly clapped his hands. "Still nothing happened? That’s good... And here I thought that I was no longer going to exist today because of another "accident" caused by the very guardian of the Void, but it seems that you’re slowly having it under control… Congratulations to you, Your Highness. I’m truly impressed by how far you’ve become."

  Taro let out a short sigh. "I know that you’re giving us information like we asked, and you’re getting some information from us as well in your— very strange way of doing it, but I would much prefer if you try not to provoke me like that again. Please…"

  "Of course, of course. My apologies, Your Highness…" he said, nodding his head before looking at me. "... And as for you, my dear guardian of Time..." he paused, slowly tilting his head to the side. "Do you truly want to know something about your stone?"

  But before I could even open my mouth to respond, he had already spoken.

  "But of course you do! What else would be the reason you both came here? However, I truly hope that you both use this information wisely and do not end up with the same fate as the ones before you. After all, you keep saying or thinking these words to yourself: "Fate always has tricks up its sleeves to show off its cruel sense of humor."" his visible eye then narrowed at me. "... Am I wrong, Head General Alessio Amaryllis?"

  I suddenly became quiet as a chill ran down my spine.

  What… What happened just now? What is this strange feeling that makes me think that this has repeated sometime before? But that’s impossible! I don’t remember this scene happening before, or saying those lines to anyone. Not even to him! I never even properly met him until now! Not unless... I halted my train of thoughts as I looked back at him. His fingers tapping on his desk in the tone of a ticking clock.

  "With the Mind Stone, she can control an entire army, but it could break her own mind or someone else’s mind entirely. The Soul Stone can bring deceased people back to life, but she could lose her own." His gaze slowly turned to Taro once more. "And you already know how the Void Stone works, though the little accident that he made was just the tip of the iceberg. If pushed a bit farther, you might have turned everything in sight into pure nothingness, and you would have lost what it is to become… human…"

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  Taro looks slightly concerned once more, his hand holding tightly on his stone.

  "As for the Power Stone… Well, I’ll leave that for you two to know at the end of this long— and yet interesting conversation. I’m more immersed in what the Space and Time Stones can do together..." In the blink of an eye, he suddenly appeared right before me and got me to almost fall back from my seat, but he prevented it from happening as he held tightly onto the head of my chair. He still has this smile on his face while his visible eye glows slightly, which made me much more uncomfortable.

  "Regardless of how you died previously, whether on this timeline or another, you are still alive, well, and sane... You are truly very fortunate, Alessio. But just like her... Oh, my dear sweet El… you two are very clueless about what you can do with what you have."

  I kept myself quiet as he pulled back my chair while moving back. He then turns around and waves his hand. "It is true that you can rewrite this universe’s history to some extent with only using the powers of both the Space and Time Stones. But if you truly want to fully rewrite everything that is in this little tragic tale of ours..." He tilted his head as he looked at us. And what he said next just froze us in place with surprise mixed with fear expressions on our faces, and we could not believe it with our own ears. "... To make that wish come true, you’re going to need all six of the stones of the realm."

  The entire room was filled with only silence after that. All this time, everything we’ve heard from him, we've done nothing but just accept it as being true with little doubt. Some of the information was new to us. Some answered our questions, but some created more. It made me realize as well that… These six stones are truly both a blessing and a curse. And I’m not only referring to the curses that each stone has. If they were not revealed to the rulers by the Sorceress herself, then perhaps one of them wouldn’t have been so greedy to spend power on getting the stones for his selfish desires. They wouldn’t have argued, and this long-bloody war wouldn’t have started in the first place.

  "Oh? What’s with those surprised expressions on your faces?" he asked as he tilted his head. "Don’t tell me that Lady Lucerne hasn't told you two anything till now?"

  "N-No! Stop! Lady Lucerne probably has her own reasons for not telling us just yet." Taro said as he suddenly stood from his seat while placing his hand on his chest. "W-We all have our own reasons for not telling everything to each other openly and not immediately. Even you— despite being an informant, you would've known how it feel—"

  "Being an informant and being very close to my dear little Endellion, of course I know how it feels to hide a lot of certain things from her." He quickly interrupted him with a slow shake of his head. "And I’m very much aware of that feeling of how very difficult it can be, especially how curious she can be at times. But the fact that your long-time adversary, the Queen of Helio Vermillion, already knew what the six stones could do together, while the two of you only found out about it now, despite being friends with the Sorceress's daughter, baffles me. Now… I wonder why that is the case…"

  Taro bit his lower lip as his eyes peered at him. "It makes me wonder as well as to how you seemed to know that much about the Queen… Do you perhaps know what s—"

  "And what makes you think I would tell you two any of that?" he said, smirking.

  And that was the last thing we saw of his face before the entire room went black as the flames from the candles were quickly extinguished, the windows and doors were abruptly shut off, and both Taro and my bodies were forcefully laid against the floor. But it seemed that it wasn’t just a normal gravity force that kept us from moving; instead it was like he pulled and forced our very souls to the floor. And with the drug from when I woke up this morning still in effect, there wasn’t much that I could do at the moment, but I felt a bit of regret and very much annoyed at myself for not expecting something like this to happen sooner. Ordell’s footsteps then echoed around the room as he began walking away and talking once again, after letting out a short chuckle.

  "And here I thought that you were that cautious of a person, as they say, and how you always claimed to be. But seeing both of your states now, it seems that a lot of my expectations were left unsatisfied. How unfortunate... Truly, it’s unfortunate things have to end this way." He said as a shrill sound came after, as if he grabbed something sharp from nearby before he began walking once again. "Well, if you think that I will not get rid of you just because you are the dear older brother of my dear sweet little El, just as you are following orders from your King... I am just following orders from the Queen."

  "You don’t say…" I said, struggling at the moment. I then sensed the power coming from Taro’s stone and tried to slowly turn my head to look at him, thinking worriedly about him, only to be surprised a bit to see him winking at me with a small smile on his face and carefully moving his hand to hold mine. He is assuring me that he has a plan in mind and I just need to trust him once again. I blinked at him as confirmation before my gaze tried to look up to see where Ordell was standing.

  "Ngh… I suppose you are right about that. It’s truly unlucky of us to be in this kind of situation, and not even my Stone of Time would be of any help. But aren’t you worried that Endellion would find out and will never forgive you for doing this?" I said.

  I heard him chuckling. "Oh? Is that your best effort to persuade me to change my mind, or are those your final words before you die?... Hmm. Honestly, it doesn’t matter at this point," he said before seemingly raising his weapon above his head. "I will make sure that no word about what happened here today will come out of this house…. Farewell!"

  And before he could land his blade on my neck, Taro quickly casted, "Aperium!"

  His grip on my hand tightened as we all began falling into the never-ending giant black hole, or the void itself, once it immediately opened right beneath us. Despite how everything around us was just black space as we descended, we were still able to see each other as clearly as day, and even saw Ordell’s surprised expression for a short moment before he immediately tried to dash towards us with his giant scythe. The same scythe from the wood-carved reaper in his shop earlier.

  But in an immediate response, we both moved further away from him, avoiding his attack. Without a word, Taro then raised his left hand, casting the black chains with a purple aura to clamp on Ordell’s legs and arms, making him let go of his scythe and let it float around. Then, soon after, a surge of black energy visibly flowed through his whole body. He shook and gritted his teeth in pain before soon falling into his knees as the two of us landed on the floor of the shop that became visible once again.

  Both the windows and the doors of the shop were opened once again, and the wood-carved items were scattered all around. Some were destroyed, and some were still in one piece. I then noticed the blade of the large scythe was pinned on the floor beside Taro before he picked it up and began walking towards Ordell, who still remained silent with his head lowered, and the chains were still clamped on him and on the floor.

  "Well, I must say I didn’t expect that it was surprisingly quick and easy, although a little bit disappointing as well. For someone who claims to know a lot about the six stones, I was afraid that my plan in mind wouldn’t have worked since I believed that you would have seen that coming, but it seemed that you didn’t. That’s fortunate for us, and truly unfortunate for you…" Taro said, soon leaning the large scythe’s blade inches away from Ordell’s neck. "Oh right… I almost forgot. I don’t believe that I have thank you yet for giving us that much information. Well, I would have, but remembering what you did to my friend’s step-brother before, and that attempt to kill us you did just now, I believe that I changed my mind and my patience with you has truly run out by now…"

  Ordell snickered silently before slowly lifting his head to look at him.

  "Go ahead then, Your Highness." he said, confidently. "Go ahead and finally finish me off once and for all! Besides, if you were able to kill an entire village before, then killing another person wouldn’t be any different now, would it? Come now… Just do it!"

  Is this man trying to get us all to the point of nonexistence?! I thought before looking at Taro. I couldn’t sense any negative aura from him for now, but his hands began shaking as sweat began dripping from his face. And as I was about to walk towards him out of worry, surprisingly, he didn’t give him what he wanted and slowly moved the scythe away from his neck. His hands were still held tightly on its handle, but soon after, it was covered fully in black before it turned to nothing more than ash. The black chains on him disappeared as well, and soon he began walking away. Not saying a word and not even batting an eye on me as he soon left the place.

  I sighed in relief at the fact that he seemed to still be more in control of his stone’s powers than before and was about to follow him, finally leaving this horrible place, but soon stopped when I heard Ordell stand up and begin speaking once again.

  "Every stone in the realm has its drawbacks, and there's nothing you can do to get rid of them. I know it all too well since I had a certain friend once who was the owner, who I gave the same warning I'm about to tell you now." He said, as I slowly turned around to face him, seeing him holding a wooden cane as he tapped it on the floor in a pattern like the sound of a ticking clock just like earlier. "With such great power, you'll end up forgetting what you were fighting for in the first place… You can sacrifice everything and everyone since you cannot understand how important they are until you reach the end, when you finally realize that you can no longer get them back."

  As soon as he finished his warning, the tapping sound stopped, and in the blink of an eye, he suddenly appeared right in front of me. I wasn't able to move away from him, nor was I able to say anything. "It's been nice meeting you, Alessio. I see now why dear Endellion cares for you so much… And it truly would be a shame if something happened to you so soon..." He said as he gently wiped off the blood from the cut on my cheek that I didn’t notice before. It stung a bit, but the wound faded away quickly.

  "So, keep yourself alive as long as you can, won't you?"

  Those were the last words that I heard from him, and seeing him wave goodbye with a smile on his face was the last sight I saw of him before he quickly tapped his finger gently on my forehead. My sight immediately became blurry as my body began to fall backwards. My body was fully numb when it hit the floor. My eyes were finally closed and my ears were no longer able to hear any sound. And soon there was nothing.

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