Chapter 7: The God of Time

  When I woke up a bright sun was shining on my face from above as I was lying on something green.

  Soft. Cool. Living.

  Grass?

  No – nonsense. This couldn’t be grass.

  The only time I’d ever seen grass was on the rooftop gardens in Skyhaven.

  And yet…

  As I ran my fingers through it, I felt every blade bend and spring back beneath my touch. It was uneven. Natural. Real. I pressed my hand deeper into it, dragging my fingers across the dirt below. A faint scent of something I couldn’t even describe rose up – rich, wet, and clean.

  I kneeled, pressing my nose against it.

  It was real. It had to be!

  “…Holy shit,” I breathed, wide-eyed. “That’s the real thing.”

  Heaven was real – and it had grass in it.

  “When you’re done touching grass and are ready to talk, give me a cue, okay?” a voice called out lazily.

  My head snapped toward it.

  Seated beside a small glass table was a young man with pitch-black hair and piercing blue eyes. His dark attire only made his blue eyes stand out even more. His expression was…confused – likely silently judging me for sniffing the grass.

  In his lap sat a short young woman with the wildest hair I’d ever seen – two pigtails of bright pink, matching the chaotic clash of colors in her outfit – yellow, blue, and purple. She leaned against him comfortably, like they were a couple, her expression distant…almost thoughtful. She didn’t spare me a glance.

  Standing just behind them was an aged butler, his posture straight, his expression calm. Arms crossed behind his back like an Enforcer. Thought, his eyes looked kind.

  “Who in the world are you, people?” I asked, sitting up fully, eyes widening as I took them in.

  The young man stood, casually lifting the pink-haired woman in his arms, then turned and sat her down gently in the chair he’d been sitting on. She didn’t react – still lost in her thoughts.

  He approached slowly, then squatted down in front of me and offered a hand.

  “The name’s Goren.” He said with an easy smile. “Pleasure to meet you.”

  I stared at his hand, unmoving.

  I wasn’t about to shake hands with someone who showed up after I clearly died and acted like this was all normal.

  “…Viktor.” I muttered, eyeing him carefully.

  He looked down at his still-outstretched arm, sighed, and muttered to himself. “I’m getting PTSD here…”

  Then he straightened up and clapped his hands together.

  “Well! Viktor Halegrim, we already know who you are. In fact, you’ve been chosen!”

  “Chosen? For what?” My eyes narrowed. I glanced around – still surrounded by impossible greenery as far as my eyes could see. “And how do you know my last name?”

  The pink-haired woman spoke at last, her voice slightly high-pitched.

  “Babe, we talked about this. You can’t just start with the dramatic pitch.”

  Goren glanced back at her. “Too much, my dear Pixelle?”

  “Way too much.”

  “God damn it…”

  He turned back to me, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry. Let me try again. This is only my second time doing this, so please forgive any…psychological trauma I may or may not be inflicting.”

  I shook my head slowly, still reeling. “Psychological trauma? I don’t even know where I am…”

  Religion wasn’t exactly a thing in Solvane. At least not anymore. Most churches stood like museums. But if I died and was still alive…was this really heaven? Purgatory? Or worse – hell? Or were they still deciding where they’re putting me?

  Truthfully, I still couldn’t believe it. From a scientific point of view, it was absurd. An afterlife shouldn’t exist.

  Goren opened his mouth like he was about to answer, then turned toward the butler. “Shouldn’t we wait for Chronos to get back first, Balthor?”

  The butler – Balthor – shook his head calmly. “Optimally, yes. But as you can see, Master Goren, he’s likely being held back in Themis’ Divine Court. Master Chronos gave us the clearance to proceed if that happened.”

  The word ‘court’ was enough to make me jump to my feet. I was not about to let my fate after death be decided by a bunch of lawyers.

  “Okay, okay, wait – what court hearing? I already had one back in Orlinth! And now I’ve got weekly appointments with Dr. Aresa! Don’t hold that against me if you’re deciding where I go in the afterlife!”

  “What?” Goren blinked. “You’re not dead, friend. Not quite dead yet, as someone would put it.”

  “I’m…not?”

  “No.” Another voice joined the conversation.

  I turned – and froze.

  “What the fuck…” I muttered in disbelief.

  The very air in front of me split like paper and a young man stepped through the rift. He was wearing a white buttoned shirt, dark trousers, and a long, open leather coat. His dark hair was messy, and he had two silver piercings above his right eyebrow and gleaming golden eyes.

  He seemed distracted at first, gaze distant as he stepped through. Then his eyes landed on me.

  He clapped his hands once.

  Suddenly, a chair appeared behind me, pulling me backward, and sitting me down. The glass table blinked into place in front of me. He, without moving, was already seated across from me on a chair of his own.

  The others stayed where they were.

  “Boss!” Pixelle jumped up and ran to his side, showing more emotion than she had up until now. “How did it go?!”

  “What did Themis decide about Dolos?” Balthor asked, visibly worried.

  Talk about overwhelming…

  “We’ll talk about that later.” The young man said, gesturing toward me. “First, we deal with our guest.”

  He reached his hand forward, his voice calm and serious.

  “Viktor Halegrim,” he said. “I am Chronos, God of Time. Pleasure to meet you.”

  I stared at him.

  “God…of…time?” I repeated slowly, the concept of gods alien to me. My mind struggled to fit it into anything familiar.

  And yet…in comparison to Goren, this man felt different. Grounded. Authoritative.

  So, I shook his hand.

  “Indeed.” Chronos nodded. “I know this is confusing for someone from your world, but hear me out, and I promise things will become clearer.”

  I took a deep breath. “…Sure.”

  Chronos cleared his throat. “Every thousand years, an ancient force of Darkness named Erebus awakens from slumber to devour a world. This time, unfortunately for you, he chose yours. Because of old celestial pacts, I cannot intervene and stop him directly. That duty falls to someone chosen – every cycle – a mortal who becomes humanity’s final line of defense. I am tasked with selecting that Champion, and I chose you.”

  My eyes just narrowed further with each word he said. “You expect me to believe this nonsense?”

  Chronos sighed. “I swear it never gets easier…” He leaned back slightly, then tried a different approach. “You noticed the Darkness oozing from the automatons that attacked you, didn’t you? The absurdly high level of the Impaler?”

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  My mind flashed to the valets…and then to the Impaler, and the others. I tried to reason through it – find something rational, grounded.

  “Stop trying to make sense of it.” Goren joined in. “There’s nothing logical about this. It’s beyond logic.”

  I shook my head. “Kinda hard not to. You’re asking me to believe in things I didn’t even think could exist.”

  “Then think about it through your world’s rules.” Chronos offered. “Overriding automatons is something possible if your COG went through enough upgrades, right? But what are the other conditions that need to be met?”

  I knew the answer to that – it already passed my mind when it all began. “You…you have to be in the vicinity. Within a certain radius of the machines.”

  “Exactly.” Chronos nodded.

  “Valdemar wasn’t there.” I muttered, mostly to myself, the realization setting. “So how did Valdemar – “

  “Erebus.” Goren said flatly, cutting me off.

  Chronos nodded, then turned to me. “At the moment, I can’t say for certain who Valdemar represents, but one thing is clear: Valdemar is an agent of Darkness.”

  My thoughts reeled at his words, flashing back to the last thing I heard before I died.

  “Valdemar lost control…” I muttered.

  Chronos nodded again. “It seems that in their pursuit of a revolution, Valdemar and Libra got entangled with the worst possible forces.”

  Then, with a wave of a hand, Chronos tore open a rift in the fabric of reality itself.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “A glimpse into a possible future.” Goren said, his tone serious.

  Within the rift, I saw the Divine’s automatons storming the streets of Skyhaven – and then Orlinth – slaughtering everyone in their path. The Impaler wasn’t even unique. Dozens copies of it ravaged the platforms. And it wasn’t even the worst of the machines.

  Eventually, they had destroyed the magitek engines that held Solvane’s platforms afloat, causing them to crash down.

  I couldn’t even begin to fathom how many lives were lost.

  Then the image faded.

  Chronos spoke quietly. “The automatons – infused with Erebus himself – destroyed your world completely.”

  The weight of it all pressed against me. The image of my dad and Trent flashing inside my mind.

  “This can still be avoided.” Chronos continued. “I don’t know the specifics of how Libra and Valdemar are connected to it. I only know they are. Your role is to figure it out and stop them. And eventually, to imprison Erebus.”

  I shook my head, my thoughts spinning, but determination growing. “How?”

  Chronos smiled softly. “You died once. But I’ve placed you in a time loop. Once you leave my domain, you’ll reawaken in that prison cell – the morning of the Expo. And you’ll keep doing so…every time you die.”

  Gods. Living Darkness. Time loops. It was almost too much.

  But something deep inside me wanted this. Something told me I am the only one who could do this. Who else could? Those rich scums from Skyhaven? No way. They can’t be trusted.

  Only I can do this.

  “I’ll do it.” I said sharply. So sharply, everyone’s eyes widened in unison.

  “Wait, what…?” Goren asked, shaking his head in confusion. “Not even a hint of self-deprecation? Just ‘yes’?”

  I exhaled slowly, nodding, while my heart was still racing. “I don’t trust anyone other than myself to do this right.”

  Chronos nodded. “Determination is good. Don’t lose it. It’ll help you push through the hardest moments during this task.”

  “How do I do this then?” I asked. “Do I just use the memories from each loop to figure out how to stop Valdemar and this…Erebus?”

  Goren burst into laughter, loud and sudden, earning a scolding gaze from his girlfriend.

  Chronos, unfazed, kept his eyes on me. His tone remained calm. Serious.

  “It’s going to be tougher than that.” He said. “You see, Erebus is like me – timeless. He experiences each loop in a linear fashion. Which means…he remembers everything. Almost everything.”

  I didn’t like where this was going.

  “While you’re trying to figure out how to stop him and Valdemar and save your world,” Chronos continued, “he’ll be trying try to figure out which Solvane citizen I chose as my Champion. If he identifies you, he marks you, and the loop becomes…locked. He’ll kill you the moment it starts – every time. Considering your world is highly mechanized, Erebus will likely override Solvane’s systems, giving himself control over all of your automatons.”

  Things were getting better and better…

  “What…?”

  “Yes. Those are the rules of our battle against him.” Chronos nodded grimly. “He’s always on the hunt for the person causing significant changes between each loop and the original one. That’s why, to counter him, you’ll need to lose all of your memories at the start of each loop. Then your progress will be subtle enough for him to miss you – and keep on missing you – until it’ll be already too late for him.”

  “Wait, what?” I blinked, stunned. “What’s the point of reliving a time loop if I can’t remember a damn thing? Won’t I just keep repeating the same actions over and over? You’re making less sense with each second!”

  “I know it’s hard to accept,” Chronos said, “and we will have another meeting later on where I’ll explain things to you in more detail. But for now, you just need to know this: our meetings – just like this one – will partly remain in your memory between loops, hopefully providing enough guidance. And…” He held up a finger. “I’m not sending you back empty-handed.

  He smiled faintly.

  “Your COG will be equipped with my very own: Déjà vu System 2.0. Designed to help you piece fragments of your previous runs and progress into a better future.”

  “D-Déjà what?”

  “It’s from a different language.” He shook his head. “Just check your COG.”

  Suddenly, my COG, which was missing just a moment ago, materialized on my right wrist. On top of the display, appeared a switch which wasn’t there before. It had two modes: DjV and TM.

  “Only you would be able to see the switch, so don’t worry.” Goren said, coming closer. “Before you check any of the modes, let’s introduce you to the Inventory.”

  “The Inventory?”

  Goren nodded, then crouched, picked up a blade of grass, and handed it to me. “Bring it closer to your COGs screen and think ‘store’.”

  “What?” My eyes narrowed. This sounded so stupid.

  Goren sighed. “Just do it.”

  Skeptical, I grabbed the blade of grass and did as he told me. Suddenly, the most unexpected thing happened.

  The blade of grass just dissolved between my fingers, and my COG screen reacted.

  [Inventory]

  - Grass x1

  “What the fuck…” I muttered.

  “If you pick it from the menu, it will reappear in your hand.” Chronos nodded, chuckling at my reaction.

  I quickly did just that, and there it was, the blade of grass reappeared in my hand again, disappearing from the screen.

  I’m not even going to bother asking how it works – I’d likely won’t believe the answer either way.

  “If you press the switch down like a button, you get access to the Inventory. There you can save items between runs. It’ll be extremely useful considering each one of your loops will reset you back to your state at the beginning of the day.” Goren said. “Now, flip the switch toward DjV.”

  I did.

  The display shifted into something I’d never seen from the COG before, and a list written in purple letters displayed the following:

  [Déjà vu System: Level 5]

  [Loop Count: 1 / 123]

  [Progress until next level: 0%]

  [DjV Mode]

  1. Déjà vu – Level 1 / 10

  Passive skill. Triggers faint recollections of past loops, increasing awareness of events that have happened.

  2. Afterimage – Level 0 / 10

  Creates an afterimage of yourself, retracing your past selves’ movements for a brief duration. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

  3. Temporal Trace – Level 3 / 10

  Allows vision of the Time Plane, and the ability to mark a specific location on it visible only to you (remains between loops unless removed).

  4. Echo Sense – Level 0 / 10

  Passive skill. Allows to hear echoes from past loops such as conversations and etcetera.

  5. Checkpoint – Level 0 / 10

  Sets a temporal anchor point, allowing you to revert to this moment upon death with memories of the current loop intact (single use per loop).

  My eyes quickly scanned the display before me. There were more functions appearing after these five, but they were censored.

  “These five will help you subtly remember what you did in previous loops. The censored ones will unlock as you progress.” Goren added. “Chronos is experiencing a good patch – we won the last two Battles, so we already provided you with five initial upgrades. The rest will be up to you – you can upgrade the Déjà vu system similarly to how you would upgrade you COG. Using the…what’s it called…?” He seemed to visibly struggle, until he finally remembered. “The Dematerializer!”

  I was barely listening to him, still reading what each of the functions before me does.

  “Now switch to TM.” Goren said.

  I did.

  The purple coloring remained but the list shifted completely.

  [Déjà vu System: Level 5]

  [Loop Count: 1 / 123]

  [Progress until next level: 0%]

  [TM Mode]

  1. Slow – Level 1 / 3

  Slow time around you for a brief moment while retaining your own speed. Cooldown: 5 hours.

  2. Timeline – Level 0 / 3

  You can control the timeline of an object – bringing it to a past state. Cooldown: 2 hours.

  3. Freeze – Level 0 / 3

  Stop time completely including yourself. Flow of time will resume the moment you move again. Cooldown: 1 hour.

  “Time manipulation…?” I rubbed my forehead, in disbelief.

  Goren nodded enthusiastically. “It was my idea and worked well for our previous Champion!”

  I sighed, willing to accept it as a possibility. I would still have to check it out the moment I can.

  “Both modes, and the Inventory, are connected to your COG, but it doesn’t mean you can’t use the functions without it.” Chronos added. “You’ll need the COG and Dematerializer to upgrade them, but you can cast them mentally – for example in that prison cell, while your COG is confiscated.”

  I know I said I was willing to accept this as a possibility, but come on…with the power of my mind?

  A different thing bothered me.

  “Why does it say Loop Count 1 / 123?”

  “That’s the number of loops you have until your world is over.” Goren replied.

  My eyes widened. “Only 123?! But Skyhaven is huge, and without memories – “

  “It’s more than enough. Trust me.” Chronos said. “Just remember – you can’t talk about this to anyone. If you involve someone else, you’d only endanger them, and bad things would happen.”

  Then he raised his hand as if about to snap his fingers. “When you wake up again, you’ll remember most of this conversation, but nothing that happened to you this day. Ready to go back?”

  I took a deep breath, realizing I didn’t actually have a choice.

  “Oh, fuck it. Let’s do this.”