Chapter 514: Rewind Time
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At an unspecified time, Argrave found himself in an unspecified place. Considering heād jumped into a pit, that was the intended outcome. But this was a little different than falling, he could tellārather, it was like he fell out of the world theyād been standing atop rather than falling into it. Heād found a tiny crack in the firmament and slipped through like water.
āParasite.ā
Argrave couldnāt look around, not really. But he heard a voice. It came from somewhere in the direction of everything all at once. Or perhaps it was just behind him. The two werenāt mutually exclusive.
Though he tried to speak, he didnāt have a mouth anymore. He didnāt really have anything anymore. It couldnāt be some delusion, eitherāthe Ravenstone was meant to protect him from all mental interference, all the machinations of the psychic and the divine. Yet somehow, the question heād been intending to ask emerged from somewhere.
āWhoās talking?ā Argraveās tone was a strange combination of the voice heād become and the voice heād once had. āWhat is this?ā
āCouldnāt leave well enough alone. Now you come picking at the bone.ā
Argrave remained rational enough in this strange trance to puzzle out that whatever he was conversing with was directly related to Sandelabara. And if he hadnāt died following the psychopathic Alchemist into an untested pit, there was knowledge to gain from this encounter. āWhat exactly am I parasitizing?ā
āYouāre the first to arrive. Move quickly. If you cannot, more than your light alone shall be snuffed out. It would be better to accept a parasite than fall into a abyssal chasm.ā
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Argrave once again found himself in a specified place at a specified timeānamely, falling through the same pit that heād jumped into moments ago. The wind magic that the Alchemist had cast to shield his body lowered him gently with his will, and finally, this vast pit began to open up into something grander. He looked around at the others floating about him frantically, but could tell at once that this experience was his alone.
āAnneliese,ā he called out. āLook at me closely. Do you see anything off with your [Truesight]?ā
Anneliese watched him as she descended, catching his unease. She did study him closely, but then shook her head. āWhat happened? You look pale.ā
āGot a message. Just a message, I think,ā Argrave looked down below, where the Alchemist continued to descend. āIāllā¦ I canāt even describe it with words,ā he managed, shaking his head. āBut thereās something here. Called me a parasite, yet urged me to hurry all the same.ā
āGerechtigkeit?ā Master Castro questioned, listening closely as they descended.
āI know what he sounds like, and that wasnāt it. There was always something vaguely mortal about Gerechtigkeit, but thisā¦ not a chance,ā Argrave shook his head. āIād only be speculating if I guessed further. That something, whatever it is, knows weāre here. And Iām not entirely sure what that means for us. Considering Iām whole and healthy, maybe itās nothing more than empty words.ā
Without much to go on, all speculation ceased as the widening opening became a vast cavern and stunned them all into quiet observation. Argrave could see isolated pockets of magma still persisting in the drained chamber, but other than that, this vast place had been completely purged of all molten rock. As in the magma moat where the dwarves persisted, miles away magma slowly encroached back to fill this empty cavity. It would take days before it came close enough to threaten them, yet still it came.
This place looked like nothing more than a vast and empty cavern, drained as it was. Argrave couldnāt yet see the floor. Persisting heat warped the air, but Argrave felt no discomfort, likely due to the Alchemistās intervention. Now, that same spellcaster cast a grand spell that illuminated the entire cavern. Everyoneās eyes were drawn to the same thing. And Argrave was certain most of them thought the same thing: Sandelabara.
Argrave saw a huge crater in the cavern. Looking at it from above, suspending by the Alchemistās magic, it looked like a portal into another world. An idyllic world, seemingly painted into the floor. Argrave saw a distant city past the grasslands. It could be likened to a portal into one of the godsā realmsāa split in this reality through which the divine and mortal both could travel. Yet there was something off about it. Lingering pools of magma dripped into it, yet the moment they passed the boundary, they vanished as though they never were.(f)reewe(b)novel
As they descended further, Argrave saw the scene more clearly. It was still as a painting. It looked like a lovely coastal city. Argrave could see seagulls, even, and trees flowing with the light sea winds. But something about the way the seagulls moved wasā¦ off, and the trees were odd in much the same way. Argrave couldnāt put his finger on it.
āWhat are you seeing? Anything unusual, anyone?ā Argrave asked, the question largely for Anneliese and the Alchemist.
Silence reigned for a long few moments as they steadily descended.
āā¦I canāt see anything off,ā Anneliese begrudgingly admitted when no one else refused to speak.
āI cannot even tell that itās a portal,ā said the Alchemist. āItās as though whatever is there occurred naturally.ā
Their party slowly descended to the portrait-like scene in the crater. It was vastly disorienting to have one world spread out before you on its side, obeying different gravity entirely. It was like two forms of reality existed. Only the Alchemist was brave enough to approach, and he slowly put his hand out.
Argrave watched as his hand passed the barrier. The Alchemis moved his hand about, then pulled it free, closely scrutinizing his fingers with several dozen eyes. He reported to them calmly, āGravity changes. And the air pressure, the temperatureā¦ itās impossible to tell this is a portal, and indeed Iām not sure it is one. I sense not magic nor divinity. But itās certainly a different location.ā The Alchemist reached within himself, then pulled free the vial. Argrave could see its dark malignance swirling about like a tempest. āAnd itās certainly our objective.ā
āSoā¦ who goes firāā Melanie began, cutting herself off when the Alchemist hovered into Sandelabara. Even Argraveās jaw clenched when he saw the way the light fell upon the giant, as though heād just walked out beneath the sun.
The Alchemist looked back at them, then stuck his hand out. It reemerged from the portrait-like scene. Soon after, the rest of him came, and he exited calmly. āIt seems safe.ā
āVery empirical,ā Argrave noted, looking at Anneliese to stress caution. But the curiosity had set in on her face, and he knew then that their fate was sealed.
Soon after the Alchemist, all of them went through. Anneliese led the advance, then Argrave. As the giant had said, as soon as they passed the imperceivable threshold, it was as though they moved into another place entirely. A new gravity, new suns, new winds, new temperaturesā¦ Argrave judged by the two stars in the sky that this must be somewhere in the world they currently resided, but he could recognize nothing about the city, the countryside, or even the sea. Looking back, Argrave could see the lava cavern still persisting. Now, though, it appeared on its side.
āLet us advance,ā dictated the Alchemist, then set off floating wrapped in magic. āDo not touch anything carelessly, even the ground.ā
Argrave looked around the verdant countryside for a moment. The bright blue ocean stretched ahead without an end. He could see farms in the distance near the outskirt of the city. The structures werenāt quite primitive, but they lacked the uniformity of something built by magic. They looked to be made of stone, and solely by hand. The style was blocky and rigidāfunction over form, put simply. And as they proceeded, the strangeness of this land made itself all the more evident.
The seagulls flying above the oceanā¦ they teleported from place to place in their flight path. There were so many it was impossible to determine any reason to it all, but Argrave thought he noticed patterns. The trees, too, though few, snapped from place to place as the wind blew through them. They were teleporting just the same as the seagulls, though to a lesser intensity. It almost seemed like they were skipping.
āI see someone,ā declared Orion, watching a tree. āA woman. Sheās holding a baby.ā
Everyone focused where he did. Argrave could barely see it at first, but as they floated near, he spotted her too. She wore a plain brown dress and a cowl, and rocked the baby. They headed her way as quickly as they could. Her movements were jerky, too, and Argrave thought he might be able to study this phenomenon more closely. Yet thenā¦ her head turned as she noticed them. She saw them, and her head pulled back in alarm. She opened her mouth to speakā¦
And then her head was turned again, and she rocked the baby.
Everyone froze in the air, yet the Alchemist proceeded. She turned her head again as his huge body cast a shadow over herā¦ and like it never moved, her whole body shifted back.
āSheās returning to the same point,ā Argrave realized. āBack where she started.ā He looked back at the seagulls, and finally found some reason in the madness. Every time they teleported, they returned back to where they began their flight.
Argrave heard a scream, then looked back to see the woman crawling away from the Alchemist with her legs while shielding her baby. She returned once again, screamed once again, crawled once againā¦ and this cycle repeated as he watched, standing above her. Looping infinitely, trapped in time.
Their party came to join the Alchemist as he observed, watching in abject caution. Their arrival made her only more afraidāArgrave supposed from her perspective, a group of freaks came to stand over her as she rocked her baby. Argrave saw things for a picnicāa basket, some food. Beyond the looping time, it all seemed rather ordinary.
āEvery five seconds, she returns,ā the Alchemist observed. āFive and one twelfth seconds, exactly.ā
Anneliese floated near, barely suspended above the woman. She was greeted by a scream. āCan we communicate, do you think?ā
Onychinusa scoffed. āFive seconds? What could you get from that?ā
Anneliese hesitantly touched the womanās leg when she returned once, then narrowly avoided a surprised kick. Anneliese floated above the tree, studying the realm around them.
The Alchemist, on her next cycle, ruthlessly slammed his obsidian staff down, killing the woman and her baby instantly.
āWhat the fuck?!ā Argrave shouted.
Thenā¦ she returned. She saw them, she screamed, and she backed away, the same as ever. The Alchemist slowly pulled away his staff, studying it. āNo blood, no gore. But her reappearance forcibly relocated the staff. Curious.ā
āThere are non-sentient things you might test that on,ā Argrave reminded him, then shook his head with an alarmed sigh.
As everyone looked all around in stunned silence at this place trapped in time, Anneliese hovered back down and tried to communicate. It was pointlessāfive seconds wasnāt enough to say anything, let alone get a proper and coherent response from a woman frightened by their sudden appearance.
āI canāt make sense of this,ā Argrave floated high up into the sky, studying the area. Everything moved for only five seconds before returning to where it came. The smoke from distant chimneys, the tides against the coast, the horses on the meadow, the birds in the skyāthey were trapped in a loop, ignorant and immortal.
āYet we have to,ā the Alchemist reminded him. āWe know what to be cautious of. Now, let us find where Gerechtigkeitās energy resonates strongest.ā