World Keeper

Chapter 873: Time Trial

I made my way through the frozen corridors, quickly catching up with the elven figure walking the halls. When he saw that I was able to move, his eyes went wide in shock. “Mister Keeper, sir, what a pleasant surprise to see you!” He said, though I could feel the worry in his surface thoughts.

“Surprise? You’re in my house.” I pointed out with an arched brow, causing him to be taken aback.

“Hm? Well, yes, I suppose I am. Funny thing, that. You see, everywhere I go, everything seems to freeze around me. I was hoping that perhaps you might be able to help remedy the situation, as you are the only one I have encountered to not suffer from that same condition?”

It felt like he was grasping for straws, but I inspected his surface thoughts, just to be sure. He was hoping that I’d believe this story, while at the same time appraising the value of the art on my walls, or wondering how much he would be able to get for exclusive images of Tsubaki and the others.

My brow twitched, and I let out a deep sigh. “I’m saying this to be nice, but are you aware that I can read what’s going through your mind?” The man’s face went pale when he heard that.

“No, no, I can’t say that I was…” After saying that, the man gave a brief, wry chuckle. The next moment, he vanished from view, having accelerated his own time even in this frozen world that I could barely catch a glimpse of him opening a portal. Still… a God of Time? That gave me an idea for an experiment to try out.

The elven god let out a sigh of relief, wiping his brow as he managed to escape from the Sky Citadel in one piece. He had used ten different portals in sequence, before changing his appearance and suppressing his divine aura. With this, he was sure that even the Keeper wouldn’t be able to so easily cause trouble for him.

That said, the moment that he canceled his time stop, he felt a hand on his shoulder. His entire body went stiff, and he turned to see the Keeper watching him with a small smile. “I see that you’ve fixed your problem on your own.” The Keeper said. “Now, perhaps you can help me with something?”

“A-And, what would that be, sir?” The man could sense that saying no would be… unwise for his health. If he could get away with attempting to rob the Sky Citadel just by helping the Keeper with a small errand, he would consider himself lucky.

However, the ‘errand’ that the Keeper mentioned was… beyond his expectations. “I’d like you to try that again. Go back in time, say… ten minutes. That should give you plenty of time to get in and out with whatever pieces you want. As long as you are gone before I return again, I vow not to pursue you.”

The man’s eyes went wide, as he had never tried to travel through time before. He had merely controlled the flow of time itself. “I-I see, sir. However, if I go back, won’t you not have made that vow in the first place?”

“I was able to interact in your frozen time. Do have a bit more faith in my abilities.” The Keeper reminded him, his hand gripping the elf’s shoulder.

“Very well.” The elf gulped, eyes trembling. He had only just recently forged his divinity, and had yet to fully master the abilities available to him. Still, such a short jump should be no problem. Once the Keeper released the elf’s shoulder, he closed his eyes in focus.

He felt the ebb and flow of time, choosing to take a step back and reverse the flow. The Keeper had given him ten minutes, and he didn’t want to try for a single second more.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself alone, the Keeper nowhere to be seen. His eyes lit up, and he froze time once again, immediately returning to the Sky Citadel. The barrier around the citadel was quite complex, but it was easy to find gaps when one froze time. Just as he did before, he slipped through one of those gaps and began to walk the palace.

During his earlier trip, the elven god had already appraised several valuable paintings or ancient armors lining the halls. He immediately ran towards those items, grabbing them and stuffing them into his inventory. While doing so, he kept track of his personal time, counting every ‘second’ he spent.

At exactly nine minutes, he left as swiftly as he came, returning to his home and allowing time to resume its normal flow. Another minute passed, and there was no sign of the Keeper. An hour passed, and still no sign… he even began to wonder if the Keeper had been truthful, and that he really had no plans to track him down.

With some confidence restored, the elven god sold one of the items he had acquired in an underground market run by dwarven craftsmen. He waited a week, and there was no sign of pursuit. As such, he believed himself to be incredibly fortunate, and sold off the rest of the items.

Weeks passed, and then months, and years, but there was never any sign of the Keeper appearing before him. In fact, he never heard of any activity from the Keeper again. The Sky Citadel continued to operate, as did the church, but the Keeper had gone silent.

I watched as the God of Time vanished in front of me, making my way back to the Citadel. With a casual scan, I was able to ensure that nothing had gone missing. Every rug, vase, and painting was just where it had been moments ago. Did the thief use the chance to escape? I mused with a bitter smile.

Terra, can you find him? Given how much she liked to watch me during my descents, I had the feeling that Terra already knew who I was talking about. Her answer, however, quite surprised me.

Oh? You didn’t do that because you wanted to get rid of him?

What do you mean? I blinked in surprise, not sure what she was implying there.

Kaylen Strathor no longer exists in this flow of time, as he has journeyed to another. There was a playful tone to her voice, but it sent chills down my spine.

So that’s what happened… I had been wanting someone to experiment with time travel for me, but I didn’t think it would be the equivalent of just smiting him. Granted, given what he had planned to do, I didn’t particularly feel guilty about what happened. So, time travel is essentially a peaceful death sentence?

Only when you are going backwards, and if you interfere even the slightest amount. Had he returned to the past and immediately returned to the present without unpausing time, he would have still been able to return to the standard flow. But because he followed your instructions, he now exists on a separate branch of fate.

It is possible to project your consciousness back through time, as all you are doing is observing events. The moment you cause a change in the timeline, even the smallest amount, you are breaking away from the ‘true fate’ of the world. On the other hand, traveling forward in time is entirely possible, you merely need to remove yourself briefly from the timeline and insert yourself back in later.

I gave a small nod at that, before wondering. What would happen if the Keeper traveled through time?

Terra gave a soft giggle at that. The true fate of the world is the one which has the Keeper in it. If you travel through time, then you are causing the new timeline you create to be the true fate. However, you will most likely never be able to return to the path you left.

That was interesting to know, but I wouldn’t be testing it any time soon. Cutting off one path of time basically meant that I was creating a future in which I didn’t exist. From my perspective, it would simply be going from one point to another, with little change. But, for those left behind, it would be a world that I had abandoned.

At the same time, I could certainly see some benefits to doing so. In fact, there was one question that sat at the front of my mind. What happens if I rewind time after an invasion starts, to prevent the invasion from ever occurring?

Theoretically, given what Terra had said, that should make it so that the invasion never happens. The invaders that had already emerged in the previous timeline will not have a Keeper to kill, and so it should be judged as an instant victory. But would the system ever be that kind?

If that happens, the invasion will start over. Terra confirmed my suspicions. More importantly, the location that the invaders appear in will change, making it impossible to use your previous knowledge to determine their whereabouts. In extreme situations where the Keeper continuously abuses the power of time to try and ‘crack’ an invasion, the system will offer retribution in the form of changing the invading forces. This usually means making them more challenging. In short, I would strongly advise you not to do this.

That last part was unexpected, but the rest made sense according to my expectations of the system. One last thing. What would happen if, after I successfully defended against an invasion, or after I sent off an invading force, then rewound time to before the invasion?

There was a faint chuckle at that. Trying to break the system? Given how people still need to reset, you probably know it’s not that easy. Once someone is killed due to an invasion, for whatever reason, their fate is severed. If you rewind time to before you send someone away, their fate is cut, and they will die soon after. Similarly, if you rewind to before a successfully defended invasion, everyone that died in that invasion will soon perish. Even worse, fate may over-correct in order to kill those who had previously died, costing far more lives than if time had been allowed to flow normally.

I furrowed my brow, nodding my head at that. It was probably possible to offset that correction if one possessed both the Time and Fate domains, but it would incur a great cost, or be something that had to be done on an individual basis.

In essence, it was not worth it for me to personally delve into time travel. The only situation where it was acceptable would be if I bought a new system and it caused massive problems. Even then, I probably wouldn’t get my money back, but could I undo the problem it caused? There was still the chance that the system would implement the change according to schedule either way.

Shaking my head, I made my way to the library, where Tsubaki and the others were still immersed in their virtual reality training. None of them seemed to have noticed anything from when the temporal invader had visited the citadel. The avatars of Tsubaki and Dana were back to work as if nothing had ever happened.

I sat down at my own terminal, but didn’t immediately connect to resume training. Instead, I sent a message to Vivi, asking how the others were doing. According to her, they were doing… rather well. For the most part, at least.

Dana had taken to the Absurdity of Fate with surprising results. Lifre was working on the Essence of the World’s End. And finally, Tsubaki had begun training with the Heart of Combat. Gerard… he attempted to pursue the Absurdity of Fate, but was currently unable to grasp the illogical thought processes necessary to make it work.

Privately, Vivi suggested that he work on a different style, but he had yet to follow that advice.