5:19 Tests and Time and Giving In

I didn't think Morgan really understood what it had just done. Its intent was clear as day; it was trying to create a universe without creating an actual universe. However, even in trying to avoid that it was unable to escape the basis of creation, and what it’d started. Because of that, I especially knew it didn’t understand what it had done when it said its final word.

Morgan was being lazy about it. Whipping words out there like light, rest, slow. And then, as if struck by some inspiration, it looked up and spat out its final word with a sharp, toothy grin.

[SHADOW]

Suddenly the clear lines Morgan had drawn between the concepts it had summoned were blurred. A dot of chaos appeared in the order, and a dot of order appeared in the chaos. Morgan not even twitching, blind as it was to what it was creating.

No, that wasn't correct. It wasn't blind to light, light blinded it. Which is why Morgan did not notice the shift, even as a realm of clockwork, a perfectly ordered machine spun to life on one side, and raw thrumming chaos on the other. Or at least, that is what had been forming. Now each tick of the great machine sent shockwaves through that half of reality, creating the tiniest variations and breaks in the order, whereas the chaos became not quite so random, some sort of pattern emerging.

I let Morgan draw freely on my understanding of the word [Shadow], and by proxy [Light] as well. Who was I to stop it from making the mistake of making its own Light, when it had fought me so much for so long?

"All right, you stubborn wolf," I muttered to myself, willing Morgan's…Shadowverse into place where it belonged, beneath everything, between it all. Acting as the lines that kept everything separated. I took a step back to admire it all for just a moment.

Then Nyxteria got back to me, the [System] from the One World presenting me with the message. I accepted it, little bundle of intent though it was, remarkably like a letter, and sent a wave of gratitude to the sentient program, making a mental note to send an update to the Oshun about how well it was performing. Already the One World was healing faster than ever before, on track to overtake its old heights of power. Plus, I'm sure she would like to see pictures of Amari Ren. The little one had finally decided it was time to grow and had moved out of the toddler phase. That likely had much to do with the health of the One World, though.

With a flick of my wrist, I opened the packaged intent and read Nyxteria's requests, in return for lessons on time and likely space. It was a very simple letter, with a tiny pouch of time and space carried alongside it.

Nyxteria wants a shred of your sight. A line of power from the Rival. And a beam of light from your realm sun and lunar star. The bird had said. The moment I finished reading, four glowing green crystals popped into existence, time and space unraveling alongside the intent to deposit the time crystals into my waiting hand.

One had something in it. I frowned a little, tapping it with my senses to confirm that yes, that likely contained the memories Nyxteria wanted to give in regards to the lessons, but had been time-locked to withhold that information until the other three crystals were filled. I chewed the inside of my lip a little, then reached out and snagged two rays of light from the Realm Sun and Lunar Star, pushing them into the crystal, which glowed as the beams froze forever in time.

My sight was a little trickier. I couldn't exactly pluck out an eye and plop it into the crystal, because at this point the eyes were not the sources of my sight, even if they were conduits for it. Instead, I had to wrap my intent around the concept of seeing, peeling away a thin outer layer that immediately healed.

I looked it over. Things like concepts, for me, now appeared just as much a physical object as anything else. A thing that existed in seven dimensions at once and none of them at the same time, and I could manipulate without needing to think about it. My eyesight, for example, looked very much like a trillion fine mesh nets and filters layered on top of each other. Not stopping anything from getting through, but identifying it through a series of shape and weight tests.

That was just my base sight, though. Deeper than that was what Truesight was. And that I could only describe as the fabric of reality itself. Whether that was nothing of the Void, or something of creation.

Truesight pierced through everything and accepted it for what it really was, as an entire whole. There was no object I could compare it to, no filter or mold or scale that full encompassed the fact that it saw everything. Truesight not only saw the physical shape of, say, a sword, but also the layers of steel, where that steel was from, what it had seen over its long lifespan, what it had been before it was steel, what each of the atoms had been, what energy had been used in its creation, and what it was going to be eventually.

No, there was no object I could compare Truesight to. And I only left a single millimeter of it in there before I stuffed my concept of sight into the crystal.

The third thing would be more difficult. It meant asking the Rival to surrender a piece of himself, and I felt awkward even thinking about that. I of course would clean the energy, make sure it couldn't be used against him, but…I shook my head. First I should go see if he was even amenable to the idea.

I willed it, and an incarnation appeared in the heart of Fang Xu's Realm Sun, right beside the Rival, as he mapped out the final-ish version of the planned test for inter-universal travel. I was honestly surprised and impressed by the lengths he had gone to, in a morbidly fascinated, how-did-you-come-up-with-this-nightmare kind of way. The Rival didn't even look up as I appeared, Kei wiggling her fingers at me while Fang Xu sat with Amari Ren, my child having grown up to maybe a four-or-five-year-old in size, as they furrowed their brows, kicked their feet, and stared at the plan.

The Rival hummed. "I don't know. What do you think about the jabberwocky?" he asked, tossing the idea over his shoulder at me. I raised my brow and looked at the mishmash creature he had tried to cram into the test. Some insane being that was meant to be a combination of the test takers' worst nightmares and fears, given physical manifested form and dialed up to about twenty.

"Hmm," was all I said, and he nodded seriously, as if I had given him sage advice.

"I think I agree. There's not enough teeth."

"What I think is that you need to stop hogging the spotlight and let Fang Xu put the final touches on it. You're cramming too much in there," I told him bluntly.

The Rival pouted. "You were supposed to agree with me, Stat. You gotta commit to the bit."

I snorted out a laugh. "You, my friend, are being silly. Your perfectionism is—well, it's honestly something to be admired. Even I would have called it quits a little while ago," I told him. The plan had long since reached a level I would have called more than adequate bordering on nearing perfection.

The Rival gasped with mock hurt, looking to Kei and Fang Xu for support. "Did you hear that? I'm downgraded to friend again. After professing Her undying love for me, and going on and on about how jealous She was that I was giving the First more attention than Her, She's thrown me straight back into friendship," he sobbed. "I'm hurt."

"I did nothing of the sort," I deadpanned.

"That's not what I heard," Kei said, sing-song.

I fixed her with a look. "Kei, are you sure you want to be interested in my love life? Your grandpa's? I could start going into detail if you'd like." Kei opened her mouth, finger pointing up, seemed to think about it for a moment, then wisely shut her mouth and shrunk back, tails twitching.

"Also, I told you to go to your mother, like, a while ago. Did you go?" Her tails drooped and her ears flattened on her head. I sighed shook my head at her. "Ready?" I asked. She nodded with a pout, I snapped my fingers, and the all-too-mischievous fox girl was teleported to Reika's new universe.

"Hey, she was an invaluable asset in making The Plan," the Rival complained, gesturing to “The Plan.”

To me, what he called the Plan looked—well, honestly, it was very much like the bridges I had used but elevated all the way to a labyrinth. The path to the end looked simple enough, if you ignored all the false leads, winding paths, misdirections, and far, far too many bells and whistles tacked onto it to make sense. The core was good. The excess was not.

On NovelPhoenix, this chapter is published by its author. The text here was taken without their permission.

I turned to Fang Xu, who lifted his head out of his hands to meet my eyes, and groaned. "Make him stop. It's been done for ages."

I just laughed at him. "This is what you get for asking the Rival for help.” And though he hid his face with another groan, I could still see the smile dancing on his lips. He had genuinely been having fun with this, the evidence not only in his aura but in the fact I could see bits of his influence sticking the bells and whistles from Kei, the Rival, and little Amari Ren onto the proposed challenge.

Speaking of my child, Amari Ren, still sitting in his lap, stopped scrunching their little brows and looked up at me, swinging their feet and lifting their hands up in the universal pick-me-up gesture. I gladly did so, settling them on my hip and poking their nose. "You having fun?"

They nodded seriously. "Almost nap time. I'm tired," they said, burying their face in my shoulder.

" I'll take you to your bed," I started, already starting to warp them away to another incarnation that would put them to bed. But their grip tightened around me, their hold on reality tightening, resisting, just enough to get me to stop.

"No. Sleep with you," they insisted.

My heart melted a little, and this time they did not resist the teleport as my main consciousness turned towards them. And yes, I still teleported them directly to bed, but my main mind stayed sitting there, even without a full physical body, wrapping my consciousness around the little one like a blanket. They were out like a light, my arms around them.

My incarnation turned back to the Rival and The Plan. With a wave of my hand, almost all of the bells and whistles were taken off. The excessiveness. The death lasers and doom cannons and hell whips and whatever other nonsense they had all come up with, leaving behind only the absolute core. Well, I said that. There were still plenty of excessive things on there. A few each that were my personal favorites, designed by Kei, Amari Ren, and the Rival, and even Fang Xu, and didn’t subtract from the spirit of the challenge they had designed.

The Rival frowned. "You took off the hot springs of great fun," he accused me.

"Hot springs of great fun," I repeated back, furrowing my brows and searching through the things I had taken off for what might constitute that. "You mean the literal lava pits?"

"No. Pits of lava razors and magma springs. It's bouncy. Hot springs. And razors, which are great fun," he insisted.

I rolled my eyes at him. Nothing he said was untrue, and that was the problem. The lava was as springy and bouncy as a spring. The temperature of the room had been ratcheted up to the core of the Realm Sun, the heat itself sharp as razors. And there were even literal lava razor blades, coated with intent to make them seem like an extra fun toy to play with.

The amount of puns in that one room made even me want to strangle him. That wasn't to say I didn't tuck the idea away for later, because I found it way too amusing at the same time, but it wouldn't do to let the Rival know that.

"Would you like me to help set this up, Fang Xu? Or would you like to do the honors?" I asked the Deity of the Realm Sun, completely ignoring the Rival for the moment. The fiery-haired man considered it as he stood from his chair, stepped forward, and circled the great Plan.

"If you don't mind, I would like to do it. I'll get Celene to help me, once she signs off on it. It'll take both of our powers to carve pathways, after all," he said.

I set my hand on his shoulder. "Very good. I'm proud of you. This is an excellent test, though you don’t need me to tell you that."

His face turned a little red and he coughed into his fist as he took the Plan, folded it up like it was a sheet of paper, and stuffed it into his robes. "Thank you. On that note, I am going to go find my wife and save her from whatever trouble she's gotten herself into. I'll leave you two alone," he said, wiggling his eyebrows, and then shooting off on a sunbeam. I watched him go, amused that he’d tried to deflect how embarrassed, but good, my comment had made him feel.

"All right," the Rival said immediately, clapping his hands. "What did you need me for?"

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing, it's just, I can see it radiating off of you. You need me for something. What is it? What can I help you with?" he asked a little too eagerly.

I opened and closed my mouth. Then accepted that he was right and read me like a book, and bit the bullet to go ahead and ask for this admittedly slightly awkward favor. Was it awkward? Or was I making too big a deal out of it? "Well, I ran into a little problem," I said, producing the time crystal and explaining the problem to him as best and succinctly as I could. The issue I'd been having with time, speeding it up and slowing it down, mixed areas. Nyxteria's offer to help, the trade we were going to have, assuming the Rival agreed.

The Rival listened intently, nodding.

"I will, of course, scrub your energy best as I can," I assured him, glancing up briefly at that great mass above all the universes that was his true, actual soul, anchored to his divine, immortal…well, I guess it was technically immortal, but also mortal, because his nature as a monkey wrench meant he hadn't chosen to stay yet.

The Rival stroked his chin, nodding thoughtfully. "You do realize you could have just asked me for help, right?" he asked slowly.

"Uh?" I said. Very eloquently.

"I've been around, Statera. Like, around around. Around, around. I could absolutely, positively help you with this problem without needing to give away my energy to some strange space-bird who may or may not have ill intentions. I don’t think it has malicious intentions, but from what I remember of that being it’s really hard to tell. Besides, I've been a god of time before." He explained.

"You have?" I cocked my head to the side. He did not strike me as the god of time type. Patience was not one of his virtues.

"Oh yes," he said seriously. "Well, I mean, it was another in a Xianxia world like this one, so not technically a god, but close enough? Daos were a little bit different. I chose my Dao of time so that I could have as much time as I wanted to do things. But that's another story entirely. The point of the matter is that I am here to help, and if you don't start letting me help, I will be very put out. And I will pout. A lot. Especially since you forced me to look away from my dear friend. How cruel you are," he pouted, just to prove his point.

I glared at him for a moment, then snapped my fingers. In an instant we were standing together outside the Four Realms, looking down at all those other mishmashed universes.

"Alright then, here. What's the problem, and how do I fix it?" I said, gesturing vaguely, granting him a bit of my sight that he quickly waved off, crossing his eyes, sticking out his tongue, muttering a strange chant, then blinking as his divine energy surged and snapped into focus. I observed the technique, immediately identifying it as something foreign in nature, and not quite on par with my own sight but close enough to alarm me a little. He could do that casually?

"Hmm. I think I see the issue. You’re struggling to get it to snap into place because you're thinking about it wrong," he scoffed. "Time is relative."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" I demanded. I knew time was relative. How did that apply here?

"What it means is exactly what it sounds like. Time is relative. How people perceive time is relative to the actions they're doing, and the like. If you're doing something you hate, obviously time goes by relatively slow. If you get lost in something, obviously time seems to fly by. So we play with that. Good thing is, whatever the hell that spider-wolf shadow bastard thing did, you can already see it's creating perfect borders around each of the universes for you," he said, pointing.

I followed his finger, eyes tracing the lines of order and chaos and shadow that circled and separated all the universes, not keeping them apart, not acting like glue, but simply outlining them, and realized he was right.

"Use that as your spatial fold. Easy. Now you got a pocket dimension of sorts. That's your little barrier, so you're not trying to have an ocean that has forty-seven different currents going all in the same direction, creating a whirlpool of death and disaster and destruction. In a time sense anyway. You get what I'm saying," he rattled off. "Then just make their perceptions of time a little bit different. That's all it is. Time seems to go slower where it needs to go slower, and faster where it needs to go faster. You're not actually speeding up or slowing down time. You're creating more time within that time frame. A single second is worth more here than it is over there. That fits what you're trying to do without breaking your hang-ups over time travel and all that kind of stuff."

I blinked, furrowed my brows, ran a few mental calculations, and realized he may be right.

"Damn," I said. "It really may be that easy. What the hell do I do with this, then?" I asked, holding up the last crystal.

"You should absolutely one hundred percent keep the empty one, but send the other two anyway. As goodwill," the Rival said. “I just have a thing about shearing off parts of my power. As a Monkey Wrench, that’s more dangerous to me than a stable native of a universe.”

I of course agreed, as everything else had been safely cleansed and such, and immediately packaged them up with a little thank you note, and sent it off to Nyxteria.

"Thank you. I appreciate your help. I should have asked you earlier." I told him.

The Rival waved one hand. "To be frank, I wouldn't have been able to help all that much earlier. Especially not with how I felt about the First. And then, being in a body that was anything less than divine very well may have caused me to burst out in flames if I attempted to explain the real inner workings with any sort of depth. Sometimes concepts are just literally too physically powerful for a mortal body to contain," he said with a shrug, then wiggled his eyebrows at me. "So, what do I get for helping you? A date?" he teased, then laughed at his joke alongside me.

Except I said something even I didn't quite expect. "Sure." And he froze. And I didn't. "I'll throw you a bone. You get one date."

The Rival stared for a moment longer, narrowed his eyes. "Are you kidding right now? Are you being for real?"

"I would never lie about such a thing," I said with mock innocence. "But just remember, I'm both guy and girl, and everything in between. You gotta be able to handle that, and impress me."

The Rival's grin slowly grew wider. "You are serious."

"Indeed I am," I said, surprising myself with the truthfulness of the statement. But only just slightly.

The Rival's smile dimmed just a little, then grew three sizes. "All right," he said seriously. "All right. I get one chance," he said, and winked. "I'll make it worth your while. Don't worry about sending me back. I'll go my own way, and get back to you with time and place and all that jazz," he said, and vanished in a teleport.

I could have tracked him or helped him, but actively chose not to. Instead, sitting back and waiting. Maybe, just maybe—no. If anybody could, it could be him. He'd surprise me. But honestly, I was being truthful, as I always tried to be, the potential for surprise was not the part I was most looking forward to.

There was something to be said for persistence, it seemed.