Time Holders: The World of Balance

”Time is no force, for it existeth not. Plunge deep into the memory of thy seasons bygone; ponder heavily upon that which truly transformed thee. Was it Time? Was it the dust of the earth? I must declare unto thee, child, it was not. It was the discerning of thy soul. Whatsoever thou hast bent and warped, by such vision alone hath it been wrought, for Time is but an illusion, and thy mind is the path through.

Squander not thy travail contending with the immutable, but set thy gaze upon the abstract—the dim shadows of deeds past, the veiled tribulations of the hour that now is, and unto mysteries yet unborn.”

W-What the hell is this?!

Before the boy could even fathom the true meaning of the text, a terrible pain struck his head. His sight darkened, followed by a scream like that of a dying beast. Even after his consciousness became obscured, the harrowing throb lingered nonetheless. It pierced into his soul, clinging to his very being.

Aldrus had never experienced such a thing; his entire body languished, quaked, and suffocated, thrown into the endless waves of change. He felt dangerously close to reaching something, to achieving something, to taking part in something... to becoming something else.

Ere he had the chance to beg for aid, he plummeted into the ground like a lifeless sack of rocks.

***

”Aldrus!”

”Aldrus!!”

”Aldrus, wake up!”

Gasp!!

The black-haired boy jolted to his feet; his friends were now before him. He did not have the opportunity to catch up with what had happened; the only thing he could do was scan his surroundings.

For a while he neither moved nor spoke. His eyes wandered over the faces about him, lingering upon each in turn, as one who has returned from so distant a road that even familiar things must first be learned anew.

He lay inside the same damp chamber, darkness everywhere. His chin felt warm, his body light, and his head clearer than it had ever been. However, something was definitely off, and although he could not quite grasp what it was, he was convinced.

”Ah... guys, wha—how are you here? H-How long was I unconscious?” he asked.

The blonde girl crouched down to him, concern growing on her face.

”It’s been two hours, Aldrus! We couldn’t find you! We had to search every corner of this place!”

”Two hours?!” His eyes widened.

Something was wrong; He was certain he hadn’t been completely unconscious, for such a dreadful torment would never have permitted sleep to claim him. Hence, two hours were impossible.

”Yes! We were dead worried, man! I thought you had been eaten by a black wolf!” Cedric added.

”A black wolf? What are you talking about? Those monsters cannot reach this goddamn place, let alone want to.”

The blond boy frowned and tilted his head.

”Reach where? They wouldn’t descend here just to hunt us, sure, but we cannot just discard the possibility,” he said.

Aldrus was utterly confused. What was Cedric even saying? It took them all two hours to find the chamber, and he himself had only done so due to the strange spell—how on earth would beasts so wary ever hope to get there?

He was about to press the matter further when he pointed toward the darkness.

”Cedric. Are you okay? How the hell would those dogs ge—”

Yet just as his own eyes followed the direction he was signaling, a terrifying chill ran down his spine.

Then at last his thoughts returned to the chamber wherein he believed himself to be, and he looked about in quiet expectation, seeking the cold walls of stone.

However, before them, the chamber was no more. The four youngsters lay atop the jagged surface of the crater, right below the pitch-black sky. Only then did his body catch up with reality, the freezing night finally sinking deep into his bones.

”What the hell?!” he staggered back.

”Aldrus! What’s wrong? You’re acting so weird!” Aiden said, leaning to help him stand.

No... W-What? What’s going on?!

”I—I don’t know! We were in the chamber just now! How?!”

”The chamber? What chamber? Hey! Talk to us, what’s going on?” Alice said.

”No, but—Y-You just found me, just now! Stop messing with me. Did you bring me here with [Motion]?”

He very well knew First-Ranks were not capable, but he asked nonetheless. Ever since he had stumbled across that shadowed room of stone, nothing had been making sense. He wondered if, perhaps, he was still dreaming—if, maybe, he had fallen asleep upon arriving at the crater, but everything felt so real, so vivid. He could hear their worried breathing, smell the rust of steel, and feel the freezing wind.

”Come on, Aldrus. Stop joking; you’re starting to worry us.”

”N-No, listen to me! I found a weird place—it was built by someone! T-That’s right! There was a message directed at me! I-It said something about Time... was it... that it doesn’t exist? Ugh!”

Those words had barely left his tongue when a familiar throbbing pain invaded his head.

”Agh! D-Damn it! Hey, hel—”

Fighting through it, Aldrus glanced up at his comrades, but the sight he was met with almost made him puke.

There came a stillness unlike the quiet of ordinary nights. It was not the absence of sound, but the feeling that the world itself had paused, waiting upon something unseen.

At that moment, before his very eyes, the bodies of his friends lay lifeless on the ground—their flesh pulsating, their skin so pale and thin it almost looked translucent, like a veil of silk covering muscle, bone, and veins; like a ghost under the water, or a slug covered in salt.

Yet most terrible were not the pale limbs nor the trembling flesh, but their eyes. Empty they were, and still they watched him, robbed alike of life and death, lingering somewhere between remembrance and oblivion.

It was the curse for those who dared to leap ahead; the moment when human nature clashed against the greater power of a Holder who was not yet ready. A punishment for wishing to skip through.

”A-Ahh...! W-WH—”

And so the warning had been done. The boy shall now be careful with his words.