It was...
Hard to explain what exactly I was seeing
Just like how it would be hard to explain how it would be to feel every single moment of your life condensed into single moment that you felt, it was hard to explain.
It was as if Summer had come in the middle of winter and vice versa.
Autumn leaves made of spring water dancing among winter snowflakes made of summer sand
Split into four seemingly neat sections, the four sections of the four seasons consistently shivered and crackled in the air as they shifted around constantly, trying desperately to overtake the other in this destabilised time
And the strange thing?
There was a strange sense of equality amongst the seasons, transforming it from a chaotic ball of seasons into a sphere of equally present seasons.
Yeah I still don't completely understand why and what is happening but I do know that it's bad.
"So this is destabilised time? It's more... Fluid than I thought it would be"
"Don't touch it unless you want to be torn apart by the flames of summer and the ice of winter."
"I wasn't going to"
Watching as a particularly unlucky rock was sucked into the vortex of elements, the pebble froze over briefly before being pelted with sunshine and rain drops that made it brittle, following it closely by razor sharp leaves that turned the pebble into dust.
"So you're here now?"
Turning around, the time keeper appeared from behind the zone of destabilised time, having finished dragging a long line around the area which I now noticed was roughly the area where the convergence type event was occurring.
Still wearing the same gear that I had last saw them in, the timekeeper flaunted their grey tinted midsection covered in dense muscle culture and soun the blade around in their hands as easily as breathing.
Four sectioned gaze filtered by the helmet glancing at me, the Timekeeper continued quietly.
"And I see you brought the Claimed"
"Hello"
Barely acknowledging my greeting, the Timekeeper glanced my way before staring directly into the Messengers gold tinted eyes
"Messenger, what have you been doing to this place for it to be so... This?"
Gesturing at the wildly fluctuating ball of energy, the Messenger nervously wringed her hands.
"That's why I came to ask you, I don't know why it's suddenly like this"
"...Aw hells."
Turning back to look at the giant ball of energy, the Messenger curiously prodded the woman in the side with a gloves finger "Why are you suddenly bringing up hell? Does that unholy place have something to do with this anomaly?"
"..." Giving the messenger the type of look when a teacher was disappointed in their student, the Timekeeper sheathed her blades and gestured to her chest.
"You know the boss cell that we used to have"
"Yes..?"
Glancing at her chest where the locket containing the half of the boss cell, the Time keeper made a gesture forming a loop in the air before pointing at the spatial anomaly.
"Well it's one of the keys to fixing this mess" the Timekeeper roughly rubbed he back of their head, the dull scrape of metal ringing in their ears.
"God damn it why are the calculations off all of a sudden"
Nervously twiddling her thumbs, the Messenger slowly snaked forwards keeping in mind to not cross the line drawn on the ground.
"Why are you suddenly cursing? And what does the boss cell have to do with this?"
"..." Roughly rubbing her hand across her helmet, the Timekeeper let out a barely audible groan before gesturing wildly at the anomaly and at herself.
"You know how to save the world from being destroyed by the malaise I trapped our little island in a bubble of forever repeating time in hopes of possibly finding a cure for this damnable disease correct?"
"Yes...?"
"Well the way I did it is flawed"
"What!? No, you did everything perfectly! If anything, it's the fault of the Alchemist that's still unable to find a cure for the malaise even given several years with perfectly identical test subjects!"
Hurriedly denying the Timekeepers depreciating words, the Timekeeper shook her head.
"It would be fine if we just sealed the island in a bubble of ever relating time, it would be a lot more controllable for me, and it wouldn't result in spatial anomalies..."
She gestured at the convergence of elements. "... Like this from happening so soon"
"But since we had to seal parts of the malaise alongside tens of thousands of people in these boss cells, the predicted date of total spatial collapse gets nearer everyday"
"What!?" Flinching at the sudden shrillness of her own voice, the Messenger hurriedly co trolled herself and placed her body right next to that of the Timekeepers, hurriedly whispering in a voice loud enough for me to hear.
"Are you sure about that? Isn't total temporal collapse not going to happen for at least a couple years later?"
The timekeeper shook their head "I don't know why my calculations are off since they're rarely ever off, but the fact of the matter is, if we don't unseal one of the boss cells right now, soon, more and more temporal anomalies like this one might start appearing all over the island"
She shook her head "And just as it stands, since this is a temporal spatial anomaly messing up reality in the bubble, the effects of being involved in this anomaly is the same as being time broken"
She tapped her fingers against the hilt of the blade.
"In other words, if we don't release a portion of the power used to keep the malaise sealed in the Boss Cell, the entire island may be consumed and transformed into an even worse hell than that of when the MLaise was still running rampant"
"So, do me the honours Sir Slade and give me the completed form of the boss cell" a sharp glint penetrated the air around us as she showed an upturned hand ignoring the confused gaze of the messenger coming from her side.
Nodding my head since the entire island would be unrevocably screwed if I didn't, I took out the full boss cell I had taken from Dracula and presented it.
And the very moment I did, it was as if the whole world had fallen silent.
'No, it actually did fall silent'
Blinking slowly, I tried moving my limbs only to notice that they were responding similarly slowly.
As if time itself had slowed down everything but my thoughts.
'Just like when I used the time rune' Coming to a realisation, I felt the energy running round in my body and felt it slowly move around, cycling around it like blood in my circulatory system, but except of giving oxygen to my muscles, the mana was giving energy to the time rune
'But why?'
Feeling the challenge rune simultaneously alight with energy on the sides of my wais, I continuously wondered why it was that the challenge rune had suddenly activated before realising I should actually focus on something else.
Why I was suddenly trapped in a slowed down time.
Eyes darti feft and right as they took in the numerous photos floating in the air allowing my brain to process and understand what it was seeing, it finally noticed what may have been the cause.
The line that was surrounding the anomaly was spreading
'No' I came to a realisation 'Its not that the line itself is expanding, it's that the earth itself was being consumed by the anomaly.
Hurriedly moving my legs, the ensuing time anomaly surged towards the boss cell still held in my outstretched hand causing my mind to explode into a flurry of confused thoughts at the implications of such a thing before the Timekeeper finally reacted.
Moving through the slowed down time at a speed similar to running, I had little doubt that it would appear as if the Timekeeper were teleporting.
Pulling out the thick yet short hour blade and the taller and thinner minute blade and holding them in both hands, she smashed at the space surrounding the anomaly, forcing it to contract
Happening in but a single second of action, the world hurriedly sped up again.
Nearly collapsing as I jumped off the ground and into a wall, fragmenting my shoulder blade at the sudden force coming at my side unprepared, the Timekeeper had since the. Sheathed her blades while the messenger was surrounded by a barrier made of red scales locked up onto each other like chains.
Glancing at me with what seemed like barely contained surprise, the Timekeeper gestured at the boss cell in my hand "It seems you've grown since I last saw you, now the Boss Cell if you please"
"...Oh, yeah" Rolling my shoulder which was already healing my broken shoulder with the telltale sign of itchy bones, the Messenger hurriedly interjected with a dumbfounded voice.
"Wait wait wait wait WAIT"
Pausing our actions simultaneously the Timekeeper crossed her arms and huffed in annoyance "What? Each second that goes without me taking action is a second wasted, you better have a good reason for the delay"
Hurriedly nodding her head, the messenger turned ton look at me with the most serious loom I've ever seen on her face and opened her mouth, a sing song voice echoing out from within
"Slade, claimed of the undertaker, tell me, how did you come across an intact boss cell with both it's complimenting halves?"
Crossing my arms as the Timekeeper looked on with a look on confusion, I featured at the boss cell.
"This I got by beating up a white haired man inhabiting Masters Keep, a vampire so to speak"
It was the Timekeepers turn to be confused.
"Wait, you mean to tell me that the boss cell in your hands isn't the one that I gave you alongside The Messenger?"
It was now the Messengers turn to be confused "Huh? What do you mean? I never gave the claimed my half of the boss cell"
The Timekeepers turn.
"Eh? But I thought you gave the boss cell to Slade, he mentioned the boss cell that you talked to him about and I just assumed..."
"But I just told him everything that he should've been privy to as the claimed..."
Both of their eyes locked onto me with conflicting emotions crashing thought their pupils.
They said the eyes were the windows to the soul, they had no idea how right they were.
---
"So you received the boss cell from this man who introduced himself as Count Dracula..."
"To think that two of our comrades had been time killed by this vampire"
"And to think that the childhood story of the vampire terrorising the old royal family was true"
Falling into thought as the Messenger and the Timekeeper completed each others sentences, they shook their heads before the Timekeeper took the boss cell from my hand.
"Well no matter, we would've had to eventually gather the rest of the cell holders for another meeting anyways to deal with this spatial temporal anomaly."
Shrugging her shoulders she held the orb high up and concentrated.
"It's just a matter of time"
+++
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