A Heart Holds More Meaning Than A Mirror.

Arima was sitting against Yggdrasil with Layla sleeping on his shoulder. He was watching as a six-year-old girl with silver hair and eyes played with several animals that roamed the garden.

Deer, lions, tigers, rabbits, birds, hedgehogs... They all behaved themselves around her and the lions would even act like kittens and lie on their back for her to stroke.

Her name was Lea R. Blade, Arima's and Layla's daughter. She was born with the ability to communicate with nature and inherited her father's elemental powers. She had awakened as a Silver Empress when she was two years old.

Arima squinted and glanced at Layla next to him before snickering. 'Who would have I guessed I'd experience this peace one day…' He thought.

Lea heard him and looked over curiously with her slit pupils. "Dad?"

"It's nothing," Arima shook his head. "Just reminiscing the past."

"Hm," his daughter hummed then turned toward the entrance of the garden. Arima followed her look and spotted Alice, who was now twelve years old, coming in along with an old woman who carried a baby boy in her arms.

"Baba Yaga," Arima called and she smiled faintly before walking over.

"Good morning," she said as Alice happily went to play with her younger cousin.

"Did something happen? Alice and Moira are with you."

"Yes," Baba Yaga smiled wryly. "Night is currently sparring with Malum and Karma is out together with Shakti. So, I have to take care of them. Isn't that why you brought me here in the first place?"

Arima shrugged and pointed at the baby boy with his chin. "So? Are you keeping up with Moira? The nature of his parents made him quite a special existence. Be careful to not be cut into pieces by accident."

Baba Yaga smiled bitterly. "Yes, I've almost been… 'cut into pieces' as you say. But I'm getting the hang of it. As long as he is asleep at least, nothing goes wrong."

"Uncle!" Alice suddenly shouted and ran toward him. Lea quietly followed. Both of them looked at each other and nodded with a determined expression. They breathed in and extended their hands toward Arima.

The latter scowled and Layla woke up at the same time. She rubbed her eyes and just happened to see the two girls invoking a magic formation.

Arima's eyes widened. He pulled out his glasses from his coat and put them on before looking at the formation. "…what is this?" He asked after a few seconds.

Lea and Alice grinned. "It's something we both have been working on. We wanted to surprise everyone. So, uncle, what do you think?" The latter explained.

Arima chuckled and the two girls tilted their heads in confusion. "To be honest, this is very impressive. From what I can see, there are 114 layers. You must have spent quite a lot of time on this."

Lea and Alice gaped. They never expected him to be able to find out about the number of layers so easily.

Lea pouted. "Not fair, Dad has Natus."

Arima laughed and Layla finally caught up to what was happening. She smiled and touched the magic formation in curiosity. Lea's eyes brightened. "What do you think, Mom?"

Layla mused and Arima leaned back. "I'll be frank with you sweetheart, I can also see all the layers and that each of them is meant to connect to the previous one, like a loop. I can also tell that this has something to do with spatial transfer… But that's all. I have no idea what it'll do when you activate it."

"Well, mainly because it's such a mess," Arima quipped and Layla hit him on the back of the head. He smiled and looked at the two girls in front of him. "I also have no idea of what it'll do. But, if I'm correct, this is supposed to allow unconditional teleportation without mana consumption. I'm impressed that you did this on your own."

Baba Yaga was shocked when he said that while Alice and Lea simply looked smug.

"Though…" Arima continued and touched the magic formation. He fiddled with the runes and hummed. His eyes suddenly widened and he sat up straight. His hand was altering the formation at an incredible speed.

Everyone looked at him perplexed. After a few minutes, he opened his mouth again, and it was to laugh. He laughed full-heartedly. He patted the girls' heads and said, "Do you have any idea of the discovery that you made?"

"What do you mean?" Layla inquired.

"These two just resolved the problem I've had on one of my projects. Non-Linear Time Travel," he stated and continued to alter the runes. "Time Travel is easy. So easy that it's boring. But when you add non-linear to the whole thing, it's a completely different matter."

"Then, what does it imply?" Alice asked.

"Essentially, it means to travel between paradoxes and–!" Before he could finish his sentence, the magic formation was activated prematurely and he disappeared from the garden.

Baba Yaga, Layla, Alice, and Lea blinked and looked at each other.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"{Hahahaha!}" A laugh resounded in their heads at the same time. It came from Asgorath who now spent his days swimming in the soul ocean with Apana and chatting with Arima.

"Asgor, do you know what happened?" Layla asked.

"{Indeed, I have my idea,}" he responded. "{My old friend has finally made a breakthrough thanks to these two young ladies, but he got too excited and got sucked in by the spell.}"

Everyone could tell how amused Asgorath was as he talked.

"In other words, this… Non-Linear Time Travel, he made it?" Lea asked shyly and Asgorath smiled.

"{Yes, he did, young lady,}" he paused. "{By mistake,}" he added and he almost burst out laughing again.

"Asgor, can you tell us what this magic is supposed to do?" Layla asked with a more serious tone. She couldn't even predict what happened with her foresight and it troubled her.

"{Oh, yes. My apologies. I got carried away. He is your husband after all. It's normal for you to be worried. At least, let me reassure you, he's not in danger. Something like that can't possibly be a problem for him. As for your question, Non-Linear Time Travel is fundamentally going against the Laws of the River of Time.}"

***

"Okay… that was the stupidest thing I've ever done," Arima uttered after he had landed in the middle of a forest. He stood up and cracked his neck as he evaluated his surroundings.

At first, nothing struck him as weird. That was until he looked at the sky. His eyes narrowed and his expression twitched.

"{Shit,}" Krynox voiced his current thoughts for him.

***

"{Let me explain to you what normal time travel is like first. Also referred to as, Linear Time Travel, it has generally two different approaches,}" Asgorath said.

"{The first one is when you jump from present to past on your timeline. In that case, your future becomes your past and your past becomes your present. Therefore, what happens in your present can affect your future that is the current you. This is what usually can provoke minor paradoxes.}"

"{The second approach is completely different. Instead of 'jumping', you backpedal the timeline. In other words, you rewind. This is a method that doesn't allow the existence of two same beings at the same time. Meaning that it does not cause paradoxes. But it's also very hard to rewind time, mind you. Unless you try to reincarnate.}"

"{Now, let me explain what a paradox is. In simple terms, it usually refers to an action, or an event, that cannot occur but has occurred or something that occurred but actually hadn't... I mean, you get it. For example, when someone goes back in the past and for some reason stops the events that caused his birth, it's a paradox.}"

"{Once again, there are two types of paradoxes. The self-solving ones and the self-destructive ones. In the case of my example, the concerned type is the former. Since the person in question erased his birth out of existence, the paradox will fix the world in consequence and the person will be forgotten by everyone and disappear. Though in some minor instances, minute alterations are made and it doesn't mess with people's cognition.}"

"{As for the second type, it's a completely different story.}"

***

"We're in deep shit," Arima grumbled as he casually jumped out of the forest. He stepped in midair and looked around. He spotted a town and flew toward it. "I can't even access my soul realm. How is this even possible?"

"{Anything that the River of Time doesn't reach, is something that nothing can reach. Not even your own soul. You're merely here as 'yourself'.}"

Arima clicked his tongue and landed in the streets. The moment he touched the ground, he heard many gasps. The gloomy inhabitants of the town turned toward him in pure shock as if they had seen something that should have never been able to happen.

"Wh-who are you?! You're not supposed to be here!" One man suddenly shouted.

Arima frowned and ignored him. His attention was instead drawn toward something else, more specifically, the number of different races in front of him. Excluding animals, there were at least a thousand different races in this town. Heck, he could even sense dragons, gods, devils, spiritual divinities, and many more.

He looked up at the sky again and grimaced. The sky was like a messed up figurative painting. It was a mix of space, planets, stars, Origin Lands that should've been destroyed, black holes, and other things. It was like everything in the world had been zipped together in the sky as one.

***

"{Self-destructive paradoxes occur when the continuity is bent beyond saving. In other words, when too many paradoxes occur within a single paradox. For example, picture this scenario; my old friend goes back in time, kills himself at the beginning of his life. What happens in your opinion?}"

"Temporal cataclysm," Layla replied. "Arima was never born, the Téra were thus never born, Night was never born, Karma, Malum, Alice, Moira, Lea, Arsu, Azizos… Lanya would have died and I wouldn't have existed. Angra Mainyu would have perished and never reincarnated and Ahura Mazda would have never followed him. The Original God and Devil would still be alive and the Original Lands would have never been destroyed… Way too many consequences and there are still many more."

"{Correct. That is an annihilating paradox. When that happens, you can think of it as a Big Bang. A time induced Big Bang that swallows the entirety of the timeline on which it is present before exploding into a million fragments, out of the River of Time.}"

"{These fragments drift in a space even more elusive than the Dream World. They are all locked in time and represent each a fraction of the timeline it once pertained to. They are commonly called Paradox Shards.}"

***

Arima sighed and sat down on the bed of a room he had been offered by the town folks. After explaining them the situation, and that he would be looking for a way out, they immediately tried to help him in every way possible.

"I never expected to be stuck inside a Shard," he muttered.

"{I didn't even know life could survive in a Shard. From what the familiars you sent discovered, this Shard is only big enough for this town and the forest you were in. You go farther, it's out of bounds and you end up in whatever paradox chaos we are,}" Krynox said.

"Yeah, but this also represents a massive discovery. Think about it, how many Paradox Shards do you think exist? And there are probably people living in each one of them. It's like discovering a new continent."

"{Yes, but more importantly, how do we get out? We can't stay here forever. Or maybe you don't wish to see your daughter grow up?}"

"Shut up, of course, we have to get out," Arima retorted and waved his hand. The magic formation of Alice and Lea appeared at his right while the one he had been working on by himself appeared on his left. "We can only do our best to complete this theory."

***

"{Now that you know this. Let me explain what Arima's goal was. Non-Linear Time Travel consists of separating yourself from the timeline by using Paradox Shards as stepstones. In other words, you hop off the River of Time, land on a Shard, and hop again to land back in the River. The final result is pretty much the same as Linear Time Travel but there's a major variation.}"

"What is it?" Lea was incredibly curious. She had inherited her father's thirst for knowledge.

Asgorath chuckled. "{Think about what I told you previously. When you go back in time, your future becomes your past and your past becomes your present. Try to imagine what would happen if you use a Paradox Shard that doesn't have any connection whatsoever to the River of Time, and therefore the timeline.}"

Lea and Alice started brooding over the question. Layla also gave it some thought and reached a conclusion before the two girls.

"His past disappears…" She muttered and her eyes widened. "Jumping on a Paradox Shard means that he returns on the timeline with a clean slate. Basically, the theory of 'his future becomes his past' doesn't work anymore because a Shard cannot be referred to as present, future, or past."

"{Correct,}" Asgorath said. "{As expected of you, time is your domain. In the end, this magic allows time travel without risking anything. Even if one causes a paradox, as long as they used Non-Linear Time Travel, the paradox will get absorbed by the Shard instead of altering the timeline.}"

Lea tilted her head. "But that doesn't make any sense."

Alice nodded. "She's right. If the paradox is canceled, how is the timeline supposed to mend itself?"

"{You have to view this from another perspective. A paradox is like a super updating software. It updates the world based on the 'parameters' it is given. If the parameters are changed but the update isn't launched, nothing will change. It's as simple as that.}"

Baba Yaga, who was listening until now, gasped. "Are you… saying that it's possible to do whatever you want with the past with this method and it won't change the future?"

"{That's indeed what I'm saying,}" Asgorath nodded and Apana looked at him with his big innocent eyes. "{You can go back in time, conquer the world if you want, it won't have any impact on the future from which you came from.}"

"But what if someone uses Linear Time Travel to come to that specific part of the timeline? What happens?" Lea asked.

"{Well, nothing. The person in question would appear in an unfamiliar past but that's it. He won't be of any importance. Let me give you an example. Imagine someone erases the existence of a certain individual with the Non-Linear method. If someone tries to go back in time to kill that individual with the Linear method, he won't be able to find him and that's it. Though, if he goes into another period, one before the change brought by the Non-Linear traveler, and kills that same individual, this time it will indeed provoke a new 'update', a paradox.}"

Lea and Alice fell into deep thought and Asgorath smiled. "{Well, time is a hard-to-grasp concept. Don't pay too much attention to it. There's also the theory that a timeline can split to accommodate two different outcomes. But that is a phenomenon that only occurs when the self-destructive paradox fails or isn't powerful enough to destroy its timeline, therefore causes a split instead of producing Shards…}" As he was saying that, he suddenly realized something. "{Ah!}"

"Hm?" Layla scowled. "What's wrong, Asgor?"

"{I just thought of something. Because he used an incomplete theory, Arima might be trapped in a Paradox Shard as we speak.}"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"{Yes and no. I still don't believe he's in danger, but to get out of there, he must complete his formation. That might take some time. Thankfully, these young ladies managed to invent a crucial part of that spell. By the way, how did you two make it?}"

***

"All right…" Arima rubbed his temples. "I have the urge to blow up something."

"{Keep it in,}" Krynox retorted.

Arima had been working on the formation for a few hours but he hadn't made any progress at all. He sighed and leaned back on his chair. He took his glasses off and the red hexagram in his pupils, Natus, faded away.

"I don't get it. I feel like I have all the pieces but there's a piece of information I'm missing. I pretty much finished dismantling the girls' formation. It's a bit rough on the edges, but there's nothing wrong with it. They used a basic spatial folding as the secondary core… 111 separate layers to power it in accordance to the Wolder Chart… an intermediate layer for conversion… and a core for target definition…"

Arima hummed and dived into his own thoughts.

***

"Well, to start off the whole thing, we first went to see Uncle Ray so that he could help us with the first layer," Alice said.

"{Raylein? What did you ask him specifically?}"

"A basic magic formation for spatial folding," Lea answered for her cousin.

"{I see… True, if you want to work on space theories, Raylein might be even better than my old friend. So, you used that as a foundation, you must have found a way to make it cost less. How?"

"We got the idea when Alice found a notebook containing the research of a certain Wolder Kristan in the library. Inside, there was a full explanation on how to make a self-sustaining generator by using 111 refining poles," Lea declared and Layla's eyes widened.

"Wolder Kristan?"

"Do you know him?" Baba Yaga asked.

"{He's a famous inventor and scholar. He was the one who created the soul summoning and the dungeons of the human world,}" Asgorath said. He sounded a bit impressed too. "{Where did you find that notebook exactly?}"

"I'm not sure…" Alice scratched her head. "The library is bigger than a star. I happened to find it when I got lost one day. Dad had to come to fetch me that day," she laughed wryly.

"{That generator you found is called the Wolder Chart. I heard about it and I admit it's an ingenious discovery. It is supposed to act similarly to a kinetic accelerator. A ping of energy is sent from a pole to another before sending it back stronger and so on. Each layer of the formation supposedly has a different working because of the ever-increasing energy conveyed. It has a very complex structure and most people abandoned the idea of using it because the resulting energy wasn't compatible with most magic formations.}"

"{You can see it as the difference between alternating and direct current for electricity. I assume you still used this to power the spatial folding layer, but then how did you convert the energy into a viable one?}"

Alice and Lea looked at each and put up a smug face. "We designed a converter for it."

"{Oh?}"

"How?" Layla inquired curiously.

"At first, we also had no idea how to do it. But then we remembered that," Lea said as she pointed at the sky.

Baba Yaga and Layla looked up in confusion and it was Asgorath who realized what they were talking about.

"{Oh, you mean the Neutron Star Formation Arima set up inside this ocean?}"

"Yes!"

"{It's true that this thing is a self-sustaining generator and it releases more spatial energy than I have ever seen in my life every second. But this formation only works because this water is special. It connects every star together and also conducts the energy to the neutron star in the center which is in constant stasis… Ah, I understand now.}"

Alice nodded. "Yep, that's where we got the idea. It was in Uncle's books back in his study. He wrote a whole thesis for that formation. The neutron star essentially acts like a 'shredder'. The core of the star is ultra-dense matter that can even break through the very reality. That core will receive momentum from the other stars then break it down before releasing unfiltered spatial energy."

"{Hm, so you added that theory to perfect the Wolder Chart.}"

"Yes, we altered the original formation by Wolder and made it so that the final ping of energy goes into a layer specially made to make it go berserk and implode. That's our 'shredder'."

"{Fascinating. But it's not finished, right? If that was the case, this Neutron Formation would have been enough for Arima to go back and forth from the Paradox Shards.}"

"Yes, what resolved that is the core layer of our formation," Lea said. "Although Dad's star formation is nearly perfect, it doesn't have a target. When you use it to teleport, the destination is limited by the user's perception."

"So, our core layer is to define a target. We wanted this formation to allow someone to travel anywhere he wanted. Therefore, we used something common to any place in Existence."

"Something common?" Layla mused. "Matter? No, it isn't everywhere… Neither atoms or molecules… Space-time?"

"No," Lea shook her head. "We tried that, but we found out it doesn't work. Actually, the notion of time is not in our formation. That's why we were surprised when Dad suddenly recycled it for time travel."

"{Not time, huh? Life?}" Asgorath raised a suggestion but the girls shook their heads again. "{I would have said magic circuits, but there are places without it, even after the Pandora incident…}"

"It... exists?" Baba Yaga tilted her head and everyone looked at her. "Something common to every place in the world is that they exist… I guess?"

Alice smiled and nodded her head several times. "Yep! We used that theory. If a place exists, we can teleport to it. That's the core layer of the formation."

Asgorath suddenly comprehended something. "{He reversed it! My old friend reversed your formation, he used it to go somewhere that 'doesn't exist'. A Paradox Shard is just like that. That's how your formation was used.}"

"Makes sense… but there's something weird about it," Layla retorted. Alice and Lea looked at her with knowing smiles.

***

"That fucking cat," Arima uttered and Krynox was speechless.

"{Why the hell are you suddenly cursing cats? Are you okay?}"

"I meant Schrödinger's Cat, dumbass. That's what's tiring me out right now. A cat inside a box; you don't know if it's dead or alive, thus it can be considered both. That's how the theory goes. But the thing is, you can also say it like this: there's a box; you don't know if there's a cat inside or not, thus it exists and doesn't exist at the same time."

"In other words, something that cannot be or isn't seen is also considered not existing which would make this core layer flawed."

"{But it obviously isn't. So, that means those children used something else to cover that problem… Is that what you can't find?}"

"Yeah…"

***

"{I see…}" Asgorath fell silent.

"Well, we indeed got stuck because of Schrödinger's Cat," Alice admitted. "We were forced to ask for someone's help after a week or so."

"{So, you got help from someone? But I can't think of anyone in the house that can answer this problem, maybe except my old friend. The Slanderer or Ahura might have been able to help you, did you seek them?}"

"No," Lea shook her head. "We went to see Big Sis."

"Big Sis?" Layla tilted her head. "There's only one person you call that. Breksta helped you?"

"Yes, it's thanks to her we were able to complete the formation. We got the idea to ask her when we thought about how someone could look under the box without actually going inside or moving it."

Asgorath, Layla, and Baba Yaga abruptly let out a collective exclamation, "Ah!"

***

"Dreams!!" Arima shouted as he fell off the chair he was on balancing on. He groaned and slowly stood up. He returned to sit on the bed instead and sighed. "So, this is the remaining piece. Damn those girls are freaking geniuses."

"{Right. Don't say that to their face. They probably spent days coming to that conclusion for their problem. Never tell them you found it in a few hours.}"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But Lea is six years old, you know? I'm scared of how smart she is for her age. Same goes for Alice…"

"{Yes, you're probably traumatized because that child beat you at chess without even being in her teens. Perhaps you should seek some counseling.}"

"Shut it, Krynox. Let's return to the matter at hand," Arima waved his hand as he arranged the formation. The formation suddenly split into exactly 114 magic circles that twirled around him.

Arima took a look at each one of them and started arranging their position in a certain way. The core layer was placed right in front of him, spinning. Then, he put the converter layer just above it and made it match the core's spinning before doing the same thing with the secondary core.

He then made a grabbing motion in midair and turned his hand as if he was interacting with a knob. The remaining circles followed his motion and whirled around the two first layers like planets around their sun.

Arima leaned back and carefully observed the interaction between the circles. The more he looked, the better he could see the hidden runes spread across the layers.

"Dream is a very hard concept to integrate into magic," Arima mumbled. "The only way to employ it effectively is to make the formation completely elusive toward Dreams instead of making any layer for it. That's why…"

His eyes glowed as a hexagram manifested, the 114 magic circles suddenly shrunk and disappeared while leaving behind a few, odd runes. These runes gathered together and quickly formed a new circle. This one was transparent and incredibly complex.

Arima snickered and committed this circle to his memory. "This is good work, Breksta."

***

"Yes, Big Sis composed a hidden layer for us," Lea said. "So, in fact, there are 115 layers in our formation. That 'Dream Layer' was the last piece of the puzzle. Its role was to verify the destination."

"In other words, it would check if the place could be dreamt or not," Alice followed. "The Dreams have a record of everything that can possibly exist. They hold things that still do not exist, things that existed, and things that would have existed or could have existed. It's not perfect but it was the best choice to complete the formation."

"{I see… I wonder how long it'll take for my old friend to find out,}" Asgorath said then abruptly froze before looking behind him in the endless ocean. "{Well, scratch that,}" he cackled as he observed the emerald neutron star. He could feel the pathways of energy getting redirected and modified.

Layla raised an eyebrow and also noticed it. "It seems like Arima still has a connection to his soul even after having been kicked out of it…"

"Eh? What happened?" Lea asked in confusion.

"{My old friend just modified the Neutron Star Formation. I think he might have already cracked the secrets of your formation and completed his own.}"

"Aww, really?" Alice pouted. "How did Uncle do it so fast?"

"{Well, it's my old friend we're talking about,}" Asgorath chuckled. "{But I'd bet time is flowing faster where he is right now. Even for him, there's no way he could have completed it within the duration of our conversation.}"

Lea hummed. "Um, Uncle Asgor?"

"{Yes?}"

"I'm curious about something. What about when you travel into the future? What's different from what you told us already?"

"{Pfff!}" Asgorath couldn't help but do a spit take. "{Uh, young lady, you're putting me in a very bad spot right now. Going into the future is simpler but the explanation is way more complicated than for the past…}"

Just as Asgorath was trying to find a way out of the conversation, Layla's eyes suddenly morphed into crystal-like gems and her pupils became slits. She scowled and sighed before standing up.

"Well, we can only wait for Arima's return for now. I can see it; he should be back by tomorrow. On the other hand," she muttered the last part and headed toward the exit of the garden. "Malum and Night are going to cause trouble soon. I'll go deal with it."

Alice and Lea looked at each other before following Layla in giggles. It was always fun whenever the latter would scold the two hot-blooded dragons after they went too far with their spar.

Asgorath silently sighed in relief.

Baba Yaga chuckled. She checked that Moira was still asleep and left to bring him back to his room before she had to feed him. As she walked through the corridors of the mansion, Asgorath contacted her, "{So, how is the little one?}"

The former sorceress smiled. "He has gotten a lot better since his birth. He doesn't lose control over his magic anymore."

"{Hm, this boy's birth was quite an event…}" Asgorath muttered. "{Even my old friend, out of all people, got anxious when Karma almost lost her life that day. Be sure to tell me or my old friend anything strange that might happen. His existence is very unstable. A child born from a soul beast and a soul weapon…}" he snickered. "{How should we call him?}"

"Well," Baba Yaga gave it some thought before nodding to herself. "I think 'Sword Dragon' is a good description of this little fellow."

***

"Done," Arima declared. "I finished fusing the girls' formation and the non-linear theory to my star formation."

He stood up and stretched a bit before leaving the house he had been offered. The moment he stepped outside, a breeze blew next to him and an old man with a cane came to him.

The elder wore a gray robe and Arima couldn't help but notice the incredibly threatening feeling coming from his cane, which was probably a soul weapon on par with Karma. His hair was ashen white and reached his shoulders, some strands were freely fluttering over his wrinkled face but did not do anything to conceal the incredibly sharp look.

Arima praised this old man once again in his head. He acted as this village chief and was very respected here. From what he heard, when the paradox occurred in their original timeline, he was the one who managed to save a lot of them and preserve their lives. He also was the one who built the village and expanded its interiors.

In truth, this seemingly small town held around ten thousand residents. To accommodate so many people, every building was expanded with spatial magic to unbelieve extents.

'This old man managed to somehow steer himself during a paradox and save people at the same time. He's nearing the peak of the Existence Rank... I would need to release at least 70% of my seal to defeat him. I shouldn't need to take on my 'Kind Demon' form though…' Arima inwardly remarked.

"Have you finished?" The chief asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, my formation is complete. But I need to try it first and I wouldn't recommend bringing people with me. You'll have to stay here, then I'll come back to bring you out when I'm sure it works well enough."

"Hm, no problem. I've lived here for nearly ten thousand years, growing stronger, watching the people I rescued raising their next generations…" The old man chuckled amiably. "I can wait a few more days. Oh, right. I believe that I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Korna Gorgo. People used to call the 'Headless Snake' in the past."

"Arimane Reigen Blade, God of Eternal Night. Also known as the Kind Demon," Arima responded in kind and smiled. "Are you perhaps related to Medusa Gorgo?"

Korna chuckled. He twirled with the pommel of his cane, which was the head of a snake baring its fangs. "Indeed. My mother is Medusa. I wonder, did you get that with just my name?"

"Not quite," Arima replied. "Your mother is actually a resident of my prison, Kymestuos. I just recognized her aura on you. Don't worry though, it's not as bad as it sounds. When she died, she was automatically admitted as a prisoner. But it was for light charges. Considering the injustice that she suffered, I can free her at any time if you want."

Korna frowned. "I'm afraid I don't follow. How could you possibly detain my mother since we're not from the same timeline?"

Arima laughed lightly. "It isn't a good idea for me to explain it in detail. Timeline theories are extremely complex. It's a common misconception to associate it with the different Planes and their parallel versions of oneself. Even though people like to use the word 'timeline' to describe similarities between Planes of Existence, it's far from the literal concept."

"But, basically, no matter what, every timeline sends their dead to the same spot from which I pick my prisoner based on their wrongdoings."

"Then… it is bound to receive the same person several times. How do you deal with that?"

"Kymestuos possesses a function for that. 'Repeated' inmates are allocated the same cell and are separated by a very special dimension. Whenever it's time for one of them to be released, the dimension's nature will bring them to their original timeline."

"I see…" Korna nodded. "Since my mother died before the paradox occurred, she wasn't erased from existence but instead landed in your prison. Well, if that's true, I have to thank you for giving me the chance to meet my mother again. Though we parted serenely, and I made my peace with it long ago already, what child wouldn't want to see his mother again?" He said while smiling.

Arima snorted. "You have no idea how much I can relate to that," he uttered and waved his hand. His seal suddenly liberated 20% of its capacity and a Kind Demon Cross materialized in midair.

"This will allow me to return to this Shard. Though…" Arima scowled as his Cross shockingly started splintering. "This is temporary. My Crosses aren't supposed to be cast outside of their set range of influence. I'll have to be quick," he said and closed his eyes, summoning his newly created formation.

Korna silently stepped back as waves of spatial and temporal magic erupted.

Inside Arima's soul realm, the neutron star was pulsating faster and faster. Like an engine going on overdrive.

'Ten percent more should do the trick,�� he thought and slowly opened his eyes. His double-pupils glowed and his pendant blazed just before he disappeared.

Korna squinted his eyes, staring at the empty space. "Those eyes… The Ancient Spirits. I see now."

***

Arima flew through the air and made a whistling sound as he crashed on a large dune in the middle of the desert. He was buried under tons of sand in a second.

'I hate this shit…' He grumbled internally and blew the entire dune away with a single thought. As the sand fell around him, he observed his surroundings and sighed before looking up.

"Nope, the sky still looks like a trashy piece of art."

"{What happened? Did you fail?}" Krynox inquired.

"Yes and no. Since I managed to go from a Shard to another, I'd say it worked. Although it's not what I wanted to do, I'm pretty sure the formation is relatively perfect."

"{Then why did you end up here?}"

"I'm not sure. It felt like something pulled me out of my original path and made me fall here."

"{So, you're saying that there's something here that might have enough power to deviate your magic? These Shards are impressive. First Korna, now this…}"

Arima shrugged and looked around. There was nothing but sand in his vision. "This Shard looks a lot bigger than the previous one too," he commented and flew off in a random direction.

He explored the Shard for a few hours until he finally found something. It was a large cave entrance conspicuously coming out of the sand. The moment he landed in front of it, he was already about to enter when something abruptly struck him.

His eyes widened as he dug a path on the sand because of the knockback. He quickly recovered his balance and landed with a hand on the ground. Then, something that would have shocked any of Arima's comrades happened. He entered a coughing fit and the yellow sand was dyed in his blood.

'What the…' Arima was shocked for the first time in a while. It was so violent he thought he was going to vomit blood instead of just coughing it. He wiped the crystal blood on his mouth with his hand as he stared at the cave he approached earlier.

Before he knew, a huge figure was standing in front of it. It was undoubtedly the same that hit him across the desert. In a nutshell, it was a giant robot. Though, 'robot' was almost an insult to describe it. The exposed machinery was flawless and its movements were so fluid they looked organic.

Arima stood up and solemnly gauged his assailant. It stood thirty meters tall, black plates of metal covering its body, a human-like face, and several discreet long-range weapons on the shoulder, chest, arms, and legs.

"{This thing has an aura. It's alive,}" Krynox remarked. His voice was also filled with disbelief.

"Living machines aren't that surprising but…" Arima inhaled as he finally recovered his breath after the previous hit. "This one is way too strong. How the hell can a machine reach the Original Rank?"

"{Be careful, this one is probably on the same level as the Creators.}"

"I know," Arima muttered and his pendant flared. The eyes of the skull brightened, the chains cracked, and electricity sparked around it. "I can't play around."

The seal was fully released and the pendant literally fused with his body.

The opposing side felt the rise in power and immediately prepared to engage. Its circular eyes turned from green to red and black blades emerged from its wrists.

Thunder roared and a few sand tornados formed in the distance as dark clouds filled the sky. Arima invoked Natus and a pair of lightning swords appeared in his hands.

The two opponents silently stared at each other. It was only when a lightning bolt struck the space between them that they finally moved.

The first exchange that occurred between them was almost incomprehensible. At one point, they were standing still, and at the other, they had swapped places. The robot sported absolutely no change but, in contrast, Arima's shoulder had been cleaved.

"{This isn't going to be easy…}" Krynox said and Arima inwardly agreed as his injury finished healing. He inhaled and started moving for his action.

The world around him slowed down in his eyes, but the robot was as livid as ever. They were both accelerating the time within their bodies. On top of that, they both were capable of teleporting in that condition. The two vanished and reappeared somewhere far away from the cave where they had begun.

The black blades provoked an explosion every time they clashed. But they could never truly detonate since even before it could even produce a spark, Arima and the robot had already swung their weapons hundreds of times.

With each of Arima's swings, an 'Aeterna' would be conjured. Since he had become the God of Eternal Night, this powerful attack of his could be cast as easily as breathing. But the robot would cut through it as if it was nothing.

At one point, Arima discarded one of his swords and his arm became covered in black crystal-like scales. '[Terminus Confractus] (Limit-Break),' he chanted silently and threw a punch that landed right in the middle of the robot's chest.

When that happened, time returned to its normal velocity and as the robot was sent flying through the air, the countless explosions caused by the fight could finally occur. The robot crashed right in the middle of one and caused it to spread.

Arima sighed and his scales retracted inside his arm. He completely ignored the chaos of energy around him and kept his eyes locked on his opponent. After a few seconds, the robot slowly walked out of from the tempest of sand-turned-into-glass with no apparent damage.

Arima clicked his tongue. "This bastard's tough. Even a punch at 200% force backed up with a momentum from time itself couldn't even dent him."

"{Indeed…}"

The robot readied its blades once again and Arima extended his free hand. Mana started gathering around him and in no time, a magic formation was already ready to be cast.

"[Estuans Sors] (Burning Fate)." A massive azure fireball swirled into existence and suddenly blew away every explosion happening. The sand of the whole desert turned into glass for hundreds of miles and the sky's dark clouds were burned and replaced with blue flames.

Arima's mastery of his Arts was unbelievable now. Every Kind Demon Art ranked below the Second could be conjured in an instant and as for the rest, they only needed a single keyword.

The First Blue Art surrounded the robot with a tornado of flames. The living machine's eyes analyzed the structure of the magic in a second and it released a forcefield that blew it away instantly.

Arima frowned as his strongest fire magic got brushed off like that. Natus spun and deconstructed the magic that was used but Arima could not get a reading good enough to copy it.

"What is this? Telekinesis?"

"{Looks like it. But this is not some simple telekinesis. It reached the level of matter manipulation. Don't lose focus, that's a dangerous ability.}"

As if to prove Krynox's words, the robot suddenly dashed with a burst of telekinesis and appeared right in front of Arima.

The latter couldn't react in time and barely managed to raise his sword to block the incoming blade. He even dragonized both of his arms but that was for naught as the giant black sword pierced through his own and stabbed him in the chest. But it wasn't just that, the robot pushed the blade attached to his wrist further until his fist landed a hit.

Arima gasped and the force of the strike forcefully pulled the blade out of his body as he was sent tumbling through the air until making a crater on the glass now composing the ground. Some shattered pieces even pierced his body.

Arima's eyes were widened to the maximum. Glass shards pierced his limbs and waist and most of his internal organs had been badly shaken.

'Holy… that thing busted both of my hearts and the telekinesis squeezed every organ,' he thought as he constructed a new formation in his mind. '[Vashta Nerada] (The Shadows that Melt the Flesh).'

The Fourth Black Art immediately engulfed its caster in a large sphere of shadows. The robot suddenly halted to read the magic but the sphere expanded before he could and trapped him inside a giant dome of darkness.

Arima then promptly jumped out of the dome as he made the glass stabbing his body disintegrate. His crystal and black hearts were pumping and healing his body to the point where there was already no visible injury on his body. Even his clothes were repaired.

"Too bad for you. It's hard to kill an immortal," Arima uttered and pointed his hand at the sky. The flames in the sky gathered into one to form a laughing skull with purple eyes.

In the next instant, a powerful pulse of spirit dispelled Vashta Nerada. Arima laughed wryly.

'Seriously? You can affect intangible substances with your telekinesis? That's fucked up, man.'

The robot was unscathed as usual. It looked up toward Arima and numerous mini-launchers opened on its shoulders to reveal rocket heads.

Arima's expression twitched. He could feel the threat already. In fact, he could sense what it was made of. 'Strongest metal ever, vitrenium compressed to a one-thousandth… Every single one of those has a power equivalent to a collapsing black hole.'

"{Oh shit… it's probably going to boost that even more by breaking apart their composition with telekinesis.}"

Arima groaned and clenched his fist. The final aspect of the First Blue Art was initiated. The blazing skull fell from the sky right about when the robot fired its rockets.

The two attacks reached their target at the same time. The rockets exploded into a sort of erasing ray; ten thousand times worse than a black hole. It first expanded outward from its epicenter before shrinking and imploding.

On the other side, the blue flames turned into a ravaging hell of heat and destruction. The glass that had been initially converted from sand literally melted into nothing this time. The air became void and even space-time itself seemed to become unstable because of the constantly released energy.

The scenery of the desert had turned into a chaotic bout between a sort of black matter and sacred blue flames.

After very long minutes of continuous outbursts, a figure suddenly emerged as time slowed down. It was the murky robot. Most of its armor plating was deformed because of the heat it suffered and some of its internal circuits' integrity was compromised.

The robot extended its hand after observing the slow-motion explosions for a moment. When it did so, everything started gathering into a single spot. The living machine then clenched its fist and it finally disappeared.

The elements had returned to normal and there were no magical traces left. The robot was about to leave when it couldn't locate its opponent anymore when it heard two words being spoken.

"[Comoediae Mundi] (World's Comedy)."

The voice sounded more like a growl than anything else. Before it could react, the robot got pierced by a giant scaled claw. Whatever that claw touched had turned into nothing.

The robot's mind started going through countless errors about its system. It slowly looked behind to see a fifty-meter-tall demon wearing a runic robe. Black fur around the neck, wrists, and ankles, and two sets of horns. It had never seen such a creature before but it had recognized the skulled six-branched cross pendant.

The demon's serene and awe-inspiring eyes caused the being made out of metal to feel admiration for the first time.

Arima squinted and pulled out his arm. The robot used its telekinesis to remaining floating but still staggered a bit. Its internal components leaked a mixture of liquid metal and highly advanced nanomachines.

Arima and the robot looked at each other until the latter couldn't hold out and fell on the glass below, fissuring it for miles.

Arima landed near him and folded his two pairs of feathered hybrid wings. He raised his palm and was about to conclude this fight when his four pupils all narrowed and he teleported away.

From where he reappeared, he watched dumbfounded as a dog, a golden retriever, approached the downed robot. It whimpered and nuzzled its head over and over again. The whimpers gradually turned louder until the robot managed to redirect enough energy to move its arm.

Arima stepped forward to intervene before freezing on his tracks.

The robot gently petted the dog with its finger. It didn't attack or chase the small animal away. Its eyes even turned back to green, almost making him look gentle.

"{I… what?}" Krynox was confused.

"Where does this little guy come from?" Arima mumbled. What was even more surprising was how this dog was still unharmed after everything that had happened during the combat. Arima couldn't sense anything particular from him. He looked exactly like a normal dog.

"Wait…" Arima then noticed that the cave he had wanted to check out earlier was now near him again. "This thing is still intact. Did this dog stay there during the whole fight?" He wondered and touched the cave's walls. It weirdly made a clanging noise when his claw scratched it.

"This is made out of metal…" Arima put the dots together and looked back at the robot in shock. It was still petting the dog who was now wagging his tail back and forth. "Now that I look at it more clearly… this robot appears to lack some parts. Did it recycle itself to build a shelter for the dog?"

While he was musing about that fact, he slowly returned to his human form. The robot then looked at him before placing his hand in front of the golden retriever as if he wanted to protect him.

Arima didn't know what to do. He just stepped back and sighed. "I won't harm him, don't worry," he said. He felt guilty. It wasn't because people now called him a God that he had the answer to everything.

He had no idea this machine was actually fighting him to protect what was most likely its only friend in this Shard.

'Time is irrelevant in this place. For how long have they stayed together? Decades? Centuries?'

"{Don't blame yourself. You couldn't know.}"

"I know…" Arima whispered. He winced when he saw the lights in the robot's eyes blinking, threatening to shut down at any moment. "What I hate is the fact that I can't even help him anymore."

"{You can't do anything? Why?}"

"It… he has no soul per se, I can't resurrect him. Life magic won't work on him and don't even get me started on time magic. Normally, I would have been able to rewind his body but we're in a Paradox Shard… Even if I take him out of here, the rewind will be stuck at the state he left the Shard. The last alternative would be to directly repair him. I could try, and I could probably succeed. But I destroyed his core components. The AI is slowly being formatted. The same AI that gained emotions… it's something I cannot restore because it's nothing short of a miracle."

The robot patted the dog one last time before his systems could not power him anymore. His arm fell on the ground with a loud thud. Soon after, its visual sensors dimmed and the dog nudged him with his paw in confusion. When the green lights ultimately shut down, the golden retriever stopped. The animal wasn't clueless. When he saw the light disappear, he knew was happening.

Arima sat down on the ground. He rubbed his face and gazed at the sky as he listened to the dog's whimpers and cries of anguish. He didn't move at all as long as it went on. That helpless creature was crying for his friend and he had no right to disturb him.

***

In the following hours, Arima returned to Korna's village and helped everyone get out. He brought them back to his timeline and gave them a small planet to live on.

Shortly after, he took the dog with him back to his soul realm. The golden retriever was completely silent. He knew Arima was the one who had killed his friend but he hadn't blamed him.

Arima could only sigh as he led him inside the mansion. When he entered, Layla greeted him with a soft smile. She seemed to have already prepared for his arrival as she hugged him.

"You're okay?"

Arima chuckled bitterly. "No, I'm not."

"It's all right. It's fine to admit it and it's good that you feel sad. Doesn't that prove to everyone that you're human?"

Arima smiled and patted Layla on the head before heading toward the garden. "Thank you. Please take care of the little guy for me. I have something to do."

Layla nodded before looking at the sullen dog sitting on the floor. She sighed sadly. She already knew this little one's story. She couldn't look into the past for it, but she could see into alternative futures where Arima explained it to her.

She crouched and stroked the dog's back. "Be strong. Your friend was ready to give his life for you. Be proud. Be strong…" Her words seemed to affect the animal as he slowly fell asleep.

Layla picked him up and carried him to one of the hall's sofas. She put him down and sat next to him while humming a lullaby. Her voice was always laced with the power of emotions. It could make anyone relaxed.

***

Meanwhile, Arima arrived in front of Yggdrasil and waved his hand. The body of the ebony robot was placed against the trunk of the tree in a sitting position.

"Hey, Arima. Why did you call me?" A voice abruptly sounded. Arima glanced over his shoulder to see Fafnir flying toward him. "What is this?" The small gilded dragon asked when he saw the robot.

"I want you to help me repair him."

"Repair? This robot? Do you want a guard for the house or something?"

"No, let me rephrase it. I want you to help me restore this robot. I'm not planning to reboot him. I want to restore the components and body."

Fafnir tilted his head. "What are you on about then? You plan to turn this thing into a decoration or what?"

"More or less."

"More or…" Fafnir was confused now. "Okay… alright then. So, what can I help with?"

"Do you recognize this metal? Krynox said he doesn't remember something like this," Arima pointed at the giant robot and Fafnir landed on its shoulder to observe it.

The dragon mused before answering, "I do. It's also an extremely scarce material. It's shocking enough that there's someone who found enough to make a whole robot out of it. It's called Xyertium. It's not as tough as vitrenium but it has a memory of form and it's capable of producing the strongest telekinetic fields one ever could imagine."

Fafnir changed place and landed on the blatant hole in the robot's chest. "Damn, this thing's internals have liquid Qerionite in them. It's even rarer. You can make anything with this. Just a drop of it can make a machine or an electronic device evolve drastically. Imagine a one hundred megabytes hard disk. Well, if you add a drop of this thing, it turns into a one billion terra byte disk."

The more he inspected the robot, the more amazed Fafnir was. "Where the hell did you find this thing, Arima? This robot has probably enough firepower to annihilate a few Realities."

"A Paradox Shard. Do you have any of these materials in your vault? Enough to restore him?"

Fafnir frowned. "I do. Barely though. Is it really worth it?"

Arima glared at him and he rapidly relented. "Okay, okay. You don't need to get mad at me," he said and summoned a golden portal behind him. "Let's do it then. We'll begin with the core. If I'm not wrong, this thing's power source was a Star Gem. A star system compressed into the size of small gem…"

…

***

Even with the countless artifacts Fafnir possessed and their ability to assists them, it still took Arima and him a week to finish. During the process, they also found a serial number on the robot. It said 'Ark-Mk2'. At the same time, the golden retriever was named 'Noah' by Layla.

Thus, when Ark's restoration was over, Arima brought Noah to see the final result. When the dog saw the perfectly renovated robot, he let out a whimper and slowly climbed on its legs before curling himself.

Arima intended to leave after that. When he was about to exit the garden, a bark redirected his attention. He looked back and saw Noah eyeing him. He barked once again as if he was thanking him before lying down. Arima smiled faintly and snapped his fingers. The night immediately fell in the garden and he left.

When Noah fell asleep, and only the rustle of the leaves remained, no one was there to notice the giant arm move slightly to cover the animal from the wind.