Chapter 219: A Differnt Past

Writing with so many rules is restricting.", a being began. It sat beside a desk, pen in hand, writing words in cluttered mess with no relevant meaning. 

"Ah, yes, you must be Ragnar. Writing your fate has been most unpleasant!", the being said, as it turned its owl-like head to Ragnar. 

One moment Ragnar had been talking with a mirror image of himself, the next second he was in an entirely different realm, standing in front of a human-shaped owl, surrounded by a plethora of books. 

"Our time is short Ragnar, and there is only one path I can write for your victory. Your odds are slim, so slim that in my nigh-omnipotent wisdom, I only found one way.", the being stood up and walked towards Ragnar. 

"You can not win, as things are. Therefore, we must change things, and rewrite them from the very beginning."

The owl-like creature grabbed Ragnar's hand and said "You might disappear from what I'm about to do. But if you survive the journey there, then there is still hope.", the being said. 

Suddenly the other Ragnar appeared next to the being. 

"What are our odds writer?", the old Ragnar asked. 

The owl smiled, "That my old friend is up to the two of you! The real question is are you ready? Whether we fail or not, you will be gone.", the writer said. 

Ragnar looked at the two. He had no clue what they were talking about. 

"More of me disappears every day, old friend. The only way for me to remain is to be consumed!", old Ragnar said and turned to Ragnar. 

"The only way you can defeat God, and Kronius is by becoming one with our old power. Time was completely erased, but I wasn't, the memory of me remains. And as long as I remain, specks of the original timeline remain. Your mission is to consume me, without being consumed, and only then will you have a chance to beat this adversity. Bjorne is dead, and Paarthadox is out of the picture. The system is weak against one and strong against many, the writer only watches and Nyx can't win against any of them. Which means you have to do it!", old Ragnar looked at the Writer and said, "Do it!".

The writer sighed and manifested a pen from thin air and wrote a simple word in the air. It read "To be intertwined once more" in an ancient language, its meaning long since lost in the crevices of time. 

Suddenly Ragnar felt a pull. Reality became a blur, as everything began spinning. The Nightwater inside him began boiling over, as something new began dripping in, and then he disappeared. 

…

Ragnar stood in an ocean of Nightwater. Yet it wasn't his, and all around him were holes, emptiness, like missing puzzle pieces forever lost. He could feel a pull towards a specific stream of time. So he journeyed there. 

Ragnar was thrown into a scene. He was a spectator living through someone else's body. But he knew, this was the old Ragnar, this is the oldest memory that remains. 

"I love you too mother.", old Ragnar said to absolute emptiness. There was nothing there, no nothingness, no time, and no existence, just a lack there off. Like it had been ripped out, completely removed. 

Suddenly a man stepped forward. He was different, like a sun in the darkness. 

"Ragnar", the being began. He seemed emotional. Ragnar felt a strong reaction to the voice. His entire being grew stiff watching the scene. 

"It seems like my time came, even though I'm not even part of it.", the man said. 

"Let me introduce myself, shall I? For what it's worth, my son, I'm sorry. I knew the dangers of messing with existence, yet I went ahead and messed with both time and existence. Long ago when you were born I was filled with so much love, that I needed an outlet. My way of expressing it was through making a deal with time and existence. The deal was simple, I wanted my son to always be born through me. No matter how things changed, I always wanted you to be my first son. I never would have thought, in my wildest dreams, that this kind of turn of events would take place.", he said. 

Ragnar was full-blown shivering now. He knew the man was talking to him, not old Ragnar. He was somehow talking through old Ragnar's memory, inside of the old original timeline that was erased and shouldn't even be a thing anymore. The only being who had done something similar was someone to be truly feared, Trickster. 

"Your mother, your real mother. She was a Time Raptor.", the man paused, a single tear running from his eye. "I don't even remember her name.", he said. 

Suddenly reality begna shifting. Existence seemed to be turning very unstable, as massive amounts of light consumed everything. 

"My one true love is gone. My son was born in a reality where I'm supposedly evil and hate my gut, and I can't even remember her." 

Things were becoming very dangerous, so much so that Ragnar was trying to escape. Meanwhile, the old Ragnar was having a conversation with his mother, yet he never said her name, he never looked at her, as she was merely a phantom in space now. 

"I am Bjorne, the firstborn of Existence in this reality. I traded my potential for you, my son.", the man said, his voice bringing reason back to reality. "I traded what is mine for you, and believed I created a potential path for you. Yet all I did was destroy and ruin. My greed was the end of me, and the sins of the father hurt the son too. Trickster's games know no bounds. But worry not my child.", Bjorne continued. 

Ragnar was growing more weary by the second. "I will light your path, and bring reason to the dark which has consumed the dimensions you live in. As my life is already gone, what reason do I have to hold this power?"

Bjorne turned into a single speck of light and flew into Ragnar. 

"With this light, you will survive this journey, my boy!", "Whenever a point of erasure arrives, the light will shine. When it does, leave immediately and begin living the next memory. As time goes by, you will grow stronger, and eventually, you will leave this place! My son."

The instant Bjorne stopped speaking the light shone, and Ragnar hurled himself out of the memory, as he saw total darkness consume the place he had been at. 

Like a rollercoaster, he kept moving, he was thrown into the next memory. 

Old Ragnar was practicing the use of his powers with some friends, Nightwater vermin. They were constantly born through him, and he used his powers to fight them instead of taking them in or subduing them peacefully. With every creature killed, Ragnar could feel how old Ragnar was growing stronger. While more creatures were spawned. He also felt himself grow stronger with it. 

Thousands of eons passed, until the light suddenly shone, and Ragnar escaped the memory and was immediately thrown into the next. 

Old Ragnar was still fighting Nightwater vermin. But much time must have passed, as he was much stronger than before. He had grown a lot since his last memory. 

Ragnar entered a new cycle. He spent eons watching old Ragnar grow, escape the memory, and repeat. The old original timeline seemed content with doing this for eternity. And Ragnar had no qualms with it. After all, he was also growing from this experience. 

With time the holes in time became more frequent and the light shone every decade or so. 

After who knows how long, change finally happened. Old Ragnar left his realm. 

He went to meet someone. A very powerful man, by the name of God. 

"Father told me about you. Supposedly you are the only being to become seventh dimensional so far.", old Ragnar said. 

An ethereal voice echoed through all of the existence of the seventh dimension. "Ah, yes, you are Ragnar, the origional timeline. I am known as God. It is what my first worshippers called me, and hence my name has remained the same. Comedic, in a way. As I govern and represent the concept of new beginnings. The staleness of order brings upon decay. All deserve a new chance, a new child, a new generation. We must move forward one step at a time. A constant step, a leap of our ways.", God began. 

Old Ragnar smiled. "Then I represent what has been, and you represent what can be.", he said. 

God seemed to approve of his words, as reality seemed to shift slightly around them. "You are wise beyond your years. A newly born such as yourself."

Old Ragnar seemed pleased with the praises and said to God, "I am the original timeline. All that has happened, all the knowledge of my predecessors is merged with me. I act beyond years, because, I have lived far too long. For I am you, as much as I am me."

God contemplated for a long time, as Old Ragnar and Ragnar waited for a response. 

"Child, please heed my words. You are not infinite. You can not be everyone, so you should only be yourself. To lose a sense of self is to lose your purpose. To no longer be you, is to cease to be. If you replace the swords handle, and then later change the blade, is it still the same sword? In theory no."

God continued, "You must separate your experience, and lived wisdom, from the empty omnipresent inside you. Or else, you will only be the original timeline, not Ragnar. The man which I speak to now." 

Old Ragnar stopped to think, then bowed gratefully to God. "I shall think over your words while I clear my mind through training. I hope to see you again.", like that old Ragnar left, and Ragnar saw the light sparkel once more. 

Like every time before Ragnar pulled himself out of the memory. He appeared on a road of infinite possibilities. Where every drop of Nightwater represented a moment of history. But his course was already predetirmend by fate itself. He would live the life of old Ragnar. 

Ragnar felt the pull and was dragged towards the next puddle of infinity, and once more he found himself as a spectator, growing stronger from the trials of old. 

Old Ragnar was once more in his realm. Ragnar could feel his emotions, his thoughts. The old Ragnar was conflicted. Since his birth, he had known nothing more than his parents' love, and his grand purpose of representing the original timeline, of everything that has been, and engraving the present at every moment.

For the first time in his life, he was confused. Through the course of history he has watched, he's seen how people grow from their experiences. Yet he has never grown. His life has been like watching a movie. He learned from others' mistakes, not his. 

Was he truly someone, when he didn't even have a real experience, other than the few times he met his family? He had to think and think he did. 

Ragnar watched on and off, taking giant leaps every time the light closed in. He missed many moments of thoughts. But lived through just as many. 

He experienced old Ragnar digging through time for answers. With every memory hole that Ragnar avoided, old Ragnar had grown further. He learned to have a sense of self. To belong to himself. He wasn't Nightwater, that was an unhealthy thought. Nightwater was him, not the other way around. 

After an unknown time, old Ragnar finally had his answer, and so he visited God once more.