Chapter-8 Concept of Time

"Even with our potential, it is going to take us nine years!" Nadia exclaimed in shock.

Hearing her words, goddess Rebecca gave a gleeful chuckle before she spoke, "My child, it's only nine years because it's you eight.

If it was someone else, for example, someone with only high potential, and he even had the system, then it would take them a minimum of 20 to 25 years to become a Demi-god.

And someone who has lower potential than that cannot even reach the Demi-god realm, so let's not even mention them."

"Oh, my goddess," James said.

"Hmm, What?" Rebecca asked, hearing him.

James cleared his throat awkwardly, attempting to conceal his momentary lapse in control of his mouth.

A sheepish grin spread across his face, revealing a hint of embarrassment. "

Um.... Sorry about that.  Just lost in my own thoughts there for a moment," he chuckled, his smile betraying a touch of foolishness.

"Umm.... Then, is it possible that the Demon Emperor might attack the human kingdoms to kill us all?" Miyuki's voice trembled with concern as she voiced the pressing question that weighed on the minds of all eight individuals.

Her words hung in the air, laden with the gravity of their collective apprehension. Her inquiry reflected the underlying fear and uncertainty that permeated their thoughts.

"Yes, and no; you see, the Demon Emperor will not make a move personally because he is in the process of healing from a deep wound that he got in the last war against the Beast Kingdom which was 10 years ago."

"It is also the reason why we have summoned you guys now and not before the fall of the beast kingdom."

"The wound inflicted upon his soul is not one that can be easily healed. It is a grave injury that will require a minimum of two decades to mend. Until then he would not leave the capital of his empire." Goddess Rebecca explained, her voice carrying a sombre tone.

She continued, addressing the concerns that lingered within the hearts of the gathered individuals. "Upon sensing your arrival, the Demon Emperor may indeed dispatch his demonic army in an attempt to eliminate you.

"However, there is no need for alarm. Each of you will be sent in pairs to the capitals of the four sacred kingdoms, where you will find refuge under the protection of the royal families.

They will safeguard you until you have honed your skills and can effectively defend yourselves and the world." 

Hearing the word of the goddess, all of them sighed in relief.

"Um, goddess Rebecca, this might sound stupid, but can't you just send us back in time, like 10 years before the beast kingdom fell, so that we can just help them kill the demon emperor?" Ana was the one who raised this question.

Hearing her word, all the goddesses present laughed a little, and then Rebecca spoke with a smile on her face.

"Child, going back in time or into the future is not even possible for beings like us."

"Even gods cannot go back in time!" Ana said in a shocked voice.

"It is not just that we can't; we are forbidden by the supreme rules." After stopping and thinking for a second, she spoke again. "Here, let me explain in a way that you might understand."

A long, thick thread made of golden light appeared in front of them as she waved her hand horizontally in mid-air; its ends were hidden.

"The thing with time is that, unlike space, which you can see and touch when you reach our level of existence, time cannot be. It is nothing but a mirage that exists with many possibilities in the vast space."

Saying thus, she again moved her hand in the same manner as before, and a second golden thread formed, though it was thinner than the first one.

And in contrast to before, she didn't stop at just one golden thread; instead, a ring of additional golden strings began to form around the first one.

They quickly multiplied into the dozens, then hundreds, and eventually formed a whirlwind-like web around the original thread.

"Imagine that the original timeline is the one in which we all currently exist and everything else in its immediate vicinity is really a range of potential outcomes."

As she uttered those words, she clasped her hands together and pulled them apart. The maelstrom of strings began to grow and devour everyone inside it the very next instant.

"Whoa!" all nine humans exclaimed in surprise.

And now all of them could see the original golden thread. They could also see that once in a while, a thinner golden thread from its surrounding group of threads would be absorbed by the original thick thread in the centre.

Rebecca explained that every decision we make moulds the future, and so all the surrounding threads are those possible decisions; the one that is made joins the original one, strengthening it more.

"Now the thing is that there are an infinite number of possibilities out there surrounding the original time line, and if one ever wanted to go back in time, then they would have to detach themselves from the current timeline.

Which is impossible I tell you now, because to do that, you would have to have enough pure power that is equal to or greater than the original time line, but there can be no existence more powerful than time.

You might ask, Why? Because time is nothing like space, where space provides us the means to exist, time exists with our existence. So the more powerful we are, the more powerful time is.

And now, continuing on the topic of going back in time, Let's just imagine that somehow you are able to detach yourself.

But after doing that, you will also have to find the possibility that you wanted to exist in the past, locate the original one again in the infinite ones, and then combine them together.

And then there is the chance of the whole timeline crumbling because the possibility you chose was not suited to the original one, destroying everything, whether it was the original timeline or all the possible ones around it."

Fear gripped all eight of them. They then thought about all those manga and novels in which the main character travels through time. Really, they made things look so simple.

Kevin's voice carried a mix of trepidation and curiosity as he mustered the courage to address the deity before him.

"Umm, Forgive me for asking such a presumptuous question, but considering the extraordinary opportunity to converse with a divine being, is it not possible for us to navigate back to our original timeline? Could we potentially bypass the intricate process of detachment and return to past?"

His words hung in the air, tinged with a yearning for a simpler solution, a hope to circumvent the arduous path that lay before them.

"Yes, that is possible." One can go back in time through the original timeline.

"Then!..." 

"But no one does that, because, without detaching yourself from the time line, one would just be moving backward."

"For example, if Kevin here wanted to return to the time when he was a child and he tried to do that without detaching himself from the time line, then he would just return to his childhood form without any memories of the future. You will be nothing but the same mortal child that you were in the past that is your present now."