Drifted Timeline

In a hall with the infrastructure of a round table conference, dozens of people remained seated in five consecutive rows. On the front row were Augustia, Lauria and Jouel. Beside them were Ashrath, Bayliel, Andro, Gremoria, Azmou, Zith, Maloran and Prat.

The hall didn't have walls but six pillars supporting the ceiling. The outside atmosphere was completely filled with an endless black sky comprising clouds and twinkling stars emanating a yellow glow, henceforth brightening the entire darkness.

A shadow figure stood at the centre of the hall, on the dais. Usually, it should have been Prat. Instead, Scidra stole the spot of spokesperson. Maloran attempted while glaring at Scidra, "Krieek, why's there someone else taking the position of spokesperson instead of Prat?!"

Prat responded, "Because it wasn't me that held this summit but him that made a surprise call!"

Maloran's eyebrows shot up in doubt, "??!"

Zith turned around. Macaurina, who got picked by me, sat firmly in the last row with her eyes closed.

On the other side, Gremoria kept falling onto the table out of dizziness. Azmou instructed, "Gremoria, please maintain some dignity. You're one of the major figures chosen by Lord Adrona!"

Gremoria responded, "Sheesh, what's the use of being a major figure when their king went away without even saying goodbye?!"

Andro spoke, "I even lost count of the time after his sudden departure!"

Azmou said, "Well, if you want to know the time, he's been away for two mill-!", but stopped midway after hearing the phrase, ""Silence!"", from someone.

Everyone looked at the one who spoke. It was none other than Scidra. The latter followed pin-drop silence. No one uttered a word. Shadow Scidra began, "I've called you all in the middle of your assignments due to a matter of great importance!"

Gremoria interrupted, "And what would that be?!"

Scidra gave a slight pause and then revealed, ""Lord Adrona has returned!""

---gasp---

The whole atmosphere brimmed with infinitos in a boundless shocker. The people in the front row and Macaurina who was sitting at the last, rose from their seats in utter disbelief. Prat cried out, "Say that again!!!"

Scidra repeated, ""His highness, Lord Adrona has returned!!"", with pressure. Due to inferiority in power levels, Prat felt oppressed and gritted his teeth. Scidra instructed, ""Now, sit down!""

His oppressive words forced everyone to settle down in their seats.

…

Things were back to being silent. And so, the shadow continued, ""And now, I call upon our one and only ruler, Lord Adrona to descend!""

"!!!!", everyone's attention shifted towards the ceiling above them.

---sparkle---

A bright spark lit up in a yellow shade, making everyone anticipate.

---fwoosh---

At once, the sparkle turned into a round portal of black and yellow flames. Soon, a human figure descended from it to the dais in the middle of the hall. All bystanders gaped their eyebrows and mouths after realizing it was me. With a firm gaze, I greeted my people, ""HELLO, MY DEAR PUPILS!!""

"!!!!", their reactions were no joke. Few of them went wild with their enthusiastic faces while the others gave off happy tears such as Gremoria.

---flash---hug---

Without a delay, she hopped onto the stage and jumped at me with a tight embrace. Alongside her was Andro hugging me from behind. Gremoria spouted, "We've missed you so much, my lord!!", while Andro emphasized, "It's been two mill-!", but stopped his sentence in the middle right after hearing Scidra, ""Andro, Gremoria, everyone in this hall was feeling the same as you and were holding back pretty well. But now that you've hugged him, they too are feeling to do the same!!""

I turned towards the audience. They were staring at me like children just as described by Scidra. In an instant, I pushed both the lustful couple back to their places without making a sound.

[That aside, what was that 'two mill' thing that Azmou and Andro tried to spout earlier?]

Scidra made his announcement, "I call upon Young Macaurina Admiron to address the purpose of this meeting!"

Immediately, Macaurina stood up and began, "Respected fellow figurines, it's a great honour for me to be the spokesperson of today's summit. Without all your approval, I would like to ascend to the stage!!"

---tap(x_)---

Every member inside the conference tapped their right palms onto the table. I was quite puzzled as to what was happening.

---swoosh---

The next instant, the spots that were tapped by the people projected rune circles with names at the centre of them. The rune circle before Prat showcased his name in origin literature. It was the same with Zith, Maloran, Gremoria, Andro and so on. Soon, the projections pixelated to the centre of the dais.

---flip---

In an instant, Macaurina got teleported to the stage. The pixels were nowhere to be seen.

[What a bizarre and unique method?]

Scidra requested, "My liege, please take your seat!!"

I asked, "But I don't see any seats, though!"

---rattle---

At once, metal particles began popping out of the air and then rattled in mid-air until they formed the shape of a fancy-looking black throne where the lower half resembled the structure of a tumbler. It was levitating in mid-air.

[Just how much did they change?]

With a deep sigh, I hopped onto the levitating throne. Below me were my underlings. The seat kept moving front and back, left and right. Everyone settled. So, Macaurina took the chance to speak, "As we all know, our infinite void has undergone numerous changes since the departure of Lord Adrona. The once infinite void with empty space is no more. Now, we too live under- I'm sorry.

We live in between the skies, with the brightening stars indicating day and mistful clouds remarking night. Not to mention the number of worlds and infinitos scouted by us. Presently, the infinite void is brimming with a population of one million infinitos!"

"!!!!", I jolted at her speech. My mouth impulsively interrupted, "Wait, a million? How did you recruit that many people in such a short nick of time?!"

"????"

All the members inside the hall became puzzled. Macaurina exclaimed with gaped eyes, "Your highness, there's no way for two million years to be a short nick of time!!"

…

[Huh…?

What the heck is she saying? Two million years? I was only gone for two years. Even master told me that there isn't much time difference between the entirety of existence and my homeland…

WHAT THE F**K IS GOING ON?]

My thoughts went crazy, henceforth unleashing my excess pressure. Those sitting below me kept trembling in anxiety. Macaurina gulped her saliva. I said, ""COULD YOU REPEAT THAT?!""

Macaurina flinched in fear. With trembling voice, she repeated, "Th-there's no way for two… two million years to be a sh-short… short nick of time…!"

---thud---

She collapsed right after spouting her repetition. No one dared to approach her and stayed silent under constant fear. I questioned, ""PRAT, TELL ME SHE'S LYING?!""

"Gasp!!!", tigerhead shook to no bounds. He seemed hesitant to say. I kept glaring at him. With a deep breath, he said, "No, your highness. What she said was the truth. You've been away from the absolute abyss for two million years!!"

"!!!!", his words made me spellbound. I didn't know what to say or how to respond. The latter followed another pin-drop silence. No one moved.

…

{Somewhere inside the Dark Reigner's turf}

In a room consisting of a circular infrastructure with no walls but bookshelves rising to an endless height, three figures sat on a sofa set. There was a black table in between holding three cups of a weird red liquid. The three people took one cup each and began to slurp it. The one on the right was Dark Reigner Madrona in his dragon-faced appearance. Left to him was Godmother Martha followed by Lord of afterlife Kriassilis. Martha took the first initiative, "My grand law returned to her private turf. I thought she'd greet me. But, guess what? She cussed at me regarding the time difference between her homeland and this entirety!!"

Kriassilis scoffed, "Heh, here's my boy's reaction. He just called me through mind communication and started spewing all kinds of questions!!"

Madrona asked, "How long was the time difference for your disciples?!"

Martha exclaimed, "50,786 years!!", whereas Kriassilis emphasized, "Half a hundred millennia!"

After answering, both of them stared at him. His focus was somewhere else. Martha asked, "What's gotten into you? Did something happen to your grand law?!"

Madrona didn't respond. He kept staring at the floor. Kriassilis interrupted, "No doubt about it. There 'is' something going on between him and his disciple!"

Madrona corrected him, "No…, there's 'nothing' wrong between me and my Adey. It's just that… time drifted apart too much in his case!"

Martha asked, "How much?!", and he answered, "2,318,986 years!"

"!!!!", his words shook both Martha and Kriassilis, making them jump up in utter disbelief. Kriassilis cried out, "Are you for real? How can time intervals differ that much? There's no way my calculations are wrong. He should've returned within half a million years at most!!!"

While sitting calmly, Madrona emphasized, "It has nothing to do with your calculations. But I guess he was building his traits even during vacation. That must be why his void experienced such an outlasting timeline!"

Martha commented, "You have a point. But why did your disciple try to improve himself? I'm sure we were giving them a normal vacation!!"

Madrona hesitated to answer. Kriassilis blinked after realizing something, "Based on his reaction, he didn't tell his disciple any countermeasures before vacation!"

Madrona looked away with an awkward expression. Martha began to laugh, "Hehehe, Kriassilis, I think out of us three, it's Madrona that's going to get slandered endlessly!!!"

Kriassilis emphasized, "Yeah, thank goodness our disciples cooled down after a few moments.

But our Madrona will take hours to calm down his disciple Adrona!!!"

Together, Martha and Kriassilis burst into constant laughter,

"Hahahahaha!!!"

"Hehehehehehe!!!!"

"Phuhahahahahaha!!!!"

"Haaahehehehehe!!!"

"Hahahahahaaa!!!"

…

Their repeated mockery made Madrona angry. But he had no choice but to hold back.