Chapter 308: Running out of time [1]

Just like most scenes where the posse of Christoper Morris would struggle to secure their life, it always ends in their victory. It came to a point where the rest wondered about their survival until Christoper himself shut them down of their suspicion. Albeit he was the most skeptical out of everyone, he refused the fact that their survival was through a third-party

“Lord Timekeeper, why have we altered our course of destination?” A small group of ten followed behind Rachel and the one close to her asked for her reasons

“What do you mean? This is how we normally move. Hide in the sidelines, secure their safety, get in and out at the same time,” Rachel replied

“Yes, but I mean, wouldn’t we normally assist them all? Why did we leave the rest alone? And why only the Alchemist?” Rachel interjected before they could speak anymore and explained

“Believe me, if we have an abundance of time, I’ll explain why. But now’s not the time. We have a bigger problem at hand,” For the avatar of Time to say such a statement her followers went silent and said

“Forgive me if I offended you in any way,”

“There’s nothing to forgive. I’ll be the one saying that later on. It seems we’ll have a bigger stroke compared to before,”

Although she mentioned a bloody path at the end of their venture, her followers weren’t shaken even for a little. Their reactions were different from complaints and confusion but rather joy and unexplained passion among their peers. These lowlifes whom she gathered from the dust nurtured and cared for, hearing these words of dread ignited their wills

[System: Your follower’s belief had risen further upon hearing their possible demise!!!]

’Well aren’t they a weird bunch?’

[What did you expect? You came into their lives like a messiah. Saving them and giving them purpose. That’s more than enough]

Rachel and her small group made their way past all the conflicts and entered a sacred tunnel leading to Makino’s ruined workshop. Albeit she already foresaw the perils they would’ve encountered she was shocked by hundreds of roaming Golems. It seems her previous venture caught the eye of Deus making her seek full control of the workshop and all its creation

“Uh, miss, are you sure we are in the right place? There wasn’t mention of any roaming golems in your report. Perchance this is another Golem factory?” Her follower jokingly says that the rest treated him as if he never said a word and surveilled their area for an opening

[System: Your previous action has caught the attention of a certain God! Some changes have been added to the local area]

[Which God is it? I thought this timeline wasn’t centered on the birth of a Deity. So how is it that they can influence the trial?]

’It’s Deus ex machina!’

[Who? I never heard of a Deity like that. Is it somehow an outer God? A divine being created through the primordial chaos?]

’No! One of the gods in this story? Do I have to brief you again even though I mentioned this before?’

[I thought you hadn’t seen Christoper Morris uncover the true ending? So how do you know this? Are you hiding something-]

’Are you stupid!!? Our contract prevents me from even hiding the smallest details of everything I do. So that’s out of the question. You barely talked to me when it occurred, so you wouldn’t know; I’ve heard all about this from Hugo Miller from way back then. After a thousand regressions, I saw it happen as the lowest chance of someone finding Diabolus trigged the true ending,’

[What did you see?]

“Chaos in its entirety- What just happened?” An alarm suddenly rings at their location which alerts all nearby golems along with their potential escape routes sealed

[I’ve monitored their movements. There wasn’t anything there that could’ve caught its attention. Unless they could detect your energy frequencies?]

“Timekeeper we need to run–” Her subordinate’s head flew from a mere swipe of the golem’s tendrils

“Everyone, avoid the wires– Uargh!” Another had fallen as her chest welcomed a humungous blade and later croaked

“Arghh! It hurts!! Timekeeper, run!!!” This time the golem showed a lack of efficiency as it killed its intruder in the most gruesome and painful way slowly peeling his skin

[They’ve been expecting us]

“Well played, Deu- Bluargh!!!” She began coughing blood as her vision shook and noticed the air around her changed which she suspects to be poisoned

[System: The requirement to trigger the {Divine Relic} of [The one who bends time] has been fulfilled!

{Faulty Pocketwatch} – A timepiece that moves Counter-clockwise endowed by a divine force of unknown origins

{1•} Fleeting moment – Returns the user and anyone in their range to be sent back to a point in time which was previously recorded by the wielder]

As her pocket watch fell from the embrace of her palm, it began to move rapidly as the hands of the clock went backward. Chains burst from her chest and, one by one, pierced the carcasses of her dead followers, suddenly, time stopped. The golems remain still and later it begins, the sequence of reanimation, her body and those chained onto her. Their corpses repeat their movements but in reverse along with everything in their vicinity nullifying the cause of their deaths

“Shit! That never gets old… I thought dying a dozen would’ve made us immune but no. This shock is as traumatic as ever,”

Although their deaths were undone, the sequence of their reversal was painful as it gets even the Timekeeper was shaking. They relived the sensation of dying, being pierced, chopped, or even poisoned, but the pain never occurred from the cause. As they reversed their fates and time stitched their peeled skin, ruptured organs, and chopped body parts, to their whole

[You can’t bring something back that’s already gone. That’s why time resurrects you by going back to the point of no return and stitching them back. It’s excruciating, to say the least, to imagine healing your organs from being poisoned as you feel thousands of needles stitching you right back up]

“Lord Chronos please shut the fuck- Bluargh!!! Up! Hearing your indifference makes this all the way more fucked up,” The followers under Rachel were incapacitated and even she was wondering why the backlash was stronger than ever

“Hey… just why? Why is the backlash this painful? I’ve felt this thing over and over but this is by far the shittiest feeling ever,” Although she could barely open her eyes, Rachel was the first to recover and stand showing her insane tolerance for pain

[My power is being restricted. Although they’ve failed to do so using my powers became hard. Like what happened now]

“Deus!!!”

[What do you mean? That doesn’t make any sense. I’m one of the primordial gods- Oh!! I get what you mean by that]

“Mind sharing with us what occurred, Lord deity? We haven’t felt like this before. I’m asking if this will happen again?”

[Simply put, we are now back in time when the gods and goddesses’ influence on this world was banished. The idea of avatars wasn’t yet known in this era, so we settled on the proposal of that genius magicrafter, Exelion De Makino. Looking back on it all the gods know of this moment but it seems we were restricted in informing our avatars until they uncovered this themselves]

“Excelion De Makino? It kinda rings a little bit- Deus!!? The Timekeeper mentioned Deus. So as in Deus ex machina?” The second hand who acts as Rachel’s right hand easily pieced the hints together and uncovered the trial’s secret lore

[Just as Daniel spoke of. Deus and Diabolus ex machina. Those were the creations of Makino. And the true gods of this timeline]

“True gods? What the hell does that mean?” Sandra the second-ranking follower right after Daniel replies as the information concerning the golems piqued her interest

[By True gods is a title given to a being who ascended and became a god. To us, their newborn babies. But the thing is the place where they ascended becomes their territory… and right now she’s the one true god of this era]

“Then what about Diabolus?” Rachel lies down on the ground as they pause for a moment to process this newly uncovered piece of information

[Diabolus ex machina… also known as the Demon King. The angels raided the workshop. They killed Makino and took Deus whilst breaking Diabolus along the way. But it didn’t end there; no matter what they did, they couldn’t break the core. As they toss that aside it begins to devour the demonic energy and it forms its very flesh and becomes the purest demon]

As Rachel and her gang took this information the truth was finally unveiled about the history of this timeline. Chronos spoke of the tyranny and injustice of the angels and their way of worshiping Deus and pointing her anger at the devils. Eventually, the army of darkness was sealed, and upon the core’s third awakening the barrier broke and thus led to an army thirst for revenge

[In that brief moment of peace lasting for about millennia… the angels began to realize the true cause of the world’s slowly decreasing lifespan. The demons were, in fact, a fail-safe; they destroy while the angels protect, and without the demons, they realize the mortal’s wrongdoings. Their purpose was to save the world but upon knowing the mortals were the cause, they changed from being protectors to exterminators]

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