A Reaper's Philosophy-Chapter 54: Dig Deeper

"This changes things." Chrónos said to me.

"So Dalia sent you. Good sir, I wish you would have started off with that." He added.

"How so?" I asked him.

"Dalia is an old friend and a master of fate. She sent you here. It’s no coincidence. With your power, I believe we can actually get out of here." He said to me, with eyes filled with expectations.

"How do we get out of here?" I asked him.

"First, I’ll need to give you my soul. I am willing to trade my soul for my freedom. Meaning, if we do manage to get out of here, I want free reign to roam the universe." He said to me.

"Fine." I said to him stretching out my hand, ready to receive his soul.

"Hold on, not quite yet, good sir. My power isn’t something you can control. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might find yourself destroying the flow of time.

You need to understand the very essence of time itself before you can use it, so take it slow. I’m going to keep a restriction on my soul, allowing you to only have control over what you have comprehended. I don’t want to be set free, just to have the flow of time destroyed." He warned me.

"Are you saying you can destroy the whole universe on a whim?" I asked rhetorically.

"Good sir, what exactly could I possibly benefit from doing that?" Chrónos said strenly.

"Whatever, so what’s the location of the Legendary Reaper?" I asked him.

"It is at the very center of the universe. It’s very far, but I can take you there once we are out." Chrónos assured me.

"Alright then, put your restrictions." I said to him.

He then stuck his hand deep into his chest and pulled out a bright green orb that pulsed like a heartbeat. His captivating, green eyes began to spin anticlockwise. The energy within the orb began to spin along with it. After some time, the orb got dimmer. After about half an hour passed, he finally handed it to me.

"Here you go." He said to me as he handed me the orb.

I then gladly received the orb and absorbed it into my chest. A surge of power rushed throughout my body. The power continued to rise within me.

As this was happening, I saw all the inhabitants of this planet in all their glory.

’Such incredible vitality!’ I exclaimed in my head.

I then heard whispers and conversations all around the planet.

’Theoí, that’s the name of this planet. This civilization is incredible!’ I thought to myself. I had quickly absorbed Chrónos’ soul and felt a large amount of power surge within me.

’I need to grasp this power as quickly as possible.’ I thought to myself. "How were you able to keep coming back even after I destroying you?" I eagerly asked him.

"You need to understand the flow of time before you can begin to manipulate it. Everything and everyone has their own flow, Which is connected to one large river of time that holds up the universe.

The river must continue to move forward no matter what, reversing it is completely out of question. You may slow it down, but it must never stop or flow back. Not that you can anyways. It requires more power to do so, but once you have the power it’s easy to overeach.

To come back like I did, you will need to reverse the flow of your own time without affecting the river. This is why I have sealed my power. You could easily overreach and doom us all." He said to me.

"What about the copies you made of yourself?" I raised another question.

"Pockets of my own time that I had stored. I simply take a moment from my own flow of time and store them up. I then bring up these moments to the present time. This dimension suppresses my power so a moment is all I can master and not much can be stored." He said to me.

"Alright alright. So, what can I do now?" I asked him disappointedly.

"You should be able to slow down time maybe. Stopping or slowing down your time won’t negatively affect the flow and might not require too much comprehension...I’m sure it will be useful." He said to me.

"Alright then, show us how to get out of here." I said to him.

"With pleasure good sir. I’m ready to get the hell out of this bloody place!" Chrónos said as he began to fly out of the now demolished palace.

"Follow me." He added then shot for the sky.

I then flew up as well, alongside the tailed Lilith. However, before I left the planet, I was graced to witness the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. A sunset that dyed the sky with a noble shade of red and gold, blossoming like a lone flower in the field. 3 moons hovered above in contrast. It was an orange sky full of stars.

The sun’s rays pierced the sky, like the stroke of an artist’s brush to a canvas, painting a scene that would make one want to stare at it for eternity. In that moment, it felt like it. I felt the need to capture this moment and have it with me forever(basically a photo lol).

Time began to freeze all around me. I saw the scaly birds next to us became still in the air. I then turned towards the tailed Lilith and saw that she was frozen as well.

’Chrónos was right, it is easy to overreach

"Even you’re affected!" I said to her with surprise.

I then took her right hand and directed her pointing finger, deep into her nose.

"I have to capture this." I said out loud then conjured a polaroid camera. I then took a selfie with the tailed Lilith and the beautiful sunset in the background.

As I was waiting for the photo to clear up, I suddenly saw a black, furry tail heading towards my face. I swiftly slapped it away. I then looked to my side and noticed the tailed Lilith was conscious again and still had her finger in her nose, only now, she was glaring murderously at me.

’I’ve never seen her so angry before!’ I thought to myself.

"Ahem, tailed Lilith-," I began to say, but was cut off by a fist attempting to punch my face.

I quickly raised my hands to block the punch, but the force sent me flying a hundred yards away. I quickly lost control of the flow of everything around me, causing their time to continue moving.

"Shit, that burns." I said as I wiggled my arms.

I then flew back to the tailed Lilith and asked, "Have you calmed down now?"

"Give me that photo." The tailed Lilith commanded.

"No, but you can have the camera." I say to her then toss the camera her way.

I then quickly inserted the photo into the dark cloud around my body then started to fly up again.

"Let’s go." I said to her.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do with the camera. I’m not playing with you right now. Give-..." The tailed Lilith began to say as she flew after me, but was suddenly interrupted by a thunderous noise.

(RUMBLES; CRACKS!!)

We then both look towards the source of the noise and saw an old man with a thick, white beard holding a bolt of lightning. He then threw it at a broad looking man holding a trident. The man rode the ocean’s waves and allowed them to catch the lightning bolt.

"Isn’t that...?" I said out loud as we continued to fly up.

"This isn’t over!" The tailed Lilith said.

We then caught up with Chrónos and found him nearby the black hole we came out of.

"I see you and that helper have comprehended stopping time, much faster than I had expected." He said to us.

"Yes, it was a moment of enlightenment. Some of us dug real deep into it." I said out loud.

"I’ll kill you." The tailed Lilith said calmly, which made it sound all the more threatening.

"How were you able to comprehend stopping time after I had stopped your flow?" I asked her.

"I’m built different." She answered coldly.

I rolled my eyes at her response and switched my focus back to what was important.

"So, how do we get out of here?" I asked Chrónos.

"Pure brute force. This dimension isn’t ever expanding and would have eventually collapsed in itself within the next billion years or so. Anything can come in, but nothing can go out. It’s not infinite like our universe.

This black hole is the very core of this dimension and also our exit. If all 3 of us can overwhelm it and disrupt the stability of this dimension, we should be able to break out. The exit only opens when something is coming in, so we will have to wait until something big approaches, that will be our best opportunity.

The pressure you’ll have to face going out is even worse than the one you faced going in. Rather than the pressure pulling you in, you will be going against the power of this entire dimension. You will also have to face the force of whatever will be coming in from the black hole. Hopefully it will just be a stray asteroid. That would be enough." Chrónos said to us.

"I’m not doing that." The tailed Lilith said floating at the side. "Do you not want to get out? If we don’t do this together, our chances are slim at best." Chrónos said to the tailed Lilith.

"So there’s a chance. Grayson can do it then." She said.

"I don’t know what your game is here Lilith, but I won’t play along anymore. Not when it comes to my freedom.

Theós is already going to find out once we break out. Somehow his soul can go against Theós. We couldn’t ask for a better opportunity!

I don’t know what has happened to you in these past years or why you’re like a completely different person. I just ran with it since you didn’t acknowledge me.

Nonetheless madam, disregarding whatever is happening with you, or why you’re with him! If you don’t help us now, you will be stuck here for the next thousand chrónia(years)!" Chrónos began to shout at the tailed Lilith.

"Then so be it. Besides, I don’t feel like helping him." The tailed Lilith said pointing at me.

She then turned into a cloud and entered the dark cloud in my body.

"Screw you madam!" Chrónos screamed out in anger.

"Grayson, regrettably, I am not strong enough to help you counter the power of this dimension, all I can do is distort time long enough for you to pass through. I will be doing this from within your dark cloud." Chrónos said to me.

"Your planet gave me a huge increase in power, I’ll manage." I said to him. "By the way, what did you do to have Theós imprison you in here?" I asked him.

"I did what any being would do if they had my power. I rode the river to the very beginning, the beginning of time. I saw something I wasn’t supposed to see." He said to me.

"What did you see?" I asked him.

"It was a place I can’t quite describe. There were giants there. They were as big as galaxies, they each seemed to be living within one mental plane.

I spent a long time researching and trying to figure out a way to access this place beyond the river, unfortunately, a nonphysical wall blocked me from passing through. The place was devoid of time. I didn’t belong there." Chrónos said disappointedly.

"You seem too disappointed by this. Does it really matter whether or not you can reach this place beyond the river?" I asked. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"It just feels like I should be..." Chrónos said.

Suddenly, the space around us began to shake as the black hole revealed something to be passing through.

"Is that...? We abort, you can’t take that on your own.This proves that Dalia is on top of things, however. we will have another chance." Chrónos said to me.

"No, we are doing this! We don’t know how long we would have to wait to have another chance." I said to him.

’It just had to be a planet passing through.’ I sighed to myself.