Chapter 66: Cross And Straw [15] An Insurmountable Task

Now, when Leonidas said love, he didn’t mean it quite literally; it was more like a small crush on the woman who had saved him.

That was definitely it, Leonidas would not accept anything else...but it had to be said, Willow looked amazing when she smiled.

Like a demon dressed as an angel, a sight that should not make sense, yet did anyway.

He slapped his cheek, a red mark blooming on it.

Focus, Leonidas, you’re not a horny teenager who drools at the sight of a woman...

He paused, then continued anyway.

"Why are you stuck like that, Willow? Move! I’m the cripple here, not you."

Indeed, Leonidas was taking out his frustrations on Willow. And the woman in question was looking at him with murder in her eyes.

Her smile, which had previously been pretty and angelic, slowly shifted, curling upwards, turning demonic with every second.

The demon of a woman held up her fist, covered in a black metal gauntlet. She held it menacingly, and Leonidas understood the threat behind it without words.

"Now that’s not how you should talk to your elders, is it, my dearest Art?"

She held the last words on her tongue, emphasizing them. The damned woman was using his own phrases against him. Alas, today wasn’t her day.

"In my opinion, that’s precisely how I should talk to you."

Leonidas smirked, sparks of mischief dancing in his cerulean eyes.

"After all, who doesn’t love a dangerous woman? You’re slowly turning into exactly my type, Willow."

"I-I see..."

Willow slowly turned her gaze away from him and started down the cave, her descent slow and attentive. Even with the sudden rattle his words had brought, she was still focused, mind and body honed from far too many battles.

And now I’m flirting with her. How nice.

It truly was, the feeling...it was exhilarating, like taking drugs of happiness that didn’t actually harm him. But at the same time, it made him apprehensive...his emotions were undergoing a plethora of changes, changes that didn’t sit well with him.

Leonidas quickly followed Willow deeper, the ball of flame crackling in the air, casting shifting shadows onto the dark floor.

Every step he took, a new thought bloomed in his mind, some related to Willow, while most were focused on the future.

He was also thinking about the twins, Barbossa and Rani. There was the fact that the recluse boy had called him ’dear friend,’ a fact Leonidas had mostly glossed over...he was far too pressured to give thought to such matters.

But now that he was in relative peace, his mind moved with restless energy. Could Barbossa really manifest the future into reality?

And if so, had he already done something?

Hell, for all Leonidas knew, he might be moving on the machinations of a damned child who existed in both the present and the future.

What a pain in the ass.

He was getting a headache just from thinking about it. Time was truly a confusing concept.

He discarded the thought and moved on to another...how had Willow found him, and how was she so certain he was inside the Sanctum of Sacrifice?

Obviously, he asked, voice breaking the silence that engulfed the surroundings. Her response was expected, yet shocking all the same.

"Barbossa had sent me out to find you."

Straight to the point, as always.

He sighed, then scratched his chin.

"Didn’t you...I don’t know, doubt him? I mean, he did say he’s a seer, but for all we know, the lad could be lying."

Willow hummed at his response, shaking her head sideways.

"I would have agreed with you had I not spent such a long time with him. Over the course of the past four months, I would have died more than a dozen times over if not for his foresight. The kid is scary, I tell you...eerily so."

Wait a minute...

"Did you just say months...? As if multiple months?"

Willow turned to look at him, confusion evident on her face.

"Yeah...? It’s been over four months. Why do you say...oh, don’t tell me, Art."

Thunder rolled in Leonidas’s ears, his vision swimming in and out. Willow’s words...her voice sounded so incredibly close, yet unimaginably far, as if separated by a shifting void.

F-four months have passed.

Spirals. His mind kept spiraling, the same words repeating themselves like a haunting echo, spirits of the damned wishing to pull him into a trance.

From what Savior had told him, he had, at most, spent two weeks inside the Sanctum, add to it around two days of travel after landing safely on the ground, he had spent near three weeks. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Even if he were to greatly exaggerate, at most only a month could have passed...which made everything all the more disturbing.

Had something messed with his perception of time, or did time work differently in the two locations?

Calm down, Leonidas...calm, be calm.

But could he truly calm down? Just knowing that his perception of time had been so badly messed up was enough to rattle him.

Still, Leonidas took deep breaths, sucking in air like a greedy fish.

"It seems my time has been greatly messed up. The existence of my situation suggests that three of you could have also been the same. But before we try to uncover any more of that, we need to know how time itself works."

If Willow was shocked, she certainly didn’t show it; her expression still and serious, as if carved from ice.

"Time...time, such an insidious concept. Perhaps the hardest to understand. Based on our understanding, time affects any and all things, only some differently than others."

Her words were sound, something Leonidas would have blindly believed just a few days ago, yet now he knew better.

The Labyrinth said that the Infernal Knights are a race beyond time, free from its shackles.

That was where the problem began, their understanding of time—of all things even—was too little.

It was like trying to pick the best type of wood for making a chair while being a baker.

An insurmountable task.

Yet, a task they had to overcome anyway.