Chapter 5: The Real Space-Time Voyager

After his talk with The Celestial Witch Sera, Arth leaves the diner and opens a portal back to Kim Ji-yoo to check up on her if the Celestial Witch kept her word.

“I hope she's alright” he said to himself as he stepped through the portal.

Arriving at Kim Ji-yoo’s apartment, he saw that she's finally back to normal after being turned into a bunch of butterflies by the Celestial Witch.

“What happened?” She asked

“Look it's alright now but Celestial Witch Sera attacked us” he started calming her down.

“How did you win against her?” She asked him out of curiosity “No one has survive an encounter with The Celestial Witch Sera before”

“You're gonna have a migraine on my story” he said as he started talking about his past with her.

“Wait? So you're her former assistant?” She asked “You know you're technically a guinea pig for her, right?”

“Yeah, she kinda called me like that too,” he replied scratching his head.

“So what's your next plan?” She asked “I have errands of my own, I don't have any spare time to help you.”

“Nope, it's alright and I do know what my plan is next” he said as he pulled out the Cosmic Hexahedron as it was glowing again.

“I thought that piece of junk is dead” she said

“I noticed you cleaned up your place.” He said as he smiled on the current state of the room considering that when he first got here it was a disaster with bottles and cigarette butts everywhere.

“Yeah—I'm gonna go do my next errands now” she then reached to the door as she opened it “Good luck on your journey, Space-Time Voyager”

“Hey, you don't mind if I stick here for quite a while right?” He asked as she just nodded.

“Sure, I know that this will not be the only time that we will cross each other’s paths,” she stated.

Before she leaves she puts a calling card in the drawer as she leaves her apartment.

Kim Ji-yoo is now in the lobby of the apartment complex that she rented out as she goes to the receptionist.

“Hey, I'm leaving now” she said as she took the key in her apartment on her coat.

“There's a guy in my room, he'll cover the bills~” she winks at the receptionist as she leaves.

Back to Arth, he was holding the Cosmic Hexahedron as he pressed the button spawning the other Arth who he witnessed die in front of him.

“Oh, you're back” he said as he smiled “I want you to meet the others”

“The others?” Arth wondered about his counterpart's statement “There's others like us?”

“Well, most of us is dead but before we die we encoded our memories in that cube you're holding now” his counterpart replied “I say that it did a good job on replicating us”

As more holograms appeared in front of Arth, spawning some of his counterparts.

There are many distinguishable Arths present in the room, one with a very long hair that reached on his shoulder and his skin is much paler than the others, a Arth with different hairstyle than the others and his eyes are like of a wolf looking for his next prey to hunt, then there the one who's holding a wand. A Arth that is a samurai, A Arth that is a fighter as he's wearing a bandana and his knuckles are wrapped up, An Arth that was wearing a tuxedo while carrying a gun.

“These are my comrades, Arths this is Arth” he introduced his comrades which is also different versions of himself.

“Alright, this is getting confusing” Arth replied “We should have nicknames for all of us if we're going to talk to each other”

“I mean, me is right, me” the samurai one replied.

“Alright, let's have some nicknames” the other Arth said “Since you are a samurai, we will call you, Samurai Arth”

“He's Fighter Arth by the way, he's the most physically capable of all of us as he knows every single martial arts there is” he said pointing to the Arth with the bandana on his head.

“I don't care, let's just get this over with” the one with the tuxedo said.

“You're gonna be Double-0 Arth” the other Arth said “And maybe I'll take The Other Arth since I'm the one he saw dead in front of him”

All Arths nods as the one with the one speaks “I'm the Arth, whom The Celestial Witch Sera teached magic”

“So you're the Arth, she's talking about” he said.

“I'm also the one who casted the Nature’s Blessing when she nearly killed you” the Familiar Arth stated.

“Thanks for that, me,” he said.

“Since you're the original familiar of Celestial Witch Sera, you'll be Familiar Arth” the other Arth said as he just nodded.

“But what about my nickname, huh?” The Arth that's currently alive said.

“Good one, I think we should call you Arth Prime since you're us but still alive and have so much potential” the other Arth said “We're kinda dead by the way”

“How did you all die anyways?” Arth Prime asked “I mean I saw Other Arth die in front of me but how about you others?”

“We died just like him, we were attacked by the Space-Time Warlord that has been going to universes killing us” Double-0 Arth said

“And he's the only one who managed to survive for quite a while before meeting you” Samurai Arth said

“So who's the oldest Arth here?” Prime Arth asked

“That would still be me as I've been the assistant of Celestial Witch Sera for almost the entire life of the universe” The Familiar Arth said. “I'm the one who discovered the Space-Time Warlord that have been killing us”

“But I heard that if we die the universe resets” Prime Arth stated the information shared by those two men in black he met in his universe.

“That is partially true” Samurai Arth said as he looked at Familiar Arth.

“If we die, the universe resets is true” Familiar Arth opened up his exposition.

“But, there's only one universe back then…and our cycle started there but ever since the multiverse is formed”

“Our existence became a chance, as every universes have their own Arth's as they have their own version of backwater planets like Earth”

“How did the multiverse form then?” Prime Arth asked.

“Maybe an Arth refused to die, some may say that we've gone rogue and thus the cosmic beings and higher forces decided to throw us here, so the universe replied by forming new universes even if it didn't ended yet”

“But our universe cannot support multiple universes at once, that's why those fractures are showing up everywhere” the Other Arth said.

“I don't think they're just fractures of reality” Samurai Arth said “They looked like something much more than meets the eyes”

“The multiverse is a cancer and the fractures are the universe's antibodies” Prime Arth stated “It's trying to kill this world or as much better representation, the antibodies is killing the virus”

“Our Universe is unorganized, that's why I developed a plan to organize everything” the Other Arth said as a hologram of plans appeared in front of Prime Arth.

“This is the Anthropic Multiverse Plan, a plan that I made in order to organize our universe that runs on pure chances and possibility” other Arth stated “Think about it as planting trees in a cosmic scale as you will definitely plant universal trees”

“Why do I have to carry this plan?” Prime Arth asked as he looked at his counterparts again “Oh” he said in realization.

“But how will that solve the problem?” Prime Arth asked.

“Interesting question, but I already have an answer for that as our universe runs by possibility, probability and mental capabilities” the Other Arth said.

“Mental capabilities?” Prime Arth asked

“You think our universe just ran by chance? Sentient beings also think, and what we think becomes a new reality” he said

“Think about a world where Hitler won World War II? That's to typical alternative reality but what about a world where there's no fish that have the guts to crawl on land? Everything can happen in a multiverse but with this plan, we can sort all of life-permitting universes to non-permitting ones”

“I kinda agree with that but what about the chances, we can't just make a deterministic universe?” Prime Arth said. “People would still need to choose on the decision they made for their own and not what the universe had planned for them.”

“You're right and trees are the most flexible representation of a universe because even if they made choices, the tree can just branch out”

“A branching timeline—then how do I get started?” Prime Arth asked “Do I need to stabilize the universe for this plan to work?”

His counterpart nods “In order to stabilize our universe, we need to get all seven pieces of the Time Cogs” the Familiar Arth said.

“The Time Cogs are what stabilizes a universe's proper flow of time though it was scattered around the multiverse now” the Double-0 Arth said.

“A piece have the ability to control time on a universal scale just like us but even though it's useless for us master of time, we can amplify it's abilities ” Fighter Arth said as he have been silent every since the conversation started.

“And a whole piece can basically remade this universe, once completed it turns into a reddish color indicating you're manipulating time in a reality scale” the Other Arth said.

“How did you know all this information if you haven't seen it in action once?” Prime Arth asked a very interesting question.

“We found and archived the Secret Diary of the First Arth” the Other Arth stated

“And also he put the locations of the pieces on it as he's afraid to share it with anyone as the Time Cogs are significant cosmic artifacts that could be dangerous, If it fell on the wrong hands—but each piece can only be detected by us if someone or something is triggering it to go active”

“That's pretty convenient, but does that mean that I'm gonna have a hard time dealing with anyone that have a piece of the cog?” Prime Arth complained as his counterpart nodded.

“This journey will be perilous, that's why we gave you this final message to carry our plan for the future, though you've already absorbed all the information in the cube and acquired all of our memories—the cube have a failsafe function when you don’t know what your current direction is”

“We will also lend you some of our abilities and expertise, together we are all going to be one as Prime Arth” the Other Arth said as the cube showed a map with dots on it but they're currently inactive.

“This might be the location of those cogs” Prime Arth said as he pressed the cube, shutting it down.

“Time to get work ” he said as he took his trench coat as he used the mirror to look at his face and fixed his hair.

“Much better” he said as he left Kim Ji-yoo's apartment as he was now in the lobby.

“Sir!” The attendant said as she caught Arth's attention as he was eating the chili fries that he got from the diner.

“Yes?” He asked as he was now preparing to leave.

“Are you going to leave now?” She asked.

“Ummmm—yeah, I have a business to attend to,” he said. “Why?”

“Please sign here so you can pay the bills now” she then showed him a clipboard with a pen on it. “Miss Kim Ji-yoo said that you're the one going to pay the bills before you leave”

Arth took out the calling card that Kim gave to him as something was written on it.

“You know the services of the Saint of Last Resorts isn't free, maybe cover for the apartment I rented, I'll consider any kind of payment that involves money, Thanks~”

“Kim!!!!” Arth shouted at the top of his lungs in frustration.

Meanwhile, Kim is in an Airport going to the Kansai International Airport as she was preparing for her flight she sneezes before entering the plane.

“Did somebody just remembered me?” She asked “Nah, who cares The Saint of Last Resorts is going to Japan!”

On a different plane of existence, a petite woman wearing a black, pointed, conical hat as she's staring at the lower dimensions as she is spectating Arth's next move waiting for her time to appear on the narrative of his adventures again.

"Oh hi, The one and only Celestial Witch Sera here" she speaks as she smiled "You think that my engagement on my assistant's story is over yet? and I don't served anymore purpose for him?"

She just giggles "You know if I interacted on their lower dimensions physically, I might destroy the entire thing since it's practically non-existent for me—that's why I have emanations throughout the multiverse and they're just part of my essence as my full power is beyond your understanding but no matter how many of me's you've encountered throughout this journey—there's only one Celestial Witch Sera and she's watching. Always"

Chapter 5: The Real Space-Time Voyager End