Time (4)

I blinked.

Huh?

Did he just call me “PrimotGod”?

Before I could understand what was going on, there was a blinding flash of pink—the next moment, Annabelle’s arm was suddenly around my chest, and the feeling that I’d been dragged back a few paces circled vaguely around the forefront of my mind.

“Tsk,” he clicked.

Did… did he just attack us?

Then a flash of green, and before I knew it, I was flying into the sky.

The masked figure very rapidly losing size was holding something like a katana—a blade of crackling amethyst energy—except it had no hilt. Instead, he looked to be gripping its edge directly through the protection of his gauntlet, the back of which was glowing an ominous, radioactive pink—or maybe it was extending from it, I couldn’t tell.

The gauntlet looks exactly like mine. Colour and all.

I shuddered at the thought of who this man could’ve possibly been. And perhaps that would have commandeered all of my available mental space—if not for the fact I was now riding an ever-growing beanstalk with Annabelle clinging onto my back.

I threw my arms onto her butt to strap her more securely. You’d better not complain. I mean, it wasn’t like I was aggressively rubbing against her under a carriage tarp or anything like that.

“Give me a warning next time!” I screamed.

Before Annabelle could respond, the little dot of a masked man pointed at the giant trunk of our magic beanstalk—and in a glow of pink, the comically huge plant emerging from the earth abruptly stopped growing.

My ass crunched painfully into it.

“Ou—”

And then the beanstalk thrashed, flinging us towards the clouds.

“Wauuugh!”

Flash Fission
2 Entropy Quanta
Spell
Burst Speed

Destroy target non-Artifact Creature with Quanta cost of 3 or less, or Transform it.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The beanstalk was writhing and flailing in grotesque ways—like it was a giant worm and something was torturing it. Giant boils appeared on its surface and exploded as quickly as they formed, oozing out pockets of plant pus, and the inside of its stem radiated a sickly pink glow as the whole thing spat out steaming plant matter in random directions—all while spasming towards the earth.

Some of the chunks flew alarmingly close to us—with them bringing uncomfortably hot gusts that smelled disgustingly sour—and maybe that would have triggered my PTSD if not for the fact we were going down as fast as we had gone up.

Oh my god that’s disgusting. Oh my god that guy is fucking murdering us. Oh my—

Stop that! Shut the fuck up! Stop wasting your time watching this dumb plant explode!

The air was rushing by my face so quickly I felt like my expression would freeze off and fly away. Was Annabelle going to do anything? She was quiet, like she was focusing, but she was still gripping hard—or maybe I just couldn’t hear anything from all the explosions and wind.

What stunt could she even pull off to break this fall? Summon a bed of cotton? Pray it’s not that bad then heal up all my ruptured organs??

Oh my god. Why am I going face first? Why is the grass getting more and more detail—

“BE A MAN!” I yelled to myself, channeling my best impression of a certain blonde knight.

I pointed my hand towards the rapidly approaching ground.

Intent: Don’t let Annabelle die.

Element: Does it matter?

Emotion: …Desperation, for sure.

[Your desire resonates.]

A surge of electricity jolted from into my arms, but this time, it didn’t hurt.

It was like my nerves were wires all along—and I’d been a circuit this entire time.

Yellow.

Time Bubble
1 Time Quanta
Spell
Burst Speed

Select up to three attacking creatures. Tap them, then remove them from combat.

The world thickened like honey.

My rapidly approaching demise abruptly became a museum display—blades of grass sat there beautifully, butterflies fossilised in place mid-flutter, and tiny drops of dew on each plant crystallised and swirled like marbles. For what seemed to be forever, I savoured the sight of bugs and worms deathly still as if saluting my entrance, the warm embrace of the pretty girl on my back, and the scent of… the flow of time preserved in golden amber.

If we could spend the rest of eternity like this… I wouldn’t mind it.

“Wo—”

The next moment, my face squelched into the earth, and I was met with the taste of shit.

“Blech!”

Maybe it was a bad idea to open my mouth after all. How many times was I going to get interrupted mid-scream? Idiotic writing.

The smell of mud, wet grass, and the sounds of explosions began to dominate my senses again. Thankfully Soren had levelled this whole place earlier—if not, she and I would have gotten lacerated by the giant canopy of trees, even if I’d managed to stop time just before impact.

Wait.

Stop time…?

I can stop time?!

“Holy shit, Anna! Did you see what I—”

My celebration was interrupted unceremoniously by a disgusting chunk of plant matter flying towards us in the corner of my vision. You fool, the Primot God was not done Primoting. I scrambled off the floor, then pointed my gauntlet towards it—

Intent: Destroy.

Element: Fire.

Emotion: I’m cooking this bitch.

[Your desire resonates.]

“Fireblast!”

…But rather anti-climatically, it was someone else’s ball of flames that came before mine instead, and the thing was effortlessly turned into cinders without any of my intervention. To make matters worse, the person who casted this had the cringe-inducing, childish tendency to yell out her spell names as she casted them.

“M-Mister Primot! Annabelle! Are you two okay?”

“Tsk.”

It was, of course, none other than Third Princess Maelle—the alleged seer, but definite Fire mage—running towards us with her hood as always ever so magically held in place. Her words during the meeting echoed in my head. No more pursuers. I was beginning to have my doubts regarding her supposed precognition.

Behind her were intermittent flashes of navy blue and pink in the clearing—a fierce battle between Soren and the “False God” who went by Kenshi. But that didn’t make me devolve back into fight or flight mode.

If anything, I was relieved.

I did it. I saved the day.

Seeing Soren’s quanta in the open like that was enough for me—I wasn’t going to make any more sense of the visual spectacle than necessary. Looking at all the colourful explosions and sparks flying around reminded me more of a shitty nightclub than a shonen duel, and while I wasn’t epileptic, I wasn’t about to risk damaging my eyes now.

Yeah, he’ll win.

“C’mon, you brat. I had that under control. And yelling out spell names is cringe—right, Annabelle?”

Maelle stood in place, her expression hardening.

Annabelle didn’t respond.

Weird. I was pretty sure I hadn’t made an insensitive comment about slaves this time.

“...Are you seriously still mad about the argument from earlier, you child?”

The girl in front of me put her hand on her mouth, and tears welled up uncontrollably in her eyes.

What…?

I turned around and looked at Annabelle.

Strange. Did time pause again?

She was lying on the ground, still and unmoving, a smile engraved on her face. Her arms lay open, like she was waiting for someone’s embrace—and below that was the side of her abdomen, split open, the colour of rust and roses spilled everywhere.