Chapter 35 - Stop the Clock

Kaya smiled and pulled out her dagger.

“I don’t sense any magic from you. Surrender, or we’ll stall by injuring you enough to the point where you can’t move!”

The God of Time smiled at her, before looking at me.

“Nell, you need to experience this pain. You may even need to experience death. It’ll be okay. Dess prepared the fear, and I will prepare the outcome.”

She held her hand out as a flash of yellow came out of it. I couldn’t see where it was going. It was faster than Inda’s lightning. It was faster than I could ever see Inda’s lightning going.

It hit my arm, and instead of ripping it off, it spread. My entire arm was red and burnt. I lost all control over it. The lightning extended through my chest and reached my neck. I could barely move my entire left side.

If I got hit by that again, I would die.

Didn’t she say she was going easy?!

“I incorporated a miniscule amount of RME into that bolt. It strengthened it without exploding. You’ve done something similar, but you’ve never controlled it well. You can try it next time.”

Sy shouted out.

“This isn’t a classroom!”

She smiled.

“You’re right. I should continue.”

She readied her hand again and aimed it at me. But, the moment before I was about to get struck with another bolt of lighting, Dominic shot forward and tackled me out of the way. He narrowly avoided it as well.

She sat there and thought for a moment.

“I guess I’ll go after all of you.”

Under Ame, a spike of rock shot up from the ground. A bolt of lightning shot towards Sy. Dominic and I got blasted by fire while Kaya got shot with water. Inda was hidden enough to not get hit, but the second she shot forward at the God of Time, she was pushed back by her elbow.

We were all on the floor and could barely move. We weren’t prepared to dodge her. We didn’t know what she was capable of.

Kaya held her stomach and yelled out.

“What magic can’t you use?!”

The God of Time smiled.

“You’re rather loud. You’ll be the first to die.”

She readied her hand as water began to shoot at Kaya. It was dodgeable. She could dodge this without dying.

Kaya.

Please.

She got ready to dodge the water, but as that happened, it evaporated. It turned into a massive steam cloud that she couldn’t dodge.

“KAYA!”

I bolted forward with RME on my legs and threw Kaya out of the way into Sy. I was inside the steam cloud. It hurt a lot. My skin was close to melting as it grew redder and redder. But Kaya was alive. I didn’t care about the pain.

My emotions didn’t seem bothered either.

I was grinning.

I yelled out to Dominic.

“15 minutes left! We have to put her on defense so we don’t get hit!”

Dominic nodded. I could barely see within the steam, but thankfully it dissipated right after.

My entire body was in pain. Every step shifted the melting flesh from inside my shoes.

Ame and Sy stood next to each other, with Inda in the back. Kaya and Dominic were on my side of the room, holding themselves still.

I yelled out.

“KAYA! UP!”

Kaya shot up, acting as a decoy. This would give Dominic time to go in and engage with the God of Time. But, if Dominic got hit, Ame, Sy and Inda could all attack separately. At least one of them could get a hit off.

While Kaya was propelling herself in the air, the God of Time shot out a lightning bolt. She would have to take it. It was the only thing we could do.

My anger was one of the only weapons I had left.

Dominic leaped at the God of Time from under, striking her in the stomach.

It didn’t seem like it damaged her. But it did slow her down a bit. Ame saw this opportunity through a scope.

click

BANG!

A bullet of water shot straight at the God of Time’s head. It hit her in her temple, and her head jerked back from the impact. But there was no blood.

“Tch.”

She pulled her head back up, but it took her a moment to regain her composure. That was enough time for Sy to sweep in and try and take Kaya away from the lightning strike. Everything that happened between Kaya propelling herself up and Sy shooting forward took less than a second. But it wasn’t quick enough.

Kaya got struck by the lightning before Sy could reach her. We didn’t have time to heal. Well, maybe I did, but Kaya needed Ame for her to heal.

The God of Time looked at Kaya.

“One more strike and you’re gone.”

She put her hand back up and readied her shot against Kaya.

But, the moment before she shot it, Inda blitzed forward and kicked the God of Time in the head full force, as fast as she could go without breaking her own body.

The God of Time was stunned again, holding her head. There was still no blood. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t damage her. But every time she spoke, she wasted another couple of seconds. Every attack gave us more time.

All I needed was an idea.

The time was ticking down, but not quick enough.

The God of Time began to move. She had previously only stayed in one spot.

Dominic took this opportunity to close the distance and engage with her again. If he kept doing that, Inda and Ame could keep hitting her hard.

But, where did I fit into this? Did I fit anywhere? I healed myself as I thought, so I could at least be a little useful.

As Dominic slashed her in the neck, attempting to draw any blood, she held an open palm up to his stomach.

Time seemed to slow down as a beam of ice shot out of her hand, flying straight into Dominic’s stomach.

This would kill him.

“Not… YET!”

A golden aura encased him. He was flung back into the wall, but he lived. He lifted his shirt up to the God of Time and smirked harder than I had ever seen him before.

“Look at me! I’m alive!”

His abdomen was bleeding and half of his ribs were broken, but he was certainly alive.

The God of Time smiled back. This was the most emotive I had ever seen her.

“That’s what I’ve been waiting for! The Maylem awakening! The second gift of the King of Hell!”

Dominic dashed straight back to her. His abilities improved drastically when he was like this. An energy separate from magic leaked out of his internal world and encased him, which was where the golden aura came from.

Dominic blocked another ice shot with his sword, before countering and smacking her on the head with it.

Ame yelled to us.

“Don’t let him fight alone! Surround her! 10 minutes!”

Time was going a lot faster than I had thought. But, we were still only halfway through. We were all breathing heavily.

We were reaching our limit without even putting a dent in her.

I needed to do something. I couldn’t just stand by doing nothing.

I encased my legs in RME. I encased my arms in RME. The God of Time told me that I could imbue my magic with RME. I knew I could, but my mind was never steady enough. It always exploded. If I could control my head, I could control my magic. But she was the only person who had directly done that for me before.

I needed to think.

Think.

Directly?

Ame could always clear my head. But the threat to his survival always evened it out during fights. But, right now, he was being attacked the least.

He was fine.

I looked over to him, and he smiled softly back to me.

…

My mind went blank. I needed to win. A string of water whipped behind me. I coated it in RME so it didn’t collapse. I could stun her with this. I didn’t need to damage her. Just buy time.

I struck the whip of RME coated water towards her neck. It was about to make contact. I pumped more RME through it until it reached the tip. The speed increased at the tip exponentially, until it was going faster than I could trace with my eyes- even with the RME vision.

The tip made contact with her neck. It wouldn’t do any damage like this.

I pumped even more RME into it at the last second, and then loosened my control on my internal world.

crackcrackcrackcrack

BOOM!

The second the whip hit her neck, all the RME inside of it exploded, only after combining its power with the power it got from having a controlled coat of RME.

Not only did it stun her, but when I looked really closely, there was a tiny bit of blood on her neck.

The timer went down by a minute.

Everybody looked shocked as she turned to me, with a disgusting soft smile on her face.

“Good job, Nell!”

Nobody stopped at this. I normally would have been insulted, but survival was a priority.

We all watched carefully as Dominic continued fighting her.

She stared into his eyes and spoke.

“You’re beginning to get annoying.”

She kicked him into a wall and pierced his arms with a rock spike.

She floated in the air in front of him and held her hand out.

A block of ice began to grow around him, until he was entirely frozen.

His expression was still. He couldn’t move. He was vulnerable to any attack, and could potentially die from the cold. But he was strong. I needed him to survive this. It was cruel, but it was the only option we had.

Ame looked on with wide eyes.

“I… I see it.”

We needed everybody's help. Our strongest one on one fighter was unable to fight. There was still about 7 minutes left.

Kaya rushed over and began to thaw out Dominic. The God of Time was about to pierce her, but Inda bolted forward at her head.

“No you don’t!”

She was stunned for a second again. But the timer wouldn’t go down this way.

Inda looked shocked as she stood there. She looked as if she was thinking to herself.

I saw through her eyes. Her internal world was shivering.

And behind her, was a shadow. A shadow she was incredibly familiar with.

Her internal world self who escaped her cage by turning to dust, had formed herself next to Inda.

It whispered to her.

“Rip off your shackles, Inda. Don’t let your friends die. Fly.”

Inda nodded and grinned.

She charged to the side, away from any of the God of Time’s attacks, and then bolted up so fast that it looked as if she was teleporting.

She lifted her leg at maximum velocity, and slammed it into the chin of the God of Time.

She was pushed back as the timer went down by another minute.

The God of Time looked at her with wide eyes and a smile.

“Amazing… It’s so amazing! Another seed has been planted!”

Ame yelled out from the corner.

“Shut the fuck up! You’re about to lose!”

Her excited expression disappeared as she stared at Ame.

“Do you think 6 minutes is too little time to pull every single one of your hearts out?”

He shivered.

Sy shot out from the corner.

He stared at the God of Time. The God of Time stared back, but not at him.

She stared into his internal world with amazement.

Inside, Sy sat in front of his mirror. Inside the mirror was Kaya, as always. But it changed. Ame was there. Dominic was there. Inda was there. I was there. And finally, Sy was there.

The God of Time stared into that mirror, as Sy stared back at her. Both his internal world self and normal self.

Her vision was confused. At this moment, no matter how hard she tried, when she looked at him, she couldn’t tell who he was.

He looked like Kaya. He looked like Ame. He looked like Dominic. He looked like Inda. He looked like me. And he looked like Sy.

The God of Time spoke.

“Who do you think you are?!”

He grinned and responded. He responded by doing something that not even I could do.

“I am Sy Beckwith, The Seventh Wind of Heaven!”

A vacuum of wind surrounded her. She began to get pulled back. She looked on with stars in her eyes while shooting him with the hottest flames he had ever felt.

But he did not budge. His skin burnt, but he held out his palm.

“AND WE- NO, I WILL WIN!”

The wind crashed harder into the wall, as the God of Time struggled to move. Her power was obviously limited, but she was still stronger than all of us combined. It was amazing that Sy could stun her for this long.

The vacuum grew faster and faster, until Sy stepped into it with his fist facing the stomach of the God of Time.

Within a microsecond, his fist collided with her abdomen as she was thrown back.

She fell back as the timer went down another minute.

Because of the time spent in the fight and the minute that he shaved off, the timer was now at 4 minutes.

I thought it was winnable at this moment.

Until she got up. She floated in the sky and aimed her palm at Kaya.

“I heard you try to teach Nell fire magic. It was rather accurate. The palm is the best way to channel your magical energy.”

Lightning grew on her palm. Water grew on her palm. Fire grew on her palm. Earth grew on her palm. Wind grew on her palm. They all mixed together into things I had never seen as magic before today. Mud, steam, ice, diamond- it was too much.

She stared down at Kaya.

“So, when you see this, what do you feel? Should I be punished for my strength? Am I right or wrong? Observe it, and then think about how pointless it is as it pierces your heart.”

And she shot it out.

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Nell's Notebook: Page 31

I hadn’t seen the worm in a while. It was rather strong for a worm too. It survived a car crash, and a couple of fights with the strongest people in the Jeti Army. It was there with us the entire time.

I miss it sometimes.

I don’t know what else to put on this page.

I guess I’ll write a poem.

...

I am speaking to it.

It speaks back.

I hear it.

It hears back.

I feel.

Does it feel back?

If it can, is it real?

Do those feelings equal mine?

Questions flood me.

When I think, does it think back?

Questions flood it.

I stand in front of it.

It stands back.

…

This doesn’t feel like a poem. I don’t know what else to write. This page feels a bit empty.

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