(mid-October, year 51 AK)
The next day Yuta came to his usual training grounds with the intention to test out his Time Control ability.
'Well, looks like there is no one here today, let's test my ideas for time-control one by one!' Yuta thought excitedly, 'First thing I have in mind is time-flow manipulation, I want to see if I could slow down or speed up the time.'
With those thoughts, Yuta focused on his connection with the River of Time without going into his mindscape directly.
'First let's try to slow down the time for everything but me, how do I do this...'
...
'I'll imagine myself being carried by the River of Time's current, then I'll try to make the River of Time's current to slow down, while letting myself to continue to move forward through the river unaffected, that should work, probably...'
As Yuta formulated his intention and sent it through the connection with the River of Time, powering it up with his spiritual energy to make it work, he felt like he hit a wall and he cannot proceed, it totally failed.
Yuta got a feeling that something is wrong with his intention and it can't be achieved. He carefully analyzed the feedback he got.
'Hm, there should be two problems with my previous attempt.' Yuta calmly analyzed, 'First - lack of spiritual energy, I feel like slowing down the time although possible, it requires a tremendous amount of energy, as it would affect the whole River of Time or rather the time flow of this entire reality, although possible, it's not feasible.'
"So, there is no stopping time for the whole world for me, I guess..." Yuta said a little disappointed.
'The Second problem is not a lack of something, but it rather a fundamental issue. In my previous attempt I put the intention of separating my own time flow from the time flow of the world, what it means on practice is that I want to localize the changes, and this is a problem.'
'To be more specific, I only wanted to affect the time around my own body to let it move in a separate speed from the world around it, and the response I've got tells me that localization is not an option, as it requires to affect the Space itself, and I absolutely cannot do that with my Time Control ability, it lacks the authority over the domain of space...'
'In other words, affecting the time for the entire reality is fine, but affecting the time for a small area of space is not an option. Without the authority over the space domain, I absolutely cannot localize the effects of the Time Control.'
As Yuta analyzed the issue, his heartbeat became rapid, and he was on the brink of a panic attack.
'How could this be!? Am I unable to use the Time Control at all!?'
His breathing intensified, cold sweat covered his back.
'This was all for nothing?! I could slow down the time for the whole world, yea sure, if I had infinite spiritual energy for that tremendous task, but even if I do that, it will affect me as well, what the point to slow down everything me-included, that would be the same as doing nothing at all!'
'Space... Damn it... I can't affect space... What is the point of the Time Control if it has such a fundamental flaw?! It ruins everything!'
'Slowing down time, stopping time, speeding up time, it's all pointless if it could only affect the whole reality all at once...'
...
'Maybe I'm missing something, it can't be this useless, can it? I hope so!'
'Let's think here, I can't localize the effect of the Time Control in space, because of that I can't slow or speed up the time for myself to get the benefit from such action, but there should be something I can do about this, I'll assume there is ways to bypass this fundamental restriction, I just have to figure it out!'
'Why would I believe that there were workarounds for this exists? It's not optimism, it's just simple logic. There are only two options - there are ways to use Time Control or there aren't, and if there are ways, I'll find them and everything will be fine. But if there are no such ways, then I'll only waste time looking for them, and it all would be pointless anyway, if I can't control time after all, then it's all pointless and doesn't matter if I wasted time on it or not...'
...
After a few minutes, Yuta managed to calm down and think rationally.
'So, I can't affect space, what else I could do?'
...
'Maybe I could rewind time or something?'
Yuta formulated a new intention and tried to manipulate the River of Time to rewind time, once again he felt like he hit a wall, the attempt failed.
'Hm... I see, rewinding time has no sense, the River of Time has nothing that could be rewound, the river exists simultaneously in the past and future...'
'Time-travel also won't be possible, as I can't localize the effect to target my body, sadly... A shame, I feel like time-travel would be an easy thing to achieve in terms of the spiritual energy requirements, I would only need to move my body from one point in time to another, no need to affect the whole River of Time's current for that...'
'So, there is truly nothing I could affect with Time Control?'
...
'I can't affect the whole world, I can't affect anything specific in this world... What's left?'
...
...
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'My Soul! I felt previously that my soul became part of the River of Time or its the other way around, and the part of the River of Time fused into my soul! Maybe I could affect my soul with the Time Control ability after all!'
'What should I try? Maybe to speed up time for my soul, this way I could achieve the effect of slowing down the world around me, but in reality it would be me who would be faster, not my whole body though, so probably only my perception, reaction and thought process...'
Yuta formed a new intention and sent it through the connection with the River of Time, trying to speed up time for his soul, and the next instant he felt that it failed again.
...
'Hm... From the response I've got, it feels like my soul can't be affected this way because it occupies a certain space in the world, same space my body is in, so I have the same issue here – I can't localize the effect of the Time Control ability to a specific space.'
...
'What if I submerge myself, or rather my soul and mind into the River of Time like I did before? Maybe then my command I send into the River of Time could be completed, since my soul would be fully or partially not in the world but inside the River of Time itself.'
As Yuta thought about submerging into the River of Time, he felt scared, last time he had almost died doing so, almost dissolved into the waters of the river completely.
'I have to try! Last time I was saved by the Time Control ability, it should be no different this time as well. Can't let myself to drop the idea and loose the opportunity just because it's risky or because I'm scared...'
With just a thought, Yuta instantly entered his mindscape and found himself standing on the surface of the River of Time.
'This place never stops to amaze me...' He thought while looking around, 'I refuse to believe this is all useless for me!'
...
'In what ways could I affect my soul while it is inside the River of Time?' He thought while looking at the water below.
'Since my soul will be inside the river during the whole process, speeding up the time would be useless though...'
'I need to come up with an effect, that would affect my soul while it still inside the river, and also it should still be beneficial to me after my soul resurface from the river...'
...
...
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'The only thing that comes to my mind is to try the time-travel... But this could be dangerous!'
'I will send my soul and mind back in time, but what will happen afterwards? I emerge from the River of Time in the past? But I'm inside my own mindscape now, isn't it connected to my body? Would my body suddenly contain two of my souls after the time-travel? Would my two souls have to fight and kill each other for control over the body?'
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'With this attempt I may as well just kill myself... This is too dangerous...'
...
'What then, travel into the future? It is even more uncertain and doesn't make sense to attempt it in the first place...'
...
'I'm going to do this anyway, aren't I?' Yuta thought with a tired smile, 'I'll find ways to wield my Time Control ability, I refuse to believe it was all for nothing, and if something goes wrong and I die – so be it!'
With resolve, Yuta formed a new intention to send his soul back in time when it submerges into the water, as far as his spiritual energy would allow, he imagined wrapping this intention with all of his spiritual energy and sent it into the River of Time, the next instant he immediately fell down into the water and let himself be swallowed by the River of Time completely.
With a fading away consciousness, while his thoughts, senses and feelings was being washed away by the effect of the River of Time's waters, Yuta, with his last fading thought, felt and registered the feedback of the River of Time to his last command, and it wasn't a failure this time...
'It works...' Was his last thought in his fading mind.
--- AN ---
This chapter ends the in-depth description of my Time Control ability concept. I would like to get your opinions in the comments about it, as this concept has been on my mind for a long time now.
As I stated in the description of the fic, this power won't make MC strong directly, so this is how I envisioned this power to work. I never intended for it to be able to achieve something like time-stop ultimate unbeatable skill, so here we are.
Time-travel back in time with his soul won't be the only thing MC would be able to do, but the fundamental limitation of not being able to affect space will stay.
I can't say anything more than that to not spoil things, but I feel like I should mention for those of you who are nerf-haters, that this fundamental limitation is not absolute, and there is a way for MC to bypass even that, though that won't happen any time soon and will be totally logical and justified. Also, as the story progresses, MC will find new ways to use Time Control.
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Currently there are 2 advanced chapters on Patreon (patreon dot com /SycoreNovels).
There will be up to 20 advanced chapters in the future.
Thanks to Loalola, Rohan_ps and Jayroy_63 for the power stones!