The Chronos Labyrinth was a place that was not made of things you can touch. Of moments in time. As we walked into it from the Heaven, the solid ground under our feet turned into a shiny grey fog. This fog was made of moments in time that were lost.
Here the air did not move it just went around in circles. You could see a shadow of your footsteps before you even took them.
The 7.3% Divinity was like a heartbeat inside me. It helped me stay grounded. Without it the Labyrinth would have taken away my years. Turned me into a baby or a pile of dust in just a few seconds. Isabella and Elara were behind me being very careful. They were tied to me with a Temporal Anchor, which was like a chain of light made from the power of the goddesses.
[CURSE STATUS: 7.3% DIVINITY]
[OBJECTIVE: FIND THE HEART OF THE SECOND.]
"Master do not go off the path " Elara warned me. Her voice sounded strange like it was slowing down and speeding up at the time. "The Labyrinth is like a series of time cells. If you go into one without the Anchor you could get stuck in one moment for ten thousand years."
The walls of the Labyrinth were made of see-through gears. Some were small like watch parts and others were huge like a moon. They rubbed against each other with a sound that was not really a noise. More like the feeling of history itself.
Then the fog in front of us. We saw a man standing in a courtyard of sundials. It was Chronos, the guardian of time. He was not a giant or a monster a thin man with hair like falling sand and skin that changed between being smooth and being wrinkly. He held a scythe that could change time.
"Alaric von Valerius," Chronos. His voice changed with every word. "You have broken the rules of space and the rules of the body.. Time is something you cannot avoid. You think you are moving forward. In this place you have already lost."
He swung his scythe and the ground under us broke. But we did not fall down we fell back in time.
The scene around us changed quickly. I was no longer in the Heaven I was back in the Silent Orchard, which was the 1st Heaven. I saw myself when I was younger and weaker just starting my journey.. Something was different. The younger me. Looked at me with hate in his eyes.
"This is a time trap!" Elara shouted. Her Anchor was glowing brightly. "He is trying to make you kill your self. If you do you will never have existed to reach the Heaven. You will erase yourself!"
Chronos. The sound went through the gears. "Choose, Alaric. Die here as a shadow of what you used to be or stay here forever watching the man you could have been."
I looked at the me, who was raising a rusty sword at me. The 7.3% Divinity inside me got stronger. I did not reach for my cane I reached for the Eye of the Origin.
"You are a man, Chronos " I said, my voice low and angry. "You think in lines but I think in circles."
[Status: Stuck in the First Paradox.]
[Condition: The Temporal Anchor is under a lot of strain.]
Chronos watched us from the top of a turning gear. His scythe was shining with the light of stolen years. "Go on Alaric. Kill your self. Show the Heavens your power by erasing your beginning. I promise you the emptiness is very quiet."
"Master do not!" Isabella screamed. Her body was flickering in and out of existence as time was getting unstable. "If you touch him the Anchor will break!"
I looked at the boy. He was attacking me with his sword but I did not move. I did not raise my sword. Instead I used the Eye of the Origin and the 7.3% Divinity focusing all my power on one point.
"I am not going to kill him Chronos " I said. The purple lightning from my crown went out. Into the grey fog. "I am going to change him."
I reached out with the Ink of Rewrite. I did not hit the boy I grabbed the thread of time that connected him to me. Through the 7.3% I could see the thread. A shining, cord that went through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Heavens all the way to this moment.
I did not cut it I folded it. I pulled the me towards me not as an enemy but as a part of myself. I forced my power into his past merging our strengths. I was not destroying the past I was taking it over.
[CURSE STATUS: 7.4% DIVINITY]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: TIME FUSION ACHIEVED.]
[NEW ASSET: THE CHRONO-SOVEREIGN (Immunity to time-based paradoxes).]
The 1st Heaven disappeared. The younger me vanished, absorbed into my body. The paradox did not break me it made me stronger. I now existed in all my moments at the time.
The Labyrinth screamed. The gears of the Heaven started turning backwards unable to understand a man who was both the beginning and the end. I appeared again in the courtyard of sundials. This time I was towering over Chronos.
"Your time is running out Warden " I growled. My voice went through the past, present and future.
Chronoss face turned pale. For the time in forever the man who controlled time looked like he was running out of time. He raised his scythe. It was rusting before it could reach me. I was speeding up his time pushing him towards his own end.
"Isabella! Elara! The Anchor is not needed anymore!" I roared. "The Labyrinth belongs to me now!"
I grabbed the Scythe of Paradox with my hand and broke it. The pieces did not fall they turned into sand that swirled around us making a new dimension within the Labyrinth.
[Status: Paradox resolved. Chronoss control over time is broken.]
[Condition: The 9th Heaven is starting to sync with me.]
The bronze god Karios laughed loudly his fingers digging into Elaras thigh while his other hand forced Isabellas head back. They were completely naked their bodies shaking not from cold. From the time heat Karios was putting into their veins.
"Look at them Alaric!" Karios sneered. His bronze body was thick and shiny pulsing with stolen time. "They are crying for a touch you cannot give. I will fill them with a thousand years of pleasure while you stay still in the dark!"
He started to pull Isabella towards his lap his eyes fixed on me to enjoy my humiliation.. He made a big mistake. He thought my power was something he could control. He did not realize the 7.4% Divinity was too much for him to handle.
The purple crown above my head did not just glow it screamed.
"You talk much... For a dead man " I hissed.
The time lock did not just break it shattered. The frozen time chains turned into glass shards that I absorbed into my skin. I did not just move I erased the distance between us. In a moment that felt like forever I was standing behind Karios.
My hand, now covered in scales and dripping with purple fire grabbed the back of his bronze neck.
"Master!" Isabella sobbed, her body falling against my legs as the time pressure disappeared.
"Wait your turn " I growled. My voice was so powerful it could crack the gears of the Heaven.
I slammed Karioss face into the gear I was just pinned to. The bronze god screamed as his nose shattered against the metal. I did not stop. I grabbed his bronze body. Squeezed until it glowed white-hot.
"You like the present Karios?" I whispered into his ear. "Lets make this moment last forever."
I used the Eye of the Origin. Forced a huge surge of the 7.4% Divinity into his core. I was not just killing him I was overloading his time capacity. His bronze skin started to bubble his eyes turning into liquid.
"I'll take your present your past and your future " I roared.
With a brutal twist I tore the bronze gods essence apart. He did not die he turned into a swirling mist of gold and purple sand. The material of time itself. The Labyrinth groaned, the gears slowing to a stop as I claimed the authority.
I stood in the center of the chamber surrounded by the golden mist of a dead god. Isabella and Elara were still, at my feet naked flushed and shaking from the heat of Karioss touch. Their eyes were wide filled with a mix of fear and absolute devotion.
"Master..." Elara whispered, her breasts moving up and down her skin shining in the light. "We are ready now."
I looked at Elara and the others my own power rising to 7.4% my power wanting what it had been waiting for. The Ninth Heaven was not confusing anymore. It was, like a bed now.
[Status: Karios is gone. The Chronos Labyrinth is stable.]
[Condition: The 'Infinite Bedchamber' is ready to use.]
[CURSE STATUS: 7.5% DIVINITY and it is getting stronger]