Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 913
Capítulo 913: Axis Of Time
The King sat upon the throne.
Even after being unsealed, he didn’t make a move.
He remembered Tiamat’s request, for him to roam free and reclaim whatever land he wanted. For the era of old has returned.
Yet he paid her command no attention.
He has already felt the height for pleasure, such achievements meant nothing to him anymore.
Civilisation gained and lost on a whim.
He ruled with mercy, he ruled with tyranny. He’s tried it all.
He peered into what the future would hold and it was ever so…
Dull.
Do people find pleasure in being a king?
For what reason?
More responsibility? To show kindness?
One doesn’t need to be a King in order to be kind.
A king is a status, one he did not require anymore.
He peered into the past of this realm, saw the battles of old. The clash of Gods, the death of a mage who saw through fate. He saw the rise and fall of civilisations born afterwards, the wars fought between nations.
Nothing had changed.
Even after spending all these years slumbering in the seal, the world has not changed in the slightest. Everything remains the same.
And now he sat in the future upon a Throne with an empty court.
His retainers have long returned to the earth. The only one that can possibly remain…
Miralith.
The beast he once took in on a whim, his only friend.
After a momentary pause, the King made a decision.
Lifting his finger slightly, he tapped it against the armrest.
*RUMBLE!!!
The earth began to shake, the borders of Terminus groaned in pain.
His energy ceaselessly poured out without stop. Above his temple, the clouds scattered and fissures began to manifest from the rush of energy.
“I would appreciate it if you didn’t turn my home upside down.” A voice rang out.
A faceless figure, a white silhouette with a single mouth.
“I never heard of a homeowner preferring to have an intruder within their rooms.” The King opened one eye and stared at the Will of the Abyss.
“Depends on the owner. What barrier can stop you if you wish to leave? But must you really cause such destruction?” The Will sighed helplessly.
“I have given you peace even with the half hearted bindings I allowed you to place upon my body. My expectations were that you would find something better to hold me back and yet I find this prison lacking.
“Am I to assume that you have failed to meet such expectations?” The King stood up while the Will shrugged his shoulders.
“Why seek to seal that which cannot be sealed? I simply wish you didn’t cause such a large commotion on your way down from the stage.”
The King narrowed his eyes.
A subtle threat.
“Has the observer finally decided to make a move personally? Will you coronate my return with a sea of flames?”
A ruler never doubts, a ruler never yields, A ruler never shows weakness, even when the being in front of him is the Will of the Abyss.
“Nope~ I don’t intend to fight anyone. And…” He trailed off before revealing his signature toothy grin.
“I need not make a move for someone whose fate is reaching its final destination.”
“By whose decree?”
“By a certain witch who spent too long looking at cogs.” The Will turned around, flicking his finger to repair the barriers of Terminus.
“O’ King of eld who saw the past, future and present. He who records each dusk and dawn. The one who observes history through the lens of time.
“You sit upon your throne and watch as the land write the same story.
“The rise and fall of nations, heroes born of circumstance. Legend forged from lies, endless loops of which you have seen time and time again.
“Do you still remember the passion you felt when you first received your power? Your oath to remember the past, walk through the present and stride towards the future?
“O’ weary King tapped in time, tell me.
“Since when did your steps grow still?
“When did you cease your strides towards the future? When did your foresight turn to sloth?
“You saw every ending and thus chose none. You claim it to be the wisdom of rulers, but the world saw it as stagnation.
“An empire fallen.
“Conqueror of time, thy fate has split in twain.
“O’ King of eld, await the hour hand’s strike.
“The creation of man will claim sovereignty over the sands of time.
“Her birth tolls the bells of the end. The one of many.
“So wait.
“Wait upon thy throne like you always have/watch as your future cease to exist.
“Thus spoke Yvael Velcarion. Seer of Cogs, Observer of Fates. The Watcher at the Axis of Time.” The Will declared as the King finally revealed a single emotion.
Annoyance.
Who is she to declare his fate? Who is she to claim that his future is predestined?
Who is she to call herself the Watcher at the Axis of Time?
No one is beyond the grasp of time. Not even God.
If she dares say that she’s observing through the Axis of Time then he will tear away that folly right here! Right now!
The Will grinned.
The King stood up, energy coursing through his veins as the world was halted. The present was desynchronised and the flow of time became visible.
If she claims herself to be at the axis of time, then there is only one destination he must reach.
That singular transcendent moment. The immovable centre where past present, future and possibilities all align.
It exists in theory but he has never seen it.
Yet she claims to be the watcher who resides there?
“Lies.”
Opening his palm, the sound of ticking echoed out endlessly, multiplying, looping, synching, desynching.
Everything happening at once. The conversation undone, redone and also never even happening played out in the world around him.
In order to find the Axis, he must first transcend this world in its entirety. To escape the boundaries of time that he had familiarised himself with.
It is only then can he reach the Axis. It is only there can he observe every age at once, the cycles, the possibilities.
Everything.
Power bordering on Omniscience, clairvoyance of such degree that nothing becomes unknown anymore.
[Shh]
A voice reverberating in his very soul.
A sound that could not be blocked out.
A presence he could not ignore.
The King’s world darkened, outside of the boundaries of time, his eyes grant him no power.
The eye that saw the past blinded.
The eye that saw the future erased.
The present unobservable.
For the first time, the King was blind.
But in that blindness, he saw the silhouette of a woman. A finger over her lips, a smile.
Then the sands of time shackled his limbs.
“!!!”
He ‘saw’ the Axis but was still bound by time.
The King staggered.
[O’ weary King.]
[You may have conquered time in your era. But no one escapes it.]
[For time simply has to wait.]
[It will always win in the end.]
[Even now at the Axis, I speak from the past.]
Then, as she spoke this line, she snapped her fingers and the King was dragged back.
The sands of time flowed backwards, actions erased. Choices undone.
*BANG!!!
Slamming back into his throne, the King creased his brows as he saw the markings upon his limbs. He felt the invisible chains around his neck.
“Ah~ Ya shouldn’t have done that. Now your fate is locked in place.” The Will shook his head.
“Didn’t I tell you her prophecy? That your fate was split in twain? That moment of choice happened the instant I told you. And your choice was to chase the impossible. And now the Cogs are set into place.
“Your fate is now turning and it heads towards the end. Like always, you should’ve just waited.” The Will sighed and started to walk away.
Waving his hand, he disappeared from the temple.
Veins bulged on the King’s neck, he tried to move but at this point, only the actions allowed by fate could be done. Black chains that bound every unacceptable movement.
With a single choice, his freedom was surrendered.
And now, against his will, the King could only wait.
###
Caelan felt a stir. He sat up in his chair and frowned.
He sensed it.
Another that tried to transcend fate only to get burned by it in the end.
When his mother turned him into an immortal, it was an experiment.
And as a result, he gained a body that could not die. But his actions were also dictated by the cursed chains.
Where this purpose ends, he did not know. But from what little he knew, this curse of immortality may remain.
Even as time sinks into oblivion, he alone will persist.
“Is something wrong?” Caelan’s assistant glanced over in confusion.
“Nothing. I just pity a fool who tried to do the impossible. Though I suppose their fate is still better than mine.” Caelan shook his head, returning to work.
Had the fool not made such a move, they would still retain their ‘freedom’.
###
Returning to his realm, the Will of the Abyss had an amused smile on his face.
One of the unknowns had finally been verified today.
The status of Yvael Velcarion. Her true fate and where she now resides.
The axis of time is simply one of many.
“Truly outrageous.” He laughed.
But that was in character for her. And…
Like Caelan and now the King, she too was bound by the consequences of her own actions.
In that moment where the King tried to access the Axis, The Will saw her.
The multiple variations of her living in different moments. Some dead, some alive.
Some in the past, some in the future.
But all of it linked back to the one that was bound in that darkness.
To him, she was no longer the Seer of Cogs, the Observer of Fates nor was she the Watcher at the Axis of Time.
There is only one title befitting a woman like her.
The Fragmented One.