Chapter 112 – Time [Monday 1/7]

John sat in the entryway of his home, tapping his foot. His eyes had not moved from the front door for over an hour. He had used the rest of yesterday as Lydia had advised. He had eaten until he was full. He had relaxed as best he could relax. Then he had slept, deep and until he was fully rested. The high Wisdom came in helpful at the strangest of times, letting him put aside his woes to continue functioning well even in his current situation. After breakfast, he had sat down in the entryway and just stared at the door.

Aclysia, one step to his right, shifted uncomfortably. She had done that whenever she had nothing to do. Only in the moments when she had something to do did she seem able to take her mind off something. “Are you angry at me, Master?” she suddenly blurted out, both in his mind and in the real world.

“What?” John asked and turned to her. The sober look in his eyes intensified her squirming. “Why ever would I be angry at YOU?!”

The final word broke out with all the anger he didn’t know how to process. Aclysia turned away from him, as if he had slapped her. For a moment, he wished to order her to go away, never to return, but what good would that do for either of them? Was it even possible? It didn’t matter.

“Sorry,” John mumbled and hesitated, holding his breath before releasing it as a big sigh. “It’s just…. Yes, yes I am angry at you.” He realized as he thought about it and the words just blurted out afterwards, “I hate what you did to me. Do you have any idea what I would be now if I couldn’t try and save Jane? I would be just a broken man without purpose. Wasting away.”

“Broken things can be mended.” Aclysia justified her actions, “What would I be without you, Master? Nothing. I would disappear. And that is the end. I am not ready to disappear, especially not if it's because I failed to protect you. I want us both to continue.”

“I know,” John admitted, clutching his shirt above his heart. “Being sad for months or even years is preferable to death… probably….” There was a pain in his chest, emotions fighting for dominance, none of them winning. “This is the day just afterwards. I am angry at you Aclysia but I am also angry at myself for going there, at Jane for staying behind like that, at Thana for being what she is, all of these are irrational. I did what I thought was right. You did what you thought was right. Jane did what she thought was right and maybe Thana has her reasons for what she does too.” He stared at his hands and clenched his teeth, “But I honestly don’t care right now.”

Before he could ask himself anything along the lines of ‘what the fuck?’ John’s house vanished and he suddenly sat in an endless, green field. He was still collecting himself from the sudden change when he noticed the figure in front of him, which once again proved to him that the Abyss was a truly weird place, full of terrifying things and eccentric figures.

The man was of a lanky build, long extremities in a black, English butler like suit, complete with white gloves and green bowtie that contrasted the white, buttoned-up shirt he wore under the small jacket. Outstanding parts of his outfit were the oaken cane and his almost comically big top hat sitting on a bald head. Weirder than both was his face though. He wore some kind of parody of a plague doctor mask. Those traditionally looked like a bird but if John had to describe the one of the Fateweaver it would have sounded more like a raptor skull.

When he spoke, his metallic voice made John instantly think about the Adeptus Mechanicum, the humans who turned themselves into machines in the 40k universe. “Greetings, John Newman a.k.a. the Gamer a.k.a. Jeehan. I am Magoi Magus a.k.a. High Fateweaver number 7 a.k.a. Anathema.” He bowed, one hand holding the cane front, the other one empty crossing over his back.

“Ehm, hi.” John was very perplexed. This was not what he had expected.

“Lydia Augusta blabla, sends me.” Magoi said, “I am here to give you time and all the enemies you could ever need, also….” He snapped his fingers. A desk, with a laptop on top, just appeared out of thin air. “If you need to buy or sell anything please use this device. I have followed your economic career with interest and with this 10% of the sales go to me. This is in my contract with Lydia. Do you want a copy?”

10% was a lot, so yes, he absolutely wanted a copy. Magoi took off his top hat and pulled out the document. John flew over, the thing looked absolutely okay but he had no way to be sure if the elegantly swung signature at the bottom was truly from the princess he was now indebted to.

“Why though?”

“To get some of the money back that she spent on me, whatever I earn from you she gets refunded.” He explained, leaving John wondering.

“How costly is this service exactly?” he asked.

“It is a discount, so only 500 Billion Dollars.”

John only just now realized how deep in the shit mire he had sunk this time. Saving Rave was worth whatever the consequences of this were. He could acknowledge that while also acknowledging that he was truly indebted to European royalty. “And how much time does that buy me?”

“700 percent, in other words the four days you have me will be turned into four weeks.”

A whole month. If he did nothing but train for a whole month would he be able to beat Thana? He remembered her movements, how she jumped at the ceiling and at Victoria within two seconds, crossing the whole hall, how she just ripped Igor out of the grasp of Undine and Gnome. All of that was before she activated this ‘Bloodburn’ thing.

Even if it was futile, he had to try. Not like he had the funds to lengthen this. “Well, I get that’s what needs to be done to get top-level results, huh?” He mumbled.

“Top-level? Hardly, my maximum dilation is 10000 percent. I can even speed time up but that is harder.” Magoi laughed it off. “Granted, I couldn’t maintain either for four whole days.”

John was confused but time was of the essence and he had a lot of questions. Like how Magoi could just create things out of thin air, for example, but he could approximate the answers for all of that so he instead asked about the important stuff. “How am I going to train?”

“Ah, the interesting question. Let me explain. This is an Intermediary Barrier, a space under my control away from reality but not quite an Illusion Barrier. The bad thing about these is that they are not particularly long lived, the second I leave this thing, poof and gone, but the good thing is that you can open Illusion Barriers inside this Illusion Barrier. Wonderful, right?”

“Right?” John answered in an unsure tone.

“I will be staying here and killing time gaming or something. My job here is to provide the time dilation and to make sure no one else enters. Fateweaving will be in effect, so you will be snapped out of an Illusion Barrier if you’re about to die. Got everything?”

“Yes.” John slowly nodded. He hadn’t heard that this was what Fateweaving actually was before, but he was more interested in getting started than having an Abyssal history lesson.

Last he had grinded, he had fought Street Elementals so he should probably continue with that. Given Magoi’s assurance, he could push into more risky waves without immediate fear of death. John extended his hand to the sky,

“Oh, no, not like that,” Magoi stopped him. “Sorry, forgot that you were a complete rookie for a moment.” Another snap of the High Fateweaver’s fingers caused a row of doors to open in the open field. Okay, ‘doors’ was perhaps not the correct description. They were more like rectangles of pale light. “Walk through one of these. You will find emptiness behind them, you can fill it with your own barriers as you wish,” Magoi instructed. “Provided everything goes properly, I will port all of your Loot back here.” He pointed at a non-descript point that suddenly turned into a giant, metal basin with different segments. “Sorted by rarity, of course.”

All of this was incredibly convenient. All he had to do to get to this point was almost get killed by a crazed Blood Mage/Soviet War experiment, be in a state of mindless sadness for about three hours, find out his girlfriend was still alive and then try to save her by getting stronger than said crazed Blood Mage by getting indebted to a German princess. This was actually not convenient at all, he’d much rather travel back in time two days and deal with the Bloodfallen all over again.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and all that, he concluded his thoughts as he stepped into the first door of light.