Tree note:
Due to ████████ bringing it to my attention that I never uploaded I have uploaded it now alongside it's twin
Double chapt to make up the no chap yesterday
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Opening my eyes once more, sunrise peaked through from behind the bars as I woke up in the Prisoner's quarters
Greeting the familiar landscape of metal chains and skeletons, I got up from the ground and instantly began to make headway to Newcastle Island.
Now that I had an entire boss cell alongside the half that I had received from the Timekeeper, I briefly wondered if I should ask for the other half from the Messenger before realizing that I still didn't know how the boss cells worked.
I knew for a fact that one boss cell was a concentration of one month's worth of time making it so that only one month would be repeated in this time looped kingdom.
In addition to the one month of time, a sixth of the malaises power was forcefully separated and condensed into these balls of orange malaise that needed periodic resealing across runs if they were to stay intact.
In addition to that addition, people who were uncomfortable with the thought of being forced to relive the death trap that was Sevallia were frozen alongside the boss cell sealing one sixth of the malaise's power and a month of time.
'So in summary, these orange balls have three things sealed in them, time, people and a disease so deadly that a world of unending time was created to find a possible cure for it.'
And they STILL didn't find a cure yet in the eternally repeating one month that they were given.
How were they even supposed to free tens of thousands of people in this little orange thing?
Sneaking past the Conciege for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that despite having enough strength to leap from one end of the bridge head to the other, his other senses had degenerated significantly
So unless I wasnt paying attention or was specifically looking for a fight, one tossed stone as a distraction and a couple of steps later I was home free
Well as home free as you could be on an island filled to the brim with undead that is.
Reaching the bridge head once more, I glanced at the map and noticed that of the three possible paths recorded on its black and blue surface, the one heading to the fractured shrines were blocked off for some reason.
I glanced upwards to try and catch a glimpse of the blue coat that had fallen last time which much to my surprise, wasn't there.
'Well that's no matter since the messenger told me how to get through the wall'
Just wear the clothes of their church, the blue robe that I had received by weird coincidence
Since I got it, the blue robe had been peacefully occupying an inventory slot in the minecraftian interface, resting alongside various weapons with varying states of durability.
Picking up it's icon and dragging it to the Terrarian interface, it slotted into the cosmetic slot for clothes and instantly began to replace the clothes I currently wore in a show of starlight.
Flashing blue and white for a brief moment, I felt the soft fabric on my fingers before looking upwards in hopes of spotting the blue robe ver. 2.0
But nope
I didn't see another blue robe no matter where I looked
'Weird coincidence indeed'
Pushing past how I received an unnaturally clean robe last time without seeing it this time, once the walls shifted and the doors opened, I stepped into the light.
---
When I saw the fractured shrines again, the unnaturally floating islands were... Different to say the least.
"Hello again Messenger"
For one, the Messenger was greeting me with an uncharacteristically sad expression.
And here I thought she would keep on smiling if the world were to end, seems I was wrong
"What happened? Why aren't you in that church full of snakes I last saw you in?"
Tail head twitching, the red scaled lower half filled to the brim with muscle coiled around the ground, forming a mound which the Messenger say atop.
"Time is becoming unstable Claimed Slade"
"..." I blinked "You'll have to elaborate some more about that"
"I... Will." Her snake half uncoiled and began to snake away as she featured at me to follow her "Follow me, I'll have to explain along the way"
The path was winding and full of twists, turns and gaps that was solved with the help of numerous snakes that bit at their compatriots ends and twisted their bodies around like living spools of rope.
Very scaly possibly venomous living spools of rope that were previously human now I think of it.
'How would I feel if I suddenly became a snake to escape the malaise only to have my purpose change to become a glorified rope?'
Questions for another day that wasn't today... Or this month, perhaps when there was no malaise plaguing the island and the time quarantine was lifted.
Questions upon questions upon questions.
One of which was-
"Are you going to tell me what you meant by time is destabilising now or are we just going to keep on walking (Or in your case slithering) or are we going to start talking?"
Yeah.
Ever since the Messenger had dropped what seemed to be very important information, the woman had ceased to speak, only frantically gesturing for me to follow along the path carved by snakes.
nd maybe I was imagining it for a second, but I think I saw a couple of those snake warriors at the edges of my vision prowling around spears in hand.
They did little to make me feel safe.
Especially given how I was basically hunted by them until I was trapped in a small house of my own making.
"Ah."
But nevertheless, as if I had just shook her out of a cage made of her own thoughts, the messenger seemed to finally register that I was besides her all this time, her hold colored eyes gleaming from even behind the darkness as she hurriedly made some excuses.
"I'm sorry Claimed of the Undertaker, but it's just that... My mind has been occupied with many problems as of late"
"One of which is this destabilised time I'm guessing?" I probed
"Yes" She nodded her head vigorously, the cloak covering her features shaking along her head as if attached to it by some kind of magic
Which knowing this world it probably was.
"It's a complicated thing time" her fingers restlessly tapped at the sides of her crossed arms
"As one of the three fundamental forces that hold our world together, time, and their direct sister, space are intimately connected."
"So when one of them is changed by an outside force, the other is usually not far behind"
A complicated light filled her golden eyes as a bridge made of snakes made it safe to cross.
"And as you should know, in this space of forever repeating time, reality doesn't follow the same rules that we're used to."
"Are you talking about how the islands are both separated by a wall of space that eradicates everything that doesn't go over the black bridge?"
"Not exactly that, but it's a close comparison" The messenger continued up a flight of stairs, her voice echoing from above.
"Thanks to the abilities of the Timekeeper both learned by herself and granted to her by the Hourglass, although Space was still unstable in this bubble of looped time, the Timekeeper was still able to set roles in this place to make it still traversable by human standards."
"Is that why I don't get trapped in an eternally looping pit with no end to the fall?"
"?" Confusion filled her gaze before she nodded "Well... Yes, thanks to the Timekeeper, we don't get trapped in endlessly looping hallways and spaces that can shred you by splitting your body to several hundreds of places at once"
She suppressed a shiver, her eyes seemingly recalling a time when the scenario covered in her words still existed.
"Thank the Hourglass's claimed"
'Yeah I don't think I would've liked when this place was first established in a panic without any rules'
Wiping the cold sweat that had formed on my head, I realized what I thought was cold sweat was actually hot sweat as I looked around in confusion.
"Is it just me or is it getting hotter here?"
The messenger seemed to fight off the sleepiness marring their movements, many of the accompanying snakes even outright collapsing on the ground reminding me of their cold bloodedness.
"Yesssss it isssss." She slapped herself on the cheek "But where we're going it'll be cooler... Or hotter"
"You said that time has been destabilised, are we going to that place? Is there anything that I need to keep in mind?"
She hesitated, the words lingering at the tip of her tongue before eventually being swallowed alongside an audible gulp of saliva.
"I... I think it's easier if you were to see than for me to explain if you want to understand"
Gesturing at the doorway we finally happened upon, even from behind the giant stone doors I could feel the heat.
But strangely and conflicting enough, a cool breeze simultaneously snuck out from behind the door, blasting my body with a mixture of hot and cool airs.
And the statues standing besides the door did no help
'They remind me of that giant statue behind the messenger in that church's
Staring at the two Stone Wardens, their twin hulking bodies hung besides the door wielding similarly large weapons made of stone as a helmet seemingly made of stone snakes was placed atop their shoulders.
But if we were to ignore the two terrifying things that the door was seemingly guarded by, the door itself had no handles, the only signs of this being a door at all being the several inscriptions placed atop it split down in two.
Glancing at the Messenger who seemed to be falling asleep despite the conflicting temperatures I coughed into the palm of my hand.
Snapping out of her revery possibly brought on by the snake half of her containing cold blood, she coughed awkwardly before slithering forwards and began to chant underneath her breath in what sounded like Latin.
Hands splayed, runic looking inscriptions blew up on the sides of her arm, exploding in a dazzling light of gold similar to the explosion of light that had surrounded the Sealed half of the boss cell.
Briefly blinding me with the sight, I blinked a few times to restore sight and looked at the doorway now glowing with numerous gold colored sigils.
Carving a path through the door, what I once thoughts were runic sigils were in fact half finished carvings that at the behest of the golden light began to shift around and form a giant snake biting its own tail.
*Click
As the final piece of the puzzle sunk into place, I was startled when one of the giant statues flanking the doorway with a spear in their hNds moved.
Jumping slightly as their blocky footsteps sent a shockwave of dust from the epicenter, the earth shook as it's hand grinded against its own stony limbs, pressing on the doorway and revealing a twisted space behind it.
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Tree