Chapter 48: The Thirteenth Hour
The street in the City of Polaris fell into a hush usually reserved for funerals or executions.
Aeon, the Saintess of Time, stood before me. Her silver hair floated as if underwater, defying the crushing gravity of the High World. Her eyes were mirrors reflecting a thousand different seconds at once.
Around us, the crowd of True Gods and Demigods knelt. To them, she was a holy figure—the last priestess of a dead religion that even the Arbiters respected out of fear.
"My God left a message," Aeon repeated softly. "For the Eater."
Seraphina stepped between us. Her hand hovered over her dagger. Violet sparks hissed against the Divine Qi of the air.
"Back off, silver-hair," Seraphina growled. "He doesn't want your messages. And if you touch him, I'll shorten your lifespan to zero."
Aeon looked at Seraphina. She didn't blink.
"The Demon Queen," Aeon noted calmly. "Your timeline ends in fire. You die screaming his name."
Seraphina stiffened. "What did you say?"
"Enough," I stepped forward, putting a hand on Seraphina's shoulder.
I looked at Aeon. My Ouroboros Ring was vibrating hot enough to burn skin. Inside, Chronos was scratching at the walls of his dimension, desperate to communicate.
This woman felt like... home to him.
"I'm listening," I said. "But not here."
I looked around at the kneeling crowd and the nervous guards.
"We are attracting attention. Do you know a quiet place? A tea shop? A library? A pocket dimension?"
Aeon nodded.
"Follow me."
She turned and walked through the crowd. She didn't push anyone; space simply bent around her, creating a path.
We followed.
The Temple of Seconds.
She led us to the edge of the city, to a district that looked abandoned. The crystal towers here were cracked and grey.
In the center stood a humble clock tower made of ancient stone. The hands of the clock were missing.
"This is the Temple of Seconds," Aeon whispered. "The Arbiters allow it to exist as a museum of failure."
We entered.
The inside was vast—much larger than the outside. Gears the size of houses turned slowly in the ceiling. The air smelled of dust and ozone.
Aeon stopped in the center of the room. She turned to me.
"Show him," she commanded.
I raised my left hand.
I didn't try to hide it. I activated the Ouroboros Ring.
HUMMMM.
A golden rift opened.
Chronos stepped out.
He looked like me at 16, but his skin glowed with golden light. His clockwork eyes locked onto Aeon.
Aeon fell to her knees. Tears streamed from her silver eyes.
"My Lord..." she wept. "You have returned."
Chronos looked at her. He reached out a hand and touched her forehead.
He didn't speak. He downloaded.
A flash of light connected them.
I felt it too, through the link.
The Vision.
I was standing in a white void. A giant stood before me—a Titan made of golden gears and starlight. The Time God.
He was dying. A massive black spear—an Arbiter's Judgment—was impaled through his chest.
"You have come," the Titan spoke. His voice was the ticking of every clock in existence.
"I saw you. In the 13th Hour."
"What is the 13th Hour?" I asked.
"The Universe is a clock," the Titan explained. "It has 12 Hours. The Cycle of Creation and Destruction. The Arbiters reset the clock every time it hits 12. They fear the end."
He pointed to the darkness beyond the void.
"But I looked past the 12. I saw the 13th Hour. The time when the clock breaks. The time of Entropy."
"The Arbiters are not gods," the Titan wheezed, golden blood leaking from his wound. "They are Jailers. They keep the multiverse in a loop to prevent the 13th Hour. To prevent the True Void from entering."
He looked at me.
"But you... you are the Void. You are the anomaly that exists outside the loop."
The Titan reached into his chest and pulled out a fragment of his own heart.
"Take this. The Arbiters control the Present. I controlled the Future. But you... you must control the End."
The vision faded.
The Reality.
I gasped, returning to the Temple.
My head was pounding. The information density was immense.
The Time God hadn't just been killed for rebellion. He had been killed because he discovered the truth: The Arbiters were terrified. They were keeping the universe in a time loop of "Resets" to stop something worse from getting in.
"The 13th Hour," I whispered.
Chronos stepped back into the Ring, his evolution stabilizing. He had absorbed the residual divinity from Aeon.
Aeon stood up. She looked at me with fanatical devotion.
"You carry his will," she said. "The Sect of Eternity is yours."
"I don't need a sect," I said, rubbing my temples. "I need a map. I need to know where the High Arbiter lives."
"The High Arbiter lives in the Crown of the World," Aeon pointed upward, through the ceiling. "The floating continent above the World Tree canopy. But you cannot go there. The Pantheon of Order guards the elevator."
"Then we go through the Pantheon," I said simply.
BOOM.
The doors of the Temple exploded inward.
Dust billowed.
Through the smoke, a voice boomed.
"BY ORDER OF THE CITY LORD POLARIS!"
A squad of twenty heavily armored knights marched in. They weren't humans. They were Constructs of Order—Towering suits of white and gold armor, animated by souls of trapped warriors.
Their aura was heavy. Each one was a Peak Demigod.
Leading them was a man in blue robes, holding a staff topped with a miniature star.
Magistrate Vex.
"Aeon!" Vex shouted. "You are charged with heresy! You have been seen communing with an Unregistered Ascender! Surrender him, and your temple will be spared."
Vex looked at me. He sneered.
"And you... the Core Formation rat. You possess a Forbidden Artifact. Hand over the Ring."
I looked at the knights.
"Twenty Demigods," I noted. "And a Mage."
I turned to Seraphina.
"Honey, they want my ring."
Seraphina drew her dagger. Her smile was terrifying.
"They can have it," she purred. "Attached to your fist, down their throats."
I turned to Aeon.
"Saintess. You served a dead god for a thousand years. How about you serve a living one?"
Aeon's eyes narrowed. The sadness vanished, replaced by the cold steel of a fanatic.
She raised her hand. Time in the room seemed to slow down.
"I accept," Aeon said.
I faced Magistrate Vex.
"You want the Anomaly?"
I drew Antakala.
The black blade drank the light in the room.
"Come and get him."
The Brawl in the Temple.
"Kill them!" Vex ordered.
The twenty Knights charged. They moved with the speed of lightning, their heavy halberds swinging to decapitate us.
"Time Art: Deceleration Field."
Aeon slammed her palms together.
A grey ripple expanded from her.
The Knights hit the ripple and slowed down. They moved like they were underwater.
"Ria! Fire support!" I shouted.
Ria (The Machine Goddess) opened her briefcase.
It transformed into a Gatling Gun.
BRRRRRRT.
Bullets made of condensed light tore into the slow-moving knights. Sparks flew as the divine armor chipped.
"Valerian! Shield wall!"
Prince Valerian stepped forward, his robotic arm expanding into a massive energy barrier.
CLANG.
He blocked the halberd of the lead Knight. The impact drove his feet into the stone floor, but he held.
"I... am... holding!" Valerian grunted, sweat pouring down his face. "Rudra! Do something!"
"I'm on it," I said.
I engaged Time Skip.
I disappeared.
I appeared sitting on the shoulders of the lead Knight.
"Nice helmet," I whispered.
Gravity Seal: 1000x.
I touched his helmet.
CRUNCH.
The helmet imploded. The Knight crumpled like a soda can.
I jumped to the next one.
Slash.
Antakala cut through the divine steel like butter.
Magistrate Vex panicked. "What is this? He is too fast! His cultivation is low, but his combat power is illogical!"
Vex raised his staff. "Starfall!"
He summoned a meteor inside the room. A ball of burning plasma formed above us.
"Oh no you don't," Seraphina laughed.
She spread her wings.
"Abyssal Maw!"
A giant shadow-mouth appeared in the air and ate the meteor.
Seraphina burped. "Spicy."
It was a rout.
The combination of Aeon's time control, Ria's tech, Seraphina's magic, and my... unfairness... destroyed the squad in under a minute.
The floor was littered with scrap metal.
Magistrate Vex stood alone, shaking.
I walked up to him. I wiped knight-oil off my sword.
"You work for City Lord Polaris?" I asked.
"Y-Yes!" Vex stammered. "He is a True God! He will crush you!"
"Good," I smiled.
I grabbed Vex by his collar.
"Go back to your master. Tell him that the Sovereign is in town."
I leaned in close.
"Tell him I'm coming to dinner. And I expect him to be the main course."
I threw Vex out the broken door. He scrambled away, screaming.
I turned to my team.
Aeon was breathing heavily, drained from the time spell.
"The City Lord will come," she warned. "He is a Rank 8 True God. He controls the Law of Gravity. He can crush this entire city into a marble."
"Gravity?" I laughed.
I looked at the Ouroboros Ring.
My First Seal was the War God, master of physical force and gravity.
But my mastery was still limited. If I wanted to beat a God of Gravity... I needed to evolve the Seal.
"Perfect matchup," I said.
I looked at the shattered remains of the knights.
"Ria. Salvage the cores. We need to upgrade the Fortress."
"Affirmative."
I looked out the door, at the towering white spire in the center of the city where Lord Polaris lived.
"We have a date tonight," I said. "Let's make sure we dress to kill."