\\ DUSK\\ Fantasy AU \ ATEEZ Fanfic

// Chapter 41 \\

Chronos, the Court of Time. One of the eight ancient Courts from times long forgotten by the common. The other Courts had been desolated and voided into the unknown, forgotten by the present Courts. The only one that attained certain memory was Chronos, a dead Court hanging on it's hinges, but there was hope for the lifeless Court.

There were many stories told about Chronos and it's people. It was an empire built in the caves and skies just as it was built on common ground. Wherever a structure could be built, the people of the Court found a way, advancing architectural capabilities beyond mountain sides and simple castles on land. They'd risen entire villages into the air or plummeted the others deep underground and, yet, they still found a way to have a moat to take one from the skies to the ground and back. There were boats that could fly and serpent contraptions called trains. They had a horse made of gears called cycles and horses couldn't outrun them. There were millions of advances the Court had made and millions of stories told about it, but none were told as much as the Clock Tower.

It was a place of worship, that Clock Tower. The people of Chronos had made extensive documents of the history of the Court that hadn't been lost after its destruction, but this was an origin they didn't even know. It was said that the Clock Tower had been in the Court since its creation from nothing, but others believed it's mechanical workings were too similar to what they created and people of their Court before written history had made the structure. However, there was one feature about the Clock Tower that no one could explain, but they felt it.

The completeness of the all-knowing visions the Clock Tower bestowed on them was nothing the people of the Court could explain. They'd called the occurrence chronikalus in their ancient tongues, meaning 'the vision of creation.' Their minds would see things of the past, occurrences of the present, and forbidden looks into the future. The presence of the Clock Tower bestowed them this vision and the many visions that aided in their technological advances. That was how their people obtained their name, Chroniki. The name meant 'clock-work visions.' They took and relied so much on the Clock Tower's ability that they selfishly named themselves the ability the ancient structure had given them.

The Chroniki were praised with what they accomplished in their advances of society and magic and how they combined the two to work hand-in-hand. This praise brought much pride to the people of Chronos, and it made their hunger for the further prosperity to grow. They desired to advance more, to use the Clock Tower and it's knowledge to become creation, Kalus.

The Chroniki did indeed advance farther, becoming creation in the eyes of all the other Courts. Most of the subjects of Chronos were satisfied by this. Even their High Monarch became content with how far they'd risen. However, there were still some that desired to improve farther than what had already been achieved. These Chroniki still believed they hadn't risen to Kalus. That, no matter what they did, they would not reach the divinement of Kalus. There was only one source they believed could give them that divinity: the Clock Tower.

It was forbidden to trifle with the workings of the ancient structure. It had bared the fruit to all the prosperity Chronos had been given, and considered holy to all the Chroniki. But if this structure had given them what other Courts called Kalus, then surely what was within the Clock Tower had to be pure creation, pure manipulation of the fabrics and strings that formed their worlds. It was uncertain if the Clock Tower would truly have this, and some of the Chroniki that seeked Kalus did fear trifling with it. However, the leader of the band of rebels believed it would give them Kalus. Kalus and more. The leader hungered for Kalus foolishly, but that same hunger had the trait of convincing that made those other Chroniki follow in the forbidden task.