Like Father, Like Daughter

Chapter 29 : Only Time Will Tell

Chapter 29 : Only Time Will Tell

Marco wasn't sure what to think of things when the Magical High Commission asked for his and Seraph's help. He was flattered that they would come for him for help. They told him that because of Hekapoo's punishment, she couldn't help, and he was happy to step in.

He agreed. It was supposed to be reasonably safe.

As Marco dodged what seemed to be a giant clockwork cockroach, he wondered if they had the same definition of "safe." Marco slashed at it with his sword, and it jumped back and crawled away. Seraph shot flames at another one of these mechanical bugs, its metal skin turning red-hot and shook as it scuttled away.

"Let's keep going before more show up," Marco waved over Seraph, and they continued to walk up the tower steps.

Marco checked to make sure that the pocket watches Omni gave them were still good; they each had one around their neck. As he looked at the clock, Marco felt he should have asked more questions when he had the chance.

The Commission told them that centuries ago, a Chronomancer did a dangerous spell to allow him to control time and become immortal. It backfired, ripping him across the time winds, which meant he was pretty much erased from existence. Usually, that would be a problem solved, but not in this case. The spell kept going, and energy erupted outwards and twisted time all around this small world. There were no sentient beings on the planet, just animals and plants, so repairing it was not a high priority.

That and they couldn't fix it.

This unique state was bizarre. Without those watches from the Plains of Time, anyone who walked in without some weird time powers would get stuck in it and lost. Omni himself couldn't enter because he'd likely get torn apart by shear stress. Lekmet was too old to deal with these roaches, and no one trusted Rhombulous to handle it on his own.

Even then, things like roaches were something that wouldn't be easy to handle. Omni explained that they were creatures that often materialized when there were time anomalies and threats. Honestly, these were some of the smaller risks of this nature. The dimensional scissors sword and Seraph's flames had a layer of dimensional energies that could harm those bugs.

Usually, the Commission would just let this thing be, but in the last few days, they started to sense something that caused the area to unravel; the time magic was starting to get weird.

Marco looked out of the tower, the air looked sickly green, he couldn't see it from here, but the area of effect was growing. He could also see shimmering green gems in the sky; they were physical manifestations of the time magic. Omni thought that since magic was fritz-ing out, someone managed to slip past and grab some that started to destabilize the weird time zone. Left alone now, it would expand, affecting other worlds or possibly explode. So they needed to handle it soon. To make things worse, they couldn't portal in that weird time zone. They portaled outside it and trekked there, fighting those roaches whenever they showed up.

They made it to the room at the very top of the lab. Siting on what Marco was sure was a pedestal in the center of the room, now twisted with green energy, sat a bright clear crystal ball.

"That's the thing, right?" Seraph chirped.

"I think so."

"Uncle Omni said this was supposed to keep the spell under control."

"Yeah, he didn't explain it too well. He meant that it was supposed to scan the spell, do calculations, or focus his thoughts on controlling the spell better. Try to keep it in check. The problem was the chronomancer himself couldn't keep up the spell."