Uriel frowned and clicked his tongue. Before him stood an enormous army of nightmare creatures led by a great tyrant.
Its appearance was humanoid—a mix of siren woman, but instead of a traditional fish tail, it bore long tentacles. Around it were thousands of corrupted abominations and dozens of great abominations.
On the other side, Uriel looked at his own army. The Supreme Tyrant fought against the great tyrant's will, blocking each other mutually, while both armies clashed and collided.
Transforming into a sea of pure darkness, he launched himself toward the enormous army, feeding on a constant torrent of soul essence. He used his will, imbuing it with death, which he used to kill the corrupted abominations with terrifying ease.
Cutting a path through the endless sea of corrupted abominations in his transcendent form, he crashed against the great abominations, generating enormous columns of water that rose hundreds of meters into the sky.
The water rippled, growing wilder. Clouds began to materialize, bringing with them a great amount of wind. The previously calm water had turned furious before the power of the Supreme Tyrant—capable of altering the very climate into a tearing storm, using the waters as his armor and sword.
The great tyrant roared, launching itself at the Supreme Tyrant, generating a cataclysmic shockwave that destroyed nightmare creatures left and right.
While all this happened beneath the water, above it, an enormous two-hundred-meter dragon was fighting against a massive jellyfish nearly a kilometer tall.
The titanic medusa launched its limbs to bring down the dragon, which avoided every attempt to be caught while simultaneously unleashing a torrent of golden flames that burned the jellyfish.
Higher up, an enormous snowstorm had manifested, freezing the world.
The Winter Beast was holding a fierce battle against a swarm of great flying beasts.
Tens of kilometers away, a titanic ship moved at great speed, pursued by a great demon that was an enormous mass of seaweed and corrupted flesh with a single visible yellow eye.
From the titanic ship, a small figure launched itself into the water, transforming into an enormous sea serpent that crashed against the great creature while the ship quickly retreated, taking advantage of the clash to create distance.
---
A few hours later, the titanic corpse of a woman with octopus features floated lifelessly, split in half. One of her arms was missing, as were her eyes. In her chest was an enormous hole several tens of meters wide. Around her, thousands of corpses sank slowly.
In the sky, the corpse of an enormous jellyfish descended, falling heavily onto the water's surface, raising a column hundreds of meters high. Higher up, multiple hundred-meter abominations descended, frozen to death.
Elsewhere, several tens of kilometers away, an enormous mass of seaweed floated lifelessly, full of tears. Its single eye was perforated, releasing blood from within.
Uriel emerged from the water, coughing deeply before emptying the contents of his stomach.
"Argh. Damn it, that was disgusting. Mental note: 'Never eat them alive or you'll get indigestion.' Well, at least that annoying thing is dead," he said as he stood atop the Supreme Tyrant's head, which was injured—though its wounds, while serious, were not fatal.
Looking toward the sky, he saw his Dark Titan, which had emerged victorious, though not without serious injuries.
Dismissing it, he sent it back to his sea of souls along with his dragon.
Although it was a shame to lose thousands of transcendent fragments, he had no time. He needed to recover Shade and return to the ship before another abomination attacked them.
Several weeks had passed since they had survived the time storm, arriving further downstream than anticipated, where terrifying battles had begun to unfold ceaselessly, one after another.
---
Seated atop his dark creature's head, the Supreme Tyrant moved with terrifying speed, reducing distances of kilometers in moments.
In less than a minute, he observed a great floating corpse on the waters of the Great River, and atop it, a figure that, upon seeing him, flew across through two black wings and landed beside him.
"How was everything before we split up?"
"Stable for the moment. The healers were tending to the wounded while Cronos was at the helm, trying to get us away as fast as possible," said Shade, abandoning his dark form, recovering his normal shape, and then transforming into a black mist that entered inside him.
"Hey, I've been thinking about something," Shade commented within Uriel's mind.
"And what would that be?"
"Well, it's about why a cow is aerodynamic."
Uriel rolled his eyes.
"Do you really think about that?"
"Of course! Just imagine arriving on a flying cow, dressed in a red cape, anywhere."
Uriel imagined it, letting out a slight laugh.
The conversation continued for a while until they finally reached the Time Killer.
Uriel jumped, creating two black crow wings. After flying a few meters, he descended, landing on the deck of the enormous ship, observing how several were bandaged and covered in multiple wounds—though none were fatal.
Walking across the deck, he arrived at the helm.
"Lord Uriel, what happened with the great tyrant?"
"He's dead—he won't bother us anymore," he said in a casual tone.
"Where's Cronos?"
"The captain is in his quarters. He said no one should disturb him for a few days."
Uriel nodded.
Disappearing into the darkness of the deck, he remained within the shadows while also delving into his sea of souls.
Once inside the familiar darkness, he walked a bit until finally stopping and summoning his new memory.
Memory: [Trident of the Seas]
Memory Rank: Supreme
Memory Level: V
Memory Type: Weapon
Description: [Legends of ancient shipwrecks told stories of a legendary weapon wielded by the Tyrant of the Seas. A weapon capable of bending the ocean under its power.]
Enchantments: [Greater Water Dominion] [Current Control] [Tyrant]
[Greater Water Dominion] Description: [This trident can manipulate great masses of water with high mastery.]
[Current Control] Description: [The currents obey your will.]
[Tyrant] Description: [A ruler governs over everything and everyone, including the seas themselves.]
Uriel summoned the trident. It was long—longer than his own body. Its staff was long and cold to the touch, navy blue with touches of jade embedded in the handle.
Dismissing the memory, Uriel summoned another memory, this one of transcendent rank. Summoning his wolf, he began feeding it multiple transcendent memories that were useless to him.
Leaving his sea of souls, he noticed how the seven suns had set, bringing night to Ariel's Tomb.
---
A few hours passed, during which the ship continued sailing toward the territory of Daeron, the Serpent King.
Hearing something, he turned his head to see Cronos, who had a strange aura around him. Upon sensing Cronos's essence, Uriel quickly discovered that he had become an Ascended.
"Congratulations on becoming a Master, Cronos."
"Ah, thanks, boss. Though it's not the first time—I have experience with this ascension thing," he said in a carefree tone.
"And what does your Ascended ability do?"
"Well, it's a bit complicated to explain, but it allows me to mark an area. I can accelerate it, slow it down, or stop it."
"Did you say stop time?" asked Shade, who emerged from the darkness of the deck.
"Yes."
"Damn, many would kill for that ability, Cronos. Let's trade Aspects."
"That's impossible, Master Shade."
"Oh."
"Hey, don't mind him—that guy only has two things on his mind: black-haired girls and fighting."
"Look who's talking, you single bastard."
"I'm single because I want to be," Uriel defended himself.
Cronos, watching the interaction between them, shook his head with a smile.
"By the way, masters, I need your help with something."
Uriel and Shade looked at each other for a moment before looking at Cronos.
Following the handsome young man to the lower prow of the ship, Uriel observed thousands of small runes deeply engraved into the ancient ship's wood. Each rune glowed with a faint golden light.
At the center were seven wooden pillars, and on each pillar was a supreme soul fragment that fed the ship with essence.
In the center of the seven pillars was a circle of runes.
"That circle is the enchantment we made. It allows those linked to it to be immune to time as long as they are within the ship or at a certain distance. If they leave that range, time will affect them, turning them to dust."
Uriel approached the runic circle, reading several runes.
"I see. It's surprisingly complex for sorcery of this level. If I had to guess, you want to recreate this enchantment on a portable object, correct?"
"As expected of my master—truly a sage," said Cronos.
"From what I've just glimpsed, when we arrive at the serpent's city, there will be great chaos. We won't always be able to stay on the ship, as it would be dangerous because of the abominations infesting the waters," Cronos explained.
"Hmm... Shade, what do you think?"
Shade approached, looking at the runes with a thoughtful expression.
"We can do it. However, sorcery of this level will take time, and we'll need many soul fragments."
"We have tens of thousands of transcendent fragments and several dozen supreme fragments, so that won't be a problem."
"Good. Cronos, how long will it take to reach Twilight?"
"Exactly one month."
"Good, time is on our side. I need Ananke to create the necklaces, and we'll add the rest."
Cronos nodded. Returning to the deck, several minutes of waiting passed until he came back with Ananke, who looked somewhat sleepy from having been asleep.
"Do you need something, my lord?"
"Yes. Sorry to ask this, but we need your help a bit."
"No problem—how can I be useful?"
"Can you create simple necklaces?"
"Necklaces? I can make them. Why?"
"We're going to use them to create a magical spell," said Uriel, reaching his hand into one of the deep shadows and extracting several transcendent soul fragments.
Although Ananke didn't understand what her lord Uriel was planning, she didn't ask further questions. She began weaving threads of silver essence like silk, which came together. In less than a minute, she had created a simple necklace—a piece of black cord with small decorations.
Shade looked at the necklace and nodded. Grabbing a soul fragment, he created four other arms made of darkness, forming ultra-thin, resistant dark light threads, connecting one cord to the fragment and then to the necklace.
Ananke and Cronos watched attentively as Shade's arms moved at high speed, becoming a black blur for a few seconds until finishing.
"It's done," said Shade.
"I managed to replicate the enchantment onto this necklace. In theory, it should be possible to remain isolated from the effects of time, linked to an external time reference." Shade looked at the confusion on Ananke and Cronos's faces.
"In summary, this necklace makes whoever wears it experience time in the environment they're in, without being tied to a single point in time."
"Oh," said Ananke.
"And what is it called?" asked Ananke.
"Necklace of Time."
"What a simple name," commented Cronos.
"It's my creation—I decide what it's called. Now, back to work. We still have about 850 more to make."