"..."
My mind swirled with hundreds of thoughts as I tried to make sense of the event.
Did the glowing sphere change its direction and path just because I killed that man?
Does that mean something?
'No, the same thing happened with that girl as well,'
I mentally noted as I remembered how the sphere of that girl also changed.
I silently floated in place, lost in thought.
And the more I thought about it, the more I felt sure.
That somehow, I am changing those people's fate by interfering with their lives.
"..."
My mind turned numb as I understood what this place could be.
A place filled with Star Energy.
A place where I can change people's fate.
A place that can help me travel in space and time.
'Where did that woman send me to?'
I groaned, feeling frustration creeping within my mind.
I don't even know who that fucking woman is.
From the way she was talking, it was clear she knew me.
....Not the current 'me' but past or future 'me'.
But...
'Why am I here?'
I couldn't help but wonder as I gazed around.
Didn't Edda say I have another half a year before my body fully adapts to my space-time affinity?
Then how could I travel between time?
Did she lie to me?
I sighed as I threw all those thoughts to the back of my head.
For now, I need to find a way to get the hell out of this place.
And I need to think hard about it because I have no idea how to do it.
....Still, even though this is scary, I couldn't help but feel genuinely interested in the place.
It's not like anything that I have experienced in my life.
'But I still prefer my time with Nadya over being lonely here.'
With no lead to move, I started to navigate through the viscous liquid.
It was different than swimming in water as I barely had much control over myself.
And as I moved, my eyes wandered around.
Just like an ocean, the place stretched to an infinite length.
Wherever my head moved, I couldn't see a single thing that resembled an end.
The silverish glowing spheres caught my attention as I failed to find any exit.
They all moved oddly with no connection to each other whatsoever.
It felt like random people living their lives with no point where they meet each other.
'Hm?'
Something bright shining in the vast place caught my eye.
Curious, I drifted forward until I was close to a huge, bright sphere in front of me.
It was bigger than any I saw before, at least twenty times the size of the one that was the great general or something.
Another notable thing was this sphere was slow.
It was moving at a snail's pace compared to others.
'Hm, does he have a greater impact on the world than the rest of the people?' I wondered as I rubbed my chin.
Perhaps someone who was a king or something entirely different than a human?
It could be possible that it's an elf who inherently has a bigger lifespan.
'Only one way to find out,' I thought silently as I extended my hand towards the sphere, gently touching it.
I froze. The world around me twisted once again.
I felt like my body was falling down with me having no control over it.
The space stretched, twisted, elongated before my vision cleared out.
"Ahhhh!!"
Once again, a loud voice dampened my thoughts.
I hastily looked around only to find myself standing at the edge of a cliff with tremendous energy shaking the place.
I steadied myself as I glanced down from the cliff.
A huge golden creature came into my view.
With wings bigger than a house and a body adorned with golden scales filled with burn marks and deep cuts.
.....It was a golden dragon at his last breath.
With all four legs, the creature tried its best to keep itself standing as it glared at the debris hurled in front of him.
"Why are you doing this, mortal!?"
The dragon's mouth remained shut, but its voice boomed around the place.
The voice felt so majestic and powerful that it almost made me kneel down.
"WHY ARE YOU KILLING ALL OF US WITHOUT ANY REASON!?"
His voice, filled with frustration and fear, echoed once again.
The debris halted in place before it vanished from existence.
A masked man with long white hair tied behind his back came into my view.
A black flame conjured in his hand while a broadsword in another.
He slowly walked towards the dragon, his cold, uninterested voice echoed. "I warned you not to side with Zeus, Fitzgerald."
The blackish flames in his hand turned into a chain which looped around the dragon in a split second.
"Whatever is happening to you and your clan is solely because of your own mistake," he coldly whispered while the chain brought the dragon's head close to the man's feet.
"I did not do that on my own accord," the dragon said, his voice not as majestic as before. "Zeus forced us to—"
"It doesn't matter," the man cut in. "The moment you sided with that fucker, you signed your death."
But just as he was about to swing his broadsword to cut off the dragon's head, the man halted midway.
The dragon struggled to break free, but the chain refused to budge.
His gaze moved to the sky in front, and I followed his gaze.
A pack of dragons was flying towards him.
"We are prisoners of time," the man whispered, but his voice felt clear to me. "Stuck in the present... moving from inaccessible past and unknown future."
His head moved to his side, gazing at me.
And just as his blue eyes met mine...
The world twisted.
I blinked.
Finding myself back in the vast ocean-like space.
"..."
Dumbfounded, all I could do was look at the huge sphere.
The man's words kept on ringing in my head.
The glowing sphere vanished after moving just a little.
'...So, the dragon still died even after the reinforcement?' I thought, unable to comprehend how powerful that man was.
But one thing was sure.
Those words were meant for me.
'Prisoner of time, huh?' I quipped, trying to understand his words.
Did I get myself into something crazy?
Something that I shouldn't be part of?
I stopped my negative thoughts from consuming me as I drew in a deep breath.
There is no point in thinking about it now.
My priority is to escape this damn place.
With that thought, I shifted my focus away from the sphere.
With no choice, I gazed up before moving my body towards the surface.
Time felt like eternity as I tried to escape the place.
The glowing spheres kept on coming in my path, but I chose to ignore all of them.
And just when I thought it was useless to move, I felt a familiar energy.
I looked up, finding a golden portal.
Star Energy was oozing out of it, pressing against the edges of the portal, keeping it open.
I moved faster, and relief washed over me as I entered.
The portal was gone the next instant, swallowing itself the moment I passed through it.
The Star Energy flickered and faded, and I felt like sleeping for a while.
But the illusion of safety that I had created broke in an instant as I gazed around the place.
.....I was still in the ocean.
But this time, instead of a glowing sphere, I found myself surrounded by millions of silverish threads.
They moved up and down, left and right.
Intervening with each other in loops and knots.
They stretched in all directions.
....Infinite and endless.
I blinked.
Those millions of threads turned into billions.
'Where the fuck am I?'
My mind started to break down as I couldn't even make sense of the things that were happening to me.
I floated there.
Frozen in place for a long time.
I felt too tired to even move as I just kept on staring at the threads.
Distress and negative thoughts once again started to creep their way into my mind.
And just to not be swamped by them, I started to move along the line of the threads.
Slowly, I observed them, glowing gently at a specific interval.
And the places where they intersected were the ones that had a brighter glow.
Curiosity made me extend my hand to touch one intersection.
I blinked.
The space and time around me twisted, stretched.
And the next instant, I found myself in a different place.
At the top of a huge tree.
"Hehehe."
A soft giggling of a child made me look down.
A girl with light grey hair at the back of a house was playing on the field, trying to catch a butterfly.
"Emily?" I mumbled out loud as I noticed the clear resemblance.
But my gaze trembled as I shifted my focus toward the side.
....A masked man was sitting on a chair with a woman sitting on his lap.
....I recognized that woman.
Emily's mother.
...Sofia.