Addendum: The Time that Never Was (Patreon)

Upon the infinite vastness of space and my inevitable death, I began recalling my pathetic life. Even in my last moments, I still only thought of revenge.

It started with my death and exile, the betrayer that promised me peace and freedom yet threw me away on another planet. My new life instantly began in a new land of fantasy and magic, yet my mind was only filled with hatred.

After everything I had worked for, after all the blood I had shed, he just disposed of me like a tool!

Life in this colorful world was slow, the inhabitants were like the aliens of movies with their cold-colored skin. I felt repulsed by the tall and thin creatures, though that was most of my burning hate talking at the time rather than outright xenophobia.

The individuals that I believed that were the parents of this body tried to interact with me multiple times, but I always cast them away. In those early years, my mind was occupied with a single thought, how to kill that man.

At some point, they began calling me Verin, but I couldn’t care less. I hated my feeble and infant body. I no longer felt my inherent ability, which should have been a blessing I would have been overjoyed with once upon a time, but my anger overwhelmed the happiness of freedom. I had obtained freedom but that meant throwing away my previous life, and I couldn’t accept that.

Years flew by.

The parents of this body tried to engage me in activities with other newborns, but they stopped after years of lack of cooperation on my part. I had no reason to interact with babbling aliens, I needed to train this lacking body.

I learned to walk and talk faster than any members of this race, and not much later I discovered they were called ‘ellari’. With a fully focused mind, I was able to read fluently at the age of five. It felt rather slow, I blamed it on the anatomy of this race, the brain seemed to take even longer to develop than humans, which were already horrendously slow compared to the rest of animals.

Once I was able to talk and read at the same level as adults, I referred to the father of this body for him to teach me something.

Magic.

I had seen it, it was everywhere, this world had magic. In a way, it wasn’t that different from my previous one. That lead the father to guide me to a magic store, with a woman I could only identify as a witch with that stupidly large hat of hers.

The witch rubbed a rod against my hand, and I felt a discharge as if someone had tasered me.

“Huh?” The witch took a step back. “No... it shouldn’t be possible.”

“Is something wrong Novella, is Verin null?” The father asked.

“Uh... quite the opposite, Tel’am.” Novela took a deep breath. “Your son has Time affinity, superb-true Time affinity.”

The normally stoic expression of the father of this body collapsed in disbelief. I didn’t understand their reactions, as I hadn’t been taught anything about how magic works.

“Can I hope you keep this a secret?” The woman nodded at the father’s words. “Is that all, or does he possess any other affinity?”

“Well, obviously the main focus would be time magic, but he has noticeable Arcane and Soul affinities, but they are only medium-high. For another person that would be incredible, but for Verin here it’s useless.”

I was quite literally a child back then, I didn’t comprehend what superb-true affinity entailed, but nonetheless, the father of this body began teaching me magic.

Apparently, Time affinity was considered legendary, both in its rarity and difficulty, and the earliest appearance of a Time spell was at the fifth star, whatever that was. So, the father taught me arcane magic instead, at least to allow me to grasp the basics.

The parents of this body became more and more reticent as my progress became clear. I was a newborn following the criteria of these elf-like creatures, yet I could talk, write, read, and even cast spells.

Magic was complex but also intuitive.

You could use images to materialize spells, but also mathematics. Approximations of calculations, much alike when dealing with infinitesimal values in physics or calculus. After I realized that, magic became far easier.

The father of this body explained that was because of my relatively high affinity to the Arcane, and that once I started with Time, it would be even simpler.

Progressing through the ranks of magic, which the ellari called the Starry Tier, was a sluggish and slow process. Even with my full concentration and the free time of a child, I was only able to reach the fourth star by the time I became ten years old. This proved to be a change in landscape as I was now pushed to go to school.

In the beginning, I thought it would push my understanding of magic further as the father of this body was not a full-fledged mage and his understanding was limited, but the truth was that school was even worse.

Most of the students hadn’t even begun casting unstructured magic, also referred to as spells of the first star. The content taught by the teachers was also basic, mind-numbingly so. We were ten years old, but they were just teaching us colors and numbers.

I quickly presented my disenchantment with the level of education, which prompted the parents and teachers to reevaluate my current position. After some days of tests, the lackluster education became itself clear. My only problem was with history and geography, which was obvious as I didn’t care about the subjects, so I didn’t bother myself learning about the world.

School lasted for fifteen years, and it normally ended with students becoming true mages as they reached the sixth star, but most didn’t reach that milestone.

As a four-star mage, the teachers positioned me in the tenth year, only five years before graduation.

I didn’t make any friends whatsoever in that period, nor I needed to. My only focus was to go back and kill that fucker. Everything else was secondary. ‘My parents’ were elated to see my rapid progress, but they distanced themselves from me, almost scared at my speed. I couldn’t care any less.

The only memorable moment of my school time was when the High Arcanist, the head of state of Ferilyn (which was the name of the country), cast a colossal spell that covered the whole island. Upon seeing that I shrugged and continued my stories. I was too occupied with a calamity in my world to worry about a dictator in another one.

When I was nearing the end of my second school year, I finally managed it: the fifth star. And the father of this body was right, thanks to my affinity, Time magic was pure instinct. Like my late power, it didn’t need any activation, it was almost a second thought.

From then on, everything sped up.

I soared through the tier as nothing, going one star per year until I reached the eighth star. By that point, it was already time to graduate.

Ellari had this tradition of the leap year, to rest before going to higher education or entering the workforce. I had none of it, I skipped tradition and went directly to the most prestigious college in the country, the Academy of Applied Magical Arts of Ferilyn. Hopefully, the teachers would be competent there.

I stood out like a sore thumb in the academy, everyone was (or almost was) an adult, and I was still trapped in the body of fifteen-year-old violet ellari.

Yet even if I was half the age of my ‘partners’ I was far beyond them. Most had just reached the sixth star, some barely that, whilst I was mid-eighth star. I had heard that mind mages had it easier on their studies thanks to their heightened mental capabilities, and I wasn’t that much different.

I was an adult in the body of a teenager, I had a superb-true affinity, and I could spellcast spells to slow the passage of time, but above all else, I had an unbreakable will.

By the end of the first year of the academy, everyone knew me. I was a prodigy, a genius, a candidate for the next High Arcanist. Reaching the next star took me a bit more time, yet it was infinitely faster than any ellari had done so before. At the beginning of my twenties, I was a nine-star mage.

I had managed to obtain a mentor, a random scholar of the Arcane Sanctum that had medium-high Time affinity. The man didn’t know much, his comprehension of the element was poorer than mine, but he compensated with the acquired wisdom of age. At two-centuries old, the man had ten times my age.

I didn’t care once about the relationship between master and apprentice, I just drained the man of his knowledge. Time magic is incredibly interesting, especially in the tenth star. My mentor could stop time for five seconds. He had more than enough mana to stall the passage of time for longer, but at that point, the bottleneck was the computational power required to maintain the spell, rather than the mana. Unlike other affinities, time magic mana cost was exponential, so the ‘casting’ school of conjuration was outright impossible. Computations were mandatory, therefore, you could only spellcast.

With the support of the meritocratic academy and my mentor, I made it to the tenth star at the age of twenty-five. It became clear to everyone that I had shattered, and would continue to shatter, all the preestablished records.

My repertoire of time magic was incredible, I could accelerate time, slow down time, speed up time, skip time, and now stop time.

The only thing left now on the list was rewind time, but no spells greater than the tenth star of Time had ever appeared on Ferilyn, I was now meant to make my own.

Thanks to my absurd affinity, I was able to stop time for much longer than my mentor, almost twenty-seven seconds.

I had the complete opposite problem to him, my bottleneck didn’t lay on my computational output, but on my mana reserves. Ellari mana pools increased with age and meditation, which took time, and I was young.

But I was a chronomancer. And that meant I had time to spare.

I practically lived in a bubble of sped-up time. With the combination of Haste, Accelerate, and Slow, my factor of time was increased by nine. For every second that passed, I had nine of my own.

And that was only passive.

Of course, things like exams became trivial, though they already were. I had more than nine times the time to take the exams than other students, but even if I wasn’t sure of the questions, I could just stop time and look at the answers of my classmates.

Everything was so easy…

…yet so useless.

Chronomancy wasn’t that useful to me. I wanted to go back to my previous life and kill that megalomaniac, unless I could go back in time multiple decades, space magic would be more appropriate for my cause.

But that was impossible. There weren’t telemancers that powerful in Ferilyn, and even then, I didn’t know the cosmic coordinates to go back to. I even doubted I was in the same universe as laws of physics and certain physical constants had been warped.

Without any alternative, I continued studying.

By my early thirties, I had already managed the eleventh star, and by now my name had spread all over the island. People were speculating when I would become the new High Arcanist, not if, but when.

Before I could even finish the academy and my paper to graduate, the Arcane Sanctum contacted me. I was now legally an adult, so that meant I could now join their ranks. The High Arcanist himself, En’yen Yagul gave the position of Minister of Education, after the previous one had just suddenly resigned a week prior. The whole Minister of Education was a charade as I was wholly underqualified.

The tactic was obvious, keep your allies close and your enemies closer.

Jokes on him, I didn’t care about the position of High Arcanist, though I did take the job as a minister because of the resources associated with the position. I only needed to reach the twelfth star to rewind time and go back to my previous life.

The spell I had fabricated for the eleventh star was kind of useless, I had called it Agelessness, because it made it so age no longer had an effect on me, therefore making me virtually immortal. But it wasn’t Rewind, so it was borderline useless. Just another spell on the pile of passive spells I had always active.

One or two years later after I became Minister of Education, the High Arcanist declared war on the outside world.

First, they were the draconids. The Houtz Imperium presented quite a powerful strike force with their dragonborn, but alas, Ferilyn had tens of eleven-star mages, and a single one of those could devastate a city.

Myself included.

In my search for the fabled Rewind, I had engineered a spell opposed to Agelessness. I called it Wither. It didn’t affect a single target, but a whole region. And instead of stopping the passage of time, it accelerated it. It only took a day for a city brimming with life to become littered with ancient corpses.

Anyways, it took the draconids quite a while, but they surrendered after the whole imperial family was dead alongside their dragonborn.

After them, the Elemental Council was next. We did have a share of internal struggle, genocides tend to do that, but En’yen’s overwhelming power and my lack of appreciation of alien life, ellari included, meant those protests were quickly silenced.

The High Arcanist understood it, I just wanted to investigate, so he gave me all the resources I needed whilst I went to a genocide or two every month. The both of us were a very powerful nuclear deterrent. Between nations, ellari, or even ourselves.

I didn’t participate in the battle against the four true elementals ruling over the Elemental Council, but I heard the damages were so far and wide that they created new continents and oceans.

They probably weren’t exaggerating.

Thirty ten-star mages and five eleven-star ones had died before Ferilyn took down the four True Elementals.

A ten-star mage could kill a city. An eleven-star mage could erase it. A legion of both was destined to restructure the landscape of the planet.

I just continued studying.

The elementals instantly capitulated once the council died, they didn’t bother fighting like the draconids. And once the two major powers of the world, the rest didn’t present a match. They either offered themselves as vassals or perished in a single day.

I truly didn’t oppose the High Arcanist, but once I discovered his true plan, I was forced to confront him.

En’yen Yagul, arcanist of the twelfth star and ruler of the world, had a single objective. To remake reality to his image.

I, of course, didn’t like this. This would mean I couldn’t return to my world. And he kind of remained me of that man.

Fun fact, for the ritual of ish’mat’era a Minister of the Arcane Sanctum could present himself as their own champion. I just coerced some random noble matriarch into assisting me, I just had to wither her children away.

“You are too late,” En’yen stated as a second-grade villain, “I have already ascended.”

And he was right. The man had accomplished part of his goal, having spellcasted a previously thought impossible thirteen-star spell called Arcane Record, and he became Record Incarnate.

“You are truly a moron if you don’t think I came prepared,” I added.

I had reached the twelve-star a long time ago, or more exactly yesterday. I had made two spells: Rewind and Perpetuity.

I was disappointed with Rewind. It was incapable of bringing me back to my world, I could only go back a few months back in time at most. This was useful because it prevented others from discovering I had reached the twelve-star, reality itself included.

Perpetuity, on the other hand, was far more... interesting. It allowed me to anchor a day in time, repeating itself ad infinitum. With this, I had cycled back in time bountiful iterations, enough to make titanic magic of my own.

“You are Record, but I am Inevitability,” I told him.

And reality collapsed.

The fabric of existence couldn’t hold two thirteen-star mages in a limited space like a single planet. And our battle was long. We had become staples of reality, incarnations of elements.

We wouldn’t die easily.

Record regenerated with computation and mana. And Inevitability was de facto immortal. If he killed me, I could just rewind back in time. I didn’t even need to rewind the whole timeline, just myself. This meant that before any one of us emptied our mana pool or died, reality collapsed.

It proved the doom of us.

The moment the planet no longer provided mana to him, En’yen just disappeared, too wounded to heal himself.

As for me... well...

Upon the infinite vastness of space and my inevitable death, I began recalling my pathetic life. Even in my last moments, I still only thought of revenge.

The frontier between the planes disappeared, I was floating on the cosmos as I observed my collapsed soul. I didn’t even know how I was alive.

My spirit had the bronze and brass color of Time, but I could see the violet of Arcane and white of Soul tying themselves together trying to survive in some manner. Even if I was doomed, that seed was not.

Taking advantage of the null borders of reality, I threw the small, purified soul into the Afterlife, not before blocking its memories so it wouldn’t follow the same path as me. Thankfully, it will have a better life and be better than I ever was.

As for myself, I spellcasted my own spell that rewrote reality.

Thirteenth star spell: Genesis.

Do you wish to reset reality?

I laughed at the prompt. Even dead, the records of En’yen worked. He had truly fulfilled his wish.

What a shame I would undo everything he had fought for.

Time magic worked better in magnitudes of three, or rather, it just worked in magnitudes of three.

As the impossibly powerful spell activated, I was transported to an unbroken world. It wasn’t Earth, it was still the same world I was trapped in. With my heightened time sense, I could say I had gone some three centuries back in time, maybe just a few years after Elisandre Stargazer realigned the cosmos.

I laughed as I noticed there was a hidden continent on the other side of the planet. No one had noticed that. Not surprising as the age of exploration never graced this world.

The cohesion holding me together undid.

Everything turned black.

The concept of Verin Nightfall disappeared from The Existence.

Inevitability perished.