Advent of Eternity - Chapter 29 (Patreon)

With his opponent’s movements slowed for just an instant, Knell brought his blade down on the man’s arm. Path users tended to be resilient, and he didn’t know what sort of healing or defenses the man had, so a killing blow was too risky. However, a disarming one was much faster, as any magic that remained after the initial casting generally took concentration to upkeep.

The glowing sword clattered to the ground beside the captain’s severed hand. He cried out in pain, clutching the stump of his arm as time spun back to normal. The watery snakes holding Cyll and Stix collapsed and they launched to their feet, diving at the shocked pirates.

“Finish these fools off,” Cyll roared, hurling a man over the side of the ship and headlong into the other one. He hit it with a crack and fell into the water below.

“My hand!” the captain screamed, staring at Knell with undisguised hatred. Water bubbled behind him. Magical energy poured out from his mouth, enveloping his body in liquid armor. The air started to vibrate as an oppressive aura washed out from him, nearly forcing Knell to his knees. “You’ll pay for that.”

A pirate thrust his sword through Cyll’s stomach as he stared up at the pirate captain, but he didn’t even react. Stix tensed, preparing to charge the man. Knell’s foresight granted him a vision, and his blood went cold as he realized just how badly he had miscalculated. If Stix made it to the pirate, he’d decapitate her with a sweep of his hand.

Knell started to cast, but Stix was incredibly fast. His spell wouldn’t make it in time, and the other pirate knew it too. A wicked grin crossed the man’s face as he raised his hand, reaching for Stix’s neck.

Time didn’t slow down. No gods would arrive to intercede, and Cyll had no idea about what was to come. There was only Knell. And so, granted no help from the rest of the universe, he forged his own path. Something gave way, and a chill passed down Knell’s neck. Almost as if, somewhere, something had acknowledged him. The flowing script of the second System scrawled across his vision.

Mental Threshold reached. Epoch ability forcibly unlocked:

A Second, Infinite – Tomorrow falls yesterday. Tonight dawns tomorrow. Time is relative, but your existence is absolute.

The words vanished as quickly as they had appeared. At the same time, Knell staggered, clutching his chest with a gasping wheeze. Without a sound, the pirate captain’s armor shattered, turning into particles of water that harmlessly peppered the ship.

One of Stix’s daggers flew through the air and thunked into the stunned captain’s throat. He pitched back, his eyes wide, and flipped over the railing to tumble into the dark waters below.

Agony wracked Knell’s body as something shifted within him. His hair extended past his eyes and he groaned, flopping to the side just in time to avoid a sword through his back. The yellow light flickering in his eyes started to fade, but he kept a tenuous grasp over the magic and rolled to the side. A sword embedded itself in the deck, cutting through his shirt but just barely missing skin.

The gods have granted you experience for besting your foes.

You have defeated an entity more powerful than you. Experience Gained. Level has been adjusted accordingly. Your decree has been witnessed by the Great System. Seek the strong.

Cyll plowed into the man, snapping his neck and throwing him over the ship’s deck in a single motion. The rest of the pirates didn’t last much longer, and they were soon surrounded by corpses and blood.

“Did you get hit?” Cyll asked, dragging Knell upright and examining him.

“No,” Knell said through gritted teeth. “Just… get us moving. I don’t know what I did.”

Cyll gave him a sharp nod and jogged over to the sails, pulling them back into place and getting the ship moving once more. Stix rifled through the pockets of the fallen pirates, taking what she could before throwing them over the railing as well.

Knell flopped down against the front of the captain’s cabin and brought his status screen up, brushing his now elongated hair out of the way to read it.

Name: Knell Twist [Age: 10]

Path: Scion [Rank Zero]

Magical Energy Level: 11

Attunement A: Foresight of the Vulture

Attunement B: Empty

Attunement C: Empty

Attunement D: Empty

Attunement E: Empty

Bloodline: Eternal Body [Epic]– Time magic bends around you, modifying your lifespan and granting you resistance to spatial magics.

Path: Epoch

Magical Energy Level: 5

Abilities:

Mental Clock – Use time magic to keep time or set an alarm audible only to you.

Slow – Impede the movement of a single creature by warping the time around them for a brief instant.

[Locked] A Second, Infinite – Tomorrow falls yesterday. Tonight dawns tomorrow. Time is relative, but your existence is absolute.

He’d aged. Knell nearly missed the ten sitting where the zero should have been, but his eyes caught it right before he closed the windows.

“Sixteen Seas,” Knell muttered. The pain still hadn’t completely left his body. If their opponents had even been slightly more competent… Knell grimaced. The fight had been far closer than he’d expected. Stix had absolutely no idea how close she’d come to death.

“All good?” Stix asked.

“I miscalculated their strength,” Knell said. “I didn’t think their Path user would be that strong because they weren’t moving very quickly. I believed it would be unlikely that someone of any talent would be wasting time chasing us.”

“We still won,” Stix pointed out. “Our ship is undamaged and none of us are hurt. That’s a successful plan in my book. If we’d fired on them, that pirate might have used that magic earlier and we would have been sunk.”

“We only survived due to sheer dumb luck,” Knell replied. “I had no idea I could get rid of his magic, and I’m still not fully sure how I did it – nor am I eager to try it again.”

“I was going to ask you about that,” Stix admitted with a frown. “Is that why your hair’s so long?”

“It is. Speaking of, could you lend me a dagger? And Cyll, get the ship moving before anyone else catches up to us.”

Stix shrugged and passed him one of her blades. Knell gave himself a jagged haircut. It was far from the best, but at least he could see again. He handed the blade back to her. “Thanks.”

“So… what now?” Cyll asked, starting to set the sails. “If we want to get stronger, killing more of those blokes isn’t going to do much. They were pathetic aside from the Path user, and he really wasn’t all that hot either.”

“Knell did cut his hand off before he could really do much,” Stix said with a shrug. “We should be happy with what we got. It’s not like it was that close.”

Knell grunted.

“Are we still going to Silver ridge? What if Hau tells people?” Cyll asked, adjusting the sails to catch the wind.

“We are. Don’t worry about her.”

“You’re the Cap.”