An hour into him being transported into the cylindrical space, Max's mad laughter could be heard echoing throughout his surroundings as he realised a peculiarity of the space that he was currently in.
Max found himself entrapped in what appeared to be a spatial-temporal loop.
A space with a never ending cycle of resets.
A lone rock, dislodged by his attempt to move, rolled down a slope, disappearing only to reappear in the same spot, stuck in an eternal cycle.
The rock's journey echoed Max's own predicament - a seemingly endless repetition of the same events. It dawned on him that he was up against more than just erratic gravity; he was dealing with spatial distortion.
"THE FUCK IS THIS PLACE" Max shouted in frustration as he let loose his powers and tried to make his way out of the cylinder through pure annihilation.
He let out one inferno spell after another as he saw the rocks melt before his eyes only to reform a second later and make it appear as if the spot had never been attacked.
This process repeated over several hours as Max tried every attack in his arsenal to try and forcefully break out, until he was completely drained and forced to take a seat and start thinking.
From that day forward, Max adopted the attitude of a mad scientist and started to just observe his surroundings with extreme scrutiny.
The strange lighting of the realm was a source of constant confusion, casting an unnatural glow without any discernible source. Over time, Max noticed an almost imperceptible fluctuation in the lighting - a rhythm that danced between brightness and dimness. It was this rhythm that seemed to dictate the chaotic semblance of time in this plane.
Max spent days observing the mysterious realm. It seemed to him that the gravity changes and spatial distortions were tied to these light variations.
He dedicated himself to understanding the rhythm of the plane. Every cycle, he documented the changes in gravity, the spatial distortions. Despite the numerous trials and countless failures, Max found a grim determination growing within him.
There was a pattern, and Max was close to deciphering it. Every failure, every tumble was a lesson, a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that was this plane. Each passing 'day', he felt his understanding of the plane deepen.
After countless days, he and the rolling rock had become but the best of friends, as he spent a majority of his day rolling it downwards at various angles.
Its circular journey was his; the confusion, the frustration, the endless repetitions mirrored his own experiences.
Then, one 'day', while he was observing the rock in its loop, something strange happened. The rock, once a constant reminder of his unending imprisonment, suddenly stuttered in its cycle.
Max stared, transfixed. He watched the stone roll down the slope, disappearing as usual, but then, instead of reappearing at the top, it appeared halfway down the slope. The rock continued its journey downwards, defying the usual cycle, and came to a stop at the base of the slope.
Max was taken aback. Had the loop been broken?
"No, not broken...," he mumbled, a sudden epiphany dawning upon him. "Altered."
He realised that the stone's trajectory had changed when the light of the plane was at its dimmest. It was the light! The undulating light was not merely a source of illumination but a rhythmic master, conducting the symphony of space-time distortions.
As he realised this, Max felt a profound change within him. The walls of his mental prison started to crumble as he observed the stone, free of its cycle, resting peacefully at the bottom of the slope.
He was not trapped; he was simply ensnared in a rhythmic dance of light, gravity, and time. The key to unlocking his situation was not to resist but to understand and harmonise with the rhythm.
"Time isn't linear here," Max realised, his heart pounding with excitement. "It is rhythmic, cyclical. And I... I can learn its dance."
The realisation felt like a rebirth, a shedding of old skin. Max, the helpless captive of the chaos realm, was gone. In his place stood Max, the rhythmic dancer, ready to sway with the ebb and flow of the plane's erratic melody.
He began to observe the rhythms more closely, adjusting his actions according to the plane's undulating brightness. He allowed himself to be carried by the currents of time, moving when it was dimmest, pausing when it was at its brightest.
" What is time? " Max began to wonder as he completely removed his focus on the other elements of gravity and space and began to only think about time.
A great scientist on earth had told that time was relative, however, his experience in the universe told him that time was linear, yet his experience in this chamber taught him that time was cyclical.
When he put all these experiences he had into context, he realised that time was a force just like water was a force and wind was a force.
Water could flow down a pipe, it could be made to flow up a pipe, it could be made to move in circles, or even square if one wanted to and so could time.
It was just that while mana could help one manipulate water, air, fire, earth, to manipulate a force like time one needed to control Divine essence!
It needed a shitton of divine essence to manipulate even the smallest amount of time, but it was possible.
The flow of time could be slowed
The flow of time could be speed up
It could be used to create time chambers where the flow inside varied from outside
And it could also be used to make loops like these.
However, if there was one object that could defy even time, it was light!
Particles travelling at the speed of light were unaffected by loops of light which was the reason behind why Max could still observe the fluctuations in daylight in the temporal loop.
As Max figured out all this, a rune inside the temporal chamber began to glow with a soft golden hue-
Max did not understand the concept behind why the rune was triggered but when he touched it the loop was broken and he found himself back near the landing site beside his ship again.
As Max looked into the ship towards the clock, he saw that only a few seconds had passed since he last saw the time, however, time had begun ticking at a constant pace in the ship now as a second was changing with every passing second.
Max's eyes widened in disbelief, it felt like the time flow around him had somehow become linear once more.
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/// A/N - Chapter 7/10, enjoy ///
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