"I like him, father; let's go," Hydie said as she danced out of the room past Windorf, who was still looking at me.
I centered myself, and stood up straight, and walked forward. I prepared myself for what was about to come as I approached Windorf with my eyes locked with his. ??
<Make it count; it will be a long time before you get another chance to talk to Time.>
Hero's voice was the last thing that I heard before I was back in that place as I pressed my hand to Windorf's chest. Nothing had changed, and then Time asked me one more question, but then it became something completely different.
"Do you think that your Soul is worth its weight? I asked this not as Time, but as the man that you questioned. You asked me this very same question before we agreed to this, and I am still unsure how to answer it. I know why you choose to do this, but I don't understand the question. You don't know what I am talking about, and I might have overstepped myself, but it is as Hero said, we will not speak again for some time," Time explained to me, leaving me to dig into my mind as fast as I could.
Both my Fire Pact and Water Sphinx were still active, but I couldn't remember things that weren't there. Whatever Time was talking about, there were no traces of it in my mind, so instead, I shifted myself to the question.
Do you think that your Soul is worth its weight? That was a philosophical question that was asking if you thought your Soul was worth what everyone else assumed it to be.
"Are your intentions as good as your goals? Are you worth the pedestal you have been built upon? Am I? I can answer that question, but you're the one with the name Time. Only Time will tell me, right?" I asked, and Windorfs body blinked at me in surprise.
"You gave me this name! Right before you said goodbye! Are you telling me that I had waited all this time… You are impossible, but a cleaver soul! Whatever happens from this point forward, you are on your own, but I will be leaving you with a present. Try to stay alive, and know that I still think that this is pointless. Whether you come out on top, the real fight happens at the place where Worlds Collide. You told me you have a plan this time, so I have to trust you because this is your Soul," Time explained to me, and it felt like he was about to leave, so I started to talk fast, and then the feeling of departure left.
"Wait, I need more, like yours and my name. Don't give me that made-up Egyptian shit; I want our real names. Who were we?" I asked in a rush.
"Mark and your name is… nope, can even mouth it. That was probably your doing and will more than likely trigger something if you hear it used in the context of your name. We are Humans that made it, but you denied it. Why? Because you are a meathead that only cares about fighting!" Mark told me, shaking Windorfs head, and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, I am sure that was it; I just decided to do all this for a good fight," I said, and Mark narrowed his eyes at me.
"Fine, you want to end it all, win the tournament, and then we will rule it all! Or, as you like to say, it breaks the never-ending cycle that will allow the Multiverse to unfold. Easy you said; it's going to be simple; No way I can lose! What you didn't say is that it would take you twelve thousand years to appear on the FIFTH cycle!" Mark raved, but I shook my head.
"That was obviously something that I had no control over, and you seem pretty comfy. Plus, according to you, if I wouldn't have done this, you and I would be doing the same thing right now, right? Watching for other schmucks with the stats to do the job that we were MEANT TO DO!??"
I shouted the last part, and suddenly I was standing in a room that was filled with gateways made from stone in a circular room. I was in a different body, a well-built frame; I was in my forties, and Mark stood before me as we had this exact argument.
This was the place where the Worlds Collided, and I had just refused my place as a god thing like Mark. Because they offered me a place as a God, but I had declined. Then, even though I had refused it, they would not allow me to compete for a chance to take The Center of Everything.
"Why do you think you can change this? You had completed the journey like we talked about when we first started, and we both got our places! Now what? I have to watch out for you while you go out and try to change another world?" Mark raged at me, but I wanted to punch him in the face.
"You know that this will never end, and you are just giving into Zero. You are letting the Demons win, and that is not how balance works! They refuse to power, and now the Demons are filling up the Multiverse. Only I can cap them by going back in," I said, but then Mark grabbed me by the shirt and shook me; he knew what I was about to do.
"Are you mad! Everything, you would lock it all away for this? You will never make it without knowing why you are doing it, and I won't be able to tell you!" Mark raged, but I pushed him off me and walked over to the portal to the world called Earth.
"None of it matters, not me or these memories. Soon, you will only be watching the Demons on the worlds, but I won't let that happen. Do you think that your Soul is worth its weight? I will call you Time from now on Mark because you know the answer to that question. I will save this, but I promise you that my Soul will not Change, even after the memories are stripped clean. I will be back to take my place in the tournament," I said, and then I was standing in the tunnel with Windorf and Hydie.
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