"The cursed king of time… it seems that some versions of me made some mess, huh," Aion furrowed his eyebrows.
"You don't seem surprised," Arlana said, and then her smile disappeared. "I read a lot of things about you, but once I found those pieces of information, I couldn't help but doubt them."
"Well, I know myself better than anyone, and I can tell that I would become messed up if something were to happen," Aion said and then sat down on the ground. "Anyway, I came to talk about other things, not about possibilities… What do you know about me?"
"Well, you have been the focus of my family since you met Sauros and Seris, but even so, we never found everything about you," Arlana explained. "Like why you have some abilities. Or why you can buy the relics so freely. In theory, only we are supposed to be able to do it."
Aion wondered why that was the case… he had some hypotheses. Still, he needed to hear more from Arlana before deciding anything.
"Do you know what I saw after I used the relics for the first time to head into the future?" Aion asked.
"No, you probably didn't tell anyone about it," Arlana replied. "What I can tell is what happened in the recent years that are related to you."
"I am listening…" Aion furrowed his eyebrows.
"After you started to use the relics, some changes began to happen in the world, the Zaera kingdom was attacked more often, and you tried to deal with the cause by yourself," Arlana explained after she crossed her arms. "This timeline is the one where you lost your sisters, so you didn't show any mercy toward the enemies… Eventually, the whole world began to fear and hate you. They tried to fight you, but it didn't work… until they got help from outside."
"Other timelines, huh…" Aion muttered.
"Indeed… you tried to use the relics to deal with that, but you used them too much," Arlana said. "Thanks to that, some enemies coming from the beyond came for your head."
"The beyond… what is that?" Aion frowned.
"I don't know. I just know that they came for you, and they left the world like this," Arlana replied. "I was hoping that you would find the answers since I heard that they said your name and Malon a lot. What is your connection with him?"
Aion thought that the only connection was the relics and the fact that he and grandma shrimp were friends, but after hearing that, he couldn't help but wonder. Malon left the world to prevent others from using time magic… So were those beings from beyond creatures from other worlds? Why would they come for him and Malon? Did Malon become their enemies, and now they want Aion, who had the relics? That couldn't be the only reason.
Aion assumed that perhaps… he had been reincarnated because of Malon somehow. He couldn't help but assume that was the case because the samurai class leveled up once he saw that guy's memories… aside from Grandma shrimp, who else would be able to grant him those powers?
Most likely, Malon was overpowered eventually after thousands of years, and he predicted that his enemies would target his home world… and he chose someone to take his place. It was a bit unreasonable to expect that Aion would become that strong in a matter of decades, but perhaps he had more time if he didn't use the relics that much.
"It seems that you don't know for certain, but you have some ideas…" Arlana said while studying Aion's face. "I also understand that they came since you overused the relics, so the problem is to pamper too much with time magic."
"You are awfully calm about this…" Aion furrowed his eyebrows. "Most people would think that the world ended up like this because of me."
"I had some thoughts about that, but once I heard those things spreading their voices throughout the whole world saying things like alien spirit and chosen from beyond the stars, I concluded that something like this was bound to happen," Arlana explained. "In the other timelines, I didn't find anyone aside from you, even though I also found some research about magic that transfers souls to the future or past. In one way or the other, this was bound to happen once people started to mess with time magic."
Although she looked insane at first, now Arlana looked pretty level-headed. If what she said was true, she liked that because she had been alone for many years, and while he wasn't the cause of that yet, he felt a bit guilty for it. Still, he had other things to consider for now.
"You contacted me using a very suspicious method… What is your goal here?" Aion asked while furrowing his eyebrows.
"I already lost everything, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about anything else," Arlana replied. "This is the true end of the world. This is the first timeline where the world ends up like this, though. That being said, there are other versions of me in other timelines, and the people that I cared about are still alive in those as well. In some of them, they aren't even born yet, so there is a chance that I can help them by being born in a better place than this hell hole. To achieve that goal, I want to help you. This is all the knowledge that I have accumulated over many timelines, and while I am not as powerful as Malon, my blood still holds some power to control time to some extent. I want you to use that blood to make other relics that will help in combat. That should give you some more chances of winning against the real enemies."
"... When was the time that this world was attacked in this timeline?" Aion asked.
"It was fifty years ago, but knowing that won't help you in any way because the enemies are creatures that can freely move between the timelines," Arlana shook her head. " My guess is that they entered into contact with other versions of themselves and absorbed them to become even more powerful. For them, time isn't a barrier… time is just another path that they can move freely."
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