Author's Note: This is a short scene/story for my upcoming story "NU: River of Time"

A New Purpose

In the beginning, Time started to flow like water.

Soon it became a large cosmic river flowing towards one direction.

When there's Time, there are gods who manipulates the flow. Knowing the risk of manipulating time, the gods decided to guard it from the ones who dares defiles it. The ones who defiles it are the Time Travelers.

However, unbeknownst to anyone, because of the Time Travelers meddling the river of time, they unknowingly created a new and dark entity.

This dark entity sets its eyes on a mortal who just got back from the future and struck down the demon who sent him there in the first place. A samurai was named by many as Jack was saddened by the loss of his beloved. Long story short: he faced a demon Aku but he was sent to future where he met his beloved from the future. She helped him get back to the past. However, her father is the demon the samurai killed in the past and as a result, she ceased to exist. With that backstory, the dark entity found a perfect man for the job.

One day as the samurai walked towards a market of a small town posing as a traveler just like he did in the future, the dark entity suddenly approached him. The people in the market were frightened by its appearance. The samurai Jack did not flinch at its presence. He simply looks up to take a good look of the entity. It has large black muscular humanoid body. The strange feature is that the entity doesn't have a head. It just have a large floating eye. "Hello, samurai."

Jack can feel the same presence every time he met Aku. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I have no name. I just call myself as myself or me. You can just call me anything."

Jack then asked. "What do you want?"

The dark entity went straight to the point. "Right. So I heard you won your battle against that demon Aku."

"Yes. What is it to you? Is he your brother?"

"Oh, no! I'm not related to him. I was born outside Time."

Jack draws out his sword. He doesn't care where the entity came from. All the matters that its presence frightens the people of the town. "Say your last words before I-"

The entity then said. "I can bring your beloved Ashi back."

The samurai hesitated. He wondered, Is this entity a god of time? Why is he helping me? What is he planning? Jack asked the entity, "How are you going to bring her back when her father Aku is dead? Are you going to revive him?"

The entity explained, "Time is like a big river flowing towards one direction. Once it created the future, it is already there. However, when there are time travelers... like you, who changed the past to alter the future, I have some good fact for you. The future doesn't just disappear. What you just did, Jack, was severed it from the river of Time creating an uncertain future. It is good. But you might be wondering what happened the other half that you severed: the future. Well, it became a part of ME." The dark entity showed Jack thousands of alternate futures, moments and big events that were erased by hundreds of time travelers throughout existence. In one of those futures, Jack saw Ashi sitting under the tree filled with ladybugs. "Nice view, right?" The dark entity said. "That explains why you are still here. You did not even wonder how you came back to the past when Ashi doesn't exist. The answer is that she still exist within me. Even your friends and your adventures in the future are here inside me."

Jack was speechless. He cannot think of anything but Ashi. But then the samurai remembered about the intentions of the dark entity. "What do you want? You are going to use her to manipulate me-"

"Oh, no! That's not it!" The dark entity said. "I'm just giving you an opportunity to get your happiness back. Don't you want to be happy?"

"No." Jack answered. "I will not make deals with an entity like you."

"It is not just an opportunity. It's a duty as well."

The samurai listened. "What do you mean?"

The dark entity cleared his throat, even though he has none. "Listen closely. You are not alone in this universe."

"I know." Jack said. "I've met aliens, machines and creatures from strange lands-"

"That's not what I mean. There are people who threatens to destroy the entire existence! The Past! The Present! The Future! Including the ceased futures!" The dark entity told the samurai that there's a greater threat than Aku.

"Who? Who are these people?"

The entity showed him images of people that are unfamiliar to the samurai. "They have the six ancient stones that will destroy everything. I want you to retrieve all of them."

"Why me?"

"Because I sent three men to retrieve it. However, only one manage to retrieve a stone."

"Then 5 more to go."

"Yes." The dark entity asked. "So... are you going to do it?"

Jack answered, "I will do it. But promise me that-"

The entity crossed his heart. "I will bring her back in exchange for those stones. I promise."

"Then we have an agreement."

"Yes!" The entity opened a portal for the samurai's first destination. "Before you go, I have a gift for you." He poured his essence on to Jack's katana. Its blade changed into black with little dots of light like the starry night. Later, it turned back to its normal appearance.

"What did you do?"

"I turned it into a Celestial Sword. There are great forces out there, samurai. There are cloaked men and women who are willing to do anything to stop you. This blade can vanquish them from existence. Be careful."

Jack puts back the katana in his sheath and entered the portal.

Once the portal closed, the dark entity disappeared. Even without a face, the entity was laughing.

As he was traveling through the cosmic tunnel, Jack has other plans in mind. If he obtains the six stones, he will use it against the dark entity and free Ashi.

Most of his life, his only purpose is the kill Aku. But now his new purpose is Ashi's return.

=X=