It had happened again.
It happened every time he died.
Each and every repetition. Each and every life. He'd come back as if it was a dream. A gasp and he was alive.
He was starting to get sick of it.
The events always played out mostly the same.
He'd wake up. Get ready for school and look in the mirror. The bird would look at him and shake its head. He'd walk down and get breakfast before walking to school. He varied his pace to see if that affected him and when it only served to get the student council mad he ditched the idea. He died and restarted the cycle.
The next time he wondered if he could outwait Yuuma. Maybe she'd leave if he waited long enough. Time seemed to slow as he waited and when he looked at the clocks they were perpetually stuck at eight. The sun didn't move nor did the clouds. He had sighed and accepted his fate as he died.
New gasp. New repeat.
He'd eventually gotten to the point where he'd skip the entire school section entirely and simply sat in a cafe contemplating his options. The steaming cup of coffee never seemed to cool down enough and he had come to a conclusion. It had taken around ten repeats to get to this... He'd fight her.
He wasn't an idiot. He knew for a fact that he'd be eviscerated if he moved too slowly. But he felt an odd sense of confidence. A feeling of pain in the back of his head made him blink as the bird appeared next to him. It was seated in the chair like a normal person would be and it even had a cup of tea in its taloned hands. It seemed to nod at his decision to fight and he felt an odd surge of energy through his body.
His eyes snapped to the movement he saw and he felt them widen as he looked around at the world.
It was slowed. Time itself had slowed. Not by much but it was enough for him to notice, especially when each and every repeat had the exact same events happen at the same time. The motorcycle that would've roared past him moved as if it was a truck in light traffic instead of the blur it was usually.
The birds that flew over his head were caught mid-flight as their wings flapped slowly through the air. The world snapped back into normal speed with the sound of thunder and he visually recoiled as the sound startled him.
He stared at the cup of coffee. The steam distorting the air. The foam calmly sitting on top.
He polished it off in one go and looked up. The sky had darkened. It had begun to burn with orange light as the sun set. A good enough background for his little-doomed confrontation.
-Clockwork Engine- Shattering the loop.-
He met Yuuma in front of the school. The same time. The same place. Different clothing.
He'd opted for something lighter than his school uniform. The bird seemed to guide his choices. It was odd but he agreed with what it had chosen.
One of his green collared tops. A pair of khaki pants. One of his more expensive and interesting watches. No clock hands. Instead, a pair of silver cogs spun around where they would be. Each one was tipped with a green chevron that glowed when a light shone on it.
He saw her leaning against the wall. She glanced in his direction and he saw how time seemed to slow. He saw her expression twist from interest to lustful and then to its usual sunny disposition. Expression changes he would've never caught before had time itself not slowed for him... It was weird.
The bird had told him how to use it. To an extent. Its voice was like that of both a teacher and something odd... like it shouldn't have been here. It confused him but it had given him something to fight back against the angel in front of him.
He wasn't going to waste it.
He smiled back at her and waved. She walked up to him and he followed the now usual procedure of complimenting her looks. She did the same to him this time while also asking what he wanted to do.
He hid the dark look that crossed his face and went with the usual routine. A visit to one of the more expensive cafes. He'd seen her fake expression of interest enough times now to know she wasn't serious about him and as such he decided to accelerate events by suggesting they went to the park.
An expression of surprise crossed her face followed by her smile. She nodded with about as much enthusiasm as she could muster. The walk was quick and filled with little small talk but once the two of them reached the fountain he stopped a little ways away as she skipped up to it. He let his voice talk on autopilot as he focused. He felt the energy coiling up his arm. The bird had told him it was like a spring. It could be compressed or stretched but never fully stopped.
He saw her turn around.
"Hey, Desmond... Would you die for me?"
Her expression changed and as it did the spear shot forwards at supersonic speed... or at least he assumed that it did. The bird had told him that he could only compress or stretch a certain amount of 'real time'. About twenty seconds at most with a ratio of 1:3. He stared for a split second as the twenty seconds became sixty in his slowed down stream of time. He took the chance and rushed forwards. His foot lashed out and connected with her knee. He grabbed one of her arms and snapped it. His fists flew and his feet moved and as the final seconds ended he kicked her hard in the stomach. Time took on its usual flow at that point and the effect of his attacks all happened at once.
Her leg bent backward and snapped. Her arm followed by bending in the wrong direction and also snapping. Her body jerked lightly from his other hits and the coup-de-grace he'd landed made her merely take a step back. A look of outrage was on her face as she rose up into the air and screamed... from pain or anger he had no idea.
"You... you survived!?"
Her look of surprise was rather cathartic. He shrugged as he looked at his hand.
"Well... I mean your attack did miss. So yeah I did."
"It was aimed right at you. It shouldn't have missed."
"...Well it did... Hah!"
She glared at him and he glared back. She let out something akin to a growl as her wings made a cocoon around her and she vanished in a twirl of feathers.
He stared for a moment.
He'd survived.
He let one of his fists shoot into the air and then felt the mind splitting headache followed by the burning sensation all over his body as he fainted.
Break - Clockwork engine- Breaking the loop
His mindscape was a rather bland place. A simple black tree filled forest with oddly enough... clocks for leaves. He leaned against a tree as his vision gained some semblance of clarity and his ears stopped ringing from his headache.
The bird appeared and hung upside down from one of the branches.
"Well done." Its voice had the same stern tone of a teacher but it had a reverb to it that gave it a worryingly ominous vibe.
"Yeah... yeah, I did it... ugh my head."
It seemed to chuckle if the distorted warble that came from its direction was anything to go by.
"A migraine is the weakest form of recoil experienced due to temporal distortion I assure you."
He stared at the bird incredulously.
"You call this weak? Bitch this feels like my head's about to explode."
It let out another chuckle.
"As I stated. Weak."
"Great." He felt the migraine drop in severity enough for him to look at the bird. It's feathers continued to shimmer in hundreds of shades that hurt his eyes. "Did the loop break?"
It nodded.
"You completed the task. The loop in time is broken and your timeline has once again been assimilated into the normal flow."
It dropped down from the tree and spread its wings as it hovered above the ground.
"It is time to continue in your training."
He held up a hand and let himself slide down the tree.
"Wait... now this is all over and I've got some breathing room... can you explain WHAT THE FUCK HAS BEEN GOING ON WITH MY LIFE?!"
The bird didn't seem surprised in the least. It merely nodded its head and he saw the tree it had been on distort and vanish.
"Where would you like the begin?"
He looked at the bird and motioned at it and then his surroundings.
"You wish to understand what I am? Very well. I am a LOC. A being of great power. Inferior to your gods but powerful enough to influence changes in time. I come from hundreds of timelines. All converging at one point. "
He held up a hand and the bird paused.
"The fuck is a LOC?"
The bird seemed to grumble under its breath before continuing
"A LOC is a Lord of Change. The human vocabulary of this dimension best describes us as either as a spirit or Daemon. We are controllers of time and temporal energy in general."
He stared for a moment.
"... you're like a Time Lord then?"
It nodded after a second.
"It would be a brief and horrid understatement of our power but the premise of time travel and protection of time stands."
He nodded and used his hand to tell it to continue.
"You Desmond Milles are an anomaly in time."
It seemed to expect a reaction more extravagant than the raise of an eyebrow that Desmond provided.
"Okay...? That's a problem why?"
"Anomalies lead to branches and those branches lead to various possibilities. Most of which end with the large-scale destruction of either the fabric of time itself or of the world. Both equally as dangerous."
"So what? I like need to get out of this timeline?"
"That would be the most effective option yes..."
He didn't miss the pause.
"But?"
"Your interference in it has created a branch. One strong enough to create a time loop where your death was mandatory."
He nodded as the bird continued.
"This loop and your discovery of it has led to various new branches opening... in layman's terms. You no longer have a way out of the timeline. Most likely you lost your way out once the fallen angel selected you as a target."
"Yuuma?"
"The alias she runs by. Her name was Raynare to most. An angel consumed by lust. Very dangerous to both men and woman. Your mind was clouded by her scent when you met her for the first time. Each failed attempt to break the loop seems to have improved your mind. Made it more resilient... for a human."
He nodded as his mind processed the information. He shifted his legs around so the blood kept flowing to them.
"So I've got a good brain... is she gone for good now?"
It looked at him with narrowed eyes.
"Do you believe she will be gone?"
He tapped a finger against one of the shadowy roots of the tree he leaned against then shook his head.
"If what you said about her being driven by lust whether that be for what I've got inside me or outside me is true then I doubt she'll stop."
It nodded and he could feel a smidge of approval from it.
"At least you're not overly optimistic."
He shrugged.
"I get that a lot... what would normal progression dictate?"
He could see it catch onto his thoughts from the way its eyes seemed to glow.
"What do you know of Issei Hyoudou?"
- Clockwork gear- Breaking the loop-
He stared as he sat in the center of his backyard. The large green space was perfect for what he wanted.
His eyes were shut.
His mind was clear.
He breathed out slowly.
The power built up equally slowly. Each second led to a cracking feeling in the air around him and the air became razor sharp after ten seconds of meditation. Twenty seconds led to him feeling what he wanted. He mentally reached out to the silver and green cog he saw. It was intricately decorated with mysterious runes and he felt his hand brush it's surface before thunder boomed and it vanished.
His eyes opened and he glared at the dirt.
His twelfth attempt had failed as well.
He was missing something. He could feel it.
It was... oddly enough... like he was missing a cog in his clock and the entire thing was at a standstill because of it.
That pretty much described his current situation. A standstill with his growth.
A week had passed since his debacle with Raynare and in the week the most progress he'd had with his sacred gear was being able to see it's form. A spinning silver cog. It wasn't as cool as a sword nor as practical as a gun but he supposed it would have to do.
He only needed to summon it.
That was the problem.
He'd called to it in his head and as he did it had appeared. It was only a spec when he'd done it the first time. Each time it had gotten bigger but whenever he managed to touch it the gear shattered.
He supposed the time dilation dome he'd managed to create did actually come in handy.
His brain had felt like it was melting afterward but after he'd managed to make it he was using it every day. The distortion in the air slowed time outside in a ratio of 1:5. Every minute he spent inside the dome translated to 12 seconds outside of it. He was rather proud of it.
It had gotten easier to make after each iteration and eventually he found he could double the effect. He hadn't been using that one much. It felt like his mind would explode when he'd tried.
He walked out of the dome and glanced at his watch as the dials wound back to the actual time outside. Something to do with the energy his body discreetly leaked.
The bird had explained it but the only thing he'd gotten from it was that it was called Chrono energy and that his body naturally emitted it.
He'd rolled his eyes when he found that tidbit out. Another thing only he could do.
He'd looked at the bird for a while before it started talking about how it was unfortunate he had received the power to do all this. He caught a quiet mumble.
Something about his incompetence with the magic.
He had many words to describe how agitated he'd been after the comment. Most of which began with a few choice expletives. Instead, however, he devoted himself to furthering his understanding of the power and so naturally he delved into the sacred gear part of his abilities and wound up here. Sitting on the dirt in a futile attempt to summon the blasted thing.
He shook his head as he sighed.
Getting angry over it wouldn't do him any good.
He blinked a few times and walked inside through the sliding door. He walked straight to the kitchen and downed one of the water bottles completely. He saw Sara looking at him with a small black book in her hand.
"What exactly are you doing out there?"
He looked at her and rolled his eyes.
"A guy can't simply sit outside and enjoy the weather?"
"This is you we're talking about Des. You and the sun go together about as well as me and water."
He shrugged.
"I've changed."
She let out a huff as she looked away. He caught the ever so slight sadness her eyes had as she started the motion.
"Yeah... you definitely have... so are you trying to find inner peace or something?"
"Or something. Call it a piece of me. Something I've been missing for a while."
She turned back to her book as she stretched out on the couch.
"Well enjoy doing that. Just pace yourself and you'll do fine. Remember. Time only moves if you want it to."
He felt his eyes narrow to her but she ignored him as she became entranced with her book.
His gaze lingered for a moment but he shook his head and went back outside. He felt the rippling sensation as he crossed the barrier between his barrier and the outside world and sat back down.
Test number thirteen... this is going to be a long week.
Clockwork Engine- Breaking the loop.
Red filled his vision once again as the magic circle flared to life in front of him. He stared at the woman he saw and then to the bird which was standing with its arms behind it's back.
"You're fucking with me right?"
The bird shook its head.
"Not at all. She is indeed a being with magic power. Would you like me to restart the loop for the twenty-first time?"
He could hear the exasperation in its voice and shook his head.
"To think that Rias fucking Gremory was a devil..."
"A devil appears perfectly human from a distance. Even up close the only features one notices are their perfect skin and if your sensitivity to magic is high enough an aura is felt. Other than that they are indistinguishable from humans."
He shook his head as he summoned a recliner in his mind space and fell down onto it.
"A perfect disguise... Sorry. We're probably my past the point but my mind just won't accept the fact that she is a devil."
The bird nodded as the space around them changed to a park eerily similar to the one he died in.
"Would it be easier to believe if I told you that Akeno Himejima, Koneko Toujou, and Kiba Yuuto, as well as your entire student council, are also devil's?"
He stared at the bird with an expression that portrayed his normal world-shattering in front of his eyes.
"Oddly it does... it would explain why they're all in positions of power... and why the Occult Research club hasn't been disbanded even though it does jack all... holy shit!"
"Indeed, It seems you've understood. Now onto the next matter."
The bird gave him time to calm down and once he had he stared at the guy in front of him. The Kuoh academy uniform and blazer were on him and he had his signature lecherous expression on his face.
"Was this seriously the best picture you could pull?"
The bird ignored his question.
"According to the normal timeline, in a week Issei Hyoudou will die and be reborn as a devil by Rias Gremory."
He nodded as he let the recliner do its thing.
"And I'm supposed to observe and make sure everything goes smoothly. Question is. How the hell do you expect me to hide from a devil with enhanced senses?"
The bird didn't show any emotions but he could feel the smugness it emitted.
"Quite simply. By causing friction between two timelines one may both exist and not exist. "
He stared at the bird.
"That explained literally nothing."
The bird seemed to sigh.
"You are a being who has been granted the ability to slow down or speed up time with your will. Eventually, you may even gain the ability to solidify Chrono energy into a solid object. The energy can be manipulated to create 'bubbles' of differing time flow for lack of a better word. That is an elementary manipulation of the associated energy. You have a week of real-time to accelerate your learning process and once you've reached a point you will be able to 'hide' your presence by creating a... crack in time. Everything in front of the crack such as yourself would experience a slightly different flow of time. Most likely accelerated by half a millisecond. This difference creates friction that effectively shields those in front of it from detection for its duration."
"So what you're saying is...You want me to break time?"
"Yes."
He stared with an incredulous expression plastered across his face.
"... you're supposed to protect time, not break it!"
"I would not be damaging the flow. You would be. "
"That doesn't make it any better! I could get stuck in some kind of loop again!"
It shook its head and he swore he heard it click its tongue.
"Nonsense... the consequences would be much worse than that."
"What's worse than constantly living one part of your life infinitely?"
"The Temporal Chasm. A place where time both flows and does not. Where energy is created and destroyed. A place that bends your rules of physics. To put it simply you could shatter time in this dimension and be dragged into the resulting abyss. Forever being disassembled and reassembled as time broke and formed around you. The Chrono energy would only amplify the process and make you suffer more as it was continuously, and painfully ripped from your body."
He felt the blood leave his face and the bird gave another warbling laugh.
"The chance of that occurring is quite low with the size of crack you'll be creating. A mere scratch in the flow of time. It's assured. Only one in a million people are sucked into the abyss."
He glared at the bird and it radiated amusement while he slowly shook his head.
"Well... now that my life has officially flashed before my life twice... I feel like it's a good time to actually get some sleep. Also... Thanks for the fucking nightmares!"
The bird warbled and its wings flashed bright gold as he felt himself drift into a surprisingly relaxing sleep.