Chapter 33: The Magic Double

Six days had passed, and the zerg fought against chrome robots in a stalemate, whom were otherwise known as the Kiln Keepers. They tried to eliminate the zerg from the safety of the volatile curtain that was the laser wall, which was Gollog's smite attack that bombarded the ground from Kiln's sun. But try as the Kiln Keepers liked, they could not find purchase on zerg established ground. Coincidentally, the laser wall was also a double edged sword for the chrome robots.

The spine crawlers, locusts, and roaches were effective in eliminating Kiln Keeper footmen, and the spore crawlers, infested gilanians, and hydralisks were just as proficient in striking flying Kiln Keepers out of the sky. As it turned out, Gollog's orbital smite was the Kiln Keeper's ultimate weakness in the same sense. Even a small hole that was drilled into their magic armor technology was enough to burn straight through them and crumple them during the fight.

The spine crawlers would stab the Kiln Keepers as they exit the laser wall, creating an enormous chink in their invisible magic armor as the laser wall did the rest of the work. The locusts and the roaches would focus their spittle on any Kiln Keeper that strayed too far from the cover of the laser wall and melt them within seconds. Sadly, such projectiles could not survive past the wall of laser, which would simply turn the acidic liquid into corrosive steam. Even the spine crawlers limited their range, since their impaling tendril tips could be disintegrated off of themselves.

The hydralisks fared better, since their needle spines traveled at supersonic speeds. In fact, their spines traveled so fast that the laser wall had little time to burn them away! Much of the front lines were using hydralisks exclusively to defend the Empire Capitol Hive Cluster, due to their long range. The infested gilanians were quite useful, being able to quickly act and provide efficient anti-air and aerial denial against the flying Kiln Keepers. The spore crawlers were static in their defenses, providing their support in areas that had flying Kiln Keepers that were not protected by the laser wall.

The robots were becoming stronger against zerg attacks, and the vipers and lurkers were eventually put into play. Several queens worked constantly to heal the hatcheries, as the vipers produced from them constantly consumed their health at alarming rates. But the vipers, with their ability to produce blinding clouds, were incredibly useful to the zerg since it prevented the intruding Kiln Keepers from firing at the front lines. Not only that, their parasitic bombs also assisted in the destruction of many flying Kiln Keeper robots.

The lurkers were less useful, since their subterranean spines could easily stab underneath the Kiln Keeper robots, but were otherwise used in areas where cover was provided for them strategically. From the safety of the side of an errant tank, within a ruined bunker, or inside of tall dead grass, the lurkers played a dangerous game as they sniped from the underground, using a sight blocking obstruction to destroy Kiln Keeper footmen. However, they were completely screwed if a flying Kiln Keeper flew over and saw them. Once they used their newly acquired means of detection, via by pausing after each step and triangulating their burrowed targets to their flying Kiln Keeper allies, the lurkers would be targeted and destroyed.

[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy. ... Analysis complete. Deficient unit formation. Deficient unit composition. Upgrades required. Unable to advance with current composition. Acquiring assets. Adjusting strategy. Kiln Keeper variant: Blind Judgement, deployed.]

But as the chrome robots continually fought the zerg, they grew craftier and kept adapting as time went on. They had brought with them square horseshoe shaped objects that appeared to be three meters tall, and looked like they were accessing a terminal on its side. Once the Kiln Keepers placed them on the ground, a blue static haze emanated from the horseshoe objects, and a robotic humanoid Kiln Keeper emerged from the object. Were they MEM devices, or were they manifestation altars? Kay or Virid didn't know the answer to that question, but it was still a valid question to ask.

Even so, there were new objects that were being made from the horseshoes, and the Kiln Keepers were building giant metal circles, and then intertwining three of each into what looked like Borromean rings. Whatever they happened to be, they did not seem to be for decorative purposes.

Meanwhile, Kay was in the safety of the Hidden Water Spring Tribe's underground village, and he scowled when he focused on Empire Capitol's current development. He grumbled something under his breath as he punched the creep covered ground, again and again. It's bad enough that he was asked to wait outside, while Kragnon went to acquire something from within the tower. But still, patience rewards those who wait, and Kay had almost forgotten that lesson.

Virid noticed this aggression from Kay and approached him, one of her crab legs extending outward to prod Kay's back. "I sense that you are troubled."

Kay sighed, concentrating on the fighting that was happening at Empire Capitol and dividing some of his attention to listen to Virid. "Yeah, it's kind of difficult to listen to you while there is a fight going on."

Virid sighed and sat next to Kay. "The Kiln Keepers are adaptive, true, but they do not excel in our ways of evolution."

"Virid, please leave me alone. I need to concentrate on this battle." Kay requested.

"You are but one swarm commander, Kay. Not only that, a former terran too." Virid intoned. "Not all worlds are dominated in a week."

Kay scoffed. "Well I would love to dominate these Kiln Keeper robots faster, let me tell you. Fucking hell, these guys are downright assholes!"

Virid huffed, then focused her attention on the battle occurring at Empire Capitol. She trilled in surprise. "Kay, I had no idea you are commanding so many zerg strains at once!"

"And let me tell you." Kay said, looking like he was straining. "It's no picnic."

"Picnic or not, I am surprised that these Kiln Keepers were giving you this sort of trouble! Is there a way I can assist?" Virid asked.

"Unless you know another trick besides the one where you can pull a rabbit from a hat, I'm open to other suggestions."

Virid hissed and tilted her head, confused. "What?"

"Terran expression. You wouldn't understand." Kay said, sighing. "Now give me some peace, please. I can't concentrate and talk at the same time."

Virid paused for several seconds, but was unable to say anything, or provide to him a suggestion at that moment. She felt... useless.

However, in that moment, Kay and Virid's attention was suddenly directed somewhere else. The hive cluster expansion at Whisper Stones was bombarded with four spore payloads that were launched from the moon. The information that leaked from the impacted spore projectiles contained unusual information. After such genetic information leaked into the creep and redistributed itself into the established nydus networks, Kay and Virid widened their eyes in surprise.

"... If I were to implement these strains, would it be cheating?" Kay asked Virid, as though in a befuddled, but also excited tone.

"It would only be cheating if somebody not on our side did it first." Virid replied, her awe hanging in her expression.

Kay's smile expanded into a grin, but his expression turned back into concentration when he focused his mind back on the fight at Empire Capitol. "Make some of those new strains, and send them to the fight I'm managing. Corvurn, you are an indispensable ally to us! Woo!"

Once the Borromean rings were assembled, they started rotating rapidly and generated that same blue static that the horseshoe MEM devices/manifestation altars used to produce more humanoid Kiln Keepers. After several seconds of time passed, the Borromean rings slowed to a stop and allowed whatever was inside to venture out. Kay was surprised with what he saw.

This floating thing was completely spherical, save for the giant red glass circle that was on its front side. It floated above the ground using some form of levitation, and Kay assumed that it could float even higher. Several red lights dotted everywhere on its chromatic spherical body and within its eye, giving it an unusual, if intimidating appearance. It slowly hovered toward the battlefield with single-minded purpose, and what that purpose might be, Kay had a feeling he would find out all too soon.

These spheres floated upwards and hovered above the heads of the Kiln Keeper footmen, some even joining with the flying Kiln Keeper formations that floated forward and into the laser wall. When the spheres were in range, they opened fire in a burst of several lasers that quickly switched from one target to another. This machine had longer range that the Kiln Keepers, and they decimated the defensive perimeter of the zerg guarding the captured capitol. These spheres even overcharged their lasers into a singullar blast that reduced the zerg they targeted into nothing.

The defenses created by the zerg was whittled down faster than it could be restored, and the zerg were beginning to recede from the defended lines. The zerg were finally being pushed back again.

However, the zerg had acquired some new strains to play with. Zerg drones morphed into three new structures, whilst the hatcheries told its larvae to transform into the new zerg organisms it needed. It would take scant seconds of time, but it was a resource that the zerg could afford at the moment.

The first structure to emerge from the many embryonic cocoons formed into what looked like pitcher plant bio-structures, except its appearance and purpose was not exactly like a pitcher plant. A large, green, and translucent sack was situated at its base, whilst a complex orifice sat on top of this reservoir of bile, covered with rows of manipulative spines, pincers, and specialized mandibles that directed its deadly projectiles. Once the creature was morphed from the zerg drone, the bio-structure went to work launching gobs of scalding and corrosive liquid at the Kiln Keepers. It was known as a bile launcher, and several more started appearing once the first had developed fully.

Another structure had formed from a cocoon, and it formed a streamlined bio-structure that looked similar to an oversized tick that had its abdomen burrowed into the ground, with a few antennae that trailed from its sides and back. Unlike the bile launchers, this particular organism seemed to reside on its own, yet its presence did seem to affect several hatcheries on the inner grounds of Empire Capitol, forcing them to start mutating their larvae. This bio-structure was called a scourge nest.

One more structure was added, and the cocoon finally opened up with an eruption of amniotic juices, revealing the structure within it. It resembled a set of disfigured ribs with a layer of misshapen skin covering it. beside it was rock that had jutted upwards due to its formation, giving the impression that the bio-structure had shifted rock from underneath itself to give its underground organs space to grow. The mound had the capability to create a new type of organism, similar to the scourge nests. However, the hatcheries underground focused hard on creating the new organisms. This mound would truly bring forth the most terrifying zerg monster to date.

The first of the new combat strains to come into the fight were the guardians, emerging from the cocoons at the hatcheries created at Empire Capitol. The zerg guardians resembled giant flying mantises that was flattened, stretched outward horizontally, gained several more mandibles, acquired two elongated pincers to throw its acid spores from great distances away, floated on protected organs filled with hydrogen, and looked nothing like a mantis whatsoever. They were impressive beasts that were slow in speed, but functionally worked like the brood lords. However, the guardians had significantly longer range than the brood lords' firing range, which meant that they could keep out of danger from farther away.

Another combat strain erupted from the hatcheries at the capitol, and the air filled with the ultimate anti-air organisms. They glided around effortlessly using their three wings that curved forward, and their mouths were nothing more but a circular, screaming orifice that was filled with many teeth that they use to latch onto their prey. They spawned in pairs, and they flew after the flying Kiln Keepers that found their way into zerg established territory. The Kiln Keepers did adjust their tactics and tried to fire down the scourge when they got near, but there were simply too many scourge to focus on individually. The airspace above Empire Capitol was soon dominated by zerg air-to-air missiles. They were the scourge of the skies, which hinted at the name of their strain.

But there was one more zerg strain to be included in this battle, and they came through the nydus worms and hatcheries. These organisms resembled lobsters slightly, but had thin pincers and many long legs that gave them their disturbing appearances. Despite their horrendous visage, they provided special abilities that the zerg very much needed for this particular battle. The defilers may have fallen out of use after the brood war, but fate had a very morbid sense of humor on that day. Especially now, and they were indeed heavily needed. They provided two abilities that the zerg greatly benefited from. One of which was a swarm of insects that made it nearly impossible for any direct ranged attack to hit a zerg organism, which provided the defending zerg an incredibly impressive defense. Another ability that the defiler had was its most volatile weapon. It could launch a cloud of plague that could horrendously damage any enemy to a near-death state, in the sky or on the ground, organic or inorganic. Sadly, the defilers were a downgraded version of vipers, since they needed to consume zerg organisms to keep their energy high. But it could alternatively burrow into the ground to safely restore its energy out of combat.

When the four new strains entered the raging battle at the zerg controlled city of Empire Capitol, the Kiln Keepers quickly lost their slow advance and were firmly forced back to the laser wall. Defilers and vipers worked in unison to prevent Kiln Keepers and their floating spheres from hurting the zerg organisms, and the guardians and bile launchers made quick work on all Kiln Keepers that walked on their established ground. The scourge were most effective against any air unit, assisting the vipers and corruptors to great lengths. Any time a group of flying Kiln Keepers flowed into the zerg established airspace, they kept their forces spread out when they dealt with the vipers, and would group up on any lone corruptor by using flanking tactics. But with the zerg scourge coming into play, the flying Kiln Keepers were blasted apart by their plasma metamorphosis. With the inclusion of the new strains, the captured capitol became a well defended hive cluster once more, which efficiently countered the Kiln Keepers.

[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Unknown targets detected. Targets assisting zerg organisms. Unknown targets now filed as zerg organisms. Adjusting strategy. New targets detected. Annihilating.] The Kiln Keepers adjusted their strategy to account for the new strains of the assembled zerg, but it did little for them to push back into zerg controlled territories. Even with the inclusion of these 'Blind Judgement' units that the Kiln Keepers deployed, the dark swarms that the defilers produced made it impossible for the zerg on the ground to be harmed, and the blinding cloud made by the vipers only denied the Kiln Keepers their ranged attacks. It was thanks to the bile launchers and guardians that enabled the zerg defending the perimeter of the laser wall to gain some lenience. Before the zerg had the new zerg strains, the economy of bio-matter and accelerant was steadily decreasing, since the Kiln Keepers grew smarter to zerg tactics and adjusted accordingly. But production of the two essential resources was still slowly increasing by every minute, thanks to the resource tumor and carbonation extractor strains that Corvurn produced, which was derived from the altar technology he reverse-engineered. Coupled with the zerg swarm's ability to create hatcheries underground, their production of resources and strains would only increased over time.

[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Deficient unit formation. Deficient unit composition. Upgrades required. Requesting additional assets. Unable to continue with current composition. Unable to alter current strategy. Awaiting assets. Continuing with target annihilation until unknown variables prompts strategy analysis.] The Kiln Keepers said in unison. It would appear to Kay and Virid that the Kiln Keepers were forced to a standstill, unable to change their tactics and strategies until something else altered their approach. At least the bio-matter and accelerant production continued to increase over time, and more hatcheries and zerglings were provided for the vipers and defilers respectively. If it wasn't for the laser wall, the zerg would have advanced and wade into the massive army of Kiln Keepers that surrounded the entire capitol. Worse still, it was becoming midday. Several more hours would have to pass for sundown to arrive, which would allow the zerg to attack the chrome robots unimpeded by Gollog's supposedly 'divine' smiting sky laser bombardment.

But as of now, the zerg were producing more resources than they are wasting. The defilers feasted exclusively on the zerglings to regain their energy, and the heavy use of zerg scourge on heavily populated enemy airspace helped recede the resource economy of the zerg to some degree, but not totally. The bile launchers and the guardians were indeed useful, and the scourge were most effective against any flying Kiln Keepers that dared intrude into zerg-owned airspace.

Kay laid back onto the cool creep and sighed in relief. "I was almost worried that we would lose control of Empire Capitol!" Kay exclaimed.

Virid sighed in relief too. "But for how long can we keep the Kiln Keepers in this stalemate?"

"Oh, I dunno." Kay replied, rubbing his forehead. "I guess we could wait until night falls again. Ooh, my head."

Virid shook her head. "I should have warned you. Maintaining command of so many strains at once can wither your mental faculties."

Kay smiled and chuckled. "Still though... That was super close. Could you tell Corvurn that I am thankful that he sent those spores to the hive cluster at Whisper Stones? I have a migraine."

Virid nodded, looking down slightly at a certain direction and paused. "... Corvurn was not responsible for the four zerg strains we received."

Kay propped himself up and settled onto his elbows as he looked at Virid with confusion. "... What?"

"Corvurn has informed me that he had created another evolution master on the hexagonal moon." Virid answered.

Kay blinked a few times. "... Why? I didn't tell him to do that!"

Virid nodded. "That may be true, but he was indisposed with nanites that were withering his insides. He assumed that mutating a larva into another evolution master, one without any nanites corroding its biology, could assist us."

"Oh gods. Are you saying that Corvurn spawned another one of himself?" A familiar voice said, intruding into Kay and Virid's conversation.

Kay and Virid turned to find Kragnon peering over the wall that separated the underground tower from the zerg infestation. Kay chuckled. "Heheh uh... How much have you eavesdropped?"

"Something about night falling again. I data-mined the information network and found out that Empire Capitol has been taken over." Kragnon replied. "Your work?"

Kay smirked. "Yeah, it's true."

Kragnon nodded. "I see. I'm also getting reports that the Kiln Keepers are being fed into Gollog's divine smite attack. For some reason, that attack has been emitting a wall around the capitol."

Kay relaxed back onto the creep and smiled. "Not bad for taking down Ralkan and destroying his home."

Kragnon blinked. "... Wait, you also took down Ralkan?!"

"Mm-hmm! Even extracted all the information I needed from his brain. As of now, he's brain dead and infested in a bunker under the city." Kay said with pride. "Serves him right to give Faddoh the idea of making those damn nanites."

Kragnon tilted his head. "Nanites? Do you mean medical micro-machines?"

Kay nodded. "Yeah. ... Actually, I was wondering if you can help me with a puzzle that has been bugging me."

Kragnon paused for several seconds, but then he shook his head and shrugged. "I suppose I am pretty good with puzzles. What's troubling you?"

Kay sighed, standing up and facing Kragnon on the tower's wall. "You see, six days ago, there was a group of hunters with ancient armor and red decorative flags that used a nanite infused weapon, a crossbow bolt of all things, on one of my zerg organisms. Last night, however, all the commanders of the different divisions, their general, and even Emperor Gollog, discussed on creating the nanites to counter my zerg swarm. So... That's the puzzle I've been trying to figure out."

Kragnon narrowed his gaze and looked down in contemplation. "... Ancient armor with red flags? What did these hunters look like?"

"Uh... Oh! I could just bring a changelisk over here and show you!" Kay raised his hand and summoned a changelisk that was nearby. Once the changelisk was in Kragnon's presence, it changed its shape and form to the appearance of one of the gilanian hunters, specifically the crossbow leader that had shot the overlord from long ago. Kay turned to face Kragnon and gestured to the disguised changelisk. "One of them looked like this."

Kragnon's face instantly changed from scrutiny to surprise, and immediately started pointing at the disguised changelisk. "THAT'S ONE OF THE HONOR GUARDS THAT USED TO PROTECT THIS VILLAGE! ... Although, his armor does look a bit rusted. ... But wait... You said that they used the micro-machines against the zerg BEFORE Commander Faddoh got the idea to create them?"

"I... Think that sounds about right?" Kay said, shrugging.

"... Oh fuck." Kragnon said, rubbing the sides of his temples. "Era agents."

Kay cocked his head. "... Era... agents?"

"It had to be fucking era agents, gods damn them. Gods damn them all." Kragnon said, clutching his head in frustration.

"What are era agents?" Kay asked, trying to get back to the topic at hand.

Kragnon sighed before he started his explanation to Kay. "Era agents are the ultimate time-traveling assassins, and they existed on Kiln for as long as Kiln ever existed. They can use their skills to travel back in time and eradicate a certain target from ever existing, or making sure that certain person's actions do not affect a certain outcome, doing so in secret and in disguise. They are a powerful freelance business whose services do not come cheap. Gollog had paid these people countless times before, making sure certain dangerous targets were offed, or made to have never been born. If these era agents have came back to the past to kill you, then it must mean Gollog is becoming desperate. And if that is true, then the Kiln Keepers must also be suffering from your swarm in the future."

Kay's migraine was slowly coming back. "... I was... attacked... by time traveling ninjas?"

Kragnon stared at Kay. "... I... don't know what ninjas are, but uh... They can time travel, yes."

Kay slumped over and sighed, feeling more agitated than normal. "... Shit, are you kidding me?! The zerg do not have a means to counter time traveling assassins! Fuck!"

Virid shook her head. "Time traveling assassins... Very clever."

Kay turned toward Virid and stared at her. "Clever is not a word I would use. This means that they will try and find a way to arrive where we originated and eradicate us from history. In short, were screwed."

"Not quite." Kragnon interrupted. "Time happens to be a very interchangeable thing, since it exists in several states that enables existence to continue from the perspective of any intelligent, or sometimes sapient, creatures. Since you are still here, we can assume that there is an event in the future that has enabled your continued existence. Alternatively, you have limited time before you disappear from history completely. ... Oh, and alternatively-alternatively, you could simply remain here without any changes made to the timeline whatsoever, due to the era agents' method of entering the past. It all depends on how they travel in the timeline, really."

Virid and Kay stared at Kragnon blankly. "What?" "What?" They said in unison.

Kragnon shook his head and scoffed. He turned around and crouched, preventing Kay or Virid from seeing him. After several seconds of plastic surfaces clicking between one another, Kragnon returned with what looked like info-lenses that looked like his own pair. He dangled two of them down along the wall. "Here. Put on these info-lenses. I'll show you through a word document."

Kay nodded and positioned his palms so that he could catch one pair of the info-lens. Virid took a pair as well, but was reluctant to use the gilanian technology, hissing and trilling as she received the piece of plastic. "Must I humiliate myself by putting this on my face?"

Kay placed his info-lens on his own face and smirked. "Humility is a great teacher, Virid. And besides, you could also humor the lovechief for the moment."

Virid sighed and placed the info-lens onto her face, reluctantly.

Kragnon nodded and smiled. "Maiden, activate info-lenses on Kay and Virid. Also, activate the air-type program on my lens and stream the program to Kay and Virid."

[Commands detected.] Maiden said from the speaker system outside of the tower. [Initiating programs.]

The info-lenses that Kay and Virid were using immediately became stark white. Kay eyed at the bone-colored lenses and cocked his head. "Uh... What are we supposed to be looking at here?"

Kragnon smiled as he answered Kay. "Timelines." After replying to Kay, Kragnon started wiggling his fingers in the air. Once he did, Kay and Virid's vision was being filled with several ascii characters. As Kragnon typed on an invisible keyboard in the air, the image he provided to them soon looked like this:

— — — — — — — — —

— — — — O — — — —

— — — — Q _ _ _ _

— — — — F = = = =

— — — — E ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡

Kay stared at the image he received for several seconds before he decided to try and end the confusion in his brain. "... So uh... This is what the timelines look like?"

"Not exactly." Kragnon answered. "This is how each method of time travel work within their respective timelines. At least, from what I see in my perspective. Allow me to explain. Imagine the first line as a timeline that has no time travel happening within it. About as ordinary as you might expect, but then it becomes much more complicated when you introduce a means to go forward and backward in time. More interesting things happen when one travels backwards, and I'll explain what happens in these theories, made real by the era agents.

"The second line represents a method of time travel where time itself is a fixed point. To put it into an example, you go into the past to kill a war hero, abort the baby of the two parents responsible for the war hero's upbringing, and find out later that the baby turned out to be a different sibling from the surviving clutch of eggs. Simply put, no matter what you do to the past, the future remains the same in all events. From what I theorize, using these types of timelines is an effective way to scout certain time periods safely, while making sure that the events that lead up to the target's death plays out in the ways it happens. Era agents are known to use this method of time travel to liberally scout the past. Of course, they would have stricts rules put in place to prevent them from altering events a fixed timeline.

"The third line is a type of time travel where time is more dynamic. For example, a street urchin was invited to become an era agent, but he had made a secret vow to kill the asshole that killed his mother. Eventually, he goes back in time, found his mother's killer, and kills him. However, the urchin agent had inadvertently killed his own father, and in doing so removed himself from the timeline, resulting in a paradox. Paradoxes happen in unusual ways, and there are methods that could help prevent them. But even so, creating paradoxes often results in creating ripples of temporal radiation. In the case of the son killing his father, it would result in a release of low level radiation. The temporal radiation would slowly increase in intensity, relative to how far the time traveler traveled and how much that event changed other events in the timeline. As such, the unstable radiation will be in its zenith of radioactivity when the paradox starts, but fades completely when the timeline reaches the moment where the time traveling urchin had went back in time. Of course, using a temporal containment field could help sustain and prevent the temporal radiation from dissipating, and era agents are known to intentionally create paradoxes to collect temporal radiation. They then use the radiation for the purposes of manipulating temporal energy to time travel. As I said, timelines become much more complicated when you introduce a means to go forwards or backwards in time, though the era agents have 'claimed' that they have perfected the art of creating stable 'time loops'. Not only that, era agents prefer to use temporal energy exclusively for their power requirements, because they believe it is a more effective energy than any other power source.

"The fourth line represents a split in the timeline. Some people would refer to them as branching timelines, or diverging timelines, but they are simply timelines where an entirely new existence emerges from the result of the time travel. Some theorize that it happens constantly, but the era agents can force a split and be able to interact with both timelines. Simply put, it is an alternate timeline that exists without any repercussions, simply creating a new instance of everything with different parameters that governs it. For example, a romantic gilanian has found two ladies that are sisters that can't stand each other. One was rich and beautiful, but the other was rather plain looking. He married the rich and beautiful sister, only to regret his decision when he found out that she had a horrible personality. However, he soon discovered that the plain looking sister had a wonderful personality! He eventually found a time traveling device and used it. The romantic gilanian went back in time and married the plain sister instead, changing his past self's actions using the knowledge he gained from the future. However, such use of time travel requires an enormous amount of temporal energy to create the alternate timeline. Even more so if one decides to create a time gate that anchors and connects the two timelines together in a fixed temporal location, and time gate technology was only a theory that was confirmed by its execution after the Era Agents announced publicly that such a technology could achieve this.

"The fifth timeline, for all intents and purposes, is all time travel methods working together in tandem. Without time travel, time itself would be a linear endeavor where costly mistakes would never be corrected. But the Era Agents uses all three methods to achieve their goals, and they abuse it to their agendas, treating it like an expensive fruit jello desert that never runs out, but only if they're careful. A lot of gilanians have asked for their services before, and I believe many of them had requested Gollog to be slain in a contract several times. However, the era agents are bound to something they refer as the 'temporal code'. Simply put, it's a way of life for them to use time travel for their own benefit. Hell, I bet that they go to different timelines to siphon water from the underground lakes to fill their own water tanks! Anyway, a clever agent would be able to gain much more resources from different alternate timelines, forgoing the consequences of the damage they do to them. In essence, the era agents are a self perpetuating people that literally had more years of careful planning than septuple the number of years of Kiln's Age of Ascension. Perhaps even more, all the way to the day our predecessors having chosen Kiln to be the prison for our ancestors!

Kragnon sighed after that long-winded explanation. "So do you see why the Era Agents are so dangerous, Kay?"

Kay blinked a few times as he unequipped the info-lens from his face. "Uh... Yeah, sort of. How do we fight them if they decided to show up again?"

Kragnon removed the info-lens from his face, shaking his head. "I'm afraid that, if my math is correct, they already did so. Your past six days spent existing on Kiln is now in danger."

A/N: Cool, I complicated things for myself. :3