Meanwhile, at the Inn at the Edge of Time...

In an inn sitting at the far edge of time, a place where everything that had begun had already long come to its end, was a group of four, sitting surrounded by sheets of parchment that looked as if they'd been torn from a book, all of which portrayed wildly different scenes and not the ones they had come to expect.

"You know," Chronomancer Riese began awkwardly. "If it weren't for the situation… some of these are actually kind of epic."

The page he was watching showed a burly DoomKnight Riese, his Necrotic Sword of Doom pulsing in time with his heartbeat as he clashed against Sepulchure in a duel that scorched the very earth around them, Necrotic Sword clashing against Necrotic Blade, the DoomKnights dueling each other with everything they had—not the bloody battle of attrition they'd set for the simulation of Sepulchure but a truly vicious battle that left the ground shattering with every step they took.

The Riese of that time, a young Warrior who'd only just finished training as a Dragonlord, could only gape in awe at the sight of their battle as they reshaped the land with every blow they struck against each other.

Chronocorrupter Riese side-eyed him before plucking the page out of his hands. "Of course you would think that." Ignoring his protests, he folded the paper into halves, obscuring the battle, before passing it back to Archivist Riese. "This is a serious situation, Chronomancer. How many displaced have you spotted so far, Archivist? "

The Archivist Riese looked haggard. "Four hundred and twelve." His Grimoire was open on his lap, the normally thick tome much thinner now. The pages for displaying different timelines had torn themselves out of the book earlier. He tried to stop them at first but after the hundredth, he just let them fly off and join the mess. "TimeKiller Riese's already gone off to retrieve the ones in the dreamspaces and the imaginary lands. She's at… forty-two, so far, out of a hundred and seven. And Dr. When's got like… twenty-three of them over at his place. Says we're gonna owe him for making him babysit."

"Of course," Chronocorrupter Riese grumbled. "Guess we won't be having any budget for the good tea this month."

"Tea? That's what you're worried about?" Chronomancer Riese shook his head. "This is a serious situation." Before Chronocorrupter Riese could make a rebuttal, he turned to the bulletin boards and called out: "ChronoZ, how's it looking on your end?"

A stream of glowing purple particles exited the boards and quickly manifested to form ChronoZ Riese. Sweat stained her face and plastered her hair to the back of her neck. Even with her visor hiding her face, she was obviously exhausted.

"There are soooo many bugs in there," she panted. "I squashed tons but there's like, no end to them. Even I'm kinda having trouble shooting them all down. It's gonna be sooo much work to sort things out. The portal's off, right? Please tell me someone's turned the portal off."

"The portal is off," the Avatar of Time Riese said dutifully. "I shut it down myself. Are you certain you don't want to rest for a few minutes? You… look unwell."

ChronoZ Riese waved her off though she did accept a towel when Shadow Walker of Time Riese popped up to offer one. "This is a serious situation," she echoed as she mopped the sweat from her brow. "I've gotta do my part and no, this seriously isn't just me having Chronic Hero Syndrome again, I swear."

"I mean, we're all Chrono Heroes so technically… " Chronomancer Riese joked, though no one reacted. That joke was ancient by this point. "Seriously, are you sure you don't want me to cover for you for a bit? I don't mind squashing some bugs."

"I'm good. Thanks for asking, though," she added. "But bug hunting is my thing. Buncha dumb butterflies aren't going to break my record. I'm gonna get the systems back in order from the inside, you guys take care of the rest. Plugging in ChronoZ Riese, transmission…"

Just as she reentered the arena systems in another stream of glowing particles, Shadow Walker of Time Riese popped up once more from the shadows, this time bearing a loaded tea tray. "Ah. Shame."

Chronocorrupter Riese quickly snagged himself a cup of tea and a crumpet. "The real shame is that the system bugged out so hard to begin with," he said, through a mouthful of crumpet. "We're going to be drowning in timeline splits for centuries, all because of a couple of glitches. When will never let us live this down."

"This is our first big project," Chronomancer Riese defended. "It's only natural we'd have a few hiccups. And honestly, who'd have expected actual bugs to sneak in and mess with the boards? And When—he doesn't get to throw any stones, he's had his share of mess-ups over the eons and his are all on video. Hey, pass me a crumpet, would you?"

"Of course you would think that…" Nonetheless, he passed him, and everyone else, a crumpet. "You do realize the whole point of the memory magic was to avoid this exact situation, right? The mass creation of new timelines? Let's face it, a lot of them are going to try to 'fix things', once they realize they've actually time traveled. Amateurs time traveling never ends well. Just look at When's workload when the Bacon Orbs happened. As for the ones who fell into their own timelines…" He snorted. "Meeting yourself outside of here, that's just asking for trouble."

"What's done is done," the Avatar of Time Riese said before Chronomancer Riese could reply. She took a dainty bite out of her crumpet before speaking once more. "We cannot help who we are. What matters is that we are able to resolve this situation as soon as we are able. I believe we should follow the example of Timekiller Riese in this situation. It is only fair that we handle those displaced in time, if we're to leave her to assist those in the imaginary lands. Past, present, future, whichever."

"And When," Archivist Riese interjected. "Don't forget about the ones at Dr. When's place. He's not gonna let us forget about them any time soon…" After a fortifying sip of tea, he tapped the Grimoire with his Literary Focus, causing all the separate pages to fly up and arrange themselves into five mostly neat piles. "Ignore these two, these're the ones Timekiller and When're handling. The rest—I think this should all be in order but if I screwed up any, it's…"

"We can handle it," Chronomancer Riese reassured him, before poring over the closest pile of pages. "We're Riese, handling stuff is our thing…" The one on top displayed the Riese of that world, a scarred, battle-weary DragonRogue, as he prepared to face off against Caitiff, fury evident in his face as he raised his envenomed daggers—

Only for an ancient-looking, silver-haired Ranger Riese to saunter in, shoot Caitiff a couple of quips, before proceeding to really go at the creature with a butter knife.

And begin to win. And quite handily, at that.

"Overleveled," Chronomancer Riese concluded. Even while he was speaking, the old Ranger continued to thrash Caitiff, her wrinkled, normally grandmotherly face betraying her bloodthirst. "Way overleveled. I'm guessing this pile's for people stuck in the past? Relatively speaking, anyway." He stood. "I don't mind taking these guys, if y'all are okay with it."

"You just want to watch the spectacle in person, don't you…" When Chronomancer Riese didn't respond, Chronocorruptor Riese sighed before looking at the pile closest to him. "...This one on the other hand is underleveled. I suppose these must be the ones with those stuck in the future. Well, what's a future for them, anyway…"

The page on top showed a Technomancer Riese, using the power of an event horizon against Wargoth. A valiant effort but given that she had yet to even fully unlock the features on her mana gauntlet, it really wasn't doing much. She wouldn't have even met Wargoth yet, going by what they knew of this one's timeline. Though she was smart enough to focus on supporting the Dragonrider Riese actually doing the damage, Wargoth only had to blink in her direction and she'd get herself killed. Not inn-killed, actually, permanently killed.

"I'll take care of them," Shadow Walker of Time Riese grunted, putting down the tea tray, though not before pocketing a full teacup and a pair of buttered crumpets. "Give me the pile."

"Go for it," Chronomancer Riese said airily. He was arranging his pile as he spoke, though he couldn't help but peek at the other pile closest to him. "Oof, this one fell into her own timeline. That's going to be a delicate situation…"

The Avatar of Time Riese peered over his shoulder. "Ah. That is indeed."

The page on top showed a Cryptic Riese as she stared at her frozen body atop the cliffs of Oaklore, her dragon already attacking the ice with gusto. The difference between herself and the one frozen was subtle but it was there, mostly in how she was significantly better equipped. She must've been from the future… if the not too distant future, given the lack of apparent physical difference.

"This pile must have the ones in the present. Or… close enough. I suppose I can take care of these," she said, getting to her feet.

Chronocorruptor Riese looked at her, surprised. "You're going as well? I figured you'd want to keep on keeping the inn."

"The Inn will need no caretaker while operations are down. I may as well take the opportunity to stretch my wings while I can," she said. She finished her crumpet before summoning the pile to her in a flurry of glowing sand. "Unless you have any objections?"

When he shook his head, the Archivist Riese coughed, making the rest look to him. "We'll hold the fort then," he said. "I'll keep monitoring the situation from here. If I see anything go too wrong…"

"I'll head over to assist," Chronocorruptor Riese said, pouring himself and the Archivist Riese another cup of tea. "Please try not to let anything go too wrong, Chronomancer."

"Oh shut up, you—"

"Wonderful," Archivist Riese interrupted, his voice mild but with just a hint of warning in his usual, serene smile. With another swing of his Literary Focus, three new doors sprouted from the wall next to the fireplace, the inn groaning as it stretched to accommodate them. "I'll be sure to tell ChronoZ the plan once she finishes up with maintenance. Keep safe guys. And good luck."

To think bugs started all this. What a series(e) of unfortunate events.