Chapter 20
Shadows in the Sands
As I looked across the skyline noticing the eternal daytime, I felt a strange chill down my spine as if something apocalyptic was going to happen. As I attempted to make sense of what I felt, I saw a strange glint in the sands below. Jumping down from the tower, I grinded on the rails leading down to the desert, noticing a man with short grey hair and grey eyes wearing a red leather hoodie and black leather trousers and a giant sword affixed to his back. As I got closer to him, the man turned to face me; I noticed that he was also wearing smart military style boots. "Hi, my name is Jack. Who are you?", I asked. "My name's Dante.", the man said with a very smarmy and cocky yet still somewhat friendly voice. "Did you feel it too?", Dante then said. "What, you mean that strange feeling I had on the top of that tower?", I asked. "Yeah, that.", Dante said. "What do you think caused it?", I asked. "I can answer that question for you.", a deep voice said behind me. I turned around to see a powerfully built man with green skin, yellow eyes and a mane of red hair; he was wearing a suit of dark red and black samurai armour and had a mighty katana fixed to the left hip. "And who might you be?", I asked. "I am the King of Evil, Ganondorf!", the man said. "Catchy name.", I said. "So, Ganondorf, what caused this strange feeling I felt?", I then asked. "An event called the Alignment, when the stars in the sky align. The current alignment is a sign that something holy and sacred has happened- the finding of all seven Chaos Emeralds.", Ganondorf explained. "But the Flood of Light ensured that there are no stars in the sky. I saw it happen too, in the final days of the War of the Worlds.", I said. "Maybe the feeling was of something else.", Dante said.
Before I could answer, I found myself in a lush field of green with various ruined castles strewn about. As I walked through the area, I caught a glimpse of a small purple dragon with purple eyes, a yellow body, yellow horns and a golden crest. I chased after the dragon, only for him to catch sight of me. "So, you've come.", the dragon said. "Hi. Who are you?", I asked. "Name's Spyro. Spyro the Dragon.", the dragon said. "Nice to meet you, Spyro. My name's Jack.", I said. Before I could talk with Spyro further, I then found myself on the observation deck of a military spaceship with a beautiful planet with a blue sky outside the porthole. As I walked through the ship, I saw a fox with reddish-orange fur and green eyes wearing a grey shirt, black jeans and khaki boots and a green scouter covering his left eye. I walked over to him and said, "Hi. My name's Jack. Who are you?". Turning to face me, the fox said, "Well met. My name is Fox McCloud, leader of Star Fox.". "Do you know where we are?", I asked. "This is the Great Fox, a ship originally commanded by my dad, James. After his death, the ship was given to me.", Fox said. "Fox, I'm sorry for your dad.", I said. "Don't be. The past is the past.", Fox said. Before I could talk to Fox any further, I found myself on a grassy hill overlooking a large castle town and a fantasy castle. I walked into the town, noticing how most of the citizens were very short and had toadstool heads for heads, usually coloured white with splotches of other colours, usually red and blue. I also noticed floating blocks in the air, laid out like an actual pathway.
Looking around the town to get my bearings, I saw two young men with brown hair, blue eyes and brown moustaches walking around too. Both were wearing white gloves, blue overalls and brown shoes, but one of them was short and stocky, wearing a red shirt and a red and white hat with a red M on the front; the other was taller and leaner (but not by much) and wearing a green shirt alongside a white and green hat with a green L on the front. I approached the two, curious to know where I was. The shorter and stockier man of the two turned to look at me as if right on cue, asking, "Can I help you?", with a voice that reminded me of Chris Pratt. "Hi, my name is Jack. Who are you?", I asked. "Oh, I'm Mario.", the man in red said. "And I'm his brother Luigi.", the man in green said with a voice heavily reminiscent of Charlie Day. "What is this place?", I asked. "Ah, wonderful! Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom.", Mario said. "You gotta come with us, Jack! The ritual can't start without you!", Luigi said excitedly. "Wait, slow down. What ritual are you talking about?", I asked. "No time to explain! Come on!", Mario said, just as excited as Luigi. Before I could follow them, however, I found myself in a strange mechanical city with multicoloured neon signs everywhere. The city itself was entirely created from metal, looking as though it was entirely reliant on technology. Sticking to the shadows, I noticed a man with spiky brown hair and brown eyes wearing a yellow T-shirt, blue jeans, grey shoes with red soles and a red scarf. I also noticed that he had a mechanical right arm. I followed him, only for him to say, "I always wondered when you'd finally come to this world."; I was taken aback by this. How did he have foresight about me? Turning to face me, he then said, "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Chai.". "Hi, my name's Jack.", I said nervously.
Looking around the area, I then noticed many humanoid robots holding rectangular electrified blades; many of the currents seemed to be moving to the beat of various songs. Not only that, but the whole city seemed to also be receptive to music. "Impressed?", Chai asked. "Well, impressed isn't exactly how I'd describe it. More like intrigued, actually.", I replied. "I see.", Chai said, drawing a red Flying V guitar made out of scrap metal and gears. Turning to face him, I asked, "Wait, what are you doing?". Chai said, "Why, making sure our Lord will see you dead for all the suffering you caused him!", a wicked smile appearing on his face. "Wait, have we met before?", I asked. Angered at this, Chai then snarled, "You'll die, monster! Die! DIE!", rushing at me. I fired up my Tao mandalas, dodging Chai like a baller before unleashing a blade of compressed wind; Chai blocked this by simply strumming the strings on his guitar. At this, I said, "Of course. Sound waves travel via wind.". "Nice physics lesson there, doc, but we have a monster to slay- you!", Chai said. "Wait, what do you mean by 'we'?", I asked. Not wanting to answer my question, Chai strummed the strings on his guitar at an increased velocity (after all, he did have a mechanical arm), promptly summoning lightning down from the sky which I dodged. Feeling time slow down to a crawl, I capitalised on this by unleashing a storm of icicles followed by various stalagmites of wildly varying height which were in turn followed by a giant fireball. Chai countered them by unleashing a powerful eruption of flame, again created entirely by music. I then rushed towards Chai at a truly inhuman speed (keep in mind that on my perspective time had slowed down to a crawl) upon which I summoned various swords and lances to blitz Chai with.
Chai responded to my onslaught in turn by slashing all the way with his guitar; I grabbed one of the summoned lances at this and slashed at Chai in turn, parrying the various sound based attacks he launched. Managing to briefly stagger Chai, I then stabbed the lance into the ground and used it as an impromptu pole which I used to spin around, unleashing a brutal roundhouse kick to knock Chai off his feet. Not missing a beat, I then turned the lance into a pair of daggers which I then used to stab at Chai, only missing by virtue of Chai using his guitar to parry my attacks. Chai used the opening to stab his guitar at me, which I responded to by dodging just at the last second, feeling time slow down to a crawl yet again. I concentrated magical energy into my fists to form impromptu boxing gloves which I used to unleash a flurry of rapid fire punches, uppercuts and haymakers, the punches themselves radiating magical energy too. I then felt time returning to normal as I unleashed a final haymaker on Chai, the punch itself generating a truly massive sphere of fire. Not even remotely singed somehow, Chai then smiled, saying, "Well, guess I was wrong on that front.". "Touché.", I said.
Suddenly, I found myself in a strange shrine surrounded by ancient technology. The shrine itself had a large green emerald on it and was surrounded by the seven Chaos Emeralds. "Wait, is this real or an illusion?", I asked. All of a sudden, I then found myself in a bar with a very dark red glow. I saw a boy sitting a table not that far from me; he had wavy neck length ash-blonde hair and dark violet eyes and was wearing a lavender shirt, dark grey trousers and white shoes. Wanting to make sense of where I was, I walked over to him. The boy looked up at me suddenly, before giving off a weak smile. "Hi, my name's Jack. Who are you?", I asked. "Why hello there, Jack Sebastian Arnold. You may call me Joshua.", the boy said. Rather surprised by how he knew my full name, I asked, "Do you know where I am?". "Oh, that's simple. This place is the Bar of Infinity.", Joshua said. "What, like infinity as in Moebius?", I asked. "Not exactly.", Joshua said. "What do you mean by that?", I asked. "I mean, it's not like a prospective Consul to not know about the Bar of Infinity.", Joshua said. "Prospective Consul?", I asked. "Yeah. The Ouroboros themselves are looking for potential recruits for Moebius to help prolong the Endless Now so we can all exist in utter bliss for all of eternity.", Joshua said, his smile now taking on a more sinister tone. "Indeed,", he continued, "there was that impossible girl they encountered which Noah thought would make a good Consul. Not that he knows what his wife Mio and their friends have become, though.". Briefly pondering the implications of what Joshua was saying, a sense of dread then came over me. "Wait, are you saying that the Ouroboros are part of Moebius in this timeline?", I asked. "Well, it certainly is a possibility after what YHVH did to the Chronos Terminal.", Joshua said. "Because if that's the case, then all of reality is in danger. Not just from the Flood of Light, but also from Z and the rest of Moebius as well.", I said. "Why are you so desperate to defeat YHVH anyway?", Joshua asked. "Well, this is going to be very confusing, but I feel YHVH is trying to trigger a forced Quantum Time Lock wherein he will automatically win in every timeline. Usually, the multiverse engages in timeline branch proliferation automatically, but if a world advances too far in to either ruin or prosperity, it lacks the potential to branch further. Normally, the current dimension's energy is used to account for the timeline branch proliferation, but the minimum amount of branches for that specific timeline are culled whenever a Time Lock manifests. Of course, the agent that creates these Time Locks is the World which I fear YHVH is trying to become whilst the domain in which the Time Lock in question exists is called the dimension. When a Time Lock manifests, the past becomes unchangeable, which I believe YHVH is trying to use to make sure that thing gets victory in every world and every dimension.", I explained. "Well, I think I understand that anyway.", Joshua said. Thinking for a bit, he then asked, "But why do you think YHVH needs the Chronos Terminal when he could simply enter the Root and become recognised as the next World anyway?". "Maybe because that thing actually can't enter the Root; that's why it needs the Chronos Terminal because that is the most temporally-flexible area in any dimension, not necessarily Cyber Space.", I said. A flash of brilliance then entered me as I realised what I could do to stop YHVH. "Eureka, that's it!", I said. "Then you must go there.", Joshua said. "Oh, I will!", I said, rushing out of the bar. After I left, Z then approached Joshua out of the shadows. "Did I do it properly, sir?", Joshua asked, facing Z whilst a red infinity symbol lit up in his right eye (Joshua's, not Z's). "You did wonderfully.", Z said.
I gallantly rushed down the mechanical street in the dark town, briefly turning back to catch a glimpse of the Sovereign Empire's castle; a black and dark grey mechanical castle which red lines running through it. Turning around to continue on my trek, I then found myself in a disused highway that had been partially overtaken by nature. I noticed a dark red sphere in the sky and grinned, ecstatic at what would happen.
After all, history was now going to change.
The story continues in the next chapter.
