Arc 1: Wyvern Rebellion - Chapter 17

Cassiopeia had just arrived at a quaint little town. She wanted to look around for the moment before causing panic and destroying everything in sight. She perused the vendors on the walkway, admiring the jewelry. She picked up several and looked them over.

"You're a gem connoisseur? I'd never peg a Wyvern to be interested in such things." Abe said. He stood next to Cass, his arms folded and looking at the piece of jewelry she had in her hands. She looked at him, smiling slightly.

"Well, I suppose you're right, but it's fun to admire pretty things every now and again." She said. Abe nodded.

"I suppose so." He mused. Cassiopeia turned to face him fully.

"So you're here to stop me?" She asked. Abe nodded.

"Yup." He said simply. Cass smiled softly.

"May I at least know the name of the courageous yet foolish mage?" She asked. Abe bowed slightly.

"You can call me Abe." He said. Cass closed her eyes and continued her smile.

"That's not what you said last time." She said. Abernathy raised an eyebrow.

"Last time?" He asked. His heartbeat quickened, not wanting to assume anything, but there was a tug in his mind.

"Yeah. Last time, you said your name was Abernathy Tomlin." She said. She opened her eyes her alluring smile still on display. Abe's eyes widened as he tried to pull his sword out of the sheathe. But there was already cosmic energy in his chest. An explosion occurred between them. Purple and sparkly dust surrounded them. Abe leapt backward out of the smokescreen, his sword halfway out of the sheathe, having been able to block a portion of the damage. However, his clothing were still singed.

"You weren't wrong. You truly haven't faced me in all your time resets. You would have known what I'm capable of. I'm surprised you managed to get away with turning back time as much as you did. If I was close to you, I would have felt it the first time you used it." She explained.

"How could you have felt it?" He asked, his hands trembling. She smiled.

"Because I can feel the flow of space and time. I can tell when things are not where they should be. My magic allows my soul and consciousness to exist on two separate planes at once." She pointed out while holding her two hands up. "The body and the spirit. Most humans walk only the mortal plane, but my soul dances among the stars themselves. That is where my true power lies.

"You're a dimensional mage?" He asked, his cool crumbling. She covered her mouth with a hand. She chuckled lightly.

"Dimensional? There are very few wizards in existence that can control such things. I'm nothing of the sort." She explained while casually walking toward him. "I'm just a normal Wyvern. It just so happens that I'm beyond normal humans. Astral Projection and Cosmic magic. Those are human labels. I call it 'Fate Weaving'." She said with a smile.

"What is the difference?" He asked, his sword shaking. He needed to calm down. He could see the air around them warping.

"It's simple really. At first glance, you think everything is normal. My magic doesn't do much. But then, when wizards like you who think they are beyond their own abilities start to feel the effects. Your mind starts to play tricks on you, your thoughts get jumbled, and your senses can't tell up from down. And the best part?" She asked. Abernathy's body began to shake with fear. This was the very first time an opponent was stronger than he. She got close, her chest against his arm and her hand sliding up his chest. She leaned in close to his ear. "You won't see it coming." She said. Abe gritted his teeth. He swung his sword.

"Chrono Anchor!" He yelled. Time stuttered, lurching backward. Visions of the town, whole and vibrant, flickered before his eyes—a cruel echo of his last rewind. But then, the images warped, disintegrating into dust, just as Cassiopeia's grip tightened on his tie, a shackle against the flow of time itself. The rewind screeched to a halt, a discordant note snapping in his skull and the present returned. Abernathy's eyes widened to the point where the oxygen dried them out. His didn't notice his breathing was shuddering with each inhale. Cassiopeia's eyes looked at him with glee. She was having fun. Abernathy gripped his sword and swung with all his might, yelling. Cass raised her other hand and her cosmic power erupted between them, blowing the sword away. The weapon clattered on the ground, the noise breaking the eerie silence. The nebula shimmered with malevolent force, blinding him. As his sight returned, the dust stung his eyes, and the world tilted sickeningly. The nebula cloud had vanished, leaving them exposed, and the only thing separating them was a small distance.

"You know, if I was anyone else, I wouldn't be able to stand you." She said. Abe gritted his teeth.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Wizards who can alter time are dangerous. You're dangerous. You can undo anything that is done. You could go back in time and try again and again until you're satisfied. If you really wanted to, you could live the perfect life." She explained. Abernathy's mind reeled at her words. He knew that. He had the potential to change the course of the entire world. But he didn't want that. He didn't want to change things. The last time he did, it erased everything that mattered to him.

"I have no intentions of changing the world." He said. Cass smiled.

"That's good. I don't like people who abuse their power. That's why I'm here." She said. She pushed him away with ease. Abe fell backwards, sliding on the ground. Cassiopeia smiled, a twinkle in her eyes. "Let's have some fun. I can see your true potential. It's brimming like a well. I'll bring it out. Let's dance, Abernathy." She said. She held her hands up.

" Fate's Weave Nebula Blast!" She yelled, the nebula appearing from her hands and shooting at Abe. Abernathy shot to his feet and dove to the side, the explosion changing his trajectory. His body hit the ground with a rough thud, and he sprinted for his sword. He reached out and grabbed it, running off to the side. The nebula cloud dissipated, and Cassiopeia smirked.

"You're quite fast. It's a shame that you'll lose this fight. It's almost a waste of time." She laughed aloud. Abe ran down and began to cut down the streetlamps and placing anchors on each one. They fell immediately to the ground with a crash. Cass looked down and shook her head with a tut.

"Getting desperate are we?" She asked rhetorically. She sashay toward the fleeing time wizard, her smile never leaving. Abernathy turned and snapped his fingers. Each lamp returned to their original form, the moment they were cut. They each fell, collapsing toward the Wyvern. Cass looked up and smiled. "You know, I like you." She said. Her voice was filled with joy. "But I'm going to have to cut this short." She said. A purple circle appeared under her. Abe's eyes widened, seeing the symbol.

"NO!" He yelled.

"I hope you enjoy the show, Abernathy!" She said. The ground under her shattered. A massive explosion erupted from her, the shockwave hitting everything around them. The houses shook, the streetlamps cracked, and the cobblestone streets shattered. Abe covered his face, but the shockwave lifted him and sent him flying through the air. He yelled out in pain, his back hitting the ground. He looked around, the destruction was massive. The entire area was leveled.

"No... I failed." He said. He lifted his hand and activated the first anchor, rewinding time to right before he met with the Wyvern...

"May I at least know the name of the courageous yet foolish mage?" She asked. Abe eyes snapped open, seeing himself stand behind the Wyvern like they had done initially. In her hand she was holding a crimson ring. She had put it on and was admiring it. The ring glittered red on her finger, taunting him. Had she always worn it? The vendor's stall, the layout of the street… something was wrong. His chill pulsed like a stolen heartbeat, flashes of the gem vendor, the lamp he anchored; had it been like this the whole time? Had he already reset without realizing?"

"H-how did you? I didn't set my anchor here." He panicked. "Cassiopeia chuckled, a sound like wind chimes shattering against a tombstone.

"I figured out how to disrupt those cute little lights you put on everything. I found the one you placed before we met, and I toyed with it a little." She confessed. Abernathy's heart dropped; the implications were terrifying. "So, tell me your name." She teased.

Abernathy's vision swam. It was like waking from a fever dream where the world was subtly wrong. He blinked hard, trying to focus on the cracks in the cobblestone, the chipped paint of the merchant's stall – anything to anchor himself in the familiar. It wasn't working.

"So tell me about these lights," Cassiopeia's voice cut through his swirling thoughts, sweet yet laced with a predator's satisfaction. She held up her hand, the crimson ring flashing in the midday sun. "Do they mark time as a whole, or just little pieces of it?"

He swallowed; his throat parched. "They... mark moments." A vague truth, but one he hoped wouldn't reveal too much.

Cassiopeia tilted her head, her smile never wavering. "Moments like a dropped cup, or the fall of a city? And what if I told you I can feel them, even those you haven't touched yet?"

His heart pounded a frantic rhythm against his ribs. Was she bluffing? With every passing minute, he felt weaker, the world around them less certain. "That's impossible," he managed, though it sounded hollow even to his own ears.

With a flick of her wrist, the vendor's stall lurched sideways, baskets spilling to the ground. The air hummed with a discordant note.

"Is it?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with a dangerous delight. "You reset the pieces, Abernathy, but I play with the whole board."

A bead of sweat trickled down his temple. Each reset, each tampering with time, tore at something within him. Now, it felt like he was standing on the edge of a chasm, the ground crumbling under his feet.

"You see..." Cassiopeia continued, her voice a chilling, sing-song lilt. "The difference between you and me isn't just power, it's perspective. You cling to the past, while I dance across the threads of fate itself. That ring on my finger? Consider it a souvenir from one of your precious resets… one you didn't even know you made." She expressed, grabbing his hand, and placing the crimson piece of jewelry in his palm. The crimson stone felt heavy, containing the weight of years embedded within it, the echoes of every rewind anchored to this trinket. His hand trembled, not with weakness, but with the enormity of what she offered.

"You want me to give up." It wasn't a question, but a dull ache in his chest.

"Give up?" Cassiopeia tilted her head, her smile both mocking and curious. "Oh no, Abernathy. I offer you a gift. Imagine… those friends of yours, a life where your power never twisted their fates, never burdened them with battles they wouldn't have faced."

His guildmates' faces swam before him, strong and vibrant, the subtle glow of tree spirit magic fading with every heartbeat. They fought for a future he couldn't seem to win, bolstered by a power that might extinguish as easily as a candle flame.

"You…you wouldn't hurt them?" The question hung heavy in the air; a thread of hope intertwined with dread.

Cassiopeia's laughter was like crystal shattering. "Hurt them? No. They'd simply forget you ever existed. Though…that girl of yours…there's no trace of your meddling around her." She paused, a glint of amusement in her eyes. "You could erase yourself, but their marks might linger…or unravel in unexpected ways. Lyra's heart would never know you existed."

A horrifying realization dawned. Every reset, every moment he clung to, exposed him further to her gaze. A vision of Lyra flashed through his mind – her laughter untouched by his meddling, yet a new flicker of defiance burned in his heart. Fiora could change things. Gideon believed…

"These anchors of yours," she gestured towards the fallen crimson gem, "They aren't mere trinkets. They're slivers of your essence, echoes of the world as it was… and those echoes bleed into the astral plane, where I can pluck them like ripe fruit."

A chill ran down his spine. If he vanished, what would become of Fiora, their only hope against the Dragon King? His gaze hardened. Gideon's words echoed in his mind –"I see. Then I guess I should use my trump card." Gideon cast a spell. His body began to glow.

"From what I remember, you try to find openings and exploit them. What if I give you no openings?" He asked... It was time to fight fire with fire.

He closed his eyes, the ring a burning coal against his skin. The decision suddenly felt less like a surrender and more like a leap into an even deeper abyss. "I need... one more guarantee," he rasped. "If I activate my emergency anchor, rewind years back… you won't follow, won't interfere?"

Cassiopeia smiled sweetly. "You have my word, Abernathy. A clean slate, a life untainted by your precious resets… and perhaps the chance to make new mistakes entirely. Or perhaps…" she added, her eyes glinting dangerously, "To finally face a fate you cannot change."

He raised his shaking hand, the emergency anchor a glowing gold nestled deep within his sleeve, a last resort he'd prayed never to use. It flickered and changed hues, having been fed magic for a very long time. But this time, a desperate gamble flickered alongside the despair. "Fine," his voice cracked, echoing the man he once was and the strategist he was desperately trying to become. "I give up." His eyes fell to the ground, not wanting to face the shame of having said the words. When Abe looked back up, Cassiopeia stood right in front of him. He eyes stared deeply into his, as if they were searching for something deeper. So deep that he'd never allow it to see the light of day.

"Look me in the eyes when you say it, Abernathy. I want to see the great time wizard of the Emerald Oasis, to admit defeat." Her expression changed into one that she hadn't shown before, being serious.

His hand trembled as it lifted, fingers clenching. It wasn't surrender in his eyes now, but a desperate, determined spark. "Chrono Anchor: Point of Origin!"

He created shards of light and tossed them all over the place. The air around them shimmered, distorting with a strange, crackling energy. But instead of the familiar sense of rewinding, the loop felt distorted, unstable. His own power, mingled with the weakening tree spirit magic, buckled under a force he didn't recognize.

Cassiopeia's laughter was cut short, replaced by a flicker of surprise, swiftly veiled by a predatory glint. "Curious," she murmured, "Your gambit holds… for now. But how long can you keep this up, little mouse?"

The world warped around them, the loop stuttering. Visions of burning homes and desperate faces flickered in and out of existence, a grotesque echo of his own failures and Cassiopeia's chilling intrusion. He couldn't give up, but every heartbeat felt like a borrowed second.

The initial distortion of reality crescendos into full-blown chaos. Cobblestones erupt in jagged spikes, then dissolve into swirling pools. A quaint bakery twists, its sign transforming into a monstrous fanged maw that snaps at Abernathy as he sprints past. The rules of the world are not just broken – they're actively fighting them both.

The ground beneath Abernathy threatened to liquefy, a sickening lurch throwing him off balance. In a last-ditch effort, he flung a Chrono Anchor towards the swaying cobblestones. The air crackled as a sliver of reality solidified around it – not fully, but enough to give him a precarious foothold. He scrambled up the half-formed stone, dodging a molten stream that snaked from a now-melting fountain. Cassiopeia smirked, the warped surroundings seemingly at peace around her.

"It's no use, Abernathy," she chimed. With a flick of her wrist, the air itself shimmered. Wisps of darkness coalesced, not into solid shapes, but echoes of emotions – the pleading face of a woman from his burning hometown, a twisted echo of Lyra's laughter, a phantom flicker of Basil's disappointment. They swirled around him, whispers of failure and regret seeping into his mind.

Each dodge, each frantic glance for escape, drained the Point of Origin spell further. The loop stuttered sickeningly, glimpses of his past and terrifying visions of the future flickering in and out of existence. His borrowed tree spirit magic dwindled, his own energy fueling the unraveling of reality itself. With a gasp, he realized Cassiopeia wasn't as unaffected as she seemed. Her movements held a subtle strain, her laughter a touch more frantic. Perhaps even her connection to the astral plane was strained by the warp in reality. With a surge of desperate hope, he pushed harder on the Point of Origin, the world shuddering.

The environment responded with a terrifying lurch. The ground rippled, throwing both of them off their feet. The partially formed buildings shrieked and twisted, merging, and collapsing in a nightmarish symphony of destruction. As the world splintered apart, the last thing Abernathy saw was Cassiopeia's eyes, widening in unexpected alarm.

Then darkness swallowed them whole.

Silence was the loudest sound.

Abernathy felt fear beyond fear. His mind threatened to fall apart. He tried to use his power, just enough to fight, and the world collapsed all around. He wanted to save his home, and he lost control. Just how he lost control when he tried to save his home.

"I'll save you! Please! Please don't go!" A young Abe sobbed as his family crumbled into dust. All around, his home, his town, all of it, faded from existence.

And now, he failed once more. Should he try to bring it all back? Did he deserve to bring it back? He pulled out the shimmer of light that he held onto for after all this time. His life saving anchor. The anchor he made before he even entered Magnolia Town and met Basil. He held the floating shard in his hand and stared at it for what felt like eternity. Perhaps... he should let it go.

"Abernathy." A voice rang out. He turned about, looking all over.

"Lyra?" He asked to the darkness.

"Abernathy~." Another voice came.

"Coral..." He responded.

"Abe!" A young voice called.

"Zeph..." He asked once more.

"Abe-senpai!"

"Abe!"

"Abernathy-san."

"Abe-san!"

"Why the long the face, Abernathy?" Basil's voice asked.

Tears fell down his face. There was nothing all around him. He was in the center of nothing. And yet, he felt hope.

"No. I can't give up. I won't." He declared to the darkness. His guild emblem on his ribs began to shine. The Lacrima in it still existed, lighting up his surroundings. Suddenly, the anchor in his hand didn't feel so heavy.

"I have a faint sense you used your time magic." Basil spoke. His eyes were full of worry.

"It's all good master. I didn't want to miss an opportunity to get some really strong mages to join our guild. I think they'd make fine additions to our guild."

The anchor in his hand felt impossibly fragile, the once-comforting light now tinged with regret. With a final, lingering glance at it, Abernathy clenched his fist. The anchor shattered, not with a crash, but an inward implosion. Shards of memory-infused time magic swirled around him, a maelstrom of flickering past moments.

"I'll sever my tie to the past…" His voice was a fierce whisper in the fading darkness. The shards surged, not dispersing, but coalescing into a blinding sphere of light. " ...and place my faith in them!"

With a triumphant cry, he thrust his hand forward. The sphere of light exploded outwards; a wave of restorative magic fueled by years of stolen time. The fractured void warped and bent, reality snapping back into place with a disorienting jolt. They tumbled back into the remnants of the battleground, the warped buildings and churning ground solidifying around them.

Cassiopeia, momentarily dazed, staggered to her feet. But what Abernathy saw wasn't the composed astral mage; it was unbridled fury. Something had rattled her, a crack in the mask of absolute control.

"You dare…" Her voice was a feral snarl. "How dare you defy fate itself!"

The air around her shimmered, not with her usual cosmic glow, but something darker, more chaotic. Her skin took on an iridescent sheen, scales rippling into existence where smooth flesh had been. Claws sprouted from her fingers, starlight glinting off fangs. The transformation wasn't clean or elegant – it pulsed with a terrifying, unstable energy.

Nebulae swirled across her chest; constellations glittered on her limbs. With each enraged breath, black holes seemed to flicker in her eyes, threatening to consume everything in their path.

This was no longer a battle of mage versus mage. This was a desperate clash against a force of nature unleashed, and Abernathy had a chilling realization: he might have just made his most dangerous enemy yet. The shattered anchor swirled around Abernathy. It wasn't just the shattered fragments of time magic, but the voices of his guildmates, the memory of Lyra, that ignited a defiant spark in his eyes. With a battle cry, he lunged for Cassiopeia.

Abernathy's sword, the worn metal etched with sigils of his lost home, flashed from its sheath. It was more than a weapon now, a bridge between the past he'd resolved to leave behind and the future he fought to forge. He wouldn't reset, wouldn't rewind. He'd stand firm, and let fate decide.

A flick of his wrist, an anchor stuck and froze pebble in mid-air. Using it as a pivot, he whirled beneath a starlight blast, the searing heat singeing his clothes. Dust swirled and then froze, a makeshift shield deflecting another star-forged attack. Cassiopeia's rage fueled immense power, but it came at a cost—her precision suffered. He had to exploit that, or be torn to shreds beneath those claws.

He slapped another anchor on and reversed the trajectory of a falling chunk of masonry, forcing the Wyvern to dodge her own projectile. The ground, only partially restored by the unleashed anchor, shuddered, and cracked, throwing them both off balance. A flickering black hole twisted in the air, a maw threatening to consume them both. For an instant, mage and Wyvern were forced into an uneasy truce, leaping out of harm's way with frantic coordination.

With every clash, the partially restored world became their weapon. Abernathy's movement left afterimages, fractured echoes of the time magic he wielded for offense, not despair. Cassiopeia's claws painted constellations with each swipe, her roar bending light and sound in terrifying, disorienting ways.

Hope was a fragile thing in the face of such raw power. Abernathy knew this wouldn't be a clean victory if it was a victory at all. But his sword rose again, the metal glinting with defiance beneath the warped cosmic sky. He'd sever his ties to the past, place his faith in the future... and fight like he'd never fought before. He kept moving, taking Gideon's essence, and continued to relentlessly attack the Wyvern. He didn't know how long he could keep up, but he knew that he wouldn't be the only one fighting as hard as he was. He knew his guild was out there putting their lives on the line too.

Abernathy's final attack crackled with desperation, causing the very fabric of reality to warp and buckle. He had to get a strike in, no matter what. Fueled by Gideon's lessons, he pushed forward with unexpected force, not seeking to rewind, but shatter, to disrupt the cosmic weave that held Cassiopeia's power.

His eyes locked with hers, her nebula-swirled gaze wavering with the strain of countering his onslaught. Time itself felt like a weapon in his aching hands, each heartbeat a drumbeat of resistance. A flicker, not of fear, but unfamiliarity, crossed her face – this wasn't a struggle she'd known before.

Then, the impact. Not the clean strike he'd hoped for, but enough – a glancing blow of raw, unstable power raked across her arm, leaving a trail of shimmering starlight. It wasn't victory, merely the first strike drawn against an impossibly powerful foe. She retaliated swinging her claw and knocking him away.

Cassiopeia reared back, her Wyvern form towering over him. But there was a new tension in her stance, a calculated assessment beneath the rage. He fought to stand, his body screaming in protest. The backlash of his magic coursed through him, blurring his vision, the tree spirit power a fading echo within him.

She stalked closer, her human form coalescing from shimmering stardust. "Why don't you give up, Abe?" Her voice held a strange mix of taunt and genuine question. "You barely scratched me; your borrowed power is spent...you're at my mercy."

Abernathy, defiance his last weapon, forced himself upright. "Maybe…" His reply was a gasp, tinged with wry defiance. "But haven't you learned, Wyvern? Mice…they keep fighting…"

She laughed, a sharp, brittle sound, but the humor faded swiftly. Her gaze fixed on him, not with disdain, but a dark intensity. "You are... curious, little mage. Foolishly, persistently… curious." With a motion more dismissive than threatening, she gestured towards the shattered remnants of the town square. "Your defiance has earned you a reprieve. Consider this a…truce, until our paths cross again."

She turned to leave but was stopped by confusion.

"What? T-Truce? What do you mean?" Abe asked, looking a gift horse in the mouth. Cass gave a tut and turned back around getting close and putting her fingers under her chin.

"It's exactly how it sounds. Fighting you has lost its meaning with me. As a matter of fact," She explained, taking a finger and booping him on the nose. "I want to see you and your guild fight Lord Wyrnxoth. You reset so many times, and yet you destroyed the one thing that allowed to go back over and over. That means you have an unfathomable amount of trust in whoever you think will win against him. Wyvern Slaying Magic alone isn't enough to just snuff him out. That slayer of yours better be ready to the fight of his existence." She leaned forward and met eyes with the time mage.

"Don't get killed, handsome. I'm not done with you yet." With a final playful smile, her body dissolved into cosmic dust. He could see a translucent form disappear into the air. Abe dropped to his rear, and looked around. Everything was back to normal. Abe laughed ruefully. She used his power to turn back time just enough to put everything back to the way it was with her boop.

"Hahh, I hate fighting. Master better let me sleep for an eternity."