Association Headquarters, Turkey, Shadow World
After the battle between Neo and the Awakener Association, which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Association, ti passed like a blur.
Neo's actions caused a lot of changes.
Awakeners all over the world were in an uproar.
The news spread that an awakener had singlehandedly defeated the Awakener Association and put Typhon in a deep slumber.
It pissed off Emma when Jack wasn't given any credit.
As for Jack himself, he couldn't care less about the news.
His focus was on searching for Neo.
Neo had disappeared from the face of the world.
If not for a new vision of Apollo, which showed Neo fighting Typhaon, Jack would've thought Neo had left the Shadow World.
Since the vision confird Neo was still sowhere around, Jack decided to stay.
He joined the Awakener Association temporarily.
In the next few weeks, the Awakener Association demanded a reason from the Titans for supporting Neo during the previous battle.
Kronos revealed his reason at the Council eting.
"I helped Neo Hargraves because my intuition told to trust him."
It was a simple yet highly irresponsible reason.
Unfortunately, the Awakener Association couldn't hold him accountable as Neo was right in the end, and Kronos was the leader of Titans.
Kronos was an existence they couldn't judge easily.
He was one of the only two SSS-rank awakeners.
During the sa council eting, it was decided that the fact Jack and Neo were from the future would be hidden for obvious reasons.
The council also demanded Jack to explain why he had stayed behind in the past after everything ended.
"The world is going to end because we couldn't save the Child of Mana on ti," Jack said. "Neo and I've stayed behind because of it."
A lot of awakeners were skeptical of Jack's claim.
To point out an obvious reason, if the future was destroyed, how were Jack and Neo still alive?
They should've been dead because the future where they were born was destroyed.
Jack, being soone who rarely paid attention in classes, didn't know how to explain the situation.
His confusion was visible as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
At that mont, Kronos helped Jack.
His friendly tone cut through the skepticism.
"They are alive because of paradoxes," Kronos began.
"Think about it," Kronos continued. "If soone goes into the past and kills their grandfather, what would happen?"
"The grandfather dies."
"If the grandfather dies, their grandchild is never born."
"If the grandchild is never born, he can't go back into the past and kill his grandfather."
"If the grandfather isn't killed, then the grandchild is born again, and he goes back into the past to kill his grandfather again ."
"This is a paradox,"
Kronos explained, pacing slowly around the hall as his gaze t the eyes of each council mber.
"It is a constantly changing past. Such changes cause deformities in the tiline."
Kronos paused.
He let the weight of his words sink in before continuing.
"Paradoxes can cause the tiline to break. That's why Ti deals with paradoxes itself. How do you suppose this happens?"
"Ti orders its servants to—"
"Shut up, Atlas. Don't disturb when I'm doing sothing important," Kronos said, giving a sharp glare to Atlas, who had been about to interject.
Atlas chuckled awkwardly, and looked away, avoiding Kronos' glare.
"There are multiple ways Ti can deal with a paradox," Kronos continued. "I'll explain it using the grandfather-grandson example I used earlier."
"First option is, Ti destroys whatever device was allowing the grandson to go back to the past,"
Kronos began, his voice calm yet authoritative.
"Secondly, Ti can punish the grandson by forcing him to go through 'Unrembrance' or 'Ti Slipping.' Due to these, the grandson won't be able to return to the past and kill his grandfather."
"Third option is, the grandson is killed before he kills the grandfather. Let's say a truck kills him while he's going to the grandfather's house. This death is more of a death caused by Fate rather than by Ti."
"Fourth option is, it turns out the grandson was adopted, or his mother had cheated, so killing the grandfather doesn't stop the grandson from being born and a paradox is not created."
Kronos paused, scanning the room.
The faint sound of shuffling feet echoed in the vast chamber as the awakeners absorbed his words.
"This is what happens with small-scale paradoxes," he added
Then, his tone deepened.
"But what happens if it was a large-scale paradox?"
The air seed to grow tenser as Kronos continued.
"Let's say the grandfather had developed a cure for cancer. His death will affect a lot of other people, and it will beco the cause of a major paradox. How does Ti solve it?"
He allowed a mont of silence to draw attention before speaking again.
"It will try to use the previous options I've ntioned. But what if those options won't work?"
Kronos's eyes narrowed.
"Then…"
The council chamber seed to hold its collective breath as he continued.
"Ti will use forceful changes.
"The grandfather will be alive even if he has been killed by the grandson.
'Ti will achieve this by rging the constantly changing pasts where the grandfather is killed and where he is still alive because the grandson was never born."
Kronos observed the expressions around him.
He noted the confusion that painted most faces.
"Sigh, I'll explain it in simpler terms," he said.
"Ti will bring the grandfather from the tiline where he was alive and put him in the tiline where the grandfather is dead."
The explanation he gave was both wrong and right at the sa ti.
Only one tiline could exist at once.
In other words, two different tilines could not coexist.
The appearances of paradoxes created deformities in a tiline—resulting in the branching of the tiline and causing multiple tilines to be born.
However, since Ti didn't want multiple tilines to exist, it rged the tilines into one.
This 'rging' would cause the grandfather to exist even after he was killed.
Because the grandfather was brought from the tiline where he was never killed and put into the tiline where he was killed.
"This type of solution is the last resort when Ti has no other way to solve the paradox."
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