In Valinor, ti itself seed aningless.
Three hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
During those centuries, Sylas remained at Swan Harbor, devoting himself entirely to comprehending the profound nature of ti. He declined the invitation to reside in the palace of the Supre King, choosing instead to leave the royal domain and build a warm, secluded seaside villa with his family not far from Swan Harbor.
Living in another's residence for long periods was inconvenient, and more importantly, Sylas required a completely private space in which to use the Ti-Turners without interference.
In addition to Sylas, Arwen, and Elroth personally gathering materials for the villa, the royal domain provided vast quantities of gemstones for decoration. The rmaids of the nearby sea contributed pearls, coral, and other oceanic treasures in abundance. The villa itself beca both a ho and a sanctuary, simple in function, yet exquisite beyond asure.
Although only three hundred years passed in Valinor, for Sylas, it felt like well over a thousand years, longer than his entire previous lifeti combined.
Every single day, he used all twenty-five Ti-Turners in his possession. Once the final Ti-Turner was exhausted, he would rest just long enough for their power to recover, then begin again.
Sylas slept only when necessary.
Ti was never wasted, not a minute, not a second.
At first, Arwen and Elroth were deeply shocked by their husband and father's state. Gradually, however, they grew accustod to it. Even seeing multiple versions of Sylas working simultaneously, researching, discussing magic, or refining spells, no longer surprised them.
As for Arwen, knowing that her husband always reserved ti for her, she felt both warmth and quiet contemplation. At tis, she wondered whether to call him a tireless man… or a master of ti itself.
Over the thousands of years Sylas experienced through the Ti-Turners, his gains were extraordinary.
At the beginning, a single journey into the River of Ti would completely exhaust his ntal energy, forcing him to rest six full hours before he could use another Ti-Turner.
But as his understanding deepened, that recovery ti steadily shortened.
Six hours beca five, Five beca four, Four beca two.
Eventually, one hour.
More importantly, his ntal power began to resist the River of Ti itself.
Or rather, after being endlessly washed by ti, his consciousness beca subtly infused with its aura. The rejection he once suffered from the River weakened, and the duration for which he could perceive ti increased steadily:
Five seconds, Six seconds, Seven seconds., Eight seconds…
Eventually, after using the first Ti-Turner, Sylas no longer needed to rest at all. He could imdiately activate the next without fear of ntal collapse.
As a result, his "day" grew longer and longer.
Sylas could now chain more than a dozen Ti-Turners together, rewinding himself back several days at once. Under such circumstances, ti had essentially lost all value to him.
If he wished, he could stretch a single day into a month, or even a year.
But he did not.
Sylas had no desire to artificially inflate his lifespan any further. Ti was already abundant. What mattered was insight, not duration.
Thus, he allowed everything to proceed naturally, focusing solely on what truly mattered: Understanding the River of Ti itself.
However, as Sylas continued to endure the River of Ti for longer and longer periods, a new problem gradually erged.
The two minutes of daily comprehension he could achieve through the Ti-Turners was no longer sufficient.
More critically, there was a fundantal limitation in the Ti-Turner itself.
Each Ti-Turner allowed ti to reverse for only five seconds, granting Sylas a brief but clear window to perceive the River of Ti. Yet those five seconds were far too short. Ti and again, just as he began to grasp a crucial insight, just as his understanding was about to deepen, the reversal would abruptly end.
Even if he imdiately activated another Ti-Turner and re-entered the River of Ti, the continuity was already broken.
It was like watching the climax of a masterpiece… only for the signal to suddenly cut out.
The frustration was unbearable. More than once, Sylas nearly cursed aloud.
With no other choice, he decided to create an entirely new kind of ti artifact.
Under the constant acceleration of ti granted by the Ti-Turners, Sylas worked tirelessly for nearly a hundred years, refining designs again and again. At last, he completed his creation.
A Ti Hourglass.
Unlike the delicate Ti-Turner, this hourglass was far larger and more imposing. Its glass body was reinforced with ti-resistant materials, while its interior was filled with an enormous quantity of refined Ti Sand, densely accumulated in the lower chamber.
When upright, it behaved like an ordinary hourglass.
But when inverted;
Ti itself began to flow backward.
Because it differed fundantally from the Ti-Turner, Sylas gave it a new na: the Ti Hourglass.
In terms of raw function, it could reverse ti by only twenty-four hours, far less than the cumulative reversals possible through chained Ti-Turners. But its purpose was never extended reversal.
Its true value lay in continuity.
When Sylas inverted the Ti Hourglass, the Ti Sand began to fall slowly. Unlike the violent, instant rewinding caused by a Ti-Turner, the surrounding world reversed gradually, as if viewed through slow motion.
Buildings reconstructed themselves brick by brick. Waves rolled backward into the sea. Light itself retraced its path.
The world rewound gently.
Sylas ignored the reversing scenery entirely.
Instead, he extended his ntal power beyond the protective boundary of the hourglass.
And once more, he beheld it.
The River of Ti.
Vast and boundless, it surged like an eternal torrent, greater than any galaxy, more magnificent than the Milky Way, recording every event that had ever occurred or would ever occur.
After countless confrontations with its overwhelming force, Sylas's mind had long since been tempered.
Where once his spirit had been like fragile foam upon the current, it was now like a stone polished by endless erosion, dense, resilient, and radiant.
More importantly, prolonged imrsion had caused his ntal power itself to beco infused with the aura of ti.
Because mind and soul are inseparable, this transformation extended deeper still. Even Sylas's soul began to absorb a trace of temporal essence.
The result was profound.
His understanding of ti deepened dramatically, and his manipulation of ti magic beca increasingly effortless.
For example, the Ti-Reversal Spell he had once created, he could now reverse ti by a thousand years with ease.
With full power, even ten thousand years was no longer impossible.
Such power was already sufficient to threaten Maiar, and even Valar who possessed authority only by delegation. Even a demigod would suffer catastrophic weakening if forcibly reverted by thousands of years.
Against a Valar vested with delegated authority, Sylas might even be able to force their being to regress, stripping away the authority they wielded and casting them down from their exalted state.
Yet even so, Sylas knew this was not the end of the path.
If one day he could reverse ti by tens or even hundreds of thousands of years, then even those standing at the very summit of existence, beings who ruled through authority rather than re power, might be forced back toward their origins.
But to reach such a height required far more than comprehension alone. It demanded imnse endurance, a soul capable of withstanding ti's erosion, and foundations that had yet to be fully forged.
For now, it remained only a possibility.
...
STONES >^_^^_^<
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