"By the way, Evo" Reid paused "If this place is considered a tiless space, should the evolution technically happen instantly?"
Normally, evolving his Forged Beasts required a tir, but if ti didn’t flow here, wouldn’t that restriction be aningless?
[Sigh] Evo let out a sigh [This place is only considered tiless when you’re within it.]
"I see" Reid nodded in understanding before turning to his forged beasts "now, who wants to help kick so hybrid ass."
His Forged Beasts looked even more excited than he was. After all, they had sensed just how badly he had been at a disadvantage while fighting alone in that cave.
"Great then," he took a dramatic pause before pointing directly at Rusty "Rusty, I choose you."
"....."
[....]
Reid imdiately regretted saying so sh*t he learnt from anis of the past and maybe it was just his embarrassnt speaking, but he could feel his forged beasts judging eyes.
"Erm, moving on" he cleared his throat, trying to change the subject.
But he still felt judged by his forged beasts, heck, even Axie who was supposed to be the cute and innocent one sohow managed to look disappointed.
[That was painful to hear,] Evo deadpanned.
"Alright, alright! Let’s just pretend that never happened," Reid quickly waved them off before focusing on Rusty again. "You ready, buddy?"
"Squeak" Rusty replied in excitent.
"Alright Evo, use [Synergize]" he commanded.
The process began and even though he had experienced it before, it still felt novel. He felt a layer of armor wrapping itself around him as a temporary core ford within.
His muscles stretched and reford themselves, as he grew in height. He also felt a new set of circulatory form in conjunction to his already existing ones.
These ones ran through his heart, brain and essentially entire body. They were ford to allow easier flow of soul power through him without wastage.
Despite the seemingly cruel process, with his muscles and skeletal structure increasing all at once, Reid barely felt any pain, only a tingling sensation running through his entire body.
A few seconds passed before Evo announced.
[Synergy complete]
A brilliant white light engulfed Reid, and when it finally faded, he was gone—vanished from the Forge Lab, leaving only his Forged Beasts behind. All except for Rusty.
"Good luck, Papa!" a small, innocent voice chid in the lab, making the other Forged Beasts turn in surprise.
"What?" Beel huffed, now in its tiny, fairy-like humanoid form. "Is it really that weird that I can talk?"
The other Forged Beasts stared at Beel in silence before simply turning away. After all, out of all of them, Beel had the most abilities—so gaining the ability to speak wasn’t all that surprising.
________
anwhile, back in the cave, the flash of light returned and with it ca Reid. The light dimd, revealing the changes he had undergone when he rged with Rusty.
The first noticable thing was his pristine white armor, similar to those that knights wore.
Engraved on the armor were multiple golden runes that ford the shape of the hands of a clock.
In his hand, he held a sword that seed to release white flas, but if one took a closer look, they’d see the space around the blade distorting, constantly breaking and fixing itself.
But the feature that stood out the most were his eyes. His once blue irises had changed to golden, with the hands of a clock constantly moving within.
"This feels aweso" Reid comnted as he clenched his free hand into a fist.
He could clearly feel the power coursing through his entire being, and his sword, he instinctively knew that the flas burning on it was anything but normal.
It was Temporal flas,a manifestation of compressed ti that burned not with heat, but with the erosion of monts themselves.
He could also feel that his existence was no longer bound to just this tiline. With just a thought, he knew he could slip between multiple monts, traversing the past, present, and even the possible future if he willed it.
[I wouldn’t recomnd that,] Evo cautioned. [You have less than five minutes in this form, and every skill you use will significantly drain that ti. Make sure every move counts.]
Reid nodded and turned to the creature. It hadn’t made a sound all this while...or rather, it couldn’t.
Because of Reid’s new form, ti refused to move forward without his instruction so the creature hadn’t moved an inch from the spot it stabbed Reid.
Approaching, Reid slashed the hand with the tendrils that had previously pinned him to the cave wall.
A large cut appeared on the space around the creature’s hand, but because of the stopped ti, it didn’t.
Reid could have gone for the kill—it would have been as easy as a flick of his sword—but he chose not to.
The creature had ’kindly’ given him the opportunity to fight back, so he was going to return the favor.
With a snap of his fingers, ti resud its normal flow.
"—talking about?" The creature completed its earlier words but the pain from his severed had quickly caught up.
"Arrrrghh!" It scread in agony as the hand fell off.
The pain it currently felt currently was multiplied as the slash had cut every version of it, regardless of tiline and the current one felt it all.
Reid watched in silence, gripping his sword tightly. He had expected it to suffer, but even he was surprised by how severe the backlash was.
[You’ve inflicted a paradox wound,] Evo explained. [Since your attack severed its existence across multiple tilines, it’s now caught in a temporal distortion. Every version of itself is registering the injury at once and all the pain is being sent directly to it.]
"Sounds like a ’him’ problem," Reid muttered, rolling his shoulders. He could still feel the power surging within him, but the clock was ticking—literally.
"What the hell are you?" The creature scread out despite the pain it was feeling.
Reid tilted his head, considering the question. "Y’know, I was about to just say ’your worst nightmare,’ but honestly, that’s kinda cliché, isn’t it?"
"So let’s just say I’m a kid who got really lucky while searching for scrap".
The creature let out a snarl an launched itself at him although its hand hadn’t completely healed yet.
[Pause]
Reid activated, causing the entire world around the creature to freeze. Its body stiffened mid-air, its muscles locked in place, unable to even tremble.
Reid swung his sword vertically at the creature, completely cutting it in half. But due to the frozen ti, the two halves held together.
When the ability wore off, the monster didn’t even get the chance to scream.
A second passed.
Then it collapsed, its left half separated from the right side, spraying a pool of towards him.
The blood froze in ti before reaching him and dropped to floor.
"That was disappointing" Reid said before synergize suddenly deactivated, causing him to crash into the floor face first, completely passed out.
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