Through the door’s tear in space is something that differs greatly from the previous dark void of a world.

Inside the open doorway, I could see a field of grass, with a bright blue sky, appearing to be a complete other world when compared to the previous void. Cronos steps through, and I follow him. Right as I enter, the door shuts behind me and fades away, vanishing. I tried to touch the space where the door used to be, but I couldn’t feel anything, making me come to the conclusion that it didn’t only disappear from sight.

As I am making observations on this phenomenon, a certain rude person interrupts my thoughts.

“We Gods gain a power upon ascension. In my case it was the power to control time, as I am sure was given away by my name. I have only seen one being other than myself that had talent in ‘Time’ magic, and he past away recently. That makes you and myself the only beings alive that can train in ‘time’ magic efficiently.

This is the only reason as to why I took you in as a disciple, and if you weren’t talented, I would just let you survive by yourself. Now, as I am sure you are rushed for time, I will go ahead and ask you this: What do you think the concept of time is?”

Almost instantly I recited the words that came from a dictionary somewhere.

“The indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.”

As quickly as I read the definition straight out of a dictionary, The God of Time replied with the same speed, as though expecting my answer to be what it was.

“I don’t want the definition from a dictionary somewhere recited, I want to know your personal definition that you have created and experienced within your short new life.”

“We’ll talk about how you know about my having two lives later, for now I’ll answer your question:

In my short 4 years within this world, the concept of time that I have learnt is one that is steady and ongoing, without any deterrence. But now I have just recently learnt that the flow of time can be changed according to anyone’s will.”

“Hmm… You have a solid definition, but there are some faults. The flow cannot be changed by anyone, in fact likely other than myself and ‘Chaos’, there exists not a single being in the multiverses that can change time’s flow.

Yes, time can be slowed or accelerated and affected by ‘aura’, but it will return back to its normal flow when the ‘aura’ is let up. For now think of it as an irreversible, never ending flow, although that logic doesn’t work with me.”

He turned his back on me, walked up to a large rock and sat down on it, with his eyes staring straight at me as he continued talking.

“The thing about learning ‘Time’ magic is, that other than requiring a level of talent and affinity with the ‘aura’ type in general, it requires ironically enough, time. We can bypass this requirement to a great extent as long as you train in this place, but it would still take about 200 years for an incredible talent, greater than my own.”

“So I take it that you will be training me in it? How long will that take, as I am assuming you have a way to bypass that 200 year requirement?”

“ *sigh* I can train you for 100 years at most, if you don’t want time to pass. You see, every God upon ascension receives a gift from the being that we refer to as the ‘Creator’. No one knows who he or she is, but it bestows all Gods with gifts that are terrifyingly powerful, making us question his identity and power.

In my case, I received a physical gift, which is actually incredibly rare.”

After finishing his last sentence, his right hand shines with light as silvery threads join together to form the pocket watch with a 7cm diameter that was used to open the door to this dimension. He presses a button on the side, and the watch flips open, revealing a clock face with roman numerals 1-12, but strangely, no visible clock hands.

He holds the pocket watch in front of himself, displaying it towards me, making sure that I managed to see it fully as he explained it.

“This is the divine gift that I received. As long as it is within my ‘aura’ capabilities, I can change the flow of time within any dimension and it also amplifies my abilities quite a bit. Of course, the dimensions that I can change are very limited, as it is far too difficult to reverse the ‘time’ of other Gods, so I can only affect worlds without any Gods inside of them.

Also, I am afraid that I can’t reverse time by more than a century, as since the Gods hate me, if I were to reverse time more than that, the consequences wouldn’t be good for me.”

“Why?”

“Simple, not only would I be greatly weakened, they would also use the use of my own powers as a reason as to why I should be erased. They probably would say something along the lines of: “Oh, he is disrupting the order of the dimensions by messing with the space-time continuum” or something like that. Honestly, they never gave a shit about that before, especially when they were messing with other similar laws, just they are now far too frightened of my power, just like how they are scared of Lord Death. Heheh.”

Wait, they are scared of him? I understand that he is powerful, probably the most powerful God, but why are they so terrified if they can just group up and get rid of him, especially as immortal Gods? Also what was with that childish laugh.

As though reading my thoughts, he quickly replied to my unvoiced question.

“A tale for another time my child, now let us get back to the actual matter at hand. Everything that you experience here, will be imprinted into your soul and transferred back to your original body that is 4 years of age. You have a century to learn the slowing aspect of time, after which I will reverse the flow of time in your world by a hundred years and kick you out of this dimension, you got it?”

“Yes master.”

“Good, now I am sure that Lord Death has taught you the two applications of ‘Death Aura’?”

“Yes, imposing and reaving, he taught me it by having me experience it first hand.”

“Excellent. That is how most of the God’s divine techniques are passed down. Similarly I will pass down the technique onto you. This plane of existence is a great accelerator when it comes to training in time magic, well at least for people who are less proficient at time magic or less powerful than me, capacity-wise.

All you have to do is sit down, calm your ‘aura’ to move back into your soul and wait. That’s it. Have fun, bye.”

“Wait, what?”

Silvery flames erupt from beneath Chronos’s feet with a roar and he quickly gets consumed. As quickly as the flames appeared they vanished, leaving no trace of their existence, and no trace of Chronos.

--silence--

I mutter under my breath:

“What an irresponsible bastard.”

I sit down into a meditative posture, close my eyes and quickly start to push all the ‘aura’ flowing around my body back into my soul. I close off the entrances to the ‘veins’ temporarily by manipulating ‘aura’ and then absorbing the excess, remaining ‘aura’.

And then I sit there. And wait. And wait. And wait.

Is it meant to be like this?

A while later, I feel some kind of fluctuation in my calm soul, and as my consciousness is ready to delve deeper into my inner body, a loud roar resounds, awakening me and stopping my breakthrough in meditation.

I open my eyes and in front of me, following the disappearance of the silvery flames, a little boy around the age of 10 appears. He has silver hair reaching his shoulders and golden pupils, surrounded by a purple iris. Wearing a t-shirt and short pants, and clutching a kebab stick, he looks into my eyes.

Frankly, I was surprised, and I would’ve likely questioned his identity if I was a normal person or didn’t notice his eye colour. But even if all the facts pointed towards a certain conclusion, it was still unbelievable.

“Chro...nos?”

“That’s me.”

He replies with a smiling childish face, and brings a kebab in front of himself.

“Want one?”

“...”

“Don’t be shy, I know you’ll love it. Kebabs are great.”

“...”

“Hey, stop staring at me with silence and that scrutinizing face, it is kind of getting on my nerves.”

“... OK, mind explaining what is going on with your look?”

“Oh that... Eternal youth my child.”

“... Don’t refer to me as ‘my child’ when you’re only 10 in appearance. Also, give me the real reason please.”

He mutters something under his breath which I barely catch because of my strengthened body.

“You are younger than me still, you know as a four year old, you can’t really object to me referring to you as a young’un.”

“Tell me the reason.”

He sighs and shakes his head, as though giving up hope on something entirely.

“You’re no fun, you won’t have a good future ahead of you if you act like that. As for the reason, when you ascend to become a God, it isn’t too difficult to change your body's appearance with a bit of light bending and illusions. Didn’t you ever question why most of the Gods in mythology weren’t ugly, but instead beautiful?

As for this appearance, it actually is my real one, and I only wear that suit of armor to trick the other immortals. Then I use ‘aura’ to maneuver the armor around. If I was to actually fight however, it would have to be in this form if I was serious.”

“Wouldn’t changing appearance be a really important disguise tactics amongst you Gods?”

“Gods and the like don’t memorise people by their appearance, but rather their ‘aura’s’ and the gift that the other God received, as no two gifts are exactly the same.”

“OK, I thank you for helping me with this information, but I want to ask something of you.”

“Anything, if it helps you learn ‘time’ magic.”

Seeing his willingness to help me, I blandly state my wish and reason for.

“Leave me in peace, I was almost enlightened but your appearance ruined it. Leave, you distract me.”

Agape he looked at me, then with tears falling out of his eyes, he turned and flew away, vanishing into the artificial forest.

“ *Sigh* Why do all the immortals I meet have such strange personalities? Am I cursed?”