There's Nothing Free in this Goddamned Universe!!!!

Aavesh now stood before a smiling Kronos. Irolin and Kronika stood beside him...

"Heh kid, not bad- I observed you went to 'that' place! Although I don't know what happened to you there- I bet my beard that you got some good stuff! Besides you even named your New Evolved Mythic Power as Renegade Aeon Mythic Power - Hahaha! Not bad I like your sense of humour kid! But there is something else that should be done now - "

With that Irolin stepped forward and spoke in a warm voice," Aavesh what do you think of Cosmic Cultivation?"

Aavesh replied back instantly," The way I can get stronger to protect those I care about!"

Irolin chuckled and spoke," Good, but remember you need another reason as well to cultivate - What do you want from Cultivation - not for others but for your self alone- do you think you have a reason for yourself?"

Aavesh then fell silent for a moment and then opened his mouth, " I do it ...because one day I want to be free from everything... fly in the warm winds of the morning sun, nothing to bother me and just at peace, with lemon soda that tingles my mouth and reminds me that I can finally rest..."

It was a bit childish, but no one laughed, Irolin got down on a knee and patted Aavesh's back warmly, he spoke, " Do you know why I cultivated, It's so I could finally find time to practice simple martial arts- not your fancy stuff, just that simple punch and kick - not to get stronger but to have fun like I did as a child... I still have a long way to go before I reach that but it keeps me going - You can lose several reasons but don't lose this Aavesh, Remember Always why you want to Cultivate "

He then spoke in a straight forward tone,

"I will be straight forward with you, Your body and soul have reached True Perfected Mortal Quality level- You may not know about this mortal quality- but it's very important in order to go beyond the Demigod level! I won't say more as in order to not implicate you, but you should know what True Perfected Mortal Quality means - It means that you have Terrifying Potential in cultivating the Body Path and the Soul Path! You may have a chance to Combine both Paths achieve the Legendary 'Bloodborne' State! My intention is to take you in as my Direct Disciple in the Path of Body Cultivation!"

As soon as he said this a thunderstorm raged within Aavesh's mind, ' This what the heck?! A new God wants to take me as direct Disciple- this - this - fuck - accept the master - think later!'

He immediately knelt down before Irolin and spoke quickly,

"I agree, Disciple Aavesh greets Master!"

Irolin warmly nodded and spoke," You shall be the 7th Disciple and my only Direct Disciple, you have 6 Seniors before you who have either become my Legacy or Honorary Disciples - You'll meet them later"

A Legacy Disciple was essentially an inheritor disciple who was specifically trained to follow in the Teacher's Footsteps and Path with very high priority and care.

They usually End up inheriting a full aspect of their Teacher.

They limit themselves to a single teacher.

A Honorary Disciple was a disciple who was cared for but at a lower level and is only given the occasional pointers in minor paths.

They take multiple teachers the most.

A Direct Disciple on the other hand could be considered as an experimental Disciple who is allowed to form their own view of their Master's Teachings and they are usually allowed to take multiple masters but for different Skills. They have more freedom than legacy disciples but do not receive the core inheritance as a Legacy Disciple.

They are nurtured as alternative Thoughts on their own practice!

Being a Direct Disciple of the God of Martial Arts and Perfection in the Body path... It was fucking Mind Blowing AHhhh!

Irolin nodded, " As a responsible Master - I must ensure that you are aware of the Faction I am in - We all are in, Our Faction is called Legion of Axioms, we are a Lawful Faction that specifically Guard The flow of Time! Our Main objective is to ensure absolute Stability of the Timeline! Master Kronos is our Legion Axiom Grand Master, I am a Platinum Legionnaire, while your Martial Aunt Kronika is a Special Rank Obsidian Legionnaire! Since you became my Direct Disciple, it is imperative that you join my Faction and you start as a basic Member- Do you have any objection to this?"

Aavesh shook his head and replied, " None at all!"

Irolin then sighed and spoke, " Although you don't have an objection - Right now we can't admit you directly, Instead I will Assign the Seeded Candidate status to you - Once you cross the 10th stage in Cultivation - you shall attend the Joining Tests - is that Clear?"

Aavesh quickly nodded, " Yes Master!"

Kronos now interjected, " Now you are my Grand Disciple! It means I can do a lot for you Kid!"

Irolin immediately spoke sternly," Aavesh show respect to your Grand Master!"

Aavesh immediately knelt down and greeted Kronos as well.

Kronos nodded and Acknowledged this calmly.

He then waived his hand and 8 very familiar Boxes arrived before Aavesh.

It was like the Cache that Perseus got him to open with that key!

'Damn -that key- Perseus took it back, he never got to entrust it to me- shit!'

'Fuck! How do I even accomplish that karmic Promise without the key? Wait those chests don't tell me they're -'

"It's just as you think - they're the Destiny Objects or The Treasures of the Pinnacle Systems of the Human Race, Don't worry Abernathy's Blessed key is not needed here- I can easily break the Runes, but that's not the important bit- These Treasures are quite intriguing", Kronos spoke with a knowing expression.

" They were the Primary Target of that Eldritch Dumb ass - the Destiny Energy within them to be exact!"

"You might be wondering why I have this?"

" Although Your Human Race managed to Send them far away to the Mythic Dimensions because of you accidentally causing a chain reaction of events "

"The Treasures are infact anomalies because they escaped fate- the fate of being consumed by an Eldritch Avatar, and in our faction - all anomalous objects that don't correspond to the Time and Fate Laws are categorised as anomalies "

"Every Anomaly is terrifying! Ranging from just bad luck to be capable of Destroying star systems - none of them can be treated casually! - Our Forces collected them immediately in order to not distort the Past and create a paradox!"

"They would normally be neutralized and stored in the Primordial Valtre's Anomaly Repository - But I kept them for you"

With that he stopped speaking and stared at Aavesh, as if to assess this and speak an opinion.

Aavesh thought of something and realised, " Grand Master, You predicted everything the moment I stepped in here?"

Kronos shook his head and chuckled, " No - Even I am not that Powerful, I divined things - bits and fragments of Possible futures - I merely observed certain eventualities the moment you came here! Not the whole thing but a certain probability - It's why I didn't fully warn or try to impose anything - I only placed a few favourable variables in our equation and just hoped for the Best!"

Aavesh suddenly felt Kronos was incredibly unfathomable - to have calculated the future to this degree... Damn!

Seeing his grand disciple's interest and focus on this power, Kronos continued, "Of Course I can fully view a Person's Past if they stood before me - like watching a Video, as for yours- Your Past is not as clear -

"There is a Powerful Distortion created by an Aeon's Mythic Power, Protecting your most deepest secrets - even I can't see them but my instincts tell me that I don't need to worry about it... As for your future, I don't see an ordered image, only possibilities - Just as with those Treasures..."

" You should understand one thing though, the Past belongs to Order, The Future belongs to Chaos - the Present is struggled between them"

" That's why Most Time Travellers are extremely wary of Traveling to the Future - Because the future can be changed at any moment, It is never fixed "

" Their Temporal senses and the rules supporting their existence begins to warp and twist when they travel to the Future, imagine how messed up everything becomes - so remember what I said and don't give into forbidden Temptations"

"Stay in your own lane to retain your sanity, remember how messed up your psyche was due to the dissonance of you receiving Memories from a Temporal Future, Unless you have sufficient power and wisdom don't think about visiting the future!"

Aavesh made a self analysis instantly on hearing this and realised - yes, memories from the future did infact fuck with his mind- hell he brought emotional baggage and Heart demons into a child version of himself!

If he wasn't lucky enough...

'Fuck!', Aavesh cursed as he felt a chill in his spine, The Consequences would be toooooo severe!

- all those shows about heroes Traveling between Timelines, Romanticizing the notion of Time Travel- they were fake! They were blatantly giving Stupid fantasies to idiots like him! He could not help but curse at himself for being so naive about Time Travel - Things were never fucking simple!

" Imagine how deranged you would have become if you actually went to the Future - Heroes have been driven mad, innocent Souls turned into the vilest Villains or forever Insane, Remember those messed up witches that gave self fulfilling prophecies? You even met that old hag- Those witches were driven mad after witnessing specific futures and now they are obsessed about making them true!"

Irolin placed a Palm on Aavesh's shoulder and spoke with a concerned tone, " Aavesh - You must understand - there are hundreds of Entities that observe temporal fragments and possibilities! But only Your Grand Master can truly properly infer them! As for others- they have long become insane!"

Kronika spoke up as well, " In my experience - all those wannabe Time Travellers who want to visit the future, have only ever been allowed to view key moments and even that has sent most of them into depression at this Era!"

" Our Enemies often use Future Traversal as a brutal tactic to enforce their Version of the future! The Only known Treasure that has been able to truly record the future is the Book of Destiny - But only certain key moments have been fixed in their Pages, how the Universe gets there depends, And now even those key moments can be changed..."

She spoke as she Gazed at Aavesh, who was clearly the culprit at changing a certain key moment in the Material Plane.

" So if ever you get dragged into the wrong Time Coordinates - use our Time Ring, It constantly records your Temporal coordinates and can send you back immediately to your Present, moreover as a first shield, it neutralizes any form of spell that targets you for designated Time Travel!"

With a swish of her fingers a plain silver colored energy ring formed on Aavesh's ring finger in his right hand and sank into it.

Aavesh then felt a subtle connection with it.

This was good stuff, especially against treacherous Eldritch Gods and their servants.

Kronika smiled at him," consider it as my first greeting gift to you, little Martial Nephew! Also use it till you officially join our Legion! Then you will naturally learn how to forge one for yourself!"

"Thank you so much for the gift Martial Aunt!",

Aavesh quickly thank her for the gift.

"Well getting right back to the Topic, Aavesh we have decided to give these Implants to you as with the full set, you will understand why it is important for you to have em all before officially starting Cultivation ", Irolin then interjected with a meaningful look in his eyes. The Topic had derailed far too long from the right track due to his Teacher's Mood.

It was important now to ensure Aavesh had all of the implants!

*POP

Kronos then waived his hand again casually at the eight caches and the boxes disintegrated like sandcastles being hit by casual water waves.

Now all the eight Implants were visible!

Aavesh suddenly heard Cardion's voice and the Blue Character interface pop up in his vision.

" DETECTED ALL IMPLANTS IN THE VICINITY! HOST PLEASE INSTALL ALL OF THEM IMMEDIATELY TO HAVE FULL AUTHORITY AND ACTIVATE ADAPT SYS! THE MACHINATION GOD KING SERIES AT FULL FORCE WILL HELP PROTEC-"

But Aavesh immediately cut him off!

" Shut up it! Now why did I not hear you from all his while?! What the hell happened?! You were not at all present when I officially awakened and altered my Mythic Path! You were silent! You locked your Interface from ME! I couldn't access or even contact you Bastard-"

Cardion hurriedly replied, " It was a necessary objective decision - I am a Machina Product! I can't just-"

However Kronos merely raised his index finger and Aavesh felt his heart Implant stop and began to experience a Seizure.

His nose began to bleed slowly as- he felt a gripping pain from his chest, causing him to convulse slightly.

But Irolin immediately held him and brought him to Kronos and spoke in a cold tone," It is as you suspected Teacher - This AI is a chess piece, the whole set is a Chess Piece- It was always their Back Up Plan, in case Aavesh decided to not accept the offer in the Test - Well given Aavesh's history with rejecting Dimensional Wills, it is unsurprising that the AI Implant went rogue... "

Kronos then comforted Aavesh, " Kid - You are in deep shit now, but we can help you- just that the process is going to hurt a lot - like A Lot!"

"Argh Ahhh! huf ufH , ukk cough, Are you hff telling me ffhh that the stupid AI was never on my side? That it was all fucking planned by 'them' ? cough cough- Fuck I knew it! never get free stuff hufff Cough Sprt Cough cough-", Aavesh spoke back in a laboured tone as his eyes had a dark realization of the situation. He began to cough out blood as well due to the struggle infused by the Implant.

Soon the situation was becoming bad as he could no longer remain fully conscious as the connection with his Substructure was also being affected by the Implant!

He kept coughing blood as they all saw the Painful look in his eyes - That AI was trying to invade his Substructure.

Kronos then spoke in a grim tone, " Kronika get Eon- the kid's unconscious key spirit and give him all of my tea to heal and wake up! If we want to salvage this situation, that key spirit's expertise is crucial!"

Kronika nodded and her body became faint - like a Hologram with a A Powerful Blue Silver sword at the Centre.

Her Spirit form then shrank to the size of a small dot and dived into Aavesh's mind pool.

Within a second she came out with a shattered and cracked figure in her arms, He was unconscious and lying in a fetal position.

Kronika's body returned to her physical form and she quickly poured the contents of the Tea Pot on to Eon.

*Splash

* Sizzle * Sizzle

*Sssssssaaaaaahhh

The Tea Healed Eon in a rapid pace, as his shattered parts grew back and his cracks disappeared.

*POW

*BOOM!

Eon jumped awake and yelled, " Shit! Aavesh we have to find a safe place to heal-"

"Eh?"

He curiously stared at his surroundings and stared dully at the four People before him...

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

He took a deep breath and Yelled from the depths of his heart with all the limited Emotions he had,

" WHAT THE FUCK!"