Chapter 209 Don’t You Think So, Ragnar~

~Pov Ragnar~ (Third person)

'Where am I?' Ragnar thought. Everything was a blur, like the world was erasing itself in front of him. Subtle thoughts and distant memories came and went, as time seemed to stand still. Everything was becoming white, as more cracks started appearing, making the whole area around him disappeared.

"You are in our subconscious again, the part that's connected to the river of time!" a copy of Ragnar told him.

Turning around, Ragnar exclaimed, "Time me, what brings you here?"

"This is my home, the place that symbolizes me! Of course I'd be here!" he said, almost offended by the stupid version of himself.

"Well, I guess, so, what will we be doing here?" Ragnar asked.

"Don't know, that's up to you, just don't dive to deep, or you might die. Remember what Cronus said, watch out for the other Eras!" Time Raptor Ragnar said and disappeared into the white.

As the world turned fully white, no other color precent, a small black dot appeared in front of Ragnar. Getting an intrusive urge, Ragnar floated towards the sphere like dot and touched it, a big mistake. Because the next second it exploded on his face.

…

The white room was replaced by a dark one. All around Ragnar black holes rained, literally. Black vortexes, variating in size fell on a pinkish surface, covered by pure black.

A lotus flower fully extended, was covered in a layer of black, created from the omni-omni-omni-trillions of black holes. The world was covered in them, just falling on the flower, coming from who knows where. The extended flower moved from time to time and with its flowers twitching Ragnar grew stiff.

There was something in the midst of the flower, instead of the usual pollen and stuff, a creature was stuck to the flower. It had six limbs similar to arm's on its body, going in a circle around itself. Its body was like a dragon, scaled in the same darkness that was raining down, slightly humanoid too. But humanoid doesn't describe it the best way, as this shape has existed before humans were born. Its head looked like a buffalo's head with scales instead of fur.

The second after Ragnar appeared there and slightly regained his cool, the entity turned to him and simply said, "Leave"; without even knowing what happened, Ragnar was sent turmoiling through time.

The corridor of time Ragnar was used to greeted him, but nothing was familiar, all the different times and events were unfamiliar to him. He still had no control over himself and bursted into a random time, in a random place.

"The heck" he grumbled, as he stood up. His whole body ached, screaming at him to lay down and accept fate.

Feeling a sudden threat, Ragnar flinched and jumped back. Around him had been several confused beings, pointing their starfish, spear-like weapons at him. "Who are you, state your name!" one of the beings said, flabbergasted by what he just think he witnessed. Ragnar stood next to then just a second ago, surrounded by their weapons, then he just appeared fifty meters away, with a hostile stance.

Ragnar was at edge, so much in fact he had grabbed his sheathed katana and prepared to unsheathe it, something that would kill everything around him. That being that told him to leave, it made him fear for his life in every way possible, he couldn't even begin to comprehend what it was.

"Who I am, well, the name's Ragnar!" he answered the people in front of him. The place he was in was a desert, full of sand. The people in front of him were animals and beasts of different kinds, humanoid.

"It's actually called Ethological, the state of being humanoid that is. Humans were not the first with that shape after all!" Ragnar heard and turned around, threatening to hurt whatever just talked to him.

"Oh, don't concern yourself with me, I'm Farkius, also known as the eleventh dimension. You seem to have made it here on mistake, so I'll excuse your rudeness. Anyways, so this is how the experiment is going, how intriguing. Your grasp on time is magnificent, but you aren't purely one origin concept, so you're a failure in a way. My condolence!" the being said, this time it came from Ragnar's right. It hadn't actually appeared in front of him, but spoke to him through his mind.

Ragnar was getting irritated by the entity reading his mind and wanted to attack him, but had no way to do so.

"Ah, my apologies young one, I have a bad habit you see, reading your mind isn't something I do to offend you, but you better be on your way soon! You don't belong here and never will! Talk to my people and go, that simple." the being said and went quiet, never to speak to Ragnar again.

"Why are you here?" one of the brave beastmen asked, quickly getting in position to point his weapon at Ragnar again. Holding his laughter, Ragnar's stiffness was totally gone. Somehow speaking to Farkius had calmed him down, the reason was unknown and he couldn't even bring himself to care.

"No special reason, I will be leaving now, if that's okey with you all." Ragnar said and slowly lifted his hands above his head, symbolizing he meant no harm.

"Who do you think you are, we won't just let…" one of the beastmen said, only to find out he was talking to air. Ragnar had disappeared just as he came, one second there, the next second, not.

…

"What am I even searching for?" Ragnar said out loud, while walking through the corridor in the river of time.

He had no idea where to go and the one person who could guide him left, leaving him to find his own path. The small empty gap inside the river, where Ragnar walked was covered in neon light. It made everything feel so safe, comfortable, like it was his home. But Ragnar no longer connected to himself in that way, chaos made him feel safe, secure and powerful, just like the river. How could he trust something like that again, no way, even Ragnar learns from his mistakes.

All of a sudden Ragnar was overcome by a instinct, the instinct to jump into the river, a specific place, it was calling for him like never before. He fought himself, but eventually he lost the battle and plunged into the new river.

…

"What the hell?" Ragnar exclaimed. His hands had turned spectral, like the rest of his body, like he was there, but wasn't. A ghost, Ragnar had become a ghost. He was inside a spacious house, similar to modern homes on earth. It had an European astatic to it.

Floating through the spacious living room, Ragnar flew towards a room several hundreds of meters away, where he heard voices. Babies crying, a mother's voice and something else, that gave Ragnar ptsd for some reason.

Ragnar passed several portraits of old men and women, as he headed for the room. But before he reached it he came to an halt. Right in front of him was a painting of a clown. It was dressed in red and green, with a massive grin, its red eyes staring right into Ragnar's subconscious. The teeth with no end, the limbs slim and long, he had seen this before. Before Ragnar could have a seizure, he was brought back to reality by the voices. A outworld like voice was talking to a women.

"They're all useless, dispose of them, we'll have to make more again!" the monstrous voice stated, with no hint of sorrow, just distaste and disappointment.

"No please, let them live, they deserve a chance!" the women begged, but her please were left unheard, as Ragnar picked up the sound of slashing, and cries of pain. The small children uttered their last words.

"The one in you right now, if it's to my liking I will kill you and end your suffering, if it's not to my liking, forget about death, you'll spend the rest of your life as my spouse!" the monster said and went quiet, presumable leaving.

Mustering a bit of courage, Ragnar peaked into the room and saw several hundreds of cribs, all bloodied, containing carcasses of the children. In the middle of the room, a human female was crying, most likely the mother. Her tears weren't if the normal substance, but a red liquid, blood. She was hunched, grabbing her knees, in a ball, crying into them.

"To do this to its own family, it truly is evil!" Ragnar said and walked towards the crying girl, her brown hair all messed up. He hunched down to her level and tried to grab her shoulder, only to phase through. "Right, I'm a ghost for the moment." he said and dejectedly hovered towards the cribs, looking at the dead children.

Hours passed, until Ragnar was brought back from his thoughts by the women's scream. In the midst of the room, full with dead children she was giving birth to a new one. Flabbergasted once more today, Ragnar watched the process in awe and the second the baby came out, without a doubt…

Ragnar was overcome by rage as he used all his powers to try to harm the women and the child, kill both of them. His rage was beyond the depth of the sea, he would kill them. The child, despite how different it looked, Ragnar recognized it, Alice.

The mother finished the process and stood up, already breastfeeding the infant. While Ragnar watched with blood sulked eyes, only seeing red for the moment.

Days went by and Ragnar's rage subsided. The mother had moved one of the children and given Alice the bloodied crib. The little baby was growing up very quick and was already walking and eating normal food. They had moved to the kitchen now, taking the crib with them.

Ragnar watched there behavior with distaste but did nothing about it, as he couldn't do anything. Instead he gathered his thoughts, it was certain, without a doubt, this was the house Alice was born and her father, which he already knew, but now was certain of. Her father was Trickster, his biggest fear and enemy.

It took some tine for that to sink in, he was currently a ghost inside the house of Trickster, the Trickster. How could he survive that? Would he live to see another day?

Alice and the mother enjoyed a fabulous meal. They ate steak, carefully made to be nedium rare, served to them by a maid, that appeared form nowhere. She had a white face, with red streaks here and there, looking like a clown. The child loved it though, she giggled happily at the sight, making me fume in rage. Even as a child she didn't deserve happiness.

As they were about to finish up the last bites though, they were suddenly interrupted.

Ragnar jumped in fright, as a clown appeared in the middle of the room, grasping the mother's neck and said. "Good job, you've earned this!" then he snapped her neck and threw her to the side.

The kid, who had been raised all this time didn't even cry or raise any objections seeing its own mother cry and laughed instead. Her childish, hiccup-like laughter echoed through the room, making the clown's grin widen.

"Yes, aren't you cute, Maja, your sister was recently caught, so I need a replacement and you'll do just fine. Now, let me peer into the omnipresent of existence, I need to know the future, so I can cause the most trouble after all!" the clown said, laughing loudly and then growing quiet.

Seconds later the clown laughed in a low pitch and slowly turned to Ragnar. "I think I'll call you Alice, don't you think so, Ragnar~"

(Author here: hello, another chapter will come in two days, as I didn't mean to only make one. Two of my uncles celebrated their birthdays and we traveled for miles to meet them, so yesterday I was to exhausted to write more than a few words, my sincere apology, author out :) )