Chapter 398: Not Again...

Perseus POV

"What's happening?" Maple asked, "Why do you look unwell?"

"Holding this thing for too long nauseated me, I'm trying to not see any visions, and resisting it is making me sick."

"Well you need magic to see its part, and using magic is charging it up, so that can't be avoided, why not let Lilith use it?"

"She's scared of seeing her time as a pregnant woman."

"If she's so scared of being pregnant, why not use protection? Or have herself surgically...yeah, Lilith isn't my smartest sister."

"Yeah, it's her need for herself always to be natural, so she won't want anything to alter her body, apart from the process of turning her mortal, but that will have to wait...a symbol of a zodiac wheel?...Chronos...well, it got the powers of the god of time, cool."

I then pull out the laptop and other tools that I took from the other side, thanks to Dawn and her subordinates, we got wifi and we can connect to the other side, though we are on the Australian server, out of all countries...at least it's not French.

I even got this machine for analyzing things, an invention that uses both mana and electricity.

"You're turning our bedroom into a tech dungeon," Maple said while shaking her head.

"Well, it's my room, you know. I should be able to have my stuff here."

"Your room? Oh, that's cute. I thought it was 'our' room, you know, the place where we sleep, relax, and, you know, spend quality time together."

"Yeah, but my quality time also involves analyzing a literal time machine."

"There's a living room for your tech wizardry. Can't we keep this room as a gadget-free sanctuary?"

"My parents don't allow it, besides Buddy seems to agree with me."

"He agrees with everything you do, you could be massacring a village and he'll be by your side asking for an extra treat."

"Hey, don't question our morals, I can do the same to you, shouldn't you use your authority or whatever to try and convince your believers to stay out of the war?"

"I am." she replied, "It's just that no one is listening. I even said that I'll give them gold bars for listening to me."

"How many gold bars do you even have?"

"I can make them using magic." She then demonstrated it, it took only 10 seconds.

"You can do this and still make me pay for dinner?"

"Having a harem can be very expensive." she countered.

"You're getting a bit sassy these days."

"I'll have to hold my own somehow."

*****

After some time, I put it on and head to bed, I just want to see its effects if I sleep all night with it on. God didn't wear it on his wrist, we don't know why is that, so I'm trying to see if putting it on for a long time can do anything.

My children didn't put it on either...if I make a mistake, I'll just make sure to learn from it.

The more I thought about using this thing...the worse my temptations get. The fabric of reality is delicate, and the consequences of even the smallest alterations are unknown. I can't help but wonder, is the mastery of this gauntlet worth the risk?

Can I resist the temptation to meddle with time itself, or will I succumb to the temptation...? As I was thinking about it, I saw Ruka coming into my room.

"Why are you in my room?" 

"Mom's not here, Leilah's doing the night shift and helping the watchers, while Lilith's out to deal with her followers, since I'm lonely, I might as well sleep here since Maple and the fox are also here."

*****

As I slept, I felt myself being pulled into something, it felt similar to every time I put someone into a trance, except this feeling...it's more like how the ones on the other end felt, not me going in and interfering.

I tried to wake up and take it off, but nothing worked. So I fell into the dream.

In the dream, I woke up and found myself sleeping on a large bed, this is a bed that I custom-ordered for my new house...I went out and could see the same village, but old, destroyed, and desolate.

The once-thriving buildings are reduced to crumbling ruins, their roofs caved in, and their walls riddled with cracks. It's as if time itself has ravaged this place, erasing all traces of life and vitality.

I walked around, I called out for anyone, but my voice echoed through the emptiness, never to be answered. A haunting chill creeps up my spine, and I can't shake the feeling that I'm the only living soul in this desolate world.

"Huh weird, I should be able to lucid dream...maybe...the gauntlet is showing me an alternate timeline...an alternate reality."

One thing that I've noticed though is that I can't phase through things, did this thing teleport me here? I can pinch and hurt myself, but you can do that in a lucid dream...

My heart races as I continue to explore this nightmarish version of my village. The ruins of the once-thriving market lay in shambles, covered in a thick layer of dust and debris. I ran and saw this skeletal remain...I checked it and found that this was the remains of Grandpa Laker...

That was the only remaining thing I found apart from the destroyed and abandoned buildings, so I headed down and checked the prints on the ground to see where all of them could have gone, but all of them went up, and all of them led to the spot where we have mages on standby to teleport.

"What the hell happened in this timeline?"

So I then went to Ruka's old cave, and every other base nearby before heading to the location of the village's secret bunker. I went inside and sure enough, there was someone there. I spotted a young woman in ragged clothes and a hood, her eyes sharp and alert, she was armed as well.

Her eyes went wide in shock as soon as she saw me. She then took off her hood and mask, She was a young woman with black hair, brown eyes, and light brown skin. Despite the desolate time, she looked properly fed and fit, and her weapons seemed to be well made as well.

"Uh hey, can you hear me?"

"Dad?" she asked

Not again...