25. -Kuu Means Plan

Old Lady Kuu's words and laughter hung in the air, heavy with implications that I couldn't fully grasp. "The fact that you know each other, entered from different cities, and even different versions of the same world, but your souls are of ones who love each other - despite having no chance of meeting under any circumstances, now, this is something even more interesting than me escaping the Prime Devourer and locking myself in here." 

Her eyes, ancient and knowing, glittered with an unsettling amusement. "So I'm assuming you're the next two champions against the incoming threat. Which, I'm almost certain, should arrive in two years if not for the temporal interference. If it remains, we will have about five hundred. Now, ignore an old lady's rambling. Tell me your stories. They should be very interesting."

Unlikely didn't even begin to cover it. 

Also, I'm pretty sure that time explanation went entirely over my head and then flew off into the sunset.

Every single piece of information we just confirmed via action or word, to be true from each end was ludicrous, and all three of the people in the room had said things that, under normal circumstances would all get us sent to the funny farm-

At this point, bullshit was an old friend, though, and it was almost always just as likely to be correct than an obvious lie.

This whole situation was equally ludicrous to the idea of a pig flying to the moon in an alien spaceship after conquering the world, alone, with magical fisticuffs.

So, I started speaking.

"It all started when Anna, I, and another girl we know were conscripted..."

---

It took a few hours, and a lot of glossing over timelines that I either forgot or didn't make much progress in, but she got the gist of it.

I talked about the endless loops, Kirin's training, the devourers, the constant death, and the ever-present feeling of despair. 

I left out the part where I had become a murderer of billions, and the part where I had almost lost myself to the darkness. I couldn't bear to think about that, not yet. 

But given the context, she clearly understood.

With a sad look on her face, she spoke up again, "My condolences. It isn't your fault, but now for the problem. Don't bother trying to seal him," she began, her voice cutting through my rambling that started to come from my lips as tears had started falling from my eyes without my notice "Nothing you do will work in that regard. Preventing him from destroying timelines is doable, though. That expression of time-space magic can be stopped. I'll make something for that, right quick." She waved her hand dismissively, as if she was talking about making a cup of tea, not stopping a god-like entity from destroying reality. 

"Just hide it somewhere in his prison realm when you are done here." She began to move around her shop, her movements surprisingly swift for someone her age, gathering materials from the shelves with a practiced ease. 

"I'll make you a trio of rings, ones that can have more than one enchantment. First ones going on there are a sort of telepathy I call scouts communication with a built in memory-shock to prevent any more memory sealing. Can't eavesdrop on that, and can't have you forgetting your truth and your job. We'll make this place a secondary nexus for when you enter a timeline. Need something for memory redundancy, but I don't have a shade-dragon's eye, so we'll have to find one. Good. Good."

She darted around the shop as she named ingredients, her voice a mix of excitement and determination.

She was a whirlwind of activity, her hands moving with a speed that belied her age, and I could feel the power radiating off of her in waves.

Anna just stared while looking baffled at the entire situation and I realized I hadn't worn guest slippers for eighteen years, plus however long I've been traveling destructively through time and space. The soft, plush material felt strange against my feet, a reminder of a life I had long since left behind.

"CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY ANY OF THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!"

Anna shouted frantically, as the sound of her voice began echoing off the shelves of enchanted ingredients.

The sound was an unfiltered expression of her frustration and confusion that echoed with too many emotions to count, most of which was anger directed at someone.

It wasn't me.

So Kirin should be terrified.

Her silver eyes, usually so sharp and focused, were wide with a mixture of bewilderment, aggravated confusion, and anger.

"What the hell is going on here?! Why are we in the same timeline?! I'm not complaining, but it doesn't make sense! I had just figured out what kirin was doing and- and why are we all suddenly in some crazy old lady's shop?! This isn't even the market!"

Old Lady Kuu chuckled, a low, wheezing sound that seemed to vibrate through the very floorboards of the shop. 

"Sweety, please keep your voice down," she said, her tone surprisingly gentle despite her words, "It's happening because the whole situation is so far beyond screwed that you two and your plus one elsewhere are in as deep shit as a pit of a void filled with the droppings of The Prime garbage eater. Now just leave it to old granny Kuu and we can handle this step by step. You going from timeline to timeline can't stop me from reuniting you three, oh, and you are both at the mortal limit. So let me help you with that."

Her words were a strange mixture of reassurance and ominous warning. 

Mortal limit?

The thing that Kirin had been holding back on unlocking our Ki claiming we weren't ready for however the hell long we've been doing this?

I thought, my mind racing. What did that even mean?

Would we finally be able to use Ki?

and by 'plus one elsewhere...'

Was she talking about Jessa?

"Well then, hold fast!"

Before I could even begin to process her words, a sudden, sharp pain exploded in my stomach, like a fist slamming into my gut. It was followed by a wave of intense heat that spread through my body, a feeling that was both agonizing and exhilarating. 

I stumbled back, my hands flying to my stomach, but the pain was quickly replaced by something else, something far more powerful. It was like a dam had burst inside me, unleashing a torrent of raw, untamed energy that coursed through my veins, a feeling that was both terrifying and intoxicating. 

I could feel three different 'flavors' of energy, each one distinct and powerful. Did flavors of energy make sense? Probably not, but that's what it felt like. One was a cold, sharp steel, another was a warm, comforting light, and the third was a chaotic, unpredictable storm.

The feeling was overwhelming, too much to contain, and my vision began to blur. I could see Anna collapsing in the corner of my eye, her body crumpling to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. 

The last thing I saw before the darkness claimed me was Old Lady Kuu's face, a knowing smile playing on her lips as she looked down at me with an expression that was both amused and strangely sorrowful.

"Don't lose these." Was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness. "Remember, hide the totem I placed in your pocket, in that place. You must find a Stealth Scorpion Carnager's stinger for the next step."