Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 354: Chrono’s Residue

The cosmic energy in this area remained heavily concentrated, clumped together to such an extent that anyone below a certain Existence Realm would quite literally die just by approaching it.

It was, for lack of a better analogy, like entering a sealed room saturated with thick carbon monoxide, dense enough to choke an ordinary person to death.

But neither Sarina nor Jamie had any trouble. Without slowing their pace, they moved through the galactic landfill, Sarina taking the lead until they entered one of the dead, half-formed galaxies in the region.

Soon after, Jamie detected something that he suspected was the reason Sarina had brought him here.

"That’s a whole lotta time law energy clumped up in that tiny space," he remarked with mild surprise. "Just how badly did this galaxy’s formation fail?"

"Who knows? Anyway, that’s the dimension I was talking about," Sarina replied, confirming Jamie’s assumption.

Jamie nodded. "Well, I already figured as much. The time-law energy disrupted the spatial laws there, causing the fabric of space-time around that area to fold inward, forming a naturally occurring dimensional realm.

And with spacetime curving and bending like that, the resulting gravitational field grew strong enough to draw in the surrounding cosmic energy into that dimension.

I’d say the amount of cosmic energy in there probably exceeds what this entire galaxy was ever meant to contain."

There was a slight twinkle in Jamie’s eyes, like that of a scientist who had just found something they were eager to experiment on.

"So, can you handle it in your current state?" Sarina asked.

Jamie rubbed his chin thoughtfully before replying, "Well, I can, but it’ll be a tad difficult, I guess. Still, there’s always an easier way."

He held out his hand, and suddenly, the area was enveloped by darkness, light ceasing to exist for a moment, and when it returned, the Galaxy Sword was in his hand, its blade reflecting its usual scene of stars and galaxies.

Jamie then moved toward the target location, the dimensional realm sealed on all sides with no entry or exit points, and once he reached it, he stretched out the sword and carefully stabbed it through the wall of the dimension, then slowly sliced it down, the blade cutting through space-time itself as if it were a hot knife gliding through rubber, and gently, he began to carve out a vertical rectangular opening.

Suddenly, he paused after cutting just a line and spoke, "Sarina, can you keep the cosmic energy from escaping too far? I feel this entire thing might deflate if it loses too much cosmic energy."

Sarina nodded, flew closer, and created a barrier with her own power to contain the energy already leaking out from the realm, and once she did, Jamie continued slicing through space like tofu, carefully carving until he had completed an entrance from space-time itself.

Then, coating his hand in cosmic spatial energy, he quite literally reached out and grabbed the fabric of space-time and peeled away the section he had cut, as if he were lifting cloth.

Of course, in doing so, he was pelted by a wave of cosmic energy, erupting with more force than air gushing out of a depressurised tire. The realm trembled unstably, but Jamie, using the same power he’d used to peel off space like cloth, forcefully stabilised it, and once he did, he floated inside, with Sarina snapping her fingers to strengthen her barrier before entering after him.

Inside, they were greeted by a sea of time-law energy that filled the interior space, which resembled the inside of a nebula, with dense gas clouds and twinkling stars scattered across the small realm.

The Galaxy Sword in Jamie’s hands then spoke.

[Huh? Chrono?]

The sword trembled slightly, and cosmic energy wrapped around it, prompting Jamie to release his grip as the weapon morphed into the figure of an androgynous young person.

Yes, person, because they were neither male nor female.

"It’s been a while since you’ve used your humanoid form," Jamie commented, and the Galaxy Sword looked down at their arms and nodded.

[Yeah, it has.]

They had chin-length black hair that shimmered with white light, and their eyes held concentric circles of luminous white encircling deep azure pupils. They were dressed in an extremely oversized hoodie and similarly oversized joggers and sneakers, making their body shape completely imperceptible.

They looked at the skin on their arm, which bore a tone similar to Jamie’s, checking to make sure their humanoid form had materialised properly, before they glanced up again and casually said, [Oh, it’s not Chrono. It’s just his residues.]

At this, Sarina spoke up. "And who exactly is this Chrono?"

Hearing the question, the Galaxy Sword turned toward her and responded, [He’s Rule Breaker Number... Number... ]

They trailed off, scratching their head as they tried to remember.

[What number was he again? I know he’s a double-digit, but... Ah, I’ve forgotten. Anyway, his name’s Chrono. The time-law energy in this place... yeah, that’s all him.]

Looking around the dimensional realm, the Galaxy Sword continued, [The way I see it, I estimate he was here not too long ago. Maybe 40 to 50 thousand years.]

Once again, the perception of time for long-lived entities came into play, as what was considered ’not too long ago’ in the eyes of the Galaxy Sword amounted to 40 to 50 millennia, though that was only natural considering that the Galaxy Sword was an entity older than virtually every living thing in the Cosmos.

One could count the number of existences older than the Galaxy Sword on both hands and still have fingers left.

Anyway, the name Chrono and the Galaxy Sword’s mention of it being a Rule Breaker immediately brought a certain weapon to Jamie’s mind.

Except, Sarina was searching for a sword, and as far as Jamie knew, that Rule Breaker wasn’t a sword.

It was a collection of three weapons consisting of a long sword, a short sword, and a spear, all housed inside a massive clock that could shrink down to fit in the wielder’s palm like a pocket watch.

’It couldn’t be, right?’

The thought crossed Jamie’s mind, and he immediately turned to Sarina.

"Hey, Sarina, pull up a picture of the sword."

Sarina immediately responded by conjuring the image with light magic, pulling it from her memory.

The longsword she revealed had a straight and narrow, worn blade, faintly chipped in multiple places. Its hilt was a dulled, brown metal that appeared almost rusted.

Embedded at the sword’s cross-guard was a small, circular clock face, its glass cracked, and its second-hand ticking in place repeatedly like a battery-drained timepiece, never moving past the same second.

Jamie turned to the Galaxy Sword, who was drifting off and inspecting the realm they were in. "Hey, come over here, Galaxy."

Reaching out, Jamie warped space so that his hand crossed the distance without him taking a single step, grabbed the Galaxy Sword’s humanoid form by the collar, and pulled them over to face the image Sarina had conjured.

"Do you recognise that?" he asked.

The Galaxy Sword blinked, narrowed their eyes, and after a second said, [Huh? That looks like a shrivelled-up part of Chrono.]

Sarina immediately narrowed her eyes.

"A Shrivelled-up part of this Chrono, you say?"

The Galaxy Sword nodded casually. [Yeah, I’ve seen Chrono like this before. He usually ends up in that state when his parts don’t get slotted back into his main clock body. When his components stay separated for too long, they start losing energy and shrivel up. The clock is his real body, so the parts decay on their own without it. Put him back together, give it a few years, and he’ll be fine."

Then, tilting their head, they added, [But where’d you get this picture? Chrono was fine the last time I saw him. All parts intact.] 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"And when exactly was that?" Sarina asked.

Before the Galaxy Sword could answer, Jamie responded in their place.

"Around 25,000 years ago."

Sarina’s eyes widened at that, and she turned toward him.

"You’ve seen this Chrono?"

Jamie nodded, sighing. "Sarina, I’ve known about this sword for thousands of years. I just didn’t realise it was the same one you were after. Looking at it now, no one would guess it’s the same weapon."

The Galaxy Sword laughed at Jamie’s words.

[True! Chrono in his shrivelled-up form looks totally different, more like a whole other Rule Breaker. The Rusted Blade.]

[Hey Jamie,] they added right after, [let’s go find the rust guy after this.]