Lucian blinked open his eyes. Water rushed around his body, passing by it as if he were a stepping stone in a stream. He had grown used to a world of vivid colors, but now the sky that he saw lacked color at all.

  It’s black and white. That’s how you know we’re in the past. Color didn’t exist yet. It was invented later.

  Lucian sat up, trying not to let his good mood infect his actions to make him dumber than he already was. Long white hair obscured his vision, and he brushed it aside to see clearly. Lucian had grown accustomed to his long hair, but this was different. He was different. His limbs were thinner, his hair white and silkier, and his body altogether smaller. He rose up, examining himself.

  Just as he’d been expecting, Lucian’s soul now occupied the body of the True Divine Beast.

  Can I keep this one? Lucian thought, only half-joking.

  He surveyed his environment. He wasn’t in a physical place, per se, but a transportation hub of sorts. He stood up in water that flowed past his ankles in a landscape of endless colorless space. Right now, he found himself in the river of time. He could travel anywhere back upstream that he pleased. Living through a single day of the past—that was what the Jeweled Eye offered.

  Under ordinary circumstances, this meant that someone could observe the past and gather information. Ultimately, that had been what Rowan Sumner ended up using the Jeweled Eye for. He travelled back in time to study the battle between the only warrior that had ever managed to inflict permanent damage on the First Emperor—the same one responsible for sealing him the first time. Rowan acquired information that allowed him to either seal or kill the First Emperor.

  But Lucian already knew all of that nonsense, so why would he bother with that?

  In life, the True Divine Beast could travel downstream on the river of time to see the future. But he was long dead, and Lucian ate his eye—safe to say, it wasn’t happening. Maybe Lucian could look back into the past to find Duke Cyril’s weakness. Maybe he could find out why Lucian was so deranged. Maybe he could satisfy any manner of curiosity he had. But… no. Lucian intended to obtain a power that transcended time. He intended to fulfill the only destiny this world truly had.

  Calling upon the new power that he felt welling up from within, Lucian shifted into the divine beast. His body exploded outward in a burst of power, morphing into the shape of a great white vulpine beast. He puffed his body up, then ran up the river of time to see from whence the floodwaters of today’s tragedies flowed. He had the day in mind, drilled into his head from session after session of completing War of Four in every possible manner.

  Despite losing the Jeweled Eye, the First Emperor never actually lost this power. He had found another way to peer back through time and pluck the prize from the tree. It was unpreventable. Now… now, Lucian intended to test that claim further. The current of time splashed beneath his paws as he moved back toward that fated day.

  ***

  Lucian didn’t know how long he had ascended the river of time. At some point, color began to return to the world. He ceased to walk on a primordial concept and instead on a real, genuine stream. And at some point, when he turned his head to look around, he was in the midst of a serene forest unmarred by human intervention.

  I’m here, he accepted, looking around. His heart beat fast. The Age of Godlessness. No time for sightseeing.

  Lucian didn’t know where the hell he was, but the nice thing about tectonic plates? They were slow. He was a few thousand years in the past, but the mountains would be his guide. So long as he could find them, he was confident he could orient himself and get to where he needed to go no matter how far away it was.

  With time of the essence, Lucian sped through the forest as fast as he had ever gone. This divine beast form… he understood some of Aurelia’s arrogance in that moment. He felt invincible, insurmountable. He didn’t need to dodge the branches because they shattered before the speed and strength of his body. Finally, he burst out of the forest onto an open plain and looked around to examine his surroundings.

  What he saw… a titan. A giant taller than a skyscraper, walking serenely. It resembled a human, but superficially. Millions of weapons hung from its figure, stuck into it over the centuries to no effect. In a way, that thing was a landmark of sorts. He was almost worried that it would spot him and turn his eyes toward him, but it did no such thing. Lucian was a visitor from outside of time. Nothing here would be able to even perceive him. Conversely, he wouldn’t be able to have any effect on anything.

  Except one thing.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  After looking around for a while, he saw a mountain range that was familiar to him and quickly raced across the fields in its direction. What he was about to do… it was destined, ostensibly. It had to happen. If Lucian did this instead of the First Emperor, nothing would change, right?

  This time paradox nonsense was bad enough in War of Four, Lucian reflected. My brain is too small for this.

  He ran across the hills, eyeing the titan.

  Sorry about this, he silently told the giant. Something’s going to kill you soon. But someone has to, right?

  ***

  Lucian had been a little disoriented for a while, but he eventually managed to find the mountain pass that led up to the place he was seeking. He came to a great valley made by four great peaks. Each of them had grand, winding rivers descending down into the valley. Each of their rivers carved their way across the mountains to end here. Four entirely symmetrical waterfalls pooled into a carved grove.

  There were guards—countless of them, powerful figures each and all. Lucian walked past them, each oblivious to his presence. He bounded over the great gate keeping him from the pool in the center. Here, all four bodies of waters converged. Lying atop it all, reflecting all that looked upon it, was the Formless Essence. He leapt down to stand on the platform containing it.

  Lucian shifted out of his divine beast form and walked up to the pool of water, peering down into the Formless Essence. It reflected the true form of all that looked upon it. Lucian was hoping he might see himself—the him from Earth, just as he was. Instead, all he saw was that familiar gray-haired youth, smiling back at him with condescension. He understood why people always regarded him so suspiciously in that moment.

  In the original game, the cutscene that revealed the Formless Essence began as a curiosity. The player saw a strange figure approach this even-stranger pool. It wasn’t until he peered down upon the Formless Essence itself that the First Emperor’s form revealed itself before the player, and it became clear that he was about to get the powerup of his dreams.

  Lucian looked around the area. His heart beat faster than a hummingbird’s wings. Not because of the power—because of what the power represented. Because right now, sealed by the Formless Essence, was the Hells. The moment that he took this power, he would be responsible for the demon threat of today, technically.

  What other option is there? Lucian questioned. Passing it up, letting the First Emperor himself take it?

  It hadn’t quite made sense to him when he’d first played the game, either, but apparently the First Emperor went back in time to unseal the demons. It implied that the First Emperor wasn’t a demon himself. He’d been able to wave it away as the typical time-travel shenanigans never making sense in games, but as he stood here now, was there anything else he could do?

  Lucian looked around in paranoia. He felt that any minute, he might be spotted, or the First Emperor might jump down from the top rope and yoink this prize from him at the last minute. He took a few deep breaths, psyching himself up, and then kneeled before the pool of Formless Essence. He looked down at himself… then thrust his arm forth. Rather than collide with the reflection, the two arms neatly missed one another.

  Lucian grabbed his reflection’s arm—it felt eerie, seizing it. Felt as though he had his hand in mercury, grasping a cold, dead arm. Then, he pulled his reflection up out of the water. It was a very difficult thing to pull out, because alongside it came the entirety of the Formless Essence. As he pulled, the essence conformed to his shape, mirroring the figure of Lucian Villamar completely. When it seemed as though his reflection might be fully freed, it lurched toward him and seeped into his eyes. He fell to his back.

  Lucian rubbed his eyes, then sat up and looked at the pool. This was usually when the demons burst out and sowed havoc. Right now, the pool remained still and silent. He looked around at the guards—they, too, didn’t react. He supposed that even this intervention couldn’t change the proper flow of destiny. Things would happen as they’d happened in the past. He didn’t know whether to be comforted by this, or concerned.

  Rising to his feet, Lucian touched his body. He couldn’t feel the power—but then, he couldn’t feel his magic, either. Presumably once he returned to his actual body, the Formless Essence would be there. Lucian clenched his hands, eager to leave this place and verify that fact.

  In War of Four, Formless Essence wasn’t clearly defined. It was as much of a story powerup as it was an in-game powerup. In lore, Formless Essence ‘possessed the characteristics of every type of power, every type of element.’ In game, though, it was a major powerup for the First Emperor represented by an ability. It let him break many rules. For instance, he'd been able to use his dark affinity for fire spells, creating flames that had the properties of the dark element.

  When the First Emperor died, the Formless Essence left his body and went elsewhere. People thought it’d reappear in the sequel.

  Bottom line, it made the First Emperor a monster, Lucian remembered. He smiled. Even still, everything’s different in reality. I'm not quite sure what it'll do, fully. But considering the lengths the First Emperor went through to get it...

  Lucian started to chuckle to himself in disbelief, clenching and unclenching his hands. He’d actually done it.

  “State your name.”

  Lucian felt a pressure bore down upon him. It made his body shiver. He whipped his head back, peering upward. There, upon the walls shielding this pool, stood an old man in faded yellow robes. He had a long white beard, longer white hair, and callous black eyes. It was a figure he knew well. It was a figure that struck fear into his bones.

  I never… never dared imagine… damn. The time gods double-booked us for this appointment. Embarrassing. Lucian braced himself. It’s not his real body, but… I guess I do get to see the First Emperor seethe.