Ripple In Time - Chapter 1 The Time Ripple..

It had all happened so quickly. We had just sent scouts to investigate the disturbance in the Flugelian Forest. There had been several reports of strange, black obelisks suddenly appearing out of the ground. But before we could discover or confirm anything, the monsters arrived. Materializing out of thin air, creatures of nightmare overpowered and slaughtered our scouts, then moved on to the nearby cities. Undeads, imps, ogres, cyclops, nagas, dragons, any number of creatures from legend began to lay waste to the empire of Voltenheim. The emperor’s armies were utterly worthless, not even useful as fodder to delay the onslaught. Naturally, when the emperor saw the massacre of his troops and realized the hopelessness of the situation, he came sniveling to me, his Magus Ipsissimus.

Initially, I had told him to buzz off, to go find some lesser mage to deal with the issue. I didn’t think the matter was worth my time. And given the strength of the monsters, I figured even those charlatans at the Magisterium would suffice. But the emperor then promised me a rather lucrative reward. I don’t like to kiss and tell, but let’s just say I was to receive everything short of the empire itself and perhaps the blood of his first-born. Though I should note that the emperor did offer the latter, but I told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t into that kind of thing.

Fast-forward a week and I had been traveling around the empire, taking out the trash. As I knew would be the case beforehand, the monsters posed little challenge to me. I easily reduced them to ash with a powerful fire spell, or shattered their frozen corpses once I had used an ice spell. Admittedly, the dragons were a bit of a pain, with their high level of magic resistance, but even then, I had managed to make swift work of them.

All in all, the task was tedious but easy. I did, however, see why the emperor had come straight to me. The monsters were a bit stronger than the usual lot, which meant that lesser mages would probably have a difficult time. But then, that really was the fault of their own weakness, for barely even mastering a single branch of magic. Whatsmore, rather than find ways to improve themselves, the fools at the Magisterium had the gall to come begging me for knowledge. I, who had to figure out everything myself. Their audacity made me laugh. As if I would just give away the secrets I toiled for years to discover. It just pissed me off so much. But I digress.

I was into the second month of slaying the seemingly never-ending stream of monsters when something in the tides of battle abruptly changed. A powerful type of enemy who I had never encountered before appeared. I had just struck down a swarm of harpies with bolts of lightning, and was about to head back to the camp for the day, when the humanoid figure of the new enemy materialized before me. The figure stood about eight feet tall and had deep purple skin, black hair and two large ram horns jutting out of the side of its head. In its hand, it held a thin, silver rapier.

When I saw it, I knew immediately that the humanoid giant was different from the other monsters. It was because of the way it looked at me with its yellow, almond-shaped eyes, as if I were no more significant than an ant. It had been quite a while since anyone, or anything, looked at me that way, and I remember letting out a snarky laugh. Feeling a bit pissed off, I threw some of my most powerful spells at it, just to teach it a lesson. To my astonishment however, and very little surprises me anymore, the humanoid monster was completely unaffected by my magic.

I was dumbstruck, and I couldn’t comprehend what it had done to avoid taking damage, a lapse that proved fatal. In that split second of my confusion, the monster raised its rapier and pointed it towards me. Then with cold, unemotional eyes, it let out a blast of what I can only describe as pure energy from the tip of its rapier. The impossible beam of energy erupted through my body, blasting a melon sized hole through my chest. As one might expect, I collapse to the ground shortly thereafter.

And so now, here I am, back to the present moment. As I lay dying on the battlefield, surrounded by the corpses of enemy monsters, a single enemy approaches. The enemy, with its inexplicable, overpowering magic. I can hear its approach, its feet crunching over the bones of corpses with each heavy step. Then it’s standing over me. For a second, I think I see some emotion in its otherwise cold eyes. It’s curiosity, I believe, like it’s asking me how I am still alive. Well, my defensive artifact was supposed to protect against eighth tier magic and below. I didn’t die instantly, so, I guess it worked. Kind of. Except for the whole missing heart thing.

I watch as the humanoid giant raises its rapier once more, clearly looking to finish me off. Before it can swing its weapon, however, I let out a shrill, arrogant laugh. My laugh seems to cause the monster quite a bit of confusion, as it pauses its strike. Then it stares directly into my eyes, and for the first time, the monster lets an expression show on its face. It smirks at me, then says something, in a language I can’t understand. For a second, I wonder what it says. Is it bidding me farewell? Or is it gloating over its victory, savoring the moment before it kills me? I can’t really tell from its hideous face. But then, I don’t really care either. The reason I had laughed was to show I wasn’t scared. I’m not really bothered by death or dying. After all, I had figure out the solution a long time ago.

My eyes hold steadfast as I watch the rapier come down, slicing my neck clean through, spinal cord and all. My head rolls, my body goes limp and my mind goes dark, thus ending the life known as Klaus von Steiner.

Then, my time ripple activates.