[Darkness]

The attack was too sudden, too swift. It seemed as if there was nothing the dark cloaked man could do to save himself, to escape. The blade slides cleanly through the torso of his being, and then the gamma explodes, and it seemed the battle was lost. There was no way any mortal being could survive that for more than a few seconds... But... what if the attack had never been done?

Time seemed to... slow... the body collapsed slower, the blade moved forwards with less speed. The effects of the wind seemed to affect reality at only half-speed. And it continued to slow... and then... it stopped. And reversed. The crumpling body of the dark cloaked man moved upward, the blade moved away and out of his body, leaving no hole in the cloak and, assumably, no wound. Neraphym moved backwards, the gamma ray's explosion moved inward on itself and dissipated.

The dark cloaked man reached further back in time, to before the battle started, to before he had supposedly arrived. To before Neraphym had even picked up the stone. His arcanist powers could control the essence of the universe, the powers that held reality in check. Such things as gravity. And it was gravity he manipulated now, creating a small anomaly in the gravity field of the planet around the directly around the stone so that any who attempted to pick it up would be completely unable to -- that is, unless they were able to pick up something as heavy as the planet itself anyway.

And so, time progressed. Neraphym was unable to pick up the stone. Therefore, the ensuing conversation was completely illogical. 'Give me the stone?' Why would the dark cloaked man ask that, if it was clearly lying on the ground there? And Neraphym's following responses were just as nonsensical. Both acted as if Neraphym did indeed have the stone. And to both of their memories, it would seem as if he did. But as the dark cloaked man's mind returned to the present, a present where Neraphym had neither taken the stone nor stabbed the dark cloaked man. And so there the stone was, lying naught but fifteen feet away in the grass. The anomalous gravity field that the dark cloaked man had apparently been holding onto for the length of the battle he now let go, instead reversing it and creating the stone to float into the air. He moved towards it, then, snatching it from the air.

[Neraphym]

Neraphym begins processing all this new information as fast as he can. How did he get the stone? Why is the stone no longer mine? Why isn't this man dead? These questions dart though his mind, and eventually Neraphym comes to realize the inescapable truth. His foe is a fellow Arcanist, and a powerful chronomancer. Quickly, Neraphym fortifies the timeline. Neraphym was not particularly adept at chronomancy, though not bad either. Against other, more powerful chronomancers, Neraphym's only hope is to fortify the timeline and defeat the enemy with his elite cosmic powers.

However, the timeline surrounding this cloaked man is twisted and tangled into an mess. Neraphym is unable to decipher when and where this man truly exists. In attempting for fortify the timeline against further alterations by the cloaked man, Neraphym creates a strange paradox in this region. Neraphym and the man are stuck in this paradox, as scenes from ancient times play out throughout the field. Neraphym and the man watch as the field becomes a forest, then a field again. A raging battle surrounds them, then suddenly disappears. A great marble temple is build and stands for a while before collapsing. Finally, they return to the present. It is night...

[Darkness]

Time blended together. Past, present and future, all occurred simultaneously. At least, locally. Such things could happen, when one was not careful. Time was a fragile thing, easily disrupted. The dark cloaked man set to work repairing it. Paradoxes could be difficult things to handle. Fixing them was often a slow and painful process... But he should be able to set himself free from the paradox before his opponent, allowing him time to escape.

The images of the past and future began to fade, from seeming reality to mere ghosts to nothing. And then Neraphym and the dark cloaked man were alone -- at least, to the dark cloaked man's eyes. The truth of the matter was that they -were- alone. But Neraphym was sure to still be seeing images from the past and future, all jumbled together. Attempting to move towards his enemy, perhaps in a hope to finish him off, would likely imprison him in the paradox once more. So he was forced to spare his opponent for now. A glyph, much like that which had summoned the sword and wolf, appeared beneath him. He sank into it, as if in quicksand, and disappeared -- the stone securely in his possession.

[Neraphym]

Eventually, Neraphym repairs his timeline, though it takes him some time. He finds himself alone in the field; the cloaked man and the stone are gone. Neraphym neither sees them nor senses their aura.

Neraphym: "What was that... definitely not an average foe. Lohengrin, come! We make for Aenoria."

Lohengrin lands and allows Neraphym to mount. They take off to the southwest.

[End of Thread]