214. A rift in time.
214. A rift in time.
"............"
Was this the point where she should call it remarkable?
Or should she call it meaningless?
Staring at Chrono's 'Time', Rhea couldn't utter a single sentiment.
'...How dumbfounding.'
She had certainly reached the 'situation' she desired.
But the reality of the most crucial 'result' kept slipping away.
Even if it were a completely hopeless task, she could at least give up and quit—but just look at that sight visible right below.
[Is this right...?]
[It's not about right or wrong. It's a matter of likes and dislikes.]
[I dislike it, though...]
[Someone who dislikes it went this far?]
[Truthfully, I liked it...!!]
[Yeah yeah! That's the Chrono I know!]
"....Huh."
Rhea had wanted only one thing.
Theia. To hand over that woman—whom she had saved and bought with her own money—to that man.
She had simply waited for that 'beautiful and ideal outcome' where he would accept the gift she had given and thank her.
"Aren't you a madman."
He had taken two women specifically excluding the woman she had handed over to him.
If those women were low-grade trash, she wouldn't be this angry.
It was the way of the world for a pig bastard to pick up fallen potatoes and eat them, so could anyone criticize him for being satisfied with such a potato scrap?
Had he simply looked at a passing woman, pounced on her, and finished with a 'good enough', there might have been room for her to understand.
But what was the reality?
"Reaching this point is just appalling."
One goddess of the former 12 Olympians who had once sat upon the seat of the Main God. Hestia.
Also, a goddess responsible for one part of the Muses. Eto.
That philanderer who had precisely taken only goddesses into his embrace—the sight was now appalling to behold.
"Truly appalling."
She could understand him not accepting the gift she gave him.
No matter how beautiful her face, how large her breasts, how capable of bearing children that woman appeared, her reality was merely 'human' in the end.
No matter how outstanding or exceptional, she was 'human' anyway.
And could such a 'human' thing possibly dare to hold a place against a 'goddess'?
'It's impossible.'
This was a loss.
No matter how she looked at it from any angle, nothing came out but the word 'defeat'.
The gift she had brought by exerting all her strength, even kneeling down her pride.
She had no choice but to admit that to that bastard, it was a meaningless and useless 'trinket'—as if.
"It is truly, truly regrettable."
She hadn't wanted to use this 'method'.
She hadn't wanted to use such 'means'.
It was not simply because she would use the 'power' to unlock her own 'Seal'.
"Perhaps it is because I kept something black by my side. Ultimately, am I also transforming into 'him'?"
Just as he had violated her.
The method of 'that man', who had only ever demanded coercively, never answering even when she pleaded for her life, begged him to come back, emptily believed and trusted—
"Cronus. I am in no position to curse you."
Ultimately, going around in circles, only one conclusion came out.
Even if it meant receiving 'hatred' that could never be erased.
"Gods must be lofty, as gods."
Therefore.
She absolutely made no 'mistakes'.
*************************
".....?"
The first thing I felt strange was when I opened my eyes.
I opened my eyes and looked around.
Warm sunlight. Quiet weather.
Definitely a morning with nothing strange about it.
It was a day without any particular problems—except that the same day was repeating...
".....Huh?"
An eerily quiet house.
Only then could I realize the identity of the strangeness.
'There's no... people.'
I couldn't see cars passing on the road.
I couldn't see people crossing the street.
The faint chirping of birds I had heard.
Children's voices.
And most importantly——the voices of 'Mai' and 'Minerva' that should have been heard from outside the room.
"............!"
Around the time my thoughts reached that point, the phone rang.
A call from Theia. I answered it right away.
[He...hello...?]
"This is Chrono."
[Chrono.... Tia, Hestia is!!]
"............."
Just hearing that voice was enough for me to infer the situation.
'She's disappeared.'
I left my room and entered the others' rooms.
I couldn't see them. I couldn't see any traces of the kids.
"For now.... I'll see you there."
[.........Okay.]
I hurriedly changed my clothes.
First, I had to meet her. I had to meet her and observe the situation.
I shoved my phone into my pocket and immediately opened the front door and stepped outside.
And at that moment.
—Thud!
"Eek...?!"
"Whoa?!"
Someone from the opposite side headbutted me.
I grabbed the wall and endured being pushed back, nearly falling over in an instant.
'An unexpected variable?'
Nothing like this had ever happened when I went outside before.
It was both flustering and absurd.
Somehow, I pried the woman out of my arms to get back outside...
"...Chrono?"
"Theia?"
The one who pushed me was none other than Theia.
Why was a person who should clearly be in her own house over there right in front of my house?
"Chrono is already at my front door...?"
"....Yes?"
Theia's single remark reached my ears just when I was flustered, unable to speak.
Chrono is already at the front door. Exactly the same words I had thought just moments ago.
'No way.'
But maybe.
I set Theia aside and poked my body out the door.
".....Wow."
Before I crossed the threshold, it looked like the normal gate of my house.
But once I crossed the threshold and went to the other side, it had changed into the gate of Theia's house.
'The spaces are connected.'
The spaces of Theia's house and my house were connected.
I knew it was nonsense, but since regression itself was nonsense from the start, it was acceptable.
But if there was something conversely nonsensical exactly because of that——could Rhea, who had been using 'Time' to make me 'regress', also manipulate 'space'?
"That's.... no."
What Rhea had taken from me was strictly 'Time'.
What Rhea could handle, what she could manipulate, was also 'Time'.
Then it was correct to view this current phenomenon as one using 'Time'.
"But how do you manipulate space with time——ah."
Time. And space.
Combining the two, one calls it 'Space-time'.
It could get a bit philosophical, but to put it simply, it's about the 'correlation between time and space', or something like that.
A superstring something or other that occurs when applying Einstein's theory of relativity to space, or whatever.
'....Why do I even know this anyway?'
I couldn't explain it in words, but I felt like 'I' knew it.
A feeling that 'I' knew though I didn't know.
The feeling that my instinct knew what my reason didn't—anyway, I couldn't explain it in words, but I felt like I could practice it through action.
"Probably———here."
Between the threshold and the threshold.
Clearly invisible to the eye, but a 'transparent Boundary Line' was felt.
I placed my hand there and gazed upon 'Time'.
"...It's connected."
'Time' was connected.
The 'Time' of my house's gate and the 'Time' of Theia's gate were connected to each other.
Therefore, the relationship was established that exiting Theia's house was simultaneously entering my house, and exiting my house was simultaneously entering Theia's house——I'm saying it, and even I don't get it, seriously.
'The point is, I just have to return it to its original state.'
I placed my hand on the Boundary Line and rewound 'Time'.
A task of cutting each connected 'Boundary Line' and returning it to its original state.
"Uh-uh...?"
The Boundary Line surface gradually began to waver.
Perhaps Theia could see that sight too, as she panicked and hid her body behind my back.
...It wasn't particularly dangerous, but being used as a meat shield kinda makes the meat shield feel a bit weird, you know.
"With this——done, uh, ack...?"
I severed the Boundary Line.
The relationship between 'Time' and 'Time' returned to normal once more.
Simultaneously, the 'space' connected by 'Time' also seemed to have distanced and returned to its original state, but.
"....What is this."
It was black.
Just black.
The scenery beyond the gate was completely dyed black, so the outside wasn't visible.
I reached out my hand to see if I could go outside, but I couldn't move forward as if blocked by a gigantic wall.
"This is.... so....."
'Time' was blocked.
Beyond the black space, 'Time' was completely stopped.
'So time is stopped, meaning space is also stopped.'
Just in case, I extended my hand while injecting 'Time' beyond the black space.
"——Ohhh!"
"Chrono??!"
My right hand was sucked into the black space beyond.
It felt like being sucked into thick mud.
At the same time, I felt another premonition.
'If I release 'Time' in this state....'
The space would stop. Therefore, the space of my 'right hand' would also stop.
Amputation between space and space.
I could know what would happen because of this without having to imagine it.
"It's not like I'm entrusting it to a new era."
Having grasped the situation, I pulled my hand right out.
Fortunately, my right hand was moving, alive and fine.
I let out a small sigh and turned around.
"Chrono.....?"
"....Theia."
There is good news and bad news here.
Which would you like to hear first?
"...Bad news first."
"I'll tell you the good news first."
"?"
"Actually, the good news is also bad news, so there's that."
"............"
A cold, steely gaze.
Don't look at me with those eyes.
How dizzy my head is right now, having just found out.
"For the good news first.... It seems the one who imprisoned us is gradually reaching her limit."
"By limit you mean...?"
"It doesn't seem like she'll regression anymore."
"Ah.....!"
A face that lit up with color.
However, the bad news to be delivered after this was.
"Exactly because she's at her limit, it seems she's drastically minimized her power consumption."
"If she minimized consumption...."
"We can't go outside now."
"............?"
There would be no more regressions.
"We have been imprisoned."
"...............!!!"
Because in the first place, there was no longer a target to regression.
As a side note.
"....Cronus, I heard he was that bastard's Apostle."
Within the Gap of Time.
"He truly made that identical madman into his Apostle."
A guy who was ultimately just human had walked through the Gap of Time, even if only for a moment.
The moment she doubted her own two watching eyes.
Rhea quietly trembled.