chrono

[sacredpath]

Comments

[sacredpath]

Are you sure you should go into that?

[hurrying after him, worried.]

What do you mean by judgment?

[clockpunk]

[ as they cross the threshold of the pillar, chrono's appearance changes to that of the one shadowheart knows. taller, more mature, and now looking drawn and worried more than angry.

within the light, a spiral of ruins rises above. you stand on a massive clock face, cracked through. ]

...this is an old dream. [ he looks to her, surprised, even though the younger face on the outside had not been. ] Shadowheart?

[sacredpath]

Chrono.

[she'll stay close to him as they walk through the ruins.]

Tell me, what is this place?

[clockpunk]

...this inside of the Stride Gate.

[ he looks up. gravity seems to be only partly maintained here, but it's still probably up. high, high above, there's another platform made of many interlocking gears. ]

I fought here, a while back. The man who created it wanted to make his "ideal future".

[sacredpath]

And I can imagine that future didn't sit well with you. [...] What of the people who vanished?

[clockpunk]

One man's ideals shouldn't dictate the truth of the world, even if it was supposed to be "peace". [ sighs, and stares at his hands for a moment. ] The price to pay for it was the death of another world entirely.

[ her question has him frowning for a moment before he realises. ]

Oh. They're in here, too. Fighting their own battles.

[sacredpath]

Were all of you able to get out?

[clockpunk]

Yes. We made it out. We won. [ ... ] Shion and Ibuki were in hospital for a long time, though. It was a really close thing. And I...

[ rubs at his chest. ugh ]

It hurt my actual soul, as well as my body.

[sacredpath]

That's awful. How do you recover from something like that? Does it heal with time, or...?

[clockpunk]

I'm not sure. Seemed like it, at first - felt like being electrocuted. But sometimes I wonder, y'know?

[ a vague, contemplative hum. ]

The man who made this used an energy called Stride Force. Everyone has it, but just a little, usually. It's what's made when you visualise something. To use it the way he did - to force those images into reality - it cut his lifespan. It's not supposed to be used like that. [ ... ] The damage done to me might be similar, since this whole stupid place is pure Stride Force, and I'd used it the same way before even coming here.