151 A Race Against Time

Reed kept his chin up and maintained the stately image that was required of him in the presence of the public at large. He knew that the moment he stepped out of the isolation chamber he would have to don the mask of the prince once more. 

The world at large knew not of Reed. They only knew about Stainless Prince of the East and Lord Evergreen of the North. To the world, the man known as Reed was inconsequential — a tragic shadow of a terrible past who had become the risen, shining star he was now. 

This was the truth. If the Stainless Prince was the Sun, then Reed was but a shadow and nothing more. It bothered him how his public image was perceived, but there was nothing he could do about it. Not anymore. His own status had outgrown him, to the point that had become impossible to rectify now. 

In the eyes of the whole world, Reed was someone else entirely. Not himself, but an arisen phoenix who represented the enduring struggle of the weak. He was a Light of Hope for the small and voiceless in the face of uncertainty, fear, and oppression. 

It would be a huge understatement to say that Reed "disliked" the public's perception of him. He thoroughly loathed it. Those expectant, gleaming gazes that were full of innocent adoration, joy, and worship. 

They were all strangers to Reed, but they did not have the expressions of strangers. Where these people would have seen a stranger in someone else, they saw a much more in him. 

Frankly speaking, it was extremely off-putting for Reed. For him, who had been born into nothing and had trusted nothing, the idea of having other people look and think of him as some kind of hero was truly suffocating. 

In many ways, it was akin to giving a humble field mouse an acting role that should have belonged to a prideful and majestic lion. The role of a leading actor did not suit him in the slightest, in Reed's opinion...

"Have you finished your preparations, my boy? Shall we commence as planned?" said Velvund.

"Yes. Let's start as soon as the conditions are the best for our entry. After that, it'll be up to you to hold the fort while we're gone," said Reed. 

"Don't wait for us if you see the anomaly grow stronger than you can handle. Pull back if it becomes too much for the stabilizers to handle. It is preferable that all of you survive than to have you all foolishly make an ill-advised rescue attempt," said Lu'um.

Velvund stroked his chin and said, "...If that eases the burden on both of you, then so be it then. Don't bite more than you can chew, though. If you see that it's too much, escape as fast as possible." 

He grabbed Reed and Lu'um and brought them close, as if to offer them some form of comfort, but he knew that they were likely not even remotely concerned with what laid in front of them. 

Velvund couldn't even detect the slightest bit of fear or hesitation in Reed's soul. It was like a pure sheet of white, without even the smallest amount of pigment on it. There was no fear, hatred, anxiety, joy, jealousy, worry... 

There was nothing there. The color of his soul was white or rather, it was transparent. 

That was a worrying thing for Velvund. It was indicative that he had undergone some form of emotional conditioning, given the obvious absence of emotion. Reed was far too balanced, more than what was considered necessary. 

To him, it was evident that he had scrubbed his emotions clean -- which was not a bad thing -- but Reed had clearly overdone it. That was a major red flag in Velvund's book. 

The girl was no better, for she was like a maelstrom of color, much like the anomaly in front of them. One moment the hue of her soul was as peaceful and tame as could be before it turned into a raging swirl of dark, almost pitch-black darkness. 

To Velvund, it was like staring into a literal kaleidoscope of finely managed chaos that bordered instability. She was juggling a thousand emotions in a burning house, all the while trying to convince herself that everything was perfectly fine.

What in the Goddess's name happened to them? They had been just fine not even half a day ago... and now they're both like THIS? Oh, the pains of youth... Hopefully, they get past whatever they're dealing with...

As two halves of the same coin, when one of them was spiritually afflicted so, too, was the other. Such was the nature of the soulbond between both of them. 

A stone falling into one face of the pond meant that a ripple would naturally form on the other face as well. Flowers of Fear had been growing on both sides for the longest in secret. 

Neither side had dared to pluck them out by the roots for fear of what kind of damage would ensure, so they ignored them for the longest. Hence, they would continue to grow and propagate without end like a virus until... 

Neither of them wanted to think about it. Instead, they would continue to keep that ticking time bomb buried for as long as they could. It was an unspoken agreement between the two.

Reed and Lu'um nodded their heads together and stared at the fissure in silence and waited...

The plan was simple and direct, though that did not mean it would not be difficult. Reed and Lu'um were to be the spearhead of the operation, entrusted with correcting the anomaly and closing the fissure, which meant that they would, well...

No one really knew what they would do in the anomaly or how they correct it, but none dared to question Velvund's orders. If the former King had entrusted them with that part of the operation, then they were fit for the job. 

The Spirit of Bountiful Charity and the ground teams would stay behind to keep the stabilizer running in proper order, for they had been informed that in the ensuing operation that there would be trouble. 

In the process of closing the fissure, there was a high likelihood of anomaly flaring-up, possibly past the spatiotemporal stabilizer's abilities. That was why the Spirit of Bountiful Charity had been brought to the fissure. 

The titanic Anima drive that powered the flagship would serve as the spatiotemporal stabilizer's battery for the operation, allowing it to handle much higher stress loads than it was capable of on its own. 

Although Lu'um knew that she and Reed could have handled the fissure on their own, they would not have been able to mitigate the damage it would have had on the continent unlike the time in Centlani Deep. 

The fissure in the Silvermoon Grasslands, after all, was not buried ten-thousand meters underneath the sea in an oceanic trench. Whatever rebound occurred after they closed the fissure would have likely laid ruin to an enormous part of the East and possibly even more than that...

This was why Lu'um had suggested that they seek help for the remaining fissures. There was too much that could not be accounted for, even the both of them put their minds to the task. They needed helpers who could take of minor tasks and the Chosen of Mulia were just the people they required. 

Thankfully, Lu'um knew just the person who could assist them with that matter, hence the suggestion for them to seek out Velvund...

A flurry of chaotic scenes flashed back and forth in the distance. In one moment, the sight of warships and cannon fire filled the grasslands and in the next, another strange glimpse into the past would be shown. 

Sights of ancient, shining cities filled with strangers from another millennium. A sea of young saplings grow up and become towering trees in an instant, only to fall over and make way for the next generation. 

The rise and fall of the sun and the moon occurred at an exponential rate within the grasslands. The seasons, too, would come and go like the wind. 

Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter danced around without end in perpetuity within the grasslands. The false stars above Mulia's sky spun around like concentric circles forming resplendent star trails for all to see. 

It was equal parts beautiful, terrifying, and astounding watching the chaotic swirls of Mulia's history inside of the grasslands. 

Entire epochs came and went without concern as Reed and Lu'um waited in silence. 

A second passed and a hundred years passed by and then... a moment of clarity shone through the chaos. 

There it was. The Silvermoon Grasslands. A giant fissure sprawled across the grasslands like a glowing, throbbing scar. 

Reed and Lu'um immediately seized the opportunity. Lu'um grabbed Reed's hand and they suddenly vanished in the blink of an eye. 

No one had even registered that they had disappeared for a couple of moments — that was how fast they had left, which had been for a good reason, too. 

In an instant, the clear Silvermoon Grasslands had gone away, replaced by another period of chaotic, mish-mashed time. That was how short their window of opportunity had been. Less than a single second's worth of time. 

Velvund gazed at the spatiotemporal anomaly and said, "Connect the stabilizer core to the ship! The operation has begun! Raise output to thirty percent and keep it there until I say otherwise!" 

A race against time had begun, one that would pit two people against history itself... for the sake of the future.