Space Core

POV: Jerome

You know, I recently came to realize that shoes are quite a luxury. Anyone would when the ones they currently have are falling apart; The leather making them cut up and stretched to its limits. Rocks cut deep into my feet while grass agitates the wounds.

Yeah, shoes are really nice to have.

But, since I don't have any intact ones right now... I might as well be walking barefoot. Of course, Certe wasn't having any problems; Comfortable as she was in my arms. Apparently, walking was too difficult for the damn cat and she had decided that my arms would be just perfect.

It wasn't actually that bad though... it gave me something warm to hold close to myself when the frigid almost-winter air makes its presence known.

I also had a bit of bad news, I don't have any rations left. Really, it had been a miracle that I had taken enough before -I thank my greedy ass- and that I hadn't starved yet. But now, I would need to find some food quickly.

'stop.' I heard Certe say to me through the 'soul-bound' skill. I stopped, of course.

The cat jumped straight out of my hand, out into a clearing we had just arrived in. What was it doing now?

POV: Certe

'[Hands of $Time]' It was one of the skills I was left with from that fucked up system; I hadn't dared touch it, I didn't want it to interact with my domain. But, no matter how hard I tried to use my magic in the ways I had previously done... nothing worked. I really was forced to use the stupid skill.

I waited in Jerome's arms until a suitable clearing was found, and made him stop. It wouldn't do to have him too close to the skill, I'm the one who should hurt him... not some half-baked skill from some upstart Minor-God. Jumping out into the center of the space, I took a deep breath and activated the skill.

A moment passed. Then another. And just when I was about to think everything had gone to shit, something happened.

Right there, in front of me, a giant clock made out of an eerie blue light stood in front of me. I looked like the light was tearing itself away from the universe, just to be here. It had hundreds of differing hands, all of them representing different flows and units of time. And, for some reason, the clock sometimes flickered to another version of itself; One made out of a golden light and it only had the basics of a handmade clock.

I may not like being restrained in my powers, but I had to admit that this system got it correctly in terms of presentation. But what about the utilization?

I went to touch the clock when a question entered my mind from seemingly nowhere.

{[(Give me the area and/or thing you wish to affect.)]}

Now... that was different, but I answered politely. No need to be rude.

'This clearing, and specifically not Jerome or myself.'

I felt a sort of feeling of confirmation. And then my paw touched the clock. All other hands apart from three disappeared; It looked like the hands for the hours, minutes, and seconds of the area I had chosen.

I took hold of the hour's hand and turned it counterclockwise some distance. I found myself looking at the back of a family, they were apparently looking for something.

A little girl from the group turned around and then gasped as she saw me, "Dad! Look, it's a kitty!"

I quickly turned the clock back to its original state and then took a breather. I could feel that it had taken a significant amount of Mana to do that, I probably won't be able to do it too often. I let myself recover Mana until I was back to full -for this body at least- and then went to try an idea.

It wasn't something I could do... but maybe this system could do it for me. I started turning the minute hand clockwise. I instantly felt a wall of resistance, it was almost painful from how much it fought back against me. But I was still able to turn it. Each small bit was pain, and I could feel it draining me more and more as I pushed.

I stopped at one minute in the supposed 'Future', All I saw was the same clearing... but flickering through thousands of differing iterations, no possible ways of processing any of it.

I knew I didn't have long before I was thrown back into 'normal' time, and so I did the easiest thing I could. I dug a hole in the clearing. Instantly, the flickering in the spot I had changed stopped.

And then I fell to the ground heaving, my body not being able to keep up the strain of being in this weird state of Time. The clock hands all went back to what they were.

I didn't have any energy left in me, so I left the skill stop and called out for Jerome. 'Jerome, get over here and pick me up. After that go back to where you currently are and position me so that I can see where I am currently located.'

Jerome did as instructed, though with quite a bit more care than I would've expected from a controlled human.

I waited, knowing that the moment of truth would be approaching.

All of a sudden, a dog jumped out of the bushes from the left side of the clearing. It had a rather large bone in its mouth. It went to the center of the clearing and began digging a hole -likely to safely deposit the bone- but was interrupted by Jerome coughing, startling it into running away.

All that was left was a poorly made hole in the center of the clearing.

I then promptly fell asleep in the -dare I say it- soft arms of Jerome.