Chapter 11 – The Goddess Who Stopped Time
Part 1: Fracture of the Clock Tower
---
It began with silence.
Not stillness.
Not peace.
But silence in its purest form—so complete it felt like the world had stopped breathing.
Yuu stood in the ruins of the collapsed battlefield. The shards of stone, time, and magic had frozen midair.
Nocturne Reverse pulsed once in his hand, then vanished into storage.
He turned slowly.
Even the wind had stopped.
The sky above the demansion was cracked.
Thin fractures of glowing light crawled across the heavens like broken glass reflecting too many suns.
The air pressed against his skin.
Unreal.
Suffocating.
Time had bled.
And the world noticed.
---
The Tower Appears
In the distance, something rose.
A shape.
A structure.
Tall. Towering. Clock-like.
It hadn't been there before. Not even in the deepest corners of the demansion.
It built itself out of reverse time—a reversed rain of debris stacking into a spiral tower of ivory and black gears, topped by a broken clock face whose hands spun in opposite directions.
Yuu narrowed his eyes.
"What the hell is that?"
The Goddess didn't answer.
Because she wasn't standing behind him anymore.
She was gone.
---
Walking Alone
Yuu stepped through the warped earth.
Every footprint he left shimmered for half a second, as if time wasn't sure whether he'd stepped at all.
He moved toward the tower.
A pressure built with each step.
Not mana.
Not divine presence.
Something older.
He reached the base.
A black door. Silver trim. Engraved with runes that pulsed like veins.
No handle.
Just a pulse. Like a heartbeat.
He raised a hand.
The door opened before he touched it.
---
Inside the Clock Tower
The room was hollow.
No walls. No furniture.
Just gears.
Massive divine gears rotated in silence, suspended in the void, locked in place by unseen chains. Each one was as large as a city gate.
At the center stood a throne.
And upon it—
A woman.
She looked like the Goddess.
Same silver hair. Same gold eyes. Same voice.
But this one was chained.
Her body wrapped in black-red ribbons of divine sealwork, arms bound to the sides of the throne.
Her presence was monstrous.
Unfiltered.
Like standing near the sun with your skin exposed.
Her eyes opened.
And time slowed.
Not by magic.
By instinct.
---
Dialogue Begins
She smiled slowly.
"So you're the one she picked."
Yuu said nothing.
"You've made it far. Most mortals never survive the Reaver."
"I'm not most mortals."
"Clearly."
Her voice was the same.
But her tone was older. Deeper.
"You used Nocturne Reverse."
"I did."
"Then that means time has bled. And she's weakened."
Yuu took a step forward.
"Who are you?"
Her smile widened.
"I'm the same Goddess. Just the one she locked away."
"For what?"
"For remembering what came before the demansion."
---
Lore Drop – The First Truth
Yuu's eyes narrowed.
"You mean before this place existed?"
"Before time here was controlled. Before your training chamber was built. Before she pretended this was just a sanctuary."
He said nothing.
She tilted her head.
"She didn't tell you that this place is a sealed battleground, did she?"
His fingers tensed.
"This demansion?"
She nodded.
"This world isn't just your training ground. It's the containment zone for a failed war between gods."
"And you?"
"I was the first Goddess of Origin. She split herself in two to hide what she couldn't erase."
He stepped closer.
"And you're the half she buried."
"The one with memory."
---
Breaking the Illusion
The tower shuddered.
A pulse of mana ran through the floor.
The chained Goddess laughed softly.
"She's trying to suppress me. You're not supposed to be here yet."
"Then why let me in?"
"You broke her rules. When you slashed backward, you reversed a sealed time-layer. That opened the tower."
"And now?"
She leaned forward as much as the chains allowed.
"Now you get to decide what kind of weapon you really want to be."
Yuu's gaze sharpened.
"I'm not here to be anyone's weapon."
"Then you're already stronger than she expected."
She raised her chin.
"Come back when you're ready to unseal the truth. This tower holds the memories of her sins. And the real reason you were brought here."
He paused.
"And what's the cost?"
Her eyes glinted.
"You'll stop being mortal. And start becoming something else."
---
Exit
Yuu turned to leave.
The door reopened on its own.
The moment he crossed the threshold—
The tower vanished.
Gone. Like it had never been there.
The battlefield was still silent.
But now he knew why.
The Goddess was watching.
And hiding.
And he had just found the place where her truth was sealed.
---
End of Chapter 11 – Part 1: Fracture of the Clock Tower
No deaths.
New Lore:
The demansion is not just a training realm, but a divine prison
The Timebound Reaver slash cracked into the sealed timeline
Yuu meets the chained version of the Goddess: the First Origin
__________
Part 2: Memory of the Sin Blade
---
The air hadn't shifted since the tower vanished.
But Yuu had.
He walked through the hollow ruins of the Demansion's northeast quadrant—an area previously inaccessible. The battle with the Timebound Reaver had left this part of the realm cracked open, revealing corridors, chambers, and long-forgotten passageways buried under time and divine locks.
A single rune now pulsed ahead of him.
It resembled the one etched into Nocturne Reverse's hilt—
But this one bled light.
A spiral library emerged from the broken ground, built from white stone and obsidian glyphwork, buried under a fractured dome of frozen sky.
It wasn't part of the training grounds.
This place wasn't meant to be found.
---
The Forgotten Library
He stepped through the gate.
Dust swirled in the stillness.
No wind. No magic circulation. Just time-stopped parchment and sealed knowledge.
Dozens of floating books hung in midair, rotating slowly. Their bindings were scrawled in forgotten languages—runic tongues erased from even divine memory.
He ran his hand along a table that hadn't been touched in millennia.
It felt cold.
Not from temperature.
But from grief.
---
At the center of the library stood a pillar—thin, black, and cracked.
On it sat a scroll.
Unwrapped.
Waiting.
Its title glowed faint red.
"Arsenal 0 – The Blade That Was Erased."
Yuu's breath stopped.
---
The Forbidden Scroll
He reached out.
The moment his fingers brushed the edge—
The scroll unfolded itself.
Wind howled through the library.
The frozen books shattered into light.
Glyphs spun around the room, etching themselves into the walls.
And the scroll began to speak.
---
Words poured into his mind.
Not in sound.
But memory.
A memory that wasn't his.
---
Flashback – The Sin Blade
He saw a battlefield.
Burning sky.
Gods screaming.
Mortals erased.
And at the center—
A lone woman, silver-haired, standing atop a pile of broken blades.
The First Origin.
The version of the Goddess who had once held power over life and time.
She stood barefoot in a pool of her own blood, eyes hollow.
And in her hand—
A sword blacker than death.
It pulsed.
Each beat was a sin.
Each glow, a regret.
She raised the sword—
And cut herself in half.
---
The memory faded.
The scroll folded shut.
And branded one rune into Yuu's chest.
---
Intervention
A voice rang out behind him.
"What did you just read?"
Yuu didn't flinch.
The Goddess—his usual companion—stood at the edge of the library.
Her face was calm. But her hands trembled.
"You weren't supposed to see that."
He turned.
"You lied to me."
"No. I withheld."
"Same thing."
She stepped forward, slowly.
"That scroll was erased from existence. You should be dead."
"Then why am I not?"
"Because something else is choosing you."
He stepped past her.
"It's not choosing me."
He looked down at the rune burning on his chest.
"I chose it."
---
What the Scroll Said
The scroll's words echoed again in his skull.
"There was a blade before all others. It had no element. No edge. No title.
It was a weapon made from the sin of remembrance.
It was too powerful. It cut gods into regret.
So it was sealed… and forgotten.
But memory is a blade. And if one man remembers it—
The Arsenal will awaken fully."
---
The Goddess said nothing.
Her eyes were on the rune—still pulsing red.
"You understand what you're doing," she whispered. "If you bring it back…"
"I won't just train anymore," Yuu finished.
He looked at her—not angry. Not cold.
Just resolute.
"I'm going to finish what you started."
---
End of Chapter 11 – Part 2: Memory of the Sin Blade
Deaths: 0
New Knowledge: Arsenal Blade 0 – The Erased Sword of Regret
Memory Unlocked: First Origin's last war
Yuu's Status: Branded by Sin
Goddess's Status: Fractured — hiding something deeper
____
Part 3: The Sword That Should Not Be Forged
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The scroll's brand had been seared into Yuu's chest for three days.
HSSSSK… White-hot steam hissed every time he exhaled. His skin cracked around the sigil like molten stone.
Each heartbeat burned.
Each breath shattered something inside.
The Demansion wasn't reacting to him like a student anymore.
It was rejecting him like an infection.
---
The Forbidden Forge
WHHRMMMMMMMM…
The cracked valley he entered hadn't existed until today—ripped open by the timeline fracture his blade created.
Above it, in the eye of a spiraling storm, hovered the Forge.
A floating, jagged anvil of divine stone, bleeding silver fire from its runes.
DRIP… DRIP…
A malformed sword hovered above it, twisting midair, its shape undefined—like the world itself refused to remember its final form. THMP-THMP…
It pulsed.
Once.
DOOM.
Yuu took a step.
And everything collapsed.
---
System Breakdown
CRACK!
His knees shattered.
THUD! He slammed into the ground—ribs first.
Blood spat from his mouth. SPKT!
"Ghh—!!"
He reached out—
FZZZZZT—!
His mana flared once, then failed—hard.
It fell out of his core like spilled glass, pouring down his limbs and vanishing into the ground.
Everything inside him… died.
His strength?
Gone.
His aura?
Scattered.
His nerves?
Screaming.
His vision blurred.
Then darkened.
---
First Scream
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!"
His voice tore through the valley like a banshee's cry.
Lightning struck the cliffs in response. KRACK-BOOOM!
The pain surged again.
"HHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAGHHHH—!!"
Blood poured from his nose. His hands curled inward from spasms.
The Goddess appeared—PHMM!—in a flash of divine light, panic in her eyes for the first time.
"You're breaking apart!"
He didn't answer.
He couldn't.
He crawled.
SCRRRRTCH…
Elbow. Palm. Elbow. Palm.
"STOP THIS!" she shouted.
"KAAHHHHHHHHH—!!"
---
The Monster Appears
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The forge ruptured.
And from the storm of light above it descended something massive.
Chains.
Screaming mirrors.
A cloak made of black mist and glowing regret.
Vult'ira – Guiltworn Shade
The reflection of the Goddess's sealed failure.
It walked without footsteps.
It bled from every joint.
Its face?
Hers.
Twisted. Crying.
"YOU FORGOT THEM."
"YOU ERASED THEM."
"YOU SEALED US FOR POWER."
The Goddess fell silent.
Yuu looked up through bloody vision.
"…So that's your sin."
---
Second Wave of Screams
He tried to rise.
"HHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!"
Nothing.
Muscles tore from the inside.
"GAAAHHHHHH—!"
His arms twisted out of place.
"UAAAAAAHHHHHH—!!"
His mana flared again—chaotically—before rebounding and shattering his shoulder from inside. CRKSH!
"KHHHHHHH… KAAHHHHHHH—!!"
He reached forward.
One finger. One wrist.
SCRCH… SLAM… SCRCH…
"RRRAAAAGHHHHHHHH—!!"
The monster behind him howled.
And Yuu—
He crawled anyway.
---
The Forge Speaks
He reached the anvil.
Collapsed against it.
The blood from his lips sizzled against the surface. SZZZZZ—
The sword above shuddered.
The forge spoke.
"WHAT DO YOU OFFER?"
He lifted his head—barely.
Face wrecked. Bones misaligned. Mana nonexistent.
And he said:
"Everything."
---
Third Wave of Screams – The Forging
BOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!
Lightning struck the forge.
The anvil glowed white.
Then black.
Then red.
The incomplete sword shattered—
And launched its fragments into him.
SHLK—SHLK—SHLK—SHLK—!
Spine. Chest. Stomach. Skull.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!"
His scream exploded outward, flattening trees across the edge of the Demansion.
"KHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAHHHHH!!"
CRACK!
His teeth fractured under pressure.
"AAAGGGGHHHHHHH!!"
His eyes bled.
"NGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!"
His back arched violently. CRRKRK!
"HHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHHH—!!"
His voice broke into raw static.
The Goddess collapsed, whispering, "He's really doing it…"
---
The Blade Descends
The fragments
fused midair—
Spun—
Screamed—
And slammed downward into the anvil. KRRAAANGGG!!
The shockwave knocked Yuu fully backward.
But he reached up.
Fingers trembling.
Face soaked in blood, dust, and lightning.
He grabbed the hilt. CLACK.
And screamed one final time.
"UHHHHHAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
The forge went silent.
The sword finished forming.
Its edge? Bone.
Its spine? Memory.
Its aura? Human.
Etched onto its flat side:
Rin. Mi. Rei. Meria. Riem.
He didn't smile.
He didn't cry.
He just held it.
And the world paused.
---
End of Chapter 11 – Part 3: The Sword That Should Not Be Forged
Yuu's Status: Crawled through hell, forged the impossible
Blade 0: Complete, but sealed
Next Threat: Vult'ira, Guiltworn Shade — preparing to strike