The Ancient Era
Riding a cube-shaped craft that shimmered like cut crystal, Kashins ferried Gohan toward the Time King's domain at impossible speed.
An hour later, the Cosmic Cube pierced the barrier between the eighteen universes and drifted past the Omni-King's palace. Kashins still didn't stop; he climbed higher, toward a further membrane of space.
Two attendants so like the Omni-King's silent guards rose to block their path.
"Halt. Beyond this membrane is the Time King's closed-door retreat. No one passes," one guard intoned.
"Honored guards," Kashins said, bowing low, "I am Kashins, Supreme Kai of Universe 7. I request leave to report an urgent matter to the Time King."
"No," the guard replied without inflection. "By decree of the Time King, he is not to be disturbed for any reason. Bring your problem to the Omni-King."
Kashins hesitated, then gambled. "Time in Universe 7 has gone awry. A being from the future has appeared. In that future, events drift from the Time King's original design. Moreover, the Omni-King as he stands seems… unsuited to govern time."
The guards exchanged a look.
"If it's that serious… wait here. I'll attempt to relay your request."
He dissolved into the membrane.
Ten minutes later, he re-emerged. "Come. With me."
He swept a hand and opened a doorway in the wall of space.
"Let's go, Son Gohan," Kashins said.
They followed the guard through and Gohan's expectations shattered.
No blinding halls of judgment. No towering thrones. Instead: a garden. Young trees and flowerbeds; butterflies and bees; a footbridge over a murmuring brook and a modest wooden house.
"Enter. You stand watch," a voice called from within.
"Yes, Time King," the guard said, taking his post as Kashins and Gohan stepped inside.
Gohan's second surprise awaited him there. The Time King did not resemble the Omni-King at all. He was a handsome man with chiseled features, deep blue skin like Zeno's, and a height just shy of two meters.
Kashins dropped instantly, prostrating himself. "I greet the Time King."
Gohan hesitated a heartbeat, then bowed at the waist. "It's an honor, my lord."
"Gohan, kneel!" Kashins hissed.
"It's fine," the Time King said, waving it off. "Up, Kashins."
"Thank you, my lord," Kashins said, still not daring to meet those eyes.
"When did you grow so stiff?" the Time King sighed, amused.
"You are as splendid as ever, my lord," Kashins said, finally looking up and slipping in a neat bit of flattery.
"That's the Kashins I remember. Well then, what's brought you?"
Kashins relayed Gohan's arrival and everything the boy had claimed.
"The future, is it?"
The Time King's gaze sharpened. An unseen force brushed through Gohan like a tide.
"You're not of this world," the Time King said and the words hit like thunder.
"Kashins, wait outside," he added, suddenly serious.
"Yes, my lord. Please… don't be harsh with him," Kashins ventured, glancing back.
The shock in Gohan's chest warmed, just a little, at that.
"Rest easy. I won't," the Time King said with a flick of his hand.
Kashins withdrew.
"How did you see it?" Gohan asked. There was no point bluffing and the gulf in power was obvious.
The Time King raised a hand and made the lightest of gestures.
Gohan didn't resist; there was no malice in that pull.
A thread of light an ochre, xuanhuang shimmer slipped free of Gohan's body and coiled in the King's fingers.
"This wisp is why you were drawn here," the Time King said, turning it in the light.
Memory flashed: the same strange, yellow-brown glow he'd glimpsed in the Kunlun Mountains.
"It's identical to the primordial breath I gained when I opened heaven and earth," the Time King murmured.
"In my world, there are myths about that Pangu cleaving the chaos, Nuwa creating humankind and mending the sky…" Gohan said, and he recounted the old Chinese tales.
Excitement lit the Time King's eyes. "So there are other worlds. I knew it I knew I could not be the only one."
"Kashins said you plan to transcend this reality," Gohan ventured.
"I do. There's nowhere higher left to climb. If not for cutting away a portion of myself to fashion that little Omni-King, I'd likely have broken through already," the Time King said.
"My lord… can you send me back to my era? And Kashins seemed… touchy about Angels serving as a Grand Priest. Why?"
The Time King smiled faintly, folding one leg over the other. "The Angels were the first race I created after opening the cosmos, and I entrusted them with a thread of time's law. As for the Supreme Kais, they are drawn primarily from the Core People another race I created. Their raw might doesn't match the Angels', but they carry the faculty to create life. In stature, they are not lesser."
He began to speak of first principles how, after cleaving the void, he had shaped eighteen universes and charged the Core People with birthing stars and life, setting Supreme Kais over creation while the Angels served as attendants to the throne.
"In my era," Gohan said carefully, "the Angels clearly outrank the Supreme Kais. Even the Gods of Destruction decreed by the Omni-King stand above the Kais in strength."
"Is that so? Let me see."
The Time King closed his eyes. A dense, resonant wave of time-space surged from him and rolled out.
Gohan waited, strangely calm now. Whatever else happened, it was clear the Time King meant him no harm.
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