Demon Continent Alsace in 307 in the 10-month Asmodum on the 24th day after the Shattering of the Empire.

The Younger Waterborn had returned with boxes of food and amphorae full of wine and oils. They seemed to have simply gathered whatever seemed like something to drink or something to eat from the surface.

So was also worked leather, noble craft materials with matching tools or not, but also dyes, cloths from the finest silk to coarse wool. Everything, of course, wet but still in good condition, as if it had just been lost in the floods of the sea or a river.

Some of the boxes and amphorae could be seen that they had not found a peaceful way into the water, because they were singed or showed cracks and other damage.

Where did they get all this stuff?

She couldn't help but let her eyes wander over the hodgepodge of objects, crates, amphorae, and other things. Until her eyes finally fell on Nereus.

Izatra had introduced him as the protector of the Red Sea and the progenitor of this clan of Waterborn. And they didn't deny it when I said that he was a ruler of the seas, even though the Nereus Ilayda might not be the only Waterborn of the Red Sea.

Lost in thought, she continued to look around, meanwhile, large shells and luminescent algae had been brought in and the Nereus Ilayda seemed to be preparing an area accordingly for a feast. Even if this seemed to be not simply on one level or spread over several floors of a building in their case. Like a spreading pale, more and more objects of different sizes and shapes were placed in places known only to the Nereus Ilayda.

Whole coral reefs appeared decorated with shipwrecks, which themselves offered a home for corals.

Large and small jellyfish drifted through the still dark sea because it was a sea as she had noticed after a sip of salt water and also because the Nereus Ilayda had spoken of a sea.

The jellyfish were joined by swarms of small fish and large sea animals, all of which seemed to glow in a variety of colors.

Something was strange though, it wasn't that everything just appeared, even if it did, no it was somehow different as if something would find its place or in some cases take its place again.

Similar to how it was with the prey of the young Waterborn, they looked like they hadn't aged a day after they went overboard or under and they had the same feeling about them as some of the reefs and sea creatures.

The feeling was also familiar to her, even if she couldn't place it.

So she swam following the feeling to the reefs, ships, jellyfish, and shoals to see if she could get a better feeling when she was closer.

Lerna meanwhile was back at her side and did not leave it even if a lot of Nereus Ilayda tried to lure her, but without any success.

Where have I ever felt such a feeling before?

She rummaged in her memories, and rushed through corridors full of old and new impressions, smells and experiences until she came to one. One from a night in a now distant wagon in which she had defended herself and other Cikarti children.

The Basilisk's gaze felt like the water and everything else in it around her.

But that didn't make any sense. Water couldn't be petrified.

I mean it can go from ice to water and from water to gas, but it can't be petrified like a living thing. At least I've never heard of the Basilisk petrifying water.

Still, she could not deny that the water around her had the same feeling as her Basilisk look.

She stopped swimming and drifted in the water, watching the spectacle around her. More and more details peeled out of the darkness or just seemed to appear where nothing had been before.

Despite the Nereus Ilayda dragging huge shells and corals across the seabed, nothing was stirred up. The ripple-like patterns were not swirled, nor were they interrupted by any furrows or grooves. Instead, it only became clearer and more discernible, seeming to peel out of the ground in an ever-widening circle around the Arcane Volcano, which was still sending its Arcane Lightning into the darkness.

It is a huge mandala with the Arcane Volcano in the center. But what is this feeling?

"TIME!"

She flinched as a strange female voice spoke to her. And could not avoid it that she looked around hectically and in full panic.

Only there was no one here but her, and none of the Waterborn or other sea creatures had made contact with her, nor could she detect any intrusion into her thoughts.

Which is even more disturbing than that someone or something has invaded my mind.

The soft touch of Lerna made her flinch and go into an attack stance.

Lerna just looked at her, seemingly waiting for something.

"Were you talking to me?"

It was the best possibility she could see and also the best she could hope for.

Even if that is a good reminder that I am not a level nine Accumulator of Spirit, but only a level three Accumulator in all Arcane forms though, but still level three. The confrontation with Diva completely took away my reality.

She shuddered involuntarily as she remembered running down the corridors ready to fight like a strained bow against a Titan, and as a level three user, even if it were all three Arcane energies she could use. Still, she was only level three.

"Yes."

Lerna's answer and the Positive Emotion she received via what she could now see was a natural telepathic link brought her back to the here and now.

"Time."

So the emotion was Time and she manipulated it with her Basilisk gaze and the same thing happened here. Only the water and everything else that gave her this feeling was not petrified, no there were whole schools of fish swimming happily back and forth. As is well known, stone did not swim around, but simply sank into the water.

"What does the Basilisk look do with Time?"

It was probably the easiest to ask Lerna, who seemed to know more than she did. In the stories of her family, it had always been said that the Basilisk Gaze could petrify whole armies. But there had never been any talk of Time.

"Rule."

"Rule over Time? Like a king or like a..." Titan!

According to Diva, creatures equal to the Gods.

So can I assume that the Titans have a domain similar to the Gods, which is theirs and over which they rule unrestrictedly, or are they like the Gods only a manifestation of it?

Whereby she could never prove this completely and had also never found clear references about the gods. The only thing that had found her was Albia and she had given her a blessing, something that could be interpreted as wished, but still, she had never found a clear answer.

Nevertheless, it remains that someone or something here has played with Time and I have felt this, the only question remains what has happened with the time here and for what purpose.