The silence after the kill was profound, almost deafening. Kaelen stood amidst the wreckage of the Geode Crawler Queen, the massive, mineral-heavy corpse slowly dissolving into shimmering motes of light under the System's relentless consumption protocol. The fight had been brutal, a desperate struggle against sheer size and armored resilience in the oppressive darkness of the ancient passage. He'd won, but it had cost him energy, pushed his newly stabilized System, and reminded him just how fragile his existence truly was.
[Biomass Consumed: +15.5 Units]
[Energy Reserves: 115/150. Status: Optimal.]
[Biomass Reserves: 13.8/15 (Approaching Capacity)]
[System Diagnostics Update: Core functions stabilizing rapidly. Structural Integrity: 75%. Abyssal Core Instability slightly reduced.]
[Skill Reactivated: Adhesive Slime Generation (+)]
[Skill Improved: Vibration Sense (Basic) -> Vibration Sense (Intermediate)]
[Skill Improved: Chemoreception (Basic+) -> Chemoreception (Intermediate)]
[New Genetic Data Secured: Mineralized Exoskeleton (Requires further related data for Skill manifestation)]
He felt the influx of power, a welcome warmth spreading through his weary limbs, pushing back the bone-deep chill of the subterranean depths. Optimal energy. Biomass near full. Key skills back online, others improved. His [Adhesive Slime] felt potent again, ready at his mental command. His [Vibration Sense (Intermediate)] was a revelation, painting a complex picture of the world through the floor and walls – he could feel the subtle shift of loose rocks far down the passage, the almost imperceptible hum of the obsidian structure itself, the slow, patient drip of water echoing from unseen chambers. His [Chemoreception (Intermediate)] parsed the stale, ancient air with newfound clarity, filtering the dominant scents of ozone, dust, and the lingering ichor of the dead Crawler Queen from fainter, more distant traces.
He was better, stronger than when he'd entered this deep passage. But the System's warning about Core Instability, though slightly reduced, still flashed insistently. And the memory of the obsidian chamber, the energy overload, the System reboot… it was a stark reminder of the razor's edge he walked. Power came at a price, and mistakes were rarely forgiven in this broken world.
The Queen's kill zone was a mess. He stepped carefully over cracked shell fragments sharp as glass, avoiding the pools of greyish goo. This place… it felt wrong. Ancient, yes, but also stagnant, forgotten. Like a tomb. The silence felt heavy, unnatural. He needed to keep moving, find a way back up, or at least find somewhere less… dead. The encounters with the fungus people, the System's cryptic messages about Reboot Sequences, the relentless pursuit of the Chrome Hound – it was a whirlwind of questions with no answers in sight. He felt adrift, a tiny speck of struggling life in an impossibly vast and hostile darkness. Was he truly the only one like him down here? Was that fleeting data fragment about "Subject L" just a glitch, a ghost in his damaged machine? The loneliness felt like a physical weight.
He chose a path leading away from the Queen's remains, deeper into the obsidian passage. His footsteps, muffled by dust, were the only sound. He moved with heightened caution now, his improved senses scanning constantly. The passage curved, walls smooth and black, occasionally broken by fissures or sections where the internal blue light pulsed weakly.
Then, his [Vibration Sense] caught it again. Faint at first, almost lost in the background hum of the structure. A vibration signature that didn't belong. It wasn't the heavy, dragging thump of a Crawler. It wasn't the sharp, precise clicks of the Chrome Hound. This was… lighter. Quicker. Almost rhythmic, like controlled footsteps, but with an underlying resonance that vibrated at a frequency close to his own Abyssal Core. It felt… familiar, yet alien. Like hearing a song you almost know, played on an instrument you've never seen.
His own Core pulsed faintly in response, a low thrum beneath his ribs. Curiosity, sharp and dangerous, flared within him, warring with the ingrained caution screamed by every near-death experience he'd endured. Rushing towards unknown signals was how you ended up dead. But this… this felt different. Important. Linked, somehow, to the pillar, the System, maybe even to that phantom "Subject L".
He slowed his pace, melting into the shadows near a curve in the passage wall. He extended his senses, pushing them to their limits. [Chemoreception] filtered the air. Dust, stale rock, the lingering Crawler scent… and something else. Faint traces of ozone, yes, but cleaner than the Hound's oily tang. And beneath that, a biological signature. Humanoid, definitely, but carrying that strange, charged quality, like the air in the pillar chamber. The scent was clean, almost sterile, strangely out of place in this dusty tomb.
He held his breath, listening with his ears and his vibration sense. The light footsteps grew slightly louder, closer. Someone was moving carefully, methodically, down the passage towards his position.
He risked peering around the edge of the obsidian curve. The passage opened slightly ahead. And there she was.
She wasn't looking his way. She was crouched low, her attention focused intently on a section of the wall where the blue geometric patterns pulsed a little brighter than elsewhere. One hand, covered in a fingerless glove, gently traced the lines of light. She wore dark, practical clothing, clearly durable but showing signs of wear – tears, stains, reinforcing patches – suggesting a life spent navigating harsh environments. Her dark hair was pulled back tightly in a ponytail that had come partially loose, stray strands framing her neck. Even from the back and side, her posture radiated alertness, coiled energy, like a predator assessing its territory. Every slight shift of weight was economical, precise.
He couldn't see her face clearly from this angle, but the Abyssal Core resonance was undeniable now. It pulsed from her, a steady, controlled thrum that resonated with his own unstable Core in a way that was both comforting and deeply unsettling. It was the same energy signature, the same fundamental power source, yet hers felt… different. Sharper. More focused. Less raw and hungry, more like a finely tuned instrument compared to his barely controlled furnace.
This has to be L. The thought solidified in his mind. She was real. Another one like him existed. He wasn't alone. The realization sent a dizzying wave of relief, confusion, and suspicion through him. Was she friend or foe? Another survivor? Or something else?
He debated his next move. Call out? Stay hidden? The System offered no guidance, its interface remaining passive, merely tracking her as an 'Unknown Biological Entity with Abyssal Core Signature'. Before he could make a decision, before he could even fully process the implications of her presence, the universe seemed to stutter.
CRACKLE.
The air pressure dropped instantly, making Kaelen's ears pop. The blue light in the walls flared violently, erratically, casting wild, dancing shadows. A sound like reality itself tearing filled the passage, ozone flooding his senses, sharp and acrid. His [Vibration Sense] screamed overload, overwhelmed by chaotic, high-frequency energy tearing through the structure.
Right there, in the empty space between Kaelen's hiding spot and the crouched girl, the world seemed to fold inwards on itself. Light didn't just bend; it shattered, collapsing into a point of impossible darkness before violently unfolding outwards again. With a final, deafening SNAP that echoed like a physical blow, something solidified in the violently distorted air.
It wasn't organic. It wasn't obsidian. It was… wrong. Sleek, grey, non-reflective armor covered a humanoid form, the surface rippling subtly, like active camouflage struggling to cope with the chaotic energy of its arrival. No face, just a smooth, utterly black visor that seemed to absorb all light. Thin lines of cold blue energy, starkly different from the warm pulse of the obsidian patterns, traced across the armor, humming with contained power. In its hands, it held a complex rifle constructed from the same shifting grey material, radiating a palpable sense of menace. The very air around the figure felt heavy, distorted, like space itself was warped by its presence.
Kaelen's System didn't just go berserk. It screamed bloody murder.
[WARNING! CATASTROPHIC TEMPORAL DISTORTION DETECTED! KAIJU-CLASS ENERGY SIGNATURE DETECTED! UNKNOWN WARP DRIVE SIGNATURE!]
[ANALYZING ENTITY... FAILED! UNKNOWN METAMATERIALS! UNKNOWN ENERGY SOURCE! SIGNATURES DO NOT COMPLY WITH KNOWN PHYSICS!]
[CROSS-REFERENCING ABYSSAL DATABASE FRAGMENTS... POSSIBLE MATCH FOUND BASED ON TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT VECTORS & PARADOX SIGNATURE...]
[DESIGNATION ATTEMPT: CHRONO INTRUDER (CORRECTION AGENT? CLASS 5?) CONFIDENCE: LOW]
[THREAT LEVEL: INCALCULABLE! EXTREME! OFF THE CHARTS!]
[RECOMMENDATION: IMMEDIATE EVASION! MAXIMUM DISTANCE! SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: < 0.1%!]
Chrono Intruder?! Temporal Distortion?! Incalculable Threat?! Less than 0.1% survival?! Kaelen's blood ran cold. Future tech? Time travel? This was beyond anything he could comprehend. This wasn't just a predator; this was an executioner from tomorrow.
The girl – L – reacted with blinding speed. No hesitation, no wasted motion. The instant the Intruder fully materialized, she exploded upwards from her crouch, spinning around. Kaelen finally saw her face properly. Young, intense, her features sharp, intelligent, framed by loose strands of dark hair. Her eyes, a startlingly bright, piercing blue, widened for a fraction of a second in pure shock, but that shock was instantly replaced by hardened resolve. Her Abyssal Core didn't just flare; it ignited. A visible wave of crackling bio-electric energy washed outwards from her, making the air hum, a stark contrast to Kaelen's more internal, consuming power. Hers was controlled, directed, like lightning tamed.
The Chrono Intruder's black visor swiveled, locking onto the girl first. Its rifle lifted, humming ominously.
"Abyssal Core Signature detected," a synthesized voice, utterly flat and devoid of inflection, echoed from some hidden speaker in the Intruder's helmet. The sound grated against Kaelen's ears. "Secondary anomaly. Designation: Serein ('Subject L'). Status: Unregistered Core. Priority: Immediate Containment."
Serein! It IS L! The confirmation hit Kaelen even as the Intruder's next words sent ice through his veins.
The black visor snapped towards Kaelen, hidden behind the obsidian curve. It knew he was there.
....
Time warped again, but this time it was Kaelen's perception, adrenaline flooding his system. He saw the rifle barrel glow, an intense, swirling blue-white energy gathering. The System shrieked [INCOMING ENERGY BEAM! TEMPORAL DEGENERATION EFFECT!]. Pure instinct, honed by countless near-death encounters, took over. He threw himself sideways, rolling desperately behind a thicker section of the obsidian wall just as the beam struck.
ZZZZZRRRRR!
The sound was wrong, like tearing reality. The beam didn't explode; it erased. The section of obsidian wall it hit dissolved into a shimmering cascade of distorted pixels, unraveling like badly coded data before slowly, agonizingly reforming, leaving behind a deep, smoking scar that felt fundamentally wrong. Kaelen felt the temporal static wash over him even behind cover, making his skin crawl, his teeth ache. What kind of insane weapon did that?!
Serein didn't waste the fraction of a second the Intruder spent targeting Kaelen. She moved like lightning, a blue blur against the black obsidian. She didn't charge; she flowed, weaving between natural curves in the passage, using the environment with an expertise that spoke of long practice. Her Core pulsed, gathering energy. Kaelen could feel the charge building through his own System link, a rising tide of controlled power.
The Intruder tracked her instantly, its movements unnervingly smooth and silent despite its bulk. It fired again, another unraveling beam aimed at Serein's predicted path. She anticipated it perfectly, sliding low across the glassy floor, the beam vaporizing the wall centimeters above her head. As she slid, she thrust out her right hand, palm open. Not a bolt, but a focused lance of pure bio-electricity, blindingly blue and crackling with contained fury, shot towards the Intruder's head.
SHIMMER! The Intruder raised its left forearm. A barely visible energy shield, like heat haze but geometrically perfect, flickered into existence. Serein's lance hit it dead center. CRACK-BOOM! The sound was deafening. The shield buckled visibly, flickering wildly, and scorch marks appeared on the armor beneath, but it held. The Intruder didn't even flinch.
Okay, shields are strong but maybe not perfect. Good to know. Kaelen thought frantically, heart pounding. He had to do something. He couldn't just hide while Serein fought alone. But what? His slime? His pathetic Glow skill? Against that? He felt like a caveman throwing rocks at a spaceship.
The Intruder seemed to dismiss Serein's attack as irrelevant. Its visor locked back onto Kaelen's position. It fired again, the beam chewing through the obsidian wall closer to him this time. Shards of hot, glassy rock sprayed past his head. He scrambled back, coughing on dust.
Think, Kaelen, think! Disrupt it! Distract it! He needed to buy Serein time, or create an opening. He focused, activating [Adhesive Slime Generation (+)]. He didn't just coat the floor; he flung several large globs of the thick, sticky substance towards the Intruder, aiming for its visor and weapon arm.
Most of the globs hit the flickering energy shield and slid off uselessly. But one, maybe two, got through as the shield wavered from Serein's last hit. One splattered across the Intruder's dark visor, obscuring its vision momentarily. Another hit the barrel of its rifle.
It worked! The Intruder paused, raising a hand to wipe at its visor, its movements momentarily less certain.
Serein seized the chance. She didn't fire energy this time. She exploded forward, closing the distance with incredible speed, her hand crackling with blue power. She wasn't aiming for the armor; she targeted a visible joint in the Intruder's elbow, where the rifle arm connected to the torso. A precise, tactical strike.
But the Intruder's reaction speed was terrifying. Even partially blinded, it adjusted. It shifted its stance slightly, tucking the elbow joint in, while simultaneously dropping its rifle barrel just enough so Serein's strike glanced off the weapon's casing instead of the joint. CLANG! Sparks flew as raw bio-electricity met advanced metamaterial.
At the same instant, the Intruder's free hand snapped out. Not a punch, not a grab. It opened its palm, and a small, localized field of shimmering distortion pulsed outwards, aimed directly at Serein's attacking arm.
Kaelen saw it coming. "Look out! Stasis!" he yelled.
Serein tried to react, tried to pull back, but she wasn't fast enough. The shimmering field enveloped her right arm from the elbow down. Instantly, her movements became agonizingly slow, her arm trapped as if encased in invisible concrete. She grunted, straining against the effect, her Core flaring but unable to break free immediately. A stasis field! Just like the System warned about!
The Intruder, visor now partially cleared of slime, calmly raised its rifle, the barrel coated but seemingly still functional, aiming it directly at Serein's trapped, struggling form. Point-blank range.
"NO!" The word tore from Kaelen's throat again, raw with adrenaline and a surprising surge of protectiveness. He didn't know this girl, but she was fighting with him, fighting this thing that wanted him erased. He couldn't let it kill her.
He did the only disruptive thing he could think of. He burst from cover, yelling like a madman, "HEY! OVER HERE, YOU UGLY CHROME-DOME!" While yelling, he activated his [Glow] skill, pushing as much energy into it as he dared, creating a sudden, blinding flash of intense green light aimed right at the Intruder's head.
FZZT! The Intruder's head snapped towards the flash and the sound. The blue lines on its armor flickered wildly, its targeting sensors clearly overloaded or confused by the unexpected visual and auditory assault. Its aim with the rifle faltered, the barrel dipping slightly.
It was the second Serein needed. With a furious cry, she poured energy into her trapped arm. The stasis field buckled, shattered like glass. She ripped her arm free, stumbling back, shaking off the lingering temporal drag. Her fierce blue eyes met Kaelen's across the space between them. No words. Just a shared look that said everything: This thing is tough. We do this together, or we both die.
The Intruder recovered with terrifying speed, the green afterimage fading from its sensors. It re-assessed, its internal processors likely calculating threat vectors. It seemed to classify Kaelen, the noisy, glowing annoyance, as the immediate primary threat again. Its rifle swung smoothly towards him.
Kaelen's mind raced faster than ever before. Direct attacks were suicide. Energy shields too strong. Stasis fields. That damn unraveling beam… Disruption. Mobility denial. That was the key. The slime patch! He'd made one earlier when he first hid.
"The floor! Slime!" he yelled at Serein, hoping she'd understand his desperate gambit. He didn't wait for confirmation, just dodged frantically backwards as the Intruder fired its beam again. The obsidian floor sizzled and dissolved where he'd been a split second before. He kept moving, weaving, deliberately leading the Intruder towards the area near the passage curve where he'd laid down the thick patch of adhesive goo.
The Intruder followed, its movements economical, relentless. It clearly didn't register the almost invisible slime on the dark floor as a significant threat. It stepped right onto the patch with both feet.
Its relentless advance turned into an awkward, comical slide. Metal feet screeched against obsidian coated in hyper-adhesive bio-polymer. The heavy construct flailed for balance, its smooth movements completely disrupted. It didn't fall, but it was stuck, off-balance, momentarily vulnerable.
Serein didn't miss the opening. She didn't hesitate. She wasn't aiming for the Intruder itself this time. With a sharp cry, she slammed both her hands flat onto the obsidian floor between herself and the struggling Intruder. A massive surge of raw bio-electricity erupted from her palms, not as a bolt, but as a wave, a ground-shattering current that visibly raced across the glassy surface, conducted perfectly by the ancient material.
KRA-KOOOM!
The energy hit the Intruder's metallic feet like a physical blow. The construct spasmed violently, trapped in the slime and the surging current. Blue arcs of energy danced across its entire body, shorting out systems, overloading circuits. Its rifle fired wildly, beams scorching the ceiling. Its synthesized voice dissolved into a high-pitched stream of corrupted data and pure static.
Kaelen stared, jaw agape. Holy crap. Channeling that much power through the floor… Serein was on a whole different level.
The Intruder staggered back as the current subsided, smoke trailing from joints, its energy shield flickering erratically, almost completely gone. Its movements were jerky, damaged. The floor attack had done serious internal damage.
"NOW!" Serein yelled again, her voice sharp, commanding, cutting through the ringing in Kaelen's ears.
This was their chance. Kaelen surged forward. He didn't have a weapon, but he had slime. He activated the skill again, coating his hands thickly, and lunged, aiming for the Intruder's head and weapon. He slapped the goo directly onto the black visor, blinding it again, and smeared more over the rifle's emitter, hoping to clog it further.
The Intruder flinched back, swatting blindly, its movements hampered by the slime, the electrical damage, and the awkward footing. Its rifle sputtered, a weak energy pulse fizzling out against the thick goo.
Serein was already there, a whirlwind of focused violence. Her fists became blue blurs, crackling with power, slamming repeatedly into the Intruder's chest plate, targeting the same spot over and over. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Spiderweb fractures spread across the grey armor with each impact. The weakened shield offered no protection now.
Adrenaline surged through Kaelen, pure, primal hope mixing with the fear. We're doing it! We're actually winning! He circled, looking for another opening, another way to help. The System flashed an update, highlighting the growing damage on the Intruder's chest.
[Analyzing Target Structure... Severe Stress Fractures Detected in Chest Plate... Internal Power Conduit Exposed? High Probability...]
Exposed conduit! He scanned the damaged area while Serein relentlessly hammered it. Yes! He saw it – a section of the chest plate Serein had smashed inwards, revealing sparking wires and a pulsing blue component beneath. That had to be it!
He coated his right hand in slime one last time – for grip. He took a deep breath. Dodging a sluggish, blind swing from the Intruder, he lunged forward, jamming his slime-coated hand into the opening in the armor, fingers closing around something hard and pulsing beneath the sparking wires. He pulled, bracing his feet, pouring every ounce of his strength, amplified by the desperate thrum of his Abyssal Core, into the motion.
SCREEEEECH! The sound of tortured, tearing metal filled the passage. Something gave. A chunk of the Intruder's grey armor, along with a sparking, pulsing blue component attached to wires, ripped free in Kaelen's hand!
Pain exploded in his chest as the Intruder, reacting with surprising force even in its damaged state, slammed its free arm into his side, sending him flying backwards. He hit the obsidian wall with bone-jarring impact, the armor fragment skittering across the floor. Stars burst behind his eyes. Damn… it… hurts… His chitin reinforcement had saved his ribs from breaking, but the force was incredible.
He gasped for breath, vision swimming, looking up just in time to see the Intruder staggering, a gaping, sparking hole in its chest, leaking blue energy. Serein wasn't stopping. She drove one final, crackling fist directly into the exposed, sparking cavity.
The Intruder seemed to realize it was over. Defeated. Its movements became utterly erratic. It ignored Serein's killing blow. It raised its slime-covered rifle, not aiming, but pointing it towards the ceiling. A high-pitched, keening whine started to build, hurting Kaelen's ears even from across the passage. The air around the Intruder began to shimmer violently, distorting, space itself seeming to fold and buckle. The blue lines on its remaining armor flared, impossibly bright.
[WARNING! WARNING! CASCADING TEMPORAL FIELD DETECTED! UNSTABLE WARP CORE COLLAPSE IMMINENT! EVACUATE! EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!]
"Get back! It's gonna blow!" Serein screamed, abandoning her attack. She lunged towards Kaelen, grabbing his arm with surprising strength, hauling him bodily away from the epicenter just as the Intruder seemed to implode.
It wasn't fire and shrapnel. It was worse. A violent inversion of space. A sickening lurch as reality twisted, folded, and snapped back into place. The Intruder, its rifle, the piece Kaelen had ripped off – everything at the center of the distortion simply… vanished. Ceased to exist. Leaving behind only a rapidly fading ozone tang, scorch marks that seemed to writhe for a second before settling, and a profound, echoing silence.
Kaelen lay sprawled on the glassy floor, chest screaming in protest, head spinning, every muscle trembling. He stared, wide-eyed, at the empty space where the terrifying future soldier had stood moments before. Gone. Utterly, completely gone. Like it had never been there at all.
Nearby, Serein leaned heavily against the obsidian wall, pushing her messy hair back from her face. She was breathing heavily, her knuckles scraped raw and bleeding slightly, faint trails of smoke rising from her fingertips where the bio-electricity had discharged. Her energy felt depleted, her usual controlled aura frayed around the edges. But she was alive. They both were.
They had survived. Somehow. Together.
The silence stretched, broken only by their ragged breaths. The adrenaline began to recede, leaving behind bone-deep exhaustion, aching muscles, and a heavy cloud of questions and suspicion.
Kaelen slowly, painfully, pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing as his bruised ribs complained. He checked his System. Minor internal bruising, energy down to a dangerous 35/150 after that last desperate pull. But alive.
He looked over at Serein. She was watching him, her bright blue eyes narrowed, intense, assessing. The brief camaraderie of the fight had evaporated, replaced by the cautious wariness of two predators unexpectedly sharing the same territory.
"You're… Kaelen?" Her voice was low, steady, but held an undercurrent of suspicion.
He nodded, still trying to catch his breath. "Yeah. You're Serein? The System… it called you 'Subject L' before." The data fragment surfaced in his memory.
Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly, a flicker of surprise quickly masked. "How did you…?" She cut herself off with a shake of her head. "It doesn't matter. What was that thing? Really?"
"My System called it a 'Chrono Intruder'," Kaelen repeated, gingerly touching his aching side. "Something about 'Temporal Distortion'. It mentioned a 'Paradox Protocol' right before it tried to 'eradicate' me."
Serein's frown deepened. She pushed herself off the wall, moving with a fluid grace despite her obvious exhaustion. "Paradox Protocol… That's Correction Agent terminology. From the Temporal Authority." Her gaze drifted towards the empty space where the Intruder had vanished. "The Authority doesn't usually deploy assets this powerful, or intervene so… directly… unless a timeline is facing critical deviation. Or unless someone is messing with Precursor artifacts." Her sharp eyes snapped back to Kaelen. "What did you do before I found you?" The suspicion was back, stronger this time.
Kaelen felt a flash of anger mixed with his fear and confusion. "Do? I didn't do anything! I touched a weird pillar, my System rebooted, and I've been trying not to get eaten or shot ever since! I'm just trying to survive down here!"
Serein held his gaze, searching his face. Kaelen met her stare, hoping his desperation looked as real as it felt. After a long, tense moment, she let out a slow breath, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "Okay. Maybe." She sighed, rubbing her temples. "Maybe it wasn't you directly. Maybe it was just detecting two active Cores near a Precursor energy source. The Authority… they're paranoid about paradoxes."
She looked around the ancient, echoing passage. "Right now, survival probably means sticking together. At least for a while. Until we figure out why a Temporal Correction Agent just tried to vaporize you, why I was targeted for 'containment', and what in the hell this place actually is."
Kaelen couldn't argue. He was hurt, his energy was dangerously low, his System was still unstable, and he was lost in a place that felt older than time, with enemies potentially lurking around every corner. Being alone down here again felt like a death sentence. Being with Serein… she was powerful, capable, maybe even knew things. But she was also a stranger, another potential rival with her own secrets. Still, it felt like the slightly less suicidal option. Maybe.
"Okay," Kaelen said, the word tasting like ash in his dry mouth. He pushed himself painfully to his feet. "Okay. Together. For now."
The silence returned, heavy and uncertain. But it wasn't empty anymore. It was charged with the weight of shared survival, unanswered questions, simmering suspicion, and the fragile, dangerous beginning of an alliance forged in the heart of the abyss, under the shadow of a threat from time itself.