The situation was grim. Solomon, whose sole head remained, found it difficult to think about an answer to the question that the girl posed him.

Is she an angel? Is she a demon? What is up with those eyes? She referred to herself as Alviona. Is that her name? Is it perhaps the name of her race? I have never heard of a name such as that. What is this Clock of Time that she refers to? There are too many variables. What should I answer? Crap! I am in a worse situation right now than I was during my death. Perhaps I should introduce myself first? The man wondered. Currently, the girl was patiently awaiting his answer while innocently blinking her eyes. He thought that it was pretty cute. Finding the fragments of resolve that he possessed in his non-existent self, he decided to finally speak.

“Goddess of death; I, Solomon, humbly greet your stature descend upon me. I deeply apologize, but I do not know of this Clock of Time that you are referring to,” he stated with a tone of respect and apology.

Alviona blinked quickly and wiggled her ears. After a moment of delay, she burst out into the sweetest laughter that the man had ever heard.

Yes! I am glad that I was taught etiquette at the Academy of Mages. It appears that her laughter is sincere. Now I should attempt to slowly withdraw information from her and perhaps ask her of the current condition of the world.

“May I ask as to what has amused you this much, my goddess?”

At that moment, Alviona ceased her laughter and looked at his face once more.

“I apologize Mr. Solomon, but I do not understand what the word that you just used means,” she replied with a chuckle.

“I do not understand what you mean by that, O goddess of death,” replied Solomon with a little bit of confusion. He wondered if she had seen through his intentions.

“There, that! You repeated it. “Goddess,” what does that word mean?”

Ah, perhaps I have disrespected her in some ways? I should be more careful.

“I apologize, my goddess. However, I do not know of any other words to describe you as, other than that. You, the almighty deity that oversees the flow of life and death. One that sends the dead mortals to the afterlife,” Solomon replied.

“No, no. I do no such things, and I still do not know what that word means. I assure you I oversee neither life nor death,” she replied while lightly scratching her head.

Solomon was confused by her words. If she was not the goddess of death, then she had to be the torturer of hell, or perhaps the devil itself. His entire soul was now overtaken by fear.

“Then… are you here to torture me?” he asked in a panic.

“What does that word mean?” she asked again, as Solomon finished his question.

“I see. This was part of it was it not? Creating an illusion of stopped time and having me trapped in this condition. You were planning to break my sanity through isolation, and now you have revealed yourself to toy with me,” he stated with a voice full of fear and realization of the truth. The severity of his condition was indeed that bad. How foolish must I have been to be captured by my mortal desires? She is probably waiting for me to completely break into submission and only then feast on my soul. What a horrid creature, he thought while cursing himself and the gods who had condemned him to this fate.

Alviona’s face looked puzzled. “I did not understand the meaning of anything that you just said,” she replied. “Are you saying, that you are a toy?” she asked innocently while grabbing his head and lightly shaking it. At some point, she even began trying to pinch his face and stretch his cheeks. After a while, steam seemed to emit from her head, and she ended up falling down.

“I tried making you fluffy like Piu, but to no avail. Now I am hungry, and it is all your fault,” she accused with frustration.

Solomon was confused beyond comprehension. What had just happened? Was she the torturer? Why was she acting so childish? After asking himself these questions, he looked at the girl and realized that she was drooling while muttering something along the lines of “Piu’s tail… Piu’s tail."

“Just, who are you?” he asked the girl with a puzzled and desperate voice. “Hey!” he shouted after noticing that she was completely ignoring him. It seemed to produce its desired effect, for the girl snapped out of it and shifted her gaze towards Solomon once again, therefore allowing him an opportunity to ask his question yet again.

“Did I not already tell you?” she replied with a surprised look. “I am Alviona.”

“Stop messing with me! What are you? If you are not a goddess or a torturer, what are you? Who do you serve?” he asked irritated.

“Serve? I do not think I serve anyone. Nobody can dominate me…” she replied with a smile while closing her eyes.

If she says that… then what is she? Clearly, she must be serving somebody to be in this place no?

“… not even a god. Furthermore, to answer your question as to what I am, well… I am Alviona. An elf,” she continued.

What?! Elf? An Elf?! Elves do not have wings! Such a thing has never been recorded in history. I need to learn more and approach this situation differently.

“Child, you do understand that elves do not have wings, right?” he asked her slowly, to avoid evoking some form of catastrophe unto his head.

“Oh, those. I grew it out when my growth accelerated. My mommy, Reiolle, gifted them to me. I also have horns, but they are still developing. Aren’t my wings amazing?!” she asked, her voice filled with awe. Her self-esteem seemed to be through the roof. And indeed, Solomon did think that her wings were brilliant.

But who is this Reiolle she mentioned? She referred to her as a mother, so perhaps it is a name of a forgotten goddess and this person in front of me, is a demi-god? If so, then the stopped time… is it a world created by that deity? Was I somehow destined to meet this girl?

“Forgive my rudeness. May I ask who this Reiolle is?” he asked politely.

“Certainly!” replied the girl with an overly cheerful voice. The energy seemed to be pumping through her body. “Reiolle is my sculptor, my creator and my mother” she replied passionately and with an enormous sense of pride.

“Creator? Sculptor? So, where is she now? May I talk to her?” he asked in hopes of communicating with this deity and asking about his role. There must have been a reason that he was not dead yet and he had to figure out how to appease this deity if he were to regain his life. If Solomon had to sell his soul, then he was ready to pay such price.

“Oh, she is here. But you may not talk to her. It is impossible,” replied Alviona with a giggle.

“Have I angered her in any way? May I ask, why can I not speak with her?” asked Solomon in a hurry.

“Well, it is due to one simple fact. Reiolle is currently standing in front of you, and you are speaking to her,” replied Alviona firmly.

“What? This is absurd… Do you mean to say that you are Reiolle? Then, how do I comprehend your previous words?” asked Solomon in shock.

“No, no. You seem to have misunderstood me, Mr. Solomon. Let me try this again,” she replied and began her explanation.

After 10 hours of going back and forth, Alviona had finally managed to vaguely provide a gist of the whole picture. She had not left out even a single detail. In the aftermath, Solomon’s head was ready to explode in confusion. There were too many unknowns, but for the sake of retaining his sanity, he decided that the words spoken by this girl were truthful. Then one last question remained to be asked. After careful consideration, he mustered his courage and spoke up.

“So, if you are a child of such strong deities, then why are you stuck here. Can you not escape?” (Solomon)

“Oh, but I am not stuck here. The world has come to a standstill for 56 hours. Currently, only 30 hours remain until the world resumes,” she stated without any hesitations or doubt.

“What will happen to me then?” he asked with an overwhelming sense of fear.

“That I do not know,” replied Alviona. “I still do not know how you managed to be inside my . Its rules are absolute. All living creatures have been erased from existence in the place that I came from. What about here? You are here, talking to me. Therefore, you must be alive no?” she said while touching her chin.

“Wait. Did you just say, that all the living creatures would cease to exist?”

“For the duration that the time is stopped, yes.” Alviona nodded in affirmative.

“If it helps you out, I will tell you what happened on this battlefield,” said Solomon, desperately trying to fill in the gaps. Seeing that Alviona was fully paying attention, he told her of the tale which coincided with her description of the phenomenon. He talked about what sort of battlefield had unfolded here, how his head was sliced off and how time seemed to stop as it was falling down. When Solomon finished his story, Alviona snapped her fingers.

“Aha! I get it now,” she said while grinning. “You are included in my because you were not considered as a living. If what you tell me is correct, then you still retained your consciousness for a brief moment after your death. Therefore, we are talking now. As to how you may be alive, it can be explained by Mana. I do not know anything related to the magical skills that my mommy - Sofia, used. However, I do have an intrinsic knowledge about how Mana works. Tell me, were you someone powerful with mana related abilities?” she asked with a face that gave away her overflow of curiosity

“Indeed, I was,” replied Solomon with a mixture of pride, regret, and guilt.

“Excellent. Then, I can answer your question now. What will happen to you is very simple. After the runs out, you will continue doing what you were doing prior. In other words, you will become like them” she said while pointing at the corpses on the battlefield.

Solomon understood. The moment this clock that Alviona talked about timed out, his doom would be upon him. It was just a matter of time. There was absolutely nothing he could do.

Oddly enough, he thought of this girl in front of him. Her presence here has somehow grown on him in ways that nobody else ever had. She had taken the time to talk to him during this crisis and had not walked away.

He had been rude, and yet never did this child say anything. He silently thanked the heavens for granting him such privilege as someone that comforted him. With fear overtaking his body, he closed his eyes and prepared for his death.

“I… Thank you very much.”

“You are welcome!” replied Alviona with a grin. Such act warmed Solomon’s heart, despite him not having one anymore.

“So, what are you doing now?” she asked with a curious voice.

The man was confused. Why was she asking such a question? Furthermore, why was she still here? Did she not say that she had to fly back to her mother?

“I am preparing for death,” he said while realizing how stupid it sounded.

“Oh. Is it fun?” asked Alviona innocently.

Just what is going through the mind of this unknown, unexplainable existence? Wondered Solomon. Then he thought about her story. Despite it sounding like a fairy-tale, the fact remained that time was stopped and she was the key to all of this. Besides, was she not behaving precisely in accordance to the age that she had described herself as being? She had high intelligence, this he did not doubt. However, the child still acted like a one year and three-month-old, if one was given an ability to speak at such age. This was most likely due to her inexperience with life.

Great. I am thinking of this as if I believe this nonsense, kept Solomon thinking.

“No. But I do not think that I have a choice. There is nothing I can do to become alive. Resurrection spells exist, but in such a place to find a user that can utilize such a divine power is close to impossible,” he stated with sorrow and grief.

“Hmm, then are you saying that you want to live?” asked Alviona while falling into deep thought.

“Yes, I do!” exclaimed Solomon, “But it is impossible.”

“But it is quite possible,” answered the girl firmly. “I could use and propose an offer. “However,” she paused, “be warned that the offer is one-time only. Your refusal or acceptance, will both be permanent”.

What on earth… What… How? Only angels and deities can resurrect the dead. So, then what is this child talking about? She is probably playing. Well… I suppose I could play along. What do I have to lose?

“All right… I accept” he replied.

“No, not like that,” giggled Alviona. “Like this,” she continued while extending her hand and touching Solomon’s forehead.

The moment she did a weird voice resonated inside Solomon’s head.

Solomon fell into thought. What was this sound echoing inside his head? Furthermore, he did not see or hear the girl do any incantations. Could she quickly spell cast some skills as he could? And if so, what was this skill? Curiosity flowed through his diminishing life force. Seriously, what was there to lose? Had he not convinced himself that if he had to offer his soul to a deity in exchange for life, he would accept? Why was he hesitating now?

I accept.

A jolt of pain rushed through his mind. His soul began twisting. The feeling could be described as a man chewing shattered bits of glass and swallowing it, and the body stretched till flesh would start to tear off. The sensation of eyes being gauged out over and over until one would get tired of screaming. Such was the intensity of pain that Solomon underwent. The process took exactly 6 hours. No more, no less. And so, less than 23 hours remained.

"W-what?! What have you done to me?!"