Ryan relaxed on the couch, an arm draped across Kyra's shoulders as they watched a movie. He had been in the past for nearly a month, and other than the incident at the bank and the one at the mall, not much had occurred.

For the most part, he simply relaxed and enjoyed the days as they passed, learning more about the past and its history. To him, the idea of a government which chose its leaders was strange, and that feeling was reinforced by both the Orders and the past's democratic governments.

"How long until the seal breaks?" Kyra asked Ryan, a question which had become more frequent over the past two weeks.

"Very soon," he answered. "I can feel it about to shatter, actually."

"And you're leaving once it does?" She asked.

"Indeed," he answered. "Though not immediately. I have to wait for the pair of gods who'll clean things up to arrive first. I don't know how long that will take, but I doubt it'll take very long."

"Okay," she said, then extracted herself from him and stretched. "I suppose we should have a barbecue, then."

"A barbecue?" He asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Yeah," she smiled at him. "A barbecue. We haven't done it yet, though I've thought about it. I had Nick buy some brats and chicken breasts."

"Are you talking about the breasts you have marinating?" Ryan asked. "I'm still not sure what the purpose of that is."

He'd never heard of marination before, though guessed that it might still exist in his time. Cooking wasn't one of his interests, so he never bothered learning much about it.

"It infuses the meat with the flavor," she told him.

"I know that," he said. "I just don't understand how it does it."

He stood and stretched as well.

"Well, it doesn't matter," he said. "It was just a bit of curiosity on my part. I'm more curious about what this barbecue is."

"Come on," she led him outside, then started charcoal on the grill, Ryan using his fire magics to start it after she soaked the briquettes in lighter fluid.

Once the coals were hot, Kyra began grilling the brats and breasts, her brother and his girlfriend showing up as she did. Nick prepared lemonade and iced tea, and once the food was finished, they ate at the table on the back patio, with chips and salad on the side.

"I can't decide which I liked more," Ryan said after finishing eating a breast and a brat. "The breast had a nice flavor to it, though I feel there was a little too much of the charcoal flavor to it from the coals. Meanwhile, the brats were juicy, and had a firm exterior, giving just the right texture to their bite. The flavor was decent, but not as good as the chicken's."

"Do you always analyze everything you eat?" Nick asked. "I've heard you do that for most things."

"I do," Ryan told him. "It's been a habit of mine ever since I was little. Since I can't see, I rely on my other senses more, so I focus on them more. Paying attention to the way things taste, feel, hear, and smell makes up for the lack of sight."

"I still can't get over that," Kyra told him. "Using magic to see everything instead of your eyes."

Ryan shrugged in response to that. He didn't expect them to properly register everything. The young god looked up at the sky.

"This was a nice meal," he told them. "I thank you for it, Kyra. And for helping me blend in to your society during this time here."

"But…?" She asked.

"But," he said. "There have been shudders in the seal every few minutes for the last day and a half. This is probably the last meal I'll have with you, which means last night was probably the last we'll sleep together. I actually do like you, you're a pretty decent person."

"When you said it's breaking soon," she said. "You meant-"

"In about thirty seconds, if my estimate of when the next attack on the seal is accurate."

Everyone stared at Ryan, who shrugged.

"It's not like you can be more prepared than you already are," he said. "So I didn't feel it necessary to warn you that it's about to happen."

He could feel the anxiety in them rising, the humans suddenly aware their world was literally about to change forever. If he were in their place, he knew he might have felt the same.

Only a few seconds after he made his statement did the seal break. When it did, Ryan felt magic flooding into the world, and the three humans with him gasped at the sudden force while clutching their ears at the sound of a crystal shattering.

Not any ordinary crystal, but a divine crystal whose shattering resonated in their minds and souls. It was the sound of the seal breaking, and it disturbed Ryan as well. For nearly four minutes, the effect lasted, then everything lessened.

The young god could tell the mortals were still affected by the flood of magic's presence, but it wasn't something which would cripple them. Once they adjusted to it, they would be fine.

"I didn't know it would do that," Ryan told them. "I've never encountered such a thing before."

An immense pressure touched upon his senses as Ryan welcomed the feel of magic in the air once more, then he heard a thunderous roar.

"That's interesting," Ryan said. "I thought the dragon showed up later."

"The dragon?" The three mortals exclaimed.

"Hm?" Ryan asked. "Oh, yeah. According to the history books, the dragon showed up after a bit, not right at the start. Then again, the history books also said it wasn't all that long of an incident, but it actually ends up lasting twenty years."

"BLIND GOD!" A deep voice roared, shaking the air.

"Huh," Ryan said. "It even speaks English already! I suppose it did the same thing I did and plucked it from someone's mind upon arrival. Probably didn't need to touch them like I did. I am just a fledgling god, after all."

He stretched out his senses to their limits. The dragon sounded a fair distance away, even if its voice made the air rumble and glass shake.

"Well," Ryan looked at the mortals. "I suppose it's time to say farewell. Things seem to be a lot faster than I expected them to be. I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with the dragon for at least a month! Farewell!"

He used his air magics to fly up into the air and towards the source of the deep voice.

"THERE YOU ARE!" The dragon roared. "PREPARE YOURSE-"

Ryan didn't let the dragon finish, as it had entered into his range of senses. With a thought, he incinerated the portion of its brain within his range. With the dragon slain, Ryan watched as it fell to the ground, crushing dozens below. Its form was large enough that he couldn't fit the entire beast within his senses. When he drew closer, he estimated it to be at least a thousand feet in length.

"Huh," he said. "Being a god is truly awesome, if I can kill a dragon so easily."

The words were barely out of his mouth before his powers surged and a new sense awakened within him, informing him of two beings nearby.

"There he is!" A woman called out. Even though they were not speaking English, Ryan seemed to understand their words anyway, an instinctive knowledge informing him it was the language of the gods. "And-he's dead."

"I'm going to say," a man said. "That it was the god who's draining our powers. They wasted no time establishing themselves as ruler."

"It's probably him," the woman said as they came into Ryan's view, and he sensed the immense magical powers within them, even in their suppressed state. "Whoa."

"Yeah," the male god said. "I'm with you on that, Selar. He is hot."

"Sorry," Ryan held up a hand as he turned his body to face the pair of gods. "But I prefer the company of women. You two showed up a lot sooner than I expected."

Things were moving quickly with the breaking of the seal, which pleased Ryan. The faster things moved, the sooner he was returning to his own time, which meant the sooner he could save his mother, even if the saving would occur at the same time regardless of how long he took.

The young god assessed the pair of gods before him, both of whom looked as human to him as he did.

"You expected us to arrive?" The female god, Selar, asked.

"Yes," Ryan answered. "I'm actually the paradox which caused the seal to weaken. You were chasing the dragon?'

"Yes," she answered. "You're a paradox?"

"I was born more than a century and a half from now," Ryan answered. "Yet am the reason the seal broke due to a time spell mishap. In a world without magic, I arrived, full of it. Yet I couldn't exist without the seal already having been broken. Quite the paradox, isn't it?"

"Yep," she answered. "I'm not sensing a trace of deceit in your words. As you're the godking of this world, I can't read your mind, either. Your story has some signs of truth, though. How else could you have established yourself as godking so quickly, if you weren't born into it?"

"I'm returning to my own time shortly," Ryan told them. "So I'm curious, what will keep you from attempting to prevent me from rising to power? It didn't happen in my past – your future – so I'm a bit curious on that."

"I'm Selar," she introduced herself. "And this is my friend, Kylnar. We have no interest in ruling a world ourselves, even if we're gods."

"Nah," Kylnar said. "We're actually looking for a certain god. This dumb dragon was our lead to it, but I guess this world's godking is rather powerful. How did you kill it? I'm not sensing any signs of damage."

"I incinerated its brain."

"You did what?" Kylnar and Selar asked in unison, and Ryan could sense the shock in their minds and read it on their expressions.

"How?" Kylnar gestured to the dragon. "There's no traces of damage to the exterior, and that would be needed in order to do what you claimed! It's not like you're an elemental!"

"Hm," Ryan said. "No, I'm not an elemental. If you're referring to the way they 'see' through the elements, allowing them to manipulate any they can sense, then you're wrong. I'm blind, and I learned to see the same way the elementals do. I simply directly affected the dragon's brain with fire magic, as it was within my range of sensory-you're both staring at me with shock."

"You're blind?" Selar asked.

"I am," Ryan answered. "The only reason I can navigate is because I'm using four elements to sense around me right now."

The pair of gods looked at each other, then at Ryan.

"Well, we found you!" Selar told him. "We've actually been looking for 'the blind god'. Supposedly, he's my soul mate, and this dumb dragon has been trying to find him to kill him. He's actually the one who broke the seal, but I guess it wouldn't have been possible without your paradox weakening it."

"I'm your soul mate?" Ryan asked, slightly confused.

"It's complicated," she said. "But we met a phoenix some time ago who told me that the blind god would be my soul mate. I wanted to see if there was any actual attraction towards him. I'm nearly three hundred years old, and have yet to truly feel for someone."

"I'm eighteen," Ryan said. "And I like having sex… though I guess I know what you mean. I don't know what you mean about soul mates, but hey – in a century and a half or so, if you return, I'd be more than happy to have you in my harem and we can see about whether or not we actually get along."

"You know," Kylnar laughed. "I think we might like him, Selar. Any other god, we'd know they were serious. That expression? He's obviously joking about the harem."

Ryan grinned at them. He wasn't interested in a harem, though was curious to know how well he would get along with Selar, if she were supposedly his soul mate. He wasn't sure he believed in such things, but would still give a relationship with her a try if she returned in his own time and showed interest still.

"I'm going to have a harem of five hundred hot women," he told them, then turned his gaze to Kylnar. "Sorry, but you're a guy. Women only. You can be a servant or something."

"I can see what you mean," Selar laughed. "So you are not born for another century and a half of this world's time, Blind God?"

"Correct," Ryan answered. "I'm still curious why you won't simply try to claim a world."

"We're wanderers," she told him. "Ruling a world hasn't appealed to us. We abandoned the one we were born on before we were even thirty because we wanted to explore the universe, then we met the phoenix, and now have just been curious about this supposed soul mate. Finding a blind god was thought to be impossible, due to our natural healing abilities and perfect states. The fact that you are blind truly is an anomaly."

"You said you are returning to your natural time," Kylnar said. "We'll return when you're ready for us, and we will see how things progress. We might stay a few days, or a few centuries. The most likely result with be only a few months. We prefer to linger on worlds without gods for a short time, then move on."

"I see," Ryan said. "So does that mean you'll stay behind here?"

"Yes," Selar answered, then indicated the dragon. "The state of the world and what's going to happen to it is his fault, and we were sort-of chasing him, so we'll take the blame and perform the cleanup."

"Okay," Ryan said. "My family name is 'Novar', and my ancestors are in the belly of a woman named Kyra who lives nearby right now. Please protect her and help her and my children flourish. You said you'll return when I'm ready, Kylnar. How would you know that?"

"What lineage are you born into?" Kylnar answered. "I'll arrange a simulacrum to live among them. You'll know it by the presence of a mind with nothing there, yet for all other appearances, it's human. To signal to us that you're ready, send it a telepathic message. It'll count as a psychic attack, which will alert me. I'll set it up so that only godly magic can work on it, and it'll be used as a servant to the head of the family until then."

"Okay," Ryan knew exactly where the simulacrum was based on that description – his father had someone with him on both of his past birthdays who met that description. "I'll do that. I don't fully trust you, but since everything which has happened in the past already has, I know you're sincere. At least, partially."

"Plus," Kylnar said. "You're draining away most of our power, and you're immortal as long as you're here. We really do have no intention of ruling, though it might be interesting to be at the side of a young god who's just begun his journey as a godking."

"Alright," Ryan said. "Well, I'll be going now. I'll see you again in nearly two centuries of this world's time. You'll be able to find her if you go straight in that direction, she's with her brother and his pregnant girlfriend."

Ryan indicated the direction in which Kyra and Nick lived, then lowered his arm once they looked in that direction.

"Farewell," the pair of gods told him as they turned their gazes back to him.

Ryan knew things would work out based on his history, so he returned himself to his own time, feeling his mana drain away. For a moment, he was disoriented, having reappeared back beside Tyler in Volnal, at the moment of his departure.

Just like when he arrived in the past, Ryan found himself naked, though he noticed his clothes dropping to the ground in front of him, as if they had been pushed out of the way for his return.

"Everything alright?" Tyler asked, averting his gaze from his master's nude form.

"Yes," Ryan answered. "I accidentally went back in time instead of reset time. Things were slow at first, then everything seemed to happen all at once, and now I'm back."

He took a deep breath to collect himself after the sudden repeated shifts in situation. He had not expected the dragon nor the gods to show up that fast after the seal broke, and it had thrown him off some. However, he was pleased with how fast things seemed to progress, and felt glad history had been wrong in how long everything had supposedly taken.

Once he finished collecting himself, Ryan prepared for a reset, then initiated it, making extra-sure that the reset was the only thing on his mind when he cast it. He did not want anything else to hamper his journey to saving his mother.