Astrix took a bite out of a cookie and washed it down with a sip of coffee. "Xopil created me, sent me on a foolish 'game' of his to solve some silly puzzles, and then tried to kill me. Am I forgetting anything important?"

"Yes." Xiara replied, "A lot of important things."

"Alright." Astrix replied biting the cookie. While chewing he added, "Break it down for me."

Xiara ignored his manners and began:

"You weren't just sent off to play a silly game, you were being groomed as a possible replacement for Xopil. At the time you finished the puzzle, I had deemed you to be a worthy candidate, and put you on the path of the test, which you passed...with flying colors."

Astrix shuddered when he heard 'flying colors' and he thought about the various colored light beams that were sent his way to snuff out his life. "Those attacks were the test?"

"No... that was an unfortunate event... You see, Xopil was tasked with maintaining balance of all things in the universe. He takes that job very seriously, and he designed this place... It's a sophisticated maintenance room that automatically detects when anything grows too powerful and there's nothing that can offset it and keep it in balance. At which point..."

"Xopil nukes it from here." Astrix sounded annoyed, and understandably so since he was targetted by this very system.

"But, I digress. The test was if you could keep from losing yourself after you became a cloud, which... you did."

"With your help," Astrix interjected.

"Small details," Xiara waved her hand dismissively.

"So what happens now?" Astrix asked, while trying to hide how bored he was.

"How this story ends is all up to you." Xiara replied, "You can take over Xopil's position... which we hope you do."

"And my other options?" Astrix noticed how she deliberately gave him one choice.

"You have free choice, so obviously you have a million or more possible futures ahead of you." Xiara replied dejectedly.

"Let's say I wanted to take over Xopil's position, as much as the idea makes my skin crawl, what would be required?" Astrix asked, deciding it is wiser to keep more options available than to close them.

"You'll engage Xopil in cloud combat." Boris spoke up, "You'll fight with Xopil until one of you completely absorbs the other. If Xopil wins, well... not much will change for him, but you will cease to exist, removed from the cycle of reincarnation. If you win, you'll inherit his job, his abilities, his strengths... his memories, and he will cease to exist for a time."

"For a time?" Astrix asked for clarification.

"Xopil's rebirth can't be stopped. So you'll be a temporary replacement allowing him a reprieve. But the biggest boon you'll give him, is taking his vast amount of memories. Once they are yours, he will forget them, until he has lived through the experience again."

"You make that sound inevitable." Astrix stated.

"You try living through an era of infinity and let me know if you can avoid doing something, anything. Especially after your boredom rises to the point you go seeking something new to experience."

"I... I see..." Astrix was taken aback.

The three sat in silence eating cookies and drinking their assorted beverages for a time. Muffled sounds and noises started coming from the storage closet.

"He's awake." Boris cringed, but it's not like he didn't know this would happen. Xiara gave him a pitying look. Astrix looked at him humorously. Boris snapped his fingers and Xopil materialized in the room.

"A straightjacket that works on clouds, that thing is just absurd." Xopil complained as he took a seat and a cookie.

"A cloud that maintains balance over the universe is absurd." Astrix stated.

"Tell it to the gods," Xopil said in agreement as he ate his cookie, "Or the author. That might get you further since he's the one writing the story."

"Give me back my cookie!" Xopil yelled when his cookie vanished. "That's really low, removing the cookie that I already ate too!"

"That's what you get," laughed Astrix, then he turned serious, "did I have a life ahead of me before you intervened in my family?"

"It's hard to say 'yes' at this point, when that god died, you should have been affected by the history snapping back into place, and yet you weren't." Xopil said while scratching his chin.

"What if that's because there's another will affecting me still?" Astrix asked.

"You are referring to me?" Xopil replied, "I suppose that's possible. Are you planning on killing me? I wish you luck and hope you succeed."

The atmosphere in the room turned cold as a vortex with a black core appeared.

"What are you doing?" Xiara asked, clearly shaken.

"His best." Xopil grinned as he handed a sword to Astrix, "Let me help."

The look in Astrix's eyes turned into confusion as he took the sword from the man he was about to kill in the past.

"You won't scratch me without that." Xopil explained, "Unless you were planning to absorb me?"

"...Thanks." Astrix turned his attention towards the core of the vortex, the color changing from black to gold to green, yellow, orange, blue, finally stopping on a color outside the visible spectrum. Astrix gasped as he looked back along the strand of time to Xopil's origin.

"It's a long time isn't it?" Xopil laughed lightly, as he also looked along the timeline, "Keep going, you're just getting started."

"At this speed and I'm only getting started..." Astrix pushed harder into the core, until the diamond surrounding the time window turned into a shard of every visible color interspersed with the invisible spectrum. But it was only when the colors started spinning around the core that it created a truly dazzling sight.

Xopil watched on slightly amused. "Xiara, how old am I?"

"Your age carries 500 digits, no one here can comprehend a number that large." Xiara replied.

Astrix started sweating when he heard that. But, Xopil encouraged him, "Don't despair... the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step, and you're already well on your way."

"Why are you so nonchalant about me killing you?" Astrix asked.

"I'm curious if you can, for one. Dying at my origin would be a new experience for me so you've piqued my curiousity there. And my death means literally nothing in the grand scheme of things with how quickly I'll be reborn with my memories intact."

...How can he be so calm about the whole thing? Astrix asked himself.

"I'd like to stay and watch, but even at your current pace gonna be a while and I can feel my presence needed elsewhere." Xopil stated as he grabbed a cookie and left the room.

"Is this okay?" Xiara asked Boris.

"Just one of many paths to the future I suppose," Boris replied, "Good luck Astrix... and don't give up. Also, I don't want to interrupt you or anything but you'll be at it for about a year to get far enough back in time."

"A full year of tracing back on this time line..." Astrix thought it was a fool's errand, "Wait... I've caught glimpses of Xopil dying several times now... and always..."

"Boris?" Astrix called out, "Every time Xopil dies, it's at your hand?"

"Quite right." replied Boris, "I'm his creator and executioner. I've killed him more times than I care to remember though."

"That... makes you a god though?" Astrix was starting to lose focus on the vortex.

"Not so loud!" Boris responded, "It's a secret!"

"I'm so confused. I'm just going to stop thinking now." Astrix turned his attention back to the vortex.

One year passes

Xiara places a card down on the table, "I win."

Astrix and Boris look at eachother, stretch and stand up.

"How did I end up doing this again?" Xopil asked as he pushed the vortex to his time of origin.

"That doesn't matter, you're almost there right?" Astrix asked.

"...Yeah, the final leg as it were." Xopil replied as the core turned gold in color. "And done...wait what's this? Boris?"

"Welp, no point hiding it any more. I am your father." Boris said with a smile.

"That's... pretty unsettling." Xopil replied with a shrug.

"You don't care at all." Boris retorted, "But then, I did make you emotionless on purpose."

"I want to know something," Xiara interrupted, "He's been complaining all this time about having done everything and not having anything new to do. You could have just modified him not to keep his memory."

"Everybody needs a flaw." Boris stated with a shrug.

"What's yours?" Xiara asked.

"Being too perfect." Boris replied.

"Someone is full of himself." Xopil laughed.

"Where's Astrix anyway shouldn't he go in?" Boris asked.

"Oh he jumped into the core as soon as it turned gold." Xopil replied, "Seems that you're in there giving him a hard time."

"Kinda surreal, watching yourself get stabbed isn't it?" Boris asked as he watched himself fighting with Astrix. "I'm kinda regretting that I let him find out I'm a god now."

"Relax I'm his target, not you." Xopil said.

"Oh right... I should just back off and let him kill you. Too bad I can't tell myself that." Boris stated as he watched himself take a sword slash across his chest. "I always wondered how I got that scar."

"You have no memory of fighting with Astrix?" asked Xiara.

"Only now as it's happening. It's a strange feeling, the memory is forming right now, but my body has known all this time, I'm riddled with scars from this fight. So why don't I remember since I've lived it?"

"Maybe a higher power has sealed your memory of the event?" Xiara asked.

"Or... that move right there where he buried his sword in your head... that could do it." Xopil said flatly.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Boris replied to Xopil as he watched Astrix turn away from his slumped form indifferently. Then he asked, "How does it feel knowing you've created the instrument of your own destruction?"

"It's a bit thrilling actually." Xopil answered honestly.

"Oh right, you're all about new experiences." Boris shook his head, "I should have made you fear death."

"You can't fear something that has no hold over you." Xopil replied as he watched Astrix stab his newborn self in the past.

"Brace yourselves," Boris said, expecting a whirlwind of change to take place, but nothing happened.

Astrix frowned when he saw that his actions brought no changes. "I'd hoped this would be the end. I expected to get whisked away into time. Why?! Why isn't it over?!" Astrix yelled. He was about to leave through the vortex that brought him here.

"You can't," Boris said as he forcefully closed the time portal. "You have to bring the guardian of balance to life. It's why you're here."

"Start making sense." Astrix crossed his arms over his chest.

"You saw him. My son is dead, murdered by my fellow gods. It was an elaborate plan that could have gone wrong so many times, but against all odds, you're here now. Please, help my son recover his life."

"Not interested. I'm out of here." Astrix turned to leave.

"You wouldn't have been born without him," Boris was getting desperate, "If you don't help him, there's no point in giving you life, and we'll just make another."

"What does Xopil do that's so important?" Astrix asked, "I know he maintains a balance, but what does that balance do?"

"Without it, there is no peaceful existence here. War would reign supreme as higher beings would fight for control. Anything that enters the universe needs to be counterbalanced or face destruction. Since the gods have no equals, even when they oppose eachother, they can't exist here."

Astrix reverted his body to his light blue cloud. "I don't want to do this... but there's a higher purpose to be served here."

Astrix absorbed the body of Xopil. The light blue cloud shifted through a series of colors as the absorption progressed, finally settling on off-white.

"Good... morning... Xopil..." Boris said between breaths as he limped over to the cloud.

The cloud pulsed in response as the cloud's color reverted to light blue.

"Xopil?" Boris asked.

"No. I'm not Xopil." the cloud replied.

"Astrix? I don't understand..."

"You did a good job, you nurtured a strong sense of duty in me... however," Astrix threw the body of Xopil at Boris, "I had made a decision to live for myself and sacrificing myself goes against that. If the universe requires a guardian, it will create one."

Astrix was absorbed into time as history corrected itself once more.

"Good morning, Prince Wragnaith." A maid greeted the young man as his eyes opened.

"Good morning Minerva." he replied without thinking.

"You sound tired, Your Highness. Did you have trouble sleeping?" Minerva asked.

"If only you knew." the prince replied as he sat up.

"Minerva," the prince rose to his feet.

"Yes, Your Highness?"

"Come closer."

Minerva did as she was bid, standing in front of the young man. He stared deeply into her blue eyes.

"Your Highness?" she asked with a light blush on her cheeks.

"What's my first name?" he asked.

"Alander." she replied. Overjoyed, the young man grabbed the maid by the wrist and twirled her around. He pulled her into his embrace and hugged her lightly for several minutes elevating the blush on her cheeks.

"I'm home." he said happily as he suddenly squeezed her tightly.

"Welcome... home?" she was confused, he'd not been travelling recently. "Are you all right Your Highness?"

"I am now," he replied as he released her, "and... sorry if I was out of line."

"Oh no... Your Highness, I.. I didn't mind it." Minerva stuttered, You can do that all you like.

"What is my schedule looking like today?" Alander asked as he started taking off his sleepwear.

"Your morning is free, this afternoon will be your long awaited coronation ceremony..."

The End.