Opening his eyes .. . Krogar sprang into action. He turned around and pushed away the desk behind him with all strength he could muster, while pulling a long, thick wire used for pulling down sunblinds out of his clothes. He had sharpened it beforehand and was sure it would be enough.

"Eat it worm!" He shouted and stabbed his improvised weapon in the direction of his classmate's ass.

In the next moment, the classroom erupted with shrieks of people and sounds of hasty movement, contrasting with this chaos, there was a single voice laughing madly.

"All of you will be impaled!" Krogar tried to do more impaling, but was soon overcomed and just flailed with his hands and feet in front of his classmate, who was holding his behind with both hands. Clutched by the teachers alerted by the fuss, there was little additional damage Krogar could add.

"Human filth, I will impale everyone here! Just you wait!" He shouted angrily, spit flying from his mouth everywhere.

* * * *

Meanwhile, opening his eyes uncountable miles away .. .

I am at thirty five seconds now, but my ultimate goal shoul be to disrupt the spell entirely.

Unfortunately, Krogar could not remember any advanced spells, his meshed up memory still partially out of reach, he had to rely on his words only.

There is little time for confusion, what am I going to do now?

Sadly he was unable to progress any futher and the scene from before repeated several times only with minor changes. It seemed, the situation was a dead end, because Ross never lost control completely, no matter how hard Krogar tried.

"I have surely missed something, some detail that I can use!" He was walking in circles, ignoring everyone around him.

He replayed the scene in all its variations in his head, observing every little detail.

Finally he noticed that the expression of one of the four people standing aside changed slightly every time Two said Ross's name. It felt odd to see a change of expression in that otherwise stoic face.

"Could it be that it is dangerous to know names?" He halted his steps and said aloud.

"Perhaps I know some of you, right Ross?" Krogar smiled at One.

"Impossible, how can he know?" One of the four could not hold back a muffled shout and cold sweat could be seen on One's forehead. It seemed he was the only one remembering his previous tries.

Krogar smiled and let the blue flames consume his body.

Next time, it is game over for you.

* * * *

Krogar opened his eyes and began to act resolutely.

"Khar im shallan ak ta Ross!" Krogar performed some fancy looking gestures and pointed his hand at One. He had no idea what he was saying, but demons should have some kind of bad-ass demonic language right?

"Silence!" Four promptly reacted the usual way when he saw his splendid acting skills.

"Hurry, perform a clensing ritual!" One of the four people standing nerby shouted in distress.

"No, do not do anything, I cannot feel the magic, it is a feint!"

Krogar's eyes shone, this time the disturbance involved all of them and he felt that something wavered.

The barrier!

He kicked forward only to feel the kick to be repelled by the barrier, he was too late, but fortunately it had no meaning for Krogar, because for whatever reason, he could always try next time.

* * * *

After he had been grilled yet another time, he positioned himself close to five and turned at one, performing the same action as the last time.

This is the moment!

In the exact moment the barrier fluctuated, he turned around and extended his hand with lightning speed, gripping Five's neck, he pulled sharply. Blood sprayed everywhere and Krogar realized that he was holding Five's head in his hand, he was the most shocked of all to see that , but regardless of his shock, he continued his assault and threw the head at One with all his might. He was sure that he was not going to react in time facing the unusual attack of his deceased beloved.

And inevitably, the head hit One right between his wide eyes, making a gory mess.

Oh . .that is some momentum, heads are heavier than expected. .. .

Krogar knew that everyone's shock was bound to last only a short time given their previous performance.

I have no time to go to them, I need to attack them fast and make them lose their focus.

He gritted his teeth and his gaze fell on the rest of the Five's body. He grabbed her left hand with his right and right hand with his left and pulled strongly. Both torn off arms flew and hit Four and Three who were next to five, causing them heavy injuries.

Ehm, by the way. . is it normal I am so calm while tearing limbs and heads?

Some part of him was distressed by it, but the other half was totally indifferent. No,slightly amused would be the right term.

"Run!" Someone shouted and the panic Krogar had prayed for all the time finally broke out

"Excuse me." He did not wait for them to organize and bolted to the nearest door, shocked by his own speed.

"He jumped out of the window! Don't let him escape!" An angy bellow was comming from behind his back and Krogar felt a painful stab by something very sharp, but it was not a mortal wound.

Wait, he said window!

* * * *

Naah, that face again.

Krogar growled, but his eyes shone with eagerness for the next round.

Who would have thought that it was a window of this tower, not a door. But there are no doors aside that one, I will have to survive the fall somehow.

He repeated the same action again and opened his eyes wider the moment he jumped outside, trying to use every fraction of the time before he was transformed into a mashed vegetable on the groud.

Come on, there must be some way out.

He felt like he had never been a courageous one, but now he was extremely unwilling to give up. The feeling of his physical existence was exhilarating, every time he took a step, or stretched his hand and felt the power he wielded, he desperately wanted to live.Whatever happened to him, this was too good of a chance to waste it!

This power feels great and no one will take it from me!

* * * *

"A Time fluctuation again?" A hideous mouth full of sharp teeth murmured.

"What? Is there a problem? You have just said that someone actually activated it!"

"Nothing important, the spell has been cast and that cannot be changed. I prepared it so to Krogar be the one to cast it and the arrangement came to pass exactly as I willed it to be. "

The two could not be further from humans, but were surrounded with the most luxurious items, like the greatest nobles of humanity. No, the wealth of great nobles was pathetic compared to them.

"Archon, are you sure we have prepared enough? I have not expected that the first fool you taught it would use it so fast." The one with an exceptionally long tail said seriously.

"Nah, Krogar was always a careless idiot, but I have used some human puppets to be sure." Archon replied with a smirk.

"And you even told him that the curse of banishment is the effect instead of a side-effect curse that should have prevented us to use that thing, I guess only Krogar was stupid, yet powerful enough to cast it."

"We should not waste time. the forbidden spell of unity has been cast and the timeline has been locked until the merging is done." The huge body of Archon stood up slowly. Still, one could not tell his height because all his surorundings had been scaled to fit his size. "Prepare the armies, we have been building up our strength for centuries , awaiting this moment."

"What if the medium keeps on failing? Can the timeline halt completely?" The other being stopped in its steps and turned its head.

"Does not matter." Archon sneered. "The flow matters, as long as time ticks, the initiation process continues, it does not matter what time flows as long as it is not all frozen in place, the required amount of time will pass and the merge of all realms will be initiated! "

"If you say so . . " The figure turned again and left, he dared act casually only because they were the only ones in the hall. He did not care much about the spell anyway, he always kept all the complicated stuff for Archon to resolve and focused on fighting that he liked.

Archon sat back on his throne heavily, his power still depleted. One of the problematic phases had been that he had to cast the spell simultaneously with Krogar, which was something he had not told others. In fact, the moment Krogar began to cast, Archon's puppets across many realms performed the ritual as well, but only Krogar had been made the anchor of the master spell formation. The process was quite difficult to do, in fact it was Archon's ninth try. To synchronize it perfectly and prevent all accidents was a nightmare.Luckily, it could not be reversed anymore and he had to just wait.

Well, it could be, but he could not imagine anyone being able to reverse it, even he himself would not dare.

"Time of conquest begins!" A laughter resonated, carried through the halls by hot air of this hellish place.

"No more silly summonings mortals, we are coming for you."

* * * *

"There is a horse pulling straw and a lot of it, but he passes eleven seconds after I fall." Krogar stated sitting on the ground while staring at the usual robed man in front of him. "Hey do you have any ideas?"

He asked four and was surprised that the usual "silence demon" had not been triggered yet.

"Huh, you are quite out of shape aren't you old fool?" He smiled silly.

"S-Silence you pest!"

"Aaah, there it . ." Yes there is was.

It was another bind, the tower stood alone, it was practically bare with no footholds or anything to slow his fall with and instead of a street, there was a square, sabotaging his intent to jump on a roof, there were not any roofs in the vicinity, just an empty square. His only option was to wait for the passing horse, but he had to jump eleven seconds later.

"It is impossible to fight them for eleven seconds and survive, I have already tried it twenty times!" Krogar placed his palms on his face.

The problem was that the watching support turned out to be quite formidable, they were able to bind him in seconds, to last longer was not possible.

"Maybe. .. " His eyes began to burn as an idea appeared in his brain.

* * * *

Extending his hand, he quickly pulled the throat he had greabbed closer, the body of five slamming into his own.

"Everyone freezes, or she is mashed potatoes." He threateningly added his other hand, grasping her whole face in it.

Please work, please work.

Krogar's eyes were glued to every movement of the four, he knew that the moment they take action, everything would go down the drain.

Yes! Her death must have been the trigger!

The four kept watching the situation without moving a muscle, it was the only way Krogar would be able to survive additional eleven seconds.

"Ignore me! cappfure fim. . ." Krogar pressed his hand tighter against her mouth. "I will release her, do not make a move!"

Five.

The women kept trying to say something, but he did not let her and was slowly nearing the window.

"Are you trying to jump out of the window? Even you will not survive the fall demon." Four grumbled.

"Release her, do not drag her along!" One panicked thinking that Krogar intended to jump together with his hostage.

Nine.

"I am letting her go, I am a good demon you know."

Eleven!

Krogar's back was pressed against the window, he pushed hard against it and released the woman. Falling down, he turned his head and saw that the horse was still two seconds late.

No, no, no! How have this happened!!!

He gazed at the horse accusingly. He had certainly calculated it right, the horse must have slowed down somehow .. . .

"That bastard, he took a shit." Krogar sad his last words before dying.

* * * *

Thirteen!

Krogar repeated the same action with different timing, hoping that he guessed "the load" right and a few seconds later, straw welcomed him with its soft touch.

A wide smile appeared on Krogar's face, but seconds later, he heard a shrill incoherent voice and a body landed just a few meters behind the carriage.

"Is she dumb? I do not think she is able to turn back time like me." Krogar shook his head as he recognized the girl, who was on the pavement now, well what was left of her.

And he died.

WHAT?!

* * * *

She inhaled and the stench made her almost vomit, the sensation of the demon's hand covering her mouth was disgusting. As he pressed it against her mouth even harder, she had trouble breathing and decided to hold her breath for a while.

I will rather suffocate than breathe that filth!

She was desperate. In her position, she was mentally prepared for the danger, but she was not prepared to give up the mission. This was her first mission while leading a unit, it was an honor she had been wating for all her life.

She had the support of her superior Akir in case of emergency, but she knew that the moment the reinforcements acted, her mission would be counted as a failure, ending her career for good.

It did not take long before the demon pushed her away. Looking behind her, she could feel a light breeze in her face, coming from an opened window.

"Stay put, I have it under control!" She shouted and glared in the direction of Akir. Hoping that she was not too rude, she jumped after the demon without hesitation.

Lucky vermin, who would have thought there was a heap of straw?

As she was nearing her target she realized she misjudged the distance and that was her last thought.

* * * *

"Kyyyaaaaaaghhhh!!" Krogar pushed mightily right after he managed to roll off of the straw, his feet touching the cold stone of the square. It took him everything he had, but he managed to push back the whole carriage along with the horse within the two seconds interval.

A dull sound marked the success of his effort, the body landing exactly as he wanted.

"I hope that was it." Krogar did not waste a second and turned away to run. He hoped that her death was still the trigger. It was possible that the four would pursue him later, but the only thing he could do was to survive for now and push his luck a little bit further step by step.

Run! It was the only thought in his brain. The faster, the better.

* * * *

"Akir, is it ok? It is getting out of hand."

"Give the kid a chance, the report can still be "no support needed", if the demon starts killing, we will intervene." Akir turned his head slowly to look at his companion. "Besides, are you eager to participate in the drills instead? This can actually be a pleasant change of pace."

He did not need to say it twice. They had the order to supervise the operation, so no one could say that they were dodging the drills. A light smile appeared on their lips.

"I am truly surprised that the demon have not killed anyone yet, I might even start to like it." His companion chuckled and hastily looked around as if to confirm no strangers had heard him.

"We will see how it goes, I have marked all of them, it is time to find a nice place to stay and enjoy the show." Akir smirked and all of them walked lazily away with relaxed extressions.

"I hope the demon will stay here at least for a few hours, they usualy return quickly back to whence they came from. He is probably nervous around us, just searching for a quiet place to return from there."

"Yeah, it will be probably over soon, demons cannot stay here for long after all." It was certainly irresponsible to let the incident slide, but who cares? Akir snorted and remembered all the wanna-be-superiors that had been appointed in the last three years. The number of people warming up chairs and receiving emperor's gold for no serious work grew. As of late, he had enough of it, more and more work being pushed on people in the field with resources going out of the window.

Just let it all crumble a little bit, maybe it will do good for the whole empire and a few victims? Most people only acted like they cared anyway.