CH.750 The Timeline Staff
“So Brian.” Iris said, after the two spirits and I sat down in one of the boxes looking over the stage. “What brings you here? You haven’t visited our realm since we first blessed you.”
“Yeah. Sorry about that, but I couldn’t come here myself, so I just … felt like I shouldn’t.”
“We need to teach you a better way.” Lachros said. “You can’t overuse mana like that every time you come here.”
“I’d appreciate that.” I agreed. “But I came here for another reason. I got a little something and I was hoping Lachros could help me learn to use it.”
I brought out the Timeline Staff, and while Iris didn’t care, Lachros clearly reacted.
“... Of course you would be the one he gave it to.” Lachros eventually said with a sigh.
“Is that bad?” I asked.
“No. Not in that way. He did tell me he gave the staff away to a new mortal and said that I should help them learn to use it. But since you didn’t have it when we first met, I assumed it would have been someone further in the future.” Lachros explained. “Besides, at the time you barely understood time, so I didn’t expect you to time travel that far.”
“... just kill me where I stand, why won’t you?”
“I can’t. Holding that staff makes you immune to Time Magic outside of your own.” Lachros said.
“Oh. Well that’s good to know. What else can it do?”
“Not as much as you might assume.” Lachros said. “At the end of the day, it is a defensive tool, not an offensive weapon. Its main use is protection from Timeline resets, as you should know. But it can also access deleted timelines to restore memories from them. It can also otherwise restore memories and skills a person has lost. Be it naturally or because of outside interference.”
“... So I could have used it to restore the Hero’s skill that was used as a power source for the Goddess?”
“I believe so.” Lachros said. “Admittedly we never used it that way while I lived in the staff. The Hero’s skill was unique in more ways than one, so the staff might not have been able to restore it. It came from outside of the System. But skills removed by the Hero’s Sage could be restored with the staff.”
“... so I have an infinite skill orb farm in my hands. I can just have Alice remove a skill from someone and then I can restore it with the staff.”
“You shouldn’t cheat the System too much. Eventually it will reset everything if you do.” Lachros warned.
“Alright, I won’t. But it was a fun idea.”
“A dangerous idea.”
“Anything else I should know? And how do I use the memory recovery thing?” I asked.
“The memory recovery isn’t difficult. You simply need to know what you are trying to recover. So as long as you know that a timeline reset has happened, or you know that someone has forgotten something, you can simply will the staff into recovering those memories.” Lachros explained.
“... and what if I don’t know that?”
“The Staff should be able to show you people who it can help. I was able to see people we could help while living in it.” Lachros said. “Admittedly I’m not sure how it will work for you, but you will learn. You have all the time in the world.”
“Sorry, not completely immortal. At least not yet.” I told them.
“You could become a spirit after death.” Lachros said. “You’d be immortal that way.”
“... I’ll think about it.”
I spent some more time with the two superior spirits, learning a few spells that will help me get to their realm easier.
Then I played for a bit with the other space and time spirits before returning home. I didn’t learn quite as much as I hoped, but Lachros was never the master of the staff, just someone living in it.
I was also told that I should be there when the Gravity Spirit is ready to hatch, so I promised to head over as soon as she is ready to be born.
… also, Lua is not going to like this. I’ve now had my ‘third child’ and she isn’t even pregnant yet. Sure all of them have been accidental, but still. And I’m technically not the father of the Gravity Spirit, a sperm donor at most. But Lua will still use that fact to pressure me.
Besides, I have no idea how long a spirit egg … cultivates. Maybe it takes decades for the new spirit to hatch.
Anyway.
Now, I do need to mention something. What I did in the spirit world affected my status in a few ways. Nothing major, but just something worth a note.
First, my Gravity Singularity Chain had an *asterisk after it. Because apparently the System wanted to change the name of my skill, but couldn’t change it yet. Since a new spirit influences my skill, my skill’s name should be changed to match. But the new Gravity Spirit doesn’t have a name yet. The skill felt the same, just a name change was apparently coming, and it was now pink instead of black.
I also had a new title, Manafather of a Superior Spirit. It is what you think it is. The title doesn’t do anything extra, just is there. It might do something cool once the Spirit is actually born, but it doesn’t do anything yet.
And honestly, after realizing I just accidentally got another child, I needed some packs. So I pulled up Pack Opener and queued up 10 packs of The Dark Illusion.
Spoiler
TDIL 1
Paleozoic Hallucigenia; Red Mirror; Triamid Dancer; Unified Front; Magical Mid-Breaker Field; Blackwing - Gofu the Vague Shadow; Performapal Bot-Eyes Lizard; Luna Light Perfume; Triamid Cruiser
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Triamid Dancer shuffles Triamid cards from the GY to the deck while permanently boosting the attack of Rock monsters. And it can trade a Triamid Field Spell for another one.
And that was the only new card, so next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 2
Forbidden Dark Contract with the Swamp King; D/D Savant Nikola; Totem Five; Magician's Robe; Paleozoic Canadia; Black Dragon Ninja; Assault Blackwing - Sohaya the Rain Storm; Spell Strider; Metalfoes Goldriver
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Paleozoic Canadia turns a face up monster into face down defense. And does the usual Paleozoic trap monster thing.
Spell Strider banishes 2 spells, 1 from each side of the field, to special itself.
And Metalfoes Goldriver can destroy another card you control to set a Metalfoes Spell or Trap directly from the deck.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 3
Frightfur Sanctuary; Red Warg; King Scarlet; Performapal Life Swordsman; Blackwing - Tornado the Reverse Wind; Destruction Sword Memories; Dinomist Ankylos; Metalfoes Combination; Tuning Gum
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Metalfoes Combination is a decent consistency card. Just getting more monsters on the field, or to the hand if your opponent decides to destroy it.
Tuning Gum can turn a non-Tuner into a Tuner, but the better effect is the GY effect. It can banish itself to negate an effect that targets a Synchro monster.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 4
Performapal Inflater Tapir; Unified Front; Black Dragon Ninja; Super Hippo Carnival; Totem Five; Red Gardna; Revolving Switchyard; Metamorformation; Metalfoes Goldriver
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Red Gardna is a decent protective card.
Metamorformation is both attack boosting and immunity to Metalfoes monsters.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 5
Performapal Inflater Tapir; D/D Savant Nikola; Metalfoes Steelen; Performapal Gongato; Heavy Freight Train Derricrane; Dark Magic Expanded; Red Mirror; Performapal Gumgumouton; Assault Blackwing - Onimaru the Divine Thunder
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Performapal Gongato can just prevent battle damage.
Performapal Gumgumouton protects monsters from battle destruction.
And Assault Blackwing - Onimaru the Divine Thunder has 6k attack and cannot be destroyed by card effects.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 6
Empowerment; Fusion Fright Waltz; Performapal Gongato; Scapeghost; Paleozoic Hallucigenia; D/D Savant Nikola; Paleozoic Canadia; Triamid Pulse; Floodgate Trap Hole
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Triamid Pulse just gives Triamids more consistency.
And Floodgate Trap Hole turns a summoned monster into face down defense.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 7
Triamid Dancer; D/D Savant Nikola; Blackwing - Tornado the Reverse Wind; Performapal Extra Slinger; Super Hippo Carnival; Performapal Bubblebowwow; Zap Mustung; Performapal Gumgumouton; Metalfoes Combination
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Performapal Bubblebowwow can protect extra deck monsters from card effect destruction.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 8
Blackwing - Gofu the Vague Shadow; Metalfoes Orichalc; Wrecker Panda; Performapal Bot-Eyes Lizard; Triamid Fortress; Performapal Extra Slinger; Red Gardna; Triamid Hunter; Paleozoic Anomalocaris
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Triamid Hunter gives you an additional normal summon, of a Rock. And it can also trade Triamid Field Spells.
Next pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 9
Red Gardna; Ninjitsu Art Notebook; Paleozoic Olenoides; Red Mirror; Red Warg; Triamid Fortress; Scapeghost; Metalfoes Adamante; Magician of Dark Illusion
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Paleozoic Olenoides destroys a Spell/Trap.
And Metalfoes Adamante is just a vanilla fusion.
Last pack.
Spoiler
TDIL 10
Performapal Life Swordsman; Triamid Dancer; Red Mirror; Dragodies, the Empowered Warrior; Paleozoic Hallucigenia; Dinomist Ankylos; Ninjitsu Art Notebook; Metalfoes Fusion; Tuning Gum
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Metalfoes Fusion is the last new card. It is nice. Just a straight fusion card, but it can shuffle itself from the GY to the deck and then lets you draw a card.
… alright. I've bought myself enough time. I need to go tell Lua that I accidentally fathered another child. She’ll want apology sex, and that will probably take the rest of the day.
So see you next time.