The Dawn of the New World

Hyde was slumped on the ground and his ethereal form was beginning to dissipate.

Albus quickly made some hand gestures that somehow quelled the crystal's light tearing Hyde apart from the seams.

"Brother you mustn't forcefully use any of your abilities here. The room will attack you if it senses anything out of place," he warned, both Hyde and Jin Wang.

He tried to extend Hyde a helping hand but the moment it reached the outer boundary of the glass plate a barrier stopped him.

Ashen-faced, Hyde looked up at Albus with nothing but pure hatred spewing from his eyes.

"I don't know...who you are...but mine will be the last face you see before I rip you limb from limb, for daring to use my brother against me."

But unlike what he expected Albus's expression only turned more sorrowful.

"What happened to you Tragon? How could there be so much resentment in you? You are not the brother I remember."

Hyde's anger knew no bounds at this moment. He wanted nothing more than to undo the seals holding his true form at bay and destroy this place but that needed to be saved for the Emperor.

Jin Wang took the opportunity to quickly interject before things got any heavier.

"I'm sorry but could you please explain what is going on? Are you really this one's brother?"

"I am-"

"HE'S NOT!" Hyde screamed, "Albus...my brother died at the beginning of the 31st Millennium, ten thousand years ago. This thing is not him!" he said glaring at him.

And his response actually left Ablus speechless for a little while. He spoke up after a few seconds with some more understanding of the situation, "I guess...it worked then."

Jin Wang stepped closer before Hyde could interrupt him again and stood in between them, "What did?"

Albus gestured towards the machines decorating the borders of the room, "Them."

"How so? What were they supposed to do?"

"They connect the room to the crystal, borrowing a small fraction of its infinite power to create a singular point out of time."

Jin Wang immediately understood what he was trying to say but that was not possible even in theory. One could not simply step "out of time" as one wished, not when there were deities and powerful entities keeping an eye on it.

"What is the name of this crystal?"

"I'm not sure if it even had one but...father said he stole it from a place that has been wiped out of history. From the temple of Kronos."

Jin Wang couldn't maintain his composure even if he remembered to. Still, he tried to sound indifferent despite him barely being able to hold himself back.

"K-Kronos you say? That crystal?"

"Yes," Albus nodded as a matter of factly as if this was the most normal thing.

"It seems this is not the first time you have heard that name," he quickly followed up and Jin Wang couldn't help but laugh helplessly in return.

"Ha...haha...you can say that...I guess. It was a little before my time though."

If it was anyone else saying this he would have walked out of this place in a heartbeat. But the fact that Albus was the Emperor's son made the whole thing much more real than it had any right to be.

'I guess now I know where you got the gift you gave me during our last meeting. To think you had stolen something so important from the likes of the Olympians. Just how far did you go to make this possible?'

But given the Emperor's history, that crystal could very well be real. And if it held even an iota of the Titan Kronos' actual power then...it could be possible.

Albus answered all of Jin Wang's questions while Hyde sat silently in the back and listened.

Jin Wang rubbed his forehead trying to put everything into the right order.

"So let me get this straight. The Emperor stole this crystal and brought it to you because you had a unique physique that could not only withstand its power but also control it to an extent."

"Then you ventured into the depths of the Abyss with the help of some of your other brothers where you found a place that was suitable to cultivate it, away from the reach of any of the other gods."

"And this room is what became of it, the final result of centuries of hard work."

Albus nodded for what was probably the hundredth time, "Yes."

"And this is actually your first time using this machine?"

"That is true. Currently, it is the end of the 30th millennium in our world. If what Tragon says is correct, I am talking to you more than ten thousand years in the future."

Suffice to say it was not easy for either Jin Wang or Hyde to digest this information so easily.