MTL NOVEL Chapter 30: Chapter 27: Into The Abyss Of Time
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Prologue: The Moment Between Seconds
Falling.
The sensation was unlike anything Akira had ever experienced. There was no air, no ground, no sky—only an infinite abyss that stretched in every direction, swallowing him whole.
His breath caught in his throat as he twisted mid-air, trying to grasp onto something—anything—but there was nothing. No walls, no landmarks, only the constant, surreal sensation of motion without gravity.
Then—
A hand grabbed his wrist.
Hiroshi's grip was like iron, his expression sharp with focus despite the chaos around them.
"Don't lose yourself!" he shouted over the deafening distortion.
Kenji tumbled beside them, his massive frame twisting as he gritted his teeth in frustration. Daisuke was flailing, his body twisting unnaturally as he tried to orient himself in the void. Mei, eerily calm, simply observed their surroundings, her dark eyes gleaming with calculation.
But above them—
A single figure stood motionless.
Minh.
His presence defied the laws of the abyss. Unlike them, he did not fall. He simply existed—a constant in the chaos. His silver eyes were impossibly sharp, watching them with a quiet, analytical gaze.
Then—
He moved.
A flick of his wrist.
The world shifted.
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Phase One: The Labyrinth of Fractured Time
The sensation of falling abruptly stopped.
For a brief moment, Akira's vision blurred, the void folding inward on itself—
And then he was somewhere else.
The abyss was gone. Instead, he found himself standing in the middle of a city—but something was wrong.
The buildings stretched at impossible angles, roads curled into loops, and shadows moved independently of the structures that cast them. The sky was split into countless fractured reflections, each showing a different moment in time.
Hiroshi appeared beside him, dropping into a defensive stance. Kenji, Daisuke, and Mei followed, each struggling to comprehend their surroundings.
Daisuke exhaled sharply. "Where the hell are we?"
Mei's voice was quiet. "This… is not real."
A slow clap echoed through the warped cityscape.
Cetz stood atop a streetlamp that bent unnaturally toward the sky. His smirk was as insufferable as ever.
"Welcome to Minh's domain," he announced, his golden eyes glimmering. "You're standing in a fractured moment of time—a place that shouldn't exist."
Akira's fists clenched. "Minh did this?"
Cetz shrugged playfully. "Time breaks when Minh wants it to break." His grin widened. "And right now? He's decided you all belong outside of time."
A shiver ran through Akira's spine.
Kenji cracked his knuckles. "You're saying we're trapped?"
Cetz's smirk grew wider. "Oh, absolutely."
Then—
Minh appeared.
Unlike Cetz, he did not make a spectacle of his arrival. He simply was there—standing a few meters away, his hands in his pockets, his expression as unreadable as ever.
"I gave you all a choice," Minh said, his tone calm, almost detached. "You could have walked away. But you insisted on resisting."
Akira took a step forward, his Stand flickering beside him. "You know damn well we weren't going to let you rewrite the world."
Minh exhaled slowly. It was not a sigh of anger—more like disappointment.
"Then you leave me no choice."
He raised his hand—
And time shattered again.
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Phase Two: Minh's Absolute Authority
Reality fractured.
The world around them shattered into a thousand shifting images—glimpses of the past, the future, and something else far worse.
Akira felt his body split.
For a single, excruciating moment, he existed in multiple timelines at once.
—In one, he was still a child, clutching his mother's last recording.
—In another, he stood victorious over Minh's broken body.
—In another—he was dead.
Pain shot through his skull. His mind rebelled against the impossibility.
Minh's voice echoed across the distortion.
"This is what it means to stand against time itself."
The others screamed as their bodies were pulled into different fragments of reality.
Daisuke disappeared into a scene of a burning city, his screams swallowed by the flames.
Kenji was thrown into an endless battlefield, surrounded by corpses of himself.
Mei vanished into a cold, lifeless wasteland, her expression unreadable.
Hiroshi was surrounded by countless versions of himself, all fighting to the death.
And Akira—
Akira stood alone.
Minh took a step toward him, his expression calm.
"You are the only one who can hear beyond time," Minh murmured. "That's why you must suffer the most."
Akira's breath came in short, ragged bursts. His Stand hummed at his side, but its power felt weak—like an echo against Minh's absolute control.
Minh raised his hand.
A simple motion.
And suddenly—
Time stopped.
Akira froze.
His heartbeat slowed.
His lungs refused to expand.
His thoughts faded.
Minh exhaled, his silver eyes empty.
"Die."
The abyss collapsed in on itself.
Time erased him.
But then—
A sound.
A single note rang out.
A deep, vibrating hum—like the beginning of a song.
Akira's eyes snapped open.
His Stand pulsed.
Minh's expression shifted—just slightly.
Akira moved.
Time collapsed again.
And the battle truly began.
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Phase Three: The Sound That Defies Fate
Akira barely had time to react. His feet hit solid ground, but the world around him was still unstable—images of the past, present, and future overlapping.
Minh had not moved—but Akira could feel the weight of his power pressing down on reality itself.
His fingers twitched.
"Echo Chamber!"
His Stand's power rippled outward. The moment sound escaped his lips, the distortion wavered.
A single chord—deep, reverberating—shook the fabric of the fractured reality.
Minh's silver eyes narrowed slightly.
"Ah," he murmured. "Interesting."
The distortion stabilized. The echoes of different timelines vanished.
Akira took a step forward.
"I don't care how strong you think you are," he growled. "Time doesn't control me. I control time's song."
Minh exhaled.
"Then let's put that to the test."
The battlefield solidified—a blank, endless plane of white.
Cetz clapped his hands, laughing.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun."
And then—
Minh attacked.
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