"Try it on."

  Melody said to Meld as she handed him a visor. At this very instant, Meld took it from her hands and held up the thing in the air as he looked up at it. The thing in his hand was a metallic piece of equipment, which curved around the face, covering both eyes.

  The metallic frame is enclosed around a specialized gss lens that was made from the eyes of a time whale, a type of Flux that can control time around it using its eyes.

  Of course, more supernatural properties were used to make this, but it was too much to list right off the bat. As, though, what matters is that after six months of putting these things together to compensate for Meld's weakness, the boys in the b finally finished Melody's commission.

  Saving up and using the sponsored money from Meld's teacher, Grey Seer, to purchase the requested material needed and to fund the bor to get this custom equipment, the boys at the b were sure it could make Meld, who is just a level two, as powerful as a level four Hesta.

  "So let me ask one more time just to be sure here, these gsses will allow me to see into the future without the need for me to sleep to activate my power?"

  Meld asked his sister, who just nodded with her arms folded as she said.

  "Yes, I don't know how it works, but those new gsses of yours somehow simute the process of REM sleep while being fully awake and tweak your brain a bit, allowing you to daydream while also being actively conscious at the same time. As a result, it forces your future sight to always be on without rest for as long as you have Gaian Energy, of course."

  "Wow!"

  Meld said with a surprised tone.

  After all, even from level one, Meld's main weakness with his future sight was the fact that he could only ever see it in his dreams; as a result, he could control the future by changing the scenario in the past when he woke up if he wanted to, knowing the future was a very beneficial power to have in a lot of ways.

  Still, it was hard to believe this visor could casually just do something like that; however, with how strange their world has become, anything should be possible with all the supernatural activity taking pce on Gaia.

  However, Meld would never say no to a gift from his sister and teacher; as such, he began to put it on, and the moment he did that.

  His view of reality and the way the world works around him began to shatter.

  "O-Oh my God?!"

  Meld said in utter shock, causing Quick Feline to ask him in excitement.

  "So how is it? What do you see?"

  "I-I…

  He could not talk, but just then, Melody asked, and he, right after, started to repeat after her, as if he knew exactly what she was about to say.

  "So!!... Can you see it?"

  "So!!... Can you see it?"

  They both said, causing Melody to stop.

  "Ha!?"

  "Ha!?"

  "Wow, wow, WOWZAA, IT REALLY WORKS!!"

  "Wow, wow, WOWZAA, IT REALLY WORKS!!"

  This was a small demonstration; on Meld's part, he was still trying to get used to this new power; however, upon wearing these visors, his entire world became so clear, so vivid, so real—nay, the best word to describe what he sees, hears, feels, and constantly experiences is the truth.

  He is dreaming constantly, not once, not twice, not even thrice, but many times—hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of different events happening across the timeline, alternate what-ifs that could have and still have the potential to happen.

  "Sister... this is beyond anything I imagined. With these visors on, I can see everything—every single thread of time stretching out before me. I'm living in the present right now, speaking to you here... but I'm also speaking to you at the association in an hour, and even ten seconds from now. I can see it all at once.

  "The vision stretches far—up to ten years into the future at a time, and it moves along with me. I can watch paths branch and converge, see choices I haven't made yet py out in vivid detail. Some possibilities fade away with every heartbeat, while others bloom brighter if I simply shift a word, a step, or a decision. I can orchestrate almost anything I want."

  "But beyond those ten years... there's nothing. Just an endless, absolute darkness. No light, no shapes, no futures at all. It's as if time itself ends there for me. I can't see past it—no matter how hard I try, the darkness swallows everything after that point."

  "It's overwhelming... exhirating and terrifying at the same time. My mind is racing to hold it all, to focus on what matters. But even this limited window is enough. Enough to bend the next decade exactly the way I desire."

  "But, nonono nono no noNOO... it's even more than that. With this visor, time isn't just a straight line anymore. I see it both ways as well, linear and nonlinear, all at once."

  "The linear path is clear: one moment leading straight into the next, cause and effect marching forward like soldiers in formation. I can watch that chain stretch out—so many steps and so many consequences, bright and predictable."

  "But then there are the nonlinear threads, wild, branching possibilities that explode out from every single choice. They're like clouds of potential, swirling and overpping. If I diverge from the intended linear path and do something as simple as use the wrong word or hesitate for half a second, entire futures colpse while others burst into existence. A single butterfly's wing here could unleash a hurricane a decade from now. I see the ripples before they even start. I could reach out and touch any of them, shift one tiny thing, and watch the whole web reshape itself... IT'S SOOO AMAZING!!"

  Meld said to himself in this very moment, and in the moment in the future as well, he felt invisible; however, that feeling of being unstoppable soon came to an end.

  "W-What is this?!"

  He said in utter horror.

  He was fighting his first opponent, giving him a lot of trouble.

  The man before Meld, his current opponent, was a dark-skinned man in a rge white shirt and baggy bck leather pants.

  He had short bck hair and a double pair of gold piercings.

  "Isn't that the guy who was acting so chummy with Quick Feline?"

  He said with a troubled expression as he looked up at the floating figure.

  Meld, however, was trembling.

  "An anomaly."

  He said out loud as he looked up at the floating Nier, who had a threatening aura around his body.

  He was like the darkness to Meld.

  "This shouldn't be. Why can't I see him? He is nowhere, not even in the alternates. What is this? A person like him shouldn't exist.

  "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

  Meld's voice cracked with raw terror as he shouted the words. The man before him... he didn't exist within time at all. It was as if the very concept of time simply slid off him, leaving nothing behind.

  Everything in the universe—every star, every atom, every thought—is bound by time. Time is the fundamental river that carries existence forward. Without it, nothing has sequence, nothing has meaning, and nothing can even be said to happen."

  And yet this figure stood utterly untouched by that river. He had no past trailing behind him, no future pulling him onward. He simply... was. A being without temporal weight, without a pce on the timeline.

  Meld's power relied entirely on the flow of time—on seeing the chain of cause and effect, on nudging one event so another would follow. He could weave futures, unravel destinies, and bend the course of history itself... but only because everything moved through time. Only because every choice rippled forward in a predictable direction.

  This man? He had no ripples. No thread in the tapestry. He was a ghost in reality itself—untouchable, untraceable, unbound. If Meld couldn't see him in the stream of events and couldn't grasp him in the future, then this stranger had no pce in the world at all. He could do whatever he wanted, and nothing—no w of cause and effect, no chain of consequence—could ever reach him.

  And if such a being truly existed... then the very idea of a future became meaningless. Time itself lost its grip. This man was an immovable object standing in the path of the unstoppable force that is time—an absolute paradox wearing human skin.

  Meld's heart hammered in his chest. For the first time in his life, the future felt like a lie.

  As he began to think to himself.

  'If what I am seeing before me is reality, then he is a bad matchup for someone like me. I can't beat someone I can't see or affect; even setting up a trap in the future and waiting for the present to catch up is impossible... I thought that damn android was going to be a pain, but he is an even worse enemy. Well, if I can't beat him, I will just make someone else do it for me.'

  Meld said to himself as he looked at his former opponent and said.

  "Why don't you go up there and fight him?"

  "What the hell are you even say…

  GHRAHHHHHH...

  In that moment, a monstrous-like bird came from above. And grab the dark-skinned man with its talons, as he chose and set a trap up in the future to make this possible, as the bird was heading towards Nier.