Tales From The Kronos

"I can only see snow and trees everywhere, the cold is bothering but acceptable. Since this is technically the world where the anomaly is from, I will call it the Land Of The Beginning. Neige is nowhere to be seen, but Silva and I are safe."

"Sepide, can't you do your report later? There's no one to give it to anyway, so help me search for Neige!"

Sepide closed her phone and helped Silva to look around. Sepide wasn't really worried, unlike Silva who was terrified, especially since no one knew that they were there and couldn't come to help them if something happened.

"Neige! Where are you!?" Yelled Silva, hoping to get an answer. The blind girl continued for a moment until a voice came from behind her, taking her by surprise.

"Here, who's asking?" Said Neige, coming out of nowhere.

"It's us Neige, don't you recognize us?" Sepide suddenly realized something, these clothes weren't the ones Neige had usually, his usual black and orange uniform was replaced by a warm white vest. Shorter hairs, a more defying gaze, and instead of his gun waiting on his belt was lying a dagger. He also looked way more feminine, if she didn't know he was a man, Sepide would have assumed he was a girl. She quickly understood that it wasn't the Neige they knew, but instead the Neige of this world, and discreetly shared this information with Silva.

"Recognize you? I don't recognize any of you." The other Neige looked confused. He wanted to understand what was happening but the conversation was cut short by a large roar deeper in the forest, followed by sounds of loud steps coming toward them.

"It's coming here, we should leave." Neige started to run away from the origin of the sound, confused, the two others followed him.

"What is that? Is it following you?" Asked Sepide, she was a bit worried about the troubles they got into but now was too late to step back.

"You never heard of the demon that eats your bones and your soul?"

"What demon? I knew it was a bad idea to come here, when I see him he's going to suffer for bringing us here!" Silva wanted to take her firearm in her hand, but she didn't want the other Neige to see it. She didn't know whether firearms existed in this world after all, it would be bad if she brought too much attention toward them.

"I'm just kidding, there is no demon, it's a dragon." The other Neige laughed like he just told a hilarious joke, but the two others didn't share the same sense of humor.

"Because it's supposed to make me feel better? Why is a dragon mad at you anyway?"

To answer Silva's question, the feminine-looking man took an egg out of his bag. Silva couldn't see but could feel that the egg was way bigger than any she found before and quickly realized that it was the dragon's. Neige put back the egg in his back before looking at Silva with an innocent smile.

"I heard it makes good omelets."

"You're fighting a dragon because you want an omelet!?"

"Silva, calm down, you're going to make the dragon come here. Neige, is there any way we can beat a dragon?" Sepide was afraid too, but she wanted to focus on a way to get them out of the situation before panicking. Neige thought for a moment, before looking at them in the eyes.

"No idea, I was figuring out it would get tired someday."

Silva and Sepide were regretting coming here, not only they lost their friend, but now they were fighting a creature way too strong for them.

"Can't you just leave the egg?" Asked Sepide.

"Never! I only ate bugs and leaves these last days, I want a good meal for once!"

Their argument prevented them from noticing the dragon getting closer, and when they did notice, it was already too late. It was right in front of them, casting its shadow on them. It was imposing, with scales as blue as the night. Silva acted by instinct and shot the dragon with her firearm. To everyone's surprise, not only did the bullet hit the dragon, but it also seemed to put an end to its life. The beast fell and made a loud sound while the small group stood there in disbelief. Neige approached the dragon and poked it with his dagger before turning toward Silva.

"I... Didn't know you could do that."

"I didn't either, I thought dragons would be stronger than that. He kinda sucks for a dragon."

The three of them stayed silent in front of the corpse of the former predator, still shocked about what happened. After realizing what happened, Neige smiled like he got the best present of his life and put his dagger back on his belt.

"I don't know who you are, but thanks to you, I'll be able to eat dragon meat today! Let me cook it, and we'll continue our conversation while eating."

The two agreed and took the opportunity to take a break. They just came into a world full of dragons and still didn't find their Neige. He could be anywhere now, trying his best to survive against some mythical creatures. But the best they could do for now is rest and eat while they could.

They all sat around a campfire and started eating the meat of the dragon. The man seemed to enjoy it a lot, but Sepide and Silva didn't really, it was almost like eating overcooked steak. Sepide decided it would be a good time to make everything clear, and started speaking.

"So let us introduce ourselves properly. I am Sepide, she is my friend Silva, and we're searching for our friend, Neige, which look exactly like you."

"So it's just a coincidence that I was here, you weren't searching for me."

"Yeah, we just got lost, and what are you doing here? Was it just for an egg?" Silva asked, still eating the food despite the bland taste.

"Well I don't really care, but my friend wanted to taste a dragon egg, so here I am."

"You fought a dragon, just for your friend?" Sepide was surprised by the reasons behind Neige's actions. She definitely wouldn't have expected that someone would go to such dangers just for someone else "It's a stupid act."

"She did a lot for me too, we have quite the history together. I suppose that you heard about what happened to the Goddess Fubuki, right?"

The two looked at Neige confused, he understood that they had no idea of what he was talking about and that he had to explain everything.

"Where are you from? Nowhere land?"

"No, we're not from there." Answered very seriously Sepide.

"Anyway, until last month, the goddess Fubuki ruled over our kingdom, and let's just say that at one point I did try to... Get her powers for personal reasons. Even if she's the Goddess of time, she acts like a child, I couldn't let her be after all the atrocities she committed. But this day... I died. Thankfully, my friend managed to save me, we killed Fubuki and now here I am."

Silva and Sepide remembered the reason that a parallel universe was created was because the Neige of this world died. So it was likely that for some reason, Neige's friend wasn't able to save him, and it created another universe. It didn't really help much to catch the anomaly, but their Neige would probably be happy to learn it.

"Wait." Silva asked out of nowhere "Did you just say you killed a Goddess?"

"Yup, it was pretty fun. Anyway, the night's almost here, I hope you find your friend. I have to get to mine now, see ya."

The two girls couldn't help but think he was a weird character, he stole an egg from a dragon, explained how he killed a God, and left like it was nothing. But now they had to find their own friend, and the night was about to fall. They would have asked the person they were with to help them with directions, but he disappeared like he was never there. And so they started to wander around the forest, hoping to find someplace to rest.

The night was here, but they managed to find a small town. It was mostly empty, aside from a single person standing in the middle of the snowy road. Sepide was the one who noticed the person, and she couldn't believe who it was.

"Neige?"

The man turned toward her when he heard the voice, it was indeed the Neige they knew, he looked exactly the same, just with a slightly sadder tone.

Silva wanted to jump in his arms, relieved to see her friend after so much time, but after remembering all they went through to find him, she changed her mind.

"Do you have any idea what happened to us? I hope you're happy with what you did!" Silva's angry tone suddenly vanished when she noticed Neige's silence and slowly walked toward him "Neige, what happened?"

Neige stayed silent for a moment, before finally answering.

"It's complicated, let's go back to the ship, I'll explain on the way there."