In Valinor, time itself seemed meaningless.
Three hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
During those centuries, Sylas remained at Swan Harbor, devoting himself entirely to comprehending the profound nature of time. He declined the invitation to reside in the palace of the Supreme King, choosing instead to leave the royal domain and build a warm, secluded seaside villa with his family not far from Swan Harbor.
Living in another's residence for long periods was inconvenient, and more importantly, Sylas required a completely private space in which to use the Time-Turners without interference.
In addition to Sylas, Arwen, and Elroth personally gathering materials for the villa, the royal domain provided vast quantities of gemstones for decoration. The mermaids of the nearby sea contributed pearls, coral, and other oceanic treasures in abundance. The villa itself became both a home and a sanctuary, simple in function, yet exquisite beyond measure.
Although only three hundred years passed in Valinor, for Sylas, it felt like well over a thousand years, longer than his entire previous lifetime combined.
Every single day, he used all twenty-five Time-Turners in his possession. Once the final Time-Turner was exhausted, he would rest just long enough for their power to recover, then begin again.
Sylas slept only when necessary.
Time was never wasted, not a minute, not a second.
At first, Arwen and Elroth were deeply shocked by their husband and father's state. Gradually, however, they grew accustomed to it. Even seeing multiple versions of Sylas working simultaneously, researching, discussing magic, or refining spells, no longer surprised them.
As for Arwen, knowing that her husband always reserved time for her, she felt both warmth and quiet contemplation. At times, she wondered whether to call him a tireless man… or a master of time itself.
Over the thousands of years Sylas experienced through the Time-Turners, his gains were extraordinary.
At the beginning, a single journey into the River of Time would completely exhaust his mental energy, forcing him to rest six full hours before he could use another Time-Turner.
But as his understanding deepened, that recovery time steadily shortened.
Six hours became five, Five became four, Four became two.
Eventually, one hour.
More importantly, his mental power began to resist the River of Time itself.
Or rather, after being endlessly washed by time, his consciousness became subtly infused with its aura. The rejection he once suffered from the River weakened, and the duration for which he could perceive time increased steadily:
Five seconds, Six seconds, Seven seconds., Eight seconds…
Eventually, after using the first Time-Turner, Sylas no longer needed to rest at all. He could immediately activate the next without fear of mental collapse.
As a result, his "day" grew longer and longer.
Sylas could now chain more than a dozen Time-Turners together, rewinding himself back several days at once. Under such circumstances, time had essentially lost all value to him.
If he wished, he could stretch a single day into a month, or even a year.
But he did not.
Sylas had no desire to artificially inflate his lifespan any further. Time was already abundant. What mattered was insight, not duration.
Thus, he allowed everything to proceed naturally, focusing solely on what truly mattered: Understanding the River of Time itself.
However, as Sylas continued to endure the River of Time for longer and longer periods, a new problem gradually emerged.
The two minutes of daily comprehension he could achieve through the Time-Turners was no longer sufficient.
More critically, there was a fundamental limitation in the Time-Turner itself.
Each Time-Turner allowed time to reverse for only five seconds, granting Sylas a brief but clear window to perceive the River of Time. Yet those five seconds were far too short. Time and again, just as he began to grasp a crucial insight, just as his understanding was about to deepen, the reversal would abruptly end.
Even if he immediately activated another Time-Turner and re-entered the River of Time, the continuity was already broken.
It was like watching the climax of a masterpiece… only for the signal to suddenly cut out.
The frustration was unbearable. More than once, Sylas nearly cursed aloud.
With no other choice, he decided to create an entirely new kind of time artifact.
Under the constant acceleration of time granted by the Time-Turners, Sylas worked tirelessly for nearly a hundred years, refining designs again and again. At last, he completed his creation.
A Time Hourglass.
Unlike the delicate Time-Turner, this hourglass was far larger and more imposing. Its glass body was reinforced with time-resistant materials, while its interior was filled with an enormous quantity of refined Time Sand, densely accumulated in the lower chamber.
When upright, it behaved like an ordinary hourglass.
But when inverted;
Time itself began to flow backward.
Because it differed fundamentally from the Time-Turner, Sylas gave it a new name: the Time Hourglass.
In terms of raw function, it could reverse time by only twenty-four hours, far less than the cumulative reversals possible through chained Time-Turners. But its purpose was never extended reversal.
Its true value lay in continuity.
When Sylas inverted the Time Hourglass, the Time Sand began to fall slowly. Unlike the violent, instant rewinding caused by a Time-Turner, the surrounding world reversed gradually, as if viewed through slow motion.
Buildings reconstructed themselves brick by brick. Waves rolled backward into the sea. Light itself retraced its path.
The world rewound gently.
Sylas ignored the reversing scenery entirely.
Instead, he extended his mental power beyond the protective boundary of the hourglass.
And once more, he beheld it.
The River of Time.
Vast and boundless, it surged like an eternal torrent, greater than any galaxy, more magnificent than the Milky Way, recording every event that had ever occurred or would ever occur.
After countless confrontations with its overwhelming force, Sylas's mind had long since been tempered.
Where once his spirit had been like fragile foam upon the current, it was now like a stone polished by endless erosion, dense, resilient, and radiant.
More importantly, prolonged immersion had caused his mental power itself to become infused with the aura of time.
Because mind and soul are inseparable, this transformation extended deeper still. Even Sylas's soul began to absorb a trace of temporal essence.
The result was profound.
His understanding of time deepened dramatically, and his manipulation of time magic became increasingly effortless.
For example, the Time-Reversal Spell he had once created, he could now reverse time by a thousand years with ease.
With full power, even ten thousand years was no longer impossible.
Such power was already sufficient to threaten Maiar, and even Valar who possessed authority only by delegation. Even a demigod would suffer catastrophic weakening if forcibly reverted by thousands of years.
Against a Valar vested with delegated authority, Sylas might even be able to force their being to regress, stripping away the authority they wielded and casting them down from their exalted state.
Yet even so, Sylas knew this was not the end of the path.
If one day he could reverse time by tens or even hundreds of thousands of years, then even those standing at the very summit of existence, beings who ruled through authority rather than mere power, might be forced back toward their origins.
But to reach such a height required far more than comprehension alone. It demanded immense endurance, a soul capable of withstanding time's erosion, and foundations that had yet to be fully forged.
For now, it remained only a possibility.
...
STONES >^_^^_^<
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