I got up from my chair and shakily walked behind my desk which was filled with monitors and different controls. This is it, everything I’ve been planning for more than a century is finally coming to fruition. I walked over to the big red button on my desk that said DO NOT PRESS, lifted up its glass cover and pressed it, feeling a great sense of satisfaction.

  I was a firm believer that every great and notable machine needed to have such a button. To some it might be an unneeded detail but I had come to find that it’s the little things in life that give it meaning.

  The whole room started to hum with power as mana started to surge in from large mana capacitors to fuel what I had spent so long researching and perfecting; my time machine. However, to anyone without my unique circumstances and capabilities, this machine would be completely useless, not because I wanted to make it that way but because making it any other way would be completely unrealistic and unattainable given my current condition and circumstances.

  After starting the machine I knew that it wouldn’t be long before those that were chasing me noticed where I was and what I was doing and came to stop me. But I had prepared extensively for this day, and nothing could stop me, not even those national level entities.

  As I slowly, painfully, dragged my exhausted and time worn body through the massive room - filled with magic circles, runes, and artifacts, made up of a variety of very valuable materials - I started to reminisce about my past and how I had voluntarily, and involuntarily, sacrificed so much just for this day. A horrible feeling filled my chest with the regrets and trauma I had faced over my lifetime. But everything will be fine after I go back in time. It has to. I’ll make sure of it.

  After precariously, yet carefully, maneuvering through the mess of wires and devices, I sat down in the center of the big magical machine, on a barely acceptable chair, and endured the unavoidable pain that came from the machine attaching all of the appropriate mechanisms into and onto my body.

  If I hadn’t had my TechnicMorph Ancestry -and because of that my Metaphysical Physique: Body of Artifacts- the pain would’ve been much greater. But I was able to get through it without much of a problem even with my artificially extended old age weakening my body’s capabilities.

  After successfully enduring the painful process I opened my eyes to look at the monitors in front of my chair that currently showed various statistics and numbers correlating to different parts of the machine. Everything looked like it was functioning properly so I gave a voice command to the computer, “Show me the outside.”

  The monitors instantly switched to show the image of a titanic black-armored leviathan facing off against a multitude of different people of various races; Humans, Beastkin, and many more, there was even a Dragon. There were many different large and small figures surrounding the leviathan that were launching different magic and other attacks, with more people arriving every minute.

  I recognized many of the figures fighting the leviathan as important and powerful people within the government of Tallen, and even some from outside of it, and grew a little worried that my preparations might not have been enough, but I ignored those feelings knowing that they were mostly caused by my past trauma and anxiety, and decided to trust that my preparations would be enough despite the epic battle being waged on the screens.

  I closed my eyes and focused on controlling the machine, guiding the parts that needed my input. With my vast amount of personal mana, and my Power [Mental Operator], I expertly guided my magic and lost myself in the process of finishing the final processes of the machine that I had spent so long building.

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  After completing the things that needed my input I opened my eyes and looked back at the screens showing the legendary battle. There were amazing displays of powerful magic raining down on the black scales of the leviathan, but the scales were sucking up the magic like a black void making the magic seem to dissipate into nothingness. This leviathan was one of the most capable defensive creatures I had ever come across, which is why I decided to set up my operations on the inside of it, determining that it would be able to last long enough for my machine to complete its work. There had been no way for me to stop the massive disruptions in fate brought about by the time machine’s activation, so the defense of this black leviathan was a necessary sacrifice.

  But, by the looks of things, even with its awesome defenses the leviathan wouldn’t last too much longer against the powerful figures that had come to stop me, or more likely to stop the cause of such massive changes and ripples in fate. Through the screens I could see that the leviathan was on its last throes as waterfalls of corrosive black blood fell off of its body down to the ground. Making the once lush purple and blue landscape turn into a desolate valley filled with rivers of black blood and signs of battle.

  As I was watching the, honestly, very cool battle, I felt a presence come up against my mind, which meant that someone was able to penetrate the failing defenses of the leviathan with their mental magic. However the presence wasn’t that strong, probably taking most of their power to even get this far into the leviathan, showcasing its powerful defenses even during its final moments.

  Being capable of mind magic myself I connected to the presence out of curiosity. Coming through the connection I heard a female voice that sounded somewhat familiar, “We’ve almost defeated the leviathan and we’ll be coming for you next Radiant. Come out quietly and surrender before we have to force you.”

  Not feeling pressured at all I casually responded, “Why hello there. Might I have the pleasure of knowing who I’m speaking to? Your voice sounds very familiar but it’s been so long since I’ve interacted with anyone that I’m having trouble recalling in my old age.”

  A feeling of disbelief and perplexity along with a sense of pain came along the connection, “Who I am doesn’t matter. You’re a criminal now and I can’t afford to be connected to you Radiant. Just stop your senseless struggle and surrender before we have to use force.”

  “Well Miss whoever you are, I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’ll be gone before you get to me. I was just feeling a little lonely after decades of solitude and wanted to speak to someone before I left. I don’t recall who you are but I’m grateful to chat with an acquaintance in these last moments. I hope you have a good life, or would it be ‘had’ a good life ‘will have’ a good life?... Anyways, my machine is almost done and I’ll have to get going now. Maybe I’ll see ya in the past. If I can remember you that is.”

  “Wait!-”

  With that, I severed the connection that started to feel like it was getting too strong, and because I didn’t want to talk anymore. Even if it was someone I knew, there was no reason to continue talking, after all I was going back in time and this conversation wasn’t going to mean anything once I was gone.

  As I felt the room shake, because of the great leviathan falling to the ground, the time machine fired up its last operations and everything seemed to distort around me. Although this machine was powerful, it wasn’t powerful enough to send everything I wanted back in time; the machine was only powerful enough to send back three things: my Adaptive Mind which contained a perfect record of all my memories, my soul which acted as an anchor for the time travel to work, and a miniature mana reactor artifact I handcrafted with my own mana cells so it would be compatible with my past self.

  The mana reactor took up the bulk of my time machine’s capabilities and energy, because sending a physical object back in time was very costly, but it was absolutely necessary if I wanted to accomplish my goals, and it was still only possible to send it back because it was made with my own mana cells. It would be the only testament to my magical and engineering prowess once I left everything else behind.

  With a smile on my face I closed my eyes and said goodbye to this lonely future filled with regrets. Many different kinds of mana and energies flowed chaotically around me, and from this chaos the machine started to transform it into order, and the whole room imploded towards me as I blacked out.