“So… this is the great church of time, huh?” Zexa said as they rounded the corner and got their first glimpse at the great structure.

“It’s so big!” Xeza exclaimed. The twins had never been all that religious. They knew that the gods existed of course but they had never really felt the need to go to any of the many churches and temples in New Stepolis.

“As far as I’m aware, this is one of the newest churches here. It was only opened earlier this year, by… I don’t actually know who, actually. I think they’re constructs,” Julia said, taking a hand from both twins. Since their meeting in the summer, their friendship had blossomed into a relationship. Of course, this didn’t go over without a hitch. At several points throughout, the twins had argued with each-other, uncertain of whether it would all actually work out but they were always able to talk it out with each-other. Julia, in response, had changed significantly. Most changes were physical as each twin had her own preference. For instance, where Zexa preferred longer hair, Xeza liked it a little shorter. As such, the twins had slowly but steadily urged Julia to alter her appearance more and more. Now, she almost looked like two different people had been spliced in half and then got mashed together. Well, at least, she looked like that for special occasions such as this one.

The biggest cinch in their relationship, however, must have been Zexa and Xeza’s mother. She was rather dismissive of Julia at first and got downright malicious at times as their romance bloomed. When asked about it, their mother would always talk about how she was not going to have any grandchildren this way, and that she was certain that this was just a phase… As such, Julia did not come over very much. Instead, the twins would go out to meet her, sometimes having to tell a lie to their own mother lest she started throwing around nasty comments or even going as far as to ban them from going out.

Because of this all, however, the twins had begun realizing a lot about their mother. She had always wanted for them to be perfect and that they would be the center of attention. That they would stand out, just for being twins rather than for who they were as people. Of course, if at any point Zexa and Xeza went against their mother’s wishes, they would receive her ire. She would shift the blame onto others (usually the twins themselves), and she would throw a few comments their way about how ungrateful they were acting. “I raised you two and gave you everything!” was what she would always say in order to put them back in line.

“Constructs? What do you mean? What do they look like?” Zexa asked curiously.

“Well, I say constructs but really, I heard the term ‘time elementals’ being used,” Julia answered.

“They make elementals of that now too?” Xeza pondered, raising an eyebrow.

“What would that even look like?” Zexa asked, pausing a moment as she tried to imagine it.

“Hey, only one way to find out, right?” Julia grinned as they approached the church. It seemed like the entrance to the church was still closed off so instead, the mass of guests were gathered on the street. From what they had read on the various posters that were spread around town, the church would introduce the new year by ringing the ‘centennial bell’ for the first time in over a thousand years. After that ceremony, the general festivities would begin that would last through the night. Now, they weren’t sure whether they would stay for the entire festival but it certainly seemed like fun to at least attend the start.

Though, since they had arrived only about 15 minutes before the new year, there was already a large crowd of people here. It was impossible to get near the church, let alone get a good view of what was happening. So after a few minutes of fighting with the crowds they just resigned themselves to watching from a distance. It probably wouldn’t matter all that much considering how big the bell was.

“I can’t see…” Zexa yammered, trying her best to stand on the tips of her toes but she and her sister were much too short to be able to look out over the masses of people.

“Will this help?” Julia asked. Zexa was about to ask what would help when she suddenly felt herself being lifted off the ground. She gasped but relaxed again when she realized that she was now sitting on her love’s shoulders. “Yes… that helps,” Zexa grinned with a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Great! Then you can tell what’s happening over by the entrance,” Julia said earnestly while wrapping one hand around Xeza’s waist, who eagerly leaned into her. In order to maintain their relationship as a healthy one, Julia made sure to give both twins an equal amount of attention, not wanting to make the other jealous. In turn, Zexa and Xeza had been doing their best to work on the jealousy issues that they had been having previously. This wasn’t all that easy of course as both of them still felt that from time to time. However, each time it happened, all three of them were able to talk about that and discuss it to come to a solution without shaming anybody. Or fighting with each other for that matter.

Primarily though, since meeting Julia, the twins had rediscovered an important truth about themselves. They were unique. After everything, Zexa was Zexa and Xeza was Xeza. They were not a unit together. They were two. Of course, they understood each-other very intimately, on a level that most couldn’t dream of, even Julia. Still, that didn't mean that they were clones of each-other.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between. On behalf of the church of time, I would like to welcome you all to our new year’s celebration,” came a loud voice stifling the sounds of the  people around them.

“Ooooh!” Zexa gasped.

“What can you see up there, sis?” Xeza asked.

Zexa squinted her eyes. From this distance, it was very hard to make out anything. “I see… a pink-ish woman… a blue one… and a purple one I think?” she said.

“Pink, blue, and purple?” Julia asked.

“It’s hard to tell from here…” Zexa admitted.

“We are very happy to see so many of you gathered here today. You honour us with your presence,” came a second loud voice that boomed across the crowd. There was something… familiar about this second voice… but neither Zexa nor Xeza could quite pinpoint who that voice could have belonged to.

“In just 9 minutes and 14 seconds, we shall be ringing the centennial bell to celebrate this new year. We hope that you have all made your new year’s resolutions,” a third voice boomed. This voice sounded familiar too, but the twins still couldn’t figure out from where.

“Well? Have you made new year’s resolutions?” Julia asked.

“Hmm…” Zexa murmured.

“Well…” Xeza stammered.

“I’m terrible at new year’s resolutions, I rarely stick to them.” Julia laughed, smiling at the pair.

“Maybe… more exercise?” Zexa proposed.

“That’s so generic though,” Xeza said. “And we already do plenty of exercise.”

Julia giggled at that. Their exercise wasn’t really all that impressive when compared to her own daily routine. Of course, her giggling was met with bops to the head from both twins.

“Maybe… we could pick a new hobby?” Xeza proposed.

“Like what?” Zexa asked.

“Maybe you can finally listen to my suggestion and start singing?” Julia said, but this was again met with bops to the head by both twins, who just blushed in tandem, embarrassed by the notion.

“...and I am Lavini, the bishop of glass,” one of the boomed voices said. Drat! The twins had been so caught up in their own conversation that they had missed out on the introductions! Lavini didn’t sound like somebody they knew though.

“After the ringing of the bell, you will be led through the church and to our gardens, where the general festivities will take place. We hope that you will enjoy it,” the next voice said. After this, the voices simply started talking about how glad they were for the continued support of the New Stepolis community for their church throughout its first year of operation.

“Maybe we could work harder to eliminate the issues of jealousy we sometimes have?” Zexa pondered aloud to continue their earlier conversation. All of these ‘thank you’ messages weren’t all that interesting to her after all.

“Jealousy is a very human emotion to feel though. Nothing wrong with a little bit of jealousy every now and then, so long as we can talk about it,” Julia pointed out.

Xeza nodded. “Besides, we’ve already worked so hard on that and gotten a lot further now than we have in years!” she said.

“You know, you don’t HAVE to have a new year’s resolution,” Julia said, though she also prepared herself for more bops to the head while saying it.

Zexa sighed and leaned on Julia’s head. “I guess…” she muttered.

“And we also don’t have to have the same resolution,” Xeza said while nodding.

This prompted Zexa to place her hand on her chin. “That is true…” she mused. It was perfectly fine to make a choice independently from her sister. They thought about it for a moment longer when they realized that everybody around them had started counting. The new year was almost upon them! Eagerly, Zexa, Xeza, and Julia started chanting along.

“10!”
“9!!”
“8!!!”
“7!!!!”
“6!!!!!”
“5!!!!!!”
“4!!!!!!!”
“3!!!!!!!!”
“2!!!!!!!!!”
“1!!!!!!!!!!”
“HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Loud, thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the crowds which was only drowned out by the sound of an incredibly loud and clear gong from the centennial bell. Twelve times it rang, singing its admittedly beautiful song. After it finally stopped, the crowds once again started cheering loudly.

“That was amazing!” Zexa exclaimed.

“Simply wonderful!” Xeza agreed.

“Yeah! I’m glad we decided to come here!” Julia cheered. It was quite hard to hear each-other over the sounds of hundreds of people around them.

“Oh! The church gates are opening!” Zexa shouted.

“Well, then you’re coming back down!” Julia said, bending over forwards to let Zexa come safely back to the ground. It still took quite a bit of time until the three were able to start moving towards the entrance and even longer until they actually arrived there. When they did, there was no sign of the time elementals anymore, having been the first to enter the church. They did, however, spot a pink-haired nun welcoming the guests at the door, though she looked very much human.

When they finally reached the inner chapel of the church, the crowds dispersed somewhat which gave Zexa, Xeza, and Julia some room to breathe. Most guests still marched on towards the back entrance of the church but some lingered within the chapel to admire it, which was of course what the three decided to do as well. For some time, they just meandered around the church, commenting on everything they could see. The pretty filigree on the clocks around the chapel, the very unique looking clockwork automata stationed around the sides seemingly paying close attention to the people, the grand shrine in the very center of the church.

Eventually, their eyes landed on what looked to be some kind of gathering near the entrance. Since the way to the church grounds was still blocked by the mass of people, the trio figured they could check it out in closer detail for now. Upon their arrival, they noticed that the people here had gathered around some kind of display case. It took a bit of patience (and some elbowing from Julia to people trying to cut the line) before they found themselves in front of the display case as well.

“Wow!” Zexa exclaimed.

“I’ve never seen this many before…” Xeza mused. Indeed, the case was filled with all sorts of intricate and beautiful clocks and other trinkets related to time. Most of these certainly looked fitting for a church of time, such as the pocket watch and what looked to be two blades shaped like clock arms. Other objects, however, looked a little more out of place. The most intriguing items had to be the strange half disks with two triangular blades on their sides. One had a silver and there was a silver moon encrusted on the disk, surrounded by golden plating. The other held a golden sun surrounded by silver plating, as well as a golden blade. It certainly didn’t look like a clock the twins had ever seen but they looked to be a matching set.

“These are dials,” someone said, having obviously overheard the murmurings between Julia and the twins about the strange disk. Looking over, all three of them were surprised by the appearance of the person who said it. She was a nun, and her skin as well as her hair were pristine white.

“Dials?” Julia asked, being the first to find her voice again.

“Yes. The one on the right is a sundial and the other is a moondial,” the nun explained.

“A moondial?” Julia asked, raising an eyebrow.

The nun nodded. “While the sundial will tell you what time of day it is while the sun is out, the moondial will tell you what time it is in the month at night.”

“Aaaah, that makes sense!” Julia nodded. The twins, however, were not done staring yet at this curious nun that certainly looked human but had some obvious traits that weren’t human at all. In order to get them out of their stupor, Julia pressed her elbows into their arms.

“O-oh! Yes, indeed,” Zexa nodded while Xeza just rubbed her arm and stared daggers at their girlfriend.

The nun just chuckled in response. “It is okay. I am assuming you are new here then?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Zexa nodded.

“Are you one of the time elementals?” Xeza asked.

“Only half so,” the nun replied.

“A half time elemental? How did that happen?” Julia asked, scratching her head.

“A transformation happened. I was offered this transformation and I accepted,” the nun answered.

“Wow,” the twins mused in unison.

--------------------------------

After the trio had finally managed to leave the church, they were greeted by a festival at least half as big as the midsummer one. Eagerly, they roamed around to enjoy the party and to celebrate the new year. There were so many different kinds of food at the stands and while there, they even got a closer glimpse of one of the time elemental priestesses. She was overseeing the goings on and was standing ready to step in should things go wrong. Her appearance was even more surprising than that of the nun was, considering she was mostly made of glass and that there was sand trickling down an actual visible hourglass within her body.

There were many different kinds of people walking around. Most of them were just here to have a good time while there were also some guests that were present to pray and to give thanks for the passage of time. Julia was able to spot the guy that she had beat up back at the midsummer festival in defense of the twins and when he saw her, he quickly averted his gaze. Zexa and Xeza actually spotted the pink haired nun that had been standing at the entrance earlier. It appeared that she was being quite flirty with some of the male guests, most of which were all over her.

They spent a great amount of time just talking with one another about all sorts of things. Memories from the summer festival, commenting on some of the other partygoers, complaints about Zexa’s and Xeza’s mother. It was all a grand time. This was certainly going to be a night to remember.

Eventually, the three found themselves in the game corner. There were some game stands but the most intriguing feature here was a large, rectangular building of sorts. It seemed to draw quite a lot of attention from all sorts of people, and Julia, Zexa, and Xeza were no different.

“Back-alley Brawler, béta test?” Julia pondered aloud, reading the large, lit up sign at the front.

“Sounds like something for you, Julia,” Zexa said, grinning.

“Heh, maybe it is!” Julia said with the biggest smirk.

“There’s a window there. Let’s see what’s inside,” Xeza pointed out. Sure enough, there was a small window at the front. What they saw was quite astounding. It looked like there was an actual back-alley inside. It also looked much bigger than the actual size of the building itself. How was that possible?

There was a relatively scrawny man fighting a bunch of street thugs. Any enemy he managed to knock out pixelated and then vanished. However, he eventually found himself getting knocked down, causing all of the thugs to halt their movement until finally, the alley vanished completely, being replaced by a white room instead.

“Whoah… so none of that was actually real?” Julia pondered.

“It must be making use of illusion magic,” Zexa said.

“Are you going to participate?” Xeza asked.

“Heh… I think I will! I’ll certainly do better than him,” Julia boasted.

“You can do it, Julia!” Zexa cheered.

Julia flexed her muscles some more for the twins to enjoy before rounding the corner to look for the entrance. Eagerly, the twins awaited the moment she would enter this intriguing game. When she eventually did, Zexa and Xeza cheered as loud as they could, though they weren’t sure whether Julia could actually hear them. They sure couldn’t hear what was going on inside at least but that didn’t matter, so long as they could see what was going on.

Soon enough, Julia’s game started. The first wave of thugs were no match for her at all and she made quick work of them. The second wave proved a little bit more challenging however as they required more punches and kicks to go down. In the end though, Julia still came out on top which caused the twins to cheer loud enough for the entire festival to hear.

“She’s only the second one to have gotten this far!” somebody next to them cheered.

“Did you hear that?” Zexa said excitedly.

“That’s our Julia!” Xeza cheered.

That was when the next opponent appeared. Instead of a wave of thugs, there was only one man. Well, he looked more like a big chunk of muscles with legs. He stood almost two heads taller than Julia, who was already a head taller than the twins so this man must have been huge! It made Zexa and Xeza quite worried, grabbing each-other’s hand and clenching their fists.

However, Julia seemed unfazed and went into the fight regardless. She punched and kicked, only to receive some very powerful punches back. She dodged to the right but her opponent saw it coming already and did a leg sweep to knock her off her feet. Not getting deterred, Julia instead landed on her hands and gave her opponent a kick in the stomach. It momentarily stunned the thug and gave Julia the opportunity to get back up before the man could retaliate. It was quite a tough battle but in the end, Julia was defeated by a well-timed kick from the thug, causing her to fall down to the ground properly.

“Noooooo!” “Juliaaaaaa!” the twins yammered, hugging each-other tightly as the back-alley made way for the white room again.

Inside, Julia took some moments to get back up. She looked more exhausted and tired than hurt, so that was a good thing at least, but it was still sad to see her lose. However, something lit up above the twins. It seemed to be some kind of scoreboard and it was changing. Where-as somebody named ‘Estella’ had been at the top of the charts before, Julia had now taken the first place. She really HAD gotten further than anybody else! This certainly made Zexa and Xeza very proud.

As Julia left the white room behind again, the twins eagerly awaited her. “She was so strong!” Zexa squealed.

“The way she handled those thugs!” Xeza swooned.

They squealed together for some time more when they realized that Julia still hadn’t reached them. Curiously, they left the window and peeked around the corner of the building, where they spotted Julia talking to someone unseen. Thinking nothing of it, Zexa and Xeza eagerly ran for their lover and quickly hugged her from either side.

“You were amazing!” Zexa cheered.

“You’re the best, Julia!” Xeza cheered.

Julia laughed. “Speak of the devil, here they are,” she said. “Zexa, Xeza, meet the priestess that made this game.”

When the twins finally turned their attention to the person they hadn’t seen yet, they gasped at the sight of a young woman that was almost entirely blue, clad in a skin-tight suit with some kind of visor over her eyes.

“You’re one of the time elementals!” Zexa pointed out.

“You made all this?” Xeza asked.

However, the priestess remained silent for a moment. She looked visibly shaken as her lower lip trembled slightly. “...you…” she finally hissed.

“Huh?” both twins asked, confused.

“My lady?” Julia asked as well.

The priestess then pressed something on the side of her helmet, causing her visor to recede back and revealing her face. “I had hoped I would never ever have to see you two again…” the priestess spat.

Julia tilted her head and looked to the twins, who both gasped simultaneously as they realized who this priestess really was.

“Akita…” they spoke softly.

“Wait, you are already familiar with each other?” Julia asked.

“Oh yes, we are. These little demons made my high school days a living hell!” Akita snapped.

Julia looked back to the twins again, both of which tried to avoid eye contact and fidgeted around uncomfortably.

Akita then turned around and stepped back into her operator room behind the game building. “You had best get out of here. I don’t want to see you again!” Akita hissed.

“Wait!” Julia called after her but the door was already slammed shut. There was a moment of silence that followed after this happened until eventually, Julia turned to face the twins again, who were still twiddling their thumbs uncomfortably.

“You two owe me a story…” Julia said, folding her arms.