Next story: Like Clockwork AT 01:00 - The Gears Of Faith P1“Whoah!” The three girls were in awe as they got their first real glimpse at the ancient structure within the valley of Chronis. Now that they were actually here, none of them really knew what to say or do. Even though the building hadn’t seen use in over a thousand years, they were surprised at how much of it still stood. Several side towers had crumbled but the main building had mostly withstood the test of time. There were old broken clocks scattered throughout the area and nature had slowly been reclaiming the land over the years that the site lay abandoned. There was an empty belfry over the front of the main building and there were holes in most of the walls. Despite all that, strangely enough, the central tower looked remarkably well kept. It even appeared to still have a functioning clock, although it was way off. It sure was curious. All of this really made them wonder what this place would have looked like back in its hay days.“Well, we won’t find anything by standing out here,” Akita finally spoke up.“Yes… you’re right,” Bridget nodded, placing a hand over her necklace. She’d been keeping the curious gear that Akita and her had found close to her at all times just in case.“So, remind me again, what are we looking for exactly?” Lavini asked.“We’re looking for wherever this could fit,” Bridget replied, pointing at the gear hanging around her neck.“I’m sure it’ll be a walk in the park,” Akita said while motioning towards the numerous broken clocks dotting the area.“Oh, shush it. I think we’ll know where it belongs once we find… it, I guess,” Bridget said.“Besides, even if we do not find what manner of machinery it belongs to, the trip will most certainly be lucrative for us. We may yet gain a lot of knowledge about Alinavious here. However, we must be careful. All of the tales we have heard from other adventurers make this sound like a dangerous place,” Lavini said hesitantly.“Heh, come on, Lavini. It looks safe to me,” Akita joked, pointing at a rather perilous-looking overhang that might just collapse if one happened to look at it funny.“Cut it out, you two. We’ve been working for this very moment for years and I’m not about to back down,” Bridget said. Indeed, they had been. Ever since they graduated school, Bridget and Akita had been obsessed with finding out anything they could about the ancient goddess of time. When they met Lavini later that summer, who was about to enroll into the same academy as they were, they instantly hit it off and she kind of hopped onto the bandwagon right away. Throughout their years as students, they did so much research on the goddess and on time that they became experts on the subject. Even after all of that, there was surprisingly little information to be found that Bridget hadn’t already learned from the book of the gods. But books were only going to take them so far. They had to see these ruins for themselves. Who knows what secrets could be hidden here? Since it was dangerous, they had to prepare and be ready for whatever was to come and so their final year at the academy was mostly spent preparing.Lavini and Akita exchanged some glances with one-another and nodded. “... You are correct, Bridget dear,” Lavini said.“So long as we’re careful, we should be okay,” Akita added.The three girls carefully made their way down the relatively steep hill they had been standing on towards the grand entrance of the ancient church. Lavini was able to use her sand magic to make a stairway down but it was still a pretty slippery path. Halfway down, Akita even managed to fall and she slid the rest of the way down. This prompted Bridget to hasten her pace down but she was relieved to find that Akita got away with only some small bruises, though she did complain about the fact that sand had now gotten in places she didn’t even want to mention. When Lavini had made her way down as well, the girls were faced by a heavily overgrown thornbush that blocked their path to the front door.“Stand back. I’ll take care of this,” Bridget said as she got out her scimitar. She then closed her eyes while she channeled her energy before beginning to spin. Just as she had practiced, she began to dance. The dance she performed was different from her usual ballet routine but a dance was still a dance and thus she gave it her all. As she approached the thornbush, she held out her scimitar and began to slice her way in. Branches and leaves scattered everywhere as she created a pathway for the three girls to walk through. When at last she had reached the door, she stopped her dance and she ended it with a bow. She didn’t need to do this but her upbringing as a ballerina had kind of drilled it into her.“Exquisite! I knew that that dervish class would be a perfect match for you,” Lavini said, applauding. When she turned to Akita though, she stopped and looked a little bit shocked. “Ah, Akita dear. Your mouth is agape.”Akita turned a bright shade of red. “Huh, whasda?... oh… sorry…”Bridget began to blush as well at this, which only made Lavini chuckle. “Let us enter, you two lovebirds,” she said.“Heh… guilty as charged.” Akita grinned widely, which only made Bridget blush even more.Most of the grand doorway into the church had rotted away so they could already catch their first glimpse inside of what must once have been the main entrance hall. The first thing that caught everyone’s attention was the gigantic bell that lay in the center of the room. It must have fallen from the belfry up top. Incredibly, it was still mostly intact and still had a shiny hue to it even after all these years of neglect. It led Bridget to believe that it must have some magical protection against the passage of time.The second thing that stood out was the doorway on the far side of the room that was… off somehow. It looked like a mirage from a distance. One moment, the doors were still intact and the next, they had all but crumbled to dust. At times, Bridget could even swear she saw the glimpse of a figure standing there but it happened so sporadically and so quickly that she felt that she must have imagined it somehow.The rest of the room did not appear all that interesting. The wall had massive holes in them and the floor was riddled with debris. There were timeworn statues all around but it was simply impossible to tell what they were supposed to represent by now. Some of the walls that still stood held massive murals but these too were rather hard to decipher at first glance. It looked like one of them must have depicted the goddess and six other figures once. There was also something written below the mural.“Incredible,” Akita said while she approached the mural. “This writing is the same as on the gear.”“And there are these seven figures here as well,” Lavini noted. “They look humanoid.”“Hmmm, then maybe my hypothesis that those symbols represented different virtues was wrong.”“Indeed. They could have represented angels or something of the sort. However, that does beg the question. If these six people around the goddess were of such importance, why then could we not find any information on them?”“Yet another mystery to add to the pile…”As Lavini and Akita were discussing their findings, Bridget carefully approached the shimmering doorway. As she did so, the strange effect only got stranger pronounced. More details started flashing around as if it was a wall of water. “What do you think is going on here?” she asked.“Bridget stop! Do not get any closer!” Lavini cried out as she too now spotted the strange effect.“What’s going on?!” Akita said. Of course, she’d be the first to come running if Bridget were in trouble.“Nothing’s wrong so far,” Bridget said, trying to calm them both.“Regardless. This is a temple of time, is it not?” Lavini said as she approached. “I do not think it wise to proceed here. We may be looking at a temporal anomaly.”“Yikes… good thing you stopped her then, Lavini!” Akita said.“How can we be certain?” Bridget pondered.“I have an idea,” Lavini said as she picked up a small pebble from the floor. She threw it towards the door… only for it to instantly vanish! No, wait, it didn’t. Instead, it reappeared closer to the girls as if it had only just been tossed as it followed the same trajectory as before. Then that same thing happened again! And again! Indeed, it appeared that the pebble had been caught in a time loop.Bridget had her eyes wide while she could feel her heartbeat increasing a little. “Wow… you really saved me there, Lavini.” To think she could have been centimeters away from being stuck in a time loop herself… “Let’s… try and inspect a different part of the temple. And keep throwing rocks ahead of ourselves just in case…” Akita proposed.Bridget and Lavini simply nodded., As the girls explored the rest of the ruins, they were relieved to find that only the central tower had been affected by the strange temporal anomalies. They quickly deduced that this was probably also the reason why it still looked like it was built yesterday. Unfortunately though, the rest of the temple complex was in an even worse state than the entrance hall was. There was rubble everywhere. Plants had grown to cover just about every inch of the ground, making it even harder to get around. Barely anything was recognizable as having been a part of a church. Slowly but surely, Bridget started losing hope that they’d find anything without going into that central tower and judging by the sighs they were giving, she figured Lavini and Akita were thinking the same. There was simply nothing where the mysterious gear might fit…Or so they thought.“Whoah, what’s this?!” Akita suddenly called out as she stumbled over another wall. Bridget and Lavini soon joined her and they were surprised to find a rather large room. Well, what must have been a room once at least. There was no way of knowing what its purpose was but that didn’t matter nearly as much as the massive collection of metal lying in the middle, simply heaped up in a big pile.“Well, this is certainly different,” Lavini commented as she threw another pebble forwards to make sure that the room was safe.“Why would this be here?” Bridget pondered as she carefully approached the heap. Upon closer inspection, she was actually able to make out that it wasn’t just scrap metal that was piled up here. There were gears. Thousands of them! Furthermore, there were axles, pistons, nuts, bolts, sprockets, cogwheels and more still! It looked like a huge pile of the inner workings of a gigantic clock.“More curiously, how is none of it covered in rust?” Lavini commented.“Or stolen by looters,” Akita added.“These ruins are weird… It's like a thousand years have only passed since the goddess’ demise for half of the church, while for the rest it was only a minute ago.,” Bridget pondered out loud.“I suppose it is entirely possible that enchantments have been placed on this metal to make it immune to the passage of time,” Lavini mused.“Hmm… could it be the same divine enchantment that was placed on that gear of yours, Bridge?” Akita asked.Bridget placed a hand over her necklace. She looked a little closer at the pile and sure enough, it was giving off a faint glow much like her gear. “It might just be,” she agreed.“Do we just… lob it on there then? Or is there some sort of logic to this pile,” Akita said.“Let’s investigate,” Bridget proposed. All three girls nodded as they started to explore the pile more thoroughly. Sure enough, Akita appeared to be correct. Most of the gears and cogwheels appeared to be interlocked with one-another in some way already. There were almost no loose screws and bolts either. Still, even though almost all parts were connected somehow, it didn’t really look like anything. If this was supposed to be one big machine, then its purpose remained a mystery.“Oh my, I may have found something,” Lavini said, catching everyone’s attention. Akita and Bridget quickly stumbled over to come and have a look. Once they joined their friend, sure enough, they found what looked to be some kind of plate with three rods sticking out of it. Two of which held a gear, but the center one was missing.“This could be it!” Bridget cheered, taking out her own gear.“Wow, hold on! Are you just going to put this gear on there?” Akita asked.“Yeah, why not?” Bridget asked.“Well, who knows what might happen once you do! True, it might be nothing but we might also be unleashing some kind of time demon,” Akita said.“Oh come now, Akita dear. A time demon?” Lavini chuckled.“Look, it was the first thing that popped into my head!” Akita huffed.“You’re right though,” Bridget chuckled. “We should be more careful here. Somebody placed this gear in the Book of the Gods for me to find for a reason, and this pile might be that reason. Something might happen…”“I concur. Let us be cautious then. I shall make us an escape path using sand just in case,” Lavini nodded., As Lavini was working elsewhere on preparing an escape route back to the front gates, Akita and Bridget stayed behind to consider their options.“I say we dismantle this thing and try to work out its functions somewhere safe,” Akita said.“But if we do that, we might mess up and break it,” Bridget said.“True… we’d have to write down exactly what we do and how we do it,” Akita continued.“Akita, look at this huge pile. There’s no way we’d be able to document all of this,” Bridget argued.“I… look, I’m just worried about what might happen. I mean, think about it. If the goddess died, then who could have put that gear in the book? And why would they even do it? If they figured that no-one would be able to open that page ever again, then they must have hidden that gear for a good reason,” Akita reasoned.“Aki, I get it but what if they knew that one day, there would be someone like us who COULD open the book. Then they must have hidden it to only reactivate this machine for us specifically,” Bridget reasoned.“I guess… it’s a pretty big risk though,” Akita said.“But it’s a risk that I’m willing to take,” Bridget said resolutely.Akita fell silent for a moment, contemplating. Bridget loved Akita. They had been friends since they were 7 years old, and they had been girlfriends since they were 15. They knew each-other through and through. As such, Bridget knew that her girlfriend was always wanting to be careful and rational. A little too much sometimes. Bridget knew that if you weren’t willing to take chances or risks, then life would be pretty boring. She usually had to convince Akita to do certain things. Of course, she always heeded her girlfriend’s warnings though and would always act accordingly.“Alright. You’re right. We didn’t come all this way for nothing,” Akita finally admitted.Bridget placed a hand on Akita’s. “It’s going to be alright,” she said reassuringly.“I hope you’re right, Bridge,” Akita muttered. She still didn’t seem completely convinced but she trusted Bridget.“Alright,” came the voice of Lavini who was now re-entering the large room. “I believe that should take care of a decent escape route should things go awry. I have tried to preserve as much of the temple as I could.”“Great!” Bridget cheered as she took out the gear once more. She approached the pile of metal and soon found the gear slot again that they had found earlier. As she held out her own gear though, she hesitated. She looked back to Akita and Lavini standing behind her. Both of them appeared equally tense about this. After all, this was the moment they had been preparing for. Bridget could feel her heart pounding in her chest. She had no idea what was going to happen once she interlocked this gear with the others. What this ancient dead goddess had intended. Of course… there was only one way to find out. Resolutely, she finally placed the gear on the rod and pushed it down between the other gears. Her heart raced as she did it… but nothing appeared to be happening.Silence filled the room. All Bridget could hear was her own heart thumping as well as her own breathing and that of her friends.“Is that it?” Akita finally asked, breaking the silence.“Nothing is happening…” Lavini said, sounding rather distraught.Bridget turned around. “I… I was sure something would happen…” she said.“But it didn’t…” Akita stammered in disbelief. It can’t be that this entire journey was all for naught! Everything that they had done. Everything that had already happened. It had to mean something, right?!And then it happened.Tick“Wait… did you two hear that?” Lavini asked.TickThe three girls fell silent once more as they tried listening.Tick… Tick… Tick… Tick Tock… Tick Tock…Bridget’s eyes widened. She quickly turned around and sure enough, the gears were moving!“Incredible,” Lavini said.“Unbelievable. This… thing… whatever it is… actually still works?!” Akita asked in disbelief.“But what’s it doing?” Bridget pondered. The sound of ticking gears was slowly increasing in intensity and slowly but steadily more ticks and clicks could be heard slowly spreading throughout the pile.“Perhaps it is trying to fix itself?” Lavini proposed.“It could be a clock,” Akita pondered out loud.“Whatever it is… let’s back away for now,” Bridget said as the ticking intensified more and more. If it was indeed going to restore itself, then it might need a lot more space.The ticking and clicking soon echoed throughout the entire room as the whole pile was slowly starting to move. Parts that had seemingly been a jumbled mess before were suddenly starting to look like an organized, well-oiled machine. At first it was just the gears that were moving and ticking but as the three girls backed away, they could see that even the bigger cranks and pistons were starting to move. It was chaotic. It was orderly. Bridget could not believe what they were seeing when suddenly, a loud thud resounded through the ruins and rocked the three girls on their feet. At first, they thought that maybe a large part of the machine had broken and fallen down.“Whoah!” Akita suddenly cried out, pointing at what looked to be a giant metal arm.“That… could be worrisome,” Lavini said. It was kind of hard to hear her over the intensifying sounds coming from the machine.Not much later, there was another loud thud as a second arm slammed on the ground. The girls gasped and huddled together.“We should get out of here before this thing wakes up fully!” Akita shouted.“I concur! I think we may have just awakened an ancient clockwork giant, placed here to destroy intruders!” Lavini shouted.Bridget wasn’t so sure yet. It couldn’t be that the gear had been an elaborate trap all along. And even if it was, for what purpose? What would the ancient followers of Alinavious gain from setting a trap for someone in the distant future? That said… this was starting to look pretty bad as the gears and plates were slowly starting to form what looked to be a leg. “Let’s go!” she shouted.“This way!” Lavini shouted just loud enough not to be lost in the cacophony of sound. They ran as fast as they could over the sand stairs and pathways that Lavini had made beforehand as another loud crash behind them signified that another limb had been finished on the machine.“Faster!” Akita cried out as they ran and ran. Sand was not exactly the best material for pathways but it was better than staying put and getting crushed at least. Up ahead, they could see the outside wall while behind them, the hulking clockwork giant was slowly standing up. It was even bigger than they had initially thought!“Don’t look back!” Bridget hissed. Looking back was only slowing them down now as the outside wall came closer and closer. They were almost there when they were suddenly rocked off their socks by the sounds of what could only be described as the charging of an extremely large, extremely angry bull.“Almost ther- WHOA!” Lavini screamed as the giant had managed to catch up to them with ease. It had slammed one of its massive arms into the sand path in front of the girls, blocking their means of escape! In fact, the shockwave caused all three of them to fall off the path and into the ruins below.Bridget found herself falling on some smooth stones and was luckily able to catch herself before she could get seriously hurt. “Is everyone alright?!” she called out.“Couldn’t be better!” Akita hissed sarcastically next to her. She too had managed to catch herself and she was already getting up again.“I could use a hand!” Lavini said. Bridget and Akita could see through some cracks that she had fallen on the other side of a small wall and she was holding onto her right arm.“I’m coming!” Akita said, taking out her focus. She had worked hard on learning how to use this particular Support class as it was quite intricate and precise. Now, it was time to put it to the test. With relative ease, she managed to hop over the wall to tend to Lavini’s wounds.“Be careful!” Bridget cried out as the hulking clockwork giant above them was starting to move again. Only now did they get a full glimpse of the incredible scale of this thing. It stood as tall as half of the central tower. Its hands and feet alone were big enough to crush any of them and now, its head was slowly starting to focus on the three of them. For a moment, it just stood there, eyeing the three of them. It looked from Bridget to Akita and Lavini, and then back to Bridget again.Bridget’s eyes widened as its gaze stayed on her. At first it was simply looking down but then its arm kicked back into motion again and it was reaching directly for her! She screamed as her adrenaline kicked in. Just barely, she managed to evade its hand before it could grab her.“BRIDGET!” Akita cried out from the other side of the wall, the fear in her voice audible.“I’m okay! Just get Lavini on her feet again!” Bridget yelled as the giant’s other arm now tried reaching for her. Akita said something more but it became drowned out by the loud ticking that was coming from the giant. For whatever reason, it seemed to have picked Bridget as its primary target… It was constantly reaching down to try and grab her but every time she just barely managed to dodge it. This was really bad but at least it gave Akita a chance to heal up Lavini. However, it was clear that she was being driven into a corner. The giant had no qualms about smashing through the crumbling walls of the ancient ruins and it was quickly blocking off any escape path that Bridget might have had. She barely dodged to the left as another wall came down and the giant missed her by a hair when she ducked out of the way of another one of his grabs. She tried to get away from it somehow but it simply continued its relentless attempts at capturing her. Once again, she was thankful to Lavini for giving her the dervish class but her luck was running out as the giant smashed yet another wall down, trapping her. Up above, she could see that the giant was reaching down yet again. This was surely going to be it…That was when sand suddenly appeared and started swirling around the giant’s arm. This seemed to have confused the giant as it halted its movements. Lavini must have gotten back on her feet! Quickly, Bridget scrambled out of the rubble and she quickly jumped backwards, only to find herself back in the room that they had started in.Meanwhile, the giant seemed to look back to where Lavini and Akita were trying to grab its attention. Bridget couldn’t hear them from this distance but it didn’t look like the giant was impressed as it simply continued to focus its attention on Bridget.“Why me?!” Bridget shouted as it gave chase. This was bad. This was really bad! There was no way to hide in this massive, open hall! Up above, she could see more sand swirling around the giant but he simply ignored it all. As he stepped back into the large room, Bridget knew that her time was running out. If Lavini’s sand magic wasn’t enough to stop this thing, what hope did she have of stopping him with her scimitar? And what was it even trying to do? So far, it had constantly been trying to grab her rather than crush her. What was up with that?There was no time to think about it though as it soon started reaching down again. Between its legs, Bridget could see that Lavini and Akita were trying to reach her. If they could reach her in time, then maybe they could find a way to escape somehow!But it was too late as a massive hand wrapped itself around Bridget. Damn! How could she have let herself get so distracted! As the hand closed itself, she could feel herself getting squeezed. This was it. She was done for! But… she wasn’t being crushed. She was only being lifted into the air, right up to the giant’s face.“BRIDGET!!!” came the synchronized voices of Akita and Lavini down below. Bridget couldn’t see what they were doing but she could still see clouds of sand swirling around the giant. It didn’t matter though as she got her first look at the giant’s face. It was fully made up of interlocked gears, big and small. Its expression was emotionless as it was just carrying out what it wanted to do. What WAS it trying to do? Why had it grabbed her?“Let me go, you big hunk of metal!” Bridget shouted. The questions would come later. She had to get out of this mess somehow!Suddenly, Bridget felt herself getting lowered again down to the giant’s chest which opened itself up like a large set of double doors. There was little time to question what was going on as she could feel herself being shoved inside where she was finally released again. She scrambled to regain her bearing and she tried to turn around again and escape but it was too late. She could just barely hear Akita’s screams just as the doors closed, leaving her in the darkness, surrounded by nothing but ticks and clicks.