Bastard Homunculus: Reborn in the Corpse Pit

"To begin with, you've been brought here to participate in a multiversal tournament. You'll compete against teams from worlds in different universes, for a most sought-after prize. You're currently in a dimensional space that exists within the multiverse, and this space belongs to me.

Here, I'm in control. See, I experience time differently, it's like everything and nothing is happening at the same time, and it gets boring. So, to keep myself entertained, I sent out thousands of invitations to different worlds all over the multiverse."

"In other words, we're being forced to participate in this tournament for the sake of your amusement?" Surmised Aster with a grimace.

"Well, yeah, I suppose that's one way of looking at it. To be fair, the majority of people who accept my invitations know exactly what they're getting themselves into and what they're fighting for. It's pretty unusual for people to end up here without meaning to, like you did, I don't often get unwilling participants...but what's done is done, so you'll participate regardless."

"You mentioned a reward, what exactly is at stake here?" Inquired Antel warily.

"Well, it's a prize that countless worlds have come here to fight for, so rest assured, it'll be worth the trouble. It's a device that lets you go back in time to a fixed point in time, just once. Whoever activates the device will keep their memories, along with anyone else they're in direct physical contact with when they activate it.

Everyone else will simply forget whatever happened beyond the specified fixed point in time, so you'll have to keep that in mind if you win. Once you use the device, you'll essentially reset your world from the point you travel back to, it'll be your new present, and the time that was undone can never be restored. For instance, say you traveled one year into the past...there's a very real possibility that kids who were conceived during the time that was undone will never exist."

"You mean, like, the butterfly effect?" Inquired Akila with a frown.

"Mhm, exactly. It's a real thing, so I'd advise against going too far back in time, the smallest, seemingly insignificant, changes can result in massive deviations. The further back you travel, the more things are going to change, I'd say traveling back three months or less would be ideal, too much further and the changes will be immensely drastic, and more often than not, for the worse."

"This doesn't seem like all that great a prize to me, it sound like the drawbacks are far too severe, I would say that they outweigh the potential benefits. What's the point of using this device if it's that risky?" Responded Jules with a grimace.

"Well, let's say a big disaster happens in your world, where tons of people die and everything is ruined. Wouldn't you want to have a way to travel back in time in such situations, situations where you have nothing to lose?"

"I...suppose that's true..."

"Like I said before, the device can only be used once, so it's something you should only use I'm case of emergency. Oh, and also, only the surviving members of the winning team can use the device. Let's say you win the competition, and take the device back to your world. Once every one of you dies, the device will be useless.

Therefore, if it remains unused by the time you all die, it'll disappear. If you win the contest, you can specify the fixed time you want to set the device to, and you can always update it afterwards. Each time you update it, the point in time you'll travel to becomes the instant you make the update. For instance, if you already had the device and updated it now, and then activated it later, you'd travel back to this moment again.

Well, that's only a hypothetical, I'm not going to allow anyone to enter this place without an invitation, so yeah."

"Does that mean we can't set it to take us to an earlier point in time, before the time that was set in the update?" Raven asked him.

"Mhm, precisely. Think of the update like a save point in a video game-...wait, it seems those don't exist in your world. Well, whatever, it looks like you all get it, so it's fine."

"That does sound pretty useful. Too bad we can only use it once," Lexia sighed wistfully.

"Yeah, the device will disappear after it's used once. But, hey, being able to time travel even once is pretty incredible, wouldn't you say? And I'd say it's a fair trade for entertaining me. Giving you the ability to time travel endlessly would be way too much, so yeah, it only gets one use."

"Damn it, do we really have no choice but to play along? While that device does sound like it would be incredibly useful to have, I don't like the idea of doing as someone else pleases, just to entertain them," Jules frowned, feeling conflicted, before continuing her train of thought, "Well, if our only option is to fight, then I suppose we should pay attention and get all the information we can. We still have no idea exactly what we're in for, after all."

"Guess I'll get into the details of the tournament. To begin with, it's called the Multiversal Clash of Space and Time, or MCST for short. Five teams of fifteen will clash and participate in a number of competitions, and whichever team has the highest number of points by the end, wins. I should say, the possibility of being killed is very real.

While killing isn't explicitly necessary, a lot of the competitors I've hosted have resorted to killing their opponents in the competitions, since eliminating key players in the other teams raises their own team's chances of winning the whole thing. So, even if you win, there's a possibility that your team might suffer a few casualties."

"So, killing isn't necessary, but doing so could make the rest of the tournament easier," Surmised Colt thoughtfully.

"Wait...for this to work, wouldn't five of your invites across five different worlds need to be activated around the same time?" Spoke up Raven.

"Hah, please...in case it wasn't clear, time is my domain, so that makes no difference to me. I'm one with the flow of time across the entire multiverse, so from my perspective, such delays aren't an issue. The concept isn't comprehensible to normal people, so there's no point in trying to explain how it works."

"Hold on, if that's the case, couldn't you easily pick a different team from a different world, since, you know, we don't want to be here?" Chimed in Kora with a frown.

"I suppose I could, but I'm not going to. It's too much of a hassle, so I'll just have you guys participate."

"What if we, and the other teams, all refuse to participate?" Inquired Celia.

"That won't happen. Your team is the only one that doesn't want to be here. The others all activated their invites deliberately, they came here for the reward. Oh, another little detail, when activated, the invite selects the fifteen most powerful individuals within a five hundred meter radius, in case you guys were wondering," Explained the figure, before adding as he narrowed his eyes at Akila, "Hm? Hold on...are we from the same world? Yeah, we are, looks like you're from the era before WWIII."

"Huh? There was a third one? Wait, so you're human? From the future of my old world?"

"Yeah, that's right. Though, I'm not really human anymore. When I was human, my powers were a lot more limited but I was still the most powerful being in my world. My time-based abilities kept me from aging, I outlived everyone I knew while my power kept steadily growing, until my physical body could no longer handle it. My body effectively died, but my soul was way too powerful to pass on, even the Divine Beings who rule over the multiverse can't do a thing about me, so they usually just leave me alone.

Basically, I can't die, and there's no point in forming connections with others because I'll inevitably outlive them. Even those who are immortal don't last forever, but I do. And, well, it gets really, really boring. I usually entertain myself by observing random worlds and getting invested in the stories of random people, but as my power continued to grow and I messed around with it, I figured out how to use it better, which led to me creating the one-off time travel devices and coming up with this tournament."

"I suppose I can sympathize, but I'd be a lot more sympathetic if you weren't using us as a source of entertainment for yourself, it's rather degrading, God of Space and Time," Replied Jules dryly.

"Hm, that's a bit of a mouthful, so for the sake of convenience, just call me...Kilzachs."