Doors, countless doors, connected independent yet interlinked nodes in time.
They should all have slammed shut the instant the Time Realm Lord returned in terror. Yet now, those tightly locked doors seemed to be straining against some irresistible force, rattling without end.
It was as though a ghost were pounding frantically on them.
Countless doors meant countless ghosts knocking... or perhaps the ghosts within one's heart.
The doors' unrest was like a grand symphony of resistance.
At that moment.
Inside the little house of time, it could no longer hide quietly in a corner. It opened the door and stood in the narrow corridor, staring at the restless doors in disbelief... and even bewilderment.
It wanted to stop them, but lacked the strength... there were simply too many restless doors, far beyond the limits of its power.
"Who... who is disrupting the proper order of time!"
It, too, grew restless, and that unease bred fury.
"Once, twice, three times! How many times has it been now... damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!"
Rage.
Yet faced with those violently rattling doors, it had no choice but to act.
Ever since it invaded this place and became a resident of the Time Domain, it had naturally been obliged to shoulder certain duties. Otherwise, the fundamental rules of the entire Time Domain would collapse.
But there were simply too many. By the time it soothed them all, it had nearly lost half its life.
Gasping for breath, the Time Realm Lord collapsed onto the floor of the little house. Just then, a small wooden puppet on the coffee table in the barely ten-square-meter living room suddenly floated into the air.
There were actually two wooden puppets on the table: one resembled a lucky cat, while the other was a smiling