Mark was sure that they would all think of the most sinister and twisted things they could just to make sure he couldn't pass it, no matter how hard he tried!
But something like that was too small to stop Mark! Mark had the odds stacked against him right from the start, and he was still here because of his stupid tenacity and will. He just wouldn't give up, not even when it seemed like the only option available. That was what brought him this far, and he was going to make sure he didn't fail Sozin as he destroyed all these challenges from the gods.
Mark squeezed the key tightly and spoke up.
"So when do I leave?"
"Ah, not so fast. There is a set time of seventy-two hours where you can use the key. As long as you use it in the next three days, then you will be fine. And don't worry about the real world. There is a time dilation of ten thousand days to one day between the real world and the dimension of the gods, so if you can finish the mission quickly enough, then it won't even feel like you were gone at all.
Well, that's assuming that the gods don't give you a mission that is longer than one million days. I know someone said their mission would be a hundred years long."
"What!?"
"Hey, don't look at me. I told them that it couldn't be a million years long! Everything else is free game! They can make it nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years and I can't say anything!"
"What the heck are you talking about!? You should have said something shorter to them! What if someone says they want to use the million years? I can't disappear for over three hundred and sixty days!"
"A million years sounded alright to me! I'm immortal! Time is just a construct for me; it doesn't exist! One million years, one thousand years, one hundred years, they're all the same!"
Mark put his hand up to his head and sighed as he scratched his hair in annoyance! Sozin never fails to give him a headache whenever they meet! It almost felt like Sozin was doing this on purpose! Mark was just thanking his stars for allowing him to meet Sozin and making him his patron god, but now Mark was already regretting it again! Someone like Sozin had no right to be looking after anyone!
Sozin saw that Mark was really distressed about this, and Sozin sighed as he spoke up.
"Don't worry, I'm sure there won't be anyone crazier than the hundred-year mission. If it gets too long, then I'll sacrifice some of my cosmic power to pause the real world for you. I can't interfere too much in the real world since I'm a god and all, but since I'm only pausing it, then I'm sure it won't be that big of a deal."
Mark ran his hand through his hair one more time before he sighed and nodded thankfully. He knew that most gods wouldn't care about their champions like this, so he was grateful that Sozin cared enough to help him pause the world if the mission was too long. Mark started to think about when he would use the key, but Sozin spoke up before Mark's mind could go far.
As he spoke, he slowly started to disappear as well.
"You might want to go back for now. Let's talk again some other time! It's been fun, champion!"
...
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Mark blinked as he was suddenly brought back to the real world and he looked towards the left as he heard someone knocking on his door. Who in the world was that? Mark knew that he already put Tilda to sleep earlier.
Tilda refused to wake up even on the drive back home, and Mark didn't want to go through the trouble of forcing her to take a bath, so he just put her in bed with her teddy and left them both in the guest room. It couldn't be Tilda, so that only left one other person.
Mark stood up and went to open the door, and he smiled as he saw the person on the other side.
"Hey, Arit. You couldn't sleep?"
Mark knew that it would be hard for Arit to sleep after what she went through, and he wasn't surprised to see her here. He told her to come to him if she needed anything tonight, and he was happy that she finally came.
Arit was standing outside Mark's room, and Mark could immediately tell that she was nervous from the way she was acting. She was using one of her legs to scratch the back of the other one, and she was looking away from him and staring at the side nervously.
Arit had been debating internally for more than thirty minutes before she got enough courage to come over to knock on Mark's door. She didn't know how to even start talking to him because of how many things were swimming inside of her mind at the same time.
'Ah~ It's Mark! Mark is looking at us! Talk to him! We need to talk to him! Tell him we love him! Tell him we'll do anything for him!'
Arit immediately told the voice in her head to shut up, and the voice dimmed down a little as it stopped shouting! Ever since Arit came back, she has been confused about the voice in her head! Arit knew what caused the voice in her head to start talking so animatedly. Ever since she fused with the QUEEN, the voice in her head refused to shut up anytime she was around Mark!
There was this possessive and dangerous way that the voice would talk whenever it was talking about Mark, and even Arit was a bit intimidated by the sheer desperate thirst and possessiveness she could hear inside her own head. But for some reason, Arit did not hate it.
In a way, it felt like these thoughts were not just from the voice in her head; it was also her own thoughts that were mixed in, and the voice was only bringing those thoughts to life with its voice.
The voice always said 'we' and 'us' when referring to itself, so it was not just talking about QUEEN, it was also talking about Arit.
The voice was only this animated whenever it was talking about anything referring to Mark. It was almost like its entire mission in life was to be with Mark and protect him, and Arit did not know why she liked that feeling so much. She liked it a lot!
But Arit was still a normal high school girl, and it was impossible for her to just accept all of those feelings that were suddenly surging inside her like that! There was no filter for her feelings, and it was terrifying for her whenever she would hear some of the dangerous and bloodthirsty things that the voice wanted to do to whoever came close to Mark!
The voice even told Arit to kill Tilda just because Mark carried her! Why would Arit kill a child!?