RISE FROM THE ASHES

New In Town
Winds rustled through the town; hot wind blowing leaving jagged lines across the sand left little to the imagination; and most of all, it was half-deserted city—the crumbling buildings were that all that stood....Clouds loomed overhead; tainted black with corruption.

Around the group were grassy mountains singed with flame, surrounded by flowing water. The building that was in the middle which was above the circular meeting place where the government met in, decreased in width as it reaches the ground, tall spires protruding from the roof. Two lengths of golden chain connected the castle to twin peaks. This single building was a diamond in the rough.

"Where....are we?" Makoto looked around in bewilderment. "This place....it certainly doesn't feel like a place we should be in."

Erza looked around- since the kingdom was magically ensnared in a large barrier of energy, largely protecting it from any harm, this also caused time itself to stop. All around the area, as far as the eye could see, there were wounded people and numerous monsters- it was obvious there was a war going on at the time of sealing, meaning that they were frozen within time as well, held in a state between life and death. "...Well, this is actually the oddest thing I've seen. Even more that that Gehaburn thing. It's like there's a whole 'nother world underneath this grove...and nobody noticed."

Chelia's curiosity got the better of her, as she wandered over to a bisected man- his halves in the air, trying to touch him. However, as if it were magic, she was immediately repulsed by a sort of invisible barrier, throwing her back a few feet. "Huh!? What the fuckin' hell was that!?"

Erza, using her brains for once, summarized, "This world is immovable in time. If we were to interfere with certain parts of the kingdom, then the universe itself'd correct it; so no matter what we do, it's perpetually frozen. At least that's what I'd like to think. Sealed or not, this place is part of the universe, and it'll put all of its might into keeping the world as is."

"This place...." Wendy walked around slowly, taking in the sight of the battling, the wounded, the deceased. She turned her eyes to a woman whose head had been chopped off right at the moment the area was sealed in time, her faced permanently contorted in a look of terror. "A Time Lock...."

"A what?" Makoto look confused.

"This entire area is under a Time Lock." Wendy was looking around the area with a mixture of appreciation and apprehension. "Of the several types of time-based magics out there; the Law of Retrogression, Arc of Time, time travel....a Time Lock is the arguably the most powerful."

"I suppose so...to cause all this." Makoto agreed.

"It's not just the simple act of freezing time..." Wendy shook her head. "It completely seals off events in time, and seals them from the timeline. It happened, but it didn't happen. And, they are nearly impossible to reach through time travel, because, as far as the sphere of time is concerned, events sealed within a Time Lock do not exist. We should not even be here."

Erza took note of this, noting in a snarky tone, "Oho, so in your seven years away you got smart, and you're not just a tits-for-brains bimbo." Continuing onwards, Erza declared, "Alright, guys. So we'll head into the castle; steal everything that isn't nailed down, and see what we can do. This may help us defeat the Shadow Remnants."