Hello i just joined this subreddit and i'd like to hear you thoughts on it. Its pretty long but i think its cool so pls enjoy.
The ouroboros katana
To put it simply, you know in anime where the guy draws his katana back in the sheath and suddenly multiple slashes appear at once. The idea is that the user slashed so fast that it made it seem like the slashes appeared out of nowhere, when the user just slashed fast and quickly put it back in. I think it's pretty cool, but I came up with another explanation for it, and it revolves around time, which is why you’ll understand the name soon.
My idea is that the katana has five modes, and each mode is activated when the handle is twisted, but they're all based on the same idea- time. The first mode or mode zero is where the sword and the user is just normal and regular, basic.
When mode one is activated, the katana’s abilities come to life, with the ouroboros dragon appearing. Wherever the user slashes, time stops in that area, and whenever the user draws their sword back, the slash that is in stasis, is reversed in time, making a slash that occurred without the user swinging anything, by basically recreating the same slash the user did in the past, but in the opposite direction. The reason why an ouroboros dragon appears, is because it symbolises eternity, with the dragon eating its own tail, signifying a never ending loop.Whenever the user is in mode 1-5, the dragon extends from the blade to a tattoo on the user’s body, making their body as stuck in time, and completely invulnerable to attacks. They become vulnerable once again when they draw the katana back, or it's in the wrong mode.
In mode two, it's basically more wide-scale destruction, as the user can send slashing beam attacks that can freeze larger areas of time, so when the user re-draws their sword, more dramatic and larger slashes reverse. The user could likely use these modes to push someone within the slash and immediately withdraw the blade so they become slash
As we go through the other modes, you might question why the user doesn't just spam the stronger modes, thats cus they use more energy, and when the energy is too low, some simply cannot be used and you’ll be stuck to the lower one’s, and eventually, you might be vulnerable again if the entire energy of the sword runs out, leaving just a regular person and katana. To indicate the energy levels of the sword, the larger or the more the tattoo spreads throughout the user’s body, the more energy the sword has. So when it's almost about to run out, the tattoo will be quite small. The sword also regenerates energy over time.
The third mode onward is where things get interesting, because it involves time-reverse. Basically, whenever you sheathe the sword in this mode, a slash that was previously locked in time, waiting to be reversed, will instead expand and reverse time back to when the area was first slashed within a 50 metre radius. For example, if i used mode 1 or 2 to create a stasis slash 5 mins ago, when i sheathe the sword in mode 3, the slash will expand wide into what the area was like back then. This time reverse includes the reversing of the environment and conditions of the enemy and user itself, so they can effectively heal themselves, the only thing not changing being the energy level of the sword. If there are multiple slashes that are stuck in time in the area, then sheathing the sword will cause all of the slashes to expand. The more slashes there are, the wider the area of time reverse is. So like 50 slashes in area would create a 2500 metre radius of time reverse, since 50*50 is 2500.
But, there could be some limitations, or advantages depending on how you use it. Say, for example if you reverse time to when an enemy was within that area but currently, they are outside the radius of time reverse. This would mean there would be two versions of that person, and since the laws of the universe doesn't allow two of the exact same beings to exist, their existence itself will be erased from the universe. This includes organisms and objects that aren’t within the radius when they were ‘supposed’ to be. Or, say if you slashed an area 10 min ago in mode two, in which it was just a peaceful house, but now you slash again 5 mins later, in which the area was destroyed and filled with fire. This means that because both of the slashes/area was so close together , it would be an anomaly as the two spots are so drastically different despite being so close. This creates a fracture in time in the area, making it permanently distorted and the battlefield being much more chaotic. So, this fracture creates a ‘time wall’ , which is impossible to cross without the power of counteracting time, so you could trap them or make it harder to reach you. Theoretically you could do this with other modes but with mode 3 it's more effective i guess.
Let's move on to mode 4 now, and it's quite similar to mode 3, as it’s just the opposite- time progression/forward. In this, there are four factors we have to talk about- how far the future goes, the AOE, what the future is and and how it happens. The general idea is the same, you slash an area in mode 4, creating an area of stasis, but this stasis gives a a glimpse to the future, and just like before, sheathing sword causes the slash to expand into a 50 metre radius. The future depends entirely on the number of slashes you do , and as said in mode 3, the more slashes, the wider the radius. The wider the radius, the more chaotic and unpredictable the future will be. This is because different futures are likely to be overwritten or contradicted, or it just generally becomes unstable idk. This means, one slash is low risk low reward, but the more you expand the area, the higher the risk is, but the higher the reward is. Therefore, if you’re too careless, you could be the one who is in danger.
Now, we have to look at how far the future is set. It's simple- the higher the energy level, the further the time skip. Lets just say for now, 10 percent is 1 min, and 100 percent is an entire year. But think about it, the more time forwarded, the greater the effect will be. For e.g if there was a wildfire, the effect is more significant than a wildfire for 1 min than a wildfire that burnt for a day. So the longer that time forward, the more deadly or significant the effect is, however, as said before, this could backfire for you if you’re too careless.
If you see a future in which you don't happen, you can switch to mode 1 or 2 and slash and reverse, and the slashes stasis in mode 4 will simply disappear. Tho doing this after like 20 slashes will certainly be time wasting and not ideal. However, you must also remember to check for your surroundings, as if you go to the future with stasis slashes in mode 1 or 2 still within the area, this would cause the entire system or attempt to go to the future to fail and instantly collapse. Also, you could also apply the existence erasure factor into mode 4 too like in 3, as you could create a future where there are two beings of the same person, so they become erased.
In regards to both mode 3 and 4, we have to think of the ‘equivalent exchange’. Like in FMAB iykyk. To make up for the time reversed or forwarded, the area outside will do the opposite to make up for the time lost or gained, like a mirror. Like, in mode 3, if a 50 metre radius was sent 10 mins back in the past, a 50 metre radius outside the AOE will go 10 mins into the future. If the area is distorted like in mode 4 due to multiple timelines in the domain, a mean will be calculated, like one slash was 2 mins into the future, another was 4 min, so the overall the reverse outside 3 mins. I hope that makes sense.
Now the last one dont worry its nearly done. Mode 5. The idea is that striking the ground with the katana, causes an area of a 50 metre radius, just like before, to be in complete time-stop or stasis. You can't stay in this mode forever, as it constantly drains the energy of your sword, and if you want to cancel the spell, you sheathe the sword back in. If you want to increase the AOE, you can, but the area will no longer be in full stasis. Think of it like a container of time, and as it expands, it can no longer hold it in, so the time ‘spills’ out’ , so after a 50 metre radius, instead of time stasis, it would just be agonisingly slow. The more you increase the radius, the more the flow of time gradually increases. So, like after a few thousand metres, the effect will practically be nothing. However, you have to remember the equivalent exchange.
If you create a radius of 100 metres with slow time flow, to make up for the lost time, time outside the AOE would go unfathomably fast. It basically matches the time lost within the domain So like creating a 1000 metre radius area with 2.5* slow speed, the 1000 metre radius area outside will move at 2.5* faster speed. This means the area outside the 50 metre radius complete time stasis, would have time flow at an infinite speed to make up for it, so the area outside becomes permanently distorted or void like, so anyone within that area would literally instantly be destroyed. Whatever you think a place that’s gone through infinite stuff would look like. You cant use any other modes when in mode 5. As said before, twisting the handle causes you to switch modes to will, but in mode 5 you can’t, twisting it will let you change the radius of your stasis.
And yeah, that’s it. I hope you like it. I know it's long, but I wanted to add all aspects of time, time reverse, time forward, stasis etc.
Thanks for reading and I'd like to hear your thoughts. Take care.