Chronos

Chronos
Information
Appearance	Tales of Xillia 2
Race	Great Spirit
Occupation	•Great Spirit of Time •Guardian of the Land of Canaan
Weapon	Arm blades, Chronos Bits
Japanese Voice Actor	Jun'ichi Suwabe
English Voice Actor	Joel McDonald[1] (ToX2)

Chronos (クロノス, Kuronosu^?, "Khronos") is the Great Spirit of Time in Tales of Xillia 2. He is one of the game's major antagonists and is sometimes referred to as "the spirit with long hair".

History

Chronos, along with Maxwell and Origin, is one of the three Primordial Great Spirits. Ever since Origin was tasked to be in charge of the soul purification process, he developed a hatred toward humans and considered them to be inadequate beings that needed to prove their worth. At some point, the three made a pact known as Origin's Trial, after humanity discovered spyrix technology two millennia prior, which granted the first human who reached the Land of Canaan any wish he or she desired. At the same time, Chronos blessed the Kresnik clan with the power of the chromatus, which would help humans reach the Land of Canaan. Because of the overwhelming reward at the end of the trial, the Kresniks were constantly at war over it, thus generating a considerable number of divergence catalysts and fractured dimensions as a result of abusing Chronos's power.

Appearance and Personality

Chronos appears as a man with dark skin and long silver hair, along with appendages atop his head that strangely resemble ears. He also has blade-like protrusions coming out from his forearms.

Chronos is disdainful of humans, blaming them for their own stupidity and their constant habit of repeating their mistakes time and time again. However, the true reason for his distrust of humans is that they keep burdening Origin, who is Chronos's only true friend, with the cycle of reincarnation; thus, Chronos resolves to stand in the way of those who seek the Land of Canaan, intent on ensuring that they do not complete Origin's Trial. However, depending on the player's choices at the end of the story, he seems to develop some sense of trust toward those who have succeeded in helping Ludger Will Kresnik reach the Land of Canaan. He is also impressed by how far Ludger is willing to go to save Elle Mel Marta from her transformation into a divergence catalyst. Because of this, Chronos agrees with Origin and seals away the miasma with him.

Fighting Style

In his first form, Chronos relies mainly on spirit artes and physical attacks; however, he reveals his true power in his second and third forms. Chronos wields up to twelve "Chronos Bits" that he can telekinetically control at will. He uses these bits in his mystic arte Bit Force. As the Great Spirit commanding the aspect of time, Chronos can manipulate time to undo all damage that is done to him. If the player deals enough damage to him, he will begin to cast Time Compression that will rewind time back to the very start of the battle. One can avoid this by activating chromatus at the very second Chronos activates this arte.

Other Appearances

Tales of Arise

In Tales of Arise, Chronos is in the Land of Canaan, which is the final stage of the Otherworld and is fought as the game's superboss. During the battle, Chronos can temporarily freeze time before attacking the enemy, similarly to the Time Stop or Stop Flow artes. After showing the party his true strength, he warns them not to dabble with time, lest he erase their dimension from existence.

Trivia

• Chronos, sometimes transliterated as Khronos, is the personification of time in Greek mythology.
• Chronos replaces Sekundes from the early story drafts of Tales of Xillia 2 as the Great Spirit of Time. This is alluded in the Japanese release of Tales of Xillia 2, in which one of his mystic artes is known as Time Craymel: Sekundes was the Greater Craymel of Time in Tales of Eternia. This reference is lost in the English localization of the game, in which it is known as Chrono Erosion.

References