Chapter 572

Kanzaki Rei realized that if he was in this place, he should be able to advance to Tier 7 Mage.

He didn’t feel any constraints from the Origin.

No... come to think of it, was the Origin something inherently unique?

If it possessed uniqueness, it could only appear in one timeline. If it existed in two timelines simultaneously, that would mean it lacked uniqueness.

In other words, if the Origin was unique, this world shouldn’t even have one.

Yet from what he could sense now, the Origin still existed here.

Kanzaki Rei ignited a small flame at his fingertip.

The fire flickered with a slight instability.

He could feel the differences in the laws, but those differences weren’t exaggerated to the point of causing a world-shattering collapse.

"Do we have a place to rest? Ekh... Should I call you Ekhator?"

The girl shook her head gently. "If possible, I’d rather not share the same name as her. I believe I am myself."

"In truth, we have always existed."

Kanzaki Rei wasn’t in a hurry. Sensing she had deeper meaning behind her words, he asked, "Explain in detail."

"The legends say that after Ekhator opened countless timelines, she realized something was wrong and imprisoned us behind that door. Is that right?"

Kanzaki Rei rubbed his cheek, his tone carrying a hint of regret. "Actually, if I’m being honest, I haven’t heard many legends about that."

The girl smiled. "When I was trapped inside, I thought the same thing."

"Only after you saved me did I discover that I had always existed in this world."

"Time left traces in the past. I was born in this world as a person."

To an ordinary person, her words might have sounded nonsensical, but Kanzaki Rei had mastered forbidden time magic and possessed profound knowledge of temporal studies. He immediately understood her meaning.

"You’re saying... she didn’t truly create the timelines, but rather discovered that other timelines already existed in the world?"

The girl nodded. "Yes."

"But because of her discovery, countless timelines became interconnected. The medium of that connection... is us."

"Every Ekhator across the timelines, as long as she exists, becomes entangled with the timeline where she resides."

Kanzaki Rei nodded. "It’s like each timeline was originally a straight rope, completely independent. But because of her, these ropes became twisted together with her spacetime."

"And precisely because they are twisted together, the rules of the worlds began to share with one another."

Wait... if that was the case...

Kanzaki Rei felt his head swelling again.

Although he was an Arcanist of Decryption, the secrets he needed to unravel were far too many and too vast.

No good.

He should find a place to advance to Tier 7 Arcanist of Decryption first. His thinking would become clearer that way. He could hear the rest of the truths about the world slowly along the way.

"We still have time."

"You just escaped death by the skin of your teeth. Let’s rest for a bit first. Come with me."

The girl gently took Kanzaki Rei’s hand and led him along a path where time itself was distorted...

"By the way, about your name earlier."

The girl paused for a moment, then smiled and replied, "Just call me Naherukato."

"Naherukato? Why that name?"

Kanzaki Rei felt a strange sense of déjà vu with the name. This inexplicable intuition made him pay close attention.

Yet in his memories, he had never heard it before.

"This name, in the language of time, means ’eternal’ or ’long-lasting.’"

"You haven’t studied Ekhator’s temporal language, have you?"

Kanzaki Rei shook his head. "No."

Naherukato said softly, "I can teach you. That language contains much of time’s essence. If you learn it, even after you return, you’ll be able to understand what she’s doing when you face her again."

"Also... if you go back in the future, you’ll inevitably have to deal with her pursuit."

"Her [Gap-Time Stride] is an ability you cannot counter in that world."

Kanzaki Rei asked, puzzled, "Cannot counter? Why?"

He was quite confused. He didn’t understand why his own talents hadn’t activated. Was her law simply too powerful—strong enough that even God-Tier talents couldn’t distort it?

Naherukato didn’t answer directly.

She simply whispered, "Gap-Time, open."

Crack—

In an instant, everything between heaven and earth—the waves, the clouds, the flying birds, the sky—froze completely still.

"Because this is her innate physique ability."

"Her Gap-Time Body allows her to perceive discontinuous fragments of time, and she can act within any one of those fragments."

"In other words, if time is a cucumber, she slices the present moment into an extremely thin layer and can walk freely within that slice."

"She doesn’t distort any laws. She simply acts infinitely within a single instant."

Snap—

"But the good news is... the Gap-Time Body is not a unique physique."

"So I possess it as well."

"In fact, aside from ’us,’ no second person in the world has ever manifested the Gap-Time Body."

"The second thing you must be wary of is her divine artifact, Reverse-Time."

Kanzaki Rei echoed, "Reverse-Time?"

He recalled the pendant around Ekhator’s neck—a clock that continuously ran backward.

"Mmm..."

"Time’s irreversibility is common sense to you all, but for Ekhator, it is not a constraint."

"Reverse-Time can directly reverse the time of the entire world."

"It lets her return to any past moment and start over."

The corner of Kanzaki Rei’s eye twitched.

After hanging around broken systems for so long, this was the first time he had encountered such an unreasonable one. Reversing time? Was playing like this even fun?

"What are the usage restrictions?"

The girl shook her head. "There are none."

"Unless you can seize her Reverse-Time... otherwise she can restart again and again."

"So do you understand how much effort it took for me to pull you from her grasp? I severed your temporal existence in that world. Even if she returns to the past to find you now, she won’t be able to."

"Moreover, she should have noticed by now and won’t go back looking for you."

"Otherwise she would create an erroneous disturbance in time, birthing a chaotic timeline where you never existed."

"She won’t do that."

"As long as she doesn’t return, in that timeline you simply vanished normally after being rescued..."

Kanzaki Rei remarked, "This is what you time-types call a trap, huh."

Manipulating and laying traps within time.

It gave Kanzaki Rei new insight. The longer one lived, the more one learned.

Naherukato nodded. "You could say that. Though these are just my little tricks."

"The third thing you must be careful of is her divine kingdom."

"Within her divine kingdom, she can freely travel to any stage of your life. If she kills you in any one of those stages, you will die."

"Only if you find ways to counter her physique, her divine artifact, and her divine kingdom will you have any hope of defeating her."

It sounded utterly absurd.

Even someone as strong as Kanzaki Rei couldn’t think of a countermeasure right away.

The easiest to break among them was probably the divine kingdom.

If he continued developing his [Path II: Solution to All Things], it should eventually be able to dismantle a divine kingdom.

But his understanding of the divine kingdom’s characteristics was still incomplete.

And in the end, a divine kingdom was inherently a lethal domain. Eltiara’s divine kingdom had sent him straight to the afterlife the instant it activated.

Even the ancient gods of forbidden zones, within their incomplete divine kingdoms, possessed the power to drag others into mutual destruction.

As the two spoke, they arrived at an unremarkable island.

A modest nation stood upon it.

They landed on a street, wearing simple cloaks that made them blend inconspicuously into the crowd.

"By the way."

"Since this is another timeline, does that mean there’s another version of me here?"

Naherukato replied, "No, I’ve already checked."

"There is no Corrupted Source Nest here, no pollution."

"The full spirituality of the Tree of Wisdom remains intact. All its branches and leaves are present, not crammed into a single container."

Kanzaki Rei looked somewhat embarrassed. "Uh... you know quite a lot."

"Actually, the reason I was able to save you was largely thanks to Yogg from your world. Otherwise, I might not have made it in time."

Yogg again.

Just what was that guy trying to do?

At first, after Yogg had answered so many of his questions and provided so many answers, Kanzaki Rei had felt genuine gratitude.

But then, because of its ritual, Ekhator had been summoned.

Could Yogg really have been unaware?

Kanzaki Rei doubted it.

In fact, Yogg was most likely the one who knew the most.

This feeling of being constantly calculated against was truly unpleasant.

Yet the other party was the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.

Avoiding being schemed against by such an entity... would be difficult.

But what frustrated Kanzaki Rei the most was that he couldn’t determine Yogg’s true stance.

The two arrived at a castle—Naherukato’s current residence.

Naherukato’s current identity was that of a Tier 9 Time Manipulator.

Thanks to Ekhator.

She hadn’t needed any advancement process at all; she was already a Tier 9 Job Changer.

However, divine authorities possessed uniqueness—only one per timeline—so she could not become a Time God like Ekhator.

"Please rest here for a while."

...

[Original Timeline]

Ekhator witnessed Kanzaki Rei’s disappearance. Though it appeared as a disappearance, in reality it had occurred one second before she saw it.

This method of misaligned time was quite in line with her own style.

Observing the timeline within her mind, she discovered that Kanzaki Rei’s figure had vanished in the past as well.

There was no longer any trace of Kanzaki Rei in the past. If she used Reverse-Time to pursue him now, she wouldn’t find him. Instead, she would only create an additional chaotic timeline that shouldn’t exist—one she would then have to stabilize herself.

As for the entity before her...

[Corrupted Source Nest]

A black cloak, beneath which a Tier 9 monster composed entirely of writhing, maggot-like creatures formed its body.

"Killing you here... holds no meaning."

Its small mouth opened slightly. "Get lost."

Whoosh!

All scenery dissolved.

Because of Kanzaki Rei’s disappearance, the surrounding environment began to blur and fade.

This place had only existed because of Ekhator’s divine kingdom. Now that Kanzaki Rei was gone, the divine kingdom’s manifestation could no longer be maintained. The Corrupted Source Nest before her also started to dissipate.

Ekhator turned and looked behind her.

She saw a devastated turbid sea.

The entire turbid sea had been frozen solid... the violent descent of Korushur had caused massive destruction.

In the heat of the moment, Kanzaki Rei hadn’t been able to care about much else.

"Truly... laden with heavy sins."

Ekhator brought her hands together, then slowly pulled them apart.

"Time in this world flows in sequence, yet it can be reversed and turned. By my command, let the past reappear..."

Click—

It felt as if the gears of time across the entire world had been forcefully turned!

The entire turbid sea, the sky filled with icy dust and flying snow, the ice that had frozen heaven and earth—it all began to reverse! The ice pillars that had pierced the sky sank back downward against their original momentum.

Following their descent, the ice across the entire sea contracted toward a single point!

This was the location where Korushur had appeared!

The time of the entire turbid sea was reversing. The creatures and people frozen within it all returned to their states before the freezing.

Click—

The reversal stopped.

It halted at the instant just before Korushur had been summoned.

Ekhator stood upon the dome of the sky, overlooking the entire turbid sea...

"This should be enough."

Although she had no obligation to restore these people, the slaughter from the battle had ultimately arisen because of her... innocent lives had no reason to die.

So she would conveniently help them avoid this fatal disaster.

"Then... it’s your turn."

Ekhator looked toward her divine kingdom. Suspended in the sky within it was a black-haired girl.

She glared at Ekhator with fury.

She had watched the entire battle between Ekhator and Kanzaki Rei.

She had seen even more than Kanzaki Rei himself—witnessing Ekhator walking through time and touching him within stopped time.

In a single instant of contact, Kanzaki Rei had aged from a youth into a decrepit old man, then directly into white bones, and finally weathered into dust.

This wasn’t direct killing. It was making Kanzaki Rei die of old age naturally.

Natural death at the end of one’s lifespan. Most life-preserving techniques couldn’t prevent it. Rebirth, regeneration—none of it mattered... because this was the natural conclusion of life.

And it was precisely because of this that Ekhator had been slightly shocked when she discovered Kanzaki Rei still existed even after dying of old age.

Very few people could avoid such a death.

Yuna had wanted to warn Kanzaki Rei.

She had tried to transmit her thoughts outward.

But the gap between Yuna and Ekhator was far too vast—equivalent to the difference between a mortal and a Lunar Lord.

Ekhator reappeared inside the divine kingdom.

Yuna’s eyes burned with rage and hatred.

"Staring at me like that won’t help you."

"What I’m curious about is how you were able to use my forbidden ritual."

"With your strength, you couldn’t possibly have activated that ritual. Who told you about it? Who helped you?"

"Hmm... are you a Scholar?"

"Was it Yogg?"

"I was absent from the world for only a short time, and already someone is scheming against me?"

"Fine. Then I’ll take you to meet your master and see if it recognizes you as its disciple."