Chapter 1004: Parallel Path Manipulation
"We’re in a Time Loop," Arthur said to Stelan the moment he ended the call to Kelly.
Pointing at the gate door, he continued, "The loop ends the moment I enter that door, and it restarts the moment I walk out my office door."
Stelan’s expression darkened instantly as he glanced at the door, then he thought about how Arthur already knew what he was going to say before he said it.
"So that’s how you knew my words?"
The man had some doubts, but they faded not long after they formed, as he knew from experience that even though Arthur liked to mess around a lot, even he had limits.
’What’s more, he’s kind of mellowed out since he came back this time. Something must have happened to him outside the universe to cause that change.’
Stelan kept that observation to himself and turned his gaze back to the door to Arthur’s office.
"How do we get out of this loop, then? To begin with, how didn’t you notice us being put into a loop? You’ve got a Temporal Authority, don’t you?"
Arthur frowned lightly at Stelan’s words.
"It’s simple, Stelan. The person who put me in this loop has a higher-ranked Authority than I do. So it’s only natural that I didn’t notice anything."
[But I also didn’t notice anything until you pointed it out,] Lostvayne said in his mind.
[Neither did I. I only noticed the repetition when you asked that question about Candidates,] Celestia added.
Hearing that his two Rule Breakers didn’t detect anything, Arthur arrived at a simple conclusion.
’That means this isn’t simply the power of a Law Authority.’
[It’s an Aspect of Time,] Lostvayne confirmed his conclusion. [If even I didn’t notice, then it means the Aspect has likely been empowered quite a lot. At least to the level your Aspect was after meeting that Demonic Dragon.]
’So we’re looking at someone who has absorbed at least 4 other Aspects, huh?’
[Exactly. Concepts of this Era are less effective against us Rule Breakers since we’re from a different Era, but we’re not immune to their power. If enough of it is stacked on us, even we would succumb.]
Hearing Lostvayne’s words, Arthur nodded silently, then shifted his gaze towards the two doors.
’It’d be wise to assume that the person who put me in this loop can tell what’s going on inside, so I have to break out fast. The one who put me in the loop can’t be that much higher in Existence Realm than I am, since I noticed the repetition after just one round.
What’s more important is that Kelly said there were two Candidates in my direction. I have to account for the second one possessing another power I don’t know about.’
Arthur began walking towards the gate door, his cosmic energy rousing as he clenched his fists.
’While it’s a temporal loop, it doesn’t just affect time but space as well. After all, I’m looping in time, within the same space.
With that in mind, the start and stop points of the loop are likely the places where space and time are most strongly intertwined. They’re also the loop’s biggest weak points.’
Arthur opened the door and stepped into the portal without hesitation, and the instant he did, crimson silver energy violently erupted from his body.
’First Concretization: Aspect Manifestation!’
He weaponised the burst of energy that came with the manifestation of an abstract Aspect into reality, pouring it directly into that vulnerable junction where the loop folded back into itself.
The moment his power touched that seam, space fractured violently, and the flow of time distorted alongside it, stuttering as though it had lost continuity.
Arthur then raised his palm and activated his Authority of Destruction.
|Destruction Nova!|
An orb of crimson energy appeared in his palm and exploded almost instantly, the sound of glass shattering completely drowning out the sound of the blast as shockwaves of cosmic energy radiated outward in all directions.
Space and time around him shattered like layered glass breaking apart under pressure, and Arthur’s body was dragged through both as the loop collapsed. His vision went blank for a moment as he smashed through an invisible barrier and crashed onto the floor of the Gate Chamber, the world snapping back into place around him in an instant.
’Wait wait wait!’
Arthur’s blood ran cold as the realisation of what had just happened hit him, and he immediately looked around at the completely unscathed chamber, with the groaning Stelan on the floor not too far from him.
’That feeling was just like the one from Barda’s Floor in the Tower! Could it be...I was in a Parallel Path?!’
Both his eyes immediately glowed crimson as he got to his feet and grabbed Stelan.
"Activate all planetary defences! We’re under attack!"
Leaving those words behind, Arthur immediately dashed out of the chamber and straight out the lobby window, spreading his wings wide.
’I was affected by two Aspects! One looped me, and the other put me into a Parallel Path! I was completely removed from the main timeline and placed into a mere possibility, and I didn’t realise!’
Celestia and Lostvayne appeared in his hands, destruction energy flowing into the blade as he muttered coldly.
"I’m killing the person with that power first."
’Celestia. Take as much energy as you need and get that bastard when his guard is down.’
The instant Arthur gave that order, he released Celestia and beat his wings with as much force as he could, shooting straight above the clouds in an instant.
|Anti-Divine Gravity Authority: Devouring Singularity!|
A marble-sized black hole appeared above Arthur’s head, and the instant it stabilised, the clouds in the sky began to bend inward, stretching as they were dragged into its dark depths, boring a giant hole through the sky.
Its immense gravitational pull distorted space and time around it, bending both as cracks began to spread across the sky.
Arthur then spun around and swung Lostvayne, the destruction energy within the blade erupting from it and slamming into the already weakened space. The impact shattered it into pieces, breaking it apart completely and revealing the existences hidden within its folds.
Without wasting a second, Arthur deactivated his Gravity Authority, and as the marble-sized black hole destabilised and fizzled out, he teleported behind the stronger of the two, crimson silver energy erupting from Lostvayne’s blade as he swung it.
The sword sliced through space and straight for the neck of his target, but in that instant before contact, there was a blue flash as a spear deflected his sword, the resulting shockwave from the clash of the two weapons sending all 3 in the sky flying dozens of metres.
Arthur spun through the air and stabilised himself with the law of gravity, immediately looking up at the single-horned, long-haired man with several pairs of scaled wings emerging from his back, who was staring at him in shock.
"You bastard! You’re a Candidate of Destruction, and you just attacked me?!"
The man’s expression showed his clear disbelief at the fact that Arthur had attacked him without hesitation, but Arthur didn’t bother responding, his eyes narrowed as his pupils darted between the two Candidates.
’Which one has the Parallel Path Manipulation? That one has to die first!’
Before him were a dragon in humanoid form and a genuine human, both radiating powerful temporal cosmic energy, both of them at the Monarch Realm, though the Dragon was at a higher stage than the human.
’None of them has the divine factor, so my godslayer powers are useless here.’
Arthur unleashed more power from his Aspect, and seeing this, the human Candidate’s expression darkened.
"This guy is crazy! He really wants to fight! Have you forgotten the rules of the Candidate Selection!?"
Of course, Arthur hadn’t forgotten the Rules that stated that Candidates of Time weren’t allowed to attack Candidates of Destruction and vice versa.
But Arthur was an illegal and unregistered Candidate. He couldn’t care less about the rules.
"Let’s see which happens faster. Both of you dying, or your Watchers enforcing your so-called rules."
With those words, Arthur vanished, and the dragon’s reptilian pupils instantly snapped to the right, his hand moving to swing his spear as fast as he could.
|Destruction Crescent.|
The dragon’s spear successfully blocked Arthur’s attack, but Arthur didn’t care and swung his sword again, infusing a little wisp of temporal energy into the blade.
|Destruction Crescent: Sixfold!|
"Wha—!"
The Dragon was caught off guard by the multiplication of one slash of destruction into 6, but even then, he swung his spear fast enough to block all 6 in an instant.
"You little shit!"
Cursing loudly, he infused his spear with cosmic energy and swung it at Arthur, but Arthur flapped his wings and quickly moved back, causing the spear to tear through empty space. Cosmic energy flowed into his wings, and from their tips, beams of condensed energy shot out, curving through space to crash into the Dragon from behind, but the dragon swung his spear once, and time distorted, causing every beam Arthur fired to forcefully dissipate in an instant.
"!"
The Dragon raised his left hand, blue tendrils of cosmic energy crackling around his fingers as an 8-Ringed spell circle instantly appeared above Arthur’s head.
Arthur didn’t hesitate to teleport, but the instant he did, he reappeared in the same location, his eyes widening in shock.
’Shit. He looped me!’
|Down!|
The dragon commanded, and from the giant circle descended a beam of blinding blue light, shooting downward toward Arthur in the same instant Arthur activated his Destruction Authority.
|Annihilation Sphere!|
