Chapter 615: When Time Strikes
The newcomer, Artemisia’s father, who was known as the ’Benevolent god King’, sighed when he saw Jamie and spoke.
"Jamie, at least contact one of us beforehand when you want to come around."
He walked up to Jamie’s table and sat opposite him, ordering a cup of tea from the waitress who looked like her soul was about to leave her body.
Jamie laughed at the woman’s reaction and used a serenity inducement spell to calm her down so she could continue her job, before turning back to Uvton.
"It was kind of an impromptu visit.
I brought Artemisia and Beatrix along, but I left them at Rilene’s house."
"Oh, I see."
The two men spoke casually, leaving the other Race Kings present at a loss on how to react. Ignoring them, Jamie and Uvton continued conversing.
"So? Where’s Kayla? And Rilene too."
"I have no idea where Kaylatheurge is. Maybe, she’s in some star like always.
As for Rilene, she’s on Omahiri."
Jamie nodded in understanding as he stirred his tea, while Uvton added some sugar cubes to his own.
"I came because I wanted the keys to Revi’s Realm."
"Revi? You want to go to the Regal Void Expanse? What for?"
’Revi’ was the name of the Realm Lord of the RVE, a powerful Pheonix Queen who wasn’t any weaker than Jamie and Uvton were.
Jamie had stated he could break into the RVE through Aidos’ rift and he didn’t lie. It’s just that the spatial collapse from breaking through the Realm Barrier would delete half of Aidos’ ’Alpha Continent’ so he refrained from that.
"I was looking for a place to power level a few kids I picked up recently. Wanted them to have a ’Starry Meal’ in the Garden of Stars."
At the mention of ’Starry Meal’, Uvton’s eyes narrowed and he pushed his teacup away.
"Did you tell my daughter about this?"
"Hmm? No, I haven’t said it yet. Why?"
Jamie raised a brow in curiosity and Uvton sighed in relief before explaining.
"Rilene and I do not want them to know about the rift to the Garden of Stars yet.
We want them to reach the peak of Transcendence before we take them there so they can have the boosts from the Starry Meal boost their stats over the limits of Transcendence before they exuviate.
That way, they’d be a lot stronger than above-average Deities..."
Hearing Uvton’s explanation, Jamie nodded in understanding. The man’s words also made him want to do the same for Arthur and Evan, but unfortunately, he could not.
Arthur was going to leave the Valmone Universe in a few months, and though Evan did not know this, his time left in the past was not even up to half a year.
When he was cloaking Evan earlier, Jamie was able to roughly calculate how much time Evan had in this time period and the results he got let him know that Evan wouldn’t be here past December.
That was far from enough time for him to reach the Peak of Transcendence.
’Arthur and Evan would have to take the Starry Meal now.
It’d be especially good for Arthur since he’s undefined now. He cannot level up and his stats cannot increase through conventional means, but the Starry Meal is not ’conventional’ in any way.’
The higher Arthur’s stats were before Transcendence, the stronger he’d be after becoming one.
After all, going from Sovereign to Transcendence always increased one’s power exponentially, even if you already had Transcendent-like power beforehand.
"No problem. I wouldn’t tell Artemisia and Beatrix. I’d bring them to you before I take the boys to the RVE."
"Thanks."
Uvton gave Jamie his thanks and then held out his hand, conjuring two silver keys which he placed on the table.
"Rilene forgot her key in my house last week before she left."
Jamie smiled wryly at Uvton’s mildly exasperated tone, not surprised at Rilene’s behaviour at all.
He put the keys away and continued chatting with Uvton, the two friends catching up over tea while ignoring the Race Kings around them.
◇ ◇ ◇
Fruit Garden Restaurant
Epsilon Continent
Prime World Aidos
August 7th
Year 1054
"Evan?!"
Beatrix’s surprised voice rang out as Evan who was talking fine with her until a moment ago suddenly keeled over, his breaths heavy as he held his head with his palm.
With Beatrix taking charge, the four of them had gone to several iconic places on Aidos. She explained a lot of things to Arthur with a proud smile and the boy just chuckled at her enthusiasm.
They visited different floating cities and some natural wonders sprawled across the many continents—continents, Evan noted, that were far fewer in number in the future.
He didn’t voice these thoughts aloud, but Artemisia noticed his surprise at discovering that Aidos had 10 continents currently.
Their latest stop had been for Evan’s delight—a bustling market filled with countless varieties of strawberries.
Evan acted like he was in heaven, excitedly buying hundreds of them, loading bags with fruits and stuffing them into his inventory.
Just when they finally dragged him out of the market, something happened.
They’d taken a hovercar to head to their next location and just as Evan took a step out of the vehicle, he suddenly flinched, his hand flying to his head as he staggered.
His breath became ragged, and within moments, blood began to drip from the corners of his eyes.
Sparks snaked out from his pupils, crackling like electric tendrils across his face. His expression twisted in pain, and he dropped to one knee, his entire body trembling.
Arthur snapped his head in Evan’s direction, and when he saw the boy’s state, he instantly understood what was happening.
"Evan, this is—!"
"I know."
Evan interrupted Arthur, gritting his teeth as he struggled to his feet with Beatrix’s help. His breaths were shallow, but he managed to glance at Arthur, his voice tight with pain.
"It’s the law of time, isn’t it?"
Arthur gave a silent nod, and Evan let out a dry, humourless laugh, not surprised at all.
"The law of time...?"
Beatrix asked, confusion evident in her voice as she glanced between Evan and Arthur.
Her confusion deepened when she noticed a flicker in Evan’s eyes—the Mystic Eye symbol within his irises dimmed, only to vanish for a heartbeat before reappearing.
And then, in a flash, realization dawned on her.
"Putting it mildly, the law of time isn’t taking too kindly to the fact that there are two ’Mystic Eyes of Mimicry’ in the same space and time.
To put it bluntly, that fucker is trying to blind me!"
Evan cursed as he forcefully deactivated his Mystic Eyes, ignoring the tiny crowd of spirits who wanted to help him, but were also confused because they could instinctively tell that Evan was different.
His Eyes possessed the power of a Unique Series Skill, something that had been confirmed to help someone gain a Unique Authority over a Universal law.
For the combination of Unique Series skills being able to give someone such a thing, then it stood to reason that these Skills naturally possessed the powers of the laws in question.
The concentration of the law’s power they possessed was even higher than any skills out there in the Universe.
The reason why Evan could mimic skills with his eyes was due to the power of the law of Mimicry which was being commanded by the Unique Authority Seed Fragment in his Series Skill—in his Eyes.
As such, it was something with a high ’value’ on the Universal Scale.
On a scale of 1 to 10, ranking how violently the law of time reacted to things from other time periods coexisting in the same time and space as the present versions, Evan’s Mystic Eyes would score a solid 7 or 7.5.
To put it into perspective, weapons of High-Tier Deities were around 7-9, along with Cosmic Artifact Replicas. Real Cosmic Artifacts were at least 9.5.
The higher the number, the harsher the law’s reaction. If it was lower, then the Universal Laws would simply render them intangible, isolating the item from the physical third-dimensional space.
It wasn’t difficult to figure out why the law of time was reacting to Evan. He lifted his head, gaze narrowing toward the west as he spoke.
"The current ’Second Hero’ of Aidos... they’re coming from that direction. And they’re closing in fast."
Evan had been fine up until this point, shielded by the temporal cloaking from both Jamie and the spell that brought him back in time. But now that the Second Hero had come too close, the localized temporal laws had detected the anomaly of two ’Second Heroes’ of Aidos existing simultaneously.
"We have to leave here.
If you two meet, it wouldn’t just be the law of time we have to deal with!"
Artemisia spoke up, her voice urgent as she turned towards Arthur to ask him to create a Cosmic Gate.
Her father had told her some things about the System of the Universe, and this limited, basic, understanding of hers made her aware that the System had different ’Matrixes’ overseeing different aspects.
If Evan met the current Second Hero, the ’Defence Matrix’ that oversaw ’Heroes’ and ’Planetary Defence Mechanisms’ would take action.
She did not know what it would do, but it couldn’t be anything good.
But before she could voice her request, cosmic energy surged around all four of them, warping space in an instant. Light faded and, when it returned, they found themselves on a completely different continent, standing in front of Jamie.
They appeared to be in an outdoor restaurant and Jamie was seated alone at a table with two empty teacups in front of him.
Whoever he’d been having tea with was not around anymore.
Jamie’s eyes were fixed on Evan as he raised a hand, channelling ether to heal the small but painful damage that had been inflicted by the law of time.
"What are the odds that you’d end up in such a situation."
The man remarked with a wry smile and Evan mirrored the expression, though his mouth was hidden behind his mask.
"Welp, we can’t stay here too long.
This little occurrence has rendered my cloaking useless. ’Aidos’ has detected you."
Jamie spoke as he got up from his seat. He waved his hand and conjured a cosmic gate before gesturing to the two girls.
"Uvton’s waiting for you two on the other end. Go stay with him until the three of us come back."
Jamie would have taken the girls with them to the RVE, but Uvton had specifically requested otherwise, so he was sending them to the man.
Still, it was clear the two were worried about Evan, and even Artemisia’s usually stoic expression had cracked ever so slightly.
The sight made Jamie smile as he spoke.
"Don’t worry, he’ll be fine."
His words seemed to provide just enough assurance. After exchanging one last glance at Evan, the two girls finally stepped through the gate.
The moment the gate closed up, Jamie teleported Arthur and Evan away from that location in an instant.
They reappeared in a colossal, icy cavern, perched atop a small cliff.
The air was cold and crisp, biting at their skin and from their elevated vantage point, they could see an enormous bird lying at the cavern’s centre, its massive body curled in a deep slumber.
The scene below reminded Arthur of something straight out of a game—a boss quietly awaiting challengers.
As the thought crossed his mind, the bird’s eyes shot open. Its head rose sharply, turning toward them before taking to the air with a sweep of its wings.
"Oh... there’s a Silverwing in this time as well."
