Chapter 698: Battle against Time and through Space
The person responsible for this had been highly skilled. They’d erased virtually all traces—so much so that even Deities with Mid-Rank Spatial Authorities would not be able to track them.
But Jamie was an Ultimate Skill-wielding High-Tier deity, one whose primary affinity was Space.
He moved his hand and cosmic energy followed.
The energy pierced through a small gap in the healing space, and Jamie began tearing apart the fabric of space to track the location where Arthur and the others had been teleported.
However, as he tried to pull the space apart, a force tried to push it together, keeping it shut.
Instantly, Jamie realised who, no, what was responsible.
The planet itself was trying to seal the space, indicating that ’Aramis’ may have been involved in the kidnapping.
Jamie’s eyes glowed with intensity, and his power surged outward, engulfing the entire planet.
|DON’T GET IN MY WAY, YOU INSECT. |
Void energy poured from Jamie’s body, mixing with cosmic energy, causing the land to shatter and turn to dust.
The nearby High-Rank demons immediately fled from the area to avoid death as Jamie’s power pierced through the ground and reached the planet’s core in the blink of an eye.
He dug his hand through the fabric of space and tore out the Incarnation of the Planet’s Consciousness from its core dimension.
He quickly used his Authority of Knowledge to scan the planet’s records, but even the planet had no knowledge of where the teenagers had been taken.
Seeing that it was useless, Jamie clenched his fist and void energy wrapped around the humanoid form of the planet’s Consciousness’ Incarnation, pressing down on it from all sides and scattering it in a burst of light and void power.
Just like that, Jamie had killed the Incarnation of Aramis’ consciousness.
He stopped just short of erasing it from existence entirely, aware of the repercussions such an action would have on the beings residing on the planet.
However, he had neutralized it... for millennia.
Without further thought, he continued his search through the spatial crack, determined to find where the teenagers had been taken.
But soon, something unusual caught his attention.
"This power...!"
Space and time were intricately linked within the fabric of reality. Altering space affected time, and altering time affected space in return.
As Jamie tried to trace the path the teenagers had taken, he realized the one responsible had been meticulous.
They had twisted the spatial channel after passing through it, creating a series of diversions that led to different locations across the galaxy in a complex maze.
If Jamie wanted to find where they had actually gone, he would need to navigate through this maze of spatial channels to find the exit.
Moreover, time had been distorted, so moving through the maze not only required Jamie to push his cosmic energy through space but also through time.
What astounded him, however, was the source of the time distortion.
There was no mistaking that power, as he personally knew the one responsible for giving it out.
"Candidate Sigil?! What the hell?!"
Jamie instantly realized that the one who had taken Arthur and the others was a candidate for the Eternal Seat of Time.
This revelation complicated things further.
Even with his Ultimate Skill, Jamie would need quite some time to navigate this labyrinth and locate the teenagers.
|Fuck! Azure Void Authority! Imperial Privileges: Fourth Privilege: Time! |
One Ultimate Skill and another ’Skill’ on the same level of power were activated, but just as he did that, a sharp pain shot through his head, causing his body to stagger slightly.
Jamie clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Why now of all times?!"
Why did it have to happen just as his vessel was nearing its expiration?
But there was no time for regret.
Jamie pushed the thought aside and focused, pouring his cosmic energy into locating where the teenagers had been taken.
◇ ◇ ◇
The moment they found themselves within the walls of a spatial tunnel, Arthur activated his Pseudo-Authority of Destruction and released a surge of energy that freed Evan and Beatrix from their immobilized states.
This unexpected burst of destruction energy, powered by Lostvayne’s cosmic energy forced the man to switch to defensive cosmic energy manipulation to suppress the destruction law energy, leaving him momentarily on the back foot.
What followed was an intense battle within the confines of the Spatial Tunnel.
Beatrix, while no longer immobilized, could only move sluggishly. The immense pressure of the Spatial Tunnel’s energy made her actions slow and cumbersome, forcing her to bide her time for the right moment to tear Artemisia away from the man.
In contrast, Arthur was in his element.
His Pseudo-Authorities over Space, Time and Gravity allowed him to navigate the tunnel as effortlessly as a fish in water.
As for Evan, well, he had experience being unwillingly hurled through Spatial Tunnels across space and time, so he was able to move rather easily.
The Spatial Tunnel itself felt like being trapped in a massive, turbulent water slide. Spatial-law energy surged and roared through the tunnel, an overwhelming force that pushed everything within toward the yet-unknown exit.
The sheer volume of this energy was immense, comparable to a flood filling the entire pipe to the brim.
In this chaotic environment, Evan and Arthur attacked their kidnapper relentlessly.
The man was multitasking at a level that would have broken most beings. One hand remained firmly gripping Artemisia, while the other manipulated the vast ambient cosmic energy of the tunnel to counter Arthur and Evan’s attacks.
He was also controlling the tunnel itself, maintaining its structure and directing its flow, all while using his Spatiotemporal powers to redirect the channel across the hundreds of thousands of light years in the galaxy, throwing off any potential pursuers.
Doing this all while fending off their continuous strikes, one-handed and without any weapon was a gruelling feat, and the strain was beginning to show as the boys pressed him harder.
Arthur capitalized on his command over Lostvayne’s cosmic energy, rendering the man’s attempts to limit his options by dominating ambient cosmic energy ineffective.
The sword’s energy coursed through Arthur, allowing him to unleash attacks with nearly his full strength. Evan, meanwhile, had long activated his Blessing of Destruction, conjuring vortexes of prismatic flames that seared even the walls of the Spatial Tunnel.
Both Evan and Arthur, however, exercised precise control, knowing they couldn’t afford to destroy the tunnel itself. A collapse would mean being flung randomly through space-time, and the slight chance of landing in a star and instantly dying was a risk they couldn’t take.
Still, their relentless attacks overwhelmed the man, and his movements became less fluid as he strained to maintain control.
Arthur and Evan had crushed the man’s estimations of how effectively they could fight within the Spatial Tunnel, and their first strikes had caught him off guard, leaving him visibly wounded.
Despite his efforts, the relentless assault from the two eventually overwhelmed him.
They executed a synchronized barrage of attacks, forcing the man onto the defensive. Gradually, the strain of managing the Spatial Tunnel, defending against their strikes, and holding onto Artemisia with one hand became too much.
A critical moment came when Arthur feinted an attack with Lostvayne, forcing the man to raise his free hand to defend. In that fleeting moment, Evan unleashed a vortex aimed at his legs, forcing him to release Artemisia to counter the incoming attack.
The split-second opportunity was all Beatrix needed to use her Unique Skill’s power and wrench Artemisia’s unconscious body free from the man’s grasp.
The instant Artemisia was secured, Arthur unleashed Extreme Nothingness, the condensed beam of energy distorting the surrounding space.
Simultaneously, Evan summoned a vortex of Prismatic Flames, their brilliant colours roaring like a storm.
The two attacks hurtled toward the man, their combined force enough to obliterate anything in their path.
But just before the blasts reached him, they reached the end of the Spatial Tunnel and were all hurled out into the exit destination.
As they burst out from the tear in space, a sudden surge of cosmic energy erupted from the man’s body.
His power and durability spiked immensely, simultaneously, the destruction energies in Arthur and Evan’s attacks destabilized.
At that moment, two thoughts flashed through his mind.
’Good! Now that I’m here, I can finally channel the actual power of my Candidate Sigils.
With this, my temporal and destruction resistances will be strong enough to handle their attacks easily!’
Evan’s Prismatic Vortex and Arthur’s Extreme Nothingness collided with him at that moment, resulting in a catastrophic explosion that ripped through the land.
The sheer destructive force devastated everything in its radius, levelling mountains, tearing apart forests, and leaving the ground scorched and lifeless.
But within the billowing smoke and roaring flames, the man was completely unscathed.
Destruction energy seeped out of his body and into the air around him in the form of a crimson mist. As it mixed with the smoke, he turned his gaze in Arthur’s direction, his expression completely calm.
’With my Time Sigil, I can overpower that progenitor boy’s Pseudo-Authority.’
A blue marking manifested on the back of his right arm and he commanded.
’Time St—’
Before he could complete the command, a blur burst through the smoke and struck him square on the nose.
"Kuk?! What?!"
In half a second, his eyes widened in shock as he realized he was staring down the barrel of a grenade launcher.
In the next half, the trigger was pulled.
***KAAAABOOOOMMM!!!!!
The resulting explosion was apocalyptic.
The blast unleashed a shell of energy that exploded upon colliding with his body, releasing waves of energy that shattered the land, splitting the continent in two and reducing half of it to ruins.
The force obliterated the man’s upper body entirely, leaving not even a trace of dust behind. His lower body was consumed in the inferno, reduced to ashes as the shockwaves rippled across the land.
