Chapter 939: Main Timeline vs. Possibilities
Arthur was extremely familiar with the Parallel Paths of Time.
After all, he had been observing these parallel paths for months on end in the period leading up to the Nexus Event he had been involved in several decades ago.
These parallel paths represented the infinite possibilities commonly grouped under the term ’Future,’ with some possibilities having a far higher chance of becoming reality than others.
The main path, or the main timeline, was the one that was—that is, the timeline that had become reality.
The other possible timelines, the ones that could have existed but did not come to be because of choices made by individuals during their lives, slowly dissolved into the river of time as it flowed forward continuously.
But temporal manipulators with powerful Authorities over this river of time could temporarily manifest their parallel selves from these pathways that had not come to be, bringing them into reality—into the main pathway.
Barda was capable of doing this, and he had done so when he fought Nidhoggr, though Arthur had not been present to see it.
Now, on this floor, he had employed the same mechanic, manifesting several of the Altrishias that hadn’t come to be into reality.
Physically and biologically, they were all completely ’Altrishia Weiss.’
However, because they were not of the same timeline, there were subtle differences in their temporal presence that only those with Temporal Authorities of a sufficiently high level could detect.
Arthur’s Temporal Authority was not of a high enough level to fully perceive this. But he had something else that enhanced the power of that Authority: his Aspect.
His Aspect’s Authority was slowing toward near cessation, but the Aspect itself was still a mass of cosmic power derived from the Concept of Time, embodying one of its facets. As such, its mere presence within his existence enhanced Arthur’s Temporal Authority, allowing him to notice the subtle differences in her temporal presence and realise that the Altrishia beside him was not the Rishia he knew.
Even then, this recognition was not instantaneous. He needed several moments to study her closely before he could be certain that something was indeed wrong and that he wasn’t just imagining it.
’At what point did she get switched?’
Arthur pondered this for a moment, but quickly shook his head, deciding not to dwell on it. There was no way he could determine when the switch had occurred, given that this floor had been created by Barda, someone whose spatiotemporal abilities were great enough to earn the title of ’Continuum Dragon.’
"You’re so confident that none of us is the real one?"
Hearing that voice, Arthur turned and saw one of the parallel Altrishias—the one he had just held in a chokehold—rising to her feet, straightening the collar of her dress as she spoke. "You think your Authorities over Space and Time are that good?"
He regarded her in silence for a moment before choosing not to answer.
’But ’Space’ and ’Time’, huh? That makes sense. My Spatial Authority was already active so I wouldn’t get caught off guard by any traps, and only when I activated my Temporal Authority after sensing something off was I able to confirm that she was a fake.’
Glancing around the hall, he scanned all the Altrishias in front of him and nodded to himself.
"Yeah, none of them is the real one," he said as he turned and walked back toward the entrance of the hall.
But when he stepped through it, he found himself back inside the hall. This time, the parallel Altrishias weren’t trapped within the mirrors on the walls, but were outside, all giving him looks that questioned if he really thought it’d be that easy to get out of here.
Arthur pressed his fingers to his temple and exhaled.
’I’m willing to bet the real Rishia is probably dealing with a bunch of parallel versions of me somewhere else on this floor, not realising that the real one is over here, facing parallel versions of herself.’
Looking up at the parallel Altrishias in front of him, he slid his hands into his pockets and asked, "So? What’s the point of all this?"
"The point?" one of them asked, eyebrows raised.
"Yes, what’s the point? The end goal here," Arthur said.
At this, some of the Altrishias extended their hands, creating chairs from their shadows. They sat on them, crossing their legs in various ways as they spoke, taking turns.
"The point, huh?"
"Well, the original goal of this floor was to test how observant you are, not just to changes in your surroundings, but to changes in the people in said surroundings."
"But, well, you got lucky."
"Yeah, you got lucky and obtained your Temporal Authority before stepping onto this floor."
"It was all completely randomised, and you ended up with the one Authority that helped you the most."
"Looks like the RNG likes you."
"But anyway, the goal was for you to recognise the changes in the people around you."
"And the way to accomplish that was by noticing that the ’Altrishia Weiss’ beside you was not the main pathway Altrishia, while you explored the rest of this floor’s randomly generated content."
"However, you’ve already passed that hurdle, and you can tell that the Altrishia Weiss presented to you wasn’t the one from your timeline."
At this, Arthur interrupted, "And I’m sure the real one isn’t in this chamber."
When he said this, there was silence for a moment.
Then one of them sighed and admitted, "Fine, yes, the main pathway ’Altrishia’ is not within this hall."
Just then, there was a flash of light, and Arthur closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, he saw that the Altrishias who had been on chairs were now in different parts of the hall.
"You shuffled your positions," he muttered.
"Yeah, we shuffled ourselves," one of them replied.
"Why?" Arthur asked, his tone edged with curiosity.
In response, another said, "Because the next challenge for you is to figure out which one of us is closest to your reality."
A different one added, "We are self-aware that we are all parallel selves of the existence called ’Altrishia Weiss.’"
"However, we diverge from different points in her life," one of those sitting explained, uncrossing her legs.
"Like a flowchart splitting into multiple pathways going forward, we are the paths she did NOT take."
"However, one of us here has the fewest differences from the main pathway version."
"One of us here is separated from your main pathway ’Rishia’ by only a single decision."
"Your goal is to identify which one that is."
When they finished speaking, Arthur looked around at all the parallel Altrishias in silence.
But before he could respond, one of them raised a hand toward him and said, "Ah, hold on. Wrong choices come with consequences."
