Chapter 476: A Traveller From Beyond.
Far beyond the Endless Ocean.
Far beyond Eden, and far beyond the countless dimensions connected to one another through the endless fabric of space and time.
Something was moving with a velocity so absurd that ordinary concepts such as distance and travel had long since lost all meaning to it, crossing dimensional boundaries one after another while leaving entire realities behind as though they were nothing more than insignificant points along a path whose destination remained unknown.
It’s purpose, origin and destination was unknown.
The only thing that could be said with certainty was that its current trajectory happened to be leading toward the dimension where Eden existed.
One reality after another disappeared behind it.
Realities where civilizations had long vanished.
Realities overflowing with life and prosperity.
Realities where not a single living thing had ever existed.
Countless dimensions flashed past in an instant as the mysterious object continued moving forward without slowing down even slightly, seemingly unaffected by the endless currents of space and time surrounding it.
And then suddenly an anomaly appeared in its peaceful path.
A Space-Time Storm.
An impossibly rare phenomenon born from the collision of dimensional currents, fractured timelines, temporal distortions, and countless chaotic forces that even the highest existences preferred to avoid whenever possible.
The moment the storm appeared, the surrounding space immediately became unstable as countless cracks spread through the dimensional pathways ahead while streams of distorted time surged wildly throughout the region, transforming what had once been a stable route into an uncontrollable sea of chaos.
That object did not have the time to change its trajectory.
The object was plunged directly into the heart of the storm as an overwhelming wave of distorted space and shattered time engulfed everything around it, causing dimensional boundaries to collapse while countless temporal currents exploded outward in every direction.
Then it vanished.
At almost the exact same moment, directly above a particular dimension, directly above Realm of Eden, and directly above the Endless Ocean where attacks of three Celestials were about to hit Ash, reality itself suddenly began to distort.
The space above the Endless Ocean twisted unnaturally as though an invisible force was pulling reality apart from the inside, causing an enormous crack to slowly spread across the sky while everyone present was shocked beyond reason due to this unexpected event.
The crack continued to grow.
Larger.
And larger.
With no end in sight.
Until it eventually swallowed up the whole sky. The crack continued expanding beyond the heavens themselves, stretching across the sky for several light years.
An impossible sight.
A sight so vast that even the Celestials could not comprehend what they were witnessing.
At that moment, only a single question existed within everyone’s mind.
What the hell is that?
Suddenly, an insane amount of space-time fluctuations flooded the whole area where the Cracks were present, distorting the space-time perception of everyone.
All they could see through the crack was a humongous humanoid body.
Yet nobody could properly focus on it.
One moment it appeared to be an old man.
The next moment it appeared young.
Then it seemed to become nothing more than a silhouette.
Then it appeared wearing unfamiliar armor.
The figure itself didn’t seem to be changing.
Rather, reality itself appeared incapable of accurately displaying whatever they were looking at, as though the immense space-time fluctuations surrounding the figure were disrupting their perception and preventing their minds from properly processing its existence.
Even the four Celestial Rank beings felt an indescribable sense of wrongness spreading through their minds as every instinct they possessed began screaming danger.
Before anyone could fully process what they were witnessing, the colossal figure rapidly shrank in size and began descending toward the battlefield beneath the Endless Ocean.
What nobody knew was that the mysterious figure had never been meant to appear within this era at all.
Seven years ago, when Eden did not yet exist, when the worlds were still separated and had not fused into the Realm they were today, that same figure was already travelling through the dimensional pathways.
It had been making its way toward this dimension for a very long time, crossing countless layers of space in pursuit of a goal known only to itself.
Under normal circumstances, it should have arrived seven years ago and become a natural part of history like every other existence.
But fate had other plans.
Somewhere along its journey, a terrifying Space-Time Storm suddenly appeared before it.
Before the traveller could change course or escape, the storm swallowed everything around it and dragged it into a region where space and time no longer flowed normally.
The traveller survived.
However, it became trapped within the storm.
For the traveller, only a short period of time passed.
But for the outside reality, seven entire years went by.
While countless events happened, worlds fused together, and Eden came into existence, the traveller remained lost within the storm, completely unaware that years were passing beyond it.
By the time it finally escaped, the dimension it had been travelling toward was no longer the same dimension.
To the traveller, it was only continuing a journey that had barely been interrupted.
To the universe, something that should have arrived seven years ago had suddenly appeared seven years into the future.
A missing piece of history had returned.
And the consequences of its return appeared immediately.
The moment cracks started to spread across the sky, invisible temporal fluctuations erupted outward in every direction and spread across the surrounding region with terrifying speed, causing the flow of time itself to become unstable as past and present violently collided with one another, and although nobody could see those fluctuations directly, every living being present instantly felt their effects.
Movement ceased.
Not because time had stopped, and not because some incomprehensible existence had activated a supreme ability capable of freezing the Time.
But because the sudden appearance of something that belonged to the past created a temporal disturbance severe enough to interfere with the natural progression of causality itself, leaving everything whether living or non living frozen in time.
Although, they could still hear, feel and think.
Yet no matter how desperately they struggled, not a single muscle responded to their commands, and even the four Celestial Rank beings discovered that their overwhelming power meant absolutely nothing in the face of a phenomenon that was not targeting strength, but time itself.
At the same time, every form of energy caught within the spreading fluctuations began rapidly destabilizing as though the temporal contradiction was forcing them toward the end of their existence, causing attacks, barriers, suppressive forces, spatial restrictions, and countless other manifestations of power to lose their cohesion and collapse one after another.
The spear of holy light launched by Sera was among the first to be affected as countless cracks suddenly spread throughout its structure before the immense divine energy contained within rapidly dispersed into harmless particles, while Perseus’ attack suffered a similar fate as the terrifying force condensed within his punch gradually unraveled and vanished into the surrounding ocean before it could ever reach its target.
Even Kane’s blood energy proved no exception, because the countless crimson currents surging throughout the battlefield abruptly lost stability and dissolved into nothingness.
Then the phenomenon reached the barrier itself.
The enormous transparent dome surrounding the battlefield began trembling violently as the vast quantities of energy sustaining its existence rapidly deteriorated under the influence of the temporal fluctuations, causing countless cracks to spread across its surface until the entire structure finally exceeded its limit and shattered apart in a spectacular explosion of light.
The spatial lock disappeared.
The suppressive force disappeared.
The restrictions disappeared.
Even the immense Will released by the four Celestial Rank beings gradually faded away as though the temporal fluctuations had stripped every unstable manifestation of power from existence itself.
And throughout all of it, while attacks vanished, barriers collapsed, and powers that should have dominated the battlefield were reduced to nothing, the mysterious figure continued descending from the heavens above, completely unaware that its mere arrival had already overturned a situation that moments ago had seemed utterly hopeless for Ash.
But amidst all of this chaos, Eva took action.
After all, everyone had been affected.
Everyone except Eva.
{Activating [Divine Traversal]....}
{Failed!! Interference detected!!!}
{Activating [Infinite Traversal]....}
{Failed!! Interference detected!!!}
{Activating [Pathless Step]....}
{Failed!! Interference detected!!!}
{Analyzing the reason behind the failure....}
{Analysis Completed.}
{The user is immune to all Space related phenomenas but the Temporal fluctuations are causing the Skill to become unusable.}
{Searching for a movement-based skill with a high probability of success in the present situation.}
{Skill found.}
{The User does not currently meet the requirements to use the skill.}
{Searching for an alternative skill the User can currently use....}
{Search completed.}
{Skills found: 1}
{Activating [Dimensional Traverse]...}
{Failed!! Insufficient energy.}
{Failed!! Insufficient energy.}
{....}
{....}
{Searching for ways to generate energy.....}
{....}
{....}
{....}
{....}
{Sacrificing Low ranked skills permanently to generate the required energy....}
{Skills sacrificed: 36,238,245}
{Activating [Dimensional Traverse]...}
-FLASHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Before Ash could ask a question, form a thought, or utter a single word, a blinding flash engulfed him, and in the very next instant, he was teleported away before that person could even arrive.
*****
