—Whoa! Look how close they are!
—Who do you all think is going to win?
—Obviously Ariella. Have you seen what she did to that weird tattooed kid? This one looks way too scrawny!
Neraxis rolled his eyes at the crowd and glanced toward Ariella.
The moment he did, he noticed her blue eye turn white and clock-like, just as it had before.
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But since he was able to see it, that meant he was able to react.
Therefore, he summoned his sword and slashed down, deflecting some kind of invisible projectile.
Ariella clicked her tongue again, and in the next moment, he saw the surroundings freeze again, with him being greatly slowed down.
She still moved at the same pace, and frankly, she seemed quite menacing.
However, by infusing himself with {Aura of the Abyss}, Neraxis was soon able to release the constraints.
"It won’t work," he stated and swung the dull sword in her direction.
Since it was covered in {Aura}, it should have delivered quite the punch.
Instead, she made his entire attack halt before seemingly separating it from reality and sending it back toward him.
Since it now acted as an independent attack rather than his own, Neraxis had no choice but to dodge.
Yet the moment he did, Ariella was already waiting for him with a smile and a short sword in hand, ready to pierce through his body.
But before she could do that, he released his mana outward, shattering the frozen world, allowing the spectators to watch their fight again.
—Huh? They moved that fast!?
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—What’s happening?
It seemed like each time she used her time powers, he grew more and more immune to them.
But of course, she could still see the outcomes, meaning hitting her would be difficult.
Of course... unless this suicidal maniac decides to head straight for the blade. Neraxis grumbled.
"Fighting you is not fun," Ariella said with a sigh, stretching out her hands wide. "But if I beat you, then at least my academy can win."
"You don’t sound very excited about that," Neraxis remarked before sending out another {Aura}-infused attack forward.
This time, the halted time wasn’t able to mask it, and the spectators, as well as the other academies, saw it on full blast.
Yet the person most shocked was none other than Lar, who glared at Neraxis while gripping the arm Alice had already healed.
Yeah, be jealous of my progress. After all, I might not even need Alice to kill you now. Neraxis grinned inwardly, preparing to attack again.
But before he could, Ariella’s speed suddenly increased.
It was to the point where he was only able to see her silhouette as it was already in front of him, her short sword heading straight for his abdomen.
Instead of blocking, Neraxis decided to take the full brunt of the attack, thrusting his body forward and making sure the short sword didn’t hit any vitals.
She had a surprised look on her face as she attempted to pull the short sword out.
However, he didn’t let her, merely sending a kick straight at her abdomen and knocking Ariella away.
"Okay," she said in a frustrated voice. "I’m going to stop holding back now. Good luck, Neraxis."
The moment her words fell, the world soon halted again.
But unlike before, he saw countless Spectral Remnants roaming around, each moving toward her.
Yet none inflicted damage; they only collided with her body as her white, clock-like eye bled.
After a few seconds, the onslaught of the Spectral Remnants halted as she visibly shivered.
Yet in the next moment, Ariella’s lips curled into a cocky grin.
"Good luck holding out against this," she stated and suddenly snapped her fingers.
As she did, every single Spectral Remnant that went inside her suddenly shot out, their figures mimicking Neraxis.
And their numbers? Over 100.
Neraxis immediately entered a defensive stance, trying to block the Spectral Remnants’ attacks.
However, he wasn’t so successful, as the moment an attack approached, Ariella destroyed one of the remnants closest to her, inflicting enough pain on him to ward his attack sideways, making the Spectral Remnant cut deep into his shoulder.
He winced in pain as he finally managed to slice a Spectral Remnant with the use of his {Aura}, and thankfully, it didn’t inflict any damage on him.
Nonetheless, with the number of Spectral Remnants that were appearing and traveling inside Ariella, he knew it was only a matter of time before he lost.
So, Neraxis tried something new.
Using the same principle of {Universal Stab}, where he had to vibrate his arm and thrust, he applied it to the sword he raised in the sky.
He held the sword with both hands and began vibrating them violently.
His mana amplified the vibrations, resonating with the sword until, finally, a pitch-black sheen enveloped the blade, giving off an ominous impression.
Ariella shared the same sentiment as she suddenly brought all of the Spectral Remnants in front of her.
At the same time, the main hand on her clock-like eye began spinning counterclockwise.
As it did, he could feel the air being sucked out of his lungs, as she was likely trying to reverse his own time.
However, before she could inflict any serious damage, Neraxis suddenly halted all the vibrations and felt as though his sword was about to explode.
The explosive black mana traveled all the way from the hilt, and the moment it reached the start of the blade, he began swinging down.
The space around them visibly shattered as Ariella struggled to patch it up, sending the Spectral Remnants outward.
But it was to no avail, as the sheer pressure of his blade crushed them until finally, the explosive mana reached the tip of the sword just as he had it pointed toward Ariella.
Soon, it shot out a massive arc of plasma, shattering the space surrounding them and digging deep into the ground below, creating a massive ravine.
The extent of the ravine, as well as the destruction, extended all the way to where Ariella stood but stopped right before reaching her as the attack suddenly dissipated.
Neraxis felt lightheaded—rightfully so, as he had practically put his all into that one attack.
However, Ariella was staring at him with a shocked look. "Y-You just cut through time...?"
"Seems like it," he chuckled.
Even though he had destroyed the time barrier she had put up, no one was moving.
That meant he had likely broken something he shouldn’t have. A glance at Ariella’s bleeding, clock-like eye confirmed it.
The hour hand was broken, and the minute hand was unmoving.
"D-Do you have any idea how long this will take to fix?!" Ariella lashed out, approaching him and grabbing him by the collar.
He planned on pushing her away; however, it was almost like all the strength had left his body.
Therefore, all he could do was sigh as she shook him around and screamed into his ear.
"You’re going to take responsibility, aren’t you?" she asked, her eyes welling up.
"Ariella, first of all, let me go. I can’t even feel my legs," Neraxis said helplessly. "Second of all, how long do you think it’s going to take, even with my mana?"
"Well..." She looked around sheepishly. "It wasn’t this bad when I was 10..."
"You mean when you had to spend 129 years fixing it?" Neraxis asked skeptically.
Ariella nodded. "Sadly."
"So if I reduced three years into a few minutes, then..."
"You’ll probably have to stay with me for a few days," she finished his words with a giggle.
[Well, well, well,] Evangeline said teasingly. [It looks like you’re going to have to ’take responsibility’ now, Neraxis.]
He rolled his eyes at her words as he glanced into Ariella’s eyes.
"I’ll help, but I expect you to forfeit once we’re done here."
"Okay." She nodded excitedly before suddenly closing her white clock-like eye.
The moment she did, a jumbled mess of threads, millions of remnants, and, of course, the entire shattered space crashing down on them greeted his sight, making his eyes widen.
Just what did I get myself into?