Chapter 103: Chapter 103

Kharadun Voidfortress stared at him.

Orodan Wainwright stared at the dwarf, his energy pools completely and unnaturally still.

“Shit! Barriers now-”

The Hegemony’s voidfleet commander had no time to finish that command. Thankfully Almyra and his allies had made sure to keep Alastaia safe.

[Smite of Abrupt Deliverance 96 → Smite of Abrupt Deliverance 97]

[Elemental Living Enchantment 49 → Elemental Living Enchantment 50]

[Draconic Fireball 89 → Draconic Fireball 91]

[Fire Mastery 34 → Fire Mastery 37]

[Fire Resistance 76 → Fire Resistance 79]

[Burst Casting 68 → Burst Casting 70]

[Warrior’s Reciprocity 97 → Warrior’s Reciprocity 98]

Space tore, the dimensional boundary shattered and reality itself trembled as axe met sword. Both the Alastaian alliance and the forces of the Hegemony were blown backwards.

Almyra, Destartes and the Magocracy worked together alongside Talricto to create barriers which kept Alastaia and Thazrivin’s star systems safe. However the same couldn’t be said for the Hegemony who had a good third of their fleet destroyed outright. Those too slow to slip into a dimensional or spatial barrier fast enough.

Furthermore, Orodan would have to thank Talricto, for the spider was smart and quick enough to throw a bubble around the both of them as they met, sending them into another dimension entirely.

The fires of the now Master-level Draconic Fireball absolutely roared through his body in the form of an Elemental Living Enchantment. Powered not by mana, but pure soul energy. Something of stupendously greater power than it had been before.

Under the guidance of Fenton who helped him shore up his enchanting, under the tutelage of Wainroach and the Magocracy who showed him how to mold fire with the soul, and using the insights gleaned from having to keep Wainroach alive while inscribing elemental enchantments into her body… the previously volatile Elemental Living Enchantment was not so any longer.

According to Almyra, Kharadun Voidfortress was the sixth strongest being in all System space. He was the King of Kings, a being that had fought the Prophet directly in a toe-to-toe battle and only barely been forced back without clearly losing either. In no way would the old him have been this dwarf’s match.

Hells, no time looper in the System’s entire history should have been.

But Orodan had grown. And as his sword clashed against a two-handed battleaxe capable of levelling over a thousand star systems at once, all his insights came together. For the first time since acquiring Fire Mastery, he truly let loose and unleashed the full power of his soul unto it.

And matched half the axe’s power.

His sword and shield, now forged of enhanced dothril from the abyssal depths and wood sourced directly from the wisdom tree of Aldenil, were strong. Sharper and sturdier than they had ever been in the past. Aided by his uncanny ability to freeze the metal to absolute stillness while Grandmasters had cold-forged it to perfect sharpness and uniform sturdiness. They also allowed him to channel his soul energy through them easier, which had Orodan begrudgingly admitting that he could be an even more monstrous combatant if he simply went about securing powerful equipment.

He was pushed back greatly in the deadlock, but matching half the dwarf’s power meant that the strength and power difference wasn’t as wide as it was before. He wasn’t blown back, sent flying or any such thing. Instead, he wrapped a hand around his foe’s axe haft and forced the deadlock to remain.

Kharadun was physically stronger, this much he would freely admit. But for the moment the dwarf’s push had stopped, too shocked by the sight of the much weaker Orodan matching even half of his power.

His opponent’s eyes widened and the battlefield was silent. Not from shock, but because he and the Embodiment-level dwarf were in another dimension entirely. One which had swarms of dimensional horrors flying about all-around them. A good thing, since he no longer needed to worry about collateral damage since this place didn’t even border the material plane and risk potential spillage if he shattered a boundary or two.

“H-how? What are you? You cannot be any regular time looper, you are an aberration. What has the accursed Boundless done to find a thing like you?” the dwarf asked, sounding quite shaken.

“I am Orodan Wainwright. And the only answer to your question… is that it’s simply the result of some good training.”

The King of Kings must’ve seen the deathly determination in his eyes, for the dwarf decided to now get serious.

Orodan had in fact used Warrior’s Reciprocity, but the problem was that the dwarf was simply too tough. Kharadun’s attack power, while dangerous, wasn’t even his strongest point. No, that was the dwarf’s defense.

Unlike Thavri Grimbreaker who Orodan had fought long ago at a far lower-level, this dwarf’s toughness didn’t come from enchanted armor, trinkets or a gigantic energy battery fueling it all. The dwarf was just tough, naturally sturdy like rock. Flesh which was almost like stone and forged through millions of years of battle, training and the consumption of the rarest resources in all System space. Almost stereotypically, the ideal of a true dwarf.

Which meant that Kharadun’s offense, even returned manyfold, wasn’t enough to grievously wound him despite the clash. Blood was flowing out the nose and Orodan could sense injuries upon its form, but these were minor and the rock-like warrior’s immense vitality was already patching them up.

“If that was your single greatest strike, then I shall need to remind you of the gulf between us,” Kharadun arrogantly said.

Orodan however, decided to respond with actions instead of cheap banter during battle.

Of all the skills he had been training throughout the loops, the one which had gotten an excess of attention was Burst Casting. Destartes had forced him to go through drill after drill until perfection and the full control over his mana and soul energy pools was achieved. He had cast hundreds of thousands of Mana Bolts, Lightning Bolts and Draconic Fireballs in a bid to bring his volatile energy pools under control. For anyone else with the skill, it would have functioned normally, but for him who possessed more power than entire factions’ worth of worlds and beings, it was a different matter.

Or, it had been, before he’d finally gotten the skill under control. And with it under control… Orodan was free to show his foe just how each and every attack of his could strike with the power of Elemental Living Enchantment.

Like the repeating guns of the Blackworth Collective, Orodan’s attacks came one after another, one flowing into the next with raw violence and pure savagery.

[Endless Blitz 99 → Endless Blitz 100]

Each attack unleashed a Burst Cast stored up reserve of Elemental Living Enchantment. And just as fast, he re-wove the enchantment, a skill he’d improved through intensive training under Fenton’s tutelage. It was an Endless Blitz of Elemental Living Enchantment strikes. His body now mightier and able to survive the strain, his flames less damaging to himself while being more potent due to Fire Mastery. With all this combined and under the strain of utilizing such powerful skills in such quick succession, Endless Blitz reached the Grandmaster-level and the insights helped him strike faster.

Kharadun, despite being the sturdiest foe Orodan had ever struck, was beginning to reel under the pressure. But the dwarf was no slouch! Unlike the Prophet who was inexperienced in actual fighting, unused to pain and the brutality of combat between equals, the King of Kings had earned every bit of his strength. Purchased through blood and war. This dwarf was a warrior like Orodan.

And his foe proved it by accepting a brutal blow only to give a horrid one back in an attempt to disrupt Orodan’s rhythm.

Of course, when both fighters were capable of ignoring pain and disorientation to roll with the flow of battle, it could turn ugly. Which was exactly what happened as Kharadun Voidfortress began a slugfest of raw brutality against Orodan Wainwright.

The dwarf’s fist gored his skull. Orodan’s hand cracked the foe’s teeth.

Kharadun’s head caved his face, Orodan’s teeth tore his ear off.

The King of King’s tackle launched him into a swarm of dimensional horrors. And Orodan madly swung their bodies against the dwarf’s face, forcing him to have a free meal as they splattered.

The both of them maniacally laughed as they struck, gouged, tore, threw and grappled one another across the vast expanse of this dimension full of predatory horrors. The swarms of flying and hungry creatures fled for their lives, no match for the two warriors who tumbled through the void of this strange and nightmarish place.

At some point, Embodiment-level horrors came by, offended at the fact that these two interlopers from the material plane were running amok in their territory. Only for Kharadun and Orodan to gang up and kill a half-dozen on the spot causing even them to flee, abandoning an entire stretch of this ominous place to the real terrors who were caught in a brawl.

Orodan’s fist met Kharadun’s palm, and he caught the dwarf’s other hand in his own when it came in a punch.

[Combat Mastery 145 → Combat Mastery 146]

[Unarmed Combat Mastery 111 → Unarmed Combat Mastery 113]

The King of King’s was stronger, but Orodan was more tenacious, holding on and pushing back with violent bursts despite getting overpowered.

“Tenacious… like one of the sadist’s invading champions. But worse. Do you not die? I have spilled your blood across this forsaken plane over and over yet you persist. None of the other loopers I have encountered were like you.”

“And you’re tough, like a damned turtle.,” Orodan replied, his comparison not nearly as flattering. “I have fought even the Reject and survived inside of his wicked soul furnace. You will not break or end me anytime soon.”

“Nor will you end me. My flesh is an unyielding as the strongest metals of the universe. Have you not realized by now how little damage you do with your pitiful attacks? That sword of yours is sharp, but my flesh is not carved as deeply as it should be,” the dwarf said. “You are impressive. Possibly the mightiest time looper I have ever met for none of your ilk have survived Xia before. A true threat if allowed to reign unchecked. But you are a persistent slug lapping against a mountain. One which will never falter.”

And upon hearing that, Orodan could think of only one thing.

They had gained a bit of distance between themselves and each re-chambered their weapons for a final, decisive strike. Except, while the dwarf had his battleaxe in one hand, in Kharadun’s other hand was the power of the crystal, a conglomeration of all the shards of the sadistic Boundless One the King of Kings possessed.

With the knowledge that he was almost certainly the time looper, Kharadun Voidfortress fully intended to deal with Orodan permanently, here and now.

But Orodan was not concerned.

For all these loops he had been holding Combat Mastery back from tapping into that strange state where it drew upon multiple unrelated skills. He had wanted to individually develop each craft, each skill, before utilizing that odd state of mind. Yet there would be no better opportunity to finally unleash it than now.

So, closing his eyes, Orodan allowed that trance-like state of mind to take over where his mind separated into pieces and entered inside and became his very skills themselves. All the knowledge of each skill, all its experiences, insights and his history with it… each piece of his mind now intimately accessed it all while becoming them.

Combat Mastery… violence… it roused all his skills to war. A state of utmost competition to prove which one was capable of the most.

Yet, before they could set about entering conflict with one another and inhibiting his desired outcome with infighting, he empowered a singular skill which had always served him well.

[Logistics 33 → Logistics 35]

The humble and diminutive Logistics flitted about his soul, dragging the others along and demanding they stop their infighting. This foe, it realized just as Orodan did, would require their full cooperation.

It yanked Calligraphy along, the insignificant skill unsure of how it could help until it was deposited right next to Sword Mastery, the two of them suddenly understanding how to complement one another.

Tool Mastery, entirely uninvolved, found itself pulled into the mess. And when it resisted, Logistics simply solicited and received the aid of Commandment of War in pulling the skills which thought they had no business being involved in this grand endeavor.

Fire Magic Mastery and Fire Mastery both were ordered into line by Commandment of War at Logistics’ insistence. The two contradictory skills didn’t quite understand why, and Fire Magic Mastery being weaker and inferior did not know what it could contribute, but this notion was swiftly beaten out of it by Combat Mastery. As was the mighty Elemental Living Enchantment and Burst Casting, with Draconic Fireball chosen as the base spell to provide the fire.

And at the end of it all, given that the foe was stone and metal made flesh… Jewelcrafting, Stonecutting, Smelting and Mining came in, now understanding what Logistics had been aiming for all along. Vitality Destruction was pulled in too, for a dash of something extra. And Recycling fell in line of its own accord, knowing its role in what needed to be done.

And finally, the mighty Smite of Abrupt Deliverance was enlisted, and the colossal giant, Incipience of Infinity, would fuel it all.

Orodan’s eyes opened as he saw Kharadun Voidfortress channeling as much power into the giant crystal as the dwarf could. Being an Embodier with access to some of the rarest and most luxurious resources in the cosmos, the dwarf’s soul was stronger than most beings he had seen. The power going into the shard was titanic.

It would certainly destroy his System.

But Orodan simply ignored that, pressing onwards and right into the beam as his sword was gripped with both hands.

The dwarf’s eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in suspicion as he uncaringly dove right towards him without heeding the beam. But it was too late.

The beam struck, and for a moment Orodan saw the vision of a being so large that its very eyes were the size of galaxies and its body was a cosmos of yellowish-pink horror and unending sadism and agony. But he brushed off its mental confrontation with him, shocking it.

He needed to draw its notice.

And as he returned to the real world, vision ended and System utterly wiped out.

Orodan cared not, simply recreating it within moments, the insights and powers from his skill solidified in his own mind regardless of whether he had a System or not.

His sword was the tool. Not only a weapon but also a pickaxe, a chisel and a shaping knife. Elemental Living Enchantment was pushed to its very limits as the Draconic Fireball he wove the enchantment in his right arm with was fueled by not just soul energy but also mana, both pools of energy being let loose with the Burst Cast.

The sheer amount of flame coursing through him was so extreme that he gained multiple levels in Fire Resistance. His opponent’s body was like stone, metal and precious jewels… so Orodan had simply brought forth his skills related to dealing with those things and treated him like material to be mined and shaped.

His sword, given just that extra edge from the insights of Calligraphy, and with VItality Destruction added on top, struck. A roar of rage and commandment leaving Orodan’s lips, that the dwarf’s body would falter here and now.

Kharadun Voidfortress only had a moment to look on, agape, as Orodan utterly trivialized what should have been the ultimate weapon to kill time loopers.

Right before a sword entered the dwarf’s chest. And with it, the combined fury and wrath of a plethora of Orodan’s mightiest skills.

[Combat Mastery 146 → Combat Mastery 148]

[Calligraphy 28 → Calligraphy 30]

[New Title → Calligraphy Apprentice]

[Sword Mastery 99 → Sword Mastery 100]

[New Title → Sword Grandmaster]

[Commandment of War 61 → Commandment of War 62]

[Tool Mastery 83 → Tool Mastery 85]

[Fire Magic Mastery 74 → Fire Magic Mastery 77]

[Fire Mastery 34 → Fire Mastery 41]

[Elemental Living Enchantment 50 → Elemental Living Enchantment 53]

[Burst Casting 70 → Burst Casting 73]

[Jewelcrafting 68 → Jewelcrafting 69]

[Stonecutting 59 → Stonecutting 62]

[Mining 56 → Mining 60]

[Smelting 25 → Smelting 28]

[Recycling 22 → Recycling 25]

[Vitality Destruction 61 → Vitality Destruction 68]

[Draconic Fireball 91 → Draconic Fireball 93]

[Smite of Abrupt Deliverance 97 → Smite of Abrupt Deliverance 99]

[Fire Resistance 79 → Fire Resistance 82]

[Physical Fitness 99 → Physical Fitness 100]

[New Title → Physical Grandmaster]

His hot sword shattered the dwarf’s armor and sheared through Kharadun’s body like a red-hot pick through paper. And then, with the blade still lodged inside the dwarf’s chest, he recycled the dissipated energy and brought it right back in for another explosion of power with the weapon still inside the wound.

Orodan himself was reduced to mere chunks, only his hand somehow holding on. The attack had been so monstrously destructive that despite his Fire Resistance and the past five loops of toughening his body and increasing his strength, he still suffered grievous damage.

The ominous and nightmarish plane they were fighting within didn’t just suffer damage, it’s very dimensional boundaries completely disintegrated and space utterly tore apart. He didn’t know how widespread the damage was… but he could plainly see that there was no more of this odd dimension left. Just the real world, the material plane.

So far reaching was the destruction that Orodan could see no surviving dimensional horror whatsoever, nothing left of that nightmarish place they’d done battle in. An entire dimension, gone.

Kharadun Voidfortress made no noise of pain or agony. The dwarf’s eyes merely held shock and then the acceptance of a warrior as they sailed through the void and back unto the material plane.

Their flight path caused them to be intercepted by a capital voidship, specifically, the floating mountain-fortress of Kharadun himself. With a crash which shook the entire thing, Orodan landed, reformed, with his hand still grasping the sword embedded in the dwarf’s chest.

“You… you survived the beam… the crystal. It should be impossible…” Kharadun spoke, resigned. “I… I lost…”

“You are without a doubt the single sturdiest foe I have ever faced. Even I did not come out with as little damage as you have,” Orodan said, taking the significantly-sized crystal from the dwarf’s now-limp hand. Kharadun would die soon if not tended to, for not only was the wound fatal but he had little vitality left within thanks to Orodan specifically targeting it with Vitality Destruction. “Will you surrender?”

“…why? I came to kill you.”

“A lot of people come by trying to kill me. You’re a warrior. Surely you understand the difference between a fight and a vendetta?” Orodan asked. “Besides… my friend stole your crown and started this problem in the first place… at my request.”

Orodan’s revelation came with a quick usage of his Celestial skill to heal the dwarf, though the warrior was still drained of vitality and energy and would not be fighting at peak capacity anytime soon.

“I needed the shards you already possessed.”

Kharadun coughed, but looked appreciative of the gesture, and far more receptive to speaking now.

“What use do you have for them? They’re a mere collector’s item. Using them within System space will only draw the ire of the Administrators. The Boundless One they are tied to is actively hostile towards all who dwell under the shade of the System.”

“And it’s precisely for that reason that I require them,” Orodan explained. “Now. You did not answer my original question. Will you surrender?”

The King of Kings weakly laughed.

“As you can see… you have me at your mercy. I am no honorless cretin… I yield. With strength like yours… what chance do the coming Embodiers have against you?”

“It isn’t them who concern me,” Orodan honestly replied.

“I see… know then that they have never been bested by anyone not of their ranks or of the System. You are the mightiest time looper I have ever seen, but none of your kind have ever bested one. I do not know if you will fail as the rest have, or succeed where none other has… but may fortune be with you.”

“I’ll need more than luck for what I’m about to do,” Orodan solemnly spoke as he envisioned the true foes yet to come. “Farewell Kharadun Voidfortress. Fighting you has been good training, and has given me a new benchmark for my might.”

Groups of Transcendent-level dwarves finally rushed to the outside of the ship ready to assault Orodan and defend their monarch, but the dwarven Embodier simply raised a hand and gestured for them to halt.

“Enough. We leave now. I have been fairly defeated.”

Orodan hopped up into the gravity-less void just in time for the mountain-fortress voidship to blur away and into the dimensional boundary. With it, the forces that the King of Kings had brought along departed too, leaving just the Hegemony.

Orodan himself was yanked back to the relative safety of their own side by a grasping mage hand belonging to Destartes.

“You… you did it!” Almyra exclaimed, sounding excited and hopeful. “We may just prevail.”

“Don’t celebrate too soon. I have the feeling that the worst is yet to come,” Orodan warned.

“Honorless craven! The faithless oathbreaker forsakes us!” Agrimon, lord of the Hegemony declared in rage. “But we are not alone Embodier, you shall learn that the Hegemony has ancients of its own who will descend to aid it if the consequences are truly dire! Alongside those divines who your allies have aggrieved!”

It was apparent in its tone and mannerisms that the lord of the Hegemony was terrified. Orodan could sense the fear in its very soul. But that didn’t change the fact that Agrimon was right.

The battle between Kharadun and Orodan had torn the very dimensional boundaries apart and ruptured space as well. Already he could see things from the void and other parts of the cosmos coming in.

Galaxies in general must have had some manner of defense system which stopped creatures from the deep void from invading. Hells, even worlds didn’t just have extraterrestrial creatures invading and dropping from meteors on a regular basis. The only thing which invaded Alastaia was the Eldritch and without that the only other thing was perhaps demons from the hells but that was manageable as well.

The battle between the two Embodiers however, had ruined this. Creatures of the void began crawling through, hungry for something to feed on, and the two opposing forces were looking quite tasty from their perspective. Furthermore, space and the dimensional boundary being weakened meant that Gods could now cross over freely.

And the Hegemony gained reinforcements in the form of the divinities—now purged of Eldritch—who resented Almyra and the direction she took in leading the Blackworth Collective against the plague. Of more personal significance to Orodan though, was the arrival of four Gods who he had banished from Alastaia altogether.

“At last. To be allowed to return home,” Agathor spoke, alongside him Eximus, Ilyatana and the northern blood God Agorhiku. “I have not been in the material plane for thirty-thousand years…”

More ships of the Hegemony began arriving too. Void-faring craft carrying all manner of troops. Vampires, werewolves, warriors, battlemages, magical beasts and the like. The enemy was a powerful faction in their own right, and the Alastaian alliance couldn’t exactly underestimate them.

Most important however, was the arrival of a dragon which was a tenth the size of their solar system. And while that might have seemed unimpressive compared to the Living Crystal he’d fought a while ago, the fact was that this dragon was stronger.

Its mere appearance was enough to put the Alastaians in a state of panic and cause the morale of the enemy to soar. If they had been shaken by the defeat and retreat of Karadun Voidfortress’s forces before, then the sight of this new Embodier emboldened them once more.

A snort of arrogance and annoyance left its gigantic nostrils which were the size of planets. It looked as though a mere sneeze from it would put out the sun.

“So this is the one who bested Kharadun Voidfortress? Impressive… I sense no limit to the energy roiling off him. For a human to spend so freely of energy in quantities which would make even a dragon tremble…” it muttered. “You have done well to summon me, little Agrimon, my loyal servant. Long have I left such petty galactic matters behind, but in the face of such a threat it will not do to remain idle.”

Its words caused gusts of wind to impact the Alastaian forces and their voidships.

However, the alliance’s troops were not alone. just as the tears in the void brought enemies… so too did they bring allies.

Reality rippled as a thin eight-legged being came through the ruptured canvas of space. Orodan almost missed it, but the familiar golden bow of light which fired a whole bunch of arrows towards the enemy dragon which was forced to conjure gravity wells to absorb the shots.

Alagameth had arrived. The spatial spider, upon conversing with Almyra and Alstatyn had been convinced of the dangers of the Prophet and the threat it posed to the Conclave. Furthermore, Orodan’s cleansing of the Eldritch had proven to it that the plague could be defeated, which was an additionally persuasive argument for joining the Alastaians.

A fleet of machine-beings and the Unity’s prime combat unit, the planet-sized A1, tore out of the ripped boundary as well.

“Directive: Capture Gregory Hannegan. Multiple threats and potential allies identified. Solution: Alliance and elimination,” a familiar voice intoned, floating near their ships.

“W78!” Orodan exclaimed, joy in his heart at seeing the trustworthy metallic being once more.

“Information: subject possesses improbable knowledge of unit. Solution: query and analysis.”

“No time for that,” Almyra interrupted. “Orodan. You must set about your work immediately. Alagameth and I will hold off the dragon, but you must bring us further allies before the Embodiers pursuing you arrive alongside any Administrators.”

And that was the truth of it. For even if they won this particular battle, Orodan still had an entire suite of enemy Embodiers after him. Unlike Almyra who simply didn’t have any noticeable control over the concept she embodied, Orodan was the cosmos’s greatest cleaning talent. Just by existing he ruined the control other Embodiers of his concept had over it. Even if he didn’t want anything to do with this silly concept, the fact was that the concept of Cleanliness itself refused to listen to anyone else once he had reached Embodiment.

“Alright. Hold your ground. This will take a bit of time,” Orodan said as he leapt to the air.

This is it then?” Zaessythra asked. “Am I truly to be brought back?”

Orodan however simply remained quiet, refusing to let his thoughts be visible to her.

She was going to be brought back alright. But the manner of going about that was up for contention.

“Ozgaric! Be ready!” Orodan ordered as he winked into a teleport and arrived upon a barren landscape.

Lifeless gray rock, a place utterly devoid of atmosphere and full of nothing but hungry creatures, ancient automated golems whose power and capabilities had been greatly reduced by time and the ruins of old places which once had life upon it.

They were upon Alastaia’s moon. Otherwise known as the fallen world of Vylrystia.

“Alright. Now if you head towards the palace you should hopefully be able to find some keepsakes tied to my old life. From there, using the river of… of… Orodan?” Zaessythra asked, wondering why he made no move to go anywhere and was instead channeling power into his chronomancy. “What are you doing?”

He answered not mentally, but with his own words.

“Setting right a wrong that should have never occurred. Now… my Time Mastery is high, but I don’t think anyone has reached back a few hundred-thousand years and brought an entire world back from extinction before.”

The broken and tattered half-dragon soul within him barely had time to react or even protest at this insane course of action before Orodan’s power was channeled to its limit.

The moon and its surroundings were entirely empty of any combatants. Below, nearer to Alastaia, the battle had already begun.

Voidships of the Blackworth Collective fired deadly salvos of steam-powered magical gunfire towards the voidcraft of the Hegemony. However, the Collective’s ships with superior firepower were matched by the flying dragon corps of the Hegemony, led by the Crusader Avraxas and Excromon, a Transcendent dragon of great power. These dragons were gathered from across all the worlds under the Hegemony’s dominion, and while the dragon flights of Alastaia tried to contest them alongide the pegasus knights of the Eastern Kingdoms, the truth was that the alliance was outmatched in aerial joust.

The ships could put out far greater damage and power, but the units of enemy dragons had many Grandmaster and even some Transcendent dragons. And although the Collective’s sharpshooters and artillery specialists did a good job of massacring any dragon that got too close, the fact was that these aerial creatures were the monarchs of the void and could eaily maneuver to dodge the gunners’ aim if they were far out enough. Their aerial superiority stopped only by certain flight-capable combat units of the Unity.

Still, not everything favored the Hegemony. Outside of the aerial skirmishes and harrassment of Blackworth voidships by the nimbler dragons, the Alliance’s boarding crews were deadly. Alastaian warriors and Magocracy battlemages combined their melee and magical prowess with Blackworth Collective assault troops who, once they rammed a Hegemony voidcraft, swiftly got about to murdering the vampires, necromancer and werewolves within.

Of particular help were Silestor Lumenarin and the diviners of the Cathedral who had shifted from serving Ilyatana to serving the people of Inuan in general. Their light magic and exorcism capabilities proved exceptionally potent against the dark forces of Narictus aboard the Hegemony’s vessels. Guarded by the warriors of Alastaia, the mages of Thazrivin and the close-quarters assault specialists of Lonvoron who wielded firearms which let loose hails of deadly shot, no Hegemony vessel stood a chance once they were rammed and boarded.

And of course, the elites of both sides matched one another. Thazrivin and Alastaia, with the former’s help, had secured some powerful contracts with elementals. Which led to the sight of Grandmaster-level spirit mages from Guzuhar and Eldiron directing Transcendent-level elemental overlords to fight the Transcendent combat elites of the Hegemony.

The Transcendent battles looked fairly even. A1 of the Unity and King Alstatyn of the Blackworth Collective fought Avraxas the world-devouring dragon a battle they were winning. The Transcendent core guardian of Alastaia—a bat—teamed up with Adeltaj and Balastion against Agrimon. A fight which wasn’t going too well despite the three-against-one, but they were still holding out. Destartes, Ozgaric and Cithrel were fighting Excromon but that battle too didn’t look favorable for the Alastaians either. And Vakan Almante, Narictus’s Lord of Night, was facing off against a team of elementals led by This-One-Who-Electrifies-Horizons and the High-Orast. The only high-level fight which was going somewhat well due to the fact that fighting a group of elementals being commanded by a skilled mage was an exceedingly difficult matchup for a melee fighter.

And finally, Almyra, Talricto and Alagameth were stalemating the gigantic Embodier dragon which continually threatened to eradicate their entire star system if not for Talricto helping ward off its gravitational attacks with his skilled Dimensionalism and Almyra and Alagameth taking advantage of the openings to punish it heavily.

The fighting was good in some aspects and bad in others, with both sides taking heavy casualties in the initial minute until they began adjusting to the others’ tactics. Of course… Alastaia held one critical advantage.

And the crown upon Orodan’s arm glowed hot as the world spirit of Alastaia channeled copious amounts of energy towards allied chronomancers and soul mages who were already working overtime to get the dead back into the fight. Furthermore, having control of the soul nexus and afterlife meant that casualties were replenished at far less energy cost.

World cores, like regular non-divine beings, couldn’t exactly grant power directly in such a manner. Of course, for Orodan who could grant Blessings to people, it was a different matter. And he refused to let the world core of his own home world slack off and not participate in training. So he had taught it how to manipulate world energy and form direct connections to people as he had.

And as Orodan watched a particular Collective voidship containing his students display exceptional success in every boarding, he focused on his own work.

The restoration of an entire world.

Time, and the threads of it were all around him. This was no case of needing to carefully find a singular item, follow its thread down the river of time carefully and then rewind it. He was on Vylrystia with ruins, ancient bones, weapons and mementos all around.

Like a fish seeking water in the ocean, he had an abundance of what he needed. If anything, his goal wasn’t to grab one particular thread…

…but to grab them all.

[Time Mastery 96 → Time Mastery 97]

His eyes glowed, his jaw clenched in focus and blood began leaking out of his eyes and nose almost immediately. Bringing Zaessythra back across the gulf of a few hundred-thousand years was one thing. But having to bring an entire world and all its peoples, objects and things back was another.

He could hear her shouting, almost pleading for him to stop. Whether it was concern for him or fear at the feelings it would dredge up in her heart, he didn’t know. But nor did he care. For too long had he heard her speak about her fallen world with lament and longing.

With Absolute Body Composition, each cell of his body could do what all others could. Sight, hearing, taste, feeling and even thinking. So it was no surprise when Orodan began to feel many cells of his body die as the sheer strain of reaching so far back into the past for an entire world hit.

Not only did he have to wrap around the thread for each and every thing and manually account for it, a gargantuan feat of mental capacity. But he also had to then ensure he uniformly reversed it all when that step came.

But this was nothing. He had embraced the entirety of the SYstem’s central repository of knowledge before. He had faced down Boundless Ones before. Compared to all that, compared to what he intended to do soon after… this was nothing. It was a mere warm-up, it was good training.

And so Orodan wrapped his mind and awareness around each and every little thing comprising the fallen world of Vylrystia. He even went a step further, tracking objects which had been lost or broken off throughout the many millennia of the barren moon’s existence. Chunks of rock, debris, buildings and ruins which had broken off and then somehow been dragged out to the void during fights between beasts. Orodan tracked it all and accounted for it with his mind, even as blood began dripping down his face and body from the mental exertion.

Once he had every single thread of time grasped with his mind, there was but one thing left to do.

“Orodan… stop… you need not. This is… this is…”

“This is the bare minimum for the woman who gave it all up repeatedly throughout her life,” he spoke as he pulled out the crown of Balastion Novar. The object which had originally been the world crown of Vylrystia. “And today… this crown shall rest upon the brow of its rightful bearer once more.”

[Time Reversal 89 → Time Reversal 95]

One moment the moon was still, lifeless and barren. And the next… it began moving.

If anyone were watching, to them it would be the eeriest and most unnatural movement they had seen. Rocks began reversing position, first moving back to where they were before a creature had knocked them around the prior day, to then the prior month. The ruins, the creatures, the tunnels beneath the ground comprising the depths. Not much changed as time reversed months, and even years. A trifling reversal for a dead world that had lain desolate and untouched for hundreds of thousands of years.

Even the soul-devouring creatures of this lifeless rock were a product of the utterly energy-starved ecosystem. But they had to have come from somewhere. And it was with no lack of pity that Orodan realized these poor things were the fallen and mutated souls of the world’s former denizens themselves.

Denied an afterlife after the Hegemony came by and utterly annihilated their World-Queen and world core. The planet had died a slow death, with some escaping to Alastaia as refugees, while the overwhelming majority had died. The escaped ones had no happy ending either. Captured by a dark empire of the era, the half-dragons were tortured, experimented on and the product of that eventually became the spider dragons wandering Alastaia’s underground today.

So Orodan pulled upon them too.

The natural beasts and monsters of the barren moon shrieked and howled as he forcibly reversed them in time. Unlike the Time Reversal of someone who has the System, his could in fact reverse their very minds and souls. And so he did.

As years became decades, and then centuries. Not much changed. Even multiple Embodiers of Time working together would be forced to stop here, the energy cost far too steep.

But for Orodan Wainwright, no amount of power was too much. The past five loops of tempering his body had made him incredibly tough. His work with Elemental Living Enchantment had allowed him to direct and tolerate extreme amounts of energy better; in ways which damaged him less while being even more effective.

So when the reversal began reaching into the ten-thousand year mark, some small changes could be seen. Certain ruins became a little less dilapidated. The most perishable parts which had fallen then, began reverting into place. Ancient defender golems began to regain just a bit of their power, and many of the soul-devouring creatures became unmade, their souls reversing the mutation and reverting to just wandering spirits.

By now, the battle below had begun to slowly still. The voidfleets, armies, Transcendents and leaders of the Hegemony looking upwards at the moon and finally noticing the utterly impossible amounts of chronomantic power surrounding it. Even the forces of the Alastaian alliance looked upward, incredulous at what they were seeing.

After a heartbeat, a voice roared out.

“Stop that Embodier at all costs! Whatever he does with that planet has more energy than a black hole!” the Embodiment-level dragon fighting Almyra, Alagameth and Talricto ordered. Sounding utterly desperate.

It even attempted a furious rush right at Orodan, but Almyra, Alagameth and Talricto had accounted for that possibility and the dimensional spider simply wrapped the tattered remnants of the shattered dimensional boundary around it, restraining it and allowing the other two to rain down furious assaults upon it.

“Heed the ancestor’s orders! All forces charge the moon at once!” Agrimon ordered.

On one hand, the battle began turning sharply in their favor as many of the Hegemony’s forces paid the ultimate price for getting distracted or needing to turn their backs towards the Alastaian alliance’s troops in order to rush Orodan. On the other hand. he now had the equivalent of an entire army charging him.

And while that wasn’t an issue even at the worst of times, they would certainly disrupt his delicate grasp over each and every particle composing the moon.

Which meant Orodan could only do what he did best in such situations. Double down.

[Time Reversal 95 → Time Reversal 97]

Swiftly, time reversed beyond the ten-thousand year mark. Twenty-thousand, then forty, sixty, eighty and finally a hundred-thousand years.

This was where Vylrystia began to look not as utterly forsaken as it had before. In fact, Orodan noticed some extremely old, decaying and desperate enclaves of half-dragons who were brought back, still rewinding in time of course, but brought back all the same. These must have been the final people, the very oldest half-dragons or their descendants who had used forbidden magics, enchantments or warded vaults to preserve themselves for as long as they could from the hellscape above.

Furthermore, the atmosphere was now slowly starting to return. The four-hundred-thousand-year mark after the world core’s destruction and Zaessythra’s death must have been when the last vestiges of it went out. But no longer.

More of the soul-devouring monsters on the moon’s surface began vanishing, reverting to merely helpless spirits who were near the cusp of mutating into the monsters littering the moon’s surface but not quite yet. And the ruins began gaining slightly more color to them, and the golems looking even livelier.

So Orodan pushed and pushed.

[Time Reversal 97 → Time Reversal 98]

[Time Mastery 97 → Time Mastery 98]

His mind strained, his cells died under the strain, but he held on even as the blood began pooling around his feet from how much strain his body was under.

But that strain came with results. Two-hundred thousand years reverted.

Now the ruins were looking almost habitable and the golems nearly as deadly as they should have been in their prime. Furthermore, by this point there were almost no soul-devouring monsters at all, just wandering spirits. The atmosphere was thin but present too, and the vestiges of life remained as flora, fauna and even very faint bits of lingering world energy began to come back.

Two-hundred thousand years ago there were still small communities and scattered tribes upon the surface. Although even as time continued rewinding under his power he could see that these peoples were considering escaping to warded underground vaults even then as the atmosphere had begun to grow far too thin for life.

So he pushed farther, going past three-hundred thousand and then onto four-hundred thousand years of reversed time.

The Hegemony’s forces attempted a desperate rush, but the forces of the Alastaian alliance were making them pay for it the entire way. Still, when an entire army was rushing a position, it was difficult to keep them away from it entirely.

Multiple squadrons of the Blackworth Collective’s voidships jumped into range, attempting to shield him. He wanted to protest that it wasn’t necessary, that he would be fine, but having fought alongside him upon Lonvoron many of these men and women felt indebted to him for saving their world from the plague.

And he gritted his teeth as many of the ships were destroyed and the crews killed as they fell defending his position. They reaped double the enemy’s number, selling their lives dearly to take out large numbers of the charging Hegemony. But they died all the same and Orodan could do little to stop it when he was so deeply immersed in reversing time. Despite the noble efforts of these brave men and women, the enemy finally reached him.

“Stop him now! Immediately! Kill yourselves in the attempt if you must!” the Embodier dragon roared, restrained by Talricto and suffering a barrage from Almyra’s clones and Alagameth’s arrows as it was.

With less focus on damage and more on interrupting what he was doing, a continent-sized dragon tried ramming right into him. His fist turned it into red mist even as he retained his focus for the last leg of this titanic endeavor. More came, trying to tackle him, slice him, crush him or even teleport him.

A chronomancer squad even tried interfering with his work actively, seeking to rip the threads he held a grip on from his grasp.

He simply closed his eyes and ignored the physical ones. Those attempting to tackle him found it akin to moving a mountain. Their shoulders broke and they could not move him as he used spatiomancy to anchor himself in place. The attacks simply bounced right off his body, trained by fighting Embodiers as it was. And attempts to remove him via spatiomancy ended in futile failure as the enemy mages ran out of mana and potions trying to surmount the energy cost.

And the chronomancer squad? Orodan, for the smallest instant possible, used his own Time Mastery to forcibly shove a mere hundredth of all the time threads he was accounting for into their minds before retracting them back into his grasp.

[Time Mastery 98 → Time Mastery 99]

[Time Reversal 98 → Time Reversal 99]

The minds of those disruptors shattered entirely.

Yet even then more came, and with the way things were going, it seemed more than likely that he would be taken out of the endeavor via some disruption or the other. He could resume after dealing with it… but did he have the time when the Embodiers after him and the Administrators could show up at any moment?

Orodan’s frustrations with the Hegemony’s interference were cut short as he noticed a small but important detail.

The sun, ordinarily shining its rays upon both Alastaia and its fallen sibling world of Vylrystia… was now glowing.

Glowing a little too bright to be natural.

He soon understood why when an arrow of incinerating flame came down upon the foes attempting to harry him, rendering them down to a state of matter where not even ash remained.

“Hahah! The sun aids us!” Eldramir, patriarch of the Soaring Ember dragon flight roared, his flames growing even hotter. As did those of every fire user on the side of the Alastaian alliance. Furthermore, beings made of pure flame descended unto the battlefield, aiding the Alastaian forces by burning right through Hegemony voidships and rendering them to slag.

Orodan briefly looked to the world crown secured around his arm and through the connection that the world spirit of Alastaia was awfully proud of its achievement in securing aid from the sun itself.

How had it even managed such a thing?

“Our eldest sibling detests intruders to our local star system. World Conqueror, leave the battle to us. Focus upon restoring our fallen sibling.”

And Orodan did, deciding to trust in his allies and their network of connections. Alastaia and its peoples had come far. Alongside reliable allies who brought their own strengths to the field of battle, they were holding their ground and had a real chance of winning.

A chance he intended to improve by bringing in potential reinforcements from a time long since past.

Four-hundred thousand years back, Vylrystia now had an abundance of flora and fauna still. Although, he could see the beginnings of what would be the ecological disaster that would befall them soon enough. Life was upon the planet’s surface and in its depths, but the world energy was waning. The ruins still existed, but it was now his first time seeing some actual cities for not everything had been destroyed by the Hegemony when they descended.

He saw heavily damaged cities and large towns, but not entirely abandoned. The populations within them were greatly reduced, and the half-dragons were having a difficult time repopulating due to the lower levels of world energy, but live they did. A fallen people still reeling from the war a hundred-thousand years ago, suffering a slow decline due to falling birth rates and lower world energy. Unlike humans who could repopulate with relative ease in a twentieth of that timespan, half-dragons needed far more time to grow into full maturity. That and plenty of food, a requisite amount of world energy and more resources.

Without a world core, with most of their number destroyed during Zaessythra’s slaying a hundred-thousand years ago, these people were doomed. Even four-hundred thousand years ago with the atmosphere relatively good, the flora and fauna abundant, Vylrystia was a doomed planet.

So Orodan delved deeper and finished the job.

All of Vylrystia rolled further back, crossing the remaining hundred-thousand year gulf with frightening speed. His chronomancy powers had grown over the course of this endeavor, and his mind was now holding steady despite the immense mental load.

Flora and fauna returned to their near-peak levels, there were no soul-devouring monsters formed the mutated souls of the deceased. The dilapidation and decay of ruins and golems reversed entirely, the barren rocks and deserts returned to sprawling plains, vibrant forests and healthy oceans full of greenery and life.

And near the end of the Time Reversal he saw the defining event which truly spelled doom for the survivors. When the remaining Grandmaster half-dragons banded together, gathering Vylrystia’s best and brightest onto a ship capable of inter-planetary travel and heading for Alastaia…

…where they had been betrayed. Killed by the local dragons of Alastaia at the time who hated hybrids, and the remaining members then captured and used as experimental subjects by a wicked empire of the time who created the spider dragons.

Orodan reversed it all, bringing all of Vylrystia’s children back to it, reverting all the wrongs they had suffered while still upon their world and then the ones they had suffered upon leaving it. He also made sure to carefully avoid ruining the timeline like he had when erasing Ilyatana in the past.

The fighting had stilled below. The Embodiment-level dragon fighting the trio of Almyra, Alagameth and Talricto had stopped as well, too awestruck by the sight.

The Hegemony had backed away from him entirely, and by the looks of it, had no morale left.

The crown of Balastion Novar, formerly corrupted by Eldritch, now glowed with the telltale cycling of world energy.

And before the eyes of everyone present upon the battlefield…

…the world core of Vylrystia returned to a whole.

[Time Reversal 99 → Time Reversal 100]

[Time Mastery 99 → Time Mastery 100]

[New Title → TIme Grandmaster]

The Embodiment-level dragon shuddered, and then turned around, dislodging itself from Talricto’s bindings meant to stop its motion in a particular direction. Its power over gravity was mighty indeed, but what did that matter when it suddenly turned the entire other way and began fleeing?

Just like that, an enemy Embodier ran for its life.

And just like, the Hegemony’s remaining bits of morale shattered entirely.

“Stay and fight, cravens!” Agrimon demanded, the divine beginning to get overwhelmed in its battle as more of its forces fled.

All around them, units of the Hegemony were losing morale, some even opting to take their voidships and flee. In contrast, the Alastaian forces were swiftly getting their casualties resurrected, something which unnerved the enemy.

But the most important thing which caused enemy morale to swiftly plummet…

…was the resurrection of an entire world of half-dragons.

The atmosphere had returned. Vision of Purity told him how the battle in the void was going, but his direct eyesight wasn’t as helpful when the previously pitch dark void above was now sky blue, replete with clouds and flying creatures of all kinds.

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The barren, lifeless gray rock he was previously standing upon was now green grass, healthy soil underfoot. In fact, he’d had to take a step to the right near the final moments lest he chronomantically rewind a tree to be where he was standing.

Some of the Hegemony’s troops assailing him weren’t nearly as lucky and had entire trees, vines and brambles get rewound in time, the positions overlapping with their bodies and causing grievous injuries.

He was in a grassy plain, with some confused half-dragon farmers looking on in shock. They were of course seven and eight-feet tall respectively. Unlike most places he went where he was exceptionally tall for a human, here, amongst even the average half-dragon a human didn’t stand out for their height.

But they were certainly staring at him. After all, from what he’d seen throughout the course of his Time Reversal, humans were an extreme rarity upon Vylrystia, existing only in the form of visiting dignitaries from Alastaia.

All of that was put to the side however, as the emotional and raw voice of someone within him spoke, breaking the silence.

“It… it smells like home. I have no nose, but I can smell… I have no ears but I can hear, these woods… I grew up flying over them.”

“And you shall wander them once more, Zaessythra,” Orodan sternly promised.

“But how? The loop, it will all end soon yet again and then-” she choked, pausing to regain her bearing. “Perhaps it was better I never got to see this again. Just… just bring me back that I might walk the grassy fields once more before this loop ends and I go with. You’ll… you’ll ferry my memories over, won’t you?”

“There will be no need for that,” Orodan replied as his eyes tracked a large group of flying half-dragons making their way towards him.

“What do you mean? You will bring me back now, will you not?”

“In a manner of speaking…”

The ground quaked as the heavily armored half-dragon warriors slammed down like meteors from the air. These beings looked much like Zaessythra, tall sturdy and winged, with scales covering certain parts of their form and horns jutting from their head but looking like very large humans otherwise. Or elves, he supposed, given the pointed ears some of them had.

A third of the group split off before hitting the ground, flying off to slay the Hegemony’s dragons and troops that had come by to stop him. But the leaders of the group were extremely confused, their eyes wary and their hands upon their weapons as they closely scrutinized Orodan for answers.

“Human. Identify yourself immediately,” the leading golden-armored half-dragon demanded. “You are upon the territories of the Irithustran Monarchy. We are currently in a state of emergency with numerous agents of the foul dragons upon our lands. A massive energy surge was detected, the cosmos beyond our world is entirely changed and roils with battle, and your energy signature is at the center of it all. We are not reassure us of your intent.”

“General Vaelrosaan, Commander of the First War Flight… my old mentor,” Zaessythra said, and Orodan immediately felt his own disposition towards the old Grandmaster-level half dragon softening. The one who had taught her was someone he could only be thankful towards. “How many milennia has it been since I have seen him…”

“I am Orodan Wainwright, the time looper,” he bluntly and directly revealed. “Now, you might not know what that is, and I am sure you have many questions, but in short, I’ve rewound your world through time to restore it.”

He then held the world crown of Vylrystia aloft.

“What madness do you speak?” the General asked. The old half dragon then froze as the world crown caught his eye. “T-the crown! That belongs to my discip- the Queen herself! Return it lest we smite you where you stand!”

This, he had no problem with. He simply tossed the thing right at the old draconic general.

“Hold onto it will you? I have one already and have little desire for another,” he calmly replied. “That crown’s original bearer will be wearing it soon enough.”

“What…? What have you done to-”

“Enough. Stand down, General Vaelrosaan.”

The voice came not from any divine or the world crown of Alastaia. But from the crown Orodan had thrown towards the draconic warrior. The world will of Vylrystia, now restored.

The nearby half dragons all fell to a knee in reverence at hearing the voice of the world spirit itself.

“The world graces us with her voice!”

“Otherworlder… no, child of our sibling. What brings you here?” the world spirit asked, but then a flash of power from his own world crown went out and the Vylrystian crown pulsed in return. “Alastaia has a World Ruler at last? An honor… but we do not recall such a thing occurring, or any being of power as great as yours rising. These children do not know, they cannot see the signs of chronomancy on a scale which even Gods would kneel in worship of. Who are you? What has happened?”

But it was his own world crown that decided to take over, almost demanding that he touch it to the crown held by General Vaelrosaan. And given how the half dragon was reluctantly walking closer to him, it seemed the crown of Vylrystia had the same thought.

The two world crowns touched, and a spark of energy went out. United, harmonious… powerful. Vision of Purity told him that thousands of words and multiple conversations were taking place in a small period of time. A method of communing with one another that only world cores were capable of.

Soon, the half dragon took a step back, the link between the two crowns ended.

“V-Vylrystia… are you certain?” the General asked.

“Your World-Queen is within this human’s soul. If you wish her returned, then you shall follow this man’s instructions,” the spirit of Vylrystia spoke. “Orodan Wainwright. Time looper. Our sibling has explained much to us. You have our gratitude for reversing the tragedy which befell us and taking battle to our enemies. Vylrystia is yours to command.”

“Vylrystia is Zaessythra’s to command. And frankly, she can have Alastaia too, for I grow weary of having to dispense orders and pretend as though I am some King,” Orodan said. He technically was a King now, but genuinely preferred not to dwell on that matter. “Now then, as you can see, the void is rife with battle, and though I would like to join it, I have responsibilities which keep me from doing that.”

“We see it… invaders.”

“Aye, the ones who destroyed your world in the first place, and their dragon corps are proving rather difficult for our alliance to handle in aerial combat,” he explained further. “Some assistance on that front would be appreciated.”

At this, the half dragon general bristled with pride and outrage.

“I see it from where I stand! Dragons! Daring to assault our sister world!”

“We have allied dragons on our side as well, though fewer in number. Do try to avoid killing them.”

An unhappy snort left the warrior’s nose, the only indicator that it had heard Orodan and would listen. It flew off soon after.

Within five minutes, multiple squads of half-dragon warriors and battlemages took to the air, soaring past the cloud layer of Vylrystia and into the void above.

The Hegemony’s units of dragons had a singular moment to realize what was occurring before they were set upon by nimble flying troops who were a lot better in the air than they were. The forces of Vylrystia made a very immediate and noticeable impact on the combat from the moment of their arrival.

They had no Transcendents, but their sheer volume of hundreds of Grandmaster-level flying warriors quickly made the aerial battle a lethal prospect for the enemy’s dragon corps. Hegemony-aligned dragons were not only outmaneuvered, but in some cases, swarmed outright as multiple half dragons piled on and tore their limbs off. Or other times they would pin a dragon down so that a Collective voidship could unload its firepower into the large target, the Transcendent-level firepower of the cannons killing it instantly.

With the inclusion of Vylrystia’s forces, the battle which had already been swinging in favor of the Alastaian alliance began turning one-sided.

Zukelmux, Aliya, Edrosic and Wainroach together ganged up on and slew Ilyatana, the Goddess of Fate. Agathor was slain by Malzim and Halor, and Ozgaric, Alastaia’s mightiest divine, killed both Eximus and Agorhiku by himself. The vengefu Gods of the Collective were forced into fleeing by the Collective’s warships and King Alstatyn himself, and the Vakan Almante the ruler of Narictus had Adeltaj’s halberd enter his heart while the High-Orast and her elemental overlord allies kept the bloodsucker pinned down.

Agrimon and Excromon were the only remaining members of the Hegemony and they were the only ones who managed to disengage and flee the field in utter shame.

The Hegemony’s stranglehold over their world had been broken. But the fight wasn’t over.

Space and the dimensional boundary warped as four of Orodan’s allies felt the battle managed well enough that they could leave it. Alagameth, Almyra, Talricto and Destartes joined him upon Vylrystia’s surface.

“Thank you for coming,” Orodan greeted. “And Talricto, thank you for getting us out of there before we broke everything.”

“Given that you ended up breaking an entire dimension in your fight against the strongest being after the Administrators, I’m not sure I succeeded,” Talricto replied, although sounding quite jubilant about the whole ordeal. “Now, I doubt you called us to give us a pat on the head.”

“Right. I need this entire world evacuated.”

Destartes sighed and palmed his face while Almyra simply looked at him as though he was crazy. Not that he could blame the woman; the others had time to get used to him and his antics. She hadn’t.

“Come again?” she asked.

“Vylrystia. I need everyone moved off of it,” Orodan clarified. “Every living being. I can move them, but can’t set up a safe space for them afterwards. And then, Talricto, you and I have some work to do alongside our divines.”

“Well… I shan’t even ask. The less I know of your mad schemes the better for my sanity,” Destartes replied, eyes glowing with power as he began considering the task of moving everyone off an entire world.

Almyra simply shook her head and got to work as well, as did Talricto and Alagameth.

The battle had ended and thus the movement of all Vylrystia’s population, flora and fauna to Alastaia, separate habitable dimensional planes which Talrictro knew of, onto habitable pockets upon A1’s body and gigantic voidships of the Collective’s went smoothly. It also caused Zaessythra to grow increasingly agitated.

“What in the System’s name are you thinking? Why are you removing everyone off of my world? Do you intend to use it as bait in a gambit of yours? A weapon? At least resurrect me that I might help spot some of the inefficiencies in this plan of yours.”

Thing was… in a manner of speaking Orodan did intend to use Vylrystia as a weapon.

Even the world spirit was incredibly reluctant about this plan. Hells, Alastaia was too.

Still, mad as this seemed, these people, these world spirits, they trusted Orodan for he had gotten them this far. And if this mad plan went right, then not only would he bring someone very important back, but the Alastaian alliance would gain an ally besides himself who could fight on the sort of level that he did.

“Is Fenton ready? Did you give him the crystal?”

“He is, and I did, though I cannot even begin to fathom what use that thing would have in the ancient machine,” Destartes spoke.

“Good. Then we had best start our work with the divines, right Talricto?” Orodan queried, and the spider nodded.

Of course, they had all known that defeating the Hegemony wouldn’t be the hard part. The overlords for their section of the galaxy were but chaff, ants in the face of real power. And while Old Man Hannegan’s acquisition of a Celestial-rarity skill had gone noticed by only two factions, the calamitious battle involving Embodiers and the Hegemony’s assembled armies had spread much further.

Spatial rifts tore open in the distance and Orodan saw robed figures riding flying swords shooting out. And from another direction, hellish crimson flames which produced scores of demons.

“Information,” W78 intoned as it stepped out of a spatial rift upon the restored planet’s surface, accompanied by King Alstatyn. “Faction, Celestial Court and faction, hells, approaching. Solution: defense of subject: Gregory Hannegan and destination: Alastaia.”

“So these are the robed daoists you spoke of,” Destartes said, interest piqued. “I should quite like to see how the arcane knowledge of a mage matches up against this dao.”

“And I’m keen on finding out if those swords can stop the twelve-shooter on my hip,” the King of the Blackworth Collective spoke.

They certainly could, and his allies would be foolish to underestimate the Celestia Court. Especially when it was being led by Jian Huangdi, the Celestial Emperor. In that long loop where it had all gone to the hells, that man hadn’t really had a chance to display his true potential. But the truth was that Jian Huangdi was the strongest Transcendent in their galaxy. A peak-Transcendent Bearer of a Celestial skill.

Still the forces of the alliance had Embodiers, though those were looking to be tied up by the first of the Embodiers after Orodan who had also arrived. The goat-woman Embodier who espoused the purity of nature.

“Can you hold for a while?” Orodan asked. “This will take a little bit of time, but not too long.”

Almyra simply snorted.

“You forget that I possess an Administrator’s Mantle which I have not even begun to use. But be warned, once I do, it will not be long before the Prophet arrives,” she cautioned, and then gave him a nod. “Though, I do dearly hope you succeed in this divine experiment of yours. If it works, then that will have proven one of my theories about the nature of divinity in the System.”

Alagameth too, joined her as she winked away with spatiomancy to meet the enemy Embodier in battle, seeking to buy Orodan time.

Every fiber of his being detested having to let others fight on his behalf in such a manner, but Old Man Hannegan’s unexpected Celestial skill had caused their plans to begin a little too early. And everyone he cared for here was depending on him to succeed in this mad endeavor of his.

Everyone save Talricto and he left to confront the approaching factions which sought someone not belonging to them.

“A fine battle you have engaged in prior to my arrival. Alastaians, your resistance is noble but your alliance weak and spent. We have Transcendents and divines, and we are not without ancient elders who are willing to aid us. Turn over this Gregory Hannegan and we need not come to blows,” the Celestial Emperor spoke. “With the sacred restrictions of Embodier non-interference broken, I too can call upon aid. Do not force me to bring forth the daoist who taught me all I know.”

On the other side, so too did the current Overking of the hells approach. Beside him, the Script King. Their differences put aside in the face of acquiring a Celestial talent by force. When Orodan had drawn the attention of the hells before, they had only sent Devil King Gutriyaz. Same for the Celestial Court who had only sent Jian Song.

But when such cataclysmic battles had occurred and the very bounds of the galaxy had been shattered? These factions had not thrived for as long as they had without knowing an Embodier or two. The level of force they were willing to bring in order to investigate and acquire power for themselves was much higher.

Thankfully, the glowing golden light of the Conclave spilled forth through another rift, arriving in time and summoned by the order of Alagameth. Leading them was Captain-General Ryzlan, their leader.

All in all, the battlefield looked as though it was about to become very, very chaotic.

Which meant that Orodan and Talricto needed to work quickly alongside the twelve divines who just now arrived upon the surface of the emptied world of Vylrystia.

“Orodan. We have come, although how long my compatriots can stand to remain here when the blood of our peoples are being spilt out there is a matter of contention,” Ozgaric spoke.

“Time looper, I respect all you have done but my people will die without me aiding them out there,” an anxious northern God added in emphasis, her divine energies roiling with fretful worry.

“Then let us waste no more time. For the past five loops have Ozgaric, Talricto and I been working upon this,” Orodan said. “Now, we shall see it made reality.”

Indeed. For long had Orodan pondered the question of how to empower Alastaia’s divinities further. It was a cold truth that a divine and a Transcendent of the same level and rarity were not equal. Divines were those who had failed their trial of ascension, relegated to serving as part of the System’s ecosystem for filtering Eldritch power into System energy.

But how could Orodan help these Gods go beyond their limits? How could he liberate them from the ceiling placed above their head by the System?

He could not replace it with his own System, not yet and not reliably. He would not use them as test subjects when he did not have full faith in the outcome. The thought of reverting their divinity and allowing them to enter Transcendence even passed his mind, but that too was not feasible. These divinities liked their way of life. Their followers depended on them and so too was that dependence reciprocated.

Being a divinity was to lose the ability to walk upon the material plane directly. It was to become a shackled being used for something one did not understand. It was failure made manifest as one could no longer see their world, let alone their loved ones if they had any.

They were, by nature, somehow dimensionally tethered to the divine dimension.

And over the past five loops Orodan had carefully studied Ozgaric, seen that tether and formulated a method of not just preserving the way of life these divinities had, but also cutting them off from that wretched dimension where they were no more than tools.

In fact, he would have to thank the Prophet whenever that zealot showed up, for Orodan had partially drawn inspiration from how it had merged with the dimension of light.

How did he plan to solve the problem of the divine?

“All of you… sever the connection between Alastaia’s world core and yourselves,” Orodan ordered, gesturing through his world crown to the spirit of his home world that it should do the same on its end too. “And when that connection severs… grab onto mine. Talricto, be ready.”

“Need you even remind me?” the dimensional phase spider asked, sounding almost offended.

“But Orodan Wainwright… cutting the connection shall drain power and force us into the divine realm the moment it runs out. Do you intend to supply the power necessary to keep us here yourself?” Malzim asked.

“No. I intend to help each of you craft dimensions of your own and then merge with them, that you might escape the System’s oppressive yoke.”

It was the most creative and also the most mad thing Orodan had thought up in a while, inspired entirely by the Prophet. Yet unlike that zealot who had merged with an existing dimension—something which came with limitations and involved much dirty work—Orodan intended to help each of these Gods and Goddesses make their very own.

Talricto was on standby, the spider’s unfathomable dimensional skills being critical to this endeavor. And Orodan himself, while being aide to the eight-legged wanderer, would be providing the power necessary for such a thing.

Naturally, having been aware of this the longest, Ozgaric stepped forth first. The divine—the young boy really—had determination in his eyes.

Orodan knew of the northern God’s plight. A boy of such utter talent for mischief and illusions that he had reached Grandmastery while still a youth. But this talent came at the price of his people forcing him into divinity during a bad war of the time, even if that choice was made under duress.

Still, the God of Illusions and Trickery did not resent his lot in life. For tens of thousands of years had the northern God protected Guzuhar and its people. He had also aided Orodan when he’d needed it most, allowing for the time looper to enter an academy and acquire an education without being disturbed for most of that process.

Orodan owed Ozgaric a debt. And now, as the northern divine was on the precipice of taking the next step towards power, Orodan intended to see that debt repaid.

Ozgaric dropped the connection between him and the world core of Alastaia which had been keeping him directly in the material plane all this time. And now, the divine grabbed onto the connection offered by Orodan, that of his Blessing of endless power.

Immediately, the God shook, still needing a few moments to acclimate to the utter surge of energy. Despite being used to channeling and directing large amounts of divine power, despite the past five loops of work, grabbing onto that thread of connection from Orodan was difficult to ignore. Not when he was sending large amounts of soul energy through it already; preparation for the feat.

As Ozgaric adjusted, Orodan could only look to the battle which was ongoing.

In the void, the battle between the invaders and the Alastaian alliance had begun in earnest. Jian Huangdi’s cultivators surged forward upon flying swords and other magical beasts to meet the forces of the Collective. Almyra and Alagameth met the goat-woman Embodier, and the forces of the Unity and Conclave met the hells. Skirmishes occurring on multiple fronts.

Even down on the surface of Alastaia he saw Old Man Hannegan making his own contribution to the battle by directing smelters, metalworkers, smiths and alchemists to work overtime in order to produce weapons, arrows, bolts, bullets and shells. And although it seemed minor in nature, the weaponry and ammunition made under the guidance of the old foreman’s new Celestial skill was drastically better than whatever the forces of Alastaia had existing prior. Needless to say, an entire team of supply runners were furiously rushing the freshly crafted war materiel to the front as quickly as it was made.

While the Unity and the Conclave managed to hold evenly against the hells, Alastaia and the Collective were struggling against the Celestial Court. But this boost from Old Man Hannegan allowed them to hold their ground even as Jian Huangdi caused casualties and the loss of morale.

Alstatyn was facing the Celestial Emperor while Destartes and the High-Orast supported him, but it was still a losing affair. A Celestial skill at the peak-Transcendent level was no joke.

Furthermore, in the army-to-army conflict, the Celestial Court had far more Transcendents and divinities than Alastaia did. Their dragons—long serpentine creatures without wings—matched Alastaian dragons easily enough, though the cultivators’ dragons had less physical aptitude while possessing more of an elemental one. The Magocracy’s battlemages however—up until the Grandmaster-level—were superior to elemental cultivators. In exchange of pure spellfire and elemental slinging, the mage-lords handily won, which quite rankled the pride of some of the cultivators. However, on the other hand the cultivators’ martial types held a clear advantage over Alastaia’s warriors. Though this was due to their usage of Qi and in some cases, soul energy. Without these, and Orodan might’ve been biased for feeling it, but Alastaia’s warriors had technique just as good if not better when it came to pure melee.

“I am prepared, Orodan,” the northern God signalled.

“Alright, my most esteemed master of Dimensionalism. I believe it’s your turn,” Orodan spoke, maintaining a constant but endless flow of power to Ozgaric. The next part would require a lot of energy. Newest update provıded by N0veI.Fiɾe.net

Talricto simply harrumphed as the spider began mnipulating not just the dimensional forces… but webs. Specifically, the natural silk it produced. The wanderer must have trusted Orodan or not been as shy of such a thing as the spider dragons of Xan’Coran were, for it simply began producing and preparing a large lattice of web all around Ozgaric before even thinking of forming a dimensional boundary.

Orodan had trained Dimensionalism under Talricto, but the spider itself had carefully looked at the silk produced by the spider dragons and learned a thing or two from them. Its species wasn’t naturally web-weaving, which meant that Talricto had a lot to learn from Ashganruk and its ilk beneath the Dokuhan Mountains.

Knowledge that the wanderer now put to use as a perfectly formed lattice of dimensional silk right from Talricto’s soul was layered perfectly around the northern divine. It cost a tremendous amount of energy to produce so much silk, borrowed entirely from Orodan, but the end result was a lattice which would not be breaking anytime soon even under the most calamitous of forces.

As the final touch, Talricto placed a dimensional boundary over this web, and before their very eyes…

…Ozgaric vanished. Cut off from the material plane. A new dimension created on the spot.

But Orodan’s Vision of Purity and Dimensionalism skill still allowed him to see the Guzuharan God. Using their connection, he spoke.

“Now, Ozgaric. Flood it with all your power.”

And so the God of Illusions and Trickery did.

Divine power filled this new self-contained dimension the divine was within. And in tandem, Orodan and Talricto focused, ensuring that the energy containing the God’s very nature and essence was evenly disseminated throughout every bit of this new dimension.

But more than that, that the energy warped the dimension itself.

For if there could be a dimension of light, an elemental plane of lightning, and one of where dimensional horror roamed freely…

…then why couldn’t there be a dimension of Illusions and Trickery?

[Dimensionalism 97 → Dimensionalism 98]

[Reality Alteration 86 → Reality Alteration 87]

The feat of making an entirely new dimension with its own nature was an expensive one. So it was no surprise that Ozgaric quickly rn out of divine power and was forced to borrow purely from the connection between him and Orodan.

So as Orodan felt his soul energy go to Ozgaric through that connection, so too did he devote massive amounts of power towards solidifying and making real this dimension of shifting afterimages and mischievous tricks. Ozgaric’s divine power and essence, poured into the newly made dimension, was made a permanent and inalterable part of its very nature by the hand of Orodan Wainwright.

And near the end, just when it looked as though Ozgaric would falter…

…Orodan targeted the tether deep within the System portion of the divine’s soul.

The tether connecting the northern God to the divine dimension.

He felt great resistance, as though the System and its very source felt what he was doing, tampering with a critical part of it. But Orodan cared not. All his problems had come to a head anyways, and he was too committed to care about earning any more ire than he already had.

With a yank, Ozgaric’s entire divine domain from that realm… was pulled into this one.

[Dimensionalism 98 → Dimensionalism 100]

[New Title → Dimensional Grandmaster]

It was a titanic amount of energy contained in a small dimension, and Talricto’s personally produced webbing the only thing keeping the dimensional boundary stable and intact.

“Compress it, Ozgaric, and return to us,” Orodan instructed.

And the other divines could only watch, jaws agape as the northern God of Illusions and Trickery returned to the material plane, the boundaries of his personal dimension compressed and wrapped around his very skin like armor.

A state of being which allowed the divine to not only be his own dimension, but also remain freely in the material plane, and perhaps go out of it as needed.

Orodan had just made a new classification of being which was neither God, nor Transcendent nor Crusader. One which solved the problem of the divine ceiling and shackles placed upon all Gods and Goddesses.

“Incredible… I have never felt so… so powerful.”

“Given that I have taken you out of the System’s ecosystem and into a new one of your own, the passive drain you felt upon your divine power as part of it was used to filter System energy is no longer present,” Orodan explained. “Hmm… the first part of Almyra’ theory was right then.”

In her tome which she’d given him in the last long loop, the previous looper had guessed that a divine free of the System’s yoke would be far stronger than a divine still shackled to it. She had just been proven right.

“Yes, yes. I am incredible and all you divines may direct your followers to pay tribute to me at your leisure,” Talricto boasted, preening at the fact that the remaining divines were now staring at the spider with awe. “Now then, who is next? We don’t have all day and there’s a battle in need of reinforcements.”

“And the God of Illusions & Trickery shall join it!”

Ozgaric shot off the moon with such force that the God’s form blurred through the void like a shot from a Blackworth cannon. Immediately, multiple Blessings went out from the empowered Guzuharan divine, his newly acquired power giving him even more room to provide power to the troops of the Alastaian alliance.

immediately, a hundred Grandmasters and Transcendents of the Collective and Magocracy were Blessed. The sharpshooters and mage-lords, with divine illusory power backing them, found their shots and spells landing flush when they had not before. Immediately, scores of enemy cultivators fell under the onslaught, prompting the Celestial Emperor to angrily try and murder Ozgaric on the spot, sending a powerful blast of the Dao of Domination and Supremacy towards him.

Of course, Orodan had fortified the minds and souls of all the alliance’s forces with the Incorruptible Being aspect of his own Celestial skill. Jian Huangdi’s attempts to sway the minds of Alastaia’s forces failed, but the power of the peak-Transcendent’s dao could still kill them on the spot.

Something Ozgaric weathered, throwing divine power against the oncoming attack. And although the God trembled under the strain, he barely made it through the barrage, joining the group of Transcendents fighting the Celestial Emperor. The northern God was Alastaia’s mightiest divine. With him joining the fray that fight wasn’t nearly as desperate any longer.

“Orodan Wainwright… can you truly unshackle us? Is Ozgaric’s new form… stable?”

“Come try it and find out.”

And the death divinity did, as Orodan repaid a debt he owed from one of his earliest loops where Ilyatana threatened to permanently enslave him in mind and body. Knowing what he did now about his will, it was uncertain whether she would have succeeded, but Malzim had saved him all the same.

Talricto wove the web and established the dimensional boundary, Malzim flooded the newly forged dimension with his deathly essence, and Orodan forced the death God’s domain from the divine realm into this new plane of his own.

“The God of Death comes! Let none call me a coward any longer!’

Halor was empowered, as were Cithrel—who was a little too elated at the thought of being near her husband physically—and Athandelu. Faraine too was given her own dimension, making a beeline directly for the section of battle containing Vespidia, as was Athandelu.

Finally the remaining minor Guzuharan Gods and Goddesses were granted power and they all charged forth to join the battle.

By the end of it all, Orodan received a final message.

[Reality Alteration 89 → Reality Alteration 90]

The culminating result of forcing the essences of all those divines to become a permanent and irrevocable part of Talricto’s newly created dimensions. He hadn’t pushed past level 100 of Dimensionalism, but that he knew would take time. Especially since he had only functioned as the assistant for Talricto who had done most of the fine-tuning work while he merely provided the raw power.

More importantly, pulling those divinities and their respective domains of power out of the realm of the Gods and into dimensions of their own had not gone unnoticed. With each God and Goddess he had empowered, Orodan felt the divine dimension tremble and the gigantic veins of System energy and Eldritch tremble in fury.

The Boundless One was certainly not happy. But far as he was concerned, its opinion was irrelevant when it shackled divines to a dimension where they were forced to act as System energy purifiers and eventually become corrupt themselves.

Orodan also considered that these divines he’d empowered couldn’t exactly be referred to as Gods in the same sense as other divines under the System. They were now entirely independent, capable of existing within their own dimension or the material plane as they freely chose.

Now, the dozen newly empowered beings had joined the fight against the Celestial Emperor, and despite how monstrously powerful Jian Huangdi was, the Celestial cultivator wasn’t faring very well when a central facet of his power—mind control—was rendered useless and he was getting swarmed by all of Alastaia’s empowered divines and some very powerful Transcendents at the same time.

“Tch! Like ants daring to swarm a lion. These wicked powers you unnatural Gods have acquired will avail you not! My dao shall never bend! The truth shall not be suppressed!” Jian Huangdi roared in rage, facing the assault of dozens now. “Elder! This junior beseeches you for aid!”

And on the Unity and Conclave’s side, the Overking of the hells wasn’t looking satisfied with the progress of demonkind either.

So as Almyra and Alagameth were fighting a losing battle against the goat-woman Embodier—her abilities proving too much for them—their situation became two times worse as additional figures came through the torn dimensional boundaries.

One, an ancient woman, daintily holding a teacup in her hands within that cup, death. The other from the opposite end, a wiry-looking Arch-Devil with some truly lethal looking hellfire emanating from its body.

“Wait just a while longer, Zaessythra. Once I deal with these coming foes… I shall see you returned.”

“Orodan… just what are you planning?” she asked, confused and more than a little worried as to why she had not been brought back yet.

Both Almyra and Alagameth’s spirits sank, struggling against the Embodiment of Purity as they were, but their woes were about to come to an end.

“Embodiers run amok and Transcendents lay dead in scores. A battlefield worthy of a true devil,” the Embodiment-level Arch-Devil declared with a smile.

“What’s this nonsense little Huangdi has called me for? I was just enjoying some tea…” the ancient cultivator complained.

“More allies. Excellent,” the goat-woman Embodier spoke. “Endless Cup Empress. Aid me in slaying my rival Embodier, and I shall gift you one of my orchard worlds full of rare tea leaves and herbs. And as for you, Devil Overlord Maathramaz, help me slay these pests and you may collect their souls to use in making more Embodier’s Sacrifices.”

“Why that sounds acceptable, let-”

“I do ever have need for more of those. Very well, allow-”

Both the new arrivals suddenly froze.

The Embodiment-level cultivator’s teacup began swelling to the size of a star system, the liquid within spilling forth and promising instant death. And the Arch-Devil’s hellfires immediately burgeoned out, threatening to incinerate his home world entirely.

Yet Orodan’s Elemental Living Enchantment fueling his Smite of Abrupt Deliverance cared for none of these things.

[Elemental Living Enchantment 53 → Elemental Living Enchantment 55]

[Draconic Fireball 93 → Draconic Fireball 94]

The fight against Kharadun had been the impetus many of his skills needed to increase in power. He was now a Sword Grandmaster and a Physical Grandmaster. His sword and shield were also of the finest possible make his world could produce, which further amplified his battle power.

All these combined, even with these Embodiers arrayed against him, Orodan now felt more confident in facing them head on.

The King of Kings had been correct. If he managed to beat him of all people… then what chance did these other Embodiers have?

He lined both the new Embodiers up in a straight line and unleashed his might. He directed the force carefully, ensuring it was away from the direction of Alastaia, Vylrystia and the star system of the Magocracy losing a significant amount of power in the process, but the end result didn’t change.

The teacup completely vaporized, and the hellfire spiral surrounding the devil was blown out of existence. The old woman’s body was reduced to nothing and the Arch-Devil disintegrated as multiple star systems behind them vanished from the force despite Orodan’s best attempts at redirection.

Damn it. Fighting at the Embodiment-level was fraught with more danger than he thought it would be. Collateral damage was a real concern when his allies weren’t covering for him. Such destruction was a natural consequence of battles at the Embodiment-level, but to Orodan it only made a sick feeling of guilt and responsibility take root within. He had not even intended to strike the star systems behind, but the force of the attack was simply too much to contain perfectly.

He would make no excuses… that was entirely on him.

The Embodiment of Purity who witnessed his immediate and instant killing of two other Embodiers paled. Suddenly the confidence and arrogance on her was gone.

Both the cultivator and the Arch-Devil were slaughtered on the spot and she was the only one remaining.

Almyra and Alagameth too did a double take at the destruction.

“Warn us before cutting loose next time… that’s fifty star systems full of life you just obliterated,” the previous looper lectured. “But… I suppose such things happen during battles between Embodiers.”

It was a weak justification which Orodan refused to accept. He vowed to never again repeat the error if he could help it.

“T-thief! Deceiver! You should not be so powerful!” the enemy Embodiment of Purity frothed in rage. “Give it back! Give back the concept you have stolen from us all! More will come until you do!”

“I know that. I have fought you many, many times by now. And I have grown,” Orodan replied. “The warrior you faced five loops ago is not the one standing before you now.”

“Loops… loops… unbelievable. A time looper, one who has achieved Embodiment too…” the Embodiment of Purity muttered. “You may win against me, but you shall not win against us all. And certainly not against the Prophet. He knows that your ally here has used one of the Mantles belonging to an Administrator… and he comes.”

Orodan knew that. In fact, he was counting on it.

With all the chaos occurring right now, he wasn’t sure if the Custodian could even afford to show up. But he knew for sure that at the very least the Prophet would come. That zealot was far too invested in acquiring the Reject’s Mantle. Although, Orodan wasn’t entirely sure what effect the glimpse of Fenton’s tailor-made drawing had upon that wicked corruptor.

With that said, she too, fled for her life, and Orodan allowed it.

She would either return in force with more, or would truly stay away having seen his strength. In any case, he, Almyra and Alagameth and the remaining forces of the alliance got to work in sweeping the battlefield clear now that the enemy’s Embodiers had been bested.

The Alastaian alliance alongside the Unity and Conclave got to work in slaughtering large portions of both enemy forces who refused to retreat.

The Celestial Emperor and the Overking of the hells retreated in disgrace, their forces utterly shredded once their respective Embodiers had been defeated. He had a feeling they would not be returning anytime soon this loop.

After recovering their casualties and doing a headcount, eventually, the arrayed forces of his home world and its allies gathered in the control chamber of the ancient machine, where one particular young man was furiously working upon the device, accounting for the new addition to it.

“Mister Orodan!” Fenton exclaimed, sounding quite frantic. “You won out there?”

“For now. We have more coming however,” Orodan answered. “How goes work on the machine?”

“It… it’s a little complex ser. That crystal you gave me is big, and firin’ it out the way you intend is goin’ to take quite a lot of power,” Fenton explained. “I’ve been makin’ adjustments on the fly best I can, but it’ll still take a bit more time. And… somethin’s blocking us from firing at those secondary coordinates you gave me. System energy, based off the readings I’m gettin’ here.”

Almyra frowned, looking down at the sleeves of the Mantle she was wearing. She closed her eyes in concentration as though searching for something.

“He’s right. It’s the Prophet. It is… close.”

She sounded fearful as she said it.

“Couldn’t we just get Mister Talricto to clear the block?” Fenton asked, and even Talricto seemed amenable to the idea. The spider’s skill in Dimensionalism

“For what I’m planning, I can brook no interference,” Orodan denied. “I shall need multiple pathways opened to various places.”

“What an odd requirement. And of course that means you shall have to fight it,” Destartes spoke. “Orodan. You have told none of us what it is you intend to do exactly. This is the farthest we’ve ever gotten in one of these loops, and you have consistenly spoken as though it shall not entirely end. I believe I speak for everyone here when I say we want answers.”

Orodan surveyed the room, noting that his dependable and loyal allies had indeed trusted him thus far but looked more than a little tired of being left in the dark.

“And not only that you but you have evacuated Vylrystia and not even resurrected Zaessythra yet. Just what are-”

“I intend on bringing you all into the time loops. Permanently.”

Silence met his most insane declaration. A quiet resulting from shock which Almyra was the first to break.

“Impossible. Even if you supposedly empowered the time loops yourself, adding more than one person to it should be completely impossible. The energy requirements would be entirely unfathomable and who knows how the loop mechanism even works?”

She couldn’t be blamed for harboring such doubts. For too long had she operated under the shadow of the Prophet’s oppression and had to deal with the truth of being stripped of the time loops. She had also only known him for this loop and hadn’t been with him as the others had.

But where she doubted his insane endeavor, Adeltaj stepped forward, laying a hand upon Orodan’s shoulder.

“I admit, it’s entirely reasonable to doubt this fool,” Adeltaj spoke. “But, for as much of an idiot as you are Orodan, I have seen the depths of your determination over the past five loops of working and fighting alongside you. At this point, if you told me you’d turn the sky green, I would believe you.”

And surprisingly enough… Talricto shushed the doubters.

“Idiots. Not an hour ago he helped me divest Gods from the System’s yoke while still maintaining their divinity and the Blessings of their followers,” the spider spoke. “Now, it was of course, I, the illustrious Talricto who did most of the work. But Orodan here helped. As he has been helping all of you, myself included for all these loops. Yes, he might be a brute, and an savage of the lowest order. A man who knows but the barest touch of civility and good manners… but he has never once lied about what he intends to do. Losing faith in him now would be entirely silly.”

“Talricto…” Orodan muttered, surprised. “You-”

“Do not let it get to your head. You have a tall task ahead of you,” the spider interrupted.

“And Vylrystia? Why have you evacuated our entire world?” General Vaelrosaan the half dragon commander of Alastaia’s former moon spoke.

“As I have learned, true soul genesis requires two things. The conditions for life, and events of significance. However, my trip to the elemental plane of lightning showed me that what we believed necessary for the conditions of life and significance need not come from material things.”

Destartes looked thoughtful, and then the ols wizard’s face paled.

“You mean to forge her soul anew using a Boundless One…”

“What more fitting a rebirth than to use the very same one which ruined her soul in the first place?” Orodan asked, and he could already feel that he had outright stopped the half dragon inside his soul from thinking with how ridiculous his idea was. “With the ancient machine, not only will I be able to reach the time loop mechanism, but mainly, I’ll be able to open a hole in the cage leading outside System space.”

Both of which were things he could potentially do himself, but not without causing mass casualties and the destruction of many, many things. But with the machine? He could directly open a pathway to the bowels of the System where the Boundless One lay, and also open a direct dimensional pathway outside.

It wasn’t normally meant to do such things at all, but with the crystal sourced from Kharadun Voidfortress as a beacon, and Fenton and Clyburn’s work upon the device, Orodan held confidence that it was now capable of standing up to the rigors he intended to place upon it.

“You are a mad man, Orodan Wainwright. In no reality should I even be entertaining this thought… but your insane plan has some logic to it, in a deranged way. And if all these people believe in you, then I suppose Alstatyn and I can as well,” Almyra said, finally looking less uncertain about the entire thing. “What do you need us to do?”

“Just keep Alastaia and Vylrystia safe. The destruction from the coming battle shall be great… I’ll need you lot who are specialized in spatiomancy and Dimensionalism to keep us from destroying everything.”

With that singular request made, his allies seemed a little less apprehensive about it all. Much easier when they realized that they would have to participate in none of the fighting.

His disciples hadn’t looked happy about that at all, and neither had Adeltaj, but they understood and respected his decision that certain fights belonged to him and him alone. Although of them all, Wainroach seemed the most dissatisfied about this. The forest roach had an almost unsettling look in her eye.

“Well, Orodan,” Edrosic spoke. “Thanks for leaving me to deal with her tantrum now.”

“I think you’ll be fine, Edrosic,” Orodan replied.

“Easy for you to say when you’ll be off getting torn apart by that priest, prophet or whatever it calls itself,” the militia man replied.

“Speaking of… I never did ask what exactly you drew that caused it to leave so abruptly. Looked like a normal, if incredibly detailed, portrat of it.”

“Eh? You couldn’t see? Right… of course you couldn’t,” Edrosic muttered. “I tailored that sketch for that preacher specifically.”

Orodan showed no surprise at the fact that Parthus Edrosic’s drawing skills were good enough that the man could tailor a drawing specifically for a singular person.

“Then… what was in the drawing? What did you intend?”

“Oh, I just tried showing it what its real desires were. Oddly conflicted fellow that one. Trying to play at being a man when it could just embrace the duality directly. Brute force wasn’t going to work, nor a painting which attacked its mind. So I had to show it something that would get it thinking real good.”

Orodan wasn’t sure what to make of that. The Prophet hadn’t even been harmed by the painting Edrosic had drawn either. Just deeply contemplative as though it had seen something important to itself.

But all the same, the final preparations occurred.

Orodan would have liked to say some climactic ambush occurred, or that the other Embodiers after him tore through the void to interrupt them, or that the Prophet itself rived through reality to take them by surprise…

…yet nothing but the steady hum of Fenton’s work could be heard. The spatiomancers’ preparations took place as they shielded, obscured and warded Alastaia and Vylrystia to the best of their abilities alongside assistance from their respective world cores.

Ten minutes after everyone was done, Talricto perked up.

“Embodiers coming through the boundary. Not that there’s much of one left after all that.”

The cataclysmic battle Orodan had against the King of Kings had ensured that the line between the material plane and other dimensions of the cosmos was very thin indeed.

“Right then. I’ll be off,” he replied. “The lot of you may want to leave this mountain… it’s coming with me.”

“Orodan…” Talricto spoke. “Best of luck.”

He simply nodded. Luck would not be the determining factor for what lay ahead of him.

Fortitude and all the work he had put in thus far would be.

Mount Castarian itself was now reinforced and fortified. A mountain of finely carved stone with runes etched into it. A true bulwark which could now support the ancient machine and bear much of the load of its activation. His gathered allies slipped out of the mountain so that Orodan could cast a gigantic Spatial Fold all over it, pulling it directly onto Vylrystia. Specifically, right onto the green plains directly behind the World-Queen’s citadel. This was the place of greatest significance to Zaessythra.

Her home and where she had officially raised the crown and herself above her world, claiming rulership of it. This place would solve one of the issues of significance, half the required recipe for true soul genesis. And with that solved, he had only one place left to go.

One enemy whose presence was blocking him from using the ancient machine the way he intended.

Space trembled, Teleportation far easier due to the chaotic rupturing of it in various places due to all the fighting. And he found himself in the void between stars where he sensed the very first Embodier of the next wave coming through.

A towering twenty-foot tall muscle-bound golem made purely of metal. An Embodier who had pulverized and crushed Orodan time and time again, to the point that it had driven his skill growth in Physical Fitness and Body Tempering, making him stronger.

An Embodier who espoused the purity of strength. One of the rare few who was a dual Embodier, although not as high-level in each skill as some of the older ones.

“Impressive… not just purity but strength as well,” the metallic giant spoke. “While fleeing for her life like the craven she is, Yarathagal told me that you are a time looper. Is this true?”

It was no machine like the beings of the Unity but a true living thing somehow made of metal. For the past five loops Orodan had tried to understand how such a being cvould exist and what secrets he could glean from it. But he was no scholar like Destartes, nor would he bring the old wizard up against something which could smash Orodan into paste.

Chiefly, the main barrier to studying its biology was that he was continually rendered into paste. Made focused research just a little difficult.

But this time things would be different. He was a Physical Grandmaster now. His mightiest attack had surprised and dealt even Kharadun Voidfortress a fatal wound.

“Indeed. I’ve fought you a few times now. Your strength is prodigious,” Orodan answered, flexing his arms and causing shockwaves to erupt from his form. “But I have gained a level. So come, let us match our might against one another one more time!”

Two of his five deaths when fighting the pursuing Embodiers came at the hands of this towering paragon of metal. It had utterly pulped him within a compressing metal cage once, and another time it had simply fired a star system sized beam of liquid metal at him.

But it also had a sense of honor and fair play.

“To be the whetstone a time looper grinds their blade against…! What an honor!” it roared as its metallic muscles flexed, causing the noise of groaning metal and snapping cables to reverberate throughout the void. “I was going to offer you a place at my side as a disciple of mine, but to test myself against one of the System’s beloved… let us lock grips and test our might warrior-to-warrior!”

Thus, even as Orodan’s skull shattered thanks to its headbutt, and his fingers crunched into pulp as he locked grips with both its hands, he couldn’t really bring himself to dis particular Embodier. He was in fact somewhat fond of it.

It was an absurd scene. A near-seven-foot man standing in a grip deadlock against a twenty-foot tall and far larger metallic being. And yet, Orodan was managing to hold. Especially now that he was a Physical Grandmaster and the strength gap wasn’t as wide as it was in the past. Furthermore, Orodan was much smaller than it, which meant it needed to work far harder than he did in order to overpower him.

For it, wrestling him was the equivalent of a man attempting to wrestle a short steel pole. Difficult.

[Wrestling 92 → Wrestling 93]

“Hmm! Not bad!” it praised, having to exert true effort now. “A Physical Grandmaster? A rarity even in the wider void. Too many Embodiers are lazy and unwilling to commit to the physical pursuits. Especially among the softer, fleshier species such as humans.”

It was still stronger, but no longer overwhelmingly so. And if there was one thing Orodan was quite good at, it was facing uphill odds and somehow reaching upwards to challenge even an absolutely superior opponent.

“I see you underestimate me for being human… then allow me to show you, the power of a weaker race.”

He would not be ignorant enough to claim that it didn’t know pain, struggle or the feeling of having its back pressed against the wall. For nobody got to the Embodiment-level, especially as a martially inclined individual, by being soft.

But that didn’t mean that this metallic warrior wasn’t used to being an apex species. Orodan had met dragons, Arch-Devils, true vampires and the like. Species which were doubtlessly superior to his own kind. Humans just weren’t meant to face certain kinds of beings at their own game. No sane warrior on Alastaia would face down a demonic berserker or death roach in melee at the same tier. No sane mage would face a Fallen Void Archon in a magical duel head-to-head. Humans weren’t built for being the greatest in any particular field. They were versatile, that was their strength.

It was a strength Orodan threw out the window as he violently and brutally flexed his muscles, the desperation of being the underdog, of being the weaker party, gave him a sort of strength this metallic warrior would never have.

This Embodier had never walked into a fight with the knowledge that whatever it faced in melee was intrinsically superior to its species. Orodan however, had. He had faced demonic berserkers and death roaches in melee. Dragons and Arch-Devils in close-quarters. As a mere man he had dared to challenge those greater than he. And he had come out on top despite fighting them at their own game.

As his muscles gripped its metal fingers hard enough to leave the barest of dents, he wound his neck back…

…and delivered a headbutt of his own.

[Iron Body 93 → Iron Body 94]

His own skull shattered yet again of course. But if there was anything Orodan was exceptionally good at… it was battering a wall with his head thousands of times until either the wall broke or he did.

And he had never been broken.

It was proud, honorable and possessed of a fierce warrior-like temper which he quite respected. On the next pass, it reeled its own neck back, meeting Orodan’s headbutt in the middle with its own.

The two heads collided, causing a shockwave of such power that the spatial and dimensional defenses erected by his allies trembled briefly. His head splattered yet again, but reformed quickly enough. Just in time to meet the metal-warrior’s next headbutt with another of his own.

Again his head exploded, but Orodan cared not.

[Iron Body 94 → Iron Body 95]

[Body Tempering 81 → Body Tempering 82]

This was good training.

In earlier loops the physical gap had simply been too wide. The other Embodier of Purity, the goat-woman Yarathagal, had also been present and happily threw cheap shots at him while he fought this one. But now? With the strength gap narrowed, his other abilities increased and a proper one-on-one?

Orodan would show this metal giant the mettle of humanity.

Ten headbutts in, his opponent’s skull had an angry-looking lump and the beginnings of a silvery liquid flowing out.

“Grah! You honor me with your zeal time looper! But I shall not break! Show me the heart of one anointed by the System itself! Show me what the Boundless One sees in your frail species!”

Like two stubborn mules dead set on shoving one another and losing track of everything else, Orodan and the metallic giant continued meeting in the middle with headbutts.

Dozens of collisions occurred. And slowly, Orodan’s body began to toughen.

[Body Tempering 82 → Body Tempering 83]

His insights in the physical arts were good enough that he could apply the insights which led to his head being tougher to the rest of his body.

Another dozen more rang out, and now his foe was profusely bleeding.

[Iron Body 95 → Iron Body 96]

It was tough, but nowhere near as sturdy as Kharadun had been, for Orodan would never have been able to wound that dwarf with mere headbutts. Furthermore, this Embodier might have been made of metal, but had little in the way of regenerative prowess. Its extremely tough metallic form not lending well to such things.

“For all the frailty you ascribe to my kind, yours isn’t all too good at recovering from injuries is it?” Orodan asked.

It seemed humans were not entirely inferior to such beings after all. Dragons and Arch-Devils, while strong, also couldn’t heal their wounds nearly as effectively as a human could.

“Tch! You provoke me with your words time looper! I give you your honors, your resilience and endurance outpaces mine… but can your frail form of flesh withstand being crushed by metal?”

“Dare to try and see what happens.”

The outrage in its eyes was very real. As was the clearly intentional provocation from Orodan.

The coming foe, without a Mantle to rely on, would need each and every bit of his strength and insights. He needed to acquire as much strength as he could here and now.

Though that acquisition of strength would matter little if he was pulped into oblivion.

A cube of living metal formed around him and began compressing inwards. Like the Eldritch Avatar had done long ago, this being also sought to ground him into paste and even beyond.

But for Orodan… this time he was ready.

Using spatiomancy or Dimensionalism to escape would have been the cheap way out. He was a warrior, and this would be the crucible through which he forged himself to greater heights.

The cube collapsed inwards, beginning the crushing process. Orodan, strong and tough as he was, could not resist.

But what he could do…

…was close his eyes and meditate even as the extreme pressure of metal bore down upon him.

[Body Tempering 83 → Body Tempering 85]

Immediately, gains came. Especially since he strained, focused and thought through thousands of possibilities for how he could rebuild his cells to be even sturdier in the face of such raw force. Facing elemental assault, acidic disintegration or other manner of esoteric attack was good but not quite the same as raw physical force.

And it had been difficult to find enemies capable of threatening him in such a manner. So when he’d discovered this Embodier was one of them, this manner of self-improvement had always been the end goal.

Body Tempering, Physical Fitness and Iron Body, all of which were now improved, allowed him to survive for just a little longer this time. Even as Orodan was squeezed into a grotesque cube of meaty cells, he still resisted. And unlike the other time he had died to this method of attack, this time he made the cube struggle to completely finish the job.

Which meant more time. And the longer he survived under such pressure, the more gains he made.

[Iron Body 96 → Iron Body 97]

It was the most rapid slew of gains to Iron Body and Body Tempering he had made in a while. Furthermore, Harmony of Vitality amplified the training process as the healing meant that each cell he reformed was born under an extreme amount of pressure. Thus, each new cell had to be just a bit stronger than the last as the pressure kept intensifying.

[Body Tempering 85 → Body Tempering 86]

“The Inevitability of Metal can form black holes with the amount of pressure it can exert, and you withstand even this? I retract my claims about you humans, if the rest are anything like you then they are a fearsome race indeed!” the metallic giant declared, continuing to exert pressure.

But for Orodan whose Harmony of Vitality was now exerting enough outward force that he was slowing the cube’s inward compression, he knew that this opportunity for training was nearing its end.

[Body Tempering 86 → Body Tempering 88]

He could hear the Embodiment of Purity & Strength straining and struggling outside. It was exerting maximal pressure upon the cube it had him trapped in. Yet even then, it could do nothing as the inward gain of the cube’s compression finally halted…

[Body Tempering 88 → Body Tempering 90]

…and then began reversing.

“From where does this strength come?” it demanded, in disbelief as it was previously overpowering him with the cube.

“From you. Thank you… for the training.”

As he spoke, his body began to slowly reform too. From a crushed cube of meat and bone he began taking the shape of a man once more, his arms and legs extending outward to force the cube to expand instead of compress. Pure raw might driving him.

Body Tempering reaching the Master-level had made him far stronger now. In tandem with his Grandmaster Physical Fitness and the toughness Iron Body granted him… this crushing prison was no longer the death sentence it initially promised to be.

Except, there was one minor problem.

Orodan was nearly seven feet tall, yet as he pushed the cube outwards to his maximum height, he realized he could not exactly push it any further through mere extension.

“Hah! You will remain trapped! Cursed to eternally bear the weight until you surrender or end your loop!” the giant roared, realizing that it had him right where it wanted him. “Already I see your arms lowering. Shall you allow… eh?”

Orodan’s arms and legs were indeed bending, allowing the cube to compress…

…only for them to fully extend once again, his muscles straining against the force.

They bent, and extended yet again. And after the fifth such motion the Embodiment of Purity & Strength looked incredibly confused.

“If you seek to find weak points through stressing my prison of metal, you shall find none! Even stretched to the size of a star it loses no power whatsoever!”

“Good. Then I will get to have many reps of exercise before your power wanes.”

For he had no interest in finding a weak spot. Rather, he was now quite invested in using this cube as a method of physical conditioning. Alastaia had no suitable weight to challenge him, and throwing the planet about could get dangerous for everyone upon it.

But this? A cube which had power enough to crush matter into black holes? Excellent training, and the source of many reps of work.

“Y-you dare use my cube as a glorified weight?! I shall show you! You will never break it this way in a million years!”

Which was, in his opinion, false bravado. Already he could feel his strength growing as he pushed up and let it fall down. Harmony of Vitality repairing his cells and muscles to the optimal state with the gains made from each rep.

The crushing force went up and out as Orodan’s arms and legs extended, and then it came down again as he let it compress inwards. And he experimented with different methodologies too. Sometimes doing paused reps at the very limit of the crush before exploding outwards with force. Sometimes doing very rapid half reps in a short range of motion where he trained his rapid-fire might. And other times he simply held the weight at the very bottom of his range for an extended period of time before focusing on doing a very slow and controlled lift where he ensured his muscles didn’t tremble or deviate at all; even shifting to a single arm and a single leg to test his strength under delicate balance conditions. And finally, he would end the circuit with some explosive throws, where he hurled the walls of the metal cage outwards as far as he could.

This would of course cause the walls to fly right back inwards with even greater force, overwhelming him with the momentum. But that was just further opportunity for conditioning.

There was nobody upon Alastaia, Thazrivin or the Collective who was more proficient at the physical arts than he. And just as he had trained his students and the others in the loops in rigorous conditioning drills, so too was he now conditioning himself. It was some exhilarating training and really underscored how badly he had missed the simple joys of being weak enough to enjoy things like helping unload Old Man Hannegan’s cart after doing his daily morning run. He had been looking for a way of properly testing himself physically for a while now, and this particular Embodier had been a stroke of true fortune.

[Body Tempering 90 → Body Tempering 91]

The crushing fall of the cage as he threw it a mile high gave him one more level of benefit in Body Tempering, and then…

…the reps became even easier.

His muscles moved with not just brutal efficiency, but passion.

Orodan had the physical sort, big, hearty and prone to activity and violence from a very young age. If he wasn’t fighting, then he was out in Ogdenborough trying to survive. There was no real idle time as a street rat. His body had needed to be strong, enduring and capable of tolerating stresses which would break or injure a more conventionally honed child his age who also pursued the physical arts.

Running from the militia, getting into brawls with House Argon guards who he stood no chance against, doing chores and manual labor for the Lady Sashwari Home for the Wayward from a very early age so that he could earn a bigger portion during meal time… it all came accompanied with the physical honing of his body.

Even before focusing on the fact that he had a Physical Fitness skill, Orodan had been physical. It was his only way of survival.

Then, what was Physical Fitness?

It couldn’t just be strength and endurance, or flexibility and agility. For Orodan, Physical Fitness was the bodily ability to withstand whatever was thrown at you.

Be it life’s curveballs or a gigantic metallic cage whose walls were now zooming in towards him at frightening speed since he’d thrown it a few hundred miles out.

Thus, with the next flexion of his arms he understood.

That Physical Fitness meant being fit enough to weather even this. Fit enough to draw from all his insights

[Physical Fitness 100 → Physical Fitness 102]

[New Title → Physical Transcendent]

The metallic walls of the incoming crushing cube stopped. His muscles, perfectly disciplined and still. Right before they exploded outwards using the principles behind Burst Casting.

His training partner was too shocked to see the walls of its metallic cage skill fly so far out that they exceeded the diameter of a star. Its skill was weakened and it was too caught off-guard to react in time as the walls hit it directly in the face and caused the walls of the cage to fall apart as the distraction caused ts concentration to slip.

“Now that was some good training. I shall have to enlist you from my future loops… this has been quite the breath of fresh air,” Orodan spoke as he walked towards the metallic Embodier.

“You achieved Physical Transcendence…? Of course you did. The System would not favor you unless you were a true monster who deserved to be anointed as time looper,” his opponent replied, face setting into a grim look. “Come then! I, Vylladium Athranium shall not go down without a fight!”

Their grips deadlocked once more. An utterly illogical manner of fighting, yet one both sides had committed to out of pride and the desire to test their raw might against one another.

Except this time, Orodan was holding nearly evenly. The strength gap still favored this giant, for not only was it larger, but it was an Embodier of some physical skill too. But that was its weakness. Its apex race, likely favored for physical confrontations, had made it complacent about forging its flesh to be even stronger like he had.

Orodan possessed not just Physical Fitness, but also Body Tempering and Absolute Body Composition. As a human he intrinsically knew he was at a disadvantage and so actively worked to forge himself into a better weapon and overcome those shortcomings.

This Embodier however did not. And it was aghast at the fact that it truly struggled, even at full strength, to overpower him.

“H-how?! I am stronger than you!”

“You are…” Orodan gritted through clenched teeth as his frenzied eyes locked onto the foe’s. “But you have not known the desperation of being weak. That defiant refusal to accept inferiority even when matched against someone overwhelmingly stronger!”

And it was this natural weakness of his kind that was one of the reasons for Orodan’s rabid ferocity. Yes, an Embodier was no joke, but this being was low-level in both skills it was an Embodiment in. And it didn’t use its strength with the same weaponized brutality and desperation that he did.

Something which was apparent now as the strength gap was even narrower.

It exerted overbearing pressure upon him, its weight looming above his shorter form. But he exploded with more violent force, opting to destroy his very musculature in a bid to match and exceed it at certain local points. He was smaller too, which meant it had to put in more work and could not as effectively bring its twenty-foot tall frame’s full strength to bear against his smaller form.

Thus, it came as no surprise when Orodan’s smaller but proportionally stronger hands caused its wrists to creak ominously.

It grunted in pain and realizing that the physical match might not go its way, opted to pull out its last trump card.

Its abilities as an Embodiment of Purity.

Which were promptly slapped aside by Orodan’s own Celestial skill, its attempt at purifying his cells to become weaker, utterly ineffective.

A headbutt collided with its skull, and although Orodan suffered damage in the process, his head did not shatter or splatter this time. And it was sent flying off into the void. A departure of shame which it made no effort to stop. A retreat which Orodan allowed as he had no particular quarrel with it and in fact considered the towering metal warrior a good training partner.

The void was eerily empty, though Orodan got that familiar feeling of something in the corner of his Vision of Purity, at the very edge of it. He was too preoccupied with the prior battle to notice it before, but he did now.

[Vision of Purity 98 → Vision of Purity 99]

A familiar giant eyeball. As though someone had plucked the eye from a mountain-sized giant and let it flow through the void and go about its own business. And it was staring right at him.

[Identify 15 → Identify 21]

The skill failed and Orodan received a wave of backlash as usual, but it was one he weathered with ease.

“Rude. Identifier will refer to Orodan Wainwright as the rude one. The rude time looper,” the Identifier spoke.

“You were the one watching my battle the entire time without saying a word and you call me rude?”

“Of course. Identifier did not cast any skill upon the rude time looper. Identifier has manners. Rude time looper, Orodan Wainwright, does not. Or did rude one wish to use Identifier for training like he did metallic one?” the Identifier inquired.

Orodan’s guilty look was the only answer.

“As Identifier said. Rude.”

“Is this all you do? Watch and make snide remarks about my manners? Why are you even spying on me?” Orodan asked.

“Identifier simply watches, and identifies. Why would Identifier not? Rude time looper has broken galaxy and expects everyone will not watch?”

“Rude time looper has no more time for questions. Bright one approaches, and then, rude time looper’s true test.”

Much as the giant eyeball’s weird mannerisms irked him, he did appreciate the warning for it was right.

The already torn dimensional boundary—devastated by the prior battles—offered no resistance as the void turned bright with white fire. The very horizon glowing so luminously that the eyes of most folk would go blind. And an approaching wave of pure white flame came for him.

A wave which Orodan met with his own soul energy and mana empowered Draconic Fireball, sent via a Burst Cast.

[Draconic Fireball 94 → Draconic Fireball 95]

[Fire Mastery 41 → Fire Mastery 43]

[Fire Magic Mastery 77 → Fire Magic Mastery 78]

[Burst Casting 73 → Burst Casting 74]

His own fireball was the size of a large planet.

He had never charged the spell up this powerfully before when actually casting it externally. He had fueled Elemental Living Enchantments with it, but not hurled it directly at a foe.

Now, as the incoming nuclear fire met his own overcharged fireball, the two met in an explosion which shook the very fabric of reality.

His allies were smart enough to separate Alastaia, Vylrystia and Thazrivin into another safe dimension since before the battle. But even if they hadn’t, the fusion slime would have kept them safe.

Orodan’s fireball, although matching more than half of the slime’s fire, was still overpowered. And it hadn’t even been a particularly powerful attack from it either. And before the explosion could go out of control and destroy any neighboring star systems, the Embodier drew both its own flames and Orodan’s into itself.

This was the power of a being built for producing and absorbing fire as the particles it was composed of continually roiled and combined within like a furnace to produce flame. A true being of the white fire.

“Usurper. Your flames are decent, but require much tutelage. Now, duel me not with flame but with your Cleanining abilities. The loser shall cede their control over the concept we all fight over,” the fusion slime demanded, now becoming visible to the naked eye as its fires pulled inwards, revealing an amorphous form.

“And what if I wished to test myself against both?” Orodan asked in turn, his hands roiling with flame.

Unlike his physical abilities combined with Elemental Living Enchanting and magic, as a pure spellcaster Orodan wasn’t anywhere near as powerful. So while he would not be shattering star systems anytime soon, it was still an important opportunity to train his flames for who knew when that mad zealot would arrive?

The fusion slime said nothing else, roiling with flames which were not just hot, but purifying as well.

It was a Transcendent when it came to fire, but also possessed that esoteric ability to produce white fire by combining certain charged particles within itself. What an odd phenomenon that was too, this fusion. However, what made its flames powerful was their purifying nature.

[Domain of Perfect Cleaning 180 → Domain of Perfect Cleaning 182]

[Draconic Fireball 95 → Draconic Fireball 97]

A power of purity which was utterly overwhelmed as Orodan’s Celestial skill weaved into his flames, matching the fusion slime’s power of purification and outright eradicating its flames.

At the last moment he pulled back as Cleanliness thought of going too far and erasing the Embodier outright, but Orodan would not allow it.

The slime was dazed, spent of a great deal of its power… but still alive. And in utter awe.

“I-incredible…! For one so young to contain the concept so thoroughly…” the slime muttered. “Cleanliness… it practically worships the ground you walk on.”

“Rude one’s Celestial skill approaches the threshold for peak-Embodiment soon… what an oddity,” the Identifier spoke off to the side. “None of the other failures reached so far. Skill at 190? Near 200? Must identify…”

Other failures? This thing must have meant the other time loopers. Had none of them ever gotten as far as he did?

Orodan allowed the Identifier to scan him with its eye, and as it did, the creature shook imperceptibly.

“…time looper far stronger than level. Full concept control not possible unless near peak-Embodiment. Even devil Administrator not peak-Embodiment. Lacking full conceptual control.”

He was an anomaly then… as always, and ever since the beginning of it all.

And he was tired of waiting, for by the looks of it, nobody else was coming to face him after that display. And not since he’d bested Kharadun Voidfortress early on.

Which meant there was only one foe left. One who had not presented themselves yet for some odd reason.

“Come out zealot! Your corruptive ways end today!”

For a while, no return came and Orodan was feeling rather stupid and on the verge of tearing right into the dimensional boundary in search of his foe. Then, something silently and calmly stepped out of the ripped boundary between planes.

It was tall as a Fallen Void Archon, possessed six arms, although was still an uncannily human-looking being. Most unsettling of all was the fact that it was covered in purple-gray corruption as though it was armor.

In its hands was its holy book, the Prophet’s Administrator Mantle, and in its other hand its sceptre, a tool with which it channeled its powers of wicked light.

It looked different. Not donning the usual guise it wore, but also not in its natural monstrous form. In the past, a closer look would reveal a veiled madness behind its eyes, even while in its human guise. But now? It looked… far better put-together than he ever remembered it being.

And Orodan wasn’t sure why it had not made an appearance all this time until now. There was ample opportunity for it to arrive when the Conclave did and perhaps sway those light-bearing paladins to its side via the dimension of light. Or even when numerous enemy Embodiers had shown up it could have chosen to get involved and gang up on him and his allies.

And Orodan had to wonder just what effect that drawing Edrosic had shown the Prophet had done.

“Oh, I just tried showing it what its real desires were. Oddly conflicted fellow that one. Trying to play at being a man when it could just embrace the duality directly. Brute force wasn’t going to work, nor a painting which attacked its mind. So I had to show it something that would get it thinking real good.”

Was that why it looked both human and monstrous? Why it had fully embraced the Eldritch openly and wore it as an armor?

Had Edrosic… given the Prophet a power boost?

…Orodan would have to thank him for it in the next loop.

This would be the ultimate test and challenge for his abilities thus far.

Fighting an Administrator one-on-one while it held its Mantle and he had none of his own.