Chapter 1998: Flare of Random Rewind
Rex tilted his head, confused.
It seemed like Lilliana had something to say to him.
"No... Nothing." She shook her head and smiled faintly. "It’s noth—"
Blood burst from Lilliana’s mouth.
Rex and Davina were taken aback by what they were seeing. She looked completely fine a second ago, but then suddenly, she vomited blood like she was being stabbed through her chest, and then fell to one knee weakly.
"What’s wrong?" Davina quickly came to her sister’s side. "Did you push yourself too much?"
Behind, Rex had already scanned Lilliana with the System.
He also thought the same thing as Davina, that Lilliana had pushed herself too much.
Absorbing two souls with Demigod-level power must be pretty straining to do—even though it was her bloodline’s specialty. Or perhaps her skills have a severe drawback, which would not be a surprise—as she was able to go toe-to-toe with the creatures earlier despite the gap in divinity.
But that wasn’t the case at all.
Hmm? Is it because she interacted with my soul?
Rex frowned at the notification.
Since he was now tied to the Anger Stratum, his fate and soul were tied to the Highseat of Invincibility.
Lilliana must’ve gotten exposed to that side of him and got hurt in the process.
"Sigh..." Rex went down—and carried Lilliana in a princess-style. He then looked at Lilliana, noticing that her complexion was paler than it was earlier. "If you’re hurt, then say it. Why are you hiding things? Tell me what happened."
"I... I was weaving the layer around your soul—the light your soul emitted burns." Lilliana finally laid out what happened inside Rex’s soul space. Deciding to tell how it went. "And I also saw... a glimpse of your trauma. Only a glimpse, I swear! I saw it by accident."
"You’re hiding that from me?"
"I thought you’d be offended..."
"I won’t. It’s not like I don’t want you or Davina to know. Just that we never have the chance to talk."
"Really? I’ve done something foolish then."
"Tell me what you saw." Rex’s voice was quiet with a mild amusement. He glanced toward Davina on his back. "We need to find shelter—to rest. Lilliana requires time to recover, and also my senses are not fully aligned, too. I need time to really recover. Can you scout ahead?"
"Sure, I don’t mind." Davina nodded and then blasted forward, searching for a suitable place.
It wasn’t a lie.
The System said that Lilliana would be able to shrug the burn from the Absolute Anger Effect with time; about fifteen minutes as long as she focused on circulating her energy. And his senses are still dull from being frozen in time.
Seems like the time stasis has a debilitating effect.
One that even someone like him with his incredible regeneration couldn’t get rid of in a few seconds.
Rex then followed Davina’s flight path with slow steps.
"So, what did you see?"
"I saw you in full black gear with two others with the same equipment inside a dark forest."
"Oh, it’s when I was sent to destroy a Ghoul’s Den. One of them, the one who looked like a lost puppy, is Edward."
"Is that when you lost him?"
"No, actually. I almost died that nig—"
Moments later.
Surprisingly enough—the creatures that Lilliana and Davina fought earlier were naturally passive. Rex had encountered several of them along the way, mostly bathing under the sun or digging a hole through the green sand.
Even when Rex accidentally got close to one, it didn’t attack.
It simply looked at him and then returned to whatever it was doing before being disturbed.
Lilliana believed that the only way to trigger a hostile response from these creatures was through attacking it directly, or breaking free their souls. Seems like they were wired that way by the creator of the Sundial Arch.
By the Weaver of Time.
Considering it would be better to make them all hostile, Rex thought it was a stupid mechanism.
At least he thought it was stupid until Davina descended from the sky.
Her complexion was also surprisingly as pale as Lilliana’s now—and when Rex scanned her, the System stated that she was afflicted by Time Bleed. A debilitating effect that steadily drained her stamina—and it would remain as long as she remained within the Sundial Arch.
It can’t be healed with normal means.
Only the Major Law of Time or Time Oustification could heal Time Bleed.
One of the creature’s attacks earlier was charged with the ability to inflict this Time Bleed effect.
And as if it wasn’t bad enough, the Time Bleed effect can be stacked three times.
Right now, she would only be experiencing shortness of breath.
But with more stacks, the debilitating effect would grow more severe until she can’t move a muscle.
Rex also learned from scanning the creature for only its connection to the Time-Space Soul Prison that they were invulnerable as long as their souls were within the crystals. He thought the mechanism to make the creatures passive was stupid.
Now, he stands corrected.
Defeating the creatures could only be done by freeing their souls first.
And based on how Lilliana took a long time to reach the lower atmosphere earlier—which should only be ten seconds maximum—he reckoned there are disturbances up there that slow down anyone who tries to get close to the glinting crystals.
Anyone inflicted with Time Bleed would most likely be inflicted by the disturbance more.
So, making the creatures passive is perfect for the mechanisms in place.
It would encourage anyone to constantly go up and down, making them weaker and dizzy, allowing the creatures that has its soul freed to land a decisive attack that would inflict and increase the Time Bleed stack.
Had it not been for Lilliana, they would be in serious trouble.
A combined hostile mechanism with three layers in harmony. I need to take notes.
Rex was also making a realm of his own.
Both Evelyn and Gistella were shaping the realm to be influenced by the good in them, but there would still be mechanisms for those who tried to enter—the Silverstar Genesis. And the defensive mechanism in the Sundial Arch can be used as an example.
For a good thirty minutes, Rex, Davina, and Lilliana rested behind a big mound of sand.
It blocked the sunlight, giving them shade to rest in.
Rex connected to his senses again after resting—while the sisters had been circulating the energy inside their bodies and had now recovered from their weakness. Davina was still stuck with the Time Bleed, but it should be fine.
Once they rested, the group continued going straight.
System, set a timer for three days and take into account the time I spent inside this realm.
Considering that they were in the Weaver of Time’s realm—paying attention to the flow of time should be mandatory. It would be easy to be unconsciously influenced by the realm’s power. Rex would be in big trouble if he wasted too much time, or perhaps even missed the Purgation Duel.
So, this was important to have.
Nothing as far as the eye can see, so there’s no other choice but to explore the Sundial Arch.
Just then, Rex sensed something.
A shift in the air.
His senses flared, and the System’s scan spread across the entire area, searching for the source of this shift in the air. Before the System could finish scanning, his eyes locked onto something in the distance. Something that was invisible to the naked eye.
Due to the flickering light from the crystals above, this invisible thing became somewhat visible.
Anyone with lesser senses than Rex wouldn’t be able to see it still, but he could.
A glass prism? Is it a landmark?
Rex realized what he was looking at—a glass prism.
It was so perfectly clear and precisely angled that it merged with the surroundings seamlessly.
He frowned in contemplation, but reacted quickly when it flared with a greenish light.
Swoosh—!
Rex got to the front, protecting Davina and Lilliana behind him, as the glass prism fired a green flare— that moved like flames. He turned into his werewolf form in the blink of an eye, swelling into a massive size and crossed his arms.
Initially, he thought the impact would be devastating.
Or perhaps the green flare would burn him in a way.
But when it reached his skin, he felt nothing. No impact. No burn. Only a faint brush of wind. The green flare surged around him, Davina, and Lilliana, then scattered as quickly as it appeared. As though it had realized it couldn’t do anything to them and surrendered.
Yet it did not surrender.
It did something to them.
Davina and Lilliana looked around and realized the landscape had changed.
"Am I hallucinating, or were we moved?"
"I think so. The mound where we took shelter should be right behind us, and it’s gone now."
Rex reverted to his human form and straightened his spine, sweeping his gaze around, and came to the same conclusion as them. The green flare was not meant to hurt them. It was meant to teleport them away and make them feel lost and helpless.
He checked the time.
It took about twenty minutes to reach that glass prism, and now I’m back to square one.
System, what is it?
Huh... It’s more sophisticated than being randomly teleported back. I wonder why?
For a second, Rex contemplated.
And then, he thought of something.
System, can you determine where I was earlier?
What about the energy traces that brought me here? Can you retrace them?
I see.
Having them teleported away would mean leaving an energy trace that could point the direction back to where they were earlier. It would be easy that way. But the Flare of Random Rewind made the energy traces scattered everywhere.
Not to mention, the combination of alternate rewind steps made it extremely long to trace manually.
Even the System would need time to analyse all of them and pinpoint exactly where they were earlier.
Rex could tell it would be a waste of time to wait for the System to finish scanning.
"Why are you smiling?" Davina asked when she noticed the smile on Rex’s face.
"I’m glad." Rex rolled his shoulders and stepped forward. "I was starting to think we’d wander this desert until we had to leave empty-handed. But since that thing attacked us, doesn’t that mean we were heading in the right direction?"
A faint grin touched his lips. "Come on. Let’s find it again."
"Even if we find it again, what can we even do?" Lilliana asked in confusion.
It would simply teleport them away again.
"I have a few tricks up my sleeves," Rex waved his hand and began to sprint straight forward.
Despite running, it took almost forty minutes until the group found the glass prism again.
And when it sensed them approaching, the same green flicker happened as it fired the Flare of Random Rewind. This time, Rex was ready. He summoned the Red Dawn of Kaiser and channelled his Law of Inevitability.
A red sheen covered his arms and then spread wider, turning into a bubble around them.
Davina and Lilliana watched the green flare envelop them again, and when it waned, they gasped.
They weren’t teleported.
Rex grinned as he straightened his posture again, certain that it would work.
"Let’s go."