"You can’t hide forever, Alexander Regulus." Thera coldly remarked as she took careful steps, making her way across the trap-laden battlefield that was Eternal Night. Above a white celestial body cast down light and right next to it was a black hole that had the odd capability to not only pull things towards it but also curve space and time as well. For reasons unknown, save for its effect on space and time, the black hole did nothing more than that, which was quite odd. She’d hoped it would pull everything in, including her, giving her a chance to die and return using Redo. Unfortunately, after she recovered from the White variant, Alex had not utilized its area of effect skill and had instead turned to other more annoying means. "Can you hear me?" She spoke up, her gaze drifting about as she sought out Alex’s hiding position. She’d erased his clone along with the shadowed entities that aided him several times already but with Eternal Night still active, it was easy to guess that the real deal was still out there. Unfortunately, due to the black hole above, she was unable to erase the space. Add that on with the annoying black and white flames that exploded whenever she made a wrong step and Thera was close to losing her patience. "Get out here and die already, you cockroach!" She exclaimed as she withdrew one of the ten cards she had active and took out another to try and predict his current whereabouts. A snap was heard the next moment, and without hesitation, she sought to attack the location from which the sound came, only to pause a moment later. Time had frozen or rather, it was moving at a pace so slow, it would take forever for her intended attack to reach its target. "If we were to liken the river of time to an actual body of water, then we could also assume that it could technically be frozen, even for a short time." A voice echoed from just right next to her and yet seemed to originate from a faraway place. "What did you do?" Thera asked. "It’s simple, I just froze time." "It won’t hold forever," Thera warned to which Alex replied. "True, but I don’t need it to." Then, his figure materialized next to Thera. Fresh chapters posted on novel✶fire.net The Abyss Wheel Mystic immediately swung her arm, prepared to forcefully use her Authority to break through the frozen time only for a beam of black and white light to slam into her, knocking her out in the process. When she came to, Thera found herself bound and her previously crazed expression had calmed quite a bit. "Feeling better now?" Alex inquired. "Why didn’t you kill me?" "You are still useful to me," Alex replied. "I’m guessing the one I fought before was your future self." "It was. She returned to me at the beginning of the loop and took charge of things. She’s changed a lot of things." "To bring an end to the loop." "And how does she plan to do that?" "... I don’t know," Thera muttered. "She kept me unconscious for the most part, only allowing me to stay awake at a few turns. But if I were to guess, she must have reached some sort of deal with the second party." "A deal?" Alex pursed his lips. "Alright listen, since the loop is already gone to shit, I need to know, what’s the reason you couldn’t deal with the loop yourself?... I’ve been trying to figure this out but nothing makes sense." "But I already told you. I couldn’t come to a decision on how to handle the situation with my present and future." "That’s a lie and you know it. Your future just made it clear that if need be, you could force your will on the others. So what’s the real reason you didn’t just end the loop, deal with the second party, and then get the Timeless Serpent into this world?" Thera remained silent while staring intently at Alex. Then, after several seconds of silence, she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Because the Serpent chose him." "The second party was chosen as a vessel for the Timeless Serpent, to contain its power and allow it to potentially transcend the barriers to become a being not of the Abyss, but of Eventide." Alex’s expression shifted as he realized the implications of such an act. "Doing that would allow the Serpent to act as it wished without being oppressed by the aether." "Not only that, but it could then perform the ritual needed to meld the Abyss with Eventide, without a need for a medium." "So that’s how it is." Alex breathed out evenly while nodding his head. "One more question, is the second party a Many-Headed Serpent?" Thera silently nodded, confirming another of Alex’s theories. Just as he thought to ask another question, a great tremor occurred, causing him to pause. "What was that?" He asked. Thera hesitated before her eyes went wide with shock. "My future self’s backup plan." Arwen hurried towards the lower districts along with Melita and Theoren, both seemingly eager to help in protecting their home from the destruction coming for it. Several more cannonballs were fired in quick succession, breaking through the black ice barrier that Alex had created with the debris slamming into the area below. Terrified screams filled the air as many were unable to escape on time, leading to them being pierced by the falling shards of Quillion. Meanwhile, the flames continued to rage unimpeded, and due to the congested style of housing in the district, it didn’t take long for it to engulf several houses, consuming those too unlucky to make it out on time. Just as they arrived at the frozen barrier with Arwen about to summon a Horseman to create a passage, a loud explosion echoed, drawing their attention over to its origin in the upper districts. The ground trembled as though it had been struck by an earthquake while the upper districts, for the first time since the inception of Sklaviunt, burned hot with yellow flames.