Chapter 429 The Timeline and the Descent
After the dazed feeling subsided, the tactile sensation of solid ground returned.
Jemin steadied himself and quickly scanned his surroundings.
The light was dim, the air was dry, and it carried the cool scent unique to ancient stone.
Towering stone pillars support the arched dome, and the walls are covered with carvings... wait?
His gaze suddenly sharpened, and memories flooded back like a tide.
He had seen this environment before!
In the recording crystal images of the second cycle, there is a temple here where the level eight Scythe Skull Clan leader ambushed!
It was here that he was forced to use the Five Elements Rainbow Mirror's Light Transformation Escape Technique to escape by sheer luck.
The intelligence he remembered being ambushed instantly put Jemin on high alert!
Jemin's spiritual and mental powers operated simultaneously, and his reconnaissance magic and divine sense spread out at the same time, searching for any possible enemies.
However, the anticipated ambush did not occur, and the temple was deathly silent.
Something's not right.
He forced himself to calm down and observe more carefully.
Yes, the overall structure is very similar, and the rugged, inhuman architectural style is exactly the same.
But the details... are completely different.
According to the information provided by the recording crystal, the walls of the temple in the second cycle were covered with undecipherable, twisted, and bizarre symbols, exuding a primitive and wild feel.
Before our eyes, those "symbols" have transformed into intricate and complex energy wires that radiate a faint blue light.
These energy wires are embedded in the stone wall as neatly as integrated circuits, exuding a cold sense of order.
More importantly, the central altar of the temple, which was empty in my memory, now has a building-sized energy ball floating there, steadily emitting a soft blue light.
The energy sphere rotated quietly, surrounded by numerous altars. There was no powerful energy leakage, yet it gave people a sense of being the core of the entire space, as if it were the "heart" of the entire space.
“This is not the same temple,” Jemin immediately concluded.
He activated the All-Powerful Eye without hesitation.
In an instant, a massive amount of information about his surroundings flooded into his consciousness.
Matter composition, energy spectrum, spatial curvature, residual law fluctuations, and so on.
Jemin used the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror to process this chaotic information at high speed, while he quickly removed distracting data from the processed data and compared it with the baseline data...
A few seconds later, Jemin's expression changed slightly.
Based on the data, the problem isn't with the temple itself, but with... the whole world!
Anomalies in energy inertia, subtle systemic shifts in fundamental physical constants, and an unnatural sense of "encapsulation" in the spacetime structure...
All of this data points to one conclusion: this is no longer the "reincarnation plane" he is familiar with!
Fortunately, thanks to the earlier hint from the Starforger Artorias, Jemin was able to catch up on his knowledge of time-based stealth techniques during this period.
Although this knowledge did not allow him to gain a deeper understanding of the laws of time, it did give him a basic grasp of certain situations.
So after taking all the data into account, one possibility emerged.
"Is this... a rift in another timeline?" Jemin muttered to himself, a flood of information he had recently learned rushing into his mind.
The phase space he creates is by creating a dependent dimensional space next to the stable main space, and relying on the phase space formed in the two spaces to hide.
Time-based methods also have similar concealment techniques, and even their principles are quite similar—except that they focus on "time" rather than "space".
By temporarily creating or anchoring a miniature parallel "timeline tributary" outside the mainstream timeline, one can "project" or "transfer" their own existence into this tributary world.
Since this temporary tributary world "does not exist" on the main timeline, from the perspective of the main timeline, the Hidden Ones appear to have completely disappeared.
“No wonder…no wonder the wizarding legion conducted fifteen rounds of research, digging three feet into the ground, but couldn’t find a single clue.” Jemin suddenly understood. “Because the so-called behind-the-scenes entity isn’t ‘there’ at all. It’s hiding in a ‘layer’ woven from timelines that belongs only to itself.”
The nature of timeline branches means that by making extremely small perturbations to the parameters during creation, an almost infinite number of branch variants can be generated.
Just like during phase shift, even if the precise coordinates are shifted by nanometers, the space entered may be completely different.
The difficulty of pinpointing the true "nest" of an opponent amidst countless timeline layers is comparable to finding a specific grain of sand in the universe.
“So this is… no!” Jemin looked around at the eerie “temple.” “It shouldn’t be its core, but just a ‘temporary cage’ or ‘processing room’ that it randomly selected to trap or deal with me?”
So, what was the purpose of the other party going to such lengths to drag him into this timeline rift during the chaos and fluctuations in the camp's spacetime defenses?
Just being trapped to death?
Or is there another motive?
Suppressing his doubts, Jemin began to take action in the surrounding area.
He first quickly surveyed the world and soon confirmed two pieces of information.
First, according to the exploration, the effective range of this world seems to be only a few tens of thousands of kilometers around the temple.
Secondly, aside from the uniformly styled dilapidated buildings and barren lands filled with energy wires, the entire side world yielded nothing.
There was no life, no resources, only the blue energy sphere floating above the altar, the only anomaly in this desolate world.
He returned to the temple and cautiously approached the altar.
The all-powerful eye was operating at full capacity, attempting to analyze the structure and properties of the energy sphere.
Just as he was about ten meters away from the altar, preparing to conduct a deep scan...
Buzz!
An indescribable, soul-chilling will descended without warning!
This will has no specific "appearance" and is more like a "declaration of existence" that directly acts on the rules of the world itself.
It is cold, indifferent, and devoid of any emotion.
Jemin could clearly "feel" that this will, like a searchlight, was conducting several rapid and thorough "scans" of this timeline rift world, centered on the temple.
Each scan that swept across his body sent a shiver through him, a primal tremor of fear through him.
But strangely, the will did not seem to "see" him.
“It’s a mark left by Lord Artorias…” Jemin immediately understood.
The mark was not only a signaler, but also clearly possessed extremely high stealth capabilities, temporarily shielding the perception of this "world".
That's why he wasn't attacked immediately after entering this world. This will was probably projected by the entity behind the scenes after they noticed something had changed.
However, just as he breathed a sigh of relief, the invisible "barrier" surrounding him seemed to reach its limit and shattered silently like a soap bubble.
The next moment, that grand and cold will instantly focused on Jemin!
We've been discovered!
Jemin felt a chill run down his spine, and his survival instinct kicked in instantly.
The radiance of multi-layered instantaneous protective magic shone around him, instantly stacking physical defense, energy deflection, and soul protection!
At the same time, he pushed his computing power to the limit, rapidly swiping his hands...
Phase Space, activate!
His figure blurred for a moment, about to escape into the safe parallel phase space and avoid the lock.
However, this time, the trump card that had always worked so well to save their lives failed.
In this world comprised of timeline branches, the rules of space seem to be overridden by some higher authority.
The phase space entrance that Jemin had just constructed flickered violently like a candle in the wind, and then collapsed and dissipated on its own under the invisible pressure of that grand will!
Forced back from the spatial shift, Jemin let out a muffled groan as his mental energy became chaotic.
Fortunately, the powerful physical resistance provided by the body tempering technique helped him withstand the damage and prevented him from being seriously injured, but he couldn't care less about that now...
The will that had locked onto him had transformed into a tangible attack!
An invisible, twisting force surged in from all directions. The data collected by Jemin's all-seeing eye allowed him to instantly determine that this was a denial and erasure imposed directly on the level of "existence"!
The space around Jemin began to feel “unreal,” with colors fading and textures becoming blurred.
It was as if he, along with the small area he was in, was being forcibly erased from the "screen" of the world!
All the protective spells he cast were like paper in the face of this power; their light quickly dimmed, failing to provide any resistance.
The body, strengthened by the body-forging method, could not feel any point of stress at this moment, but a terrifying feeling that the most fundamental "self" was being stripped away and diluted was clearly transmitted to the depths of the soul.
Unstoppable!
I can't understand it!
This is a crushing defeat on a power level!
Just as Jemin's consciousness began to fade, as if he were about to completely dissipate in the next second due to this invisible force of annihilation...
A hand suddenly appeared in front of him.
It was a very ordinary-looking hand, with faint star-like shimmering spots flowing beneath the skin.
It appeared without warning, as if it had always been there.
Then, casually, as if brushing away a spider web or dusting off some dirt, the hand gently waved twice at the invisible force of annihilation surrounding Jemin.
The movements were so subtle that they didn't even cause much of a commotion.
But in an instant, Jemin felt that the terrifying pressure that had almost dissolved his very existence had vanished.
The faded world around him quickly returned to normal, and the "realism" of the space enveloped him once again.
Before the exhaustion of surviving the ordeal could even wash over him, Jemin abruptly turned his head.
Beside him, a dark, narrow spatial rift with silver starlight flowing along its edges had quietly opened up at some unknown time.
The interior of the rift was not empty like a traditional spatial rift, but rather dotted with starlight, like the cosmos.
The owner of that hand calmly stepped out of the crack.
He wore a simple gray robe, had a peaceful face, and gazed as deep as the starry sky.
The Starforger, an eighth-level Archmage, Artorias, in his true form... has descended upon this place!
(End of this chapter)
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