Even though everyone was fighting for Ace, Ace had entered a dazed state. The moment his soul-self seemingly came to life, he was struck by a realisation – Faith and Willpower were actually two sides of the same coin. Where faith was the belief others had in you, Willpower was the belief you had in yourself.
All this time, his faith had actually been hindering the true power of his Divine Ability. Since the vast majority of his faith was from those who were still under heaven's influence, it actually acted as the last tether keeping him linked to heaven, which in turn was acting to suppress his true Willpower.
Ace had always found it weird that one's Willpower could be counted in a systematic and numerical way. In his mind, one's will shouldn't be so simple to be calculated as it was tied to one's resolve, and in his eyes, his should be incalculable, especially in a situation like this when every fibre of his being wanted nothing more than to save his wife and child.
But now that he had separated his Faith from his being in preparation to give to his wife, he could finally feel the true power of his Divine Ability. Now, it didn't simply double his Willpower but allowed it to truly represent the quality of his resolve. It was to the point where he wasn't even able to quantify it, even if he tried.
At that moment, time truly came to a halt, and it wasn't just in and around Ace's personal dimension; it was the entire universe. Still, Ace's undivided attention was focused on his wife and unborn child.
His will had grown to the point where; if it were just his wife and child he was focused on, he would be able to reverse time to the point where he could achieve his wishes. That should've been a joyous occasion, but unfortunately, in the time that it took him to reach that point, an incident had transpired, and it was one he wasn't able to live with.
He looked up into the void at the battlefield between the four combined Overgods and his family and friends, only to find Killian floating in mid-air with the light in his eyes dimmed considerably. One wouldn't be able to see just from looking at him, but Ace could see the giant crack running along his brother's Divine Spark. Even with such a devastating injury, Killian's dimming gaze was still on Ace, as if all he wanted to do, even in death, was make sure that his brother was okay.
Ace couldn't help but think back to the time they both met on the martial fields of Wushan Village. Back then, due to the difference in appearance, the other kids were abusing Killian. At the time, Ace's decision to help had just been an in-the-moment decision he didn't think much of. He never would've guessed that that decision would lead to his having such an amazing brother who had been there for him for every important moment in his life, from his lowest points to his highest.
Unwilling was far from enough to describe how Ace was feeling; he could never allow his brother to die in front of him. Unfortunately, as powerful as his Will had become now, no matter how much Ace tried, he simply wasn't able to reverse time for so many people, especially as those he needed to reverse time for this time were Overgods and Sovereigns.
He could feel his will clashing with that of heaven itself, trying to rip its control of the flow of time for himself. Unfortunately, he was still too weak.
Tears were streaming from his eyes as the pain of having to lose his brother after all this time was too much to bear.
Looking back at the enormous phantom of his soul-self standing in the air to his rear, his eyes were crimson as his tears turned from translucent to crimson.
Whenever he had gotten himself into trouble in the past, and things looked like they were going to reach the point of no return, it was always his soul self that was able to give him the strength to reverse the situation so he could find a way out for him and his loved ones.
Subconsciously, he knew that he was clutching at straws. Still, he couldn't help but roar at it to give him strength. Unfortunately, it couldn't respond.
Ace could feel the strain of bringing time to a halt for the entire universe. At this rate, he would tire himself out in under a minute. At that point, not only would he fail to save his brother, but he would also lose his chance to save Amira. Still, he simply stared at his Divine Abilities phantom.
It was right then, just as his energy reserves were about to bottom out, that he came to another realisation, but this wasn't about his bloodline abilities, at least not directly. Instead, it was about the bloodline abilities of his wife's Viz Clan.
It had to be remembered that the ultimate ability of the Viz Clan's Divine Ability was their ability to merge with it, allowing them to draw even more power from it.
Ace hadn't realised it at the time, but the reason he turned to roar at his Divine Ability to give him more strength was because he could subconsciously feel that there was more to it than he was currently capable of drawing out.
Ace knew that the Visual Manifestation he had inherited from his wife as her soulmate was his Golden Sun, which, due to numerous factors, had now become his personal dimension. His soul-self had nothing to do with his inherited Viz Clan bloodline; as such, he had no idea if this would work, but he didn't have the time to worry about ifs, buts, and maybes. There was too much riding on this. It was either do or die – and he refused to let himself or any of his loved ones die!
Without a moment of hesitation, Ace willed his soul self to shrink until it went from the size of a star to the same size as himself before reaching out and placing his hand on its head.
As the phantom of a Divine Ability, no matter how realistic it appeared, it should still be nothing more than an illusory phantom, yet as Ace's hand met its head, there was nothing illusory about it; it appeared every bit as realistic as he did.
Still, Ace didn't have the time to care about that, especially as, the next thing he knew, his phantom turned into an energy-like state before entering his body.
At the same time, an explosion of seismic proportions went off in Ace's body. He could feel every part of him was growing infinitely stronger by the second, be it the power of his physical body, his divine power, his soul, or, more importantly, his Willpower.
Ace could feel the Will of Heaven with even more clarity before and, by extension, where it originated. Still, that was a matter for the future. For right now, all that mattered was saving his loved ones.
Previously, although he knew he was still far too weak, he couldn't fathom exactly how powerful Heaven's Will truly was, but after his most recent breakthrough, if he had to put it into numerical terms, he could say that the him of before had a Willpower that was maybe a little more than a trillionth of a single percent.
Even though his power was still growing rapidly and was still far away from the level of Heaven, he, at the very least, had the power to achieve his goal of reversing the flow of time, especially as Heaven wasn't actively trying to fight him for control.
Without a moment's delay, Ace finally took control of the flow of time of the entire Coiling Dragon universe and forcibly began to reverse it.
Because time was reversed for the entire universe, it meant that everyone was effectively getting a one-minute reset. Still, unless one had reached the level of at least a Lesser Sovereign or had an incredibly high affinity to the Rules of Time, most were too weak to realise what had happened.
At most, some of the more powerful paragons spread out across the universe felt like they were experiencing a moment of déjà vu. As for the Sovereigns spread across the universe, even though they knew what happened, they didn't know how such a thing was possible. All they did know was that it had to have had something to do with Ace – a realisation that made them all the more sure of their decision to never again do something so foolish as bear arms towards anyone even remotely related to the Yulan Plane ever again.
Still, it was only the Sovereigns and Overgods that were present for Ace's child's birth that could truly understand the magnitude of what Ace had just done.
Whether it was friend or foe, everyone stared at Ace in complete disbelief as they tried to wrap their minds around what Ace had just done.
As for Ace himself, he was staring at his wife with a loving smile as he reached down and stroked her face whilst simultaneously fusing his kernel of Faith with her own.
Amira was just starting to re-infuse her life's essence into her unborn child when she suddenly felt her husband's gift. An almost otherworldly power coursed through her body. The speed at which she should've been losing power couldn't even begin to compare to the speed at which she was growing in power.
Not only that, both her Viz and Gol Bloodlines began to evolve and fuse into something new and simply terrifying.
Even so, she didn't seem to care in the slightest. How could she not know that her life being saved was all thanks to her husband – he was the only being in the universe who could and would be capable of saving her in such a manner!
She merely glanced at him and mouthed thank you, but that was more than enough for Ace to feel the overwhelming feeling of love and appreciation literally flooding out of her.
As willing as she was to die for their child, there was nothing she wanted more than to be able to be there to raise their child along with Ace.
Ace had done a lot for her, and as her husband, never once had she felt the need to say thank you. In fact, if she had, Ace might've taken offence. Still, this was different. Even though they were husband and wife, this gift was more precious to her than anything else.