ASTERI'S POV
As for my surroundings, I don't know where we are. But it appears to be an empty scorched space with remnants of a destroyed world.
The man in white stood there calmly, as if this ruined place were the most natural setting for our meeting.
"My body didn't move but somehow, I'm already facing them. Lightless."
"So that's the route you chose to escape, a detached mind?"
He asked, aware of flaws of their Time Stop.
"He knows much, yeah. Blight the firmament, there's no privacy in here."
I cursed.
(Another Star way of saying damn it.)
"Let's get to business, shall we?"
He asked.
"What vengeance?"
I asked in response, summoning a dagger of my own. Then in a heartbeat, two azure clock hands materialised next to him and one of them spun backwards. The moment it did, my dagger disappeared.
"Heh?"
I was caught off guard. He approached me in one swift motion, his blade grazing my cheek. Thanks to my defence now powered by instinct, I was able to escape. I flipped, landing lightly and the moment my feet touched the space, a Mystic Class answered my call.
"Kagutsuchi."
Flames sparked, the Fire of God Sword formed in my palm, heat rippling through the ruined air. With no reason to speak, I moved to attack him.
But as I was within arm's reach, the clock ticked backwards. Kagutsuchi flickered, then vanished from my hand like it had never existed.
I landed softly on space.
"I see."
I lifted my left arm and caught the kick aimed at my head. The impact was absurd. It sent me skidding across the space, pressure rattling through my bones.
"Such abnormal strength."
He was already on me again, his blade sweeping for my neck but I had ascended long before this moment. I slid past the strike and drove my fist into his chest. The difference in power was obvious the instant he was blasted backwards.
I closed the distance, raising my hand as portals bloomed behind me, countless Gates of Babylon, their golden light flooding the void.
But before a single weapon launched, every gate snapped shut. It seems like the time folding around them, was reversed.
"You're skilled with Temporal Twist. I've never seen or heard someone using it this way."
"Don't compare Aeon Root to your inferior, incompetent gaseous ball Arts."
He replied in a harsh tone without raising his voice.
"You seem to have a grudge against us—wait—Aeon Root?"
I froze mid-air, my heart beating throughout my ears.
"This is bad. This is totally unexpected."
I quickly turned and fled into a portal but came out right in front of him, his fist connecting with my skull sending me back. I crashed on the other side, my hand on my face.
"The difference was multiplied. That punch just fractured my skull. What the hell. I'm riding over 75% currently yet I've taken this much damage? This is bad."
I questioned myself, blood gushing out from my forehead.
"Apparently, my instincts aren't sharp enough. Maybe because my brain isn't fully working."
I kept letting my inner dialogues out, giving off my feelings and flaws.
"Wait—let's talk. What vengeance? What were you talking about? You said you're here for vengeance right? Let's talk. I have to find a way to escape while keeping him busy. Right after knowing why they're attacking me."
"Stalling for time won't work."
"T—that's not it. Shooting stars! I can't fight him. I'm not ready. Looks like I have no choice but to make him listen."
I took a deep breath and snapped my finger.
"Rose Fang."
The dagger Lady Elara gave me as a token back at home. It had a thin crystal blade and its guard was that of a rose petal. Its hilt wasn't metal but part of a flower, probably a stem I don't know. I didn't care. In short, it'll be like holding a rose with a crystal blooming from it.
For some reason, he didn't rewind time for this piece of weaponry. Was it because he couldn't? No, he just can't.
"What, reversal ain't working?"
I mocked, the wound on my forehead long healed.
"I'll make you pay for what you did."
He snapped his fingers but nothing happened.
"Nothing dramatic."
"I've released Mindfall. You're free, use your brain."
"Hahaha, nice joke. Do you think I'll fall for that?"
"Suit yourself."
He gave a single clap, and blue light was streaming out of his hands. He spread his palms apart and a long translucent blade materialised.
I stepped in, Rose Fang sweeping toward his neck.
But before the edge could land, the translucent blade dissolved into light.
It reformed instantly into a different weapon, and in the same motion, severed my arm.
Pain didn't register. My sole arm lashed out for his face but he swatted it aside with effortless precision.
Then came the real attack.
My own severed arm, still gripping the transformed blade, dropped straight onto his leg. The strike detonated against him, but he didn't bother. With a single monstrous kick, he sent me flying back, far enough that the distance almost broke the engagement entirely.
"I'll use them. But keep some hidden."
Using Temporal Twist, I snapped back to my previous position. Enta's void surged around my arm, shaping into a massive shadowy palm that slammed his tiny frame across the space.
"How does that feel?"
I asked.
"Great?"
A calm voice responded. My eyes twitched. He was already standing exactly where he'd been, untouched, as if the hit never happened.
"What in the—?"
A flare of blue light cracked across my vision as he mirrored the gesture, his translucent palm striking me cleanly and sending me flying backwards.
"I couldn't return to my previous spot unlike before. There's a disturbance in time around that area. Space isn't affected, so I can use Space-Time Art to get back to him, but no. I won't."
Instead, I took off approaching him with maximum speed. Just as he was within reach, I activated.
"Artificial World."
With the remaining laws and the world or rather space, bending to my command, I easily seize control over time. Disrupting the natural flow of time while stacking Temporal Twist: Duplicate Temporal Stop.
No matter how much one can manipulate time, this combo is enough to make them stop. That's what I thought.
"Rose Fang in hand, the enemy caught in disarray. Victory is inevitable."
I secured my victory as I closed the distance between us. Or so I thought.
Without a shift in time or the ticking of any clock, the boundary between the Artificial World and the world beyond shimmered, dissolving into a wash of blue light before my eyes. Such a vision was unprecedented; no matter how anchored my focus, the spectacle demanded my attention.
In the span of seconds, the Artificial World vanished, replaced by a flaming azure lance that through space, aimed straight for my heart. It's stroke, as expected, erupted with blinding force. Space itself flared in azure brilliance, yet from the shock, a counter emerged. Rose Fang surged through the radiance, catching him off guard. From afar, the metallic tang of blood hinted at the strike's success.
I tasted it briefly on my lips as Rose Fang withdrew into my palm. With a deliberate swing, I dispersed the lingering azure light.
"Are you ready to listen, Architect of Return?"
I asked, stepping forward with calm purpose. My once-pristine, majestic robes bore the scars of the explosion, yet my body remained scarcely touched.
"The Architects are not gods. They are the hands that sculpt the hourglass, the chisels that etch sequence into eternity. Where mortals walk within time and gods bend it, the Architects are its blueprint. Each governs a core aspect of Temporal Existence not as rulers, but as forces that shape the nature of change, memory, cause, and progression.
Ten eternal principles stabilize the structure of Existence by managing its most fragile thread, Time. Not time as a Concept but time as a primordial force, Meta Time.
Together, these guys do not control time like a singular force. But rather, they each define what Time is, how it flows, when it starts, what moves within it, and what possibilities can bloom from it. That thing right there is the Architect of Return. If there's an Acceleration in time, there's a Reversion.
Lady Elara's knowledge. I need to do something about this absence of thought."
I cursed, uncomfortable with my current state.
"In short, this is the biggest mismatch in history. Because there's no reason way Antares himself is going to win this talk less about some clones. I'm talking more than before, disclosing what should be kept quiet."
I sighed, coming to a halt at a safe distance.
"Despite their pre-godly powers, these guys are from the race called First Humans. Just like their current descendants, they eat, sleep, reproduce and die just like regular humans. However, due to the Enlightenment, most of them transcend these basics. These things are an example."
From that distance, I was fully on guard, eyes locked onto my opponent. He took the hit but was standing still. A single trail of blood from his forehead indicated Rose Fang did get the job done. The blade chipped off half her mask in a single strike.
Ah yes, not he but she.
"A lady? That's unexpected but I'm currently operating based on instinct. If a newborn baby bears his fangs towards me, I'll kill them without hesitation."
I simply declared facts, no bias.
"You gaseous bastard."
She spoke through a broken mask.
"Do you know my current vessel cannot be overwritten by external forces?"
I asked but instead, she paid no attention to what I said.
"I'm on a losing edge. Swordsplay, magic and physical strength, none will give me the tip I need. However, with opponents like these things, I don't have to fight. I have to wait and buy time.
With a thousand of years of experience in both magic and swordsplay, I was heavily overpowered but I wasn't losing despite every skill and attack going back in time as if it never existed."
"You—what have you done?"
She asked when we crossed blades.
"Too slow to catch?"
I asked and the reverse clock rewound. The damage around us was rewound but neither did I. Noticing I'm immune to her Aspect, she teleported backwards creating a distance between us. She raised both swords with both hands planning to do something bad.
"Here it comes,——"
I whispered the last part so as not to sell out my card. She turned the glowing blade once and a ripple of blue light escaped from it. Nothing changed physically, because it wasn't meant for the world but for me alone.
"Ugh—I can feel my body reversing. If this keeps up, I'll skip the Administration's effect."
I wasn't badly affected but with my body changing, I couldn't move. However, this wasn't a mere Reversion and it wasn't targeting Asteri alone.
"Wait, the Architect of Return is capable of rewinding time for all but—how is this targeting my real body, Antares, when he's not even here?"
If this keeps up, I'll walk back time until I reach the point where I ceased to exist, unborn.
"Too slow to catch?"
She asked, giggling through her broken mask.
"You thought you were fooling me by activating a self-applied law the entire time but I was taking the lead before you even knew I was."
"Lightless. If you aren't Return, what are you?"
I need to settle this as soon as possible or something irreversible is going to happen to me.
"I don't need to reverse Time like Return. I can simply insert a state as if it had been there."
"Architect of Memory, Duration or Causality?"
I asked, unable to make any expression due to the effect of the echo. But I was undoubtedly nervous, frustrated and angry.
"The target will feel their body, mind, or the world itself 'reversing' because I reinitialised their current state to match a previous one. It'll feel like a rewind but in truth, they were freshly made to reflect a moment that never actually happened. You weren't reverted. You were remade in the image of your memory."
"Architect of Memory."
"Poor gaseous ball. This—never happened."
The broken mask became whole immediately.
"There's no disturbance in Time? How, that's—"
"Unlike the others, Inception doesn't even require Time to act."
"I—Inception?"
I asked, unable to believe the reality before me. That's not a lowly Architect, that's one of the strongest.
"I can implant a reality where that moment, event or thought has always been there. It's not changing the past, it's writing the present as if the past were different. Causality can be undone by isolation effects, Return can be resisted by transcending Time and so on. The others manipulate states and progress, and I manipulate the framework of Reality's logic, the idea of what should have been, even if it never was. That's how my sub-root Genesis Mirage, works."
"S—sub-root? Think of it as a sub-skill. If this is just her sub-skill, how broken will her main skill be?"
"Earlier on, you weren't rewounded but recomposed. And your reality thinks that's always been true."
"T—this—"
"Before you walk out of being, I'll show you what you've done."
She swiped her hand in space, and atoms, dust, and rubble began piling up, reconstructing the lost space. In a matter of seconds, the world was restored right before its destruction.
"T—this place—"
Realisation struck hard, not from Asteri but Antares.
"You remember, good. Now, justice shall be served."
"By the Order of Fragile Thread, I, Architect of Inception, summon thee Ten Architects of Aeon Root. Let all Aspects of Aeon heed my call."
She called out. As if they we're all ears and responded immediately, nine pillars of blue light erupted around me. Their radiance was so fierce I had to shut my eyes against it.
When I opened them again, the world had shifted.
Nine, no, ten figures stood encircling me, each draped in immaculate white. Their garments bore patterns, masks carved in symbols. Each had a unique pattern of dress, masks,and designs. Without a doubt, these things are—