Chapter 129 – Back to Square One

Thud.

At the words that the person inside the glass tube was Alter, Rian approached the glass tube.

“It really is Professor Alter.”

Having interacted with Shadow Gods within Hyu’s Reverse World until just before Alter’s historical alteration ended, Rian immediately recognized Alter’s aged appearance.

“And he’s still alive.”

“Huh…?”

The wisdom regarding Sorcery Studies instantly interpreted the magic applied to the glass tube and conveyed its meaning.

Alter inside the glass tube was in a kind of hibernation state.

“By stopping the flow of time internally, aging and death have been halted. If the time stasis applied to the glass tube is released, he will awaken again.”

“Oh! So, does that mean we can receive advice directly from Professor Alter, called the Last Sage of Ardenia?”

Although valuable knowledge was scattered around Alter’s glass tube, having the help of the person who gathered and classified them would be a great aid in digesting that knowledge.

As if thinking so, delight appeared on the Elders’ faces.

“However, there is a condition to releasing the seal of the glass tube.”

“Is it a difficult condition?”

“No, it is a condition only I can fulfill.”

Only the command of the Ardenian Emperor could awaken him.

Grooooo—

Simultaneously activating the Emperor’s Majesty and the Word Spirit Art learned through the royal seal once more.

“【Awaken.】”

Vrooom!

The voice imbued with majesty reacted with the glass tube according to sorcerous principles.

Clunk!

The lid of the glass tube, which had been perfectly fused with no visible gaps, opened on its own.

At the same time, the time that had been stopped inside the glass tube began to flow again.

“…Hmm.”

Magic set to activate when the glass tube opened awakened Alter.

And the moment Alter, who finally opened his eyes, met Rian’s face.

[Feat, ‘Emperor’s Command’ has been achieved.]

[The North Star Constellation records Rian Shin’s feat and altered history.]

[The 4th Awakening Skill 《Emperor’s Word Spirit》 blooms.]

……

Rian’s Four-star promotion was completed.

Using Word Spirit Art to awaken Alter, classified as an ancient person from Rian’s perspective, was itself judged as restoring lost past knowledge to the present and recognized as a feat.

However, with this, Rian’s historical alteration also ended.

It seemed the historic meeting between Alter and Rian would have to be postponed to the next historical alteration.

Whoooosh!

However, contrary to Rian and Alter, who had stopped, there were those who began to move as if they had been waiting for Rian’s historical alteration to end.

Amidst Rian’s frozen record trying to expel the foreign entities Rough and Blundell.

The two, utilizing that force in reverse, laid the Path of the Fairies beyond the end of this joint historical alteration as originally intended and advanced.

Pat!

End and beginning connect, and the directionality heading towards the future past the end soon becomes a new beginning heading towards the starting point of the past.

The next moment, Rough and Blundell had moved to the origin point where Rough first began his history journey.

It was the Arpelgia Continent from the time when Henrietta was still young.

* * *

Rough’s history journey began after he met the young Henrietta and rode the Path of the Fairies heading towards the future to reach Henrietta’s present.

After that, moving through time and space and traversing various records, Rough set foot on all four continents of the Otherworld divided into Arpelgia, Ardenia, Arcadia, and Arthalia.

And overlapping with the Shadow Gods and Aspects present in Hyu’s Reverse World, he even encountered the records of Hyu’s Lunar Constellation and Pheidippides’s Sun Constellation unfolded there.

So it could be said he had experienced all the records of the Twelve Constellations of the Heavenly Palace.

“Ah!”

Perhaps because of that.

The moment such Rough returned to the starting point, a feat was unintentionally achieved.

[Great Feat, ‘Conquest of the Four Continents. History Journey (Historical Journey) has been achieved.]

[The Wind Constellation records Rough’s great feat and altered history with laughter.]

[The 4th Awakening Skill “Void Fairy Path” blooms.]

……

Not a travelogue writing about experiences during travel, but a journey traversing records and records.

The Path of the Fairies piercing the Void Space that made it possible dwelled within Rough in the form of an Awakening Skill, completing his 4-Star promotion.

At this rate, Rough’s historical alteration was about to end.

[Rough’s historical alteration will end shortly…]

Before the end message could even fully form, Rough moved perfectly fine within the record that was trying to freeze in time.

“Oops, it’s still too early to end.”

Whoooosh.

Unfolding the newly acquired Void Fairy Path, he forcibly continued the historical alteration that should have ended.

Using the record of Blundell beside him as an anchor.

“I have a duty to guide Mr. Blundell before the Mad Blood Duke, you see.”

The Mad Blood Duke, the last Singularity to collect, was in fact already a being of the past in Rough’s present.

As mentioned once before, the fact that countless humans inside the Path of the Fairies could escape being livestock for vampires and live was also thanks to the chaos created by the Mad Blood Duke.

But that didn’t pose a problem for Singularity collection.

Even if the Mad Blood Duke was a being already dealt with in the past, he wasn’t dead yet.

According to the results observed by Rough through Heavenly Fortune and Divination.

The Mad Blood Duke was sealed long ago by the Apostle of the Epicenter Throne, Prometheus.

Within a seal where he couldn’t drink a single drop of blood, gradually withering and dying from endless thirst.

“What Mr. Blundell must do is break that seal of the Mad Blood Duke.”

“Just leave it to me.”

To collect a target under Mirinae’s influence within a historical alteration, there are methods like ending the history that would have originally continued at a past point, as with the previously dealt with Fungus Demon King, Dragon Slayer Emperor, and Asura.

But there are also methods like reviving someone who originally died early and newly continuing the history that should have ended, as with the Pilgrim Knight Order.

The method Lee Hanseong told Rough to collect the Mad Blood Duke’s star was the latter.

‘According to the original history, the Mad Blood Duke was fated to die within Prometheus’s seal after being depleted, leaving no influence on history.’

But what if Rough and Blundell break the seal and the Mad Blood Duke’s history changes?

Naturally, the Mad Blood Duke’s star becomes Mirinae’s.

To do that, first, Rough extended the Void Fairy Path towards the location where the Mad Blood Duke was sealed, as indicated by divination.

Whoooaaa—

A rainbow-colored Path of the Fairies stretching in a straight line from Henrietta’s village to the Mad Blood Duke’s seal site.

Following it, the two began to move again.

* * *

Thud thud.

To Rough and Blundell, the Void Fairy Path they were walking on felt like a straight line, but this was only because space was distorted.

Considering realistic geography, it was closer to taking a complicated detour.

Rough’s Void Fairy Path wasn’t created just anywhere; it was a path created overlapping the Paths of the Fairies already spread across the Arpelgia Continent like a spiderweb.

Thus, the scenery outside the path they passed through frequently changed and distorted moment by moment.

But from a certain point, the distortion rate of the space surrounding the Void Fairy Path intensified even more.

“It seems we’re gradually entering vampire territory.”

“Ah, so that’s why the distortion has become so severe.”

“Yes. To avoid the surveillance of Nosferatu, a vampire noble and Transcendent Species, this level of distortion is necessary.”

Nosferatu possessed senses that could even see through the Paths of the Fairies hidden by Fairy’s Fortune, so ordinary Fairies couldn’t operate within vampire territory.

However, that inability to operate applied only to ordinary Fairies.

Superior Species and Transcendent Species of Fairies often laid Paths of the Fairies even within vampire territory and brought away humans living as livestock.

The Path of the Fairies with intensified distortion now was also a path created by the Superior Species ‘Innocent Fairy’.

Looking at the Void Fairy Path, whose end was still not visible even after entering vampire territory, Rough gauged the remaining distance to the Mad Blood Duke’s seal site.

“Hmm. But it seems the Mad Blood Duke’s seal site exists near the center of vampire territory.”

“Will that be a problem?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem reaching the center. The Dream Fairy Path created by the Fairy Transcendent Species ‘Nightmare’ is a path unfolded on the Dream Stratum, not reality.”

“Dream. You say.”

“You’ll understand when you see it.”

Not long after Rough said that, the scenery around the Path of the Fairies underwent another extreme change.

They had now walked onto the Void Fairy Path overlapping the Path of the Fairies created by Nightmare.

“From here is the Dream Fairy Path.”

A dizzying scenery like dream threads unfolds before the eyes.

A dream-like landscape where all sorts of colors shimmer diversely, and optical illusions and delusions are in full bloom.

Blundell mutters an appreciation.

“Somehow… it feels like I’ve entered a dream.”

“Because it’s a real dream.”

A Path of the Fairies existing on a completely different stratum, unobservable even by a True Ancestor, a True God of the 11th Star.

Of course, because the strata are so divided, there is the limitation that intervention in reality is only possible through dreams, but that alone was sufficient for Rough.

After all, the Dream Fairy Path couldn’t reach the Mad Blood Duke’s seal site.

Thud.

At the boundary of the Dream Fairy Path, Rough stopped his steps.

“The comfortable journey ends here.”

No matter how much Nightmare’s dream path might deceive even a True Ancestor’s gaze, it cannot deceive Prometheus, an Apostle of a Constellation.

The Dream Fairy Path was forming a blank zone centered around Prometheus’s ancient castle area.

As if clearly indicating that approach to its surroundings was impossible, within the distinctly empty area.

Only Rough’s Void Fairy Path stretched solely towards the inside of the blank zone.

It seemed the Mad Blood Duke’s seal site was indeed inside Prometheus’s castle.

“From here, Mr. Blundell must block Prometheus’s gaze.”

Even if it’s a Path of the Fairies passing through the Void Space, the senses of an Apostle transcending spacetime would immediately notice even beings beyond the Void Space.

But with the Heart Sword of the Formless Sword Demon Armor, even the observation itself directed at them can be severed.

“Let’s give it a try.”

Clack… clack…

Blundell, drawing up the Authority of the Formless Sword, slowly advanced forward, imbuing the sound of his footsteps with the Heart Sword’s function.

Walking for a while past the boundary of the Dream Fairy Path, onto the path where only Rough’s Void Fairy Path remained.

“Phew… Fortunately, it seems the Apostle hasn’t noticed us.”

As there was no particular reaction from inside, Rough let out a sigh of relief.

Thus, advancing while blocking observation with Blundell’s Heart Sword, the two finally arrived at the underground of Prometheus’s ancient castle where the Mad Blood Duke was sealed.

* * *

Ssshh— Hooooo.

With the final step ahead, Rough and Blundell paused for a moment.

Replacing the Heart Sword blocking the Apostle’s observation with breathing sounds.

Blundell looked at Rough with a gaze asking what they would do now.

“No matter how much the Heart Sword blocks observation, if we step outside the Void Fairy Path, we’ll be detected by the Apostle.”

Ssshh— Hooooo.

“Then we just don’t step outside.”

Ssshh?

Looking at Blundell expressing doubt, Rough explained the plan.

“First, pulling the Mad Blood Duke into the Path of the Fairies is step one.”

Hoooo—?

“That task will be handled by the beings dwelling within me, so you needn’t worry.”

From the beginning, Rough was merely the eyes and medium of Lee Hanseong, Hyu, and Pheidippides.

Through him, the three beings of the Reverse World who had observed the Mad Blood Duke’s seal simultaneously began to exert their power.

[<Primordial Chaos Gang Qi> links 《Ten Thousand Phenomena Theft》 and 《Spatiotemporal Theft》.]

Fwaat!

The Mad Blood Duke, still in his sealed state, brought onto the Void Fairy Path by the Ten Thousand Phenomena Theft unfolded across spacetime.

Without breaking the Apostle’s seal, he couldn’t be moved to other spacetime coordinates from here, but this was sufficient.

“Now it’s your turn to step forward, Mr. Blundell.”

Hoooo?

“According to my divination, approaching this seal with intent to destroy it won’t work. Conversely, you must think of helping the seal to create a gap.”

The seal manifested in the form of a blood stake piercing the heart was absolutely impossible to break unless one was an Apostle.

The Apostle’s will contained within it was the will of the Constellation itself.

The answer was to utilize it in reverse without defying the Apostle’s will.

Ssshh—.

Blundell didn’t fully understand the method, but he first activated the Event Horizon towards the Mad Blood Duke as instructed.

Simultaneously, Rough also activated Sophistry, deceiving the Apostle’s will that the Event Horizon was for aiding, not breaking, the seal.

Sllurp—

As if the Sophistry took effect properly, the Event Horizon seeped into the blood stake.

Naturally, the existing seal and the Event Horizon mixed into one, reinforcing the seal.

Just as Blundell was wondering how they intended to break the seal like this.

Shwaaaak—!

The Event Horizon in contact with the Void Fairy Path began to compress along with the existing seal.

Just like when Blundell formed the <Virtual Degenerate Furnace> before.