237 Chapter 237: It’s Time (1/2)
”So it's true…you really have betrayed the Dark Church…Angelica.”
Angelica stiffened at the familiar voice, and recognition dawned upon her. Swallowing her bitterness and regret, she nodded.
”Even you must realize that those dark priests are insane. Do you really intend to help them destroy the world?”
”We are bound by our contract. If we break off a contract every time we disagree with the client, then our honor as Assassins, our…reliability and reputation will be destroyed. We pride ourselves on working all the way to the very end to fulfil the terms of the contract. It's not something we can just discard just because our client does something we don't agree with.”
”This isn't a simple matter of agreement or disagreement! Innocents will die! The world will be destroyed! Humanity will be annihilated!”
”We are Assassins,” the lady replied with an ironic smile. ”Our hands are already stained with the blood of countless. A reason like 'the death of innocents' isn't enough to sway us from our path.”
”…true.” Angelica took a deep breath. ”I'm sorry that it has to come to this, Serena. But unlike you, I don't care about honor or pride. I'm not going to help a group of nutcases destroy the world.”
”…you fight for the person you love, don't you?” Serena Wright smiled, but her expression was full of sorrow. ”Honestly…I admire you, Angelica. My husband and I do…”
Angelica froze when the other person came into view. Beside Serena, Cronus stood tall and hulking, but there was something clearly different about him.
”You…what have you done?”
”Only what was necessary.”
Power radiated from Cronus's form, and he stared at the crew of mages, almost blankly. His eyes struggled to focus on Angelica, and he nodded.
”It's been a while.”
”Cronus, you…”
”I'm afraid we don't have the luxury to catch up with old friends,” Lionel interrupted as he stepped forward. He held his sword up, the aura of a Green Dragon materializing behind him. ”Head toward the computer mainframe, kids. Yue Guang and I will hold these two off.”
Yue Guang was already dashing forward, throwing a powerful punch that actually resulted in a powerful shockwave that tore a gouge through the ground. Cronus held up a hand and parried his fist, but the colossal impact sent tremors reverberating violently throughout the cavern.
If Yue Guang was shocked that his punch was stopped so easily, he didn't show it. Instead, the professional bodyguard yanked his hand out and continued to deliver a relentless barrage, attempting to pummel his opponent. Cronus blocked and deflected each and every one of them, but Yue Guang's attacks only seemed to accelerate and grow more powerful as the Armament Ba Qi wreathing his arms thickened and grew denser.
”Impressive.” Cronus sounded amazed. ”If I was still human, I would have been obliterated by your punches long ago.”
”Hmm…” Lionel stole a quick glance at the exchange, even as he lunged to slash his sword at Serena, but she blocked it with her spear. Instead, she twirled her long weapon about to keep him back, but he blasted her with a wave of petals that she managed to scythe down with her own Armament Ba Qi. ”That man is really fast. I didn't expect there to be someone capable of keeping up with Yue Guang's speed.”
”That's not speed,” Serena quietly informed him as she thrust her spear forward. Lionel deflected it from his chest and answered with a riposte that she parried with the shaft of her weapon. A dark aura surrounded her to repel the razor-sharp petals that danced around the two of them.
”…eh?”
”She's right.” Yue Guang sprang apart from Cronus after the two exchanged a particularly violent punch that caused the cavern to tremble and rocks to fall from the ceiling. ”He's not using any physical enhancement spell to increase his speed. It feels different somehow…” he frowned as he tried to analyze his opponent's magic. ”It's as if he is slowing down time in his body and thus my movements appear as if in slow motion to him.”
”Time magic,” Angelica whispered. Shun Yin raised an eyebrow and snorted, unable to stop himself from speaking out.
”Time Alter, Double Accel? Or Triple Accel?”
Angelica smacked him at the back of his head. ”You've been watching way too much anime! Besides, that anime was like seven years ago! Never mind the two-cour Unlimited Blade Works anime adaptation that came two years after that, now we're all looking forward to the third movie of the Heaven's Feel route!”
”Stop talking nonsense and focus on the battle!” Michael was surging ahead to engage the hulking figure of Cronus in battle, assisting Yue Guang. Flames erupted from his sword and engulfed the massive Assassin, but Cronus merely walked out of it.
”How…?!” Glen gaped at the impossible sight. ”He's completely uninjured!”
Yue Guang and Michael both jumped away as Cronus lunged forward and smashed the ground they were standing on. Rock shattered, but Shun Yin noticed something else. Despite the ground being pulverized from the sheer force of Cronus's attack, the rock seemed to disintegrate. Not from the destructive power, but from something else…
”That's…”
”Time magic,” Angelica repeated. ”By accelerating time, he can move the object forward into a future where it has crumbled away. Nothing lasts forever.”
”My Armament Ba Qi can resist the effects of his time magic,” Yue Guang informed them, but he was breathing heavily. ”But it expends a lot of my mana just to defend against him.”
”That's correct.” Cronus regarded Yue Guang, impressed. ”Any normal mage would have grown old and turned into a corpse from my spells, but you were able to resist it with Ba Qi. I never imagined that would be a mage as powerful as you.”
”That's impossible!” Michael blurted out. ”No such time magic exists! At least not of that magnitude of power!”
”That is correct. No such time magic exists in our world.” Serena nodded and conceded while defending against Lionel's sword strike. The Stuart clan's next head narrowed his eyes when he caught the hidden meaning behind her words.
”…our world, huh?”
”Think about it. What if there exists other worlds other than ours? You already know of the hellish dimension that the monsters inhabit – their home world that they live in before they invade ours through Emergence events.”
”But there's no monster with such time magic…!” Glen protested hotly, only for Lionel to shake his head and cut him off.
”That's not it, kid. The lady here only mentioned the monsters' dimension as an example, but before that she used the plural form…other worlds.”
”You're pretty sharp.” Cronus grinned as he swung his fists, knocking both Yue Guang and Michael aside. ”That's right. There exist other dimensions besides ours and the monsters'. This power, this time magic comes from there.”
”Spirits!” Angelica muttered, even as she joined Lionel in attacking Serena, but she kept them at bay with her spinning spear before unleashing a wave of greenish-black spells that forced the two to defend themselves. ”You summoned a spirit…and Cronus, you sacrificed yourself to become its vessel!”