Time Twister

Upon seeing the figure of the president, the crowd became rowdy, and when they saw the Elven queen and Xander, the crowd turned into a riot. President Valores, on the other hand, signaled one of his aides to calm down the group.

The aide immediately chanted a short spell, covering the crowd, causing them to fall silent, as there was no more sound being produced. Upon realizing what had happened, some of the new reporters were aghast, but the others who have been subjected to this treatment knew this was the way of signaling the conference, and photo-ops would begin. They calmed down their fellow reporters in a matter of seconds, completely organizing themselves in no more than a minute.

President Valores then smiled, beginning his prepared speech. It went on a for a few minutes, before ending with,

"…now, let us please welcome a friend of the country, Mr. Xander Cloverfield, to say a few words."

Xander then moved to the front, visible to the reporters, a lot of them were recording this and live-streaming it. He smiled brightly, like what one would expect children would do when they are happy.

"h.e.l.lo everyone, my name is Xander Cloverfield. Some of you might have heard of me, some might not, and that"s okay. The events yesterday were quite unfortunate, but hopefully, the government has pa.s.sed that and was able to learn from their mistakes. They have publicly apologized to me, and I hold no anger over their previous actions. After all, they were trying to ensure their country"s growth, thinking for the sake of their residents. That kind of government is the kind I would like myself to be under. However, we must always ensure that knowledge and wisdom shared by researchers around the world are not limited by nationality or race, but rather free and unfettered, allowing Eteria to grow together united and informed."

Xander finished his speech, his voice childish and yet the words he used were mature, concise, and straight to the point, summarizing the situation and clearing the air.

The presidential aides then said that the floor is now open to questions, and immediately several rose their hands. The aide in charge of noise control had long removed the sound cancellation so everyone can use their voices.

"Mr. Cloverfield, I"m Jeffrey from Daily Sun Tribune. Yesterday, it was briefly summarized all over the country as to why the government was attempting to capture you. However, the keenest of eyes noticed a split in the video being broadcasted. Are we privy to learning what was talked about in the cut segment?"

"Hi Mr. Jeffrey, I could tell you and the rest of the reporters, but I don"t think the government and military of Nema would like it if I revealed their state projects. If you want to learn more, ask the military or the president about it, thank you." Jeffrey caught on what Xander was trying to say, so he nodded his head before sitting down.

"Mr. Cloverfield, I"m Mary from Weekly Calder Times. What is the role of the Elven Queen in this situation?"

"Sister Syn? She is a witness to the reconciliation between me and the Nema government. She was visiting a nearby country so President Valores invited her."

The questions continued on for Xander and the President until one of the aides stepped in and stated the time for questions is over, and photo-ops is now in session.

Basically, for the next 30 minutes, Xander was just shaking hands with the president, with Syn in the background, posing for the cameras. He had to smile naturally as well as greet the other important guests who were in the banquet earlier.

After 30 more minutes, Xander and the trio left, heading back to Fargrow city. He bid farewell to both Syn and the president before leaving.

He then whispered something to the president"s ear, causing him to be visibly surprised. Xander smiled at the look the president gave at him, before leaving the Silver office and then flying back.

He arrived around 3 pm in the afternoon in the villa. It was technically his last day in Nema, since tomorrow, he leaves around 3 in the morning.

He didn"t want to sleep, so he left the planet and headed to Eon. He created a time-accelerated field, and began to immerse himself in developing more and more spells for the next 7 hours, Eteria time.

_____________________________

Unknown Location in Nema.

General Cabal was looking at a man lying down on the bed, his body fragile and weakened. Around him, multiple machines were placed monitoring and stabilizing the man"s condition.

General Cabal clenched his fist, feeling helpless. He couldn"t even be in the same room as his son, because the magic and elemental fluctuations were harming him already, intensifying the pain he was feeling. He had to transfer his son to a physical facility where there was no trace of elements, a dead spot. This only managed to stabilize the condition, but it was still decreasing as the hours and days pa.s.sed by.

On his side, a table with several doc.u.ments placed, one of which was the doc.u.ment handed to him by his aide.

Written on it was the information regarding the patient.

Name: Armando Cabal

Age: 58 years

Cultivation level: Mythic-9 magician

Test results:

Elemental sensitivity: Dangerously High

Magic sensitivity: Dangerously High

Blood count: low

Organ function: low

…

…

Conclusion:

The patient shows symptoms of magic and elemental rejection stage 8. This is quite rare since such a thing is usually developed while in the womb, allowing the child to be aborted to save it from future suffering that will result in death. The patient cannot be treated using magic or elemental energy/particles, nor fed with materials containing high amounts of elemental particles. Doctors and Life magicians" recommendation: Please euthanize. Prolonging will just increase the suffering and degrade their health.

Upon seeing the concluded advice, General Cabal"s reaction was of fury. He just couldn"t accept it, to kill his eldest son. He didn"t even want to test a possible theory of resurrecting his son and see if the curse was already gone. One problem with the resurrection method of the magicians in Eteria was that it wasn"t perfect. He had tried enlisting the help of those who went beyond the stars but was met with silence.

He also sent his two other sons, two daughters, as well as his grandson to be tested an hour ago. He wanted to confirm if it truly did affect them as well. He had the testing rushed and got the results back.

All the men were positive. However, the two daughters were negative for the disease, but they seemed to have something abnormal in their blood, specifically, the genetic structure they have in their X chromosomes.

It was at this point, his communicator rang and saw it was the President. His best friend. His comrade. He answered the call, looking calm and confident. Once the president"s hologram appeared, he saluted.

"At ease." General Cabal immediately relaxed, as he knew this was a personal call rather than an official one.

"Andrew, before you ask, I have good news and bad news for you concerning your situation. Which do you want to hear first?"

"…Cain, what even- sigh, fine, I know you won"t stop. I choose good news." Andrew responded to Cain, who was still smiling.

"Ok, the good news is that we might have a solution for your sons" and grandson"s cursed conditions."

"Really? You"re not trying to give me false hope, right?" Andrew snorted, a bit pessimistic and depressed about the situation.

"… The information is from "him" though, so if you don"t want to trust that…" Cain trailed off, unsure what to say next. When Andrew heard where the information came from, he remained silent. He couldn"t refute that the kid was truly a bonafide magician that can divine the future.

"… Go on, what"s the solution then?"

"… That"s bad news. You need to give each one of your sons and daughters a Cla.s.s 8 fruit, specifically, one that is a Purge element. If you recall, the purging element is a newly discovered element from the latest information provided by the outworlder, cla.s.sified under the Fate element series." Upon hearing this, Andrew"s face did fall. It really was just a hopeless task, then. Cain knew the difficulty of this requirement.

After all, the newly-discovered elemental series under Life-Death elements was shocking to the community for the past 2 weeks. The development of tools and techniques to recognize and identify these specific elements was ongoing, but it couldn"t be finished in less than 3 weeks. Probably a year or two before it becomes available for public usage.

However, Cain continued to try and console his friend.

"Andrew, no worries, I have requested aid from the higher-ups, if they could obtain such fruits in the universal empires they pa.s.s by-" he was cut off by Andrew"s scornful laugh.

"…How long will it take? 1 month? 1 year? 2? 4, 5 years? By then, all my sons and my grandson will be dead. My daughters can"t give birth to male sons, causing untold suffering for them. In the end, it was my fault. My own carelessness and stupidity doomed them to death." Andrew said depreciatingly, pinning the blame on himself. Truly, it was his fault. He shouldn"t have become sentimental and should have finished the enemy immediately, before she could have cast the final blow to him.

"…Well, he did give another solution, but I didn"t want to say this because of its impossibility."

"Come on, tell me. What else can surprise me at this point?"

"…Use plant materials with the ranks between Cla.s.s 3 - 5, all of which contain purely the elements of Life and Plant and create a 20-star High-quality Elixir of any kind that"s focused on healing. What it does is deactivate the curse, stopping it from activating for a span of 15 years. If you use it again, the effect decreases by 2 years. If used again, it decreases by 3 years, and so on. The only way to cancel this curse is for them to breakthrough to Divine cla.s.s. Do you think your sons and daughters can break through to Divine cla.s.s in 106 years? Do you think your grandson can breakthrough through Divine cla.s.s in that span?"

"No…but we can use this time to search far and wide for the fruits!" Andrew"s eyes shown brightly. Even Cain paused for a moment before his eyes gained realization. Andrew then excitedly asked,

"Don"t we have sufficient Cla.s.s 3 and Cla.s.s 4 plant materials? Can I exchange my merits and money to use them and have a professional create the elixirs?" Cain paused for a bit as if checking something from the side, before nodding his head at Andrew.

"You have just the right amount to get enough Cla.s.s 3 and 4 materials, currently allowing you to produce 4 batches of 6 elixirs, enough for your sons, daughters, and grandson"s consumption for 51 years." Andrew nodded his head, indicating his willingness to exchange for it.

The two began talking of possible magic pharmacists that they can talk to concerning the creation of the elixirs.

Pity, Xander was giving them a hope that has no resolution; Cla.s.s 8 and above plant materials are highly prized in the universe, after all. Especially in universes where there are no s.p.a.ce-time magicians that can accelerate the growth of these products. Even Xander didn"t have any Cla.s.s 8 fruits... yet.

_______________________________

Xander had quite a fruitful time in Eon.

Under a time acceleration of 1 second: 100 years, he was able to develop several new spells, ranking Legendary, Mythic, and DemiG.o.d in 2.52 million years. All these spells were formed from combining his current spell repertoire as well as the concretization of his ideas.

Legendary -

[Mirror Image]: Create a complete copy of the Caster, excluding a life essence doll. It is able to function within a distance of 100,000 light-years. Cannot act on its own, requires the Caster"s conscious control or possession.

[Xochiquetzal"s Paradise]: Creates an area that borders between dream and physical reality. All Emotion and Mind elements and their subcla.s.ses are reinforced and amplified in this area. The caster can designate one specific element from these two series to dominate the area. Whatever happens in the dream happens in physical reality as well.

[Ninsar"s Garden]: Upgraded version of the [Garden of Eden]. It grows slowly, and only develops plants and plant-like organisms/animals/ beings. They can leave the area for a short period of time. It can devour and absorb all the spells thrown at it, adapting to the attacks. Continues to gather and collect earth and metal elements, enlarging the Garden"s foundation. It can move at a maximum speed of 1 light-year per second, aboveground, in air, in water, or in s.p.a.ce. It can only be destroyed if all the plant lifeforms are destroyed. If a plant lifeform survives, it becomes the foundation of the next Garden, rapidly developing into a flourishing garden. Requires a Seed of Creation to cast.

[Materialized Future]: Allows the caster to produce the future of the target into the present, copying it. Currently limited to plant materials (not the whole plant), metals, alloys, and matter that does not have its own life essence doll.

Mythic -

[Airmed"s Touch]: Allows the caster to select a target to completely recover to their best state, to be resurrected, or both. It does not have a binding effect.

[Dreams of Brahma]: The caster and the target are transported in a dream s.p.a.ce that connects all dimensions, fused together. Whatever happens in that s.p.a.ce occurs as well in the other dimensions. It is completely controlled by the caster.

[Lakshmi"s Grace]: The caster can bestow a blessing of fortune to the targets or oneself. It can only stack twice per being. It lasts for 5 years. It can cause severe fortune or misfortune to occur depending on what the caster bestowed.

[River of the Underworld]: The caster can summon any of the 11 rivers of the underworld. Anyone who touches any river may experience one of the following: Death, Control, Spirit transformation, Undead, Eradication, Disease, Decay, Complete purification of life essence, Evolution, or Degradation. The 11th river can cause all effects to occur simultaneously.

DemiG.o.d -

[Simultaneous Projection]: Allows the caster to project himself to anything, at a distance of 200,000 light-years. All the abilities of the caster are directly copied into the projection, however, it can only exert 25% power of the caster.

[Kairos" Point]: Allows the caster to identify the most optimal time to do something. It is a pa.s.sive skill that activates once he has decided to do something. Allows the caster to use this to a target as a permanent buff until the task the target is doing is completed.

[Materialized Past]: Allows the caster to produce the past of the target into the present, copying it. Currently limited to plant materials (not the whole plant), metals, alloys, and matter that does not have its own life essence doll. One can reproduce the past bodies of different beings, but it cannot recreate their life essence dolls.

Xander was quite excited to use these spells in the future. [Mirror Image] took him 50,000 years to develop, working out the kinks of creating a copy of him. From it, he made [Simultaneous Projection] after 100,000 years. By using the two simultaneously, the first spell solves the latter"s problem in limited abilities, since it is a complete copy of me with the exception of a life essence doll.

He then made 2 other spells, [Xochiquetzal"s Paradise] and [Dreams of Brahma], gaining inspiration from the dream realm as well as other elements of Mind and Emotion, and of course the origin elements. It took him 450,000 years to create these two spells because he had to ensure that the location in the dream dimension is the nexus point of all other dimensions so that all attacks he did to the target/s would actually affect them, especially if they are beings not of the physical, dream, or others. [Xochiquetzal"s Paradise] was based on the idea of an enlightened paradise, where one"s desires are completely met. Basically, it can cause the targets in the area to be entrapped to their deaths in the dream, dying for real.

[Ninsar"s Garden] was created after 400,000 years of researching Garden of Eden, removing the key weaknesses it had. For example, when created, rather than a singular plant formed as the base, it uses several hundreds of different plants to appear and rapidly grow for the first 2 seconds, before slowing down. When they appear initially, the area they are in is protected by a multi-layered, multi-shift dimensional barrier, delaying the enemy. It can also detach and fly as well, but this time the landma.s.s can actually increase, and be fortified by earth/metal elements. It can also adapt and modify itself based on the attacks being launched at it.

The limitations, however, was that it could only create plant organisms and creatures that are completely made up of plants. This is the same example he gave Faykes about his 3rd Overture; imagination and knowledge. If he cast this spell, the creatures that would form would be an entirely new species of living beings. They could also leave the garden for a short period of time, not more than 1 day. Another limitation is if the spell covered the entire garden size, well it would be destroyed. The good thing is that if one organism manages to survive, maybe because it wasn"t in the garden at that time, that organism becomes the foundation of the next Garden, and automatically will begin growing a new one.

However, for him to do this, he had to use up a Seed of Creation every single time he cast the spell.

Concerning [Materialized Future] and [Materialized Past], these two were derived from [Temporal Replication] but added the effects of looking to the future and looking to the past. It took him a bit longer, around 800,000 years. As always, he is still limited to non-living beings and products and materials that do not have their life essences. What was interesting was he could summon bodies of cultivators from the past records, allowing him to obtain magic artifact materials.

[Kairos Point] was made in reference to [Divine Eyes] but in a pa.s.sive and more general perspective. After all, choosing the optimal time to do things would ensure his productivity and quality of training. It took him 20,000 years to do this though.

The next 500,000 years were focused on creating [Lakshmi"s Grace], [Airmed"s Touch], and [River of the Underworld]. The first one was based on his deeper understanding of fate, while the second one was a less restrictive version of [Diyu"s Overturn]. The third one was based on the Death element, focusing on the destruction, the negative side of things of life that disrupts the order of the universe and at the same time maintains it.

The remaining 200,000 years were focused on the practice of the newly made spells, as well as creating combos of these spells against an imaginary enemy. He wanted to go inside Eden, but he felt like there was going to be a severe problem once he did so, one that can cause the collapse of the stable pocket dimension. He couldn"t understand why this was happening, but he will focus on this in the future once he breaks through to Legendary Cla.s.s.

He canceled the time acceleration and reversed the pa.s.sed time in the area where he was, returning it to what it was before. He then entered Eden and stayed there for a few years. He played and trained with his contracted sprites and magic beasts, resurrecting those that died in the process. He then returned to Eteria and left his room, preparing his bag and luggage. Afterward, he reversed the materials in the building, turning it into what it was before. The only thing he retained was the Training facility. He felt it would come in handy for his uncles in the near future, hehe. He saw the trio already ready and prepared, so they all headed out to the airport.

They arrived in less than 5 minutes and were in the waiting lounge for first-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers after 20 minutes of processing. His flight was in 2 hours, so he didn"t really need to rush right now.