Time Twister

The moment the fires began to seep out of s.p.a.ce, appearing out of nowhere, hundreds of thousands of the creatures near the flames were completely turned to cinders, becoming a secondary source to burn the flames longer. Lava began to appear, overflowing in the dark s.p.a.ce, killing millions every second. It surged like gigantic waves in the ocean, crashing down on these monsters and creatures, devouring them.

Time pa.s.sed. Giants made of flame and lava began to appear, created from the acc.u.mulating fires and lava in the area. More and more creatures of fire and of molten lava, appeared, eradicating millions at a time with a swing of their arms. Clumps of fire and lava began to coagulate, forming stars that launched towards the creatures, exploding and devouring them in multi-colored flames.

In the eyes of Blair, all these creatures act as tinder for the flame, making her spell stronger and more powerful. However, the reason why she didn"t like using the spell is that every minute that pa.s.sed, she loses 10 years of her lifespan. Past the ten minute mark, she loses 100 years every minute. Past the 30 minute mark, she loses 1,000 years every minute. Past an hour, she loses 10,000 years every second.

The longest she can hold was 30 minutes because it also uses up her magic energy reservoir. She decided to initiate the attacks to give time for her fellow sage cultivators to prepare their own forbidden spell matrices.

However, there were some that managed to survive, becoming stronger from the attacks, allowing them to weaken the spell.

By the 20-minute mark, the spell was rapidly weakening, barely holding on. By the 25-minute mark, Blair had no choice but to cancel the spell, or risk the spell"s drawback and backlash.

"Everyone, prepare your attacks!" Blair said to the rest of the sages as she retreated to recover her energy, and the spell matrix she created immediately melted into nothingness, absorbed by the creatures.

It was two Sage-6 cultivators that appeared, Anna and Manna Hailwind, who were fraternal twins. The two charged to the rushing group of beasts, chanting.

"Let everything stop, let everything fall into disarray. May all be purified."

"Forbidden spell matrix: [Entropic Purification: Lost souls]!"

The moment the spell was completed, The entirety of the s.p.a.ce where the creatures were in halted to a still. All of them stopped moving as if they weren"t moving that fast early on, with the known laws of physics being inapplicable in this situation.

Everything just headed to a stop. The other sages who were in the affected area could barely move as well, raising their defensive barriers to the maximum to counteract the effect and heading out the zone of effect, protecting the planet.

However, this stillness didn"t last for long. The spell"s second effect began to work, and slowly, each and every creature"s body began to degrade, their cells and tissues and organs were dissociating from one another, effectively killing the order in their bodies, causing disarray. This meant the invisible and intangible connection of the cells and tissues and organs with the main body is completely severed.

The moment these parts dissociated from their main bodies, they were rapidly purified by the light that covered the whole area, emanating from the twins.

This was the power of the Purge element under the Purgatory element. It reduced these leftovers into the purest magic and elemental energy, returning back to the universe, being absorbed by the twins, or becoming an energy source for the garden.

This process continued for the next 15 minutes, effectively clearing a large number of monsters in a short time.

That move, however, didn"t eliminate all of the monsters. Roughly, one-half of the original army remained, which was still in the hundred billion mark.

But the sages this time had enough time. The moment the twins retreated, the remaining sages had banded together to cast a Forbidden spell matrix that consisted of 108 arrays, and required 108 casters of almost a similar level to cast.

Their voices echoed all over the planet and the s.p.a.ce around it, demonstrating the overwhelming power the spell they were preparing contained.

"Destruction of a Star, an explosion that destroys and reduces all. Let light and darkness, life and death listen to our voice: Bring destruction, desolation, and woe to the enemies before us."

"[The Last Sunset: The Accordion of Heaven and h.e.l.l, Embrace the Darkness]!"

The moment they finished these words, within a light-year from their location, a bright flash of light was all over the place, making everyone unable to see their bodies and their surroundings, before being replaced by the pure darkness that embraced the area, encapsulating everyone in chilling darkness.

All the nearby stars and even the main star that gives light to Eteria dimmed to the lowest level, its produced light being devoured, but the star itself wasn"t harmed, and the same goes for the planets nearby.

Of course, for Eteria planet, they weren"t affected by the spell, but all light-producing spells and products immediately extinguished. Xander, however, even in the complete darkness of s.p.a.ce, could still see what was happening through [Divine Eyes].

After all, he was the one controlling the garden with a mirror image. The spell didn��t disrupt the connection, so he could still control what was happening.

However, he couldn"t summon the summoned beasts around him, as they were all being completely destroyed and a.s.similated by the darkness. In the initial burst of light, tens of billions died, and those that survived were now beginning to be absorbed by the spell. It was at the point that the control of the garden over the creatures disappeared, meaning they were being stolen and absorbed.

All Xander could do was control the Garden to go under self-preservation mode, retracting any feelers and tentacles back in, and then surrounding it with [Absolute Defense].

He wasn"t sure how long the spell was going to last. He couldn"t even interrupt the spell with [Void Rejection] because of the level difference of the two spells.

He hesitating if he should use [Absolute s.p.a.ce] to take command of the area, and then create a special s.p.a.ce structure that can cut darkness and light, or even use the recent spell he had gotten, [Spatial Disintegration], to deal with this.

[Spatial Disintegration] - Completely disintegrates the s.p.a.ce and everything it contains in a certain area. The maximum radius is half the size of the universe or 5e+59 light-years. All the following are affected by the disintegration: All dimensions in the area (the section present in that s.p.a.ce is removed), living and non-living beings no higher than 3 cultivation levels above the caster. The caster has an option to convert the disintegrated s.p.a.ce into a s.p.a.ce seed, one for each dimension destroyed. A maximum of 540 s.p.a.ce seeds per cast can be received. The removed s.p.a.ce cannot be recovered by the ordered system of the universe within the next billion years, creating a rift to the Great Void.

Note: The created rift can be recovered by using 9 s.p.a.ce seeds, quick-starting the recovery process.

The problem with the spell was that it was too damaging. He doesn"t have any idea of creatures existing in the Great Void. What if because of the rift, they can devour and destroy the whole universe because they have unrestricted access?

Not did he have to leave everything behind and enter the Great Void, he had to find another Universe to enter, a.s.similate, and grow. It"s also possible the universe he was in was one of the unique fantasy-type of the universe, meaning magic was quite ingrained in the existences. What if he landed in a technology-based universe? How would he cultivate then, if there wasn"t a shred of recognizable elements for his body to absorb?

Another important thing was that for all he knew, the Universes in the Great Void were tightly guarded, or hidden from the people who lived there. Maybe, they were monopolized by certain forces.

Although he could heal the rift by using 9 s.p.a.ce seeds, it seemed too risky for now. The s.p.a.ce seeds were quite tempting, however.

An hour pa.s.sed. The spell was still ongoing, albeit a bit weaker. Why was it weaker? Xander controlled the dimensions within 1 light-year and isolated it from everywhere else, making the spell unable to gather elemental particles and energy around it, to sustain the spell.

Xander was just waiting for the sages to be unable to hold on. After all, they were of different cultivation levels, and the more of them leave, the more unstable the spell becomes.

Xander was right. 30 minutes after, the spell was forcefully canceled, and everyone observed the current situation of the attacking monsters. They had managed to eradicate all the monsters..!

However, they weren"t completely happy, because the target, the large, green thing, was still well and unaffected by their spell.

A voice sounded out from the garden"s opening, echoing in s.p.a.ce.

"Hmph! You just destroyed my first batch! Arise, my dearies! Head towards the planet!"

And immediately, the scene played out again, a horde of plant-based beasts and monsters appeared, surrounding the entire planet, leaving no possible area for a retreat. This was only possible for the garden as Xander supplied another 3000 tonnes of Elemental crystals to the garden, allowing it to quickly produce the necessary amount of troops while waiting for the spell to end.

The Sages" faces had looks of despair etched on them, as they were drained of this fighting. Fights like these were pointless for them, especially if they can"t determine the winner with several bouts.

Blair, who had recovered, wanted to rush to the group and cast her forbidden spell again, but she was stopped by Carolyn.

"Don"t. Our turning point will soon appear. Just endure and prepare your defenses." Her voice echoed in the battleground, allowing the sages to stand ground and protect the planet, waiting for the so-called turning point that Carolyn mentioned.

Although she was just a Sage-6, her reputation and accuracy could not be faked. As the monsters and beasts rampaged towards the planet, a voice could be heard coming from the planet.

"Hmm? Cerberus, what are you doing here? You know I"m doing something important here." The deep, manly voice echoed in the ears of the sages and that of the garden.

The voice echoed again, saying one word,

"Stop." And everything beyond the sages stopped, unmoving and frozen in place, the monsters" ferocious expressions frozen.

The sages then saw a silhouette of a man slowly shimmer in front of them. The first investigative team recognized the man, as they had fought against him. Before they could even react, the man snapped his fingers, pointing it at the horde.

"Return."

Like in stop motion video being played in reverse, the whole swarm began to move back towards the garden, entering it and transforming back to their original form, which was the form of a seed.

This happened in a span of seconds; afterward, the whole place was empty, leaving the whole group of sages confused.

The garden began to speak, its voice excited.

"Young Master Homer! Master requires you to return quickly!"

"Ugh, the old granny? Tsk. Fine, I"ll return with you." Xander sighed, before looking back at the Sages.

"Well, it seems I got to leave then, dear Sages. Pity, you weren"t able to get what you wanted. You can try following us if you want, HAHA! Sayonara~" Xander disappeared before the others could act, appearing in front of the garden, and entering it, disappearing in its foliage.

The garden began to move, moving around 0.5 light-years per minute, heading into the great s.p.a.ce unknown. The other sages didn"t attempt to move against the garden, as they saw the face that Carolyn produced was that of dismay and fear, subtly shaking her head at them.

After a couple of minutes, they couldn"t even detect any magical flow of the gigantic creature, causing them to sigh a relief.

It was Varmin who let out a sigh of relief.

"Finally, the issue was done."

"…Varmin, that was the man who caused the situation a month ago. Do we just let him go?" Maria asked, her face confused by the situation.

"…Do you think we can stop him? Especially with that creature with him?" Carolyn said, responding to her question, shaking her head.

��…" Maria was silent, unsure of how to answer.

Varmin was silent as well, before saying,

"The matter ends here. We are not sure who that person was, what his background is, and what his true abilities are. We will merely say to our families that the situation has been resolved. Is everyone okay with that?"

His tone held some sort of resoluteness as if indicating his stance on the matter. If people were to decide to chase that person, they would better do it among themselves, and not include those who don"t want to anymore.

No one dared to do it by themselves; they knew they were helpless with this kind of enemy, who could resist their attacks, albeit being weaker than them. No one responded back at Varmin, indicating their tacit approval of the decision.

All of them headed back to the planet"s surface after canceling the spell barrier they placed, which was quite fragile due to the amount of time that had pa.s.sed.

Once they reached the surface, they notified their respective clans and conglomerates that the crisis has been solved, and it was already safe to resume normal activities starting tomorrow.

The sages left specific instructions to their individual clans and conglomerates, just in case they face the same target with the name of Homer in the future and they aren"t there.

When the high-ranked members of their respective clans and conglomerates heard the name, their faces changed, looking weirdly at their respective ancestors, confusing the sages why the name solicited such a reaction from them.

It was then the truth was finally completely unveiled by these people: Homer, current alias is Homer Simpson and an outsider, had published two groundbreaking papers, and these papers advanced different fields of magitech, ranging from commercial to private to military and government uses.

When they read the papers, the sages were astounded because this was quite common in almost all empires in the universe, the conversion of elements from immaterial to material form, and then conversion to tangible matter.

In other empires, they use this basic theory in different ways, such as producing their own materials, trading unique materials produced, and even fighting for information concerning the production of some materials.

Their faces were quite grave because they realized how formidable and how influential this Homer Simpson is, which most likely is the person that they were targeting. Why was this so? The paper gives examples and some clues in formulating the products produced from immaterial and material elements to tangible materials. Having access to this kind of information without any contract restricting him indicated that he was under another power that may be as influential as an empire.

When they asked their descendants how long this person had been observed, their responses were quite similar to one another: This outsider had mentioned he had descended in Eteria for the past 7 years, looking for someone.

"We only realized he was even here when our conferences were hacked and taken over by him. He also guided us in realizing another elemental series, the Fate series of elements." This was the common answer given by the DemiG.o.d elders that supervised the overall clan activities and happenings. The Divine magicians of their clans were only there to act as a guardian, to preserve the clan in the brink of a catastrophe and had no idea of his existence.

However, according to the divine and demiG.o.d magicians of their groups, he had issued a statement a few hours after the situation had occurred, indicating that it wasn"t his fault.

In fact, he even gave them data wherein they could synthesize lightweight metal alloys for their s.p.a.ce ships and terraformation of planets. That"s why they pushed back the idea of Homer Simpson being involved in this situation in the first place. They only remembered it now when the sages began describing the facial and body features of their target.

From there on, the recent news concerning the demise of the Corde clan on the hands of this cultivator was known to the sages, causing some of them to look at Wuhshan weirdly. After all, there were only 3 people left in the Corde clan that resided in Eteria. The sages weren"t stupid, and they realized why the Corde clan even bothered to send people to Eteria. Why would he even return if not to find out the information concerning this person?

Wuhshan didn"t care much of their looks directed at him, nor was he even affected. He came here to inform his descendants of a method to contact him or one of the other ancestors if another situation pops out like before.

They had a potential list of the possible targets of the outsider, but they were highly influential or had strong families backing them up. It even included James Corde, the sole survivor of the Corde Clan ma.s.sacre in their headquarters.

It was suspected that he had made some sort of deal with their target, which leads to the clan getting too greedy and attempted to extract the information from their own descendants, no less. It was a form of payback done by Homer Simpson, and a way to warn the other clans and families in Eteria of his presence.

When they saw the names, a semi-familiar name stood from the rest: Xander Cloverfield.

This kid seemed to be related in some form to the outsider. At the age of 4, he contributed to creating a paper that formally introduced the concept of elemental hierarchy in Eteria, giving Eteria a framework of elements that other older civilizations touch upon once they join an empire or find ruins of past civilizations in other planets.

Not only that, the sages realized that he has a skyrocketing growth in terms of cultivation and development. 7 years old, and was currently identified to be a Master-1 magician. Although in other empires, such a development is not rare; however, on this planet it is since it doesn"t have the resources an empire has.

The most glaring evidence was the two papers where his name was added as a co-author of Homer Simpson. Three papers where he had a significant impact on the development plan of Eteria as a whole; was it merely just a coincidence?

They continued to read the information concerning Xander that the people of Eteria know of, or postulated to.

He had signed 2 different contract signings with sprites and magic beasts. The first time, it was two legendary sprites, The second time, it was 3 mythic cla.s.s beings: 2 sprites and 1 magic beast. No one, however, had seen them.

All his guards are completely loyal to him, and a few days after the most recent set of guards were sent, the information is transmitted back to the government and respective families the guards belong to trickled down to almost nothing, with the transmitted information being nonsensical or quite mundane and even downright irrelevant.

The sages convened online before deciding to pay a visit to Xander"s villa, but rather than a collective group of 200+ sages, only 4 sages were going: Carolyn, Varmin, Margus Morningstar and Hailey Cloverfield. The latter two were going to be present to ensure his protection if anything goes awry, as they had begun to consider Xander a shared family a.s.set.

As they weren"t in a rush, the meeting ended early Sat.u.r.day morning. Around 9 am, they headed to Xander"s villa to meet the most likely link to the outsider, Homer Simpson.