1522 When Time Stopped

The devil lost his composure and hastily threw a blue disc at Varian.

Isadora stepped forward and struck it down with a thorned sword of darkness.

Without looking back, she said. "Do it!"

The ring in Varian's hand began to shake as it rejected the power of other paths but the time path was accepted.

He was able to get into its structure and manipulate it a little but he was too weak to break it or make any big changes.

Taa! Taa! Taa!

The ring began to shine with a red light and tremble violently, as if it was about to explode.

"You bastard!"

Icarus raised his hand and all his 'selfs' fighting all over the world did the same. "You won't suceed!"

Varian hurriedly grabbed Isadora and pulled her back.

In the blink of an eye, every self of the 'devil' converged and the planet was basked in a blue light, as if a blue star had crashed it.

The might of a divine ranker began to rise from the giant blue beam that pierced the sky.

"I wanted to play with you, but it's all over now."

With an ancient voice that rumbled the heavens, the blue light of the devil reached them before Isadora could even react.

At the same time, the power of slivers which were being charged until now flooded the ring and a brilliant red light rose from the artifact.

The rising red and the descending blue clashed.

Everything disappeared.

*** *** ***

When Varian opened his eyes, he found himself standing in front of an endless stretch of red flowers.

"Urgh,"

Hearing the groan behind, his hanging heart settled down.

"My head hurts." Isadora rubbed her long silver hair as she trotted next to him, looking at his face and the flowers in confusion before her eyes widened.

"Where is he?" She looked around with a vigilant gaze but noticing nothing but red flowers in her vast perception, the princess frowned. "No, where are we?"

Varian shrugged.

A green ring was formed over the tip of his finger from the power of time before it dissipated away.

Shaking his head, he asked.

"Good news or bad news?"

"Good, of course."

"We're saved. According to the feedback I recieved when the ring went berserk, this artifact is actually constructed the good god to save the world if they ever fail to seal the devil.

But it was supposed to be used only for that and only once in a thousand years to not upset anything.

This guy let off a prince in exchange for destroying the keepers of that knowledge and after a lot of mess, it ended up in your ends."

"Come to the point." Isdaora crossed her aching arms as she eyed the red flowers, red sky and the red land.

"We overused the artifact, upset the planet mechanisms and let the devil out. The ring was supposed to regress when we die, back to the beginning if we died normally.

But since I believed that guy and thought we won't regress, I overloaded it to try if it could help. The ring reacted to this hijacking attempt and locked us in. Inside it. In a special domain without time."

Isadora clutched her forehead and slumped down.

This was a bit hard to swallow. If they only died and went back, things would've been so much easier. But believing the devil, trying some other way to get out of the trouble and now…

"This is the good news?" She muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

"Well, we're safe here." Varian raised his hand.

With the power of order, a soft mat was constructed under Isadora.

"The ring is going to kill a bunch of people to recharge and then find a savior who can do the sealing ceremony." He sat down next to her. "There will also be an oracle given to the kingdoms. So, yeah, they will probably pull it off."

"…What about us?" Isadora raised her head to look at his impassive face. "Are we going to be out after the devil is sealed this time?"

"Heh." Varian clicked his tongue and laid down on the mat. Looking at the red sky, he muttered. "The devil will never be sealed."

"Didn't you just say he would be sealed?"

"In this place, time is stagnant." Varian sighed. "A day, a hundred days, a million days. Nothing would change."

Isadora jumped onto her feet, materialized a sphere of darkness and shot into the sky.

The darkness hit the sky and cracks appeared. But the cracks disappeared and the dissipated darkness coalesced back before returning to Isadora's hands and turning back into the aura in her body.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

She attacked the ground, the air and the flowers. It just repeated.

"No, no, no!"

Isadora's face paled as she went berserk, destroying everything around her.

But the destroyed ground reverted back to its original appearance, the drained aura recovered and the scattered flowers gathered again.

"This is hell." She turned to Varian and grabbed his arm. "What the hell are we going to do?"

Varian wrapped his arm around her and gently pressed her head onto his shoulder. Patting her head lightly, he said in a consoling tone. "The time is stagnant here. Butlike all structures in the universe, this is not perfect. Small changes are allowed."

He pointed to the mat he created earlier.

It was still intact and wasn't 'reversing' back into aura.

"We might find a solution." He said after a moment of thought.

"How long?" Isadora pushed herself away from him and looked into his eyes.

"I…." Varian opened his mouth before shaking his head with a helpless expression. "I said might, not will. Honeslty, I don't know if we can escape at all. There's a chance I might find a solution since I do have the power of time."

"But you're just a rank 8 and this place is constructed by a divine ranker." Isadora looked at him with a disbelieving gaze. "In this place, we can't even progress in the paths. This is nuts."

Varian nodded. "The most optimistic of my estimates say I have one in a trillion chance it might happen. But it might not happen at all."

"And what if it never happens?" Isadora asked in a trembling voice.

"Well," Varian looked at the sea of red flowers and his shoulders drooped. "We'll be seeing these flowers...for eternity."