1573 Alt Selves
The hall was vast, overwhelming them in both stature and power. Built out of the purest black stone, it reflected their faces back at them. Only their faces.
It looked excessively simplistic to be in a temple as grandiose as this but perhaps that's precisely why it's here.
"Look at that!"
They spotted a large inscription at the center of the ceiling, written in the purest form of aura. It wasn't in a language per se. The writing had to be understood through by grasping the energy.
It was difficult even for geniuses to understand the meaning in condensed aura, much less one created billions of years ago.
Fortunately, the people here weren't geniuses.
[Spaced Fate]
They were super geniuses, standing at the top of the pyramid.
[Space is overlooked in one's destiny. But it is just as important as time. You are here because you are born in a particular space in the time period you were born.
Changing the space you were born in changes your background, opportunities and ultimately, fate itself.]
Varian and his teammates paused for a moment as the following inscriptions seemed cracked, rendering them unable to any interpretation.
Rather than lamenting that they were missing out some crucial information, almost all of them had the same thought.
'It's damaged? Something inside the temple is damaged?'
The invincibility of the temple was destroyed just like that.
[The fluctuations are both of Space and Time. This layer filters out and deals with Space waves. Interaction with the waves results in spatial abnormalities within the temporal bounds.]
As the words seemed to end, the hall made of pure black diamond flashed once. And then four more times.
Five individuals stepped out of the hall and the alliance gance went dumb.
"What the…" Varian looked at 'himself' and shook his head in disbelief.
The middle-aged Varian had sharp ears like that of an elf and glowing green eyes.
More importantly, he held the tremendous vitality that could only come from the members of 'Vita' tribe.
Noticing his stare, Vita Varian narrowed his eyes before clicking his tongue. "Such an insignificant race? Here's a deal. How about you kneel down now and call me daddy? I'll accept you as my butle—"
Boom!
The space distorted as Varian's fist missed his alternate self's 13:26
by a hair's width. A sharp jolt was felt on his back and he crashed to the ground before he knew it.
"Why so serious, buddy? Being my butler has a lot of nice perks. For example,"
Boom!
Vita Varian ducked down, his waist parallel to the ground as he dodged a sharp kick that would've cut his abdomen into two.
"You get to have 10 vacations a month, 100x of minimum wage, a harem of maids. Oh and did I forget? You can have your own butlers!"
Varian stopped the fist he was about to throw and looked at his alt self with a serious expression.
"Impressed, aren't cha? I know, I know." Vita Varian chuckled with a prideful laughter.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of explosions all around them which resulted from the terrible battles waged by the members against their own selves didn't seem to bother him at all.
"It's honestly a great offer." Varian nodded and his alt self's face brightened.
Boom!
Blood spilled from the neck of Vita Varian and he looked at his other self in disbelief. "B-But why…."
"Trust me, I know how good of an employer I am. Even I wouldn't want to work under myself."
Varian clenched his fists and space around his alt's neck exploded, the sharp shards digging into his neck and nearly severing his head off.
"Kuh! Kaa! Kahahaha!" Vita Varian let out a mad laugh as he raised his fists to block the incoming attacks. "To use a space bomb in between a sacred duel, how despicable!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Varian's punches put him on a defense and the occassional space attacks pushed his enemy to the edge.
He soon lost an arm to a neat space cut, both of his ears and suffered a big punch impression in his abdomen.
Kneeling helplessly as blood pooled around him, Vita Varian glared at him while secretly gathering power for a surprise attack.
"Kuh! I didn't think my other self would be so cowardly to use treasures here."
"You don't know anything, do you?" Varian shook his head and elbowed his counterpart.
"Guh!" Blood spurted out of the man's mouth like a water balloon had burst.
But instead of falling to the ground, he twisted his body, placed his palm on the floor and used the force to jump over Varian's head.
His body twisted into a 'C' and his fist reached Varian's head from behind.
"By the way,"
The fist which should've struck Varian with a tremendous force and great lethality was slowed down by an inexplicable wave of space, allowing him to block the attack.
Varian turned around and saw his counterpart's eyes widening.
He realized something. "Y-You…How the…"
"What's your name?"
Varian held the fist in his hand and asked with a smile.
"V-Var Nostrad Yvarst."
"Thought so."
A thunderous fist struck Nostrad in the abdomen, causing him to curl over and puke blood.
"You are but a cheap imitation by space-time." Varian's bloodied fist shined with a nefarious red light, the light of death.
It was subtle, covered up by the overflowing power of life and didn't alarm anyone.
But Nostrad saw it too clearly.
"Through all of space,"
The fist fell, breaking Nostrad's skull, crushing his brain and exploding his head into pieces.
"In all times,"
Nostrad's body, struck power of death spasmed and tried to struggle. Since Varian controlled its amount to not alert others, he was almost successful.
"I am,"
That was until the power of soul struck at him point blank range, rendering everything useless.
"The only one."
Nostrad's body collapsed powerlessly.
Varian shook his fist to shake off the blood and looked around.
The surroundings…!
Desmond, Lilith and Mencius were all fighting fiercely.
Of them, Desmond had the easiest time. Since he already came from one of the highest lineages, his alt self wasn't much stronger.
The same went for Lilith as her opponent was also a vampire but much older, somehow compensating for the disadvantage.
Mencius, on the other hand, had it the easiest. He was puncturing his quill into his shoulder and writing something on his book with blood.
And his enemy, who was a powerful Order awakener but lacked the book and quill, struggled to hold on.
'Wait!'
There's one person in completely different league from everyone else.
Immortal was meditating.
'He didn't fight at all!'
There was no corpse for Immortal.
Did he not face any enemy?
As soon as the question arrived, Immortal's eyes opened, shining with a pitch black darker than even space and stared straight into Varian's eyes.
"Heh."
A strange smile etched itself on his face.
Varian prepared himself for a brutal battle. And he also realized by there was no battle for Immortal to fight.
'A perfect union of life and death. His birth is a miracle. He can't be born in any other place.'
Varian's face grimaced and he subtly channeled his slivers.
Immortal kicked down, blasting forward.
A light shone down on him and a tremendous power shot out of him, attacking the alternate selves of Mencius and Desmond at the same time.
"Now!"
The four of them raced to the divine-grade wall and a light flashed on Immortal. A familiar power burst from him and he used it to extend that light for the rest.
They all passed through the wall, just like that.
"Huh?"
The alt selves of Mencius, Lilith and Desmond turned to him.
"Fuck you."
