Learning that the rules I once considered absolute were being broken like this left a sinking pit in my stomach. The silver-haired man was the number one suspect behind these anomalies, and there was a strong chance that he might be my future self. After all, for soone of his power, he should have appeared in the manga, implying that he was created by , even if he wasn't my future self.
Despite having called him dumb before, it seed like he had sohow achieved what he wanted to change. The Strength Exorcist had no reason to lie about what he witnessed.
The only inconsistency between and the silver-haired man being my future self was our goals and appearances. The latter could be easily explained as I was fused with Carpy, and I wasn't sure what a human and dragon fusion would look like.
The idea that soone had changed the past still felt strange to even contemplate. Yet, an uncomfortable feeling nagged at , an instinct honed through my years as an exorcist. Sothing just felt wrong, and felt too convenient of an assumption.
Either that, or I was being paranoid because everything seed to fall into place too easily. In my profession, things rarely went so smoothly.
And then there was the puzzling retreat of the Gardens of Babylon. With their formidable number of Ultimate Class creatures, they shouldn't have backed down even from a dragon. I needed to reevaluate my perspective. Was I underestimating the silver-haired man's power? If he was truly as powerful as a Dragon King, then even the Gardens of Babylon would hesitate to confront him, unless they had already created their own God.
Excitent surged within at the prospect of reaching such strength. But how far into the future was this power? Gardens of Babylon wouldn't allow encounters with soone from more than three months ahead.
Sothing crucial was eluding , and a couple of pieces just weren't adding up. If I had indeed reached the level of a Dragon King, then why would my future self want to alter the past when that kind of power could be attained?
All along, my goal had been to beco strong enough to prevent future tragedies and save humanity from destruction. The might of a Dragon King fulfilled that ambition.
A lot of things simply didn't make sense!
Suddenly, a hand rested on my shoulder, jolting out of my thoughts. It was Agon, wearing a concerned expression. "You alright? You look tired."
I tried to lighten the mood with a jest, You know how to read the mood? Are you sure you arent an imposter?
However, his narrowed eyes made it clear he wasn't going to let dismiss this so easily. My gaze drifted to Agon's chest, where the seal containing Yamata No Orochi should be.
The only Dragon King I knew of was the Dragon King of Twisted Ti, who wielded power comparable to Yamata No Orochi, who had cast a barrier around the whole continent.
Since Yamata No Orochi served as Agon's power source, it was safe to assu that it ranked among the strongest demons out there, perhaps just below the big bad boss. Dealing with a Dragon King was no trivial matter.
However, my thoughts shifted, and I pushed aside such concerns. Worrying about everything now seed pointless.
"We could attempt an escape using one of my flying mirrors," Sei suggested. "At least until we are beyond the borders of this forsaken island."
"No," I imdiately rejected Sei's idea. His plan would only lead us into more danger.
The group had tried sothing similar in the original story, but the unique environnt here forcibly summoned a dangerous entity from Sei's mirror. That could escalate into an even worse situation, as the Dream Lords might take notice. Unlike us, they weren't affected or confused by the island's power.
"Then what do you propose we do?" Sei inquired.
That was precisely what I was trying to figure out.
My mind played out countless scenarios, but none of them felt right. "The best option I can think of is to use the ti rules to our advantage and wait for the fishern to co and take their boat."
They all knew of the fishern who had inevitably revealed the existence of this island, and in our tiline, those fishern were still alive.
"Sounds like we'll just be waiting for sothing to happen," sighed the Strength Exorcist.
"Still better than nothing," I countered. "If any of you have better ideas, please feel free to share."
"No, I don't have any. But just waiting for sothing to happen isn't my style," the Strength Exorcist shrugged.
"What is your style then? To be a punching bag for anyone with a half-decent special ability?" I retorted.
"What did you say?!" The Strength Exorcist glared at .
Feeling exhausted, I was no longer in the mood for gas. These high ranking exorcists always acted like their way was the only way forward.
It was incredibly frustrating.
"Despite the danger we've faced and how you've been overpowered and barely survived twice by Ultimate Class demons, you still cling to your beliefs without even attempting to develop a special ability," I stated matter-of-factly.
Soone with his power should have manifested a special ability, or at least unintentionally triggered one. But he stubbornly hindered its manifestation.
It was pure stubbornness, nothing more.
Suddenly, just as we were about to start arguing on the shore, we both halted and turned toward the forest. My breath caught as a silver-haired man stood there, his crimson gaze silently observing us.
Initially, he said nothing, but then he pointed in a certain direction within the forest.
What was he up to? By providing us with directions, he was directly interfering with the past, which should have cost him a significant amount of Ord. However, he seed entirely unfazed!
I took a deep breath and sensed my Ord; it was below 30% of my usual amount. Despite my typically monstrous Ord reserves and the fact that my special ability didn't consu much energy, today had been especially tiring, and it felt like the day had been dragging on forever.
As far as I knew, maybe it had been. After all, the day and night cycle varied across the island, and in so places, it seed like ti itself was lagging.
I looked at the silver-haired guy once again, and I couldn't deny that he intimidated . But I wasn't going to follow soone's words blindly. Instead of succumbing to fear, I clenched my teeth and took control of my emotions, mustering the courage to approach him.
Even as I got within arm's length of the man, he remained silent, so I decided to ask, "What are you doing here? Did sothing happen in the future that would make you want to intervene with the past?"
As soon as I asked that, my Ord bottod out in an instant. It had been a while since I was on the brink of Ord exhaustion. This was going to take out of commission for a while.
My body slumped forward, but what bothered more than my impending state of unconsciousness was that the man hadn't answered at all.
However, as I was slumping closer, I got a better look at the man's crimson eyes. Though it was harder than usual to see due to the eye color, there was no doubt that there was no emotion behind those eyes. They were hollow, just like when I was using my special ability. It was a look I had seen countless tis and wouldn't mistake for sothing else.
The man extended his hand and touched my shoulder, stopping my descent and preventing from slumping face-first into the ground.
At that mont, sothing foreign yet familiar entered , just as the fusion between and Carpy was about to end.
Transferring Ord between different people was difficult, even when twins or clones were involved. Ord was unique to each individual, and since I was fused with Carpy, even special abilities that could transfer Ord between humans wouldn't be able to restore mine, as demonic Ord fought off normal ones.
Yet this foreign Ord entered , similar to the Ord Carpy and I used when we were fused. The only difference was in its quality and quantity, but it was essentially the sa Ord.
{Perfect }
I activated my special ability and ensured that this new Ord wouldn't just spill out. For the first ti in a while, Perfect found sothing it could work perfectly well with, as the Ord control possessed by the silver-haired man was impeccable.
This unquestionably proved that the red-eyed man was my future self. I took a step forward, preventing myself from falling, and t the man's gaze. If he truly was my future self, there were certain things he couldn't have changed.
I didn't say anything, but I stood confidently before the silver-haired man and smiled. After all, even if he was using Perfect , there was a five-minute limit, and that limitation will remain despite how much stronger I would beco.
Regardless of whether he was my future self or not, I wasn't about to blindly follow soone without knowing where he was leading . One thing was clear: if this person had good decision-making skills, he wouldn't have to alter the past.
The five minutes passed agonizingly slowly, and my heartbeat continued to increase the longer I stood there. Even if he attempted to control my blood, I knew the weakness of that technique. The victim had to concentrate a little bit of Ord into their blood more than was naturally present, and there was no way I would allow him to manipulate my blood.
However, despite the seconds ticking by, nothing happened. Had he sohow broken the laws of his Ord ability? No, that was practically impossible!
I can only use Perfect for 5 minutes in a week!That was an unbreakable rule I had established when manifesting my special ability with my then-minuscule power.
He had changed the past and broken the rules of special abilities. It felt like this man defied everything I knew about the absolute rules of the world.
It was as if the world itself bent to his will.
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