"Crossing an entire Empire, going from one border of Genesis to the other border, it just felt like a light walk." Sarah muttered.
Even though she had just broken through, the Queen of Radiants displayed an impeccable control over her power.
"Ah, ahah, yeah."
Miss Calamity had received excellent training since childhood and even she was a little shaken to adjust to her new powers during this 'light walk'.
For the greatest genius who was repeatedly struck blow after blow by Sarah's incomprehensible ascension, this was the last fig of pride on her otherwise bare ego. And now, even that last fig was torn away.
In the deep dark space, they were wrapped in a bubble created by Sarah, watching Icarus contemplating fiercely outside Paradise.
Even though his perception was fully active, he wasn't able to detect the time structure enclosing the two. It wasn't just because of the time power.
The power of chaos, manifesting itself in the form of light—the form which Sarah liked—distorted something—the link between Icarus and his extended senses.
When these extended senses pick up something suspicious, they'd send him a message through an intangible link.
What the power of chaos did was to distort these messages and halt their 'travel' from reaching him.
They wouldn't be able to stop him forever without raising suspicion and that's where the power of time kicked in.
The time powers acted on these 'information packets' and regressed them rather than letting them progress in time.
The 'information' was thus lost.
In simple terms, she used the two powers to not only watch an enemy from the shadows while hiding perfectly.
If Logos displayed her status, it'd show her paths as—
[Pneuma
Chaos
Time]
Unless Icarus was a very perceptive warrior or Sarah made a mistake, she might even able to sneak attack on him and gain the first mover advantage in the battle.
As Sarah wondered which step to take, an unexpected development occured.
"Did that guy really barge in? Not send a clone in but barge in?" Sarah shook her head in disbelief as she watched Icarus barge in.
A bright light exploded out from the gate and a powerful aura, one enough to instantly wipe away even the strongest of peak rank 9s swept the place.
Miss Calamity tapped the space with the bottom of her toe and her body moved forward, disappearing from its initial location in a blink and appearing in front of the gate, as if she had always been there.
She too was a <Pneuma>, the controller of lifeforce.
"Not a very good idea. Fabricator might be in a slumber but even the sleeping ghost of a peak rank 1 is stronger than a low rank 1 like that guy." Miss Calamity's lips moved but her voice directly sounded in Sarah's mind.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Space itself began to break down and the flow of time distorted to severe degrees. The signals of life coming from Paradise underwent a ridiculous change.
Lifeforms, with an average grade of rank 6 and in numbers of billions, were perishing every second.
It was a ridiculous thing to even think of.
Even the most conservative detection from Miss Calamity found at least five peak rank 9 powerhouses perishing.
These five were almost as strong as her before her ascension.
"…"
"Thankfully, we waited until your breakthrough or it'd be difficult for me to protect you while fighting."
Sarah's innocous comment pierced her heart like an arrow.
Miss Calamity wanted to give her a begrudging look but she was quick to realize something in those words.
'Waited until my breakthrough, what the…?'
"What do we do now?" Sarah asked in a soft voice.
"H-Huh?"
"You know more than me in this area. I'll trust your judgement."
Looking at those soft blue eyes staring at her, Miss Calamity decided to forgive Sarah for the heartbreak her comments caused.
"We shouldn't go inside now. Locate brother-in-law, bide our time and strike at the right moment to get him and Senior Sister out!"
It was a good tactic for their situation.
Sarah nodded in understanding and wrapped them once again in a very secretive Chaos-Time bubble.
The bubble which was as large as a giant mansion and unlike the darkness outside, it was full of soft golden light.
Bathed in that light, Sarah sat cross legged and was closing her eyes. In that brief moment, Miss Calamity wondered if she had witnessed the angel of the myths.
"Uh…"
Sarah who was about to closer her eyes raised an eyebrow.
"How are you doing this?" Miss Calamity asked with an uncontrollable curiousity.
Sarah pursed her lips.
"You are showing the power of two paths!" She exclaimed with a disbelieving expression and shaking hands. Pointing to her own fingers, she continued. "See, I still can't believe it."
Sarah gave her a friendly smile. "I can't tell you what you want. But I can tell you what you need."
"Yes?"
"You have to harden your heart or you might faint later."
"W-What do you mean?"
Sarah said with a charming smile. "Your brother-in-law has a very bad habit of making people doubt their life."
Miss Calamity nearly jumped onto her feet. "D-Do you have any idea how ridiculous it is for you to say that?"
"Exactly. How ridiculus must he be? So harden your heart. I thought he was doing a lot of crazy things when I was in the celestial ranks.
But now that I reached the divine, I finally realize…my husband is going to do things that will make everything until now look normal.
The real step is only just being taken.
He is really…"
With an expression of half pride and half exasperation, Sarah shook her head and closed her eyes with a smile on her lips.
From the tone of her voice, even she has having a hardtime believing what's about to transpire.
Leaving Miss Calamity who was itching to ask more but knew she wouldn't get any proper answers, Sarah focused on the link of synergy.
Unlike before when she could just feel his presence, she could also vaguely him now.
He…
Sarah frowned and her smiling face turned frigid.
'Var? Var?'
'S-Sarah?'
'Are you okay? W-Why is your voice, no, why is your soul state like that? What happened?'
'…You're still alive, thank god! Thank the heavens! Thank the stars! Thank my luck! You're alive! You're still alive!'
'Alive? What are you talking about?'
'I'm sorry for not staying with you for all this time.
Isadora used to say that time will break somethings.
I proved her wrong long ago.
And I'm tell you with my full heart today.
One billion years ago, I loved you!
One billion years later, I only love more!'
Sarah bit her lip as she listened to his voice. It was bright but something was completely wrong.
She didn't even know why but she started sobbing uncontrollably.
It shouldn't happen. It mustn't.
She'a divine ranker. Pneuma, the controller of all lifeforces.
She…
Sarah wailed for reasons she couldn't understand, didn't want to understand.
It felt someone had driven a cold knife into her heart and stabbed a dozen times.
The hot ears in her eyes just wouldn't stop flowing.
'I love you!'
'Var!'
'I love y—'
'Var!!!'
'Y-Yes?'
'I-it's been only s-six months since you left…' Sarah said in a bleak voice. 'And your connection with me was cut off only a minute ago. That's why I came here rushing.
Your soul state was fine more or less for the six months.
A billion years didn't pass, whatever you experienced, you experienced it in a minute.'
Her words must've sent him into a deep shock as he didn't reply for a while.
'N-No way! That's too much, right? Even if this is a place like that, that's too much of a torture.
Maybe the time here isn't distorted, it's our perception…they messed with our souls…damn it! Fucking damn it!
I'll…I'll make him regret it! Regret everything!'
His anger was barely controlled and he was on the verge of erupting.
'I'll get you out of here. We can plan the revenge later. He'll regret everything.' Sarah said in a voice so venemous that Miss Calamity shuddered just by noticing her expression.
'I…I want to get out of here myself or I'll have bad memories of this place.' Varian's voice was unexpectedly firm.'This place tortured me for a billion years or 1 minute…I don't know.'
Sarah's expression hardened. 'Now is not the time to be stubborn. You have suffered enough! Even if we're going to fight about this, I'm getting you out!'
'C-Clone! Send me your clone! You have reached rank 9, right? I can break out if I can have the insigths of a rank 9 time awakener and couple it with my slivers.'
Sarah rubbed her eyes and sniffed back her tears.
Even now, this stubborn guy…
Gritting her teeth, she nodded. 'I'll know everything with my clone, if you fail or anything goes wrong, I'm breaking in.'
Sarah plucked a strand of her hair and threw it into the space. The time enveloping the hair skipped some crucial minutes and took it to another gate of Paradise.
The hair turned into Sarahs' avatar and entered Paradise with the strength of a peak rank 9.
She quickly located the world of <Eternal Empress>, found a chosen warrior rallying peopleto prepare for the devil sealing ceremony, killed him without hesitation and activated the ring.
And then she saw him.
Six months and a billion years later.
