Varian looked at Sarah in silence. Even though his eyes were wide and shaking, he didn't move an inch from his position.
His fists clenched before he knew it and veins popped up as if they were about to burst the boiling blood inside.
'I-It's…It's…'
He wanted to remain strong, to maintain a firm mind even in this situation. Because the problem wasn't solved yet.
Still…
A moment of relaxing his breath…
Varian was hugging her before he even knew it. The familiar touch of the girl he thought he lost long ago filled him with joy.
The familiar fragrance, one that reminded him of the academy days when he first met her, soothed his scarred soul.
"It's okay, it's okay, it's okay!"
Only then did he finally hear her soft, sweet and comforting voice as she patted his back.
"Sarah," Varian pulled back from his hug and held her shoulders. "Why are you crying?"
Those blue eyes didn't stop watering. Wiping the tears, Varian said. "Don't cry, please don't cry..."
Sarah started at his red eyes and dried tear marks and something in her broke. Unable to control herself more, she burst into a wail.
"I can't bear to see you like this. It hurts. It hurts."
Varian sighed and wiped the tears from his own eyes.
With a gesture of his hand, Isadora who was meditating appeared next to them. Without any word, she too hugged Sarah and rested her head on her shoulder.
The trio remained in silence for a long time.
Eventually, they sat inside a small clearing where Varian began. "Before my breakout plan, how did you get here? What happened?"
Sarah explained the circumstances and in response, both of them looked at her in disbelief.
"So you reached divine rank before me, huh." Isadora chuckled.
If it was before, she might have said something provocative or reacted with a bit of jealousy. Now, she didn't seem to mind at all.
"Funny how I thought Varian would be the first." She leaned against him with a peaceful expression.
"You two…" Sarah raised an eyebrow.
Varian nodded, explaining it roughly. "I think the only reason she got convinced was we spent almost an eternity."
"A billion years, yep." Isadora gave her a smile.
Sarah shook her head with a confident expression. "This place doesn't work like that. I told you, only a minute had passed since I lost connection with you. This mini world had an extreme time dilation already and they pushed that 1 minute into 1 year.
Whatever else you experienced is the result of your time perception being distorted. For these distortions to work, the soul of the parties inside the world will have to be deceived.
Even if you take away the time reversal feature of this world, no one can progress when the time flow is this distorted.
Think about it, if any peak rank 1 can stretch a minute or even ten years into a billion years, why would the Alliance ever be in shortage of divine rankers?"
Isadora fell silent for a minute—or what felt like one—before asking "What will happen to our memories?"
Sarah frowned. "Once your souls return to their natural state, the memories will also return to an unaffected state. It won't be a billion years anymore, only one."
Varian smiled at the princess. "Why, regretting already?"
Sarah also waited for her response in curiosity.
"Well, we might not have spent a real billion, but it sure felt like one. And once we go out, I'm looking forward to spending that billion."
"It'll be only the first billion." Varian laughed.
"Ahem, ahem." Sarah coughed, drawing their attention. "I am laying claim to my trillion, thank you very much."
Isadora pursed her lips. "Thankfully, Sia and Enigma didn't have to suffer. But they'll definitely complain."
Sarah agreed. "They'll both see this as a missed opportunity. Especially that wild cat! Six months without her was a lot of peace."
"I don't want to imagine their smug responses now this happened…" Isadora covered her face.
Varian brought them back to the main topic. "All the progress done to break out of this world is being reset. If we have to breakthrough, it has to be done before any reset happens."
"But how do you even breakthrough? This world's time is like a tight cage with only a few loopholes." Sarah's eyes turned fully gold as she looked around. "And these loopholes are strictly guarded against timepower. I can't offer help."
Varian raised a finger and a swirling sphere of black and white manifeted itself. "I'll just need the tips from a powerful time ranker to get the aim, I'll strike the cage myself."
Without delay, the three got into Synergy.
Sarah's ascension to divine ranks meant that even though the current her was only an avatar, her understanding was still that of a divine ranker, albeit less than her full strength.
So, Varian was able to draw more than enough knowledge and despite not making any progress in any paths, he was able to learn the things he needed.
"How do we kill the devil though?" As Varian began to a charge a beam of black and white, Sarah asked. "He's a divine ranker, right? No matter how weak, a divine is a divine. I'm just an avatar, I can't exert divine power."
"Leave it to me. I got matters to settle with that vermin." Isadora said with a cold smile.
She too benefitted from the direct experience of a divine ranker. Even though she couldn't progress in this world, as someone who was already trying to hit the divine rank for a while, she felt like she could easily breakthrough.
Varian shrugged, as if he already knew that Isadora would say it.
"Get,"
All the wind in the world disappeared.
"Set,"
The red sky went black and the ground turned white.
The beam at the tip of Varian's finger began to glow with a brilliant light.
"Go!"
The power of slivers, guided by the acute positioning of the 'time cage', struck one of the loopholes of this world.
Everything shook violently and something cracked.
Varian grabbed Sarah and Isadora and the power of space enveloped them. With a resounding boom, the three disappeared from the place.
