Because of the battle between Replicus and Skullius, Aigas currently existed in three tiliness.
They appeared as humongous drapes onto which live events from the period during which the Second Grand War took place; the ti when the Ashing of Ti was to occur; and the current state of Aigas, four thousand years later, were transpiring.
There was no manual detailing how such an unusual state of the world could possibly continue to persist or how it could be solved by mortals.
In any case, it was a dangerous state of affairs.
At first, most of the billions residing in each tiline hadn't been aware of what had beco of the world, but because of the hundreds of thousands of Soul Spawn, and the heated exchange between Beyrmir and Jiggorrhax which had cast terrible shockwaves across the tiliness, many more people grew to know the status quo.
If they used the incredible powers they had, they could even see through their own drape of ti and ascertain the position and contents of another.
It was truly terrifying to imagine what could happen as a result of this.
However, as established before, the current state of Aigas was only temporary.
Nothing that hadn't reached Divinity could forcefully give a permanent command to ti.
Even Skullius, with his unlimited output slashes wasn't capable of that.
Of course, he wasn't the only one to toy with ti in this world.
Eaniss had turned back ti during the battle with the Ardent Curses in order to catch up to the masked man, Actuass. This feat was only possible because she had exercised powers from the Reverse Cluster that was imbued with ti. In other words, she had temporarily harnessed raw ti in the power of her hands.
This was different from acquiring an affinity with a concept.
An affinity was a relationship a combatant had with a certain elent that normally couldn't be obtained normally. As such, exploiting an affinity with ti was different from holding it and having it do your bidding.
At that ti, Eaniss had pretty much been wielding a Rule, and because she hadn't used it for anything other than giving herself a lead, what she perford was nothing more than a small knot that was eventually undone in a couple dozen minutes.
Another individual to ss with ti was Gabel, a man from the Severed Union directly under Eaniss.
The man had a Veneration art that allowed him to stop and rewind ti. Using it, he had managed to reverse Skullius' death at the hands of Rias' machinations during the Premium Age Royale.
(A/N: Refer to Ch.768).
This was also different from what Skullius had done.
Veneration arts were not too different from Divine Blessings. The only catch was, they were received from a Deity who had no ties to the world the native who received the Veneration art resided in.
What Gabel did was prompted by a Divine power, thus it remained as a permanent fact on Aigas.
But the damage Skullius had done with his near-Divine power would not last long.
It could not be permitted to.
When creating Aigas, the Deities, particularly Quintess, had relished in the idea of their creations reaching ridiculous tiers of power that would shake the world. However, be that as it may, there had to be limits, otherwise Aigas would fall apart.
One of the sets of Rules set in place disallowed world-unravelling feats of power like this from becoming permanent, as that would cause too much chaos.
This was why Suzate hadn't flinched when she had seen Skullius cut ti... twice.
Indeed, the implications and consequences of an Aigas that existed in two pasts as well as a future, were outrageous.
*****
Replicus kept looking dumbly at a face he had never thought he'd see again.
The chestnut coloured skin, thick, curly black hair and pure hazel eyes looking at him were thrumming with life.
Replicus couldn't believe it.
After all this ti, Elita was in front of him.
She had been the Paladin Champion whom he t shortly after leaving the Tremur Forest back then.
She had shocked him after proclaiming herself to also be soone acknowledged by the Voice of Worlds back, like him.
She had known his real na.
She and Red Rage had joined hands to defeat the abomination of the Green Neolists that had been set loose in Eofel before he swiftly ended it with a sneak attack.
She had been the one who had given him a map to Genhuis City and set him free from the custody of the Purity Knights. Because of this, he had seen her in a very favourable light.
Replicus shook.
But... he had seen Elita succumb to the UNCoddled curse because she had helped him.
He had heard her scream, and seen her convulse, punished for being good to him. Replicus had felt, for the first ti, a pang of sorrow and guilt that day. He had always cursed when he rembered Elita, thinking her death was a waste.
In a lot of ways, what he thought had happened to Elita was what made him eager to prevent more of his future helping hands from lting alive.
And yet...
"You're... alive?" Replicus said to the forr Paladin Champion.
He disregarded the giant figure of Boron not so far away, clutching at the nasty wound on his vessel's chest.
At Replicus' inquiry, Elita's mildly playful visage vanished. A modest smile appeared on her face instead.
"Oh, right. You didn't know," she said, an unmistakable note of sadness and empathy livid within her voice, "I'm sorry you had to carry such a thought, no, a burden, with you all this ti. I grew to learn that you'd think it was your fault. It was so curse you had, right? I should have been considerate. I should have made an effort to show you I was alive."
Replicus was taken aback.
Elita was genuinely saddened by this.
"After you left, Quintess saved . At the ti, I struggled with the why and the how, but..."
she continued.
"Quintess?" Replicus said, puzzled.
What did that Deity have to do with this?
But Elita gathered her wits. This wasn't the ti.
"I'll tell you all about it later. As I'm still alright after helping you, I'm guessing you're not cursed anymore, right?" she said as she faced forward and made her long sword spin before
clutching it tighter in her grasp.
"Yeah."
Replicus concurred. This wasn't the ti for a backstory.
Even the brief monts they had taken to chat while a Deity was in front of them were
incredibly bold.
And speaking of boldness, Replicus looked at Elita's sword again.
Its blade had alternating, ssy, shades of hot pink and gold.
This must be the weapon she used to hurt Boron just now.
Because the Deity truly seed to be heavily incapacitated as a result of that one blow, Replicus was sure this weapon couldn't be graded by Aigas' standards. There was no way!
Boron had similar thoughts about the sword.
In fact, he regarded the sword more than its user.
He was finding it hard to contain his essence within this vessel just from the cut he received on
his chest.
It hurt.
It hurt imnsely.
But when compared to a more discreet agony burning within sothing finer than his soul,
this mortal wound was nothing.
Boron looked up into the sky.
He looked past the clouds and his vision settled on a human vessel that was holding the
essence of his lover as it floated up.
His face contorted with rage.
The Deity roared so loudly that everything else on Aigas seed to turn furious on his behalf
as well. A shockwave of Divine energy rolled out of the Deity.
Elita propped up her sword and defended herself and Replicus from it.
Suzate looked below with a mix of fear and sadness.
She knew she would have to face the consequences of her actions.
Indeed, she had fooled Boron. After all...
Boron barked, his voice
reaching every Aigas across ti.
Indeed, when Suzate had told Boron to repent of his fury just until Replicus and Skullius' battle was over, promising that the 'ending' was spectacular, she hadn't ant the conclusion
of the fight.
She had ant what would follow imdiately after: Elita's arrival.
The wound cutting across Boron's chest was no ordinary wound.
It wouldn't heal.
Suzate would know, just like Quintess and Listafelle would. She could see everything that would happen in Aigas as long it was not prompted by powers equal to or stronger than her own.
Boron cried.
The pressure around him grew and dwindled continuously.
He was growing weaker with each passing mont.
However...
His dark eyes flared gold.
And Ciumin, whose moniker was Boron, let out a terrifying howl imbued with an exaggerated
volu of genuine Divine energy.
It spilled out in every direction... but it did not affect anything physical within Aigas.
No.
It hurtled towards the drapes of ti raised above the present and imposed Boron's will!
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