"Astral Abyss: Ti Reversal."
As soon as the Sovereign spoke those words, the world froze.
The colors drained from everything, leaving only black and white, devoid of any other hue.
The wind stopped. The waves halted mid-crash. The distant cries of birds vanished into silence.
Everything paused.
If Elowyn had been in control of her body, her eyes might have widened in shock.
Unlike Ti Deceleration, where ti slowed down for the user, this was different. This was a complete cessation. Ti had not slowed, but just... stopped.
The human rankers froze in their places, their feet still hovering above the ground mid-stride.
The distant wraith princess, who had been fleeing, was suspended in the air like a statue.
Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Nothing lived, except for the consciousness of the Sovereign and the passenger trapped within her own body.
Soon, under Elowyn’s watchful eyes, the landscape began to reform.
Craters filled. Shattered stone knitted itself back together.
The charred earth regained its color.
The human rankers floated backward in a comical, reversed motion, their steps retracing as if ti itself was pulling them back.
Even the wraith princess began to return to where she had been, her injured body healing in reverse, the blood flowing back into her wounds.
It was not just them. The entire world’s ti flowed backward for exactly twenty seconds.
Within that brief window, the hundred miles of destruction were restored to their original state.
The grass grew back, the trees stood tall, and the scorched earth beca fertile soil once more.
Even the dead wraiths, those whose bodies had been obliterated by Starfall, were reconstructed, their forms becoming whole again, their wounds sealing shut.
The wraith princess was back inside the wraith base, standing where she had been before the attack.
For twenty seconds, the entire world experienced a miracle.
But nobody knew about it. Nobody had mories of those twenty seconds.
Ti had been rewritten, and only those touched by the Sovereign’s power would ever rember what had not happened.
Except...
The wraith princess stood frozen in the base, her heart pounding. She looked around, her inverted gold eyes wide with disbelief.
"What is going on? W-wait... was this not base destroyed?"
Her voice was barely a whisper. She looked at the walls, the floor, the ceiling.
Everything was intact, everything was normal.
Her heart began to beat faster and faster. Without thinking, she rushed outside.
The land was restored. The trees were standing. The sky was clear.
There was no sign of the destruction she had witnessed.
Then she saw them. Corpses. Dozens of them. Hundreds. [Elite] rank wraiths, [Captain] rank wraiths, [General] rank wraiths, [Commander] rank wraiths.
Even the sole [Marshal] rank wraith lay dead on the ground.
But their bodies had no injuries. They looked as if they had just stopped living.
The wraith princess began to run, looking around frantically.
She did not even know what she was searching for. Every corner of the base, she found more corpses.
Bodies without injuries. Death without cause.
Hundreds of questions pierced her mind, demanding answers.
They had died under the girl’s attack. Their bodies had been obliterated. The land had been destroyed. She had seen it with her own eyes.
But now everything had changed. Unnaturally. The land was restored, but they were dead. Not even injured, but dead.
"Not injured."
She muttered as she raised her hand and touched her head.
Her horn, the one that had been broken. It was no longer broken; it was whole again. The injuries on her were all healed.
The more she thought about it, the more terrified she beca.
Involuntarily, she began to shiver. She felt a pair of eyes watching her from sowhere.
Not in the base, not outside, sowhere else, sowhere beyond.
A cool ocean breeze touched her face.
She lifted her head and gazed at the window overlooking the vast ocean.
She did not know why, but her instincts told her to go. To look.
With slow, unsteady steps, she approached the window. Her legs felt heavy. Her breath ca in shallow gasps.
Cold sweat ran down her face and spine.
She looked out.
A black-haired girl with blue eyes stood on the distant shore. The sa girl who had made her kneel. Her master.
The black-haired girl’s eyes locked with the wraith princess, and she said,
"Do not even think about betraying . Unless..."
Elowyn did not finish her words. Her body began to dissolve into starlight, fragnting into specks of silver and blue before vanishing entirely.
The wraith princess took several steps back, her whole body trembling. She fell to her knees, her hands pressing against the cold stone floor.
In her long life, she had never seen anyone so strong. No, that power was not sothing she was worthy to judge.
It was beyond her. Beyond the Wraith King. Beyond anything she had ever known.
Unknown to herself, a smile ford on her face.
Yes. She was smiling.
She no longer believed that the black-haired girl was human. No, she was more than human. More divine than any gods she had heard of in story tales.
"Goddess."
The word left her lips like a prayer.
"Yes. She chose ."
The wraith princess’s expression changed. It was no longer the face of a slave or a terrified prisoner.
It was the face of a... devotee.
...
Back in Everbright Academy, Elowyn opened her eyes in her dorm room.
She had never left the academy. The figure that had stood on the ocean, that had slashed her sword toward the wraith base, that had spoken the words of power, it was a manifestation.
A projection of her Will given form.
Yet that manifestation alone had changed the landscape, defeated two [Marshal] rank wraiths in a single strike, and rewritten ti itself.
And even then, Elowyn could feel that she had been limiting the power of that attack. Holding back.
She wondered how much destruction the Sovereign could have caused if she had used that attack at full strength.
The thought sent chills down her spine.
Elowyn looked at the mirror beside her bed. The Sovereign’s reflection stared back.
"Why did you turn back ti?"
She did not understand. The enemies were dead, and the Wraith Princess had beco her wing.
The threat was eliminated. So why reverse ti? Why undo what had been done?
The Sovereign shrugged.
"No reason."
Elowyn did not believe that. She pressed further, her eyes narrowing.
The Sovereign’s expression softened, and she said quietly,
"Do you truly believe that I am the only celestial in this world?"
Elowyn’s eyes widened. She abruptly stood up from her bed.
"Do you an..."
The Sovereign smiled.
"Yes. Other celestials are hiding in this world. You are not yet strong enough to reveal yourself to them."
Elowyn didn’t continue on that topic. She knew almost nothing about celestials.
Their power, their hierarchy, their numbers, all of it was a mystery.
Silence followed. Then Elowyn asked,
"Why did you only show yourself now? After all this ti?"
A soft chuckle escaped the Sovereign.
"I was waiting for you to reach [Platinum] before contacting you. Though there was a ti when I did try to contact you earlier."
Her smile widened slightly.
"But you lost control and wandered into Cael’s room, muttering his na over and over."
Elowyn’s face turned slightly red. She quickly changed the question.
"Then can you tell what that power is? That Affinity? Starlight, water, ti, how was I able to control them? And what is the source of that power?"
The Sovereign answered in a low, asured voice.
"The elents are relative, including ti. All of them can be controlled by an Affinity. No two Affinities are the sa, just as no two people are the sa."
She paused and said,
"Astral Abyss is not my Affinity. Nor is it yours."
Elowyn was puzzled.
"I do not understand."
The Sovereign continued saying,
"My true Affinity is sothing this world cannot bear. So, I degraded it for you to use as you are now."
She paused again, letting the words settle.
"As for the source of power, it is simple."
"The source of power for celestials is... worship. But not all celestials require worship."
"There are exceptions. Like . I use the emotions of people as my source."
The Sovereign’s crimson eyes glead.
"Happiness, sadness, anger, joy, regret, love, and hate. Every emotion is my source of power. And if I were to say what my strongest source is... It’s madness."
The room grew quiet. The shadows seed to deepen.
"Do you know how I comprehend ti?"
"It is through people’s emotions. Humans, wraiths, vampires, and many other races; they all desire to relive the past. They all hope for future happiness. Yet at the sa ti, many of them neglect the present."
She leaned forward slightly.
"Past, present, future. Everything is a cycle. A circle of madness."
Her crimson eyes were fixed on Elowyn.
"Have you ever wondered... why ’status’, ’skills’, and ’classes’ are structured like a ga?"
_________
[A/N: Two more Chapters before moving back to Cael’s POV.]
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