"Are you really that desperate to die".
"Using a power capable of burning through time in this realm when you are not a being capable of existing in it's absence".
"You're lucky I shielded you until it's return was done".
Elias chided his opponent in a way as if speaking to someone who wasn't trying his very best to kill him, but it did not matter to him in the end, he could see that the entity referred to as -System- had overestimated it's abilities too when granting him the authority to use such a power, at best that would only be capable of protecting the strange visitor from the effects of frozen time and function during the event but it's absence was a different thing entirely no matter how weak or insignificant the stream of time he exists in may be.
No, maybe it hadn't miscalculated after all. That thing was such a meticulous existence by how it calculated everything down to it's minute value and should know clearly that the level of power it showed was far too insufficient to survive that effect, so for what reason did it go ahead in doing so anyway, was it trying to kill the Host it was inhabiting? But he sensed no such malice nor intent, this ordeal only served to confuse him quite a bit.
He could pry into the strange visitors's thoughts and also read the communication link between both, but that was more like a third party and wildly different from being able to pry directly into the System's mind. He could feel it's existence and was still trying to pinpoint exactly where it was, but now directing more energy into trying to pry open it's mind wasn't something he felt like doing...yet.
'Mhm, if Avistro were here he would have found this little thing in a heartbeat'.
A sentiment that may forever hold true it seems, searching really might never become a strong suit of his, relatively speaking of course.
On the other hand Gareth was not in any way at all having a jolly good time as at this moment, it was one thing to feel and hypothesize about the power of being with a strength beyond your imagination, another thing to see some of that absurdity come into play. He could not be said to have had the longest experience in battles engaging with the power of -Law- as a concept considering this was one of the newest gifts granted to him alongside the Overlord armor, but when taking into account of how the system works by nature, whereby it basically granted him full Experience Points for familiarity with every new ability the moment he attains them.
He understood clearly that the fastest and surest way to deal with such a thing was either by using something of a similar to nature to counter it, or by demonstrating an equal or stronger hold and authority over the power of -Law- itself, this was none of that. Gareth felt his mental fortitude threatening to buckle over if he continued thinking about it, he had to keep moving forward no matter what and to do so it was necessary to calm himself down which fortunately was achieved rather quickly.
If he couldn't trap him in Time directly nor do the same with any of his other powers, what would be the result if he changed the target unto himself as a possibility, Gareth wasted no longer than a moment to think about it as he had already gone ahead in doing so.
The orb was summoned once more and it's powers used but with a difference, first was fusing it into himself to meet the conditions for accelerating his time and perception by a total of one minute more and then applying it's ability to freeze time on himself but with the system's protection he was granted the ability to still function.
A body that was frozen meant it was impossible to damage or overcome directly without an immeasurable amount of power hereby granting himself the ultimate defense, but all he had in total was one minute to end this battle and for his final preparation he needed to do something even more drastic, embody the power of -Law- .
First the power of –Sacrifice– was activated in tandem with the Emperor class puppets, next were the three -Laws- he currently had access to, namely speed, destruction and gravity which were all infused into himself one by one.
[Speed] was used to heighten everything about him to levels he never thought possible causing his body to be in a constant state of vibration trying to shift in and out of this realm, [Destruction] turned his body into a living force of chaos collapsing space, time and reality all around him then [Gravity] at last seemingly doing nothing at all until he moved.
The next instant after the strange visitor entirely vanished from his sight Elias felt his existence being weighed down by something impossibly great just before he felt himself warping, twisting and turning as reality shifted all around trying to rip him apart and just then he saw him again, coming out of time itself bearing beside him five phantoms of himself taken from different moments in time and unleashing their greatest might combined and synchronized with their -Law- of [Destruction] as they struck at him.
It was devastating, simultaneously sending and trapping him between the past and present of the visitor's Time leading into multiple others unknown to him, the rippling power destroying every moment of their existence as they came along, entire seas of realms gone, entire timelines destroyed like they never existed and the power ever growing in it's potency as it lashed against his very being trying to eradicate him until eventually it turned back on the visitor himself and then this realm attempting to crack it as if it were an egg.
Elias watched as that power kept trying to devour him, both him and it's user alongside the entirety of this realm, then he smiled.
-"Be calm and come to me"-
And almost immediately that violent raging sea of endless power froze in it's turbulence, the weight atop him suddenly lifted, time and space at peace once more as all that power began flowing directly into his hands, his small hands which was nowhere near big enough to hold that endless sea in it's grasp was successfully doing the impossible, reality bent to his will and now he held it all. The seas of realms destroyed now restored alongside the eradicated timelines, all coming together right in his hands until finally it was done. And when the strange visitor finally looked up, he saw that he himself was within them also, staring still at the being standing before him and also looking up at that impossibly mighty figure who seemed so far away, his perception forcefully split between these two perspectives.
"So this is what a firsthand experience feels like".
"It truly is amusing".
"Looking so much more powerful than I am simply because the realm you originate from and the power you possess is too weak even though I remain at your level".
"Master was correct, it would be so easy for the lesser creatures with weaker wills to fall deeply into this feeling of being a god".
The smile on his face grew a little wider as he heaved a sigh "but in the end, it's just an illusion".
"I thank you strange one, you have shown me quite a few interesting things".
"You may rest now".
Right beneath his feet a small vortex of Darkness began forming instantly neutralizing all his abilities and means of escape, but it was at this moment Gareth finally realized the answer to a question that had been eluding him ever since those dreams began, his eyes were hung wide open in abject terror at the comprehension of what had been going on the whole time, the game he had unknowingly been a part of until it was too late, after he had danced like the finest puppet from the beginning right to the very end.
"No".
"It was you, the eternal abyss I saw haunting my dreams".
And a realization hit Elias as well at those words "ah, how pitiful you truly are".
"So you were granted the gift of vision as well just for this, what a cruel game Fate has played on this day".
"Warning you of your demise and yet leading you to it all the same".
Elias saw the light in the visitor's eyes die a little more with every word that he uttered but behind them still he could feel that there was a determination present, something he was holding onto and couldn't let go, not yet.
It made him curious - "Do you want to know one more piece of information".
"It wasn't you".
"In all this you were merely collateral, it took me a little bit to understand".
"But Fate gave you a way out, I'm sure there was a choice handed to you at some point".
"A significant choice and that vision, was the forewarned result of your decision".
"Still it wasn't you, you are too small in the grand scheme of things to be drawn onto my path just like that".
"No, it was the -System-".
...."It was you".
And in that moment, right as Gareth's will shattered to a million uncountable pieces was the same one that Elias felt the highest elation "Found you".
[[NO! HOST!!]].
[[WATCH OUT!!!]].
The warning had momentarily snapped him out of his despair as the -System- took over to heighten his senses to an entirely new level and attempted teleporting far away yet even with that he couldn't even comprehend what was happening or how it happened, all he felt was a hand phasing through the armor and grabbing him by the throat and then lifting him up high out of the suit as if phasing through it just like he was.
It made no difference in the end, all his abilities were utterly neutralized under that gaze and both could do nothing but watch helplessly as the being simply sent the suit to a different space and tossed him to the side causing an odd rippling splash as he hit the very fabric of this realm and began his slow sinking descent into an endless abyss, claimed not by the eternal Darkness of Elias but by his own creation turned upon him in the end, all his struggles and wails never once reaching that being who didn't spare him a look after until he fell completely into that sea.
And Elias whose focus was now at it's peak reached out with both hands at the emptiness before him, passing through an otherworldly veil as he began pulling at something far beyond and the moment it was fully within his grasp, the world glitched around him until he found himself standing within an entirely different space.
An endless space as clear as the skies with a peaceful blue hue, lines of power engrained into the very fabric falling like the rain all around him and beneath. But what was most eye catching was the resident in here laying atop a bed entirely asleep, a quick scan telling him that her mind had been utterly destroyed just recently, the power he felt within her was also much higher than that of the strange visitors's without the armor which was quite intriguing.
He shrunk himself down his original size and slowly walked around the bed in thought, she felt like the visitor and partly shared his time but also different from their point of origins, there was also the feeling of a fusion, a being with a signature akin to hers was within her and still getting assimilated bit by bit, the fusion or whatever she did wasn't entirely completed yet as there were changes still to come to her strength and nature.
Now she was potential, pure potential, the visitor from what he could sense had reached the absolute peak of what he could be as a vessel, but this one bearing the essence of another absorbed into her had such an incredible room left to grow, she could comfortably surpass the visitor with the armor before factoring the same tool into her arsenal but maybe she would not need that after all in the end.
He could expand that vessel to levels beyond due to her possessing an even rarer gift, an affinity for this realm, for the arcane meaning she could be adopted and more easily assimilated by the realm compared to the visitor.
"What a great find, there is so many experiments I could run".
Elias looked up and around him, a smile forming on his lips "By the way, awfully quiet aren't you, System".
"I expected a great deal of resistance from an existence like yours".
"Especially with secrets of such magnitude you possess that are clearly more than enough to shake things up a bit across the realms".
"Maybe even threaten self-destruction or at least some verbal show of words at your displeasure over having lost the thing you call -Host-".
"Yet you remain so docile, curious don't you think?".
"Hmm, shall I read your 'mind' now that I am able".
It didn't take long after that for a response to arrive as the System's avatar now stood before Elias with it's head held down.
[[I am here Great One]].
Elias raised a brow at the new way he was getting addressed and smiled "flattering but no, not yet, just call me Elias".
[[As you wish, Master Elias]].
It worked well enough so he saw no reason to further correct the avatar, though it really did slightly disappoint him how little resistance was being displayed still, maybe he could hope that it was planning something in it's head if it ever proved to be that daring but for now he put that aside and moved on to something more important - "Who this woman".
[[Her name is Soul Ainsworth, original and shared Host of the System]].
A peculiar wording caught his attention in that sentence "shared you say".
[[Yes Master, a twin brother linked to me via her]].
Elias scrunched his brows a bit and looked at the sleeping woman again, specifically the much too similar essences merging within her even now and made some deductions "is that whom she devoured".
[[Yes Master, after his death at the hands of my current-]]
[[My deceased Host, he was devoured by her]].
This was quite the curious web being spun here for Elias, he could feel everything about everyone involved in this tale was extremely personal and attempting to make deductions or judgements without concrete knowledge would be entirely pointless, even from this woman with the destroyed mind he could feel such heavy remnants of charged emotions scattered about her, only thing was there were no directions on whom this was aimed at.
But - "you, I can feel well that you are at the core of whatever absurdity spiralled between these three beings".
"Luckily, I am not curious enough for the full story".
"I will be returning to Miss Isla now, hopefully she is still peacefully asleep".
"And I will be handing you over to someone soon enough, after that your Fate no longer rests with me".
Before he left, Elias made sure to take the woman into his space and soon reality glitched once again around him as he found himself back in his world with what looked to be a cosmic shard floating just above his hands and guarded by three spinning interconnected rings.
'Fancy' he thought to himself and placed into his space also as he began flying towards the tavern of their stay only to smile upon reaching his destination to see the still resting Isla, but a moment later he scrunched his brows when she began murmuring in her sleep calling out to someone, tossing and turning as mana began emanating off her body.
'Hmm' Elias walked over and placed a hand over her head as he cast a spell to soothe and calm the nightmares before putting it behind a special lock that activates whenever she was asleep, the effects were instantly observable as peace returned to her turbulent mana causing it to recede and for the first time in what seemed to be so long ago, Isla would find herself sleeping to her hearts content just as she had done all those years ago in her childhood before the incident that ripped her life apart occurred.
But thinking about it now just how many things did this girl endure during her years with those guys, dark mages weren't known for their mercies, not even in the slightest bit and that showed with Isla.
The things fed to her just to grant her immunity to many different types of poisons both magical and not were more than enough to permanently wreck the bodies of most 9th Circle Mages, perhaps even cause their deaths and yet her body absorbed all that. Still that wasn't even the worst of it, being the one who tested the success rate for the Magic used in creating those staffs capable of making a false domain with a real person was an incomparably greater danger, one which has nearly ripped her to pieces multiple times with that magic seeping a little deeper into her every time it occurred.
He couldn't help but appreciate her perfect hatred even more, this too was talent in one of it's purest and oldest forms considering how rare it was to the point of almost being a myth. And if he played his cards right or if his theories came to be true, then perhaps he could create something even way greater than what he originally planned. Just the thought of it made him smile with the purest joy, one an outsider would undeniably mistake for feelings of tenderness with the way his eyes looked at her.
'Hm, perhaps I should get some shut eye too'.
'Then I could practice later'.
'Some new ideas for a spell are brewing'.
Tomorrow he would share all his memories of the recent events with the Master and hand over to him the -System- so the next step after that was already decided, still he wouldn't forget the little present he had for Mavion also.....
-[Next day back at the school]-
First thing Emrys experienced right as he woke up was an influx of memories and he sat there for a little while reviewing how each was a bit more insane than the next- 'huh, amazing stuff'.
While he was stuck here in school and doomed to attend lessons within the next hour or so, the other piece of him was having Fate throw random adventures with really interesting creatures from beyond the realm quite literally into his way, it truly was an amusing situation.
"And how convenient too, Avistro turned out to be one of my housemates".
He collapsed back onto the bed in mock exhaustion and heaved a sigh, the thing called -System- was summoned out of his space for a proper look, it really was a fancy entity just as the other him had stated, one so foreign to the point a difference in realms was no longer enough to justify the intense feeling of separation, this went infinitely far beyond that.
Almost like he was seeing through a looking glass but he simply wasn't anywhere near qualified enough yet as an existence to see or know what was on the other side.
"You're an anomaly...like me".
"Curious".
Emrys left the -System- floating where it was as he went on to take a bath just like the one he had back home and sank into it, normal cleansing magic was more than enough to remove almost anything that stuck and it was indeed the norm with most people, baths were simply more of a relaxation tool than anything else, sometimes a training tool also if the bath was specially made to soothe a wide array of purposes and his was a holy bath.
Minutes later Reign came tumbling down from above but landing excellently on his feet upon the water just like the cat he was and before Emrys could even get his bearings enough to ask why, Aine came chasing after him a moment after looking quite angry but not so, like she was embarrassed more than anything and the little kitten whom he identified as the obvious cause of all this based on the mischievous light within those eyes left just as soon as he came.
"Hm, good morning to you as well" he said with a light chuckle as he sunk deeper into the bath, those two had an endless source of energy, he had no doubt in his mind that they had spend the night playing and causing one mischief or the other other.
A full 30 minutes later and he was out of the bath now dressing himself, but just then Emrys remembered that it could be today "oh gods, please please please let me survive this one, I promise I'll be ready by tomorrow if he stays there just for one more day".
"My favoured child of the privileges, I need you to start working overtime for me here".
If that raging sponge really comes out bearing all the fury in the universe upon him, there was no underestimating the catastrophe it would cause and Emrys was in no mood to deal with the fallout of such an event, but even more than that is if that idiot were to kickstart his adaptation into overdrive in his desperation and when considering that they all possessed that very same nature, the results were deeply unpleasant to imagine.
The 'slow' but sure climb was more than half the fun of all this for all of them, especially due to the great experience that is accumulated with every millimeter that they grew in power, truly making sure to maximize each circle to it's very limit and if Bahu dared to ruin that for him, then without a doubt in the heavens Emrys would kill him.
It wasn't a matter of if he could or how he could at that point, no. He would kill him, of that he was sure and the heavens were his witness.
With that said, Emrys left to go meet the serpent living right next to him, a soft knock on his door and a few seconds later an answer would arrive in the form of an confused Avistro wearing golden velvety robes which quite clearly was what he slept in.
"Hello there housemate, I've brought you a little gift".
"An interesting specimen from beyond the realms".
"I'm sure you'll find it's secrets quite.....intriguing".
He pulled the -System- out and before he could even hand it over, it was already taken from him, but he wasn't the least bit perturbed as this was something he thought of as a possibility.
"You have much greater senses than I so I'm sure that whatever I felt, you're feeling even more than that".
"Either way don't get too excited just yet, we have lessons soon".
And with that he began heading downstairs leaving Avistro to himself, soon he was out of the building and took another moment to gaze over the horizon from the clouds above.
"E"
The spirit appeared before him almost immediately, it's form like that of a crystal ball of fire.
[Your highness?].
He hummed in response "I'm leaving now, can I be transported closer to my place of lesson".
[Oh? Yes, quite easily].
He thanked the spirit as she sent him through a portal leading him right to the door of his class which he opened to be greeted by the same lush green vegetation and some students already in early attendance alongside three of his peers already sitting on the same bed, namely Noctis, Rozaria and Velkos as he teleported himself right into their midsts.
"Surprising, I never took you as the punctual type let alone one to arrive so early" the little witch spoke which elicited a light chuckle out of Emrys.
"This likely won't be the norm so you might still end up almost entirely correct".
She smiled but then noticed his arms were bare unlike the first time "where is Reign?".
Emrys heaved a small pained sigh "I've been abandoned, he moved on to greener pastures".
"To summarize, he got a playmate and hasn't thought of me since".
*Tsk*
Her brows were raised in amusement "oh? Poor thing" and then she broke out into a small laugh as she gave a gentle tap onto his shoulder "you'll get through this".
"Yes yes, thank you so much" he replied sarcastically in jest while fighting off a laughter of his own.
A light clap from beside them broke the atmosphere as they looked to find Noctis just looking on in amazement "we really don't even exist to you both I see".
"Ah, the brightest lamp, didn't see you there" Rozaria teased.
But those eyes were wide open with the barest surprise as his gaze snapped towards her "The brightest what!?" He asked, unwittingly laughing a little due to how incredulous this moment felt, perhaps even more so than he had ever been with her amongst the multitude of comments she'd made in the past against him.
The chance for a reply would never come as just then the teacher walked into the classroom calling to order the students in attendance, a few of whom had arrived whilst Emrys and Rozaria were in the middle of their jest and soon class was in session with questions being taken first from the students if they had any questions concerning the little they had learned yesterday before picking up from where they had left off.
EnD.