Previously.
Though Monroe possessed a wide variety of superpowers, both in type and quantity, the actual potency and destructive capability of each ability remained limited. This was due to the extremely low concentration of external Primis particles.
As a result, even though Monroe's raw power had long surpassed that of the Emberlight Empire's entire class of Evershield Body martial artists, the extent of his superiority wasn't overwhelming. He still couldn't completely ignore the threat posed by modern weaponry or the full might of a conventional military force.
This reality kept the prideful yet calculating Monroe restrained. Despite his desire to "cleanse" other races on Earth, he never dared to act impulsively.
"But things are different now."
Monroe stepped up to the second control panel of the armor, lightly pressing the activation switch.
The console lit up, displaying detailed specifications of the alien suit:
[Base Defensive Equipment Ready]
• Deflection Force Field Shield (Integrity 90%)
• Energy-Absorbing Armor Module (Integrity 85%)
[Base Storage Equipment Ready]
• Virtual Space Folding Cube (Integrity 95%)
[Base Offensive Equipment Ready]
• High-Energy Particle Laser Array (Integrity 90%)
• Anti-Matter Piercing Cannon (Integrity 83%)
• High-Frequency Particle Alloy Blade (Integrity 97%)
[Base Repair Equipment Ready]
• Nano-Machine Swarm (Integrity 100%)
[Base Power Source Equipment Ready]
• Anti-Matter Confinement Reactor (Integrity 100%)
[Base Biological Plug-in Tray]: Empty
[Base Mechanical Plug-in Tray]: Empty
[Base External Expansion Tray]: Empty
Status Check:
Energy: Full.
System: Optimal.
"Perfect."
Monroe muttered a rare self-compliment, then adjusted each power throttle into position.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The mechanical framework sprang into motion. Monroe watched with anticipation as the robotic systems detached the dense network of cables.
"This time... I want to see how you'll manage to kill me."
He straightened his spine, arms spread wide. Behind him, the holy spirit armor began to break apart, dissolving into shimmering filaments that surged forward and burrowed into his body.
"Ngh: ahh!"
His face twisted with pain. It felt as if countless icy, needle-thin thorns were stabbing into his flesh. Within minutes, the armor had completely disappeared into his body.
His back arched sharply, and thick beads of sweat poured down his face. An immense force erupted from within his cells. Under a microscopic scanner, one would see each of his cells being enveloped in a thin coating of black substance like microscopic armor plating.
Within minutes, his fair skin turned several shades darker. Once this cellular armoring was complete, his skeletal system followed, transforming into a glossy, obsidian black.
Then came the internal systems: his organs, tissue, blood vessels, and muscles. Layer by layer, they were transformed.
Half an hour later, Monroe's body had expanded abruptly from 1.9 meters to a towering 2.5 meters. From his head emerged six pulsating crimson horns, sharp and alive with light.
His face was no longer human, fully encased in seamless black armor. His physique shifted into a heavily built, monstrous frame. His muscles surged beneath the surface, coated in millions of black-silver, mosquito-sized serrated scales. At every major joint, clusters of wickedly sharp, silver barbed spines emerged.
Monroe now resembled a Great Demon from the blood-soaked wars of the abyss. He radiated a chilling majesty, overflowing with an undeniable, suffocating force.
HUM!
Monroe slowly rose into the air. A moment later, a shimmering 360-degree energy barrier flickered to life around his body.
This was the Deflection Force Field Shield, a core function of the holy spirit armor. This alien defense system was capable of repelling kinetic, thermal, electrical, and photonic assaults. As long as the anti-matter confinement reactor remained active, Monroe was impervious to all attacks.
That reactor housed twenty-five kilograms of anti-matter, equivalent to a 500-million-ton TNT nuclear detonation!
Monroe let out a booming, guttural laugh.
"Hahahaha! Go ahead, drop Big Ivan on my skull! I dare you! You won't scratch me!"
BANG!!
He threw out his arms, and from the forearms, two gleaming alloy blades snapped forward with a hiss. Feeling the mountainous power coursing through him, Monroe murmured:
"My physical strength has increased eighty-fivefold… I honestly don't know if anything in this world can still kill me."
He casually lifted one hand, gently curling his fingers.
BOOM!!
The entire high-density alloy chamber shuddered violently. Monroe ignored the howling shockwaves and sat in place, waiting for the mysterious enemy's next move.
Moments later, two consecutive Primis bursts slammed down from above. Then, a terrifying wave of mental force descended with pinpoint accuracy. The base's outer wall groaned under the pressure, locking directly onto Monroe's chamber like a collapsing mountain.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE
The vast mental power surged toward him like a tidal wave of raw willpower.
"Hmph."
Within his shield, Monroe sneered.
"You think I'm still the same as before?"
BOOM!!!
A tremendous crash shook the world. The mental power slammed into the Deflection Shield of the holy spirit armor.
CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!!!
Explosions of radiant scarlet light erupted, sending shockwaves in all directions. The entire chamber surrounding Monroe disintegrated, vaporized into glittering dust. Next came dozens of high-temperature energy beams, erupting like enraged dragons forged in purgatory.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Above, below, left, right. The densely packed labs, corridors, elevators, and walls were reduced to incandescent metallic vapor. The energy streams lanced outward at near-light speed, cutting across the ocean floor. Everything in their path, seawater, coral, fish, even colossal deep-sea creatures, vanished without a trace.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM...
The rumbles echoed like the growls of titanic demons. The massive base anchored in the ocean trench collapsed, over half its internal structure crumbling as it began rapidly disintegrating.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!!!
A shrill alarm snapped Monroe from his trance.
[Warning: Reactor energy remaining 49%]
[Warning: Reactor energy remaining 45%]
[Warning: Reactor energy remaining 38%]
[Warning: Reactor energy remaining 35%]
The sudden plunge was the cost of being caught within the collision zone.
"...That... just one exchange... burned through half the reactor's power!"
Monroe spoke in a stunned, disbelieving voice:
"That's... the equivalent of two to three hundred million tons of TNT in nuclear yield!"
Only now did he truly understand why he felt so utterly powerless. The gap between them, in both quality and scale, was simply unbridgeable, like staring across a bottomless abyss.
As that thought flickered, Monroe noticed something strange: the mental power had halted its attack. It now hovered around him in eerie silence, watching with cold indifference.
A clear, frigid voice echoed from all directions:
"Etheric Battleform, huh... interesting."
Everything stopped.
The thunderous blasts, the collapsing walls, the churning seawater, even the swirling shrapnel in mid-air.
Frozen.
Including Monroe himself.
He was trapped. Facing some primordial terror, his entire being was paralyzed, his soul gripped in icy horror. Every superpower he possessed ceased to function. Even the cells in his body felt like dead matter, dull and drained of life.
It was because of the figure that had now appeared: Seraphine.
The holy spirit armor was powerless to shield him from her gaze. She saw his face clearly, twisted in shock and primal fear.
"You're surprised to see me," Seraphine said, her tone flat. "And a little… in denial."
Her expression didn't change as she added:
"Interesting. Let me see your memories."
WHOOSH ~
In that instant, Monroe's armor and his body shattered like glass, dissolving into billions of particles. Only his brain remained, suspended in the void, drifting slowly toward Seraphine's upraised palm.
She ignored the frantic, flashing emotional pulses from Monroe's disembodied consciousness. Raising one slender finger, she pointed it at the hovering brain.
HUM—
In a single flash, Monroe's memories, nearly a thousand years' worth, were laid bare. Seraphine's eyes sparkled with divine light.
"A life full of chaos and struggle," she murmured, amused. "Quite turbulent. Even wielding time-based abilities, impressive. Projecting your consciousness across timelines, jumping from the Past into fragmented Futures. A remarkable ability. Is it a gift of your genes? Or your soul?"
She leaned forward slightly, her voice softening.
"But what intrigues me more is this."
Her gaze pierced straight through Monroe's brain, locking onto the trembling soul within. She smiled.
"You searched across four possible futures and found nothing. But in the fifth... you saw me. So, what will you do when you return to the past? What choice will you make then?"
A low laugh escaped her lips.
"How delightful. I can't wait to share this moment with my past self, she'll love this."
She looked straight at Monroe's consciousness, smiling brightly.
"Go on, Monroe. Go back. Carry with you the despair of the future."
Playfully, she activated her mental power and etched a complex payload of information directly into his soul. Monroe, utterly unaware of her intrusion, couldn't even register what had happened.
"You can't run, Monroe," Seraphine whispered. "You're far too small. No matter how many times you try… I will find you. Your soul belongs to me. Across timelines, past, future, all of them, I stand. And in every one... I will crush you in my hand."
CRACK CRACK.
Soundlessly, Monroe's soul was devoured, chewed and obliterated by the storm of mental power swirling silently around Seraphine.
...
"Ah ah ah ah!!!"
Monroe's eyes flew open as he screamed in raw terror. His body trembled uncontrollably, soaked in cold sweat that drenched his expensive black formal suit.
Moments before, his entire being had shattered into the void. His soul was ripped apart, his hope swallowed by an ocean of despair.
A flood of horrifying emotions had surged from the timeline ahead, laughing and clawing at him, threatening to annihilate his sanity.
His confidence was obliterated. Completely gone.
He sat in a stunned daze for five minutes, gasping for breath, trying to wrestle down the shock and the soul-warping despair.
At last, he managed to regain a sliver of calm.
Monroe slumped back into the chair, his limbs limp as though his bones had melted away.
Minutes passed. Then, his eyes snapped open. His jaw clenched.
"One more try, just one more," he rasped, his voice dry and hoarse.
A strange light flickered in his pupils as he triggered Laocoon's Eye for the sixth time.
WHOOSH!!!
Reality shattered. Time twisted, and his consciousness was flung across the stream of causality into the future.
This time, Monroe awoke with clarity.
He stood up immediately and began gathering rare materials from the laboratory.
With a focused mental transfer, he arrived inside the hidden chamber housing the Holy Spirit Armor.
Donning the armor, Monroe initiated another teleportation jump, arriving at a vast space like a rocket site hollowed beneath the ocean floor.
This was one of the deepest zones within the trench base.
At the center stood a dark, sunflower seed-shaped spacecraft. Its black hull was organic, like meat in texture.
It was the result of years of reverse-engineering alien wreckage, one of the few experimental crafts Monroe built with his own hands.
"I don't care anymore. I want nothing. I need nothing."
Monroe muttered as he rushed into the ship.
"Blow up the Earth for all I care, just let me escape. I'm never going back to that [Past]."
He slammed into the pilot's seat, hands flying across the control panel initializing systems and igniting engines.
BEEP!!!
The thrusters began to hum, glowing faintly. The three landing struts retracted into the belly of the craft.
HUM!!!
The ship drifted forward, its rear flickering with flames. A moment later, BOOM!!!
The propulsion unit activated, hurling the craft upward with immense force.
BANG!!!
The reinforced metal ceiling of the base shattered like glass. Layer after layer of alloy plating was pierced clean through.
Cables whipped through the air, spraying sparks. Seawater exploded inward, torn by the sudden vacuum.
The spacecraft surged into the open ocean. Generating a vortex, the ship tilted and bolted straight toward the surface.
In seconds, it had ascended ten thousand meters, erupting from the depths into the sky.
The ship engaged its optical stealth system. In a flash, its body turned translucent, vanishing from sight.
Only the repeating sonic booms confirmed its presence.
WHOOSH!!!
Monroe's spacecraft punched through the stratosphere, reaching the edge of the atmosphere.
The Earth's curved horizon was fully visible. Beyond was the vacuum of space.
"Hoo," Monroe let out an exhale. "I've made it this far, nothing could go wrong now, right?"
Then, just as he prepared to accelerate, HUM!!!
A colossal hand formed from billions of blazing light particles appeared, like a miniature sun.
Spanning thousands of meters, the radiant hand closed around the ship, gripping it tightly.
Boundless mental power surged into the spacecraft from every direction.
Monroe recognized the psychic signature. His body spasmed, paralyzed by dread. He let out a scream of pure anguish:
"Why?! Why is it happening again?! Why can't you just let me go?! Ah ah ah ah ah!"
A clear voice echoed in his ear: "You're confused. You're angry. And you're utterly consumed by despair."
Seraphine appeared beside him, observing Monroe with childlike curiosity.
"Let's see, what exactly are you so desperate about?"
She extended a hand and seized Monroe's soul.
"You bastard! You demon!" Monroe's soul writhed, screaming and thrashing. "I won't let you get away with this!"
HUM!!!
In an instant, his soul locked up, frozen in place. His consciousness was completely sealed.
'Damn it, I can't escape!' That was his last thought before darkness swallowed his mind.
He had truly fallen into absolute despair.
"Trying to self-destruct? Are you afraid I'll uncover your secret?"
Seraphine smiled, curiosity gleaming in her eyes. "That makes me even more eager to see it."
She began the soul-search.
Monroe's body trembled as his memories were scanned and unfolded before Seraphine's eyes.
Child of the Witch.
Da Vinci.
Alien spacecraft wreck.
Secret Society.
Mycenae.
Seraphine's gaze sharpened as she reviewed the memories of his multiple jumps across timelines.
Fascinated, she watched the sequence unfolding in her mind, tracing each point in his fragmented consciousness.
Suddenly, a cluster of data spontaneously formed from Monroe's consciousness, displaying a neatly packaged message:
"Hello, past 'Me'."
"I assume you, too, are intrigued by time-based abilities."
"According to the order of timeline jumps experienced by Monroe, this instance can be considered Future #5."
"I have meticulously recorded the time displacement metrics of Future #5."
"Perhaps, this data will allow you to further explore the mechanics of time and unlock temporal abilities sooner."
"Finally, I wish you eternity."
...
As Seraphine finished reading, a strange sensation washed over her.
It felt as though she had peered across the gulf of time and met herself, an iteration of her just hours ahead, a version she might never meet face to face.
Yet that "other Seraphine" had still taken the time to leave behind a greeting. A fragment of thought drifting backward through time.
WHOOSH ~
The message dissolved, reconstructing itself almost instantly into sprawling streams of equations, symbols, and diagrammatic structures.
It wasn't just a message, it was data.
"Thank you."
Seraphine smiled softly, whispering as though in reply, "I wish you eternity, too."
With that, she began analyzing the information in earnest, carefully cross-referencing this newly received data from the near future with her own independent research on temporal physics.
Indeed, she already possessed partial time data.
That wasn't unusual.
Anyone with enough power would inevitably begin to question the nature of time and space, and sooner or later, be drawn into studying it.
They would often ask the same question: What is time?
Back on the Old World, Seraphine had once come across a quote attributed to Einstein: "Time is what a clock measures."
Time, or perhaps more accurately, clocks, could be understood as anything undergoing irreversible change.
Naturally, time could also be described as a kind of thermodynamic process.
In quantum mechanics, time is treated as a smoothly varying parameter, used to evaluate the dynamic evolution of observable systems.
But in general relativity, time is regarded as the fourth dimension of spacetime.
Yet, according to Seraphine's extensive research, at the fundamental particle level, there exists no direct way to measure or extract a precise intrinsic timestamp.
From this, one could infer a disturbing possibility: achieving absolute temporal precision, measuring time itself to perfection, might require an infinite amount of energy, which would in turn cause infinite damage to the system.
However, if one approached the question from another perspective, for instance, through the Hawking–Hartle no-boundary proposal, which suggests that in the earliest moments of the universe, time behaved similarly to space...
And simultaneously considered the Hawking–Penrose singularity theorem, which concludes that spacetime could not have begun from a singular, smoothly unfolding point...
Then one would recognize a deeper truth: within the observable universe, [Time] exhibits the characteristics of quantum fluctuation, non-centralized, probabilistic, and inherently unstable.
Balancing these theories, Seraphine formulated a compelling framework: that four-dimensional space could be viewed as a holographic projection, composed of quantum information.
In that case, time, for the sake of study and analysis, could, to some degree, be treated as a spatial dimension.
Just like space, it could exhibit movement, distortion, and vorticity.
The only key distinction was that time flowed with directionality, smoothness, and above all, irreversibility.
These insights were among the precious conclusions Seraphine had uncovered long ago, during a series of grueling experiments measuring gravitational entanglement and non-Gaussian signatures to probe the non-classical nature of the gravitational field.
Those experiments had come at immense cost.
She had to precisely synchronize cutting-edge instruments with her mental power, utilizing quantum-level manipulation to slowly shift nanoscale carbon stem cells and trace samples of Einstein condensate.
She used uniform magnetic pulses to embed spherical nanocells with weak rotational mass, enabling their rotation paths to quantum superpose during freefall, while a mirrored set of mass-matched matter also free-fell nearby.
Through their mutual gravitational pull, the two superposed paths developed differing phase shifts.
And when the superposition collapsed, the resulting temporal variance revealed itself in the residual rotational imprint on the nanocells.
The sensitivity requirements were staggering.
Even the faintest background correlations or gravitational noise could ruin the entire experiment.
But after countless trials, Seraphine had succeeded in mapping the subtle, complex phenomena of temporal vortices, currents, and torsion, which appeared during time displacement.
And now, as she examined the data embedded in the transmission from [Future Seraphine], she noticed something peculiar:
The tangential flow velocity on the outer layer of the vortex, created when the time currents in Future #5 interfered with one another, was ever so slightly different from the flow data in her own spacetime.
She paused in thought and let out a quiet sigh.
"So... relying solely on the Eye of True Revelation still has its limits. If only I could skip the process entirely and go straight to the answer, I'd save so much time…
What a crazy thought. As if something that convenient would actually exist."
She chuckled to herself, half-sarcastic, half-longing.
"Tsk. The Ether Tide merely enhanced the depth and resolution of the Eye of True Revelation. How wonderful it would be if it could evolve, gain new abilities altogether...
Never mind. I should just focus on building a quantum supercomputer to help lock onto research directions faster."
Then, her mind returned to Future #5.
"Given this discrepancy, it's very likely that the so-called Seraphine from Future #5... isn't me in this spacetime."
She muttered aloud, thoughtful.
"Which means… that future must be a parallel timeline, subtly diverged from mine."
The numerical variation in their quantum spacetime readings might be as small as the difference between eating sweet or savory tofu pudding for breakfast.
Yet even such a minuscule variance, according to temporal multiverse theory, was more than enough to split a timeline in two, sending cả hai branching endlessly into the unknown.
Her contemplation came to an end.
Just like her counterpart from Future #5, Seraphine compiled the temporal data from her own timeline, condensed it into an information packet, and embedded it into the outer layer of Monroe's dormant consciousness.
At the same time, she released the psychic constraints holding him in place.
"Go. Take these two datasets and return to the [Past]."
Monroe stirred awake, dazed.
"Wh—what just happened…?"
But he didn't waste time seeking answers.
Without hesitation, he activated his ability, instantly detaching from the timeline and fled back toward the [Past].