Chapter 69
But before the first form of the eighteen techniques had the chance to reflect into a tangible manifestation, that voice descended and sliced through every layer he had formed.
It did not come from the sky nor from the ground.
It did not originate from Quorin or Valthura.
And it was not tied to any direction.
The voice emerged like a fact the world suddenly remembered, akin to a law reprimanding someone who had forgotten their place.
No expression.
No rise or fall of emotion.
Only a straight, cold line of sound—heavy yet hollow, as if born from a place where intention itself had no shape.
The speaker did not need to press the tone, for the voice moved like a truth long established before the world was created.
When that sentence echoed through the reversing air, the Sa that had flowed like two colossal oceans suddenly tightened.
The overwhelming pressure filling the sky drew closer, becoming heavier, as if affirming the words that had just been spoken.
Theo felt his body harden not because he was restrained, but because his own will was split by the meaning of that voice.
He heard a declaration that neither blamed nor accused, yet judged in the quietest way possible.
Sa, by its very meaning, was not meant to be drawn out for arrogance.
Not before an Administrator.
Not within the world they designed.
Not for a writer who still relied on ambition as a foothold.
"There is no respect, nor beauty within your display.
Only emptiness and forced noise.
If this is what you call Sa, then I would rather close my eyes and ears than witness or hear any of it."
The backward-flowing current of time continued to churn like a cosmic river that had lost its course, erasing the boundary between night and day until both dissolved into a rain of light shifting endlessly.
Within the vortex encircling them, days collapsed into hours and hours crumbled into seconds, passing so swiftly that years went by without following any process comprehensible to beings still reliant on the logic of time.
Theo stood within that current, feeling the world strip away its own identifiers, as though reality were erasing its memory so that only the highest will remained.
Yet even in such an overturned state, the voice that had fallen to the earth without inflection rose again, tearing through a silence stretched too thin.
The voice remained flat, still devoid of tone, yet its impact surpassed anything he had ever heard.
Quorin and Valthura—who from the start had floated calmly within the perfection of their respective Sa—turned for the first time without any discernible rhythm.
Their eyes swept the distorted space, searching for the source of the tone that could cut through layers of time they themselves commanded.
When their gazes landed on the figure standing behind Theo, the world seemed to jolt back into place, though still moving in reverse.
Aldraya Kansh Que stood without expression, without a single interpretable motion, yet the air around her shifted like the surface of a mirror struck by a massive wave.
There was no change in her face or body, but her presence split the reversing flow of time like a blade that required no form.
They understood, in the brief fracture of their composure, that the first voice also came from her—from the girl who had long remained frozen in three dimensions untouched by any law.
Then the voice fell again, this time louder, rejecting the world's attempt to muffle it.
No anger.
No emotion.
But the content carried a desecration so clear that the air trembled as it tried to withstand the meaning.
In the backward-racing stream of time, the tone declared that both Sa and the presence of the two b*stards named Prince Quorin and Princess Valthura were far too noisy.
Too bothersome to behold.
Too repulsive for eyes that demanded absolute silence.
Those words fell like a sword refusing to be a sword—striking not the body but dignity, peeling away the layers of authority long encasing the two Administrators.
To Theo, the voice did more than shake the world.
It pulled back the curtain on something long hidden within Aldraya—something far older than the conflict surrounding them.
'How can you move within Sa?
You even dare insult Quorin and Valthura without regard for their status as Administrators, their bond as siblings, or the gravity of this entire situation!'
Faaaah!
"I have plunged through the entirety of your mind, Theo Vkytor.
Such a noisy and tangled mind—of course it is impossible to summarize.
Be it your murmurs, intentions, or doubts, all of them are clearly visible to my eyes."
Uuuuh!
'So this means you truly caught everything I ever muttered?
Every intention, doubt, and ambition I've carried—you saw all of it directly from where they hid within the depths of my heart and subconscious mind?
Tell me that's a lie!'
The reverse-turning current of time continued to redraw the world around them, crushing the boundaries between seconds and centuries, marking that the entire universe was rewriting itself without regard for the four figures standing within it.
Amid the wild temporal cascade, Aldraya Kansh Que stood firm like a shadow unbound by any law, and from where she stood came the same voice that had shaken Quorin and Valthura.
This time the voice touched not only the strength of the two Administrators but also extended toward Theo, moving with a calm that offered no room for objection nor even a breath of relief.
It traced through the air with a coldness so permeating that it proved no secret of Theo's could be hidden from the girl standing behind him within the torn layers of time.
Theo felt it without needing to turn.
Aldraya's presence crawled like a thin line slicing between thought and reality, revealing how fragile everything he hid behind inner silence truly was.
He realized that every knot of intention, every whisper buried deep within his mind, had long been observed by eyes capable of piercing through space and surpassing the veil of the raging Sa.
He tried to suppress his shock, yet the held breath was nowhere near enough to fool himself into thinking he hadn't just glimpsed the depth that made Aldraya not merely adept at navigating Sa—but an entity capable of walking between layers of existence unreadable even to Administrators.
On the other side, Quorin and Valthura stiffened not merely because the voice had belittled their Sa, but because they now heard that tone directed at a human they had always considered far beneath their structure of existence.
Within the merging and reversing torrents of time, all they could do was witness the tiny cracks forming around Aldraya—resembling pulses of an ancient force they could not comprehend, a dim radiance resonating with something older than all Administrator laws.
Their thoughts tightened as they sensed the voice was not simply an insult, but a silent proclamation that they were facing something that should never have been within their reach.
'Your gaze, Aldraya, feels as though you are looking at me not merely as a player, but as someone equal.
Level with an Administrator.
And the way you judge me comes from a depth similar to theirs.
Not as something accidental or a simple glance.
The depth of that gaze cuts into me, making me feel completely exposed, heard, and truly taken into account.
And that sincerity is far too genuine to be dismissed as mere coincidence.'
To be continued…