novelraw Chapter 432: Mirror
Chapter 432: Mirror
Realizing it had reached the end of the road, with all defenses stripped away layer by layer and even the last “truth” it relied on for concealment coldly dissected…
The aggregated will within the sphere, in a frenzy of despair, erupted with its final, and purest, malice.
It no longer maintained that grand, icy facade, nor did it issue any more powerless pleas.
A violent intent, blended with endless resentment, fear, and self-destructive tendencies, struck like the last venomous bite of a dying snake. It glared fiercely at Jie Ming, who had just gained supreme authority and was preparing to proceed further:
“Let’s die together!!!”
Hearing this declaration explode directly in the depths of his soul, Jie Ming’s mind rang with alarm!
Almost the instant the other will shifted, he sensed the madness of mutual destruction.
Without the slightest hesitation, he interrupted all operational commands. His figure retreated explosively as mental power surged outward, stacking several more layers of pre-prepared defensive measures.
Yet these protections proved utterly useless before the opponent.
For the core of a time paradox generator, when it abandoned all restraint, even sacrificing every other function, the “final measure” it could unleash was so swift it surpassed normal reaction. Jie Ming only felt the world around him undergo violent distortion.
The temple, the light, the air, even the very texture of space itself, bent into spirals, signifying that the more fundamental “logic of existence” was being forcibly rewritten.
His retreating motion had not yet finished before a “shearing” force originating from the laws of time itself captured him, then hurled him outward with irresistible power!
……
……
Almost simultaneously with Jie Ming being forcibly thrown into an unknown time branch, within the core time branch world where the sphere resided—
Space split open as if cut by a sharp blade. A pitch-black rift, its edges flowing with rich starlight, tore open once more.
Starforger Altreus stepped out from the rift. His gray robe swayed, and the usual calm on his face was replaced by a rare solemnity.
His gaze instantly swept over the enormous mechanical sphere before him.
At this moment, the sphere’s surface conduits glowed dimly, their flow sluggish.
Most crucially, just moments ago, the macroscopic “system defense mechanisms” and “active defense will” that had stubbornly resisted him suddenly withdrew on their own initiative.
In that instant, the opponent not only retracted all power back into the sphere’s core but even abandoned control over other areas—allowing him to break free.
Combining this with the abnormally intense disturbance of time laws that had just subsided on the sphere’s surface, along with Jie Ming’s lingering presence and the complete disappearance of his figure…
Altreus’s eyes sharpened. He instantly understood what had happened.
“This is bad!”
He murmured. His figure blurred, and in the next moment, he appeared before the mechanical sphere whose firewalls had all been lifted.
His powerful mental force poured in like a domineering flood, brutally flooding into the sphere’s interior!
At this point, with its autonomous defense systems and firewalls lost, the sphere was like a giant stripped of all armor and weapons.
It possessed only a vast shell and energy, but lacked the most critical “combat will” and “defense commands.”
The eighth-ring wizard Altreus’s mental power advanced almost unhindered, swiftly seizing supreme authority and beginning a violent search and analysis of the massive data streams.
His goal was clear: prioritize locating the logs and operational records of that “final defense protocol” or “emergency disposal procedure.”
“I hope there’s still time…” Altreus thought silently, yet his hands moved like phantoms. Countless silver runes flowed from his fingertips, sinking into the sphere and accelerating the extraction and cracking of information.
He knew full well the troubles of time-based abilities.
For existences trapped in time branches with differing flow rates, a single moment in the main world could equate to days, months, or even longer inside.
Every second delayed could mean enormous risk for Jie Ming within.
Soon, from the sphere’s vast sea of data, he locked onto and extracted the relevant information about the “final protocol” that had just been triggered.
Upon seeing the protocol’s name, its mechanism, and the preset parameters of the target branch world, the tight furrow in Altreus’s brow eased slightly. He even let out a soft breath of relief.
“Good…” he murmured to himself, a trace of understanding flashing in his eyes. “If it’s this one… then the little guy might suffer a bit, but with the capabilities he’s shown… he shouldn’t die.”
He also realized why this “defense protocol” had been successfully activated despite his suppression.
Though the defensive measure triggered by this protocol was highly unusual, its threat level and lethality were not rated among the highest of the sphere’s many defenses.
When Altreus had comprehensively suppressed its aggressive defenses earlier, he had subconsciously loosened his bindings on such “non-lethal” trap protocols by a slight margin.
He hadn’t expected this to give the despairing sphere will the chance to unleash this final “mutual destruction” gambit.
It had poured the vast majority of its remaining power and authority into activating and strengthening this “defense protocol,” intending to trap or exhaust the “key breaker” Jie Ming within.
“What a hassle. This thing actually gave up direct control over that world entirely… No way to pull him back directly from here…” Altreus’s gaze pierced toward the depths of the sphere, as if he could see through the metal shell to the activated time branch beyond.
The silver runes at his fingertips flowed even faster as he began searching for clues related to that time branch world.
As long as there were clues, he could extract the person directly.
“Hold on, little guy,” he thought silently. “With your strength, you should be able to endure a trial like this…”
……
……
Jie Ming felt the world spin violently. When his vision refocused, he found himself in an entirely different “place.”
Still the temple setting, but dilapidated, crude, and primitive.
The stone walls were bare. Not only were there no intricate energy conduits, there weren’t even any bizarre rune carvings—only natural cracks left by the erosion of countless years.
The air was thick with dust and the scent of decay, as though this place had been forgotten for millennia.
“This is…” Jie Ming’s heart sank. He instantly understood he had been caught.
In the final moment, the sphere will had forcibly sent him into another completely unfamiliar time branch world!
This was very likely one of its preset ultimate traps designed to imprison or eliminate intruders.
Thoughts flashed like lightning, but his body reacted even faster.
Thanks to the reflexive response from earlier, the instant he landed and saw the environment clearly, he unleashed every multi-layered defensive measure he had prepared!
Multi-element resistance energy shields, distortion-deflection force fields, soul protection barriers…
Layer upon layer of composite defensive systems enveloped him tightly.
And the very moment he appeared—
The attack came.
A dark-golden beam shot out without warning from the deepest shadows of the temple, aimed straight at the center of Jie Ming’s brow!
Its speed was extreme—arriving before him almost the instant it appeared!
In the next breath, the multi-layered defensive system he had meticulously constructed—one capable of withstanding the frenzied bombardment of an ordinary fifth-ring wizard—shattered like fragile glass before that extremely condensed dark-golden beam!
Pop, pop, pop, crack—!
Shields broke, force fields annihilated, soul barriers trembled and split!
All defenses held for only an insignificant instant before completely collapsing!
The deadly sense of crisis made Jie Ming’s hairs stand on end.
At the critical moment between life and death, Jie Ming squeezed out every last drop of his potential.
Using that fleeting delay from his defenses, in the instant before the dark-golden beam could touch his body, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror in his dantian blazed with light!
Light Transformation!
His figure suddenly turned illusory, his entire being dissolving into a pure, hazy beam of light.
At the same time, the dark-golden beam of destruction intersected with his light-transformed body.
Thanks to the inherent properties of light, Jie Ming’s light-form body suffered no severe damage as the beam passed through.
But the terrifying power contained within the dark-golden light still made him feel excruciating pain.
Jie Ming felt as if he had been thrown into the heart of a raging energy furnace. Every inch of his “lightified” form endured unimaginable pressure and scorching heat.
He clenched his teeth, relying on the Spirit Transformation Stage nascent soul’s meticulous control over his own state to forcibly maintain the “light transformation” form.
At the same time, he firmly “anchored” himself in place, refusing to escape into the distance as he normally would.
Not only because the true range of this time branch world was not large—reckless movement could easily trigger new traps—but also because this attack was too strange, too familiar. He had to see its source clearly!
The energy of the dark-golden beam finally dissipated slowly.
The light receded. Jie Ming staggered as he released the light transformation, his solidified form dropping back to the ground.
His face was slightly pale, clearly having expended a tremendous amount in that brief confrontation.
Yet he had no time to recover. He immediately looked up, locking onto the direction from which the attack had come—the deepest, densest shadow in the temple.
There, a figure was slowly lowering a raised finger.
A tall, well-proportioned body clad in a simple gray wizard robe, and that handsome face…
In this moment, Jie Ming’s pupils contracted violently, uncontrollably. His heart felt as though an invisible hand had seized it. He instinctively licked his lips:
“Hey, hey, hey… this joke’s gone a bit too far…”
Even when he had sensed that strike earlier, Jie Ming had already had a premonition. But seeing it with his own eyes still left him shocked beyond words.
That face was incomparably familiar to him—yet incomparably strange.
Those brows, that outline, the faint mental fluctuations emanating from him, and the energy signature of that previous strike…
No matter from which angle, no matter what sense he used to probe…
The one standing in the shadows, who had just launched a fatal strike at him, was unmistakably…
Another Jie Ming!