Time Twister 25 Decision

Xander has exactly a few hours to decide whether or not he should intervene with Faykes' future. He pondered whether or not it was worth it at all.

The two sprites had asked Xander to place them in a temporal field like they were in before for a total of 7 outside days, and he did so before returning to his room. Of course, he adjusted the time flow to 1 second: 100 days, meaning after 7 days, they would be 211,000 years of age, their powers growing to Mythic-2 cla.s.s.

Looking at the time, he had 7 hours before he could still reverse the situation. How did he know the exact time? Divination. He saw the absolute future of that path, and it begins with Faykes withdrawing from cla.s.s and leaving the country the very next day.

His experience was a th.o.r.n.y one, meeting many friends and foes along the way, before reaching Legendary-9 cla.s.s. Using his established connections and information he had on the Valentine Clan, he finds out who is handling the bloodline curse.

The bloodline curse was actually established 2,000 years ago, and 50 years after the Valentine clan experienced one of the largest civil war within their family, and tens of powerhouses at the Mythic cla.s.s and above died at the hands of their brethren, along with hundreds of civilians and magicians of the clan.

One of the survivors that led the Valentine clan back to its glory was said to have established the bloodline curse with the help of the other surviving powerhouses. To avoid the events that happened to the clan, this was a way for them to confidently take control of the rising geniuses of their clan. The bloodline curse isn't powerful, until you plan to do something extremely disadvantageous for the clan. Basically, it is used as a last resort to ensure the safety of the clan.

The ones who were currently holding the curses were the ancient ancestors that survived the civil war; there were only 5 of them left right now from the original 10. Three of them were at the peak of DemiG.o.d cla.s.s while 2 of them had surpa.s.sed it according to the information he read, and 1 of the 2 people was in charge of his bloodline curse.

His name has been lost in the doc.u.ments, and has only been referred to as "Ancestor Shadowgrace". Faykes spent 10 years attempting to locate this ancestor, while improving his comprehension of the rules he had "replicated" in his Magic Sphere.

By time he found this Ancestor, his comprehension of Water and Air elements were already at 95 and 96% respectively, causing his power to be comparable to a Mythic-3 magician at most. Although he had a relatively high cla.s.s magic circles, with all of them ranging from 67-72th cla.s.s, it was still not enough.

During the divination, he had seen that Ancestor Shadowgrace use 2 moves, the first one to nullify Faykes' attacks, and the second one to reap his life.

Ancestor Shadowgrace was actually grieving when he dealt the final blow; after all, who wanted to kill their own kin, especially a talented one?

Even then, he tried to explain that upon reaching Divine cla.s.s, the bloodline curse's control over oneself will unravel, the young man didn't bother listening.

All in all, the amount of time Faykes had lived for was just a mere 50 years. By age 20 he had reached Master cla.s.s, and by age 38, he was already a Legendary-9. At age 48, he was already half-step at the Mythic cla.s.s, already attempting to create his own rule. By age 50, he finally met Ancestor Shadowgrace and began the life and death fight.

With his talent, if Xander interfered with his predicament, It was possible for Faykes to reach Master cla.s.s by 18, Legendary-9 by age 30, Mythic cla.s.s by 40, and DemiG.o.d cla.s.s by 110 years. It wouldn't have been cut short, his life, if he didn't interfere with the plans of the Ancestor Shadowgrace.

Xander realized he had a part to his demise as well, so he needed to rectify that. One way would be to reverse the time of Faykes, making sure he didn't remember anything that had happened whatsoever in the villa, except for the contract signing.

Xander could solve this problem by reversing the cultivation level Faykes had as well, and then holding the ritual to break the specific runic writings on "control", "binding", "command", and "death", the problem would be solved. Heck, he didn't even had to hold the ritual, Faykes could do it to himself, he just needed Pan to hand the ingredients. This doesn't resolve the second problem though, because the instability would depend on Faykes' as well. But this absolves him of any wrongdoings, no matter what the ending result is, right?

Xander began to calculate the chances of Faykes betraying him. According to the System, if he does manage to help Faykes, with the psychological profile the child currently has, it is at 0.002% chance of happening.

Xander pondered a bit more before sighing, and then removed the time acceleration field in the room. He opened up his watch and contacted Faykes, telling him these words: "I can help you solve this problem. Come back to the villa."

After a few minutes, the villa's doorbell was rang; it was Faykes. He was led in by Esta, while Rosa prepared tea for the two.

Xander sniffed at the tea, before drinking it slowly. After having his fill, he already cut straight to the chase.

"Faykes, I'm offering you a solution to the problem; 2 solutions actually. I need you to choose."

Faykes merely nodded, a bit listless, but as his eyes stared at Xander, there was hope present. Xander nodded in response, before saying,

"The first solution is I eradicate the curse. There would be no backlash, no lowering of cultivation level. but you can never return to your clan as a result, since the one who set it up and is in control of it is one of your Ancestors who had broken through to the Divine level. I can easily change your physical body as well as mask your doll of life from any form of tracking or divination, making sure you won't be recognized by anyone below DemiG.o.d cla.s.s even if they had a drop of blood to locate you. Simply put, I will transform you into a whole new person. But the thing is, are you ready to give up the things you had from the Valentine Clan?"

Upon hearing this, Faykes was still silent, but in his eyes, Xander could see fiery determination and at the same time, a struggle of some sort.

"I can see you are hesitating. This is the second solution: You will proceed with the a.s.similation process. I have a way for you to solve the issue on the rituals. However, before I can explain more, I need you to sign a more strict and binding magic contract. No one, not even my maids and bodyguards, have signed this contract."

A piece of parchment appeared in Xander's hands, and he handed it to Faykes. The latter opened the the parchment and began reading it.

[Contract of submission: Rank SSS

This contract between party A and B is a partners.h.i.+p contract, with party A being in the slightly more dominant position than party B.

Party B cannot divulge any information about this contract with party A.

Party B cannot divulge any information about party A that has not be verbally agreed by party A.

Party B cannot disobey party A if it involves the life and death of both parties, unless party A has revoked this section verbally.

Party B can ask party A information concerning party A's abilities, but he cannot do any form of recording or transmission to any parties beside party A and party B.

Party B will receive a random reward from party A whenever party B completes a voluntary mission from party A, with the reward being within party A's abilities.

Party B will emphasize protecting party A than him/herself, as long as party A is not doing it to put party B's life on the line on purpose.

Party A will not interfere with Party B's life unless it is to issue a voluntary mission, or it is a matter of life and death for party A, or if party B gave verbal consent to do so.

Party A can easily add more clauses in the contract without the consent of party B.

If any of the clauses are broken down, this deems party B's existence in the ordered system, null and void, removing any trace of party B in the universe, from past, present, and branching futures.

If both parties agree to cancel the contract, party B's benefits will be returned back to party A. If any is missing or incomplete, party B's existence in the ordered system will be null and void, removing any trace of party B in the universe, from past, present, and branching futures. This becomes invalid if party A agrees for party B not to return the benefits back to party A. Party A can cancel the contract anytime.

Party A: Xander Cloverfield

Party B: Signee]

Upon reading the contract, he was actually more satisfied than his experience with his clan. Everything was laid down, the dos and don'ts of the contract were placed clearly. He knew what he was supposed to do, and it didn't impugn on his ability to decide for himself.

He didn't bother waiting, he signed the contract with his own blood. The second option was more of a viable choice.

Seeing Faykes sign the contract without hesitation, Xander subtly nodded, and took the signed contract before making chucking it into the s.p.a.ce storage. Of course, he could activate its effect to raise Faykes' cultivation to peak of Elite cla.s.s, but since he was going to reverse his cultivation level, why bother?

"Ok, follow me to my room upstairs." Xander stood up and headed upstairs, with Faykes hurriedly putting down the drink he just got and following behind Xander.

Upon reaching the room, Xander immediately isolated the s.p.a.ce around the two of them.

"Sit down. What I'm about to do is reverse your cultivation level; no worries, it is temporary. However, if you learned any pseudo-magic circles, you have to relearn them all over again once you are back to your current cultivation level."

Faykes immediately followed Xander's instructions, and forced himself to calm down. After a few minutes, Faykes was deathly still, and if it wasn't for the rising chest, someone might have thought he was dead.

Xander began the reversal, placing a hand on Faykes' back. Upon doing so, he was surprised to notice that Faykes had a well developed body; his buck was filled with strong muscles that stemmed from training. Xander then looked at his own body, obviously disappointed. Although he was skinny, he wasn't muscular. Of course, this was just a pa.s.sing thought for Xander.

He began to reverse the time of Faykes' cultivation. Immediately, there were results. Elite-5, Elite-4, Elite-3, Elite-2, Elite-1...Mundane-9, peak.

Xander removed his hands and quickly instructed Faykes to do the ritual for Mundane level. The requirement for Mundane level's ritual was simple, which was to slowly cycle pure, elemental energy to wipe out the "control" aspect of the curse. To aid with the process, Xander rapidly increased the time flow in the area surrounding Faykes, making the elemental propagation faster, producing more elemental particles.

After a while, Faykes stopped absorbing the elemental particles in the surroundings, and he was stably in Mundane-9, peak. Immediately, Xander moved 3-5 meters away from Faykes and then activated his power, accelerating the time of Faykes' characteristic: cultivation, returning his body to Elite-6 cla.s.s.

Xander then brought out the contract, and activated its effect. Immediately, 1/4 of the elemental energy in the contract went straight to Faykes, whom Xander immediately instructed to focus and form the remaining magic seeds for Elite cla.s.s.

Xander breathe a sigh of relief, since it was over. The reason why Xander released 1/4 of the energy stored within is that giving half of the energy is wasteful, since one could actually use it to increase one's comprehension in the latter cla.s.ses.

This experience was quite beneficial for Xander, since he learned many applications of time reversal on live beings, especially when he targets their characteristics. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of his s.p.a.ce-time comprehension, there would be a day he could be anywhere in universe, and he just think of the target, and the time of that target is manipulated. There will be a day, such as that.

______________________________________________

Faykes couldn't believe what he was experiencing.

When the process began, he could feel his cultivation rapidly disappearing, as if they never existed in the first place; it was different from crippling someone because one can still find traces of magic in their bodies. But what he experienced was that as if he never did any magic training at all in the Elite cla.s.s!

Slowly, he felt his cultivation drop from Elite-6 to Mundane-9, peak. When he dropped from Elite-1 to Mundane-9, there was no magic reaction within his body, as if it wasn't there in the first place. The energy simply dispersed and disappeared.

Afterwards, Xander instructed him to do the ritual to cleanse off the runic writings for "control" in the curse, and immediately, he followed his instructions. He first located where the curse was and began letting it undergo a "was.h.i.+ng" of elemental energy.

This was where a possibly beneficial situation occurred. He originally had 2 primary elements, Wind and Water elements. Upon doing the ritual, he actually gained another 2 primary elements, Wood and Fire. He was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with joy and yet at the same time, there was a rising determination in his mind.

After completing the was.h.i.+ng, a strange feeling came over him, as if something being liberated. After was.h.i.+ng, he signaled Xander that he was done, and immediately, Xander placed his hand back to his back, and that weird sensation appeared again, this time, it was different.

It was as if my body was a parched ground suddenly receiving water. This was the same feeling when he had broken through to Elite-cla.s.s, and it didn't stop there. Magic seed after magic seed continued to be produced, until he had 6 magic seeds in his mind.

But it didn't stop there. Immediately, another wave of elemental energy went inside his body, filling it to the brim, in which then he heard Xander speak,

"Hurry, create the remaining magic seeds for elite cla.s.s with this energy! Don't waste a drop." Faykes gritted his teeth, bearing with the pain and continued to compress the energy that entered his body. Everytime he was successful at compressing, another wave appeared, filling his body back to the brim. This repeated 3 times, and afterwards, 3 magic seeds were formed, larger than his current magic seeds. If there was a need for comparison, his previous magic seeds was roughly the size of an acorn, while his last 5 magic seeds were roughly the size of a clenched, adult fist. Using the remaining energy, Faykes began reforging his previous Magic seeds from Elite-1 to 4, slowly increasing the size to that of an adult fist.

He didn't know how much time had pa.s.sed, but when he stopped and opened his eyes, he was at the living room of the villa.

Faykes eyed the second floor, his eyes filled with grat.i.tude and renewed fervor. He immediately left the villa and returned to his home in Callows city; he was actually using one of Valentine clan's properties, a condominium suite.

He began to organize his items, as well as think about what just happened. Faykes, being the curious person he was, began to infer what Xander just did. He recalled the sensation of returning back to Mundane-9, as well as returning to Elite-6, before subsequently breaking through to Elite-9. Faykes had a hypothesis about it: what Xander did involved the mythical Time element. How did he come to this revelation?

First, it was the sensation of losing his cultivation. From what he had read, people who lost their cultivation due to fights, injuries, or magic backlash, there was always a trace of elemental residue in their bodies, as well as the feeling that they once had control over the elements. Only the time element could forcibly reverse time, making it as if it wasn't there in the first place. Second, the sensation of breakthrough was also fully captured by the time element, and it wasn't the feeling of returning to one's previous rank; it was as if the body was experiencing it for the first time all over again.

Although the existence of time element has been debated over the past millenia, no one had been recorded in both the known and hidden history of Eteria that was able to control the element of Time.

Faykes wanted to delve more into the understanding Xander, but there just seemed to be a blanket of fog covering him. Faykes shook his head at his thoughts. Although he was curious, it doesn't mean he was completely tactless. With him signing the contract, he knew his boundaries and the lines he could and couldn't cross. However, he was grateful to what Xander had done for him.

Although he didn't care much about being lied to by his clan, what he cared more was that he was never given a choice to decide for on his own, unlike what Xander presented to him. It seemed that every thing he did for the past 16 years were always at the agreement of the elders, and this newfound freedom and independence was... invigorating.

Faykes stopped these thoughts of his, and began to prepare contingencies as well as revising his current training plan; he had to change the pseudo-magic circles he originally planned to integrate. It was going to be a busy night for him, Faykes muttered to himself, smiling wryly.