Chapter 2541: Timeline Madness

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Central Region, Central Academic City, Morningstar University District, Morningstar University Campus, Garden of Beginning, Time Vestige, Morningstar University 2nd Campus

"My Lady, you are the master of the past, present, and future!"

I nearly shouted those words as I listened to everything Lucine’s three time-rule meanings were capable of. And honestly, I wouldn’t have been wrong—she really was the master of all three, at least when it came to her own past, present, and future.

It was hard to believe someone with abilities this overwhelming had spent her later years tucked away inside Morningstar University, living out a quiet retirement. But I supposed the punishment for breaking the time taboos must have been brutal, especially now that she was dealing with time-rule dementia.

Time rule was terrifyingly powerful because everything begins with time and ends with time. But it had limits—the time taboos. Time always moved forward. It never stopped, never rewound. It branched into countless possibilities, but each of those paths eventually collapsing on itself. Only the one sturdy enough to endure the longest would become the main timeline—continuing forward, carrying everything with it as it pressed on through eternity.

This was the widely accepted theory of time in both the Card World and all of the Myriad Realms.

That meant our timeline was the oldest surviving branch of the Card World’s timeline—making it the main timeline. If it were ever to collapse, the next oldest branch would immediately take its place as the new main timeline. In other words, even if the Card World perished in this branch of the Myriad Realms’ timeline, it would continue existing in another.

There was no such thing as true death for the Celestials—only the loss of a single branch, much like how our bodies shed countless cells every day and replace them with new ones.

I wasn’t sure if this was truly how things worked, but the theory heavily leaned toward the idea that life itself gives rise to everything else. Without someone living to witness or shape existence, nothing would exist at all.

I found the idea arrogant—almost as if the living of the Myriad Realms were declaring, "Without us, you are nothing."

And if this theory were truly accurate, how would we even know whether our branch was the true main timeline of the Myriad Realms? What if the real main timeline didn’t even contain the Card World at all? Would that make us... virtual? How would something like that even work?

Clearly, the theory had gaps. But anyone could see it originated in the Dark Realm and then spread through the Myriad Realms.

A fitting comparison would be Earth: the British set the Greenwich Meridian as the reference line for global time, even though an oceanic meridian would have served better as a reference line. The first one to define the system gets to make the rules. I just didn’t expect the same thing to be true in the Myriad Realms—especially in a place where beings could study the time rule, with some even learning it directly from the time-rule source.

I supposed this was something I could puzzle over in my retirement years. For now, though, all I could think about was how Lucine’s three time-rule meanings, paired with her premortem savant origin card, would turn her into a one-woman army on any battlefield. If the second demon invasion ever came to pass, sending her alone would probably be enough—if she were more soldier than academician.

Learning what she was capable of had me fired up about comprehending the time rule myself and choosing my first time-rule meaning. If I somehow ended up with Future Finding, I’d practically be untouchable in my realm anywhere in the Myriad Realms. Sure, Future Finding had its drawbacks, but I had time-rule immunity and access to primordial energy. Every weakness it had, I had a counter for.

The problem was getting the time-rule meaning I actually wanted. Choosing Future Finding at the bifurcation point was like winning a lottery with odds worse than one in a million. I wasn’t nearly optimistic enough to expect to land Future Finding for any of my three time-rule meanings.

However, that disappointment from knowing this only made me admire Lucine even more. Maybe she’d just been lucky to end up with three outstanding time-rule meanings, but it didn’t change how I felt. I even found myself wondering what kinds of runes and hybrid runes she’d forged from them. I’d already seen her use the blackhole hybrid rune, so I couldn’t help assuming that the rest of her runes would be just as impressive—if not stronger.

Lucine gave me a confused look when she caught me outright staring at her, eyes gleaming like a kid who’d just found his new favorite superhero. She tried shifting out of my line of sight, but my gaze followed her, which only made her more uncomfortable. Even knowing that, I couldn’t look away. Her time-rule meanings were perfectly suited for both research and battle. A combination like that deserved every bit of envy and admiration I felt.

"Wyatt, could you stop staring at me like that?" she asked, a helpless edge in her voice—like she was the victim and I was some creep bothering her on a packed subway. What was with these women? They were all ridiculously strong and smart, yet at moments like this they acted like they completely forgot it at home.

I cleared my throat and asked, "So... what runes did you create using those time-rule meanings? Any hybrid runes among them?"

"Huh?" Lucine stared at me, stunned. "You’re... not angry that I used my Future Finding meaning to steer you toward a future I wanted?"

"Not really," I usually replied. "If anything, I’m more bothered by the fact that you’d expose something this dangerous about yourself to me. What exactly are you trying to achieve that you’re willing to lay yourself bare like this?" I asked, genuinely curious about Lucine’s end game. What was worth all this?

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