Chapter 272 + 273

I said maybe a chapter yesterday... But laid up with COVID, I couldn't write a single line. I got my revenge today by writing sixteen hours straight, so two chapters for you! I’m tired but happy: the Back in Time arc is finished.

Enjoy this long double chapter, and see you Wednesday for the next one!

Thank you for your support and enjoy!

P.S.: A note from the author at the end.

*

Chapter 272: A Gentle Duel: Terminator vs Juggernaut

The Terminator was a monster. An inhuman endurance backed by a robotic mind, as precise as it was relentless. His energy attacks obliterated the forest, annihilating any corrupted unlucky enough to stray too close to the battle. Eight novas would have drained any other rival of their aether, but the homunculus unleashed them without limit. Priam's theory? The Var Elegis had two energy sources: in addition to the aether reserve created by his meta-endurance, a nuclear reactor allowed him to generate a terrifying amount of thermal energy.

Against any other opponent, this would have been the end of the fight. Not for Priam. His instincts allowed him to dodge the core of the explosions, and his resistances kept him alive long enough to escape their blast zones. Plus, the fires sparked by the detonations became his emergency teleport points, thanks to his mastery of the Fire Concept.

The chase dragged on for minutes. Priam was regenerating his body while bombarding his foe with an absurd number of explosive spears… with underwhelming results. When it became clear neither was gaining a real advantage, Arnold switched tactics. Instead of trying to vaporize Priam outright, he decided to slice him to death with a thousand laser cuts.

While Priam could dodge the worst of the novas, he was a sitting duck for this new weapon. Star Wars had lied to him: dodging a beam of light fired by a machine was nearly impossible.

The next few minutes were as bloody as they were blinding, with Arnold firing several lasers at once. The beams targeted Priam’s most vulnerable spots. Eventually, the Homo Elysian had to shut his eyes after his opponent managed to recreate a disturbing scene from Final Destination.

The battle raged on. Trees collapsed, the forest burned, and the corrupted stumbled over the severed fingers and toes of a hunted rival.

Lvl Up: [Solar Resistance] lvl 21
CONST +2
VIT +1
Lvl Up: [Fire Champion Physique] lvl 23
VIT +3
CONST +3
META (Endurance) +3

Any spectator would’ve been horrified by the duel, but Priam was far from fazed. Sure, he couldn’t dodge the lasers, but did he really need to? [Homo Elysian Obsession] and [Life is Hard; I’m Harder] let him evolve, hardening him against the attacks. Most people fought to survive, but Priam? He survived to fight.

A fierce glint ignited in his eyes as he activated one of the last Merits he'd earned.

[Life is Hard; I’m Harder - Gold] - Tier 3: You can select a resistance and accelerate its rate of progression.

Selecting [Solar Resistance], Priam felt something akin to an epiphany spread through his cells. The next round of lasers ripped through his body, searing his muscles, scorching his skin, and stimulating his molecules.

Lvl Up: [Solar Resistance] lvl 22
CONST +2
VIT +1

The level-up arrived twice as fast as his add-on had predicted. A split second later, the lasers stopped. Clearly, the Var Elegis could assess his opponent's attributes—and he was too damn smart to keep helping Priam bolster his resistances.

“You’re stronger than me,” Priam admitted, breathing hard, one lung punctured. “But you won’t kill me like this.”

The homunculus nodded. “You’re right... I’ll have to get my hands dirty,” he said, leaping with the grace of a tiger.

Priam met his rival’s charge with a thrust from Promesse, slicing off Arnold’s ear. In return, a punch folded him in half.

The two Champions launched into a savage martial dance, clashing throughout the burning forest. The Var Elegis fought like a monk, using nothing but his body as a weapon. Their Domains canceled each other out, the clash preventing any Concepts from manifesting. It left only two bare-knuckle warriors, fighting savagely, trying to tear each other apart with their fists, feet, and sheer rage.

Priam landed an uppercut that could have cracked a slab of granite, only to wince as his joints exploded from the impact against his opponent’s jaw. The Terminator had earned his title. His body didn’t shapeshift, but the metal beneath his skin was so dense that Promesse dulled against it—not that close-quarters combat gave him many chances to use the spear anyway.

Promesse needed an upgrade, and that was possible with the reward he had just earned.

Completed Quest: Fallen

Once a Fallen, now a dead.
Sumstreh died the way he lived: stupidly.
The Sphinx's revenge claimed him.

Reward:
Bloodline Purification (+1%)
Talent Token - Seraph Rarity

[Talent Token - Seraph Rarity] - Choose one of your Talents from the list and evolve it to seraphic rarity.
Note: Talents are etched into the soul. Upgrading by multiple rarity levels may negatively impact the user.

List: Ultimate Sensory Memory, Promesse, Chimera, Spectral Familiarity, Hoplite Warpath, Blessing of Viracocha, He Who Eludes Gods.

Priam hadn’t delivered the finishing blow to Sumstreh, but he would get a second chance after traveling back in time. For now, he needed to pick a bloodline to purify and a Talent to upgrade. The bloodline was tricky. The draconic was clearly superior, but he could improve it by killing other carriers like the skulcs, certain Snaherts, or the Terrors of Valaryth. His phoenix bloodline, though, was much harder to cultivate, according to his mentor.

Choosing a Talent was just as difficult. There was no room for error—like his bloodline, the seraphic Token wouldn’t be refunded by Back in Time.

According to Hyshana, some blacksmith hoplites had enhanced mechas by incorporating new magical metals. Kazuki had also revealed that reaching Spear Mastery II helped awaken wielded weapons. In short, Promesse could be upgraded without wasting a Token. Other Talents tempted him, but Priam still vividly remembered how close to death he came when upgrading [Eidetic Memory]. Rushing could be fatal, even with [He Who Eludes Death] primed.

More confusing still was the presence of [He Who Eludes Gods] and [Blessing of Viracocha], two Talents that couldn’t be upgraded previously. Could my celestial soul be a prerequisite for improving them? If so, why is [Knight of the Aether] not on the list?

Lost in thought, Priam overlooked his opponent’s double feint. A devastating punch launched him backward. His spine collided with a tree, snapping it in half.

With a quick spin, Priam landed on his feet, healing his fractured bones. His face twisted in a grimace as he spat out splinters of wood. Note to self: one parallel thought stream isn’t enough to fight efficiently.

“Your regeneration’s finally running dry.”

Priam frowned at Arnold’s words, then noticed a strand of white hair falling across his eyes.

“Oh.”

Burning through his lifespan to restore his body wasn’t without its consequences—who would have guessed? His add-on constantly monitored his body using [Diagnostic], and it seemed mimicking a hydra’s regeneration without rest exponentially aged him. Even Second Wind couldn’t fully reverse the trend; his soul remained old despite his body’s youth.

“Getting old’s just the mark of experience kicking in,” Priam quipped, raising Promesse. “Come on, I feel like I’m getting better.”

And it was true. There was nothing like a deathmatch against a superior opponent to spur a man’s growth. Seeing his rival hesitate, Priam lunged to impale him. His Spear Mastery grazed the enemy’s chest, only a burst of kinetic energy letting him dodge a devastating elbow at the last second.

“You missed!”

The young warrior landed in a flip, his hearts pounding in his ears and his blood boiling in his veins. Thrusts, swings, cuts, grappling, dodges, feints—he was honing his skills against the first rival he had encountered in Elysium. Perhaps it was the thrill of the challenge, or maybe the adrenaline flooding his system, but Priam couldn’t help but smile.

Lvl Up: [Matrix Dodge] lvl 13
AGI +2
DEXT +1
Lvl Up: [Battle Flow] lvl 26, 27
PERC +4
DEXT +2

The homunculus was right on his tail, and Priam had to use both his thought threads and his add-on just to stay alive. Every attack from the Terminator was meticulously calculated, factoring in the environment to create perfect ideal trajectories that left his opponent with little room to maneuver. The pressure built steadily, forcing Priam into mistakes that were immediately punished. With every misstep, Arnold tore muscles and bones, trying to deplete Priam’s energy reserves.

It was as cunning as it was cruel, but Priam had found a countermeasure. The undead falling around the periphery of their duel granted him enough Sun points to buy nutrient pills, which materialized directly in his mouth. That was how the Champion kept up with the energy drain of constant regeneration.

As he retreated to dodge a left hook, Priam cursed when his foot caught on a root. He wasn’t used to fighting without the omnidirectional perception granted by his Domain. The homunculus exploited his stumble, sweeping him to the ground, and Priam narrowly avoided decapitation by pulling off a capoeira flip.

If Kazuki was a storm, Arnold was a machine. His flawless movements, robotic precision, and mechanical approach to combat were all designed to methodically dismantle his opponent. Without his regeneration, Priam wouldn’t have lasted five minutes. How could he? Arnold had survived more waves in the Colosseum and earned the rewards of a quintuple Tribulation. He was one of the rare rivals with higher stats than Priam.

The Var Elegis wasn’t just strong; he was an absolute monster, easily one of the most powerful Tier 0s in all of Elysium.

“What was your final ranking in that quintuple Tribulation?” Priam asked between dodging deadly punches. The homunculus responded by opening his mouth and firing a laser, which singed off Priam’s eyebrow instead of gouging out his eye. “I wonder if you did better than Dishnu…”

Arnold stayed silent, but his attacks sped up.

Priam smirked, noticing the crack in his opponent’s composure. Despite the pressure, he was starting to enjoy resisting the Terminator. While he was slowly losing ground, his add-on was busy analyzing Arnold, building a model he could train against later. Information was the sinews of war, and when it came time for revenge, Priam would be ready.

Arnold feinted to the right. His system predicted the perfect trajectory, and Priam braced himself to block the ideal strike that was sure to follow.

When the homunculus’s steel-gloved hand pierced between his ribs, Priam’s eyes widened in shock. For the first time in the fight, Arnold had deviated from perfection.

“If my enemies expect perfection, I become predictable. Thanks for the lesson.”

Priam leaped back just as Arnold crushed his human heart. His face twisted in agony as he landed awkwardly on a low tree branch. Stumbling, he shook off a wave of dizziness and straightened up.

Instead of pressing his advantage, Arnold paused, observing him, and that was when Priam felt the intense pain radiating from his chest.

“You’re not regenerating when I hit you with a spiritual attack. Seems like we share the same weaknesses.”

“...You got Seth’s racial Talent when you killed him,” Priam realized. It was so obvious that he cursed himself for not figuring it out sooner. Just as killing Taishi, the hoplite Champion, had granted him his racial talent, the murder of the necromancer had bestowed [Soul Duality] upon the homunculus. Priam had read about that Talent when he upgraded his own race.

[Soul Duality - Gold] - High Duatian's racial talent. Your soul is linked to your body. The degeneration of your physical envelope leads to that of your soul.

[Homo Elysian Obsession] was superior, but the link between his body and soul remained, and it could be a potential vulnerability.

“That is right,” Arnold admitted. “Without it, I’m not sure I would have been able to analyze your aetheric code. Mixing the races of Champions… what a brilliant idea. As expected of the First.”

Priam was starting to hate that sentence. Coughing up blood, he understood Arnold had sacrificed part of his own soul, preventing his body from regenerating. Summoning Pyro and disabling his pain sensors, Priam cauterized the wound.

“I guess I’m not the only one evolving,” he muttered, grimacing. From now on, any injury would be permanent until he found a way to desynchronize his body and soul at will. “You want another lesson?”

“Yes,” the homunculus replied with disarming honesty.

“Always be aware of your position in a fight,” Priam said, retreating further.

Pushing through a few stray leaves, he emerged into a clearing. In the background, the tribes' camp sprawled out. His allies were close.

Priam’s grin faded when he saw the sheer number of corpses littering the ground. Most were corrupted, but close to a thousand of them belonged to the tribes. Seth hadn’t shown any mercy. Seeing the carnage, Priam realized the difference between him and some of his rivals. For all his flaws, he still valued life.

“I’m sorry, Osiris, but I don’t think I can share an island with your brother,” Priam mused, surveying the aftermath of Seth’s rampage on the tribes.

The corpse of the necro titan was visible, half draped over the fortifications. Braato was beside it, methodically dismantling the skeleton, bone by bone. The tribes wouldn’t waste the body of a Tier 4. Braato noticed Priam’s gaze and leaped toward him.

“…I’m sorry,” the warrior said, his voice tired, sad, and ashamed. It wasn’t in a Gaesert’s nature to abandon their allies in the heat of battle.

“Your clan comes first,” Priam said. He would have done the same to save his own family. “Seth…?”

“The shamans are hunting him down to retrieve the souls he stole.” Braato’s knuckles turned white from clenching his fists. “When they bring him back, I swear his soul will power our latrine enchantments for the next thousand years.”

Priam thought to himself that he had no desire for his rival to see him taking a piss. Unless he becomes a god. 

“They’ll catch him. What about Ophis?”

“Leo’s trying to stop the monster that’s taken control of him…” Braato furrowed his brow, then gave Priam a hearty slap on the back. “But why dwell on our losses when we can celebrate a victory? The Fallen is dead! I don’t know how you managed it, but we owe you.”

Popped his shoulder back into place, Priam grinned. “You can pay that debt right now. See that rival over there? He’s trying to kill me, and I could use a hand putting him in his place.”

*

[1 hour 56 minutes before optimal activation of Back in Time.]

*

Status:

PHYSICAL:
Strength 782
Constitution 1 445 (+10)
Agility 930 (+3)
Vitality 1 380 (+10)
Perception 822 (+5)

MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599
Dexterity 684 (+3)
Memory 896
Willpower 1 193
Charisma 754

META:
Meta-affinity 923
Meta-focus 444
Meta-endurance 804 (+6)
Meta-perception (A) 443
Meta-chance 332
Meta-authority 258

Potential: 12 485 (+13)
Tier 0

Sun point: 41 (+41)

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

[Tribulation]: Six Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 152 days 7 hours 27 minutes 14 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attribute > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 200 / 1 attribute > 1 500

*

Chapter 273: The End of a Timeline

Braato turned to the homunculus with a menacing growl. “I grew up hearing stories of the Champions... It's not my usual thing to bully a Tier 0, but I suppose I can make an exception for a traitor.”

Throughout the interaction, Arnold never took his eyes off Priam. “A tank like you can’t defeat me,” he said without even glancing at the Tier 4.

Frustrated with how the day had gone, Braato bristled at the insult and charged at the homunculus with a roar. His muscles swelled, veins bulging across his forearms. Flesh collided with steel—and won.

Arnold stumbled back, clearly outclassed in raw physical strength. He countered with a powerful uppercut that landed squarely on the Tier 4’s chin. The opponent grinned.

“My masseur hits harder than that,” he said, headbutting the homunculus with a vicious crack.

Blow after blow drove Arnold backward, though they failed to bring him down completely, even after a minute. Seeing a Tier 0 hold his ground, Braato growled in frustration, his fists glowing with a brown aura. The next uppercut sent Arnold flying, crashing fifty meters away. A white aura surrounded him, and Priam recognized the signature of Conquest.

Braato charged forward as the homunculus teleported, defying even the suppression of a high-level Domain.

Arnold reappeared behind Priam, launching a sneak attack. The young warrior dodged and quickly teamed up with Braato, flanking their foe. What began as a three-way brawl soon turned into a full-blown melee as other tribespeople noticed the fight. Within seconds, Arnold found himself outnumbered—first ten to one, then fifty to one.

The Tier 3s proved resilient, absorbing his physical blows while dealing damage in return. Arnold was soon forced to summon novas and lasers to defend himself. It might have been dangerous if Priam and Braato hadn’t instinctively decided to intercept the energy attacks. The tank couldn’t annihilate the Var Elegis Champion outright, but his skin was tough enough to shrug off the homunculus’s efforts. Finally, Arnold began to retreat.

Dodging arrows and blades with a roll, Arnold found himself unwittingly in the path of a spectral boar’s defense. The beast's tusk impaled him. Before anyone could capitalize on the opening, Arnold teleported to the far edge of the clearing. A gaping hole in his chest, the strongest of the rivals was looking mortal at last.

“Since their upgrade, my instincts have been screaming that showing you my true abilities is a bad idea,” the homunculus said to Priam, his gaze never leaving his rival. He dismissed the army of Tier 3s with contempt. “If I can’t reveal my skillset, then I have no choice but to rely on numbers.”

A stone appeared in Arnold’s hand, and Priam’s eyes widened as he recognized a hearthstone. A reward obtained during the Reunion, capable of connecting its user to a specific location.

Space collapsed and then stabilized as a portal opened, large enough to allow two elephants to pass through side by side.

“Can anyone close that thing?” Priam demanded.

“One of the shamans or Leo could,” Braato replied while barking orders to his subordinates.

“Fuck.”

As if in response to Priam’s frustration, a homunculus stepped through the portal. A dozen followed, and the flood showed no sign of stopping.

[Identification]
[Fourth-Generation Var Elegis Clone - Soulless] - A soulless clone based on Arnold NetSky, the Champion of the Var Elegis. Its body can tank Tier 2 attacks, and its offensive capabilities are even more formidable.
The lack of a soul prevents it from benefiting from the System, but this weakness is partially compensated when it serves as an avatar for a Var Elegis elite. The controller can channel some of their abilities through the clone.
Arnold thinks an army will overwhelm you. He’s wrong; it would take far fewer.

As the clones’ red eyes turned to match Arnold’s, Priam realized the battle was about to spiral out of control.

A Tier 3 fired an arrow at the portal, but a clone stepped in its path, sacrificing itself in an explosion. Immediately, a dozen more raised their hands toward the archer. Before Priam could shout a warning, ten laser beams pierced the tribeswoman. She fell to her knees, her life force barely clinging to her. Growling, she knocked a dozen arrows in an instant and obliterated the homunculi.

By the time that exchange ended, a hundred more clones had crossed through.

With a roar, the other warriors and huntresses charged into the fray. The ground shook, and shockwaves uprooted the trees at the forest’s edge. Alongside the Aelbes, Snaherts, and Gaeserts, Priam fought fiercely. Every strike of Promesse was lethal, but for every clone that fell, two more took its place. Ten seconds after the portal opened, a thousand clones had emerged.

“Braato, the portal!” Priam shouted.

His voice was drowned out by the chaos. Glancing around, Priam caught sight of the Tier 4 at the edge of his vision. The Gaesert chief was doing what he did best: protecting his people. Transformed into a massive boar, he used his body to shield the camp from the barrage of lasers. Most of the clone army had scattered, targeting the weaker tribe members to occupy Braato. Arnold was playing dirty, determined to win.

Out of the corner of his eye, Priam spotted his rival. The homunculus had lost an arm and sported a gaping wound in his solar plexus, but he was winning his gamble. In some areas, the locals were already falling back, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

“Get out of the way!” Braato roared as the spirit of a colossal boar materialized before him. The spectral beast charged toward the portal, with hundreds of clones rushing to meet it. They self-destructed in tactical nuclear explosions, eroding the construct. Ravaged by radiation, the spectral invocation crumbled just as it reached the portal.

Seeing another column of clones emerging, Priam knew they couldn’t win by staying on the defensive. If that portal led to the Var Elegis homeworld, millions—maybe billions—of clones were waiting to cross. Braato might survive in those conditions, but no one else would.

“I’ll handle it,” said a voice from his shadow.

Priam hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Together.”

Opening his mouth, Priam began to draw in the ambient aether. Arnold assumed a defensive stance but made no move to stop him.

Three seconds later, the Breath was ready. Condensed by his draconic lung, amplified by [Breathless], and empowered by his Breath Concept affinity, the primordial energy focused into a singular, devastating point. The Tier 3s standing in front of Priam stepped aside while the clones assembled into a solid wall. No one dared interrupt him. As much as Arnold knew what was coming, he also knew Priam was inevitable.

The Smiling Juggernaut roared. The Breath detonated. The world ignited.

Spectral scales covered Priam’s skin as a column of flame shot toward the portal. Everything in its path—air, earth, metal—melted. Pyro, the flames inherited from a candidate for the Eighth Throne, annihilated the Var Elegis army, incinerating the clones.

As if Priam had opened the gates of hell, the world burned. Riding the wave of his own fire, he ignored Arnold’s Domain, overwhelming it with the absurd amount of aether fueling his flames. Appearing before the portal, Priam locked eyes with the Var Elegis before he was swallowed by his own shadow. Free from his rival, he started to systematically wipe out the clones. 

The connection between Arnold and his army was severed by Jasmine’s shadows. Deprived of their Champion’s abilities, the homunculi were quickly dispatched by the Tier 3s. Sensing an opening, Braato planted himself in front of the portal, slaughtering each clone as it emerged.

After ten brutal seconds, Priam collapsed onto a patch of grass that had miraculously survived the devastation. His aether, willpower, endurance, vitality, and lifespan were spent. He downed a potion handed to him by a Tier 3 and lay back to catch his breath. Around him, the warriors and huntresses readied their strongest attacks, prepared to strike down Arnold the moment he emerged from the lingering shadow. Had they finally won?

The minutes dragged on, and Priam’s expression darkened. He was receiving no feedback from Jasmine’s sub-system and began to worry. Her mission had been to stall the homunculus for a few seconds—no more.

As the warriors began to talk among themselves, the Gaesert chief noticed Priam’s troubled look.

“Is something wrong?”

“... Jasmine should have released him by now.”

“She—”

The ground erupted in a geyser of shadow. A fraction of a second later, a hundred Tier 4-level attacks converged on Arnold’s silhouette. A white dome appeared, intercepting the projectiles. Craters pockmarked the orb’s surface, giving it the appearance of a moon.

That power felt strangely familiar.

Priam’s pupils vanished, and a monochrome sphere materialized without his command. It expanded until it met Arnold’s lunar shield. At the point where the two celestial bodies touched, a window opened, and Arnold stared through it. The rest of the world seemed frozen, as though the two rivals stood in another dimension.

“Hecate New Moon,” Arnold guessed. “I suppose even among rivals, our relationship is special. As expected—”

“Where’s Jasmine?” Priam cut in.

“Dead.” Arnold’s lunar pupils gleamed as he offered an explanation. “The Full Moon is the nemesis of shadows.”

Priam clenched his fists as he locked eyes with his opponent. That bastard had gotten a mythological mutation from the Colosseum's rewards, too... and he had chosen Hecate Full Moon.

Something shot through the air—a lifeless object hurled by the homunculus. Priam caught Jasmine’s dead body. She was beautiful, and if it weren’t for the gaping hole in her chest, she could have been mistaken for sleeping.

A surge of spiritual energy flooded Priam’s mind—his sub-system implanted in her. It allowed him to feel her final emotions.

“Jasmine…” he murmured, sensing her shock as she realized the Terminator could bypass her shadows. Then came the anger—she had been furious with herself, replaying the promise she made to hold Arnold back, hating her own weakness.

Priam dropped to his knees as the pain overwhelmed him. Arnold had tortured her, trying to extract information about the First. It wasn’t just pride that kept her going—it was loyalty. Then, when all hope faded, it was courage that allowed her to trigger the Tribulations that ended her life.

Priam’s stomach churned as he felt her loneliness and despair as darkness swallowed her soul.

At the final moment, fear gave way to love. As her life ebbed away, one name lit her soul, pushing back the shadows of death one last time.

*

“Why are you crying?”

Priam wiped his eyes, laying Jasmine’s body gently on the ground.

“Because I kept pointing a weapon at the soul of a friend. I’m so blind, it’s pathetic.”

I’ll free you when I return, Priam promised, closing the eyes of the woman who had sacrificed herself for him out of love. Jasmine had been an enemy just hours ago, his subordinate for weeks, and now... he wished she could be his friend.

“It’s time to close this chapter,” he whispered, deactivating the Moon hidden in his eye. The backlash almost blinded him, but it hardly mattered anymore.

Reality snapped back, and Priam walked toward the portal. Arnold didn’t try to stop him, and Braato gave him a strange look as he destroyed yet another trespassing clone.

“Thanks for the assist,” Priam said.

“It was a matter of honor,” Braato replied, then added, “Priam?”

“Yeah?”

“That fragment of a dead Moon in your eye… My ancestor mentioned something similar in his writings. If you survive, seek [Curse Resistance] and [Chimera].”

“Will do,” Priam answered as he stepped through the portal. With a single step, he had crossed into a new world… and could already feel the Elysian laws digging their claws into him.

A metal plain greeted him. As far as the eye could see, rows of homunculi stood waiting. Pyro tore through the front lines to grant him a safe zone.

Title won!

[Intrepid Explorer - Silver] - There are many ways to earn this Title. You obtained it by being the first to enter the planetary system of a warlike species. The hardest part will be getting out alive.
Meta (Chance) +20%
Note: This Title was renamed after an overwhelming number of petitioners found [Stupid Explorer] insulting.

The first thing Priam did was use his own hearthstone to open a portal back to his Moon, at the exact spot where Arnold’s portal was. A tremor rippled through space before the portals collapsed, sending out a gravitational shockwave that obliterated half of Priam’s body and wiped out most of the clones standing on the Moon’s surface.

Lvl Up: [Space Resistance] lvl 4, 5
CONST +18

When his regeneration pulled him back from death’s door, Priam was relieved to see the portal to Elysium had vanished.

Now, he was alone, in a place no one had ever explored before—the home of the Var Elegis. Two stars lit up ten planets, one of which floated directly above him. It resembled Earth, but its oceans were a sickly yellow-brown.

“Sulfuric acid…” Priam muttered. Unlike carbon-based humans, the Var Elegis had silicon-based bodies. The acid oceans made their existence possible.

The rest of the planet was heavily constructed, with each world meticulously terraformed. As it was clear from the artificial landscape under Priam’s feet, the Var Elegis appeared uninterested in nature. Upon closer inspection, the metallic plain wasn’t a plain at all. The explosion from the portal had revealed a massive hangar beneath the surface.

“An artificial Moon…”

Priam clenched his fists, realizing Arnold wasn’t playing in the same league. The Champion of the Var Elegis controlled at least ten planets, and the number of clones at his command... Priam shuddered, understanding that only the looming threat of the Immortals in Elysium kept the Terminator from wiping out the competition.

“And here I thought he was just a scary robot…”

If there had been an atmosphere, the clones would have heard Priam’s bitter laugh. The pain, exhaustion, surprise, and grief from a hellish day finally crashed over him. A cocktail of emotions fueled a welcome dose of cynicism. He had thought he was strong, but he was just a big fish in a small pond.

The loneliness, the grim certainty that this timeline was nearing its end, and the knowledge he had gained today all combined to give him perfect clarity. He was glad he had chosen Back in Time as it gave him perspective. Despite all his progress, he was still far from the top—but...

“But that’ll change,” he promised himself. The past few hours had shattered his dreams, but they had also ignited within him a fierce desire to reshape reality.

All his friends had sacrificed themselves to bring him this far. He had learned a lot, and now he was ready to save them. He would give them the tools they needed to survive their Tribulations and grow stronger. This timeline might be a disaster, but he would change things for them… and for himself.

His current weakness frustrated him, but he knew that the steeper the climb, the sweeter the victory. He was ready to put in the effort and endure pain to earn the right to control his own fate. Next time, he would win!

A plan was already forming in his mind. Spend his rewards, reforge Promesse, train in Valaryth, temper his body, face the Colosseum, and master his Tribulations to reach the pinnacle of Tier 0.

“And then…” Priam’s gaze drifted to one of the stars.

Then, he would climb the next mountain—Tier 1. His journey would continue until he reached the Zenith. The Empress had proven that power was everything in this world, and if reaching the top was the only way to be free, then Priam would ascend.

He clenched his fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms. This timeline had shown him just how weak he truly was, and Priam refused to stay that way.

“The next one will be different!” he vowed. The Juggernaut never stayed defeatist for long.

The Terrors, Sumstreh, his rivals—they would all fall before him. He would seize every opportunity to rise, proving to the Concepts that his great determination, holistic intelligence, and reckless bravery were worth more than the soulless pragmatism of the Terminator.

With his soul at peace and his heart ablaze, Priam opened his system and accepted his Tribulations.

*

Across the void, Ayank watched as the System descended on the Champion. A double mental Tribulation plunged him into a powerful illusion. The Empress couldn’t peer too closely without drawing the wrath of an entity far beyond her, but she knew it concerned the masks Priam had worn throughout his life.

A classic Tier 0 trial.

Of course, the other Tribulations didn’t wait politely for him to finish. One of them sliced his body in half, cleaving through his soul.

“…That’s it?” the spectator murmured, disappointed. She had expected more from a rival of the Golden Generation. The Seven were supposed to be grooming monsters for the next Multiversal War, and what she had just witnessed was… underwhelming.

Just as she was about to dismiss her minor clone, Ayank’s eyes widened. At her level, spiritual mechanisms were well understood, which made the sight of Priam Azura’s soul reborn in an ideal form terrifying. It resembled nothing she had ever seen before. Could it be that Soul, one of the Seven, had intervened personally? Ayank focused all her attention on what came next.

The young Champion regarded his Tribulations with a calculating expression.

“The planets are moving too quickly,” he remarked. “The sixth Tribulation is altering the flow of time to force me to finish quickly. I guess the System is punishing me for my greed…”

Priam Azura’s words were strange, but most of the Empress’s consciousness was preoccupied with a far more significant revelation. The Champion didn’t seem fazed by his resurrection! Could it be that he was used to it? If so, he might hold the key to resurrecting the dead. For the first time in millennia, Ayank felt a flicker of hope. Could her quest to reunite with her family be moving forward again?

Suppressing a shiver, she glanced at the Tribulations, assessing the System’s fury if she were to kidnap the Champion. Would she have time to drag Priam to another universe before being annihilated? It seemed unlikely, but she couldn’t let him throw his life away against an impossible Tribulation. He was too important!

Torn by an immense dilemma, Ayank hesitated so long that the Tier 0 had time to act.

“Back in Time,” Priam murmured as a Tribulation hurtled toward him.

For the first time in centuries, the Empress laughed, her joy shattering the planetary system. The Champion was going to survive! She would soon forget, but as long as he stayed in the Wandering Islands, he would inevitably draw her attention. Especially with the Tal Quercus…

*

All the aether in the universe froze as a Concept near the Zenith manifested. Dimension, one of the Seven, reversed time for a septillion beings.

Fewer than a thousand realized what happened.

Among them, one bet that Priam Azura would shake up the younger generation within five months.

*

Status:

It is up to the user to choose which rewards they wish to keep. Proceed?

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As explained on Discord, this was a somewhat frustrating arc for Priam (and certainly for you at times), as it highlights the difference between him and Tier 4s like Sumstreh or Arnold, Dishnu, etc. He sees that despite his efforts, some are still ahead, and he’s not the only one making progress. Even though he’s the MC, I think it’s important to realize that not everything falls into his lap and that things sometimes go wrong. Yeah, at the end, he was the last one alive from the crew...

If this was the arc of pain (a harsh dose of reality), the next one will be more rewarding.

Their effort will pay off...

See you Wednesday!