Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 6) - Chapter 42 - The Earth Rotated

Xavier blinked.

The Soul Amalgamation had just spoken in his mind. That was not something he’d expected. It spoke to him in the same way spirits he summoned from the Otherworld spoke to him.

He supposed that made some sense, considering what this thing was—a soul-construct. Something built from spirits.

The absolute glee in which the Soul Amalgamation seemed to be experiencing at the prospect of killing them twice unnerved Xavier.

Speaking of spirits he’d summoned, all the spirits that had come forth from the Otherworld bridge he’d created using Soul Sacrifice were no longer frozen in time at the edge of the barrier. They didn’t move as swiftly as his arrows had, so they reached the enemy later.

The moment they impacted the Soul Amalgamation, they… Disappeared in a puff of energy. That energy was sucked into the soul-construct, as though it were feeding off it.

The same thing happened to the spirits that went for the World Destroyer. They couldn’t harm it—even their spells were useless, bursting into that same energy.

God, no wonder the other version of me hasn’t been able to harm this thing! If spirits do this, soul apparitions from Soul Strike must do something similar… This thing is resistant to soul and spirit attacks!

The Soul Amalgamation sped forward through the vacuum of space to attack the other version of him. The flicker of his movement was god damned fast. Xavier’s eyes widened at seeing it. He was still shouting, that shout only he could hear. Pain still coursed through him. The pressure still assailed his mind.

It was almost too much.

He had to push the field faster. He had to have both the Soul Amalgamation and the World Destroyer within the field for this to work.

The longer it took him to make the shield reach the World Destroyer, the longer this fight would go for. The higher chance the other version of him would be killed before Xavier could cast Summon Otherworldly Spirit and bring the Spirit of Time into this world.

A part of him wondered if there was any value in having the Soul Amalgamation cut off from the World Destroyer. As far as he could tell, the Soul Amalgamation had no trouble fighting without its master.

Shoving all thought except the task at hand out of his mind, Xavier did what he needed to do. He pushed the field harder, infusing more Soul Energy into his body.

The power coursed through him, more than he had ever experienced. He wanted to keep pulling at the reserve. Wanted to be even more powerful.

He needed that power. Needed to draw upon it if he was going to succeed—but he managed to stop himself.

Before he went too far.

The depths of his Soul Energy reserve were far deeper than they had been in the past. As he hadn’t used it much, he hadn’t noticed just how much it had grown. He’d been consistently using Soul Harden, and his Spirit attribute was absolutely insanely high, so he supposed it made a great deal of sense.

Xavier could barely pay any attention to the fight happening around him. The other version of himself was speaking in his mind through the Communication Stone. Xavier didn’t know what the man was saying. Didn’t know what he was telling him. He couldn’t split his mind into multiple parts to keep track of the conversation.

Every part of him was concentrated on this single task.

The time dilation flickered. He felt it crack. Felt it leak. Something that he’d never experienced before—but he managed to stop it. Managed to mend the barrier before the crack spiderwebbed around the whole sphere and made it break.

The field maintained, it finally reached the hulking bulk of the asteroid that was the World Destroyer.

Now! he screamed, though he didn’t know if he was screaming those words within his mind or not.

He suddenly stopped expanding the time dilation field. The moment he did, he was pushed straight into the present moment, his awareness expanding to what was happening around him.

The other version of him was getting pummelled to a pulp. Blood flowed from the man, large bubbles of it floating in the vacuum. Xavier had never seen anything like it.

Xavier blinked in shock as he saw the Soul Amalgamation switch transform the weapon he was fighting with from that of a sword to a halberd, then to a dagger. Each one of the weapons he used to harm the other man.

He is toying with him… No wonder the man lost hope. The Soul Amalgamation… It’s too damned powerful.

Xavier felt a massive sense of regret at being up here. A manic smile was plastered onto the Soul Amalgamation’s face, along with blood. Lots of blood. He must have floated straight through the red spheres that floated in the void to get that much of it onto him. The blood wasn’t sluicing off his armour, either—it was clinging to the white.

In that moment, Xavier thought of escaping, but he didn’t want to abandon this fight—he wanted to see it through.

If he could.

Once again, Xavier manipulated the time dilation field, only this time he slowed time within it to an absolute crawl. He wasn’t exactly sure how he would know how much time passed outside of it. Wouldn’t know when the right time to stop was. If he cast the Summon Otherworldly Spirit spell too early, he doubted the faded-out option would simply fill in when the time had passed—he would need to wait.

Earth… I can track Earth’s rotation.

And so that was where Xavier put his focus, hoping to whatever would hear him that this would go the way he needed it to.

Xavier’s gaze locked onto Earth, watching as it turned, faster and faster the more he was able to push his Time Alteration spell. The pressure he felt on the spell had only strengthened when the World Destroyer had entered the barrier, as the beast was currently moving at the same speed as him.

And so Xavier’s resolve had to strengthen beyond anything he’d ever managed before.

He was still shouting—screaming.

He couldn’t unclench his fists.

He couldn’t move at all.

If the Soul Amalgamation came for him, he wouldn’t be fast enough to get out of its way.

One. Two. Three.

The Earth rotated.

His Farscope ability allowed him to watch the fight. The more he watched, the more he was able to pick up the fast movements of the two fighters.

Ten. Eleven. Twelve.

The Earth rotated.

The more he picked up their movements, the more he knew he was out of his league. As strong as he was, as insane as his attributes were, as powerful as his unique match-up of spells and abilities were…

He was not ready for this.

I shouldn’t be here.

But there was another benefit to what he was doing. The portals down on Earth would remain open, allowing more and more people to reach them before the World Destroyer came to Earth.

The other version of him had wanted to delay the World Destroyer reaching his world for as long as possible.

Xavier had already extended that time by weeks.

Thirty.

Forty-two.

Fifty-one.

The Earth rotated.

Other Xavier: [I can’t hold out much longer!] The man’s voice was thick with pain, and for the first time he radiated a sense of fear.

Xavier, still clenching his fists, the bones cracking and healing and cracking and healing in a constant, unforgiving cycle of pain, still screaming so loud yet unheard that it was ripping through his throat, didn’t know how to respond.

The other version of him was on death’s door.

The Soul Amalgamation’s attacks had slowed, his smile having widened to absurd proportions, in a way that wasn’t natural. He thrust his sword into the other Xavier’s side—the man’s wounds healed slower and slower, open, bleeding and weeping, all over his body. His black robes were no longer self-repairing, littered was rips and cuts. Blood stained them, though it was hard to see on the dark fabric.

I need to do something!

What could he do? If he stopped pushing the time dilation field, they would lose out on this opportunity to summon the Spirit of Time. But if it took so long that the other version of him died… None of it would be worth it.

Then I won’t stop pushing. I’ll push harder!

Xavier cast Portal. The cooldown ended almost the instant the spell was cast, what with time outside the field moving so much faster than within it. The portal appeared directly in front of the other version of him as the Soul Amalgamation was about to stick him in the throat with a spear.

The twin portal appeared directly behind the Soul Amalgamation. If the attack continued, the spear-point would hit him in the spine.

The Soul Amalgamation stopped. Instantly. Too fast or clever to fall for such a trick. He turned his head to stare at Xavier. Something flashed in his eyes. Curiosity. The smile didn’t falter.

I was waiting for you to do something.

The Earth rotated.

Xavier had counted sixty rotations—just to be damned sure enough time would have passed for him to be able to cast his spell.

He couldn’t end the Time Alteration spell. If he did, there’d be no chance for him to cast it again. But he no longer needed to push it so hard. All he needed to do was change the flow of time and catch the other version of him within it.

Hell, he didn’t even need to do that. He could contract the field until it was only around him. That would protect him enough.

No. I need the other version of me. I need to allow him to recover.

Xavier contracted the time dilation field. He thought the World Destroyer or the Soul Amalgamation would do something. They could clearly see what was being done; the Soul Amalgamation paused and watched the barrier contract, an eyebrow raising. He didn’t do anything. Didn’t move to remain inside of it.

He simply watched. Before the field slipped past him, the Soul Amalgamation locked eyes with Xavier.

Devouring you will be immensely satisfying.

The horned entity slowed to a point where they were almost completely frozen in time. The World Destroyer’s pressure on him eased to what it had been like before—still intense, but nothing compared to what he’d just experienced.

Xavier’s relaxed his fists. Or he tried to. His fingers felt numb. Moving them proved difficult—like there were bent steel rods inside of them, keeping them curled.

He released a breath and looked over at the man he shared the field with.

The other version of him floated near the very edge of the field. He was moving slightly backward, toward Xavier. His eyes were closed, his head hanging down, his back bent forward with limp arms.

Xavier’s heart raced as he flew over to the other man. His chest wasn’t rising and falling, but had it been before? Did he need to breathe in the void of space?

He touched a hand to the man’s chest.

Thump, thump, thump.

He couldn’t hear it, but he felt the vibrations.

Xavier sighed in relief. Not dead. He’d gotten the shield contracted in time.

Assuming he didn’t have any damage-over-time effects on him, the other version of himself should heal on his own. Xavier had healing potions, but he didn’t know if they were strong enough to heal even a small portion of this man’s health.

He tried anyway. Just in case.

Putting the lip of the potion bottle to the man’s lips, Xavier realised he was in zero G. He couldn’t tip the bottle up. Gravity wasn’t on his side in this.

Hell, what am I supposed to do?

He didn’t possess any healing spells. Of course he didn’t. He had the Spirit Golem, which in theory could have any spirit with any spells inside of it, but the only spirit he’d had controlling the golem so far had been Rhaalir—he hadn’t taken advantage of its versatility yet.

Xavier himself could learn any spell—in theory—with his Wayfarer of the Infinite Path class. But that didn’t mean he possessed the spell, or had the ability to learn it right now.

So, Xavier waited.

Ten hours must have passed before the other version of himself finally came to consciousness. Xavier hadn’t cast any spells. He’d simply floated there beside himself, waiting, hoping the man wasn’t dead, wondering about what he could do.

The thousands of arrows he’d loosed at the World Destroyer and the Soul Amalgamation hadn’t done a damned thing. Neither had his use of Soul Sacrifice.

He had other things up his sleeve, but something told him they wouldn’t be effective.

Not at his current level of power.

He was locked deep in thought when the other version of him opened his eyes.