237 Chapter 237: It’s Time

"So it's true…you really have betrayed the Dark Church…Angelica."

Angelica stiffened at the familiar voice, and recognition dawned upon her. Swallowing her bitterness and regret, she nodded.

"Even you must realize that those dark priests are insane. Do you really intend to help them destroy the world?"

"We are bound by our contract. If we break off a contract every time we disagree with the client, then our honor as Assassins, our…reliability and reputation will be destroyed. We pride ourselves on working all the way to the very end to fulfil the terms of the contract. It's not something we can just discard just because our client does something we don't agree with."

"This isn't a simple matter of agreement or disagreement! Innocents will die! The world will be destroyed! Humanity will be annihilated!"

"We are Assassins," the lady replied with an ironic smile. "Our hands are already stained with the blood of countless. A reason like 'the death of innocents' isn't enough to sway us from our path."

"…true." Angelica took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that it has to come to this, Serena. But unlike you, I don't care about honor or pride. I'm not going to help a group of nutcases destroy the world."

"…you fight for the person you love, don't you?" Serena Wright smiled, but her expression was full of sorrow. "Honestly…I admire you, Angelica. My husband and I do…"

Angelica froze when the other person came into view. Beside Serena, Cronus stood tall and hulking, but there was something clearly different about him.

"You…what have you done?"

"Only what was necessary."

Power radiated from Cronus's form, and he stared at the crew of mages, almost blankly. His eyes struggled to focus on Angelica, and he nodded.

"It's been a while."

"Cronus, you…"

"I'm afraid we don't have the luxury to catch up with old friends," Lionel interrupted as he stepped forward. He held his sword up, the aura of a Green Dragon materializing behind him. "Head toward the computer mainframe, kids. Yue Guang and I will hold these two off."

Yue Guang was already dashing forward, throwing a powerful punch that actually resulted in a powerful shockwave that tore a gouge through the ground. Cronus held up a hand and parried his fist, but the colossal impact sent tremors reverberating violently throughout the cavern.

If Yue Guang was shocked that his punch was stopped so easily, he didn't show it. Instead, the professional bodyguard yanked his hand out and continued to deliver a relentless barrage, attempting to pummel his opponent. Cronus blocked and deflected each and every one of them, but Yue Guang's attacks only seemed to accelerate and grow more powerful as the Armament Ba Qi wreathing his arms thickened and grew denser.

"Impressive." Cronus sounded amazed. "If I was still human, I would have been obliterated by your punches long ago."

"Hmm…" Lionel stole a quick glance at the exchange, even as he lunged to slash his sword at Serena, but she blocked it with her spear. Instead, she twirled her long weapon about to keep him back, but he blasted her with a wave of petals that she managed to scythe down with her own Armament Ba Qi. "That man is really fast. I didn't expect there to be someone capable of keeping up with Yue Guang's speed."

"That's not speed," Serena quietly informed him as she thrust her spear forward. Lionel deflected it from his chest and answered with a riposte that she parried with the shaft of her weapon. A dark aura surrounded her to repel the razor-sharp petals that danced around the two of them.

"…eh?"

"She's right." Yue Guang sprang apart from Cronus after the two exchanged a particularly violent punch that caused the cavern to tremble and rocks to fall from the ceiling. "He's not using any physical enhancement spell to increase his speed. It feels different somehow…" he frowned as he tried to analyze his opponent's magic. "It's as if he is slowing down time in his body and thus my movements appear as if in slow motion to him."

"Time magic," Angelica whispered. Shun Yin raised an eyebrow and snorted, unable to stop himself from speaking out.

"Time Alter, Double Accel? Or Triple Accel?"

Angelica smacked him at the back of his head. "You've been watching way too much anime! Besides, that anime was like seven years ago! Never mind the two-cour Unlimited Blade Works anime adaptation that came two years after that, now we're all looking forward to the third movie of the Heaven's Feel route!"

"Stop talking nonsense and focus on the battle!" Michael was surging ahead to engage the hulking figure of Cronus in battle, assisting Yue Guang. Flames erupted from his sword and engulfed the massive Assassin, but Cronus merely walked out of it.

"How…?!" Glen gaped at the impossible sight. "He's completely uninjured!"

Yue Guang and Michael both jumped away as Cronus lunged forward and smashed the ground they were standing on. Rock shattered, but Shun Yin noticed something else. Despite the ground being pulverized from the sheer force of Cronus's attack, the rock seemed to disintegrate. Not from the destructive power, but from something else…

"That's…"

"Time magic," Angelica repeated. "By accelerating time, he can move the object forward into a future where it has crumbled away. Nothing lasts forever."

"My Armament Ba Qi can resist the effects of his time magic," Yue Guang informed them, but he was breathing heavily. "But it expends a lot of my mana just to defend against him."

"That's correct." Cronus regarded Yue Guang, impressed. "Any normal mage would have grown old and turned into a corpse from my spells, but you were able to resist it with Ba Qi. I never imagined that would be a mage as powerful as you."

"That's impossible!" Michael blurted out. "No such time magic exists! At least not of that magnitude of power!"

"That is correct. No such time magic exists in our world." Serena nodded and conceded while defending against Lionel's sword strike. The Stuart clan's next head narrowed his eyes when he caught the hidden meaning behind her words.

"…our world, huh?"

"Think about it. What if there exists other worlds other than ours? You already know of the hellish dimension that the monsters inhabit – their home world that they live in before they invade ours through Emergence events."

"But there's no monster with such time magic…!" Glen protested hotly, only for Lionel to shake his head and cut him off.

"That's not it, kid. The lady here only mentioned the monsters' dimension as an example, but before that she used the plural form…other worlds."

"You're pretty sharp." Cronus grinned as he swung his fists, knocking both Yue Guang and Michael aside. "That's right. There exist other dimensions besides ours and the monsters'. This power, this time magic comes from there."

"Spirits!" Angelica muttered, even as she joined Lionel in attacking Serena, but she kept them at bay with her spinning spear before unleashing a wave of greenish-black spells that forced the two to defend themselves. "You summoned a spirit…and Cronus, you sacrificed yourself to become its vessel!"

"You don't sound very surprised."

"I already knew what you and Serena had done ever since I first saw you." Angelica kept her voice calm and level, but rage flared up in her ruby eyes. "I was the one who brought the spirit summoning technology to you. I had thought you guys would perfect it, but I never thought you would distort it into such an abomination."

"Why would you want the Assassins to perfect the spirit summoning technology?!" Glen demanded, annoyed. "Delivering such a potent weapon to them…"

"They have resources and magic that the Porter clan doesn't have," Angelica explained, showing no sign of regret. "If there was anyone who could perfect the technology, it would be them."

"And you planned to steal it from us and hand it back to your uncle," Serena concluded. When Angelica didn't deny it, the female Assassin chuckled. "You really are quite the nice girl…is what I would like to say, but your hands are stained with blood as much as ours are soaked in it."

"I never claimed to be innocent," Angelica replied coolly.

"I don't suppose you know if the spirit possessed guy has any weakness, Angie?" Michael asked as he warded off a punch from Cronus. He spun about to avoid the barrage of punches from the spirit host, and then whirled about to counter with a kick. Cronus didn't even budge or stagger back from the flaming kick and instead retaliated with one of his own. Michael flipped about to avoid the huge foot, twisting in midair to slash at Cronus, but the massive guy merely deflected his blade with his bare hand. There wasn't even a scratch despite the sharp edge of the blade seeming to slice deeply into his skin. Cursing, Michael glanced at Serena. "Or…is it the same as with normal summoners? Kill the summoner and the spirit will disappear along with her life?"

"That is correct," Angelica admitted. "That aspect remains unchanged."

"Good." Michael spun himself about as Cronus pursued him. Ramming both feet onto Cronus's forearm, he propelled himself toward Serena, his sword ablaze. "Old man, I'll leave this big guy to you!"

"I'm not even that old!" Yue Guang protested, offended. "I'm only five or so years older than you, punk!"

Michael didn't pay him any attention, but Yue Guang grudgingly provided support, rushing forward to tackle Cronus when the huge Assassin sought to pursue the speeding fire mage. They grappled for a moment, with Cronus kicking Yue Guang off. The bodyguard clasped at his side and gasped, his physical reinforcement spell and Ba Qi unable to save him from sustaining a few cracked ribs.

On the other side, Lionel leaped away when he saw Michael approaching, and he headed in the opposite direction – as if trading places with the fire mage – to support his bodyguard. The two passed each other, with Michael unleashing a blast of flames at Serena and Lionel launching a hail of razor-sharp petals at Cronus.

Cronus merely endured the blizzard of deadly petals, smashing through them with his hulking form. Serena cleaved through the flames with her spear, and then launched a few ranged spells of her own, the greenish-black projectiles arcing to puncture Michael.

However, Michael dropped onto the ground, thrusting the tip of his sword downward. Crimson flames erupted around him, forming a fiery barrier that incinerated the ominous-looking spells before they could reach him.

"!!"

Serena spun around and deflected the claws of White Tiger. Lightning exploded as the immense Soul Beast swiped at her, but she managed to defend herself from the web of lethal electricity and retreat to a safe distance.

"Damn, she is good," Glen growled grudgingly. He raised his hand and fired off a few bolts of lightning at her, even as his Soul Beast prowled incessantly. "Don't let up, White Tiger! Continue attacking her!"

"That's right!" Michael joined the White Tiger in striking at Serena. "Don't lower your guard!"

At the other side, Cronus batted Lionel to the side. Fortunately, the wood swordsman had managed to parry his fist with his sword and he flipped in midair to land on his feet. Flower blossoms continued to drift about him.

"This is a bad match," he complained. "There's nothing more transient than flower blossoms, and his time magic accelerating their demise is particularly super-effective against them."

"I don't like this way of winning, but my preferences are irrelevant." Cronus reared up and struck him, only for Yue Guang to dash in and block the fist with his crossed arms. With a grunt, the bodyguard tried to knock the guy away, but the huge Assassin spun about and delivered a roundhouse kick toward his head.

"!!"

His reflexes being on point, Yue Guang blocked the kick with his forearm, but the attack was so powerful that it sent him tumbling away and crashing to the side. Yue Guang vanished in a shower of rubble when he collided with the wall.

Taking a deep breath, Lionel launched another storm of razor-sharp petals. The green dragon aura materialized around him before disappearing into a vortex that raged around his sword. The bombardment of deadly blossoms actually drove Cronus back, causing cuts and injuries on his skin. But the huge Assassin refused to yield.

With a roar, he unleashed a silver blast of mana that caused the vividly-colored petals that assailed him to desiccate, shrivel and wither away.

"Tch!" Lionel clicked his tongue. "That stupid time magic again!"

"Sorry, but that's how it is."

Cronus took no pleasure in what he perceived to be his victory, his wounds disappearing as if he was either rewinding time to make it as if they never existed, or speeding time up to after they had healed. Lionel wasn't sure, but he couldn't help but looked dismayed when he saw all the effort he put into his last spell go to waste.

"!!!"

His dismay didn't last very long, for an eruption of flames engulfed Cronus, burning his figure and incinerating him into ash.

"Cronus!" Serena screamed, but she was forced to dodge a flaming sword strike from Michael, and then evade an electrifying claw swipe from White Tiger. The flame mage managed a cold smile as he pressed on with his attack.

Behind the incinerated form of Cronus, Vermillion Phoenix soared, its flaming feathers illuminating the dim cavern. With a screech, it plunged toward Serena, getting ready to roast its second target.

"Watch out!"

"?!"

Silver mana rippled outward and extinguished the ferocious flames unleashed by Vermillion Phoenix. The shockwaves generated by the churning silver mana knocked Lionel off his feet and sent him hurtling across the corridor. Right in front of everyone's stunned eyes, the blackened ash that was all that remained of Cronus…vanished, only to be replaced by Cronus's full form. Restored, as if he had never been attacked.

"What in the world…?!" Michael growled.

"That's impossible!" Glen blurted out, unable to believe his eyes.

"Resurrection?" Lionel murmured disbelievingly as he struggled back to his feet, watching the terrifying enemy get enveloped in a maelstrom of silver mana. "No…time magic. Reversing time to the moment before his death."

"We've really encountered a troublesome enemy, haven't we?" Shoving a massive block of debris off himself, Yue Guang rose unsteadily to his feet, blood trickling down his face and other wounds. "And we don't have much time left too…"