As he was flung upward into the sky above, Ben brought the majority of his minds to their fastest speeds to deal with everything the best he could, even with one thought ringing clear through it all.

Oh, this is really going to hurt.

He could already feel a strain on his mind as he continued to actualize as the distance he was doing it at forcefully increased by so much but he didn’t let it down, instead focusing on his goal as he let himself slowly fall back, counting seconds as he did.

One hundred and thirteen until the demon sees the future.

With the height he’d been thrown making him think he had roughly eight seconds until he hit the ground and would be faced with his untimely demise if he didn’t do anything, made more complicated by what he was seeing below. Every one of the enthralled was preparing to cast the best they could while he was helplessly suspended in the air, with that fact shaping his plans as he split his focus between that and his continued actualization.

Looking at the world in slow motion, he focused on both trying to control where he’d eventually land and understanding the structures of the various spells as they came together, trying to properly judge their affinity as they were being constructed while he focused on which would be harmful and which he could use, judging most spells to be unfortunately death affinitied while a few others took up the remaining options and forced to him to question how he’d deal with it.

His outfit would be able to handle most of it and he even wanted to take some hits. Any earth, water, and air attacks that hit his jacket or pants wouldn’t be able to bypass his current enchantments while having the small bonus of slowing his descent but the other affinities held different issues.

He wasn’t completely covered after all, his hands and face were exposed and while he trusted his resistances and various defensive skills to protect him up to a certain point, he didn’t want to put complete faith in them when he had so many attacks aimed at those vulnerable areas. So he prepared to deal with them the best he could without spending too much mana, continuing to count the seconds until they arrived until, just before any hit, he materialized a leather-like material around his head and hands while spending the extra mana to cover it with the enchantments he already intended to let him take the hits.

He’d been watching until the very last second to try to judge what other attacks were coming while also reaching out with his material sense to try and feel more but the second it seemed the blows had stopped he removed his face covering, needing access to his eyes and praying that the demons down below hadn’t been able to judge what had happened well enough to plan another attack through that flurry of spells.

Hope that was proven right. No matter how powerful they were, they couldn't plan or react as fast as him and with the way he was still falling through the sky, whatever split-second reactions he’d make weren’t going to be clear no matter how many eyes were on him, letting him go on from there as he drew ever closer to the ground.

Stolen story; please report.

With one hundred and seven seconds to finish. Oh, please please please let me get lucky here.

Still actualizing as stealthily as he could, doing his best to make his mental construct blend in with the scenery around it, he continued to bring it ever closer to its target, slowly and stealthily while also being faced with his impending fall, with the question of how much he was willing to let it hurt feeling uncomfortably present.

It needed to look good, he had to make the demon think he was being pushed into a corner, but at the same time it had to be to an extent where it wouldn’t be obvious he had been faking it as he got up once more as he was forced to continue to balance pain and potential in the face of prophecy, with one thing becoming more and more clear.

I hate time magic so incredibly much.

He could feel himself turning against the very idea of prophecy now that he’d encountered a creature that could use it so freely but did his best to hold back on that new bit of spite as he tried to subtly slow his descent by filling his clothing with his mana and pulling back against his bodyweight, hoping the demon wouldn’t notice the subtle change as he plummeted towards the ground.

So much of what he was doing was just trying to outsmart the other to beat out the future and it was all wearing on him as he was forced to try and think farther and farther ahead to deal with it. It felt like his mind was under a constant strain that was pushing him against his upper limits. Combined with the ache in his soul from how he actualized and he could already tell he was going to need either a good day of rest or a trip to a soul mage to recover.

Either would make for a decent option so long as he lived to see it but with time nearly at a standstill for him when he was only ten feet from the ground he put as much faith into his defense skills as he could while trying to rapidly slow his fall, feeling his outfit strain against his flesh while new actualized constructs appeared beneath him, killing his momentum in a way that felt akin to running face first into a wall but left him largely uninjured by the time he’d actually hit the ground itself.

He was sore all over and he’d had the wind knocked out of him but he could get up to fight and he would live, all that mattered was making it look good as he staggered to his feet while new attacks were already coming his way.

One hundred seconds remaining.

Feeling his time limit, Ben pushed harder, avoiding what spells he could while letting himself take what hits he had to while moving forward, seeing the demon watch him with glee as it thought it was winning, that even if it couldn’t see a future yet where it got him, it was narrowing it down as it continued to look ahead, blind to the present where the first step of its loss arrived.

No longer needing to keep up his actualization, Ben instead spent a bit of his mana from the distance he was at, binding one item to another while feeling himself smile.

Without anything else knowing it, He’d officially just take Thera, Fone, and Pato off of the playing field, all that was left was to wait and create all the more confusion he could.

Ninety seconds left.