Chapter 1425: Losing on all fronts

Noland Lee’s face was a picture of astonishment, frozen like a sculpture.

He had no reason to doubt “Escape.” Since they had rescued him from the chaotic flows of time, they naturally had no need to deceive him.

All Noland had to do was to ask the Snow-winged Cat and use magic to observe the condition of the Inner Cosmos and Player Planetosphere, and he would be able to verify “Escape’s” words.

In fact, from the moment he witnessed the explosion of Senati’s avatar and saw the Player Planetosphere shattered by the Void Spears, a sense of pessimism uncontrollably surged in Noland’s heart.

Now, upon hearing about the plight of the various extraordinary beings, Noland felt that the situation wasn’t as bad as he had imagined.

At least “Command” had only been captured, not killed.

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At least the Assassin Angel and Senati were only critically injured and not dead.

At least the Inner Cosmos had only entered a state of complete lockdown and had not been thoroughly occupied by Extraterrestrial Eternity from the inside out.

Within this seemingly pessimistic panorama, there still lurked a glimmer of hope.

Lost in thought, Noland Lee searched for a way to break the deadlock. Suddenly, he thought of someone:

“Right, what about the Scroll Angel? How is it faring?”

“Escape” said:

“The Scroll Angel did not leave the Inner Cosmos. I suspect that the anomaly in the Inner Cosmos barrier is related to it. It’s very likely that It closed all the barrier passages leading into and out of the Inner Cosmos.”

So, that means now only the Scroll Angel and the “Wizard,” “Knight” cores of the plane, are left in the Inner Cosmos to deal with Metal Ancestor Dragon and its enemies…

Noland realized that the priority was to quickly get in touch with the Assassin Angel and Senati to jointly discuss a plan to assist the Scroll Angel.

As Noland pondered, the Escape Core of the Plane spoke up:

“Do you know who your enemy is?”

Noland came to his senses and looked at “Escape.”

“Escape” asked again:

“Do you understand your enemy?”

Noland was not entirely sure what “Escape” was getting at but responded following the other’s lead:

“My enemy is Extraterrestrial Eternity. I don’t know much about them, having only encountered the Chaos Series, Void Series, and Hysteria Brain Series Evil Curse.”

“Escape” spoke with an indefinable undertone:

“In that case, you don’t seem to understand the kind of enemy you are facing. You don’t even quite grasp the true nature of the ‘Fractured Dimension.’”

“Escape” slowly descended, landing in front of Noland and began to speak slowly:

“Whether in the Inner Cosmos or Outer Space, their cosmic space has one thing in common: time flows in a single direction.

“The past is the past, now is now, the future is the future. In both Inner and Outer Space, past events can affect the present and the future, but the future cannot influence the past, at most it can affect the present due to the predictive actions of life creatures.”

“Escape” slowly paced around Noland, stepping on the smoothly polished ground that emitted a faint gray glow, and continued:

“The situation in the ‘Fractured Dimension’ is completely different. There, the future state of an organism can affect its past and present.

“Assume the current time point is A and the future time point is B.

“At time point B, a Void Spear acquired an item that could greatly enhance its strength.

“Then, the Void Spear at time point A can possess some of the strength of the Void Spear at time point B.

“As time goes by, the Void Spear progresses from time point A to B. At that moment, if it successfully acquires the strength-enhancing item, then it can fully enhance its strength. If it fails to acquire the item, then the strength it had obtained from time point B will completely disappear.”

The Escape Core of the Plane stopped and paused before saying:

“I can explain it to you in simpler terms. Creatures in the ‘Fractured Dimension’ can borrow a portion of their future strength and permanently retain this power under certain conditions. This is what makes the ‘Fractured Dimension’ unique.

“The extraordinary existences of the Supreme Star Palace like to call this method of power enhancement ‘the future casting light into reality.’ This expression is too literary for my taste. I prefer to call it ‘Borrow from the Future.’

“Those Void Spears you encountered, and that Mosaic Round Door that deployed the Void Spears, had borrowed power from their future selves, which is why they were so formidable.”

Noland listened with a furrowed brow, feeling for the first time the truly bizarre and formidable nature of Extraterrestrial Eternity, a feeling far stronger than when he had directly faced the Chaos Series Evil Curse in the Inner Cosmos.

Facing such a powerful enemy, could he possibly defend the Inner Cosmos alongside the Assassin Angel, Senati, the Scroll Angel, and himself, a mere mortal roped in to make up the numbers?

Perhaps sensing Noland’s questions and anxiety, the Escape Core of the Plane spoke more gently:

“However, not all Extraterrestrial Eternity can freely ‘Borrow from the Future.’ Specifically, only the Void Faction of Extraterrestrial Eternity can exert this ability. Other factions, such as the Chaos Series and Hysteria Brain Series, must meet extremely stringent conditions before they can ‘Borrow from the Future.’ noveldrama

“You should not think that the Void Faction becomes invincible because they can ‘Borrow from the Future.’ These beings are very much like insane gamblers engaging in high-risk trades with a leverage of thousands times. A slight deviance from the anticipated future developments and they can go from fierce beasts to miserable mongrels or even die outright, and that is the Negative effect of ‘Borrowing from the Future.’”