"Didn't you hear what I said? If I hadn't turned back time to save you, you'd be dead by now!"
This Selene clearly knew everything that happened before. She glared at Gilbert with an unhappy face, then gave a meaningful look at Adrian's place and warned, "Hurry up! Or do you want to die again?"
"Not good!"
Seeing that they'd been exposed, Nicola quickly ran deeper into the passage without looking back. However, Adrian, who was standing closer to the exit, was caught by Gilbert's Psionic Energy. He floated helplessly in mid-air, struggling while slowly drifting towards the two people in the control room.
"Looks like one still got away... If I'm not wrong, this guy we caught should be the king of New Parristol?"
Seeing that they only caught one enemy, Gilbert sighed with some disappointment. But he clearly recognized Adrian's face and wasn't in a hurry to kill him. Instead, he first used Psionic Energy to break Adrian's arms and legs. Then he praised Selene again with great admiration.
"High Priest is truly amazing. Your ability to control time and turn defeat into victory is simply incredible! You're truly worthy of being one of the rare chosen ones who can communicate directly with Lord 'Spring' and bear the power of time. Thanks to your personal involvement this time, with King Adrian captured, the entire city is now within our grasp!"
"That person who ran away didn't seem very strong... Well, we have more important things to deal with! That one shouldn't be much of a threat."
Selene glanced again in the direction where Nicola fled, seemingly not too concerned. Then she turned to Gilbert and reminded him:
"All the paths are now open. Quickly get the church's soldiers from above to take over. Though I got some time control powers through direct communication with Lord 'Spring', it was given by divine grace. I already use most of my mental power just to keep the side effects from appearing! You must be more careful from now on - I can't reverse time for that long to save you every time!"
Nicola hadn't actually run far. Seeing that they weren't chasing after her, she boldly sneaked back to observe from the shadows, because there were too many things she couldn't understand!
First, humans using time control wasn't really rare. For example, some advanced wind mages and Sage Council Chairman Adonis - Nicola had even fought the latter once. But they all had many limitations, like only being able to reverse time in a local area instead of reversing time for the entire world.
The Ancient God Religion's Selene's power had clearly broken through normal limits! Moreover, the combination of time and Psionic Energy was truly overpowered. Unless back at full strength, Nicola alone couldn't possibly win in a direct fight - even with dozens of Adrians it would be impossible!
The key issue was that every time Gilbert used Psionic Energy, he visibly aged several years. But Selene seemed to have almost no side effects when using such incredible powers. She even looked younger than the Selene that Nicola knew from the other world, which meant there must be some trick behind it!
Nicola had always been proud and never willing to accept defeat. Whether facing the huge pressure from Michelle in her weaker days, or seeing Adrian as an opponent. Even now with just herself left, she was still thinking about how to turn things around, and Selene's words had given her a hint.
After all, the Authority of time was in her hands, and time manipulation, though seemingly overpowered, didn't actually affect Nicola much. Moreover, Selene had just hinted that she couldn't use her powers freely!
The best evidence was that if she just wanted to save Gilbert, she didn't need to go back so far in time! Based on her experience, Nicola immediately figured out that Selene indeed had some control issues and couldn't use her power precisely - perhaps this was also the secret to how she suppressed the side effects?
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Besides that, she hadn't shown any other special abilities. The light element aura around her showed she only had fourth-rank strength at most, so she was actually less threatening than Gilbert.
"If she can't control time precisely, then I still have a chance for a counter-kill!"
This weakness gave Nicola a glimmer of hope. Looking at the two arrows marked with "Swift" and "Speed" that Adrian had dropped nearby earlier, she actually thought of a way that might work to seal off Gilbert with his powerful Psionic Energy...
Meanwhile, to figure out the path to Lantine Oasis city's core, the two Ancient God Religion leaders quickly turned their attention back to their captives. They first checked the destroyed control panel, and seeing it couldn't be used, Selene turned her attention to Adrian's crown.
"According to Lord 'Spring's' instructions, this king's crown should hide the highest authority to control the entire city. The key might be hidden inside the crown."
This world's Selene clearly didn't know Adrian well from the start, as she directed Gilbert to take off the crown.
However, just when she was alone closest to the tunnel, and the gray-robed bishop happened to have his back to the tunnel exit, Nicola caught this perfect opportunity...
Following Adrian's example, she stuck the two arrows into her own arm. With Nicola's current injured wings, her physical abilities were far worse than Adrian's. Though not enough to handle Psionic Energy, her bold charge wasn't aimed at Gilbert, but at Selene!
"Someone's coming!"
Selene never expected the person she let escape would come back so quickly, and was heading towards her at unexpected speed.
With Adrian's killing of Gilbert as a precedent, Selene didn't think she could fight back alone with just fourth-rank reaction speed. But she couldn't be sure if Gilbert, who had his back to her, could turn around in time to save her, so she very cautiously used her special ability again.
This time Selene used time stop to deal with the enemy. If it was a normal person, even the strongest attacker would fall to this "High Priest" whose real strength wasn't even fifth rank.
Unfortunately, this move had no effect on Nicola. She stopped in front of Selene and said with a smile:
"So you've been reversing your own body's time to cancel out side effects, fixing your body's time! Most of your energy is spent on this, no wonder you lack control when trying to manipulate the whole world's time."
Though from one perspective this method was indeed good - theoretically could even maintain eternal youth!
"You... why aren't you affected?"
While everyone else's movements were frozen in mid-action, Selene saw this situation for the first time and was shocked and scared. But seeing that Nicola's raised weapon hand had withdrawn, she couldn't help but ask curiously:
"And why aren't you killing me?"
"I'm not that stupid! If I kill you or shock you somehow, the time stop might end automatically!"
Nicola casually answered. As she finished speaking, she saw Selene angrily grab her magic staff and swing it at her, so she simply stepped aside without bothering to react.
This was her goal! When Selene felt her life was threatened, she would definitely choose to stop time without hesitation, but as expected she couldn't cancel it at will. This loophole undoubtedly turned the biggest threat Gilbert into a statue that couldn't move!
Now the whole world had fallen silent, with only the two of them able to move. Don't forget the acceleration effect from the two arrows was still stacked on Nicola, and her actual rank was already above seventh rank. She didn't have Adrian's problem of reactions not keeping up with speed, so Selene couldn't hurt her no matter what she tried.
The next target was Gilbert - theoretically, killing Gilbert first then Selene would let Nicola achieve a solo counter-kill from a desperate situation. However, at this moment Nicola was surprised to find the time around them started flowing normally again...
"Lord 'Spring' is this world's only true god, and also this world's original creator! He promised us that if we sacrifice ourselves for our firm faith, after death we can ascend to the divine realm and become beings like them!"
Looking over, she saw Selene frantically muttering something, life force rapidly draining from her body, her face quickly aging until she looked middle-aged.
It turned out that Selene, realizing her weakness and discovering Nicola's true intentions, recklessly gave up the time reversal state she had maintained on her body for so long.
As her control was freed, the special ability's side effects emerged. But Selene unhesitatingly gave up everything and actively cancelled the time stop, which undoubtedly also restored Gilbert, who hadn't been killed yet.
"I was careless - I should have gone all out to kill Gilbert first!"
Completely unexpected that Selene's faith would be so devoted and decisive, Nicola could only choose to flee in panic again seeing the situation turn bad. However, this time thanks to the acceleration arrows' effect, while the gray-robed bishop still hadn't realized what was happening, she also managed to grab Adrian on the ground as she escaped.