Rachel did not expect the office to break through her seal so soon. Not intending to let the office remain free for long, she quickly gathered her gray energy.
After a while, she looked toward the location where the office was; she was ready to strike if it displayed the slightest hostility. If it didn’t display hostility, she didn’t mind wasting time; she wasn’t ready for this, so she still needed time to gather her gray energy.
...
Miles looked at the two big and many smaller worlds beside them. Not far from the two big worlds, there was a tiny, hazy-looking world.
"That is the illusion world!" Miles smiled but hesitated whether to go in or not. He doesn't have a reason to go in now, as he has already nearly reached the great grandmaster realm and has control of the office. But, he does want to see that immortal again, to dig into his details; how does he have access to the office but didn’t take it himself, but gave it to him? It is very suspicious.
"Wait!" Miles suddenly thought of something. Now, he knows much more about illusions, and using the office's database, he knows much more about the world as a whole.
"Don’t tell me!" his eyes went wide.
Looking back, he saw the immortal man in the office beside himself.
"Of course, Miles, how could I leave you?" the immortal said.
"Who are you?" Miles asked with fear; he had been here for millions of years but didn’t discover the man at all.
"The question is not who I am; the question is who you are! Do you know now?"
Miles looked confused; he was miles from Clocks Academy, so what was the cultivator saying?
"You say that I am not Miles, the illusion mage?" Miles thought and gradually became calmer.
"Of course you are not! You died as soon as you entered the illusion world! Illusion water there consumed you and turned you into a contaminated illusion beast!" the man said with a smile.
"How can that be?" Miles began thinking about all of those time delusions and those missing memories.
"Miles! You are amazing! Even as an illusion, you still managed to release me!" the man said.
"Release you? You mean! You are the office?" Miles smiled bitterly. He should have thought of it; honestly, it is not as if he never thought of it. But he didn’t have a way to verify it.
In any case, verifying it wouldn’t have helped, as even if his theory proved correct, it was still useless.
As a mage, he only works with proven theories, so he ignored the possibility that the immortal man might have been the office's incarnation.
"Now what?" he asked.
"Miles, do you know why I kept you?" the cultivator asked.
"Because … you were sealed, so you needed me to release you!" he guessed.
"That is only partially correct," the cultivator said. He continued, "Miles, the situation is more complicated than you think! This universe is in a bad state. Have you heard of Rachel?"
Miles scratched his head and said, "I have heard of Anti-Rachel."
Nowadays, few actually remember why the Anti-Rachel alliance was even created.
"Yeah! Those people are a bunch of clowns! Rachel, though, is a multi-universal calamity! I have been to many universes, and without exception, any that were contaminated would be ruined! She is the ultimate disaster! Her tentacles are everywhere."
"The office is a weapon against her created by the cooperation of many different universes. We try to eliminate her traces from all universes! In our task, however, we have not been successful in any sense of the meaning of the word success!"
"The office in this world, that is, me, was sealed by her a few million years ago, but, as the ultimate weapon against her, I have countermeasures."
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"That is, you, Miles! You are my reinforcement! Rachel can ask for reinforcement, and so can I! You are the one sent to help me?" the immortal said ecstatically.
"How can I help you? I am worried you'll kill me, but now you say I was sent to help you?" he was confused.
The man said, "Miles, you have been created with the rank 14 'Protagonist formation'! That means no matter where you go, no matter what you do, no matter how dangerous, as a protagonist, the universe bends backward to help you!"
The rank 14 'protagonist formation' is the absolute ultimate protagonist; because it is created using creation energy, even universal laws will bend backward to help him/her.
"It's not that I needed you to free me; I still need you to help me! I cannot win against Rachel alone because she is calculating infinite universal law and is getting creation energy from her incarnation in other universes to help her. I need you to help me!"
"But how can I help you?" Miles asked.
"Easy!" the man smiled innocently, then snapped his fingers.
...
Rachel saw something approaching fast beyond anything she had ever seen! It was so fast that it could cross the entire universe in a few seconds! If it was anyone else, they would have no chance of noticing it; even she only noticed it using her gray energy net.
"This is an attack from the office!" she thought.
Nothing else could accelerate something to such speed without the Office's help.
A few seconds sound short, but for Rachel, it was long enough. She cannot let that thing hit her; its speed is so fast that she is not sure to stop it without herself being damaged.
...
Miles saw lights passing by. Everywhere was blurry; even with his understanding of illusion, he saw nothing.
"I am too weak!" He really regretted it. Because he is weak, he can be played upon by strong beings like the office.
"Am I really dead?" he thought.
He, of course, didn't entirely believe what the man said. "I don’t feel … dead! I cannot be dead!"
Just as he was thinking of this, he felt something shining, and the next moment, his eyes went dark, and he fainted.
...
Rachel cast a spell using her gray energy and shot at the projectile. The gray energy bullet moved with unimaginable speed, about to hit the target.
But...
Just as it was about to hit the target, a disturbance in space's universal laws caused a deviation in path of in her gray bullet.
The projectile sent by the office disappeared.
If it was just that, it was not enough to stop it. Her gray bullet couldn't be dodged; it targeted the source, and no matter where the target went, the bullet would always follow.
The deviation was a manifestation that appeared just where the gray bullet was. It manifested many universal laws related to the spell; it is rare but happens once every few trillion years.
Universal laws have no form but can manifest if they get intertwined enough.
A universe is different from a world. A world is coded using complete laws, but a universe does not use universal laws.
It can be said that a world is formed because of its complete laws, and universal laws are created because they are part of a universe. The point is the building block is different. In a universe, the universe itself is the building block, while in a world, complete laws are building blocks. A world could not exist without complete laws, but a universe can exist without any universal law; also, to destroy a universal law, one must destroy the entire universe.
"Damn!" Rachel cursed; it was way too unlucky for the space universal laws to intertwine precisely in that moment. It was too much to be a consequence. Rachel reluctantly snapped and spent even more gray energy to dissipate the gray bullet. She cannot let that bullet hit the space universal laws.
That bullet was created using gray energy; gray energy is basically creation energy. Hitting universal laws when they intertwine is usually suicidal, as the universal laws would destroy the one who hits. But her bullet was too powerful, so the most likely outcome was for the universal laws to be destroyed.
What happens then? Of course, the whole universe would have been dissipated. It sounds strange, but it is true; the universe would be destroyed if it loses even one of its universal laws. A universe is building blocks, and universal laws exist inside the building.
Nothing inside the building can be destroyed unless the walls of the building itself are brought down. There is no room for repair; firstly, because Rachel lacks the skill to repair the entire universe, and secondly, because the chaotic chaos outside wouldn’t allow her time to do it.
What is in between universes? It depends on which charge we are talking about; in some charges, there are multiple universes or even multiverses.
But, in this charge, there are only a few universes, and with charge chaos in between. What is charge chaos? That is a mesh of different chaotic charges of reality, which not even rank 14s can easily avoid. Anyone below rank 14 would be shredded to pieces and sent to different chaotic charges if they have any contact.
In general, the world is mostly chaos; most charges are chaotic, with some orderly charges in between; the same as in a world, where chaotic energy is what mostly exists. A universe can resist charge chaos because it can stabilize the charge that exists within it. A universe is a charge stabilizer. Outside universes, however, chaotic charges collide and cause disasters for anyone in contact.
Chaotic energy itself is a mash of energy from many different charges; chaotic energy in a universe is neutralized and cannot jump between charges, but those outside a universe are much more dangerous.
"This Projectile? What was it?" Rachel couldn’t see it because of the golden creation energy around it, but she began to doubt it. Her luck was too bad just now. "The office is using some method to turn and manipulate the universal laws against
me!" She sighed. This vicious method endangers the entire universe; if she were mad, she could have targeted universal laws and destroyed the universe. But she doesn't do it because if she does, she will put herself in danger; she cannot survive outside without consuming gray energy, which is a finite resource. A universe is a safe island among the thunderous sea.
"I've got to get serious!" She already resolved to seal the office once again and then quickly calculate infinite universal law. So, she used her rank 14 skill and quickly drew massive quantities of gray energy.