12 ARCADIA Protectors descended on the hill that Jean and the others disappeared in. Their black and red stripes shined in the dark skies. They paused for a second as a wave of Momentum of Time washed over them, trying to teleport them back into a period in their past by force, but their attempt was futile.
In fact, if Protector Joan didn't allow it, she wouldn’t be teleported away either. That trick only worked against weaker entities like Supplicants and Voyagers.
A figure solidified as the man greeted the ARCADIA Protectors.
“Commodore Artemis,” The man immediately recognized the leader of the ARCADIA squad. “I didn't know I deserved the attention of the Commander of ARCADIA. I thought you had a rogue Voyager to hunt.”
Artemis didn't share that sense of humor.
“Former Protector Chief Researcher Jared. You are a shame to the Corps. Deceptions. Lies. The Grand Protector entrusted the original Ark project to you, yet you answered that trust by stealing weapons of the Ark, faking your death, and escaping and continuing your forbidden research against the will of the Grand Protector.”
Jared sighed. Even now, there was a cold smirk on his lips, as if nothing in this world truly bothered him. His response was simple.
“You wanna kill me or what?”
“I would like to,” Artemis replied quietly. “for all traitors to the Corps deserve to die, but I have received a personal order from the Grand Protector herself. I am ordered to bring you back to the Core Realms alive, where your fate will be decided by the Grand Protector.”
“Hmmm...she has been more lenient than she has with countless worlds. Then again, she has always been a bit lenient to her own people.” Jared stretched his arms. “But I will have to refuse the offer.”
Artemis knew exactly why.
“Your research will put the entire Protector Corps at risk. We have no control over the results of time travel! Your love for your wife will threaten us all! Is that how you want to answer the trust of the Grand Protector?”
“If you really want to stop me, then do it.” Jared waved his hand, and all twelve ARCADIA Protectors shook. One Extinguisher nail appeared in the chest of every single one of them. One moment, they weren’t there. The next moment, they were in the hearts of the godlike Protectors.
“Don’t you dare!” Artemis’s eyes were filled with fury. “the Ark weapons aren’t built so people like you can take advantage of them!”
Ark. As in Noah’s Ark.
The Ark projects were rooted in the innate fear among the Protectors that, one way or another, the Protector Corps would eventually fall. Was it because of an internal conflict? Outside invasion? Rebellion? All of them at once? No one knew, but it didn't stop the Corps from making preparations accordingly.
No one knew how many Ark projects there were, perhaps no one other than the Grand Protector herself. Each Ark project was something that, when the Protector Corps had been compromised, could offer the survivors a chance of fighting back and changing the tide of war.
An Ark project could be a phaseship holding an army of trillions strong, capable of seizing the Infinite Realms. It could be a particular set of Protector-leveled forbidden weapons that could destroy entire worlds with the snap of a finger by a mere mortal. It could be a virus that the Protectors encountered and found value in. It could be an alien creature that might come in handy someday that the Protectors decided to spare.
But those were all changes made after Jared left the Corps. When he was still the Chief Researcher of the Corps, Jared was in charge of the original Ark. At that time, the original Ark was simply a set of weapons designed to counter Protectors. Their enemies were rogue Protectors who somehow maintained contact with the Pact. Rare, but not completely unseen.
Jared faked his death when he was in a research facility alone. He made it look like research into a piece of forbidden weapon went wrong and destroyed everything within its proximity, including the research facility itself. The commonly accepted theory was that the entire weapon stash in the facility perished along with the man. It seemed like neither did after all.
Artemis could feel the Extinguisher sucking away her energy, but unlike Protector Joan, she wasn’t particularly bothered. In the end, Extinguishers were machines. Machines from ages ago. They were designed to mimic the Protectors’ presence in the Pact, therefore stealing the energy away for themselves.
It might work with lower-ranked Protectors, but against ARCADIA Protectors…
Commodore Artemis reached out and crushed the Extinguisher with ease. Behind her, eleven of her comrades did the same thing.
“The Extinguishers have been in our arsenal against traitor Protectors since its creation, Jared. How to counter them is ARCADIA 101. Our connection with the Pact is beyond anything it can sever.”
“That’s really unfortunate.” Jared shrugged. Already, the ARCADIA Protectors were spreading out into a specific array. This allowed them to focus their powers against Jared. Most Protectors too used to erasing enemies with brute force might be uncomfortable dealing with an enemy on a similar power scale, but not them.
Just as they were about to strike, the ground suddenly shook, and a thousand tentacles reached out from the ground and struck at the Protectors.
A few Protectors were specifically targeted. All of them sensed the strikes coming. Just as they were about to act, the time around them suddenly slowed down. At the same time, the time flow around the tentacles was accelerated. Before the Protectors could react, the tentacles landed on them and tossed their bodies into the horizon.
Even as they moved, the Momentum of Time washed over their bodies, slowing their reaction down by a ridiculous degree.
They wouldn’t be killed just like that, but they were still neutralized for the moment. That in and of itself was quite a feat that few in the Infinite Realms could achieve. After all, Death, the cosmic entity that gave Jean Turner her Reapress power, couldn’t even as much as slow down a common Protector like Welch.
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The ground itself started shaking, and the rest of the ARCADIA Protectors watched as the hill itself lifted its head. Literally. A giant head reached out from under the hill and turned to the Protectors. Now, Artemis could see it. The giant being that she thought was an ordinary mountain was in fact, some sort of tortoise.
In the hell that was the Chaos Domain, the tortoise was hardly the largest being. There were entities countless miles tall that fell like paper under the Protectors’ wrath. Yet, what made this tortoise problematic was the amount of Momentum of Time circling across its body. In fact, Artemis could sense at least a thousand different time zones across the beast, each with a different flow of time.
On most beings, this difference could tear the being apart. Yet for the tortoise, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
An ARCADIA Protector’s eyes turned white as he channeled his full power on the tortoise. A surge of white energy erupted from its back and started making its way down, but the Protector frowned. The energy could destroy a world in moments, yet the progress made by the energy was less than impressive.
Compared to the giant size of the beast, the little areas erased were next to meaningless.
The tortoise struck at the ARCADIA Protectors, who quickly retaliated. As the battle ensued, both sides found themselves in a stalemate. The tortoise couldn’t slay the Protectors, and due to its very nature, the Protectors had trouble taking it down as well.
On the side, Commodore Artemis frowned, but she didn't bother joining her people and fighting the tortoise. Instead, she went straight for Jared. Time slowed down around her, but she was ready. White energy lit her up like a glaring star as she pierced space itself and came into existence right next to Jared.
Jared acted quickly. As soon as Artemis disappeared, he suddenly closed his eyes. The Momentum of Time was used on himself as he peeked into the river that was time and saw the future. Just a fraction of a second before Artemis reappeared, Jared waved his hand.
When Artemis appeared, the time flow in the area she was in was accelerated at different rates. In one second in the outside world, her left arm might have gone through two million years. Her right arm might have only spent a fraction of a second. If Artemis wasn’t an immortal, she would literally be falling apart right now.
If Jean was here, she wouldn’t last a second before her body was torn apart beyond any hope of repair.
But even that wasn’t enough to stop Artemis as the Protector charged forward relentlessly, cracking the trap. Before Jared could do anything else, she grabbed onto the man by the threat.
“You have been severed from the Pact since a long time ago. We both know that regardless of how cute your tricks are, they can’t make you equal to us. In the end, the Corps will emerge victorious. We always emerge victorious!”
“Now, order your beast to stand down, and we will take it in alive as well. Otherwise, we will slay it where it stands!”
Jared smirked, and Artemis’s eyes darkened. It has been too long since anyone has dared to reject her like this. White energy flowed across her hands and reached into Jared. At first, it was kept out of his body, deflected by a few carefully crafted pieces of technology, but as Artemis pushed forward, those technologies cracked and gave in.
Artemis continued to cut into Jared’s body, creating immense pain at will.
“I have orders to take you in alive. Doesn’t mean you have to be sane.”
Even as Jared groaned in excruciating pain, there was a cold smirk on his face. A smirk that told the Protector he was far from ready to submit. Just as Artemis was about to push on, a voice suddenly called out from the side.
“Enough!”
On the side, stood a brunette woman.
Without a second thought, Artemis let Jared go and dispersed all her powers. She took a few steps back before turning to the woman, just like 11 other ARCADIA Protectors. There was faith and devotion in her eyes as she lowered her head.
“Grand Protector!”
The woman nodded gently. She looked normal, which was exactly what made her special. Why? In a place like the Chaos Domain, where most Voyagers and Supplicants needed the support of their full-body armors to survive, she was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She looked no different than a random teen from a random world, but she was everything but that.
But she wasn’t quite paying attention to the ARCADIA Protectors. Instead, her eyes were trained on Jared. Slowly, she approached the man.
On the side, while the Protectors stopped fighting, the tortoise didn't. Sensing the woman getting too close for comfort, the tortoise struck at her with all his powers.
And then, the turtle ceased to exist.
“Jared.” Lowering her hand, the woman said quietly as she stopped in front of the man. “It’s over. Come home with me to the Core Realms.” Her tone softened. “Please.”
The man sighed as the woman continued.
“Look, Jared. We have known each other since the very beginning. I knew Kira and I knew how much you loved her. I have lost people too...Hanna. We all did. It is your right to grieve.” There was a heavy look on her face. “But time...time is one power we cannot mess with. We both know how dangerous time can be. One mistake, and everything we have fought for will be lost! For the Corps...for our people, I cannot allow you to continue your research.”
Jared looked around. There was a hesitant look on his face, but that look was quickly replaced by one of determination.
“Then do it.”
“What?”
“Kill me.” Jared looked back up at the woman. “Erase me off this world. End me where I stand.”
“I am not gonna do that, my friend.” The woman rejected. “You are one of the last original Protectors left. You are one of the few people who have been with me since the very beginning! Hanna was gone...Jason left. I’m not gonna hurt you! I didn't sign the Pact so I can use its powers to kill my own people!”
“Hmmm…” The man smirked. “It seems like there’s something even the Grand Protector can’t do.”
“Indeed. I’m not omnipotent.”
“Well, it is really a simple choice,” Jared replied quietly. “Kill me now or let me go and continue my work. It’s all up to you, Grand Protector.”
“Grand Protector…” Commodore Artemis took a step forward behind the woman. “he is too dangerous to be left alive…”
“Thank you for your input, Commodore.” The woman cut the Commodore off. “Jared, look…”
Jared didn't quite wait. He raised his hands, and a sea of Momentum of Time formed around him. He was going for a strike, not necessarily to kill the Protectors, but to force a decision.
But before he could make another move, the woman tapped him in the head and knocked him out effortlessly.
“Take him back to the Core Realms. Detain him but treat him with respect.”
“Grand Protector!” Commodore Artemis called out in somewhat annoyance. “Even without the Pact, Jared is one of the most dangerous beings in the Infinite Realms. He will escape! We can’t risk…”
“My decision has been made, Commodore.” The woman instructed quietly. Her voice was low and un-threatening, but Artemis knew better than to disobey her.
“Yes, Grand Protector.”
As the ARCADIA Protectors departed, the woman turned to the ground. There, laid hundreds of figures. Dozens of them were still alive. Among them was a certain Reapress.
Most of the survivors were Voyagers, with a handful of Warmongers scattered among them, but the woman could sense what happened to them. Their time was stolen by the turtle in the form of the Momentum of Time. The turtle was killed, but what it took wouldn’t return. Nonetheless, they were more fortunate than the bodies beside them that didn't last long enough until salvation.
She waved her hand, and all of them woke up, but even as they got back up in alert, the Protectors were gone already.
None of the survivors knew they just had a run-in with the most powerful entity in the Infinite Realms.