'God' sat there in a daze.
Zero then rewound his entire existence.
Slowly stripping him of the powers he had collected over the years.
Until he reverted back into a baby.
Then until he was nothing at all.
'God' did not come back from this.
People had seen this.
On TV the world was watching the livestream.
"It is a sad day for mankind. Two heroes were disabled by Zero... please, someone stop this menace!"
Zero found this amusing.
Everything would be undone as soon as he used reload.
So he decided to fight the world.
Multiple heroes came out of the wood work.
Most of them were unable to pass his Infinite Time Guard.
But with the simple wave of his hand.
He could strip them of their powers.
He wasn't really killing that many of them.
But losing their powers permanently was a fate worse then death for some of them.
All of this was boring.
His amusement was fading.
Until he found someone interesting.
Their power was super intelligence.
They had no special abilities.
But they managed to injure Zero.
"Interesting! Who are you?"
"They call me Cosmic Mind."
Zero tried to use 'temporal edit' on this person.
But he found his TE massively dropping.
"I am immune to your manipulation Zero!"
"How?"
"I made my existence transcend this physical reality."
"Nice."
"Nice?"
"Yea, that's pretty cool."
"Aren't you frustrated your powers don't work on me?"
"Nah... things are getting interesting."
Zero froze time.
He then was going to try to attack this 'cosmic mind'.
But a film of energy was wrapped around him.
"Did you think freezing time would be able to stop me as well?"
Zero spoke:
"You have developed some interesting technology. We are similar in a sense."
Cosmic Mind spoke:
"I am nothing like you, I don't use my gift to bring chaos to the world. I've never damaged time itself."
"If you think you are invulnerable. Try taking a hit from my existence erasing gun!"
"Oh? Go for it. I'm interested to see if it can truly erase my existence."
Cosmic Mind pointed his gun at me and fired.
A laser shot out at me.
My Infinite Time Guard activated.
But then it started to crack.
It broke!
I then felt something familiar.
I saw myself across timelines.
I felt my existence get wiped from the entire time stream.
I experienced death.
It was even going beyond this reality!
But fortunately... my sublime artifact shielded my origin.
'Reload 0'.
Everything had been reset.
The world went back to how it had been as I left it.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Leo had his powers back.
'God' was alive and well.
But none of this had anything to do with Zero.
He had checked the progress of the world.
It was now time for him to comprehend laws.
He wished to form his immortal dao fruit.
Zero sat in constant time meditating.
"I should develop my dao fruit. The question is... what Law?"
When Zero was hit with the existence erasing laser.
He briefly remembered how he had comprehended 1% of infinity.
So he jumped into the cultivation world with the celestial emperor.
He then became a transcendent body cultivator in two minutes.
He then felt his nascent soul.
He self destructed.
He immediately felt an ache at the very core of his being.
He forced himself to not use 'reload'.
He felt an eye awaken in the abyss.
His sublime artifact had healed his soul.
"EXPLOSION!"
Heal.
"EXPLOSION!"
Heal.
"EXPLOSION!"
Heal.
He entered a cycle of destroying his soul and having it recover itself.
"Hmm... this isn't working."
He was hoping to comprehend infinity.
But his sublime artifact kept saving him.
"It has become too strong, the regenerative ability makes this soul immortal."
"But I am so much more then a simple soul."
Zero disabled his sublime artifact.
He then allowed his soul to explode.
As well as his independent consciousness.
"Save Point 2".
'Save Point 2'.
The emperor spoke:
"Save Point 2?"
"Dammit, that didn't work."
"What didn't work?"
"I was trying to comprehend infinity by replicating what I did initially..."
"It has become impossible for my consciousness to be totally wiped out like it was initially when I destroyed my soul. Right now my existence is tied to my sublime artifact."
"So if I want to replicate it... I would have to do something risky."
"That's it! I'll destroy my sublime artifact."
"Then I'll lose my safety net... this is probably a bad idea."
"I have no idea what you are talking about..."
"I'm not talking to you... talking to myself."
'Reload 0'.
Zero reappeared in constant time.
He focused on his independent consciousness.
He looked at his sublime artifact.
It was made up of millions of clocks currently.
Even if he lost the artifact.
Even if he lost his soul.
Deep down he knew he was an abyssal paradox.
He still had to have some semblance of plot armor right?
It should be impossible for him to come back from nothing.
But that is why he'll do it!
"Let us begin!"
Zero used 'Temporal Transformation' once the cooldown reset.
If he was going to try to tackle nonexistence.
He might as well cheat a bit by being quasi-rank 9.
A phantom of his eldritch body formed over his body.
He then blew up his sublime artifact.
It broke down into millions of parts and mechanisms.
He felt the most pain he had ever felt before in his life.
He almost immediately lost control.
But his power of rank 9 protected him.
"Now the soul!"
He blew up his soul.
Now he merely had the information wave that was his independent consciousness.
This was all he had that carried his awareness.
He jumped into the cultivation world.
If he messed this up.
He wouldn't get another chance.
He would be wiped from existence.
He still had his save slots.
But there was no artifact to bring him back.
He had a minute and thirty seconds to breakthrough to transcendent body.
It would take him two minutes to reach it.
He used his ability as a rank 9 to force his cultivation to be transcendent body.
This was how he beat his record, and transformed in one minute.
He had thirty seconds left.
Before death.
As his body merged together.
He now wrapped his independent consciousness around the broken parts of his sublime artifact.
He then detonated his independent consciousness.
"I WILL DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!"
His consciousness was completely wiped out.
He didn't revive in the abyss.
He didn't return to save slot 2.
He didn't have any awareness left.
Even his status as an abyssal paradox was null.
His broken sublime artifact tried to rotate its mechanisms.
But it was destroyed.
It tried to bring him back.
But it was impossible!
He then breathed the dark energy.
He wasn't even in nonexistence.
His last words...
He still had ten seconds of rank 9 power.
"WHO AM I???!"
His eldritch body coiled around the blue clock scraps.
"I AM..."
All the memories of Zero's life flashed by.
Zero didn't see infinite versions of himself.
This was the end.
Five seconds left of quasi-rank 9 power.
Zero was having an 'adrenaline' rush from this.
He had five seconds to put all the pieces together.
But he didn't.
He needed it to be closer.
He hadn't comprehended any law yet.
Four seconds left.
Three seconds left.
Two seconds left.
"PARADOX".
The milliseconds were ticking by.
He wasn't even aware what exactly he was doing.
But he going through every broken piece of his clock and putting it back together.
His main body had felt danger to its ontology.
So he sent some of his awareness.
He was on the clock.
The difference between being wiped out or progressing.
The difference between immortal dao fruit and transcendent body.
He had risked it all.
Using the processing power of his main body.
He entered a state of flow.
Perfect action.
He was comprehending a different law.
[ECHO]: 'Impulse' Comprehension has reached 100%
It was as if time had stopped for him.
He had fifteen milliseconds left.
But he opened his eyes.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 1%
Zero had grasped what it meant to be a Paradox.
This was a law he had never unlocked before.
With Impulse, he could perform perfect action.
He was recreating his artifact.
It would no longer be sublime.
It was becoming something even beyond sublime.
It had become mysterious.
Zero held out his hand.
Instead of forming a dao fruit.
A blue pocket watch was condensed in his hand.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 20%
One millisecond left.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 40%
He didn't make it...
He lost his quasi-rank 9 power.
He then felt the burden of it hit him at once.
But his law 'Impulse' balanced out the force.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 60%
The pocket watch in his hand was forming.
His timeless existence shattered.
He began to rapidly age.
His hair turned from silver to black.
Then it turned from black to gray.
Then he began to go bald.
He became an old man.
But he didn't stop creating the mysterious artifact.
He turned into a skeleton.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 80%
There was a green light in his hollow eyes.
He was deducing infinite opportunity.
Looking for a way to win.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 99%
He died.
The light faded from his eyes.
He turned into dust and blew away.
His mysterious artifact dropped to the ground but began to shake.
It also began to float.
A skeletal structure began to form around it.
It was in the center of the ribs.
Flesh grew on the bones.
Skin grew on the flesh.
A naked man with black hair, one green eye and one white eye was born.
His clothes reformed.
He was wearing a lab coat.
He didn't open his eyes though.
The mysterious artifact merged with his body.
The connection with his main body was restored.
He opened his eyes.
[ECHO]: 'Paradox' Comprehension has reached 100%