Evening time.

A hungover Milan shook his head and slowly sat up from the large bed in the royal palace.

"Fuzzy... one... two..., fuzzy... one... two..."

His spirit felt as if it had suffered a "severe blow," staring into the air, lost in thought and dazed for a long time.

It wasn’t until the sky was filled with stars, and a moon slightly fuller than the "New Moon" rose over the palace eaves, that he finally snapped back to reality.

"Ahhh... no, this is literally a grand public embarrassment! If that sly guy Aiven found out, all my lifelong reputation would be ruined.

This is a stain he’ll mock me for forever.

If Olivia lets Apsuya know, I’m done for!"

He ruffled his deep blue hair with both hands.

If he knew it was the fault of the previous "Crowned Wizard" Paracelsus who came here, who knows if he’d wish that this mission target, simply... ceased to exist.

Thud!

Stumbling a bit as he jumped off the bed, he used the [Universal Witchcraft: Cleaning Technique] to clean himself thoroughly and quickly put on the clothes scattered on the floor.

Frustrated once more by the white rabbit fur sticking to them, he hurried to destroy the evidence.

However, as he pushed open the door and saw the sliver of the crescent moon in the sky, his steps suddenly halted.

"This astronomy...."

Milan’s brows slightly furrowed.

With the intuition of a Tier 3 [Astrologer], he felt that the astronomy on what should be the second day of the "New Moon" was inexplicably odd.

Although the celestial bodies in the night sky gave him the normal state that this day should have, and the fluctuation of the magic element around him showed no abnormality, it just felt peculiar.

Clearly.

Even if time and memory were reset, wisdom and existing knowledge were not affected.

No matter how incredible [Time Gate] was, it couldn’t drag the entire world into a side stream of time.

It’s undeniable that no human wizard or even god has the power to reverse the entire world’s time flow, at most it can limit this circulation to a small area. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The less connection with the outside world the better, the more closed it is the better, so that a certain degree of logical self-consistency can be formed.

When an originally closed-loop system cannot be completely closed, loopholes will inevitably appear.

Just as it is now.

The moonlight and starlight above Milan’s head were real, but it was already "source-less water" intercepted from the previous day.

Ordinary people, including Great Wizards of other paths, would undoubtedly not be able to distinguish the difference, but an [Astrologer] obviously was not among them.

According to the original normal process, the sobered-up Milan should go find King Rhine.

Even if he didn’t know how to express his emotions to this "well-meaning" monarch, at least he should ask how the search was going.

Out of a strong desire to survive, he also needed to align his story to avoid slipping up in front of Aiven and the others.

At the very least, he needed to borrow some "Lion’s Milk"... get drunk again, and forget the absurdity of the previous night, sobbing...

But this inexplicable little detail suddenly made Milan change his mind.

If it came to competing with other types of spells within the "Clock Tower School," given Milan’s recently promoted Great Wizard level, he was indeed far behind the opponents, an indisputable fact.

However, when Milan ascended to Upper-Rank Wizard, his awakening ability happened to be [Magic-like Technique: Observing Time Line], leading to different results.

Dong! Dong! Dong!...

As if the sound of a clock striking the hour slowly resonated in his ears.

In Milan’s eyes, the whites turned silver, and a golden pointer slowly rotated within his pupils.

Under normal circumstances, the various future possibilities would unfold before Milan’s eyes, allowing him to intervene and choose at will.

Yet, this time, an anomaly was apparent.

"Huh?"

The countless future timelines had unexpectedly dwindled to just a single one, meaning that no matter what choice he made, the future was completely locked in.

How could this be possible?

Milan looked up abruptly, feeling as if everything around him was false, and cautiously took a step back.

The originally smooth circulation also began to stir.

"Hehe..."

Silvery laughter suddenly rang in Milan’s ears, and then a tall figure in a white dress and red shoes appeared like a phantom before him, lightly clapping her hands.

"I didn’t expect you to notice the anomaly before the second reset even started? You’ve got some skill."

After the praise, her expression immediately feigned sharpness:

"But! I’m stronger than you and more suited to inherit the [Clock Tower]!

If you don’t want to die, obediently sign a contract with me, I’ll still leave you the second seat position in the school.

Give it up, in this timeline that I manipulate, everyone else is just a backdrop, no matter how much commotion we make, no one will disturb us."

Graham, the first of the "Clock Tower School," once said that he sent out more than one disguised Inheritance Secret Scroll "Echoes of Space-Time."

The [Time Gate] in the nameless girl’s hand was evidently one of the carriers of the "Inheritance Secret Scroll," with exceedingly powerful spell effects.

Question: In a closed courtyard, how many paths are there from the front yard to the backyard? The answer is innumerable. But no matter which path, one cannot leave the courtyard’s bounds.

It could intercept a sidestream from existing time to form a closed-loop and disperse several timelines so that multiple targets within it couldn’t detect each other at all.

With this treasure in hand, even in the face of an army of a hundred thousand, they could be defeated one by one!

The people serving as the background were simultaneously in multiple timelines, existing in an uncertain state, meaning they were both left and right, both up and down.

Only at the moments of interaction with each timeline’s anchor targets would their true selves be determined.

Though Milan and Aiven were both currently within Aguirre Ancient City, sharing the same background, on each other’s timelines, the other didn’t exist at all.

"Kongyu?! You actually dared to come looking for trouble?"

Seeing the very familiar girl, Milan couldn’t help but exclaim.

Although he couldn’t find her at the meeting back then, she had come to the [Mechanical Realm] with a few female wizards from minor schools.

Looking for clues later wouldn’t be entirely fruitless; at least Milan knew the wizard’s name she communicated with.

Moreover, like the girl, he possessed the complete knowledge of the "Clock Tower School," and was naturally aware of the capabilities she activated, even having a few guesses about the existence of the [Time Gate].

Pa!

Unhesitatingly brought his arms together.

The golden engraving on them began to flow like liquid gold, swiftly forming a strange pattern that resembled reptile scales and an hourglass.

[Witchcraft Engraving: Quicksand Scale]

Tick-tock... tick-tock...

Immediately, as if connected to that immeasurable great existence, a pleasing ticking sound gradually echoed in their ears.

[Quicksand Scale] had already connected to [Mysterious Source: Clock Tower], like an opened floodgate crudely releasing the energy of space-time, stirring up a majestic torrent of time.

The entire nightscape began to tremble slightly.

"It’s useless, I have temporarily excluded everyone, including that Lion King, to other timelines, no one can help you."

The girl named "Kongyu" gently raised her hand, a silent stillness surrounding them.

...

At the same time, in the seemingly identical night sky.

Several hours before the second reset of the timeline, Aiven and Olivia did not enjoy a romantic candle-lit dinner like they truly did "yesterday."

Fully equipped, they stood atop the high rooftop of the hotel, looking out over the entire city.

Though they didn’t notice any anomalies with their subjective consciousness, they couldn’t prevent the most instinctive spiritual warnings.

Even if the entire city’s material changes, including human memory, had been reset, it didn’t mean the passage of time left no trace.

"Hesi, there’s indeed something wrong here."

Green data streams flashed rapidly in Aiven’s eyes.

[Magic-like Technique: Eye of Magical Insight]

Effect: Integrate the "Data Visualization" brought by the soul crossing into it, connecting the eyes to the "World Root Source."

Able to initially see through phenomena, uncover weaknesses, decode codes, capture all forms of information (biological pheromones, infrasound, warning colors...), discover relationships and development trends, remote vision, detection, etc.

After noticing something was wrong, the simplest way to verify it was to reconnect with the "World Root Source."

It’s like the time displayed on a terminal device might speed up or slow down due to device issues, but once it reconnects to the network, it can recalibrate using the standard time.

The result was no surprise.

Moreover...

Aiven looked up at the moon in the sky, it was indeed the second day of the "New Moon," but within the [Eye of Magical Insight], the "magic element" activity in the distant sky slightly increased.

However, within Aguirre Ancient City, nothing had changed.

In Aiven’s seemingly all-seeing vision, a very conspicuous demarcation made one raise doubts.

The waxing and waning of the moon is closely related to the power of [Residue], so it’s logical that the lunar phase changes would affect the rise and fall of "spirituality."

"New Moon" is the lowest, and "Full Moon" is the highest, rising daily in between.

What was being displayed now wasn’t so.

Just at this moment.

Tick-tock...

Along with the inexplicable ticking sound by their ears, the city lying in the night seemed to suddenly overlap with another phantom.

Though it was just for a moment, the [Positioning Talisman] that Olivia had been holding suddenly lit up, then went silent again.

"It’s Milan’s talisman! He’s in Aguirre Ancient City too!"

A gasp escaped her lips.

"The Cosmic Dragon’s spatial perception tells me there’s a temporal-space barrier! Milan has started fighting with someone, Hesi, get ready, we’re going in!"

As he spoke, Aiven’s body rapidly expanded, claws, wings, scales, teeth, massive tail... and four whole heads.

With the "Life Tree Meditation Method" lighting up the third Original Essence [Understanding], Aiven’s [Talent Magic: Bloodline Plugin] now had four slots and could equip four bloodlines simultaneously.

Under the integration of [Creator’s Blood] and [Mythical Form: Native Species], he could possess the advantages of multiple bloodlines, even more powerful than a normal adult giant dragon.

Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!

In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a terrifying demon dragon over thirty meters long, soaring into the sky, with four ferocious dragon heads belonging to [Cosmic Dragon], [Flame Prison Dragon], [Storm Dragon], and [Sea Emperor Dragon].

With the [Gemstone Armament] equipped, Olivia leaped onto the head of the [Cosmic Dragon].

Hiss——!

Aiven opened his mouth full of sharp teeth, spewing a dim yellow linear breath into the night sky, with a fierce decaying aura shooting out.

[Cosmic Dragon: Dragon Breath: Breath of Aging] (also: Exile Breath)

Even if this ability doesn’t cause much harm to inorganic matter, the time-manipulating power of the Tier 4 extraordinary level, vast as the sea, significantly impacted the closed-loop precision of the timeline.

Crack!

The night sky shattered, revealing another identical sky.

Woo-woo-woo...

The Four-headed Demon Dragon, like the majestic Hell Demon Monarch, flapped its mighty dragon wings, completing its incursion into another timeline amidst two pairs of widened eyes.

A flippant voice echoed in the ears of the two adversaries:

"Yo, Milan, you’re pretty bold, secretly meeting a pretty girl behind your wife’s back?"