Thessa lowered her bow. There wasn't exactly a sneer on her face, but the expression she wore oozed a smugness. She had known how this would end from the very beginning, there was simply little chance at all of her having ever lost this battle.

In her opinion, even if Sylas did find a way to heal from this, it would have little meaning. The gap was too large, and whatever he would have to do in order to heal would take a lot out of him. The pressure that would come from that would only put him in an even worse position.

Chi.

Thessa's pupils constricted into pinholes.

The time lock around Sylas shattered, and then he appeared. The version of himself trapped in the present with a hole in his chest vanished, and a new version of him appeared, one who hadn't been marred or touched by her arrow at all.

He stood there, his dense, mane-like hair dancing in the winds, his scythe resting in his palm, his gaze looking ahead firm and steady, meeting her own with an indifference that went down to the depths of his bones.

He hadn't taken an opportunity to attack, likely because he couldn't in that situation. But the mere fact he stood unharmed could only mean one thing, one thing that Thessa was simply unwilling and unable to accept.

How could a human have such strong control over time?

Sylas had quite literally separated himself from the present self that Thessa thought she was targeting, splitting the timelines. In the end, what Thessa was targeting was the projected image of a potential timeline instead of the real, actual timeline they resided within.

It was as good as her writing her goals and aspirations in her diary, hoping to one day achieve a strike on Sylas, when in reality the world around her was moving forward without her input at all.

To control time was one thing, to pull the wool over a Myrrakhael's eyes… that was a separate matter entirely.

That was right. Thessa—much like Sylas had just realized as well—was of the very same Demi-God Thryskai Clan who had been wiped out by the fury of the Heaven System.

Sylas looked down at his palms for a moment, almost as though he was surprised he was capable of what he had just done as well. But if he really was surprised, it surely didn't reflect itself on his face, and maybe that was because what he was looking at wasn't his palm at all, but instead the Runes dancing on it.

Sylas turned over his palm, finding it fascinating.

He almost never used Time Runes in battle for anything other than speeding up his perception of what was happening around him. He battled people far more powerful than himself too often, and his best asset was his mind. So, if he couldn't think faster than them, then he would end up dead.

The other method he used Time Runes in was to amplify Spatial Runes, or to use tricks of the eye.

Using Time Runes on a much more substantial scale was a lot harder than using them on smaller, more manageable ones. Though that seemed obvious for any power there was, Time Runes, in specific, were especially unruly.

Sylas had realized on the Golden Battlefield while he was realizing just why it was that Time and Space Paths couldn't be combined in Rune Mastery why that was.

Everyone had their own frame of reference when it came to time. The existence of a person itself influenced the timeline. While the same was somewhat true of space, it wasn't nearly as exaggerated until time was also added to the equation.

Depending on the situation, it was very possible for one person to experience thousands of years in the same span someone else experienced a fraction of that time.

Time was very personal…

As personal as Will was.

And everyone knew how difficult it was to force your Will upon someone else. That was something that took a great gap in strength, and even then, the Will inside someone else's body was almost impossible to touch or manipulate no matter how much stronger in Will you were.

You would require very special circumstances to do that. But…

It wasn't impossible.

But Sylas also already knew that. He had figured out a method of doing it. It just sounded impossible.

Taking into account every reference frame there was at any given time, at all possible points in time, so that he could force the outcome that he, alone, wanted.

That was the method of forcing Space and Time to work together as a Path without having to create a new universe and trap yourself in a paradox of your own creation—or lack of creation, in this case.

However, what happened just now was fascinating.

Sylas didn't do anything actively, not really, anyway. He hadn't had to.

His Progenitor Flame Ability, Temporal Delay, had been activated when Thessa struck. Her attack worked, but it worked on a version of him she didn't quite understand. The flow of the timeline he was experiencing was completely different from the one that she had prepared to stop, and because of that, he slipped out quite easily.

But from her reference, he was still frozen. It was almost like watching someone enter an Event Horizon. Sylas had read that if you watched someone enter a black hole from afar, time would dilate so far it would look like they froze forever just at the point of entry.

Then they would fade and redshift out of existence.

What was so very interesting here is that while that was happening, Thessa was experiencing the visceral feeling of watching Sylas be impaled by her arrow and die.

Now that… that was very different…

And it made Sylas realize something.

Yes, time was very similar to Will. But unlike Will, Time interconnected everyone.

But… there was also a form of Will that likewise connected everyone, was there not? Was that not how Arcane Madness worked? Was that not how the universe's definitionally categorized various types of sins? Or even just concepts in general?

There was a personal well of Will inside one's body. Then there was an external well of Will that everyone dipped from in the universe.

Much the same way there was a personal reference of Time and an objective one.

Meaning…

Sylas' body began to glow.