Ch.81Ep.81 God of Death and Time

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

Arsia ran toward Radios as he collapsed.

“Oh no..!”

Elysse then began to be attacked by all the goblins, and Brina had no choice but to help fend them off.

There was no time for Poseidon’s healing or anything else—they were all about to die.

“Captain! Captain!! Wake up! Please!”

“…”

Arsia held Radios’s cooling body and sobbed uncontrollably.

His heart wasn’t beating. Even when she forcibly pumped magic into him, his blood wouldn’t flow through his vessels.

She couldn’t even use her foresight to see the future.

As long as Cronos was using his divine order, all skills related to “time” in this space were completely nullified.

Arsia’s foresight was also a skill that allowed her to see fragments of future situations.

With merely a human order, she couldn’t oppose the divine order of a god-king who had risen to the position of king among gods.

If only his heart hadn’t been destroyed, he would have survived thanks to the goblin mask he was wearing.

“No…! This can’t be happening!! AAAAAAAH!!”

[Poor child. I don’t understand why you stood in my way and brought this upon yourself.]

“I’ll kill you… I’ll kill you!!”

With a wave of Arsia’s hand, thousands of goblin fires surrounded Cronos from all directions.

He was momentarily impressed by Arsia’s spirit, but that was it.

He used his divine order to turn back time to just before Arsia could use her goblin fires, but.

[Hmm?]

“Eat this!!”

BOOOOOM!

In the reversed time, as if she had anticipated this, she shot goblin fires at Cronos.

Surprised by the unexpected situation, he stepped back and observed.

‘Hmm, those eyes. They remind me of Odin, who sacrificed his eye to the well for wisdom.’

Odin’s lost eye was quite an interesting subject even for those on Olympus.

Cronos learned about the Outer God forces when Asgard fell.

He hadn’t paid much attention to them since they were beings from another dimension.

But he knew that Asgard wasn’t the type to fall easily.

So when the Outer God forces retreated from Asgard, Cronos entered Asgard’s treasury intending to take any weapon, but.

‘Empty-handed. Even Mimir’s well, known as the Well of Wisdom, had dried up.’

Only then did Cronos determine that it was impossible to oppose them with his power alone.

He formulated a plan to sacrifice himself and resurrect for the sake of Olympus.

‘But why is Odin’s lost eye… in the possession of a human?’

She apparently didn’t know what power she was using, but it was dangerous.

If the day came when she could properly handle it, the advantages of the time divine order would disappear.

But conversely, if he obtained that eye, his power would rise even higher.

[Human. I’ll have to take that eye from you—it doesn’t suit you.]

“No matter what it takes, I will never give up!”

Arsia activated her magic, and hundreds of magic circles emitted a brilliant light as they targeted Cronos.

“Infinite Barrage.”

[Hmm!]

FWOOOOOSH!

Basic spells from this world began to rain down indiscriminately on Cronos.

He turned back time again to make the attacks disappear, but.

“It’s pointless!”

[Indeed, you can somehow deal with this level of attack.]

Anticipating that he would turn back time, Arsia immediately followed up with attacks aimed at Cronos’s weak points.

‘Damn it..! If only my foresight worked properly, I could have landed a solid hit..!’

She set traps anticipating that time would be reversed.

Arsia was simultaneously thinking about her future moves while calculating contingencies in case time was reversed to the past.

The only downside was that she couldn’t see Cronos’s openings.

But she could recognize when she had been sent back to the past.

‘His ability has two mechanisms.’

Either reversing the time of magic, or reversing a person’s time.

When magic disappeared, Arsia immediately chanted another spell to pressure Cronos.

And though the cause was unknown, she could sense when her own time was being reversed.

Perhaps the function of the eye Cronos mentioned was creating such an effect.

‘No time for this. I need to save the Captain now..!’

Even if Radios faced death, he would fall to the Underworld if he hadn’t fully awakened his order.

But the Underworld was enemy territory.

She needed to revive him here somehow before he fell to the Underworld.

And since Cronos wasn’t yet fighting with his full power, this was her only chance.

‘I’ll take him down while he’s off guard and bring Kraud back!’

If Kraud regained consciousness, he might be able to revive Radios.

[That look in your eyes. It’s the look of hope.]

“Shut up. You… I’ll capture you.”

[I’m sorry, human. No matter how much you struggle… it’s futile.]

RUMBLE.

As Cronos drove the blade of Scythe into the ground, the surrounding earth began to rot.

He had infused the earth with concentrated death energy and spread it.

[Do you know what this earth is made of?]

“…No way!”

Arsia recalled one possibility at Cronos’s words.

When it came to earth, there was only one being that came to mind.

It shouldn’t be, but Cronos spoke as if pronouncing a sentence to taunt her.

[Before our mother becomes too ill, I’ll end this quickly.]

WHOOSH.

As Cronos drew his scythe, his body filled with abundant divine power.

Gaia, the goddess of earth, the source of the earth and his mother.

He had absorbed some of the energy constituting the earth through Scythe and replenished his own power.

“That’s… impossible…”

He could absorb the power of the earth and convert it into magical energy for battle?

How could anyone defeat such an opponent?

TREMBLE.

Arsia tried to calm her shaking arms and released her order.

If she gave up here, the chance to save Radios would be lost forever.

She had to move forward. She had to push through this pressure and move forward.

[You have many openings.]

“KYAAAAH!”

Cronos instantly moved behind Arsia and swung Scythe.

She sensed the danger and rolled on the ground to avoid Scythe, but that wasn’t all.

RUMBLE!

Cronos raised the blade and lifted the ground itself, attempting to bury her alive.

Just as Arsia was about to chant a spell without a moment’s relief.

‘I can’t speak—’

CRASH!

Unable to open her mouth, she took a heavy blow from the falling earth and was knocked away.

[Time is fair to everyone. I’ve taken away your ability to ‘speak’ for a while.]

“Let me ask one thing… With such power, you still thought you’d lose to Yog-Sothoth?”

Arsia asked as she raised her blood-covered body.

No matter how she looked at it, Cronos’s divine order of time was unfair.

He could accelerate his own time or stop time momentarily.

He could even turn back time to a limited extent.

Particularly, the act of taking away her ability to speak meant he could take away other actions as well.

“For example, you could have taken away my arms’ time to prevent me from moving. Or you could have used gravity.”

Kadinant’s rotational speed exceeds 465 m/s.

If he released the gravity affecting Arsia for just 10 seconds, he could cause tremendous damage.

But Cronos didn’t attempt this.

She couldn’t determine whether he couldn’t do it or chose not to.

Either way, Kraud’s consciousness was still there, and Cronos’s condition wasn’t normal.

If she had to guess… his ability must have limitations.

‘He’s absorbing earth’s energy and using it. So, there must be a weakness.’

The problem was that having her ability to speak taken away.

For a mage, it meant reaching a situation where magic couldn’t be used.

Therefore, Arsia boldly abandoned her identity as a mage and gripped a dagger.

[Hmm? You don’t look like a martial artist at all.]

“You may not know, but I underwent hellish training for a month.”

Thanks especially to training that increased her stamina, Arsia had acquired martial arts skills that were on a completely different level from her past self.

If magic was sealed, she’d switch to close combat.

She would move carefully, watching out for Scythe.

“HAH!”

Having made her decision, Arsia kicked off the ground and thrust her dagger toward Cronos’s neck.

However, it passed through an illusion that disappeared.

Cronos had momentarily accelerated his time to evade the attack position.

As Arsia quickly prepared her next move, she experienced her entire body becoming rigid.

‘Time has stopped!’

Cronos didn’t miss the opportunity.

[You’re slow. Even your attack speed.]

“Sacred Barrier!”

CLANG!

He moved behind Arsia and brought down Scythe, but she was able to block the attack with a barrier.

And Arsia could be certain of it.

The weakness of Cronos’s divine order.

“You. You can’t use time-manipulating abilities simultaneously, can you?”

[…]

“When you blocked my mouth, my body could move, and when you blocked my body, my mouth could move. Is that all?”

When attempting to attack or defend, he escaped by turning back time or accelerating it.

If he had tried to accelerate while turning back time, it would have exceeded Arsia’s calculation speed.

The result would have been a disaster—being pierced by Scythe and meeting death.

Therefore, Arsia could be certain.

“The flaw in your ability! It’s that you can’t manipulate time simultaneously!”

[So what? You don’t think you can defeat me, do you?]

[I think she can.]

Cronos hastily stopped time in response to an unknown pressure, however.

THWACK!

[Ugh!]

The being with the mysterious voice seemed to move freely within the stopped time.

[You… bastard…]

Cronos gritted his teeth as he looked at that being.

The identity of that being was none other than.

[I thought it wouldn’t be good if a hardworking apostle died.]

It was Azathoth, who had taken over Radios’s body whose bodily functions had stopped.