Chapter 1477: The Final Deadline
“Do not worry about your companions. They have only gone elsewhere.”
The Oracle read his confusion before he could speak.
“Elsewhere?”
“Yes. One of my abilities: creating illusions, misdirection — making self-aware beings move toward their destruction without realizing it.” Epsilon’s tone was explanatory, without apology. “Though I did nothing so dramatic here. I only diverted them at a fork. At this moment, what they perceive is that they are beside you, locked in battle against a surge of Fallen Evils trying to stop them.”
“And you’re telling me they’re actually safe?”
She nodded. “More than safe. I have already arranged a tidy resolution for them. The Fallen Evils and the Oracle will be defeated. The phenomena and the Erosion will dissolve. They will be exhausted from the fight, but they will be smiling, leaning against walls, savoring victory.”
The image that formed in Roland’s mind — Fei Yuhan and Valkries flailing at nothing, wearing themselves out in an empty room, then collapsing in satisfied grins — was enough to raise the hair on his arms.
He knew them. Both had exceptional will and razor-sharp perception. And yet, under Epsilon’s ability, they had not managed even a flicker of resistance.
No — and neither did I. There was something fundamentally wrong with that. Every prior encounter had suggested Oracles were ineffective against him.
His wariness locked into place.
“And after that?”
“Nothing follows. The entire world ends — Realm of Mind and everything beyond. It begins again from the beginning. But compared to simply ceasing to be, they will vanish in happiness, without pain. That is my act of—”
He moved before she could finish the word.
He vaulted the nearly twenty meters separating the passage from the platform in one motion, closing straight for the Oracle, and punched.
The tactic had served him well before — strike hard while the enemy is still speaking — and his body answered his will without hesitation. The blow landed with a concussive boom. A wave swept across the platform, shearing railings, cracking the operating arms, scattering debris down to the storage level in a series of dull, heavy impacts.
The force of it surprised even him. He had known that absorbing cores was making him stronger, but he hadn’t tracked how far that process had gone.
His fist, however, had felt nothing.
Epsilon dispersed like smoke and reconstituted herself behind him.
“How does it feel, becoming this strong? The gift I sent you served its purpose well, didn’t it?”
He startled — then understood. “That astrolabe was from you?”
He had once asked the Association to trace the delivery. The investigation had found nothing — the sender existed in the identity systems for a single moment and then simply wasn’t, as though the records before and after had been scrubbed clean. With Epsilon’s ability to misdirect perception itself, it made sense.
“It was delivered by Gamma,” Epsilon said, with the same tone one might use to describe a piece of furniture — not a companion, not a peer, but something incidental. “Also an Oracle.”
The shock landed cleanly. Roland checked that he had heard correctly. ”…Why?”
“Because I wished to know the answer. An answer only God knows.” Her voice went somewhere distant. “Do you understand now? I carry no hostility toward you. To reach the Divine Domain, one requires the Dream World to make it possible. On that objective, at the very least, we share a direction.”
He had nothing immediate to say.
“You don’t believe me? The world itself won’t deceive you.” Epsilon extended her arms. “I didn’t summon a rift to cut you off, the way Delta did. Yet you still couldn’t see through my illusion. That’s proof. The Dream World does not reject my abilities — because I hold no animosity toward you.”
”…You’re on Lan’s side?”
It was the only possibility that fit. Lan had told him there was more than one Oracle who had chosen to break with the rest.
“I don’t know how she explained her situation to you, so I cannot answer that precisely.” Epsilon raised two fingers. “If you’re asking whether I’m aligned with her — the answer is no. Before coming here, I had no memory of Lan. In Prism City, I was the one who killed her with my own hands.”
His brows went up.
“Or perhaps you’re asking if we share the same goal.” She lowered one finger. “Also no. My reasons are my own. They have nothing to do with her. Think of it simply as: I am helping you.”
“And your version of helping me is to destroy this world?” Roland’s voice had an edge.
“The one destroying the world is not me. It is God.” Epsilon shook her head. “To avoid misunderstanding, I will be direct. You have seen what is happening outside. That barrier blankets the sky and temporarily arrests the expansion of the Dream World, preventing it from touching the Divine Domain. Without it, God would not hesitate to destroy everything built here — regardless of any Oracles in place. In fact, you have absorbed an excessive number of cores recently. You are one step short of the threshold. Lan was meant to monitor the expansion of your Dream World, but she died at my hands. No one warned you what it means to reach the Origin of Magic simultaneously with expanding the world.”
She even knows that.
“But this barrier cuts off my connection to the outer world. You can control the real world as well?”
“No. But I know you have already opened the path to the Bottomless Land. What follows is only a matter of time.” Epsilon’s voice remained deliberate. “You can likely guess how I came to know this. The Design Bureau of Graycastle and the Martialist Association both report to Headquarters — and therefore, to me.”
Which includes the Glory of the Sun project and every weapons assessment. The pieces assembled themselves. Epsilon had reconstructed the entire situation from fragments.
“You never considered that trapping me might cause an accident?”
“That was an unknown factor. But I had no better option — only when you enter the Realm of Mind does the world activate. So it had to hold you here.” She said it with the same patient calm. “Fortunately, the wait will not be long. Once contact is severed, the domain automatically alters the flow of time. Should you wish it, a blink of your eye could become an entire day.”
Roland’s eyes went wide. He forced them to stay open, suddenly afraid that if he so much as blinked, centuries would have elapsed outside.
“That particular concern won’t come to pass.” For the first time, the corners of her mouth curved upward. “The barrier requires magic power to sustain. Even consuming every core stored here, only half a month would pass in outside time before it collapsed entirely.” She let that settle. “That is also the final deadline.”
Chapter 1477 - The Final Deadline
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Do not worry about your companions. They have only gone somewhere else.”
The Oracle seemed to see his puzzlement and volunteered an answer.
“Somewhere… else?”
“That’s right. This is also one of my abilities—creating illusions, misdirection, and make self-cognitive beings realize that they are heading towards destruction without realizing it,” Epsilon explained. “Of course, I didn’t really do so. I merely made them take the wrong path during a fork. At this moment, what they see is them, together with you, being locked in battle with large numbers of Fallen Evils rushing over to stop them.”
“Are you trying to tell me that they are in fact very safe?”
Surprisingly, she nodded. “Not only so, I have already arranged a perfect ending for your companions. The Fallen Evils and the Oracle will finally be defeated. The phenomenon and Erosion will disappear as a result. They would be exhausted from the battle, but smile happily while leaning against the walls, enjoying the pleasure of victory.”
When Roland imagined a group of people flailing their arms in an empty room, to the point of exhaustion and lying down in smiles, he felt the hair on his back stand.
He wasn’t sure about the rest, but he knew Fei Yuhan and Valkries very well. Not only did they have outstanding willpower, but they were also very sharp. Yet, under Epsilon’s abilities, they had failed to put up any bit of resistance.
Wrong… It isn’t only the two of them. I didn’t even notice it. There was just something wrong about the whole matter. According to past experiences, the
abilities of an Oracle were ineffective against him.
With this in mind, Roland’s wariness instantly reached an extreme.
“And then?”
“There will not be anything after that. The entire world will come to an end, be it the Realm of Mind or beyond it. Everything will start from the beginning. But compared to reality, they would vanish in happiness and not suffer any pain. That is my benevol—”
Without waiting for her to finish her sentence, Roland took action.
He leaped up, crossing over the nearly twenty-meter gap separating the passageway from the platform, flying straight for the Oracle and punching out! Attacking suddenly while the enemy was droning on was something he had used several times to great effect!
The surging powers in his body responded to his will. With a huge boom, a surging wave swept across the platform, cracking the railings, operating apparatuses, and robotic arms. They tumbled down to the storage level and produced a series of dull thuds.
Even Roland was shocked by the might of that one strike.
He knew that absorbing the magic power cores would strengthen him, but he never expected that unknowingly, his body had already reached such a formidable level.
However, his fist did not experience the tactile feeling he expected.
Epsilon seemed to disperse like a bubble before materializing behind him.
“How does it feel becoming stronger? The gift I sent you is still pretty good, isn’t it?”
Roland was first startled before he came to a realization what she truly meant.
“Wait, that astrolabe was mailed by you?”
He had once requested the Association to investigate the source of the delivery, but it was ultimately fruitless. Be it the identity system or monitors, they all indicated that the deliverer only existed for a moment. Any checks prior and after to the delivery resulted in a conclusion that the person had vanished. Now, thinking back to Epsilon’s ability, everything made sense.
“It’s called Gamma, also an Oracle,” Epsilon calmly said, as though she wasn’t talking about her companion, but “something” completely unrelated to her.
Roland was shocked for the first time. After confirming that he had not heard wrong, he asked in disbelief, “… why?”
“Because I wish to know the answer, an answer only God knows.” Her voice seemed to drift off. “Do you now understand? I have no feelings of animosity towards you. To head to the Divine Domain, one needs the help of the Dream World to realize it. On this goal, we are on the same page at the very least.”
With the abrupt twists and turns, Roland was momentarily at a loss for words.
“Do you not believe me? The world wouldn’t lie to you.” Epsilon spread out her arms and said, “I didn’t summon the rift to isolate you from the world like Delta, but you still failed to see through my illusion. That is proof. It’s because I do not have any feelings of animosity that the Dream World isn’t ostracizing my abilities.”
“… You are actually someone on Lan’s side?”
This was the only possibility which Roland could come up with. After all, Lan had mentioned before that there were more than one betraying Oracle.
“I do not know how she explained it to you, so I’m unable to precisely answer this question.” Epsilon extended two of her fingers. “If you are asking if I’m on the same side as her, the conclusion is ‘no.’ Before coming here, I
did not have any memories regarding Lan. Even in Prism City, I was the one who killed her with my own hands.”
Roland could not help but raise his brows.
“Or perhaps you are asking if she shares the same goal as me.” She lowered one finger and said, “The conclusion is similarly ‘no.’ The reason for me doing this is of my own beliefs, and it has nothing to do with her. You can imagine it to be that I’m helping you.”
“And the way to help me is to destroy this world?” Roland sneered.
“You’re wrong. The one destroying the world isn’t me, but God.” Epsilon shook her head. “In order to avoid misunderstandings, I’ll say it directly. You should have noticed the changes outside. That barrier that blankets the sky can temporarily stop the burgeoning of the Dream World, so as to prevent it from touching the Divine Domain. Otherwise, even with Oracles present, God will not hesitate to destroy everything that has been built up here to date. In fact, you have absorbed an excessive numbers of magic power cores recently, and you are just a sliver short. If I didn’t guess wrong, Lan was supposed to monitor the expansion of your Dream World, but she died at my hands. Hence, no one told you what it means to ‘simultaneously’ reach the Origin of Magic.”
She even knows this!
“But this barrier cuts off my connection with the outer world. Are you also capable of controlling the real world?”
“No, but at the very least, I know that you have already opened up the path to the Bottomless Land. What follows is just a matter of time,” Epsilon said slowly. “You probably can guess the means of how I received this information. That’s right. The content discussed by your Martialist Association and Design Bureau of Graycastle would all be reported to Headquarters, and therefore, reach me.”
And that includes the Glory of the Sun project as well as the feedback of the various weapons… Roland came to a realization. Epsilon had used these
snippets to reconstruct the entire scene of the outside world.
“Have you never considered that my unconsciousness would result in an accident?”
“That is also an unknown factor. But I do not have a better choice—only when you enter the Realm of Mind will the world be activated. Therefore, it will have to trap you within,” Epsilon explained patiently. “Thankfully, we do not need to keep waiting. The domain after a severed contact will automatically change the flow of time. As long as you wish for it, it wouldn’t be difficult to make the time it takes to blink an eye equal to a day.”
Roland instantly widened his eyes, not daring to close it for even a second, afraid that centuries would have passed in the outside world when he awoke again.
“Don’t worry. The thing you are worrying about won’t happen.” She curled her lips and showed a smile for the first time. “The barrier needs magic power to maintain. Even if all the cores in this store is expended, only half a month would pass when converting it to the outside world’s time… And that would also be the final deadline.”