The tide nearly swallowed him.
For one impossible instant, Jaune felt himself submerged beneath an endless torrent of radiant energy, a flood so vast and overwhelming that the very concept of resistance seemed meaningless before it.
Yet the tide itself was not water. It possessed no moisture, temperature or physical substance that he could identify. Instead, it was composed entirely of luminous currents of power, countless streams of glowing existence rushing past him with incomprehensible speed while somehow remaining perfectly motionless at the same time.
The contradiction alone was enough to tear apart ordinary thought.
Every instinct in Jaune's body screamed that the river was moving. The rapids churned and surged. Endless currents rushed past one another in great glowing cascades. Yet another part of him, a deeper part connected to the stolen runic power of Time itself, informed him with absolute certainty that nothing here was moving at all.
Both observations were true and yet both observations were impossible. Which meant that somehow, both observations existed simultaneously.
The immense temporal power he had stolen from Nicholas reacted instinctively, surrounding his existence and allowing him to rise from the depths of the glowing torrent. His body emerged from the flood and found footing upon what could only be described as the shallows of the living river.
Then Jaune looked up and forgot how to breathe. Before him stretched an infinite river, though perhaps the word river felt insultingly inadequate.
This was not merely a body of flowing energy. This was something so vast that language itself became insufficient to describe it. The river stretched beyond every horizon, beyond every concept of distance and measurement, extending into eternity itself. It continued forever in the only direction that mattered.
Forwards.
Its existence transcended simple dimensions. At one moment Jaune perceived it as a single line stretching endlessly into infinity. The next moment it unfolded into countless intersecting planes. Then it became depth, then volume, then something beyond volume.
Dimensions layered atop dimensions, realities nested within realities, structures so profoundly alien that his mind instinctively recoiled from attempting to comprehend them. 1 dimension, 2 dimensions, 3 dimensions... and beyond.
He understood instantly that there were aspects of the river his mind physically lacked the capacity to perceive.
Looking upon them was like asking a grain of sand to understand the structure of a galaxy. And yet he could not look away. His gaze lowered toward the river itself. The glowing currents resolved into individual droplets, then those droplets became strings and then those strings became moments.
Every droplet contained an event and every string contained a history. Every current contained entire chains of causality flowing through existence.
As Jaune watched, he saw fragments of the present.
Cities and people.
Battles.
Entire lives unfolding within the depths of the river. He witnessed scenes occurring throughout reality itself. Yet the moment he observed them, the information vanished.
A strange mist rose from the glowing waters, washing away the memories before they could properly form.
Faces disappeared and names vanished.
Locations dissolved.
Only the impressions remained.
The beauty of it nearly brought tears to his eyes. It was terrifying and it was incomprehensible.
It was magnificent.
His mind strained against the sheer enormity of what stood before him. He felt something inside his thoughts beginning to fray.
Tiny fractures spreading through his understanding as he attempted to perceive a structure infinitely larger than anything his existence had been designed to process.
Instinctively, Jaune stepped forward.
A voice immediately thundered across the river.
"Don't."
The single word struck with enough force to halt him instantly.
Jaune turned.
His father stood several meters away upon the glowing waters.
The moment Jaune's eyes landed upon his father, the pressure crushing his thoughts abruptly lessened. The strange mental fog clouding his understanding vanished like mist before sunlight.
It was as though Nicholas's presence anchored him to sanity itself. Neither of them spoke for several moments. The battle between them seemed absurdly distant now.
Meaningless.
Not forgotten, but temporarily suspended. Both had instinctively understood that this place demanded something approaching reverence.
Jaune swallowed.
"What... is this place?"
Nicholas stared across the endless river. For once, even he appeared troubled, yet he answered all the same, voice echoing strangely across the waters.
"You have seen Reality, Dream Realm and you have also seen the Shadow Realm."
His gaze shifted toward Jaune.
"This, Jaune... is the Realm of Time."
Silence followed and everything around them shimmered.
"Everything here is time," Nicholas continued quietly. "The future. The past. Every present. Every possibility. Every causality. Every sequence. Every moment."
His expression darkened.
"Whatever you do, do not move forward."
Jaune frowned.
"Why?"
"Because you will die."
The answer came immediately.
"Im not creating a theatric. This is neither an exaggeration or anything that has a hidden meaning."
Nicholas pointed toward the river.
"If you move forward, you will be subsumed by future time. If you move backward, you will be consumed by past time. You will dissolve into the evanescence of the timestream and become lost forever."
Jaune slowly nodded. For some reason, he believed him completely. His attention shifted inward. Null was still active, rejecting the power of time.
However, he immediately noticed a problem. The passive state of the rune was burning through his Aura reserves.
Fast.
Far faster than anything he had experienced before. At first he assumed the strain originated from existing within the Realm of Time itself.
Then comprehension struck.
No.
That wasn't it.
Null was actively fighting the entire dimension. Like a man attempting to hold back an ocean with his bare hands.
The realization came instantly.
His mind had reached Comprehension in numerous runes by now. The solution revealed itself almost immediately.
Null was unnecessary here or rather, partially unnecessary. Instead of forcing Null to oppose the river, he could use the temporal runic energy stolen from Nicholas to harmonize with it.
Flow with the river rather than resist it. The adjustment took only moments and temporal energy surrounded his body.
Immediately the pressure vanished and relief flooded through him.
"Who would have thought that the dimension of time was akin to a great river." Jaune said with a look of awe in his eyes.
Nicholas raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting."
"What?"
His father slowly looked around.
"You see a river."
Jaune blinked.
"Yes?"
Nicholas smiled faintly.
"I don't."
That immediately caught his attention.
"What do you see, then?"
For several moments Nicholas remained silent, then he answered. "An infinite loom that stretches into Perpetual infinity."
Jaune frowned.
"A loom?"
"Threads and yarn made from the energy of time."
Nicholas gestured outward.
"Countless threads stretching into eternity. Interwoven and entangled. Crossing through one another infinitely."
He shook his head.
"It seems this dimension is perceptual in nature."
Jaune considered that and it made sense. Reality already possessed countless strange dimensions like the Dream Realm and the Shadow realm. Conceptual spaces like a dimension that adapted itself according to the observer's perception was hardly the strangest thing he had encountered.
Still...
The realization fascinated him. The Realm of Time. The place itself felt alive.
Time existed here as something tangible and something vast.
Something beautiful.
He could feel it surrounding him without needing eyes, senses or thought. The irony of the experience proved difficult to describe. Time felt simultaneously motionless and active.
Infinite and immediate, distant and intimate.
Jaune finally broke the silence. "What did you mean when you said time would subsume me?"
Nicholas looked toward the river. "The dimension itself is infinitely greater than my rune."
His hand rose and golden runic energy appeared around his fingers. "People hear the word Time and assume my rune governs all of it."
A bitter smile crossed his face.
"It doesn't."
The glowing river stretched endlessly behind him. "My rune only touches a fragment of the true metaphysical nature of time."
His gaze sharpened.
"A microscopic fragment."
For the first time since meeting his father, Jaune sensed genuine humility from him. "Even at Mastery, wielding Time is like an ant attempting to lift a mountain."
Jaune mentally filed away another confirmation. His father had indeed reached Mastery. Nicholas suddenly pointed toward the river.
"Tell me something."
Jaune followed his gaze.
"The river which you perceive. Is it moving?"
Jaune paused then frowned.
"No."
Nicholas smiled.
"Are you sure? Look closer."
Jaune focused and the strings hidden beneath the river became visible once more. Then he saw it, the Dream Realm and the battlefield they had just left.
Sand frozen in motion and particles of dust suspended motionlessly. Everything trapped in absolute stillness.
His eyes widened.
"The present."
Nicholas nodded and a realization dawned upon Jaune.
"The present is frozen."
"Correct."
Jaune stared, then looked toward his father. "So this is how you've been stopping time?"
Nicholas hummed.
"Stopping time. Technically speaking what I've been doing isn't the same as stopping time. However... the distinction to those who do not know... is relatively the same."
He stepped forward.
"Follow me."
His body entered the frozen scene. Like stepping into a reflection.
Jaune followed and the world shifted. Reality reformed and the Dream Realm returned around him. The black desert reappeared around them, yet everything remained frozen.
Absolute stillness dominated existence.
Jaune could still feel the greater river somewhere above him. Both infinitely far, yet eternally close to his very existence.
Nicholas spread his arms.
"This is shallow time."
His gaze shifted upward.
"The river is deep time."
Understanding slowly settled over Jaune. One existed adjacent to reality and the other existed beneath it.
Connected, yet separate. Another contradiction.
Another irony.
"If we're frozen," Jaune asked slowly, "how are we speaking and creating history in future time?"
Nicholas smiled and his rune appeared above his palm.
Time.
The script glowed with impossible majesty.
"Because we aren't operating under real time."
The rune brightened.
"We are operating under runic time. Real time is frozen while runic time continues."
Understanding clicked in Jaune's mind. A separate stream and perhaps what could be described as a separate timeline. A private timeline that was occupied only by themselves.
"Runes, are gateways to incomprehensible power." Nicholas said quietly. The golden rune rotated above his hand.
"Runic time and real time are the same concept but they also have very different conceptualities."
Silence followed and then Jaune grinned. The expression that appeared on his face carried absolutely no warmth whatsoever.
It was sharp, predatory and malevolent.
"Thank you for the lesson, Father."
Nicholas sighed.
"I was wondering how long it would take. Well... I suppose you can consider that as a lesson before the real lesson begins."
Null stirred within Jaune's soul and the sensation of freedom returned. The sensation of absence and the sensation of existing beyond influence.
Jaune smile widened.
"Now... regardless of your abilities, regardless of Time and regardless of Fate."
His eyes locked onto Nicholas.
"All of it will be rendered Null."
The moment ended, and both stepped out from the shallows. Runic time dissolved and the Dream Realm roared back into motion.
And immediately, father and son launched themselves at one another once more.
.
.
Nicholas Arc had spent years preparing for this moment.
Years.
Years of manipulation, calculation, sacrifices, and sins that would stain his soul until the day he finally died.
Entire kingdoms had been nudged toward conflict. Powerful individuals had been guided into specific paths. Secrets had been buried while others had been revealed. Every action had been taken with a singular purpose.
And now that purpose stood directly in front of him. For the first time in a while, Nicholas Arc felt genuine awe and fear.
Not fear for himself but for what Jaune Arc had become. The Dream Realm shook beneath their battle.
Nicholas twisted sideways as Jaune's fist passed inches from his jaw. The air exploded apart behind him, creating a pressure wave that flattened miles of black sand into a smooth plain.
Before the shockwave could even finish spreading, Jaune was already moving again.
No.
Moving wasn't the correct word. Something stranger was occurring and something that should not have been possible.
Nicholas kicked his son away and he felt the impact connect, saw the body get launched backward. Then Jaune was suddenly standing directly in front of him.
A fist crashed into Nicholas's face and the blow snapped his head sideways, launching him through the air.
Nicholas recovered almost instantly but his eyes had widened.
'What? Jaune had teleported? No. He didn't use the runic energy of time. He did something else using his own runes!'
The realization struck him like lightning. Jaune had plundered distance. The concept itself.
Nicholas felt genuine horror crawl down his spine. The realization was absurd and impossible. Yet he knew it was true.
Plunder no longer merely stole strength or thoughts. It no longer merely stole physical properties. Somehow, through whatever his sone was was doing with the influence of Null, the rune had begun reaching deeper.
Into the concepts underlying reality itself.
Distance, space and separation. Jaune had plundered them. The result was horrifyingly simple. There was no longer any meaningful distance between himself and his target.
Nicholas had spent years studying runes and had witnessed various degrees of Mastery. He had seen Supreme Runes and had even interacted with powers that could reshape entire civilizations.
Yet even he found himself struggling to understand what he was witnessing.
The battle continued.
Or perhaps slaughter was becoming the more accurate description. Jaune surged forward with a grin that bordered on insanity.
His eyes gleamed with manic enlightenment. The look of a man discovering new laws of existence every second.
Or perhaps destroying them. The world around him began to melt. Nicholas felt Weakness spread outward.
Yet this was not the feeling of Weakness he remembered. Not the Weakness rune that transformed matter into fragile states of slurry. This was not the Weakness rune he had manipulated Jaune into creating.
This was something else.
The world liquefied. The atmosphere, air, and even space itself seemed to liquefy.
Reality lost definition.
The Dream Realm bent around Jaune's presence as though existence itself had become clay beneath his fingers.
Then Nicholas realized what had happened.
'A domain! Somehow, he's manifesting the beginnings of a domain at the realm of Rank 2!'
Weakness and Null.
Rune Synchronicity.
The same thing Jaune had done with Plunder, now he was doing it with Weakness. The hierarchy of Null was bleeding into everything it touched.
Hierarchy Zero.
The absolute bottom or rather, the absolute top. The contradiction made Nicholas want to laugh hysterically.
The boy had actually done it. He had actually created it. The impossible rune and the one thing Nicholas had secretly hoped might exist. The one thing necessary to challenge what was coming.
And now it was loose.
The surrounding landscape collapsed.
Space folded like wet paper and gravity weakened. Direction became meaningless and even the surrounding sky above them rippled like disturbed water.
Jaune literally swam through the air, the weakened concept of space itself. He emerged beside Nicholas and a hand closed around his face. Nicholas felt his son's fingers wrap around his skull and then the world disappeared.
They smashed through layers of melting reality, through weakened space. Through crumbling physical laws and through dimensions that were momentarily losing coherence.
Nicholas barely managed to recover before another fist slammed into his chest. Pain exploded through his body as his ribs shattered and his body was launched far into an intact dune.
Blood filled his mouth.
Just as he was about to reverse his injuries, for the first time since this battle began...
His runes failed.
Nicholas froze.
The familiar powers that had accompanied him for decades simply refused to answer. As though they no longer existed and as though reality itself had forgotten how they functioned.
A cold sensation settled into his stomach.
Null.
The influence was spreading. The rune was no longer merely protecting Jaune anymore. It was beginning to affect the surrounding world.
A terrifying possibility.
Nicholas activated Time again but again, nothing happened.
His eyes widened.
'What the hell?'
Then something even worse happened. He felt even more strength leaving his body. At first he thought it was exhaustion, then he realized what the familiar sensation was
Plunder.
Nicholas immediately summoned his Nightmare System. The translucent screen appeared before him and his expression changed.
.
[Body: 7 → 6]
.
The number dropped, then dropped again.
.
[Body: 6 → 5]
.
Nicholas stared. His Will followed.
.
[Will: 7 → 6]
[Will: 6 → 5]
.
As did his body stat.
.
[Aura: 7->6]
[Aura: 6->5]
.
The numbers continued falling.
Every second, with his heartbeat.
Every moment, pieces of his power were being stolen.
Transferred.
Given to Jaune. His son's body radiated overwhelming power. Nicholas could literally see the difference. Jaune was growing stronger, not just incrementally but exponentially.
The boy was becoming a singularity, a snowball rolling downhill, gathering momentum and gaining power.
Gathering everything. And there was nothing Nicholas could do to stop it. A strange emotion surfaced amidst the panic.
Pride.
Absurd, inappropriate pride. Because this was exactly what he had been trying to create. Not Null specifically. But someone capable of surpassing limitations. Someone capable of breaking inevitability and someone who was capable of challenging fate.
And now Jaune had done it.
Far more successfully than Nicholas had ever imagined. A shadow loomed above him and Nicholas looked up.
Jaune stood there as the surrounding landscape warped around his presence. Reality bent subtly in his vicinity.
The effects of Null and the synchronized runes spreading outward like ripples. His blond hair was disheveled and blood stained parts of his face.
Yet his eyes burned with an intensity that bordered on wonder. The eyes of a man standing at the edge of revelation.
The eyes of someone becoming something else entirely. A hand wrapped around Nicholas's throat. He was lifted effortlessly from the ground.
Like a child.
Like nothing.
Nicholas instinctively drove his fist into Jaune's stomach. That same strike would have once been able to shatter mountains and it had once even been capable of leveling entire battlefields.
Yet Jaune did not move.
Not even an inch.
The realization sent a chill through Nicholas's body.
His strength was gone. The power of his runes were gone. His advantages were gone. For the first time in decades... Nicholas Arc stood before an opponent he genuinely could not understand.
Nicholas stared into his son's eyes.
And despite the fear, despite the panic and despite the horror. A smile slowly formed on his face. Because for the first time in a very long time...
The future was no longer certain.
.
.
Jaune stood there with his father's neck grasped in his hand. Watching and feeling the world around him melt through his senses, partially focused on his father and partially savoring the feeling of comprehension that Null had just reached.
His father coughed as he let him drop onto the slurrified ground.
"I-I've lost. I'll tell you everything."