Chapter 66: Traveling Through Spacetime
With the time stop released, the gray filter receded, and the convention hall was once again filled with clamor and color.
The surrounding people didn't realize their time had been stolen for a few seconds.
From their perspective, their vision just blurred for a moment, then that young man standing before the booth suddenly had two glowing cards in his hands, while that weird old man sitting in the chair vanished into thin air.
"That's so cool! What kind of holographic projection technology is that?"
"What kind of magic trick is this? Making a person disappear?"
People didn't panic, instead treating this as some kind of holographic projection or magic show. Some even started applauding.
Several excited cosplayers even wanted to come over for photos, asking which circle produced this new program.
However, Kazama Chiba standing at the center of the stage gave no response.
He maintained that pose of grasping the cards, spine straight, even that victor's smile still hanging on his lips.
He looked very cool.
But only Kazama Chiba himself knew—this wasn't showing off.
He genuinely couldn't move.
What's going on?
Just as the time stop released, an invisible force, like pouring concrete, locked down every inch of Kazama Chiba's muscles, even every single cell.
Forget moving fingers—even rotating his eyeballs became a luxury.
That feeling was like being gripped tightly in the palm of an invisible giant hand.
Damn it... what's this situation? Is it a side effect of forcibly activating time stop?
Or does that "ZA WARUDO" skill really have cooldown punishment?
Countless terrible guesses instantly flashed through Kazama Chiba's mind. He even instinctively wanted to look up to see if there was a steamroller doing free fall above his head.
After all, if paying homage to the original meant even the death method was identical, that would be too much of a dark joke.
Just then, the newly mastered Time card transmitted a consciousness exchange, revealing the truth:
[Because this was a trap all along, Master.]
"What do you mean?" Chiba asked mentally.
[The red glow you saw on these people before wasn't residue from my spellcasting, but seeds that Judge Kaguya ordered me to plant.]
The Time card explained earnestly:
[Those seeds are all time magic compressed to the extreme. Through continuous loops, they were accumulated and compressed bit by bit, like bombs about to detonate. Originally with me suppressing them, they remained stable. But now that you've sealed me, the suppression has disappeared.]
Hearing Kaguya's name, Chiba's heart sank.
"So what?"
[So they've gone berserk. And because of the contract transfer, this out-of-control massive magic will automatically seek a new outlet—namely, you.]
"Kaguya..."
Chiba mentally pronounced that name.
So from the very beginning, that woman never intended to let him smoothly take these two cards.
Whether it was The Move card's bait or The Time card's loop, it was all just to make him continuously accumulate that invisible explosives during the process.
Only when he thought victory was assured did she detonate the entire chessboard.
"Chiba, what's wrong with you? Why'd you suddenly stop talking? Did shouting that line make you run out of oxygen? I told you, that kind of chuuni line really should be used less..."
Kerberos's words had just fallen—
Chiba felt an unprecedented terrifying heat surging from all directions.
In ordinary people's vision, nothing happened.
But in Chiba's spiritual vision, the entire convention scene instantly transformed into a crimson ocean.
Those passersby suddenly lit up with blinding red light from within their bodies.
Not just those few hundred onlookers, but the entire inner convention hall—those thousands upon thousands of visitors once caught in the time loop now all became humanoid light sources.
That red magic wasn't gentle light points. Like sharks smelling blood, carrying violent and chaotic will, they burst forth from every person's pores.
"BOOM—"
That was the weight of time.
Countless red streams of light converged together, forming a visible terrifying torrent.
And this torrent's endpoint, perfectly aligned, was Kazama Chiba standing at the storm's center.
"Wh-what the hell is this thing?!"
Kerberos was so scared it rolled directly off his shoulder. Before it could fly up, it was pressed flat against the ground by that massive magical airflow, unable to move.
Chiba watched that overwhelming crimson sea of light surging toward him. He wanted to activate The Thunder card to counterattack, wanted to use The Shadow card to escape, even wanted to use the freshly obtained Move card to teleport.
But all magical circuits were forcibly suppressed by that massive external force.
Right now, he was like someone tied to railroad tracks, could only watch helplessly as the train roared toward him.
'What happens if this force hits me?' Chiba asked through gritted teeth.
'You'll be exiled.'
The Time card's voice gradually faded.
'You'll be swept into time's reverse current, lost in the gap between past and future. Without special coordinates or a powerful anchor, you might... never come back.'
The next second—
The crimson torrent completely engulfed him, detonating the entire chessboard.
It wasn't a physical impact, but a conceptual erosion of time.
Chiba's vision began distorting.
The entire space was being torn apart and reassembled.
The scenery before his eyes became countless shattered kaleidoscopes. One second it was Shinjou Akane's surprised face, the next it transformed into a desolate plain from hundreds of years ago, then the next it was that truck charging toward him.
Past, present, future.
Countless temporal fragments flickered madly before his eyes like out-of-control slides.
"Kaguya, you just wait..."
Chiba only had time to curse out this final dying wish in his heart.
Then a massive suction force transmitted from the void, forcibly stripping his existence from the current coordinate axis.
Kazama Chiba's figure, along with the backpack on his back, instantly collapsed into an extremely small black dot within that dazzling red light, then completely vanished.
As if he had never existed at all.
...
The light scattered.
The convention hall still bustled with voices.
The passersby who'd just been enthusiastically discussing the disappearing act suddenly paused.
The excitement in their eyes rapidly faded, replaced by brief confusion.
"Huh? What was I doing here just now?"
"Strange... didn't they say there was an Elden Ring interactive event here? Why is there just an empty chair?"
The surrounding people showed the same confused expressions.
They looked at each other, but none could remember who had been standing here or what had happened.
Though that memory gap was abrupt, under some force's soothing, it was quickly automatically rationalized by their brains.
"Probably canceled. Whatever, let's go watch cute girls dancing over there."
The crowd quickly dispersed, continuing to immerse themselves in this grand carnival.
And everything about Kazama Chiba was erased from these people's minds.
Behind a pillar not far from the booth—
Ougihoshi Kaguya emerged wearing a deep blue school swimsuit, putting away The Erase card while staring at where Chiba disappeared, her lips curving slightly upward in a pleased smile.
"Sorry, boy. You're still too green after all."
"Though that illusion-mirror trick just now did give me a bit of surprise, as a mage, merely seeing the prey before your eyes is far from enough."
"You still need to learn to respect the rules."
Ougihoshi Kaguya stretched, that movement instantly tightening the curves beneath her jacket, the shocking arc of her chest nearly bursting through the fabric.
"That accumulated time residue is enough to send you to a very interesting place. If you can come back alive, this teacher doesn't mind giving you a special reward."
Ougihoshi Kaguya turned around, leisurely pulling up the jacket zipper, covering that blood-pumping school swimsuit, then walked toward the exit with elegant catwalk steps against the flow of people.
The surrounding otaku passing by turned their heads one after another, their gazes attracted by this mysterious and sexy figure.
But when they tried to see her face clearly, their vision would inexplicably slide away.
"But now the game has ended, Clow Cardcaptor. Enjoy your spacetime drift."