Caelus felt something extraordinary.
It was as though he had become omnipotent.
Everything in existence seemed transparent before his eyes.
He could create anything from nothing.
Anything that existed in the world could be brought into being at his will.
At this moment, Caelus felt like a god of creation, capable of instantly creating anything he desired.
But he knew that feeling was false.
This was only a temporary power granted by the Command Block.
Or rather, the true nature of the Command Block's power was that Caelus was borrowing the System's strength.
He was using the System's power to rewrite reality itself.
Amphoreus appeared from nothing.
But this time, it was no longer a virtual world.
Nor was it the cold machinery of an Emperor's Scepter system.
It had become a genuine planet with a real natural environment.
Caelus was about to use the authority of Creation to reproduce the Amphoreus recorded within his memories upon this planet.
Then he stopped.
Nanook, the Aeon of Destruction, descended.
The Aeon of Destruction sought to destroy everything within the current universe.
The existing order.
The existing rules.
Everything would be broken apart until the universe returned to its most primordial state of chaos.
From that chaos, a new universe could eventually be born and welcome entirely new possibilities.
But Caelus had now ascended into an existence resembling an Aeon of Creation.
What he was doing strengthened the continued existence of the current universe.
He was constantly adding new colors to it.
Constantly adding things that otherwise should have disappeared.
If this continued, the universe would keep expanding.
More and more things would come into existence.
Its existing rules would continue to expand.
And everything Nanook intended to destroy would only continue increasing.
Put simply, there was only one save slot.
To begin a new game, the data in that save had to be deleted.
One player wanted to erase everything inside it.
The other kept adding more data.
Fundamentally, the two had already come into conflict.
And now, a battle was about to begin.
Caelus looked at Nanook before him.
"I'm only trying to create one planet and the lives that belong on it."
Nanook said nothing.
But the aura of Destruction spread outward, destroying time, causality, destiny, and even everything that could be described as existence itself.
In the past, no matter what Caelus did, his actions would not fundamentally alter the structure of this universe.
But now, if Creation became permanently established, then the universe itself would record the existence of the Path of Creation.
Nanook would never allow that.
Caelus fell into thought.
In his current state, something close to an artificial Seventh Tier, fighting Nanook directly would put him at an enormous disadvantage.
He had not fully adapted to the power of Creation.
After all, it was not his own Path.
If the battle continued, it might eventually reach a point where victory became impossible.
At that stage, he would have to rely on outside power again.
But repeatedly borrowing external strength would inevitably create dependence.
God did not like others relying too heavily on HIS power.
So for a long time afterward, Caelus would not be able to directly borrow God's strength again.
And after what happened the last time he borrowed Nyarlathotep's power, Caelus had also decided not to use that ability unless absolutely necessary.
"I want to create a complete Amphoreus."
"But once I actually do that, it means engraving the authority of Creation into this universe."
"That fundamentally conflicts with Destruction."
"It may even bring me into conflict with other Aeons as well."
"Erudition, for example..."
It seemed he needed to change his strategy.
If he refused to rely on outside forces, then the only option was to use Aeons against Aeons.
Caelus took out the Command Block again.
Incidentally, using a kill command to directly eliminate an Aeon was impossible.
Although the Command Block drew upon the System's higher-order power, the actual strength it could exert was still limited to the Seventh Tier.
That was not enough to simply erase an Aeon.
"See you in the next run."
Caelus spoke.
[Input: /time set]
The power of Finality began to move.
Everything in the world blurred.
Reality itself began flowing backward into the past.
At the end of time, a strange existence shrouded in black mist looked down upon the past.
"The power has been borrowed."
HER voice sounded extremely strange, almost as though the words themselves were being played backward.
...
Amphoreus.
A certain cycle in the past.
Caelus's mind blurred for an instant.
The monarch seated upon the throne noticed something wrong with her warrior and asked,
"Lord Inkblade, what's wrong?"
"I'm fine, Caesar."
"I simply remembered something just now, and it affected me for a moment."
Caelus's expression returned to its usual calmness.
"I see."
Cerydra did not question him further.
She simply acknowledged his answer and continued discussing Okhema's newly established administrative system with several nobles.
Caelus slipped one hand into his pocket.
The shrunken Command Block was still there.
"System."
Caelus asked silently.
"I directly returned to an earlier point in this universe's timeline."
"Under these circumstances, does my mission count as completed or not?"
["It counts as completed."]
["A long time ago, there was a Host who was exceptionally talented with time-related abilities."]
["Unfortunately, he was also extremely poor."]
["So he came up with a trick."]
["He repeatedly interfered with the progression of the universe's timeline and exploited a loophole to farm mission rewards, eventually filling an enormous resource deficit for one of his abilities."]
["After that, a new rule was added to the System's regulations."]
["Mission completion is now determined according to the Host's subjective timeline."]
["Still, I really didn't expect that merely reaching the Seventh Tier temporarily to create a planet and living beings would immediately cause Nanook to come after you."]
["Host, the power granted by the Command Block may be extremely strong, but it ultimately isn't your own power."]
["It's external."]
["So losing with it is perfectly normal."]
["Why not follow the original plan?"]
["This mission is already finished."]
["You can leave the Main Universe now."]
["Go to other universes and strengthen yourself."]
["Once you've accumulated enough power, come back and beat Nanook into the ground."]
["Then you can do whatever you want afterward!"]
["You've already completely recorded Amphoreus anyway."]
["So leaving now wouldn't matter."]
"...If I leave, won't destiny and causality bind themselves to Phainon again?"
["There's no way around that."]
["The Savior must exist."]
["Someone must bear the cycles and carry that burden."]
["So yes."]
["That is exactly what would happen."]
Caelus remembered everything he had experienced with Phainon.
Although Phainon's memories were erased after every cycle, no matter what happened, he always treated Caelus as his closest friend.
Even not long ago, after recovering every memory from the previous cycles, Phainon had still treated him exactly the same way.
"I don't want a friend who trusts me and entrusted everything to me to suffer through that again."
["Then what are you going to do?"]
["Summon God?"]
["Or the Awakened One?"]
"I'll use Aeons to deal with Aeons."
After saying that, Caelus raised his head.
His gaze fell upon Cerydra, seated on the throne before him.
She represented Order.
Twelve Titans.
Twelve Paths.
Amphoreus was supposedly a battlefield where three Paths fought to the death?
No.
It was a conflict in which twelve Paths had become entangled.
Caelus's eyes remained on Cerydra.
It was time to drag the spectators onto the stage.
(To be continued.)
Check out my new book : ) As always, trust me, you'll most likely enjoy it.
Overlord: Max-Level Assassin
Under my alt: Junkdog_787. A direct link is also under Author's Thought.