Zarek had no idea how long he was out for. He would normally never make such a mistake—losing consciousness in the middle of enemy territory, when there was an obvious path right to where he was at this moment, was nothing short of a death sentence.
Even if he hadn't noticed them check on his and Crux's battle, that didn't mean they didn't have a method of doing so. For all he knew, they knew the instant he killed Crux and had already been on their way.
The only reason he diverted his attention to the statue at all was because he felt something odd from it. He didn't believe it was a coincidence that there was a great amount of pressure coming from it… and just maybe, it also wasn't a coincidence that the Elixir was the key to breaking through that wall of energy as well.
Given the sheer amount of it, Zarek didn't believe that even a pinnacle C-Class could make it through. The pressure grew exponentially, and without something like the Elixir to make the energy divert itself away, Zarek didn't know if even a C-Class Priya would be able to make it through.
How could he ignore something like that?
Why would a statue need so much protection?
What he didn't expect was to end up suffering pain beyond even his own tolerance—and worse than that, somehow end up making such a rookie mistake.
When Zarek woke up, his first reaction was to instantly scan the room around him as covertly as possible. He hardly moved a muscle, staying in place as though he hadn't gotten up at all. In fact, he even expertly controlled his heart rate so that nothing would tip his hand.
He was indeed not in a place he remembered at all, but there was something sleeping on his chest that left him floored.
Priya?
Did they get captured together?
No, there was no way that Belladoll would let him live when she had such a good opportunity.
And where were they right now?
These walls, this ceiling—wasn't it…
The jewelry shop? How had they ended up back here? What was going on?
Zarek had half a mind to think that he had somehow been reborn again. But when he checked his status page to confirm, he almost couldn't help but frown. Luckily, he still had the self-control to continue pretending as though he was out cold.
—
Name: [Zarek Ashborn]
Role: [Hero Candidate]
Profession: [Anato Scribe]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: D] <B>
>[Dexterity: D-] <B->
>[Intelligence: D+] B+>
>[Endurance: D+] <B>
>[Charisma: DDD] <B>
Talents:
>[Temp Duplicate: E+] <B->
>>[Abilities: Mirror]
[The world's matter…]
>[Harmonic Recall: D-] <B+>
>>[Abilities: Echo]
[The echoes of the past…]
>[Atom Link: F+] <A+>
>>[Abilities: Link]
[The particles of the world…]
>[Anato Codex: F-] <SSS+>
>>[Abilities: Incode]
[Grasp the unique patterns of the world and feel them within yourself. Sense the changes you can cause and tune yourself to the energies within them. Master the natural resources around you, and the greatest natural resource of them all… yourself]
Skills:
>[C Class Scouting: C+] <C+>
…
Notes:
[—]
—
Zarek stared at the screen, turned it off, then back on, then stared at it again.
Anato Codex? What was that? When had he gotten it? Why couldn't he remember anything?
Was it the statue? If that was the case, what about the Godsfall Tear? Were they out of it already? Or could it be that him getting whatever he had from the statue had triggered everything to end early?
But then… did that mean that Priya and the others had managed to fight their way out without him?
On the one hand, Zarek had killed Crux, which made it far easier. But everything else was still heavily not in their favor.
They were outnumbered, for one. Then there was Belladoll. Without the influence of the Godsfall Tear, her mind would likely stabilize and her sharpness would return. That would make her even more difficult to deal with.
Then there was the fact C-Class Turned had almost certainly come to fill in the gaps left by the mink and lizardman.
All of that coming together painted a picture of impossibility. As much as Zarek wanted to believe in Priya and the others, it was hard to see a way they could have escaped.
Mitch and Snooz were limited in their capabilities, not to mention quite injured and fatigued from all the training. As for Zade, Zarek hadn't even seen where he was during the entire Godsfall Tear—he might have even been dead, for all Zarek knew.
Although they had Atom Link, Zarek had to be cautious with how he used it in a Godsfall Tear where even a sniff of the system probably meant death. That wasn't for his sake, obviously. But instead, Zade's.
And of course, there was Priya, who could have probably healed herself quite quickly if she started to use her Talent instead of restricting it, but it wouldn't have been instant—and certainly not enough to deal with such an emergency situation.
But Zarek had already seen it… every one of them was here. Not a single one of them was dead or even on the verge of dying.
'How?'
Just what happened?
Zarek's eyes suddenly sharpened as he felt something in his pocket. He didn't need to look to know what it was…
The Time Fractal.
'Is it really time-related…?'
There was no way. The Time Fractal was something he had personally hidden before entering the Godsfall Tear. It was simply impossible for it to be here—not when Zarek couldn't recall ever going to retrieve it.
That seemed to mean that the only explanation was that they had actually gone back in time? Back to the point before they entered the Godsfall Tear?
Then how was it that he had benefited from the Godsfall Tear already? Why was there a new SSS+ Talent on his screen right now? What was this new Profession that came from it? Why did his head feel somehow more aching, and yet clearer than it ever had been before?