MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 986: Friend

Aaaninja Chronisynth Eternos sighed as he watched Lucian Darkheart close his eyes and accept his death. Aaaninja stood silent for a moment; with his Eyes Of Genesis, he could see the vitality leaving Lucian’s body, he could see his Mana Rank dropping swiftly with terrifying rapidity, cascading downward as though existence itself had decided to erase his presence layer by layer.

Aaaninja felt his heart tighten for a moment. Throughout his entire life, he had never truly had friends, as no one could keep up with him due to his absurd and unparalleled talent. Those who tried to get close to him simply wanted to use him for one purpose or another, and Aaaninja never bothered with those types of people, dismissing them with quiet indifference and an almost casual detachment.

Lucian was one of the only two friends he had made throughout his life. Yes, throughout the century of his existence, he had only two friends, Anthony and Lucian. And now, when he had finally gained friends he could acknowledge without suspicion or restraint, one was dying right in front of him, his life slipping away like sand through unseen fingers.

Just because he had lost to Lucian did not mean that he hated Lucian or that he now thought differently of him. No, Lucian still remained his friend, and no true friend would simply stand and watch another friend die without defying heaven, earth, and fate itself to prevent it.

With that, an enormous amount of mana exploded forth from Aaaninja’s mana core. Although during the battle he had expended every last drop of his mana, because of his decapitation and subsequent resurrection, he was now restored back to his peak. The air screamed as though torn apart by invisible claws, planets trembled in their orbits, suns dimmed and distant starlight flickered as mana burned through the fabric of space itself, warping reality under its sheer density.

Aaaninja’s voice echoed across the collapsing vacuum as he activated one of his skills;

Causal Nexus Control

The moment he activated the skill, the time particles trembled in joy and reverent glee, then warped and wrapped around him and Lucian in immediate response to the invocation of the authority embedded within the technique.

Causal Nexus Control allowed Aaaninja to manipulate the chain of causality itself, determining outcomes indirectly by altering the links that bound cause and effect together. As of this moment, he was attempting to ensure that Lucian remained alive and that he regained his Mana Rank. Aaaninja activated his Eyes Of Genesis once more, and the power behind the Causal Nexus Control skill skyrocketed to an unprecedented magnitude.

Time distorted violently around the two of them; it seemed to accelerate, then decelerate, then vanish entirely before reasserting its presence in fractured layers, behaving erratically as though unsure of its own continuity.

Aaaninja’s Eyes Of Genesis suddenly exploded outward in a grotesque burst of blood and tissue, yet he did not react in the slightest. In the next instant, a new set of Eyes Of Genesis regenerated seamlessly and replaced the destroyed ones. But it was not limited to that alone; he began vomiting blood, thick and dark, staining the void.

Yet Aaaninja did not stop. He poured even more mana into the skill as he gritted his teeth, his eyes bleeding relentlessly, his nose flowing with crimson, his ears rupturing, his mouth overflowing with blood, his lungs burning as though set ablaze, his heart aching under immense strain, his mana core trembling violently as if it would shatter at any given second. Still, Aaaninja refused to stop. Pain was merely pain; it was a sensation he could endure, a trivial price for defying inevitability.

However, no matter what he attempted, none of it worked. After all, he was trying to reverse the backlash of something he did not even know existed. Although he was powerful, he was not yet powerful enough to alter the outcome of a certainty that existed on a scale beyond his current comprehension... not yet.

’I need to call upon the River Of Time,’ he thought to himself, and he immediately established a connection without hesitation or delay.

The River Of Time was a sentient being. Although it manifested as a flowing river, that did not mean it could not think or comprehend. The River Of Time had been watching from the very beginning; its hidden gaze had been fixed upon Lucian from the moment he used that unknown and overwhelmingly powerful ability. After all, that ability had eclipsed even it, and it was the River Of Time, how many entities in existence could possibly eclipse it in power and authority.

Normally, the River Of Time did not interfere with mortal affairs and simply observed, allowing events to unfold according to their ordained progression, but this time it would intervene, as Aaaninja had asked, and besides, it was curious. The next moment, it responded to Aaaninja, sending forth its reply across the continuum.

Aaaninja frowned immediately at the response he received from the River Of Time. The River had told him to abandon any attempt to save everything, which included Lucian’s Mana Rank, his skills and abilities, and even his grievous injuries for the time being. Since the source of the backlash existed on a level higher than both of them, it was best that every ounce of energy be directed solely toward preserving Lucian Darkheart’s life. Once that objective was secured... they would proceed from there when the moment arrived.

Aaaninja clenched his teeth. Would Lucian remain the same sarcastic and infuriatingly confident individual without his skills and abilities? Would he remain the same person without his Mana Rank, without the very power that defined his existence?

But Aaaninja knew he could not afford delay. He agreed immediately, and the River Of Time began its work without hesitation. An overwhelming torrent of Temporal Quanta tore through the entire Galaxy as an enormous, golden, ever-flowing river manifested openly within reality. From the river, a gigantic, colossal golden eye tore itself open, one composed entirely of Continuum Specks, Momentshards, Hourglass Grains, Temporal Granules, and Time Atoms, Chrono Dust, each fragment shimmering with primordial authority.

In the next instant, levels and gradients of temporal energy that Aaaninja had never conceived of descended from the eye in the sky. They collapsed into him, flooding his being with incomprehensible power, with Laws and Concepts he had never known existed until this very moment.

Aaaninja’s mind, soul, body, and eyes brimmed with immeasurable power. His consciousness filled with knowledge to the point that his brain should have exploded under the sheer weight of it, but he was being supported and reinforced by the River Of Time itself, and thus his brain remained intact, sustained by forces beyond mortal limitation.

With seemingly infinite mana and boundless knowledge now within his grasp, Aaaninja’s lips parted as he spoke, his Eyes Of Genesis evolving further as the clock-like patterns within them rotated, the right eye turning in a perfect clockwise motion, the left revolving in precise anticlockwise rotation, signifying a synchronization with the primal current of eternity itself.