The Evolution Of A Goblin To The Peak

Chapter 1332: Great Shen Empire: Souta vs. Thousand Earth and Kers Time II

Three blessings activated simultaneously, their powers intertwining as they stacked atop one another. An immense surge of energy coursed through Souta’s body, further elevating his strength and pushing his combat abilities to an even higher level.

Souta lifted his gaze toward something ordinary people couldn’t perceive.

‘Although I’d like to absorb all these souls, I can’t do that right now. I’ve given one of my earrings to my clone, so I can’t activate [Soul Blood Mode].’

He briefly considered his options before dismissing the thought.

‘Well, it’s fine. Things haven’t reached the point where I need to use that skill yet.’

The other earring, the remaining half of the pair, was safely guarded in the Blood Realm. It contained Saya’s remnants, making it an item that required the utmost care.

He couldn’t afford to lose it.

“It’s time,” Souta muttered.

He bent his knees slightly before launching himself toward Kers Time and Thousand Earth.

Swoosh!!

The two reacted differently to his approach. Thousand Earth stepped forward, preparing to meet Souta head-on, while Kers Time leaped backward. The power of time swirled violently around his body, growing more intense with every passing second.

[Butterfly Field Time]!

[Archetype: Hourglass of Time]!

[Sovereignty of Time End]!

Ohm!!

A strange, incomprehensible power swept across the land, engulfing everything within a thirty-kilometer radius.

In the Royal Capital below, the panicking people suddenly stopped moving.

Some froze in midair. Others were suspended just before their bodies could be torn apart by explosions. Some remained motionless with tears streaming down their faces, their mouths open in silent cries of desperation.

Every living being within the Royal Capital had been brought to a standstill.

But it wasn’t just the living.

Flames ceased flickering. Air currents stopped flowing. Smoke hung motionless in the sky, while dust and debris remained suspended exactly where they had been.

Everything had stopped.

The strange power extended across a vast stretch of land, swallowing the Royal Capital and reaching other cities within the thirty-kilometer radius.

Yet this unnatural stillness lasted only a few moments for some of those caught within its grasp.

Then, time began to behave erratically.

Some people aged rapidly, their bodies withering away in the blink of an eye. Objects crumbled into dust, their existence seemingly consumed by the passage of time, while others reverted to their previous states as though time itself had been rewound.

The flow of time across the entire region had descended into chaos.

Buildings that had been reduced to rubble suddenly reconstructed themselves, their shattered walls and broken foundations returning to their original forms. Elsewhere, intact structures rapidly decayed, collapsing into piles of dust and debris.

Past, present, and future seemed to overlap, their boundaries dissolving beneath the influence of Kers Time’s terrifying power.

Amid this temporal chaos, Kers Time roared.

Four pairs of grayish energy wings burst from his back, unfurling behind him as an overwhelming aura erupted from his body.

Even this distorted flow of time failed to stop Souta’s advance.

Kers Time’s expression darkened.

He had to increase his power further.

He thrust his palm toward Souta, releasing a strange energy that surged through the air.

Ohm!!

Souta suddenly stopped in midair.

The darkness surrounding his body froze. The blood-colored lightning crackling across his armor fell silent, its crimson arcs suspended in place. Even his best feram came to an abrupt halt, every trace of movement vanishing in an instant.

Everything about him had stopped.

‘This is…?’

Souta’s eyes widened slightly.

His body wouldn’t move. His energy couldn’t flow. Even the darkness and lightning that he controlled had been frozen in place, trapped within an invisible prison that seemed to transcend the laws of nature.

Yet there was one thing that remained untouched.

His thoughts.

His consciousness continued to function even as time itself restrained his body.

Without hesitation, Souta unleashed every ounce of power he could muster. His energy surged violently within him, straining against the invisible restrictions imposed upon his existence.

The pressure intensified.

The frozen space around him trembled.

BANG!!

A sharp, crystalline sound echoed in his ears, like glass shattering into countless fragments.

Souta suddenly felt a tremendous force slam into his body.

The impact shattered his defenses. His veins bulged and ruptured beneath his skin, while his muscles tore apart under the sheer brutality of the blow.

He had been trapped by the time stop for only a brief moment, but that was all Thousand Earth needed.

The instant Souta’s movements were restricted, Thousand Earth had seized the opportunity to unleash a devastating strike against him.

The force hurled Souta away for several kilometers before he crashed violently into the ground.

BOOOM!!!

The earth erupted upon impact, sending rocks and debris flying in every direction. A massive crater formed beneath him as dust billowed into the sky, obscuring the place where his body had landed.

Kers Time took a deep breath, staring toward the distant impact site.

“He’s so strong… But even a moment of restriction was enough for us to injure him.”

Thousand Earth flew over to his side and shook his head.

“This isn’t enough to defeat him. If you know anything about the Blood Lightning Monster, then you should know that inflicting severe injuries on him won’t be enough. His recovery ability makes him practically immortal.”

“I see…” Kers Time nodded, his expression turning serious. “Then I’ll focus on stopping the time of his regeneration.”

It was a more difficult task than simply stopping Souta’s movements.

By concentrating his power specifically on the process of regeneration, Kers Time could potentially prevent Souta’s body from recovering. However, given the Blood Lightning Monster’s overwhelming strength, they knew such a restriction wouldn’t last long.

Stopping the flow of time within a specific process required an extraordinary degree of control and power. Kers Time would have to isolate the very concept of regeneration and prevent it from progressing.

Another option was to reverse time, forcing Souta’s body back to a state before he possessed such an absurd regenerative ability.

However, Kers Time doubted that approach would work.

Against someone weaker than himself, reversing time to erase a particular ability might have been possible. But Souta was far too powerful. Attempting to impose such a drastic alteration on him could cause the technique to backfire, leaving Kers Time vulnerable instead.

After all, stopping time was far easier than reversing it.

…

At the center of the impact crater, Souta lay on the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood. His wounds had already begun to heal, and crimson blood flowed across his damaged armor, filling the cracks and repairing the shattered sections.

“That hurts…”

Souta muttered as he slowly rose to his feet. With a casual wave of his hand, he swept away the surrounding smoke and dust, revealing the enormous crater left by his impact.

“An Archetype with the power of time… This is troublesome. His abilities can even affect me.”

He narrowed his eyes, recalling the sensation of his body being frozen in place.

“Stopping, reversing, and accelerating the flow of time for objects and living beings… What a troublesome ability.”

The power of time.

It was an incredibly rare ability, one that had inspired both fear and fascination throughout history.

There was an old story about those who wielded this power being hunted down. Some people believed that time manipulators could reverse the flow of time within a dead person’s body, restoring them to the state they had been in while alive.

In theory, it was possible to reverse the body’s deterioration, restore its damaged organs, and return it to its former condition.

But there was one insurmountable problem.

There was no soul.

No matter how perfectly the body was restored, reversing time couldn’t bring back the soul of the deceased.

Once the chains of the Soul Realm claimed a soul, there was no way to retrieve it. Not even the higher entities could defy this absolute rule.

When a soul was taken by those chains, the process of purification would begin, gradually returning it to its most primal, nascent form. Eventually, reincarnation would follow.

However, even after countless attempts, no one had discovered a reliable way to preserve the memories of a past life through this process.

Death remained an absolute boundary that even the power of time couldn’t cross.

Still, countless beings continued to delve into the mysteries of the soul, desperately searching for a way to overcome this limitation. Perhaps some had already succeeded, but if such a breakthrough had occurred, its discoverers might have chosen to remain hidden.

After all, a discovery of that magnitude would throw the entire world into turmoil.

Souta shook his head, pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind.

Now wasn’t the time to dwell on such matters.

He was in the middle of a battle against two formidable opponents, one of whom possessed an Archetype capable of manipulating time itself.

He needed to focus on the fight ahead.

“Oh?”

Souta sensed something and raised his head toward the sky.

Kers Time and Thousand Earth noticed it as well. Both turned their heads and gazed upward, their expressions growing wary.

Thanks for reading and I hope you like it.