Chapter 73: 73 – Check, riposte

In the Crimson Dragon mountain range, a strange sight was occurring. The area was infamous for the hordes of crimson dragons that surrounded the peaks. Hordes dense enough that, at times, it appeared as if there were crimson mists surrounding the peaks.

Each crimson dragon was powerful. Enough to where it would often take coordination between teams of A and S-ranked adventurers to fell even a single one.

In short, the crimson dragons were peak predators. Beings of enough power that they could go practically anywhere with impunity.

Fearless.

They knew caution and could tell when they were outmatched. But there was no being alive that they feared.

But that changed.

On one particular mountain peak... Or rather, on the plateau that had formed after the mountain peak was cut by Rudy's spell, crimson dragons scrambled, frantically smacking each other back to the ground as they tried to escape from a predator beyond even them.

"How interesting." A quiet but stern voice. With it, an invisible pulse of power welled up, suddenly dragging a crimson dragon towards the center of the plateau.

It roared, frantically flapping its wings to try and escape. But before it could, a white blur crossed the plateau. From that blur, a hand reached out, tiny in comparison to the crimson dragon's giant form.

And then the crimson dragon exploded, erupting into red mist.

But not blood. No, the crimson dragon hadn't been turned into a mist of blood. Instead, it had been ripped apart into raw mana.

The one responsible for that stepped forward, walking into the mist.

A white fur coat. Silver hair and golden eyes. A stern face that seemed like it hadn't smiled in centuries.

Orsted.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, drawing in the crimson mist. And as he did, he felt his mana reserves fill. It was a miniscule amount, far from enough to help him cast any of his higher level spells or techniques. But the fact that it replenished at all...

Orsted opened his eyes and then laughed. After that, he glanced at the glimmering crimson crystal in his left hand and said, "Hitogami- No. As Rudeus would call you, 'Being W.'" The Dragon God smirked and said, "You have made a fatal blunder. While I know not what circumstances led to this outcome... It appears that this timeline shall be your last."

A mere byproduct from Rudeus's spell had the ability to reduce living creatures into raw mana. And while Orsted was still researching the crystal's properties, his intuition told him that it could potentially serve as a catalyst to convert other mana as well.

If this was what Rudeus could create by accident, then what could that child do in the future? No, what *would* that child do in the future?

Orsted shook his head and then looked at the quivering crimson dragons around him.

They stared back, frozen in fear.

Orsted thought for a few moments and then nodded. "You all have become too arrogant."

With just those words, he stepped forward and grabbed another crimson dragon, converting it into mana.

Roars filled the air. But unlike the usual fearless battle cries the dragons usually sent, they sounded more like strangled screams.

-LIV-

In the Citadel of Roa, Technique God Laplace, currently under the alias of Pierre Simon, stared out at the Fedoa region from the highest tower of the Boreas Manor.

Glancing at the Crimson Dragon mountain range and then at Buina village, Laplace clicked his tongue and said, "Both my little brother and that little rascal are getting a bit too excited."

His emerald eyes flashed, turning a pure gold. And with that, he could see it.

Distortions were forming. Tiny ripples that were insignificant right now but would quickly swell into unstoppable tidal waves if left unchecked.

Laplace rested his hand on the hilt of the crimson sword sheathed at his left side. As he did, he thoughtfully rapped his fingers on it and said, "It was only a moment, but Perugius would definitely move now that Demon God Laplace's mana flared up again. And Being W's bound to have realized the 'dead end' he created by trying to rush things to avoid 'fate'... Not to mention that the future is narrowed even further now."

One of Laplace's eyes turned green again. But instead of a normal pupil, it was a spiral.

"...At this rate, it's checkmate. Even if he moves his apostles, things won't change. He can try to rope Perugius in, but I can handle that. And my little brother Orsted should have fixed his mana situation from that radioactive mana waste that little rascal accidentally created... which means it's over."

The end. The way that the flow of destiny was going, all the paths led to Hitogami's demise. And the more he tried disturbing it, the more that events would speed up.

Since that guy could see the future too, he was bound to be panicking. Especially after Laplace dismantled the source of the upcoming metastasis event that guy tried to trigger early.

Which meant this was the critical time period. After all...

"A cornered beast is the most dangerous." Laplace muttered and continued gazing at the distortions. "What will you do now that you're mortal, Being W? That side's battle already ended in our win, so this is your last shot."

A soft wind blew past, ruffling the white coat that Laplace wore. And then soft footsteps echoed from the stairway behind him.

"Master? Are you still up here?" Rostelina's voice.

Laplace deactivated his magic eyes and then turned around with a soft smile. "Just keeping an eye on things. Did you have fun-" His words stopped in his throat when he saw what Rostelina was wearing.

Or rather, what she *wasn't* wearing.

Rostelina let out a coy smile and said, "You've been using a lot of mana recently, so it's time for a mana transfer, isn't it?"

"..."

-LIV-

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"Dammit. Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT!"

In the Void World, the boundless space between the former six worlds, Hitogami roared and thrashed about.

"How?! How does that kid keep having things work in his favor!?"

Hitogami gnashed his teeth and then growled, "Rudeus Greyrat...!"

He swept his arm through the empty space and then gazed into the future again.

A split stream. The river of time that was originally one branched off into countless streams.

A few of them had dried up, but that was fine. The others were still going, so Hitogami didn't think of it much.

But it suddenly changed.

In an instant, Hitogami had a vision of his end. But not just one end.

Two, three... Ten, twenty. A hundred. A thousand.

In the infinite possibilities he could see, all of them led to his end. But not only that, in each end, he sent a message back to his past self.

'Don't provoke him. Rudeus Greyrat must not become your enemy.'

"What the fuck do you mean, 'don't provoke him'?! If I leave a dangerous kid like that alone, I'm going to die anyway, you dumbass!"

If he could, Hitogami wanted to reach out and strangle his future self.

"How did this mess even happen!?"

A sudden change. Seven years ago. Before that kid was born, everything was great. He had his apostles all over the world and was free to manipulate things as he wished.

There was a weird anomaly around that he couldn't see throwing things off, but it wasn't a big deal. That guy couldn't move 'fate' much anyway.

But then that kid was born.

Rudeus Greyrat.

The moment that kid was born, the future blurred. Not only that, but the river of time split into two main streams, one split into countless more streams, each showing his death. The other showed himself wrapped up and chained before a group of people he didn't know, forced to a fate worse than death.

The singular future broke. Time itself shattered and distorted, split in twain.

And now Hitogami was caught in the flow, just like everyone else.

"Dammit. DAMMIT!"

A dead-end. His death. After all that he worked to accomplish? After all the careful ploys and gambits he executed to take out the other gods and get his role as the one true god?

"No. I won't accept this."

Hitogami gnashed his teeth and glared back at the river of time.

He was stuck now.

If he could, he would have chosen the stream leading to being chained since there was a margin of success. Since he managed to pluck that lost soul adrift in time and glance at his memories, Hitogami knew what he had to do to prevent falling into that trap.

But he missed it.

The moment Hitogami grabbed that soul, he locked himself into the other path. The one with numerous dead ends.

Meaning...

"Subtlety didn't work. Direct interference didn't work either because there's a cheating bastard hiding from me here. Then... fine. If you want to cheat, I'll cheat too you son of a bitch."

There were cracks.

Since time fractured once already, it was easily fractured again. And because it was easily fractured, the established 'fate' was one that could crumble at the slightest interference.

Which meant that he could act. The distortions unfolding meant the spell that damned Dragon God placed on Hitogami to keep him in the Void World were slipping.

"...I'll let you have your fun for now."

He watched Rudy play around with his baby sisters. He saw the ripple of power from an invisible source at the Crimson Dragon mountain range. He observed Perugius set off with his servants to strengthen the seal on Demon God Laplace.

The distortion that he planned to use to change the board wouldn't work anymore. That cheating bastard hiding from his view had erased it.

But that wasn't the only one Hitogami had in store. No, no. Fate had changed a fair bit around Roa, but not as much as a certain other area.

Hitogami let out a chilling smile as he stared at Buina village. Focusing his gaze back on Rudy, he said, "Have fun. Get stronger. Grow up, make friends, fall in love... Enjoy your life and make beautiful memories. That's going to make it all the more satisfying when I take it all from you, Rudeus Greyrat."

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