Chapter 101: The Power Of Time
Looking at Greg who used his ability to froze Laura into an ice statue, Eliana was rather confused.
"What is happening here? The moment that girl used her ability I could clearly feel that she sealed his power and the ability to access his Soul Creatures. So how is he able to use it now?"
As she was thinking about this, the skinny guy pointed toward Emma and with a frown, he asked, "Why is that pet still on that girl's shoulder? The seal's time limit has already been lifted?"
Looking where the guy was pointing at, Eliana and the others saw as the fairy that Greg summoned at the beginning was still on Emma's shoulder and was looking around with a relaxed expression.
"Okay... That's it! I give up. I can't understand this guy anymore.", said the skinny guy as he started to massage his forehead as his expression looked rather troubled.
Kuragari looked at the fairy on Emma's shoulder with a calm manner, but after a while, he started to smile and said, "That brat! Haha! He hit the jackpot for real."
The Saint looked at Kuragari and asked, "What do you mean he hit the jackpot?"
Kuragari just smiled at this question and said, "There are occurrences when a zone starts to mutate, resulting in the creatures and the core in there to go through a so-called mutation process. With that, they will get stronger by going up a rank or two, while obtaining a few unique skills."
With a nod, the old man looked at Greg and said, "Yeah, those are very rare happenings. If someone is in the zone while the process is ongoing, not even God would know what will happen. The chance to survive is really low."
"Yes, but there is an even rarer occasion. The moment this mutation has come to its end, there is a likelihood when someone obtains the zone's core, the creature they get will have its own will."
"Will?", asked Eliana with a frown hardly believing what Kuragari was telling them.
"Yes, a will. And as time goes on the creature will gain more strength, while it will form its own personality. And in the end, it will become a separate and free being, which can choose its own decisions in the future."
The expert in the pirate clothing behind Kuragari leaned forward and said with a nod, "Yes he is right. Once I met with a guy also who possessed a similar creature as that boy but with the only difference that it was on the Calamity rank and it had it's own will and personality. They attacked me and my crew, and the result was..."
"Total annihilation. Except for me and Little C, no one was able to survive."
Looking at the pirate as he was stroking the little monkey on his shoulder, Eliana didn't know what to say.
"But how do you know if it wasn't just another person with a shapeshifter ability?", asked the skinny guy from the side.
The pirate turned his gaze at the guy and after thinking for a while he asked, "Would another guy with a shapeshifting ability appear and vanish into another person's Soul Stone just like any other Soul Creature? Because I don't think so."
Hearing his story Kuragari nodded and said, "He is right and that is why I said, Greg has hit the jackpot for real. If he can rank up that pet, he will have a terrifyingly loyal servant in the future, which will be able to make its own decisions and fight without his command."
"So the reason that fairy is not sealed away, because it has already formed a kind of independent aspect?", asked Elian with a serious expression from Kuragari.
With a nod, Kuragari smiled and said, "I start to get incredibly curious what other mysteries this boy hides from me."
While the experts talked amongst each other, on the platform Greg was looking at Jonathan, while thinking about what his next move should be.
"What should I do now? I still can't access my Soul Creatures because of Laura's power. Even though I can use my powers it still feels a bit strange."
As he thought about this, Jonathan before him suddenly smiled and raised his hand.
Seeing this act Greg instantly prepared himself and waited for an attack.
As he raised his hand a small white orb started to form above his palm with strange numbers flying around it.
As this happened, Jonathan looked at Greg and said, "It wouldn't be kind of me not to pay you back what you did to my sister."
With a frown, Greg tilted his head to the side and wanted to ask a question, but before he could suddenly his eyes widened.
It wasn't because of a sudden attack, but instead because Jonathan without the slightest warning appeared behind Emma, while he reached his hand toward her back.
"When?!"
Seeing Jonathan's sudden appearance, the fairy on top of Emma's shoulder suddenly turned angry, and after flying up into the air she waved her little hand toward him.
Seeing this, Jonathan hesitated a bit, but after noticing that nothing special happened he just smiled and continued his move.
The Saint up on the estrade saw as this happened and suddenly his eyes brightened and said seriously, "Bad choice."
And just as he said that suddenly a strange scene happened.
*Swish!*
"Argh!"
Jumping back in an instant, Jonathan held his fingers with clenched teeth, while a small amount of blood started to flow between his fingers.
As he did that Greg appeared before Emma, protecting her from Jonathan's sight and attacking line.
"What happened?", asked the skinny guy confusedly.
The Saint looked at the fairy and said, "That pet can create wind blades so thin that they are almost invisible. If I didn't have paid enough attention I wouldn't have saw it either. Mutant pets are really something else."
Hearing this, a few experts were surprised and concentrated even more than before, but no matter how hard they tried to look, they didn't see anything. Only a small vibration in the air could be seen where Jonathan's fingers were about to touch Emma.
Greg looked at Jonathan who was looking at his cut fingers. From out of the five fingers, four were cut so deeply that the bones under the skin were fully visible to the eyes.
"Interesting. An ability, which can put an almost invisible wind blade around a specific area. The best way to annihilate careless opponents."
As he said that he raised his palm with the strange white orb above it and said calmly, "Rewind"
In an instant, as he said that word, the strange-looking numbers around the white orb flew toward his wounded fingers, and the cuts on his fingers started to heal.
However, it wasn't a simple regeneration because the sight was much complicated than that.
The wound didn't heal, but simply went back in time. It was like playing a move backward because the parts that were cut by the fairy's attack flew up from the ground and attached them back onto Jonathan's finger.
In less than a second, the finger was just as fine looking as it was a moment ago.
"However before absolute power, it is nothing more than a mere joke."
The moment he said that he straightened his back and pointed at Emma behind Greg and said, "Let me demonstrate it for you what I mean under this statement."
Seeing what Jonathan was about to do, Greg wanted to stop him, but before he could Jonathan talked.
"Halt."
In a single second, Greg's body froze in one spot. However, it wasn't the same as yesterday, because, at that time, Jonathan used his ability to froze time itself, making everyone in the Arena unable to remember what happened.
But this time it was different. The moment his body was frozen in the air, Greg noticed that even though he couldn't move he saw and heard everything clearly. It was just like Nick's power, but a bit more powerful.
Seeing that Greg was trapped by a strange power Emma stepped forward and was about to order the fairy to help her when suddenly Jonathan looked at her and said calmly, "Stop."
In an instant, the white light lit up above his hand again and suddenly numbers appeared around her body.
As this happened Emma looked quite confused, but the next second, like losing her strength somehow, she fell to the ground while clenching the left side of her chest.
Seeing this Greg started to get worried and tried to move, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't.
Jonathan seeing as Greg struggled he smiled and said, "I will stop and restart her heart functioning from time to time until you don't use 'that power'. But don't worry, I won't break the rule and kill her. I will just make her suffer a bit."
As he said that he waved his hand and in an instant, the numbers stopped moving around Emma, making her body relax in instant. However, even like this, her face looked quite pale.
Looking at Emma's painful expression Greg started to get angry, but still, he couldn't do anything. He had the mask's power to free himself, but that would result in him being busted in an instant.
Watching Greg was not doing anything, Jonathan smiled and waved his hand again, and just like a second ago, suddenly Emma clenched her chest while her face showed as she was struggling against unimaginable pain.
Watching as Jonathan played with Emma's heart like a toy made all of the people in the Arena to turn quiet in an instant.
Among the spectators, Joe and Mila looked incredibly angry as they looked at this sight. On Joe's hand, even small lightning bolts could be seen appearing from time to time, showing just how angry he was at the moment.
Somewhere else in the hord of people, Juan looked at Jonathan with a frown and said, "That guy... He is much crueler than I thought. But what could possibly be the reason behind his behavior?"
Cloud on the side wanted to stop Jonathan's torture, but no matter how hard he thought for a reason to stop him, there was none. It was because Jonathan didn't break any rules, because except for killing, everything was accepted.
The experts up on the estrade looked at this sight with different expressions too. Some looked confused, some looked angry, while some looked expressionless.
The later one was Kuragari and a while later he said quietly, "He is just looking for his death."
Turning their heads to the side, Eliana and the Saint looked rather confused, but before they could ask the reason why Kuragari said what he said, suddenly a blinding light broke out from the platform.
The moment people turned their heads to see what was happening, all of their eyes widened in an instant. Some of them even stood up with wide open mouths not believing what they were just seeing at the moment.
Not far away from him, Cloud looked at Greg's figure as he was gently holding Emma's unconscious body in his arms, while a black mask, which represented a smiling demon was slowly appearing on his face.
"What the..."