The Stubborn Skill-Grinder In A Time Loop

“My Prince! The puppet’s army has been spotted on the horizon! They… they come in extreme numbers!” a messenger declared.

“Man your posts! I shall take to the field myself; we do not fight alone this day!” the Prince declared as he looked at Orodan.

“I’d love to fight, but I feel I should at least ask how you rescued me,” Orodan said.

“We’d been tracking your movements since you arrived in the Ascendent Sword Cluster,” Zhou Shan said. “Unfortunately, reaching you while you were within Swordmist City wasn’t feasible. The third army’s base of power is here, in the dimensional divide. Our agents, few that they are, have been subject to continual rooting out by my father’s forces, and any diversion of forces from here to outside would be viciously preyed upon by the forces of the puppet.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you mustered the power to beat that thing,” Orodan said. “It was stronger than even the Celestial Emperor.”

“What thing? You were too far to see visually, yet we sensed you in the middle of some form of combat, but a strange interference surrounded you,” the Prince explained. “Something caused the interference to clear for a brief moment, and I took advantage of that.”

That raised more questions. Mainly about just who or what had assisted him in that critical moment. Otherwise, Orodan was certain he might have truly died against the Administrator.

That thing corrupted and maddened as it was, had said many things of great import. Other time loopers? A benefactor that put him in the time loops? And space outside of the System where he was vulnerable to a true death?

The universe was a truly gigantic place, and his worldview had irrevocably expanded with just one ill-fated meeting. The number of threats looming in the horizon were aplenty, but so were the potential allies, after all, he’d been saved by an unknown force and the subsequent actions of Prince Zhou Shan.

“I see, thank you, truly,” Orodan said, genuinely meaning it. He’d truly gotten caught up in a mad lust for battle, but now that his mind had cleared a bit, he felt more than a minor amount of guilt. Throwing his own life away was one thing, but Zaessythra and his world depended upon him now. “I owe you one. Zhou Shan, was it? I’ll remember this.”

The Prince only shook his head in response and extended a hand towards Orodan; he took it.

“You owe me nothing, I simply saw a man in trouble and chose to help, as is the right thing to do,” Zhou Shan replied. “And if honor still dictates you feel a need to repay me, then join us in this battle.”

Why, that had been Orodan’s intention from the get-go!

“I would’ve joined in this fight even if you hadn’t saved my life,” Orodan replied. “Come, battle awaits!”

He moved to immediately gather his sword and shield from the ground. Somehow, in a stroke of true fortune, both his precious weapons from Ogdenborough had survived. Yes, they were mere Apprentice-level armaments, and in a battlefield where the enemies were Grandmasters, what use could they be? But to Orodan, the shield had saved his life innumerable times, and the sword had slain thousands of his enemies.

Their effectiveness was allowed only through the use of his Domain Of Perfect Cleaning which had Weapon Aura underneath its umbrella, but Orodan considered them important all the same.

For the first time, he took a proper look around, taking in his surroundings.

The landscape was similar to the impossible and dream-like geography of the Celestial Court. Which meant they were in another dimension altogether, one where both Gods and Transcendents could exist in their true forms. From what Jian Ren had told him during one of the checkpoint loops on Xian, important places of power and diplomacy within the universe were often hosted in such a dimension where Gods could remain without having to burn divine power, and where Transcendents could enter through a designated passageway.

In the distance, looming over everything. Larger than an entire world… was a gigantic whirling vortex. It was composed of pure white, and even from here Orodan could hear, feel and sense the trillions of beings… souls. The souls of the deceased were entering from various points, deaths on the worlds of the Ascendent Sword Cluster. And as souls entered, souls also left the nexus, flitting towards the worlds to inhabit new life, most without memories of their past lives.

This could only be the soul nexus.

And it was with this soul nexus as the backdrop that the Third Army was situated.

A large and expansive war camp, with red banners of an axe flying about everywhere. Soldiers weren’t bothering with the frilly drills he’d seen in Swordmist City, but instead stood with grim faces, dwelling on their own thoughts or meditating before battle. These weren’t fresh-faced recruits, but veteran soldiers.

He’d never been in a pitched battle where one military force engaged another. But the scene was something he’d at least learned of during basic training for the county militia. The method and arrangements of war seemed familiar in some respects to what he’d been taught of Inuanan military operations.

Soldiers were grouped into units, such as groups of swordsmen, units of spears and halberds, and formations of archers and javelineers. Of course, there were some mixed units as well, and numerous flying monsters, particularly the strange serpent-like dragons, also added to the matter by providing air support and remaining ready to contest the enemy’s control of the skies. The back ranks held some gigantic artillery pieces, and some robed individuals who were surrounded by strange flags. Formation masters.

It was a well-organized army with the caveat that every soldier was at the Grandmaster-level. Something completely out-of-place on Alastaia as Grandmasters weren’t nearly common enough to form an entire army.

But, a civilization that was billions of years old and spanned many worlds could feasibly organize such a thing.

All in all, the third army numbered roughly ten-thousand, all of the troops Grandmasters at minimum.

Which meant it was a dire situation that the enemy numbered over forty-thousand.

The battlefield wasn’t mountainous, sloped, or in any way obscured. It was a perfectly flat plain of battle where two armies could engage one another fairly. Why the numerically smaller force had chosen to commit to this slugfest, Orodan didn’t know, but he approved of course.

And the clear battlefield allowed him a nice view of the enemy army.

Forty-thousand strong, the weakest were Grandmasters, and they had plenty of lieutenants and commanders who were Transcendents. There were some differences in the enemy army however, chiefly that their flying monsters weren’t serpentine dragons, but some kind of fell-beast which looked rather devilish in nature. And their front ranks were composed of cultivators, but also some sort of smaller minotaur which wore armor and wielded weapons like a humanoid would. A majority of their frontline was composed of these minotaurs.

“Bull demons… the Dao-less scum bring their slaves borrowed from the hells to wear us down first,” one soldier nearby muttered.

Orodan vaguely recalled Akelrim saying something about bull demons before, although that was before he knew the Vedharna was an otherworlder who’d fallen into the body of an Alastaian.

“Are they strong?” Orodan asked the soldier.

“They have a Demonic Might skill which puts them on par with our body cultivators,” the soldier replied.

“This will be a hard-fought battle, Orodan,” Zhou Shan said as he walked up from behind to stand next to him. “This is the greatest force they’ve ever brought to bear thus far.”

“Would I be arrogant to presume it’s because of me?”

“No, you wouldn’t, because it’s true. The puppet Sovereign’s intelligence network doubtlessly informed him of your arrival, and the addition of a Celestial skill bearer to our ranks must’ve concerned him,” Zhou Shan replied. “They aren’t stupid. Giving us any time to become entrenched and properly utilize your prowess would be foolish, hence they strike now.”

“Quite the numbers arrayed before us…”

“Indeed, we must fight conservatively. Fear not, I too am a bearer of a Celestial skill, with my axe working in concert with your cleaning, we shall beat this foe back!” Zhou Shan heroically promised. “Now then let us- wait, what are you doing?!”

What was Orodan doing?

Nothing but the usual for him…

…which involved charging into the ranks of the enemy army by himself.

“Hahaha! I’ll take you all on! Nobody else gets a single kill!”

This was the declaration of Orodan Wainwright.

This was a real battlefield, and today, he would annihilate the entire enemy army by himself. As many checkpoint loops as it took.

The Celestial Emperor was devious, and Orodan would have to admit, intelligent. The man refused to allow Orodan the opportunity to use him as a stepping stone. But these foes? They presented the perfect opportunity.

Armies in the midst of battle weren’t unguarded. An army had countermeasures for virtually every situation and method of attack. On Inuan, standing armies had mind magic specialists, chronomancers, spatiomancers, and soul magic specialists alongside a suite of supporting troops all meant to safeguard against the enemy.

So, when the enemy army had their space-lock formation shattered with brute force and power as a Spatial Fold got through, it was cause for concern.

“It’s the enemy Celestial!”

“-did he get past the space-lock?!”

“Enough! Front ranks! Advance and engage!” a powerful commander bellowed. Orodan sensed the woman was a Transcendent, wielding the whip, akin to a slave-driver for these strange minotaur-men. “Back ranks! Coiling Serpent Formation, now! Open fire!”

One moment he was poised to return the charge and clash against a thousand-strong unit of bull demons. They were each Grandmasters, but Orodan was strong and held faith in his ability to win through time and attrition. But what he didn’t expect, was for the back rank right behind the bull-demon unit to suddenly become surrounded by green Qi which coalesced into the form of a giant serpent.

This giant serpent shot out a volley of empowered arrows towards him, and his body was immediately blasted full of holes.

“Hahah! We’ve struck a mortal blow! Are you sure that’s the Celestial?”

“What the… how did these archers die?”

Orodan swiftly recovered from having multiple penetration wounds inflicted upon him and met the Bull Demons in melee.

One man, wielding sword and shield in melee, against a thousand-strong unit of great axe-wielding monsters all two heads bigger than even him. Yet, the first ten who made contact with him were sent flying like leaves in a gale. His sword and shield began lashing out, fourteen clones of him appeared and Orodan Wainwright began a furious melee against an entire frontline unit of bull demons.

Yes, he was far stronger than each bull demon. But they were still Grandmasters, and more importantly, their Physical Fitness equivalent skill stretched farther than it would on a regular human. Which meant they hit far harder than a normal Grandmaster. Orodan took hits here and there as the thousand-strong unit swarmed him with numbers.

“Strike hard! We shall claim glory for avenging the Devil King’s failure!”

“The human shall fall eventually!”

“Kill it before it becomes a greater threat!”

The bull demons roared and snarled their threats as they hacked, slashed and gored Orodan. For every ten foes he slew, ten blows were received.

The situation would’ve been a gradual death by a thousand cuts…

…for someone without his healing capabilities.

The first sign that they were catching on was when the nearby bull demons began hesitating in their attacks, unwilling to engage him in melee. The last four that felt brave and were too slow to catch on, died as their own blows were returned with a more than five times multiplier.

“Mistress! We cannot defeat the foe!” one of the mightier bull demons cried out. It was the unit captain, the leader of this particular group of a thousand. “Its healing is monstrous, and it’s far too strong!”

However, hesitant as they were, something drove them to continue assaulting Orodan, and they suffered many more casualties as a result. Lives were reaped by the dozen as All-Strikes shot out and killed many at a time, and Warrior’s Reciprocity made them pay for every strike they landed. Furthermore, he began reaching out with Vision Of Purity and Domain Of Perfect Cleaning; what he saw was an opportunity.

The bull demons were almost suicidal in their attacks, but it wasn’t natural. As though their instincts had been overridden by something. And that overriding reason… was a powerful command within their minds. These bull demons were not only slaves in name, but in mind too. The cultivators had some method of controlling them.

Domain Of Perfect Cleaning shot out and began purifying the corrupted parts of their mind where this control mechanism took root.

[Domain Of Perfect Cleaning 78 → Domain Of Perfect Cleaning 79]

Almost immediately, the commanding whip-wielding cultivator had a look of raw panic upon her face and rushed towards Orodan.

“He’s breaking the control we have over the bull demons! Mind cultivators! Delay him!” she roared. “Master! The artifact requires more power to keep these vermin in line!”

However, it was too little too late. Even as the combined mental assault of a thousand minds hit him, the damage had been done as Domain Of Perfect Cleaning struck out and cleansed the minds of over five-thousand bull demons in the vicinity. He shook off the assault by the enemy Mind cultivators, many of them reeling in shock and out of commission as Warrior’s Reciprocity returned their assault.

Frankly, this was why Inuanan military doctrine advised against packing many separate units too closely together. The threat of wide area attacks causing heavy casualties was too high. Units packing too closely together could lead to horrible losses, rather it was better to have them remain within reinforcing range and congregate and disperse as needed.

Which was what the enemy had done. They had some common sense and had elected to keep a space of a few miles between every group of five units, with each unit having a thousand demons.

As it stood, he would’ve cleansed even more bull demons if they hadn’t had such sense and the range of Domain Of Perfect Cleaning wasn’t limited.

The bull demons who had their minds purified immediately began routing and broke off from their main force. Just like that… the opposing army of forty-thousand had been turned into an enemy army of thirty-five thousand. Now all he had to do was repeat the process for the rest of the bull demons, and he’d make a noticeable contribution to the battle.

Orodan had charged the direct center of the enemy’s front line, a spearhead. The battlefield was a big place however, and the section he’d charged only made up part of the enemy’s army. Around him, the remaining regiments of the enemy army began colliding with allied battle lines. The flanks of the puppet Sovereign’s forces clashed against the flanks of the Third army, and regiments of bull demons meant to die as expendable meat shields went up against the loyalist cultivators of the Celestial Court.

Allied cultivators obliterated entire units of bull demons by working together in tandem. It was a technique Orodan had been on the receiving end of moments ago when he’d been struck by arrows but seeing it as an observer exposed the intricacies involved. Cultivators channeled high amounts of Qi to form an ethereal dragon, and each cultivator was responsible for controlling a portion of the energy beast. The claws, mouth and wings of the dragon were its mightiest points, and it was as though many people were working together to commandeer a giant dragon made of Qi.

However, nobly as they fought, the Third army was outnumbered. And the bull demon regiments were but an expendable shield meant to absorb powerful attacks so that the enemy cultivators in the back ranks could then come in fresh to prey upon the troops of the Third army.

The ground battle looked to be in dire straits as the enemy had numerical superiority.

In the skies, however, serpentine dragons and their riders battled against flying fell beasts mounted by demons and cultivators. And while the dragon riders were solidly winning in the air, the enemy cultivators on the ground began utilizing their superior numbers and ranged firepower to force them to land or die. Aerial superiority was thus stalemated, and at the very least Orodan didn’t have to worry about enemy aerial troops assaulting him thanks to the efforts of these brave dragon riders.

The biggest spectacle on the battlefield, however, was the leaders of the two armies clashing head-to-head.

The puppet Sovereign was throwing flames of a deep red color towards the Prince. It was hellfire, something that should have been unique to the devils of the hells. And even from a great distance Orodan could feel there was something profoundly wrong with the man. Prince Zhou Shan however, was strong, and the Third army’s leader slammed an axe against the hellfire wielding enemy over and over, and looked to actually have an edge.

The elite troops of each side, Transcendents and Gods, began clashing all throughout the battlefield. However, right from the beginning the situation looked to be dire. The enemy outnumbered them four-to-one. And this also meant they held numerical superiority in terms of Gods and Transcendents.

Hence, Orodan was reminded that the whip-wielding cultivator wasn’t the only enemy he had to face.

The whip-wielding cultivator struck out with her weapon. A deadly bladed implement that lashed towards him like a snake and threatened to slice right through his limbs. Yet, Shield Intent and his defensive bracing held. The attack was strong, but as he’d come to learn, Transcendence was merely the act of going past level 100 in a skill.

Orodan had yet to ask anyone what the levels of strength in the Transcendent-level were, but without a doubt this woman was weaker than Jian Song and Devil King Gutriyaz, and far weaker than the Celestial Emperor. He had grown in power, and this woman was perhaps only slightly more powerful than him.

He could gradually wear her down, he could win!

She wasn’t alone however, as a thousand-headed serpent tore through space and every one of its head glared at him with the promise of death. It glowed a cyan color and began generating tsunamis and floods around it which were empowered by divine energy. He’d fought a hundred-headed serpent before, in his early days on Alastaia, but this…

…this was a God. An actual God in the flesh, empowered by the faith of its innumerable followers and worshippers. Divine energy.

And the first thing it did was open the mouths of all one-thousand heads, and launch beams of divine energy empowered water directly at him.

The regiment of bull demons had already broken and fled, leaving just Orodan, the Transcendent whip cultivator and the hydra God on their section of the battlefield. A section which was utterly decimated as a hundred miles of terrain was utterly obliterated by the raw force of an ocean, empowered by divine energy.

Yet, when the waters subsided, the hydra-God could only look on in shock.

“Divine Resistance?! How?!” it protested, baffled. “Be warned! The enemy Celestial also possesses Divine Resistance!”

The difference was noticeable as the enemy army immediately began shifting its back ranks about, and two Transcendents enemy commanders who were fighting on other fronts backed out and immediately made their way towards Orodan. When the enemy had numerical superiority, such mid-battle shuffling was a luxury they were afforded.

The hydra-God immediately pulled back, and Orodan lamented the fact that he wouldn’t be acquiring the God Slayer title just yet. And the two enemy Transcendents came in, one, a man wearing robes of splendorous wealth, who caused gold coins and wealth to appear and disappear from thin air as he walked. The other, a woman who crackled with lightning as her fists clenched, an unarmed fighter.

Three Transcendents arrayed against him when he was only able to hold out against one. Dire odds, just how he liked them.

“Orodan Wainwright! What has the Celestial Emperor promised to seduce you into serving his tyrannical court?!” the lightning-fist Transcendent called out. “Join us and fight for the cause of liberty and justice!”

“You’ve enslaved bull demons to fight your battles. How much justice exists in your cause?” Orodan fired back, causing the woman to frown.

“The demons are our natural enemies, mere expendables to be used and discarded once we’ve secured our freedom,” she said. “But I see your mind is set. I sense you’re no stronger than the Master-level, yet you fight far beyond it. Incredible potential, worthy of being a Celestial skill bearer, but even you have limits.”

He pointed his sword at her and smiled as the battle lust took over.

“Let’s test these limits then.”

No further words were said.

The first to reach him, unsurprisingly, was the lightning-fist Transcendent. Arcs of energy crackled around her fist, and the lightning jumped from her hand to his chest.

[Lightning Resistance 18 → Lightning Resistance 23]

This woman was a Transcendent of lightning, a powerful existence. The arcing energy coming from her fist caused his skin to wrinkle and blacken as it ran through his body.

But… that was all it did.

And as her actual fist reached him, his own hand came up and caught it cleanly, causing her eyes to widen. Strong, but she wasn’t a Transcendent in unarmed fighting, just in lightning. And his own Physical Fitness and skill in melee was on-par with hers.

“Lightning Resistance! My attacks aren’t going to be effective!” she cried out as her own flesh charred and blackened miserably from Warrior’s Reciprocity. “He can turn our attacks against us! Xue Ran! We need your healing!”

High in the skies atop the back of a fell beast, was a cultivator surrounded by copious amounts of jade energy. This man sent flowing beams of green healing light towards the injured combatants of the enemy army. And in particular, this allowed his enemies to recover from any attacks they landed upon him, the threat of his Warrior’s Reciprocity lessened.

The whip Transcendent reached him shortly after, and it then became a two-on-one. Even with Shield Intent and his defensive abilities, he was on the backfoot in a two-on-one. He tactically allowed the weaker attacks of the lightning fist to land while focusing only on defending against the whip. He might’ve held too if not for the inclusion of the third enemy Transcendent.

A river of soul energy powered gold washed over him, its heat was scorching, but his Fire Resistance aided against that. What was of concern though, was how the liquid metal gold seeped through his skin and into his veins where it began solidifying. And unlike regular gold, it was profoundly strong. His muscles were incapable of breaking it as they attempted to reform, leading to some mangled healing which he had to abort.

His veins began filling with gold which hardened, his blood turned solid, and his entire body began to be destroyed from the inside out.

The attack was a dangerous one and Orodan was forced to abandon his regular body entirely and begin reforming a new one from the few cells that hadn’t been touched by the Transcendent cultivator’s gold.

“Do you like my Dao of Gold, otherworlder?” the man asked, shrouded in jade energy from the aerial healer. “I’m told those with healing and regeneration powers often struggle against it. Unlike a more transient assault which your body either survives or is destroyed by, my gold remains, a block against your cells reforming in the correct shape. After all, how can you regrow your heart if unbreakable gold is in its place?”

Orodan had to admit, this was a learning experience. Of course, enemies who could counter his healing abilities existed. The universe was simply too large to expect that anti-regeneration tactics and abilities didn’t exist.

“I’ll admit, it’s a novel tactic. Never had it used against me before,” Orodan said. “Even cycling copious amounts of soul energy through my body doesn’t prevent the gold from seeping in. It only slows it down.”

“Indeed, in time these energy intensive reformations you’re performing will drain you, all while we continue receiving healing. And then… you’ll fall,” the man said. In response, Orodan’s eyes held a determined look.

A battle of attrition then. His foes would learn the hard way why that was a bad idea.

The very center of the battlefield was devoid of regular troops. The enemy’s center front line of bull demons had broken, and the back rank of cultivators had re-deployed to the flanks to combat the Third army. The only beings present in the center were Orodan and the three enemy Transcendents who were ganging up on him. In the skies above, Zhou Shan and his core group of elites battled against the puppet Sovereign and his inner circle.

Whip light materialized and flayed large chunks of Orodan’s flesh, and any attempts to reform were hampered as liquid gold instantly filled his veins and acted as a hindrance. Over and over, Orodan was forced to tear off parts of his own body and reform outside of it. And the Gold cultivator had begun to realize that perhaps attrition wasn’t a wise idea.

“I had thought he’d be running low on energy after so many reformations, but it seems he has some unique ability to generate unreasonable amounts of power,” the Gold cultivator said. “Attempting to exhaust him may not be wise. Hold him in place as I properly surround him.”

Orodan continued fighting, and his skill levels rose across the board, but it was a losing affair.

The whip cultivator’s weapon suddenly erupted with the deep red flames of hell, which he had resistance against. But the weapon itself also gained an increase in durability, which was used to great effect in binding him for just a moment…

…as a carefully controlled sphere of liquid gold enveloped him within.

His entire body, all of his cells, were caught within it. And it seeped into each and every one of his pores and began circulating throughout his body. Then, it began hardening.

The Incorruptible Being portion of Domain Of Perfect Cleaning kicked in and prevented the worst of the man’s abilities, which was the conversion of living flesh to gold. But it was still a nearly fatal attack as the gold began grounding each and every cell of his body down.

Yet, even amidst this dire situation… good training could occur.

[Body Tempering 56 → Body Tempering 58]

Orodan directed all of his focus towards his physical body. Body Tempering was a difficult skill to train as he grew stronger, particularly since it was hard to find a method of applying omnidirectional pressure to each and every cell of his body. Now however, this was the perfect opportunity for some training.

Like a crucible, he would struggle, and he would grind skill levels.

The flowing gold which ran through him and infested the gaps between each cell ground away, turning him into mush and destroying him. But, Orodan struggled back, focusing on squeezing physical power out of each and every cell of his body.

Furthermore, this dangerous attack forced him to become aware of the most minute gaps and imperfections in his own body. Cells had gaps between them, but this gap was filled with the natural blood, fluids and matter of his own body. Then, to prevent the infiltration of liquid gold into his veins, this matter needed to become stronger.

Even as his body was ravaged and his healing ineffective, Orodan closed his eyes and focused inwards. Inch by inch, as his body was ground down, he observed closely. And he took note of the flaws present in his blood, in the cells themselves; in the smallest units of matter which his body was composed of.

And as his body was destroyed, he began reforming his blood and interstitial fluid to be stronger, tougher… capable of competing against liquid gold itself in strength and thickness.

[Body Tempering 58 → Body Tempering 61]

“He’s… he’s somehow adapting! Unleash your assaults and kill him immediately! His healing is hampered!” the Gold cultivator shouted in a panic.

The hellish flames from the whip erupted once more and the blade portion of the whip began producing a whip light once more, vibrating furiously to a point where mere contact would make Orodan’s flesh disintegrate. And as it was about to destroy the final vestiges of Orodan’s body…

…he revealed another one of his cards.

[Teleportation 46 → Teleportation 47]

It was harder than he thought it’d be, particularly since this Gold cultivator’s liquid material also had the ability to lock down space. But the Transcendent wasn’t a true specialist in the art of space, and Orodan had a knack for shattering any attempts to restrict spatiomancy.

“He can teleport too? This is just ridiculous,” the Gold cultivator said. “Enough games, call in every spare captain and commander we have. We must strike now and with full force before he can somehow adapt even further.”

Multiple Transcendents entered the fray, and Orodan was promptly swarmed by multiple enemies, all of whom were individually stronger than him. He faced at least thirty enemy Transcendents. And while he’d grown strong, capable of surviving a powerful Devil King and holding against three Transcendents at the same time… it didn’t mean he could last against thirty.

Arrows capable of penetrating continents blasted through him, sword strikes which could cut empires struck, and hammers which could rock worlds smacked him about. His only saving grace was that each attack knocked him around enough that the following twenty-nine didn’t land as flush as they otherwise would’ve.

He truly was on the verge of dying when the enemy did something which presented an opportunity. They worked in concert to set up a gigantic formation. It looked like a continent-sized Arch-Devil, with different points of the soul energy construct being controlled by different people.

And immediately, Orodan acted.

Chronomancy. His very first encounter with it was on Alastaia during his early days when he was getting an education at the Bluefire Academy. The headmistress of the school of chronomancy that he’d encountered had explained a few things about the arts of time to him.

First, that reversing anything in time cost energy. In fact, the more energy that something possessed or was involved in its creation, the more power the chronomancer would have to expend. Power wasn’t an issue for Orodan Wainwright.

But here and now, as he was about to die, what did interest him, was the fact that chronomancers on his world were capable of reversing a positive transformation and stealing the mana difference.

And as Orodan charged up an enormous amount of power through Eternal Soul Reactor and threw it into Time Reversal, his enemies could only stare with wide eyes.

[Time Mastery 47 → Time Mastery 50]

[New Title → Time Adept]

[Time Reversal 46 → Time Reversal 50]

Even on Alastaia the standard countermeasures against direct manipulation by chronomancers was to either maintain a full mana pool or carry anti-chronomancy items which were just large batteries of power. The principle was that the cost of reversing time when large quantities of power were involved would be debilitating. And while a very skilled chronomancer could use finesse to target only the enemy and not their anti-chronomancy objects, many of the enchanted objects had safeguards to detect this and would then promptly cycle their mana pools into the wearer, making chronomancy even harder.

It stood to reason then that every Transcendent on this battlefield had items which guarded against chronomancy. Items which were entirely useless against the raw power of Orodan Wainwright.

“Impossible! How can you reverse time upon so many?!” a graying cultivator called out. The man wielded a giant hourglass as a weapon, and it wasn’t difficult to guess that he was a Time cultivator.

He and two others furiously attempted to counter Orodan’s manipulation of time. In fact, they were doing, and had done everything right. They were directly contesting his chronomancy, they had anti-chronomancy items on their persons, and their energy reserves weren’t low.

Yet, one could do everything correctly and still fail when up against the unfair ability to generate power endlessly.

Before the very eyes of the two warring armies, Orodan’s Time Reversal grasped all thirty of the enemy Transcendents…

…and reversed them through time to before they worked together to form the gigantic Arch-Devil. Enemy counter-chronomancy, anti-chronomancy items and energy pools; none of it mattered. His eyes blazed with white light as his soul energy was directed towards the domineering feat of toying with them in the river of time despite their best efforts to resist.

And while he couldn’t absorb enemy soul energy to pocket the difference like he could mana, he could at the very least ensure they returned through time without the energy they’d invested into their formation.

“The Hellfire Emperor formation…! It’s gone!” one enemy called out. “This… this is too much! Call for the general!”

The general? They couldn’t mean…

The titanic battle in the skies between the leaders and inner circles of the two armies suddenly shifted as two figures broke away. Their sudden departure caused Prince Zhou Shan to suddenly gain the upper hand and begin a massacre of many of the puppet Sovereign’s elites. And this truly should’ve been good news!

Unfortunately, the two figures who broke away were heading straight for Orodan.

His actions had drawn a bit too much attention.

Expecting the rest of the enemy army to sit on their laurels as he devastated a five-thousand strong regiment and then proceeded to occupy thirty of the enemy Transcendents was stupid. He’d displayed his power, and now they were taking him very seriously.

However, instead of immediately attacking him, the two figures stopped and examined him closely.

The subordinate of the two was an old cultivator who carried a simple broom in his hands, yet Orodan could sense the raw power emanating from the man. His pride demanded he show this opponent that his cleaning was superior.

The leader, however, was a wicked figure. On the surface he looked like a man, but Orodan knew there was something vile about him.

“The time looper,” spoke the wicked armored figure. “I see Devil King Gutriyaz failed to kill you. How many tries did it take? Did you gain any exceptional skills from him?”

The group of thirty enemy Transcendents backed off as the man spoke. He wore dark armor, composed of scales. Typical cultivator soldier attire, but with streaks of deep red running through. He carried no weapons, but his hands glowed with deep red flames which had a sinister aura. Hellfire.

The man’s eyes flashed red with power, and something far more wicked underneath.

A single look with Vision Of Purity told him exactly what it was.

“You’re-”

“A Devil King? Yes. Of course, you can tell. This must be your first time going through this then,” the man said. “Since you’re in a time loop, I might as well spill the rice in the hopes of gaining some of your trust, no?”

Orodan had heard of demonic possession. Even growing up in Ogdenborough, the priests of the Cathedral would expound on the fact that demonic possession was a real threat that Alastaia had to contend with in the past. Of course, since the destruction of the seventh hell, it was no longer a concern upon his homeworld. Here, however, seeing a possessed being for the first time was a learning experience.

It was a sickening thing, the very core of the man’s being was rotten, as though something wicked was wearing his body like a set of ill-fitting clothes. Beneath, the original soul was trapped, battered and tortured into submission. Vision Of Purity saw the Devil King underneath as a foul plague, dirty filth. And he had to wonder if this was one of the restricted skills which only Devils had access to. For he’d heard of nobody else on Alastaia being capable of possession like this thing was.

“Trust? The very sight of you makes me want to retch,” Orodan said. “I used to think I hated necromancers the most, but I might have to make room for a number one spot on that list.”

“But we need not be hostile towards one another,” the Devil King said. “They call this mortal the puppet Sovereign, but what they don’t say is that he willingly allowed me to possess his mind and body. All in the hopes of ending the tyranny of the Celestial Court.”

“And you expect me to work alongside you?” Orodan asked. “We’re natural enemies. Devil King Gutriyaz immediately attempted to kill me the moment I displayed my ability to purify a True Vampire.”

“Yes, a troubling ability, and if you weren’t a time looper you would be dead. The thought of you turning that towards me is a sickening one,” the disguised devil admitted with a snarl, which looked most odd when done through a human body. “But, now that you’ve revealed yourself to be someone of a most vexatious nature, perhaps we can come to an agreement? Even if you despise me and my kind, mayhap you can direct your ire against our mutual enemies.”

“The Celestial Court.”

“Precisely,” the puppet Sovereign replied. “The fact that you’ve survived to reach this place… I’m truly curious, did you and the Emperor come to an accord of sorts? Have you allied with him of all people?”

“An accord? I bow to no one,” Orodan replied. “His Dao attempted to subvert my will, and I simply resisted it with brute force and strength of mind.”

“Impossible…!” the puppet declared. “At your level, such a thing should not have been possible. You lie.”

“Believe whatever you want. This conversation has gone on too long,” Orodan said as he pointed his sword at the foe. “It’s time to fight.”

The puppet Sovereign’s eyes narrowed, and the devil simply smiled.

“This is your first time making it this far, isn’t it?” the puppet Sovereign asked. “I apologize, Thousand Broom Sovereign, but I’m afraid I shall have to renege on our agreement, even at the cost of my own soul.”

The man wielding a broom turned sharply towards the devil, eyes wide.

“We had an agreement! Just what do you intend to do?!” the man furiously asked.

“Unfortunately, we face a grave threat in the face of which the soul nexus is no longer a priority,” the puppet Sovereign said. “It shall be a suitable price to pay if we can inflict a grievous wound on a truly threatening enemy.”

“No! I cannot allow this! You die here you dev-”

The broom was mid-motion, about to strike the puppet Sovereign, when a simple pulse of world energy went out from a crown-shaped ring upon the devil’s finger. This pulse went directly towards the gigantic soul nexus overlooking the entire battlefield.

“No… no!” the Thousand Broom Sovereign cried in despair.

One moment the soul nexus was white, the trillions of souls within were peacefully undergoing the cycle of death and reincarnation. And the next…

…hellfire began spreading through. It wasn’t the usual fire, but one which reached deep into the cores of all the trillions of souls within the nexus.

When he had first learned Eternal Soul Reactor, Adeltaj had been concerned that Orodan was igniting his own soul in a suicidal attack. It was a valid concern, after all, soul mages could do such a thing, to devastating effect. A soul core explosion was a frightening thing. Even a single soul mage or someone with a powerful soul could kill someone a tier above through the suicidal act which detonated the outer soul layer through the build-up of cataclysmic pressure.

But this? To set a small virulent hellfire which caused such a thing to happen to all of the trillions of souls within the soul nexus?

Well, it was hopeless to expect survival. This Devil King wearing the puppet Sovereign’s body was utterly ruthless, accepting its own death in exchange for a suicidal attack.

One moment the dimensional realm existed, and the next…

…the very barriers shattered from the raw devastation as a blast capable of destroying an entire solar system erupted.

He did his best to shield himself, but everything was shattered, and the last thing Orodan recalled was forgetting who he was. The familiar sign of a completely destroyed outer soul layer.

[C$h@ec(kp*oi#nt R#es%to&red]

[U@ses Re^ma#in@ing - 2213]

“My Prince! The puppet’s army has been spotted on the horizon! They… they come in extreme numbers!” a messenger declared.

However, he knew not who he was. In fact, this warrior did not know his own identity or what the surroundings were.

“Orodan…? Orodan!” a feminine voice cried out from near him, and the thwack of a book hitting the warrior’s head could be heard. “Your outer soul layer has been entirely destroyed. Look inwards and focus! You told me you’ve recovered from this before!”

The warrior wasn’t sure who Orodan was or what this strange talking book was saying, but something deep within urged him to stand up and…

…pick up a nearby broom.

“Orodan Wainwright… has he truly suffered such a grievous assault?” a regally dressed man wielding an axe asked. “How? The battle in the stars did not look so bad, and he was fine just a moment ago.”

“The time loop… he suffered this in the upcoming battle no doubt,” the book explained. “The extent of the damage is quite severe… I don’t know how he recovered from such a thing. It should usually take months even for world-defying talents.”

As for the warrior himself, he knew not and cared not for the prattle around him. He took hold of the broom… and saw the dirty ground of the camp he was in.

With his first strokes, the ground began to be cleansed.

“T-that is… some profound technique…!” the man whose broom he’d borrowed uttered.

With each stroke, his mind grew sharper and clearer. The far-away voice that was urging him drew nearer.

“He’s really just going to clean the entire camp…” the regal man with the axe said.

Instinctively, the warrior felt that he could draw upon the power to cleanse everything for miles. But this felt incorrect. It felt as though he would be relying on an external power.

The basics, the fundamentals, were so very important.

Perfect sweeps rid the very ground of all dirt, and in-between each stroke he re-adjusted the head of the broom to account for the minute imperfections and jostlings that came with sweeping. It was a good implement, but adjusting the head between each movement was but the very beginning of pursuing the path to perfection.

[Domain Of Perfect Cleaning 79 → Domain Of Perfect Cleaning 80]

And finally, Orodan Wainwright remembered who he was once more.

He took five more minutes to look inwards and focus on patching his soul’s outer layer up.

And then, it all came back. Alongside the interesting tidbit that acquiring new titles meant an increase in his total number of Runes, and consequently, his number of checkpoint uses.

“Orodan, your soul… you healed it completely,” Zaessythra muttered, and Orodan gave her a look of fondness and gratitude.

“I did. Thank you for being here patiently as I did and having faith in me,” he said and then turned to Prince Zhou Shan. “The puppet Sovereign is possessed by a Devil King.”

“Yes, I was about to tell you that. His entire inner circle of generals are either possessed or have the restricted skills of the hells,” the Prince replied, and Orodan felt some shame at having just rushed ahead in the last checkpoint loop without working together with his allies.

“That Devil King also intends to set the soul nexus on fire and cause the trillions of souls within to explode.”

“What?! That scoundrel dares to threaten the future of our people itself?!”

“Are the hells not enemies with the Celestial Court?” Orodan asked.

“Of course! But to harm a soul nexus goes against System law itself! That foul devil would have the enforces of the System itself descend upon-” Zhou Shan stopped himself and then looked closely at Orodan. “Unless of course… it thought to deal you a permanent blow.”

Zaessythra fluttered near him.

“A good plan which would’ve worked on anyone else no doubt,” she said. “However, the Devil King wasn’t aware of your ability to heal so quickly and completely from having the outer layer of your soul destroyed. In most people, it wipes their recent memories entirely. In fact… are you alright, Orodan?”

Alright? He was more than just alright…

“This… will be excellent training!” he declared.

Dead silence greeted his proclamation.

The Prince could only shake his head, but had a smile upon his face.

“Truly, I was hoping to discuss the rumor I’d heard that you’re in a time loop,” the man said. “But this is perfect. With you repeating this battle over and over, you can grow stronger and stronger. Orodan Wainwright, let me know how the Third Army can assist you in this endeavor.”

“By staying out of this battle,” Orodan declared, and the men around him broke out in mutters and many protested. Thus, he raised his hands placatingly. “Not to say you cultivators aren’t brave men and women who wouldn’t fight for your homes and liberty. But, the only way I can truly acquire strength… is by taking the entire enemy army on by myself, and winning.”

“You are truly mad Orodan,” Prince Zhou Shan said. “But, we lose little by trusting you, and my Truth cultivators verify you speak no lies. But, are you truly okay with dying over and over just for the sake of strength?”

“I’ve been doing naught but that since the moment these time loops began,” Orodan replied.

It was time…

…for some battlefield grinding.